In the West Bank, Israeli settlers set up tents on land near Deir Sharaf. Israeli settlers also threw stones at Palestinian vehicles traveling near Duma, injuring 2 Palestinians and damaging a car. Elsewhere, Israeli settlers assaulted Palestinians with pepper spray near Jamma’in, injuring 1. Israeli forces uprooted 70 olive trees in Khallet al-Qutun near Tuqu’. Israeli forces also leveled land near Qaryut in preparation for settlement expansion. In East Jerusalem, Israeli forces raided the home of 16 Palestinians who had previously been imprisoned by Israel, seizing cash, several vehicles, and jewelry, claiming that the Palestinians had received payments from the PA. (WAFA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA 6/26; PCHR 7/6; UNOCHA 7/8)
The Israeli military alleged that a rocket was launched from the Jenin area at Israel before exploding within the West Bank, causing neither damage nor injuries. (HA, JP, TOI 6/26)
An Israeli parole board denied an early release petition for Palestinian prisoner Walid Daqqa, who the Israeli prison service acknowledge is terminally ill with cancer. Daqqa, who has been imprisoned by Israel for 39 years, has already completed his original sentence but was sentenced to an additional 2 years for allegedly helping smuggling cellphones into prison. (WAFA 6/26; HA 6/27)
In Lebanon, 1 Israeli drone was shot down by Hezbollah militants near Zibqin. (AJ, ALM, AP, HA, REU 6/26)
The Israeli Higher Planning Council approved 5,700 settlement housing units and retroactively approved the Palegi Maim, HaYovel, and Nof Harim settlement outposts. 818 housing units received final validation including 359 in Elkana, 381 in Revava, 29 in Givat Ze’ev, 42 in Carmiel, and 7 in Hermesh. 4,915 housing units were approved for deposit, including 1,563 in Eli, 98 in Ariel, 714 in Givat Ze’ev, 340 in Ma ‘ale Adumim, 312 in Beitar Ilit, 310 in Adora, 264 in Etz Efraim, 152 in Ma ‘ale Amos, 78 in Asfar, and 754 in the 3 settlement outposts. Peace Now reported that more than 13,000 housing units had been approved in the first half of 2023. The French foreign ministry and the UN issued a statement condemning the settlement approval and the recent Israeli settler violence. The U.S. said it was “deeply troubled by Israel’s decision.” (HA 6/25; AJ, ALM, ALM, AP, BBC, HA, HA, PCN, REU, WAFA, WAFA 6/26; WAFA 6/27; UN 6/28; NYT 6/29)
The Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza announced that it had filed a complaint against Israel with the ICC over the Israeli blockade of Gaza. (MDW 6/29)
Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had told a Knesset committee that his government is ready to help the PA financially to prevent it from collapsing but that the Palestinian “ambitions for the establishment of a state must be eliminated.” (NA, QDS 6/26; MEMO 6/27; QDS 6/29)
The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs counted 570 Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians and Palestinian property between 1 January and 26 June, raising the number of attacks counted by the UN from 71 in 2022 to 95 incidents in the first half of 2023. (HA 7/1)
The Taub Center for Israel Studies at New York University made available documents from the Israeli archives showing that the Israeli military poisoned Palestinian land around Aqraba in 1972 to ensure that Palestinians could not cultivate the land as Israel established the Gitit settlement on land confiscated from the town’s residents. The Israeli military estimated that they had caused property loss from the spraying of the land amounting to $25,000. (HA 6/23)
