The EU's 27 leaders called on Thursday for an "immediate humanitarian pause" in Gaza and urged Israel not to launch a major ground offensive in the southernmost city of Rafah.
"The European Council calls for an immediate humanitarian pause leading to a sustainable ceasefire," the leaders said after meeting in Brussels, while also calling for "the unconditional release of all hostages".
The Council "urges the Israeli government not to undertake a ground operation in Rafah, which would worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian situation and prevent the urgently needed provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance", they added in their conclusions.
More than a million Palestinians are "currently seeking safety from the fighting and access to humanitarian assistance there", the leaders noted.
The European Union has struggled for a united response on Israel's military operation following the October 7 attack by Hamas.
There have been mounting warnings of the risk of famine in Gaza, and the leaders called for "full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access into" Gaza.
The leaders were "deeply concerned about the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza and its disproportionate effect on civilians, particularly children, as well as the imminent risk of famine caused by the insufficient entry of aid into Gaza".
The bloodiest-ever Gaza war broke out after Hamas's unprecedented attacks resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Militants also seized about 250 hostages. Israel believes 130 remain in Gaza, including 33 who are presumed dead.
Vowing to eliminate Hamas, Israel has relentlessly pounded Gaza where at least 31,988 people, most of them women and children, have been killed, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory says.
UN Security Council to vote on US resolution
The United States, which has repeatedly blocked calls for a truce in Gaza, will submit a draft resolution urging "an immediate ceasefire" linked to the release of the hostages held by Hamas, the US representative said Thursday.
The US resolution, which will be put to vote on Friday, "will unequivocally support ongoing diplomatic efforts aimed at securing an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as part of a hostage deal," Nate Evans, spokesman for US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said in a statement.
The measure "is an opportunity for the Council to speak with one voice to support the diplomacy happening on the ground and pressure Hamas to accept the deal on the table," Evans added.
The United States, Israel's main backer, has previously used its UN Security Council veto to block the world body from calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.
Since blocking an Algerian draft resolution calling for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire" in Gaza at the end of February, US officials have been negotiating an alternative text focusing on support for diplomatic efforts on the ground for a six-week truce in exchange for the release of hostages.
According to diplomatic sources, this text had little chance of gaining the Council's approval and a new version was circulated to Security Council members on Wednesday.
An alternative draft resolution is also under discussion and could also be put to a vote on Friday, according to a diplomatic source.
Supported by several of the nonpermanent members of the Council, it "demands an immediate humanitarian ceasefire for the month of Ramadan," according to the text seen by AFP.
Ramadan began on March 10 and ends on April 9.
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US lawmakers move to bar funds for UN Palestinian agency
US lawmakers moved Thursday toward prohibiting any further funding for the UN's embattled agency for Palestinians, which Israel has sought to link to Hamas.
President Joe Biden's administration has already suspended funding for UNRWA after Israel alleged that several of its employees participated in the October 7 attack.
But with the United Nations warning of famine in Gaza, the Biden administration had hoped to resume support after an investigation, believing that only UNRWA has the capacity to feed hungry Gazans.
A $1.2 trillion funding package hammered out by lawmakers early Thursday says US government money -- either leftover funds from the current year or in the next fiscal year -- "may not be used for a contribution, grant or other payment" for UNRWA.
Lawmakers released the plan to keep the government running ahead of a deadline of midnight on Friday, when three-quarters of the government will run out of funds if a deal is not reached.
Both the Republican-led House and Democratic-led Senate are expected to approve the plan, which would then be sent to Biden for his signature, despite misgivings by a number of lawmakers about some provisions.
House Speaker Mike Johnson trumpeted the section on UNRWA, saying in a statement that the package "halts funding for the United Nations agency which employed terrorists who participated in the October 7 attacks against Israel."
Representative Ro Khanna, a progressive Democrat, said he would vote no on the legislation, saying it effectively deprived food to starving children.
"The America I believe in must never be indifferent to the man-made starvation of children," Khanna wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Israel has accused 12 of UNRWA's roughly 13,000 Gaza employees of participating in the attack, which prompted the Israeli military campaign, and accused the agency of being a front for Hamas, which controls Gaza.
UNRWA said it fired the employees and is now subject to an independent UN investigation.
Israel has long criticized UNRWA, which stands for the UN Relief and World Agency for Palestinian Refugees.
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It is a major provider of education as well as food to Palestinian refugees, defined as Palestinians who fled or were expelled around the time of Israel's 1948 creation, or their descendants.
This week, Israel barred UNRWA's chief, Philippe Lazzarini, from visiting Gaza, saying he did not go through proper procedures.
The State Department said it provided $121 million to UNRWA in the current fiscal year and that its suspension only affected about $300,000.
Expecting opposition from Republicans to resuming funding, the Biden administration has been reaching out to other countries to make contributions.
Saudi Arabia, which Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited this week, announced Wednesday that it was donating $40 million to UNRWA.
Blinken heads to Israel to press for 'immediate' truce
Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Israel Friday to press for a truce in Gaza, ahead of a key UN Security Council vote on a US draft resolution calling for an "immediate" ceasefire.
Israel's main backer the United States announced it would submit for a vote on Friday a draft to the Security Council on the need for an "immediate ceasefire as part of a hostage deal", after repeatedly using its veto power to block other similarly worded resolutions.
After talks in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Blinken flies to Israel on Friday, his sixth trip to the region since the war began with Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7.
Fighting in Gaza this week has centred around Al-Shifa hospital, the besieged territory's largest, with Israel also vowing to launch a new ground assault in overcrowded Rafah in the south.
Israel said its spy chief would also head back to Qatar on Friday for more truce talks with US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators who are trying to negotiate a six-week pause.
The talks are focused on securing a truce agreement, hinged on the release of hostages held by Hamas militants in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody and the delivery of more aid to Gaza, where famine is threatening its 2.4 million people.
Blinken told reporters in Cairo on Thursday "gaps are narrowing" and that the United States was "continuing to push for an agreement in Doha".
"It's difficult to get there, but I believe it is still possible," Blinken said.
He warned that an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city where around 1.5 million people are hemmed in by the Egyptian border, would be "a mistake".
"There is no place for the civilians amassed in Rafah to get out of harm's way," Blinken said.
"There is a better way to deal with the ongoing threat posed by Hamas."
- 'Immediate, durable ceasefire' -
The United States will submit its draft resolution to the UN Security Council on Friday, a spokesman for the US representative to the world body said.
The US resolution "will unequivocally support ongoing diplomatic efforts aimed at securing an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as part of a hostage deal... we will be bringing this Resolution for a vote on Friday morning," Nate Evans, spokesman for US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said in a statement.
After blocking an Algerian draft resolution calling for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire" in Gaza at the end of February, US officials have been negotiating an alternative text focusing on support for a six-week truce in exchange for the release of hostages.
Israel's relentless bombardment of Gaza has continued despite renewed diplomatic efforts, with the death toll in Gaza close to 32,000, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Israel's military said it had killed more than 140 Hamas fighters and arrested more than 350 since the start of its operation in and around Al-Shifa hospital on Monday.
"This is the operation in which we have apprehended the largest number of terrorists since the start of the war," Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Thursday evening.
Israel said militants were hiding out at the vast hospital complex and civilians had not been harmed. Hamas said the attack on an area crowded with patients and people seeking refuge was a crime.
AFP images showed streams of people fleeing south from the hospital along Gaza's coast.
A 60-year-old patient who gave his name as Younis said he had been forced outside without clothes, blindfolded and interrogated before being freed.
The soldiers "beat all the young men and arrested them", Younis told AFP.
The Israeli military said it was working "to identify unusual cases" involving its troops.
- Children 'starving to death' -
The bloodiest-ever Gaza war broke was triggered by Hamas's unprecedented attack on October 7 that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Militants also seized about 250 hostages. Israel believes 130 remain in Gaza, including 33 who are presumed dead.
Israel has vowed to eliminate Hamas and its response has killed at least 31,988 people, most of them women and children, have been killed, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory says.
Gaza's civilian infrastructure has also largely collapsed and UN agencies are warning the battered territory's population is on the brink of famine.
A UN panel of independent experts said Thursday that children in Gaza were "starving to death".
"They are cut off from food, even crumbs are not easy to find," said the panel that oversees compliance with the UN child rights convention.
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- 'Strong message' -
The head of Israel's Mossad spy agency, David Barnea, was to travel to Doha Friday to meet CIA chief William Burns, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Egypt's intelligence chief Abbas Kamel for further truce talks.
However, a Hamas official said Israel's response to the group's latest proposal had been "largely negative".
Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled to escape fighting elsewhere, is the last urban centre to be so far spared an Israeli ground assault.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted a ground incursion is the only way to root out Hamas despite warnings by Blinken, the European Union, which called on Thursday for an "immediate humanitarian pause" in Gaza, and others.
Tensions have also flared in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli troops and settlers have killed more than 440 Palestinians since the Gaza war began, according to Palestinian officials.
The Saudi government announced this week it would donate $40 million to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which has been central to aid operations in Gaza.
Many of Israel's allies suspended funding for the agency after Israel accused 12 of its 13,000 Gaza staff of taking part in the October 7 attack, although several have since resumed their contributions.