Israel-Hamas war live updates: Iranian president warns war could expand if Israel’s siege of Gaza continues; IDF prepares for ground operations

The U.S. Department of State on Sunday announced that the charter flights out of Israel offered to American citizens will continue “on a rolling basis” on Monday and Tuesday.

The State Department set up the flights for U.S. citizens stranded in Israel, unable to leave due to the limited availability of commercial flights out of the country.

“We urge those wishing to leave to take advantage of these charters while they are available,” the department said in a statement.

Only U.S. citizens are eligible for the flights and must sign an agreement prior to departure that pledges to repay the U.S. government for the travel. The flights will leave from Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport.

The department also provided details on how U.S. citizens in the Israeli city of Haifa can leave via a 10- to 12-hour ship ride to Cyprus on Monday. Those wishing to take the ship must arrive at Haifa port passenger terminal at 9 a.m. local time on Monday.

The U.S. government is still negotiating how to get American citizens in Gaza out of the region. It had secured a route of safe passage via the Rafah gate border crossing from Gaza to Egypt, but Americans trying to flee reportedly still have not been let through. In the meantime, the government is encouraging Americans in Gaza to fill out a crisis intake form in case they need to be contacted on short notice.

The State Department has issued a “Do Not Travel” advisory for Gaza and “Reconsider Travel” advisories for Israel and the West Bank.

— Rebecca Picciotto

The death toll in Gaza rose to 2,450 people and 9,200 injured, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said. More than half of those killed, or 52% of them, were women and children, according to the ministry.

— Annie Nova

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on social media that a bipartisan group of senators visiting Israel was rushed to a shelter in Tel Aviv on Sunday to wait out a rocket attack from Hamas. Schumer posted a photo of himself and Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah in the shelter.

“It shows you what Israelis have to go through. We must provide Israel with the support required to defend itself,” Schumer said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the United States, took the trip to show support for Israel ahead of an expected request from President Joe Biden for Congress to approve wartime funding for Israel as well as Ukraine. Schumer, a Democrat, has said he would also hold discussions with Israeli officials what kind of support the country would need for both military and humanitarian operations.

Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Democratic Sens. Jacky Rosen of Nevada and Mark Kelly of Arizona were also on the trip.

— Associated Press

Iran’s hard-line president spoke with France’s leader on Sunday, warning that war would expand if Israel’s siege of Gaza doesn’t stop, state-run media reported.

The official IRNA news agency said Ebrahim Raisi and Emmanuel Macron spoke over the phone. The Iranian president made no mention of the unprecedented Oct. 7 incursion by Gaza’s militant Hamas group into southern Israel that sparked the latest Hamas-Israel war. Iran has long been a supporter of Hamas.

“The situation will be complicated … if the crimes by the Zionist regime, including the killing of people and blockade of Gaza, are not stopped,” Raisi was quoted as saying, referring to Israel. IRNA did not provide further details.

Earlier, the Elysee Palace confirmed this weekend that Macron planned to talk to Raisi to urge Iran not to fuel tensions in the region or provide any operational support to Hamas.

Macron intended to press the argument that bringing the violence to a rapid end is in everyone’s interests, including Iran’s, the presidential office said. France feels that Iran can play a positive role in the crisis by simply not getting involved in it, either with “words that are unacceptable” or by supporting Hamas.

Over the weekend, Raisi also spoke with leaders of Arab nations of Iraq, Oman and Qatar and urged them to support Gaza’s Palestinians, Iranian media said.

He also accused Israel of perpetrating a “genocide” in Gaza and criticized the United States for its support of Israel.

— Associated Press

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Egypt on Sunday to discuss the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict and how to keep civilians safe amid the violence and lack of humanitarian aid in Gaza.

In the meeting, Blinken brought up the ongoing efforts to get American citizens in Gaza safely out of the region. The secretary had been trying to find a way for Americans to exit Gaza via the Rafah gate into Egypt, but those trying to leave have reported that the border crossing has remained closed.

“Secretary Blinken reiterated to President El-Sisi the importance of facilitating the safe passage of American citizens and family members from Gaza,” a spokesperson for Blinken said.

Over the past week, Blinken has been on a Middle East tour, trying to prevent the conflict from spreading throughout the region and to rally humanitarian support for civilians caught in the crossfire of the war.

Blinken has met with officials in Israel, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt. The State Department announced that he will return to Israel on Monday.

— Rebecca Picciotto

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Israel has reactivated the water pipes in southern Gaza after several days of cutting off the water supply in response to the deadly attack Hamas launched last weekend.

“I have been in touch with my Israeli counterparts just within the last hour who reports to me that they have in fact turned the water pipe back on in southern Gaza,” Sullivan said Sunday in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“That has been the subject of discussion over the course of the past few days,” he added.

In a series of Sunday interviews, Sullivan reiterated the U.S. stance that all innocent civilians must be protected amid the violence of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

His comments come as many civilians remain trapped in Gaza without access to basic necessities like food, water, medicine and shelter.

“The many, many Palestinians who have had nothing to do with the brutal terrorist organization among us the vast majority of the population of Gaza. They deserve dignity. They deserve safety and security,” Sullivan said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Sullivan also said the White House is “working actively” to get Americans in Gaza access to safe passage to leave the region, though those evacuation efforts have been thwarted by Hamas.

“So far, we have not been able to get American citizens through the border crossing and I’m not aware of anyone else being able to get out at this time,” he said.

— Rebecca Picciotto

IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said on Sunday the military plans to strike Hamas from the top through its institutions, “all the way down to the individuals that conducted the butchery of our babies.”

“We did not ask for this war, but we will win it,” Lerner said on “This Week” on ABC.

He said they’ve instructed Gazans to evacuate the north “to keep people out of harm’s way so that we can deal with Hamas.” But he said Hamas was trying to interfere with those efforts.

“They have no regard for human life, Israeli or Palestinian,” he said.

Lerner also said that some of its forces have dispersed to communities along the border with Lebanon “in anticipation for a potential uptick in violence with Hezbollah.”

— Annie Nova

The Israeli military said on Sunday it would continue to allow Gazans to evacuate south ahead of an expected ground assault by its forces on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for unprecedented attacks by Hamas militants eight days ago.

The army said hundreds of thousands had already moved south as Israel carried out the most intense bombardment the enclave has ever seen in response to the killing of 1,300 people in Israel, including 279 Israeli soldiers.

Authorities in Gaza said more than 2,300 people had been killed, a quarter of them children, and nearly 10,000 wounded so far. The enclave’s hospitals are running short of medical supplies and struggling to cope with the flow of injured.

— Reuters

The regional head of the World Health Organization told The Associated Press on Sunday that evacuating hospitals from the northern part of the Gaza Strip is “impossible” and said Israel’s demand for the evacuation of medical facilities there goes against international law.

Ahmed Al-Mandhari said 22 hospitals with 2,000 patients in northern Gaza managed to move “mobile patients” to the south over the past two days but most of the patients can’t be evacuated.

“It is really very risky, very dangerous if we push these hospitals to evacuate,” he said in Cairo.

Egypt has yet to reach an agreement with Israel and Hamas to reopen the Rafah border crossing to deliver medical supplies and other humanitarian aid territory to the besieged, Hamas-ruled strip.

Al-Mandhari urged for the reopening “immediately, with no delay.” The U.N. health agency has supplies waiting in Egypt, around 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Rafah crossing but cannot take them inside, he said.

Rafah was shuttered early on Tuesday after Israeli airstrikes hit close to Gaza’s side of the crossing.

— Associated Press

Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is in talks with international and regional partners to enable aid deliveries into Gaza and to de-escalate the fighting there, his office said on Sunday.

Israeli bombardments on the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing into Egypt, the main crossing out of Gaza not controlled by Israel, have disrupted operations there.

Aid from several countries has been building up in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula due to a failure to reach a deal enabling its safe delivery to Gaza and enabling evacuations of some foreign passport holders through the Rafah crossing into Egypt.

U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Saturday that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “fast becoming untenable”.

The statement from Sisi’s office also said Egypt rejected any plan to displace Palestinians “to the detriment of other countries,” and said Egypt’s own security was a red line.

Sisi also proposed a summit to discuss the crisis, according to the statement.

— Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to Israel this week after completing a frantic six-country rush through Arab nations aimed at preventing the Israel-Hamas war from igniting a broader regional conflict.

The U.S. State Department announced Blinken’s plan to travel Monday to Israel — his second visit in five days — as America’s top diplomat arrived in Cairo for talks Sunday with Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. It was the last of Blinken’s meetings with Arab leaders amid increasing fears that an impending Israeli ground offensive into Gaza could spark a wider war with devastating humanitarian consequences.

Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters traveling with Blinken that the secretary was returning to Tel Aviv “for further consultations with Israeli officials.” Miller did not elaborate.

Before landing in Egypt, Blinken met on Sunday morning with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh. That meeting followed talks over the previous three days with the leaders of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.

— Associated Press

Pope Francis on Sunday renewed his call for the release of Israeli hostages held by Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers and called for humanitarian corridors to help those under siege in Gaza.

“I continue to follow with much sorrow what is happening in Israel and Palestine,” Francis said during his Sunday’s Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square. “I think back to the many people, especially the little ones and the elderly.”

The Pope reiterated his appeal for the release of scores of Israeli hostages snatched during Hamas’ deadly incursion into southern Israel last weekend and taken to Gaza.

“I strongly ask that the children, the elderly, women and all civilians don’t become victims of the conflict,” Francis said. He added that humanitarian law must be respected, “especially in Gaza where there is an urgent need to guarantee humanitarian corridors and to rescue the entire population.”

The Pope appealed for the world not to “shed any more innocent blood, neither in the Holy Land, nor in Ukraine, nor anywhere else. Enough! Wars are always a defeat, always.”

— Associated Press

Thousands took the streets of the Moroccan capital on Sunday to rally in support of Palestinians in Gaza and denounce Israel’s actions in the latest war with Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers.

Waving Palestinian flags, the rally also marked a major showing for the banned Islamist movement Al Adl Wa Ihssane, which supports Hamas. After Hamas’s unprecedented and deadly Oct. 7 incursion into Israel, Morocco issued a statement condemning the violence. Royal Air Maroc, temporarily cancelled flights from Casablanca to Tel Aviv — a route that began in 2021.

Demonstrators marched in central Rabat and threw smoke bombs and fireworks as riot police stood between them and the Parliament building and other landmarks.

Hassan Ait Amar, a 52-year-old from Casablanca, carried a sign demanding Morocco’s lawmakers revoke a normalization of ties with Israel.

“If they want peace, they (Israel) should respect Palestinians, international law and a two-state solution,” he said.

Israel and Morocco normalized relations as part of the 2020 Abraham Accords, a series of diplomatic agreements between Israel and four Arab countries brokered by then-President Donald Trump. Israel is home to a large community of Jews of Moroccan descent. Morocco and Israel have agreed to military cooperation and boosted trade.

— Associated Press

The European Union on Tuesday will hold an extraordinary meeting of its member states to discuss the fallout of the escalating Israel-Hamas conflict and the potential consequences for the bloc.

European Council President Charles Michel said in an invitation letter issued Saturday that it was of the “utmost importance” to establish a “clear unified course of action that reflects the complexity of the unfolding situation.”

“If we are not careful, it has the potential to exacerbate tensions between communities and feed extremism” in the European Union, Michel said.

“There is a major risk of migration and movements of a large number of people to neighboring countries which already have a significant number of refugees on their territory. If not handled carefully, there is a risk of onward migratory waves to Europe,” he added.

— Sam Meredith

Germany’s Foreign Office said Sunday that it had decided to issue a travel warning for Israel, the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.

“We urgently appeal to refrain from traveling to these countries and areas. In general, a travel warning is only issued if there is danger to life,” the German Foreign Office said in a post via X, formerly known as Twitter.

The ministry also urged people already in these areas to register themselves with the German government.

— Sam Meredith

British Foreign Minister James Cleverly says he has not specifically asked Israel to wait until Palestinian civilians have moved to the south of Gaza before carrying outs its expected military operation.

“I haven’t asked that specific request because Hamas are trying to prevent people leaving northern Gaza,” Cleverly told the BBC Sunday morning.

“Of course, we want to minimize Palestinian casualties, we want to minimize Israeli casualties. We want everybody to respect civilians, but the real clear distinction is Israel are trying to get civilians out of danger, Hamas are trying to put civilians into danger and that is a fundamental difference between the two,” he added.

The Palestinian militant group of Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, has told citizens to ignore Israel’s evacuation order. The United Nations has said the evacuation order is not possible and warned of “devastating humanitarian consequences.”

— Sam Meredith

The Israel Defense Forces said it has isolated the area within 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) of the country’s border with Lebanon.

IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the move was taken in response to shooting from Lebanon at Israeli territory.

“Following the assessment of the situation and the shooting incident in the north, it was decided to isolate the area of ​​up to four kilometers from the northern border with Lebanon,” Hagari said on X, formerly known as Twitter, according to a Google translation.

“The IDF clarifies that entering the area is strictly prohibited and asks the public to be vigilant and not to enter the area.”

He added that the Israeli military was undertaking “proactive GPS jamming” in the area, which could affect location-based apps.

— Katrina Bishop

Images published Sunday showed Palestinian citizens leaving their homes as Israel’s military prepares for its next stage of operations.

— Sam Meredith, Getty Images

Israeli citizens on Sunday were seen placing their bags on board a bus in the city of Sderot as they evacuated in search of safer areas amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

The city is located close to the Gaza border.

— Sam Meredith, Getty Images

The president of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a U.S. non-governmental organization that promotes press freedom, said the last week has been the deadliest on record for journalists covering Israel-Palestine.

As of Saturday, 12 journalists had been killed, eight were injured and two were missing over the course of the first eight days of the Israel-Hamas war, the CPJ said in an update via its website.

Of the journalists confirmed to have been killed, the CPJ said 10 were Palestinian, one was Israeli and a Beirut-based journalist was killed during a shelling attack in southern Lebanon.

“This is the deadliest week ever for journalists covering Israel-Palestine in the more than 30 years that @pressfreedom has been covering attacks on the press,” Jodie Ginsberg, president of the CPJ, said Saturday via X, formerly known as Twitter.

— Sam Meredith

The U.S. Embassy in Israel said it would help Americans and their immediate family members with valid travel documents to depart the northern Israeli port city of Haifa via sea to Cyprus on Monday.

In a security alert posted on its website Sunday, the embassy said boarding for passengers would begin at 8 a.m. local time (1 a.m. ET) and U.S. citizens must arrive at Haifa Port’s passenger terminal no later than 9 a.m. local time.

“Boarding will proceed in order of arrival and is on a space limited basis,” the embassy said.

The alert listed several instructions for travelers and noted the passage to Limassol Port in Cyprus was expected to take roughly 10-12 hours.

— Sam Meredith

Israel Defense Forces said Sunday in a message addressed to residents of Gaza City and northern Gaza that it won’t carry out any military operations from 10 a.m. local time (3 a.m. ET) to 1 p.m., renewing its call for people to move southward.

“Residents of Gaza City and northern Gaza, in the past days, we’ve urged you to relocate to the southern area for your safety. We want to inform you that the IDF will not carry out any operations along this route from 10 AM to 1 PM,” the IDF said in a post via X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Your safety and that of your families matters. Please follow our instructions and head southward,” it added.

The United Nations has criticized Israel’s military for issuing an evacuation order to 1.1 million people in northern Gaza, saying it is “impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences.”

— Sam Meredith

EDITORS NOTE-Graphic content- Image shows body bags of those killed in Gaza.

More than 2,300 people have been killed and another 9,000 injured in Gaza, according to the local health ministry’s latest update.

In Israel, at least 1,300 have been killed and 3,300 wounded, according to public broadcaster Kan.

— Christine Wang

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to meet with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh at 7:30 a.m. local time (12:30 a.m. ET), a U.S. official said.

The meeting comes as Blinken is scheduled to depart for Egypt later in the day, where he is expected to discuss a tentative agreement to grant Americans in Gaza safe passage through the Rafah border crossing.

— Christine Wang

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East called on Israeli authorities to protect all civilians in its shelters across the Gaza Strip, including those in northern Gaza and Gaza City.

The UNRWA warned that despite Israel’s order to evacuate the north, many people will not be able to flee, particularly pregnant women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities.

“UNRWA shelters in Gaza and northern Gaza are no longer safe. This is unprecedented,” it said.

“This war should be no exception, protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure, including United Nations buildings, applies to this conflict too.”

Israel has ordered roughly 1 million residents in northern Gaza to evacuate to the south ahead of an anticipated ground offensive.

Separately, the UNRWA warned that 2 million people are at risk as water runs out in Gaza and called for humanitarian supplies to be let in. It said its newly relocated base in the south is also running out of water as it takes in refugees, thousands of whom it said followed the evacuation order.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said fuel needs to be brought in immediately to guarantee safe drinking water.

“If not, people will start dying of severe dehydration, among them young children, the elderly and women. Water is now the last remaining lifeline. I appeal for the siege on humanitarian assistance to be lifted now,” he said.

— Christine Wang

The Israel Defense Forces reiterated its call for residents to evacuate to southern Gaza, in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Earlier, the military posted another video listing other acts committed by Hamas, saying the Palestinian militant group “has shown the world time and time again what they are capable of.”

“Now the IDF is prepared to counter with an even greater force. There is no place in the world for terrorism,” it said.

The posts come as Israel is expected to commence a ground offensive in Gaza.

— Christine Wang

The Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, said it was “preparing to implement a wide range of offensive operative plans” which will include “an integrated and coordinated attack from the air, sea and land” against Hamas.

The IDF added that it had already completed its mobilization of hundreds of thousands of servicemen for the counteroffensive, according to a statement translated by NBC News.

“IDF battalions and soldiers are deployed all over the country and are prepared to increase readiness for the next stages of the war — with an emphasis on a significant ground operation,” the statement added.

— Amanda Macias

The tentative agreement to grant Americans in Gaza safe passage into Egypt through the Rafah gate continues to face significant obstacles to implementation, U.S. officials told NBC News.

Previous discussions between Egypt, the U.S., Qatar and Israel looked set to allow Americans across the border crossing during a five-hour window Saturday, but NBC reports the deadline came and went without any immediate sign of success. One official told NBC the parties are continuing to negotiate.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to land in Cairo on Sunday and the deal is set to be a key issue on his agenda.

While sticking points remain, the State Department has urged the estimated 500 to 600 Americans in Gaza to move south, warning that if the crossing opens, the window could be brief.

— NBC News, Christine Wang