Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

At the outset of today’s White House briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that special envoy Steve Witkoff held a "productive" meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The meeting, she added, focused on "dilemmas" such as food and aid in Gaza.

"President Trump is a humanitarian with a big heart," she added.

Leavitt said that Witkoff will head to inspect food distribution sites in Gaza tomorrow, confirming US media reports that he would visit sites managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF).

Ambassador Mike Huckabee will also be in attendance.

Far from being rewarded, Hamas is being told to get out of the waypublished at 18:20 British Summer Time 31 July

18:20 BST 31 July

Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent

Two months ago, Israel’s opposition leader, Yair Golan, sparked outrage at home by saying his country was on the way to becoming an international pariah.

This week, that process appears to have accelerated. Fuelled by outrage over the scenes emerging from Gaza, some of Israel’s allies have channelled their anger into diplomatic action: pledges, albeit conditional, to recognise the state of Palestine within a matter of weeks.

France, Britain and Canada have already committed. Germany, Portugal and Australia are all discussing it. In diplomatic terms, these are seismic shifts, even if, as the former US negotiator Dennis Ross points out, they’re driven as much by emotion and domestic politics as strategy.

It’s not just Israel that’s looking increasingly isolated. It’s also Washington. By the end of the UN’s annual gathering in September, the US is likely to find itself in a minority of one among the five permanent members of the Security Council.

So far, the Trump administration is sticking by its ally, Israel. Imposing sanctions on members of the Palestinian Authority to go alongside those slapped on the International Criminal Court earlier this year.

The US and Israel both argue that recognising a Palestinian state is tantamount to rewarding Hamas for its brutal attacks in 2023. But at this week’s UN conference in New York, participants, including key Arab governments, all condemned Hamas, called on it to disarm and end its rule in Gaza.

Far from being rewarded, Hamas is being told to get out of the way.

In an update, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has today continued a "series of actions aimed at improving the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip".

This means, the IDF says, that "over the past few hours, 43 aid packages, containing food for the residents of both the southern and northern Gaza Strip, were airdropped".

It says this has taken place as part of a cooperation between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Egypt.

And, the IDF says it will "continue to work in order to improve the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip", and again refutes "the false claims of deliberate starvation in Gaza".

Earlier on today, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 91 people had died while seeking aid in the last day and that two people have died of malnutrition in the past 24 hours.

The UN and aid groups have said airdrops will not get sufficient supplies into Gaza, while the falling crates can cause injury and chaos on the ground.

Canada is the latest nation to announce it would recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel committed to a ceasefire - mirroring a similar move to the UK earlier this week.

As we reported in our previous post, Portugal will also consider this.

This follows French President Emmanuel Macron who said last week that France would recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September.

Spain, Ireland and Norway took the step last year, hoping to exert diplomatic pressure to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.

The State of Palestine is currently recognised by 147 of the United Nations' 193 member states - and at the UN it has the status of a "permanent observer state", allowing participation but no voting rights.

With France promising recognition in the coming weeks, and if the UK moves ahead with recognition, a Palestinian state will see the support of four of the UN Security Council's five permanent members - the other two being China and Russia.

This would leave the United States, Israel's strongest ally by far, in a minority of one.

Portugal says it is considering recognising a Palestinian state in September at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York.

If Portugal does decide to recognise the State of Palestine, it would align itself with France, who said they would recognise a Palestinian state in September. And the UK and Canada, who said the same, subject to certain conditions.

In a statement the Portuguese prime minister's office says it will now consider joining some of its European colleagues, after attending a separate UN conference with other countries in the last few days on the conditions required to recognise the state of Palestine.

Portugal's government says it will now consult the country’s president "with a view to considering the recognition of the Palestinian State, in a procedure that can be concluded during the High-Level Week of the 80th General Assembly of the United Nations, to be held in New York next September".

BBC Monitoring

There’s a persistent effort in Israeli media to push the narrative denying there’s hunger in Gaza.

Sections of Israeli media and the foreign ministry are continuing to insist that photos of emaciated children in Gaza are fake, or only show children with pre-existing health conditions.

On Wednesday, Israel’s media highlighted a clarification issued by the New York Times, external that a child whose photo was featured in an article about the hunger crisis in Gaza had a pre-existing health condition.

A headline in the centrist Maariv daily said, external: "The fake on the front page - The truth is far behind: The New York Times is laughing at Israel."

The popular right-wing Channel 14 News in particular has portrayed reports of hunger as "Hamas propaganda".

Former MP Yulia Shamalov-Berkovich said on the channel that it was necessary to have a state commission investigate the conduct of domestic media outlets that have given minimal coverage of hunger in Gaza “to find out who was paying them”.

A headline displayed on the screen said "fake 'hunger' in the media".

Other outlets, like Channel 12 News, have reported, external the Israeli government assessments that Qatar was behind what it described as a "Hamas campaign" to amplify the "hunger crisis in Gaza”.

Image source, Getty Images

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar has welcomed Washington's decision to sanction the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

In a post on X, Sa'ar thanked US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the State Department as a whole, for having what he calls "moral clarity" for taking steps to sanction Palestinian officials belonging to both groups.

The move will include denying visas to Palestinian officials, preventing their travel to the US.

He says the "important action" by US President Donald Trump and his team "also exposes the moral distortion of certain countries that ran to recognise a virtual Palestinian state while turning a blind eye to its support for terror and incitement".

Sa'ar's remarks come in the week Canada and the UK announced plans to recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, unless Israel stopped waging a war in Gaza.

These steps come a week after France announced it would recognise a Palestinian state, also in September.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

In the US, support for Israel is increasingly starting to get opposition from MAGA Republicans - the heart of President Trump's base of support.

Among those who have voiced reservations is Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, usually a staunch advocate for the President.

In a post on X just a short while ago,, external Greene said that "children are starving" and adding that "Christians have been killed and injured" in Gaza.

"This should be absolutely unacceptable" to Christians, she wrote. "Just as we said that Hamas killing and kidnapping innocent people on Oct 7th is absolutely unacceptable."

"Are innocent Israeli lives more valuable than innocent Palestinian and Christian lives? And why should America continue funding this," she added.

Other influential members of the MAGA movement, including former representative Matt Gaetz and former Trump advisor Steve Bannon have also become increasingly critical of Israeli operations in Gaza.

In an interview with Axios, MAGA-adjacent podcaster Jack Posobiec described the rupture as a "generational split", with younger, Gen Z conservatives being less in favour of maintaining strong US military and diplomatic support for Israel.

"Over 40s support [Israel]," he said. "Under 40 range from sceptical to wanting to cut all ties."

Image source, Reuters

More aid has been entering Gaza since Israel launched its new aid measures over the weekend - including a partial pause of military operations.

But international aid agencies have warned that it is still nowhere near enough for more than two million Gazans.

Mohammed Abou Sido has been trying to get aid since 04:00 local time today.

“And this is what I got, for eight people, one jar of tahini," he tells the Reuters news agency. "This is not distribution (of aid), this is not distribution at all," he says.

"Look at this jar of tahini, what should I feed my children?”

The Hamas-run health ministry says 91 people have been killed while seeking aid in the past day.

Another aid seeker, Ahed Saqr, says: "This is a death trap, I swear to God, it’s a death trap. You come to death, and you know you’re coming to death, and you don’t take anything or find anything left.”

David Gritten
Reporting from Jerusalem

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry has said today that at least 60,249 people have been killed by Israeli attacks since the start of the war, which was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.

The ministry’s figures do not differentiate between civilians and fighters, but it did say on Tuesday that 18,592 children, 9,782 women and 4,412 elderly were among the dead.

The ministry's figures are quoted by the United Nations and others as the most reliable source of statistics available on casualties.

However, Israel has challenged their accuracy, both in terms of overall numbers and the demographic breakdown - claiming it is used as Hamas propaganda.

When asked by the BBC to provide its own data on the numbers of fighters and civilians killed, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had none that it could share and referred to a speech by its then-chief of staff in January.

Lt Gen Herzi Halevi said at the time that IDF had “eliminated nearly 20,000 Hamas terrorist operatives”. He did not provide any figures for civilian deaths.

International journalists, including the BBC, are blocked by Israel from entering Gaza independently, so are unable to verify figures from either side.

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

An American doctor has invited President Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff to visit the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza where he is currently working.

“There are children that are starving. I’ve seen them with my own eyes,” Dr Thomas Adamkiewicz, a paediatrician tells the BBC. “This is barbaric. It’s a crime scene.”

During his trip to the region, local media says Witkoff is expected to visit the aid sites in Gaza run by the controversial US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

“Apparently Mr Witkoff is going to be here not too far away. If that’s ok with the staff here, I’d like to invite him to see for himself what’s happening here,” says Adamkiewicz, who is volunteering with the American humanitarian organisation, MedGlobal. “I’d meet him in person.”

The paediatrician describes seeing young children in the emergency room, passing out and disoriented from lack of food, and says it is “heart-breaking”.

He says that his Palestinian colleagues are “gaunt” because they had not eaten proper meals in days.

He also speaks about helping to treat an 11-year-old who is most likely paralysed for life. The boy had already lost siblings in the war and was shot while trying to get food for his family.

US State Department moves to sanction Palestinian Authoritypublished at 14:23 British Summer Time 31 July

14:23 BST 31 July

Tom Bateman
US State Department correspondent

The US says it is going to impose sanctions on the Palestinians’ self-governance organisation as well as the body that represents it on the international stage.

The sanctions affect both the Palestinian Authority (PA) which was established by the Oslo peace accords, and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) which was recognised after the same process as the official representative of the Palestinian people, in return for it renouncing violence and recognising Israel.

The State Department refers to denying visas, which would prevent travel to the United States for Palestinian officials. That may be meant as a more limited broadside than a full range of financial sanctions, but this is a significant diplomatic escalation by the Trump administration. Its timing leaves little doubt it is the US response to this week’s French-Saudi led conference at the United Nations to rally support for a future two-state solution.

The meeting came as France, the UK and Canada committed to recognising an independent, demilitarised Palestinian state later this year. The US castigated the moves and called the conference a “publicity stunt.”

As I wrote last night, the New York event further isolated the US in its unyielding backing for the way Israel is continuing the war in Gaza, which many countries condemned at the meeting. The conference highlighted the strategic vacuum left by Washington that has traditionally led diplomatic efforts towards a viable longer-term peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

The US State Department had privately threatened diplomatic consequences linked to the conference suggesting any declarations from it would be “anti-Israel.”

Now it is delivering on that threat.

Earlier this week, the UK's prime minister, Keir Starmer, announced that the UK would recognise a Palestinian state in September if conditions were not met - it followed a similar move from France (and Canada, too, as of yesterday).

Speaking to the BBC today, Starmer says: "The situation on the ground in Gaza needs to change, there's a humanitarian catastrophe and that's why I've said that unless that changes materially, obviously we'll assess that as we get to September, then we will recognise Palestine."

He adds that the government's call for the immediate release of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza has been consistent.

"They've been held for a very, very long time in absolutely intolerable conditions. So, that absolutely needs to happen," the PM says.

Image source, EPA

Israeli President Isaac Herzog says today's visit to Israel by the US envoy, Steve Witkoff, is a "vital and critical" part of the effort to secure a deal to release the hostages held by Hamas.

Earlier this week, President Trump told journalists he had a "couple of alternatives" in terms of possible plans for freeing the hostages. He said he preferred negotiations but suggested another way was to be "very ruthless."

• Of the 50 hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, 20 are believed to be alive. In total, 251 hostages were taken on the 7 October attacks; 148 have been returned or rescued alive. One hostage in Gaza was taken before the 7 October attacks.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has just shared images of him greeting Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.

Witkoff landed in Israel earlier this morning. We'll continue to monitor their meeting for updates.

Image source, Kobi Gideon/ GPO

Image source, Kobi Gideon/ GPO

The "two-state solution" is an internationally backed formula for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

It proposes an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital. It would exist alongside Israel.

Israel rejects a two-state solution. It says any final settlement must be the result of negotiations with the Palestinians, and statehood should not be a precondition.

The Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the occupied West Bank not under full Israeli control, backs a two-state solution. Hamas is opposed to the existence of Israel on what it says is Palestinian land.

Hamas says that it could accept an interim Palestinian state based on 1967 de facto borders, without officially recognising Israel, if Palestinian refugees were allowed to return to where they had come from.

Earlier efforts to settle the conflict saw Israel and Palestinian leaders sign a deal called the Oslo Peace Accords, in 1993. This provided a framework for peace talks. However, talks which followed for years afterwards eventually collapsed with each side blaming the other.

Donald Trump says the "fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!!" in a post on his Truth Social Platform.

As we've reported, Trump told reporters in Scotland earlier this week that there was "real starvation" in Gaza, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted there was no such thing.

He's also said that Canada's move to recognise a Palestinian state could imperil the trade deal with the US.

Image source, Getty Images

Ninety-one people have been killed while seeking aid in Gaza in the past day, the Hamas-run health ministry says.

In its latest update, the ministry says that overall 111 people have been killed in the last 24 hours. A further 820 people were injured, it adds.

It brings the total number of people killed in Gaza since Israel launched a campaign in response to the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023 to 60,249 people, the ministry adds.

In a separate statement, the ministry says two people have died of malnutrition in the past day, bringing the number of hunger related deaths since the start of the war to 159.

We can bring you more now from German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who has shared a statement ahead of his trip to Israel and the occupied West Bank.

"A rapidly growing number of countries, including European ones, are prepared to recognise a Palestinian state even without a prior negotiation process," Wadephul says.

He says that Germany, "with our special responsibility for Israel, cannot and must not ignore this".

The death and suffering in Gaza has reached "unimaginable proportions," he adds.

"The recent UN conference in New York also demonstrated that Israel is increasingly finding itself in a minority position," he says.

Wadephul also calls on Israel to provide aid agencies with "safe access" to distribute supplies, adding that Germany will participate in aid drops in the next few days.

He also says that Germany "will continue to advocate for Hamas to finally release the hostages".

Image source, EPA

Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul says the process towards recognising a Palestinian state "must begin now".

But, he added, that "for Germany, the recognition of a Palestinian state is more likely to be the end of the process".

He says a negotiated two-state solution remains the "only way to achieve a sustainable solution" to the conflict, enabling "people on both sides to live in peace, security, and dignity."

The statement was shared ahead of Wadephul's visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories. More on this shortly.