Middle East crisis live: US negotiators making progress on potential deal to pause Israel-Hamas fighting – reports | Israel-Gaza war

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has pleaded for donor states to “guarantee the continuity” of the body’s Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) after several halted funding over accusations of staff involvement in Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel.

Agence France-Presse reports Guterres said in a statement on Saturday:

While I understand their concerns – I was myself horrified by these accusations – I strongly appeal to the governments that have suspended their contributions to, at least, guarantee the continuity of UNRWA’s operations.

Israel has alleged several UNRWA staff were involved in Hamas’s attack, leading some key donor countries to suspend their funding.

UNRWA fired several staff over Israel’s accusations, promising a thorough investigation into the claims, which were not specified, while Israel vowed to stop the agency’s work in Gaza after the war.

The row between Israel and UNRWA follows the UN’s international court of justice ruling on Friday that Israel must prevent possible acts of genocide in the conflict and allow more aid into Gaza.

Guterres said:

The abhorrent alleged acts of these staff members must have consequences. But the tens of thousands of men and women who work for UNRWA, many in some of the most dangerous situations for humanitarian workers, should not be penalised.

The dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met.

Guterres confirmed that 12 UNRWA employees were cited in the accusations, which the UN is investigating. Nine have been fired, one was dead and the “the identity of the two others is being clarified”, he said.

Several key donor countries to UNRWA have said they will temporarily suspend their current or future following accusations, including the US, the UK, Canada and Switzerland.

Hamas hit out against Israeli “threats” against UNRWA on Saturday, urging the UN and other international organisations not to “cave in to the threats and blackmail”.

US negotiators are making progress on a potential agreement under which Israel would pause military operations against Hamas in Gaza for two months in exchange for the release of more than 100 hostages who were captured in the 7 October attack on Israeli, according to two senior administration officials, Associated Press reports.

The officials, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive discussions, said on Saturday that emerging terms of the yet-to-be sealed deal would play out over two phases.

In the first phase, fighting would stop to allow for the remaining women, elderly and wounded hostages to be released by Hamas.

Israel and Hamas would then aim to work out details during the first 30 days of the pause for a second phase in which Israeli soldiers and civilian men would be released. The emerging deal also calls for Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The Guardian has not confirmed the terms of the potential agreement and Israel and Hamas have not commented on it.

The AP report continues:

While the proposed deal would not end the war, US officials are hopeful that such an agreement could lay the groundwork for a durable resolution to the conflict.

The New York Times first reported on Saturday that progress has been made towards an agreement for a pause in fighting in exchange for the remaining hostages.

The CIA director, Bill Burns, is expected to discuss the contours of the emerging agreement when he meets on Sunday in France with David Barnea, the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, Qatar’s prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and Egypt’s intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, for talks centred on the hostage negotiations.

President Joe Biden spoke on Friday with the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, and Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, by phone, with the calls with both leaders focusing on the hostage situation.

The White House said in a statement about Biden’s call with the Qatari leader:

Both leaders affirmed that a hostage deal is central to establishing a prolonged humanitarian pause in the fighting and ensure additional life-saving humanitarian assistance reaches civilians in need throughout Gaza. They underscored the urgency of the situation, and welcomed the close cooperation among their teams to advance recent discussions.

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis. I’m Adam Fulton, it’s 8.35am in the Gaza Strip and Tel Aviv and here’s a rundown on the latest news to this minute.

US negotiators are making progress on a potential agreement under which Israel would pause military operations against Hamas in Gaza for two months in exchange for the release of more than 100 hostages, Associated Press reports two senior Biden administration officials as saying.

The officials, who requested anonymity, said on Saturday that the emerging terms of the yet-to-be sealed deal would play out over two phases. In the first, fighting would stop to allow for the remaining women, elderly and wounded hostages to be freed.

Israel and Hamas would then aim to work out details during the first 30 days of the pause for a second phase in which Israeli soldiers and civilian men would be released, the report said. The emerging deal also reportedly calls for Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The director of the CIA is expected to discuss the prospective agreement when he meets on Sunday in France with the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, the Qatari prime minister and Egypt’s intelligence chief for talks.

The Guardian has not confirmed the terms of the potential agreement and Israel and Hamas have not yet commented on it.

More on that shortly. In other key developments:

• The decision by the US, UK and other western nations to freeze ­funding for the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees will significantly worsen the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, Palestinians have warned. Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Finland joined the US, Australia and Canada in pausing funding after UNRWA, the UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine, revealed that an investigation had been launched into 12 members of staff who allegedly took part in the 7 October attack led by Hamas that killed 1,140 people.

• Israel’s foreign minister said his country would seek to stop the UNRWA from operating in Gaza after the war. Israel was aiming to ensure “UNRWA will not be a part of the day after”, Israel Katz said on Saturday.

• Hamas said Israel was on a “campaign of incitement” against UN agencies delivering aid to Palestinians in Gaza. A statement by the militant group highlighted an Israeli accusation of “collusion” between the World Health Organisation and Hamas, which the UN agency rejected on Friday.

• The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has increased public pressure on Qatar to help secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza. Asked about his closed-door remarks, an audio recording of which was leaked to Israeli TV this week, that he was refraining from thanking Qatar for its mediation and deemed it “problematic”, Netanyahu told reporters: “I take back nothing.”

• Palestine’s foreign ministry has reiterated its condemnation of “the ongoing genocide against our people for the 113th consecutive day”. It also condemned the “clear Israeli determination to continue destroying the Gaza Strip and turning it into an inhabitable place”.

• The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, pressed China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, to use China’s influence to help rein in Iran’s support for Houthis after their attacks on Red Sea shipping. According to a US official, Beijing has told Washington that it is raising the issue with Tehran. Washington is waiting to see whether China does so and how effective the outreach will be, the official added.

• Crews extinguished a fire onboard the fuel tanker Marlin Luanda, after the vessel was struck by a Houthi anti-ship missile in the Gulf of Aden on Friday, the commodities trader Trafigura said. The firefighting effort was supported by Indian, US and French navy vessels, it added. No casualties or injuries were reported onboard.

• The Palestinian foreign ministry said an immediate ceasefire was “the only way” to implement Friday’s international court of justice interim ruling. The judgment stopped short of ordering a ceasefire in Gaza but demanded Israel attempted to try to contain death and damage in its offensive.

• The Palestine Red Crescent Society on Saturday condemned the siege and targeting of al-Amal hospital and its branch headquarters in Khan Younis for the sixth consecutive day. The “siege and its consequences” were a “blatant violation of international agreements, especially the provisions of international humanitarian law that require the Israeli occupation to respect the Red Crescent emblem”, it said.