Hezbollah and Hamas discuss latest developments in Gaza ceasefire talks as Israel weighs Hamas's response to proposal
Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and top Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya discussed the latest developments in the Gaza Strip and negotiations aimed at reaching a ceasefire there during a meeting, Hezbollah said on Friday.
Reuters reports that Nasrallah received Hamas deputy chief Hayya for the meeting, which reviewed “the latest security and political developments” in the Gaza Strip.
“They also discussed the latest developments in the ongoing negotiations these days, their atmosphere, and the proposals presented to reach an end to the treacherous aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,” the Hezbollah statement said.
The White House has described the latest Hamas ceasefire proposal for Gaza as a “breakthrough” establishing a framework for a possible hostage deal, but warned that difficult negotiations remained over the implementation of the agreement.
A senior US official said the Biden administration received the latest Hamas offer “a couple of days ago” and had been studying it ahead of a 30-minute telephone call between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.
“The conversation was detailed, going through the text of the agreement, constructive and encouraging, while also clear-eyed about the work ahead [and] the steps that must be put in place to finalise this deal and then begin the implementation,” the US official said of the call.
Netanyahu convened a meeting of his security cabinet on Thursday evening to discuss the Hamas proposal, and is dispatching a negotiating team to the Qatari capital, Doha, for talks with US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators in the coming days.
It is coming up to 6pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Israel-Gaza war coverage here and on the Middle Easthere.
Here is a recap of the latest developments:
Efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza were gathering momentum on Friday after Hamas made a revised proposal on the terms of a deal and Israel said it would resume stalled negotiations. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US president Joe Biden on Thursday he would send a delegation to resume negotiations, and an Israeli official said his country’s team would be led by the head of the Mossad intelligence agency.
A Palestinian official close to the internationally mediated peace efforts told Reuters that the latest proposal by Hamas could lead to a framework agreement if embraced by Israel. He said Hamas was no longer demanding as a pre-condition an Israeli commitment to a permanent ceasefire before the signing of an agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout a first six-week phase.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and top Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya discussed the latest developments in the Gaza Strip and negotiations aimed at reaching a ceasefire there during a meeting, Hezbollah said on Friday. Nasrallah received Hamas deputy chief Hayya for the meeting, which reviewed “the latest security and political developments” in the Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah (2R) meeting with a Hamas delegation presided by Khalil al-Hayya (2L) at an undisclosed location in Lebanon. Photograph: Hezbollah's Media Office/AFP/Getty Images
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was quoted by Turkish media as saying he hoped a “final ceasefire” could be secured “in a couple of days”, and urged western countries to put pressure on Israel to accept the terms on offer.
Seven Palestinians were killed in an Israeli military offensive on the West Bank city of Jenin on Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said. Israel’s military said in a statement its forces had encircled a building where militants had barricaded themselves in, and that an Israeli aircraft had struck targets in the area. The Palestinian news agency Wafa said military vehicles surrounded a house in a Jenin refugee camp and loudspeaker demands were made for an occupant to surrender. Shoulder-fired missiles were then used and a drone attacked the house, it added.
On 20 May, the same day international criminal court prosecutor Karim Khan made a surprise request for warrants to arrest the leaders of Israel and Hamas involved in the Gaza conflict, he suddenly cancelled a sensitive mission to collect evidence in the region, eight people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Planning for the visit had been under way for months with US officials, four of the sources said. Khan’s move has harmed operational cooperation with the US and angered the UK a sources told Reuters.
Hamas said on Friday it rejected any statements and positions that support plans for foreign forces to enter the Gaza Strip under any name or justification. The group said the administration of the Gaza Strip is a purely Palestinian matter. “The Palestinian people … will not allow any guardianship or the imposition of any external solutions or equations,” it added.
A Hezbollah official told Reuters that the group would cease fire as soon as any Gaza ceasefire agreement takes effect, echoing previous statements from the group. “If there is a Gaza agreement, then from zero hour there will be a ceasefire in Lebanon,” the official said. Hezbollah and Israel have been trading fire for nearly nine months in hostilities that have played out in parallel to the Gaza conflict, raising fears of an all-out war between the heavily armed adversaries.
Hezbollah said it had fired 200 rockets into Israel in one of its largest barrages yet. Israel confirmed the Iran-backed militant group had fired “numerous projectiles and suspicious aerial targets” from Lebanon on Thursday towards the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and more than 15 drones into Israeli territory, many of which it said were intercepted. An Israeli military spokesperson said there were no casualties reported.
Smoke rises after Hezbollah rocket attacks on a base in the town of Kiryat Shmona, Israel. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
“Further disruption to health services is imminent in Gaza due to a severe lack of fuel,” warned the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. He described partners as having to direct “limited fuel supplies” to key hospitals in Gaza “prevent services from grinding to a halt”. “With European Gaza hospital out of service since 2 July, losing more hospitals in the [Gaza] Strip would be catastrophic,” he added.
Nasser hospital, the only major one still functioning in Gaza, released an urgent plea for fuel needed to keep operating its ICU, reported the Palestinian Arabic-language daily newspaper Al Quds daily. The hospital said most of its wards were out of service, and warned it now faced the risk of power outages. The situation is especially dire after hundreds of sick and injured patients were moved to the hospital after being evacuated from the now defunct European Gaza hospital.
The Kuwaiti field hospital also warned that it would go out of service unless it received fuel to power its generators, Al Quds reported.
Palestinians in Nuseirat are “using seawater to wash, clean and even drink” warned the UN agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) on Friday. In a social media post on X, the UN agency wrote: “In Nuseirat, people are sheltering on the shore, building sand walls to protect themselves from rising tides and using seawater to wash, clean and even drink. Ceasefire now.”
Palestinians in Nuseirat are ‘using seawater to wash, clean and even drink’ warned the UN agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) on Friday. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
The Israeli president Isaac Herzog sent his congratulations to the newly elected UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, on Friday and said he looked forward to working together to bringing home hostages taken by Hamas.
Iranians voted on Friday in the run-off round of a presidential election offering a choice between a veteran hardliner and a reformist who has backed pragmatic cooperation with the west – but against the backdrop of an expected low turnout that critics say reflects opposition to the Islamic Republic.
The University of Birmingham is censoring students’ beliefs about Gaza by seeking to shut down a pro-Palestine encampment on its grounds, the high court has heard. Birmingham is one of several universities taking legal action to try to evict student protesters, with a case brought by the University of Nottingham due to be heard before the same judge on Friday.
Al Jazeera reported on Friday that there was a lack of news coming from Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighbourhood where an Israeli ground invasion was continuing. Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera correspondent Hind Khoudary said "heavy shelling and airstrikes” had been heard and that “Palestinians who were trapped there and were requesting evacuation have gone quiet”. Khoudary added: “The Israeli forces are not letting ambulances, firefighters or journalists reach that area.”
On a floating hospital near Gaza, doctors aren’t just treating physical injuries – they’re providing emotional support too for children and adults haunted by months of terrifying war, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The news agency reports that child amputees and elderly people in wheelchairs are among the patients on the converted ship off Arish, northern Egypt, funded and operated by the United Arab Emirates.
A young Palestinian amputee evacuated from the Gaza Strip sits in a wheelchair inside an Emirati floating hospital off Arish, northern Egypt. Photograph: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images
About 2,400 people have been treated at the temporary facility, whose rows of tents below deck hold about 100 patients at a time, deputy medical director Abdullah al-Zahmi told AFP.
Nine-year-old Yazan is one of those traumatised by the war, after being brought to the hospital about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Gaza without his parents and having a leg amputated because of his injuries.
Yazan’s parents were not allowed to accompany him through the Rafah crossing into Egypt, Zahmi told AFP, without giving further details. The route was closed by Israeli forces in early May.
The child is undergoing psychological and social rehabilitation and communicates daily with his family, Zahmi adds.
After his artificial leg is fitted, Yazan says he wants to “walk and play football”, adding that his “favourite player is [Cristiano] Ronaldo”.
Zahmi told AFP that more than 840 operations had been carried out at the hospital, which has a surgical department, an intensive care and anaesthesia unit, X-ray facilities, a pharmacy and laboratory. Its 60 staff span specialities including orthopaedics, internal care, neurosurgery and dentistry.
Some patients are transferred to the UAE, via a plane, where they will receive further treatment. Other patients discharged from the hospital are taken to housing designated for them by Egyptian authorities.
For any patients who need further treatment but who are not being flown to the UAE, the Emirates Red Crescent will cover their costs at an Egyptian hospital, reports AFP.
Hamas said on Friday it rejects any statements and positions that support plans for foreign forces to enter the Gaza Strip under any name or justification.
Reuters reports that the group said the administration of the Gaza Strip is a purely Palestinian matter. “The Palestinian people … will not allow any guardianship or the imposition of any external solutions or equations,” it added.
A Hezbollah official has told Reuters that the group would cease fire as soon as any Gaza ceasefire agreement takes effect, echoing previous statements from the group. “If there is a Gaza agreement, then from zero hour there will be a ceasefire in Lebanon,” the official said.
Hezbollah and Israel have been trading fire for nearly nine months in hostilities that have played out in parallel to the Gaza conflict, raising fears of an all-out war between the heavily armed adversaries.
Efforts to secure Gaza ceasefire and hostage release gain momentum - report
Efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza were gathering momentum on Friday after Hamas made a revised proposal on the terms of a deal and Israel said it would resume stalled negotiations.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US president Joe Biden on Thursday he would send a delegation to resume negotiations, and an Israeli official said his country’s team would be led by the head of the Mossad intelligence agency.
A source in Israel’s negotiating team, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that there was now a real chance of achieving agreement.
The Israeli remarks were in sharp contrast to past instances in the nine-month-old war in Gaza, when Israel said conditions attached by Hamas were not acceptable.
A Palestinian official close to the internationally mediated peace efforts told Reuters that the latest proposal by Hamas could lead to a framework agreement if embraced by Israel.
He said Hamas was no longer demanding as a pre-condition an Israeli commitment to a permanent ceasefire before the signing of an agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout a first six-week phase.
“Should the sides need more time to seal an agreement on a permanent ceasefire, the two sides should agree there would be no return to the fighting until they do that,” the official told Reuters.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was quoted by Turkish media as saying he hoped a “final ceasefire” could be secured “in a couple of days”, and urged western countries to put pressure on Israel to accept the terms on offer.
Seven Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli military offensive in the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry reports, updating from the six reported earlier.
Palestinians in Nuseirat are “using seawater to wash, clean and even drink” warns the UN agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa).
In a social media post on X, the UN agency wrote:
As displacement continues, Palestinian families are forced to move to small, increasingly overcrowded areas.
In Nuseirat, people are sheltering on the shore, building sand walls to protect themselves from rising tides and using seawater to wash, clean and even drink. Ceasefire now.”
As displacement continues, Palestinian families are forced to move to small, increasingly overcrowded areas
In Nuseirat, people are sheltering on the shore, building sand walls to protect themselves from rising tides and using seawater to wash, clean and even drink #CeasefireNowpic.twitter.com/APA9e1PRGM
Here are some of the latest images today from the newswires:
A Palestinian child walks through a heavily damaged residential district of Khan Younis. Photograph: Bashar Taleb/AFP/Getty Images
Mothers of hostages, who were kidnapped during Hamas’s 7 October attack, rally through Tel Aviv, Israel, on Friday. Photograph: Eloisa Lopez/Reuters
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah (2R) meeting with a Hamas delegation presided by Khalil al-Hayya (2L) at an undisclosed location in Lebanon. Photograph: Hezbollah's Media Office/AFP/Getty Images
Medics accompany an injured Palestinian boy evacuated from the Gaza Strip, inside an Emirati aircraft transferring him from Egypt to get treatment in the UAE. Photograph: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images
Six killed in Israeli raid in West Bank, says Palestinian health ministry
Six Palestinians were killed in an Israeli military offensive on the West Bank city of Jenin on Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Israel’s military said in a statement its forces had encircled a building where militants had barricaded themselves in, and that an Israeli aircraft had struck targets in the area.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa said military vehicles surrounded a house in a Jenin refugee camp and loudspeaker demands were made for an occupant to surrender. Shoulder-fired missiles were then used and a drone attacked the house, it added.
The ministry had previously put the death toll at five people (see 8.57am BST)
The Labour party, which has won the UK general election, lost four seats to pro-Gaza independent candidates and been run close by several others, reports my colleague Kiran Stacey.
He writes:
Jonathan Ashworth, the party’s shadow Cabinet Office minister, was one of the highest profile political casualties of the rise in support for pro-Palestinian candidates in urban areas with high Muslim populations.
Ashworth lost his Leicester South seat to the independent Shockat Adam, who said: “This is for Gaza,” after winning by just under 1,000 votes.
In Blackburn, the constituency once held by the former home secretary Jack Straw, Labour’s Kate Hollern lost by 132 votes to the independent Adnan Hussain. In Dewsbury and Batley, Heather Iqbal, a former adviser to the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, lost by nearly 7,000 votes to Iqbal Mohamed. And in Birmingham Perry Barr, the former Labour MP Khalid Mahmood lost to the independent Ayoub Khan.
In several other seats, high-profile Labour MPs were also run close by independent candidates, including in Ilford, where the shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, won by only 528 votes more than his closest rival, Leanne Mohamad.
Al Jazeera are reporting that there is a lack of news coming from Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighbourhood where an Israeli ground invasion is continuing.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera correspondent Hind Khoudarysaid:
The Israeli forces are not letting ambulances, firefighters or journalists reach that area.
Heavy shelling and airstrikes are being heard. The Palestinians who were trapped there and were requesting evacuation have gone quiet. People are worried for their loved ones.”
Tedros’s comments (see 11.36am BST) came after the Nasser hospital, the only major one still functioning in Gaza, released an urgent plea for fuel needed to keep operating its ICU, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports, citing the Palestinian Arabic-language daily newspaper Al Quds daily.
The hospital had said most of its wards were out of service, and warned it now faced the risk of power outages. AFP reports that the situation was especially dire after hundreds of sick and injured patients were moved to Nasser hospital after being evacuated from the now defunct European Gaza hospital.
The Kuwaiti field hospital also warned that it would go out of service unless it received fuel to power its generators, Al Quds reported.
Since Israeli forces seized the main Rafah crossing in May, aid and especially fuel into Gaza has slowed to a trickle.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said that the limited deliveries of fuel into Gaza via the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing, “combined with insecurity and challenging routes, have further eroded our ability to maintain fuel supplies for health and humanitarian operations”.
Hostilities in Rafah in the south had meanwhile “completely obstructed access to the main fuel storage facility”, the WHO’s director general said.
“We again issue an urgent appeal for the Rafah crossing to be reopened and for a sustainable flow of fuel, food, water and medical supplies to be permitted into Gaza,” he said.
