
Gaza latest: Trump says Israel must ‘make a decision' on future of war as starvation crisis worsens
"They don't want to give them back, and so Israel is going to have to make a decision," Mr Trump said after the collapse of ceasefire negotiations with Hamas.
"I know what I'd do, but I don't think it's appropriate that I say it,' he added.
It comes as a temporary pause in Israel's military action from 10am to 8pm each day is set to allow more aid to be delivered to starving Palestinians.
UN aid chief Tom Fletcher told the BBC that the halt in action in three areas of Gaza may only last 'a week or so' - but that the UN needs 'weeks, months to build up supplies again'.
Aid blockades in recent months caused fatal levels of starvation to tear through the enclave. Israel says the blockade is to prevent Hamas stealing aid from trucks, but internal US government analysis found no evidence of systematic theft by Hamas of US-funded humanitarian supplies, Reuters reported.
Donald Trump has said the US will increase aid to Gaza, and on Monday is due to discuss the topic during a meeting with British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer in Scotland.
Trump: Israel will 'have to make a decision' on Gaza
Donald Trump said on Sunday that Israel would have to make a decision on next steps in Gaza, adding he did not know what would happen after the collapse of ceasefire negotiations with Hamas.
"They don't want to give them back, and so Israel is going to have to make a decision," Mr Trump told reporters at the start of a meeting with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland.
"I know what I'd do, but I don't think it's appropriate that I say it. But Israel is going to have to make a decision," he said, while also claiming, without evidence, that Hamas was stealing food coming into Gaza and selling it.
The US president added that Washington would provide more aid to the Palestinian enclave devastated by US ally Israel's military assault.
Alex Croft28 July 2025 10:23
Israeli forces kill 63 Palestinians in Gaza within hours of 'humanitarian pause', health officials say
The Israeli military killed at least 63 people across Gaza just hours after declaring daily 'pauses' in operations to facilitate the passage of humanitarian aid, health officials said.
The military said on Sunday it would suspend operations daily from 10am until 8pm in parts of central and northern Gaza, including al-Mawasi, Deir el-Balah and Gaza City, and promised to open aid corridors from 6am to 11pm to let in food and medical supplies.
However, within hours of the so-called 'humanitarian pause' taking effect, Israeli forces resumed air raids. One reported strike targeted a bakery in an area designated as a 'safe zone', according to Al Jazeera.
Maroosha Muzaffar reports:
Alex Croft28 July 2025 10:20

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Independent
11 minutes ago
- The Independent
What might a surrender deal for Hamas look like?
The horrors of Gaza have finally come to haunt the world's policy-makers. Yesterday, the British government grasped at the talisman of recognising a Palestinian state, without explaining how this might stop the violence. Enter Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, three Arab countries that have demanded that Hamas now frees the remaining Israeli hostages, lays down its arms and ceases governing Gaza, for the sake of enabling Palestinian statehood and the chance of achieving a two-state solution. Let's not get our hopes up. The three Arab states have joined 14 other countries at a three-day conference at the United Nations in signing up to a French initiative that also requires Israel to agree to a ceasefire, end its blockade and recognise a Palestinian state in 'all occupied Arab lands' – a point that is certain to be rejected by the current Israeli government since it means withdrawing from the West Bank and East Jerusalem where so many Jewish settlers live. But having the Arab world calling the very future of Hamas into question for the first time is a potential game-changer for the Middle East. It's certainly a nail in the coffin for the terrorist group. President Trump's Abraham Accords, signed at the tail end of his first term in the White House, were supposed to isolate Hamas by drawing Arab states into mutual recognition of Israel, with the promise of a web of trade deals and security guarantees against their mutual enemy, Iran. However, Saudi Arabia had been cautious about opening diplomatic relations with Israel, even before the events of 7th October, 2023 made that an impossibility. The rampage by Hamas terrorists that day was intended to kill any chance of a Saudi-Israeli rapprochement by provoking a brutal Israeli response that would outrage Muslim opinion. Israel's bombing and blockades had that effect, though less so with Arab regimes. Egypt has long been deeply hostile to Hamas. In 2013, when President Sisi toppled its democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, he came to power over the corpses of hundreds of Muslim Brothers, a group affiliated to Hamas. Qatar has been the odd monarchy out. It has housed Hamas's exiled leaders in Doha for decades, and Qatar's energy wealth subsidised Gaza after Hamas established itself In power there after 2006, when other oil-rich Gulf states pulled their aid. In 2017, Saudi Arabia's crown prince led his allies and Egypt in blockading Qatar as a 'sponsor of terrorism' – meaning Hamas in particular. Until now, Qatar's absolute ruler has acted as a go-between for Israel, the United States and Hamas. The Gulf state's shift will put real pressure on Hamas, which is battered but unbowed by Israel's fightback since 7 October. So what might a surrender deal for Hamas look like? The last four decades of Middle Eastern history might have an answer – of sorts. In 1984, the brutal war in Lebanon which had started when Israel invaded to stop raids across its border by the Palestine Liberation Organisation, ended when Israel agreed to let the PLO be exiled in Tunisia. But it's far from a failsafe blueprint for peace. Today's Tunisian government is vocally critical of Israel, but there is no sign that President Kais Saeed is keen to provide a refuge for Hamas fighters, even if they were willing to leave Gaza. Nor would France and Italy be happy to see battle-hardened veterans move west along the Mediterranean coast. Gulf states who remember how PLO leader Yasser Arafat's supporters in Kuwait backed Saddam Hussein's invasion there are not going to warmly welcome refugees from Gaza. Plus, Arab states' vocal condemnation of Benjamin Netayahu's war doesn't extend to housing its victims. Another word of caution. Without US backing, it is hard to see how the Franco-Saudi plan will bring a quick end to the war. Israeli opinion is split on Netanyahu, but there is little sign of a revival of support for a 'land for peace', a settlement whereby Israel withdraws from the occupied territories in exchange for peaceful coexistence with a neighbouring state of Palestine. Europeans and Gulf Arabs may be weary of the Gaza war, but Hamas and Israeli hardliners are not exhausted yet.


BBC News
12 minutes ago
- BBC News
The delicate politics behind the UK's move on Palestine
Sir Keir Starmer is familiar with Emily Damari's ordeal. Over the 15 months that she was held hostage in Gaza, the prime minister mentioned her several times when talking about the war, including describing phone calls he held with her British mother Mandy when she did not know whether Emily was still alive. So it will no doubt feel unpleasant, to say the least, for the prime minister to find himself on the receiving end of sharp criticism from Emily today. Responding to Sir Keir's announcement that he was willing to recognise a Palestinian state in September, Ms Damari accused him of "moral failure".She said he risked "rewarding terror" and "prolonging the conflict". Her intervention echoed a statement from representatives of 10 hostages who are being held or have been held in Gaza, who are either British or have close ties to said that they took no position on the "wider politics" of the war, but they were concerned that the UK's new position would remove incentives for Hamas to sign up to a ceasefire and release the remaining hostages, because it could now make recognition of a Palestinian state less concern of the hostage families is based on one of the prevailing interpretations of what the prime minister said in Downing Street after Tuesday's emergency cabinet that UK recognition of Palestine would be determined only by whether Israel met various conditions in the intervening weeks: agreeing to a ceasefire, making it clear it will not annex the West Bank, taking "substantive steps" to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and committing to a long-term peace government sources today have been pointing additionally to another element of the prime minister's statement on Tuesday."Our message to the terrorists of Hamas is unchanged and unequivocal," he said. "They must immediately release all the hostages, sign up to a ceasefire, disarm and accept that they will play no part in the government of Gaza."We will make an assessment in September on how far the parties have met these steps."Parties plural - that's to say, both Israel and Hamas. This, Downing Street sources argue, shows that the question of whether the UK ultimately presses ahead with recognition will be based not solely on Israel's actions but those of Hamas too, and means that their approach will not disincentivise Hamas to release the hostages after all. But that position has not been consistently articulated. For example, speaking to the BBC today, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said that "the ball is in the Israeli government's court". Asked whether recognition would still happen if Hamas is in control of Gaza in September, she replied by speaking only about the need for Israel to meet the government's conditions. The bottom line is this: nobody I have spoken to in Labour expects the government to do anything other than recognise Palestine in all the uncertainty about the precise conditions for getting there, and the mechanics of the assessment process the government will carry out, that is the significance of what Sir Keir said on that is a hugely significant shift in the UK's diplomatic posture, both across governments of different stripes, and compared to what this government was saying just a few days ago. Sir Keir has long said that he wants to recognise a Palestinian state, but only when it would make the biggest contribution to bringing about a two-state solution – which, it had generally been assumed, meant after the end of this delicate politics involved in changing position is one reason why the government has ended up in a slightly convoluted position was also undoubtedly involved in the government's decision to change course. Political gravity Sir Keir's own rhetoric, especially as regards the humanitarian situation in Gaza, has been publicly hardening for a little the mood of the parliamentary Labour party was moving faster. By the start of this week, more than half of Labour's MPs who don't hold government positions had signed a letter urging the government to recognise Palestine. Cabinet ministers were finding ways to let it be known that they agreed some in government, there was concern that when MPs return from their summer break in September, an opposition party would find a way to force a vote on the issue - and Starmer would have to climb down then, if he had not done so gravity was always going to take effect before long. There is a risk, though, that the government could fall between two stools. There are those, including some of those in Labour who have been pushing to recognise Palestine most loudly, who argue that if Palestinian statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people, then it should not be conditional on actions taken by the Israeli is also the position taken by the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party, and independents such as Jeremy the other side, there are those who argue that this is gesture politics, and statehood should not be entertained until Hamas has released the hostages - even though ultimately the Palestinian state the UK envisages would be governed by the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas. That's the position of a few in Labour, though more prominently of the Conservatives and Reform above all, a change in the government's position became inevitable because the middle of the Labour Party - those who have not necessarily always been vocal on this issue, and have generally backed Sir Keir's judgment - wanted a change. They are happy fragile political peace is based on a universal assumption that this is all merely a staging post to inevitable recognition of Palestine in just a few weeks. Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.


BBC News
12 minutes ago
- BBC News
Watch: Eric Trump not ruling out White House family 'dynasty'
The son of US President Donald Trump says a family member other than his father could consider running for the White House in future. In a wide-ranging conversation, Eric Trump told BBC Sport's Dan Roan that a relative "could… certainly" make a bid for the presidency – but the harder question was whether they would do so. Asked if he would consider a run of his own, he said: "I very much doubt I would even consider in '28," emphasising that he saw politics as "brutal". Sports Editor: Dan Roan Producer: Eoin Hempsall Camera: Dave Cheeseman