Cambodia wants an “immediate ceasefire” with Thailand, the country’s envoy to the United Nations has said, with Bangkok also signalling an openness to talks after two days of deadly clashes that have left 15 dead and thousands displaced.
“Cambodia asked for an immediate ceasefire – unconditionally – and we also call for the peaceful solution of the dispute,” said UN ambassador Chhea Keo, after a closed meeting of the Council attended by Cambodia and Thailand.
A steady thump of artillery strikes could be heard from the Cambodian side of the border on Friday, after a day earlier a long-running border dispute erupted into intense fighting with jets, artillery, tanks and ground troops, prompting the UN security council to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis.
More than 138,000 people have been evacuated from Thailand’s border regions, its health ministry said, reporting 15 fatalities – 14 civilians and a soldier – with a further 46 wounded, including 15 troops.
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Officials in the Cambodian province of Oddar Meanchey reported one civilian – a 70-year-old man – had been killed and five more wounded, but have otherwise not provided further details of any casualties. Cambodian authorities said more than 23,000 people have evacuated from areas near the border.
After the first day of clashes, fighting resumed in three areas around 4am on Friday, the Thai army said, however foreign ministry spokesperson Nikorndej Balankura told AFP that it had begun to ease off by Friday afternoon.
Balankura also said that Bangkok was open to talks, possibly aided by Malaysia.
“We are ready, if Cambodia would like to settle this matter via diplomatic channels, bilaterally, or even through Malaysia, we are ready to do that. But so far we have not had any response,” Nikorndej told AFP, speaking before the UN meeting had been held.
Malaysia currently holds the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) regional bloc, of which Thailand and Cambodia are both members.
Earlier, acting Thai prime minister Phumtham Wechayachai had warned that if the situation escalated, “it could develop into war.”
“For now, it remains limited to clashes,” he told reporters in Bangkok.
People evacuated from border areas gather at Surindra Rajabhat University evacuation centre in Thailand. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
On Thursday, both sides blamed each other for firing first, while Thailand accused Cambodia of targeting civilian infrastructure, including a hospital hit by shells and a petrol station hit by at least one rocket.
At the UN, Cambodia’s envoy questioned Thailand’s assertion that his country, which is smaller and less militarily developed than its neighbour, had initiated the conflict.
“[The Security Council] called for both parties to [show] maximum restraint and resort to a diplomatic solution. That is what we are calling for as well,” said Chhea Keo.
The fighting marks a dramatic escalation in a long-running dispute between the neighbours over their shared 800km border. Dozens of kilometres in several areas are contested and fighting broke out between 2008 and 2011, leaving at least 28 people dead and tens of thousands displaced.
A UN court ruling in 2013 settled the matter for over a decade, but the current crisis erupted in May when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a new clash.
With Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press
• Netanyahu, Trump blame Hamas for ‘breakdown’ of talks • Mediators Qatar and Egypt say such ‘disengagement’ is normal in complex negotiations • European nations demand immediate restoration of aid for Gaza • France defends move to recognise Palestinian state amid US, Israeli criticism
WASHINGTON: Hamas has accused US envoy Steve Witkoff of reneging on Washington’s positions and distorting reality, after Israel and the US appeared to abandon Gaza ceasefire negotiations, both alleging that the Palestinian group did not want a deal.
Sources initially said on Thursday that the Israeli withdrawal was only for consultations and did not necessarily mean the talks had reached a crisis. But subsequent remarks from Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu — who said Tel Aviv was now mulling “alternative” options to bring its prisoners home — suggested Israel’s position had hardened overnight.
“Hamas really didn’t want to make a deal. I think they want to die. And it’s very bad. And it got to be to a point where you’re going to have to finish the job,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim said on Facebook that the talks had been constructive, and criticised Witkoff’s remarks as aimed at exerting pressure on Israel’s behalf.
“What we have presented — with full awareness and understanding of the complexity of the situation — we believe could lead to a deal if the enemy had the will to reach one,” he said.
The proposed ceasefire would suspend fighting for 60 days, allow more aid into Gaza, and free some of the 50 remaining hostages held by militants in return for Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel.
It has been held up by disagreement over how far Israel should withdraw its troops and the future beyond the 60 days if no permanent agreement is reached.
Meanwhile, a joint statement from mediators Qatar and Egypt said there has been some progress in the latest round of ceasefire talks, and that suspending the negotiations to hold consultations before resuming talks is normal in the context of these complex negotiations.
The statement said both countries were pressing on with efforts to mediate talks to end the Gaza war.
European appeal
Meanwhile, the leaders of Britain, France and Germany called for the “humanitarian catastrophe” in the Gaza Strip to “end now”, and asked Israel to “immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and urgently allow the UN and humanitarian NGOs to carry out their work in order to take action against starvation”.
A joint statement from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that “the most basic needs of the civilian population, including access to water and food, must be met without any further delay”.
“Withholding essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable,” they said. “Israel must uphold its obligations under international humanitarian law.”
“We urge all parties to bring an end to the conflict by reaching an immediate ceasefire.”
“We stand ready to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire and a political process that leads to lasting security and peace for Israelis, Palestinians and the entire region,” they said.
France defends move
Also on Friday, France defended its decision to recognise Palestinian statehood amid domestic and international criticism.
President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that his country would formally recognise a Palestinian state during a UN meeting in September, the most powerful European nation to announce such a move.
Macron’s announcement drew condemnation from Israel, which said it “rewards terror”, while US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it “reckless” and said it “only serves Hamas propaganda”.
Hamas itself praised the French initiative, saying it was “a positive step in the right direction toward doing justice to our oppressed Palestinian people”.
• MSF says its clinics receiving overwhelming number of malnourished patients • Healthcare workers also fighting to survive Israel’s ‘policy of starvation’
ROME/GENEVA: The UN’s food aid agency says that around a third of people in Gaza are “not eating for days”, while the world’s main medical charity has warned a quarter of all young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women screened at its clinics in Gaza last week were malnourished.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) blamed Israel’s “policy of starvation”, saying that their deliberate use of starvation as a weapon in Gaza has reached unprecedented levels, with patients and healthcare workers themselves now fighting to survive.
The World Food Programme (WFP), meanwhile, says the food crisis in Gaza has reached “new and astonishing levels of desperation”.
WFP had previously warned of a “critical risk of famine” in war-raged Gaza, over which international condemnation of Israel’s actions has been growing.
“Nearly one person in three is not eating for days. Malnutrition is surging with 90,000 women and children in urgent need of treatment,” a WFP statement said.
It said that 470,000 people are expected to face “catastrophic hunger” — the most critical category under the UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase classification — between May and September this year.“Food aid is the only way for people to access any food as food prices are through the roof,” the WFP said.
“People are dying from lack of humanitarian assistance.”
Aid groups have warned of surging numbers of malnourished children in Gaza, which Israel placed under an aid blockade in March.
Policy of starvation
In a statement, MSF said its staff in the besieged and war-torn Palestinian territory were receiving growing numbers of malnourished patients.
“Across screenings of children aged six months to five years old and pregnant and breastfeeding women at MSF facilities last week, 25 percent were malnourished,” it said.
At the MSF clinic in Gaza City, it said the number of people needing care for malnutrition had quadrupled since mid-May, while “rates of severe malnutrition in children under five have tripled in the last two weeks alone”.
“This is not just hunger,” the organisation said. “It’s deliberate starvation, manufactured by the Israeli authorities.”
Warning that there is now “barely any food available in most of the Strip”, MSF insisted in its statement that “the weaponisation of food to exert pressure on a civilian population must not be normalised”.
“Israeli authorities must allow food and aid supplies into Gaza at scale.” MSF was among more than 100 aid and rights groups who warned this week that “mass starvation” was spreading in Gaza.
Although the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has tried to replace the old UN-backed aid system, the UN has refused to work with it.
More than two million Palestinians in Gaza are facing a starvation crisis, with deaths from malnutrition rising by the day, according to the United Nations.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a group backed by Israel and the US, has been operating in Gaza since late May. It says that it has distributed 91 million meals, primarily in the form of food boxes.
While the BBC has been unable to see these boxes first-hand since Israel has blocked international journalists from entering Gaza, BBC Verify has examined photos and other information shared by the GHF and spoken to aid experts who have raised concerns about their nutritional value.
What’s in the boxes?
Videos have circulated online of Palestinians showing the contents of the boxes, but the GHF has only shared images of them this week.
Two pictures posted on X show mostly dried food items that require water and fuel to cook, including pasta, chickpeas, lentils, and wheat flour. Also included is cooking oil, salt and tahini, or sesame paste.
The GHF has said these boxes also contain some ready-to-eat food, like halva bars – a popular snack made from blending tahini or sesame paste and sugar.
The organisation has provided us with a table of what it describes as a “benchmark” list of items in each box, with a calorie breakdown.
A typical box contains 42,500 calories, and that “each box feeds 5.5 people for 3.5 days”. according to the table.
It occasionally includes substitute items like tea, biscuits, and chocolate, and is also delivering potatoes and onions, but these are not included in the nutritional figures, the GHF has said.
‘Serious weaknesses’
An international aid development professor from the London School of Economics analysed the list provided by the GHF to BBC Verify and said that while it could deliver sufficient calories needed to survive, it had “serious weaknesses”.
“In essence, this basket provides a full stomach but an empty diet,” Prof Stuart Gordon said. “The biggest flaw is what’s missing… This (is) very much a ‘first aid’ food basket, designed to stop the haemorrhaging effect that is acute hunger.”
“A diet like this over weeks would lead to ‘hidden hunger’, increasing the risk of diseases like anaemia and scurvy” he said.
X: cogatonline
The Israeli government has also released images of different items contained in a GHF box
Dr Andrew Seal, an associate professor of international nutrition at the University College London, said the food boxes were deficient in calcium, iron, zinc, and vitamins C, D, B12, and K. He added there was also a lack of foods to suit young children.
“Prolonged consumption of these foods, even if they were made available in adequate amounts, would lead to a range of deficiencies and serious health problems,” he said.
He added that unlike the GHF, agencies like the UN typically distribute food in bulk and supplement it with targeted nutrition for vulnerable groups. The World Food Programme (WFP) has said it also aims to deliver emergency supplies for young children and pregnant women.
The GHF did not respond to BBC Verify’s questions surrounding the advice it received about the nutritional contents of its aid boxes or whether it planned to address concerns raised by experts.
TikTok/@user427554577
Gazans have posted video of the aid boxes they’ve received
For those who manage to get hold of a box, they still need water and fuel to cook the dried goods, despite the water crisis and severe fuel shortage facing Gaza.
The UN’s Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned this week that the water crisis in Gaza was rapidly deteriorating. It also warned that families have had to resort to unsafe and unhealthy cooking methods, such as using waste materials.
The WFP said in May that official supplies of cooking gas stopped and that it was being sold on the black market at prices up to 4,000% higher than pre-conflict levels.
UN Secretary General António Guterres said this week Gazans were facing grave shortages of basic supplies and that malnutrition was “soaring”.
Almost one in three people in Gaza are going days without eating, the UN’s food aid programme has warned.
“Malnutrition is surging with 90,000 women and children in urgent need of treatment,” the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday.
A Thai soldier stands guard in the Surin province on the border with Cambodia
Cambodia has called for an “immediate” ceasefire with Thailand, after two days of cross-border fighting between the two South East Asian neighbours.
Cambodia’s ambassador to the UN, Chhea Keo, said his country asked for a truce “unconditionally”, adding that Phnom Penh also wanted a “peaceful solution of the dispute”.
Thailand has not publicly commented on the ceasefire proposal. It earlier declared martial law in eight districts bordering Cambodia.
At least 16 people have been killed and tens of thousands displaced in both countries, who accuse each other of firing the first shots on Thursday.
Thailand’s acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai on Friday warned that the clashes could “move towards war”.
He said the fighting now included heavy weapons and had spread to 12 locations along the border.
Thailand also accused Cambodia of firing into civilian areas and evacuated all villages deemed to be within the radius of its rockets.
Cambodia, for its part, accused Thailand of using cluster munitions. Cluster munitions are banned in much of the world because of their indiscriminate effect on civilian populations. Thailand has not responded to the allegations.
Meanwhile, Thailand’s foreign minister told the Reuters news agency there was “no need” for third-party mediation in the conflict, even as global leaders appealed for an immediate ceasefire.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who chairs the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), had earlier offered to facilitate talks between the two countries.
The US also called for an “immediate cessation of hostilities, protection of civilians and a peaceful resolution of the conflict”.
Thailand says 14 civilians and one soldier have been killed in the country’s Surin, Ubon Ratchathani and Srisaket provinces, while provincial authorities in Cambodia say at least one civilian was killed.
Thailand says the clashes began with Cambodia’s military deploying drones to conduct surveillance of Thai troops near the border.
Cambodia says Thai soldiers initiated the conflict when they violated a prior agreement by advancing on a Khmer-Hindu temple near the border.
The dispute between the two countries dates back to more than 100 years ago, when the borders of the two nations were drawn after the French occupation of Cambodia.
There have been sporadic clashes over the years which saw soldiers and civilians killed on both sides.
The latest tensions ramped up in May after a Cambodian soldier was killed in a clash, plunging bilateral ties to their lowest point in more than a decade.
Only a few weeks ago, President Donald Trump seemed confident a deal was days away that would end the fighting in Gaza, secure the release of hostages and allow aid to flow into an enclave where people are starving to death.
Now, Trump’s optimism seems to have vanished. The president pulled back his negotiators from ceasefire talks this week after the US deemed Hamas neither “coordinated” nor “acting in good faith.” Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, said he was looking into “alternative options” for getting the hostages out.
And Trump, rather than urging an immediate return to the negotiating table, signaled Friday it was time for Israel to escalate its military campaign, even as images of starving children in Gaza lead to mounting global outrage.
“I think they want to die, and it’s very, very bad,” Trump said of Hamas before leaving for a weekend trip to Scotland. “It got to be to a point where you’re gonna have to finish the job.”
Whether Trump’s shift in posture is a true reflection of the talks breaking down — or, as some Western officials suggested, a tactical step meant to jolt Hamas and break a deadlock — wasn’t clear.
But his words suggested he would do little to pressure Israel to pull back on its 21-month-long military campaign in Gaza, despite a growing humanitarian crisis that led one UN official this week to label Gazans “walking corpses.”
Trump declined to describe his recent conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — whose actions in Gaza and Syria this month have surprised and frustrated him — beyond calling them “sort of disappointing.”
“They’re gonna have to fight and they’re gonna have to clean it up. You’re gonna have to get rid of ‘em,” Trump said of Israel going after Hamas.
It was a stark acknowledgement from the president that his attempts to broker a new ceasefire — which seemed earlier this month in its final stages — had fallen off course. A failure to end the Gaza conflict, along with his parallel struggles to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, have proven frustrating for Trump as he jockeys for a Nobel Peace Prize.
His pessimism did not entirely match other signals emerging from the region. Egypt and Qatar said they would move forward in mediating for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, calling the latest suspension in talks “normal in the context of these complex negotiations,” according to a joint statement posted by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A senior Israeli official told CNN that the talks have “not at all” collapsed, and said there is still an opportunity for the negotiations to resume.
And some US officials said they hoped both the president’s comments Friday, paired with the decision by Witkoff on Thursday to pull back from the ceasefire talks, would push Hamas into a more conciliatory negotiating stance.
Still, the United States’ sudden pull back sent shockwaves Thursday night through Doha, the Qatari capital where the negotiations have been taking place.
“This is an earthquake,” said one source with direct knowledge of the talks. “We’re dealing with the aftershock.”
As has been the case for months, the sticking points in the talks include how and when the war will end permanently, the number of Palestinian prisoners who will be released and where the Israeli military will redeploy in Gaza, according to people familiar with the negotiations.
Speaking to reporters Friday on the South Lawn as his helicopter awaited, Trump blamed the breakdown in talks squarely on Hamas, which he said had seen its leverage diminished after dozens of its hostages were either released or died in custody.
“Now we’re down to the final hostages, and they know what happens after you get the final hostages, and basically, because of that, they really didn’t want to make a deal,” Trump said, echoing a sentiment that one US official said Netanyahu conveyed when he met with Trump for dinner at the White House earlier this month.
Whether Trump’s comments will actually pressure Hamas into agreeing to the existing proposal to end the war remains to be seen, but they did appear designed in part to try to jog Hamas back to the realm of what is achievable.
In the wake of Witkoff’s Thursday statement, the senior Israeli official said Israel hopes Hamas will “reconnect itself to reality” so the remaining gaps can be bridged.
Speaking to CNN on Friday, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce predicted Trump and Witkoff’s efforts would eventually yield results, though she declined to indicate what direction the talks would head next.
“We’ve tried. The world has watched this. What the options are — clearly there are many tools in President Trump’s tool chest, many options that Special Envoy Witkoff has,” Bruce told Kate Bolduan. “So, they are very smart, adept individuals who know the players. And I expect that we’ll have some success.”
Neither Bruce, nor Trump, nor any other administration official seemed willing to place a timeline on when that success might come, perhaps wary after Trump predicted in early July that a deal would be struck within a week.
But as the starvation crisis in Gaza spirals into a humanitarian catastrophe, urgency is growing to complete a deal. During a meeting in Tunis on Friday, Tunisian President Kais Saied presented Trump’s senior Africa adviser Massad Boulos — who is also the father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany — with photos of malnourished children, desperate for food and eating sand.
“It is absolutely unacceptable,” Saied could be heard saying, according to AFP. “It is a crime against all of humanity.”
At the White House, Trump said it was Hamas that was preventing aid from being distributed. And he said the US hadn’t received enough credit for the help it had already provided.
“People don’t know this, and we didn’t certainly get any acknowledgement or thank you, but we contributed $60 million to food and supplies and everything else,” he said. “We hope the money gets there, because you know, that money gets taken. The food gets taken. We’re going to do more, but we gave a lot of money.”
An internal US government review found no evidence of widespread theft by Hamas of US-funded humanitarian aid in Gaza.
Meanwhile, top US allies have adopted a tougher stance on Israel’s military campaign. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whom Trump will meet in Scotland this weekend, on Friday said “Israel’s disproportionate military escalation in Gaza” was “indefensible.”
And French President Emmanuel Macron, in a surprise late night social media post, said France would move to recognize a Palestinian state at September’s United Nations General Assembly, a step that angered Israel and that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called “a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th.”
Trump sounded less troubled by the move, which he instead dismissed as pointless.
“The statement doesn’t carry any weight,” he said. “He’s a very good guy. I like him. But that statement doesn’t carry weight.”
CNN’s Jeremy Diamond and Jennifer Hansler contributed to this story.
Gaza: More deaths reported as starvation spreads UN News
‘Horrors upon horrors’: How US Congress responded to mass hunger in Gaza Al Jazeera
‘I’m so tired’: Mother of starving Gazan baby speaks to BBC BBC
Gaza has been at risk of famine for months, experts say. Here’s why they haven’t declared one PBS
Statement by UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Edouard Beigbeder on the unconscionable deaths of children by starvation in the Gaza Strip Unicef
More than a third of MPs have signed a letter to Sir Keir Starmer calling for the UK to recognise a Palestinian state.
Some 220 MPs from nine political parties have backed the call – more than half of them Labour – arguing that UK recognition would send a “powerful” message and a vital step toward a two-state solution.
The letter piles pressure on the prime minister after France committed to recognising a Palestinian statehood within months.
In an earlier statement after an emergency phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Friedrich Merz, Sir Keir said recognising Palestinian statehood would have to be part of a “wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution”.
In his statement, Sir Keir said: “Alongside our closest allies, I am working on a pathway to peace in the region, focused on the practical solutions that will make a real difference to the lives of those that are suffering in this war.
“That pathway will set out the concrete steps needed to turn the ceasefire so desperately needed, into a lasting peace.
“Recognition of a Palestinian state has to be one of those steps. I am unequivocal about that.
“But it must be part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis.”
On Friday evening, Sir Keir said the government would “pull every lever” to get food and life saving support to Palestinians, and evacuate children “who need urgent medical assistance”.
“This humanitarian catastrophe must end,” he added in a post on X. He also said in a video statement the same day that the UK would play a role in air-dropping aid to Palestinians, following Israel’s acceptance of the plan.
“We are already working urgently with the Jordanian authorities to get British aid on to planes and into Gaza,” he said.
A joint statement from the leaders of UK, France and Germany, following their call does not mention Palestinian statehood.
But it said all three countries “stand ready to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire and a political process that leads to lasting security and peace for Israelis, Palestinians and the entire region”.
The statement is critical of the Israeli government, demanding an end to aid restrictions and warning the “humanitarian catastrophe that we are witnessing in Gaza must end now”.
The statement also stresses Hamas must be disarmed and “have no role in the future of Gaza”.
The letter comes after the UK and 27 other countries condemned the “drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians” seeking food and water in Gaza.
Israel, which controls the entry of all supplies into the Palestinian territory, has repeatedly said that there is no siege and blames Hamas for cases of malnutrition.
Israel’s foreign ministry rejected the countries’ statement, saying it was “disconnected from reality and sends the wrong message to Hamas”.
According to the UN human rights office, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food aid over the past two months.
Israel has said its troops have only fired warning shots and that they do not intentionally shoot civilians.
The letter has been signed by 131 Labour MPs, including senior figures like former minister Liam Byrne and committee chair Ruth Cadbury.
Lib Dem Leader Sir Ed Davey, former Tory minister Kit Malthouse and Conservative Sir Edward Leigh – Parliament’s longest serving MP – have also signed.
SNP, Greens, Plaid Cymru, SDLP and independents were among those who signed the letter.
The letter argued that a Parliament has held a “cross-party consensus for decades” on recognising Palestinian statehood as part of a “two-state solution”.
While recognition alone would not end the suffering in Gaza, “British recognition of Palestine would be particularly powerful” given its history in the region, the MPs say.
Labour MP Sarah Champion, who chairs the international development select committee and who organised the letter, said a two-state solution “remains the only viable proposal to secure a lasting peace for the region”.
“Recognition would send a powerful symbolic message that we support the rights of the Palestinian people, that they are not alone and they need to maintain hope that there is a route that leads to lasting peace and security for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people,” she added.
Last month, about 60 MPs reportedly signed a letter to Foreign Secretary David Lammy, and a motion in Parliament was signed by 110 MPs.
In 2014, the House of Commons passed a non-binding motion calling on the government to recognise a Palestinian state alongside Israel, which was backed by an overwhelming majority of MPs.
Most countries – about 139 in all – formally recognise a Palestinian state, although many European nations and the United States say they will only do so as part of moves towards a long-term resolution to the conflict.
Spain, Ireland and Norway formally took the step last year, hoping to exert diplomatic pressure to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.
At the United Nations (UN), Palestinian representatives have limited rights to participate in UN activity, and the territory is also recognised by various international organisations, including the Arab League.
Sceptics argue recognition would largely be a symbolic gesture unless questions over the leadership and extent of a Palestinian state are addressed first.
