Israeli strikes kill 70 in Gaza amid Trump claim of Israeli pause in strikes

TNA’s live coverage of the latest from the war on Gaza concludes for today. Join us again tomorrow at 0800 GMT for updates from the besieged Palestinian enclave.
 

President Donald Trump on Sunday said talks on implementing a truce for Gaza will take days, while his foreign policy chief Marco Rubio warned that Israel needs to stop bombing for a hostage release to happen.

"They're in negotiations right now as we speak. They've started the negotiations. It'll last a couple of days," Trump told reporters at the White House.

"We'll see how it turns out. But I'm hearing it's going very well," he added.

In a text exchange with CNN released Sunday, Trump said "yes" when asked if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on board with ending the military campaign in Gaza.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz discussed developments in Gaza and the situation in Ukraine in a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump, a German government spokesperson said.

"They agreed there must be a swift agreement at the talks in Egypt," the spokesperson said.

On Ukraine, Merz informed Trump about plans to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukrainian armed forces. Both agreed to continue working for a rapid end of the Russian war of aggression. 

Israel has deported a further 29 activists detained by the navy last week for taking part in a flotilla that sought to deliver aid to blockaded Gaza, the foreign ministry said on Sunday.

Israel has so far deported at least 170 of the more than 450 activists it detained. The government has faced accusations of mistreatment, including allegations that some activists were denied access to their lawyers - claims that the foreign ministry denies.

The Greek foreign ministry said its ambassador had visited its 27 citizens who had been detained and that they were all in "good health". The ministry said the Greek nationals were expected to be deported on Monday.

The South African government also said a delegation had visited its detained citizens, who were reported to be in "good health and high spirits".

An Israeli government spokesperson said there is currently no ceasefire in effect in Gaza, only a temporary pause in some bombing operations.

The spokesperson added that the army retains the right to continue its operations in Gaza for defensive purposes.

Israeli negotiators are set to depart for Egypt tonight, with talks over the release of captives expected to begin tomorrow.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday that the military's offensive in Gaza City has so far displaced approximately 900,000 Palestinians.

"The decision to occupy Gaza, the collapse of multi-storey buildings, and the intensity of [Israeli army] operations in the city have led to the evacuation of roughly 900,000 residents to the south, creating immense pressure on Hamas and the countries that support it," Katz said in a speech in Jerusalem.

Before the start of the military assault in late August, the United Nations estimated that roughly one million people lived in and around Gaza City, the largest urban centre in the Gaza Strip.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Hamas will face "complete obliteration" if the Palestinian group refuses to give up power and control of Gaza as he seeks to implement his plan to end conflict in Gaza.

When asked if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on board with ending the bombing in Gaza and supporting the United States' broader vision, Trump told CNN on Saturday, "Yes on Bibi."

In the interview that aired on Sunday, Trump added that he expects to soon know whether Hamas is committed to peace. 

The war in Gaza has "not yet" ended, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday, describing the release of the hostages held by Hamas as the first phase, while details on what happens after that still need to be worked out.

He said Hamas had "basically" agreed to President Donald Trump's proposal and the framework for releasing the hostages, while meetings were underway to coordinate the logistics of that.

"They have also agreed, in principle and generalities, to enter into this idea about what's going to happen afterwards," he said. "A lot of details are going to have to be worked out there."

He said the U.S. would know "very quickly" whether Hamas was serious or not during the current technical talks to coordinate the release of the hostages.

"Priority number one, the one that we think we can achieve something very quickly on hopefully, is the release of all the hostages in exchange for Israel moving back" to the yellow line - where Israel stood within Gaza in the middle of August - Rubio said.

He described the second phase of the long-term future of Gaza as "even harder." "What happens after Israel pulls back to the yellow line, and potentially beyond that, as this thing develops?

"How do you create this Palestinian technocratic leadership that's not Hamas?" Rubio said.

"How do you disarm any sort of terrorist groups that are going to be building tunnels and conducting attacks against Israel? How do you get them to demobilize?"

"All that work, that's going to be hard, but that's critical, because without that, you're not going to have lasting peace," he added.

Israel said Sunday that its team of negotiators would depart for Egypt later in the day for indirect talks with Hamas expected to begin on Monday.

"The team will be leaving tonight, with plans for talks to begin tomorrow," government spokeswoman Shosh Badrosian told reporters, describing the discussions as "technical" in nature.

Germany will "decisively commit" to implementing US President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan, calling it a "unique opportunity", Berlin's foreign minister said Sunday ahead of a visit to Qatar and Kuwait.

"For the swift implementation of the American plan ... rapid international cooperation is necessary," said Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, calling the proposal a "unique opportunity" ahead of the expected start of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

Wadephul said Berlin would be making "concrete offers" as a "partner for humanitarian aid, stabilisation and reconstruction" of Gaza.

The region as a whole requires stabilisation "with lasting security for all, (with) a political perspective for the Palestinians and finally the normalisation of relations between all states with Israel," he added.

Wadephul is due to meet with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani later on Sunday regarding "the immediate release" of the hostages, noting that they included German nationals.

Wadephul will also participate in Gulf Cooperation Council talks with EU and regional countries in Kuwait on Sunday and Monday.

Hamas on Sunday called for a swift start to a hostage-prisoner exchange with Israel as negotiators from the two warring sides meet in Egypt for crucial talks aimed at ending the nearly two-year war.

Foreign ministers of several countries, including Egypt, said the talks were a "real opportunity" to achieve a comprehensive and sustainable ceasefire in Gaza.

"Hamas is very keen to reach an agreement to end the war and immediately begin the prisoner exchange process in accordance with the field conditions," a senior Hamas official told AFP news agency on condition of anonymity.

The diplomatic push follows the Palestinian group's positive response to US President Donald Trump's roadmap for the release of captives in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

Negotiators are due to hold talks in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressing hope that hostages held in Gaza could be released within days.

Netanyahu said Saturday he had instructed negotiators to go to Egypt "to finalise the technical details", while Cairo confirmed it would also be hosting a delegation from Hamas for talks on "the ground conditions and details of the exchange of all Israeli detainees and Palestinian prisoners".

Egyptian state-linked media said the two parties would hold indirect talks on Sunday and Monday, just before the second anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack that was followed by a two-year long devastating war on Gaza.

Members of local committees in Syria began on Sunday selecting members of a transitional parliament, in a process criticised as undemocratic, with a third of the members appointed directly by interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.

The assembly's formation is set to consolidate the power of Sharaa, whose Islamist forces led a coalition that toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December after more than 13 years of civil war.

AFP news agency reported that dozens of members of the local committees were queueing at Syria's National Library, formerly called the Assad National Library, to cast their vote.

According to the organising committee, more than 1,500 candidates -- just 14 percent of them women -- are running for the assembly, which will have a renewable 30-month mandate.

Sharaa is to appoint 70 representatives out of the 210-member body.

The other two-thirds will be selected by local committees appointed by the electoral commission, which itself was appointed by Sharaa.

But southern Syria's Druze-majority Suweida province, which suffered sectarian bloodshed in July, and the country's Kurdish-held northeast are excluded from the process for now as they are outside Damascus's control, and their 32 seats will remain empty.

Eight people were arrested and 20 police officers injured in clashes between pro-Palestinian protesters and police in Barcelona, police said on Sunday.

Demonstrators vandalised shops, which they claimed had links to Israel, during a mainly peaceful march of 70,000 protesters on Saturday, police said.

Tens of thousands took part in protests in Madrid and scores of other Spanish cities as well as demonstrations in Rome and Lisbon amid anger after the Israeli interception of the Global Sumud aid flotilla that had set sail from Barcelona, trying to break the blockade of the Palestinian territory.

Out of the 49 Spaniards who were detained by Israeli forces on the aid flotilla, 21 will fly back to Spain from Tel Aviv on Sunday, the Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told Spanish television RTVE.

Spain, which recognised a Palestinian state in May 2024 and has been a vocal critic of Israel's actions in Gaza, last month banned ships and aircraft delivering weapons or military-grade jet fuel to Israel. 

Spain said 21 of 49 citizens detained on a Gaza aid flotilla were due to leave Israel for home on Sunday.

"We have reached an agreement with Israel that ... a first group of 21 Spanish citizens will leave Tel Aviv today and arrive in Spain," Foreign Affairs Minister Jose Manuel Albares told Spanish public TV.

"We have the agreement of the authorities of Israel. Let's hope nothing goes wrong at the last moment," he added.

The Global Sumud Flotilla set sail last month, ferrying politicians and activists including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg towards Gaza, where the United Nations says famine is taking hold.

The Israeli navy began intercepting the boats on Wednesday, and an Israeli official said the following day that boats with more than 400 people on board had been prevented from reaching the Palestinian territory.

The Israeli military on Sunday said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen that was later claimed by Houthi rebels, who have regularly targeted Israel during the Gaza war.

"Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted" by the air force, the Israeli military said.

The Iran-backed Houthis later said they had carried out a "sensitive military operation using a hypersonic ballistic missile aimed at Israeli targets in the occupied Jerusalem area".

Hamas leader and head of the negotiation team, Khalil al-Hayya, gave his first interview since surviving an Israeli assassination attempt in Doha, speaking to Al Arabiya early this morning.

Addressing the attack, which killed his son and several others, al-Hayya said: "There is no difference between any martyr in Gaza and my son."

The death toll from an Israeli attack on Palestinians waiting for aid in southern Gaza has risen to four.

According to the Nasser Medical Complex, Israeli forces opened fire on civilians near a distribution centre north of Rafah.

Israel has been accused of detaining Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg in harsh conditions after her participation in the Sumud flotilla to Gaza.

An email from Sweden’s foreign ministry to Thunberg’s relatives, obtained by The Guardian, reportedly describes poor treatment during her detention in Israel. Thunberg allegedly told Swedish officials who visited her that she had been mistreated, while another activist claimed she was forced to hold Israeli flags.

A source familiar with her situation said Thunberg is being kept in a cell infested with fleas, with inadequate food and water. Malaysian activist Hazwani Helmi and American participant Windfield Beaver, who spoke to Turkish media at Istanbul Airport, also alleged that Thunberg was shoved and made to kiss an Israeli flag.

Israeli forces have shot and killed a Palestinian waiting for aid near a distribution centre in southern Gaza, according to Gaza’s Emergency and Ambulance Service.

In a separate incident, medical staff at al-Ahli Hospital reported that the body of a child was recovered after an Israeli airstrike hit a home in Tuffah, east of Gaza City.

Negotiators were converging on Cairo on Sunday ahead of talks aimed at ending nearly two years of war in Gaza, with Israel's leader expressing hope that the hostages still being held there would be released in a matter of days.

The diplomatic moves came after the Palestinian group Hamas responded positively to US President Donald Trump's roadmap for freeing the captives and administering post-war Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that he had ordered negotiators to Egypt "to finalise the technical details", while Cairo confirmed it would also be hosting a delegation from Hamas for talks on "the ground conditions and details of the exchange of all Israeli detainees and Palestinian prisoners".

Egyptian state-linked media had previously reported that the warring parties would hold indirect talks on Sunday and Monday.

Trump also dispatched two envoys to Egypt on Saturday, according to the White House, sending his son-in-law Jared Kushner and his main Middle East negotiator Steve Witkoff.

The US president warned he would "not tolerate delay" from Hamas, urging the group to move quickly towards a deal "or else all bets will be off".