Middle East crisis live: it could take 14 years to clear Gaza Strip of rubble and unexploded bombs, says UN official

People sit in the rubble of a residential building in the Gaza Strip on 22 April.

LIVE – Updated at 15:02

War has left estimated 37m tons of debris in area, requiring years of work with ‘100 trucks’, says Pehr Lodhammar.

Summary of the day …

15:02

The vast amount of rubble including unexploded ordnance left by Israel’s devastating war in the Gaza Strip could take about 14 years to remove, a United Nations official said on Friday. Pehr Lodhammar, senior officer at the UN mine action service (Unmas), told a briefing in Geneva that the war had left an estimated 37 million tons of debris in the widely urbanised, densely populated territory.

Egypt sent a high-level delegation to Israel on Friday with the hope of brokering a ceasefire agreement with Hamas in Gaza. Egypt’s top intelligence official, Abbas Kamel, is said to be leading the delegation. Israeli media has reported the outline of a deal is for Israel to undertake to stop all preparations for entering Rafah, the release of all the Israeli abductees by Hamas in two stages with time intervals of 10 weeks in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel, and a full ceasefire from both sides for a year.

A premature Palestinian infant, rescued from her mother’s womb by an emergency caesarean section shortly after the woman was killed by an Israeli airstrike, has died, her uncle said Friday. Rami al-Sheikh said Sabreen Jouda died in a Gaza hospital on Thursday after her health deteriorated and medical teams were unable to save her. The baby’s home in the southern Gaza city of Rafah was hit by an Israeli airstrike shortly before midnight Saturday. Her parents and 4-year-old sister were all killed.

At least 34,356 Palestinians have been killed and 77,368 wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Hamas-led Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Friday.

Israel’s military has issued a statement claiming it has foiled a terror attack after detaining two suspects near a farm in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Hezbollah claims that it attacked an Israeli military convoy with anti-tank missiles and artillery shells, and that it destroyed two vehicles. Israel’s military have not commented on claims about the destruction of vehicles, but said “an Israeli civilian doing infrastructure work was injured and he was later pronounced dead.”

Two people have been arrested while protesting outside the home of Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz. They were demanding he step down from government over the failure of Israel to secure a release of hostages held by Hamas.

In another demonstration against Israel’s military campaign, a delegation of American and Israeli rabbis from Rabbis for Ceasefire marched towards the Erez crossing from Israel to the Gaza Strip with food aid for Gaza civilians, calling for a permanent ceasefire.

Students have blocked access to Paris’ Sciences Po university in a protest over the war in Gaza, demanding the institution condemn Israel’s actions. The demonstration has echos of student protests taking place in the US, where multiple arrests of students have been made on a number of campuses. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said campus protests were part of democracy, but criticised their “silence” over the Hamas. A pro-Palestinian camp has also been set up outside the Scottish parliament building in Edinburgh.

14:45

Emma Graham-Harrison and Quique Kierszenbaum report for the Guardian from Jerusalem:

The arrest and interrogation of a leading Palestinian legal scholar based at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem marks a new threat to civil liberties in Israel, her legal team and employer have said.

Prof Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian was detained by police on the afternoon of 17 April over comments made on a podcast more than a month earlier and held overnight in conditions her lawyers described as “terrible” and designed to humiliate.

“This case is unique,” said Hassan Jabareen, her lawyer and the director of the human rights organisation Adalah. “This is not only about one professor, it could be a [precedent] for any academic who goes against the consensus in wartime.”

Shalhoub-Kevorkian was released on bail the next day when a magistrate and a district court judge both ruled she did not pose a threat, but has been called for further questioning on Sunday.

Although there have been widespread detentions of Palestinian citizens of Israel who publicly criticised the war in Gaza, this is the first time an academic has been targeted over speech related to their work.

14:33

Egypt sent a high-level delegation to Israel on Friday with the hope of brokering a ceasefire agreement with Hamas in Gaza, two officials have told Associated Press.

Egypt’s top intelligence official, Abbas Kamel, is said to be leading the delegation and plans to discuss with Israel a “new vision” for a prolonged ceasefire in Gaza, an Egyptian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the mission freely.

Friday’s talks will focus at first on a limited exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners, and the return of a significant number of displaced Palestinians to their homes in northern Gaza “with minimum restrictions,” the Egyptian official said.

Hebrew news site Ynet reports that the delegation has landed in Tel Aviv.

It reports that the main outline of the plan is for Israel to undertake to stop all preparations for entering Rafah, the release of all the Israeli abductees by Hamas in two stages with time intervals of 10 weeks in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel, and a full ceasefire from both sides for a year.

14:12

Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported on the continued Israeli aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip. It writes:

Earlier today, Israeli fighter jets bombed a house belonging to the al-Shawa family in the al-Remal neighbourhood. Subsequently, rescue and ambulance crews retrieved the bodies of three victims, including a child and a woman, along with several injured individuals from under the rubble of the targeted house.

Israeli warplanes also targeted the al-Zaytoun neighbourhood south of Gaza City, as well as a residential building on al-Wehda Street in the city centre, resulting in the killing of at least one civilian and the injury of others.

Simultaneously, Israeli artillery shelled the Nuseirat and Bureij camps in central Gaza, while the occupation forces demolished homes and facilities in the neighbouring town of al-Maghazi.

The claims have not been independently verified, and due to restrictions on media access, it has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.

14:09

We reported earlier about a demonstration being staged outside the home of Israel war cabinet member Benny Gantz. [See 12.39 BST]

Israeli media are now reporting that two people were arrested at the protest.

13:55

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said protests at US universities over Israel’s war in Gaza are a hallmark of American democracy, but criticised what he called the “silence” about Hamas.

Reuters reports that asked at a press conference in China whether he was taking on board the protesters’ message, Blinken said he understood the conflict elicited “strong, passionate feelings” and that the administration was doing it all it could to halt the war. He said:

In our own country, it’s a hallmark of our democracy that our citizens make known their views, their concerns, their anger, at any given time, and I think that reflects the strength of the country, the strength of democracy.

It is also notable that there is silence about Hamas, as if it wasn’t even part of the story.

But as I’ve also said repeatedly, the way Israel goes about ensuring that 7 October never happens again matters profoundly. And we’re working every day to try to minimise the damage that’s done to innocent people and to make sure that they have the assistance and support that they need.

Blinken is expect to visit Israel and other countries in the Middle East region early next week.

US police have made multiple arrests at several university campuses in order to disrupt protests, and allegedly used rubber bullets and teargas at university protest in Georgia.

13:38

In another demonstration against Israel’s military campaign, a delegation of American and Israeli rabbis from Rabbis for Ceasefire marched towards the Erez crossing to the Gaza Strip with food aid for Gaza civilians, calling for a permanent ceasefire.

In a statement the protesters said “The Israeli government is using hunger as a weapon against 2.3 million Gazans, preventing essential humanitarian aid and creating malnutrition and disease.”

The group were dispersed by Israeli security forces.

13:32

A group of people protesting against the war in Gaza have set up a camp outside the Scottish parliament building in Edinburgh. They accused the UK and Scottish governments of “complicity” in what they called the “ongoing genocide” in the territory.

In a statement the group said:

We are here in protest against Scottish and UK government complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. We will stay here until our demands are met. Every day we see the new worst thing we’ve ever seen. We receive condolences and empty outrage/condemnations from people in positions of power, and yet the sale of weapons and arms that enable this genocide continue. We are here because we’ve had enough. We will not be complicit in genocide. We are here with demands. We are here in solidarity with Gaza, and we will continue the fight for a free Palestine.

The group has urged the Scottish government to apply pressure on the UK government to enact an embargo on all Israeli arm sales and call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Yesterday the UK government was one of 18 countries that signed a letter calling on Hamas to release the remaining hostages it has in captivity in Gaza, saying that on the table there was a deal to “bring an immediate and prolonged ceasefire in Gaza” if it did so.

13:18

My colleague Adam Gabbatt in the US has this profile of four people who are taking part in student protests about the war in Gaza at US universities.

13:03

The EU said on Friday it was giving an extra €68m (£58m / $73m) to provide desperately needed aid to Palestinians in Gaza, AFP reports.

“In light of the continued deterioration of the severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and the steady rise of needs on the ground, the (European) Commission is stepping up its funding to support Palestinians affected by the ongoing war,” an EU statement said.

“This support brings total EU humanitarian assistance to 193 million euros for Palestinians in need inside Gaza and across the region in 2024.”

The EU said the new aid would be focused on food deliveries, clean water, sanitation and shelters, and would be channelled through local partners on the ground.

12:52

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that campus protests sweeping the United States over the Middle East were part of democracy, but criticised the “silence” over the Palestinian militants Hamas, according to the AFP agency.

AFP reports Blinken was speaking in Beijing following a day of meetings with high-ranking officials.

It quotes Blinken saying such protests were a “hallmark of our democracy”. “Our citizens make known their views, their concerns, their anger, at any given time.

“I think that reflects the strength of the country.”

But he also reported as saying that protesters had not condemned Hamas, which carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.

“As I’ve also said before, this could be over tomorrow, it could have been over yesterday, it could have been over months ago, if Hamas has put down its weapons, stopped hiding behind civilians, released the hostages.”

“But of course they have chosen not to do that and it is notable there is silence about Hamas, it’s as if it wasn’t even part of the story.”

Police have carried out large-scale arrests in universities across the United States, at times using chemical irritants and tasers to disperse protests over Israel’s war with Hamas.

12:39

Israeli media is reporting that protests have been held today outside the home of war cabinet minister Benny Gantz in Rosh HaAyin.

The protest included families members of those still being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, demanding that Gantz resign from the government as it is making no progress in securing the release of the hostages.

Of the estimated 250 people seized by Hamas during its 7 October attack inside southern Israel, about 130 are believed to still be held, although not all of them are thought to be alive.

Haaretz quoted Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is being held by Hamas, saying during the protest:

You entered this government because you said that you’ll be able to influence from within. So I ask you Benny: What are you doing? You’ve been a part of this government for seven months now, and Matan, my son, and all the other hostages are still held in Gaza. Explain to me what’s the purpose of going into Rafah? What’s the use of putting the hostages at risk? What’s the use of the meaningless death of our dearest soldiers? Respect yourself and come out to speak with us.

12:23

At least 34,356 Palestinians have been killed and 77,368 wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Hamas-led Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Friday, Reuters reports.

Summary of the day so far …

12:01

The vast amount of rubble including unexploded ordnance left by Israel’s devastating war in the Gaza Strip could take about 14 years to remove, a United Nations official said on Friday. Pehr Lodhammar, senior officer at the UN mine action service (Unmas), told a briefing in Geneva that the war had left an estimated 37 million tons of debris in the widely urbanised, densely populated territory.

An Egyptian delegation is set to travel to Israel on Friday to kickstart a new round of ceasefire talks, according to reports in Israeli media and picked up by Agence France-Presse, citing unnamed officials. Qatar, the US and Egypt have been mediating talks to secure a truce and the release of hostages, but those have stalled for days.

A premature Palestinian infant, rescued from her mother’s womb by an emergency caesarean section shortly after the woman was killed by an Israeli airstrike, has died, her uncle said Friday. Rami al-Sheikh said Sabreen Jouda died in a Gaza hospital on Thursday after her health deteriorated and medical teams were unable to save her. The baby’s home in the southern Gaza city of Rafah was hit by an Israeli airstrike shortly before midnight Saturday. Her parents and 4-year-old sister were all killed.

Israel’s military has issued a statement claiming it has foiled a terror attack after detaining two suspects near a farm in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Hezbollah claims that it attacked an Israeli military convoy with anti-tank missiles and artillery shells, and that it destroyed two vehicles. Israel’s military have not commented on claims about the destruction of vehicles, but said “an Israeli civilian doing infrastructure work was injured and he was later pronounced dead.”

Students have blocked access to Paris’ Sciences Po university in a protest over the war in Gaza, demanding the institution condemn Israel’s actions. The demonstration has echos of student protests taking place in the US, where multiple arrests of students have been made on a number of campuses.

UN official: it could take 14 years to clear Gaza Strip of rubble and unexploded bombs

11:53

The vast amount of rubble including unexploded ordnance left by Israel’s devastating war in the Gaza Strip could take about 14 years to remove, a United Nations official said on Friday.

Reuters reports Pehr Lodhammar, senior officer at the UN mine action service (Unmas), told a briefing in Geneva that the war had left an estimated 37 million tons of debris in the widely urbanised, densely populated territory.

He said that although it was impossible to determine the exact number of unexploded ordnance found in Gaza, it was projected that it could take 14 years under certain conditions to clear debris, including rubble from destroyed buildings.

“We know that typically there’s a failure rate of at least 10% of land service ammunition that is being fired and fails to function,” he said. “We’re talking about 14 years of work with 100 trucks.”

11:49

Students have blocked access to Paris’ Sciences Po university in a protest over the war in Gaza on Friday, demanding the institution condemn Israel’s actions.

The demonstration has echos of student protests taking place in the US, where multiple arrests of students have been made on a number of campuses.

Reuters spoke to two of the protesters. “When we see what is happening in the United States, and now in Australia, we’re really hoping it will catch on here in France, the academic world has a role to play,” said 22-year-old Hicham, a masters student in human rights and humanitarian studies at Sciences Po.

“We’re very happy that (students at) more and more universities are getting mobilised,” said 20-year-old Zoe, a masters student in public administration at Sciences Po. “We hope that will spread to all universities and beyond … we won’t give in until the genocide in Gaza ends.”

Science Po officials did not reply to a request for comment. French police had removed a first group of students that had blocked Sciences Po on Wednesday night.

11:29

Israeli media is reporting that US secretary of state Antony Blinken is expected to visit the country on Tuesday.

11:16

Israel’s military has issued a statement claiming it has foiled a terror attack after detaining two suspects near a farm in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

In the statement, it said:

A short while ago, IDF soldiers apprehended two terrorists who arrived at a farm in the area of Binyamin. One of the terrorists was holding an axe with the intention of carrying out a terrorist attack in the area. Following searches of their vehicle, additional axes and knives were found. The terrorists and the weapons were transferred to security forces for further questioning and review.

The Times of Israel notes the location as “an illegal farming outpost” which it says was “established by far-right activist Neriya Ben Pazi, who has been sanctioned by the US and the EU”.

11:06

Palestinian authorities have said a grave site discovered at the Nasser hospital, the main medical facility in central Gaza, contained nearly 400 bodies. It was uncovered after Israeli troops pulled out of the city of Khan Younis. Israel has said accusations it had buried the bodies were “baseless and unfounded”, but said IDF forces searching for Israeli hostages had examined bodies buried near Nasser hospital and then returned them. Our video team have this report on Palestinians with missing relatives desperately searching for them:

11:01

If you are interested in finding out more about the crisis in the Middle East and the Guardian’s reporting on it, we have an event next week which might help.

Guardian Newsroom: Crisis in the Middle East is a livestreamed event which will be chaired by Devika Bhat, the Guardian’s deputy head of international news, and will feature contributions from Peter Beaumont, the Guardian’s senior international reporter, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, Guardian reporter, and Emma Graham-Harrison, senior international affairs correspondent.

The event takes place on Tuesday 30 April 2024, from 7pm-8:15pm BST. You can book tickets online, and find out more details here …

10:54

Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza.

Premature baby delivered by emergency caesarean after Israeli airstrike killed her mother has died

10:27

A premature Palestinian infant, rescued from her mother’s womb by an emergency caesarean section shortly after the woman was killed by an Israeli airstrike, has died, her uncle said Friday.

Associated Press reports Rami al-Sheikh said Sabreen Jouda died in a Gaza hospital on Thursday after her health deteriorated and medical teams were unable to save her.

The baby’s home in the southern Gaza city of Rafah was hit by an Israeli airstrike shortly before midnight Saturday. Her parents and 4-year-old sister were all killed.

Al-Sheikh told The Associated Press that Sabreen was buried next to her father on Thursday.

10:20

Al Jazeera is reporting that an Israeli airstrike on al-Wehda street in Gaza City has killed and injured “numerous Palestinians”. The news network has also reported earlier strikes and artillery shelling in several districts in Gaza City. In addition, it reports that one person has been killed when Israeli forces opened fire on fishers working off the coast of Rafah. The claims have not been independently verified.

More details soon …

09:55

Associated Press report that there are conflicting accounts of the events that led up to the death of Israeli citizen Sharif Suad in northern Israel, close to Lebanon.

Hezbollah claims that it attacked an Israeli military convoy with anti-tank missiles and artillery shells, and that it destroyed two vehicles.

Israel’s military have not commented on claims about the destruction of vehicles, but said “an Israeli civilian doing infrastructure work was injured and he was later pronounced dead.”

The incident took place in a disputed area known in Lebanon as the Kfar Chouba hills and in Israel as Har Dov.

In its statement, Israel’s military said as a result:

IAF fighter jets struck Hezbollah terror targets in the area of Shebaa in southern Lebanon, including a weapons storage facility and a launcher used by the terrorist organization. In addition, IDF soldiers fired to remove a threat in the area.

None of the claims have been independently verified.

09:43

Here are some of the latest images sent to us from Lebanon over the news wires which show the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Shebaa.

09:13

Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that seven Palestinians have been detained by Israeli security forces during raids inside the occupied West Bank. The riads have been near Jenin, Nablus and Ramallah.

08:23

Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah for Al Jazeera, writes that he is seeing “constant artillery shelling on the eastern part of the city”, and there is “a concentration of attacks on Gaza’s central area, mainly refugee camps, such as Nuseirat and Bureij camps, as well as on Deir el-Balah city.”

Welcome and opening summary

08:17

Welcome to our latest liveblog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis. I’m Martin Belam in London and I will be with you for the next while.

An Egyptian delegation is set to travel to Israel on Friday to kickstart a new round of ceasefire talks, according to reports in Israeli media and picked up by Agence France-Presse, citing unnamed officials.

Qatar, the US and Egypt have been mediating talks to secure a truce and the release of hostages, but those have stalled for days.

Israel has also vowed to move on with a planned military operation in Rafah, despite international outcry and concern for about 1.5 million Palestinians sheltering in the city.

The Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said Israel’s war cabinet was meeting on Thursday “to discuss how to destroy the last battalions of Hamas”.

Several Israeli media outlets, citing unnamed officials, said that ahead of the planned visit, the cabinet also discussed a new plan for a truce and hostage release.

Here is a summary of the latest developments:

US troops have finally begun construction of a pier off the coast of Gaza that aims to speed the flow of humanitarian aid, the Pentagon has said, but the complex plan to bring more desperately needed food to Palestinian civilians is still mired in fears over security and how the aid will be delivered.

The US and 17 other countries including the UK, France and Germany are calling for the release of hostages by Hamas, and saying that there is a deal on the table that offers “an immediate and prolonged ceasefire in Gaza” in return. In a letter, they write: “The fate of the hostages and the civilian population in Gaza, who are protected under international law, is of international concern. We emphasise that the deal on the table to release the hostages would bring an immediate and prolonged ceasefire in Gaza.”

Briefing the media about the letter, a senior US administration official said the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had prioritised holding on to the hostages over securing a ceasefire. “Hamas is holding hostages, they are releasing videos of the hostages and refusing to let the hostages go back to their families. And if they would do that, this crisis will wind down. It’s just a very clear path.”

Israel appears to be readying to send troops into Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, the only corner of the strip that has not seen fierce ground fighting and where more than half of the Palestinian territory’s population of 2.3 million have sought shelter. Haaretz reported: “The Israeli army has informed the government that its forces have completed their preparations for an upcoming operation in Rafah, and that the date for such an operation is to be decided by the cabinet.”

An aid worker who was part of Belgium’s development aid efforts has been killed by an Israeli strike on Gaza, the country’s development minister, Caroline Gennez, said on Thursday. The statement said at least seven people were killed by the strike on a building that housed about 25 people, including displaced people from other parts of the Gaza Strip. “The indiscriminate bombing of civilian infrastructure and innocent civilians goes against every international and humanitarian law and the rules of war,” Gennez said. More than 200 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since the war between Israel and Hamas began.

At least 34,305 Palestinians have been killed and 77,293 wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Hamas-led Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday. That number includes 43 deaths in the last 24 hours. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.

The seven World Central Kitchen aid workers killed by Israeli airstrikes represented the “best of humanity” and risked everything “to feed people they did not know and will never meet”, José Andrés, the celebrity chef who founded the organisation, told mourners on Thursday. Speaking at Washington National Cathedral to those gathered to honour the aid workers, Andrés said there was no excuse for the killings and renewed calls for an investigation into the deaths.

Progressive activists in the US have condemned Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House of Representatives, for “wilfully spreading misinformation” and “inciting violence” in a TV interview about student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.

07:45Peter Beaumont

Peter Beaumont has this analysis for the Guardian from Jerusalam:

Earlier this week senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya suggested the Islamic militant group might be willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel, and that it would lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders.

The comments came in an interview on Wednesday amid a stalemate in months of talks for a ceasefire in Gaza. It is not clear that the idea enjoys the backing of Hamas’s military wing who have long called the shots in Gaza.

Speaking to the AP in Istanbul, Al-Hayya said Hamas wants to join the Palestine Liberation Organization, headed by the rival Fatah faction, to form a unified government for Gaza and the West Bank. He said Hamas would accept “a fully sovereign Palestinian state” and if that happens, he said, the group’s military wing would dissolve.

“All the experiences of people who fought against occupiers, when they became independent and obtained their rights and their state, what have these forces done? They have turned into political parties and their defending fighting forces have turned into the national army,” he added.

Over the years, Hamas has sometimes moderated its public position with respect to the possibility of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. But its political programme still officially “rejects any alternative to the full liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea” – referring to the area reaching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, which includes lands that now make up Israel.

Over the past two decades senior Hamas officials have at times floated the idea of a so-called “hudna”, a kind of ceasefire mandated in Islamic jurisprudence.

Literally meaning a period of calm, it does not imply a negotiated end to hostilities, but rather suggests a pause, with some officials having suggested a truce lasting a generation in the past.

Two things remain murky: how serious Hamas is about the proposition, and whether it has any real buy-in from either Hamas’s leadership in Gaza, not least its armed leadership.

There has long been a debate about whether there exists, or has existed within Hamas, a more moderate and pragmatic strand, a debate often focussed on expressions of support for a long term hudna.

Historically Hamas has deployed the suggestion at times where it wants to appear more flexible,including after Hamas assumed power in Gaza in 2007.

While the proposed truce in this case is shorter than some that have been mentioned, Hamas’s declared support for long truces in the past, including by some of its early founders, has also tended to be defined by Hamas’s worldview. History, Hamas believed, is on their side, not Israel’s, which it sees as bound to eventual failure.

Importantly for Hamas, the concept of a hudna – which is not seen as a means to an end in itself – has offered the possibility of a way of dealing with accumulating pressures on the group within Palestinian society

Al-Hayya’s remarks come in a period where Hamas is facing increasingly obvious Israeli preparations to attack the southern Gaza city of Rafah and at a time when its principle interlocutor, Qatar, has spoken of its frustration over ceasefire talks, raising speculation that Hamas’s political leadership might leave Qatar.

And while both Israel and Hamas have been publicly cleaving to maximalist positions around ceasefire talks, a flurry of discreet activity in recent days has suggested some potential for movement, perhaps putting pressure on Hamas to want to appear not to be the deal breaker.

What is clear, as it always has been when the issue of similar long term truces have been floated in the past, is that there is zero chance Israel would accept such a truce on the conditions suggested. Israel has vowed to crush Hamas.

07:34

Israeli media is reporting that one person was killed by Hezbollah anti-tank fire from Lebanon into northern Israel. Named as Sharif Suad, it is reported he was a civilian killed while “he was carrying out infrastructure activities on behalf of the IDF”.

07:25

In an overnight update on its operations, Israel’s military has said that it carried out airstrikes inside Lebanon at what it described as “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure”. It also claims that IDF artillery and tanks struck at the source of “two anti-tank missile launches” that were fired at northern Israel and identified as originating in Lebanon.