Israel suspends aid into Gaza and launches ‘massive wave of attacks’ – Middle East crisis live

The Israeli military said two soldiers were killed in combat in southern Gaza on Sunday, as it carried out a series of strikes in the area, accusing Hamas of violating the ceasefire, AFP reported.

Major Yaniv Kula, 26, and staff sergeant Itay Yavetz, 21, “fell during combat in the southern Gaza Strip,” the military said, the first Israeli fatalities since the ceasefire took effect on October 10.

Here are the latest photos coming through the wires after Israel launched strikes in the city of Khan Younis on the southern Gaza Strip.

Israel has closed its crossing points into Gaza to aid convoys, a security official told AFP on Sunday after the government accused Hamas of violating a ceasefire agreement.

The ceasefire agreement had committed Israel to let in 600 trucks carrying aid into Gaza every day.

It had halved the amount as it accused Hamas of violating the agreement by failing to return all the deceased hostages in time.

It has so far also refused to reopen the key border crossing of Rafah, the only access point that is not exclusively controlled by Israel.

A famine was declared in and around Gaza City by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) in August after a previous blockade of aid deliveries.

The Israeli military says it has launched a wave of airstrikes on southern Gaza as the fragile ceasefire comes close to total collapse.

The army said ‘massive and extensive wave of strikes’ were aimed at dozens of Hamas targets.

In response to the blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement earlier today, the IDF (military) has begun a series of strikes against Hamas terror targets in the southern Gaza Strip,” it said in a statement.

• The fragile Gaza ceasefire edged close to total collapse on Sunday amid renewed Israeli airstrikes across Gaza, including in the cities of Rafah and Beit Lahia, which killed and injured several Palestinians. Israel says the attacks were a response to Hamas gunfire and rocket-propelled grenade fire against its troops in Rafah. Hamas said that it was unaware of any incidents or clashes in Rafah, and accused Israel of a deliberate escalation. The events marked the biggest test yet of the US-brokered ceasefire.

• Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered “firm action” across Gaza in response to the clashes, meeting defence minister Israel Katz and intelligence chiefs to instruct strikes on “terror targets”. The IDF said its forces were dismantling tunnels and “eliminating threats” in Rafah, describing today’s violence as a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire agreement.

• Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 11 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes across the territory on Sunday, including six in the north, as Israel said it may carry out further strikes after attacks on its troops in Rafah and Beit Lahia.

• Israel’s defence minister warned Hamas would “pay a heavy price” for any further ceasefire breaches, saying Israeli troops would respond “increasingly severely” if attacks continue. His comments come amid signs that parts of the Israeli government are losing patience with the truce.

• Hamas claimed to have located the body of another Israeli hostage, saying it intends to hand over the remains to Israel if “field conditions allow.” The group warned that continued airstrikes and shelling would make such transfers impossible. The IDF claim that Hamas withholding bodies of hostages violates the ceasefire agreement.

• Senior Israeli politicians have voiced growing scepticism about the ceasefire’s future. Hardline ministers Amichai Chikli and Avi Dichter said Israel cannot coexist with Hamas, while opposition leader Yair Golan urged a “decisive response,” accusing Netanyahu’s government of “failing to set new rules of the game.”

• Hamas dismissed a statement from the US state department that accused the group of planning an imminent attack in Gaza, calling the allegation “false” and “aligned with misleading Israeli propaganda.”

• The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will stay closed “until further notice”, Israel has said, after the Palestinian embassy in Cairo said the territory’s sole gateway to the outside world – and key to bringing aid into the destroyed territory – would reopen on Monday.

Hamas has dismissed a statement from the US state department that accused the group of planning an imminent attack in Gaza, calling the allegation “false” and “aligned with misleading Israeli propaganda.”

In a statement on Sunday, Hamas said: “The US allegations are false and fully align with the misleading Israeli propaganda and provide cover for the continuation of the occupation’s crimes and organised aggression against our people in Gaza.”

The comments came after the state department said late on Saturday it had obtained “credible reports indicating an imminent ceasefire violation by Hamas against the people of Gaza.” The US warned that “should Hamas proceed with this attack, measures will be taken to protect the people of Gaza and preserve the integrity of the ceasefire,” without providing details of the alleged plan.

Hamas rejected the accusation, calling on Washington to “stop repeating the occupation’s misleading narrative and focus on curbing its repeated violations of the ceasefire agreement.”

The militant group said: “The facts on the ground reveal the exact opposite, as the occupation authorities are the ones who formed, armed, and funded criminal gangs that carried out killings, kidnappings, theft of aid trucks, and assaults against Palestinian civilians … confirming the occupation’s involvement in spreading chaos and disrupting security.”

Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Sunday that at least 11 people were killed in a series of Israeli airstrikes across the territory, as both sides accused each other of breaching the ceasefire.

Mahmud Bassal, a spokesperson for the agency, which operates under Hamas authority, said six people were killed when an Israeli strike hit a group of civilians in northern Gaza.

The Israeli military told AFP it was checking reports of casualties. Earlier, a military official said Israel may carry out additional strikes after its forces targeted militants in Rafah and Beit Lahia, after three separate attacks on Israeli troops.

An Israeli military official has said that more airstrikes could be carried out in Gaza, after attacks earlier in the day in Rafah in the south and Beit Lahia in the north, according to AFP.

“There is a possibility for more strikes,” the official told reporters during an online briefing, after the army said it had targeted militants responsible for three separate attacks on Israeli forces.

Iran has executed a man convicted of spying for Israel’s intelligence agency, according to the country’s judiciary, in what officials described as the latest in a series of executions after the June war between Iran and Israel, AFP reports.

The judiciary’s Mizan online news agency quoted Kazem Mousavi, the chief justice of Qom province, as saying: “The execution of this spy was carried out after confirmation by the supreme court and the rejection of his pardon request at Qom Prison.”

The man, whose identity was not disclosed, was hanged on Saturday in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran. Authorities said he had been in contact with Israeli intelligence since October 2023, was arrested early the following year, and had confessed to sharing confidential information online.

Iran, which conducts executions by hanging, is the world’s second most prolific executioner after China, according to rights groups including Amnesty International.