A team of 14 UN experts, including special rapporteur for Palestine Francesca Albanese, has issued what they're calling a "stark warning about surging Israeli settler terror" in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem. Apparently, the settler-colonial movement has been busy: at least 13 Palestinians have been killed and close to 500 injured in five months of what the experts describe as "settler brutality." The UN team says these "relentless attacks, carried out with the support and acquiescence of the Israeli State, have become a daily terror in Palestinian lives, sowing fear, uncertainty and profound insecurity that inevitably compels the forcible displacement of the indigenous population." They also note that the escalating violence, conducted with "full impunity," serves as "an instrument of coercion in the hands of the occupying power, facilitating ethnic cleansing." Meanwhile, the recent escalation of regional hostilities has conveniently drawn international attention away from all this, and the "displacement of people has slipped further from sight."
Elsewhere in the region, Donald Trump announced that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to "stop shooting" at each other, with Hezbollah pledging through intermediaries not to attack Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreeing to pull back troops preparing to attack Beirut. Lebanon's embassy in Washington clarified that this isn't exactly a full ceasefire, just a request for Israel to refrain from strikes on Beirut and its southern suburbs. Hostilities in southern Lebanon continued anyway, with the Israeli military intercepting two projectiles from Lebanon on Tuesday. Netanyahu said Israel would keep operating in southern Lebanon, where ground forces are pushing their deepest incursion in 25 years. Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said the militia would support a full ceasefire across all of Lebanon as a precursor to Israeli withdrawal. Lebanon plans to discuss expanding the ceasefire in talks with Israel in Washington DC on Wednesday.
Iranian state media reported that Tehran is halting indirect peace talks with the US and might end a ceasefire that has largely held since early April, citing the war in Lebanon. Trump told CNBC the talks had "started to get very boring" and that he "couldn't care less" if they were over, but then told ABC News he expected a deal with Tehran "over the next week" to extend the truce and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Quds Force threatened to expand its blockade to the Bab El Mandeb Strait. Oil prices rose 4% on Monday, because of course they did.
UN chief António Guterres said peacekeepers will be needed in Lebanon after the current mission's mandate expires at the end of this year, an option likely to face opposition from the US and Israel. The UN Security Council had already decided to end the UNIFIL mandate by 31 December 2026, but asked Guterres to propose options for a continued presence. His report suggests three options ranging from nearly 2,000 to more than 5,500 UN personnel to monitor the ceasefire and support the Lebanese armed forces.
In a bit of historical irony, Israeli forces captured Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon for the first time in 26 years, using white phosphorus smoke as cover. The ancient hilltop fort's strategic value may be diminished in the age of drones, but its psychological weight is apparently still significant.
Hezbollah claimed several attacks on Israeli targets late Monday, hours after Trump's announcement, including targeting a Merkava tank with a guided missile. Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah reiterated support for a full ceasefire, but Netanyahu said the IDF would "continue to operate as planned."
Iran's chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that if "Israeli aggression against Lebanon continues, we will not only halt the path of negotiations, but we will also be in direct confrontation with the enemy." Trump, meanwhile, described a peace agreement with Iran as potentially "even better than a military victory," while acknowledging that "it's not a simple thing." So, business as usual.