LIVE UPDATES: 4 dead children pulled from Gaza’s rubble as Israel kills at least 41

• At least 41 people, including 26 in Gaza City, have been killed since dawn in heavy Israeli bombardment with four children’s bodies recovered from the debris in an attack in Jabalia.
• The war on Gaza dominates an Arab League summit in Baghdad, Iraq.
• The Red Crescent renews call for Israel to reopen crossings with Gaza for the entry of humanitarian aid, warning it has been “left to starve and ache”.
• Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 53,272 Palestinians and wounded 120,673, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. The Government Media Office updated the death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.
• An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 taken captive.

Photos: Arab leaders in Baghdad for the 34th Arab League summit

Qassam Brigades claims killing Israeli soldiers in Gaza City

The armed wing of Hamas says on Telegram that its fighters clashed with Israeli soldiers in eastern Gaza City earlier this week.

The gun battle took place on May 12 inside a house on al-Nazzaz Street, east of the Shujayea neighbourhood, according to the statement by Qassam Brigades.

The group claimed two Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting, with others injured.

‘Enough with the attacks,’ Italian foreign minister tells Israel

Antonio Tajani has called on Israel to stop its deadly attacks on Gaza, after the Israeli military’s announcement of a new offensive on the besieged territory.

“Enough with the attacks,” the Italian foreign minister said during a trip to Sicily, in remarks relayed by his spokesman.

“We no longer want to see the Palestinian people suffer,” Tajani said. “Let’s come to a ceasefire, let’s free the hostages, but let’s leave people who are victims of Hamas alone,” he was quoted as saying.

Palestinian publishers take part in international book exhibition

Palestine has been chosen as the guest of honour at the 34th edition of the Doha International Book Fair.

Hundreds of publishers from around the world, including 11 Palestinian publishers, are attending the event in the Qatari capital.

Number of people killed in Israeli attacks since dawn jumps to 41

We reported about half an hour ago that the death toll from the intensified Israeli attacks on Gaza since dawn today stood at 21, but that there were fears it could increase.

Medical sources have now told Al Jazeera the number has risen to at least 41 people, including 26 in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip.

Israel claims killing Hezbollah commander in Lebanon

A military statement claims an air attack killed a local commander in southern Lebanon, where authorities reported one dead in the fourth Israeli attack in days despite a November ceasefire.

As we previously reported, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said one person was killed in an Israeli “drone strike” on a vehicle in the Tyre district.

The Israeli military said its forces “struck and eliminated … a commander” involved in “the re-establishment of Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure”.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.

Hamas says new Gaza ceasefire talks with Israel under way in Doha: Report

Reuters is quoting Hamas official Taher al-Nono as saying that a new round of Gaza ceasefire talks with Israel is currently under way in Qatar, which has been acting as a mediator in the war.

Al-Nono said both sides in Doha were discussing all issues without “pre-conditions”, according to the news agency’s report.

Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 21 since dawn today

Here’s the breakdown, according to medical sources:

• Seven people have been killed in Khan Younis.
• Eight died in Gaza City.
• Six were killed in northern Gaza’s Jabalia and Beit Hanoon.

The numbers are expected to increase as some people remain missing under the rubble.

If Iran and US reach nuclear deal, Israel ‘can do nothing about it’

Analyst Gideon Levy has described the possibility of Iran and the US reaching a nuclear agreement as “a very hopeful development”.

“Those who believe only in bombing Iran as the only solution, what can they do? Israel cannot go for an attack over Iran without at least American approval,” Levy told Al Jazeera.

“And if there will be a deal, there will be no approval. And I think many lives will be saved, but Israel can do nothing about it,” the Haaretz columnist said.

Levy added that while question marks over Trump’s intentions remain, his Gulf tour over the past week resulted in a number of positive developments.

“For example, lifting the sanctions over Syria is a very hopeful step, because it might change Syria,” he noted.

“It might help Syria to stand on its own feet, it might help Syria to join the region, and maybe one day also the Abraham Accords,” Levy added, referring to the normalisation deals between Israel and some Arab states during Trump’s first term in office.

Saudi Arabia calls for Gaza ceasefire, rejects forceful transfer of Palestinians

We have some comments made by Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia’s minister of state for foreign affairs, at the Arab League summit in Baghdad.

Al-Jubeir called for joint efforts “to lessen the humanitarian suffering of the Palestinian people” and said Israel’s “crimes” and “violations” in Gaza represent “a flagrant violation” of the UN Charter and international laws.

He reiterated the kingdom’s call for a ceasefire and its rejection of any attempts to forcefully transfer Palestinians.

Al-Jubeir also said Saudi Arabia rejected “any solutions that do not live up to the aspirations of the Palestinian people restoring their lawful right of self-determination, namely the establishment of an independent sovereign state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital”.

Hamas calls on Arab League ‘to stop genocide in Gaza’

A statement by the Palestinian group on Telegram has also urged the participants of the summit in Baghdad to “impose urgent sanctions” on Israel.

It said: “The occupation continues to perpetrate massacres against civilians, targeting residential neighbourhoods and shelters, resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries, amid a stifling blockade and a complete cut-off of aid.”

Hamas described the situation as a “full-blown genocide committed before the eyes of a world that stands helpless, while more than two and a half million people are being slaughtered in the besieged Strip”.

World ‘indifferent’ as Israel planning ‘huge extermination’

Gideon Levy, an analyst and columnist at the Israeli media outlet Haaretz, says what is happening in Gaza is the beginning of a “huge extermination programme”.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, he said the new phase of Israel’s war will be “against an uprooted people, refugees, without anything, who will be pushed to the south, and then the entire Gaza Strip will be really exterminated”.

The “world is indifferent to Israel’s plans”, and some Israelis believe that “that’s the right thing to do” after the October 7 attack, he added.

Claims of soured relations between Trump and Israel, based on the US president not including the country in his recent Middle East tour, meanwhile, shouldn’t be taken too seriously as the Republican leader often changes his views and plans day by day, Levy argued.

“Israel was left aside because it was very clear that Netanyahu is not ready to put an end to the war and to withdraw from Gaza, and without it, there is no [ceasefire] deal,” he said.

Flights to Yemen’s capital resume, days after Israeli strikes

Air traffic has resumed at the international airport in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, more than a week after massive Israeli air attacks on the facility.

A flight operated by Yemenia Airways landed at the Sanaa International Airport with 136 passengers on board earlier today, according to the Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah satellite news channel.

The flight had departed from Jordan’s capital, Amman. Three more flights are scheduled for today between Sanaa and Amman.

The Israeli strikes on May 6 destroyed the airport’s terminal and left craters on its runway, according to Khaled al-Shaif, the head of the airport.

At least six passenger planes were hit, including three belonging to the national carrier, he said.

The Israeli attacks were in response to a Houthi ballistic missile that hit the grounds of Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, which briefly halted flights and commuter traffic.

The Houthis have targeted Israel throughout the Israeli war on Gaza, in solidarity with Palestinians there, while also targeting Israel-linked ships on the Red Sea.

‘Israel calling the shots, not Arab leaders’

• Zeina Khodr

Reporting from Baghdad, Iraq

At the opening of the Arab Summit in Baghdad, speaker after speaker has been talking about the desperate conditions under which Palestinians are living.

There is a real fear among the Arab leaders that Israel plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza, resettle the Palestinians, and depopulate this whole region.

This is why the statements we have been hearing since this morning are rejecting this plan, saying that the Palestinian people should remain on their own land.

But it’s Israel that’s calling the shots, not these Arab leaders.

Israel’s actions in recent days — by stepping up the military offensive and talking about permanently staying in Gaza — are sending a message that it is not interested in ending the war.

Many will say that unless they have the US on board to help end this war, the Arab states have very little leverage on Israel.

The normalisation of relations with Israel is not on the table until Israel commits to Palestinian statehood, and the Arab states are using this as some sort of leverage.

Trump, US using power for Gaza massacres: Iran’s Khamenei

We have Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s first reaction to Trump’s visit to the Gulf earlier this week.

“Trump said that he wanted to use power for peace, he lied,” Khamenei said during a meeting with teachers, broadcast on state television.

“He and the US administration used power for the massacre in Gaza, for waging wars in any place they could,” added the supreme leader, who has the final say on all Iranian state matters.

The US has provided Israel with 10-tonne bombs to “drop on Gaza children, hospitals, houses of people in Lebanon and anywhere else when they can”, Khamenei said, reiterating his traditional stance against Israel.

“Definitely, the Zionist regime is the spot of corruption, war, rifts. The Zionist regime that is a lethal, dangerous, cancerous tumour should certainly be eradicated, and it will be,” he said.

Abbas urges international endorsement of post-war plans for Gaza

Here’s more from the PA president at the Arab League summit in Iraq.

• “We reiterate that we are prepared to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in the coming year, as was the case in the past, once the conditions permit … in Gaza, West Bank and Jerusalem.”
• “We have taken the constitutional measures by creating the vice president position.”
• “We call on this summit to adopt our plan and to endorse it before the relevant global bodies, especially following the visit paid by the US president to the region. And here we thank him for his efforts aiming at ending the war and establishing lasting peace.”
• “We also commend the firm stands and genuine calls by the GCC member states for a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian conflict.”

‘We must adopt an Arab plan to end the war’: PA President Abbas

Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, has now also addressed the Arab League summit in Baghdad.

Here are some of his remarks:

• Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank “are all part of a complete imperial enterprise [aimed] at undermining our efforts for establishing our independent state”.
• We need support from “the Arab states, the US administration and the [UN] Security Council to stand up to this imperial enterprise”.
• “[We must] adopt an Arab plan to end the war, establish peace, including the following: first, a permanent ceasefire, immediate release of all Palestinian detainees and Israeli captives, and the unconditional delivery of relief aid, in addition to the total withdrawal by the Israeli occupation forces from the Gaza Strip.”
• Hamas and all other factions should “lay down and hand over their arms to the Palestinian Authority, the sole representative of the Palestinian people”.
• An international conference should “be convened in Egypt for the implementation of the reconstruction plan in the Gaza Strip”.
• We want an immediate end to Israel’s “confiscation, annexation and change of the historic and legal status in the Holy sites in Jerusalem”.
• We want “the establishment of the Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories with full recognition by the world community”.

Palestinian cause is living one of its darkest moments: Egypt’s el-Sisi

We also have comments made by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi at the Arab League meeting in Baghdad.

Speaking at the opening of the event, the Egyptian president said the “region is faced with complicated challenges and unprecedented conditions”.

El-Sisi called on leaders to adopt a stance “firmly united in words and in action”.

“It is no secret that the Palestinian cause is living one of its darkest and gravest moments,” he said.

“The Palestinian people are going through organised and systematic crimes, and brutal practices for more than one and a half years, aiming at exterminating and ending their existence in the Gaza Strip,” el-Sisi added.

The president stressed that “the Israeli war machine did not leave any building standing or show any mercy to any child or woman” during the war, adding that it has used “starvation as a weapon”.

Number of people killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza jumps to 53,272

The Health Ministry in the besieged and bombarded territory says the bodies of 153 people killed in Israeli attacks arrived at hospitals across Gaza in the past 24 hours.

This includes seven recovered from under the rubble following strikes in previous days, a statement on Telegram added.

Another 459 injuries were registered over the last 24-hour reporting period, the ministry said.

The figures bring the number of people killed in Gaza since the start of the war to 53,272, with 120,673 others wounded, according to the ministry.