Afternoon summary
37,877 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza and 86,969 have been wounded since the conflict began on 7 October. The Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his position that there was no substitute for achieving victory in the war against Hamas. Netanyahu added that fighting would not stop until Gaza no longer posed a threat “to Israel and returning our residents securely to their homes in the south and the north.”
In a speech marking Egypt’s 30 June 2013 Revolution, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi addressed the conflict in “the heinous Israeli war in Gaza.” Sisi said that humanity’s conscience has been absent and the international community has turned a blind eye to the suffering and displacement in the region. He added: “Egypt’s position has been noble, honourable, and patriotic. Egypt did not stay idle in providing relief to our Palestinian brothers with actions before words.”
An IDF drone strike killed one and wounded five in the West Bank’s Nur Shams camp in Tulkarem, according to the Palestinian health ministry. The Times of Israel has named Saeed Jaber, a militant related to the commander of a jihadist group in the Tulkarem area, as the man killed in the attack.
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has suspended Fatima Payman from the Labor Party caucus after the senator crossed the floor on Tuesday to support a Greens motion supporting Palestinian statehood. Albanese said if she respects the caucus (by voting with the rest of her party) Payman can return. However, the senator told ABC Insiders she will not back down and would cross the floor again. She added: “When I made the decision on the Senate floor to cross, I did it with the understanding that this could lead to expulsion and costing my Labor membership.”
Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has extended a waiver that allows Israeli banks and Palestinian banks to continue to cooperate. The waiver allows shekel payments for salaries and services linked to the Palestinian Authority. Janet Yellen, U.S. Treasury Secretary said it was important to maintain Israel-Palestinian banking relationships to allow the economy to function and help security.
The Washington Post reports that thousands of Palestinians have come to Egypt for medical treatment, but most have arrived via embassies. Once in Egypt non-medical evacuees have to fend for themselves. The Palestinian Authority estimates that 115,000 Gazans have crossed into Egypt since October.
In a speech marking Egypt’s 30 June 2013 Revolution, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi addressed the conflict in “the heinous Israeli war in Gaza.”
Humanity’s conscience has been absent and international community has turned a blind eye to the tens of thousands of innocent victims, displaced and afflicted,” Egypt has supported the Palestinian people during the war.
Egypt’s position has been noble, honourable, and patriotic. Egypt did not stay idle in providing relief to our Palestinian brothers with actions before words.
An IDF drone strike killed one and wounded five in the West Bank’s Nur Shams camp in Tulkarem, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
The Times of Israel has named Saeed Jaber, a militant related to the commander of a jihadist group in the Tulkarem area, as the man killed in the attack.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reports that two people were killed by artillery strikes In Beit Lahiya, two more died in Gaza City’s Tuffah neighbourhood, and Israeli warplanes assaulted an apartment building in Sabra.
Updated
'We are committed to fighting until we achieve all of our objectives,' says Benjamin Netanyahu
In an update to the earlier news about Israeli forces advancing further into Shujaiya, residents said Israeli tanks, which moved back into Shujaiya four days ago, fired shells towards several houses, leaving families trapped inside and unable to leave.
Speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his position that there was no substitute for achieving victory in the war against Hamas.
“Our forces are operating in Rafah, Shujaiya, everywhere in the Gaza Strip. Dozens of terrorists are being eliminated every day. This is a difficult fight that is being waged above ground, sometimes in hand-to-hand combat, and below ground as well,” Netanyahu said.
“We are committed to fighting until we achieve all of our objectives: Eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages, ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel and returning our residents securely to their homes in the south and the north,” he added.
Updated
Key event
37,877 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza, the Gaza health ministry claims.
The latest death toll includes 43 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said.
The news comes after four days of fierce fighting in Shujayea, northern Gaza.
86,969 have been wounded since the conflict began on 7 October.
Updated
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has suspended Fatima Payman from the Labor Party caucus after the senator crossed the floor on Tuesday to support a Greens motion supporting Palestinian statehood.
“By her own actions and statements, senator Payman has placed herself outside the privilege that comes with participating in the federal parliamentary Labor party caucus,” a government spokesperson said.
“If senator Payman decides she will respect the caucus and her Labor colleagues she can return, but until then she is suspended from the right to participate in federal parliamentary Labor party caucus meetings and processes.”
Labor members are expected to vote as a bloc, but Payman said she would not back down. “If the same motion on recognising the state of Palestine was to be brought forward tomorrow, I would (cross the floor again),” she told ABC Insiders.
“When I made the decision on the Senate floor to cross, I did it with the understanding that this could lead to expulsion and costing my Labor membership.”
Updated
Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz says Iran’s warning of an “obliterating war” if Lebanon is attacked “deserves to be destroyed,” he stated in a post on X.
Katz added that Israel will act with “full force” if Hezbollah does not cease fire and withdraw from southern Lebanon,
Iran’s UN mission said on Friday that if Israel begins a “full-scale military aggression” in Lebanon, “an obliterating war will ensue”.
The Iranian mission added that “all options, including the full involvement of all resistance fronts, are on the table”.
Iran threatens today to destroy Israel if Israel fully responds to Hezbollah attacks from Lebanon.
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) June 29, 2024
My response to Iran is clear:
1. If Hezbollah does not cease its fire and withdraw from southern Lebanon, we will act against it with full force until security is restored and…
Updated
Israel advanced further into northern Gaza on Sunday. Forces have reached the Shujaiya area and have also moved deeper into central Rafah in the south, Reuters reports.
Six Palestinian casualties were reported as well as destruction to several homes.
The Israeli military said they continued “targeted, intelligence-based” operations in Rafah, killing several gunmen in different encounters and dismantled tunnels.
Updated
The Palestinian Authority estimates that 115,000 Gazans have crossed into Egypt since October.
The Washington Post reports that thousands have come to Egypt for medical treatment, but most have arrived via embassies. Once in Egypt non-medical evacuees have to fend for themselves.
Batoul, 15, told the Post that people in Egypt are “so kind to us. When they know that we are from Palestine, specifically from Gaza, sometimes they won’t let us pay” for coffee, taxis, treats, she said. But it’s a “new life – it’s hard”.
Her mother, who elected to remain anonymous, said: “We are very connected to [Egyptians], and we love them. “But they need to do much, much more.”
Updated
Israeli man attacked in West Bank
The Times of Israel reports that an Israeli man, who mistakenly entered Qalandiya, a town in the West Bank, was attacked by local residents on Saturday night.
Videos posted on social media show crowds chasing a car on a busy road along with still images allegedly showing the man’s car on fire.
The vehicle reportedly crashed near a military checkpoint where the man was rushed to hospital by Israeli soldiers. He is currently being treated for minor injuries.
Updated
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and wider Middle East crisis. Here’s a snapshot of the latest news.
Explosions, airstrikes and gunfire rattled northern Gaza on Saturday, the third day of an Israeli military operation that has uprooted tens of thousands of Palestinians and compounded what the UN called “unbearable” living conditions in the territory.
Agence France-Presse reported explosions in the Shujaiya area near Gaza City and a resident saying bodies were seen on the streets.
The armed wings of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups said they were engaged in ongoing fighting with Israeli forces there.
Israel’s military said its operations were continuing in Shujaiya, where fighting “above and below the ground” had left a “large number” of militants dead. “Dozens of terrorists” were killed and weapons, drones and observation posts were found, as well as a long-range rocket launcher and tunnel shafts, it said.
The resurgence of fighting in the area comes months after Israel declared Hamas’s command structure in northern Gaza dismantled.
In other developments:
Israel’s foreign minister said Iran’s message of an “obliterating war” made it worthy of destruction. “A regime that threatens destruction deserves to be destroyed,” Israel Katz said in a post on X on Saturday. He also said Israel would act with full force against Iran-backed Hezbollah if it did not stop firing at Israel from Lebanon and move away from the border. Iran’s UN mission said on Friday that if Israel embarked on a “full-scale military aggression” in Lebanon, “an obliterating war will ensue”.
Four bodies were pulled from an apartment after an Israeli strike in central Gaza, the territory’s civil defence agency said on Saturday. Further south, in the Rafah area, witnesses reported dead and wounded after a new Israeli incursion. Tarek Qandeel, director of the medical centre in al-Maghazi, central Gaza, said it was seriously damaged when a neighbouring house was bombed, making it the latest Gaza medical facility affected by the war.
A UN spokesperson said she had just returned to central Gaza after four weeks outside the territory and “it’s really unbearable”. Louise Wateridge said by video link that the situation had “significantly deteriorated”. “There’s no water there, there’s no sanitation, there’s no food,” and people were returning to live in “empty shells” of buildings. In the absence of toilets they were “relieving themselves anywhere they can”.
At least 37,834 Palestinians have been killed and 86,858 wounded in Israel’s offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said on Saturday.
Hamas said there had been no progress in ceasefire talks with Israel. A senior official of the militant group, Osama Hamdan, also told a news conference in Beirut on Saturday that it was still ready to “deal positively” with any ceasefire proposal that ended the war. Hamas and Israel have both blamed each other for the impasse. Axios reported on Friday that the US had proposed new language for parts of the hostage and ceasefire proposal in an effort to secure a deal.
Updated
Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has extended a waiver that allows Israeli banks and Palestinian banks to continue to cooperate.
The waiver allows shekel payments for salaries and services linked to the Palestinian Authority.
Janet Yellen, U.S. Treasury Secretary said it was important to maintain Israel-Palestinian banking relationships to allow the economy to function and help security.
The Palestinian economy depends on this relationship to process transactions made in Israeli shekels.
