Middle East crisis live: ‘measurable progress’ in delivering aid to Gaza but ceasefire ‘most effective’ to address humanitarian suffering, says Blinken (2024)

Antony Blinken has told a meeting of regional leaders in Riyadh that the most effective way to alleviate humanitarian suffering in Gaza is to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Speaking in Saudi Arabia, the US secretary of state said that there had been “measurable progress” in delivering aid to Gaza, which Israel has beseiged for six months, but more is needed.

International aid agency groups have repeatedly warned of imminent famine, especially in the north of Gaza, due to a failure to get in more aid while the territory undergoes near continuous aerial bombardment from Israeli forces. At least 20 Palestinians including five children were reported killed by airstrikes overnight in Rafah, where an estimated one million displaced people are sheltering. The office of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said it does not accept the assessment there is famine in the territory.

Blinken said that Iran was the biggest source of instability in the region. He said that events of the last few months had shown in the “sharpest possible relief” that there were two possible paths ahead.

One, he said, was “riven with division, destruction and violence and permanent insecurity.”

He suggested, however, that meetings such as today showed that there were far more nations in the region interested in the second path, of “greater integration, greater security, greater peace”.

“Many more of us want to pursue that path,” Blinken said.

Blinken is scheduled to meet Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, speak at a World Economic Forum event in Riyadh, and also meet Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan and other regional representatives before an anticipated visit to Israel later in the week.

Antony Blinken has said that Iran is the greatest threat to stability in the region, and also addressed the issue of Yemen Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken is speaking in Saudi Arabia. We will bring you any key lines that emerge.

More details soon …

Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Rafah for Al Jazeera, has said that it has been “an extremely difficult night for civilians”. Conflicting numbers are being given by different local media outlets, but he states that “at least 20 Palestinians were killed, including five children” by Israeli airstrikes.

He wrote for the news network:

Hospitals in densely populated areas were flooded with people and bodies piled up in morgues before being taken for burial. We have also been hearing about artillery attacks on other areas in the territory, including in the Bureij refugee camp. Battles were also raging overnight between Hamas fighters and Israeli soldiers close to Nuseirat junction in central Gaza.

Reuters, citing a statement on the Telegram messaging app, reports that the Hamas’ al Qassam Brigades said on Monday it had targeted an Israeli military position with a salvo of missiles from south Lebanon.

More details soon …

Talks on a ceasefire in Gaza are progressing, French foreign minister Stéphane Séjourné said on Monday in Riyadh, where he was due to meet other ministers of Arab and western countries as well as Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas.

“Things are moving forward but you always have to be careful in these discussions and negotiations. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic and we need a ceasefire,” he told Reuters.

There are conflicting local media reports on the number of people killed overnight by Israeli airstrikes on Rafah, with some outlets putting the number as high as 22.

Israel’s military, meanwhile, despite continued diplomatic efforts to avert futher fighting, is still preparing troops on the border with Gaza, seemingly to enter Rafah and the south of the Gaza Strip, where one million displaced people are estimated to be sheltering.

Yesterday, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a briefing “We will continue to pursue Hamas everywhere in Gaza. We will continue doing everything in our power to bring back home our hostages. We will continue to fulfill our mission: free our hostages from Hamas and free Gaza from Hamas.”

Israel’s military has claimed that overnight it once again struck at Hezbollah targets inside Lebanon. Israel and anti-Israeli forces have been clashing almost non-stop over the UN-drawn blue line that separates Israel and Lebanon since 7 October.

In its statement, the IDF claimed:

IAF fighter jets struck Hezbollah terror targets in southern Lebanon. Among the targets struck were operational infrastructure in the area or Jabal Blat, as well as a number of Hezbollah military structures in the area of Marwahin.

The claims have not been independently verified.

A senior state department official has said that while in Riyadh, the US secretary of state Antony Blinken is expected to meet with senior Saudi leaders and hold a wider meeting with counterparts from five Arab states – Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

Welcome to our live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and wider Middle East crisis. Here is a rundown on the latest developments.

Joe Biden has again spoken with Benjamin Netanyahu and reiterated his “clear position” opposing Israeli plans to invade Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah as pressure builds on Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire deal.

The US president also stressed to the Israeli prime minister that progress in the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza should be “enhanced”, the White House said on Sunday.

The leaders’ call came ahead of the US secretary of state arriving in Saudi Arabia on Monday to try to restart the truce and hostage-release negotiations and discuss efforts to prevent a spiralling regional conflict. Antony Blinken will later continue on to Jordan and Israel on his latest visit to the region since Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel.

Hamas, meanwhile, said it had no “major issues” after reviewing Israel’s latest truce proposal, a senior Hamas official told Agence France-Presse. “The atmosphere is positive unless there are new Israeli obstacles.” A delegation from the Islamist group is due to arrive in Cairo on Monday to deliver the group’s response.

In other news:

• The Palestinian president said that only the US could stop Israel attacking Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering. Speaking on Sunday at the World Economic Forum summit in the Saudi capital, Mahmoud Abbas said he expected an assault on the Gaza city in the coming days. He added that only a “small strike” on Rafah would force the Palestinian population to flee Gaza, warning: “The biggest catastrophe in the Palestinian people’s history would then happen.”

• A senior official from key intermediary Qatar urged Israel and Hamas to show “more commitment and more seriousness” in the ceasefire negotiations.

• Israeli airstrikes on three houses in Rafah killed 13 people and wounded many others, medics said on Monday. Hamas media outlets put the death toll at 15. In Gaza City, in the strip’s north, Israeli planes struck two houses, killing and wounding several people, health officials said.

• At least 34,454 Palestinian people have been killed and 77,575 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said. An estimated 66 people were killed and 138 injured over the past 24 hours, the Hamas-run ministry said on Sunday.

• World Central Kitchen said it was resuming its operations in Gaza, while continuing to mourn its seven workers killed in an Israeli military attack. The food aid charity paused its operations in the territory after the 1 April strikes, which the military called a “grave mistake”.

• The US military said it engaged five unmanned drones over the Red Sea which “presented an imminent threat to US, coalition and merchant vessels in the region”. US central command did not say in its Sunday statement if the drones were destroyed.

• France’s foreign minister said Paris had been putting forward suggestions to “avoid war in Lebanon”. “I will head to Beirut to meet political authorities to … make proposals,” Stéphane Séjourné said during a visit to the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon (Unifil) headquarters.

It is Martin Belam in London here with you for the next few hours. You can reach me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.