Closing summary
The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has expressed his shock at the appalling straits the remaining residents stuck in northern Gaza are in. His spokesman released a statement, with the UN chief calling the dire situation there “unbearable” as citizens remain trapped in extreme danger and deprivation, under siege by the Israeli military. Guterres was “shocked by the harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction in the north”.
The number of people reported injured when a truck rammed into a bus stop in Ramat Hasharon, north of Tel Aviv, in Israel earlier today has risen to “about 40”, according to an agency citing Israeli police – and the authorities are saying they suspect it was deliberate. One person was killed in the incident, which took place near a military base. The police said the investigation’s focus was on the suspicion that this was a terrorist attack.
The Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said the Islamic Republican was not looking for war in the wake of air strikes on the country by Israel early on Saturday. “We do not seek war but we will defend the rights of our nation and country. We will give an appropriate response to the aggression of the Zionist regime,” he told his cabinet at a meeting today.
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said that his government has proposed a two-day ceasefire in Gaza, after which talks should resume within 10 days in efforts to reach a permanent one. During the two days he suggested a swap of four hostages held in Gaza by Hamas for four Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. This comes as preliminary talks tentatively resume in Qatar with hopes of reviving ceasefire negotiations in earnest.
One person was killed and dozens of people were reported to have been injured after a truck hit a bus stop in Glilot, central Israel, near Tel Aviv. Many of those injured were reportedly elderly citizens who had disembarked from a bus ahead of a visit to a nearby IDF base. The driver of the truck was shot dead by a civilian at the scene.
Israeli military strikes killed at least 45 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, most of them in the north of the enclave, Palestinian health officials said. At least 20 people were killed following an Israeli airstrike on houses in Jabalia, while an airstrike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinian families in Shati camp in Gaza City killed nine people, medics said. Three local journalists were among those killed at the school in Shati.
An Israeli airstrike on Sidon, a city in coastal south Lebanon, killed at least eight people and wounded 25 on Sunday, the country’s health ministry said.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made his first public comments since Israeli warplanes attacked military targets in Iran early on Saturday. He said the attack “should neither be downplayed nor exaggerated”, without directly calling for a retaliation. He added that military officials would discuss Iran’s next steps, suggesting any retaliation may not be imminent.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel’s air attack on Iran was “precise and powerful” and achieved all its goals.
The directors of the CIA and Israel’s Mossad intelligence service will meet Qatar’s prime minister in Doha later today to begin negotiations for a new short-term Gaza ceasefire deal, an official told Reuters.
The Israeli military urged residents of 14 villages in southern Lebanon, where it says Hezbollah fighters are, to evacuate immediately and move north of the Awali river or risk being killed.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said Hezbollah and Hamas are no longer effective proxies for Iran. He also said “painful concessions” are needed to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza, without specifying what these would be.
The Middle East crisis live blog is now closing. Thanks for following along.
Updated
In case you missed it earlier, approximately 70 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in the past day, health officials in Gaza said, as Israel’s renewed campaign in the north of the strip shows no sign of slowing despite the revival of ceasefire talks after a three-month-long hiatus.
Separately, one person was killed when a truck rammed into a bus stop in Ramat Hasharon, north of Tel Aviv, on Sunday, in what Israeli police are treating as a suspected terrorist attack. About 40 people were injured to varying degrees, some seriously, and were taken to nearby hospitals, police said.
The Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad praised the suspected attack but did not claim it.
The driver of the truck was a Palestinian citizen of Israel, police said, and was “neutralised” by passersby carrying firearms.
Also on Sunday, the Israeli military said a Palestinian man was killed after he tried to stab a group of soldiers in the occupied West Bank town of Hizma.
Information about the situation in northern Gaza has become increasingly sporadic and difficult to verify as Israel’s new ground and aerial assault focusing on Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun enters its fourth week.
Internet and phone services have been down for hours at a time, and civil defence workers have been unable to reach the sites of recent strikes due to Israeli forces’ ever-tightening siege and attacks on their crews.
