Middle East crisis: Trump calls for Gaza hostages release ahead of Netanyahu meeting at the White House – as it happened

US president will host Israeli prime minister following joint strikes against Iran

A US envoy met Lebanese officials in Beirut on Monday to discuss a proposed plan to disarm Hezbollah, hours after Israel launched new air strikes and a cross-border ground assault.

The Israeli escalation was seen by Lebanese officials and diplomats as an attempt to ratchet up pressure on Hezbollah, whose leader Naim Qassem said in a televised speech on Sunday that the group still needed arms to defend Lebanon from Israel.

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Netanyahu returns to White House holding all the cards in Gaza talks

Joint attack on Iran puts Israeli PM in powerful position as he dangles prospect of Trump-brokered ceasefire deal

Donald Trump will host Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington DC on Monday as the US president seeks again to broker a peace deal in Gaza and the Israeli prime minister takes a victory lap through the Oval Office after a joint military campaign against Iran and a series of successful strikes against Tehran and its proxies in the Middle East.

Netanyahu and Trump have a complex personal relationship – and Trump openly vented frustration at him last month during efforts to negotiate a truce with Iran – but the two have appeared in lockstep since the US launched a bombing run against Iran’s nuclear programme, fulfilling a key goal for Israeli war planners.

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Israeli strikes kill at least 38 in Gaza as ceasefire talks reach critical point

Benjamin Netanyahu travels to Washington as momentum gathers in negotiations for a US-sponsored deal

Israeli warplanes launched a wave of strikes in Gaza on Sunday, killing at least 38 Palestinians, according to hospital officials, as talks over a ceasefire in the devastated territory reached a critical point.

Officials at Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis said 18 people were killed by strikes in al-Mawasi, a nearby coastal area that is crowded with tented encampments of those displaced by fighting elsewhere.

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Israel sends team to Qatar for negotiations, but rejects Hamas demands to change ceasefire proposal

Hopes that pause to the killing may be agreed were boosted despite 24 Palestinians being killed including 10 seeking aid

Israel has continued to launch waves of airstrikes in Gaza, hours after Hamas said it was ready to start talks “immediately” on a US-sponsored proposal for a 60-day ceasefire.

The announcement by the militant Islamist organisation increased hopes that a deal may be done within days to pause the killing in Gaza and possibly end the near 21-month conflict.

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Europe is scrambling to form a united front and regain relevance in the Iran crisis

Tehran now places little faith in the European countries who played a key role in brokering the Iranian nuclear deal

Exposed as divided and marginalised during the Iran crisis, European nations are scrambling to retrieve a place at the Middle East negotiating table, fearing an impulsive Donald Trump has diminishing interest in stabilising Iran or the wider region now he believes he has achieved his key objective of wiping out Tehran’s nuclear programme.

On Tuesday the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, was the latest senior European figure to phone the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, offering to be a facilitator and urging Tehran not to leave the crisis in a dangerous limbo by keeping UN weapons inspectors out of Iran.

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A ceasefire in Gaza appears to be close. Here’s why it could happen now

A weakened Hamas plus Israel’s war with Iran have given Netanyahu a boost, raising hopes of a pause in fighting

After nearly 21 months of bloody war, it now appears a question of when rather than if a new ceasefire brings a pause to the fighting that has devastated Gaza, destabilised the region and horrified onlookers across the world.

On Friday, Donald Trump said he expected Hamas to agree within 24 hours to a deal that Israel has already accepted. Analysts predict a formal announcement after Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, arrives in Washington on Monday on his third visit to the White House since Trump began his current term.

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Hamas says it is ready to enter ceasefire negotiations in ‘positive spirit’

Group said to want stronger guarantees of permanent end to war as Netanyahu prepares to meet Trump in US

Hamas said it had responded on Friday in “a positive spirit” to a US-brokered Gaza ceasefire proposal and was prepared to enter into talks on implementing the deal which envisages a release of hostages and negotiations on ending the conflict.

US president Donald Trump earlier announced a “final proposal” for a 60-day ceasefire in the nearly 21-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, stating he anticipated a reply from the parties in coming hours.

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Israel steps up deadly bombardment of Gaza before ceasefire talks

Officials say about 90 people killed since Wednesday night as Israeli security cabinet prepares for meeting

Israel has escalated its offensive in Gaza before imminent talks about a ceasefire, with warships and artillery launching one of the deadliest and most intense bombardments in the devastated Palestinian territory for many months.

Medics and officials in Gaza reported that about 90 people were killed overnight and on Thursday, including many women and children. On Tuesday night and Wednesday the toll was higher, they said. Casualties included Marwan al-Sultan, a cardiologist and director of the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, who died in an airstrike that also killed his wife and five children.

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Israeli military used 500lb bomb in strike on Gaza cafe, fragments reveal

Exclusive: Experts say use of heavy munition in Monday’s strike that killed dozens may constitute a war crime

The Israeli military used a 500lb (230kg) bomb – a powerful and indiscriminate weapon that generates a massive blast wave and scatters shrapnel over a wide area – when it attacked a target in a crowded beachfront cafe in Gaza on Monday, evidence seen by the Guardian has revealed.

Experts in international law said the use of such a munition despite the known presence of many unprotected civilians, including children, women and elderly people, was almost certainly unlawful and may constitute a war crime.

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More than 400 media figures urge BBC board to remove Robbie Gibb over Gaza

Miriam Margolyes, Alexei Sayle and Mike Leigh among signatories to letter criticising Jewish Chronicle ties

More than 400 stars and media figures including Miriam Margolyes, Alexei Sayle, Juliet Stevenson and Mike Leigh have signed a letter to BBC management calling for the removal of a board member, Robbie Gibb, over claims of conflict of interest regarding the Middle East.

The signatories also include 111 BBC journalists and Zawe Ashton, Khalid Abdalla, Shola Mos-Shogbamimu and the historian William Dalrymple, who express “concerns over opaque editorial decisions and censorship at the BBC on the reporting of Israel/Palestine”.

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Witnesses describe grim aftermath of Israeli strike on busy Gaza cafe

Women, children and elderly people among at least 24 killed by attack that turned beach spot into scene of carnage

Witnesses have described the bloody aftermath of an Israeli strike on a crowded seaside cafe in Gaza, which left at least 24 dead and many more injured.

Al-Baqa cafe, close to the harbour in Gaza City, was almost full in the early afternoon on Tuesday when it was hit by a missile, immediately transforming a scene of relative calm amid the biggest urban centre in Gaza into one of carnage.

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Tuesday briefing: How weakened is Iran after Operation Midnight Hammer – and where might it go from here?

In today’s newsletter: With its nuclear capabilities down but not out and domestic support strong, the question is where Iran goes next

Good morning. The term “cakeism” – the false belief that one can simultaneously enjoy the benefits of two mutually exclusive choices – may forever be associated with the Brexit negotiations, when keeping the advantages of EU membership while also shedding its costs became the UK’s official bargaining position.

But the appeal of cakeism endures, and over the last week the US president’s approach to the conflict with Iran has started to look distinctly gateau-shaped. Donald Trump wants the glory of a decisive victory on the battlefield but is not so keen on the long-term repercussions that come with it: tit-for-tat retaliations, unforeseeable conflict spillage, focused diplomacy, or even regime change – the kind of talk the Maga movement associates with Trump’s predecessors.

Welfare | Downing Street’s plans to see off a major Labour welfare rebellion were in chaos on Monday night, amid continued brinkmanship between MPs and the government over the scale of the concessions. There was significant division between government departments over how to respond to rebels’ demands ahead of the knife-edge vote on Tuesday.

UK news | Police have formally opened a criminal investigation into comments made by Bob Vylan and Kneecap at Glastonbury after reviewing video and audio footage of the performances. Meanwhile on Monday, the BBC said that it should not have allowed chants of “Death to the IDF” at Bob Vylan’s performance to be broadcast.

Crown Estate | King Charles is set to receive official annual income of £132m next year, after his portfolio of land and property made more than £1bn in profits thanks to a boom in the offshore wind sector.

Arms trade | Britain’s decision to allow the export of F-35 fighter jet components to Israel, despite accepting they could be used in breach of international humanitarian law in Gaza, was lawful, London’s high court has ruled. The judges ruled that the “acutely sensitive and political issue” was “a matter for the executive … not for the courts”.

Crime | A 92-year-old man who evaded justice for almost 60 years has been convicted of raping and murdering a woman in Bristol, after a review by a cold case police team and scientists. Officers believe the 58-year gap between the crime and the conviction may be the biggest in modern English policing history.

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Israel launches waves of Gaza airstrikes after new displacement orders

Scores of Palestinians reported killed as senior Netanyahu adviser due to arrive in Washington for ceasefire talks

Israel ramped up its offensive in Gaza on Monday, with new displacement orders sending tens of thousands of people fleeing the north of the devastated territory and waves of airstrikes killing about 60 Palestinians, according to local officials and medical staff.

The violence in Gaza came as a senior adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, was due to arrive in Washington for talks on a new ceasefire, a day after Donald Trump called in a social media post for a deal to end the 20-month war and free 50 hostages held by Hamas.

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UK’s sale of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel is lawful, high court rules

Rights group loses challenge despite government accepting they could be used in breach of humanitarian law in Gaza

Britain’s decision to allow the export of F-35 fighter jet components to Israel, despite accepting they could be used in breach of international humanitarian law in Gaza, was lawful, London’s high court has ruled.

The ruling on Monday, a huge relief for government ministers, brings to a close a 20-month battle to ban all UK arms sales to Israel, including the UK sale of F-35 parts to a global spares pool that Israel could access. The case was brought by Global Legal Action Network and the human rights group Al-Haq, in conjunction with Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Oxfam.

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Benjamin Netanyahu corruption trial delayed on diplomatic and security grounds

The Israeli court’s decision to cancel this week’s hearing in the long-running trial came after Donald Trump said the case should be thrown out

An Israeli court has cancelled this week’s hearings in Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-running corruption trial, accepting a request made by the prime minister on classified diplomatic and security grounds.

“Following the explanations given … we partially accept the request and cancel at this stage Mr Netanyahu’s hearings scheduled” for this week, the Jerusalem district court said in its ruling, published online by Netanyahu’s Likud party.

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Tens of thousands flee Gaza City after Israel warns of major offensive

Israeli forces urge people to evacuate eastern areas before ‘military operations that will escalate and intensify’

Tens of thousands of Palestinians were fleeing eastern parts of Gaza City in the north of the territory on Sunday after Israel warned of a major offensive.

The messages on social media from the Israel Defense Forces warned of “military operations [that] will escalate, intensify, and extend westward to the city centre to destroy the capabilities of terrorist organisations” and directed those living in several crowded neighbourhoods to al-Mawasi, a coastal area much further south that is already overcrowded and has very limited facilities.

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Iran says it has ‘serious doubts’ over Israel’s commitment to ceasefire – as it happened

Iran’s armed forces chief of staff says it is ‘ready to respond with force’ if attacked again; Iran says airstrikes on Evin prison killed at least 71

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli attacks have killed at least 14 people, including three children, so far on Sunday.

Civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency that 13 people were killed in airstrikes at four locations around the Gaza Strip, and another from Israeli gunfire near an aid distribution centre.

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Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza as Qatar calls for peace talks – as it happened

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Emirates extended its cancellation of flights to and from Iran’s capital Tehran until July 5 due to the “regional situation“, it said in a statement on Saturday, Reuters reports.

The Dubai-based airline said it will recommence operations to Baghdad on 1 July and Basra on 2 July.

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‘Everything is opportunistic’: Can Netanyahu expect more years in power after Israel’s war with Iran?

Loyalists hope for boost after apparent victory, but political divisions and 7 October security failures still loom large

When Benjamin Netanyahu described the opportunities for peace that Israel’s successes in its brief war with Iran might bring, supporters took him at his word.

“This victory presents an opportunity for a dramatic widening of peace agreements. We are working on this with enthusiasm,” Israel’s longest-serving prime minister said on Thursday in a pre-recorded statement.

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IDF opens inquiry into possible war crimes after deaths near Gaza aid sites

Israel Defense Forces to examine growing evidence of shootings of Palestinians trying to obtain food

The Israeli military has launched an investigation into possible war crimes following growing evidence that troops have deliberately fired at Palestinian civilians gathering to receive aid in Gaza.

Hundreds of people have been killed in recent weeks after being subjected to air attacks, shootings and bombardments by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) while waiting for food to be distributed or while making their way to distribution sites.

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