Ceasefire between Israel and Gaza

1 Israel — The Gaza Strip. Fire cease.

The Wall Street Journal reported while citing their sources that a ceasefire between the Gaza-controlling Hamas movement and the Israeli authorities could take place on Friday. The Egyptian authorities have made some progress in the negotiations with Hamas. The Axios reported while citing their sources in the Israeli government that Israel will need several more days to complete the military operation against the Palestinian radicals, despite the US demands to end it as soon as possible.

2 Israel — The Gaza Strip. Blows.

The IDF press service reported that since 10th of May, the Palestinian radicals from the Gaza Strip fired over 4,000 rockets at Israel. 610 rockets fell in the Gaza Strip. About 90% of the incoming rockets were intercepted by the ’Iron Dome’ air defense system. The Israeli mass media noted that during the last night, the IDF reduced the intensity of their attacks on the radicals in the Gaza Strip. The coastal enclave’s health ministry reported that 230 Palestinians were killed from the Israeli strikes. Over 1,700 people were injured.

3 Armenia. Border with Azerbaijan

The Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, stated at a government meeting that the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border remains tense. He noted that about 500-600 Azerbaijani servicemen are still in Armenia. Nikol Pashinyan added that Armenia supports the idea of demarcating of the border with Azerbaijan since it meets the interests of the country, and it guarantees the security. Telephone talks between Vladimir Putin and Nikol Pashinyan took place yesterday. Vladimir Putin underlined that Russia, as a mediator, is actively contributing to the normalization of the situation, and will continue to do so. Earlier, Vladimir Putin held telephone talks with the Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliyev. They discussed the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the incident on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. «The general agreement was to ensure that the settlement is being carried out exclusively by political and diplomatic means’’ — the Kremlin press service reported.

4 Afghanistan. Taliban attacks

The ’TOLO News’ TV reported that the Afghan security forces have left the Davlat Shah area, in the province of Laghman. This decision was made due to the fact that the area has been surrounded by the Taliban terrorists over the past 6 months. During this time, more than 15 Afghan security service officers were killed. Currently, the center of the district is under the control of the Taliban.

5 Afghanistan. The US troop withdrawal

The Pentagon’s spokesman John Kirby stated that the pace of the US military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan depends on the weather. According to him — «the schedule for the withdrawal of the troops has been planned and verified and calculated in time. But the plan still depends not only on what is happening on the ground, but also on the weather, and on all other factors that the USA should take into account in the military planning». Earlier, the US Armed Forces Central Command reported that the pulling of the the American troops from Afghanistan was completed by about 13-20%.

6 The USA — Russia. Meeting of Lavrov and Blinken

The city of Reykjavik hosted a meeting between the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken. It was their first face-to-face meeting. The meeting took place at the ministerial session of the ’Arctic Council’ in Reykjavik, and lasted almost 2 hours. Sergei Lavrov called the negotiations to be «constructive». He added that he saw Blinken and his team ready to clear up the «rubble» in the Russian-American relations. Sergei Lavrov added that after the meeting, proposals will be prepared for the presidents of Russia and the USA on the strategic stability issues. Anthony Blinken stated on Twitter that he met with Lavrov to «test the proposal» for a more stable and predictable US-Russian relationships. Constantine Reztsov, specially for the ANNA NEWS