Gaza: Arab leaders call for ceasefire as Israel offensive intensifies

Israeli strikes on tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis have killed at least 24 people, medics said early on Sunday.

The strikes killed women and children, wounded dozens of others and set tents ablaze.

The United States' embassy in Tripoli has denied reports of a plan to expel up to 1 million Palestinians from Gaza to Libya, Reuters reported.

An NBC News  report on Thursday cited five people with knowledge of the matter, including two people with direct knowledge and a former U.S. official, saying that a plan was being worked on.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that it intercepted a missile that was launched from Yemen toward Israel.

Sirens sounded in several areas in Israel, the military added.

Yemen's Houthi rebels have continued to fire missiles at Israel in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, although they have agreed to halt attacks on U.S. ships.

Israel has carried out strikes on Yemen, including one on May 6 that damaged Yemen's main airport in Sanaa and killed several people.

Syria announces creation of national commission for missing persons

 Three activists affiliated with Paletine Action Eire were arrested after spraying red paint on a US military-contracted plane at Shannon Airport in a protest against Ireland’s role in supporting Western military action in the Middle East.

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets on London on Saturday to protest against Israel's continued war on Gaza and to mark the 77th anniversary of the Nakba -- the ethnic cleansing of Palestine that led to the creation of the state of Israel.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a fresh telephone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, his spokeswoman said, after Israel's army launched an intensified offensive in Gaza.

"Secretary Rubio spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tonight from Rome. They discussed the situation in Gaza and their joint efforts to secure the release of all remaining hostages," Rubio spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators clashed with riot police in Basel as the Swiss city hosted the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday, according to AFP journalists at the scene.

Protesters demonstrating against Israel's participation in the contest while it ramps up its war on Gaza clashed briefly with police in the centre of the city shortly before Israel's Eurovision entrant Yuval Raphael took to the stage at the St. Jakobshalle venue across town.

European Council President Antonio Costa said on Saturday that he was "shocked" at the situation in Gaza, which is the target of an expanded Israeli offensive.

"Shocked by the news from Gaza: starving civilians, hospitals hit again by strikes. The violence must stop!" Costa said in a statement online.

He called on the Israeli government to immediately end the blockade and ensure safe, swift, and unhindered access to humanitarian aid.

Israel launched an intensified offensive in Gaza on Saturday aimed at "the defeat of Hamas", with rescuers in the Palestinian territory reporting at least 32 killed by new Israeli strikes against the militant group.

"What is happening in Gaza is a humanitarian tragedy. A whole people are subjected to overwhelming and disproportionate military force," Costa said.

He added that a lasting ceasefire and the immediate, unconditional release of all captives held by Hamas were more urgent than ever.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said from Baghdad, where he is attending an Arab League summit, that he was "alarmed" by Israel's plans to expand ground operations in Gaza.

He again called for a permanent ceasefire and the end of the Israeli blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza since March 2.

Hamas have issued a statement welcoming the Arab League's statement urging for an end to Israel's war on Gaza and the resumption of aid deliveries into the besieged territory.

The group said the Arab states should now focus on "translating these important positions into tangible practical steps, through urgent measures and mechanisms to halt the aggression and massacres, lift the siege, activate the Arab-Islamic recovery plan, the Gaza Reconstruction Fund, care for orphans and the wounded, and implement the decisions of the Arab-Islamic Summit in Riyadh (November 2023), which called for breaking the siege and allowing the immediate entry of aid".

Germany is "deeply concerned" about the situation in Gaza, where it said an intensified Israeli offensive could endanger the lives of hostages, including Germans, the foreign ministry said Saturday.

The offensive "could put the lives of the remaining hostages, including those of German hostages, in danger", said a ministry statement.

"A broad military offensive also risks worsening further the catastrophic humanitarian situation for Gaza's population and the remaining hostages," it added.

Arab leaders said they welcomed a US decision to lift sanctions on war-ravaged Syria, in a joint final statement at a summit in Baghdad on Saturday.

"The reconstruction of Syria is impacted by economic and financial sanctions," the statement from the Arab League summit said. "We welcome the US President Donald Trump's announcement to lift the sanctions imposed" on Syria.

Arab leaders on Saturday urged the international community to apply pressure for a Gaza ceasefire and humanitarian aid access to the besieged Palestinian territory.

"We call on the international community... to exert pressure to end the bloodshed and ensure that urgent humanitarian aid can enter without obstacles all areas in need in Gaza," the leaders said in a joint final statement at a summit in Baghdad.

Arab leaders urged the international community on Saturday to fund their plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip after US President Donald Trump reiterated a proposal to take over the Palestinian territory.

An Arab League summit in Baghdad said in its final statement that it urges "countries and international and regional financial institutions to provide prompt financial support" to back its Gaza reconstruction plan.

Syrian government security forces raided Islamic State hideouts in Aleppo, killing one militant and arresting others, according to Syrian interior ministry spokesperson.

A member of the Syrian security forces was also killed in clashes during the raid, spokesperson added. 

A new round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel is underway in Qatar's Doha, Hamas official Taher al-Nono told Reuters on Saturday.

He said the two sides were discussing all issues without "pre-conditions".

Nono said Hamas was "keen to exert all the effort needed" to help mediators make the negotiations a success, adding there was "no certain offer on the table".

The negotiations come despite Israel preparing to expand operations in the Gaza Strip as they seek "operational control" in some areas of the war-torn enclave.

The return to negotiations also comes after U.S. President Donald Trump ended a Middle East tour on Friday with no apparent progress towards a new ceasefire, although he acknowledged Gaza's growing hunger crisis and the need for aid deliveries.

Italy's government on Saturday upped its exhortations to Israel to stop deadly military strikes in Gaza, with Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani saying: "Enough with the attacks."

"We no longer want to see the Palestinian people suffer," Tajani said during a trip to Sicily, in remarks relayed by his spokesman.

"Let's come to a ceasefire, let's free the hostages, but let's leave people who are victims of Hamas alone," he was cited as saying.

The airport in the rebel-held Yemeni capital Sanaa resumed limited commercial flights on Saturday, Houthi authorities said, after damage from Israeli air strikes forced a suspension earlier this month.

"Today we are resuming flights to and from Sanaa airport after its rehabilitation," the Houthi administration's deputy transport minister, Yahya al-Sayani, told the rebels' Al-Masirah television.

The broadcaster earlier reported the "arrival at Sanaa airport of a first Yemenia Airways flight with 136 passengers on board".

The airport, which since 2022 has handled UN humanitarian flights and a limited commercial service by Yemenia to and from Amman, was heavily bombed by Israel on 6 May in response to a Houthi missile strike on Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on Arab leaders participating in the 34th Arab Summit in Baghdad, to adopt an Arab plan to end the war in Gaza.

He said: "[We must] adopt an Arab plan to end the war, establish peace, including the following: first, a permanent ceasefire, immediate release of all Palestinian detainees and Israeli captives, and the unconditional delivery of relief aid, in addition to the total withdrawal by the Israeli occupation forces from the Gaza Strip."

In his address, Abbas said the Palestinian territories need support from "the Arab states, the US administration and the UN Security Council to stand up to this imperial enterprise".

He also called on Hamas and other armed factions to disarm and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, who he called the "sole representative of the Palestinian people".

Most importantly, he said that he wants "the establishment of the Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories with full recognition by the world community".

Israel's military said it killed a local Hezbollah commander on Saturday in south Lebanon, where authorities reported one dead in the fourth Israeli strike within days despite a November ceasefire.

Lebanon's health ministry said one person was killed in an Israeli "drone strike" on a vehicle in south Lebanon's Tyre district.

An AFP correspondent saw the charred wreckage of a vehicle in Abu al-Aswad, an area around 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border.

The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces "struck and eliminated... a commander" involved in "the re-establishment of Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure" in south Lebanon.

Israel has continued to launch strikes on its neighbour despite the November 27 truce which sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah militants including two months of full-blown war.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged his US counterpart Donald Trump on Saturday to apply pressure for a Gaza ceasefire.

"I call on President Trump, as a leader who wants to consolidate peace, to apply all necessary efforts and pressure for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip," which would pave the way "for a serious political process in which he would be a mediator and a sponsor," Sisi said in an address to an Arab League summit in Baghdad.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called on Saturday for "pressure on Israel to halt the massacre in Gaza" and said Madrid plans a UN resolution demanding an International Court of Justice ruling on Israel's war methods.

Sanchez told an Arab League summit in Baghdad that world leaders should "intensify our pressure on Israel to halt the massacre in Gaza, particularly through the channels afforded to us by international law", adding that the "unacceptable number" of victims of the Israel-Hamas war violates the "principle of humanity".

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that Israel is "a dangerous, deadly cancerous tumor in the region" that must be uprooted.

"Undoubtedly, in this region, the source of corruption, war, and conflict is the Zionist regime — a dangerous, deadly cancerous tumor in the region — and it must be uprooted and it will be uprooted," he said, according to state media

Iraq Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, whose country is hosting an Arab League summit, said Saturday it would provide $40 million for the reconstruction of Lebanon and Gaza after wars with Israel.

Iraq backs the creation of an "Arab fund to support reconstruction efforts" after crises in the region, Sudani told Arab leaders in Baghdad. Iraq will contribute "$20 million to the reconstruction of Gaza and $20 million for the reconstruction of Lebanon," he added.

Israeli forces detained a Palestinian man Saturday, after opening fire towards his vehicle near the Jaba' military checkpoint, northeast of Jerusalem.

Eyewitnesses told the Wafa agency that Israeli army patrols pursued a Palestinian civilian vehicle, opened fire towards it, before detaining the owner, whose identity has not yet been identified.

Israeli forces then sealed off the checkpoint and prevented people from passing through it.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society issued a warning statement concerning the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

"Gaza is left to starve and ache, with zero aid trucks entering since March 2".

"Let Aid In. Let Gaza Live."

A Palestinian man was killed after being shot by Israeli forces in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem, near Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Jerusalem governorate said that Mohammad Nidal Abu Libdeh was shot and left bleeding by the Israeli forces at the entrance to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, according to the Wafa news agency.

The Israeli army stormed the town of Beit Hanina, and raided his home. They also detained several members of his family after the incident.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that U.S. President Donald Trump speaks simultaneously about peace and threat.

"Which should we believe?

"On the one hand, he speaks of peace and on the other, he threatens with the most advanced tools of mass killing," Pezeshkian said.

He said Tehran will continue Iran-U.S. nuclear talks but is not afraid of threats. "We are not seeking war," he said. 

Regional leaders are set to meet in Baghdad on Saturday at the annual summit of the Arab League, with the war in Gaza expected to once again loom large.

Saturday’s summit comes after Israel ended a ceasefire reached with Hamas in January. In recent days, Israel has launched widespread attacks in Gaza and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed a further escalation of force.

It also comes two months after a summit in March in Cairo which saw a proposal for a reconstruction plan for the war-battered territory,