Israel-Gaza war live: Israeli forces kill 23, Gaza authorities say, amid IDF warning of major offensive in north

Opening summary

Israeli airstrikes and gunfire killed 23 people in Gaza on Sunday, the territory’s civil defence agency said, as tens of thousands of Palestinian people were fleeing eastern parts of Gaza City after Israel warned of a major assault on the north.

Agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal said at least three children were among those killed in airstrikes at five locations around Gaza and another person died from Israeli fire near an aid distribution centre.

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

Witnesses described scenes of chaos as entire families tried to pack their remaining belongings, tents and meagre stocks of foods on to donkey carts, bicycles, improvised pickup trucks and cars, my colleague Jason Burke reports.

Displaced Palestinian people flee Jabalia – in the northern part of the Strip – after the Israeli army issued evacuation orders in Gaza City. Photograph: Jehad Alshrafi/AP

In other developments:

• Mahmud Bassal said two children were killed in an airstrike on their home in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighbourhood early on Sunday and “the house was completely destroyed”. A member of the family, Abdel Rahman Azzam, 45, told AFP he was at home and “heard a huge explosion at my relative’s house”. “I rushed out in panic and saw the house destroyed and on fire.”

• Bassal said a drone strike on a tent housing displaced people near the southern city of Khan Younis killed five people including a child. Other casualties included a young man killed “by Israeli fire this morning while waiting for aid” near a humanitarian distribution centre in the southern city of Rafah, the Gaza civil defence spokesperson said.

• Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Sunday his country’s “victory” over Iran in their 12-day war had created “opportunities”, including for freeing hostages held in Gaza. The main group representing hostages’ families welcomed “the fact that after 20 months, the return of the hostages has finally been designated as the top priority by the prime minister”.

• Donald Trump reiterated calls for a swift end to Israel’s war on Gaza. “Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back,” the US president posted on his Truth Social platform.

• Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas, brokered by Qatar and Egypt, are continuing but without clear sign of a breakthrough.

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What is the latest on the efforts to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza?

Ron Dermer, a senior adviser to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is set to travel to Washington this week for talks on a ceasefire, and plans are being made for Netanyahu to travel there in the coming weeks, a sign there may be movement on a deal, an Israeli official has told the Associated Press.

Egypt, the US and Qatar are continuing efforts to try to negotiate a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, with mediators hoping that pressure from the Trump administration could help to achieve a deal.

Egypt’s foreign minister has reportedly said Cairo is working on a new proposal that includes a 60-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of some Israeli hostages.

Hamas official Mahmoud Merdawi has accused Netanyahu of stalling progress on a deal, saying the Israeli leader insists on a temporary agreement that would free just 10 of the hostages. About 50 hostages remain, with less than half believed to be alive.

Netanyahu spokesperson Omer Dostri said that “Hamas was the only obstacle to ending the war,” without addressing Merdawi’s claim.

Hamas says it is willing to free all the hostages in exchange for a full withdrawal of Israeli troops and an end to the war. Israel rejects that offer, saying it will agree to end its assault if Hamas surrenders, disarms and goes into exile, something the Palestinian militant group refuses to do.

The 12 day war on Iran – framed by Israel as a preemptive attack for self-defence – was launched by Benjamin Netanyahu and later joined in by the US.

Both countries struck Iranian nuclear facilities but did not destroy the Iranian nuclear programme, likely setting it back by a couple of months, according to an early Pentagon intelligence assessment of the attacks.

In an interview Sunday with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Donald Trump repeated his disputed claim that the 21 June airstrikes aimed at certain Iranian facilities successfully crippled Iran’s nuclear program.

As my colleague Marina Dunbar notes in this story, he insisted the attacks destroyed key enriched uranium stockpiles, despite Iranian assertions that the material had been relocated before the strikes.

Trump says he is not 'offering Iran anything' or speaking to the country since the US 'obliterated their nuclear facilities'

US president Donald Trump has said he is not speaking to Iran and was not offering the country “anything”, as he claimed that America “totally obliterated” Tehran’s nuclear facilities when it struck them earlier this month.

Trump’s comments, posted to Truth Social this morning, followed reports that his administration had discussed possibly helping Iran access as much as $30bn to build a civilian-energy-producing nuclear program.

The reported proposal would mark a major reversal in policy for Trump, who exited Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran in 2018, claiming the sanction relief and unfreezing of assets provided Tehran with “a lifeline of cash”.

Trump wrote:

Tell phony Democrat Senator Chris Coons that I am not offering Iran ANYTHING, unlike Obama, who paid them $Billions under the stupid “road to a Nuclear Weapon JCPOA (which would now be expired!), nor am I even talking to them since we totally OBLITERATED their Nuclear Facilities.

For context: Chris Coons, a senior Democratic member of the Senate foreign relations committee, said last week that it was too early to reach a “conclusive estimate” of how much damage was done by American airstrikes to Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme.

Coons told MSNBC:

It is important that we do not politicise the career professionals in our intelligence community. So whether it is President Trump immediately declaring that the entire programme was obliterated, which to me seems entirely premature.

Or whether it is a characterisation of specific sites and capabilities and how much they were harmed – that is a matter of being more precise.

Opening summary

Israeli airstrikes and gunfire killed 23 people in Gaza on Sunday, the territory’s civil defence agency said, as tens of thousands of Palestinian people were fleeing eastern parts of Gaza City after Israel warned of a major assault on the north.

Agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal said at least three children were among those killed in airstrikes at five locations around Gaza and another person died from Israeli fire near an aid distribution centre.

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

Witnesses described scenes of chaos as entire families tried to pack their remaining belongings, tents and meagre stocks of foods on to donkey carts, bicycles, improvised pickup trucks and cars, my colleague Jason Burke reports.

Displaced Palestinian people flee Jabalia – in the northern part of the Strip – after the Israeli army issued evacuation orders in Gaza City. Photograph: Jehad Alshrafi/AP

In other developments:

• Mahmud Bassal said two children were killed in an airstrike on their home in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighbourhood early on Sunday and “the house was completely destroyed”. A member of the family, Abdel Rahman Azzam, 45, told AFP he was at home and “heard a huge explosion at my relative’s house”. “I rushed out in panic and saw the house destroyed and on fire.”

• Bassal said a drone strike on a tent housing displaced people near the southern city of Khan Younis killed five people including a child. Other casualties included a young man killed “by Israeli fire this morning while waiting for aid” near a humanitarian distribution centre in the southern city of Rafah, the Gaza civil defence spokesperson said.

• Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Sunday his country’s “victory” over Iran in their 12-day war had created “opportunities”, including for freeing hostages held in Gaza. The main group representing hostages’ families welcomed “the fact that after 20 months, the return of the hostages has finally been designated as the top priority by the prime minister”.

• Donald Trump reiterated calls for a swift end to Israel’s war on Gaza. “Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back,” the US president posted on his Truth Social platform.

• Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas, brokered by Qatar and Egypt, are continuing but without clear sign of a breakthrough.