Image source, Getty Images

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is "considering alternative options" to bring hostages home from Gaza.

The latest round of ceasefire negotiations appeared to have broken down on Thursday when US envoy Steve Witkoff announced the US delegation would be leaving Qatar, and accused Hamas of not "acting in good faith".

In a social media post, Netanyahu agreed and says Witkoff "got it right".

"Hamas is the obstacle to a hostage release deal," he says, adding that "together with our US allies", Israel is looking at "alternative options" to secure the return of the hostages, as well as ending "Hamas's terror rule" and securing "lasting peace" for the region.

As a reminder, Hamas has denied that ceasefire talks have collapsed, calling Witkoff's comments "negative toward the movement's position".

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

As we've been reporting, Israel has said it could allow foreign countries to airdrop aid into Gaza, where local health officials are reporting increasing numbers of deaths from starvation.

When such airdrops happened in 2024 after the UN said Gaza's population was on the brink of famine, humanitarian organisations said this method of delivery could not meet the soaring needs.

The BBC travelled on an RAF plane dropping 10 tonnes of food and water into Gaza - less than a single truck would carry across a border on the ground.

The airdrops have also had unintended - and sometimes deadly - consequences. Some airdropped crates were blown over the sea as they parachuted down, and Palestinians drowned trying to get to them. Other people were killed or injured by crates falling from the sky when parachutes failed.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says that nine people have died of malnutrition in the past 24 hours.

A total of 122 people, including 83 children, have died because of a lack of food since the war began, according to the ministry

More now on potential airdrops of aid into Gaza.

Israeli army radio is reporting that foreign countries could carry out airdrops in the coming days.

The Times of Israel says that Jordan and the UAE will conduct this latest round of airdrops, though the BBC has not confirmed this.

Last year, countries including the UK, US and Jordan dropped supplies into Gaza from military planes - but that led to problems like aid falling into the sea and people drowning while trying to recover it.

An Israeli security official says airdrops of aid into Gaza could be allowed in the coming days.

Some countries carried out airdrops last spring but aid agencies have previously warned it is an inefficient way to get supplies into Gaza.

We'll have more detail on this shortly.

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Image source, EPA

Three trusted freelance Palestinian journalists whom the BBC relies on for its Gaza coverage have shared how they are now struggling to feed their families and often go two days or more without eating.

It's after the BBC released a joint statement with other media organisations saying it is "desperately concerned" about the wellbeing of local freelance journalists that it works with in Gaza.

"I feel tired and exhausted all the time, to the point of dizziness and falling to the ground," says a veteran journalist who now works with us in Gaza City and is looking after his mother, sisters, and five children aged two to 16.

Meanwhile a cameraman in southern Gaza tells us: "My stomach twists in knots, and I have a headache, add to that being emaciated and weak. I used to work from 07:00 until 22:00 but now I can barely do one story. I just feel dizzy."

One colleague says his autistic son is unaware of what is going on around him.

"In recent days, he's so hungry that he's started hitting his stomach with his hand to signal to us that he wants food," he explains.

• For more on how Israel prevents international journalists from entering Gaza, take a look at our news story

Mosab, a 14-year-old Palestinian boy injured in an Israeli airstrike near his home last month, is deteriorating due to a lack of food and medicine, BBC News Arabic reports.

His mother, Shahenaz Al Debs, says he weighed 40kg (6.3 stone) before the injury, and now weighs "barely" 10kg (1.5 stone).

"We cry out a hundred thousand times, I died a thousand times a day," she says.

The medical director at Gaza's al-Shifa hospital, Dr Hassan al-Shaer, says the number of people suffering malnutrition is increasing.

"It was initially limited to children, but now we are seeing cases of malnutrition across all age groups," he says, adding treatment is difficult because they "lack all the necessary supplies".

Rushdi Abualouf
Gaza correspondent, reporting from Istanbul

A senior Hamas official tells the BBC that mediators had informed the group negotiations have not collapsed, despite recent remarks by US envoy Steve Witkoff and the withdrawal of both Israeli and American delegations from the ongoing talks.

According to the official, mediators conveyed that the Israeli delegation is expected to return to Doha next week, though no specific date has been set.

Hamas expressed surprise at Witkoff’s statements, describing them as “negative toward the movement’s position”.

Hamas said in a statement: "The movement affirms its commitment to completing the negotiations and engaging in them in a way that contributes to overcoming obstacles and reaching a permanent ceasefire agreement."

Two versions of reality as Israel and UN clash over Gaza foodpublished at 11:41 British Summer Time 25 July

11:41 BST 25 July

Jeremy Bowen
International editor

This is not the end of the talking — there will be more. But it's probably a tactic being used to put pressure on Hamas.

That would be to counter the idea that the growing global awareness of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza — particularly among many Western countries, including some of Israel’s allies — has encouraged Hamas to take a harder line in talks.

There are two versions of reality - one pushed by Israel (backed by the US) and the other coming from Europe and the UN and its agencies. Israel insists there is plenty of food in Gaza. The opposite view - backed by strong, clear evidence - is that restrictions imposed by Israel are stopping vital food and other essentials reaching civilians.

But regardless of where you stand in that debate, the fact remains: the food is not reaching the people who need it.

There is overwhelming and indisputable evidence of a humanitarian catastrophe. Starvation is widespread. People are dying from hunger. Our BBC freelancers in Gaza are feeling it too. One said he fainted when filming because of hunger.

Emir Nader
Reporting from Jerusalem

"We know that we might get injured or killed at any time, yet we still go there to get a kilo of flour."

Mohammed al-Qedra, one of many patients brought to a field hospital in southern Gaza, is telling the BBC about the dangers present for Palestinians seeking aid.

He says he was shot in the hand and leg while trying to get food for his family at a nearby aid distribution centre run by the Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

"I was pleading for someone to carry me and take me to hospital. A good Samaritan brought me here," he recalls in an interview with a freelance journalist working for the BBC.

Mohammed is aware of the risks, but says as soon as he leaves hospital he will return to the GHF site, explaining: "I'm the sole breadwinner for the whole family".

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor

Image source, AFP

As a permanent member of the UN Security Council and part of the G7, France carries considerable weight diplomatically on the Middle East, far more than other EU countries that have already recognised a Palestinian state.

The EU's other major Western power, Germany, believes recognition should come only at the end of peace negotiations with Israel on a two-state solution.

Sweden, Spain, Ireland and Slovenia are so far the only EU member states to have made the move while being part of the EU, so President Macron's announcement is significant. Several other European states did so in the 1980s, including Poland and Hungary during the communist era.

Belgium, which has been one of Europe's most vehement critics of Israel during the war with Hamas, is weighing up the issue and will reportedly come to a decision in early September.

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said in May that he personally didn't think it was a sensible step as it would mean recognising a state when "you can't tell what its borders are, who the authority is and therefore who to talk to as a partner".

Will Macron's declaration breathe life into two-state solution? He hopes sopublished at 10:55 British Summer Time 25 July

10:55 BST 25 July

Jeremy Bowen
International editor

Does President Macron’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state at the UN in September change much? He must believe that it will breathe some life into what have become slogans about a two state solution.

Israel has absolutely doubled down on its determination to never, ever accept a Palestinian state.

From Prime Minister Netanyahu the position is clear. He says a Palestinian state would be a launchpad to eliminate Israel.

Figures on the ultra-nationalist hard right, such as finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, are using the current moment to push for what he has called the “Zionist response to unilateral coercion".

For him that means extending Israeli sovereignty over the land Israel calls Judea and Samaria - and is better known internationally as the West Bank. The hard right in Israel wants to annex the occupied West Bank and absorb it into Israel.

Smotrich and those aligned with him would like to see Palestinians removed from the occupied territories altogether, envisioning a future in which the entire area is land for Jews under full Israeli sovereignty.

Meanwhile, in the UK, the PM Keir Starmer is facing sustained pressure from within his own party to follow France’s lead and recognise a Palestinian state.

No 10 not signalling any shift in position on Palestinian statepublished at 10:36 British Summer Time 25 July

10:36 BST 25 July

Helen Catt
Political correspondent

Image source, Reuters

As ever, Keir Starmer is walking a potentially tricky trans-Atlantic diplomatic tightrope .

He’s got a call with Emmanuel Macron later, whose decision to say he will recognise a Palestinian state within months, has put pressure on the UK’s position.

Then President Trump flies in to Scotland, after his administration criticised the French move.

Despite growing calls from within Westminster for the UK to move towards recognition, Downing Street has not signalled it’s planning any shift in position.

In any case, it seems very unlikely any change would come before the planned meeting between the prime minister and the president.

What does recognising Palestinian statehood mean?published at 10:20 British Summer Time 25 July

10:20 BST 25 July

Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent

Recognition of Palestinian statehood is largely symbolic but profoundly political.

It’s meant to send a strong message – that the only way to achieve a sustainable peace in the Middle East is through the two-state solution, a Palestinian state alongside the state of Israel.

When a major European power like France takes this step, it highlights the right of Palestinians to self-determination and, for some, boosts fading hope that their decades-old aspiration can one day succeed.

But the current Israeli government is categorical – Palestinian statehood is not on the cards.

France’s move, which follows Spain, Norway, and Ireland in May 2024, has hardened Israel’s opposition and amplified threats to annex the occupied West Bank – the land of a future Palestinian state.

That’s why Britain’s Prime Minister Starmer has previously said the UK would only do it when it would have the “greatest impact.”

But as Palestinian suffering deepens, and far-right Israeli ministers call for the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, pressure mounts on Britain and other world powers to take a stand - before it’s too late.

Image source, Reuters

• Later on, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will join an "emergency call" with France's Emmanuel Macron and Germany's Friedrich Merz on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza
• The UK is under growing pressure to recognise the state of Palestine, our chief international correspondent writes, after Macron pledged to do so in September
• The US and Israel have condemned the move, and separately withdrew their teams from ceasefire talks in Qatar after the US accused Hamas of "not acting in good faith"
• Meanwhile, humanitarian conditions in Gaza are deteriorating rapidly after more than 100 humanitarian organisations warned of mass starvation
• Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) says its teams are "witnessing catastrophic levels of malnutrition" - reporting that one in four young children and pregnant woman it screened are malnourished
• Speaking to the BBC, an Israeli government spokesman insists "there is no restriction" on the amount of aid that can enter Gaza

Image source, Reuters

Humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) says its teams are "witnessing catastrophic levels of malnutrition" among patients and staff in Gaza.

MSF calls attention to three key findings it says it has made on the ground:

• At MSF clinics, 25% of screened children and pregnant/breastfeeding women are malnourished, it says.
• Every day, there are 25 new cases of malnutrition among healthcare workers in Gaza City alone, it warns, as staff struggle to feed themselves
• More than 1,000 people have been killed and 7,200 injured at aid distribution points, it says

It comes after more than 100 humanitarian groups warned of mass starvation in Gaza. Israel says there is no siege on aid getting into Gaza.

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor

Image source, Getty Images

The timing may have come as a surprise in France, late on Thursday and after all the big TV news programmes had finished, but President Emmanuel Macron's announcement that he would recognise a Palestinian state at the UN in September was not entirely unexpected.

Macron said last April that he could do it at a summit on Palestinian statehood in June, but that was then postponed. Now that he has given a firm date in September, his decision has been met with predictable splits across political lines in French politics.

Parties on the left have broadly welcomed the move, with Ecologists leader Marine Tondelier saying it was a "major step" and better late than never, while radical left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon called it a "moral victory".

For the Socialists, Olivier Faure said it had to be accompanied by sanctions and that Europe had to put pressure on Israel's "supremacist and messianic government".

Most political leaders from the centre and Republican right are in the government, so they have largely avoided comment, but the far-right have made their opposition very clear.

National Rally leader Marine Le Pen says recognising a Palestinian state today meant "recognising a Hamas state and therefore a terrorist state" - and it constituted a political and moral mistake.

Pressure mounting on UK to recognise Palestinian statehoodpublished at 08:52 British Summer Time 25 July

08:52 BST 25 July

Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent

It’s often said timing is everything.

France hinted for months it would recognise Palestinian statehood. It’s finally made its move in the midst of growing alarm over the desperate situation in Gaza, and deepening frustration among world powers that they aren’t able to stop it.

France hopes other world powers will follow its lead when it formally takes this step at the UN General Assembly in September. Of course, most countries recognised a Palestinian state long ago; in May 2024, Spain, Ireland and Norway did too.

But France is the first country of the G7 group of major industrialised nations to do so.

A “huge announcement” is how Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour put it in an interview with BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight programme.

A huge mistake is how Israel sees it, denouncing recognition as a “reward for terrorism.” For the US too, this timing is wrong and “reckless".

But pressure is now mounting on countries like the UK and Germany to also wield one of their few diplomatic weapons as the future of Palestinians in Gaza looks bleaker by the day.

Image source, Getty Images

Mencer is asked whose responsibility it is under international law to ensure people in Gaza are fed.

"We have a duty as human beings, as a Jewish state, to ensure there is not starvation in Gaza," he says, saying "we don't need to be responsible to international law, it is our duty as a country, as a Jewish state... to make sure there is not starvation in Gaza".

He says that is why they are "making it clear there is no restriction on the amount of aid that can enter", and insists the Israeli army has offered the UN "all the security it needs to deliver the aid".

"No-one wants to see Gazans suffering," he says, insisting again Israel is facilitating aid and blaming Hamas.

For context: The UN has said at least 1,054 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military while seeking food since 27 May.

The chief of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini, said yesterday the organisation has 6,000 trucks' worth of aid waiting in Egypt and Jordan to enter Gaza. He called on Israel to allow "unrestricted and uninterrupted humanitarian assistance to Gaza".

David Mencer is pressed on the Israel and US-backed aid system established by Israel - the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

If Israel set up this new system, and is now saying that aid distribution is failing, doesn't that mean that Israel has failed, he's asked on the Today programme.

Mencer replies there are two parts to the aid process: the GHF, which says in a statement that it has delivered 91 million meals, but also UN co-ordinated shipments of key supplies.

He suggests that he hasn't shut one down in favour of the other, calling it a "two-pronged approach".

When presenter Nick Robinson challenges Mencer that Israel has restricted the supply of aid through bureaucratic impediments, Mencer accuses him of "lying".

Mencer then suggests that the UN is working in co-operation with Hamas to restrict the amount of aid to Gazans.