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Day 660 of the Israel-Hamas war:

The IDF announced the deaths of two soldiers killed in eastern Khan Yunis yesterday in an IED explosion during an activity by the Golani Brigade Combat Team. Captain Amir Saad z”l and Sergeant Inon Nuriel Vana z”l were technology and maintenance fighters in the Golani reconnaissance unit, Golani Brigade.

This morning, after yesterday’s airdrop of Jordan aid into Gaza, the IDF announced Israel’s new plan to be implemented today, to enable continued distribution of international aid. The plan involves daily humanitarian pauses and corridors in designated areas throughout the strip. Read more.

“The IDF will continue to support the humanitarian effort on the ground, alongside continued maneuvers and offensive activity against the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip in order to protect the citizens of the State of Israel. The IDF is prepared to expand the scope of the operation as necessary,” said an IDF statement.

To catch up on the updates from Saturday, CLICK HERE

For more stories and in-depth analysis on the Israel-Hamas war

Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday highlighted the pressing need for Israel to determine its next course of action in Gaza after the breakdown of ceasefire talks with Hamas. Trump’s remarks came amid rising tensions and stalled negotiations for the release of hostages held by the militant group.

Pointing out what he termed as a sudden hardening in Hamas’ stance, Trump stressed the critical importance of securing the hostages’ freedom. The situation presents a significant challenge to Israel as it grapples with its response strategies.

Speaking during a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at his golf estate in Scotland, Trump asserted that Israel faces tough decisions ahead. With hostages still under Hamas’ control, the international community watches Israel’s next move with keen interest.

(With inputs from agencies.)

Here are the latest updates on day 660 of the war:

■ The IDF reported that 28 aid deliveries, carrying food for residents of the northern and southern Gaza Strip, were airdropped into Gaza, “as part of the cooperation between Israel, the UAE and Jordan” in the last few hours.

■ IDF Spokesperson Effie Defrin said Israel is not starving the population in Gaza, but Hamas has “launched a false and deceptive campaign.” Hamas “is not only fighting the IDF, but also deliberately harming its citizens,” he said.

■ Israel and Syria have entered into a series of talks aimed at establishing a security agreement that will ensure an end to Israeli attacks in Syria and could lead to talks on normalization between the countries, a source told Haaretz.

■ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the humanitarian pauses in the fighting taking place in areas of the Gaza Strip are necessary to achieve the war’s goals. The prime minister said now the UN would have “no more excuses” when it comes to delivering aid to Gaza.

■ German Chancellor Friedrich Merz spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called on him to allow humanitarian aid to reach the “starving civilian population in Gaza without delay” and urged him to do everything possible to reach an immediate cease-fire.

■ The IDF reported that an officer in the 585th Battalion and a reservist who serves as a tracker in the Gaza Division of the Southern Brigade were seriously wounded in the fighting in the southern Gaza Strip and evacuated for medical treatment.

■ The UN’s World Food Program said it has enough food in or on its way to the region to feed the entire Gaza population of 2.1 million for almost three months in a post on X.

■ The IDF announced that the UAE will begin building a water pipeline from Egypt to the Gaza Strip in the coming days. The pipeline, authorized by political leadership several weeks ago, is expected to provide water to approximately 600,000 residents of Gaza.

■ Senior members of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee began a three-day hunger strike in protest of what they describe as a “war of destruction, starvation, and displacement against the residents of Gaza.”

■ Israel Police announced that it will file indictments against seven members of an arms trafficking network who were involved in selling military-grade weapons to organized crime groups and terrorist organizations in the West Bank.

■ The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said 88 people were killed and 374 were wounded in the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, including 11 who were killed and at least 36 who were wounded while seeking humanitarian aid.

■ Two Israeli soldiers, Capt. Amir Saad and Sgt. Inon Nuriel Vana, were killed on Saturday in Khan Yunis by an explosive device placed on their armored personnel carrier that was detonated, the IDF announced.

■ The IDF announced that daily 10-hour humanitarian pauses would take place in three areas of the Gaza Strip – Mawasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City – from 10:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M., in coordination with the UN and international organizations.

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday Israel would have to make a decision on next steps in Gaza, adding that he did not know what would happen after moves by Israel to pull out of ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations with the Hamas militant group.

President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speak as they meet at the Trump Turnberry golf course in Turnberry, Scotland Sunday, July 27, 2025. (AP/PTI)(AP07_27_2025_000467B)(AP)

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Trump underscored the importance of securing the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, saying they had suddenly “hardened” up on the issue.

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“They don’t want to give them back, and so Israel is going to have to make a decision,” Trump told reporters at the start of a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at his golf property in Turnberry, Scotland.

A Palestinian medic works in the intensive care unit of the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis on July 11. AFP/Getty Images

Medical staff in Gaza are now rationing themselves to one meal every two or three days as they treat patients during a severe aid shortage, according to a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) doctor who recently returned to the US from the enclave.

“The situation is dystopian at best,” Dr. Aqsa Durrani, a pediatrician and epidemiologist, told CNN when asked what she was hearing from her colleagues working at the moment in Gaza.

She said that when she left the enclave three months ago, staff were eating only one meal per day and that she had thought at the time that things couldn’t get worse — but staff were now having to make a single meal last twice or three times as long.

“It’s impossible what we are asking from them,” she said of medical staff who she said are hungry and exhausted. Children have been “crying for food,” she added.

“The things that they are crying about is that they’re hungry, rather than their third degree burns or their amputation,” she said, stressing the need for food to be allowed in at scale.

More than 100 aid groups this week sounded the alarm in a joint statement, and said their own colleagues are suffering from the lack of food aid in Gaza amid Israel’s blockade. Israel has said it will allow aid air drops, something the UN has warned will be expensive and dangerous.

Durrani said one in four young children and pregnant women coming into MSF clinics in Gaza are malnourished and that the “tiny amount of food that air drops will provide in this dangerous and ineffective manner is not going to work.”