A Gaza port strike kills at least six as a 1,234-home E1 tender opens
A Gaza port cafe strike killed at least six, a 1,234-home tender opened between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim, and FAO found only 3 per cent of cropland remains accessible and undamaged.
Geopolitics··Morning
A Gaza port cafe strike kills at least six
A crowded cafe in the port of Gaza City was struck on Tuesday; officials at al-Shifa Hospital said at least six people were killed and 14 were injured. The port has become a displacement camp. The Israeli army said it was targeting a gathering of Hamas commanders planning attacks and has provided no evidence for that. Hamas called the attack a blatant disregard for ceasefire calls issued by mediators and guarantor states. Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud said people had come out of their tents at the seaport to escape extreme heat when the strike landed. The attack came while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to reject the United States-backed plan to end the fighting; Hamas says it will give up its weapons only after Israeli soldiers leave. Al Jazeera reported that the Israeli military currently holds about 60 per cent of the enclave.[1]
A 1,234-home tender opens between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim
Israel issued a tender on Tuesday for 1,234 settlement units in the southern part of the E1 plan east of occupied Jerusalem, on land running towards Ma'ale Adumim. According to Middle East Eye, the tender moves one of the most contested settlement schemes from approval and planning towards land marketing and practical implementation. The tender covers seven settlement complexes across roughly 12,000 dunams between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim, taking in interconnected residential, industrial and tourism plans together with roads and infrastructure networks. The account published by Middle East Eye carries no construction timetable. The E1 plan has long been recorded as a settlement scheme drawing international criticism; Tuesday's step starts land marketing. The number of units covered by the tender was announced as 1,234.[2]
FAO finds only 3 per cent of cropland remains intact
An assessment by the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the United Nations Satellite Centre found that only 3 per cent of the Gaza Strip's cropland remains both accessible and undamaged, with the sharpest decline in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis. The assessment linked the decline to reduced access to farmland since the October 2025 ceasefire, associated primarily with the westward expansion of the Yellow Line separating the ceasefire zone from the military-controlled area. As of 24 June 2026, 4,091 hectares, or 27 per cent of the Gaza Strip's cropland, remained accessible, while only 448 hectares were both accessible and undamaged. The 3 per cent slice shows the share of cropland that is both reachable and intact. Accessible but damaged land is not included in that count.[3]
