Roundup: Continued efforts urged towards ceasefire in Gaza amid worsening humanitarian crisis

The little aid allowed to reach supply facilities inside Gaza is "woefully inadequate" to curb starvation or sustain life-saving relief operations, United Nations humanitarians said.

GAZA/WASHINGTON, July 26 (Xinhua) -- As relevant parties are engaging in consultations before resuming dialogue in the latest round of negotiations in July for a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian side, continued efforts have been urged to end the Gaza conflict and bring an immediate end to the humanitarian crisis there.

The Israeli military campaigns in Gaza since October 2023, when the conflict erupted following a deadly Hamas-led attack on Israel, have left more than 59,210 Palestinians killed and more than 143,040 injured, Gaza-based health authorities reported Thursday.

Meanwhile, the total number of fatalities related to hunger and malnutrition had risen to 122 in Gaza, mostly children.

EFFORTS CONTINUE, TALKS TO RESUME NEXT WEEK

Egypt and Qatar pledged on Friday to continue mediation efforts to end the conflict in Gaza. They said some progress had been made in the intensive negotiations that started on July 6.

In a statement, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said that the two countries are continuing their intensive mediation to reach an agreement to end the conflict in Gaza, stop the humanitarian suffering in the coastal enclave, and ensure the protection of civilians and the exchange of detainees and prisoners.

Israel on Thursday recalled its negotiating team from Doha for consultations after receiving Hamas's response to the latest ceasefire proposal. On Friday, Bassem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said the mediators told the Hamas negotiating team the Israeli delegation would return to continue the talks early next week.

Naim said in a press statement that the mediators conveyed a "positive" assessment of Hamas's recent response to the newly proposed ceasefire framework.

Also for consultations on Hamas's latest response, the U.S. negotiating team was called back home, U.S. Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff said Thursday, noting that the United States will seek "alternative options" for a ceasefire in Gaza.

In a statement on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is considering new ways to release the Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

On Friday before departing for Scotland, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House: "We got a lot of hostages out. So now we're down to the final hostages."

"Those last 10 or 20 (hostages) are going to be the toughest, because Hamas knows what happens when they don't have any bargaining chips," he said. "I don't think Hamas is going to make a deal, because that means they have no protection."

"I think what's going to happen is they're going to be hunted down," he added.

ONGOING STARVATION IN GAZA, MOUNTING INT'L CONDEMNATION OF ISRAEL

Asked if he talked with Netanyahu about allowing humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza, Trump said: "I can't tell you what I spoke to him about, but it was sort of disappointing."

As helpless doctors are watching children waste away from hunger in Gaza's shattered hospitals in videos going viral on social media, the international condemnation of Israel is growing, with governments and aid groups alike denouncing its siege of Gaza as a humanitarian catastrophe.

The little aid allowed to reach supply facilities inside Gaza is "woefully inadequate" to curb starvation or sustain life-saving relief operations, United Nations (UN) humanitarians said on Thursday.

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, said one in every five children in Gaza City is malnourished.

On Friday, tens of thousands of Yemenis gathered for a mass demonstration in the Yemeni capital Sanaa to protest against what they called a "man-made" mass starvation in the besieged Gaza Strip. The participants raised banners reading: "Stop starvation in Gaza," "Stop war on Gaza," and "Israeli blockade on Gaza should immediately be lifted."

FRANCE TO RECOGNIZE PALESTINIAN STATE, U.S. REJECTS MACRON'S DECISION

In response to French President Emmanuel Macron's announcement on Thursday night that France will officially recognize the State of Palestine during the upcoming 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 80) in September, Trump said on Friday that the French move "doesn't carry any weight."

"What he (Macron) says doesn't matter. It's not going to change," said Trump.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media platform X that the U.S. "strongly rejects" Macron's decision, calling it "reckless."

France is the first Group of Seven (G7) member to declare an intention of recognizing the Palestinian state, by which it will join more than 140 other countries doing the same.

One day after France's announcement, Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz issued a joint declaration urging an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the unconditional release of all hostages, and the lifting of restrictions on humanitarian aid, while pledging to work with international partners on a specific and credible plan for the next phase in Gaza.

In the statement following a tripartite phone call, the leaders said that a negotiated truce is "the best chance to bring the hostages home."

"Withholding essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable," the leaders said, calling on Israel to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid into Gaza. "Israel must uphold its obligations under international humanitarian law," the statement said. ■