Israel-Gaza war as it happened: hopes rise over hostages and ceasefire deal

• 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.

• The head of the Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, travelled alone to Doha to meet Qatar’s prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, to study proposals from Hamas to pause the nearly nine-month war, the Kan public broadcaster reported, citing senior Israeli officials. He returned to Israel after an initial meeting, and negotiations will resume next week, Netanyahu’s office said late on Friday.

• At least 38,098 Palestinians have been killed and 87,705 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza said on Saturday.

• Hamas has accepted a US proposal to begin talks on releasing Israeli hostages, including soldiers and men, 16 days after the first phase of an agreement aimed at ending the Gaza war, a senior Hamas source has told Reuters. The militant Islamist group has dropped a demand that Israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire before signing the agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout the six-week first phase, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.

• 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. A vote count offered by authorities on Saturday morning put Pezeshkian as the winner with 16.3 million votes to Jalili’s 13.5 million after Friday’s voting.

• The British Royal Navy destroyer HMS Diamond is 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 and spending 151 days at sea, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

That’s all from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the Middle East crisis live blog for today. Thanks for following along.

The shock election of Masoud Pezeshkian as Iran’s new president is as much a testimony to his personality as to his politics.

A former heart surgeon and health minister, he came across in the many presidential TV debates as a man of great personal integrity and humility, desperate to bring the country together after it had been divided domestically and abroad.

In the end, it will only be his opponents’ fear of his continued popularity that will help Pezeshkian wield influence in the warren that is Iran’s notoriously multi-level and factional politics.

It is an uphill task since, although the turnout in the runoff was higher than in the first round, it is the second lowest in Iranian presidential campaigns, showing many Iranians remain sceptical about politicians.

Jason Burke

On a Friday afternoon, under the blazing summer sun, a crowd marched through central Amman, waving placards and flags.

Watched carefully by a double row of police officers, the several hundred protesters chanted slogans and repeated the words crackling through the microphones mounted on the truck leading the procession. “We will burn Israel! We want the head of Netanyahu! The resistance is humiliating the supposed strongest army in the world! God is Great!” Then, after an hour, the protest quietly dispersed.

Not far away, the same sun beat down on the pavements of Rainbow Street, once the bustling tourist centre of the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Eight months into the war in Gaza, and with no end to the conflict in sight, there were no visitors to be seen.

“It’s the worst I’ve known … Nothing will improve until the war stops in Gaza,” said Usra Qadr, a 38-year-old trader.

Such sentiments are widespread across Jordan: in the shady compounds of the Royal Palaces, the five-star hotels where the elite drink and dance, the crowded poorer neighbourhoods of the capital and dusty provincial towns alike.

Since the 7 October Hamas attack in Israel and the subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza, few regional states have faced challenges as acute as those confronting Jordan, with its substantial Palestinian-origin population, prominent roles within the Arab and Muslim worlds, economic difficulties and war-racked neighbours.

• Hamas has accepted a US proposal to begin talks on releasing Israeli hostages, including soldiers and men, 16 days after the first phase of an agreement aimed at ending the Gaza war, a senior Hamas source has told Reuters. The militant Islamist group has dropped a demand that Israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire before signing the agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout the six-week first phase, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.

• 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.

• The head of the Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, travelled alone to Doha to meet Qatar’s prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, to study proposals from Hamas to pause the nearly nine-month war, the Kan public broadcaster reported, citing senior Israeli officials. He returned to Israel after an initial meeting, and negotiations will resume next week, Netanyahu’s office said late on Friday.

• At least 38,098 Palestinians have been killed and 87,705 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza said on Saturday.

• 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. A vote count offered by authorities on Saturday morning put Pezeshkian as the winner with 16.3 million votes to Jalili’s 13.5 million after Friday’s voting.

• The British Royal Navy destroyer HMS Diamond is 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 and spending 151 days at sea, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

Lorenzo Tondo

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.

“If there is a Gaza agreement, then from zero hour there will be a ceasefire in Lebanon,” the official said.

The efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages held for nearly nine months gained momentum this week as Hamas put forward a revised proposal outlining the terms of an agreement, and Israel expressed readiness to resume discussions that had previously come to a standstill.

Lorenzo Tondo

The head of the Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, travelled alone to Doha to meet Qatar’s prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, to study proposals from Hamas to pause the nearly nine-month war, the Kan public broadcaster reported, citing senior Israeli officials.

He returned to Israel after an initial meeting, and negotiations will resume next week, Netanyahu’s office said late on Friday.

The United States appears to hold high expectations regarding the recently resumed contact between Israel and Hamas, with the White House describing the latest Hamas ceasefire proposal as a “breakthrough” establishing a framework for a possible hostage deal.

‘‘I think the framework is now in place and we have to work out the implementation steps,” a senior US official said. “What we got back from Hamas was a pretty significant adjustment to what had been their position, and that is encouraging. We have heard the same from the Israelis.”

The main obstacle in negotiations until this week had been widely differing views on how the agreement would move from its first phase to its second.

We are restarting our live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and wider Middle East crisis. I’m Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news from the region throughout today.

We start with news that Hamas has accepted a US proposal to begin talks on releasing Israeli hostages, including soldiers and men, 16 days after the first phase of an agreement aimed at ending the Gaza war, a senior Hamas source has told Reuters.

The militant Islamist group has dropped a demand that Israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire before signing the agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout the six-week first phase, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.

It reported:

A Palestinian official close to the internationally mediated peace efforts had said the proposal could lead to a framework agreement if embraced by Israel and would end the nine-month-old war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

A source in Israel’s negotiating team, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was now a real chance of achieving agreement. That was in sharp contrast to past instances in the nine-month-old war in Gaza, when Israel said conditions attached by Hamas were unacceptable.

A spokesperson for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. On Friday his office said talks would continue next week and emphasised that gaps between the sides still remained.

Meanwhile, in other news:

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.