Key events
Opening summary: Kushner reportedly meets Hamas as it calls for pressure on Israel
Welcome to our live coverage of the latest in the continuing conflicts in the Middle East.
Donald Trump’s envoys met with Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators in Cairo on Sunday, a diplomatic source said, aiming to advance the US president’s Gaza peace plan, even as Israel pressed on with airstrikes in the territory.
Hamas officials were present at some of the meetings that mediators held with Trump’s envoy and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Trump’s Board of Peace envoy for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, Reuters quoted the diplomat as saying.
In a statement later Hamas called on mediators and the US-created board overseeing the ceasefire to “compel” Israel to approve Trump’s latest roadmap for peace.
Kushner, Mladenov and former British prime minister Tony Blair were scheduled to meet on Monday with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Associated Press cited two people as saying. The Israeli prime minister has said Trump’s 15-point Gaza plan is “unacceptable” – a rare public show of defiance against close ally the US.
The Israeli military said on Sunday that its aircraft struck two Islamic Jihad and Hamas militants in Gaza’s Khan Younis and Nuseirat. At least five Palestinians were wounded in the strike that hit a tent encampment, Gaza medics said.
Meanwhile, the 60-day memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran aimed at ending their conflict expires on Monday 17 August, with their talks still stalled.
Shipping through the strait of Hormuz slowed over the weekend, data showed on Monday, after attacks on tankers. Five commodity vessels transited the vital energy route on Saturday, with none registered for Sunday, ship tracking data from Kpler showed, versus 31 in the previous weekend.
In other developments:
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Israel resumed its airstrikes on Gaza in the past few days after scaling back the attacks earlier this month. One of those wounded in the Khan Younis strike died from their wounds, medics at Nasser hospital said later. A separate airstrike, which the Israeli military said targeted another militant, hit an apartment in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, wounding several people, medics said.
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A senior Israeli official said on Sunday that Israel was concerned about Washington’s demand to end targeted assassinations of Hamas militants in Gaza as the group rebuilds its forces, Reuters reported. Trump’s peace plan calls for the immediate cessation of military operations in Gaza and foresees Hamas disarming as Israeli troops withdraw from the territory and Gaza is rebuilt.
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Several regional powers including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on Sunday condemned Israel’s rejection of the peace road map, saying the country is obstructing peace efforts.
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The top US military commander in the Middle East visited the USS Lincoln in the Arabian Sea amid reports of mental health and supply issues onboard. Adm Brad Cooper praised the leadership of the long-deployed aircraft carrier.
