Closing summary
Israeli military strikes across the Palestinian Gaza Strip killed at least 61 people in the space of 48 hours, local medics said on Saturday, as Israeli forces battled Hamas-led militants in the territory. Eleven months into the war, numerous rounds of diplomacy have so far failed to clinch a ceasefire deal to end the conflict and bring the release of Israeli and foreign hostages held in Gaza as well as many Palestinians jailed in Israel.
At least 13 Palestinians were killed and 15 wounded in Israeli strikes on a school sheltering refugees and a residential building in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency reported early on Saturday. Wafa said at least eight of the dead were in refugee tents at Halima al-Sa’diyya school in Jabalia, northern Gaza, Reuters reports.
British and American spy chiefs have said they are together “working ceaselessly” for a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza, in a rare public statement. MI6 chief Sir Richard Moore and CIA director Bill Burns said the two agencies have “exploited our intelligence channels to push hard for restraint and de-escalation” in the Middle East, PA Media reported.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said it was incumbent on both Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas to make concessions to reach a deal. On Saturday, senior Hamas official Hossam Badran said the group had made no new demands and remained committed to a 2 July proposal put forward by the United States, accusing Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of attaching new conditions that would not end the war. Netanyahu says it was Hamas that introduced unacceptable conditions.
Israeli soldiers killed an American woman demonstrating against settlements in the West Bank on Friday, according to a witness who said she was shot while posing no threat to Israeli forces and during a moment of calm after clashes earlier in the afternoon. Two Palestinian doctors said 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi of Seattle was shot in the head. The US government confirmed Eygi’s death but did not say whether the recent graduate of the University of Washington, who was also a Turkish citizen, had been shot by Israeli troops, AP reported.
At least 40,939 Palestinians have been killed and 94,616 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday.
The launch of a major humanitarian appeal for Gaza by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) is being delayed by the BBC, it has emerged. The corporation said the appeal did not meet all the established criteria for a national appeal, but the possibility of broadcasting an appeal was “under review”. Other channels have agreed to broadcast an appeal.
CIA director William Burns, the chief US negotiator trying to help secure a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages by Hamas, said a more detailed proposal on the ceasefire would be made in the coming days. “We will make this more detailed proposal, I hope in the next several days, and then we’ll see,” Burns said at an FT event in London on Saturday.
The UK decision to suspend some arms exports to Israel has bolstered the case for Congress to follow the example of its ally, US campaigners for a ban have said. The campaigners are pressing the US Senate and the house to pass a joint resolution of disapproval blocking authorisation for an unprecedented $20bn (£15.2bn) weapons sale. The massive transfer was notified to Congress last month when it was in recess.
Israeli forces battled Hamas-led militants in the Zeitoun suburb of Gaza City, where residents said tanks have been operating for more than a week, as well as in eastern neighbourhoods of Khan Younis and in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, where residents said Israeli forces blew up several houses.
Residents of Khan Younis and displaced families from Rafah continued to crowd medical facilities, bringing their children to be vaccinated against polio. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said at least 160,000 children received the drops on Thursday in southern areas of Gaza, where medical staffers began the second stage in the huge immunisation campaign.
That’s all from me, Tom Ambrose, and the Israel-Gaza live blog for today. Thanks for following along.
Iran still planning to retaliate for killing of Hamas leader - MI6
The head of Britain’s MI6 foreign spy agency Richard Moore said he believed that Iran was still planning to retaliate for the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, which took place in Tehran in late July and which Iran blames on Israel.
“I suspect they will try and we won’t be able to let our guard down for the type of activity that the Iranians might try and prosecute in that direction,” Moore said when asked about whether Iran would retaliate at an FT event on Saturday.
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