Closing summary
It is just approaching 6pm in Cairo, Rafah and Tel Aviv. We will be closing this blog shortly, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.
Here is a recap of the latest developments:
Israel’s spy chief was in Paris 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 Hamas-run 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 Zeitun.
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.
An impromptu protest was held on Friday involving dozens of people at the Jabalia refugee camp, reports AFP, as tempers rise about the lack of food and the consequences. One child held up a sign reading: “We didn’t die from airstrikes but we are dying from hunger”, while protesters chanted “No to starvation. No to genocide. No to blockade.”
Pressure has mounted on Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to negotiate a ceasefire and secure the release of the hostages. A group representing their families planned what it billed as a “huge rally” to demand swifter action, coinciding with the Paris talks on Saturday night. “We keep telling you: bring them back to us! And no matter how,” Avivit Yablonka, 45, whose sister Hanan Yablonka was captured on 7 October, said at a traditional Shabbat dinner for hostage families in Tel Aviv.
Israel’s expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank was inconsistent with international law, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Friday, signaling a return to longstanding US policy on the issue, which had been reversed by the previous administration of Donald Trump.
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, alleged 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.
A two-month-old baby died of malnutrition in a hospital in Gaza City, said the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry on Friday. The World Food Programme this week said its teams reported “unprecedented levels of desperation” while the UN warned that 2.2 million people were on the brink of famine.
92 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, said the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas. According to the statement, at least 29,606 Palestinians have been killed and 69,737 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
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 Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said on Friday that “without adequate food and water supplies, as well as health and nutrition services, the elevated risk of famine in Gaza is projected to increase”. “Humanitarians need unfettered access for an urgent scale-up of aid,” said Ocha, to “avert the threat of mass starvation”.
Ocha also highlighted reports from the charity Save the Children who said families are forced to “forage for scraps or food left by rats and eating leaves out of desperation to survive”. In its latest update, AFP said a man at the Jabalia refugee camp was so desperate for food to feed his family that he slaughtered two of his horses.
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.
An attack by Yemeni Houthi rebels on a Belize-flagged ship earlier this month caused a significant oil leak, the US military said on Saturday. The vessel suffered significant damage, which caused an 18 mile (29 km) oil slick, said US Central Command (Centcom).
British MPs have said they are fearful of violent attacks as tensions over the war in Gaza had increased threats. Some Labour MPs who have been vocal on Israel and Palestine said they were fearful there could be a violent attack on a politician. While the vast majority of people make their views on the conflict known peacefully, MPs and staff said the politically charged atmosphere had brought an increase in abuse and threats.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign has defended the right to lobby UK MPs “in large numbers”, amid reports the group wanted so many protesters to turn up that parliament would “have to lock the doors”. According to the Press Association (PA), the group said the issue of MPs’ security was “serious” but should not be used to “shield MPs from democratic accountability”.
According to the Times of Israel, an “outline of an agreement” has been reached in talks in Paris this weekend. An 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 in a bid to “unblock” progress towards a truce and the return of hostages held by Palestinian militants.
The Times of Israel report that an Israeli official quoted by Hebrew multiple media sites says that an “outline of an agreement” was reached by the Israeli, US, Egyptian and Qatari representatives for a temporary ceasefire.
“There were good talks, there’s significant progress,” Channel 12 quotes the official as saying. “We have a basis on which to build a plan and the negotiations.” Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted informed sources saying that the progress at the Paris summit will enable the sides to present to Hamas an updated framework for a deal. “Continuing progress is now up to Hamas,” it quoted an unnamed foreign diplomat saying.
According to the Times of Israel, the Israeli source said that the outline will first be presented to the war cabinet for approval, followed by the wider cabinet. It also quotes the Maariv newspaper as reporting that the war cabinet is set to meet tonight to hear updates from Paris.
