Closing summary
Hamas said in a statement on Thursday that mediators have not yet provided the group with any updates regarding Gaza ceasefire negotiations. It also accused Israel of “stalling” to gain time and thwart the current round of talks, Reuters reported. “The occupation continues its policy of stalling to buy time to foil this round of negotiations, as it has done in previous rounds,” the Islamist faction added.
An Israeli negotiation team will head on Thursday to Cairo to hold further Gaza ceasefire talks, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said. “A delegation headed by the head of the Shin Bet (domestic security service), together with representatives of the IDF (Israel Defence Forces), is scheduled to leave for Cairo this evening to continue the talks,” the statement said, adding that Netanyahu met throughout the day with negotiators who returned from Doha.
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said he met visiting US envoy Brett McGurk on Thursday and discussed progress in reaching a Gaza hostage release deal. Gallant, according to a statement from his office, said they also spoke about “the delivery of critical munition, some of which will be sent to Israel in the coming days.”
The White House national security spokesperson John Kirby has told CNN that the United States is “cautiously optimistic” about Gaza ceasefire talks,, adding that gaps between the two sides could be narrowed, according to Reuters. When asked if a ceasefire deal was close, Kirby said: “We are cautiously optimistic that things are moving in a good direction … There are still gaps remaining between the two sides. We believe those gaps can be narrowed, and that’s what Brett McGurk and CIA Director Bill Burns are trying to do right now.”
Israeli airstrikes pounded parts of Gaza’s biggest city on Thursday, Hamas said, after Israel’s military declared an end to its operation in an eastern district that saw Gaza City’s heaviest combat in months. The upsurge in fighting, bombardment and displacement followed Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement in late June that “the war in its intense phase is about to end”.
Residents of Gaza City were trapped in houses and bodies lay uncollected in the streets under an intense new Israeli assault on Thursday, even as Washington pushed for a peace deal at talks in Egypt and Qatar. Hamas militants say a massive Israeli assault on Gaza City this week could wreck efforts to finally end the war just as negotiations have entered the home stretch, Reuters reported.
More than 38,345 Palestinians have been killed and 88,295 have been injured in the Israeli military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday. Some 50 Palestinians were killed and 54 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
Israeli-made weapons designed to spray high levels of shrapnel are causing horrific injuries to civilians in Gaza and disproportionately harming children, foreign surgeons who worked in the territory in recent months have told the Guardian. The doctors say many of the deaths, amputations and life changing wounds to children they have treated came from the firing of missiles and shells – in areas crowded with civilians – packed with additional metal designed to fragment into tiny pieces of shrapnel.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels likely fired an Iranian-made anti-ship cruise missile at a Norwegian-flagged tanker in the Red Sea in December, an assault that now provides a public evidence-based link between the ongoing rebel campaign against shipping and Tehran, the US military says. A report by the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) released on Wednesday linked the attack on the Strinda, which set the vessel ablaze, to Tehran, the Houthi’s main backer in Yemen’s nearly decade-long war.
Several drones from Lebanon fell inside Israel on Thursday, the Israeli military said, while the head of the local municipality told Israel’s Channel 12 that one person was critically injured.
Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan has said US president Joe Biden and his administration are complicit in what he called Israeli war crimes and violations of international law in the Gaza conflict, and he called for sanctions against Israel. In an interview with Newsweek during the Nato summit in Washington, Erdogan said Israel’s “brutal murder” of civilians, its strikes on hospitals, aid centres and elsewhere constituted war crimes. “The US administration, however, disregards these violations and provides Israel with the most support. They do so at the expense of being complicit in these violations,” Erdogan was quoted as saying.
Iran is still conducting indirect nuclear talks with the United States via Oman, Iran’s Etemad newspaper on Thursday quoted Iran’s acting foreign minister as saying. Ali Bagheri Kani’s reported comments followed remarks on Monday in which a White House spokesperson said the United States was not ready to resume nuclear talks with Iran under the newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, Reuters reported.
The war in Gaza has contributed to a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents in Europe, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) said in a report released on Thursday. An FRA survey conducted between January and June 2023 showed antisemitism was already high in Europe before the war began in October, and information collected from 12 Jewish community organisations since then showed a further rise, the report said.
That’s all from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the Middle East crisis live blog for today. Thanks for following along.
An Israeli negotiation team will head on Thursday to Cairo to hold further Gaza ceasefire talks, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
“A delegation headed by the head of the Shin Bet (domestic security service), together with representatives of the IDF (Israel Defence Forces), is scheduled to leave for Cairo this evening to continue the talks,” the statement said, adding that Netanyahu met throughout the day with negotiators who returned from Doha.
Erdogan says US 'complicit' in alleged Israeli war crimes
Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan has said US president Joe Biden and his administration are complicit in what he called Israeli war crimes and violations of international law in the Gaza conflict, and he called for sanctions against Israel.
In an interview with Newsweek during the Nato summit in Washington, Erdogan said Israel’s “brutal murder” of civilians, its strikes on hospitals, aid centres and elsewhere constituted war crimes.
“The US administration, however, disregards these violations and provides Israel with the most support. They do so at the expense of being complicit in these violations,” Erdogan was quoted as saying.
“At this juncture, who will impose what kind of sanction against Israel for violating international law? That is the real question and no one is answering that,” he said.
Israel consistently rejects charges that it has committed war crimes in its battle against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It denies deliberately targeting civilians, Reuters reported.
Hamas accuses Israel of 'stalling' over ceasefire negotiations
Hamas said in a statement on Thursday that mediators have not yet provided the group with any updates regarding Gaza ceasefire negotiations.
It also accused Israel of “stalling” to gain time and thwart the current round of talks, Reuters reported.
“The occupation continues its policy of stalling to buy time to foil this round of negotiations, as it has done in previous rounds,” the Islamist faction added.
The Hamas comments come as Qatari and Egyptian mediators, backed by the United States, have stepped up efforts this week to conclude a ceasefire deal aimed at ending the nine-month war in Gaza and releasing Israeli hostages held by Hamas and many Palestinians jailed in Israel.
Updated
Israeli airstrikes pound Gaza City, says Hamas
Israeli airstrikes pounded parts of Gaza’s biggest city on Thursday, Hamas said, after Israel’s military declared an end to its operation in an eastern district that saw Gaza City’s heaviest combat in months.
The upsurge in fighting, bombardment and displacement followed Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement in late June that “the war in its intense phase is about to end”.
It also came as talks were held in the Gulf emirate of Qatar towards a truce and hostage release deal after more than nine months of war.
Gaza’s ruling Hamas said troops had pulled back from Gaza City’s eastern district of Shujaiya leaving behind “more than 300 residential units and more than 100 businesses destroyed”.
Witnesses on Thursday said tanks and troops had moved into other Gaza City areas, and clashes between Israeli forces and militants were occurring. Explosions, artillery shelling and gunfire could be heard, they said.
Smoke rose over parts of the city, according to AFP correspondents.
Hamas reported 45 airstrikes in the Gaza City area on Thursday, as well as in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where Netanyahu had said the intense phase of the war was nearing its conclusion.
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said he met visiting US envoy Brett McGurk on Thursday and discussed progress in reaching a Gaza hostage release deal.
Gallant, according to a statement from his office, said they also spoke about “the delivery of critical munition, some of which will be sent to Israel in the coming days.”
Iran is still conducting indirect nuclear talks with the United States via Oman, Iran’s Etemad newspaper on Thursday quoted Iran’s acting foreign minister as saying.
Ali Bagheri Kani’s reported comments followed remarks on Monday in which a White House spokesperson said the United States was not ready to resume nuclear talks with Iran under the newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, Reuters reported.
“Indirect talks are being conducted through Oman but the negotiation process is confidential and its details cannot be recounted,” Bagheri Kani was quoted as saying.
Efforts were being made to leave “suitable grounds” for negotiations for the new Iranian government that will take office in the next few weeks.
Pezeshkian, a low profile moderate who won Iran’s run-off presidential vote last week, has said he will promote a pragmatic foreign policy and ease tensions with the six powers that have been involved in now-stalled nuclear talks to revive a 2015 nuclear pact.
However, foreign policy in Iran is ultimately decided by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who warned last month prior to elections that “one who thinks that nothing can be done without the favour of America will not manage the country well.”
Israeli weapons full of shrapnel causing devastating injuries to children in Gaza, say doctors
Israeli-made weapons designed to spray high levels of shrapnel are causing horrific injuries to civilians in Gaza and disproportionately harming children, foreign surgeons who worked in the territory in recent months have told the Guardian. My colleague Chris McGreal has the full report here:
Yemen’s Houthi rebels likely fired an Iranian-made anti-ship cruise missile at a Norwegian-flagged tanker in the Red Sea in December, an assault that now provides a public evidence-based link between the ongoing rebel campaign against shipping and Tehran, the US military says.
A report by the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) released on Wednesday linked the attack on the Strinda, which set the vessel ablaze, to Tehran, the Houthi’s main backer in Yemen’s nearly decade-long war.
The findings correspond with those of a Norway-based insurers group that also examined debris found on the Strinda, AP reported.
It comes as the Houthis continue their months-long campaign of attacks over the Israel-Hamas war, targeting ships in the Red Sea corridor, disrupting the flow of goods passing through it annually while also sparking the most intense combat the US Navy has seen since the Second World War.
38,345 Palestinians killed in Gaza offensive, health ministry says
More than 38,345 Palestinians have been killed and 88,295 have been injured in the Israeli military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
Some 50 Palestinians were killed and 54 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
The war in Gaza has contributed to a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents in Europe, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) said in a report released on Thursday.
An FRA survey conducted between January and June 2023 showed antisemitism was already high in Europe before the war began in October, and information collected from 12 Jewish community organisations since then showed a further rise, the report said.
“Jewish people have experienced more antisemitic incidents since October 2023, with some organisations reporting an increase of more than 400%,” it said.
Three out of four Jewish respondents said they felt people hold them responsible for the Israeli government’s actions and 80% felt antisemitism had grown in the European country where they live in the five years before the survey, it showed.
In the year before the survey was conducted, 90% of respondents had encountered antisemitism on the internet, with more than half experiencing it offline from people they know or in the media, Reuters reported.
More than one-third were harassed during the same period because of their origin, most of them multiple times.
“Antisemitic harassment and violence mostly take place in streets, parks, or shops,” the FRA said.
The survey said more than three-quarters of respondents hide their Jewish identity at least occasionally, and more than one-third avoid Jewish events or sites because of safety concerns.
Several drones from Lebanon fell inside Israel on Thursday, the Israeli military said, while the head of the local municipality told Israel’s Channel 12 that one person was critically injured.
Residents of Gaza City were trapped in houses and bodies lay uncollected in the streets under an intense new Israeli assault on Thursday, even as Washington pushed for a peace deal at talks in Egypt and Qatar.
Hamas militants say a massive Israeli assault on Gaza City this week could wreck efforts to finally end the war just as negotiations have entered the home stretch, Reuters reported.
Home to more than a quarter of Gaza’s residents before the war, Gaza City was destroyed during the first weeks of fighting last year, but hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have returned to homes in the ruins. They have now once again been ordered out by the Israeli military.
The Gaza health ministry said it had reports of people trapped and others killed inside their houses in the Tel Al Hawa and Sabra districts of Gaza City, and rescuers could not reach them.
The Civil Emergency Service said it estimated that at least 30 people had been killed in the Tel Al-Hawa and Rimal areas and it could not recover bodies from the streets there.
Despite army instructions on Wednesday to residents of Gaza City that they can use two “safe routes” to head south, many residents refused to heed the order. Some posted a hashtag on social media: “We are not leaving”.
“We will die but not leave to the south. We have tolerated starvation and bombs for nine months and we are ready to die as martyrs here,” said Mohammad Ali, 30, reached by text message.
Ali, whose family has relocated several times within the city, said they had been running short of food, water and medicine.
“The occupation bombs Gaza City as if the war was restarting. We hope there will be a ceasefire soon, but if not then is God’s will.”
In case you missed it, the Israeli military has told all Palestinian civilians to leave Gaza City and head south after stepping up a military offensive in the territory that has killed dozens of people over the past 48 hours.
The evacuation order, carried out by dropping leaflets urging “all those in Gaza City” to take two “safe routes” south to the area around the central town of Deir al-Balah, came after a series of deadly strikes over the past two days in other parts of Gaza.
On Tuesday, an airstrike on the entrance of a school turned shelter in southern Gaza killed at least 31 people, including eight children, according to officials at the nearby Nasser hospital. Footage broadcast by Al Jazeera showed children playing football in the school’s yard when a sudden boom shook the area, prompting shouts of “a strike, a strike!”
The Israeli military said it was reviewing reports that civilians were harmed. It said the incident occurred when it struck with “precise munition” a Hamas fighter who had taken part in the 7 October raid on Israel that precipitated the Israeli assault on Gaza.
Opening summary
Welcome to our latest live blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider crisis in the Middle East. I’m Tom Ambrose.
The White House national security spokesperson John Kirby has told CNN that the United States is “cautiously optimistic” about Gaza ceasefire talks,, adding that gaps between the two sides could be narrowed, according to Reuters. When asked if a ceasefire deal was close, Kirby said:
We are cautiously optimistic that things are moving in a good direction … There are still gaps remaining between the two sides. We believe those gaps can be narrowed, and that’s what Brett McGurk and CIA Director Bill Burns are trying to do right now.
President Joe Biden detailed a proposal of three phases in late May, aimed at achieving a ceasefire: the release of hostages in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and the rebuilding of the coastal territory.
Burns and US Middle East envoy McGurk are in the Middle East meeting with regional counterparts to discuss a possible deal.
Meanwhile, the fighting rages on. Israel’s army Wednesday dropped thousands of leaflets over war-torn Gaza City urging all residents to flee a heavy offensive through the main city.
The leaflets, addressed to “everyone in Gaza City”, set out designated escape routes and warned that the urban area – where UN humanitarian agency OCHA said up to 350,000 people were staying – would “remain a dangerous combat zone”.
Here’s a summary of the latest developments:
The Israeli military told all Palestinian civilians to leave Gaza City and head south on Wednesday as it stepped up a military offensive in the territory that has killed dozens of people over the past 48 hours. The evacuation order, carried out by dropping leaflets urging “all those in Gaza City” to take two “safe routes” south to the area around the central town of Deir al-Balah, came after a series of deadly strikes over the past two days in other parts of Gaza.
An Israeli airstrike on the entrance of a school-turned-shelter in southern Gaza has killed at least 31 people as a stepped-up military offensive in the territory sent thousands fleeing in search of refuge. The airstrike on Tuesday afternoon hit the tents of displaced families outside a school in the town of Abassan, east of Khan Younis. Officials at the nearby Nasser hospital said on Wednesday that 31 people had been killed, including eight children, and more than 50 wounded. Footage broadcast by Al Jazeera showed children playing football in the school’s yard when a sudden boom shook the area, prompting shouts of “a strike, a strike!”
The Biden administration will resume shipping 500lb bombs to Israel but will continue to hold back on supplying 2,000lb bombs over concerns about their use in densely populated Gaza, according to a US official. The US in May paused a shipment of 2,000lb and 500lb bombs due to concern over the impact they could have in Gaza during the war that began with Hamas’ deadly 7 October cross-border raid.
The Israeli army said Wednesday that it has completed its mission in Shujaiya, a neighbourhood in the east of Gaza that has been the scene of violent fighting for two weeks. The military statement said the operations destroyed “eight tunnels” and “eliminated dozens of terrorists, destroyed combat compounds and booby-trapped buildings.” The offensive in Shujaiya, which involved elite Israeli units, expanded Monday into the centre of Gaza City. Mahmoud Bassal, a civil defence spokesperson in Gaza, said there was extensive damage to “infrastructure and residential area” in Shujaiya, which had become a “ghost town”.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Wednesday his group would accept Palestinian ally Hamas’s decision on Gaza truce negotiations and would stop cross-border attacks on Israel if a ceasefire were reached. “Whatever Hamas accepts, everyone accepts and is satisfied with,” he said, adding: “We do not ask (Hamas) to coordinate with us because the battle in the first instance is theirs,” reports Agence France-Presse.
A suspected attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted a Liberian-flagged tanker in the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Wednesday. The attacks come after an unexplained pause of a week and a half. The rebels may be regrouping ahead of the arrival of a new US aircraft carrier to the region after the USS Dwight D Eisenhower began heading home, reports Associated Press. The attack occurred south of Mocha, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. The captain reported explosions off the vessel’s side. The “vessel and all crew are safe,” the UKMTO said. “The vessel is proceeding to its next port of call.”
