Nearly 1,400 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip while waiting for aid since May 27, the majority by the Israeli army, the United Nations said.

US envoy Steve Witkoff on Saturday met the anguished families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza, as fears for the captives' survival mounted almost 22 months into the war sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack.

Rome, Italy -- Award-winning Israeli author David Grossman called his country's campaign in Gaza "genocide" and said he was using the term with a "broken heart". This came days after a major Israeli rights group also used the same term, amid growing global alarm over starvation in the besieged territory....

The visit by Steve Witkoff came as a report from global advocacy group Human Rights Watch accused Israeli forces of presiding over "regular bloodbaths" close to US-backed aid points

Within sight of Gaza, the devastated Palestinian enclave ravaged by nearly 22 months of war, hundreds of Israeli settlers marched Wednesday to stake their claim to the battered territory.

Jerusalem, Undefined -- The United Arab Emirates has begun construction on a major pipeline to carry desalinated water from Egypt to southern Gaza, according to multiple sources. Technical teams sent by the UAE have started transporting equipment needed for the project, the Emirati state news agency WAM reported on Wednesday....

"We need to flood Gaza with large-scale food aid, immediately and without obstruction, and keep it flowing each and every day to prevent mass starvation," WFP executive director Cindy McCain said.

Washington, United States - Unconditional support for Israel has long been an entry requirement in US Republican politics, but that orthodoxy is being challenged by Donald Trump's populist base -- where invocations of the "special relationship" are falling on deaf ears. Images of starvation and suffering in Gaza have given...

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative, a coalition of monitors tasked by the UN to warn of impending crises, stopped short of declaring a state of famine, but made clear the situation is critical.

Speaking in Scotland after meeting Britain's leader, Trump contradicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had earlier dismissed fears of famine in Gaza as Hamas propaganda.

Gaza City, Palestinian Territories -- Truckloads of food reached hungry Gazans on Monday after Israel promised to open secure aid routes, but humanitarian agencies warned vast amounts more were needed to stave off starvation. With Gaza's population of more than two million facing famine and malnutrition, Israel bowed to international...

Rights groups B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel have been frequent critics of Israeli government policies, but the language in their reports was their most stark yet.

UN's World Food Programme said a third of the population of Gaza had not eaten for days, and 470,000 people were "enduring famine-like conditions" that were already leading to deaths.

Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on March 2 after ceasefire talks broke down. In late May, it began allowing a small trickle of aid to resume, amid warnings of a wave of starvation.

The humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory has gravely deteriorated in recent days, with international NGOs warning of soaring malnutrition among children.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli military operations killed at least 23 people on Friday across the Palestinian territory, with another five killed in an overnight air strike.

"The negative statements of the US envoy Witkoff run completely counter to the context in which the last negotiations were held, and he is perfectly aware of this, but they come to serve the Israeli position," said Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim.

United Nations, United States -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday slammed the international community for turning a blind eye to the suffering of Palestinians starving in the Gaza Strip, calling it a "moral crisis that challenges the global conscience." "I cannot explain the level of indifference and inaction we...

At least 142 countries now recognise or plan to recognise Palestinian statehood, according to an AFP tally -- though Israel and the United States strongly oppose the move.

Mediators have been shuttling between Israeli and Hamas delegations in Qatar for more than two weeks, but the indirect talks have so far failed to yield an elusive truce.

Hamas confirmed on Thursday that it has responded to an Israeli proposal for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, after more than two weeks of indirect talks in Qatar have failed to yield a truce.

The UN said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations in late May

Hussein al-Sheikh, vice-president of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), on Tuesday said he met the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, in the occupied West Bank.

Gaza's population of more than two million people is facing severe shortages of food and other essentials, with residents frequently killed by Israeli forces as they try to collect humanitarian aid at a handful of distribution points.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Israeli military had entered the UN agency's staff residence, forced women and children to evacuate on foot, and handcuffed, stripped and interrogated male staff at gunpoint.

"The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths," the signatories, including Britain, France, Australia, Canada and 21 other countries, plus the EU, said in a statement.

UNRWA said that shortages in the Palestinian territory had caused food prices to increase by 40 times, while the aid stockpiled in its warehouses outside Gaza could feed "the entire population for over three months."

As malnutrition surges in war-torn Gaza, tens of thousands of children and women require urgent treatment, according to the UN, while aid enters the blockaded Palestinian territory at a trickle.

Rabat, Morocco -- Tens of thousands of Moroccans demonstrated Sunday in the capital Rabat against the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, calling for the reversal of the kingdom's normalization deal with Israel. Protesters gathered in the city center, brandishing Palestinian flags and placards calling for the free flow...

UN has said it had recorded 875 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food, including 674 in the vicinity of sites run by US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which replaced UN agencies.

The armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Friday accused Israel of blocking a deal in talks for a temporary ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza.

Pope Leo XIV said he was "deeply saddened" by the loss of life, which a witness said was the result of a tank shell hitting the church. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem named the dead as Najwa Abu Daoud, Saad Issa Kostandi Salameh and Foumia Issa Latif Ayyad.

The measures range from suspending the entire accord or curbing trade ties to sanctioning Israeli ministers, imposing an arms embargo and halting visa-free travel.

The indirect negotiations in Qatar appear deadlocked after both sides blamed the other for blocking a deal for the release of hostages and a 60-day ceasefire after 21 months of fighting.

Israel's military blamed it on a "technical error" when targeting a militant in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, adding "the munition fell dozens of meters from the target".

On the ground, civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said at least 43 people were killed in the latest Israeli strikes, including 11 when a market in Gaza City was hit. Elsewhere, eight children were among the 10 victims of a drone strike at a water point in the Nuseirat...

Like most women at the Gaza City hospital where she attends her pregnancy check-ups, Fatima Arafa's face looks fatigued, a sign of the malnutrition affecting her due to wartime shortages.

Netanyahu said the Islamist militants must first give up their weapons and their hold on the Palestinian territory, warning that failure to reach a deal on Israel's terms would lead to further conflict.

"This deal means more crossings open, aid and food trucks entering Gaza, repair of vital infrastructure and protection of aid workers. We count on Israel to implement every measure agreed," said EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas.

The group's statement came after four days of indirect talks brokered by Qatar and as the United States signalled its belief that agreement for a 60-day truce would be struck before the end of the week.

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu met for the second time in 24 hours Tuesday as the US president intensified the pressure on the Israeli prime minister to reach a deal to end the "tragedy" of the war in Gaza.

Five Israeli soldiers were killed and 14 others injured late Monday night when a roadside bomb exploded during an ongoing ground operation in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced.

Netanyahu's third visit since Trump's return to power comes at a crucial time, with the US president hoping to capitalize on the momentum from a recent truce between Israel and Iran.

Speaking before boarding Israel's state jet bound for Washington, Netanyahu said: "We are working to achieve this deal that we have discussed, under the conditions that we have agreed to."

The BRICS also called for a "full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and all other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territories."

"We cannot remain indifferent to the genocide carried out by Israel in Gaza, the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians and the use of hunger as a weapon of war," President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told leaders from China, India, and other nations.

But Netanyahu, who is due to meet with President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday, said the Palestinian group's proposals for changes to a draft US-backed ceasefire deal were "unacceptable".

Sinjil, Palestinian Territories - Dozens of Israeli settlers and Palestinians clashed Friday in the occupied West Bank village of Sinjil, where a march against recent settler attacks on nearby farmland was due to take place. AFP journalists saw local residents and activists begin their march before locals reported that settlers...

Jerusalem, Undefined -- Israel's opposition leader said Friday he met with the United Arab Emirates foreign minister in Abu Dhabi and discussed efforts for a ceasefire in Gaza. The UAE normalized ties with Israel in 2020 as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords. Abu Dhabi also has close ties with...

Netanyahu has come under strong pressure to get the hostages back after US President Donald Trump said Israel had agreed to a 60-day ceasefire with Palestinian militant group Hamas that could lead to their release.