News roundup for Sunday, June 21, 2026, Day 989 since Israel began its 2023 genocide on the Palestinian people.
Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
NEWS & HEADLINES FROM GAZA:
For some basic info on the Palestine-Israel conflict, go here. For more critical context, skim this, this, and this. To read about a remarkable but underreported, 20-month-long peaceful protest in Gaza against Israel, go here.
Three Palestinians, including an eight-year-old girl, were killed in separate Israeli drone strikes in Gaza on Sunday.
‘Kind, principled’: Colleagues remember Gaza journalist Ahmed Wishah, killed by Israel
Three-month-old infant Mohammad Al-Khatib is in critical condition after a recent Israeli strike that targeted tents sheltering displaced families. The attack claimed his mother while she was holding and breastfeeding him and led to the amputation of his left leg.
Mohammad is now facing the risk of further amputations due to the severity of his injuries and the rapid deterioration of his health, and urgently needs medical evacuation abroad to receive treatment that could save what remains of his limbs amid Israel’s ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip.
*NOTE: Gaza’s Health Ministry recently reported that 17,757 Palestinians have referrals for medical treatment abroad – but Israel has permitted only 1,204 patients to leave through the Rafah and Kerem crossings since the beginning of the “ceasefire,” although the agreement stipulated a minimum of 50 patients be evacuated per day (a total of about 12,000 by now). Over 1,000 have died already while waiting to evacuate.
DEATH TOLL – GAZA GENOCIDE (tentative):
- At least 1,021 since ceasefire began Oct. 11, 2025 (247 children, 191 women)
- 5 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire began – one by friendly fire, and four others incidents during the first three weeks of the ceasefire.
- 73,032 killed (~22,000 children, 33,000 women and girls) since October 2023
- More statistics below
NEWS & HEADLINES FROM THE OCCUPIED WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM:
Every day, Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem endure dozens of incidents like the ones below, at the hands of Israeli soldiers and/or settlers. For background on the West Bank, read this and this. For information on the significance of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, read this and this.)
Two Teenagers Killed by Israeli Fire near Illegal Settlement* in Hebron Area: Israeli occupation forces killed two Palestinians near the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron (Al-Khalil) – 19-year-old Issa Arafat Ismail Awad and 15-year-old Reda Sami Hassan Awad.
Israeli media claimed the two were throwing Molotov cocktails at settler vehicles near the Karmei Tzur settlement, which was built on Palestinian land. Israeli occupation forces reportedly seized the bodies of the two Palestinians and prevented ambulance crews and residents from reaching them.
*NOTE: More than 700,000 settlers live illegally on Palestinian land in over 500 settlements and settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Some settler groups have a history of violence against Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces. Learn more about Israeli settler violence here and here.
In a landmark advisory opinion on July 19, 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanded the evacuation of all settlements.
I am a doctor in the occupied West Bank. Our hospitals are dying: Day by day, medicine by medicine, surgery by surgery, the system that thousands of patients depend upon is collapsing before our eyes. This is not a natural crisis. It is the direct result of the economic collapse in Palestine and the withholding of clearance revenues* – Palestinian tax funds collected by Israel. These funds, which constitute over 60 percent of the Palestinian Authority’s revenues, have been frozen for months.
*NOTE: Under the terms of the Oslo Accords, Israel collects import/export taxes on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, which is supposed to be handed over for the PA’s operating budget. Israel regularly keeps back some of this revenue (an amount now totaling over $5 billion), claiming it is being used illegally for the so-called Pay-For-Slay program (Palestinians often call it the Martyr’s Fund) – a social safety net for the Palestinian families that have lost their breadwinner due to the conflict with Israel.
Many Palestinian “martyrs” were not killers or attackers, but were themselves killed while walking to school, participating in a peaceful demonstration, or sleeping in their beds – but Israel does not differentiate, claiming the program encourages Palestinians to volunteer for suicide missions.
Notably, Israel has its own compensation program for families of IDF soldiers killed or injured in the line of duty, as does the US. For a deep dive into the topic, read The Legitimacy of Family Compensation for Palestinians Killed, Injured, and Imprisoned.
Israeli occupiers attack Palestinian vehicles as army moves to halt West Bank construction
DEATH TOLL – WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM (tentative):
NEWS & HEADLINES FROM ISRAEL:
Israel is a tiny country, about the size of New Jersey, with a population smaller than the US state of Georgia – about 10 million (of which about 20 percent are Palestinians), yet it is in the news constantly. As has been demonstrated again and again, however, mainstream media rarely covers Israel news accurately. IAK gets the facts – sometimes from Israeli media sites, where we can get a glimpse inside this country that is rife with turmoil and contradictions, and that receives $63 million a day from America.
Palestinian Prisoner Tortured to Death* by Israel: Palestinian prisoner Saber al-Amitel, from the Negev, was pronounced dead in an Israeli jail on Sunday, amid reports that he had been subjected to abuse and torture during his detention. Amitel joins more than 100 prisoners who have died in Israeli prisons and detention camps since the start of the genocidal war on Gaza in 2023.
*NOTE: Imprisonment in Israel routinely includes torture, starvation, sexual abuse, and systematic denial of basic rights, alongside degrading and inhumane detention conditions. To learn about the horrific situation in Israel’s prisons for Palestinians, read this and this.
RELATED: Welcome to Hell: the Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps
Washington is in contact with the Israeli opposition, amid a possible change in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following growing differences between Washington and Tel Aviv, Israeli media reported Sunday. A recent opinion poll showed that the Israeli opposition could win enough seats to form a government if elections were held today.
ISRAELI MEDIA: Donald Trump Has Fulfilled My Dream: For Israel to Pay for Its Actions
IRAN & LEBANON – NEWS & HEADLINES:
It can not be overemphasized that Israel is the impetus behind US policies and actions vis-a-vis Iran. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has been pushing the US to attack Iran for decades, using lies and deception. Under President Trump, he got his wish.
Israel has invaded Lebanon seven times in the last half century. Between 1978 and 2000, Israel maintained an 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon — Hezbollah was formed to fight that occupation.
Iranian representatives walked out of the venue where talks were being held in Switzerland on 21 June, in protest against US President Donald Trump’s latest threat to renew strikes against the Islamic Republic. Separately, Trump told Fox News that if Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz, it “won’t have a country … you won’t even make it back to your f***ing country.”
Iran plans to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed as long as Israeli attacks continue in Lebanon, according to Iran’s Tasnim News Agency.
Iran to get access to $6bn of frozen funds to buy US goods: The Trump administration will allow Iran to access $6bn of its oil money held in Qatar to buy humanitarian and non-sanctioned goods from the US after Tehran and Washington signed their interim peace deal.
78 percent of Americans think that the U.S. should end the conflict with Iran now, according to a CBS News/YouGov poll released on Sunday.
On Sunday, Trump directed his criticism toward Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group founded in 1982 in response to Israel’s occupation of Lebanon now allied with Iran*. This followed a week in which both Trump and Vance separately criticized Israel for its ongoing bombing of Lebanon. Trump posted to Truth Social, “Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble,” adding that “if they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!”
*NOTE: Brookings has described Hezbollah as a ‘state within a state’, simultaneously a political actor and militia. Between 1978 and 2000, Israel occupied southern Lebanon for 18 years — Hezbollah was formed to fight that occupation. Regarding the current escalation, Hezbollah has specifically said that it will keep fighting Israel until there is a ceasefire with Gaza.
Detailed article on the struggles and contradictions in Lebanon here. Read about UNIFIL, the UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, here.
*NOTE: As is obvious in the death tolls (below), Israel is the one “causing trouble” in the region – killing over 4,000 Lebanese people (80% of the dead, per Reuters, “were killed in attacks in which civilians were the main targets or the only targets”), while Hezbollah has killed about 40 Israelis (90% of them military).
Suspected Israeli soccer ball-shaped cluster bomb raises fears for Lebanese children: A suspected football-shaped cluster bomb left behind by Israel has triggered fears for children in south Lebanon, amid reports of similar incidents in Gaza. Israel has a long record of leaving behind deadly weapons that continue to threaten children.
Mourners gather to remember Lebanese conservationist killed by Israel: Mona Khalil, 77, who spent more than two decades protecting sea turtles along Lebanon’s coastline, was critically injured in the attack in the village of al-Mansouri in Tyre province on June 4, and succumbed to her wounds more than two weeks later, on Friday. (Original story here.)
DEATH TOLL – WARS ON IRAN & LEBANON (tentative):
- United States: 13 (or more) since Feb. 28, 2026
- Iran: at least 3,636 (1,701 civilians) since Feb. 28, 2026 (another source puts the number at 3,499)
- Lebanon: at least 4,057 people since March 2, 2026
- Arab states: at least 154 (including Palestine, excluding Lebanon)
- Israel: at least 60 people (Iran killed 20 civilians; Hezbollah killed 36 soldiers, 4 civilians)
MORE NEWS & HEADLINES:
Is Israel imposing a West Bank-style occupation in south Syria*? Israeli troops have carried out multiple cross-border operations in the south of Syria in recent weeks, invading villages, raiding homes, and detaining civilians, some of whom were disappeared. The incursions are the latest in an ongoing pattern of Israeli actions in southern Syria, including ground operations, artillery shelling, the destruction of agricultural land, and the arrest of civilians at checkpoints – despite an agreement between Syria and Israel to promote military de-escalation and engage diplomatically under US oversight.
*NOTE: Although Israel is not at war with Syria, the Israeli army has significantly and illegally expanded its military presence in southern Syria since the collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024. Israeli forces have reportedly carried out over 1,600 violations inside Syrian territory since August 2025. Israel has grabbed land and resources and demanded the demilitarization of southern Syria, allegedly to prevent any “potential threat” from post-war Syria – but has vowed to stay permanently in what seems to be an informal border expansion.
Pentagon Tells Lawmakers It Needs Additional $80 Billion for Iran War and Other Costs: The Pentagon had previously claimed that the war cost $29 billion as of mid-May, while an analysis from the Security Policy Reform Institute found that the war had cost about $72 billion in just the first 60 days, an estimate that doesn’t factor in indirect costs. The Pentagon is seeking $80 billion on top of its more than $1 trillion annual budget.
Netanyahu tells JNS conference IDF Operations in Iran ‘Changed Israel’s Security Doctrine’: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Jewish News Syndicate conference that IDF operations in Iran “changed Israel’s security doctrine: We initiate, we attack, so we surprise and we attack those enemies that seek our destruction, that seek to kill us. We attack them before they have a chance to do so. Kill them first.”
FIFA Engages Israeli Company for World Cup Security: Pro-Palestine activists have called out FIFA for its complicity in Israeli apartheid, due to its ties with Sentrycs, an Israeli anti-drone technology company. Sentrycs, which was founded in Israel by former members of the Israeli military and intelligence, was hired for World Cup anti-drone security this summer in the US, Canada and Mexico.
RELATED: As World Cup kicks off, Gaza amputee girls chase football dreams
Stop ‘Greater Israel*’ to make peace: Here is the deeper truth: “Greater Israel” is not saving Israel. It is killing it. A state that makes itself hated by the world, and by its only protector, is not pursuing security. It is threatening its own survival to feed a delusion.
*NOTE: “Greater Israel” is colonial/expansionist rhetoric. Read about it here, or watch the video below.
ICYMI, A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:
Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed Wishah killed in Israeli attack in Gaza
Widespread protests in Israel demand Netanyahu’s departure, criticize his policies
Israel killed at least 29 people in Lebanon on Saturday
(Read yesterday’s daily update here.)
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – June 21, 2026*:
- At least 74,191 Palestinians killed, 186,023 injured – including:
- Gaza: at least 73,032 killed (~22,000 children, 33,000 women and girls), 173,357 injured
- West Bank/East Jerusalem: at least 1,169 killed (~244 children), 12,666 injured
*NOTE: Thousands of remains in Gaza have yet to be identified, and thousands more are still buried under rubble; others are reportedly missing.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – June 21, 2026: ~1,663 – including ~1,139** on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 472 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, about 52 military and civilians (by one count, there have been 59 victims) in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel (these numbers do not include deaths from the conflicts with Lebanon or Iran).
**NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
- JNS Policy Summit to kick off in Israel
- Fatalities From Israel’s Vast Gaza Genocide Deliberately Undercounted
- Israelis Invaded Lebanon And Then Cried Victim When Their Soldiers Got Killed
- FARA Docs: Israel is Spying On Millions Of Christian Americans In Their Churches
- Why US presidents from both parties end up cursing Benjamin Netanyahu
- Israel Asked Facebook to Censor Iran War Content, Internal Documents Show
- 15 articles a day: The extent of the Israeli army’s media interference
- Greek Orthodox Patriarchate denounces Israeli seizure of church land in Jerusalem
- How Hillel International uses antisemitism training and ‘campus climate’ concerns to attack Palestine solidarity
- Trita Parsi on the Iran deal, Israel, and how Iran has been a ‘cash cow’ for AIPAC
- Unmasking Axios, its Israeli ties and agenda
- Israel Is Bleeding Support in the U.S. – and Pouring Tens of Millions Into Trying to Change That
- Israeli army included on UN blacklist for 3rd year over ‘grave violations’ against children
- Trita Parsi on the Iran deal, Israel, and how Iran has been a ‘cash cow’ for AIPAC
