Middle East crisis: Israel to join Cairo talks on Gaza truce and hostage release, says official – as it happened

• Six months on from the start of the war, negotiators are reportedly meeting in Cairo to try to reach a ceasefire deal, which has so far remained elusive despite several high-level attempts. According to some media reports, CIA director Bill Burns and Qatari prime minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani will join negotiators from Egypt, Israel and Hamas. Despite speculation they would not be present, an Israeli government official said on Sunday that an Israeli delegation will take part in the latest round of negotiations in the Egyptian capital. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Sunday, however, that Israel would not agree to a ceasefire with Hamas until the hostages being held in Gaza are released. At the same cabinet meeting, Netanyahu, under intense pressure from the families of hostages still being held captive in Gaza, was quoted as saying: “We are one step away from victory… But the price we paid is painful and heartbreaking.”

• A senior Iranian official said on Sunday that none of Israel’s embassies were safe any more, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. Yahya Rahim Safavi, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, was quoted as saying that Tehran viewed confrontation with Israel as a “legitimate and legal right”. He was speaking after a suspected Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on 1 April for which Tehran has vowed retaliation. Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said earlier today that preparations had been completed to handle any scenario that may develop with Iran. The minister’s office made the statement after he held an “operational situation assessment” with senior military officers.

• World Central Kitchen founder, José Andrés, has raised questions over the Israeli probe into an Israeli strike that killed seven of his staff in Gaza, and warned that Israel’s war in Gaza had become a “war against humanity itself”. “This doesn’t seem like a war against terror. This doesn’t seem any more like a war about defending Israel,” he said. “This really, at this point, seems like a war against humanity itself.”

• At least 33,175 Palestinian people have been killed and 75,886 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said. There have been 38 Palestinians killed and 71 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry said. UN agencies and charities decried the devastating humanitarian impact of Gaza’s war, warning that the situation was “beyond catastrophic” with a faming looming and millions of people at risk of hunger.

• The Israeli military has withdrawn all ground troops from the southern Gaza Strip except for one brigade, a military spokesperson said. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said a “significant force” will continue to operate in the rest of Gaza. “They’ve been on the ground for four months, the word we’re getting is they’re tired, they need to be refit,” US national security council spokesperson John Kirby told ABC’s This Week programme, though he stressed that it was “hard to know exactly what this tells us right now”.

We are closing this blog now, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Sunday said they targeted a “British ship” and two “Israeli” vessels, after a British maritime security firm reported three separate attacks off Yemen’s coast in less than 24 hours.

In a statement posted on social media on Sunday, Huthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the rebels carried out five military operations during the previous 72 hours.

They include a missile strike against a “British ship (Hope Island) in the Red Sea”.

Missiles also targeted what Saree described as two Israeli ships, MSC GRACE F and MSC GINA.

Israel’s partial withdrawal from the southern Gaza Strip is likely so its troops can “rest and refit”, rather than a move towards a new operation, the White House said on Sunday.

“They’ve been on the ground for four months, the word we’re getting is they’re tired, they need to be refit,” national security council spokesperson John Kirby told ABC’s This Week, though he stressed that it was “hard to know exactly what this tells us right now”.

Kirby spoke hours after Israel, pulled most of its troops out of southern Gaza, including from the city of Khan Younis, according to the military and Israeli media.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said a “significant force” will continue to operate in the rest of Gaza. Kirby said he would let the IDF “speak to their operations”.

“As we understand it, and through their public announcements, it is really just about rest and refit for these troops that have been on the ground for four months and not necessarily, that we can tell, indicative of some coming new operation for these troops,” he said.

7 Apr 202410.23 EDT

Helena Smith

In Athens, Cyprus’ president, Nikos Christodoulides, has been discussing the alarming increase in Syrian migrants fleeing Lebanon for the Mediterranean island as tensions escalate along the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Over lunch with visiting EU chief, Ursula Von der Leyen, the Cypriot leader appealed for support from Brussels in handling what has been described as an unprecedented surge of refugees embarking on the sea journey from Lebanon.

Last week, 15 boats carrying 800 people made the 10-hour crossing, leaving Cyprus, Christodoulides said, in “a state of serious crisis”.

The influx, seen as a by-product of the ongoing Israeli-Hamas conflict, has stoked fears of Cyprus, the region’s nearest EU member state, being overwhelmed by refugees if the war spreads into Lebanon.

Commenting on the talks, also attended by Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Cyprus’s government spokesperson said: “The main topic of discussion is the management of the recent increased migration flows from Lebanon, and specific ways to prevent this phenomenon through more active involvement of the EU.”

Christodoulides will travel to Lebanon with the island’s interior and foreign ministers on Monday to discuss ways of assisting the country stop the flows.

This weekend Cyprus’s interior minister, Constantinos Ioannou, told the Guardian the country’s refugee reception facilities were at breaking point and called for the EU to help Lebanon in exchange for local authorities stemming the irregular migrant outflows.

You can read more about how the spike in arrivals of Syrian refugees from Lebanon is affecting Cyprus here:

UN agencies and charities have decried the devastating humanitarian impact of Gaza’s war in Israel on its six-month mark, warning that the situation was “beyond catastrophic”.

“Six months is an awful milestone,” the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said, warning that “humanity has been all but abandoned”.

The IFRC chief Jagan Chapagain was quoted by AFP as having described the situation as “beyond catastrophic”.

Amid looming famine, he warned that “millions of lives are at risk of hunger”.

“An urgent and unhindered flow of humanitarian aid must be ensured to reach those in need. Not tomorrow, but now.”

IFRC said in a post on X that 18 members of its network – 15 staff and volunteers with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and three from Magen David Adom (MDA) – had been killed since 7 October.

“These deaths are devastating and unacceptable,” Chapagain said on X.

IFRC took “no side other than the side of humanity”, he said, stressing the urgent need to ensure “unhindered access for aid into and to all parts of the Gaza Strip”.

Unicef chief Catherine Russell pointed out that more than 13,000 children were reportedly among those killed.

“Homes, schools and hospitals in ruin. Teachers, doctors and humanitarians killed. Famine is imminent,” she said on X.

“The level and speed of destruction are shocking. Children need a ceasefire now.”

Here are some of the latest images coming out from the newswires:

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Israel’s military has explained its decision to withdraw troops from southern Gaza (see earlier post at 11.17 for more details).

The military said a “significant force” will continue to operate in the rest of the besieged Gaza Strip.

“The 98th commando division has concluded its mission in Khan Yunis,” the army said in a statement to AFP. “The division left the Gaza Strip in order to recuperate and prepare for future operations.

“A significant force led by the 162nd division and the Nahal brigade continues to operate in the Gaza Strip and will preserve the IDF’s freedom of action and its ability to conduct precise intelligence based operations,” the statement said.

World Central Kitchen founder, José Andrés, has raised questions over the Israeli probe into an Israeli strike that killed seven of his staff in Gaza, and warned that Israel’s war in Gaza had become a “war against humanity itself”.

“I want to thank, obviously, the IDF, for doing such a quick investigation,” the head of the US-based charity told ABC’s This Week programme.

“At the same time, I would say with something so complicated, the investigation should be much more deeper,” Andrés added.

“And I would say that the perpetrator cannot be investigating himself.”

On Friday, Israel said an inquiry had found that a series of “grave errors” by officers were to blame for the attack, that killed three Britons, three other foreign nationals and a Palestinian colleague while delivering food, and that two middle-ranking officers had been dismissed and a general reprimanded.

In its investigation, the Israeli military claimed that an armed man climbed on the roof of one of the trucks and “started firing his weapon”, leading to suspicions that the “convoy had been hijacked by Hamas”.

When asked about the Israeli report, Andrés questioned the narrative, adding “this is not any more about the seven men and women of World Central Kitchen that perished in this unfortunate event.”

He said that Israel was targeting anything that “seems” to move, and has been doing so “for too long”.

“This doesn’t seem like a war against terror. This doesn’t seem any more like a war about defending Israel,” he said. “This really, at this point, seems like a war against humanity itself.”

An Israeli delegation will take part in the latest round of negotiations in Cairo aimed at reaching a truce in the Gaza conflict and a hostage release deal, an Israeli government official said on Sunday.

Israel was previously undecided on whether to attend, an Israeli official said, citing concern that the event would be “more political theatre than actual progress”.

Hamas’s demands include a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, a return of the displaced, and a “serious” exchange deal of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages being held in Gaza.

Israel reportedly said, in a previous round of talks, that ceasefire discussions would falter unless Hamas presented a list of the hostages, including who is alive and who is dead.

In the same cabinet meeting prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Israel was “one step away from victory” in the war in Gaza.

“We are one step away from victory,” Netanyahu said. “But the price we paid is painful and heartbreaking.”

Speaking as truce talks were expected to resume in Cairo with international mediators, he reiterated “there will be no ceasefire without the return of hostages. It just won’t happen.”

He stressed that “Israel is ready for a deal, Israel is not ready to surrender”.

“Instead of international pressure being directed at Israel, which only causes Hamas to harden its positions, the pressure of the international community should be directed against Hamas. This will advance the release of the hostages.”

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel would not agree to a ceasefire after six months of war against Hamas in Gaza until the hostages being held in Gaza are released.

His comments, made at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting, came as a new round of truce talks in Egypt are set to begin.

Netanyahu said that, despite growing international pressure, Israel would not give in to “extreme” demands from Hamas, the militant group which runs Gaza, which sparked the war on 7 October with its deadly attack on southern Israel.

As we reported earlier, the Israeli military has withdrawn more ground troops from the southern Gaza Strip, leaving just one brigade there six months after the start of its war in Gaza.

Palestinian residents of the southern city of Khan Younis, which has come under Israeli bombardment in recent months, said they had seen Israeli forces leaving the centre of the city and retreating to the eastern districts.

• Six months on from the start of the war, negotiators plan to meet in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, later to try to reach a ceasefire deal, which has so far remained elusive despite several high-level attempts. According to some media reports, CIA director Bill Burns and Qatari prime minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani will join negotiators from Egypt, Israel and Hamas.

• A senior Iranian official said on Sunday that none of Israel’s embassies were safe any more, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. Yahya Rahim Safavi, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, was quoted as saying that Tehran viewed confrontation with Israel as a “legitimate and legal right”. He was speaking after a suspected Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on 1 April for which Tehran has vowed retaliation. Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said earlier today that preparations had been completed to handle any scenario that may develop with Iran. The minister’s office made the statement after he held an “operational situation assessment” with senior military officers.

• At least 33,175 Palestinian people have been killed and 75,886 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said. There have been 38 Palestinians killed and 71 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry said.

• The Israeli military has withdrawn all ground troops from the southern Gaza Strip except for one brigade, a military spokesperson said. The military did not immediately provide further details, and it was unclear whether the withdrawal would delay a long-threatened incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

7 Apr 202407.31 EDT

Geneva Abdul

Prof Nick Maynard was operating on a patient with abdomen and chest bomb injuries when an Israeli missile struck the al-Aqsa hospital’s intensive care unit in the adjacent building, forcing his medical emergency team to withdraw from Gaza days earlier than scheduled.

“I’ve witnessed with my own eyes an attack by the Israel Defense Forces on the intensive care unit there,” said Maynard, who works as a surgeon in Oxford and has been travelling to Gaza since 2010.

The Guardian spoke to volunteer healthcare workers from the UK who have travelled to Gaza with aid organisations since 7 October who claimed the Israeli military was deliberately targeting healthcare infrastructure. They also expressed concerns about continuing their humanitarian work in Gaza after seven international aid workers, including three Britons, were killed by an Israeli airstrike.

You can read the full story here:

Unrwa, the UN Palestinian refugee agency, which is the main UN agency in Gaza, said that six months of Israel’s war in Gaza meant “6 months of never-ending displacement” for the Palestinians in the enclave.

It said on X that “around 1.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes”, with it providing shelter for thousands of families with nowhere else to go.

Famine is “projected and imminent” in the northern half of Gaza, a UN-backed report said last month, and according to Oxfam, since December, the number of people in the Palestinian territory facing “catastrophic levels” of hunger has nearly doubled.

The vast majority of the population has been displaced by Israel’s war and much of the healthcare infrastructure in the besieged enclave destroyed.

A senior Iranian official has warned that none of Israel’s embassies were safe any more, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

Yahya Rahim Safavi, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, was quoted as saying that Tehran viewed confrontation with Israel as a “legitimate and legal right”.

Iran’s semi-official ISNA new agency published a graphic on Sunday that it said showcased nine different types of Iranian missiles it says are capable of hitting Israel.

It comes after Iran vowed revenge after an airstrike destroyed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing at least 11 people last week, including a senior commander in the al-Quds force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Israel has not confirmed it was behind the strike on Damascus. Though its leaders have said in more general terms that they are operating against Iran, which backs militant groups Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, both of which have been in combat with Israel for the past six months.

Preliminary hearings open on Monday at the UN’s top court in a case that seeks an end of German military and other aid to Israel, based on claims that Berlin is “facilitating” acts of genocide and breaches of international law in Israel’s war in Gaza.

Nicaragua has asked the court to hand down preliminary orders known as provisional measures, including that Germany “immediately suspend its aid to Israel, in particular its military assistance including military equipment in so far as this aid may be used in the violation of the Genocide Convention” and international law.

“We are calm and we will set out our legal position in court,” German foreign ministry spokesperson Sebastian Fischer said ahead of the hearings.

“We reject Nicaragua’s accusations,” Fischer told reporters in Berlin on Friday.

“Germany has breached neither the genocide convention nor international humanitarian law, and we will set this out in detail before the International Court of Justice.”

The international court of justice (ICJ) will probably take weeks to deliver its preliminary decision and Nicaragua’s case will probably drag on for years.

In January, the ICJ imposed provisional measures ordering Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and acts of genocide in Gaza. The orders came in a case filed by South Africa accusing Israel of breaching the Genocide Convention.

Israel strongly denies its military campaign amounts to breaches of the Genocide Convention.