An Israeli delegation led by the Mossad intelligence agency chief David Barnea travelled to Paris for a fresh push towards a deal to return the remaining hostages, reports AFP.
The US, Egypt and Qatar have all been deeply involved in past negotiations aimed at securing a truce and prisoner-hostage exchanges.
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.
The families of Israeli hostages hold a Shabbat meal together at the Hostages Square, Tel Aviv, marking 20 empty Friday night dinners as their loved ones remain in Hamas captivity in Gaza. Photograph: Jose Hernandez/REX/Shutterstock
White House envoy Brett McGurk held talks this week with Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, after speaking to other mediators in Cairo who had met Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.
A Hamas source said the new plan proposes a six-week pause in the conflict and the release of between 200 and 300 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 35 to 40 hostages being held by Hamas.
Barnea and his US counterpart from the CIA helped broker a week-long truce in November that saw the release of 80 Israeli hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
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.
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 the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha).
According to the update posted on X, the four ambulance vehicles evacuated 18 injured people, including two newborns who had lost their mothers. The PRCS said the individuals were transferred to the International Medical Corps and the Indonesian Field hospitals in Rafah, the European Gaza hospital in Khan Younis, and the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah.
🚨For the fourth time, the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance teams carried out an evacuation mission from Nasser Hospital after it went out of service, in coordination with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). 🚑Four ambulance vehicles… pic.twitter.com/NiVISeV6y6
UNRWA suspends aid to northern Gaza amid ‘collapse of civil order’
Ruth Michaelson
The UN agency in charge of Palestinian affairs 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 UN began warning of “pockets of famine” in Gaza last month, with needs particularly acute in the north. Conditions have steadily worsened since, causing a spike in hungry people making fraught attempts to claim aid from passing trucks.
“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 the UN Relief and Works Agency (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”.
“But we want to say that their stopping our trucks to help themselves is no longer making it possible to conduct proper humanitarian operations,” she added.
UNRWA has not been granted permits by the Israeli authorities to deliver aid to northern Gaza for over a month, while humanitarian organisations have increasingly despaired at the tiny trickle of aid permitted into Gaza.
An Israeli delegation led by the Mossad intelligence agency chief David Barnea travelled to Paris for a fresh push towards a deal to return the remaining hostages, reports AFP.
The US, Egypt and Qatar have all been deeply involved in past negotiations aimed at securing a truce and prisoner-hostage exchanges.
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.
The families of Israeli hostages hold a Shabbat meal together at the Hostages Square, Tel Aviv, marking 20 empty Friday night dinners as their loved ones remain in Hamas captivity in Gaza. Photograph: Jose Hernandez/REX/Shutterstock
White House envoy Brett McGurk held talks this week with Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, after speaking to other mediators in Cairo who had met Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.
A Hamas source said the new plan proposes a six-week pause in the conflict and the release of between 200 and 300 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 35 to 40 hostages being held by Hamas.
Barnea and his US counterpart from the CIA helped broker a week-long truce in November that saw the release of 80 Israeli hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Hamas say Israeli forces have launched more than 70 strikes on civilian homes in the last 24 hours
Dozens of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been killed in the latest Israeli strikes, the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said Saturday, after Israel’s spy chief joined talks in Paris seeking to unblock negotiations on a truce.
The talks come after a plan for a postwar Gaza unveiled by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew criticism from key ally the US, and was rejected by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday. Photograph: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters
According to a report by AFP, 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. The health ministry said at least 92 people were killed.
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.
Hamas said fighting was raging in the northern Gaza district of Zeitun.
On Friday, an impromptu protest was held 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.” Another held aloft a placard warning “Famine eats away at our flesh”, while protesters chanted “No to starvation. No to genocide. No to blockade.”
Palestinians living in Jabalia refugee camp stage a demonstration over food shortages caused by Israel's attacks and the lack of humanitarian aid in Gaza on Friday. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
It has just gone 2.30pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Here are the latest updates from today’s Guardian live blog covering the Israel-Gaza war and wider Middle East crisis:
More than 100 people were reported killed early on Saturday in overnight strikes across Gaza.
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.
Israel’s spy chief is 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, will meet the director of the CIA, Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s most senior intelligence official for talks over the weekend in what appears to be the most serious push for weeks to halt the fighting.
The negotiations come 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.
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 on harsh rhetoric 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.
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.
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”.
Two-month-old baby died of malnutrition in a Gaza City hospital, says health ministry
On Friday, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said a two-month-old baby died of malnutrition in a hospital in Gaza City, just over four miles (7km) away from Jabalia.
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.
News agency, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports a desperate situation for food in northern Gaza. 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.
“We had no other choice but to slaughter the horses to feed the children. Hunger is killing us,” Abu Gibril told AFP.
Gibril, 60, fled to the Jabalia refugee campfrom nearby Beit Hanun when the conflict erupted. Home for him and his family is now a tent near what was a UN-run school.
Unicef has warned that the alarming lack of food, surging malnutrition and disease could lead to an ‘explosion’ in child deaths in Gaza. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
Contaminated water, power cuts and overcrowding were already a problem in the densely populated camp, which was set up in 1948 and covers just half a square mile (1.4 square kilometres). Now food is running out, with aid agencies unable to get in to the area because of the bombing – and the frenzied looting of the few trucks that try to get through.
According to AFP, one man told its reporters that a kilo of rice, for example, has shot up from seven shekels ($1.90) to 55 shekels. “We the grownups can still make it but these children who are four and five years old, what did they do wrong to sleep hungry and wake up hungry?” he said angrily.
The UN children’s agency Unicef has warned that the alarming lack of food, surging malnutrition and disease could lead to an “explosion” in child deaths in Gaza. One in six children aged under two in Gaza was acutely malnourished, it estimated on 19 February.
AFP report that people have taken to eating scavenged scraps of rotten corn, animal fodder unfit for human consumption and even leaves to try to stave off the growing hunger pangs.
Here are some of the latest images from the newswires:
Chairs are arranged displaying photos of Israeli hostages kidnapped on the 7 October Hamas attack, in Tel Aviv on Saturday. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters
Palestinians perform Friday prayers in the ruins of Al-Huda Mosque after it was destroyed by the Israeli occupation army, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. Photograph: Haitham Imad/EPA
Smoke rises over Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel on Saturday. Photograph: Susana Vera/Reuters
A vendor serves coffee from a stall adorned with the Palestinian flag in solidarity amid the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip, outside the old city walls of Cairo in the district of Gamaliya on Friday. Photograph: Amir Makar/AFP/Getty Images
Destroyed residential buildings near the ruins of Al-Farouq Mosque after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike a few days ago in Rafah. Photograph: Haitham Imad/EPA
The families of Israeli hostages hold a Shabbat meal together at the Hostages Square, making 20 empty Friday night dinners as their loved ones remain in Hamas captivity in Gaza. Photograph: Jose Hernandez/REX/Shutterstock
Brazil's president accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, doubling down after earlier uproar
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, alleged on Saturday that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, doubling down on harsh rhetoric after stirring controversy a week earlier by comparing Israel’s military offensive in Gaza to the Nazi Holocaust, reports AP.
Israel has vehemently pushed back against genocide claims, saying its war is targeting the militant group Hamas, not the Palestinian people. It has held Hamas responsible for civilian deaths, arguing that the group operates from civilian areas.
Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva 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 comparing Israel’s conduct in Gaza to the Nazi Holocaust. Photograph: Mauro Pimentel/AFP/Getty Images
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. “What the Israeli government is doing is not war, it is genocide,” he wrote Saturday. “Children and women are being murdered.”
In response to Lula’s initial comments, Israel declared him a persona non grata, summoned Brazil’s ambassador and demanded an apology. In retaliation, Lula recalled Brazil’s ambassador to Israel for consultations.
Last month, South Africa filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians. The court issued a preliminary order in the landmark case two weeks later, ordering Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza.
