Israel will not withdraw from Philadelphi corridor as stipulated in ceasefire
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(LONDON) — Israel will not withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor — the border separating Egypt and Gaza — as stipulated by the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, an Israeli official confirmed to ABC News.
“We will not allow Hamas murderers to once again roam our borders with pickup trucks and guns, and we will not allow them to rebuild strength from smuggling,” an Israeli official said in a statement.
The Philadelphi corridor was one of the main sticking points in negotiations between Israel and Hamas for months before the current ceasefire deal was reached. This refusal could lead to a crisis with both Hamas and Egypt, the key mediator, at a delicate time for the already fragile truce.
Israel was supposed to begin withdrawing from the Philadelphi corridor — and the entire Gaza Strip — on Saturday, the last day of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement. Israel was to complete its withdrawal from the corridor within eight days.
Management of the corridor is a red line for Hamas, which had refused to accept ceasefire proposals that did not require Israel to withdraw its troops from the border region.
Israeli officials have said in recent months that they believed the Israeli army had to stay in the Philadelphi corridor to prevent weapons being smuggled through the Egyptian border, back into Gaza, though Israel has destroyed tunnels in that area.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said at a meeting with local leaders that he had seen tunnels penetrating the border on a recent visit to the corridor.
Former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant had publicly opposed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence that Israel must remain in the corridor — and in the Netzarim corridor, which divides north and south Gaza — to maintain its security and achieve its military goals and maintain its security.
In August, then-Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said holding on to any part of Gaza or the Philadelphi corridor are conditions Israel should not use as an excuse to break a potential deal with Hamas. The Israeli army can deal with both being out of Gaza and giving up control of Philadelphi, according to Halevi.
The first phase of the ceasefire ends on Saturday.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LONDON and ROME) — Pope Francis’s health condition has shown slight improvement in the last 24 hours, according to the Vatican.
The slight renal insufficiency the pope had in recent days has subsided and a Tuesday CAT scan of the chest showed a normal evolution of the pulmonary inflammatory picture.
The blood chemistry and blood cell count tests carried out today have confirmed the pope’s improvement, but he remains on high-flow oxygen therapy and did not have any asthmatic-like respiratory crises.
“Although there has been a slight improvement, the prognosis remains guarded,” the Vatican said Wednesday.
The pope received the Eucharist on Wednesday morning and the afternoon was dedicated to work activities, the Vatican said.
The pope spent another “quiet night” in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, where he has been recovering from a bout with bronchitis since Feb. 14, the Vatican said early Wednesday.
Pope Francis’ condition remains “critical but stable,” Vatican officials said in a brief update on Tuesday.
“There have been no acute respiratory episodes and hemodynamic parameters continue to be stable. In the evening, he underwent a scheduled CT scan for radiological monitoring of the bilateral pneumonia. The prognosis remains uncertain,” the Vatican said Tuesday.
Vatican officials said Sunday he remained in critical condition but officials said that he had shown a “slight improvement” on Monday.
Further updates on the pontiff’s condition are expected on Wednesday.
(WASHINGTON) — International aid organizations are warning that humanitarian efforts in Gaza would be severely impacted if the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is shut down by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk said he was “in the process” of “shutting down” the agency — which oversees foreign aid, disaster relief and international development programs — and that President Donald Trump agreed with him.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday that he had been appointed acting director of USAID, saying the agency is “not functioning” and that it needs to be aligned with U.S. national interests.
Alex Smith, a former contractor for USAID who advised on nutrition, child health and maternal health, told ABC News that the dismantling of the agency could have a major impact on aid in Gaza.
“It’s going to be devastating,” said Smith, who left the agency last year. “You know, countries are already trying to figure out how they’re going to fill the gaps, but they just don’t have the money, and finding new donors could take years.”
Smith noted that the Trump administration said previous federal funding freezes wouldn’t affect emergency food programs, but that the USAID also provides humanitarian assistance on other fronts.
“There’s a lot more than food aid that USAID does. That’s a kind of common misconception — that all we do is just drop off big bucks and food,” he said. “It’s about fighting infectious disease, malaria, TB, HIV all over the world. You know, with the conditions in Gaza as they are, we’ve seen some polio. It’s very likely that cholera is already there and it’s going to get worse. So we used to have a lot of programs to try to combat those specific infectious diseases.”
Jesse Marks, senior advocate for the Middle East at the humanitarian organization Refugees International, told ABC News he’s worried the stoppage of aid from USAID could put the Israel-Hamas ceasefire in jeopardy.
“An aid freeze in general, but particularly for Gaza, threatens to undermine what has already been a fragile ceasefire, and the potential for phase two and phase three release of hostages,” Marks said.
“I think one of the facets of this that people are not necessarily connecting is that the humanitarian access to Gaza — which is underpinned by USAID, State Department funds — was a central feature of the bargain that underpins ceasefire,” he continued. “So, if you remove aid to Gaza, whether directly or as a second-order effect of the aid freeze, this raises the risk of a broader ceasefire collapse.”
USAID has been contributing aid to Gaza and the West Bank since at least 2021, with increased aid after the Israel-Hamas war broke out.
In November 2024, USAID announced it was providing $230 million in additional funding “to support economic recovery and development programs in the West Bank and Gaza.” It has given more than $2.1 billion in humanitarian assistance since Oct. 7, 2023.
The U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs said funding from USAID would allow the agency’s partners to provide food assistance, emergency health care and psychosocial services, and could help with providing access to clean drinking water, hygiene products and sanitation services.
In a statement to ABC News last week, the nonprofit International Medical Corps (IMC) said it had received $68 million from USAID to set up and run two large field hospitals in Gaza so it could treat more than 33,000 civilians per month.
The spokesperson also rejected claims from a U.S. State Department official that IMC had used funding from USAID to procure or distribute condoms.
USAID was partly responsible for renewed international pressure on Israel to increase the flow of aid into Gaza.
In April 2024, USAID Administrator Samantha Power testified before Congress, stating that parts of Gaza were experiencing a famine and that conditions were “as dire as any I have seen in my career.”
Her assessment came after a March 2024 report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification that famine was “imminent” in northern Gaza and the entire population was experiencing high levels of food insecurity.
Later that day, Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters that Israel was constructing a new land crossing from Israel into northern Gaza to facilitate more aid deliveries based on previous promises made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Aid organizations including Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors without Borders, and Oxfam, a group made up of 21 independent NGOs, have called on the U.S. government to halt the shutdown of USAID.
“Dismantling USAID would be a callous, destructive political power play that would have deadly consequences for millions of people living in dire humanitarian emergencies and extreme poverty,” Abby Maxman, Oxfam America president and CEO, said in a statement.
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Shannon Kingston, MaryAlice Parks and Will Steakin contributed to this report.
(SEOUL) — As South Korea’s Constitutional Court began the process of reviewing the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol, the leader of his party, who had supported his impeachment, announced his resignation.
Han Dong Hoon, the leader of Yoon’s People Power Party, resigned Monday morning. He had wavered in his support for Yoon, the embattled president who declared a short-lived martial law earlier this month, but, in the end, announced that the party would support impeaching Yoon last week ahead of the vote this weekend.
Han faced strong backlash from his own party for openly supporting impeachment without consulting senior members of the party enough ahead of his announcement last week. The impeachment bill passed Saturday.
Han said he does “not regret supporting the impeachment,” because the emergency martial law was the wrong decision to make.
Yoon, impeached Saturday and stripped of his presidential powers and duties, briefly declared martial law on Dec. 3.
“Defending illegal martial law is a betrayal of the country, the people, the conservative spirit, and the achievements of our party that achieved industrialization and democratization,” Han said Monday.
The constitutional court has up to six months to decide whether to reinstate or formally oust Yoon. Until then, Yoon’s main constitutional powers have been transferred to Prime Minister Han Duck Soo.
