Gaza live: Two Palestinian children 'died due to heat in Gaza'

Israel will listen to US concerns before launching its planned ground invasion on the southern city of Rafah in Gaza, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Sunday.

Washington said it could not support the operation without a credible humanitarian plan. Over 1 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah.

"They've assured us that they won't go into Rafah until we've had a chance to really share our perspectives and our concerns with them," Kirby told ABC.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) has said that two Palestinian children have reportedly died due to high temperatures in Gaza. 

"We received reports that at least two children died due to the heat," said Philippe Lazzarini, Unrwa commissioner-general. "What more to endure: death, hunger, disease, displacement, now living in greenhouses-like structures under scorching heat." 

Unrwa said that Palestinians had less than 1 litre per person per day for drinking, washing and bathing, well under the international minimum standards of 15 litres. 

The temperature in Gaza has hit 40C on two days this week, reaching 42C on 25 April, according to the AccuWeather web site. The record high average for Gaza's usual hottest month, May, is 40C, according to the Weather and Climate site.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to back down from a planned ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Smotrich said that agreeing to an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire would constitute a humiliating defeat.

On Saturday, Israel's foreign minister said the operation in Rafah, where more than one million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in tents and makeshift homes, could be suspended should a deal emerge to release Israeli captives in Gaza.

Smotrich said in a video statement addressed to Netanyahu that without eradicating Hamas "a government headed by you will have no right to exist".

France's foreign minister is discussing proposals with Lebanese officials on Sunday aimed at easing tensions between Hezbollah and Israel.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded strikes across the border since 7 October, which have increased since Iran launched missiles on Israel in response to the Israeli killing of seven of its military officers and commanders in Damascus.

"If I look at the situation today if there were not a war in Gaza, we could be talking about a war in southern Lebanon given the number of strikes and the impact on the area,"  Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said. "I will pass messages and make proposals to the authorities here to stabilise this zone and avoid a war."

The UN peacemaking mission known as Unifil is stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor activity along the demarcation line with Israel. France has 700 troops serving in Unifil's 10,000-strong mission.

Hezbollah has said it would not enter concrete discussions until there was a ceasefire in Gaza. Israel wants to restore calm in its northern areas so displaced Israelis can return to the area.

Earlier this year, Sejourne proposed that Hezbollah would pull back 10km from the Israeli border, while Israel would halt its attacks on southern Lebanon.

Lebanese media reported the government had provided feedback to Paris on the proposal, but French officials said the responses lacked consensus amongst Lebanese actors. 

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) has warned Britain and other countries against deploying forces on the land or coast of the Gaza Strip. 

The BBC reported on Saturday that UK troops could be deployed in Gaza to assist with aid deliveries via a temporary pier in the enclave being built by the US. 

The PFLP said in a statement on Telegram that British troops would be "treated as occupation forces and will be legitimate targets for the resistance". 

It said: "Our people will not forget the major crime committed by Britain against the Palestinian people, with its major contribution to the establishment of the Zionist entity, after issuing the ill-fated Balfour Declaration, and its continuation to this day in supporting the occupation and its crimes."

The group added that the justification of troop deployment to assist aid deliveries via the new sea corridor was "a lie that does not deceive anyone". 

"[It] is a justification for the permanent presence of military forces on the ground for malicious colonial goals and to protect the security of the Zionist entity," the PFLP said. 

"Whoever wants to provide relief to the Palestinian people must press to stop the aggression, break the siege, and bring in relief aid through the official crossings in the Gaza Strip and under Palestinian management and supervision."

A Hamas delegation will head to Cairo on Monday for Gaza ceasefire talks, an official from the Palestinian group has told Reuters.

The delegation will discuss a proposed ceasefire offered by mediators and Israel's response to it, the official said on Sunday. 

Israeli forces have killed at least 34,454 Palestinians and wounded 77,575 others in Gaza since 7 October, the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

At least 66 Palestinians were killed and 138 others wounded over the past 24 hours, the ministry said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said that only the US could stop an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza.

Abbas made the comments on Sunday at a conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh, adding that he expected the assault in the coming days. More than one million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah, many of whom are in tents and makeshift homes. 

Abbas called for an immediate ceasefire and more aid to be allowed into Gaza.

He also said he rejected the displacement of Palestinians, and that he feared Palestinians in the occupied West Bank could be driven out by Israel after it was done in Gaza. 

Israeli forces have detained at least 15 Palestinians, including at least one woman, during multiple overnight raids on Palestinian towns and villages in the occupied West Bank, according to Wafa news agency.

The Palestinian Prisoners Society and the Prisoners Affairs Authority said in a joint statement that arrests took place in the governorates of Tulkarm, Qalqilya, Jenin, Tubas, Salfit, Jericho, and occupied East Jerusalem.

In Tulkarm, four Palestinian men were arrested after around 20 military vehicles stormed the town of Illar and raided their homes.

In Nablus, Israeli forces arrested a young woman after raiding her family home in the village of Deir el-Hatab. The woman was identified as Narmeen Jamal Hussein.

The joint statement said that Israeli forces were continuing to harass Palestinians during mass arrests, including beatings, threats against detainees and their families, as well as destruction of the homes of civilians.

Good evening Middle East Eye readers.

Our live coverage of Israel's assault on Gaza will shortly be closing for the evening.

Here are the day's main developments:

Israeli forces have killed at least 34,388 Palestinians and wounded 77,437 others in Gaza since 7 October, the Palestinian health ministry said on Saturday. The new death toll comes after 32 Palestinians were killed and 69 others wounded over the past 24 hours, the ministry added.

Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinian men and wounded two others at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.

Three Palestinian civilians were killed on Saturday afternoon and others wounded during Israeli air strikes on refugee camps in central Gaza, according to Wafa news agency.

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement said on Saturday that it had targeted northern Israel with drones and guided missiles after Israeli strikes on "civilian homes" killed three people, including two of its members.

The armed wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas released video footage on Saturday of two men held in Gaza and seen alive in the footage. Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum identified the two in a statement as Omri Miran, 47, and Keith Siegel, 64, who were taken to Gaza during the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October.

Israel's foreign minister said on Saturday that a planned incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah could be suspended should there be a deal to secure the release of Israeli captives held by Hamas.

Hamas has said it is studying the latest Israeli counterproposal regarding a potential ceasefire in Gaza, a day after media reports said a delegation from Egypt had arrived in Israel in an attempt to jump-start stalled negotiations.

Other developments included:

• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Saudi Arabia on Monday and Tuesday to meet with regional partners and discuss efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages, the State Department said on Saturday.
   
• British troops could be deployed in Gaza to assist with aid deliveries, after the US said it would not be sending any of its own ground forces. The US previously said a "third party" would be responsible for driving trucks along a floating causeway onto the beach, a role the BBC has learned could be filled by British forces.
   
• Lebanon is moving towards accepting the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction to prosecute violations on its territory since 7 October. Beirut has accused Israel of repeatedly violating its sovereignty and breaching international law over the last six months, during which Israeli forces and Lebanese group Hezbollah have traded fire across the border. 
   
• Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other international officials will be in the Saudi capital this weekend for Gaza ceasefire talks on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum meeting, the WEF's president said on Saturday.
   
• Ahead of general elections in South Africa next month, 13 political parties in the country have pledged solidarity with Palestinians. 
   
• Protesters took to the streets of London for the latest mass march against Israel's war on Gaza. The march was co-organised by a number of groups, including the Palestinian Forum in Britain, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War coalition and Friends of al-Aqsa. 

The Israeli newspaper Maariv has reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is "frightened and unusually stressed" by the possibility of an imminent arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Sources close to the paper believe that the arrest warrants are only a matter of time.

The paper reported that Defence Minister Yoav Galant and Chief of Staff Major General Herzi Halevi could also be served with warrants.

On 26 April, Netanyahu tweeted that "under my leadership, Israel will never accept any attempt by the Hague Criminal Court to undermine its fundamental right to defend itself".

Hamas has said it is studying the latest Israeli counterproposal regarding a potential ceasefire in Gaza, a day after media reports said a delegation from Egypt had arrived in Israel in an attempt to jumpstart stalled negotiations.

Khalil al-Hayya, the deputy head of Hamas’s political arm in Gaza, said it had “received the official Zionist occupation response to the movement’s position, which was delivered to the Egyptian and Qatari mediators on 13 April”.

In a statement, Hayya said Hamas “will study this proposal” before responding. Hamas has previously insisted on a permanent ceasefire, which Israel rejects.

Students disrupted a maths open day at Cambridge University's Trinity College on Saturday as they protested against the college’s ties to Israel’s largest arms company.

The college has been under sustained pressure from students since the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, a UK human rights group, issued it with a legal notice over its investments in Elbit Systems. 

The legal notice was issued after Middle East Eye had reported in February this year that the college had £61,735 invested in Elbit, as well as holdings in Caterpillar, a US-based heavy equipment company, General Electric, Toyota, Rolls-Royce, Barclays Bank, and L3Harris Industries.

The protesters urged prospective students not to apply to Trinity due to its “complicity in Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people”. 

Open-day attendees were handed leaflets by protesters, which read: “If you apply to Trinity you will be part of a college which profits from the murder of civilians [and] face regular protests from your local community.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Saudi Arabia on Monday and Tuesday to meet with regional partners and discuss efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages, the State Department said on Saturday.

"He will discuss the recent increase in humanitarian assistance being delivered to Gaza and underscore the importance of ensuring that increase is sustained," the State Department said in a statement.

"The secretary will also emphasise the importance of preventing the conflict from spreading and discuss ongoing efforts to achieve lasting peace and security in the region, including through a pathway to an independent Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel."

Israel's foreign minister said on Saturday that a planned incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah could be suspended should there be a deal to secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

"The release of the hostages is the top priority for us," said Foreign Minister Israel Katz during an interview with local Channel 12 television.

Asked if that included putting off a planned operation to eliminate Hamas battalions in the city of Rafah, Katz answered, "Yes."

He went on to say: "If there will be a deal, we will suspend the operation."