A separate US official acknowledged to CNN that in the event of a full-blown war, the support Israel will need most is additional air defense systems and Iron Dome replenishments, which the US would provide.

“We’re entering a very dangerous period,” another senior Biden administration official said. “Something could start with little warning.”

Israeli officials have told the US, and the US agrees, that they have the resources to carry out an offensive against Hezbullah if they need to, particularly if its campaign in Rafah in southern Gaza winds down

During Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent trip to the Middle East, he told an Arab counterpart that it appears Israel is intent on launching an incursion into Lebanon, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

📷 Israeli airstrikes reported in Tallouseh and Hula villages.

📹 A new Israeli airstrike, now targeting Mays al-Jabal

📰 Arabs increase trade with Israel despite crimes in Gaza and Lebanon

Egyptian exports to Israel doubled in 2024 compared to the previous year despite Israel's devastating war on Gaza since October, according to a new report by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics.

The data published on Thursday showed that Egyptian exports in May 2024 stood at $25m, double that of the same period in 2023.

Despite increasingly fraught relations, energy and security cooperation between the two countries has intensified since October 2023.

Meanwhile, exports from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Israel also increased to $242m in May 2024, compared to $238.5m in May 2023, the report said.

Jordanian exports to Israel also continued to rise in 2024, reaching $35.7m in May 2024 compared to $32.3m in the same period last year.

📰 Turks increase trade with Israel, use Greece ports as a proxy

Trade between Turkey and Israel continues through third countries like Greece, despite Ankara's decision to halt direct trade with Tel Aviv over the Rafah invasion in May, according to data released on Thursday.

Figures from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) reveal that Israel imported $116m worth of goods from Turkey in May, marking a 69 percent decline from the $377m in the same month last year.

However, two Turkish businesspeople facilitating trade between Turkey and Israel informed Middle East Eye that since early May, Turkish goods have been re-routed through Greece and other nearby countries to reach Israel.

TIM data indicate that Turkey’s exports to Greece surged to $375m in May, up 71 percent from $219m in the same month last year.

Israeli data from May doesn’t show an increase in the quantity of imports from Greece, despite the Turkish re-exports.

A second Turkish businessman explained that Turkish exports, although passing through Greece, are still recorded as imports from Turkey in Israeli statistics because they remain Turkish products.

⚠️ Red alerts in Goren settlement in northern Israel

📹 The Israeli army released footage of its airstrike on Hula and Tallouseh, where they claim targeting weapon storage facilities.

They also took credit for other airstrikes, claiming attacking military infrastructure.

Thankfully no casualties in any.

📹 Hezbullah released footage of their attack on Metulla base that destroyed an anti drone system with a small suicide drone.

This is similar to the famous FPV drones.

Additional equipment was attacked with an ATGM

⭕️ In response to the Israeli assassination in Dier Kayfa yesterday, Hezbullah attacked with a swarm of drones Ras Al-Naqoura Israeli base.

Equipment was destroyed and soldiers' barracks affected.

⭕️ Hezbullah took credit for 4 additional attacks, targeting:
- Rwaysat al-Qaen base
- Ramtha base
- Samaqa base
- Zindeen base

These locations are in the occupied Lebanese lands of Kafarshouba and Shebaa.

⚠️ Several repetitive drone alerts in the occupied Golan Heights.

Our beautiful and courageous south Lebanon

📷 Phosphorus attacks targeting Kfarkila hills in south Lebanon

📹 The Israeli army released footage of shooting down a drone launched from Lebanon towards the Golan Heights.

This footage is of the new undeclared air defense system they have been recently using, supplied by the USA.

⭕️ Hezbullah issued a statement before that claiming launching one drone towards the artillery systems there, allegedly reaching its target successfully.

⭕️ Hezbullah released footage of their attacks on Beit Hillel and Zindeen base, accurately impacting them both with non-guided rockets.

According to the Israeli army then, all landed in open areas and no damages.

⚠️ Two Israeli airstrikes in Khiyam village in south Lebanon

📹 A new Israeli airstrike in Al-Qandoleh neighborhood in Mays al-Jabal

📷 Heavy artillery between Bar'acheet and Beit Yahoun

📰 Israeli Channel 12, quoting a senior official:

The army will continue its strong operations in Gaza and will not stop the fighting until there is a political agreement.

However

The Israeli army is preparing to announce the defeat of Hamas as it nears the end of its operations in Rafah and devote itself to the northern front with Lebanon.

The army leadership believes that there is tangible progress in the process of neutralizing the Rafah Brigade, but there is a need for additional activity.

They understand that they wont achieve better results than in other provinces and what's now is good enough.

🇵🇸 🇮🇱 🇱🇧 Endless War, Not 'Total Victory': IDF Wants to Leave Gaza, but Netanyahu Has Other Ideas | Haaretz

⬛️ As Israel's army prepares its forces, and the public, for an end to combat in Gaza to focus on the growing war in the north, Netanyahu is trapped in his ever-paranoid political web of pettiness, slogans and bad faith blame games, taking shots at the IDF, the protesters, Biden and everyone in his way

🔶️ The moment of truth – another moment of truth – in the war will likely arrive within a few weeks. The Israel Defense Forces will complete their offensive action in Rafah, under American restrictions and far from inflicting a total defeat on Hamas, and will want to declare a conclusion. The generals will come to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ask him to help them achieve strategic clarity.

🔶️ They will recommend a cessation to the campaign in the Gaza Strip, in the present format. The army will suggest reducing the already limited number of troops operating in the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egyptian border and in the other corridor in the center of the Strip, and to focus on raids against additional Hamas targets and again giving other moves an opportunity.

🔶️ Those moves are intended to include an attempt to restart the contacts for a hostage deal and a cease-fire in Gaza. If that works out, and the odds don't look great at the moment, it will be possible to exploit the time to give the soldiers a refresher period, during which the United States will make a final effort to forge a diplomatic agreement in Lebanon geared to distancing Hezbollah forces from the border with Israel.

🔶️ Otherwise, preparations will be made for a possible all-out war in the north. Concurrently, a process is supposed to begin of national force-building – a massive investment in upgrading the army's capabilities and readying the domestic front in the event that the grim predictions materialize and Israel finds itself in the future facing a broader, multi-arena confrontation led by Iran.

Quoting Haaretz by @CIG_telegram