Closing summary
It is just past 6pm in Tel Aviv and Gaza. Here is a roundup of the main headlines so far today:
Lebanon’s Hezbollah armed group said on Monday afternoon that it had launched a squadron of drones towards the headquarters of the Israel military’s Galilee formation. The IDF said in comments reported in the Israeli media that the attack had caused no injuries.
The Rafah border crossing critical to aid deliveries into Gaza from Egypt cannot operate again unless Israel relinquishes control and hands it back to Palestinians on the Gaza side, Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry said. “It is difficult for the Rafah crossing to continue operating without a Palestinian administration,” he said in a press conference with his Spanish counterpart in Madrid.
A group of UN experts has called for all countries to recognise a Palestinian state to ensure peace in the Middle East. The experts, including the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories, said recognition of a Palestinian state was an important acknowledgment of the rights of the Palestinian people and their struggle towards freedom and independence.
Benny Gantz said he made it clear to the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in their phone call yesterday that he views returning hostages as a “priority on the war’s timeline”. Gantz – part of the Israeli war cabinet, alongside prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant – said Israel will do “whatever is necessary” to achieve this goal.
Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, later accused Netanyahu of trying to “whitewash” a deal to wind down the war on Gaza that is being advanced by the US president, Joe Biden, and repeated a threat to quit the government. He told his parliamentary faction that Netanyahu invited him to read the proposal but the prime minister’s aides twice failed to produce the document.
The Israeli prime minister said that Biden, in advancing a plan to wind down the war in Gaza, had published only some of the details. “The war will be stopped for the purpose of returning hostages and then we will proceed with other discussions,” David Mencer, an Israeli government spokesperson, quoted Netanyahu as saying.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, praised Hamas’s 7 October attack against Israel and predicted the “destruction” of Israel. He was quoted as saying the attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed, “was a decisive blow to the Zionist regime” and put Israel “on the path that will only end in its destruction”.
About 55% of all structures in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed, damaged or possibly damaged since the war erupted in October, according to preliminary satellite analysis by the UN. The analysis showed more than 137,000 buildings affected, according to Unosat, the UN satellite analysis agency.
At least 36,479 Palestinian people have been killed and 82,777 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said.
Rockets launched from Lebanon hit 'open areas' and caused no injuries, IDF reportedly says
Thirty rockets launched from Lebanon at the northern Golan Heights struck open areas and caused no injuries, the Israeli military has said in a story reported by The Times of Israel.
The IDF reportedly said no sirens sounded.
Updated
The hardline Israeli cabinet member, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, has also threatened to quit should Israel agree to the proposed Biden peace deal, saying the only thing to do was increase military pressure on Hamas.
“The dangerous proposal that President Biden spoke of was made by the war cabinet without authority and against the law, and it is not binding for the government of Israel and state of Israel,” Smotrich said.
Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, accused Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to “whitewash” a deal to wind down the war in Gaza and repeated a threat to quit the government.
Summary of the day so far...
It is about 5:10pm in Tel Aviv and Gaza. Here is a roundup of the main headlines so far today:
Lebanon’s Hezbollah armed group said on Monday afternoon that it had launched a squadron of drones towards the headquarters of the Israel military’s Galilee formation. We are still waiting on more information on this and will provide updates as soon as we can.
The Rafah border crossing critical to aid deliveries into Gaza from Egypt cannot operate again unless Israel relinquishes control and hands it back to Palestinians on the Gaza side, Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry said. “It is difficult for the Rafah crossing to continue operating without a Palestinian administration,” he said in a press conference with his Spanish counterpart in Madrid.
A group of UN experts has called for all countries to recognise a Palestinian state to ensure peace in the Middle East. The experts, including the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories, said recognition of a Palestinian state was an important acknowledgment of the rights of the Palestinian people and their struggle towards freedom and independence.
Benny Gantz said he made it clear to the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in their phone call yesterday that he views returning hostages as a “priority on the war’s timeline”. Gantz – part of the Israeli war cabinet, alongside prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant – said Israel will do “whatever is necessary” to achieve this goal.
Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, later accused Netanyahu of trying to “whitewash” a deal to wind down the war on Gaza that is being advanced by the US president, Joe Biden, and repeated a threat to quit the government. He told his parliamentary faction that Netanyahu invited him to read the proposal but the prime minister’s aides twice failed to produce the document.
The Israeli prime minister said that Biden, in advancing a plan to wind down the war in Gaza, had published only some of the details. “The war will be stopped for the purpose of returning hostages and then we will proceed with other discussions,” David Mencer, an Israeli government spokesperson, quoted Netanyahu as saying.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, praised Hamas’s 7 October attack against Israel and predicted the “destruction” of Israel. He was quoted as saying the attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed, “was a decisive blow to the Zionist regime” and put Israel “on the path that will only end in its destruction”.
About 55% of all structures in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed, damaged or possibly damaged since the war erupted in October, according to preliminary satellite analysis by the UN. The analysis showed more than 137,000 buildings affected, according to Unosat, the UN satellite analysis agency.
At least 36,479 Palestinian people have been killed and 82,777 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said.
Updated
Slovenia’s conservative opposition has filed a motion that delays the country’s recognition of a Palestinian state, a parliamentary spokesperson said.
Slovenian lawmakers had been scheduled to vote on Tuesday on whether to recognise a Palestinian state, just days after Spain, Ireland and Norway extended their recognition in response to Israel’s war on Gaza.
The three centre-left parties in the governing coalition, which hold 51 of the 90 seats in parliament, support the recognition of a state of Palestine as part of efforts to end the conflict as soon as possible.
But the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), led by former prime minister Janez Jansa, filed a proposal to hold an advisory referendum on the decree for the recognition, the parliamentary spokesperson told AFP – a procedure that effectively delays the vote by about 30 days.
Now parliament will have to decide on the SDS proposal at its next regular session – scheduled for 17 June.
Though it is likely to be rejected, parliament might not then resume the debate about the recognition decree until its next session scheduled for 8 July.
Last week, Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, said he hoped Slovenian lawmakers would reject recognising a Palestinian state, saying a yes vote would be a “reward” to Hamas.
Hezbollah launches squadron of drones towards Israeli military quarters
Lebanon’s Hezbollah armed group said on Monday it had launched a squadron of drones towards the headquarters of the Israel military’s Galilee formation, Reuters reported. We don’t have much more information on this at the moment but will update the blog as soon as we get some.
Lebanese official media said Israeli strikes on a car and a motorcycle in the country’s south killed two people Monday, with cross-border clashes intensifying in recent days.
“An enemy drone strike targeted a motorcycle in Naqura,” a coastal town near the Israeli border, Lebanon’s official National news agency said, later reporting “one person was killed and another wounded”.
In another attack, “an enemy drone targeted a car” near the southern village of Zrariyeh, “killing one person”, the NNA said. It is not clear if the people who were killed were civilians.
Hezbollah said it launched “a squadron of explosive-laden drones” at northern Israeli army positions “in response to the assassination carried out by the Israeli enemy this afternoon in the Zrariyeh area”.
The violence came as Iran’s acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri was visiting Lebanon, where he was expected to meet Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah group, a Hamas ally, has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israel since the Palestinian militant group’s 7 October attack on southern Israel sparked war in the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s national security minister accuses Netanyahu of trying to 'whitewash' ceasefire plan
Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has accused Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to “whitewash” a deal to wind down the war in Gaza that is being advanced by the US president, Joe Biden, and repeated a threat to quit the government.
He told his parliamentary faction that Netanyahu invited him to read the proposal but the prime minister’s aides twice failed to produce the document. Any plan must entail toppling Hamas, Ben-Gvir was quoted by Reuters as having said.
Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners – the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and Ben-Gvir – immediately voiced opposition to the new truce plan when Shabbat ended on Saturday night, threatening to resign if it goes ahead.
Biden had said the proposal would involve an initial six-week truce with a partial Israeli military withdrawal and the release of some hostages while the two sides negotiated “a permanent end to hostilities”.
Faisal Ali is a Guardian multimedia journalist
Earlier today, the UN released its analysis of satellite images of Gaza revealing that Israel’s attack on the Strip has destroyed, damaged or possibly damaged 55% of its structures. The UN’s satellite centre, which carried out the analysis, said about 137,297 structures had been affected, with the central governorate of Deir al-Balah and Gaza in the north faring the worse.
We’ve compiled some satellite images via Planet Labs to illustrate the scale of destruction from before the war and after in Gaza’s two largest cities, Khan Younis and Gaza City. Here is a graphic showing the areas around Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood near its port:
And here is Khan Younis, Gaza’s second largest city:
Here is a Guardian investigation which used satellite imagery and open-source evidence to detail the mass destruction of buildings and land in three neighbourhoods in Gaza:
Updated
Biden only published a partial version of the Gaza ceasefire proposal, Netanyahu says
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said that the US president, Joe Biden, in advancing a plan to wind down the war in Gaza, had published only some of the details.
“The war will be stopped for the purpose of returning hostages and then we will proceed with other discussions,” David Mencer, an Israeli government spokesperson, quoted Netanyahu as saying.
This appeared to be reiteration of Israel’s refusal to call off the offensive against Hamas entirely before the group is destroyed, echoing Netanyahu’s statement on Saturday in which described the commitment to a permanent ceasefire before Hamas military and government capacity is destroyed as a “non-starter”.
Netanyahu said on Saturday:
Israel’s conditions for ending the war have not changed: the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, the freeing of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.
Under the proposal, Israel will continue to insist these conditions are met before a permanent ceasefire is put in place. The notion that Israel will agree to a permanent ceasefire before these conditions are fulfilled is a non-starter.
What was the Israeli proposal Joe Biden outlined last week?
The first phase of the proposal involves a six-week ceasefire when Israeli forces would withdraw from “all populated areas” of Gaza, some hostages – including the elderly and women – would be freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, Palestinian civilians could return to their homes in Gaza and 600 trucks a day would bring humanitarian aid into the devastated enclave.
In this phase, Hamas and Israel would negotiate a permanent ceasefire that Biden said would last “as long has Hamas lives up to its commitments.” If negotiations took more than six weeks, the temporary ceasefire would extend while they continued.
In the second phase, Biden said there would be an exchange for all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza and the permanent ceasefire would begin.
The third phase would include a major reconstruction plan for Gaza and the return of the “final remains” of hostages to their families.
Updated
A foreign citizen was detained in Romania’s capital on Monday after allegedly attacking the entrance of the Israeli embassy with a molotov cocktail, causing a small fire but no casualties, local media and police reported.
A 34-year-old man was apprehended by antiterrorism officers from the Romanian Intelligence Service before police arrived at the scene, police in Bucharest said, adding that the suspect allegedly also tried to set himself on fire.
Local media reported that the suspect is a Syrian national. A police spokesperson told local news channel Digi24 that the incident was motivated by personal grievances and not by the international context of Israel’s war on Gaza.
The Israeli embassy confirmed the incident in an official statement, saying that when security officials approached the suspect “he took out a molotov cocktail, lit it and threw it toward the entrance door to the lobby of the building”.
The Palestinian people do not need wars that do not serve their ambitions for freedom and independence, the Palestinian presidency said in response to remarks by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (see earlier post at 11.34).
Khamenei said the Hamas-led 7 October attack on Israel had happened exactly at the moment the region needed it and that there had been a plan “by the US, Zionist individuals, their followers and some of the region’s countries to change the equation in the region”.
According to Reuters, the Palestinian Presidency responded by saying such remarks were clearly aimed at sacrificing Palestinian blood and would not lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Benjamin Netanyahu said that the first phase of a US-promoted plan to wind down the Gaza war, entailing a limited hostage release by Hamas, could be undertaken without necessary agreement on what follows, Reuters reported, citing Israeli media.
The leaked quotes from a closed-door parliamentary meeting, which were not immediately confirmed by officials, suggested Israel sees a possibility of entering an initial Gaza truce though it has ruled out ending the war as demanded by Hamas.
Updated
Labour leader Keir Starmer has hinted that UK arms sales to Israel could be reviewed under a Labour government during a campaign event in Bury.
He said: “I think our government should follow the US lead on this in relation to arms sales and review the licences to see whether any of them would be or are being used in the Rafah offensive.”
During a Q/A with reporters after a speech he made on his commitment to the UK’s nuclear deterrent, Starmer said that he had been pressing the government to share the legal advice it had been receiving regarding weapons sales, adding: “If we’re privileged to come into power, we’ll be able to see that advice or commission our own.”
Updated
Hamas still strong in areas ‘cleared’ by Israel in northern Gaza, say experts
There may be more Hamas militants in the north of Gaza, supposedly cleared by Israeli forces months ago, than in Rafah, the southern city in the territory described by Israeli officials as the extremist Islamist organisation’s “last stronghold”, analysts believe.
More than 1 million people have fled Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, after instructions from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the biggest wave of displacement since the early months of the conflict. The IDF has said repeatedly that four Hamas brigades – the militant Islamist organisation’s biggest remaining force – is based in Rafah.
But though Israeli forces have now invaded Rafah, it was fighting in Jabaliya, the second-most populous town in northern Gaza, that was described last month by IDF officials as “perhaps the fiercest” yet seen in the seventh-month-long conflict.
Death toll in Gaza reaches 36,479, says health ministry
Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 36,479 Palestinians and wounded 82,777 since 7 October, the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry said on Monday.
Forty Palestinians have been killed and 150 wounded in the past 24 hours, the ministry said in a statement.
Updated
More than half of all structures in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged since war started - analysis
About 55% of all structures in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed, damaged or possibly damaged since the war erupted in October, according to preliminary satellite analysis by the UN.
The analysis showed more than 137,000 buildings affected, Unosat, the UN satellite analysis agency, wrote in a post on X.
The estimate is based on a satellite image taken on 3 May, and compared with images taken in May a year earlier, last September, and on 15 October – just over a week after Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel.
🏚️ According to our analysis, we identified 36,591 destroyed structures, 16,513 severely damaged, 47,368 moderately damaged, and 36,825 possibly damaged structures. A total of 137,297 structures, or about 55% of the total in Gaza, are affected. #DamageAssessment #SatelliteImagery pic.twitter.com/UZjh64o0j7
— UNOSAT (@UNOSAT) June 3, 2024
The fresh satellite image was also compared to images taken during several dates in November, then again during the first months of this year, according to Unosat.
“According to satellite imagery analysis, Unosat identified 36,591 destroyed structures,” the agency said in a statement.
In addition, it said it had seen “16,513 severely damaged structures, 47,368 moderately damaged structures, and 36,825 possibly damaged structures for a total of 137,297 structures”.
“These correspond to around 55 percent of the total structures in the Gaza Strip and a total of 135,142 estimated damaged housing units,” it said.
UNOSAT said the image comparisons showed the governorates of Deir Al-Balah, in the centre, and Gaza, in the north, had suffered the worst damage between 1 April and 3 May.
Comparing satellite images on those dates indicated that an additional 2,613 structures had been damaged in Deir Al-Balah, while another 2,368 had been damaged in Gaza governorate in just over a month.
Within Deir Al-Balah, the Nuseirat municipality suffered the greatest number of newly damaged structures during that period, at 1,216, Unosat said.
The agency stressed that the findings were still part of a preliminary analysis, which had yet to be validated in the field.
Summary of the day so far...
The Rafah border crossing critical to aid deliveries into Gaza from Egypt cannot operate again unless Israel relinquishes control and hands it back to Palestinians on the Gaza side, Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry said. “It is difficult for the Rafah crossing to continue operating without a Palestinian administration,” he said in a press conference with his Spanish counterpart in Madrid.
A group of UN experts have called for all countries to recognise a Palestinian state to ensure peace in the Middle East. The experts, including the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories, said recognition of a Palestinian state was an important acknowledgment of the rights of the Palestinian people and their struggle towards freedom and independence.
Benny Gantz said he made it clear to the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in their phone call yesterday that he views returning hostages as a “priority on the war’s timeline”. Gantz – part of the Israeli war cabinet, alongside prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant – said Israel will do “whatever is necessary” to achieve this goal.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, praised Hamas’s 7 October attack against Israel and predicted the “destruction” of Israel. He was quoted as saying the attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed, “was a decisive blow to the Zionist regime” and put Israel “on the path that will only end in its destruction”.
Palestinian health officials said Israeli airstrikes killed 11 people overnight into Monday, including a woman and three children, in central Gaza, according to the Associated Press.
The Maldives says it will ban Israelis from entering the country, known for its luxury resorts, with the office of the president making the announcement as public anger rises over the war in Gaza. The Maldives president, Mohamed Muizzu, has “resolved to impose a ban on Israeli passports”, a spokesperson for his office said in a statement, without giving details of when the new law would take effect.
Iran’s supreme leader says Israel is on a path leading to its 'destruction'
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has praised Hamas’s 7 October attack against Israel and predicted the “destruction” of Israel, AFP reported.
Khamenei, 85, was speaking at an event to mark 35 years since the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic which replaced a US-backed monarchy.
He said the 7 October Hamas attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed, “was a decisive blow to the Zionist regime” and put Israel “on the path that will only end in its destruction”.
Iran has said it had no advance knowledge of Hamas’s 7 October attack but has praised it since.
Khamenei said the attack “happened at the right time” and “destroyed a major international conspiracy for the Middle East,” a possible reference to US-led moves to broker diplomatic ties between Israel and Arab powers.
As the war in Gaza has raged, Iran and Israel came to the brink of war in mid-April when Tehran launched a barrage of rockets and missiles at Israel, most of which were intercepted with the orchestrated help of US, UK and Jordan.
Last week, Iran started registration of candidates for an early election next month after the death of president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash.
Once seen as a possible successor to Khamenei, Raisi’s sudden death has triggered a race among hardliners to influence the selection of Iran’s next leader.
UN experts urge all countries to recognise Palestinian statehood
A group of UN experts have called for all countries to recognise a Palestinian state to ensure peace in the Middle East.
The experts, including the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories, said recognition of a Palestinian state was an important acknowledgment of the rights of the Palestinian people and their struggle towards freedom and independence.
They said:
This is a pre-condition for lasting peace in Palestine and the entire Middle East – beginning with the immediate declaration of a ceasefire in Gaza and no further military incursions into Rafah.
A two-state solution remains the only internationally agreed path to peace and security for both Palestine and Israel and a way out of generational cycles of violence and resentment.
The call came less than a week after Spain, Ireland and Norway officially recognised a Palestinian state, prompting anger from Israel, which has found itself increasingly isolated over its war on Gaza.
The three European governments said the move was intended to support a two-state solution and foster peace in the Middle East. They hope their decision will spur other EU states to follow suit. Denmark’s parliament later rejected a proposal to recognise a Palestinian state.
Israel has repeatedly condemned moves to recognise a Palestinian state, saying they bolster Hamas, the Palestinian militant group which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007.
Updated
As we mentioned in the opening summary, airstrikes and artillery shelling continue to be reported in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, which had become a relative refuge to about half of the territory’s 2.3 million people before Isreal launched its offensive in the area last month.
The reports of airstrikes were mainly in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood, as well as in Gaza City, witnesses told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Updated
Israeli strikes in central Gaza kill at least 11 people, officials say
Palestinian health officials said Israeli airstrikes killed 11 people overnight into Monday, including a woman and three children, in central Gaza, according to the Associated Press.
A strike on a home in the built-up Bureij refugee camp late on Sunday evening was reported to have killed four people, including the three children.
The second strike, early Monday, reportedly killed seven people, including a woman, in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Iran’s acting foreign minister arrived in Lebanon on Monday, in his first official diplomatic visit since his predecessor died in a helicopter crash last month.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that Ali Bagheri Kani would visit Lebanon and then Syria “to meet with the two countries’ officials as well as the officials of the resistance front to discuss ways to counter (Israel)”.
Iran backs a number of armed factions in the region, of which Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah is widely seen as the most powerful. Hezbollah would be Tehran’s first line of defence in case of a direct conflict between Iran and Israel.
Bagheri Kani’s predecessor, Hossein Amirabdollahian, a hardliner close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, died in a helicopter crash on 19 May in a mountainous area near Iran’s border with Azerbaijan, along with Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi and a delegation of other officials.
Bagheri Kani met with his Lebanese counterpart, Abdallah Bou Habib, on Monday and praised the “close relations” between the two countries, telling reporters that “resistance is the basis for stability in the region”.
He said:
We agreed that all countries in the region, especially the Islamic countries, should adopt a joint movement in order to counter Israeli aggression and protect the Palestinian people, especially in Rafah.
Bou Habib said Lebanon, for its part, wants to avoid a wider war and is looking for “sustainable solutions that restore calm and stability to southern Lebanon”.
Updated
Egypt rejects Israeli presence at Rafah crossing with Gaza, foreign minister says
Egypt is clear on rejecting an Israeli presence at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip, Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, said on Monday.
“It is difficult for the Rafah crossing to continue operating without a Palestinian administration,” he said in a press conference with his Spanish counterpart in Madrid.
Israel seized the crossing on the Gaza side in May during its offensive in the city of Rafah along the enclave’s southern edge, angering Egypt which said it would stop cooperating with Israel on the crucial artery for aid into the strip and evacuations out of it.
While Egypt facilitated the entrance of aid through the Kerem Shalom crossing in late May, the re-opening of Rafah is crucial as humanitarian agencies warn of looming famine in Gaza.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, restated his government’s commitment to dismantling Hamas as a governing and military authority in the framework of any deal to wind down the Gaza war, his office quoted him as saying.
In the call with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, Gallant also “discussed the issue of identifying and enabling the emergence of a local, governing alternative” to the Palestinian militant group, the defence ministry statement on Monday said.
Benny Gantz says returning hostages is a 'priority on the war's timeline'
Benny Gantz said he made it clear to the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in their phone call yesterday that he views returning hostages as a “priority on the war’s timeline”.
Gantz – part of the Israeli war cabinet, alongside prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant – said Israel will do “whatever is necessary” to achieve this goal.
I spoke yesterday with US Secretary of State @SecBlinken on the efforts to secure an arrangement to return the hostages.
— בני גנץ - Benny Gantz (@gantzbe) June 3, 2024
I emphasised to him that the State of Israel is committed to returning the hostages and views it not only as a superior moral responsibility, but a priority…
Gantz, considered by some as a centrist, is a leading rival who joined Netanyahu’s emergency unity government after the 7 October Hamas attacks, in which about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, with a further 250 taken hostage (about 100 were released in a week-long ceasefire in November).
Gantz has said he will resign if the prime minister does not commit to a “day after” plan for Gaza by 8 June.
Netanyahu is under increasing pressure from his military and intelligence chiefs, as well as the centrist members of his war cabinet, to accept a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
Updated
Forced displacement has pushed over one million people away from the southern city of Rafah, the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa) said on Monday.
Thousands of families now shelter in damaged and destroyed facilities in Khan Younis, Unrwa, which provides education, health and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, added in its post on X.
Forced displacement has pushed over 1 million people away from Rafah.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) June 3, 2024
Thousands of families now shelter in damaged & destroyed facilities in Khan Younis, where @UNRWA keeps providing essential services despite increasing challenges. Conditions are unspeakable.#CeasefireNOW pic.twitter.com/qRVnWmfZSr
“Conditions are unspeakable”, the agency added.
Khan Younis – Gaza’s second city – was the focus of a sustained onslaught by the Israeli army from December. Israel withdrew its forces from there in April, allowing many displaced Palestinians to return to the southern city, even though it has been devastated by Israeli bombardment.
Israel’s decision in May to send ground troops into Rafah, the main gateway connecting Gaza to the outside world, led to the collapse of the last round of ceasefire talks designed to avert the assault. It has also significantly disrupted aid deliveries.
More than 85% of the Palestinian territory’s population had sought shelter in the area having fled fighting elsewhere.
Updated
Aid shipments into southern Gaza are being squeezed out by commercial convoys, humanitarian organisations say, at a time when Israel’s military push into Rafah has choked off supply routes critical to feeding hundreds of thousands of people.
Deliveries of food, medicine and other aid into Gaza fell by two-thirds after Israel began its ground operation on 7 May, UN figures show. But overall the number of trucks entering Gaza rose in May compared with April, according to Israeli officials.
Part of the reason for the stark difference in accounts of what supplies reached the strip is a rise in commercial shipments.
In May, the Israeli military lifted a ban on the sale of food to Gaza from Israel and the occupied West Bank, Reuters reported last week. Traders got the green light to resume buying fresh fruit and vegetables, dairy and other goods.
Inside Gaza, residents say there is more food in markets, but prices are many times higher than prewar levels, and after months of fighting and displacement few people can afford to buy much.
A group of aid agencies warned this week that there was a “mirage of improved access”, when efforts to feed Palestinians were on the verge of collapse.
“While Kerem Shalom remains officially open, commercial trucks have been prioritised, and the movement of aid remains unpredictable, inconsistent and critically low,” a group of 20 aid agencies warned this week.
Maldives to ban Israeli passport holders from entry in protest over Gaza war
Israel’s foreign ministry has recommended that Israeli citizens not travel to the Maldives after its government banned the entry of visitors with Israeli passports.
The recommendation, the Israeli ministry said, includes Israelis with dual citizenship.
“For Israeli citizens already in the country, it is recommended to consider leaving, because if they find themselves in distress for any reason, it will be difficult for us to assist,” the ministry said in a statement.
President Mohamed Muizzu made the decision after a recommendation from the cabinet, a statement from his office said.
“The Cabinet decision includes amending necessary laws to prevent Israeli passport holders from entering the Maldives and establishing a Cabinet subcommittee to oversee these efforts,” the statement added.
Opposition parties and government allies in the Maldives have been putting pressure on Muizzu to ban Israelis, as a sign of protest against the Gaza war.
Muizzu also announced a national fundraising campaign called “Maldivians in Solidarity with Palestine”.
The Maldives, a tiny Islamic republic of more than 1,000 strategically located coral islets, had lifted a previous ban on Israeli tourists in the early 1990s and moved to restore relations in 2010.
However, normalisation attempts were scuttled after the toppling of then president Mohamed Nasheed in February 2012.
Australia has become the latest country to back the Gaza ceasefire proposal outlined by the US president, Joe Biden.
The country’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, reiterated calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, saying the level of human suffering is “unacceptable”.
Australia welcomes President Biden’s ceasefire proposal and urges parties to agree to its terms. pic.twitter.com/Y9UqUrtvnU
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) June 3, 2024
In an unexpected broadcast from the White House on Friday night, Biden urged Hamas to accept what he said was a new proposal from Israel for a three-phrase plan towards a permanent ceasefire in the war.
Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners – the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir – immediately voiced opposition to the new truce plan.
US allies, including France, Germany and the UK, voiced approval for the plan, which Netanyahu initially had a lukewarm reaction to.
An aide to the Israeli prime minister confirmed on Sunday that Israel had put the framework forward, but described it as “flawed” and in need of more work.
What does the Israeli-led ceasefire proposal consist of?
A first phase would consist of a six-week-long and extendable ceasefire in which Hamas would release “a number of hostages” including women, and elderly and wounded people, in return for an Israeli withdrawal from populated parts of Gaza and the freeing of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
In the second phase, also of six weeks, all remaining hostages would be released, Israel would completely withdraw from Gaza, and both parties would commit to a lasting truce. In the third, major reconstruction in the decimated strip would begin.
Updated
Opening summary
It’s just gone past 9:30am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Welcome to our latest live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza and the wider Middle East crisis. I’m Yohannes Lowe and I’ll be with you for the next while.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is urging Israel and Hamas to agree a ceasefire and hostage deal, as fresh strikes were reported in Rafah overnight and into Monday morning.
Blinken called Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz and the country’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, to discuss the deal, the state department said in a pair of statements Sunday night.
In the calls, Blinken “commended” Israel on the proposal and “emphasised that Hamas should take the deal without delay”.
Hamas has said it “views positively” what US president, Joe Biden, described as an Israeli proposal.
Meanwhile, fighting has continued with Israel’s military reporting airstrikes and ground combat on Sunday, reports Agence France-presse (AFP).
Gaza’s European hospital reported on Sunday evening that three people were injured in a strike on a neighbourhood in northern Rafah, while eyewitnesses reported multiple injuries and deaths in a strike early Monday on a home west of the city.
Witnesses said Israeli Apache helicopters struck central Rafah on Sunday, while the Palestinian Red Crescent said it was “very difficult” to access the city because of the Israeli bombardment.
Here is a summary of the latest other developments:
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Sunday that if Hamas agrees to the deal to end the Gaza war, the US expects Israel to also accept the plan. “This was an Israeli proposal. We have every expectation that if Hamas agrees to the proposal … then Israel would say yes,” Kirby said in an interview with ABC News’ This Week programme. “We’re waiting for an official response from Hamas,” he added.
An aide to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that Israel had accepted a framework deal for winding down the war on Gaza now being advanced by US president Joe Biden, though he described it as flawed and in need of much more work. In an interview with The Sunday Times, Ophir Falk, chief foreign policy adviser to Netanyahu, said Biden’s proposal was “a deal we agreed to … it’s not a good deal but we dearly want the hostages released, all of them”.
Two far-right Israeli ministers have threatened to quit prime minister Benjamin Netanyhau’s government if he goes ahead with a ceasefire and hostage-release deal outlined by Joe Biden. The US president said on Friday that Israel had offered a new roadmap towards a full ceasefire including the release of hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said on Sunday that all 36 of its shelters in Rafah “are now empty”, after at least a million people have fled the city. “The humanitarian space continues to shrink”, Unrwa said, adding that about 1.7 million people were now sheltering in southern Gaza’s main city of Khan Younis and in central areas.
In the besieged territory’s north, Israeli helicopters fired at Gaza City’s Zeitun and Sabra areas, AFP reporters said. A hospital medic said three people were killed when an airstrike hit a family apartment in Gaza City’s Daraj district. And in central Gaza, shelling hit areas of Deir al-Balah and the Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps, witnesses said.
Ten civilians were killed after Israeli warplanes targeted two homes on the Nuseirat refugee camp and the adjacent Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, reported.
The body of an Israeli who went missing during the 7 October Hamas attack, and was presumed to be among hostages taken to the Gaza Strip, has been located in the border village where he had lived, Israeli media said on Monday.
Israel’s military confirmed the identification of Dolev Yehud’s remains, saying this required lengthy forensics. It said he was killed by Hamas during the attack in kibbutz Nir Oz, many of whose residents died.Israeli airstrikes around the Syrian city of Aleppo killed several people early on Monday, Syrian state media reported. The state-run SANA news agency gave no specific toll. It said the strikes were around the south-eastern edge of Aleppo. Israel did not immediately acknowledge the strikes and rarely does when it comes to Syria.
Iran’s hard-line former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has registered as a possible candidate for the presidential election, seeking to regain the country’s top political position after a helicopter crash killed the nation’s president. The populist former leader’s registration puts pressure on supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Associated Press reported. In office, Ahmadinejad openly challenged the 85-year-old cleric, and his attempt to run in 2021 was barred by authorities.
