Closing summary
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN that negotiators for the US, Egypt, Qatar and Israel came to an understanding on the basic contours of a hostage deal during talks in Paris. The deal is still under negotiation, said Sullivan, who added there will have to be indirect discussions by Qatar and Egypt with Hamas. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, told CBS News that it was not clear yet whether a hostage deal would materialise from the talks, declining to discuss specifics, but saying Hamas needed to make more reasonable demands. Sullivan told NBC that the US president, Joe Biden, has not been briefed on Israel’s plan for military operations in Rafah, but believes civilian life must be protected.
Iran condemned the latest strikes by the US and the UK on Yemen, saying they were seeking to “escalate tensions and crises” in the region.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has been forced to “stretch every dollar” and juggle its finances in order to continue vital work in Gaza after 18 donor countries suspended funding over allegations of links to Hamas. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is facing a shortfall of $450m from a budget of $880m. It reports that it has been forced to pause aid deliveries to northern Gaza. The UNRWA said on Sunday that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “catastrophic”, with people cramped in “severely overcrowded” shelters where diseases are spreading and clean water is scarce.
At least 29,692 Palestinians have been killed and 69,879 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement.
Israel is developing plans for expanding its offensive to Rafah, on the Gaza-Egypt border, where more than half the territory’s population of 2.3 million have sought refuge in desperate conditions. Aid groups have warned of a catastrophe if this happens. Palestinians seeking refuge from Israeli bombardment have described widespread starvation amid increasing reports of famine in Gaza.
Qatar will host mediated talks between Hamas and Israel that will aim to finalise an agreement on a truce this week, Egyptian security sources told Reuters. Representatives from both parties will later travel to Cairo for further talks aimed at reaching an agreement on the timing and mechanism for executing any deal, including hostage releases, the sources said.
Updated
An Israeli soldier seized by Hamas during their October 7 attack was killed the same day and his body is being held in Gaza, the army and a campaign group said on Sunday.
The Israeli army confirmed the death of Sergeant Oz Daniel, 19, while the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said his remains are held in the Palestinian territory, AFP reports.
“Oz’s body is still held captive by Hamas,” the forum said in a statement.
Daniel was a guitar player who “believed in the power of music to change the world,” the forum said.
In the October 7 attacks on Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed, Hamas abducted 250 hostages, of whom about 100 were released in a swap for Palestinian prisoners during a week-long ceasefire in November.
Updated
Biden not yet briefed on Israel's Rafah operation - US national security adviser
US President Joe Biden has not been briefed on Israel’s plan for military operations in Rafah, but believes civilian life must be protected, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told NBC’s Meet the Press programme.
“We do not believe that an operation, a major military operation, should proceed in Rafah unless there is a clear and executable plan to protect those civilians, to get them to safety and to feed, clothe and house them,” Sullivan said.
Israel has threatened to launch a full-blown attack on Rafah, the last city at Gaza’s southern edge, despite international pleas - including from its main ally Washington - for restraint.
Residents who have fled to Rafah from elsewhere say there is nowhere left to go.
Updated
US, Israel, Egypt and Qatar agreed on 'basic contours' of hostage deal - US national security adviser
The US, Egypt, Qatar and Israel have come to an understanding of “basic contours” of a hostage deal for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, the US national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, told CNN on Sunday.
The deal is still under negotiation, said Sullivan, who added there will have to be indirect discussions by Qatar and Egypt with Hamas.
Benjamin Netanyahu convened his war cabinet for a briefing on Saturday evening by intelligence chiefs who returned from a meeting with Qatari, Egyptian and US mediators in Paris about a possible second Gaza ceasefire.
Egyptian security sources said there would be more talks this week in Doha, with mediators travelling between Hamas and Israeli delegates, and a follow-up round in Cairo.
The first pause in fighting, in November, saw the release of around half of the 253 people Hamas seized during the 7 October attacks, in which 1,200 people were killed. In that deal, Israel freed three times the number of Palestinians from its security prisons and admitted more humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Israeli media, citing unnamed officials, reported there was a framework for the return of around a third of the 130 remaining hostages over a six-week truce covering the Muslim holy month of Ramadan (in March/April). There was no formal confirmation from either side.
Updated
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said it was not clear yet whether a hostage deal would materialise from ongoing talks, declining to discuss specifics but said Hamas needed to “come down to a reasonable situation”.
Netanyahu, speaking in an interview with CBS News, said he was meeting with staff later on Sunday to review a dual military plan that was said to include the evacuation of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and an operation to destroy remaining Hamas battalions.
“If we have a deal, it will be delayed somewhat, but it will happen. If we don’t have a deal, we’ll do it anyway,” he told CBS.
The comments come amid reports that Qatar will host mediated talks between Hamas and Israel that will aim to finalise an agreement on a truce this week.
Updated
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA) has said the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “catastrophic”, with people cramped in “severely overcrowded” shelters where diseases are spreading and clean water is scarce.
Sanitary conditions are unsustainable in the #GazaStrip📍@UNRWA shelters are severely overcrowded. Clean water is scarce. Solid waste is accumulating. Spread of diseases is on the rise.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) February 25, 2024
The situation is catastrophic, but UNRWA teams continue working to provide critical aid. pic.twitter.com/oBaIEN16XH
We reported earlier how the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said it has been forced to “stretch every dollar” and juggle its finances in order to continue vital work in Gaza after 18 donor countries suspended funding over allegations of links to Hamas (see post at 10.49 for more details).
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In the UK, the Scottish National party (SNP) will push for another vote on a Gaza ceasefire this week.
The speaker of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, faced calls to quit after his decision to break with precedent and allow Labour to table a vote during an SNP debate calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, which prompted a walkout by Conservative and Scottish Nationalist MPs.
Announcing the move, the SNP’s Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, said he wanted to “refocus the discussion away from the Westminster circus and on to what really matters – doing everything we can to secure an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Israel”.
After criticism that that original motion amounted to posturing, with the voting preference of UK MPs unlikely to make a substantive difference to ending the conflict, Flynn said he would be pressing the UK parliament to “back concrete actions to actually achieve an immediate ceasefire”.
You can read the full story by the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent, Libby Brooks, here:
Here are some of the latest images coming out of the Gaza Strip from the newswires:
Here is the full statement from Iran condemning the latest strikes by the US and the UK on Yemen.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanani, said in a statement:
With such attacks, America and Britain seek to escalate tensions and crises in the region, and expand the scope of war and instability.
Certainly, this kind of arbitrary and aggressive military operation, aside from aggravating insecurity and instability in the region, will not achieve anything for these aggressor countries.
He further condemned the US and the UK for failing to “take immediate and effective action” to stop Israel’s war in Gaza.
The US and UK carried out strikes against 18 Houthi targets including underground weapons and missile storage facilities in Yemen on Saturday.
The strikes were against Houthi targets across eight locations and also included air defence systems, radars, and a helicopter, officials said.
The Iran-backed Houthis who control much of north-western Yemen have been attacking merchant vessels in the region since November.
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Egyptian state-linked media report that ceasefire negotiations have restarted today in Qatar.
The claims, reported via AFP, state that “experts from Egypt, Qatar, the United States and Israel”, as well as Hamas representatives, are present in Doha.
Negotiations will centre around a possible pause in fighting to allow for the release of Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas on 7 October, in exchange for the freeing of Palestinian prisoners currently held by Israel.
Reports of the talks are unconfirmed but we will have more details in the live blog as they emerge.
Iran says US and UK strikes on Yemen 'escalate tensions'
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanani, condemned the latest round of US and UK strikes against 18 Houthi targets. AFP have reported him saying the US and UK “seek to escalate tensions and crises in the region, and expand the scope of war and instability.”
Updated
Summary of the day so far...
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has been forced to “stretch every dollar” and juggle its finances in order to continue vital work in Gaza after 18 donor countries suspended funding over allegations of links to Hamas. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is facing a shortfall of $450m from a budget of $880m. It reports that it has been forced to pause aid deliveries to northern Gaza.
At least 29,692 Palestinians have been killed and 69,879 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement.
Israel is developing plans for expanding its offensive to Rafah, on the Gaza-Egypt border, where more than half the territory’s population of 2.3 million have sought refuge in desperate conditions. Aid groups have warned of a catastrophe if this happens. Palestinians seeking refuge from Israeli bombardment have described widespread starvation amid increasing reports of famine in Gaza.
Qatar will host mediated talks between Hamas and Israel that will aim to finalise an agreement on a truce this week, Egyptian security sources told Reuters. Representatives from both parties will later travel to Cairo for further talks aimed at reaching an agreement on the timing and mechanism for executing any deal, including hostage releases, the sources said.
Updated
Qatar to host mediated Hamas-Israel truce talks this week - sources
Qatar will host mediated talks between Hamas and Israel that will aim to finalise an agreement on a truce this week, Egyptian security sources told Reuters.
Representatives from both parties will later travel to Cairo for further talks aimed at reaching an agreement on the timing and mechanism for executing any deal, including hostage releases, the sources said.
It comes after secretive talks at an unknown location in Paris were held that involved David Barnea, the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, conducting separate meetings with Egyptian spy chief Abbas Kamel, head of the CIA William Burns and Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani.
Ceasefire negotiations had stalled prior to the latest meeting in Paris after Hamas demanded a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the enclave, and a prisoner swap.
Israel’s president, Benjamin Netanyahu, derided these demands as “delusional” and said Israeli forces would push ahead with a ground invasion of Rafah without an agreement on freeing the remaining Israeli hostages.
Updated
Al Jazeera reports that six bodies have been recovered after Israeli bombing near the southern city of Khan Younis. The outlet writes:
The bodies of six people have been recovered from the al-Satr area east of Khan Younis after overnight Israeli bombardment, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.
This follows reports of intense Israeli artillery shelling in and around the southern city, with attack drones.
UN’s Palestinian aid agency forced to 'stretch every dollar' amid $450m budget shortfall
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has been forced to “stretch every dollar” and juggle its finances in order to continue vital work in Gaza after 18 donor countries suspended funding over allegations of links to Hamas.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is facing a shortfall of $450m from a budget of $880m as it confronts the biggest humanitarian crisis seen in the organisation’s 75-year history.
Last week, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the agency, said UNRWA had reached a “breaking point”. Now it reports that it has been forced to pause aid deliveries to northern Gaza – where it is currently not “possible to conduct proper humanitarian operations” – amid increasing reports of famine among people in the area.
“It’s hand-to-mouth. For an organisation with the scope of UNRWA, this is insane,” Tamara Alrifai, UNRWA’s director of external affairs, told the Observer.
“It’s insane that we’ve survived so long without a financial safety net – most organisations of our size have financial reserves. We have to stretch every dollar.”
You can read the full story by my colleague, Harriet Sherwood, here:
At least 86 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since Saturday, Reuters has reported medics as saying.
Israel’s military said two soldiers died in fighting in southern Gaza and that its forces had killed or captured several Palestinian gunmen in Zeitoun and elsewhere.
Updated
Death toll in Gaza reaches 29,692, says health ministry
At least 29,692 Palestinians have been killed and 69,879 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Most of the casualties have been women and children, the ministry has said, and thousands more bodies are likely to remain uncounted under rubble across Gaza.
Key event
A two-month-old Palestinian baby has died from starvation in northern Gaza, according to media reports, as the humanitarian crisis in the besieged enclave deepens.
The Shehab news agency reported that Mahmoud Fattouh died at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Friday, with paramedics reportedly saying he died from acute malnutrition.
Israel’s war in Gaza has displaced the vast majority of the population from their homes and left civilians facing acute shortages of food, water and medicine.
Medics in Gaza hospitals have described babies born sick to malnourished mothers, infants losing weight, mothers unable to produce breast milk and injured patients too weak from hunger to fight off infection.
AFP has reported on the dire food shortages in Gaza, which has caused many civilians to starve. “I came on foot from north Gaza,” Samir Abd Rabbo, 27, who arrived with his one-year-old daughter at the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, said.
“I can’t describe the kind of starvation spreading there.”
Without milk, he said, he had tried to feed his baby girl bread made from animal feed, which she was unable to digest. “Our only hope is God, there is nobody else to help.”
Chris Gunness, who was the spokesperson for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) for 11 years until 2019, said donors who had defunded the agency were “guilty of complicity” in a “slow-motion massacre” by starvation.
“There are 1.2 million people on UNRWA’s food distribution lists in Gaza who are slipping into starvation right now. By defunding UNRWA, the UK and other countries are also adding to regional instability,” he said.
The UN has called on the IDF, which is responsible for safe passage for aid convoys through areas they control, to help efforts to distribute aid.
“Aid piling up at the crossing is evidence of an absence of this enabling environment amidst enormous needs,” Eri Kaneko, a spokesperson for the UN humanitarian affairs office, said last week.
Aid officials have said that between 1 January and 15 February, 77 missions were planned to deliver aid to the north of the Gaza Strip. Of these, the UN said “12 were facilitated by the Israeli authorities, three were partially facilitated, 14 were impeded, 39 were denied access and nine were postponed”.
Israel, which checks all trucks entering Gaza from both crossings, blames the UN for the fall-off in deliveries, and says it is prepared to speed up the clearance of aid.
Updated
More than half of UK export businesses have been affected by disruption to shipping in critical trade routes along the Red Sea, according to a survey by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).
The Iran-backed Houthis who control much of north-western Yemen have been attacking merchant vessels in the region since November.
The Houthis say they are undertaking the attacks as solidarity with the people of Gaza, and claim the targets are confined to Israeli-owned ships, or ships connected with the US and UK.
The attacks have forced many vessels to reroute over safety concerns, lengthening delivery times and pushing up shipping costs.
Some 53% of manufacturers and business-to-consumer service firms, which includes retailers and wholesalers, said they have been affected by turmoil in the Red Sea.
The figure rises to 55% of UK exporters, meaning firms who send goods and services overseas, according to the research by the BCC’s Insights Unit.
The survey of more than 1,000 businesses, most of whom have fewer than 250 staff, revealed that about 37% of firms across different sectors have felt an impact.
Updated
Negotiators have met to discuss a pause in fighting along with the release of the remaining 136 hostages held by the Palestinian militant group Hamas and other groups.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has vowed to fight until “total victory”, but is under intense pressure at home to reach a deal with Hamas to free the hostages.
Police used a water cannon to disperse anti-government protesters in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, according to the Associated Press, and 18 people were arrested. Others protested in Jerusalem.
Updated
In an update on X, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) wrote that Israeli soldiers are engaged in combat in western Khan Younis, and that over the past day “fighters arrested a number of terrorists who tried to escape under the protection of the population”.
The Israeli military also said that it killed a number of “terrorists” and located weapons in the area.
According to the IDF, soldiers in the Givati Brigade found weapons, including sniper weapons, a Kalashnikov type rifle, grenades and cartridges, during raids.
“The forces of the Gaza Division identified a terrorist cell that operated a drone in the Shati area, an air force aircraft attacked and eliminated the cell,” the IDF wrote.
“During the last day, the air force carried out several attacks in the Gaza Strip and hit the Hamas air force. Among the targets that were attacked, a number of launch positions were designated for rocket fire towards Israeli territory.”
Israel war cabinet reportedly approves sending negotiators to Qatar for truce talks
More now on Israel’s war cabinet approving to send negotiators to Qatar for more truce talks.
Negotiators held secretive talks over the weekend in Paris, where the head of Israel’s overseas intelligence service Mossad and his counterpart at the domestic Shin Bet security service met with mediators from the US, Egypt and Qatar.
Agence France-Presse reports that national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said in a televised interview Saturday evening that the “delegation has returned from Paris - there is probably room to move towards an agreement”.
The negotiators had asked to speak to the cabinet “to bring us up to speed on the results of the Paris summit”, he added shortly before the meeting.
Israeli media later reported that the meeting had concluded, with the cabinet agreeing to send a delegation to Qatar in the coming days to continue negotiations on a weeks-long truce involving the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
In his interview on Saturday, Hanegbi said Israel wanted the release of all hostages seized in the 7 October attacks, starting with the women, but added: “Such an agreement does not mean the end of the war.”
He also indicated that Israel would not accept any deal between the US and Saudi Arabia for a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu said in a statement that Saturday’s cabinet meeting would discuss “next steps in the negotiations”.
He also reaffirmed his aim for troops to go into Rafah in southern Gaza, despite widespread concern about the impact on hundreds of thousands of civilians who have fled there to avoid bombardments.
Pressure has steadily mounted on Netanyahu’s government to strike a deal to free the hostages, with thousands gathering in Tel Aviv Saturday at what has come to be known as “Hostages Square” to demand swifter action.
“We think about them (the hostages) all the time and want them back alive as soon as possible,” said Orna Tal, whose close friend Tsachi Idan was kidnapped from the Nahal Oz kibbutz.
“We’ll protest again and again until they’re back,” she told AFP.
Updated
Opening summary
We are restarting our live coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza and the wider Middle East crisis.
Israel’s war cabinet approved on Saturday to send negotiators to Qatar to continue talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in the war and the return of hostages being held in Gaza, officials and local media said, according to Agence France-Presse.
An Israeli delegation had briefed the cabinet after meeting mediators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar in Paris.
National security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said in a televised interview that the “delegation has returned from Paris – there is probably room to move towards an agreement”.
Israeli media later reported that the cabinet agreed to send a delegation to Qatar in the coming days to continue negotiations on a weeks-long truce.
More on that story shortly. Here is a recap of some of the other latest developments:
Israel’s spy chief was in Paris earlier for talks seeking to “unblock” progress towards a truce and the return of hostages held by Palestinian militants. The Israeli delegation, which includes the heads of its internal and external intelligence services, met the director of the CIA, Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s most senior intelligence official for talks over the weekend in what appeared to be the most serious push for weeks to halt the fighting. According to the Times of Israel, an “outline of an agreement” has been reached in talks in Paris this weekend but no official confirmation or further details have yet been shared.
The negotiations came after a plan for a postwar Gaza unveiled by the Israeli prime minister drew criticism from key ally the US and was rejected by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas on Friday.
More than 100 people were reported killed in overnight strikes across Gaza. The Gaza health ministry also said dozens of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip had been killed in the latest Israeli strikes on Saturday.
Hamas said on Saturday that Israeli forces had launched more than 70 strikes on civilian homes in cities including Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah over the previous 24 hours. Hamas said fighting was raging in the northern Gaza district of Zeitoun.
Israel’s military said it was “intensifying the operations” in western Khan Younis using tanks, close-range fire and aircraft. “The soldiers raided the residence of a senior military intelligence operative” in the area and destroyed a tunnel shaft, a military statement said.
The US and UK carried out strikes against 18 Houthi targets including underground weapons and missile storage facilities in Yemen on Saturday in the latest round of military action against the Iran-linked group that continues to attack shipping in the region.
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said on Saturday that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, doubling down after stirring controversy a week earlier by comparing Israel’s military offensive in Gaza to the Nazi Holocaust. Lula wrote on X that he would not give up his “dignity for falsehood”, an apparent reference to calls for him to retract his comments. In response to Lula’s initial comments last week, Israel declared him a persona non grata, summoned Brazil’s ambassador and demanded an apology.
Fears for civilians in Gaza are deepening, with the UN warning of the growing risk of famine. Its main aid body for Palestinians, UNWRA, said early on Saturday that Palestinians were “in extreme peril while the world watches on”. AFP footage showed distraught Palestinians queueing for food in the territory’s devastated north on Friday and staging a protest decrying their living conditions.
The UN agency in charge of Palestinian affairs (UNRWA) said it has been forced to pause aid deliveries to northern Gaza – where it is not “possible to conduct proper humanitarian operations” – amid increasing reports of famine among people in the area. “The desperate behaviour of hungry and exhausted people is preventing the safe and regular passage of our trucks,” said Tamara Alrifai, director of external relations for UNRWA. She added that she was “very wary of how to explain this so as not to make it sound like we are blaming people or describing these things as criminal acts”.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said on Saturday that its ambulance teams had, for the fourth time, carried out an evacuation mission from Nasser hospital after it went out of service, in coordination with Ocha. The PRCS said four ambulance vehicles evacuated 18 injured people, including two newborns who had lost their mothers.
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