Israeli government accused of trying to sabotage Gaza ceasefire proposal

Mossad chief gave mediators list of new demands and it was not clear whether Hamas would accede to them, reports say

The Israeli government has been accused of attempting to sabotage a US-backed ceasefire proposal, according to Israeli media, by introducing new demands despite previously accepting the plan.

Hopes for a ceasefire in Gaza had risen in recent days following reports that Hamas had given initial approval for a new proposal for a phased deal, after ninth months of war since the attack on 7 October.

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Hamas ‘waiting for response’ on Gaza deal as Israeli protesters accuse Netanyahu cabinet of ‘total failure’ over hostages – as it happened

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It is coming up to 2.30pm 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 East here.

Here is a recap of the latest developments:

Protests aimed at pressuring the Israeli government to reach a hostage deal with Hamas began across Israel on Sunday, with demonstrators blocking roads and picketing at the homes of government ministers. The demonstrators took to the streets, blocking rush hour traffic at major intersections across the country. They briefly set fire to tires on the main Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway before police cleared the way. Another Palestinian official, with knowledge of the ongoing ceasefire deliberations, said Israel was in talks with the Qataris. “They have discussed with them Hamas’ response and they promised to give them Israel’s response within days,” the official told Reuters on Sunday. Israel’s government made no immediate comment on the timing of its deliberations.

In Gaza, Palestinian health officials said at least 15 people were killed in separate Israeli military strikes on Sunday. An Israeli airstrike on a house in the town of Zawayda, in central Gaza, killed at least six people and wounded several others, while six others were killed in an airstrike on a house in western Gaza, the health officials said. Tanks deepened their raids in central and northern areas of Rafah on the southern border with Egypt. Health officials there said they had recovered three bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the eastern part of the city.

Hamas is waiting for a response from Israel on its ceasefire proposal, two officials from the Palestinian group said on Sunday. This comes five days after it accepted a key part of a U.S. plan aimed at ending the nine-month war in Gaza. “We have left our response with the mediators and are waiting to hear the occupation’s response,” one of the two Hamas officials told Reuters, asking not to be named.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement fired another 20 rockets at northern Israel, leaving one person injured there, the latest cross-border attacks launched in solidarity with Gaza’s Palestinian militant group Hamas. Hezbollah said that “in response to the attack and assassination that the Israeli enemy carried out”, it had targeted “one of the main bases” in northern Israel, west of Tiberias, with “dozens of Katyusha rockets”.

At least 38,153 Palestinians have been killed and 87,828 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday.

Reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian has won Iran’s runoff presidential election, beating hardliner Saeed Jalili by promising to reach out to the west and ease enforcement on the country’s mandatory headscarf law after years of sanctions and protests squeezing the Islamic Republic.

The British Royal Navy destroyer HMS Diamond was returning to Portsmouth on Saturday after six months in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden helping to protect shipping from attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The warship shot down nine drones and a Houthi missile, sailing nearly 44,000 miles (71,000km) and spending 151 days at sea, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.

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Israeli strike on Gaza school kills 16, say Palestinian officials

Another 50 injured taken to hospital from the Unrwa-run Al-Jawni school in Nuseirat, central Gaza

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said an Israeli strike on Saturday on a school where displaced people were sheltering killed 16 people.

The ministry, which condemned the strike as an “odious massacre”, said another 50 injured were taken to hospital from Al-Jawni school at Nuseirat in central Gaza.

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Fears of long war in Gaza as new chapter opens and ‘intense fighting’ eases off

Israel’s ground offensive is nearing its conclusion amid the threat of indefinite occupation and a continuing insurgency

Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the phase of “intense fighting” against Hamas in Gaza is coming to an end, but with no publicly unveiled plans for the next stage of Israel’s campaign, Palestinians and Israelis alike fear that the unfolding ­chapter in the conflict could amount to a long period of insurgency-style warfare and indefinite occupation.

Israel’s generals are expected to announce soon that the last main ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, in the southernmost city of Rafah, is over, although the prime minister has made clear that the war will not end until Israel achieves “total victory”, which he defines as the complete eradication of Hamas as a civilian and military entity.

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Israel-Hamas talks to resume, raising hopes of a Gaza ceasefire

Netanyahu sends intelligence chief to Qatar to study Hamas proposal, while Hezbollah says it would also stop attacks if hostilities paused

Hopes for a ceasefire in Gaza and de-escalation on the boundary between Israel and Lebanon were raised on Friday, as Israel’s intelligence chief was dispatched by the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to Qatar to resume stalled negotiations as Hamas reportedly told its Lebanese ally Hezbollah it had accepted a ceasefire proposal.

An official for the Lebanese group, which said on Thursday that it had fired 200 rockets into Israel in retaliation for a strike that killed one of its top commanders, also told Reuters that the group would cease fire as soon as any Gaza ceasefire agreement takes effect, echoing previous statements.

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Hopes grow over ceasefire between Israel and Gaza as US hails proposal as ‘breakthrough’ – as it happened

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The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that “further disruption to health services is imminent in Gaza due to a severe lack of fuel”.

Posting on Thursday evening, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, wrote on X: “Only 90,000L of fuel entered Gaza yesterday. The health sector alone needs 80,000L daily, forcing the UN – incl WHO – and partners to make impossible choices.”

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US calls new Hamas ceasefire proposal for Gaza a ‘breakthrough’

White House says proposal is in line with deal outlined by Joe Biden in late May, but work is still to be done

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.

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Hezbollah says it has fired 200 rockets into Israel after killing of commander

Barrage from Lebanon one of group’s largest yet, as Israel discusses Hamas proposals for possible Gaza ceasefire

Lebanon’s Hezbollah says it has fired 200 rockets into Israel in one of its largest barrages yet, as Benjamin Netanyahu told the US that Israel will send a delegation to resume stalled negotiations with Hamas on a possible hostage release deal.

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.

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Birmingham University censoring student beliefs over Gaza camp evictions, court hears

University is taking legal action to shut down pro-Palestine encampment on Edgbaston campus

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.

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Israel-Gaza war: Israel studying new Hamas response to ceasefire proposal – as it happened

Mediators including Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying for months to secure a ceasefire and the release of 120 remaining hostages

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Thursday that the Palestinian death toll from nearly nine months of war has surged past 38,000.

The ministry said that in the last 24 hours, the bodies of 58 people had been brought to hospitals, bringing the overall death toll to 38,011.

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Israel has approved ‘largest West Bank land grab in 30 years’, watchdog says

Peace Now says approval of more than 12 sq km is biggest since peace process began in 1993

Israel has approved the largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in more than three decades, according to a report released by an Israeli anti-settlement watchdog, a move that will exacerbate the escalating tensions surrounding the conflict in Gaza.

Peace Now said authorities recently approved the appropriation of 12.7 sq km (nearly 5 sq miles) of land in the Jordan valley, indicating it was “the largest single appropriation approved since the 1993 Oslo accords”, referring to the start of the peace process.

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Pro-Palestine protesters scale roof of Australia’s Parliament House to unfurl banners criticising war in Gaza

Call for investigation into security breach after parliament partly locked down as activists reveal banner declaring ‘war crimes … enabled here’

Some areas of Australia’s federal parliament were locked down as pro-Palestine protesters climbed on to the roof of the building in Canberra and unfurled a banner declaring “war crimes … enabled here”.

Thursday’s protest focused on the war in Gaza appeared to be coordinated with other actions highlighting the climate crisis and Indigenous rights.

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About 90% of people in Gaza displaced since war began, says UN agency

Many have moved more than once, with estimated 1.9m Palestinians relocating since Israel’s invasion, says OCHA

About 90% of the population of the Gaza Strip have been displaced at least once since the war between Israel and Hamas began, according to the UN’s humanitarian agency.

Andrea De Domenico, head of the UN’s OCHA agency in the Palestinian territories, said on Wednesday that about 1.9 million people are thought to be displaced in Gaza.

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Fresh strikes on Khan Younis as UN secretary general says ‘no place safe in Gaza’ – as it happened

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Eight Palestinians have been killed and dozens more wounded after Israeli forces again bombarded several areas of Khan Younis and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Reuters reports health officials in the territory have said.

Reuters have spoken via a chat app to a 55-year-old in Gaza, who told the news agency he had been displaced six times since 7 October by Israeli attacks and evacuation orders.

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Palestinians flee Khan Younis as eight reported dead after Israeli strikes

IDF bombards ruined city and orders mass evacuation after rocket barrage claimed by Islamic Jihad

Thousands of Palestinians were fleeing Khan Younis in southern Gaza after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) once again bombarded the largely ruined city and ordered a mass evacuation of residents.

Witnesses reported strikes on Tuesday in and around the city, which came after the militant group Islamic Jihad, which has fought alongside Hamas, claimed responsibility for a rare rocket barrage on Monday.

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Israel risking disastrous war against Hezbollah for political reasons, says former US official

Harrison Mann, military expert who quit over Gaza, says ruinous war in Lebanon would pull US into regional conflict

Israel risks going to war against Hezbollah to ensure Benjamin Netanyahu’s political survival, but it would be a miscalculation that could lead to mass civilian deaths in both Lebanon and Israel, a former US military intelligence analyst has warned.

Harrison Mann, a major in the Defence Intelligence Agency who left the military last month over US support for Israel’s war in Gaza, also told the Guardian that such a disastrous new war would pull the US into a regional conflict.

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Freed Gaza hospital head accuses Israel of repeated torture

Al-Shifa’s Mohammed Abu Salmiya alleges Israel tortured him across seven months of detention without charge

The head of the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital has accused Israel of torturing him and other detainees, following his release after seven months in Israeli prisons and detention facilities.

Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the director of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, was among dozens of Palestinians freed and returned to Gaza on Monday, according to Israeli authorities.

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Israel-Gaza war: al-Shifa hospital director release sparks row in Israel; army needs 10,000 soldiers, Israel defence minister says – as it happened

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Palestinian news agency Wafa has spoken to a detainee released by Israel, who told the agency those from Gaza being held by Israeli forces suffer from tragic and unbearable conditions and circumstances.

He said he had been detained on 16 November, had been held in a tent with 30 inmates, and that Israeli prisoners were subject to various types of torture, abuse, and assaults.

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