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Hormuz Closure and Strikes
Iran shut down the Strait of Hormuz after hitting a container ship, with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy announcing Saturday that the Strait would be "closed until further notice."
“Extremist Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir today, Monday, stormed the entrance to the village of al-Mughir, northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, while a Palestinian was shot by settlers south of Bethlehem”
The IRGC said the decision came after a vessel attempted to transit through an "unapproved route" after disabling its tracking systems and ignoring orders to change course, and it said it struck the vessel "with warning fire," forcing it to stop.
Oman rescued 23 crew members from the Cyprus-flagged container ship M/V GFS Galaxy after the container ship caught fire overnight near the Musandam Peninsula, according to the UKMTO monitoring organization.
A U.S. official later confirmed to Axios that the GFS Galaxy sustained heavy damage, and the Iran–U.S. memorandum of understanding states that commercial vessel traffic would be fully restored within 30 days of the agreement.
The U.S. Central Command announced on Saturday evening that it had begun a third round of strikes on Iran, and a statement from CENTCOM following Saturday’s strikes said the U.S. had struck 140 "military targets."
Ben-Gvir Raid in al-Mughir
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir raided the village of al-Mughir, northeast of Ramallah, accompanied by settlers, according to local officials cited by multiple outlets.
Marzouk Abu Na’im, deputy head of the al-Mughir Village Council, said Ben-Gvir arrived with a group of settlers at the village entrance, with no immediate information about clashes or injuries during the raid, and WAFA was quoted saying Ben-Gvir entered the village entrance accompanied by a number of settlers.
The raid was described as coming amid ongoing tension in the West Bank, with rising attacks targeting Palestinian communities, and one outlet said the village and surrounding areas frequently witness attacks carried out by settlers against Palestinian residents and their property.
In a separate report, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday that a ban on trade with Israeli settlements had the broadest backing among EU foreign ministers, and she said the matter would be referred to EU ambassadors.
The same report said the Palestinian Health Ministry announced the death of Nasser Zaal Ka'abneh, 20, from Israeli fire at the separation barrier in the town of Bir Nabala, north of Jerusalem.
EU Gaza Recovery Funding
The European Union launched an aid initiative worth $1 billion to support Gaza's recovery, while the Gaza authorities rejected accusations by a UN official that they were obstructing the distribution of aid in the enclave.
“An episode in the ongoing series of organized land grabs in the Palestinian territories”
The European Commission announced on Monday that it had launched an initiative with 15 partners to provide assistance to Gaza amounting to €883.6 million ($1 billion), and it said the 'Gaza Team Initiative,' launched during the Palestine Donors Group meeting in Brussels, would support ongoing and planned early-recovery projects.
The Commission explained that the funds would be used to clear the rubble left by Israel's devastating war in the enclave and to restore essential services such as water and sanitation.
The Government Media Office in the Gaza Strip rejected accusations by Ramiz al-Kubrov, describing them as 'baseless' and 'far from the truth,' and it said government interference at the World Food Programme distribution center in Abu Rashed in Jabalia 'was not an intrusion or an assault or obstruction of humanitarian work.'
In the same reporting, Israel intensified on Monday on the ground in the Gaza Strip through airstrikes, artillery, and naval shelling, and a Palestinian man was killed and four others were injured on Monday as a result of an Israeli strike near Al-Wahda Stadium in the Tel al-Hawa district, southwest of Gaza City.
