Special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to travel to Europe and possibly Middle East for meetings on issues including the Israel-Hamas conflict.

A senior UN official on Wednesday urged the Security Council to push for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all hostages, warning that the war has become “a nightmare of historic proportions” and it is “long past time” for the fighting to end and for hostages to return home.

We want this ceasefire to happen as soon as possible, and we want these hostages to be released,' says White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt - Anadolu Ajansı

I once again call for an immediate end to the barbarity of this war and for a peaceful resolution to the conflict,” Pope Leo XIV declared, his words resonating through a world which has seen the suffering of Gaza in real time.

President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, planned to head to the Middle East as the U.S. tries once again to reach a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, the State Department's spokesperson said Tuesday.

Says the unfolding hunger crisis, with a third of Gaza’s population going days without food, is a dire warning of “catastrophic levels of food insecurity”.

Pope Leo XIV renewed his call for a ceasefire on Thursday after an apparent Israeli strike hit Gaza's only Catholic church, leaving two dead and several others, including the parish priest, injured.

Hamas is insisting that the U.N. and Palestinian Red Crescent control all the aid running into Gaza, Arab mediators said.

Mediators fumed at Hamas on Wednesday over what they felt was its “unacceptable” response to the latest proposal for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release agreement, a source involved in the mediation effort told The Times of Israel.