Israel-Gaza war live: more than 30 people killed in strike on refugee camp in central Gaza

Rescuers in Iran are trying to reach a helicopter involved in “an incident” while traveling with an entourage including the Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, Associated Press (AP) reports.

The incident, which involved one helicopter in a convoy of three, was reported by Iranian state television on Sunday, which described it as an accident.

There was no immediate elaboration on what happened to the helicopter, or who was on board.

Raisi had been traveling in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, AP reports.

• Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Sunday that an Israeli airstrike targeting a house at Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least 31 people, updating an earlier toll. “The civil defence crew were able to recover 31 martyrs and 20 wounded from a house belonging to the Hassan family, which was targeted by the Israeli occupation forces in the Nuseirat camp,” Gaza civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told journalists. He said rescue workers were continuing to search for missing people under the rubble.

• The stranglehold on aid reaching Gaza threatens an “apocalyptic” outcome, the UN’s humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Speaking on the sidelines of meetings with Qatari officials in Doha, he said: “If fuel runs out, aid doesn’t get to the people where they need it, that famine, which we have talked about for so long, and which is looming, will not be looming any more. It will be present.” “And I think our worry, as citizens of the international community, is that the consequence is going to be really, really hard. Hard, difficult, and apocalyptic,” he added.

• Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said the kingdom demanded an international investigation into what it said were many war crimes committed during Israel’s war in Gaza. In remarks made during a press conference with the head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa), Safadi said those responsible for documented crimes should be brought to justice.

• The Gaza Civil Emergency Service said rescue teams have recovered the bodies of 150 Palestinians killed by the Israeli army in recent days.

• In the early hours of Sunday morning, Al Jazeera Arabic’s journalists on the ground reported Israeli raids in Rafah in the south of enclave and in the vicinity of the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, where raids were also reported in the sheikh Zayed and Zeitoun neighbourhoods.

Gaza’s civil defence agency has said that an Israeli airstrike targeting a house at Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least 31 people, updating an earlier toll.

“The civil defence crew were able to recover 31 martyrs and 20 wounded from a house belonging to the Hassan family, which was targeted by the Israeli occupation forces in the Nuseirat camp,” Gaza civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told journalists.

He said rescue workers were continuing to search for missing people under the rubble.

Earlier on Sunday, the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital had said it had received the bodies of 20 people killed in the strike which witnesses said occurred about 3am local time.

The stranglehold on aid reaching Gaza threatens an “apocalyptic” outcome, the UN’s humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths has told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Speaking on the sidelines of meetings with Qatari officials in Doha, he said:

If fuel runs out, aid doesn’t get to the people where they need it, that famine, which we have talked about for so long, and which is looming, will not be looming any more. It will be present.

And I think our worry, as citizens of the international community, is that the consequence is going to be really, really hard. Hard, difficult, and apocalyptic.

Griffith, the UN’s undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said about 50 trucks of aid a day could reach the hardest-hit north of Gaza through the reopened Erez crossing.

But battles near the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings in Gaza’s south meant the vital routes were “effectively blocked”, he explained (see earlier post at for more details about these crossings at 09.54).

“So aid getting in through land routes to the south and for Rafah, and the people dislodged by Rafah is almost nil,” Griffiths added.

As Israeli forces pushed further into Rafah, which had been the main gateway for aid into all of Gaza, humanitarian organisations have warned that not enough food was getting into an enclave which the US says faces an imminent famine.

Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, has said the kingdom demanded an international investigation into what it said were many war crimes committed during Israel’s war in Gaza.

In remarks made during a press conference with the head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa), Safadi said those responsible for documented crimes should be brought to justice.

Last month, the UN human rights council adopted a resolution calling for Israel to be held accountable for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Gaza Strip.

Twenty-eight countries voted in favour, 13 abstained and six voted against the resolution, including the US and Germany.

The resolution emphasised “the need to ensure accountability for all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in order to end impunity”.

It also expressed “grave concern at reports of serious human rights violations and grave breaches of international humanitarian law, including of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in the occupied Palestinian territory”. Israel has denied carrying out war crimes.

The White House has said the US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, is due to hold talks with senior Israeli government officials on Sunday and will stress the need to target Hamas in a specific way, not with a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, according to reports.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled Rafah over the past fortnight after Israeli warnings to evacuate.

Sullivan is set to meet with Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, followed by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and security officials, an Israeli official told the Washington Post. Earlier on Sunday, Sullivan met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia (see opening summary for more details).

Netanyahu has previously suggested he will reject US pressure to hold off on a full-scale attack on Rafah, where about 1 million Palestinians had sought shelter after fleeing fighting earlier in the conflict. The Israeli prime minister says the city is Hamas’ last stronghold.

The Gaza Civil Emergency Service said rescue teams have recovered the bodies of 150 Palestinians killed by the Israeli army in recent days.

On Saturday, Israeli troops and tanks pushed into parts of a congested northern Gaza Strip district, killing and inuring dozens of Palestinians, medics and residents said.

Separately, residents said Israeli planes and tanks have struck areas across the Gaza Strip overnight, and that Israeli forces have pushed deeper into Jabalia in northern Gaza, returning to an area that they said they had cleared earlier in the war.

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza and the wider crisis in the Middle East.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, in central Gaza, said on Sunday that an Israeli airstrike targeting a house at a refugee camp killed at least 20 people.

“We received 20 fatalities and several wounded after an Israeli airstrike targeted a house belonging to the Hassan family in al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza,” the hospital said.

Witnesses said the strike occurred about 3am local time. Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported that several children were among the injured people, and that rescuers were searching for missing people trapped under the rubble.

Fierce battles and heavy Israeli bombardments have been reported in the central Nuseirat camp since the military launched an offensive on Rafah in early May.

Meanwhile, the United Nations said 800,000 people had been “forced to flee” Israel’s offensive in Rafah, the southern city where hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians had sought refuge from Israeli bombardments. Israel’s military says Hamas militants are located there.

“800,000 people are on the road having been forced to flee since the Israeli forces started the military operation in the area on 6 May”, the Unrwa chief said on X.

Here is a recap of the other latest developments:

• Two Israeli soldiers were killed in a battle in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said on Sunday. It said airstrikes hit more than 70 targets across Gaza with ground troops conducting raids in eastern Rafah, killing 50 militants.

• Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan met early on Sunday with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss what the kingdom described as the “semi-final” version of a security agreement between the countries. “The semi-final version of the draft strategic agreements between the kingdom and the United States of America, which are almost being finalized – and what is being worked on between the two sides in the Palestinian issue to find a credible path – were discussed,” the statement released after the talks said. That included “a two-state solution that meets the aspirations and legitimate rights of the Palestinian people” and “the situation in Gaza and the need to stop the war there and facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid,” the statement added.

• Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said it fired a barrage of rockets towards Israel’s port of Ashkelon and targeted an Israeli command centre at the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. On Saturday evening, Israel’s military issued new evacuation orders for parts of northern Gaza, saying militants in the area had fired rockets at Israel.

• In northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia, witnesses reported airstrikes near Kamal Adwan hospital.

• Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz demanded on Saturday that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu commit to an agreed vision for the Gaza conflict that would include stipulating who might rule the territory after the war. In a news conference, Gantz said he wanted the war cabinet to form a six-point plan by 8 June. If his expectations are not met, Gantz said he would withdraw his centrist party from the emergency government. Netanyahu hit back, calling the threat “washed-up words” that would mean “defeat for Israel”.

• Aid has begun entering Gaza via a temporary US-built floating pier. The Israeli army said 310 pallets began moving ashore in “the first entry of humanitarian aid through the floating pier”. Satellite pictures showed more than a dozen trucks lining up Saturday on its approach road. In the coming days, about 500 tonnes of aid are expected to be delivered via the pier, according to US Central Command.

• British security firm Ambrey said on Saturday it had received information that a Panama-flagged crude oil tanker had been attacked approximately 10 nautical miles southwest of Yemen’s Mokha. Ambrey later added that the tanker had received assistance and one of its steering units was reportedly functional. It did not indicate who provided the assistance.

• Austria said on Saturday it will restore its funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) after suspending it over allegations that staff were involved in the 7 October Hamas attacks. A total of €3.4m ($3.7m) in funds have been budgeted for 2024, and the first payment is expected to be made in the summer, Austria’s foreign ministry said in a statement.