World

(LONDON) — Russia launched drones and a missile into Ukraine overnight into Sunday, the air force in Kyiv said, as the country kicked off independence day celebrations marking the anniversary of its 1991 declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 72 drones and one Iskander-M ballistic missile into the country in its latest overnight barrage, of which 48 drones were intercepted or suppressed. The missile and 24 drones impacted across 10 locations, the air force said.

On Sunday morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office published a statement to mark 34 years of independence, in which Zelenskyy said the previous 1,278 days of war with Russia constitute the country’s “war for independence.”

Ukraine marks its independence day amid U.S.-led efforts to end Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country, which began in February 2022 and followed nearly a decade of cross-border aggression and land grabs by Moscow.

Zelenskyy posted to social media to share a letter from U.S. President Donald Trump, in which the American leader said that the Ukrainian people “have an unbreakable spirit, and your country’s courage inspires many. The United States respects your fight, honors your sacrifices, and believes in your future as an independent nation.”

“Now is the moment to bring an end to the senseless killing,” Trump continued, calling for a “negotiated settlement that leads to a durable, lasting peace that ends the bloodshed and safeguards Ukraine’s sovereignty and dignity.”

Zelenskyy thanked Trump for his letter. “We appreciate your kind words for the Ukrainian people, and we thank the United States for standing shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine in defending what is most valuable: independence, freedom, and guaranteed peace,” Zelenskyy wrote.

“We believe that by working together, we can put an end to this war and achieve real peace for Ukraine,” he added.

Ukraine continued its own long-range attacks on Russia overnight, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry. Russian forces shot down 95 Ukrainian drones over 14 regions during the latest exchange, the ministry said in a Sunday morning statement.

At least one drone was shot down on approach to Moscow, local officials said, with at least six shot down over the Leningrad region and St. Petersburg, according to the Defense Ministry.

Two people were injured by drone attacks in the western Russian region of Bryansk, according to local authorities, with damage reported to homes and cars.

There were reports of explosions related to drone attacks at the Syzran oil refinery in Samara region, as well as a fire at the Novatek gas terminal at the port of Ust-Luga, west of St. Petersburg.

Sources inside the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) told ABC News that drones struck the Ust-Luga port, targeting the Novatek gas facility.

The SBU previously struck Ust-Luga in January 2025. The terminal handles Russian oil and gas exports including via the country’s so-called “shadow fleet” of tankers used to evade international sanctions.

The SBU described Saturday night’s attack as “a gift for Russia on Ukraine’s independence day.”

Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, reported temporary flight restrictions at at least 11 airports across Russia, including in Pskov, Saratov, Volgograd and St. Petersburg.

In the western Kursk region, officials said a downed Ukrainian drone caused a fire at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant. “Upon impact, the drone detonated, resulting in damage to an auxiliary transformer,” the plant’s press service wrote on Telegram.

The statement said that radiation levels were normal and there was no immediate danger.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a post to X that its Director General Rafael Grossi stressed that “every nuclear facility must be protected at all times.”

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(LONDON) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test-firing of two newly developed types of missiles, state media reported, launches that came as the United States and South Korea held their annual military drills to the south.

The two missiles tested on Saturday were designed to target aerial threats, including attack drones and cruise missiles, the Korea Central News Agency reported on Sunday.

State media reported few details on the projectiles, other than describing them as “improved” versions, saying they were “based on unique and special technology.”

The launches came days after the Monday start of “Ulchi Freedom Shield 25,” joint military exercises that are ongoing in South Korea. Those training exercises, which include live-fire drills, were scheduled to run through Thursday.

The U.S. State Department in announcing that the drills had begun said they were intended to reaffirm “the ironclad commitment between the U.S. and South Korea to defend their homelands.”

A North Korean military official described those exercises as destabilizing for the Korean Peninsula, accusing the United States and South Korea of “the destruction of balance of power in the region.”

A spokesperson for the Korean People’s Army told Rodong Sinmun, a state-owned newspaper, that the “reckless” drills were being run by “warmongers,” adding that the exercises were pushing the Korean Peninsula into “extreme tension.”

North Korean state media published on Sunday an image of Kim meeting with military officials, along with several images of missiles in mid-air. It was not immediately clear where the missile tests had taken place.

As the drills began on Monday, Kim was touring a North Korean naval destroyer, KCNA reported. He reportedly said during that visit that the U.S.-South Korea drills could “ignite a war” and that North Korea should push for a “rapid expansion of nuclearization.”

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(LONDON) — Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Friday that Gaza city could “turn into Rafah and Beit Hanoun,” areas that were destroyed earlier in the war, unless Hamas agrees to Israel’s terms.

This comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would approve the military’s plans to seize Gaza City.

“Soon, the gates of hell will open on the heads of Hamas’ murderers and rapists in Gaza – until they agree to Israel’s conditions for ending the war, primarily the release of all hostages and their disarmament. If they do not agree – Gaza, the capital of Hamas, will become Rafah and Beit Hanoun. Exactly as I promised – so it will be,” Katz said in a post on X.

The Israel Defense Forces said Friday that ground troops are “operating on the outskirts of Gaza City locating and dismantling terrorist infrastructure above and underground.”

The IDF has said it plans to escalate the war soon by seizing Gaza City and other Hamas strongholds in the Gaza Strip, which humanitarian organizations warned will exacerbate the hunger crisis.

A United Nations-backed food security monitor announced on Friday that a famine determination has been made in Gaza City. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) raised its classification for the Gaza City region in the north-central Gaza Strip to Phase 5, the highest and worst level of its acute food insecurity scale. The IPC itself does not declare a famine, but its famine determination can inform decision-makers in governments and bodies such as the U.N.

In a report published Friday, the IPC said “this Famine is entirely man-made,” adding that it can be “halted and reversed.

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the Israeli defense body in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, said Friday it “firmly rejects the claim of famine in the Gaza Strip, and particularly in Gaza City,” alleging that the IPC report “is based on partial and unreliable sources, many of them affiliated with Hamas.”

In a statement Friday, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office called the IPC’s famine determination in parts of the Gaza Strip “an outright lie” and “a modern blood libel.”

The IDF said its troops are operating in the Jabalia area, Khan Younis and on the outskirts of Gaza City to “eliminate terrorists and dismantle terrorist infrastructure.”

At least 71 Palestinians were killed and 251 injured throughout the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health said Friday.

Among those killed were 24 people trying to get humanitarian aid, while another 133 aid seekers were wounded, according to the health ministry.

Two others died of starvation over the past day, bringing the total number of deaths due to starvation to 273, including 112 children, the health ministry said.

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(LONDON) — Famine has been determined in Gaza Governorate, where Gaza City is located, according to a warning issued Friday by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

The report from IPC — a global initiative monitoring hunger with the backing of governments, the United Nations and non-governmental organizations — projected famine would expand to Deir al-Balah Governorate, in central Gaza, and Khan Younis Governorate, in southern Gaza, by the end of September.

The IPC itself doesn’t issue official declarations of famine, but its findings can inform governments and bodies such as the U.N. to make a famine declaration.

The report also found that more than half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing Phase 5 conditions, which are characterized as catastrophic levels of food insecurity. About 1.07 million people, 54% of the population, are facing Phase 4 conditions, characterized as emergency levels of food insecurity.

Between mid-August and the end of September 2025, almost a third of the population — nearly 641,000 people — are expected to face Phase 5 catastrophic conditions and the number of people facing emergency levels will likely increase to 1.14 million, according to the report.

The IPC report stated that, given the inability to classify North Gaza due to barriers reaching the area, the figures in the report are an underestimate. Estimates also exclude any remaining population in Rafah, in southern Gaza, because it is mostly uninhabited, according to the IPC.

The food crisis in Gaza has worsened since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended in March and Israel instituted a blockade on aid into Gaza. An increasing number of deaths due to malnutrition have also been reported and gut-wrenching images have emerged of suffering children and long food lines.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(LONDON) — Recent satellite images taken over and around Gaza City point to preparations for the expanded military operation there and show signs that people sheltering there have already been displaced.

A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said on Wednesday that the force had begun “preliminary operations and the first stages of the attack on Gaza City,” adding that the IDF is in control of the city’s outskirts.

The spokesperson said that the operation, which is dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots II,” is necessary to dislodge Hamas from Gaza City. The IDF announced on Wednesday the call-up of up to 60,000 reservists in connection with its expanded Gaza operation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the IDF’s aim is to defeat Hamas and secure the release of the remaining hostages held by the group.

In a new statement on Thursday, the IDF said it had warned medical officials and aid organizations operating in northern Gaza, including Gaza City, to prepare to evacuate the population there to the south.

It comes nearly two weeks after Israel’s security cabinet approved plans offered up by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to occupy Gaza City amid growing international scrutiny over the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

International aid organizations have already recorded the movement of civilians out of Gaza City. According to a report issued on Wednesday by the Site Management Cluster (SMC), recent Israeli military operations in Gaza City have prompted many there to depart.

An estimate from the SMC pointed to 16,831 “displacement movements” between Aug. 12 and Aug. 20, most of them from the east of Gaza City.

The Site Management Cluster is a joint humanitarian body that coordinates assistance for displaced people.

In a separate statement on Wednesday, U.N. human rights officials condemned the IDF’s escalation in Gaza City. The officials said in the report that at least 87 Palestinians had been reported killed in Gaza City since Aug. 8, including 25 children, a figure the officials said was likely an undercount due to the difficult circumstances on the ground.

Growing military presence

A Planet Labs satellite photo taken on Aug. 16 shows a new military presence on the eastern edge of Gaza City, two experts told ABC News.

Vanderbilt University professor Andres Gannon, a military technology expert, said the photo shows a range of vehicles including tanks and armored personnel carriers, as well as lines of plowed earth for concealment or protection.

Tony Reeves, founder of the private intelligence firm MAIAR, said he counted over 30 armored vehicles in the image along with equipment like bulldozers, as well as earthworks which he said could be used for protection.

Reeves also identified a building surrounded by armored vehicles which he identified as a likely headquarters, as well as vehicles possibly used for communications with their own fortifications.

“You protect important things when spooling up for battle,” Reeves said.

In a satellite image taken over the same area on Aug. 9, the military vehicles and earthworks are not visible.

Tent camps dismantled

Another Planet Labs image taken on Aug. 9 shows a large block and two smaller clusters of tents some 2,300 feet from the likely military position.

In an image from Aug. 17, the tents appear to have been mostly dismantled and many of the buildings surrounding them flattened.

In an image taken on Aug. 9, another large cluster of tents is visible about 1 mile from the likely military site.

On Aug. 17, many of the tents were no longer visible.

Some buildings apparently demolished

In a satellite photo taken on Aug. 8, a large number of demolished buildings are seen surrounding some that are still standing, including one large U-shaped facility identified in data from UNICEF as the Dar Al-Arqam Secondary Boys Private School.

In an Aug. 16 image, many of the buildings visible in the above image, including the boys’ school, are no longer standing.

Asked about the apparent demolition of buildings in Gaza, the IDF told ABC News, “There is no IDF doctrine that aims causing maximal damage to civilian infrastructure regardless of military necessity. IDF actions are based on military necessity and with accordance to international law.”

In response to a request for comment on internal displacement in Gaza, the IDF directed ABC News to a map issued on July 27 advising Gaza to leave areas including the northern Gaza Strip and the east of Gaza City for their own safety.

ABC News’ Dorit Long contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) — A controversial Israeli settlement plan that would effectively split the West Bank in two is gaining momentum after a key government committee — the Higher Planning Committee of the Civil Administration under the Defense Ministry — gave its approval.

The settlement proposal approved by the Israel Defense Ministry on Wednesday consists of a plan to build 3,400 new housing units in an area known as E1 — an area of land some 4.6 square miles in size separating Jerusalem from the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim.

The E1 area is particularly significant, given it is one of the last areas linking the West Bank Palestinian cities of Ramallah in the north and Bethlehem in the south. The construction of Israeli settlements there — which has been proposed for decades but until now not approved — is considered by supporters and critics alike as a major obstacle to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Any new settlement construction is expected to restrict the movement of Palestinians in the area. Israeli authorities maintain tight restrictions on Palestinian entry into and movement inside illegal settlements, as reported by the United Nations and a host of foreign, Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups.

Bedouins – the descendants of historically semi-nomadic groups, many of whom now live in agricultural areas of the West Bank — currently living in the area said this week that they have already received orders to leave. Atallah Al-Jahelin, the representative of the Bedouin community of Jabal Al-Baba to the west of Maale Adumim, said locals there had received notice of planned demolition works related to the plans.

E1 is designated as part of Area C, which means Israel has full civil and security control there. Some 60% of the West Bank is designated as Area C, with only 18% classified as Area A, meaning it is under full Palestinian Authority control.

Israel’s far-right, pro-settlement Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced the plan last week, saying it “definitively buries the idea of a Palestinian state, simply because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize.”

“The seal has broken,” Smotrich said at a press conference in Maale Adumim. “Whoever in the world is trying to recognize a Palestinian state today, will receive our answer on the ground,” he added, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “fully apply Israeli sovereignty” to the entire West Bank.

Netanyahu has yet to comment on the plan.

In a statement posted to X, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said the E1 plan “undermines the prospects of implementing the two-state solution, embodying the Palestinian state on the ground, and fragments its geographical and demographic unity.”

“It entrenches the division of the occupied West Bank into isolated areas and cantons, disconnected from one another geographically, resembling actual prisons where movement between them is only possible through occupation checkpoints amidst the terror of armed settler militias spread throughout the West Bank,” the ministry added.

Locals have also condemned the move. Atallah Al-Jahelin, the representative of the Bedouin community of Jabal Al-Baba to the west of Maale Adumim, said some residents have already received orders to vacate their homes ahead of planned demolition works.

Western governments have also expressed their opposition to the plan. British Foreign Minister David Lammy said of the proposal in a post to X, “If implemented, it would divide a Palestinian state in two, mark a flagrant breach of international law and critically undermine the two-state solution.”

The White House has not commented on the E1 settlement plan, but U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee this week signaled it will not interfere. “We will not dictate to Israel what to do, we will not interfere in the running of the country,” he said. “It would be very strange to say that others can live in this area but Israelis cannot.”

Past U.S. administrations have opposed the construction of Israeli settlements in the E1 area.

The German Foreign Ministry said Berlin opposed the plan as it “would further restrict the mobility of the Palestinian population in the West Bank, effectively divide the West Bank into two halves and cut East Jerusalem off from the rest of the West Bank.”

The French Foreign Ministry urged the Israeli government to abandon the plan, which it said “constitutes a serious violation of international law.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the U.K. will recognize an independent Palestinian state in September when the U.N. General Assembly convenes in New York unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza and take other steps toward long-term peace. French President Emmanuel Macron has also announced that France will recognize a Palestinian state at the General Assembly.

ABC News’ Will Gretsky contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) — Giraffes, long considered a single species, have now been recognized as four genetically distinct species in a major decision by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) that scientists say could reshape conservation efforts across Africa.

The announcement comes after more than a decade of research by the Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF) and Germany’s Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre where scientists found that the genetic differences between the four species — Masai, northern, reticulated, and southern — are as significant as those between brown bears and polar bears.

“This recognition is more than academic,” said Dr. Julian Fennessy, GCF’s Director of Conservation. “Each giraffe species faces different threats, and now we can tailor conservation strategies to meet their specific needs.”

The most at-risk is the northern giraffe, with fewer than 6,000 individuals left in the wild, while the reticulated giraffe, mostly found in northern Kenya, is estimated at around 16,000 — though that is more than a 50% decrease from the 36,000 individuals estimated to have lived 35 years ago.

The Masai giraffe, a common sight in Tanzania’s national parks, has a population of approximately 45,400. Only the southern giraffe, whose numbers count approximately 49,850 individuals, is considered relatively stable by GCF.

According to GCF’s 2025 status report, giraffes have disappeared from almost 90% of the regions once considered prime habitats, including several West African countries where they are now extinct.

“This announcement will surprise many — how could we have overlooked something so fundamental?” said Fennessy. “But it underscores the importance of combining fieldwork with genetics to drive real-world conservation outcomes.”

The current classification had remained unchanged since 1758, when all giraffes were placed under a single species. That view persisted until 2016 when researchers first published genetic data suggesting deeper divisions.

The studies involved DNA samples from thousands of giraffes collected across 21 African countries, along with a recently published morphological study of giraffe skulls. The findings led the IUCN’s Giraffe and Okapi Specialist Group to formally recognize four species this week.

“To describe four new large mammal species after more than 250 years of taxonomy is extraordinary,” said Prof. Axel Janke. “Especially for animals as iconic as giraffe, which roam Africa in plain sight.”

The new classification could lead to a change in global conservation policies and each species will now be independently assessed for the IUCN Red List, opening the door to targeted protections under agreements like the U.S. Endangered Species Act, which is currently considering a listing for giraffes.

The move also allows countries to potentially direct conservation funding more precisely.

The GCF says the next step is to implement species-specific strategies, including habitat protection, anti-poaching patrols and community conservation, instead of treating giraffes as a uniform population.

“What a tragedy it would be to lose a species we only just learned existed,” said Stephanie Fennessy, GCF’s Executive Director.

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(NEW YORK) — Dr. Aqsa Durrani, an American physician who has been providing humanitarian work around the world for over 15 years, said amid the harrowing scenes of death and destruction in Gaza, one story especially sticks with her.

Found injured and alone after an Israeli airstrike, a 4-year-old girl was taken to a trauma field hospital in central Gaza, she told ABC News.

“She was completely in shock. She was not talking and [a colleague] decided, ‘I have to take this little girl home and I have try to see if I can help her find her family,'” said Durrani, a pediatric ICU doctor and an epidemiologist who worked with Doctors Without Borders in Gaza earlier this year.

Durrani, who said her colleagues are working in conditions that are “incomprehensible,” recently gained major attention for an interview on the digital platform “Humans of New York.”

“He has kids around her age. He tried to feed her, he tried have his kids play with her,” Durrani told ABC News. “She was completely non-emotive — for days. And for those days, he tried to find her family.”

He looked in the area where the airstrike hit — a location where displaced people were sheltering — but he wasn’t able to find her family there, according to Durrani.

“Finally, he said that he found a man who said that he had a niece that age and that they were staying in that area, so he brought him to her,” Durrani said.

“He said that when she saw him, she yelled out ‘ammo,’ which means uncle in Arabic, and she ran to him and hugged him. And it was the first time [my colleague] had heard her speak,” Durrani said.

But this was only one child and it took days to find her family because they had been displaced multiple times, Durrani told ABC News.

“I said, ‘It’s so beautiful that you took her and you were able to reunite her with her uncle.’ And he said, ‘I have to do that. I have do that because I have to believe that someone will do that for me when this happens to me, or someone will do that for my children,'” Durrani said.

“I think the story exemplifies every aspect of the horror that everyone is experiencing,” Durrani said.

Durrani was based in central Gaza — working at a trauma field hospital there — from Feb. 24 to April 24, witnessing the end of Israel’s ceasefire agreement with Hamas and the weekslong blockade on all humanitarian aid.

Field hospitals — which are tents and semi-permanent structures — were meant to offload existing hospitals. At the field hospital where Durrani worked, they were only able to provide care to injured or burn patients, she said.

“We could not possibly provide other services with the circumstances that we were in,” Durrani said. “We really had to keep it to lifesaving trauma service.”

“Now, most of the patients that they’re receiving are injured at these supposed aid-distribution sites. They are receiving now more patients with gunshot wounds, including children with gunshot wounds. Each day continues to get worse and we have just been witnessing this genocidal violence now for months and months and it’s beyond anything that even our most experienced humanitarian colleagues can imagine,” Durrani said.

The Israel Defense Forces have previously said shooting incidents at aid sites were under review, but has also said in few instances that it fired “warning shots” toward people who were allegedly “advancing while posing a threat to the troops.”

At least 2,018 have died trying to get humanitarian aid in Gaza and another 15,000 have been injured since May 28, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.

Durrani said her colleagues, despite experiencing constant horror were “committed to doing everything in the best way possible and despite their own personal trauma” and continue to come in every day.

“We’ve had physicians who receive their own family members in the ER during during mass casualty incidents. They’re enduring these horrors and also working to provide care in those circumstances,” she said.

“What I cannot stress enough is that they — even in those circumstances, and even despite relentless trauma — were providing beautiful, compassionate, evidence-based care,” Durrani said.

Durrani recalled one day when they “called a child psychiatrist, who was one of the only child psychiatrists in the whole Gaza Strip, he was so apologetic that he could not come to see the children that day and told us that it was because he was actually himself displaced that day, and that he had lost some of his family members.”

The majority of their patients were women and children “even though our hospital was for everyone,” she said.

“We would round on all of the injured patients with the surgeons and go patient by patient. And often there were airstrikes nearby, and the Palestinian doctors and nurses would just speak louder over the bombs. And just continue providing compassionate care to the patients as we continued down the line,” Durrani said.

Food was becoming more scarce toward the end of Durrani’s time in Gaza, she said.

“Much of our days were actually spent trying to work with other organizations to see if we could find any food to give anyone. At the end, I was only able to provide patients with one meal per day, and mothers and children were sharing one portion of one meal,” she said.

“I even had one mother say, ‘Is there anything you can give my child to distract him from the hunger?’ And this was a child who had been burned by a fire that resulted from an airstrike,” she said.

Durrani said she believes the conditions in Gaza are a “deliberate choice” made by Israeli leadership, and called on the U.S. government to withdraw its support for what she called “complete indiscriminate” violence.

The Israeli government has denied that it is limiting the amount of aid entering Gaza and has claimed Hamas steals aid meant for civilians. Hamas has denied those claims.

Israel’s cabinet has approved plans to expand its military campaign in Gaza, drawing widespread criticism from the United Nations and key allies including Germany. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Aug. 8 the escalation “will result in more killing, more unbearable suffering, [and] senseless destruction.”

More than 100 aid groups have warned of “mass starvation” in Gaza, describing a dire food shortage due to the Israeli government’s siege.

Israeli government spokesman David Mencer pushed back, saying “there is no famine” in Gaza. He blamed Hamas and called the food crisis in Gaza “a man-made shortage engineered by Hamas.”

A USAID analysis appeared to undercut Israeli assertions about the extent to which Hamas has allegedly stolen humanitarian aid. A presentation reviewed by ABC News, examining more than 150 reported incidents involving the theft or loss of U.S.-funded humanitarian aid in Gaza, showed that the group failed to find any evidence that Hamas engaged in widespread diversion of aid to cause the amount of hunger seen in the strip.

Durrani said providing medical aid in the Gaza Strip was an experience unlike any other.

“It’s dystopian, but it elicits a very visceral response. It’s just completely unfathomable that it’s actually, real, everything around you. I entered through the Karam Shalom crossing and we drove through Rafah and Rafah was at that point, even in late February, almost completely destroyed. It just looked like a dystopian reality,” Durrani said.

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(LONDON) — Israel has begun the “first stages of the attack on Gaza City” on Wednesday as it plans to call up to 50,000 to 60,000 reservists in order to occupy the city, according to Israel Defense Forces spokesman Eddie Defrin and an Israeli military official.

“We have begun the preliminary operations and the first stages of the attack on Gaza City. IDF forces are already holding the outskirts of Gaza City,” Defrin said Wednesday.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz approved on Wednesday the Israel Defense Forces’ military plan, codenamed “Gideon’s Chariots II,” to invade and occupy the city, according to the official.

The call-ups will begin immediately, the official said.

Meanwhile, at least 58 Palestinians were killed in the past 24 hours in Israeli strikes on Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

This comes after Hamas said it agreed to a ceasefire proposal from Qatar and Egypt on Monday. The proposal is said to be based on the framework put forward by the U.S. in June.

Israel has not commented on Hamas’ decision to accept the proposal.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt attributed, at least in part, Hamas’ decision to accept the proposed ceasefire to President Donald Trump’s social media post saying that the remaining hostages will only be returned “when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!!”

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Hamas accepted this proposal after the president of the United States posted a very strong statement about this conflict on Truth Social yesterday,” Leavitt said Tuesday, referring reporters back to Trump’s post.

ABC News has not confirmed the exact details of the proposal or what Hamas agreed to.

Earlier this month, Israel’s security cabinet approved plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the Israeli military to occupy Gaza City, in an expansion of military operations that comes amid international condemnation of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s planned Gaza City military offensive “must be immediately halted,” United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Aug. 8, warning of “more massive forced displacement.”

“This further escalation will result in more killing, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction,” Turk said.

Last month, 115 organizations described the dire food shortage in Gaza as “mass starvation,” as the “Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza.”

Israel has blamed shortages on Hamas with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying on Aug. 20, “If we had a starvation policy, no one in Gaza would have survived after two years of war. … In the last few months, Hamas has violently looted the aid trucks meant to get to Palestinian civilians. They deliberately created a shortage of supply.” Hamas, however, has denied those claims.

Earlier this week, the IDF said it is appealing to “Jewish communities abroad” to deal with a severe shortage of soldiers, according to a senior IDF official.

The shortage of soldiers — estimated at 10,000 to 12,000 soldiers — and the lack of Haredi recruitment from the ultra-orthodox community are pushing the IDF to exhaust every other possibility to replenish its ranks, the senior IDF official said.

The IDF intends to turn to the largest Jewish communities in the Diaspora, with the aim of encouraging the recruitment of young Jews of military age to come to Israel for several years to serve in the army, the official added. The main communities where efforts will be focused are the United States and France.

The recruitment potential among those aged 18 to 25, of draft age, in the largest Jewish communities exceeds 10,000 in each annual cohort, according to studies conducted by the IDF’s Manpower Division on this subject, the senior official said.

“The goal we intend to set is to increase the recruitment of approximately 600 to 700 additional soldiers each year from Jewish communities abroad,” a senior IDF official told ABC News.

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(LONDON) — Israel will send call-ups to 50,000 to 60,000 reservists as part of its plans to invade and occupy Gaza City, according to an Israeli military official.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz approved on Wednesday the Israel Defense Forces’ military plan, codenamed “Gideon’s Chariots II,” to invade and occupy the city, according to the official.

The call-ups will begin immediately, the official said.

Meanwhile, at least 58 Palestinians were killed in the past 24 hours in Israeli strikes on Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

This comes after Hamas said it agreed to a ceasefire proposal from Qatar and Egypt on Monday. The proposal is said to be based on the framework put forward by the U.S. in June.

Israel has not commented on Hamas’ decision to accept the proposal.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt attributed, at least in part, Hamas’ decision to accept the proposed ceasefire to President Donald Trump’s social media post saying that the remaining hostages will only be returned “when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!!”

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Hamas accepted this proposal after the president of the United States posted a very strong statement about this conflict on Truth Social yesterday,” Leavitt said Tuesday, referring reporters back to Trump’s post.

ABC News has not confirmed the exact details of the proposal or what Hamas agreed to.

Earlier this month, Israel’s security cabinet approved plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the Israeli military to occupy Gaza City, in an expansion of military operations that comes amid international condemnation of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s planned Gaza City military offensive “must be immediately halted,” United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Aug. 8, warning of “more massive forced displacement.”

“This further escalation will result in more killing, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction,” Turk said.

Last month, 115 organizations described the dire food shortage in Gaza as “mass starvation,” as the “Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza.”

Israel has blamed shortages on Hamas with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying on Aug. 20, “If we had a starvation policy, no one in Gaza would have survived after two years of war. … In the last few months, Hamas has violently looted the aid trucks meant to get to Palestinian civilians. They deliberately created a shortage of supply.” Hamas, however, has denied those claims.

Earlier this week, the IDF said it is appealing to “Jewish communities abroad” to deal with a severe shortage of soldiers, according to a senior IDF official.

The shortage of soldiers — estimated at 10,000 to 12,000 soldiers — and the lack of Haredi recruitment from the ultra-orthodox community are pushing the IDF to exhaust every other possibility to replenish its ranks, the senior IDF official said.

The IDF intends to turn to the largest Jewish communities in the Diaspora, with the aim of encouraging the recruitment of young Jews of military age to come to Israel for several years to serve in the army, the official added. The main communities where efforts will be focused are the United States and France.

The recruitment potential among those aged 18 to 25, of draft age, in the largest Jewish communities exceeds 10,000 in each annual cohort, according to studies conducted by the IDF’s Manpower Division on this subject, the senior official said.

“The goal we intend to set is to increase the recruitment of approximately 600 to 700 additional soldiers each year from Jewish communities abroad,” a senior IDF official told ABC News.

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