US says ‘gaps’ remain between Israel and Hamas on ceasefire deal
Welcome to our latest live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis. Here are your headlines …
The White House national security spokesperson John Kirby says gaps still remain between Israel and Hamas as ceasefire talks continue in Cairo, reports Reuters.
Speaking at a briefing, Kirby said CIA director Bill Burns and US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk were in Egypt, meeting with their Egyptian, Israeli and Jordanian counterparts on Monday. He added that there will be follow-on discussions in the next few days. Kirby said:
We’ve been working this very, very hard. And there are still some gaps that remain in the two sides in the positions, but we wouldn’t have sent a team over there if we didn’t think that we had a shot here
“We’re trying to close those gaps as best we can,” he added.
But Hamas has accused the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of obstructing negotiations for a truce and hostage release deal, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
In a statement, Hamas said the Israeli prime minister “continues to place more obstacles in front of the negotiations”.
The group accused Netanyahu of escalating “his aggression and crimes against our people” in what it said were “attempts to forcibly displace them in order to thwart all efforts to reach an agreement”.
In other developments:
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People in Gaza City have reported one of the heaviest attacks by Israeli forces since 7 October, sending thousands of Palestinians fleeing from an area already ravaged in the early weeks of the nine-month-old war. The latest Israeli incursion into the eastern sector of Gaza City came as Israel’s far-right coalition parties threatened again to stop ongoing negotiations in Qatar for a ceasefire, arguing that halting the fighting now would be a huge mistake
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Opposition leader Yair Lapid said he would provide prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a “political safety net” in order to get a deal through the Knesset if his coalition partners pull out of government. Lapid said “Netanyahu is a bad, failed prime minister, and he is to blame for the 7 October disaster, but the most important thing is to bring the kidnapped people back home”
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Israeli media reported that security sources were dismayed by a statement by Netanyahu on Sunday setting out Israeli pre-conditions for a ceasefire deal. One source told Hebrew media outlet Ynet that it was “inappropriate conduct that will harm the chance of returning the abductees home”
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The Palestinian death toll from the conflict has risen to 38,193 Palestinians according to the health authority in Gaza. Israel’s military says it has lost 324 troops during its ground operation. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict
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Israel’s military has claimed that in the Shujaiya area of Gaza City it has destroyed a Hamas headquarters which it says was converted from a school and health clinic “from civilian use to terrorist purposes”. The claims have not been independently verified
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Israel’s military confirmed it was responsible for killing Mustafa Hassan Salman, a Hezbollah member, inside Lebanon. The Iran-backed militant group announced his death earlier on Monday. Israel’s statement said he was “an operative in Hezbollah’s rockets and missiles unit, who took part in the planning and execution of numerous terror attacks against the state of Israel”
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Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson has warned Israel that it would support Lebanon against any Israeli aggression, which would “increase tension and threaten security in the region”. Nasser Kanaani said “Defending Lebanon is a fundamental principle for Iran”
Key events
The news wires are carrying pictures of Younis Joma, one of the malnourished children in Gaza, with his mother Ghaneyma as he receives treatment at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis.
Palestinian news agency Wafa is now reporting that at least 26 Palestinians have been killed so far today by Israeli strikes on Gaza. Al Jazeera reports that the figure includes nine people, of whom at least five were children, killed by an Israeli drone attack on the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
Reuters reports that Egyptian media has said a delegation will go to Doha on Wednesday to continue Gaza ceasefire talks.
The health ministry in Gaza, which is Hamas-led, has said that at least 50 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s military assault in the last 24 hours, and a further 130 wounded. This takes the total since 7 October to at least 38,243 killed and 88,033 people wounded.
Over the same period of time, Israel says that 324 of its troops have been killed during ground operations in Gaza.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and US CIA director William Burns have met in Cairo to discus efforts to reach a Gaza ceasefire, Reuters reports the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.
Israeli media reports that a suspicious package was received by far-right interior security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir this morning. It did not contain explosives, and is now being tested for dangerous substances. Ben-Gvir has been vocal in his insistence that he will not agree to any ceasefire or hostage release deal with Hamas.
Israel’s military has claimed that it successfully intercepted a projectile fired into southern Israel from Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
The Times of Israel is reporting that Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm have located 12 explosive devices and neutralised a booby-trapped car.
Earlier Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, claimed to have detonated a high-explosive device aimed at Israeli security forces in the area.
Video and still images circulating on social media have shown what appears to be smoke from large explosions over the city. Israeli forces have also been videoed on the ground appearing to demolish buildings with heavy machinery.
Associated Press reports that in the latest forced displacement of people in Gaza, thousands of Palestinians have been escaping eastern districts of the southern city of Khan Younis and parts of Gaza City in the north after Israel ordered evacuations there.
Israel has been ordering people to move having given numbers to all the blocks in Gaza, and issuing orders like this one from yesterday.
#عاجل ‼️ نداء عاجل الى كل السكان والنازحين المتواجدين في مناطق الصبرة، الرمال، تل الهوا والدرج في بلوكات 687, 688, 690, 693, 702, 703, 704, 705, 724, 725, 777, 783, 784, 835
من أجل أمنكم – عليكم الاخلاء بشكل فوري الى مآوي دير البلح في المنطقة الإنسانية pic.twitter.com/CGFFL9fsJW
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) July 8, 2024
Almost all of Gaza’s population is now crammed into an Israeli-declared “humanitarian safe zone” covering about 60 square kilometers (23 square miles) on the Mediterranean coast, centered on a barren rural area called Muwasi.
Despite the name it has given it, Israel has carried out deadly airstrikes in the “safe zone.”
Conditions are squalid in sprawling camps of ramshackle tents set up by the displaced – mostly plastic sheeting and blankets propped up on sticks. With no sanitation systems, families live next to open ponds of sewage and have little access to drinkable water or humanitarian aid.
Hassan Nofal, a 53-year-old employee of the Palestinian Authority, told Associated Press he, his wife and six children fled their home in the northern refugee camp of Jabaliya in October. First they went to the central town of Deir al-Balah, then to Gaza’s southernmost city Rafah. They had to flee again when Israel launched an offensive there in May and moved to Khan Younis. Last week, they fled Khan Younis to a tent in Muwasi.
“Being displaced to a new place, it’s hard to deal with bugs and living on sandy ground,” he said. “We get sick because it gets hot during the day and slightly cold in the night.”
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has said the latest forced evacuation orders from Israel’s military has put all of its medical facilities in Gaza City out of order.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Israeli security forces have detained another 16 people in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The number is said to include children.
Israeli media is reporting that Hezbollah have announced the death of another of its members after an Israeli attack. Hebrew outlet Ynet reports that Ali Hussein Vizani is the 365th Hezbollah member killed since 7 October.
Israel, Hezbollah and other anti-Israeli forces have exchanged almost constant fire between northern Israel and southern Lebanon since the surprise Hamas attack inside southern Israel on 7 October. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes in both countries due to the fighting.
At the weekend Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said that even if there was a ceasefire agreed with Hamas in Gaza, it would not apply to the north of Israel and the conflict with Hezbollah. However, when the last ceasefire and hostage release deal was in place in later 2023, there was a lull in fighting in the north.
Al Jazeera reports that Israel has killed another three Palestinians this morning in an airstrike on the Tel al-Sultan neighbourhood west of Rafah. The strike comes after at least 16 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza earlier.
The UKMTO has released more details of an incident off the coast of Yemen. It said all crew and a vessel are safe after reporting an explosion near it, about 180 nautical miles (330 km) east of Yemen’s Nishtun. Nishtun is on Yemen’s southern coast, close to Oman.
The family of Daniella Gilboa, who is being held hostage in Gaza, have allowed the publication of a video featuring her which Hamas released in January. Although the release of the video had been reported at the time, it was not widely shown.
In the video Gilboa, a 19-year-old soldier captured from the Nahal Oz base on 7 October, says where she is being held is under constant bombardment, that she misses her family, and she accuses the Israeli government of abandoning her and other hostages. The circumstances under which the video were filmed remain unclear.
In releasing the footage, her mother Orly Gilboa told Israeli media that she hoped it would underline the importance of securing a hostage release deal.
Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, has claimed to have detonated a high-explosive device aimed at Israeli security forces who were engaged in a raid on the Nur Shams camp in Tulkarm.
More details soon …
The national news agency in Lebanon is reporting that civil defence teams have been firefighting in the south of the country after a series of airstrikes by Israel. It listed Maroun al-Ras, Hanine, Ayta Al-Shaab, Shakra, and Rmeish as the areas affected.
Overnight Israel has also struck at targets in Syria and in Gaza.