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.
