22:45 An Israeli strike Sunday on south Lebanon killed a Hezbollah fighter, a source close to the group told AFP, with a security official saying the target was a high-level commander who survived.
20:20 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected conditions demanded by Hamas for the release of captives hours after the group released a report justifying its 7 October operation on Israel.
"In exchange for the release of our captives, Hamas demands an end to the war, the withdrawal of our forces from Gaza, and the release of all the Palestinian prisoners .... If we accept this, our soldiers have fallen in vain. If we accept this, we won't be able to guarantee the safety of our citizens," Netanyahu said.
19:00 The US, Egypt, and Qatar are pushing Israel and Hamas to join a phased diplomatic process that would start with a release of captives and, eventually, lead to a withdrawal of Israeli forces and an end to the war in Gaza, diplomats involved in mediating the talks told the Wall Street Journal.
Neither Israel nor Hamas has agreed to the terms of the new proposal, but people briefed on the talks said that both sides at least were again willing to engage in discussions after weeks of stalled talks. Negotiations are set to continue in Cairo in the coming days, according to the WSJ.
The mediators have proposed a 90-day plan that would first pause fighting for an unspecified number of days for Hamas to first release all Israeli civilian captives, while Israel would release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, withdraw forces from Gaza’s towns and cities, allow freedom of movement in the strip, end drone surveillance and double the amount of aid going into the enclave, according to the plan.
In the second phase, Hamas would free female Israeli soldiers and turn over bodies while Israel would release more Palestinian prisoners. A third phase would involve the release of Israeli soldiers and fighting-age men Hamas considers soldiers, according to Egyptian officials, while Israel would redeploy some of its forces outside the current borders of the Gaza Strip.
Also on the table: the formation of an international fund for the reconstruction of Gaza, and safety guarantees for Hamas political leaders, Egyptian officials said.
The plan then envisions talks for a permanent cease-fire, normalization of relations between Israel and Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, and the relaunching of a process to create a Palestinian state, Egyptian officials said.
18:40 The United States is taking the attack by Iran-backed militants on a base hosting US forces in Iraq over the weekend "extremely seriously," the White House said Sunday.
"Multiple ballistic missiles and rockets" were fired by Iranian-backed militants at Al-Assad Airbase in western Iraq late Saturday, the US military said, leading to one Iraqi and possible American casualties.
"It was a very serious attack, using a capability of ballistic missiles that posed a genuine threat," White House Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer said Sunday.
"We are going to respond... to establish deterrence in these situations, and to hold these groups accountable that continue to attack us," Finer added during his appearance on ABC's This Week.
"You can be assured that we are taking this extremely seriously."
Most of the projectiles fired at the base were intercepted by air defense systems, Finer and the Pentagon said.
Since mid-October, there have been dozens of attacks on the approximately 2,500 US troops in Iraq and the around 900 in Syria, deployed there with other coalition forces to fight jihadists of the Islamic State group.
Most incidents, including Saturday's attack, have been claimed by "Islamic Resistance in Iraq," a loose alliance of Iran-linked armed groups that oppose US support for Israel’s war on Gaza.
The use of ballistic missiles marks an escalation in the attacks, which had previously been carried out with lower-tech rockets and drones.
Saturday's air base attack comes amid soaring tensions in the Middle East following the outbreak of the Israel war on Gaza after the October 7 attacks.
18:00 Around 9,000 demonstrators marched through Brussels on Sunday calling for an end of Israel's fierce bombardment and fighting in Gaza, in a pro-Palestinian protest that ended in the EU district.
The march came a day before EU foreign ministers will meet their Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian, Saudi and Jordanian counterparts in a string of meetings to discuss the ongoing war in Gaza and the plight of Palestinian civilians.
Participants in the peaceful "Justice for Palestine" demonstration, whose size was estimated by Brussels police, yelled out "stop genocide", "Israel: terrorist" and "free Gaza".
Some also cried out "EU, shame on you" for perceived inaction by Brussels to protect Palestinian civilians while others urged a boycott on Israeli goods and businesses.
"We really need to unite against the genocide happening in Gaza and fight for an end to Israel's occupation," said one demonstrator, Victor Dumont.
"No people deserves that, whatever side they're on -- it's not possible," said another, Bahija Dioure.
On Monday, the 27 EU ministers will first meet with Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz, before sitting down separately with the Palestinian Authority's top diplomat Riyad al-Maliki.
Katz and Maliki are not expected to meet each other.
16:00 The Palestinian resistance group Hamas said Sunday that the 7 October operation that led to war with Israel was a "necessary step" but "chaos" had led to "faults" in the operation.
The attacks were "a necessary step and a normal response to confront all Israeli conspiracies against the Palestinian people," the group said in its first public account about the 7 October offensive, adding that "maybe some faults happened during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood's implementation due to the rapid collapse of the Israeli security and military system, and the chaos caused along the border areas with Gaza."
15:00 At least two people were killed and several others injured in a suspected Israeli drone strike on Sunday that targeted a car in southern Lebanon, security sources told Reuters.
Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily fire across the border after the Israeli war on Gaza broke out on 7 October.
Cross-border fire has killed more than 180 people in Lebanon, including over 135 Hezbollah fighters, but also more than 20 civilians, including three journalists, according to an AFP tally.
In northern Israel, nine soldiers and at least four civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.
13:30: Israel’s cabinet has approved a plan for frozen Palestinian tax funds to be held by a third-party country and reserved the right to decide when the money will be transferred to the Palestinian Authority (PA), Reuters reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the cabinet decision was supported by Norway and the US, which will be a guarantor that the framework holds.
In the initial days of the war on Gaza, Israel suspended the transfer of the monthly tax revenues that Israel collects for the Palestinian Authority, which has limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli government claimed that the decision was taken due to the PA's support for Operation Al Aqsa Flood, carried out by Hamas on 7 October.
Since then, the US Biden administration has been pressing Israel to release the Palestinian tax revenues, saying that suspending the transfer of the money will further destabilize the PA and its security services in the occupied West Bank.
12:30 The UK said on Sunday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's opposition to Palestinian sovereignty is "disappointing".
"I think it's disappointing to hear that from the Israeli prime minister," said Defence Secretary Grant Shapps on the Sky News channel.
12:00 Several US personnel in Iraq suffered injuries on Saturday evening after the Ain Al-Asad air base in western Iraq came under heavy rocket and missile fire from what American officials said were Iran-backed militants, US media reported.
It was the latest of roughly 140 such rocket and missile strikes against US troops based in Iraq and Syria since the Israeli war on Gaza broke out on 7 October.
Most of the missiles were intercepted by the base's air defence systems, US Central Command said in a statement. A damage assessment is ongoing.
A "number" of US personnel are being evaluated for traumatic brain injuries, CENTCOM said, without specifying how many.
According to the Pentagon, dozens of US personnel have been lightly wounded in previous attacks.
There are roughly 2,500 American troops in Iraq and some 900 in Syria.
11:00 The Palestinian Health Ministry updated the Palestinian death toll in the Israeli war on Gaza to at least 25,105 people since 7 October.
A ministry statement also said that 62,681 people have been wounded.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says about 1.7 million people have been displaced in Gaza, with about one million crowded into the Rafah area.
UN agencies have warned better aid access is needed urgently as famine and disease loom.
10:00 Israeli forces have killed 20-30 percent of Hamas’s fighters, US intelligence agencies estimate, a toll that falls short so far of Israel’s goal of destroying the group and shows its resilience after months of war that has laid swaths of the Gaza Strip to ruin, WSJ reported.
The US estimate also found that Hamas still has enough munitions to continue fighting for months and that the group is attempting to reconstitute its police force in parts of Gaza City, US officials, who confirmed a classified report, told WSJ.
Israeli officials have conceded that, despite an aggressive air and ground campaign inside Gaza that has killed thousands of civilians, they have not achieved their goal of destroying Hamas. The group’s fighters have adjusted their tactics, operating in smaller groups and hiding between ambushes on Israeli troops. In contrast, individual fighters are likely taking on more tasks to pick up the slack from their dead comrades, military analysts said.
Meanwhile, Biden administration officials have begun to scale down their expectations of Hamas's destruction to just a degradation of it as a security threat, according to WSJ.
195 Israeli soldiers have died in Gaza since the start of Israel’s ground campaign, with more than 1,200 wounded, according to the Israeli army.
The US estimated that Hamas had between 25,000 and 30,000 fighters before the war, in addition to thousands of police and other forces.
09:00 Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh met with the Turkish foreign minister, diplomatic sources said Sunday, in the first official contact between the two for more than three months.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Haniyeh on Saturday in Turkey, the sources said, as reported by AFP.
Increasing humanitarian aid into Gaza and a two-state solution for permanent peace were the main topics of discussions, according to the sources.
The two sides also discussed the release of the remaining captives in Gaza, along with the establishment of "a ceasefire as quickly as possible."
Fidan and Haniyeh last had official contact in a phone call on 16 October.
09:00 Britain's Ministry of Defense said it would spend $514 million to upgrade a missile system that the Royal Navy now uses to shoot down hostile drones over the Red Sea, Reuters reported.
"As the situation in the Middle East worsens, it is vital that we adapt to keep the UK, our allies, and partners safe," Defense Minister Grant Shapps said in the statement.
On Tuesday, the United States carried out fresh strikes against Yemen's Houthi rebels, the military said, targeting an anti-ship missile that was "prepared to launch."
Saturday's operation marks the fifth round of strikes by the United States on the rebel group in recent weeks.
The Houthi rebels have continued their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, despite more than a week of US and UK strikes on their sites in Yemen, and have vowed to keep targeting Israeli-linked vessels in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
'Retain control'
The United States, which provides Israel with billions of dollars in military aid, has urged it to take more care to protect civilians. Still, they have disagreed over Gaza's future governance.
Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden discussed the post-war future of Gaza in a call on Friday, their first in almost a month.
Biden said it was still possible Netanyahu could agree to some form of Palestinian state, but Netanyahu's office said in a statement on Saturday Israel "must retain security control over Gaza to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel".
That, it said, was "a requirement that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty".
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Uganda the Palestinian right to statehood "must be recognised by all" and that its denial was "unacceptable".
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA says about 1.7 million people have been displaced in Gaza, with about one million crowded into the Rafah area.
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA reported just 15 bakeries operating across Gaza and that water availability "is shrinking every day".
UN agencies have warned better aid access is needed urgently as famine and disease loom.
Spy chief
The war has sent regional tensions soaring, with a surge in violence from Lebanon to Yemen and beyond.
Iranian media said an Israeli strike on Damascus killed the Revolutionary Guards' spy chief in Syria and four other Guards members, prompting a threat of retaliation from Tehran's foreign ministry.
Israel, which declined to comment on the Damascus strike, has intensified attacks on targets in Syria since October 7.
Deadly exchanges have also occurred regularly between Israeli forces and Lebanon's Hezbollah.
Lebanon's official National News Agency reported two deaths in an Israeli strike on Saturday, and Hezbollah later said one of its fighters had been killed.
In western Iraq, a military base used by US-led coalition forces came under missile attack, US Central Command said.
The Tehran-aligned Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack.
The US military also said it carried out fresh strikes on Saturday against Yemen's Houthi rebels, who say they have been hitting Israeli-linked shipping in the vital Red Sea shipping lanes in solidarity with Gaza.
'Elections now'
Hundreds of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv, Haifa, and near Netanyahu's Jerusalem residence on Saturday, demanding action to secure captives' release.
Some carried banners calling for "elections now" to replace Netanyahu's hard-right government over its handling of the war.
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