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(TURNBERY, Scotland) — As international pressure to deliver more food aid to Gaza builds, the Kingdom of Jordan is “continuing to request assistance in the form of pledges to contribute aircraft, supplies, humanitarian aid, and logistical support” for its airdrop operation — but the Trump administration has no active plans to join European allies in helping with the mission at present, according to an internal State Department communication reviewed by ABC News on Monday and two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

Per the communication, Jordan has informed the State Department of its intention to launch a three-week airdrop operation beginning in early August — in addition to the drops conducted with the United Arab Emirates that took place Sunday — and the department is tracking various pledges to assist with the operation from Spain, Belgium, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

“Emphasizing the irreplicable role of land routes and minimizing the risk of casualties due to airdrops are continued concerns among potential contributors,” the department communication noted.

Some aid organizations have also publicly expressed concerns about the efficacy and safety of airdrops.

“Airdrops are the most expensive & inefficient way to deliver aid. It is a distraction to the inaction,” Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency Philippe Lazzarini wrote in a post on X on Friday.

Earlier Monday, President Donald Trump promised the U.S. would be “even more involved” when it comes to delivering aid to Gaza, saying this administration would work with European allies to set up “food centers” with fewer restrictions on access.

He also suggested that additional assistance could come in the form of the U.S. helping with air drops if his administration chose to do so.

“We did some airlifts before, some airdrops,” he said following a meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “It’s not very hard to do, actually.”

Jordan has also informed the State Department that it encountered significant delays when moving aid into Gaza by ground on Sunday, stating that the Israeli government allowed only 25 out of 60 trucks traveling from Jordan to enter the enclave. According to the internal communication, the Jordanian Armed Forces reported that the screening of the aid convoy “went substantially slower” than it has for three previous convoys organized by the country.

The 25 trucks that were permitted entry on Sunday were carrying World Food Programme contents, while the delayed trucks were carrying food supplies from other organizations, including World Central Kitchen and the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization, it added.

Jordan has informed the department of its intention to move two more convoys into Gaza this week, according to the communication.

“President Trump wants to alleviate suffering for the people of Gaza because he has a humanitarian heart. He announced a new aid plan today to help Gazans obtain crucial access to food – details are forthcoming,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in a comment to ABC News.

Trump said earlier that European countries would also help with his plan to set up food centers but shared few other details about his vision.

“We have all of the European nations joining us, and others also have called. So, we’re going to set up food centers and where the people can walk in and no boundaries. We’re not going to have fences,” he said.

Regarding ABC News reporting on Jordan’s request for assistance with its air drop operation and the reported delay moving ground aid into Gaza caused by Israel, a State Department spokesperson responded, “President Trump has called for creative solutions ‘to help the Palestinians’ in Gaza, and we welcome any effective effort that delivers food to Gazans and keeps it out of the hands of Hamas.”

“At this time, GHF remains the best mechanism for getting aid into the hands of people in desperate need in Gaza while also keeping aid out of the hands of Hamas,” the spokesperson said, referring to the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

“A track record of distributing over 94 million meals to date while preventing any Hamas looting is absolutely incredible and should be commended and supported. We call on other aid agencies and the UN to participate in this secure aid delivery system and take GHF up on its offer to use its system to deliver food to Gazans in need,” the spokesperson said.

The Trump administration has pledged at least $30 million to the GHF and thrown its full support behind the controversial charity despite concerns from critics regarding its aid distribution practices.

Earlier this month, more than 160 charity groups and NGOs called for the GHF to be shut down, claiming that more than 500 Palestinians had been killed while seeking aid from the organization and that its distribution locations “have become sites of repeated massacres in blatant disregard for international humanitarian law.”

The United Nations has also rejected requests to cooperate with GHF.

“We welcome working with any other partners. All we ask is that those partners work based on the most basic humanitarian principles, one of them being that don’t set up an operation that will increase the risk of people to be shot at or trampled while trying to get food,” U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in a press conference last week.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation pushed back on the criticism in a statement to ABC News.

“While Oxfam, MSF and these other groups hold press conferences and send out threatening letters, GHF is on the ground feeding people,” a GHF spokesperson said.

“We’ve offered to help them deliver it safely. They’ve refused. The humanitarian community must return to its core mission — feeding people — not protecting outdated systems or avoiding the discomfort of change.

In a letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday, a group of 21 Democratic senators called for the Trump administration to immediately cease funding for the GHF and resume support for the existing U.N-led aid coordination mechanisms.

“There should be no American taxpayer dollars contributing to this scheme,” the lawmakers wrote.

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(LONDON) — The “worst-case scenario of famine” is unfolding in Gaza, according to a warning issued Tuesday by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global initiative monitoring hunger with the backing of governments, the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations.

“Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths,” the IPC warning said. “Latest data thresholds have been reached for food consumption in the Gaza Strip, and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City.”

More than 100 aid groups warned last week of a dire food shortage in the territory, saying there was an impending “mass starvation” for the Palestinians living there.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his administration have denied there is a hunger crisis in Gaza.

“Israel is presented as though we are applying a campaign of starvation in Gaza. What a bold-faced lie,” Netanyahu said during an event in Jerusalem on Sunday. “There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza.”

U.S. President Donald Trump appeared on Monday to contradict Netanyahu, saying he doesn’t know if he believes claims that there is no starvation occurring in Gaza.

The Israeli military said on Sunday it would put in place daily “tactical” pauses and open corridors to facility aid delivery.

IPC said Tuesday it was issuing a “stark” warning about the scenario unfolding in Gaza, adding that malnutrition had been “rising rapidly” in the first half of July.

“Immediate action must be taken to end the hostilities and allow for unimpeded, large-scale, life-saving humanitarian response,” the initiative said in its alert. “This is the only path to stopping further deaths and catastrophic human suffering.”

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(LONDON) — President Donald Trump on Monday sought to increase pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin in a bid to secure an end to Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, announcing that he would shorten a 50-day negotiating window to “10 or 12 days from today.”

“I’m disappointed in President Putin, very disappointed in him,” Trump told reporters during a visit to the U.K. “So we’re going to have to look and I’m going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to lesser number, because I think I already know the answer what’s going to happen.”

“I’m going to make a new deadline of about 10 or 12 days from today,” Trump said later in the press conference. “There’s no reason in waiting.”

“I want to be generous, but we just don’t see any progress being made,” Trump added. “I’m not so interested in talking anymore. He talks, we have such nice conversations, such respectful and nice conversations, and then people die the following night in a — with a missile going into a town and hitting.”

Recent months have seen growing White House frustration with Putin, as the Russian leader repeatedly dodged ceasefire proposals while intensifying long-range strikes on Ukrainian cities and its frontline offensives.

Earlier this month, Trump set a 50-day deadline for Russia to accept a ceasefire. Failure to do so, the president said, would prompt punishing new economic measures, among them secondary sanctions on nations doing business with Moscow.

Both the U.S. and Ukraine are calling for a full and immediate ceasefire, after which a peace settlement could potentially be negotiated. Moscow, however, has said that negotiations cannot take place until Ukraine makes significant concessions, among them demilitarization, its withdrawal from frontline regions and the abandonment of its NATO ambitions.

Ukrainian leaders welcomed Trump’s latest announcement.

“Clear stance and expressed determination by POTUS — right on time, when a lot can change through strength for real peace,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X.

“I thank President Trump for his focus on saving lives and stopping this horrible war,” he continued. “Ukraine remains committed to peace and will work tirelessly with the U.S. to make both our countries safer, stronger, and more prosperous.”

Zelenskyy’s influential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, thanked Trump in a post to Telegram. “Putin only understands strength — and this has been communicated clearly and loudly,” Yermak said.

The Kremlin is yet to officially comment on the new deadline. But Dmitry Medvedev — the former Russian president and prime minister now serving as the deputy chairman of the country’s Security Council — framed Trump’s challenge as a dangerous escalation.

“Trump’s playing the ultimatum game with Russia: 50 days or 10,” Medvedev — who, during Moscow’s full-scale war on Ukraine, has become known as a particularly hawkish voice within Putin’s security establishment — wrote on X.

“He should remember 2 things: 1. Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran. 2. Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country. Don’t go down the Sleepy Joe road!”

Meanwhile, cross-border strikes continued regardless. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces downed 74 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 37 drones and two missiles into the country overnight, of which 32 drones were intercepted or suppressed. The air force said two missiles and five drones impacted across three locations.

In the frontline Zaporizhzhia Oblast in Ukraine’s south, the Justice Ministry said a Russian airstrike on a correctional facility killed at least 17 people and wounded 42 others.

“This is another war crime by the Russians, who will not stop unless they are stopped,” Yermak wrote on X.

In all, Zelenskyy said Tuesday morning that 22 people were killed by Russian strikes on Ukraine over the previous 24 hours.

“Every killing of our people by the Russians, every Russian strike, when a ceasefire could have long been in place if Russia had not refused, all this indicates that Moscow deserves very harsh, truly painful and therefore fair and effective sanctions pressure,” the president said in a post to Telegram.

 

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(LONDON) — During his visit to the U.K. on Monday, President Donald Trump expressed further frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Moscow’s continued long-range attacks on Ukraine.

The president said he would shorten the 50-day window offered to Putin earlier this month in which to agree to a ceasefire deal or face punishing sanctions and tariffs.

“I’m disappointed in President Putin, very disappointed in him,” Trump told reporters. “So we’re going to have to look and I’m going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to lesser number, because I think I already know the answer what’s going to happen.”

“I’m going to make a new deadline of about 10 or 12 days from today,” Trump said later in the press conference. There’s no reason in waiting.”

“I want to be generous, but we just don’t see any progress being made,” Trump added.

Trump’s remarks came hours after Polish and allied NATO aircraft were scrambled in response to a large Russian drone and missile attack launched into Ukraine on Sunday night, per a statement from Polish military’s Operational Command.

“Polish and allied duty aircraft have been scrambled and ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems have reached the highest state of readiness,” the command said in a statement posted to X in the early hours of Monday morning, as hundreds of drones and missiles targeted sites across Ukraine.

The alert lasted for around three hours, after which the command posted another statement saying that “deployed forces and resources have returned to standard operational activities.”

NATO’s Air Command and Swedish JAS 39 Gripen fighters stationed in Poland took part in the response, the Polish Operational Command said.

An official at Lithuania’s Defense Ministry confirmed to ABC News that a drone also crossed into Lithuania from Belarusian airspace. Russian forces regularly route drones through Belarusian airspace to attack Ukrainian targets from the north. A search for the drone was still underway as of Monday morning, the official said.

Russia launched 324 drones and seven missiles into Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said in a statement published on Telegram.

Of those, 309 drones and two missiles were shot down or suppressed, it said, with 15 strike drones and two missiles impacting across three locations.

At least eight people were injured in Kyiv after a Russian drone hit a residential highrise, the head of the city’s military administration said in a post to Telegram.

Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, wrote on Telegram that the most recent barrage was evidence of Putin’s lack of commitment to a proposed ceasefire.

“This is how Putin responds to calls to end the war and sit at the negotiating table,” he wrote. “Russian air attacks are still ongoing, with civilian infrastructure, homes and people, including in Kyiv, already affected.”

“There is no alternative to sanctions, strengthening Ukraine’s long-range capabilities and tough actions against Putin’s circle and Putin himself,” Yermak wrote. “He wants nothing but war and Ukraine’s defeat. And there will be no defeat.”

Referring to the scrambling of NATO aircraft and the drone crossing into Lithuania, Yermak added, “The Russians and their satellites are testing NATO’s reaction. Drones entering the airspace of the Baltic countries are signals that cannot be ignored.”

Zelenskyy also posted to Telegram noting that Kyiv is “constantly strengthening the Ukrainian air shield and it is very important to maintain full understanding among partners about how exactly they can help. Step by step, we are closing the funding gap for drone production and this week I will have new talks with partners regarding this task.”

“Restoration and rescue work is currently underway everywhere it is needed,” the president added of the overnight drone and missile impacts. “This particularly concerns electricity supply. Necessary assistance is being provided to the wounded.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces shot down seven Ukrainian drones overnight.

ABC News’ Hannah Demissie, Michelle Stoddart, Lalee Ibssa and Fidel Pavlenko contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) — Polish and allied NATO aircraft were scrambled in response to a large Russian drone and missile attack launched into Ukraine on Sunday night, the Polish military’s Operational Command said in a statement.

“Polish and allied duty aircraft have been scrambled and ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems have reached the highest state of readiness,” the command said in a statement posted to X in the early hours of Monday morning, as hundreds of drones and missiles targeted sites across Ukraine.

The alert lasted for around three hours, after which the command posted another statement saying that “deployed forces and resources have returned to standard operational activities.”

NATO’s Air Command and Swedish JAS 39 Gripen fighters stationed in Poland took part in the response, the Polish Operational Command said.

An official at Lithuania’s Defense Ministry confirmed to ABC News that a drone also crossed into Lithuania from Belarusian airspace. Russian forces regularly route drones through Belarusian airspace to attack Ukrainian targets from the north. A search for the drone was still underway as of Monday morning, the official said.

Russia launched 324 drones and seven missiles into Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said in a statement published on Telegram.

Of those, 309 drones and two missiles were shot down or suppressed, it said, with 15 strike drones and two missiles impacting across three locations.

At least eight people were injured in Kyiv after a Russian drone hit a residential high-rise, the head of the city’s military administration said in a post to Telegram.

Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, wrote on Telegram that the most recent barrage was evidence of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s lack of commitment to a proposed ceasefire,

“This is how Putin responds to calls to end the war and sit at the negotiating table,” he wrote. “Russian air attacks are still ongoing, with civilian infrastructure, homes and people, including in Kyiv, already affected.”

“There is no alternative to sanctions, strengthening Ukraine’s long-range capabilities and tough actions against Putin’s circle and Putin himself,” Yermak wrote. “He wants nothing but war and Ukraine’s defeat. And there will be no defeat.”

Referring to the scrambling of NATO aircraft and the drone crossing into Lithuania, Yermak added, “The Russians and their satellites are testing NATO’s reaction. Drones entering the airspace of the Baltic countries are signals that cannot be ignored.”

Zelenskyy also posted to Telegram noting that Kyiv is “constantly strengthening the Ukrainian air shield and it is very important to maintain full understanding among partners about how exactly they can help. Step by step, we are closing the funding gap for drone production and this week I will have new talks with partners regarding this task.”

“Restoration and rescue work is currently underway everywhere it is needed,” the president added of the overnight drone and missile impacts. “This particularly concerns electricity supply. Necessary assistance is being provided to the wounded.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces shot down seven Ukrainian drones overnight.

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The Israel Defense Forces announced changes Saturday in humanitarian aid procedures in Gaza amid ongoing international pressure as the malnutrition crisis worsens.

The IDF said in a statement that it was taking several actions, including dropping “seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar, and canned food” at the behest of the Israeli government to “refute the false claim of deliberate starvation in the Gaza Strip.”

In addition to the airdrops, the IDF said it would create a “humanitarian pause in civilian centers and in humanitarian corridors” Sunday morning to allow for the passage of aid. The hours and locations of this short “pause” have not yet been announced publicly.

The Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said on Saturday that 127 Palestinians have died from malnutrition since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023, 85 of whom were children. Five Palestinians died from malnutrition in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health.

Several humanitarian groups have pushed for help and more assistance in the region in the last week, as they say aid workers on the ground are running out of supplies and need help. Repeated deadly shootings around aid distribution centers have killed hundreds, according to the United Nations.

A volunteer with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, told ABC News there are only four stabilization centers for malnutrition in Gaza, and the admission capacity is severely limited due to the overcrowding of facilities.

On Thursday, MSF said 25% of children and pregnant or breastfeeding women screened at clinics in Gaza are malnourished, and cases of severe malnutrition in children under the age of 5 have tripled in just two weeks.

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 these claims.

Electricity will be provided to a desalination plant, increasing the amount of water available tenfold, according to the IDF.

“The IDF is prepared to implement humanitarian pauses in densely populated areas and will continue to operate to dismantle terrorist infrastructure and eliminate terrorists in the areas of activity,” the IDF said in a statement.

The IDF reiterated claims from the Israeli government that there is no starvation in the Gaza Strip and it is merely “a false campaign promoted by Hamas.”

“Responsibility for food distribution to the population in Gaza lies with the UN and international aid organizations,” the IDF said in a statement.

Earlier this week, 115 humanitarian groups described in a joint statement the dire food shortage in Gaza as “mass starvation,” and accused the Israeli government of implementing “restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege [that] have created chaos, starvation, and death.”

The ongoing Gaza war erupted after Hamas led a surprise terror attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people there and taking 251 others hostage, according to figures from the Israeli government. Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 59,000 people in Gaza, according to data released by the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.

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(WASHINGTON) — An analysis compiled by USAID officials examining more than 150 reported incidents involving the theft or loss of U.S.-funded humanitarian aid in the war-torn Gaza Strip says it failed to find any evidence that Hamas — the militant rulers of the Palestinian enclave — engaged in widespread diversion of assistance, according to a presentation reviewed by ABC News.

The findings of the report appear to undercut the Trump administration’s repeated claims that Hamas has regularly interfered with aid distribution in the past — assertions it has used to justify its support for the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and for measures undertaken by Israel to limit the flow of assistance to neighboring Gaza through other pathways.

The GHF — with Israel’s approval and despite rejection from the United Nations — took over most of the aid distribution system in Gaza on May 27, after an 11-week Israeli blockade on all supplies from entering the strip. Israel has long accused Hamas of stealing aid provided by the U.N. — formerly the main distributor — and others to fund its militant activity — claims which Hamas denies.

Israel has allowed a limited amount of supplies into Gaza since lifting the blockade and, according to an Israeli security official, is “coordinating future airdrops of aid” by foreign countries “that are expected to take place in the coming days.” This comes after a coalition of more than 100 organizations warned this week that “mass starvation” is spreading in Gaza with “supplies now totally depleted.”

USAID officials behind the presentation say they analyzed alleged incidents of fraud, abuse and waste reported between October 2023, when the ongoing Israel-Hamas war began, and last May. It was compiled before the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) — once the world’s largest single donor of humanitarian aid — officially ceased independent operations on July 1. The Trump administration canceled more than 80% of the agency’s programs, while the remainder were absorbed by the U.S. Department of State.

USAID officials say their findings indicate that in the majority of cases involving the loss of aid, the perpetrator could not be definitively identified.

The Israel Defense Forces denied the report in a statement to ABC News, saying “not only does the report ignore clear and explicit evidence that Hamas exploits humanitarian aid to sustain its fighting capabilities, it goes so far as to criticize the IDF for routing decisions made specifically to protect humanitarian staff and shipments.”

The IDF added that when it “directs aid deliveries along specific routes, it is based on the operational reality and intelligence assessments, aimed at safeguarding both the aid and the humanitarian actors — precisely the issue the report claims is not being addressed.”

The State Department is also pushing back forcefully on the analysis.

A State Department spokesperson called it “astonishing” that “the media is busy debating whether the masterminds of Oct. 7 are somehow too principled to loot.”

“There is endless video evidence of Hamas looting, not to mention members of the aid-industrial complex who have admitted that looting exists by reporting it as ‘self-distribution,’ in a poor attempt at an aid corruption coverup,” the spokesperson said. “Available intelligence confirms what is reflected in open-source information: that a significant portion of non-GHF aid trucks have been diverted, looted, stolen, or ‘self-distributed.'”

Despite this, the Trump administration — a staunch ally of Israel — has provided no evidence of Hamas carrying out widespread aid diversion to date.

The IDF said it is “making tremendous efforts to enable the safe distribution of humanitarian aid under complex operational conditions.”

The ongoing Gaza war erupted after Hamas led a surprise terror attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people there and taking 251 others hostage, according to figures from the Israeli government. Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 59,000 people in Gaza, according to data released by the strip’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.

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(JERUSALEM) — France will officially recognize the state of Palestine, “true to its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday.

“I will make the solemn announcement at the United Nations General Assembly” in September, Macron said in a statement.

 

“There must be an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and massive humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. It is also necessary to ensure the demilitarization of Hamas, secure and rebuild Gaza,” Macron continued. “Finally, it is essential to build the State of Palestine, ensure its viability, and enable it, by accepting its demilitarization and fully recognizing Israel, to contribute to the security of all in the Middle East.”

 

In a statement posted on social media, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. “strongly rejects” Macron’s plan.

“This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace,” Rubio said in the statement. “It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th.”

 

Earlier, Israel condemned Macron’s decision “in the wake of the October  7 massacre.”

“Such a move rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became. A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel — not to live in peace beside it,” Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Thursday.

 

“Let’s be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel; they seek a state instead of Israel,” Netanyahu said.

 

Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz accused France of “working to weaken” Israel instead of standing by it.

 

“Macron’s announcement of his intention to recognize a Palestinian state is a disgrace and a capitulation to terrorism, and a reward and a back-up for the Hamas murderers and abettors, who committed the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Katz said.

 

“We will not allow the establishment of a Palestinian entity that will harm our security and endanger our existence and harm our historical right to the Land of Israel,” Katz said.

 

Ceasefire talks stand on brink

Israel said ceasefire talks with Hamas have not collapsed, even after the U.S. announced it is departing Qatar, where negotiations were taking place.

 

Israel said Thursday that it will return to Qatar to continue negotiations, but said it is unwilling to budge on what Hamas has said must be in a final deal, including an end to the war and a mechanism to get aid into Gaza.

 

The U.S. is bringing home its team from Doha, Qatar, “after the latest response from Hamas, which clearly shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire in Gaza,” U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff announced on social media.

 

“While the mediators have made a great effort, Hamas does not appear to be coordinated or acting in good faith. We will now consider alternative options to bring the hostages home and try to create a more stable environment for the people of Gaza,” Witkoff said.

 

“It is a shame that Hamas has acted in this selfish way. We are resolute in seeking an end to this conflict and a permanent peace in Gaza,” he added.

 

The talks had seemed more positive earlier in the day Thursday.

 

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced that, “in light of the response that Hamas gave this morning, it was decided to return the negotiating team” from Doha “for further consultations in Israel.”

 

Hamas’ latest response to a U.S.-brokered Gaza ceasefire proposal is “currently being reviewed” by Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said at the time.

 

Hamas announced Wednesday night it had submitted to mediators a response to the ceasefire deal currently on the table. The details of Hamas’ response were not immediately made public.

 

A trilateral meeting in Italy between top Israeli, Qatari and American officials was slated to discuss Hamas’ response as early as Thursday, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. Witkoff himself, President Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy, was traveling to Italy to meet with top officials regarding a Gaza ceasefire, the U.S. State Department said Wednesday.

 

Representatives from Israel and the militant group have been in Doha, Qatar, for more than two weeks working on a ceasefire proposal for the 21-month-old conflict in Gaza.

 

Those negotiations continue as more than 100 aid groups warned Wednesday that the enclave was on the verge of “mass starvation.”

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(GAZA) — Doctors and aid workers inside Gaza are reporting grim and heartbreaking details of widespread malnutrition, particularly in children, as the hunger crisis reportedly continues to worsen amid the Israel-Hamas war.

 

The Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said on Thursday that 27 people have died of hunger over the last three days, bringing the total to 113 since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023. Of the total deaths due to hunger, 81 have been children, according to the Health Ministry.

 

MercyCorps, an aid organization that provides humanitarian services as well as a hotline for psychosocial support in Gaza, said it has received testimony from parents struggling to provide food for their children.

 

“This is one: ‘Last night, I was thinking about killing my children because I can’t take proper care of them or raise them in a good way,'” the group relayed to ABC News. “‘I can’t even provide food. I had to send them to neighboring tents to beg for bread to feed. I truly don’t know what to do anymore.'”

 

Abdulwhhab Abu Alamrain — a volunteer at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza and a worker with the medical data department at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders — said there are only four stabilization centers for malnutrition in Gaza and the admission capacity is severely limited due to the overcrowding of facilities.

 

He said the emergency departments of hospitals in Gaza have been overwhelmed with injuries since the war began. However, over the last two weeks, they have been overwhelmed with people reportedly injured while trying to get aid, along with people collapsing from hunger.

 

“A kid came to our house like two days ago begging for something to eat, a piece of bread,” Alamrain told ABC News. “We don’t have any. We gave him from our lunch, [a] cup of chickpeas. … Life feels dystopian recently.”

 

On Thursday, MSF said 25% of children and pregnant or breastfeeding women screened at clinics in Gaza are malnourished, and cases of severe malnutrition in children under the age of 5 have tripled in just two weeks.

 

Caroline Willemen, MSF project coordinator in Gaza City, said that on July 19 and 20 at Al-Helou Hospital in northern Gaza, MSF medical teams could not provide food to women and children in the pediatric and maternity wards and there wasn’t enough baby formula for the 23 babies in the neonatal intensive care unit.

 

On July 20 and July 21 at Nasser Hospital in central Gaza, 168 patients admitted to the pediatric and maternity wards could not access food, she said.

 

Additionally, Edouard Beigbede, the UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said on Thursday that over two weeks in July, 5,000 children were admitted to their clinics with acute malnutrition and, in Gaza City alone, the number of children screened and detected with acute malnutrition is four times higher than what it was in February.

 

Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president of MedGlobal, told ABC News that 19 children have recently been admitted to the non-profit’s clinics in Gaza suffering from severe acute malnutrition, which is a number the organization has never seen.

 

Five of those children, between three months and 4.5 years old, died over the last 72 hours, as of Wednesday, Sahloul said.

 

“This is an emergency because up to 50% of children with severe acute malnutrition can die,” Sahloul told ABC News. “Without a dramatic increase in the amount of aid entering, more children will die.”

 

Kate Phillips-Barasso, vice president of global policy and advocacy at MercyCorps, said her team on the ground in Gaza is reporting many people going days at a time without eating at all.

 

“Everyone is spending their day in pursuit of how they’re going to feed themselves,” she told ABC News. “They’re losing hope. They’re wondering if they or their families will come on the other side alive.”

 

MercyCorps was one of more than 100 aid groups that put out a joint statement this week warning of “mass starvation” in Gaza.

 

“We feel like we’re tipping over that precipice where more people are going to die,” Phillips-Barasso continued. “We’re already starting to hear reports of more children dying. That is coming, and when it tips over, it is really hard to put that in reverse. It’s getting to a point where they need therapeutic feeding and treatment, not just more food supplies. This is going to start to snowball and be very hard to walk that back.”

 

Aid organizations said their workers and medical staff are also struggling to get food.

MSF said its staff is treating patients for hunger while struggling to feed themselves and their families as they enroll 25 new malnutrition cases every day in Gaza City alone.

 

Alamrain told ABC News he has lost 27 kilograms (59.5 pounds) since the war began in October 2023, and eight kilograms (17.6 pounds) in the last two months.

 

Recently, his family baked its last 0.5 kilograms (1 pound) of flour to make seven pieces of bread, he said. Although his family does have money to spend, the markets have run out of food.

 

Over the last week, Alamrain said he has consumed between 700 and 1,400 calories per day, even though his recommended number of calories per day sits at 2,500.

 

Alamrain told ABC News he has lost 27 kilograms (59.5 pounds) since the war began in October 2023, and eight kilograms (17.6 pounds) in the last two months.

 

Recently, his family baked its last 0.5 kilograms (1 pound) of flour to make seven pieces of bread, he said. Although his family does have money to spend, the markets have run out of food.

 

Over the last week, Alamrain said he has consumed between 700 and 1,400 calories per day, even though his recommended number of calories per day sits at 2,500.

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(LONDON) — Iranian and European delegations are expected to gather in Istanbul, Turkey, on Friday for fresh talks on Tehran’s nuclear program, with European nations warning that a failure of negotiations may prompt punishing “snapback” sanctions on Iran.

 

Representatives from the U.K., France and Germany — known as the E3 — will attend the negotiations in Istanbul, hoping to forestall further direct conflict over Tehran’s nuclear program following an intense 12-day Israeli-U.S. military campaign last month.

 

The last meeting between the parties took place on May 16, also in Istanbul. Friday’s instalment will be held one month after the end of fighting in the 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel, which saw the U.S. strike several targets in Iran.

 

The three European nations — along with the U.S., Russia and China — were signatories to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal, which restricted Tehran’s nuclear program. President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord in 2018.

 

The U.S. wants Iran to end all uranium enrichment. The European nations have yet to make clear their position. The JCPOA limited Iran to enriching uranium up to 3.67% purity — sufficient for civilian nuclear power purposes but below the 90% purity needed for use in a weapon.

 

If a deal is not reached by Aug. 29, European nations have threatened to implement a so-called “snapback” mechanism that automatically reimposes all United Nations Security Council sanctions that were lifted as part of the JCPOA.

 

Ellie Geranmayeh of the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank told ABC News that the past month was needed “for the dust to settle in Tehran after the attacks, but also to allow the E3 to have a better understanding of where the U.S. position is on the Iranian nuclear program, post-strikes.”

 

“I think they now have a better assessment,” she said. “I still don’t think it’s as strong of a picture as they would hope.”

 

The U.S. will not take part in Friday’s talks. “We have no plans at the current situation for talks with the United States,” Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said during a Monday press conference.

 

President Donald Trump is continuing to claim that June’s strikes “obliterated” Iran’s key nuclear facilities, dismissing leaked intelligence reports suggesting that the damage done to the sites was not as extensive as the White House claimed.

 

“We will do it again, if necessary!” Trump wrote on social media late Monday.

 

Friday’s meeting, Geranmayeh said, will likely be focused on the snapback sanctions timeline. The snapback mechanism expires in October. The E3 may push to extend its provision for “six months to a year,” Geranmayeh added, if such a proposal wins support at the UNSC.

 

This would give more “breathing room” for Tehran and Washington to resume diplomacy” while maintaining Western leverage over Tehran, she said.

 

Whether the U.S.-Iran negotiating track can be revived remains to be seen.

 

There are “big question marks” as to Trump’s intentions, Geranmayeh said, and “whether he sees a need to expend the political cost domestically necessary to get a deal done with the Iranians, or if he’s happy to just kick the can down the road.”

 

In that case, the president could sporadically “give a green light to the Israelis to go in and strike to set back Iran’s nuclear activity,” she said.

 

There is “a real worry for both the Europeans and the Iranians, that the president, the U.S., is no longer actually invested or interested in a deal,” Geranmayeh added. “And I think this meeting will help the Iranians assess what at least the E3 understanding of that position is, and if the president is interested in a deal.”

 

Any revival of U.S.-Iran talks would likely mean discussions on broader security matters beyond Tehran’s nuclear program. Trump and his top officials have repeatedly framed the JCPOA as unfit for purpose because it did not put limits on Iran’s ballistic missile research program or its use of regional proxy forces.

 

“I think Istanbul will also scope out whether, in addition to a focused nuclear deal, the U.S. and Iran can also engage in a security package on the regional front,” Geranmayeh said.

 

Tehran maintains it cannot surrender its ability to enrich uranium. Iran has long said its stockpile of enriched uranium is intended purely for use in civilian nuclear power.

 

Tehran maintains it cannot surrender its ability to enrich uranium. Iran has long said its stockpile of enriched uranium is intended purely for use in civilian nuclear power.

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