Live: UK halts trade deal talks with Israel, summons ambassador over Gaza

The Houthis have drawn the ire of Israel and its allies after launching a series of attacks in support of Gaza, resulting in the biggest disruption to global trade since the COVID-19 pandemic."

But what have the Houthis achieved in 18 months of attacks of Gaza on the Red Sea?

MEE's Rayhan Uddin teams up with our correspondent in Yemen to find out what local and academics think of the Houthi attacks for Gaza. 

READ MORE: What did Houthis achieve in 18 months of attacks on the Red Sea?

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that Israel fully endorses U.S. President Donald Trump's plan for Gaza aid, during a meeting with German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul in Jerusalem on Sunday.

Trump recently repeated a U.S. pledge to help get food to Palestinians in Gaza. A U.S.-backed mechanism for getting aid into Gaza should take effect soon, Washington's envoy to Israel also said on Friday.

Palestinian health officials are reporting that Israeli forces have killed 19 people in Gaza and wounded 81 others in the past 24 hours. 

Pope Leo XIV called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the delivery of emergency aid into the besieged enclave and the release of captives.  

In his first Sunday noon blessing as pontiff, Pope Leo quoted the late Pope Francis in condemning the number of ongoing conflicts across the world. 

Palestinian health ministry officials said Israeli strikes on Saturday night and in the early hours of Sunday killed nine Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, most of them women and children. 

Two of the strikes hit tents in the southern city of Khan Younis, each killing two children and their parents. 

Nasser hospital reported that a third strike killed a child and wounded seven people.

Good morning,

Welcome back to Middle East Eye’s live blog, where we give you the latest updates from Gaza and across the region.

Here is everything you need to know to start your day: 

• Palestinian health officials said Israeli strikes on Gaza killed nine people, mostly women and children.

• Qatar’s foreign ministry said on Saturday night that it had met with Iran to discuss the situation in Gaza. In a statement, Doha described Gaza as a “common interest” issue between the two countries. 

• Turkish doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk, who attends Tufts University, has returned to Boston after US immigration officers abducted her for penning an op-ed on Gaza in a student newspaper. 

• Palestinian factions in Lebanon remain uncertain over reports of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas calling for armed Palestinian groups to disarm. The call reportedly stems from a request made by Saudi Arabia.

• Freed Israeli captive Ohad Ben Ami appealed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump following the release of a video showing Israeli captives Elkana Bohbot and Yosef Chaim Ohana in captivity. 

Our live coverage from Gaza will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are some of the day's key developments:

• The Palestinian health ministry said on Saturday that Israeli forces have killed at least 27 people and injured more than 100 people in the past 24 hours. 

• The number of Palestinians killed in Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza has climbed to at least 52,810, the Palestinian health ministry said on Saturday, with more than 119,473 people wounded since the war began on 7 October 2023.

• A UN spokesperson has sounded the alarm and warned that Israel's plan to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza's population "does not meet the minimum bar for principled humanitarian support."

• James Elder, spokesperson for Unicef, said on Saturday that the draft plan “appears likely to exacerbate the ongoing suffering of children and families in the Gaza Strip”.

• US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has dismissed as “nonsense” a Jerusalem Post report claiming President Donald Trump will recognise a Palestinian state during his upcoming visit to the region.

• Huckabee has also played down speculation that President Donald Trump is snubbing Israel by excluding it from his upcoming Middle East tour.

• Germany’s newly appointed foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, has called for “serious discussions for a ceasefire” in Gaza, describing the humanitarian conditions as “unbearable.”

• The Israeli army confirmed that a landmine attack in Gaza City injured nine Israeli soldiers, including two senior officers. 

Tufts University PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk was granted bail in a hearing in federal court in Vermont on Thursday, a blow to the Trump administration, which had placed her in deportation proceedings.

Judge William Sessions III, who presided over her case, said that the Turkish national's continued detention could not stand, and “bail was necessary to make the habeas remedy effective”.

During the proceedings that lasted almost three hours, the judge heard from four witnesses presented by Ozturk’s legal team. The government did not bring forth any witnesses.

After the closing remarks, judge Sessions said the court had found Ozturk had sufficiently established all three claims pertaining to her detention.

“Ozturk has raised serious concerns about her health in a sworn affidavit,” he said.

Read more: US federal judge grants bail to Turkish national Rumeysa Ozturk

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Saudi Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah counterpart in Jeddah on Saturday, where the two discussed regional issues and growing concerns over Israel’s war on Gaza.

According to a statement from Iran’s foreign ministry, the pair addressed bilateral relations and developments in the besieged Palestinian territory, where Israeli bombardment has continued for months.

"The top Iranian diplomat underscored the necessity for the Muslim world to confront threats and challenges, particularly concerning the [sic] occupied Palestine, halting the ongoing genocide there, and preventing the colonial scheme to erase Palestine," the ministry said.

The meeting marks another sign of deepening diplomatic engagement between Tehran and Riyadh since their China-brokered rapprochement last year.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has played down speculation that President Donald Trump is snubbing Israel by excluding it from his upcoming Middle East tour.

Speaking to Israel’s Channel 12, Huckabee explained that Trump’s itinerary — which includes Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates — is shaped by a focus on economic ties, not a slight against Israel.

“His first trip is about economic opportunity. That’s where his focus is,” Huckabee said. “What he’s doing is not because he’s snubbing Israel… he’s spent more time with the prime minister of Israel than he has with any other world leader. I think that says a lot.”

Huckabee sought to reassure Israelis that Trump remains a strong supporter of the country. “I would just say to people, ‘relax, calm down, Donald Trump loves you… he’s got your back.’”

On Iran, Huckabee was asked if the US would greenlight Israeli military action should Tehran remain a threat even after a possible nuclear deal. The ambassador replied, “Israel has the right to do what it has to do,” while noting that Washington would offer its own “recommendations.”

He also pushed back against reports of tension between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling claims the former president had distanced himself “a very unfair characteristic.”

“Prime Minister Netanyahu has spent more time with President Trump than I have in the past couple of months,” he said, adding that their ties remain “warm and personal.”

The Israeli military’s former chief of staff has accused his successor of “sending soldiers to commit war crimes” in Gaza and torn into Israel’s government for “losing touch with Jewish morality”.

In an interview with Israeli outlet Ynet on Thursday, Moshe Yaalon, who also served as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s defence minister between 2013 and 2016, said Israel had abandoned the captives held by Hamas and was carrying out a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza. 

Yaalon attacked the current military chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, saying he was not stopping “clearly illegal orders” and was ordering “his soldiers to be war criminals”.

“Call it ethnic cleansing, call it transfer, call it deportation - it’s a war crime,” Yaalon said, describing plans led by far-right Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir to occupy the entire Gaza Strip and evacuate its Palestinian population.

Read more: Israel 'sending soldiers to commit war crimes in Gaza', says former army chief

Several international carriers have grounded flights to Israel after a missile launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels struck Ben-Gurion International Airport on Sunday last week, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

• Ryanair and Air Europa suspend operations until 11 May

• Air France cancels flights through 13 May

• Wizz Air extends halt until 14 May

• Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Eurowings cancel flights through 18 May

• ITA Airways suspends services until 19 May

• Delta Air Lines extends halt to 20 May

• Iberia confirms no flights until 31 May

• British Airways announces longest suspension, cancelling flights through 14 June

Israeli forces carried out a raid in the Al-Marj area of Qalqilya in the northern occupied West Bank, arresting several Palestinians, local sources told Al Jazeera Arabic.

The operation came amid reports that settlers had earlier attacked Palestinian farmers in Khirbet Yarza, located east of Tubas.

Following the settler violence, Israeli troops arrested 10 Palestinians in the area, according to the same sources.

On 8 and 9 May, a so-called "People's Peace Summit", titled "The Time Has Come", took place at Binyanei HaUma convention centre in Jerusalem.

Sixty Israeli organisations gathered under the banner of peace, claiming to prepare the ground for a political resolution to the "Israeli-Palestinian conflict". 

The summit featured tours, workshops, film screenings, performances, and - on the second day - keynote speeches promoting what organisers described as a "peace-based worldview".

According to its website, the summit aimed to promote "dialogue" between Palestinians and Israelis, in hopes of sparking societal change and inspiring belief that after each war, a political process would follow.

Read more:  Why the Israeli left's 'peace summit' is in denial about the Gaza genocide

Israeli father Michel Illouz, whose son died in Gaza, took the stage at Saturday’s protest in Tel Aviv, denouncing the Israeli government’s plan to expand its military operation in the enclave.

Speaking to the crowd calling for the release of captives, Illouz warned that the offensive, authorised earlier this week by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet, could endanger the very people it claims to rescue.

"Our chief of staff said this week that a manoeuvre in Gaza 'endangers the lives of the hostages.' Do you get it? The Israeli government is about to launch a military operation that may endanger the lives of the hostages," he said.

Illouz, who has emerged as a vocal critic of the government's approach, questioned the legality and morality of the planned operation.

"As I see it, this is clearly an illegal order under military law," he added. "And obeying it constitutes a criminal offence. It is therefore an obligation – not a permission, not a right, but a deep obligation – not to obey it!"

He concluded his remarks with a series of searing questions: "I ask you – is a military operation that will kill our hostages legal? Is it moral? Is it humane? Is it Jewish? Is it Israeli? What the hell is this, if not a clearly illegal order?"

The protest in Tel Aviv was part of a growing wave of public frustration over the fate of hostages still held in Gaza and the government’s handling of negotiations.