Israel continues Gaza onslaught, killing dozens including Hamas leader and wife

The liveblog has now ended and will be back tomorrow at 9am GMT. You can read more of The New Arab's coverage of Israel's war on Gaza here.

Israel's cabinet passed a vote of no confidence on Sunday in the attorney general, the justice minister said, moving against a vocal critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The decision came two days after the government fired the head of the country's internal security agency, a decision subsequently frozen by Israel's Supreme Court and which triggered anti-government demonstrations.

Israel has sent military reinforcements to the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, which adds that Israeli forces and armoured vehicles continue to roam the area.

US National Security Advisor Michael Waltz has claimed that US airstrikes have killed the Houthis top missile specialist in comments made to CBS News.

Haaretz quoted him as saying that "we've hit their headquarters, we've hit their communications nodes, weapons factories, and even some of their over-the-water drone production facilities". He did not specify which top leader was killed however.

The Israeli military confirmed in a statement on Sunday that it killed Salah al-Bardawil, a Hamas political leader, on Saturday.

Hamas said earlier in the day that Bardawil was killed in an airstrike on Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

(Reuters)

US President Donald Trump's outreach to Iran's top authority, Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on a possible new nuclear deal is an effort to avoid military action, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday.

"We don't need to solve everything militarily," he told Fox News.

"Our signal to Iran is let's sit down and see if we can, through dialogue, through diplomacy, get to the right place. If we can, we are prepared to do that. And if we can't, the alternative is not a great alternative." 

(Reuters)

The Hamas militant group is responsible for the renewed fighting in Gaza after rejecting efforts to move forward with what had been an "acceptable deal," US special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday, even as he said he would be open to new outreach.

"So this is on Hamas. The United States stands with the state of Israel," Witkoff told Fox News. "Hamas had every opportunity to demilitarize, to accept the bridging proposal."

"Would we be amenable to a reach out from Hamas? Of course, we would be - no different than in the Russian conflict (in Ukraine). We want to end the killing, but we need to be clear who the aggressor is here, and that is Hamas," he said.

(Reuters)

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas will visit Israel and the occupied Palestinian West Bank on Monday to urge an immediate resumption of the ceasefire agreement for Gaza, her service said.

The top European diplomat will meet Israeli and Palestinian authorities to press for "an immediate return to the full implementation of the ceasefire-hostage release agreement", it said.

The Israeli military said on Sunday it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen before it crossed into Israeli territory.

The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the group fired a ballistic missile toward Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a televised statement on Sunday.

Saree said the attack led to the suspension of air traffic at the airport for over half an hour.

Israel Airports Authority, however, said that the airport was not affected.

Israel's Economic Affairs Committee on Sunday gave its final approval to a plan to build another international airport in the south of the country, not far from the area near the border with Gaza where the October attacks took place.

According to a bill pending approval in parliament, the airport would be built in the town of Nevatim, about 65 kilometres (40 miles) - less than an hour's drive from the Gaza border and adjacent to a military airbase in the Negev desert that is home to F-35 fighter jets.

The airbase was targeted by Iranian missiles last October.

The Houthis claimed responsibility for an attack against Israel on Sunday, saying that it fired a ballistic missile toward Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, the group's military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said in a televised statement on Sunday.

Saree said the attack led to the suspension of air traffic at the airport for over half an hour.

(Reuters)

The Israeli army has announced it has surrounded the Rafah neighbourhood of Tal as-Sultan after it issued a displacement order to Palestinians in the area.

According to the military the offensive is to "dismantle terror infrastructure and eliminate terrorists in the area," as well as to "reinforce control and expand the security zone in southern Gaza", Haaretz reported. 

Lebanon's health ministry said one person was killed Sunday in an Israeli drone strike, a day after the most intense escalation since a November ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah.

"The Israeli enemy raid with a drone on a car in Aita al-Shaab led to the death of one citizen," the health ministry said, after the official National News Agency (NNA) had reported the strike on the southern village.

The NNA also reported separate Israeli strikes on Sunday on Naqurah, Shihin and Labbouneh in the south, near the Israeli border.

Pope Francis called Sunday for an "immediate" end to Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip, and for the resumption of dialogue for the release of hostages and a "definitive ceasefire".

"I ask that the weapons be silenced immediately and that the courage be found to resume dialogue so that all the hostages can be freed and a definitive ceasefire reached", Francis wrote in an Angelus prayer that was published Sunday.

Israel's security cabinet approved a plan to separate 13 Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank from their neighbouring communities, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday.

The settlements will ultimately be recognised as independent, he posted on X about the move, which follows the approval of tens of thousands of housing units across the West Bank.

"We continue to lead a revolution of normalisation and regulation in the settlements. Instead of hiding and apologising - we raise the flag, build and settle. This is another important step on the path to actual sovereignty in Judea and Samaria," Smotrich said, using Israel's term for the West Bank.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry criticised the approval of the separation of the neighbourhoods and their recognition as independent settlements as disregarding international legitimacy and resolutions.

Hamas, the Palestinian militant group governing Gaza, condemned the move in the West Bank, describing it as a "desperate attempt to impose realities on the ground and consolidate colonial occupation on Palestinian lands".

(Reuters)

Palestinian health authorities said Israel's war on Gaza has killed more than 50,000 people.

At least 50,021 Palestinians have been killed and 113,274 wounded since the beginning of the war, the health ministry said in a statement.

(Reuters)

Israeli strikes have killed 35 people across the Gaza on Sunday, according to Al Jazeera, which is also reporting that a drone strike targeted people leaving the Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood, west of Rafah.

13 people have been arrested in Israeli raids on the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, which is reporting that five arrests in the city of Qalqilya, three in the town of Silwad near Ramallah, three in the village of Yatma near Nablus, one in the village of Burin south of Nablus, and in the village of Bir al-Basha south of Jenin.

Protests are planned in Jerusalem against the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his plans to dismiss Israel's Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara during a cabinet session today.

The protesters are planned to march from near Netanyahu's residence to the government quarter in Givat Ram, according to Times of Israel. 

The new move to fire the Attorney General comes amid Israel's dismissal of the head of the domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet and, along with the renewal of its war on Gaza, has generated fierce opposition and six consecutive days of protests against the Netanyahu government.

Talks with the United States are no longer possible unless certain things change, Iranian state media reported Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi as saying on Sunday as Washington awaits a response to its invitation for talks on a new nuclear deal.

Tehran this month received a letter from US President Donald Trump giving Iran two months to decide whether it would enter new negotiations or face stricter sanctions under Trump's renewed "maximum pressure" campaign.

While Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected the offer for talks as deceptive, Iran's foreign minister said on Thursday that Tehran would soon reply to both the letter's threats and opportunities.

On Sunday Araqchi added that Iran was not opposed to talks out of "stubbornness", but rather as a result of history and experience, adding that Washington needs to recalibrate its policy before Tehran takes part in talks.

"In my opinion, the 2015 pact in its current form cannot be revived. It would not be in our interest because our nuclear situation has advanced significantly and we can no longer return to previous conditions," Araqchi said.

"The same can be said of the other side's sanctions. The 2015 nuclear pact can still be a basis and model for negotiations."

(Reuters)

The Israeli military on Sunday urged residents of the southern Gaza city of Rafah to evacuate as it says its forces launched an offensive against militants in the area.

In a statement on X, military spokesman Avichay Adraee said the army "launched an offensive to strike the terrorist organisations" in Rafah's Tal al-Sultan district.

Adraee called on Palestinians there to leave the "dangerous combat zone" and move further north.

Leaflets bearing the same message were dropped over Tal al-Sultan by drone, AFP correspondents said.

An Israeli drone targeted a car in a southern Lebanese town on Sunday, state media reported, a day after the most intense escalation since a November ceasefire.

"An Israeli drone carried out an airstrike this morning, launching a guided missile targeting a car in the town of Aita al-Shaab" near the border with Israel, Lebanon's official National News Agency said, reporting an unspecified number of casualties.