Israel-Hamas War Day 263: What is happening in Gaza, Lebanon border?

Musa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas's political bureau, said that the two Russian-Israeli hostages would be the first to be released if a hostage-ceasefire agreement is made in an interview with Russian state media agency RIA Novosti on Tuesday. 

According to RIA Novosti, Hamas would prioritize the release of the dual citizens if a deal is reached.

“We have no [people with solely Russian citizenship] hostage, only Israeli citizens, but the majority have dual citizenship, Mexican, American, Ukrainian, and others," the Russian news agency quoted Abu Marzouk as saying. "Previously, when there was an exchange, we freed one Russian outside the deal as a thank you to President Putin for his position on Palestine.” 

Former US President Donald Trump urged people to watch the film Screams Before Silence by Sheryl Sandberg, which documents Hamas's sexual violence on October 7, in a post on his social network Truth Social on Tuesday morning.

Trump wrote that the documentary was "...incredibly difficult to watch because, sadly, it graphically portrays the Death and Destruction that Hamas has unleashed."

"We demand that all Hostages taken October 7th from Israel, and being held in Gaza, be released immediately, including eight Americans, and citizens from over twenty other countries, so that the war can come to an end," he added.

The IDF operated Monday overnight in the refugee camp in Balata in the Nablus area, according to Palestinian media reports. Furthermore, fire exchange broke out between IDF soldiers and armed Palestinian terrorist forces.

The Israel Air Force attacked terror targets in Rafah on Monday night, according to Tuesday morning Arab reports.

(JTA) - More than 100 victims of Hamas’s massacres in Israel on October 7 are suing UNRWA, the main relief agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, saying it effectively laundered money for the terrorist group, the latest in a spate of lawsuits launched in US courts since the Israel-Hamas war started.

The lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in the Southern District of New York alleges that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency assisted Hamas, including by building the infrastructure it required to launch the war, subsidizing Hamas by paying its activists as employees, and relaying Hamas propaganda through its schools.

“The terrorist who held me hostage for 53 days worked as a school teacher for UNRWA,” Ditza Heiman, one of the hostages, said in a statement. “The fact that Hamas controlled Gaza was not an excuse for UNRWA to hire and fund terrorists, but instead should have ensured UNRWA took extra precautions. ”

Lebanese officials offered journalists and ambassadors tours of Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport in an attempt to refute claims, made by the British newspaper The Telegraph, that this site was acting as a storage facility for weapons, according to international media reports from earlier this week.

Lebanese Foreign Affairs Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, Public Works and Transport Minister Ali Hamieh, Tourism Minister Walid Nassar, and Information Minister Ziad Makary all participated in the tours. 

Habib reportedly claimed that "the airport is safe and that these rumors are part of Israel's attempts to justify its attacks on Lebanon," according to LBC International.

Michal Herzog, the wife of President Isaac Herzog, spoke yesterday at the Herzliya Conference at Reichman University, addressing the stalled hostage negotiation and the lack of female representation at the negotiating table.

"I'll say something that really bothers me - ultimately, whether the negotiation [succeed, or] does not [succeed,] at least its initial stages are intended to bring those young women who [are still held hostage by Hamas,]" said Michal Herzog.

"But I don't see around the decision-making table, or even negotiation tables, not even one woman, not even one mother," she added. "I may not be well-versed in negotiations or strategies, but it doesn't seem logical to me. It simply doesn't seem logical that the female voice, the perspective, the perhaps slightly different thinking of women won't be taken into account. I would very much like to see our voice as women also around decision-making tables. I think it's very important."

Brazil has deported a Palestinian man and his family after Brazilian federal police were alerted by the United States that a "Hamas operative" was traveling to the South American country, Brazilian authorities said on Monday.

Muslim Abuumar along with his pregnant wife, son and mother-in-law, were detained on Friday entering the country at Sao Paulo's Guarulhos airport and put on a Qatar Airways flight back to Doha two days later, police sources told Reuters.

"The request came from the US Department of State," a senior federal police officer said. "It was proven before a judge that (Abuumar) was deeply involved with Hamas," he said.

Israel’s embassy in Dublin shared a statement on Monday night accusing Dublin Pride of “promoting an agenda of exclusion and discrimination” by adopting a policy which prevented the Israeli flag from being flown at the event.

Our statement regarding Pride Week events in Dublin pic.twitter.com/KBwPZ2FUst

— Israel in Ireland (@IsraelinIreland) June 24, 2024

Dublin’s Pride parade will take place this upcoming Saturday, according to the Dublin Pride website. The website advises that people bring banners “no more than 2m – 3m in width and 0.75m – 1m in depth as the easiest to carry and manage. That size also looks better in pictures. To avoid unnecessary waste, we ask that when designing your banners, you not date them and use a design you will be happy with for at least 3 years.” However, no mention of national flags could be located. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday emphasized to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant the need to take more measures to protect humanitarian workers in Gaza, a State Department spokesperson said in a readout of their meeting.