Truce resumes after Israeli airstrikes on Gaza amid scramble to shore up ceasefire – Middle East crisis live | Israel

As a reminder, Israel announced over the weekend that the crucial Rafah crossing with Egypt would remain shut “until further notice”.

The statement by Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said reopening Rafah would depend on how Hamas fulfils its ceasefire role of returning the remains of deceased hostages.

Israel’s foreign ministry earlier said the crossing would probably reopen on Sunday – but this has not happened yet.

Rafah has been shut since it was seized by Israeli forces in May 2024, limiting entry into Gaza from Israel. Israel has repeatedly blocked aid from entering Gaza during its war, prompting accusations it has used starvation as a weapon of war.

Palestinian people in Gaza have received only a trickle of aid over recent months. During the war, Israel shut down entry and exit routes, largely blocking off food and medicine, which in turn caused a famine in large parts of Gaza. The US brokered ceasefire included a provision about a surge in humanitarian aid to Gaza.

We are seeing pictures on the newswires of lorries carrying aid queueing at the crossing this morning.

Israeli officials have been quoted in the media as saying aid is instead entering through the Kerem Shalom crossing, which has been one of the key routes for bringing aid into Gaza.

Steve Witkoff has said he believes it could cost about £37bn to rebuild and reconstruct the Gaza Strip after relentless Israeli bombardments reduced much of the territory to rubble.

“The estimates are in the $50bn (£37.2bn) range,” the US special envoy told CBS News. “It might be a little bit less; it might be a little bit more.”

“I happen to think that that’s not a lot of money in that region.”

The UN estimates that about $70bn is needed to rebuild Gaza after two years of Israel’s war.

There are promising early signs of potential donors for reconstruction from Arab states, European countries and the US, a UN development programme has said.

The US was by far Israel’s biggest arms supplier during the war, helpfing fuel the intense attacks across the Gaza Strip, but some European countries, notably Germany, also approved a significant amount of military equipment exports to Israel.

Welcome to our live coverage of the latest news on the Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza.

Israeli forces launched a wave of airstrikes on Gaza and an Israeli security official said the transfer of aid into the territory was halted “until further notice” as the fragile ceasefire faced its first big test on Sunday.

The strikes across the territory killed at least 45 people, Gaza’s civil defence agency and hospitals said.

The Israeli military claimed it struck after Hamas were said to have attacked Israeli troops operating “to dismantle terrorist infrastructure” in the southern city of Rafah.

The Israeli military said later it had begun resuming the enforcement of the Gaza ceasefire, signalling an end to the attacks, and an Israeli security official said the transfer of aid into the territory would resume on Monday.

Senior US officials – possibly including the vice-president, JD Vance – were expected to arrive in Israel in the coming days for what observers said was a clear effort to hold Israel to the ceasefire deal signed in Egypt.

In other key developments:

• Hamas’s armed wing said it was unaware of clashes in Rafah and had not been in contact with groups there since March, also saying it remained committed to the truce agreement.

• Israel said Hamas’s attack killed two of its soldiers – the first Israeli fatalities since the ceasefire took effect on 10 October.

• Hamas claimed to have located the body of another Israeli hostage, saying it intended to hand over the remains to Israel if “field conditions allow”. The militant group warned that continued airstrikes and shelling would make such transfers impossible.

• US president Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were expected to travel to Israel on Monday, an Israeli official and a US official said. Vice-president JD Vance said on Sunday that he might visit Israel in the coming days, while saying about the ceasefire: “There’s going to be fits and starts.”

• Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu directed the military to take “strong action” against any ceasefire violations but didn’t threaten to return to war.

• “Round-the-clock” contacts were under way to de-escalate the situation as regional powers scramble to shore up the ceasefire, a senior Egyptian official said.