Middle East crisis live: Blinken flies to Saudi Arabia as mediators seek to jumpstart ceasefire negotiations | Israel-Gaza war

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan al Saud, has chaired a meeting in Riyadh with representatives from six Arab countries to discuss Israel’s war in Gaza, the Saudi Press Agency has reported.

Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, Palestinian Authority official Hussein Al-sheikh, senior diplomatic adviser to the UAE’s president, Anwar Gargash, and Qatar’s minister of state at the foreign ministry, Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi, were among those said to be in attendance.

They reiterated their calls to see Israel’s military offensive in Gaza end and voiced their opposition to Israel’s planned assault on Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, the only corner of the strip that has not seen fierce ground fighting and where more than half of the Palestinian territory’s population of 2.3 million has sought shelter.

As mentioned in our opening summary, an international summit will take place on Sunday in Saudi Arabia and will have a strong focus on the war, including the humanitarian situation.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, will be among leaders attending the World Economic Forum special meeting, organisers said.

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Middle East crisis.

Israel’s war on Gaza and broader Middle East tensions are expected to get top billing at a Saudi-hosted special meeting of the World Economic Forum that begins on Sunday.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, Palestinian leaders and high-ranking officials from other countries trying to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas are on the guest list for the summit in Riyadh, capital of the world’s biggest crude oil exporter.

Hamas said on Saturday that it was studying the latest Israeli counterproposal regarding a potential ceasefire in Gaza, a day after media reports said a delegation from Egypt, a key mediator in the talks, arrived in Israel in a bid to jump-start stalled negotiations.

Egypt, Qatar and the US have been unsuccessfully trying to seal a new truce deal in Gaza ever since a one-week halt to the fighting in November, when 80 Israeli hostages were exchanged for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

There has been “noticeable progress in bringing the views of the Egyptian and Israeli delegations closer”, said al-Qahera News, which is linked to Egyptian intelligence services.

But Israel and Hamas have been unable to agree on the conditions and length of a truce and the identities and numbers of Israeli hostages to be released in exchange for freeing Palestinians held in Israel jails.

In other developments:

• At least 34,388 Palestinians have been killed and 77,437 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Saturday. An estimated 32 people have been killed and 69 others injured over the past 24 hours, the ministry said.

• Israel’s foreign minister said on Saturday that a planned incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah could be suspended should a deal emerge to secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Israel Katz told local Channel 12 television: “If there will be a deal, we will suspend the operation.”

• Hamas’s armed wing released video on Saturday of two men held hostage in Gaza who are seen alive and urging Israeli authorities to strike a deal for the release of all the remaining captives. Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum identified the two as Keith Siegel and Omri Miran who were abducted by militants during the Hamas attack on southern Israel on 7 October. Siegel also has US citizenship.

• Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement said on Saturday it had targeted northern Israel with drones and guided missiles after cross-border Israeli strikes killed three people, including two of its members. A statement from the group said it “launched a complex attack using explosive drones and guided missiles on the headquarters of the Al Manara military command and a gathering of forces from the 51st Battalion of the Golani Brigade”.

• France’s foreign minister will push proposals to prevent further escalation and a potential war between Israel and Hezbollah during a visit to Lebanon on Sunday. Earlier this year, Stéphane Séjourné delivered an initiative that proposed Hezbollah’s elite unit pull back 10 km (6 miles) from the Israeli border, while Israel would halt strikes in southern Lebanon.

• Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian men at a military post near the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, the army and Palestinian officials reported. The incident occurred when several militants arrived in a vehicle and fired at soldiers stationed at the Salem military post at the entrance to Jenin, the army said in a statement. The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces withheld their bodies after denying medics access to them, adding two other men had been hospitalised after being injured.

• Some senior US officials have advised secretary of state Antony Blinken that they do not find “credible or reliable” Israel’s assurances that it is using US-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law, according to an internal state department memo reviewed by Reuters. Blinken must report to Congress by 8 May whether he finds credible Israel’s assurances that its use of US weapons does not violate US or international law.