Israel carried out its first airdrop of humanitarian aid into Gaza early Sunday, for the first time since the start of the ongoing war against Hamas, and pledged to halt fighting in certain parts of the Strip and create safe passages for the United Nations to distribute goods to the Palestinian population.

The series of announcements appeared to mark a shift under heavy international pressure for Jerusalem, which between March and May barred all aid from Gaza, and then supported distributing much of the assistance via private American contractors in designated areas — a mechanism that drew increasing backlash over reports of hundreds of aid-seekers being shot dead in near-daily incidents.

While Israel has consistently argued that it isn’t restricting aid distribution by the UN, the international body and humanitarian groups have been claiming Israeli restrictions prevent the goods from being handed out, with countries, groups and officials waging a growing pressure campaign for the Jewish state to allow more aid as hunger steadily grows in the war-battered enclave amid mounting reports of malnutrition-related deaths.

On Saturday evening, the Foreign Ministry said Israel would implement “humanitarian pauses” in densely populated areas and humanitarian corridors in Gaza starting Sunday morning, to enable the distribution of aid, shortly after the Israel Defense Forces said it was prepared to do so.

The IDF did not immediately provide an exact schedule or locations of the “pauses.” It earlier said it had been decided that “designated humanitarian corridors would be established to enable the safe movement of UN convoys delivering food and medicine to the population.”

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“The IDF is prepared to implement humanitarian pauses in densely populated areas and will continue to operate to dismantle terrorist infrastructure and eliminate terrorists in the areas of activity,” it said.

Also Saturday evening, the military said it was planning the airdrop — consisting of seven packages of aid containing flour, sugar and canned food — adding this was among a “series of actions” aimed at improving the humanitarian situation in the Strip.

Hours later, the IDF said it had carried out the airdrop, providing video footage and stressing that the move was taken “in accordance with the directives of the political echelon.”

The Israeli Air Force conducts an airdrop of aid into the Gaza Strip, late July 25, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

It was the first time Israel had airdropped aid into Gaza since the current war began, after previously having only allowed other countries to carry out such operations.

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The IDF said the airdrop was conducted by the Israeli Air Force and Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), “in coordination with international aid organizations.”

Unusually, the latter, nighttime statement was only issued on the army’s English-language distribution list for journalists, and wasn’t immediately featured on its Hebrew channels.

In the earlier statement, the IDF said the airdropped aid was to be provided by international organizations, and that its goal was also to refute the “false claim of deliberate starvation in the Gaza Strip.”

According to the IDF and COGAT, over 250 trucks of aid were unloaded at the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings with Gaza this week, joining hundreds more trucks waiting to be collected by the UN and other international groups. In all, some 600 trucks’ worth of aid were collected and distributed in Gaza this week, according to COGAT’s figures.

“The IDF, through COGAT, will continue coordinating with international organizations to collect the contents of hundreds of trucks that have not yet been collected,” the military said.

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In another effort, the military and COGAT said that in the Israel Electric Corporation had connected a power line from Israel to a desalination plant in the Strip’s south, which was expected to supply “approximately 20,000 cubic meters of water per day, up from the 2,000 cubic meters supplied until now, to serve about 900,000 residents in the area.”

“The IDF emphasizes that there is no starvation in the Gaza Strip; this is a false campaign promoted by Hamas. Responsibility for food distribution to the population in Gaza lies with the UN and international aid organizations. Therefore, the UN and international organizations are expected to improve the effectiveness of aid distribution and to ensure that the aid does not reach Hamas,” the statement continued.

“The IDF emphasizes that combat operations have not ceased. We will continue to operate in the Gaza Strip to return all hostages and to defeat the Hamas terrorist organization, both above and below ground,” the military added.

The boosted aid to the Strip was met with backlash from within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said he was excluded from a phone call between Netanyahu and senior cabinet members on Saturday in which the moves had been decided.

He said that an official from the Prime Minister’s Office had told him after the fact that the reason he was excluded from the call, reportedly along with fellow far-right leader Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, was that the premier had not wanted to disturb him on Shabbat.

The ultranationalist lawmaker said he believed the real reason for his exclusion was his oft-vocalized opposition to sending humanitarian aid to Gaza in any capacity.

He contended that by increasing aid to Gaza, Israel was “surrendering to Hamas’s false campaign” of famine and starvation across the enclave, and was “endangering IDF soldiers.”

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“The only way to win the war and return the hostages is to completely stop ‘humanitarian’ aid, occupy the entire Strip and encourage voluntary migration,” Ben Gvir said.

According to Ynet, the national security minister also told the PMO official that he knew Netanyahu “didn’t want to bring us into the conversation so that we wouldn’t be able to tell [him] what we think.”

The outlet said Ben Gvir also claimed that Hamas would “take advantage” of the decision to open humanitarian corridors that allow the UN to distribute aid safely across Gaza, and would operate within them.

“You didn’t include me in the conversation because you knew I was opposed,” he reportedly reiterated. “This is extremely serious.”

Some humanitarian chiefs are deeply skeptical that airdrops can deliver enough food to tackle the deepening hunger crisis facing Gaza’s more than two million inhabitants. They are instead demanding that Israel allow more overland convoys.

But British Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed the idea, vowing to work with Jordan to restart airdrops.

Starmer’s office said that in a call with his French and German counterparts, the “prime minister set out how the UK will also be taking forward plans to work with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance.”

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The United Arab Emirates said it would resume airdrops “immediately.”

“The humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached a critical and unprecedented level,” Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said in a post on X. “Airdrops are resuming once more, immediately.”

The decision to loosen the flow of aid came as the Hamas-run civil defense agency claimed over 50 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli strikes and shootings Saturday, some as they waited near aid distribution centers.

The war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping 251. The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 28 of the 50 remaining hostages.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 58,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.

Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 456.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.

AFP contributed to this report.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to have the military enact daily “humanitarian pauses” in fighting and increase aid delivery to the Gaza Strip was made without the input of his far-right coalition partners, according to a report published Sunday.

The decision to increase aid supply, including through air drops made directly by the IDF and several other countries, as well as to pause fighting for 10 hours daily, was made during a Saturday meeting of a small number of senior cabinet ministers via a conference call, the Ynet news site reported.

Since the meeting was held on Saturday, it was not attended by the two far-right senior ministers, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minster Bezalel Smotrich, who both observe Shabbat.

The report said Defense Minister Israel Katz, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, and senior defense officials were on the call with the prime minister.

According to Ynet, Ben Gvir, who is a staunch opponent of humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza, was informed of the decision on Saturday evening by the Prime Minister’s Office, and is “furious.”

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According to a statement put out by Ben Gvir’s office, the reason the PMO gave him for not including him in the meeting was that they “didn’t want him to desecrate Shabbat.”

“I am available all Shabbat, 24/7, because I am the national security minister and receive updates all the time. These are just excuses,” he said.

Ben Gvir said that the decision was “a big mistake,” and that Netanyahu “didn’t include me in the conversation because you knew I was opposed. This is very serious.”

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“This is a capitulation to Hamas’s deceitful campaign,” he said, repeating his call to choke off all aid to Gaza, conquer the entire territory and encourage its Palestinian population to leave. He stopped short of threatening to quit the government.

Smotrich, for his part, did not immediately comment on the decision to increase aid flow, or that it was made without his input.

Both ministers have consistently called to not allow any aid into Gaza, arguing that it helps Hamas and prevents the terror group’s surrender.

Saturday’s decision to dramatically increase aid into the Strip, facilitate pauses in fighting and begin air drops of aid packages came amid growing global outrage over reports that significant portions of Gaza’s population are severely malnourished and experiencing famine-like conditions.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said Friday that at least 56 people died of causes related to malnutrition in the previous three weeks, including 22 children. That was up from 10 children who died from such causes during the five previous months, according to the ministry. The figures cannot be verified.

Israeli authorities have denied claims of widespread famine in the enclave, but acknowledged issues with food access, blaming shortages on a “lack of cooperation” by the UN and other international organizations.

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Nearly 60,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.

Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 459.

The war began with the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion massacre, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 hostages. Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, at least 20 of whom are thought to be alive.

European powers and the United States submitted a resolution to the UN’s nuclear watchdog board condemning Iran’s “non-compliance” with its nuclear obligations, in a bid to up pressure on Tehran, diplomats tell AFP.

It is the latest move in a years-long effort to restrict Iran’s nuclear activities over fears that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

The diplomatic maneuver comes as the United States and Tehran have held several rounds of talks mediated by Oman, aimed at securing an agreement on limiting Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

“The text has been submitted,” three diplomatic sources tell AFP on Tuesday night.

Paris, Berlin, London and Washington formally tabled the resolution at this week’s board meeting of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is expected to come to a vote on Wednesday evening at the earliest.

The draft resolution obtained by AFP calls on Iran “to urgently remedy its non-compliance” with its commitments under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

It also “deeply regrets” that Tehran “despite repeated calls from the Board and many opportunities offered… has failed to cooperate fully with the Agency.”

The agency’s “inability… to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful gives rise to questions that are within the competence of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC),” which can draw up sanctions.

The resolution follows an IAEA report in late May that showed “a general lack of cooperation” by Tehran, diplomats said, including in providing “credible” answers to questions by the agency as well as the theft of confidential documents and the cleaning up of undeclared sites.

The report also criticized “less than satisfactory” cooperation from Tehran, particularly in explaining nuclear material found at undeclared sites in the past.

For years, the agency has been trying to obtain clarification on nuclear material and equipment found at undeclared sites and resulting from undeclared activities carried out until the early 2000s.

Tehran, which vows to destroy Israel, has also accelerated its production of near-weapons-grade uranium in recent months.

A federal judge has ordered the government to immediately halt deportation proceedings against the family of a man charged in a firebombing attack against a pro-Israel group in Boulder, Colorado, to ensure the protection of the family’s constitutional rights.

US District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher grants a request from the wife and five children of Mohamed Sabry Soliman, who are Egyptian, to block their deportation. US immigration officials took the family into custody Tuesday, a day after the attack on a group rallying for the return of hostages held in Gaza.

Soliman, 45, has been charged with a federal hate crime and state counts of attempted murder in Sunday’s attack in downtown Boulder. Witnesses say he threw two Molotov cocktails at the group, injuring 15. Authorities say he confessed to the attack in custody, and said he had planned it for a year.

His family members have not been charged.

Federal authorities have said Soliman has been living in the US illegally, and US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said earlier Wednesday that the family was being processed for removal.

It’s rare that a criminal suspect’s family members are detained and threatened with deportation.

“It is patently unlawful to punish individuals for the crimes of their relatives,” attorneys for the family write in the lawsuit.

Eric Lee, one of the attorney’s representing the family, argued efforts to deport them should not happen in a democracy.

“The punishment of a four-year-old child for something their parent allegedly did, who also has a presumption of innocence, is something that should outrage Americans regardless of their citizenship status,” he says.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin describes the plaintiff’s claims as “absurd” and “an attempt to delay justice.”

“Just like her criminal husband, she and her children are here illegally and are rightfully in ICE custody for removal as a result,” she says in a statement.

Former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot tells Channel 12 that he believes he has what it takes to be the next prime minister of Israel, but says he will only present himself as such if he believes it is the right move for the country.

The interview with Channel 12 is the latest in a round of interviews he has given since formally leaving the National Unity party led by his predecessor as IDF chief, Benny Gantz.

He says that he decided to depart National Unity and resign as a member of Knesset once he realized the party was “falling apart” and was no longer aligned with his personal beliefs and vision for the future of Israeli politics.

Quitting wasn’t a matter of whether or not he had a good relationship with Gantz, Eisenkot stresses, but rather a question of “what the right thing is for the State of Israel.”

Asked if he is presenting himself as a viable candidate for prime minister, Eisenkot says that he may do so, but only if he can tell “that this will give us [the anti-Netanyahu bloc] a greater chance of victory at the next elections.”

Pushed further as to whether he believes that he has what is needed for the highest office in Israel, Eseinkot says, “I can be prime minister.”

“I want to be prime minister if I know that it will bring us victory,” he reiterates. “Time will tell.”

The ex-IDF chief says he believes the next election, currently scheduled for October 2026, will be “the most critical, most important one since the founding of the state.”

Eisenkot is reported to be considering three possible options for his political future: Establishing a party of his own, joining former prime minister Naftali Bennett’s new party, or joining Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party, and possibly replacing him as party leader.

Asked about these reports, he says there are “many other options” he is considering, but declines to share details.

He also declines to clearly define his own political ideology at this point, and refuses to answer when asked if he considers it to be more closely aligned with right-wing Bennett or centrist Lapid, saying he wants to “break this toxic discourse of right or left.”

Asked if he would ever consider sitting in government with Netanyahu, Eisenkot suggests that he would not: “After October 7, I wouldn’t want to see Benjamin Netanyahu continue holding leadership positions in the State of Israel.”

“They’ll remember him for the good that he did, and they’ll remember him for the bad that he did, as well,” he says.

While he refuses to answer either “yes” or “no” to the question of joining Netanyahu in a future government, he again says that the failures surrounding the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught “disqualify him from leadership roles.”