Key events
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to our continuing live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. This is Adam Fulton and I’ll be with you for the coming while.
Israel has informed several Arab states that it wants to carve out a buffer zone on the Palestinian side of Gaza’s border to prevent future attacks as part of proposals for the territory after war ends, Egyptian and regional sources say, according to a Reuters report.
According to three regional sources, Israel related its plans to its neighbours Egypt and Jordan, along with the United Arab Emirates, which normalised ties with Israel in 2020, the reports says.
The sources also said Saudi Arabia had been informed.
More on that story shortly. In other news as it approaches 7.15am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv:
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Israel’s military pounded the Gaza Strip on Friday after the end of the truce. Israel launched more than 200 strikes across the Gaza Strip on Friday, including in the densely populated south, where many civilians have fled. The Israeli bombardment was most intense in the southern areas of Khan Younis and Rafah, medics and witnesses were reported as saying. Gaza health officials the strikes killed 184 people and wounded at least 589 others, with most of the dead children and women. Israel has signalled it is preparing to launch a ground assault into southern Gaza in a significant escalation of the war.
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Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to brush aside US calls to pursue a more restrained military campaign as the resumption of hostilities began. Netanyahu said his country’s forces were now “charging forward” and that the plan was for a total military victory.
![Smoke over Gaza, as seen from southern Israel, after Israeli airstrikes](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/55874ac897702ea2d5ecb67d1948bafe9fb32417/0_318_4701_2822/master/4701.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none)
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Israeli shelling killed three people in southern Lebanon on Friday, Lebanon’s state news agency reported, as the end of the truce prompted a resumption of hostilities at the frontier. The Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, later said two of those killed were its fighters. It also said it had carried out several attacks on Israeli military positions at the border in support Palestinians in Gaza. The Israeli army said its artillery struck sources of fire from Lebanon and that air defences had intercepted two launches. The army also said it struck a “terrorist cell”.
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The head of the UN children’s agency has warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe” if Israeli bombings in Gaza return to the intensity of before the Israel-Hamas truce. Catherine Russell also urged “all parties to ensure that children are protected and assisted” and called for a “lasting humanitarian ceasefire”.
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Syrian air defences repelled an Israeli rocket attack against targets near Damascus early on Saturday, Syrian state media reported, saying the defences shot down most of the missiles. It said there were no casualties and “only material damages”, and that the strikes came from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights.
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Israel’s military has set out its plan for the “next stage of the war”: dividing Gaza into dozens of numbered “evacuation areas”, a core part of the military’s plan to gradually take control of the southern part of the strip. Under the plan, people in certain numbered districts of Gaza will be told to evacuate before bombing begins, although how much time they will get is not clear. Leaflets were dropped in parts of Khan Younis, where Israel believes Hamas’s leadership is based, warning citizens to evacuate further south to Rafah.
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Humanitarian groups said the Israeli warnings would be insufficient because civilians in Gaza were running out of places to evacuate to. Palestinians risked being forced completely out of the territory, they said. Homes in Khan Younis were among the targets struck on Friday hours after the truce expired, and residents were given little, if any, time to flee.
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No humanitarian aid has been allowed into Gaza on Friday, including fuel, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Israeli forces told organisations operating at the Rafah crossing that the entry of aid trucks is prohibited “until further notice”.
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White House national security spokesperson John Kirby, citing reports from Israel, said Israel had agreed to resume letting truck deliveries through at the urging of the US. But he said truck deliveries would likely be reduced to dozens a day rather than the hundreds of trucks that were getting into Gaza daily during the week-long pause in fighting that ended on Friday morning.
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The families of hostages being held in Gaza have said they are terrified about the safety of their loved ones after the end of the ceasefire. The relatives of some of the remaining 126 Israeli hostages have said they are grappling with feeling joy for those who have been released, while being worried sick for loved ones left behind.
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The UN said it deeply regretted the resumption of deadly hostilities in the Gaza Strip, calling the situation “catastrophic”. The body also said it was concerned by suggestions Israel could seek to expand its military offensive inside the Palestinian territory. The UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk, urged efforts to be redoubled to try to bring about a ceasefire on humanitarian and human rights grounds.
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Israel has said it will not renew visa for a top UN official who helps oversee humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, a UN spokesperson said. Israel’s foreign ministry last month accused Lynn Hastings, the UN’s deputy special coordinator for the Middle East peace process and UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, of failing to be impartial and objective.
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Rishi Sunak has described the breakdown of the truce as “deeply disappointing” and issued renewed calls for “sustained humanitarian pauses” in Gaza as he held talks with Israel’s president and the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and Jordan on the sidelines of the Cop28 summit on Friday.
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Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have blamed for what it called was a deliberate attack last month on a convoy that was trying to evacuate people out of Gaza City. In a report that cites several witnesses from the organisation, MSF said “all elements point to the responsibility of the Israeli army for this attack.”
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The Biden administration has informed Israel that Washington will impose visa bans in the next few weeks on Israeli extremist settlers engaged in violence against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, a senior state department official said, in the first sign that the US is prepared to publicly distance itself from some of the Israeli government’s actions.
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A protester with a Palestinian flag self-immolated on Friday outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, US, injuring a security guard who attempted to intervene, authorities said. The protester was reported to be in critical condition.
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