Explosions felt across Gaza as Israeli military announces it has surrounded the territory
At Gaza's southern border, the wait goes on for British citizens to flee - ITV News' Rebecca Barry reports
Telecommunications have been lost in Gaza for a third time as the Israeli military has announced it has Gaza City surrounded.
Dozens of people were killed and injured in a blast at the Al-Maghazi refugee camp on in the early hours of Sunday morning, according to a hospital official and the Gaza Health Ministry, in what they claim was an Israeli airstrike.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with key Middle Eastern leaders on Saturday evening, where he did not echo calls for a ceasefire but called for 'humanitarian pauses', which Israel has rejected.
The Rafah crossing remains o foreign nationals attempting to flee Gaza over a reported row moving injured patients. Many UK nationals have reported to have been turned away and others face leaving without their family members.
Over the last four weeks, at least 9,770 Palestinians have died - most of them women and children - and the Israeli death toll stands at 1,400, according to their respective health ministries.
Gaza has come under the third total communications outage since the start of the conflict as Israel's military announced it had encircled Gaza City and divided the coastal strip into two.
“Today there is north Gaza and south Gaza,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters on Sunday while rockets continued to bombard the territory.
It comes as over 50 people were killed and many more are injured following a blast at the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip early on Sunday morning, Palestinian health officials said.
Gazan authorities and an official at a nearby hospital blamed it on an Israeli airstrike - but the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) is yet to comment on whether it was targeting the area at the time.
Arafat Abu Mashaia, who lives in the camp, said the strike flattened several multi-story homes where people forced out of other parts of Gaza were sheltering.
“It was a true massacre,” he said while standing on the wreckage. “All here are peaceful people. I challenge anyone who says there were resistance (fighters) here.”
Dozens more have been wounded. First responders, aided by residents, have been searching the rubble for dead or possible survivors.
The camp is located in the evacuation zone where Israel’s military had urged Palestinian civilians in Gaza to seek refuge as it focuses its military offensive in the northern areas.
Despite such appeals, Israel has continued its bombardment across Gaza, saying it is targeting Hamas fighters and assets everywhere in the besieged enclave, with the UN declaring on Saturday "nowhere is safe in Gaza".
Israel has accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
It comes as Israel has rejected the idea of halting its offensive, even for brief humanitarian pauses proposed by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his current tour of the region.
British citizens are now also trapped in Gaza and face the “excruciating” prospect of leaving without their family members after the Foreign Office left those without UK passports off the safe passage list, a group representing them has said.
Britons in Gaza forced to wait for escape as Rafah crossing remains shut
The impasse in delicate diplomatic relations between Egypt, Israel and Hamas means UK nationals waiting by the border checkpoint have been stranded for a second day.
On Sunday, the Foreign Office confirmed that the key border post remained closed to foreign nationals, having been shut on Saturday following an apparent row between Israel and the Palestinians over evacuating injured patients.
Some British citizens have also said their dependants without British passports have not been included on the FCDO's safe passage list.
The Rafah crossing is the only route out of Gaza for foreign nationals and the sole entry point for incoming aid.
The FCDO policy is in “stark contrast” to the decisions made during the evacuation of Ukraine, where any family member of a British citizen would be provided with a visa, a group representing them has said.
The policy also differs from those set by other countries, with British families reporting that the US is allowing anybody with an American family to leave, the group claims.
Israel military opens four-hour evacuation window for civilians in Gaza
The Israeli military said it will open a four-hour window for people in northern Gaza to move to the south on Sunday.
The IDF said the main route for evacuation will be Salah Al-Deen Street between 10am and 2pm local time.
Avichay Adraee, an IDF spokesperson, said on X, formerly known as Twitter: "If you care about yourself and your loved ones, head south according to our instructions. Rest assured that Hamas leaders are already taking care to protect themselves."
Referring to a similar evacuation call on Saturday, the IDF official account said on X: "Hamas attempted to prevent Gazan civilians from evacuating, including by firing at IDF soldiers sent to open the route and facilitate the secure movement of civilians."
US rejects calls for a ceasefire in Gaza in meeting with Arab leaders
President Joe Biden suggested on Saturday there have been some advances in US attempts to persuade Israel to pause military strikes on Gaza for humanitarian reasons.
In a brief exchange with reporters as he left St. Edmond Roman Catholic Church in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Biden was asked if there was progress, and he responded, “Yes,” but did not share specifics.
This comes after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with his Arab counterparts on Saturday. He disagreed with them on the need for an immediate cease-fire and made clear the furthest he would go was backing a pause for aid to reach civilians in Gaza.
Mr Blinken said a cease-fire would allow Hamas time to attack.
“It is our view now that a cease-fire would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on October 7,” Mr Blinken said at the news conference after the talks,
That was after his talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted there could be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told reporters following the meeting with Mr Blinken and other Middle East leaders that although he condemned the Hamas attacks of October 7 and “nobody in their right mind” would “belittle” the pain felt by Israel that day, the war in Gaza could not be permitted to continue.
“The whole region is sinking in a sea of hatred that will define generations to come,” he said.
“We don’t accept that this is self-defense,” Mr Safadi said, adding: “It cannot be justified under any pretext and it will not bring Israel security, it will not bring the region peace.”
Mr Blinken later flew to Baghdad for talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as American forces in the region face a surge of attacks by Iranian-allied militias in Iraq and elsewhere.
The Palestinian death toll reached 9,770 on Sunday, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.
In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them in the October 7 Hamas attack that started the fighting, and 242 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the proscribed terror group.
Roughly 1,100 people have left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing since Wednesday under an apparent agreement among the United States, Egypt, Israel and Qatar, which mediates with Hamas.
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