Closing summary
It is coming up to 6pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Israel-Gaza war coverage here and on the Middle East here.
Here is a recap of the latest developments:
Efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza were gathering momentum on Friday after Hamas made a revised proposal on the terms of a deal and Israel said it would resume stalled negotiations. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US president Joe Biden on Thursday he would send a delegation to resume negotiations, and an Israeli official said his country’s team would be led by the head of the Mossad intelligence agency.
A Palestinian official close to the internationally mediated peace efforts told Reuters that the latest proposal by Hamas could lead to a framework agreement if embraced by Israel. He said Hamas was no longer demanding as a pre-condition an Israeli commitment to a permanent ceasefire before the signing of an agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout a first six-week phase.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and top Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya discussed the latest developments in the Gaza Strip and negotiations aimed at reaching a ceasefire there during a meeting, Hezbollah said on Friday. Nasrallah received Hamas deputy chief Hayya for the meeting, which reviewed “the latest security and political developments” in the Gaza Strip.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was quoted by Turkish media as saying he hoped a “final ceasefire” could be secured “in a couple of days”, and urged western countries to put pressure on Israel to accept the terms on offer.
Seven Palestinians were killed in an Israeli military offensive on the West Bank city of Jenin on Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said. Israel’s military said in a statement its forces had encircled a building where militants had barricaded themselves in, and that an Israeli aircraft had struck targets in the area. The Palestinian news agency Wafa said military vehicles surrounded a house in a Jenin refugee camp and loudspeaker demands were made for an occupant to surrender. Shoulder-fired missiles were then used and a drone attacked the house, it added.
On 20 May, the same day international criminal court prosecutor Karim Khan made a surprise request for warrants to arrest the leaders of Israel and Hamas involved in the Gaza conflict, he suddenly cancelled a sensitive mission to collect evidence in the region, eight people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Planning for the visit had been under way for months with US officials, four of the sources said. Khan’s move has harmed operational cooperation with the US and angered the UK a sources told Reuters.
Hamas said on Friday it rejected any statements and positions that support plans for foreign forces to enter the Gaza Strip under any name or justification. The group said the administration of the Gaza Strip is a purely Palestinian matter. “The Palestinian people … will not allow any guardianship or the imposition of any external solutions or equations,” it added.
A Hezbollah official told Reuters that the group would cease fire as soon as any Gaza ceasefire agreement takes effect, echoing previous statements from the group. “If there is a Gaza agreement, then from zero hour there will be a ceasefire in Lebanon,” the official said. Hezbollah and Israel have been trading fire for nearly nine months in hostilities that have played out in parallel to the Gaza conflict, raising fears of an all-out war between the heavily armed adversaries.
Hezbollah said it had fired 200 rockets into Israel in one of its largest barrages yet. Israel confirmed the Iran-backed militant group had fired “numerous projectiles and suspicious aerial targets” from Lebanon on Thursday towards the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and more than 15 drones into Israeli territory, many of which it said were intercepted. An Israeli military spokesperson said there were no casualties reported.
“Further disruption to health services is imminent in Gaza due to a severe lack of fuel,” warned the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. He described partners as having to direct “limited fuel supplies” to key hospitals in Gaza “prevent services from grinding to a halt”. “With European Gaza hospital out of service since 2 July, losing more hospitals in the [Gaza] Strip would be catastrophic,” he added.
Nasser hospital, the only major one still functioning in Gaza, released an urgent plea for fuel needed to keep operating its ICU, reported the Palestinian Arabic-language daily newspaper Al Quds daily. The hospital said most of its wards were out of service, and warned it now faced the risk of power outages. The situation is especially dire after hundreds of sick and injured patients were moved to the hospital after being evacuated from the now defunct European Gaza hospital.
The Kuwaiti field hospital also warned that it would go out of service unless it received fuel to power its generators, Al Quds reported.
Palestinians in Nuseirat are “using seawater to wash, clean and even drink” warned the UN agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) on Friday. In a social media post on X, the UN agency wrote: “In Nuseirat, people are sheltering on the shore, building sand walls to protect themselves from rising tides and using seawater to wash, clean and even drink. Ceasefire now.”
The Israeli president Isaac Herzog sent his congratulations to the newly elected UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, on Friday and said he looked forward to working together to bringing home hostages taken by Hamas.
Iranians voted on Friday in the run-off round of a presidential election offering a choice between a veteran hardliner and a reformist who has backed pragmatic cooperation with the west – but against the backdrop of an expected low turnout that critics say reflects opposition to the Islamic Republic.
The University of Birmingham is censoring students’ beliefs about Gaza by seeking to shut down a pro-Palestine encampment on its grounds, the high court has heard. Birmingham is one of several universities taking legal action to try to evict student protesters, with a case brought by the University of Nottingham due to be heard before the same judge on Friday.
Al Jazeera reported on Friday that there was a lack of news coming from Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighbourhood where an Israeli ground invasion was continuing. Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera correspondent Hind Khoudary said "heavy shelling and airstrikes” had been heard and that “Palestinians who were trapped there and were requesting evacuation have gone quiet”. Khoudary added: “The Israeli forces are not letting ambulances, firefighters or journalists reach that area.”
On a floating hospital near Gaza, doctors aren’t just treating physical injuries – they’re providing emotional support too for children and adults haunted by months of terrifying war, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The news agency reports that child amputees and elderly people in wheelchairs are among the patients on the converted ship off Arish, northern Egypt, funded and operated by the United Arab Emirates.
About 2,400 people have been treated at the temporary facility, whose rows of tents below deck hold about 100 patients at a time, deputy medical director Abdullah al-Zahmi told AFP.
Nine-year-old Yazan is one of those traumatised by the war, after being brought to the hospital about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Gaza without his parents and having a leg amputated because of his injuries.
Yazan’s parents were not allowed to accompany him through the Rafah crossing into Egypt, Zahmi told AFP, without giving further details. The route was closed by Israeli forces in early May.
The child is undergoing psychological and social rehabilitation and communicates daily with his family, Zahmi adds.
After his artificial leg is fitted, Yazan says he wants to “walk and play football”, adding that his “favourite player is [Cristiano] Ronaldo”.
Zahmi told AFP that more than 840 operations had been carried out at the hospital, which has a surgical department, an intensive care and anaesthesia unit, X-ray facilities, a pharmacy and laboratory. Its 60 staff span specialities including orthopaedics, internal care, neurosurgery and dentistry.
Some patients are transferred to the UAE, via a plane, where they will receive further treatment. Other patients discharged from the hospital are taken to housing designated for them by Egyptian authorities.
For any patients who need further treatment but who are not being flown to the UAE, the Emirates Red Crescent will cover their costs at an Egyptian hospital, reports AFP.
Hamas said on Friday it rejects any statements and positions that support plans for foreign forces to enter the Gaza Strip under any name or justification.
Reuters reports that the group said the administration of the Gaza Strip is a purely Palestinian matter. “The Palestinian people … will not allow any guardianship or the imposition of any external solutions or equations,” it added.
A Hezbollah official has told Reuters that the group would cease fire as soon as any Gaza ceasefire agreement takes effect, echoing previous statements from the group. “If there is a Gaza agreement, then from zero hour there will be a ceasefire in Lebanon,” the official said.
Hezbollah and Israel have been trading fire for nearly nine months in hostilities that have played out in parallel to the Gaza conflict, raising fears of an all-out war between the heavily armed adversaries.
Efforts to secure Gaza ceasefire and hostage release gain momentum - report
Efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza were gathering momentum on Friday after Hamas made a revised proposal on the terms of a deal and Israel said it would resume stalled negotiations.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US president Joe Biden on Thursday he would send a delegation to resume negotiations, and an Israeli official said his country’s team would be led by the head of the Mossad intelligence agency.
A source in Israel’s negotiating team, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that there was now a real chance of achieving agreement.
The Israeli remarks were in sharp contrast to past instances in the nine-month-old war in Gaza, when Israel said conditions attached by Hamas were not acceptable.
A Palestinian official close to the internationally mediated peace efforts told Reuters that the latest proposal by Hamas could lead to a framework agreement if embraced by Israel.
He said Hamas was no longer demanding as a pre-condition an Israeli commitment to a permanent ceasefire before the signing of an agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout a first six-week phase.
“Should the sides need more time to seal an agreement on a permanent ceasefire, the two sides should agree there would be no return to the fighting until they do that,” the official told Reuters.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was quoted by Turkish media as saying he hoped a “final ceasefire” could be secured “in a couple of days”, and urged western countries to put pressure on Israel to accept the terms on offer.
Seven Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli military offensive in the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry reports, updating from the six reported earlier.
Updated
Palestinians in Nuseirat are “using seawater to wash, clean and even drink” warns the UN agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa).
In a social media post on X, the UN agency wrote:
As displacement continues, Palestinian families are forced to move to small, increasingly overcrowded areas.
In Nuseirat, people are sheltering on the shore, building sand walls to protect themselves from rising tides and using seawater to wash, clean and even drink. Ceasefire now.”
As displacement continues, Palestinian families are forced to move to small, increasingly overcrowded areas
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 5, 2024
In Nuseirat, people are sheltering on the shore, building sand walls to protect themselves from rising tides and using seawater to wash, clean and even drink #CeasefireNow pic.twitter.com/APA9e1PRGM
Here are some of the latest images today from the newswires:
Six killed in Israeli raid in West Bank, says Palestinian health ministry
Six Palestinians were killed in an Israeli military offensive on the West Bank city of Jenin on Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Israel’s military said in a statement its forces had encircled a building where militants had barricaded themselves in, and that an Israeli aircraft had struck targets in the area.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa said military vehicles surrounded a house in a Jenin refugee camp and loudspeaker demands were made for an occupant to surrender. Shoulder-fired missiles were then used and a drone attacked the house, it added.
The ministry had previously put the death toll at five people (see 8.57am BST)
Updated
The Labour party, which has won the UK general election, lost four seats to pro-Gaza independent candidates and been run close by several others, reports my colleague Kiran Stacey.
He writes:
Jonathan Ashworth, the party’s shadow Cabinet Office minister, was one of the highest profile political casualties of the rise in support for pro-Palestinian candidates in urban areas with high Muslim populations.
Ashworth lost his Leicester South seat to the independent Shockat Adam, who said: “This is for Gaza,” after winning by just under 1,000 votes.
In Blackburn, the constituency once held by the former home secretary Jack Straw, Labour’s Kate Hollern lost by 132 votes to the independent Adnan Hussain. In Dewsbury and Batley, Heather Iqbal, a former adviser to the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, lost by nearly 7,000 votes to Iqbal Mohamed. And in Birmingham Perry Barr, the former Labour MP Khalid Mahmood lost to the independent Ayoub Khan.
In several other seats, high-profile Labour MPs were also run close by independent candidates, including in Ilford, where the shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, won by only 528 votes more than his closest rival, Leanne Mohamad.
You can read Kiran’s full piece here:
Updated
Al Jazeera are reporting that there is a lack of news coming from Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighbourhood where an Israeli ground invasion is continuing.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera correspondent Hind Khoudary said:
The Israeli forces are not letting ambulances, firefighters or journalists reach that area.
Heavy shelling and airstrikes are being heard. The Palestinians who were trapped there and were requesting evacuation have gone quiet. People are worried for their loved ones.”
Updated
Tedros’s comments (see 11.36am BST) came after the Nasser hospital, the only major one still functioning in Gaza, released an urgent plea for fuel needed to keep operating its ICU, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports, citing the Palestinian Arabic-language daily newspaper Al Quds daily.
The hospital had said most of its wards were out of service, and warned it now faced the risk of power outages. AFP reports that the situation was especially dire after hundreds of sick and injured patients were moved to Nasser hospital after being evacuated from the now defunct European Gaza hospital.
The Kuwaiti field hospital also warned that it would go out of service unless it received fuel to power its generators, Al Quds reported.
Since Israeli forces seized the main Rafah crossing in May, aid and especially fuel into Gaza has slowed to a trickle.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said that the limited deliveries of fuel into Gaza via the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing, “combined with insecurity and challenging routes, have further eroded our ability to maintain fuel supplies for health and humanitarian operations”.
Hostilities in Rafah in the south had meanwhile “completely obstructed access to the main fuel storage facility”, the WHO’s director general said.
“We again issue an urgent appeal for the Rafah crossing to be reopened and for a sustainable flow of fuel, food, water and medical supplies to be permitted into Gaza,” he said.
WHO director general warns of 'imminent' further disruption to Gaza health services due to 'severe lack of fuel'
The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that “further disruption to health services is imminent in Gaza due to a severe lack of fuel”.
Posting on Thursday evening, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, wrote on X: “Only 90,000L of fuel entered Gaza yesterday. The health sector alone needs 80,000L daily, forcing the UN – incl WHO – and partners to make impossible choices.”
Further disruption to health services is imminent in #Gaza due to a severe lack of fuel.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) July 4, 2024
Only 90,000L of fuel entered Gaza yesterday. The health sector alone needs 80,000L daily, forcing the @UN - incl. @WHO - and partners to make impossible choices. pic.twitter.com/XIlvDJj2Xg
He described partners as having to direct “limited fuel supplies” to key hospitals in Gaza. These include the Nasser medical complex, al-Amal hospital and Kuwati field hospital, plus 21 Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulances. Directing the fuel supplies is vital to “prevent services from grinding to a halt,” said the WHO director general.
“With European Gaza hospital out of service since 2 July, losing more hospitals in the [Gaza] Strip would be catastrophic,” he added.
Updated
The University of Birmingham is censoring students’ beliefs about Gaza by seeking to shut down a pro-Palestine encampment on its grounds, the high court has heard.
Birmingham is one of several universities taking legal action to try to evict student protesters, with a case brought by the University of Nottingham due to be heard before the same judge on Friday.
At the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Thursday, the University of Birmingham sought a possession order so that it can evict the “Green Heart” encampment from its Edgbaston campus and prevent it from moving elsewhere on its grounds.
In written arguments, Katharine Holland KC, for the university, said: “The unauthorised occupational encampment has created a substantial risk of public disturbance and serious harm to persons and property which properly require immediate determination, as well as significant financial loss and disruption to the university’s activities.”
Mariyah Ali, 20, the only named defendant, claimed that granting the university possession would be unlawful because it would discriminate against her protected philosophical beliefs – including in Palestinian liberation and against genocide – and interfere with her rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
In her witness statement, Ali said the university had “demonstrable links” with arms companies, including BAE Systems.
Hezbollah says it has fired 200 rockets into Israel after killing of commander
Lebanon’s Hezbollah says it has fired 200 rockets into Israel in one of its largest barrages yet, as Benjamin Netanyahu told the US that Israel will send a delegation to resume stalled negotiations with Hamas on a possible hostage release deal.
Israel confirmed the Iran-backed militant group had fired “numerous projectiles and suspicious aerial targets” from Lebanon on Thursday towards the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and more than 15 drones into Israeli territory, many of which it said were intercepted. An Israeli military spokesperson said there were no casualties reported.
Hezbollah said the barrage was in retaliation for a strike that killed one of its top commanders. It followed at least two attacks on Wednesday in response to what the group called “the assassination” of the commander Mohammed Nasser.
The militant group said it launched 100 Katyusha rockets at an Israeli military base in Golan and its Iranian-made Falaq missiles at another base in the town of Kiryat Shmona near the Israel-Lebanon border.
Nasser, killed by an airstrike near the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon, was one of the most senior Hezbollah commanders to die in the conflict, two security sources in Lebanon said. According to sources in Lebanon, he “was of great importance to Hezbollah”, which said he took part in battles in conflicts in Syria and Iraq from 2011 until 2016 and “fought in the group’s last war with Israel in 2006”.
US and French diplomats are working fervently to avert the escalation of tensions into a full-scale conflict, a scenario they worry may have ripple effects throughout the entire region.
Updated
Iranians head out to vote in second round of presidential election
Iranians vote today in the run-off round of a presidential election offering a choice between a veteran hardliner and a reformist who has backed pragmatic cooperation with the west – but against the backdrop of an expected low turnout that critics say reflects opposition to the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s two identities were on display in the final rallies of the campaign as the two presidential candidates offered contrasting visions of their country’s prospects, focused on whether sanctions have trapped Iran or are just a broken western lever that can no longer inflict damage to the economy.
The contest has become distilled into an increasingly sharp choice: on the one hand Saeed Jalili, for two decades close to the centres of power and the 85-year-old supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and on the other Masoud Pezeshkian – a reformist outsider with a subtle appeal.
Jalili says Iran has bypassed sanctions. Pezeshkian and his effective running mate, the former foreign minister Javad Zarif, claim that sanctions mean Iran has been bypassed.
Jalili’s campaign used the giant Imam Khomeini Mosalla mosque for its final event – a slick hi-tech cinematic mass rally. From the atmosphere it would have been hard to have known that in the first round of the elections a week ago only 39% voted and Jalili had been beaten into second place with 1m fewer votes than Pezeshkian.
Videos of the Jalili campaign broadcast on six giant screens gave the impression of a leader that is being mobbed and praised wherever he goes, while mini-drones ran along lines in the ornate roof transmitting footage of the crowd’s enthusiasm as celebrities sang in Jalili’s praise, including a female actor who argued the hijab empowers women.
Updated
There is additional detail from Reuters on its report about international criminal court prosecutor Karim Khan.
According to two sources who spoke to Reuters, Khan personally decided to cancel a visit to the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah, which was due to begin on 27 May.
Court and Israeli officials were due to meet on 20 May in Jerusalem to work out final details of the mission. Khan instead requested warrants that day for Netanyahu, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders – Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh.
A UN official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, confirmed that initial discussions had taken place regarding a visit to Gaza by Khan, covering security and transportation.
Flight tickets and meetings between senior-level court and Israeli officials were cancelled with just hours of notice, blindsiding some of Khan’s own staff, seven sources with direct and indirect knowledge of the decision told the news agency.
The US state department official told Reuters that abandoning the May visit broke from the prosecution’s common practice of seeking engagement with states under investigation.
Three US sources told Reuters, without providing details, that Khan’s motive to change course was not clearly explained and the about-face had hurt the court’s credibility in Washington.
Khan’s office did not directly address those points to Reuters but said he had spent the three previous years trying to improve dialogue with Israel and had not received any information that demonstrated “genuine action” at a domestic level from Israel to address the crimes alleged.
Khan “continues to welcome the opportunity to visit Gaza” and “remains open to engaging with all relevant actors,” his office said in an email to Reuters.
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim told Reuters Hamas had no prior knowledge of Khan’s intentions to send a team of investigators into Gaza.
Netanyahu’s office and the Israeli foreign ministry declined to comment, said Reuters.
ICC prosecutor cancelled vist to the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem and the West Bank when he announced arrest warrants - report
On 20 May, the same day international criminal court prosecutor Karim Khan made a surprise request for warrants to arrest the leaders of Israel and Hamas involved in the Gaza conflict, he suddenly cancelled a sensitive mission to collect evidence in the region, eight people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
Planning for the visit had been under way for months with US officials, four of the sources said.
Khan’s decision to request the warrants upended the plans backed by Washington and London for the prosecutor and his team to visit Gaza and Israel. The court was set to gather on-site evidence of war crimes and offer Israeli leaders a first opportunity to present their position and any action they were taking to respond to the allegations of war crimes, five sources with direct knowledge of the exchanges told Reuters.
Khan’s request for a warrant for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu – the court’s first attempt to detain a sitting, western-backed head of state – also flew in the face of efforts the US and the UK were leading to prevent the court from prosecuting Israeli leaders, the sources said.
The two states have said the court has no jurisdiction over Israel and that seeking warrants would not help resolve the conflict.
Khan’s office told Reuters the decision to seek warrants was, in line with its approach in all cases, based on an assessment by the prosecutor that there was enough evidence to proceed, and the view that seeking arrest warrants immediately could prevent ongoing crimes.
Reuters is the first to report in detail about the planned trip and the repercussions of its cancellation.
Khan had for three years been working to improve relations with the US, which is not a member of the court. He had asked Washington to help put pressure on its ally Israel – also not a court member – to allow his team access, four sources told Reuters.
His move has harmed operational cooperation with the US and angered the UK, a founding member of the court, the sources said.
A senior US state department official said Washington continued to work with the court on its investigations in Ukraine and Sudan, but three sources with direct knowledge of the US administration’s dealings with the court told Reuters cooperation has been damaged by Khan’s sudden action.
According to Reuters, all the sources expressed concerns Khan’s action would jeopardise cooperation in other ongoing investigations.
However, Khan’s sudden move has drawn support from other countries, exposing political differences between national powers over the conflict and the court. France, Belgium, Spain and Switzerland have made statements endorsing Khan’s decision; Canada and Germany have stated more simply that they respect the court’s independence.
Updated
The Israeli president Isaac Herzog sent his congratulations to the newly elected UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, and said he looked forward to working together to bringing home hostages taken by Hamas.
I send my warmest congratulations to @Keir_Starmer. As he prepares to enter Downing Street as Prime Minister, I look forward to working together with him and his new government to bring our hostages home, to build a better future for the region, and to deepen the close friendship…
— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) July 5, 2024
In a post on X, Herzog wrote:
I send my warmest congratulations to Keir Starmer. As he prepares to enter Downing street as prime minister, I look forward to working together with him and his new government to bring our hostages home, to build a better future for the region, and to deepen the close friendship between Israel and the United Kingdom.
I also express my deepest appreciation and gratitude to outgoing prime minister, Rishi Sunak, for his leadership and for standing with the Israeli people especially during this most difficult period.
Hezbollah and Hamas discuss latest developments in Gaza ceasefire talks as Israel weighs Hamas's response to proposal
Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and top Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya discussed the latest developments in the Gaza Strip and negotiations aimed at reaching a ceasefire there during a meeting, Hezbollah said on Friday.
Reuters reports that Nasrallah received Hamas deputy chief Hayya for the meeting, which reviewed “the latest security and political developments” in the Gaza Strip.
“They also discussed the latest developments in the ongoing negotiations these days, their atmosphere, and the proposals presented to reach an end to the treacherous aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,” the Hezbollah statement said.
The White House has described the latest Hamas ceasefire proposal for Gaza as a “breakthrough” establishing a framework for a possible hostage deal, but warned that difficult negotiations remained over the implementation of the agreement.
A senior US official said the Biden administration received the latest Hamas offer “a couple of days ago” and had been studying it ahead of a 30-minute telephone call between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.
“The conversation was detailed, going through the text of the agreement, constructive and encouraging, while also clear-eyed about the work ahead [and] the steps that must be put in place to finalise this deal and then begin the implementation,” the US official said of the call.
Netanyahu convened a meeting of his security cabinet on Thursday evening to discuss the Hamas proposal, and is dispatching a negotiating team to the Qatari capital, Doha, for talks with US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators in the coming days.
Five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli military offensive on the West Bank city of Jenin on Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said, reports Reuters.
Israel’s military said in a statement its forces had encircled a building where militants had barricaded themselves in, and that an Israeli aircraft had struck targets in the area.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa said military vehicles surrounded a house in a Jenin refugee camp and loud speaker demands were made for an occupant to surrender. Shoulder-fired missiles were then used and a drone attacked the house, it added.
Updated
Opening summary
It is almost 11am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. This is our latest live blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis.
Hezbollah said its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and top Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya had discussed the latest developments in the Gaza Strip and negotiations aimed at reaching a ceasefire there during a meeting on Friday.
Reuters reports that Nasrallah received Hamas deputy chief Hayya for the meeting, which reviewed “the latest security and political developments” in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah said in a statement.
A senior US administration official said on Thursday that Hamas had made a pretty significant adjustment in its position over a potential hostage release deal with Israel, expressing hope that it would lead to a pact that would be a step to a permanent ceasefire.
In other developments:
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his security cabinet on Thursday evening to discuss new Hamas positions on a ceasefire deal in Gaza, a source in Netanyahu’s office said. Israel received Hamas’ response on Wednesday to a proposal made public at the end of May by US president Joe Biden that would include the release of about 120 hostages held in Gaza and a ceasefire.
Hezbollah said it launched more than 200 rockets at several military bases in Israel in retaliation for a strike that killed one of its senior commanders.
The attack by the Lebanese militant group on Thursday was one of the largest in the monthslong conflict along the Lebanon-Israel border, with tensions boiling in recent weeks.The Israeli president Isaac Herzog sent his congratulations to the newly elected UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, and said he looked forward to working together to bringing home hostages taken by Hamas. “I send my warmest congratulations to (Sir Keir),” Herzog posted to X.
Pro-Palestinian protesters breached security at Australia’s Parliament House to unfurl banners from the roof on Thursday as a senator quit the government over its direction on the Gaza war. The four protesters were arrested after draping the words “war crimes” and “genocide” as well as the controversial slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” for more than an hour over the building’s facade.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Thursday that the number of Palestinians killed by Israel’s campaign in Gaza had climbed past 38,000. The ministry does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in its count.
Polls opened in Iran on Friday for a run-off presidential election that will test the clerical rulers’ popularity amid voter apathy at a time of regional tensions and a standoff with the west over Tehran’s nuclear programme. State TV said polling stations opened their doors to voters at 8am local time (5.30am BST).
The University of Birmingham is censoring students’ beliefs about Gaza by seeking to shut down a pro-Palestine encampment on its grounds, the high court has heard. Birmingham is one of several universities taking legal action to try to evict student protesters, with a case brought by the University of Nottingham due to be heard before the same judge on Friday.
Updated
