Israeli officials are considering a preemptive strike after Iran vowed to avenge last week's killing of Hamas' political leader, Ismail Haniyeh. | Israeli officials are reportedly considering launching a preemptive strike to deter Iran - amid fears that Tehran will attack within the next 24 to 48 hours. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a meeting with security chiefs on Sunday to discuss how to respond to a potential strike by Iran, with a “host of options” considered, Israeli news site Ynet reported. Israel's decision to carry out a preemptive strike on Iran would depend on “whether the intelligence would support it,” the report said.

■ Extreme measures unable to ensure Israel's security — Chinese expert (TASS)
■ Report: Israel could preemptively strike Iran if intelligence shows attack is imminent (Times of Israel)

Measures target tankers said to be involved in the secret fund-raising operation for proxy militant groups | Israel opened a new front against Tehran on Tuesday with the country’s first-ever shipping sanctions by ordering the seizure of 18 tankers allegedly involved in selling Iranian oil to finance militant operations. ● The measures are aimed at vessels involved in ‘dark’ ship-to-ship oil transfers with a US-sanctioned tanker off the coast of Syria, according to Israeli officials. ● The operation, said to have been overseen by senior Hezbollah official Muhammad Qasir, involved the export of Iranian crude for refining in Syria. ● The refined oils from Syria were then loaded onto the Iranian-flagged 46,267-dwt Jasmine (built 1996) before the oil was transferred for final delivery to smaller tankers over several months from December 2022. ● The STS operations were necessary after the US sanctioned Jasmine in 2019 as part of its own crackdown on the network, said officials. ● The measures come amid a background of high tensions in the region, with Israel braced for possible attack from Iran and its regional militias following the killings of senior Hezbollah and Hamas officials in Beirut and Tehran within the last week. ● Eight of the tankers targeted by Israel were blacklisted after October 2023 but never publicly announced by its sanctions body, the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing.

■ Israel signals readiness for pre-emptive strikes against Iran, Hezbollah (MEMO)

With thousands of Americans serving in IOF, the documented misconduct by these soldiers raises significant concerns for US officials, particularly those in genocidal wars funded and supported by Washington. | US-Israeli IOF soldier, Bram Settenbrino, who is participating in the Israeli genocidal carnage in Gaza with a combat engineering unit of the Israeli occupation forces, shared online videos depicting indiscriminate firing at a destroyed building, as well as the demolition of homes and a mosque. ● The Guardian reported on Settenbrino's case, highlighting a familiar pattern: Israeli soldiers openly admit in social media videos to shooting to kill and demolishing everything in their path. Amid the ongoing genocide, these atrocities are occurring live and without interruption.

■ Smotrich: It May Be ‘Moral and Justified’ for Israel To Starve 2 Million Palestinians to Death in Gaza (Antiwar.com)
■ Israeli Drone Strikes Assassinate Nine Palestinians Near Tulkarem (IMEMC)
■ At least eight Palestinians killed in Israeli raids on West Bank towns (PressTV)
■ Israel has stolen over 2,000 bodies from Gaza graves during war: Media office (PressTV)
■ Day 305 of Gaza genocide: 39,653 Palestinians killed, 91,535 injured (Al Mayadeen)

Israel is responsible for the death of former Palestinian prisoner Wafaa Jarrar following her release from detention, the Popular Resistance Committees said yesterday. | Israel released Wafa on 31 May after a surgery to amputate her legs, which had been injured during her arrest on 21 May. She was the wife of Abdul Jabbar Jarrar, 58, who has been held under administrative detention – without charge or trial – since February. She leaves behind four children.

The top Russian lawmaker recounted that the United States remains the only country that has used nuclear weapons, referring to the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

💬 "US methods don’t change as time goes by. They have turned Ukraine into a bridgehead for war against our country. And they have extended NATO infrastructure to Asian regions against China as they deliver missile strikes on peaceful Iranian cities," Volodin lamented. However, he said, the situation has changed as Russian and Chinese possession of nuclear potential has been deterring the aggressor. Besides, the most up-to-date weapons Russia has lately developed indicate a significant advantage over the United States, Volodin emphasized.

Tehran has reportedly warned pilots and aviation authorities to avoid its airspace as it threatens to retaliate against Israel | Iran has issued a notice to pilots and aviation authorities to avoid its airspace as the government threatens to strike Israel, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing sources. ● The notification follows US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s warning on Sunday to the Group of Seven foreign ministers that Tehran could attack Israel within 24 to 48 hours, according to two diplomats briefed on the call. Blinken didn’t say what form an attack could take. ● According to the report, the notification from Tehran about its airspace, which happened at 7:45 a.m. CET, is typically used by aviation authorities to provide essential real-time information to pilots that wasn’t known in advance. It is essentially a stay-away message to commercial and civilian aviation without any indication of what may follow, the WSJ wrote.

An official in the Joint Operations Command in Iraq revealed on Tuesday that a second attack targeted Ain Al-Asad airbase, which houses US forces, in the western Iraqi governorate of Anbar. | The Iraqi security official told Al-Ain News that five missiles launched by armed groups supported by Iran targeted Ain Al-Asad airbase, where the international coalition forces led by the United States are stationed. ● The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is expected to issue a statement denouncing these attacks in light of his government’s efforts to reach an agreement with the United States to set a timetable for the withdrawal of US forces from the country, according to the security source. ● Earlier on Monday, an armed militia affiliated with the Kataeb Hezbollah targeted Ain Al-Asad airbase, the security official added. In a statement to Reuters, two security sources in Iraq said that two Katyusha missiles were fired at Ain Al-Asad airbase in western Iraq, leaving at least five US personnel injured.

■ Five US Troops Injured in Rocket Attack on US Base in Iraq (Antiwar.com)
■ US braces for more attacks on its Middle East forces – Axios (RT.com)

The American government has been conducting surveillance and collecting information about Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is currently the president of Brazil, since 1966. This was reported by the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper. | “Various agencies of the US government monitored President Lula da Silva, collecting at least 819 documents from 3,300 pages,” the report said. According to the newspaper, the information was provided by the US government to journalist and writer Fernando Morais, the Brazilian president’s biographer. The data refers to the period from 1966 to 2019. The material does not tell why a number of U.S. intelligence agencies began collecting information about the current president of Brazil from 1966. However, it is known that the politician at that time was an employee at the metallurgical factory Industrias Villares and participated in the work of the local trade union movement of the state of São Paulo in the south of the country.

A Swiss court recently ruled that the parents of a minor "stolen" by the government should provide legal documents to allow the child a gender alteration intervention despite them disagreeing with the procedure. Three years ago, the kid was separated from her parents because they refused to give their daughter puberty blockers. The kid, now 16 years old, wanted to transition into a boy. Now that the parents lost the case, the highest court in the canton of Geneva, the Court of Justice, is now ordering them to hand over the needed documents so they can submit the teenager to the alteration procedure.