Category: World news

(LONDON) — Israel has resumed “focused ground operations” in the “center of the Gaza Strip” over the past 24 hours, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Israeli forces have also taken control and “re-expanded their control to the center of the Netzarim” corridor — the line that separates northern Gaza from the south — an IDF spokesperson said.

As a part of the terms of the ceasefire deal that went into effect on Jan. 19, Israeli forces agreed to withdraw troops on the ground in Gaza to a buffer zone they carved out along the perimeter of Gaza, and troops remained in the Philadelphi corridor – the 8-mile-long border between Gaza and Egypt.

During phase one of the ceasefire deal, Israel withdrew completely from the Netzarim corridor.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned the residents of Gaza that “the evacuation of the population from the battle zones” in Gaza will “begin again soon,” in a video message in Hebrew on Wednesday.

Katz encouraged Gaza residents to go to “other places in the world for those who wish.”

“Take the advice of the U.S. President. Return the hostages and eliminate Hamas, and other options will open up for you — including going to other places in the world for those who wish,” Katz said.

Last month, President Donald Trump called for the forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, drawing wide international criticism and accusations from allies and the United Nations. He has since said that Palestinians should want to leave voluntarily due to the destruction.

Residents of Gaza are currently unable to leave on their own because the border crossing into Egypt is closed.

Israel’s current plan is to make Gaza unlivable, re-establish those so-called “humanitarian zones,” concentrate Palestinians in those bubbles or islands and from there offer voluntary transfer out of Gaza, retired Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi, a security hawk who continues to advise the military and defense ministry, told ABC News.

Avivi stressed leaving would be voluntary. They would be loaded on buses and sent through the Kerem Shalom crossing either to Ashdod port, or to an airport near Eilat.

Prior to resuming ground operations, an Israeli official told ABC News that its renewed campaign of strikes on the Gaza Strip would continue until all remaining hostages are released.

Palestinian health officials said that at least 436 people have been killed — including more than 130 children, according to UNICEF figures — since Israel renewed its bombardment of the coastal territory overnight Tuesday, marking the collapse of a ceasefire with Hamas that began in January. Another 678 people have been wounded, Palestinian officials said.

On Tuesday, an Israeli official told ABC News of Hamas, “They got hammered last night and they’re going to continue to be hammered until we get the hostages out.”

The official described the Israel Defense Forces’ renewed attacks against Hamas in Gaza as a “different form of negotiating,” and said Israel had “not closed the door” to talks resuming via mediators if Hamas is willing to accept further hostage-prisoner swaps.

An Israeli official told ABC News on Tuesday that the offensive will continue “as long as necessary,” and will “expand beyond air strikes.”

Far-right Israeli Minister Ben Gvir and his party have rejoined Netanyahu’s coalition in the Knesset, after leaving when the ceasefire went into effect earlier this year.

Gvir has extreme views and wants Netanyahu to go even further in Gaza. There is a vote on Israel’s budget at the end of March.

If Netanyahu’s coalition fails to pass that budget, his government falls, according to Israeli law.

Wednesday brought fresh strikes in Gaza. The IDF said it attacked what it called “a Hamas military site in northern Gaza where preparations were being made to fire projectiles at Israeli territory.”

The Israeli navy also “struck several vessels in the coastal area of the Gaza Strip,” which the IDF said were slated for use by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza said Wednesday that one foreign staffer working for the United Nations was killed by an Israeli strike in central Gaza, with five others suffering “severe” injuries. The wounded were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the ministry said.

The IDF denied involvement. “Contrary to reports, the IDF did not strike a UN compound in Deir el Balah,” it said in a statement.

Israel’s renewed campaign in Gaza marked the end of nearly two months of relative quiet in the region, which has been devastated by intense fighting since October 2023. The ceasefire saw 33 Israeli hostages released from Gaza in return for the release of nearly 1,800 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.

Fifty-nine hostages are believed to remain in Gaza — 24 of whom are presumed to be alive. Edan Alexander is the last American-Israeli hostage still thought to be alive.

Several members of Hamas’ administrative and civil wings were killed in the renewed strikes. They included Deputy Minister of the Interior Maj. Gen. Mahmoud Abu Tuffah and Deputy Minister of Justice Omar al-Hatta.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that his country would act against Hamas “with increasing intensity.”

“From now on, negotiations will only take place under fire,” he said in a statement. “Hamas has already felt the presence of our force in the last 24 hours and I want to assure you: This is just the beginning.”

“The military strike on Hamas and the release of our hostages are not contradictory goals — they are goals that are intertwined,” Netanyahu said.

The renewed offensive prompted major protests in Israel, including from the families of those still being held hostage in Gaza.

“The greatest fear of the families, the kidnapped and the citizens of Israel has come true,” the Hostage Families’ Forum said in a statement issued on Tuesday. “The Israeli government has chosen to give up on the kidnapped.”

ABC News’ Guy Davies, Jordana Miller, Diaa Ostaz, Samy Zyara, Dana Savir and Victoria Beaule contributed to this report.

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(PITTSBURGH) — Joshua Riibe, the 22-year-old Minnesota college student who was with University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki the night she went missing on a spring break trip to the Dominican Republic, is trying to get a new passport to return back to the United States, according to his lawyers.

Riibe’s legal team confirmed to ABC News they are trying to get a new U.S. passport for Riibe from the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic.

“The U.S. Embassy is in communication with Mr. Riibe, his family, and his lawyer and is providing all appropriate consular assistance,” the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic told ABC News.

A Dominican judge ruled during a habeus corpus hearing Tuesday that Riibe is free to move without police surveillance around the Dominican Republic, because he is only a witness of an accident, not a suspect. But the judge did not give Riibe his passport back, because he said it was not in his jurisdiction to hand over the passport. The judge did not specify whose jurisdiction it is to give the passport back.

If the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic issues Riibe a new passport, he will be able to use it to leave the country.

Riibe said in court on Tuesday that he is “ready to go home and go back to my life.”

Authorities have said they believe Konancki died by drowning in Punta Cana early on March 6, officials told ABC News.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(LONDON) — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said overnight missile and drone attacks launched by Russia showed that Moscow’s claimed support for a ceasefire in Ukraine is not “real.”

Ukrainian authorities reported airstrikes in several regions of the country, including a drone attack on a hospital in the northeastern city of Sumy. The barrage came hours after Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin agreed to a halt in attacks on energy infrastructure as part of the White House’s peace efforts.

“Now in many regions you can literally hear what Russia really needs,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. “About 40 Shaheds in our sky, air defense is working,” the president added, referring to the Iranian-designed strike drone used by Russia.

“Unfortunately, there are hits, and precisely in civilian infrastructure,” Zelenskyy continued. “It is precisely such night attacks by Russia that destroy our energy, our infrastructure, the normal life of Ukrainians. And the fact that this night was no exception shows that we must continue to put pressure on Russia for the sake of peace.”

Ukraine’s air force reported a total of six missiles and 145 drones fired into the country overnight. Seventy-two drones were shot down, the air force said, with another 56 lost in flight without causing damage. The Sumy, Odesa, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv and Chernihiv regions were affected by the attack, the air force wrote on Telegram.

“Today, Putin actually rejected the proposal for a complete ceasefire,” Zelenskyy said. “It would be right for the world to reject any attempts by Putin to drag out the war in response.”

“Sanctions against Russia. Aid to Ukraine. Strengthening allies in the free world and working towards security guarantees,” the president added. “And only a real cessation by Russia of attacks on civilian infrastructure as evidence of a desire to end this war can bring peace closer.”

Russia’s military claimed to have neutralized seven of its own drones after receiving Putin’s partial ceasefire order. The Defense Ministry said the drones were destroyed while in the air having been aimed at “Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities related to the military-industrial complex” in the Mykolaiv region.

The Kremlin said Tuesday that the call between Trump and Putin was a “detailed and frank exchange of views.” Putin did not agree to the full 30-day ceasefire proposed by the U.S. and Ukraine, the Kremlin statement said, with the Russian leader again framing any pause in the fighting as beneficial to Ukraine’s armed forces.

The two sides did agree to a ceasefire on energy infrastructure attacks, the Kremlin said, after which Putin “immediately gave the relevant order to the Russian troops.”

Hours later, Russian authorities reported a drone attack on an oil depot facility in the southern Krasnodar Krai region’s Kavkazsky district.

“Due to falling debris there was a fire at the oil depot,” the local administration said in a statement posted to Telegram. “The pipeline between the tanks was damaged.”

Local authorities reported no casualties, though added that 30 workers were evacuated from the area and operations suspended.

The region’s Operational Headquarters Telegram channel said the fire at the depot spread to more than 18,000 square feet in size via a leak in a tank. “Emergency services are keeping the situation under control,” it said, noting that “179 people and 54 units of equipment are involved in extinguishing the fire.”

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 57 Ukrainian drones overnight. The ministry said the attack in Krasnodar Krai represented “another provocation specially prepared by the Kyiv regime aimed at disrupting the peace initiatives of the U.S. president.”

The Russian federal air transport agency Rosaviatsia said operations were temporarily suspended at airports in the cities of Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Nizhnekamsk, though did not specify the reason. Flights at Russian airports are regularly disrupted during drone attacks.

The White House said on Tuesday after the call between Trump and Putin that the two leaders “agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace. These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East.”

Trump, in his own social media post later Tuesday, called the hourslong conversation “very good and productive.”

“We agreed to an immediate Ceasefire on all Energy and Infrastructure, with an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a Complete Ceasefire and, ultimately, an END to this very horrible War between Russia and Ukraine,” Trump wrote.

Trump also said securing the 30-day ceasefire sought by Ukraine “would have been tough,” in a released clip of a pre-taped interview on Fox News.

ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler, Oleksiy Pshemyskiy, Tanya Stukalova and Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) —  Israel’s renewed campaign of strikes against Hamas in the Gaza Strip will continue until all remaining hostages are released, an Israeli official told ABC News.

Palestinian health officials said that at least 420 people were killed — including more than 130 children, according to UNICEF figures — when Israel renewed its bombardment of the coastal territory overnight Tuesday, marking the collapse of a ceasefire with Hamas that began in January.

On Tuesday, an Israeli official told ABC News of Hamas, “They got hammered last night and they’re going to continue to be hammered until we get the hostages out.”

The official described the Israel Defense Forces’ renewed attacks against Hamas in Gaza as a “different form of negotiating”, and said Israel had “not closed the door” to talks resuming via mediators if Hamas is willing to accept further hostage-prisoner swaps.

The official did not say whether Israel is planning a renewed ground incursion into Gaza.

An Israeli official told ABC News on Tuesday that the offensive will continue “as long as necessary,” and will “expand beyond air strikes.”

Wednesday brought fresh strikes in Gaza. The IDF said it attacked what it called “a Hamas military site in northern Gaza where preparations were being made to fire projectiles at Israeli territory.”

The Israeli navy also “struck several vessels in the coastal area of the Gaza Strip,” which the IDF said were slated for use by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Israel’s renewed campaign in Gaza marked the end of nearly two months of relative quiet in the region, which has been devastated by intense fighting since October 2023. The ceasefire saw 33 Israeli hostages released from Gaza in return for the release of nearly 1,800 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.

Fifty-nine hostages are believed to remain in Gaza — 24 of whom are presumed to be alive. Edan Alexander is the last American-Israeli hostage still thought to be alive.

Several members of Hamas’ administrative and civil wings were killed in the renewed strikes. They included Deputy Minister of the Interior Maj. Gen. Mahmoud Abu Tuffah and Deputy Minister of Justice Omar Al-Hatta.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that his country would act against Hamas “with increasing intensity.”

“From now on, negotiations will only take place under fire,” he said in a statement. “Hamas has already felt the presence of our force in the last 24 hours and I want to assure you: This is just the beginning.”

“The military strike on Hamas and the release of our hostages are not contradictory goals — they are goals that are intertwined,” Netanyahu said.

The renewed offensive prompted major protests in Israel, including from the families of those still being held hostage in Gaza.

“The greatest fear of the families, the kidnapped and the citizens of Israel has come true,” the Hostage Families’ Forum said in a statement issued on Tuesday. “The Israeli government has chosen to give up on the kidnapped.”

ABC News’ Guy Davies, Jordana Miller, Diaa Ostaz, Samy Zyara and Dana Savir contributed to this report.

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(PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic) — Joshua Riibe, the Minnesota college student who was with University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki the night she went missing on a spring break trip to the Dominican Republic, said in court that he’s “ready to go home and go back to my life.”

The 22-year-old Iowa native — who has not been charged with a crime — said Konanki’s family hugged him and thanked him.

“Her mother gave me a hug and said, ‘Thank you for saving my daughter the first time,”‘ Riibe said in court Tuesday. “It was really tough.”

Riibe’s court appearance was for a habeas corpus hearing that was requested by his lawyers, who believe the 22-year-old is being detained illegally.

Prosecutors claimed in court that Riibe is a witness and is not detained.

Authorities have confiscated Riibe’s passport, and Riibe said in court that police have followed him to meals and watched him eat. Riibe’s attorneys asked to get his passport returned and to get the ability to leave the hotel without surveillance.

“I can’t go anywhere. And I really want to be able to go home, talk to my family, give them hugs, tell them I miss them,” Riibe said. “I understand I’m here to help, but it’s been 10 days and I can’t leave.”

Riibe’s father traveled to the Dominican Republic to support him. When asked by reporters if he would be able to take his son home, he replied, “I don’t even know where he’s at right now.”

“I’m just doing what I can, and at this point there’s nothing more I can do,” Riibe said during his appearance in court.

Following the court appearance on Tuesday, it was determined that Riibe will no longer be under police surveillance. However, Dominican Republic officials are not yet returning his passport.

The judge is expected to rule on the habeas corpus request on March 28.

Authorities have said they believe 20-year-old Konanki died by drowning in Punta Cana early on March 6, officials told ABC News. Her missing persons case is being treated as an accident, sources said.

Riibe — who met Konanki that night — told prosecutors the two went swimming and kissed in the ocean. He said they were then hit by a wave and pulled into the ocean by the tide, according to a transcript provided to ABC News from two Dominican Republic sources.

Riibe said he held Konanki and tried to get them out of the water.

“I was trying to make sure that she could breathe the entire time — that prevented me from breathing the entire time and I took in a lot of water,” he said.

“When I finally touched the sand, I put her in front of me. Then she got up to go get her stuff since the ocean had moved us,” Riibe told the prosecutor. “She was not out of the water since it was up to her knee. She was walking at an angle in the water.”

“The last time I saw her, I asked her if she was OK. I didn’t hear her response because I began to vomit with all the water I had swallowed,” he said. “After vomiting, I looked around and I didn’t see anyone. I thought she had taken her things and left.”

Riibe said he passed out on a beach chair and woke up hours later and returned to his hotel room.

Konanki’s family has sent a formal request to Dominican police requesting they declare their daughter dead, according to two sources with knowledge of the investigation. The parents noted Riibe was cooperating with the investigation and they acknowledged there was no evidence of foul play, the sources said.

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(NEW YORK) — Astronomers have confirmed the existence of four planets orbiting a star less than 6 light-years away with help from some of the world’s most powerful telescopes.

Research published in October 2024 revealed that one planet was rotating around Barnard’s Star, the second-closest single star system to Earth. But a combination of telescopes all over the world confirmed the presence of four small exoplanets, according to a study published last week in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The Gemini Telescope in Hawaii and the Very Large Telescope in Chile were used to detect the additional rocky planets, the astronomers said.

“It’s signaling a breakthrough with the precision of these new instruments from previous generations,” said Ritvik Basant, Ph.D student at the University of Chicago and lead author of the paper, in a statement.

The first planet was detected using a 27-foot diameter telescope at the European Space Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in Chile and a spectrograph that could quickly detect changes in the star’s velocity, according to the 2024 paper, published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Barnard’s Star, a low-mass red dwarf, was discovered in 1916. Since then, astronomers have discovered that at least 70% of all stars in the Milky Way are this type of star, which is why researchers want to know about the types of planets that orbit them, according to the University of Chicago.

“It’s a really exciting find — Barnard’s Star is our cosmic neighbor, and yet we know so little about it,” Basant said.

The planets are 20% to 30% the mass of Earth and make a full orbit around the sun in days, according to the paper. They are likely rocky planets, rather than gas.

Since they are so close to Barnard’s Star, they are likely too hot to sustain life. The researchers ruled out the existence of other planets within the habitable zone of Barnard’s Star.

The planets are difficult to detect because their stars shine so brightly next to them, the researchers said.

Scientists from the Gemini Observatory, National Science Foundation NOIRLab, Heidelberg University and the University of Amsterdam calibrated and analyzed data taken during 112 different nights over three years, where they found “solid evidence” to the existence of the additional planets orbiting Barnard’s Star, according to the paper.

“We observed at different times of night on different days,” Basant said. “They’re in Chile; we’re in Hawaii. Our teams didn’t coordinate with each other at all.”

He added, “That gives us a lot of assurance that these aren’t phantoms in the data.”

 

 

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(PUNTA CANA, DR) — The family of University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki has sent a formal request to Dominican police requesting they declare their daughter dead nearly two weeks after the 20-year-old went missing on a spring break trip in Punta Cana, according to two sources with knowledge of the investigation.

Authorities have said they believe Konanki died by drowning in the early hours of March 6, officials told ABC News.

In the letter, Konanki’s parents said they trust the authorities’ investigation, the sources said.

Her parents added that Joshua Riibe — a Minnesota college student who was swimming in the ocean with Konanki the night she went missing — is cooperating with the investigation and they acknowledge there is no evidence of foul play, the sources said.

The parents said they understand certain legal procedures must be followed for their request, but they are prepared to comply with any necessary formalities or documentation, according to sources.

Meanwhile, the 22-year-old Riibe — who has not been charged with a crime — has been questioned by prosecutors over three days, an official close to the investigation told ABC News.

His lawyers have requested a habeas corpus hearing because they believe he’s being detained illegally and want to prevent him from being placed in custody, a source from the Dominican Republic Ministry of Justice told ABC News.
Authorities have confiscated Riibe’s passport and his attorneys said he’s being surveilled at his hotel.

In the Dominican Republic, people can challenge an unlawful detention through a habeas corpus hearing. Detained individuals are required to be brought before a judge within 48 hours, or they must be either charged or released.

A ruling on the habeas corpus hearing request cannot prevent an order of arrest by Dominican authorities, according to Riibe’s lawyer and a source from the Dominican Republic Ministry of Justice.

Konanki’s missing persons case is being treated as an accident, sources said. Authorities said Riibe is not a suspect and is cooperating and being questioned as a witness.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump will hold a high-stakes call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Tuesday as he tries to win his approval of a 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine.

“It’s a bad situation in Russia, and it’s a bad situation in Ukraine,” Trump said on Monday. “What’s happening in Ukraine is not good, but we’re going to see if we can work a peace agreement, a ceasefire and peace, and I think we’ll be able to do it.”

That positive assessment follows his prediction Sunday night that “we’ll see if we have something to announce — maybe by Tuesday,” saying “a lot of work” had been done over the weekend. “Maybe we can. Maybe we can’t, but I think we have a very good chance.”

The Kremlin on Tuesday said it expects the call within a two-hour window beginning at about 9 a.m. ET. The encounter would be the first known call between Trump and Putin since peace talks between U.S. and Ukrainian officials a week ago in Saudi Arabia yielded Kyiv agreeing to an immediate, temporary stop to hostilities should Russia do the same.

Since then, Putin has been noncommittal on the proposal while fighting intensifies in Kursk.

Putin said he was “for” a ceasefire but raised concerns and set out his own conditions, such as certain security guarantees. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, has accused the Russian leader of obstructing peace and “prolonging” the war.

Trump on Monday said the only reason he was involved in negotiations is “for humanity.”

“A lot of people are being killed over there. And, we had to get Ukraine to do the right thing. It was not an easy situation. You got to see a little glimpse at the Oval Office, but I think they’re doing the right thing right now. And we’re trying to get a peace agreement done. We want to get a ceasefire and then a peace agreement,” he said.

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy will monitor the conversation between Trump and Putin with caution and great interest, a Ukrainian official informed about the matter told ABC News.

“We agreed to the U.S. ceasefire proposal with zero conditions, and if Putin is gonna start playing with Trump setting demands — it will not work,” the source added.

A key question moving forward is how far Trump will go in pressuring Russia to agree to a ceasefire and ultimately bring an end to the three-year conflict, which began when Putin’s forces invaded its sovereign neighbor.

The Trump administration took drastic steps in stopping military aid and pausing some intelligence sharing with Ukraine after the Oval Office clash between Trump and Zelenskyy. Those two tools resumed after Ukraine agreed to the ceasefire last Tuesday.

Plus, U.S. officials have said it would be unrealistic for Ukraine to return to its prewar borders and expressly ruled out its bid for NATO membership.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has not publicly made similar demands of Putin.

Trump on Sunday said land and power plants were on the table for Tuesday’s discussion, as well as “dividing up certain assets” between the two countries.

“Well, I think we’ll be talking about land. It’s a lot of land. It’s a lot different than it was before the wars, you know. And we’ll be talking about land, we’ll be talking about power plants. That’s a big question, but I think we have a lot of it already discussed, very much by both sides,” he told reporters on Air Force One.

Trump last week said his administration could ramp up pressure on Russia but hoped it wouldn’t be “necessary.”

“There are things you could do that wouldn’t be pleasant in a financial sense,” he said. “I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia. I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace.”

ABC News’ Oleksiy Pshemyskiy and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.

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(GAZA CITY) — Israel hit Gaza with a series of “extensive strikes” overnight Tuesday, vowing to open the “gates of hell” because Hamas has not released the remaining hostages.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Israel Defense Forces is targeting Hamas terrorists throughout the region and will act with “increasing military force” against Hamas from now on.

“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Ministry of Health, which is run by Hamas, said in a statement Tuesday that at least 404 people had been killed in the strikes. The human toll in Gaza had risen steadily throughout the morning, the ministry said in a series of updates. At least 562 others were injured, the ministry said.

“Tonight we returned to fighting in Gaza due to Hamas’ refusal to release the hostages and threats to harm IDF soldiers and Israeli communities,” Katz said in a statement.

“If Hamas does not release all the hostages, the gates of hell will open in Gaza,” he added.

The strikes are targeting areas in Gaza including Rafah, Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat, Al-Bureij, Al-Zaytoun, Al-Karama and Beit Hanoun. The IDF’s Arabic spokesperson issued a broad evacuation order covering of the entire perimeter of Gaza. Residents were warned to “evacuate immediately to the known shelters in western Gaza City and those in Khan Younis.”

An Israeli official told ABC News the preemptive offensive will continue “as long as necessary,” and will “expand beyond air strikes.”

The strikes targeted Hamas’ mid-ranking military commanders, leadership officials and infrastructure, the official said.

“⁠The IDF is prepared and spread out in all arenas, both in personnel manning the borders and the Aerial Defence Array,” the official added.

Netanyahu and Katz said the changes to the IDF’s defensive guidelines come after Hamas “rejected all offers” on a conclusive hostage deal with Steve Witkoff, the U.S.’s special envoy to the Middle East.

Hamas said in a statement Tuesday that overturning the ceasefire agreement and the series of strikes put “the prisoners in Gaza at an unknown fate.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an appearance on Fox News that the Trump administration was consulted by Israeli officials on their decision to strike Gaza.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump took to his social media to threaten Hamas with a “last warning” about the remaining hostages.

Trump wrote on Truth Social on March 7 that “it will be OVER” for Hamas if it does not comply.

“I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say,” he added.

Witkoff reiterated the president’s threat at the time, saying, “I wouldn’t test President Trump.”

Fifty-nine hostages are believed to remain in Gaza — 24 of whom are presumed to be alive. Edan Alexander is the last American-Israeli hostage to remain alive in captivity.

ABC News’ Dana Savir and Guy Davies contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are expected to speak on Tuesday as the White House continues its campaign for a ceasefire and eventual peace deal to end Russia’s devastating war on Ukraine.

“It’s a bad situation in Russia, and it’s a bad situation in Ukraine,” Trump said on Monday. “What’s happening in Ukraine is not good, but we’re going to see if we can work a peace agreement, a ceasefire and peace, and I think we’ll be able to do it.”

Since Trump’s return to the White House in January, his new administration has sought to bring an end to Russia’s war by berating and pressuring Kyiv. Trump has repeatedly said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zeleneskyy “does not have the cards” to come out on top of the negotiations.

Meanwhile, Moscow has been offered normalization and hinting at territorial gains and sanctions relief.

Thus far, the carrot has been for Russia and the stick for Ukraine.

There remains only a slight indication of what concessions Trump is seeking from Russia. “When we talk about leverage, it suggests that he wants to use this leverage to get some concessions from Russia,” Oleg Ignatov, the International Crisis Group think tank’s senior Russia analysts, told ABC News.

“But is he really interested in serious concessions from Russia or not?”

Does Trump have ‘the cards’?

The president has hinted at ramping up pressure on the Kremlin if it fails to commit to peace talks. “There are things you could do that wouldn’t be pleasant in a financial sense,” he said last week.

“I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia,” Trump added. “I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace.”

Earlier this month, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “I am strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED.”

The implementation of tariffs — a cornerstone of Trumpian foreign and economic policy — would be only a symbolic measure, given that Russian exports to the U.S. have fallen to their lowest level since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In a possible preview of things to come, the White House has already expanded the unprecedented sanctions campaign kicked off by former President Joe Biden in 2022.

This month, the administration said Russians were among 43 nationalities being considered for travel bans. It also allowed to lapse a sanctions exemption allowing Russian banks to use U.S. payment systems for energy transactions.

Trump may seek to further tighten the screws on Russia’s economy, in which inflation is rising and dollars are increasingly difficult and expensive to access.

“What the U.S. can do is put even more pressure on the Russian financing sector, increasing the sanctions against banks that that basically also have a stake in the oil and gas sector in order to compromise the financial sustainability of the Russian Federation and make it basically unsustainable for Russia to continue the war,” Federico Borsari of the Center for European Policy Analysis think tank told ABC News.

The U.S. may also seek further action to identify and penalize vessels in Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet,” by which Moscow has been able to continue exporting its fossil fuels and avoid sanctions, Borsari added.

Still, Russia has shown an ability to adapt to and skirt sanctions, even if the measures have undermined the national economy. The impact of new sanctions may not be immediate enough to force Putin to the negotiating table, Ignatov said.

Seeking to further curtail Russia’s energy exports or expanding secondary sanctions — meaning measures against those still doing business with sanctioned entities — may also bring the U.S. into conflict with key Russian customers like China and India.

“There is no magic bullet in terms of sanctions,” Ignatov said.

Putin’s hand

Trump has praised Putin’s supposed readiness for peace, instead framing Ukraine and Zelenskyy as the main impediments to a deal. Still, Moscow has shown no sign of downgrading its war goals, which still include the annexation of swaths of its neighbor, the “demilitarization” of Ukraine and its permanent exclusion from NATO.

Putin was non-committal to last week’s U.S.-Ukraine proposal of a 30-day ceasefire. Moscow is “for” the pause, the president said, but framed any pause as a military benefit for Kyiv and said several difficult conditions would need to be fulfilled before the Kremlin would give its full support.

Russia “needs” a pause in the fighting to reform its own shattered military, Pavel Luzin — a Russian political analyst at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy — told ABC News. “But at the same time, Russia does not have desirable conditions on the battlefield.”

“What Russia has been trying to do since the fall of 2022 is defeat a big group of Ukrainian forces as a pre-condition for negotiations about a break,” he added. “Russia wanted to demoralize the Ukrainian leadership and society. After two-and-a-half years, Russia was not successful.”

Ignatov said Moscow’s recent engagement with the Trump administration does suggest an appetite for some kind of deal.

“I think both Russia and the U.S. are looking at this negotiation seriously,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that both sides are thinking about any good deal for Ukraine, but I think that both sides want to finish this conflict.”

The Russians, he added, “want to avoid a direct confrontation with Trump, because they really value this process of normalization. I think what they tried to do is to decouple Ukraine from the normalization of the other issues. Even if they don’t succeed on Ukraine, they want to continue to work on other issues.”

Still, Moscow is “not ready to sacrifice their interests” in Ukraine, Ignatov continued. “They are not ready to make very big concessions — serious concessions, to leave territories or something like this.”

Opportunity, crisis for Ukraine

Trump’s radical pivot away from Ukraine in the opening months of his second term left Kyiv and its other foreign partners reeling. Though the pause to U.S. military aid and intelligence sharing was brief, it rattled leaders and commanders in Kyiv.

“We consider this turbulence to be part of negotiations, which I think was quite often used by Trump in his past when he was in business,” Yehor Cherniev — a member of the Ukrainian Parliament and the chairman of his country’s delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly — told ABC News. “So, we understand.”

Trump’s inherent unpredictability has given Ukrainians hope that his interactions with Putin may not necessarily play in Russia’s favor.

“Trump should say directly: ‘Vladimir, if you don’t agree unconditionally to my proposal then I’ll have to make a deal with a new leader of Russia instead of you,'” Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and the chair of the body’s foreign affairs committee, told ABC News. “If he tried it with Zelenskyy, then why not with Putin?”

A threat to expand American military aid to Ukraine could give such coercion bite, analysts and Ukrainian lawmakers who spoke with ABC News said.

Lifting restrictions on U.S. weapon use inside Russia, requesting more military aid funding from Congress, replenishing supplies of long-range ATACMS missiles and delivering new long-range strike weapons like the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile could all underscore the U.S. demand for Russia to negotiate.

But such steps would run counter to Trump’s repeated statements that the war must end as soon as possible — with or without American involvement.

“I’m not sure if he has any desire to escalate the war, because he’s the ‘peace president,'” Ignatov said, noting that any request for more funding from Congress could also touch off unwelcome domestic political disputes.

“He’s said that if we are not able to succeed, the U.S. will be out of the war,” Ignatov added. “So, it means that he is not going to escalate.”

It remains to be seen if Trump’s ambition for a deal will be enough to overcome the decades-long complexity of Russia’s aggression against its “brotherly nation,” as Putin was still describing Ukraine months into the 2022 full-scale invasion.

“The Russians have quite clearly showed already that they are not ready,” Cherniev said. “Now there are not so many options for Trump’s administration.”

“Trump wants to be a peacemaker,” he added. “If he just leaves these negotiations, that will mean that Putin wins. And I doubt that Trump will allow Putin to win.”

Trump’s turn against Ukraine begun to erode the trust built up by decades of American backing. But for now, at least, some hope remains.

The president “might” ultimately side with Moscow, Merezhko said. “But that goes against American values — Americans and public opinion in the U.S. have always been on the side of the underdogs.”

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