Middle East crisis live: US accelerates military deployment to region amid reports Iran may attack within days

The UK, France and Germany have said there must be “no further delay” in agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza and called on Iran and its allies to refrain from attacks against Israel that would further escalate tensions.

In a joint statement released on Monday, they endorsed the latest push by the US, Qatar and Egypt to broker an agreement to end the 10-month-old war.

The mediators have spent months trying to get the sides to agree to a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release the remaining hostages in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel and Israel would withdraw from Gaza.

“We agree that there can be no further delay. We have been working with all parties to prevent escalation and will spare no effort to reduce tensions and find a path to stability.

“The fighting must end now, and all hostages still detained by Hamas must be released. The people of Gaza need urgent and unfettered delivery and distribution of aid.,” the statement said.

It was signed by French president Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Olaf Scholz and British prime minister Keir Starmer.

The statement also called on Iran and its allies to refrain from any retaliatory attacks that would further escalate regional tensions after the killing of two senior militants last month in Beirut and Tehran.

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US defence secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered the deployment of a guided missile submarine to the Middle East amid escalating tensions in the region, the Pentagon said on Sunday.

Austin also ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group, equipped with F-35 fighters, to accelerate its deployment to the Middle East, the Pentagon said in a statement.

The moves come as the US and other allies push for Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire deal that could help calm soaring regional tensions after the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, for which Iran has vowed to retaliate, as well as a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut.

Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant spoke on Sunday with Austin and told him Iran’s military preparations suggested Iran was getting ready for a large-scale attack on Israel, Axios reporter Barak Ravid posted on X, citing a source.

Iran’s official news agency said on Sunday that its elite Revolutionary Guards were holding a military drill in the country’s west that would continue until Tuesday. The drills, which started on Friday, were ongoing in the province of Kermanshah, close to the border with Iraq, to “enhance combat readiness and vigilance”, an armed forces official told IRNA.

In other developments:

• Hamas has urged Gaza mediators to implement a ceasefire plan presented by US president Joe Biden instead of holding more talks. International mediators had invited Israel and the Palestinian militant group to resume talks towards a long-sought truce and hostage-release deal, amid the growing fears of a wider regional conflict. Israel has accepted the invitation from the US, Qatar and Egypt for a round of talks planned for Thursday. However, Hamas said on Sunday it wanted the implementation of a truce plan laid out by Biden on 31 May and later endorsed by the UN security council, “rather than going through more negotiation rounds or new proposals”.

• An Israeli was killed and another wounded by Palestinian gunmen who opened fire on a main road in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, Israel’s ambulance service and military said, with the armed wing of militant faction Hamas claiming responsibility. The Israeli military said it was pursuing the suspected assailants, blocking routes and conducting searches.

• Later on Sunday, Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades said its West Bank-based fighters killed an Israeli soldier at point-blank range in the Mehola settlement in the West Bank’s Jordan Valley and “returned to their bases safely”.

• Lebanon’s Hezbollah said an Israeli airstrike killed two of the group’s fighters in Taybeh village on Sunday, with the health ministry reporting another death from an attack days ago. The Israeli military said it struck several Hezbollah military structures throughout Sunday. Separately, the health ministry said a Lebanese man who succumbed to injuries sustained in an Israeli strike “several days ago” on the southern village of Beit Lif was a Hezbollah fighter, not a civilian as earlier reported. Hezbollah said that overnight into Monday it launched salvos of rockets “in response” to the Israeli fire, targeting troops in northern Israel.

• Thousands of people have fled Khan Younis after the Israeli military warned of a new operation to flush out Hamas militants that it says have regrouped in the southern Gaza city. In al-Jala, a neighbourhood in the city’s south that the Israel military had previously designated a humanitarian zone, residents on Sunday packed their belongings, uncertain where to seek refuge. Israel said rockets had been fired from the area. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, posted on X: “The people of Gaza are trapped & have nowhere to go. Just in the past few days, more than 75,000 people have been displaced in southwest Gaza.”

• The US vice-president, Kamala Harris, said “yet again far too many civilians” had been killed, after Israeli strikes on a school site in northern Gaza killed at least 80 people on Saturday. “I mean, Israel has a right to go after the terrorists that are Hamas,” she said. “But as I have said many, many times, they also have, I believe, an important responsibility to avoid civilian casualties.”

• The European Union’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, said there was “no justification” for the attack on the Gaza City school, while the White House said it was “deeply concerned” about it. Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia condemned the attack. A spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, urged the US to “put an end to the blind support that leads to the killing of thousands of innocent civilians, including children, women and the elderly”.

• The Israeli military acknowledged Saturday’s strike on the al-Tabeen school, claiming it hit a Hamas command centre within the school and that it had taken steps to reduce the risk of harming civilians. Hamas denied having a base at the school.

• An airstrike on a vehicle in eastern Syria near the porous border with Iraq killed at least five fighters from pro-Iran units, two security sources in the region told Reuters. One of the sources said the strike was carried out by a drone, but could not specify which military the drone belonged to. The second source said it targeted fighters as they changed shifts at a checkpoint, Reuters reported.