Here is a summary the day's news so far
An Israeli government official said on Thursday that a delegation has been sent to negotiate a hostage release deal with Hamas.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Thursday it launched more than 200 rockets and a swarm of drones at 10 Israeli military sites in response to the killing of one of the Iran-aligned group’s top commanders in southern Lebanon on Wednesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden will speak later on Thursday, Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reported, citing a diplomatic source.
On Thursday, Israel’s Fire and Rescue Service said it was tackling fires in 10 separate areas sparked by barrages of missiles fired by Hezbollah in retaliation for an Israeli strike that killed one of its top commanders the day before.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Thursday that the Palestinian death toll from nearly nine months of war has surged past 38,000.
Israeli delegation dispatched to negotiate hostage release deal with Hamas
An Israeli government official said on Thursday that a delegation has been sent to negotiate a hostage release deal with Hamas.
Under a deal brokered in late November by the United States, Qatar and Egypt, more than 100 of the estimated 240 hostages taken to Gaza during an attack by Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7 were freed in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Since then, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced mounting pressure to secure the release the 136 hostages who remain in captivity.
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On Thursday, Hamas’ armed wing said it had targeted the Israeli operations command headquarters east of Gaza City with missiles.
The group also claimed that its militants were able to fire a Soviet-built anti-aircraft missile towards an Apache helicopter in the sky over the Shejaia neighborhood, east of Gaza City, without saying if it had been hit.
It demonstrates that, after months of conflict, Hamas still claims to have munitions to fight back, though Israel’s leaders have said they are winding down the phase of intense fighting against Hamas and would soon move to more targeted operations.
An Israeli strike hit a school in Gaza City and the Civil Emergency Service said five Palestinians were killed and others wounded, while other Israeli strikes on Gaza City’s old town on Thursday killed a woman and wounded several others, medics said.
The Israeli military said it had been operating to dismantle Hamas’ military and administrative capabilities. It said it was acting in accordance with international law and taking feasible precautions to minimise civilian casualties.
On Thursday, Israel’s Fire and Rescue Service said it was tackling fires in 10 separate areas sparked by barrages of missiles fired by Hezbollah in retaliation for an Israeli strike that killed one of its top commanders the day before.
Shai Koren, of the northern district for Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority, says natural wildfires are a normal part of the forest’s lifecycle and can promote ecodiversity, but not the fires from the conflict. “The moment the fires happen over and over, that’s what creates the damage,” he said.
On Thursday, the Gaza health ministry said that generators at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, the only main hospital still functioning, would run out of fuel within hours and appealed to international humanitarian organisations for help to secure fresh supplies.
The war has created a humanitarian crisis and destroyed the majority of the enclave’s medical facilities.
On Thursday, many Palestinians were still seeking shelter following an evacuation order the Israeli army released on Tuesday, which also included the border city of Rafah and which the United Nations said was the largest such edict since 1.1 million people were told to leave the north of the enclave in October.
Khan Younis residents said many families slept on the road because they could not find tents.
Israeli planes and tanks bombed several areas in the northern Gaza areas of Shejaia, Sabra, Daraj, and Tuffah, killing several Palestinians, including children, and wounding others, health officials said.
The Israeli military said that its troops and aircraft killed dozens of militants in those areas and in Rafah, in southern Gaza, which Israel has described as Hamas’ last stronghold.
Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine threatened on Thursday to attack new locations within Israel as part of the group’s response to the killing by Israel of a top commander in the group.
“The series of responses continues in succession, and this series will continue to target new sites that the enemy did not imagine would be hit,” Safieddine said, speaking at the senior commander’s memorial.
Hezbollah fired at least 200 rockets and nearly two dozen drones on Thursday in retaliation.
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The day so far
If you’re just joining us, here are the day’s main developments:
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is set to convene a meeting of his security cabinet to discuss proposals from Hamas about a possible ceasefire deal in Gaza, a source in Netanyahu’s office told Reuters.
Netanyahu will also speak later with Joe Biden, Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reported, citing a diplomatic source. The two men are due to discuss ceasefire proposals.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it launched more than 200 rockets and a swarm of drones at 10 Israeli military sites in response to the killing of one of the Iran-aligned group’s top commanders in southern Lebanon.
An Israeli military spokesperson said Hezbollah’s claims were “under review”, while Israel’s ambulance service said there were no casualties reported.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said that the Palestinian death toll from nearly nine months of war has surged past 38,000.
Here are some of the latest images coming through from photographers on the ground in Israel and Gaza:
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Thursday that the Palestinian death toll from nearly nine months of war has surged past 38,000.
The ministry said that in the last 24 hours, the bodies of 58 people had been brought to hospitals, bringing the overall death toll to 38,011.
It said more than 87,000 people have been wounded in the fighting.
The ministry does not distinguish between fighters and noncombatants in its count, but many of the dead are said to be women and children.
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No casualties after Hezbollah launch over 200 rockets at Israel, ambulance service say
Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Thursday it launched more than 200 rockets and a swarm of drones at 10 Israeli military sites in response to the killing of one of the Iran-aligned group’s top commanders in southern Lebanon on Wednesday.
An Israeli military spokesperson said Hezbollah’s claims were “under review”, while Israel’s ambulance service said there were no casualties reported.
Thursday’s barrage follows at least two attacks on Wednesday in response to what Hezbollah called “the assassination” of its 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 on Wednesday.
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.
The Israeli military said it hit Thursday targets in south Lebanon, after Hezbollah launched rockets and drones into Israel in response to a senior commander’s killing a day earlier.
Israeli forces were “striking launch posts in southern Lebanon”, the military said in a statement.
Most were intercepted and “fires broke out in a number of areas in northern Israel”, it added.
The Israeli military said “numerous projectiles and suspicious aerial targets” had entered its territory from Lebanon, many of which it said were intercepted. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
It acknowledged on Wednesday that it had killed Mohammad Naameh Nasser, who headed one of Hezbollah’s three regional divisions in southern Lebanon, a day earlier.
Hours later, Hezbollah launched scores of Katyusha rockets and Falaq rockets with heavy warheads into northern Israel and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. It launched more rockets on Thursday and said it had also sent exploding drones into several bases.
The U.S. and France are continuing to scramble to prevent the skirmishes from spiraling into an all-out war, which they fear could spillover across the region.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Thursday it has launched more than 200 rockets targeting five Israeli military positions in response to the killing of one of the Iran-aligned group’s top commanders in south Lebanon on Wednesday.
Netanyahu and Biden to speak after Israeli ceasefire talks
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden will speak later on Thursday, Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reported, citing a diplomatic source.
Netanyahu is due to confer with his own team about proposals from Hamas on a possible ceasefire deal to pause the nearly nine-month war in Gaza.
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.
Tensions over Israel’s war against Hamas dominated Parliament’s final sitting day before a five-week break.
The four protesters were arrested after draping the words “war crimes” and “genocide” as well as the Palestinian rallying cry “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” for more than an hour over the building’s façade known as the Great Verandah.
Inside the building, Afghanistan-born Sen. Fatima Payman, the only Australian federal lawmaker ever to wear a hajib during sittings, announced she had quit the ruling Labor Party over her refusal to toe the party line on Gaza.
AP has reported on how the daily exchanges of strikes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces have sparked fires that are tearing through forests and farmland on both sides of the frontline.
Exchanges have intensified since early May, when Israel launched its incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah. That coincided with the beginning of the hot, dry wildfire season.
Since May, Hezbollah strikes have resulted in 8,700 hectares (about 21,500 acres) burned in northern Israel, according to Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority.
George Mitri, of the Land and Natural Resources program at the University of Balamand, said that in southern Lebanon, about 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) have burned due to Israeli strikes. In the two years before, he said, Lebanon’s total area burned annually was 500 to 600 hectares (1,200 to 1,500 acres).
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Netanyahu to hold security cabinet meeting to discuss Hamas ceasefire proposals
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will on Thursday evening convene a meeting of his security cabinet to discuss proposals from Hamas about a possible ceasefire deal in Gaza, a source in Netanyahu’s office told Reuters.
Before the cabinet meets, Netanyahu will have consultations with his ceasefire negotiations team, the source also said.
Opening summary
Hello, we are restarting the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and the wider crisis in the Middle East.
Israel is studying Hamas’ response to a proposal that would include a hostage release deal and ceasefire in Gaza, according to a statement from Israel’s Mossad spy agency.
“The mediators of the hostage deal have given the negotiating team Hamas’ response to the hostage deal outline. Israel is examining the response and will respond to the mediators,” said a statement released by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, on behalf of the Mossad.
Mediators including Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying for months to secure a ceasefire and the release of 120 remaining hostages in Gaza, but their efforts have stalled.
More on that in a moment, first here’s a summary of the day’s other main events.
About 90% of the population of the Gaza Strip have been displaced at least once since the war between Israel and Hamas began, according to the UN’s humanitarian agency. Andrea De Domenico, head of the UN’s OCHA agency in the Palestinian territories, said on Wednesday that about 1.9 million people are thought to be displaced in Gaza.
Israeli strikes killed one of Hezbollah’s top commanders in south Lebanon on Wednesday, prompting retaliatory rocket fire by the Iran-backed group into Israel. The Israeli military said it had struck and eliminated Hezbollah’s Mohammed Nasser. Nasser was the one of the most senior Hezbollah commanders to die yet in the conflict, two security sources in Lebanon said.
Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant said the country will reach a state of full readiness to take any action required in Lebanon. He said Israel would prefer to reach a negotiated agreement, but if not, the country is prepapred to fight.
Israeli forces killed five Palestinians in two military operations in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian and Israeli sources said on Wednesday. A night-time airstrike killed four men at a refugee camp near the town of Tulkarm, while another man was killed by Israeli fire in a separate Israeli operation in Jenin, the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. An Israeli military statement said forces “carried out a precise strike on the terrorist cell,” killing four militants.
