Israeli strikes in Gaza kill five, local officials say – as it happened

We’re wrapping up this live coverage now but our full report can be seen here, and below is a recap of the latest developments. Thanks for following along.

• Donald Trump has given mixed messages on the way forward in the war against Iran, saying he’s in no rush to end the conflict while also saying a deal with Iran could happen “relatively quickly” and expressing optimism that fresh talks with Tehran will soon take place in Pakistan.

• Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Iran would not accept negotiations with the US while under threat. He also said on X that Iran had “prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield”.

• US vice-president JD Vance remained in the US on Monday, a source told Reuters, denying reports he was already on his way to Pakistan, in comments adding to the uncertainty over whether a second round of talks will proceed.

• US Central Command said 27 vessels had been forced to turn around or return to Iranian ports under the current naval blockade of the strait of Hormuz.

• Oil prices rose on Monday amid the high tensions between the US and Iran, though the market reaction remained more tame than during earlier stages of the war. Brent crude – the global oil benchmark – rose 5.6% to settle at $95.48 a barrel. US stocks edged down, with the S&P 500 closing 0.2% lower on Monday.

• UK foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said a “critical” moment was coming with the looming the expiry of the 14-day US-Iran truce and reiterated the Hormuz’s strait closure was “hitting the global economy”, amid an international push to reopen the waterway.

• The toll of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza on Monday has risen to at least five, according to Palestinian health officials, while witnesses said Hamas fighters clashed with gunmen from an Israeli-backed militia.

• Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the war in Iran by phone on Monday. Lavrov reportedly reiterated the need to uphold the ceasefire and continue diplomatic efforts, while Araghchi said Tehran would to try to ensure the uninterrupted passage of Russian ships and cargo through the Hormuz strait.

The toll of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza on Monday has risen to at least five, according to Palestinian health officials, while witnesses said Hamas fighters clashed with gunmen from an Israeli-backed militia.

Medics said one man was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Bureij camp in the central area of the enclave, while another strike killed one person and wounded others in Gaza City.

Later on Monday, an Israeli airstrike killed at least three people in western Khan Younis, health officials at Gaza’s Nasser hospital said.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on either incident, the report from Reuters said.

Also on Monday, residents and sources close to Hamas said members of an Israeli-backed militia operating in an area under Israeli control clashed with Palestinian fighters after crossing into a Hamas-run area east of Khan Younis.

As the militia fighters tried to retreat, a Hamas member fired an anti-tank grenade towards their vehicle, some residents and a Hamas source said. An explosion was heard but there was no word about casualties.

A video, verified by Reuters, showed gunmen apparently from the militia dressed in black uniforms and clutching AK assault rifles arriving at a Hamas-run area in eastern Khan Younis before shooting is heard.

UK foreign secretary Yvette Cooper has said a “critical” moment is coming with the looming the expiry of the 14-day US-Iran truce.

She also reiterated the strait of Hormuz’s closure was buffeting the world economy amid an international effort to reopen the oil transit waterway.

Cooper said in a video message posted on X:

This is a critical diplomatic moment.

As we’re coming to the end of the two week agreed ceasefire on Iran, negotiations are starting, but the strait of Hormuz is still closed, so international shipping is still restricted. That is hitting the global economy.”

Cooper said that in the past week she had spoken to 12 foreign minters worldwide about the importance of getting the Hormuz strait open again, also talking to France about “the joint work we’re doing on how we would keep shipping safe once the conflict is finished”.

The UK and France chaired a conference of about 40 countries last Friday in Paris on an international plan to secure the strait.

But Trump later said he had rebuffed an offer from Nato to help and told them to stay away unless they wanted to load up ships with oil.

Donald Trump has given mixed messages on the way forward in the war against Iran, saying he’s in no rush to end the conflict while also expressing optimism that fresh talks with Tehran will soon take place in Pakistan.

With the 14-day truce to expire on Wednesday, Trump on Monday flitted in phone interviews and social media posts between measured optimism that a deal could soon be reached and warning that “lots of bombs” will “start going off” if there’s no deal before the ceasefire deadline.

The US president indicated he still expected to dispatch his negotiating team led by JD Vance to Islamabad for a second round of talks, the AP reports, even as Iran insisted it would not take part until Trump dialled back his demands.

As just mentioned, Iran’s chief negotiator and parliamentary speaker accused the US of wanting Iran to surrender, but added that Iran had “prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield”.

“We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on X early on Tuesday.

Trump insisted he felt no pressure to end the war until Iran agreed to his terms, saying on his Truth Social platform:

I am under no pressure whatsoever, although, it will all happen, relatively quickly!”

Trump told Bloomberg News he was “highly unlikely” to renew the ceasefire.

• Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke on the phone on Monday to discuss the regional conflict. Lavrov reiterated the need to uphold the ceasefire and stressed the importance of continued diplomatic efforts, while Iran confirmed its readiness to do everything in its power to ensure the uninterrupted passage of Russian ships and cargo through the strait of Hormuz.

• Oil prices rose on Monday as tensions rose between the US and Iran, though the market reaction remained more tame than during earlier stages of the war. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose 5.6% to settle at $95.48 per barrel. US stocks edged down, with the S&P 500 closing 0.2% lower on Monday.

• JD Vance is expected to fly to Islamabad at the head of a US diplomatic delegation on Tuesday if Iran agrees to further talks in the Pakistani capital as the deadline for the current ceasefire looms. The US vice-president will travel with Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law – though Iran’s president warned there remained a “deep historical mistrust” of the US.

• US president Donald Trump has said on a social media post that a deal with Iran will happen “relatively quickly”. He also said on Truth Social that the country would not lift its blockade of Iranian ports until Iran has agreed to a deal and that he believed a nuclear deal the US is currently negotiating with Iran will be better than a 2015 international agreement to curb Tehran’s nuclear program.

• Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that Iran will not accept negotiations with the US while under threat. “Trump, by imposing a blockade and violating the ceasefire, seeks, in his view, to turn the negotiating table into a table of surrender or to justify renewed warmongering,” he wrote in a post on X. “We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threat, and over the past 2 weeks we have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield.”

• Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, received a phone call from Oman’s foreign minister, Badr bin Hamad bin Hamood Albusaidi, on Monday, where they discussed cooperation between the two countries and the latest developments in the region. The discussion included talks on “the ceasefire between the US and Iran, and the efforts being exerted to reduce tension and promote regional peace and security,” reads a statement by the Qatari ministry.

Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that Iran will not accept negotiations with the US while “under the shadow of threat.”

“Trump, by imposing a blockade and violating the ceasefire, seeks, in his view, to turn the negotiating table into a table of surrender or to justify renewed warmongering,” he wrote in a post on X. “We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threat, and over the past 2 weeks we have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield.”

In a post on X earlier today, US Central Command said that 27 vessels have been forced to turn around or return to Iranian ports under the current naval blockade of the strait of Hormuz.

“This blockade of Iranian ports will be enforced and applies to all vessels, regardless of flag,” a voiceover warned in a video posted on Monday, which shows a helicopter patrolling the waterway. “Any vessel with further intent to enter, exit an Iranian port will be subject to the right of visit and search in accordance with international law. If you attempt to run the blockade, we will compel compliance with force, over.”

The US naval blockade of Iranian ports will remain in place until a final deal with Iran is finalized.

Oil prices rose on Monday as tensions rose between the US and Iran, though the market reaction remained more tame than during earlier stages of the war.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose 5.6% to settle at $95.48 per barrel. US stocks edged down, with the S&P 500 closing 0.2% lower on Monday.

The surge comes amid fears that Iran may keep petroleum shipments pent up in the Persian Gulf if it continues to obstruct tankers at the Strait of Hormuz.

The volatility marks a reversal from Friday, when stocks rallied and oil prices dipped after Iran briefly suggested it would reopen the strait to commercial traffic. On Saturday, Iran reversed its decision.

The $2bn (£1.5bn) a week that Donald Trump was spending on his reckless war in Iran could have funded saving more than 87 million lives, the head of the UN’s humanitarian agency, Tom Fletcher, said on Monday.

He also warned the normalisation of violent language, such as threatening to bomb Iran back to the stone ages, was very dangerous since it encourages every “wannabe autocrat” to use similar threats and tactics, including the destruction of civilians and civilian infrastructure.

Speaking at Chatham House in London, Fletcher, a former UK diplomat and adviser on foreign policy to successive prime ministers, also accused British politicians of forming a circular firing squad for more than 10 years which has left the UK in a “defensive crouch”.

The scale of the recent UK aid cuts had been so severe that people giggle at conferences where the UK claims to be thought leaders on the subject, he said, before later adding the judgment might seem harsh.

Fletcher, the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator and head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, is wrestling with a humanitarian aid funding crisis he described as cataclysmic, amounting to a 50% cut in his budget.

This is driven not just by the US but also by international cuts to overseas aid driven by a mix of ideology and demands from defence budgets.

Read the full story:

Earlier, we reported on the US vice-president’s upcoming trip to Islamabad. My colleagues Dan Sabbagh and Hannah Ellis-Petersen bring us the latest details:

JD Vance is expected to fly to Islamabad at the head of a US diplomatic delegation on Tuesday if Iran agrees to further talks in the Pakistani capital as the deadline for the current ceasefire looms.

The US vice-president will travel with Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law – though Iran’s president warned there remained a “deep historical mistrust” of the US.

Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran was concerned about “unconstructive and contradictory signals from American officials” and concluded they amounted to an effort to seek the country’s surrender. “Iranians do not submit to force,” he said.

However, one senior Iranian official told the Reuters news agency that Tehran is “positively reviewing” its participation, amid reports that its delegation would again be headed by parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf if Vance attends.

Read the full report: