Gaza live: Palestinian death toll passes 37,000 after brutal Israeli attack on Nuseirat

The Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has backed President Biden's "peace plan" to end Israel's war on Gaza.

“Hamas must never again threaten the people of Israel. In that regard, the proposed peace plan is designed to cement Israel’s comprehensive military victory, while also ending the war,” Jeffries said in a statement.

Jeffries joined other US and Western politicians in calling on Israel and Hamas to accept the deal. 

Biden presented a plan on Friday for an “enduring ceasefire” that he said was approved by Israel, however, Israeli leaders have seemingly rejected the plan in public statements throwing the proposal into disarray. 

Pret A Manger has cancelled plans to open dozens of stores across Israel after pro-Palestinian campaigners threatened a boycott.

The British sandwich shop was set to open 40 stores in Israel by 2033, as part of a 10-year franchise deal with local partners, Fox Group and Yarzin Sella Group.

However, in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange on 31 May, Fox Group said Pret A Manger had activated a "force majeure" clause, which allows a party to negate contractual obligations due to extreme and unforeseeable circumstances.

"We have taken the difficult decision to end our current agreement with Fox Group and Yarzin Sella Group," a Pret A Manger spokesperson told World Coffee Portal.

"We tried to delay this decision for as long as possible, but the significant ongoing travel restrictions have meant that our teams have not been able to conduct the checks and training needed to set up Pret in a new market."

Read more: Pret A Manger pulls out of plans to open in Israel

US President Joe Biden is expected to speak with the emir of Qatar later on Monday to attempt to finalise the three-stage ceasefire deal unveiled at the White House on Friday, according to two officials familiar.

Two sources familiar with the negotiations, reported by the Israeli daily Haaretz, said US officials are seeking their Qatari counterparts' help to get Hamas to accept the proposal - which the Israeli government has so far rejected.

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called the ceasefire proposal announced by the US President Joe Biden "dangerous", in a statement outside the Knesset, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported. 

"Again and again, they repeat the same mistakes, again and again, they surrender to Sinwar and humiliate the State of Israel," he said speaking about Yahya Sinwar, one of the leaders of Hamas. 

Smotrich added that "the last few months have proven to all of us that the way there is, not through idle talks with Sinwar, but only by increasing military pressure and fire until Hamas surrenders. The dangerous proposal that President Biden spoke of was given by the war cabinet, without authority and in violation of the law, and it is not binding for the Israeli government and the State of Israel."

"If, God forbid, the government decides to adopt this offer of surrender, we will not be part of it and will work to replace the failed leadership with a new one. I told the Prime Minister – we, together with the bereaved families and the majority of the people of Israel, will stand by your side for a decision and victory, but we will stand against you with all strength and aggression if you choose surrender and defeat," Smotrich said.

He also threatened to "replace the failed leadership" in Israel if the deal is adopted.

Seven Palestinians have been killed in two separate Israeli strikes on the north and west of Rafah, Wafa news agency is reporting.

At least four people were killed in an Israeli strike on he Khirbet al-Adas area, north of Rafah, the agency said citing local sources.

Meanwhile, three more people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a house in the Saudi neighbourhood in the west of the city.

Israeli forces have killed at least 40 Palestinians and wounded 150 more in the past 24 hours in four "massacres", according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

This brings the Palestinian death toll since 7 October 2023, to 36,479, with more than 82,777 wounded and an estimated 10,000 missing, likely dead and buried under rubble.

Health officials report that over 70 percent of the victims are children and women.

The opening plenary of the UN climate negotiations in the German city of Bonn has been suspended after climate activists raised a Palestinian flag and a banner that read "No business as usual during a genocide."

South African and Argentinian climate justice activists Tasneem Essop and Anabella Rosemberg were debadged and escorted from the building by the UN police.

‼️ South African & Argentinian climate justice activists Tasneem Essop & Anabella Rosemberg were removed & de-badged after peacefully demonstrating (standing & singing) to alert to the unfolding genocide in Palestine at @UNFCCC #BonnClimateConference opening plenary. ‼️ pic.twitter.com/xUWXY8dilU

— Center for International Environmental Law (@ciel_tweets) June 3, 2024

A public opinion poll in the occupied West Bank has revealed a surge in support for Hamas, while support for Fatah and the Palestinian Authority has dipped.

The poll, which conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre, in cooperation with German NGO Friedrich Ebert-Stiftung, revealed a split in opinion among Palestinians between a two state or one state solution.

It also showed a division in opinion over the best form of Palestinian resistance to achieve national goals, between armed resistance or peaceful resistance.

Lebanon's Hezbollah said on Monday it has launched a squadron of drones towards the headquarters of the Israeli military's Galilee formation.

The group said in a statement the attack was in response to an Israeli drone strike on a car in the Saida district of southern Lebanon.

“In the Galilee Division (Nahal Gershom, east of Dishon), [Hezbollah’s drones] targeted the command building there and the places where its officers and soldiers were stationed and settled,” the statement on Telegram said.

“They hit their targets accurately, which led to the outbreak of fire there and left the enemy soldiers dead or wounded,” the group added.

Over 9000 Palestinians, including 300 women and 635 children, have been detained by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank since 7 October, the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoner's Society (PPS), and Palestinian NGO, Addameer said in a joint statement.

According to the statement, at least 18 prisoners were killed in detention since October, adding that Israeli forces are holding the bodies of 16 detainees.

The groups reported that 50 of the prisoners still remain in detention, 12 of them journalists.

They added that detainees were beaten by Israeli forces , their homes destroyed, and threats made against their families.

A foreign citizen has been detained in Bucharest after throwing a Molotov cocktail outside the Israeli embassy. No damage or casualties were caused by the attack.

The Romanian intelligence service said it had caught the 34-year-old suspect, and handed him to the police. 

Israel's foreign ministry confirmed that the Romanian authorities had arrested a suspect “apparently of Syrian origin”.

He had pulled out, lit and thrown the petrol bomb while undergoing a security inspection, it said.

An Israeli drone strike has targeted a car in the town of Kaouthariyet es-Saiyad, southern Lebanon’s Saida district.

According to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA), one person was killed in the attack.

Israeli Army Radio said that the attack was targeting a Hezbollah operative who was “strengthening” the Lebanese armed group.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel's top priority is the destruction of Hamas, but that the recovery of hostages will also be pursued.

He added that both these objectives are part of the plan to end Israel's war on Gaza, and approved at the highest level of his government.

"This is not something that I am adding now. This is not something that I am adding because I am under pressure within the coalition. It is something we agreed on unanimously in the war cabinet," Netanyahu said in a video statement.

Reporting by Reuters

Far-right Israeli Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir has accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday of trying to "whitewash" a deal to end the war on Gaza that is being advanced by US President Joe Biden, and threatened to quit the government.

Ben-Gvir said that Netanyahu had invited him to read the proposal but had failed to produce the document. He added that any plan must involve the destruction of Hamas.

An Israeli government spokesperson quoted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying on Monday that U.S. President Joe Biden had only published some of the details of the plan to end to the war on Gaza.

"The war will be stopped for the purpose of returning hostages and then we will proceed with other discussions," spokesperson David Mencer quoted Netanyahu as saying.

Reporting by Reuters

Asked on Monday whether he believes there is a moral case to stop UK arms sales to Israel, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer suggested, if elected, he might disclose the legal advice guiding government decision-making on the matter.

“On the question of the arms sales, It is for the government obviously to review the licences. They do it one by one. They have got legal advice,” he said, speaking at a campaign event.

“We have been questioning them to disclose that legal advice and I still press them to disclose that legal advice. Obviously, if we are privileged to come into power, we’ll be able to see that advice or commission our own.”

Starmer, however, did not say what he would do regarding sales once he was privy to the advice, commenting only that his number one priority in Gaza was a ceasefire.

MPs have pressed the government for months to release Foreign Office assessments of Israel’s intent and capability to follow international humanitarian law in Gaza. 

The government had so far refused to release the advice before parliament was dissolved, however some of the advice had been made public as the result of a legal challenge to the sales in the High Court.

Under its own arms exporting criteria, the government is obligated to suspend licences for arms exports if it determines that there is a clear risk that British weapons might be used in such violations.