White House special envoy Steve Witkoff, left, and Jared Kushner wait for the arrival of President Trump at Teterboro Airport in Teterboro, N.J., on July 13. (AP file photo)

President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said Thursday the U.S. is cutting short Gaza ceasefire talks and bringing home its negotiating team from Qatar for consultations, after the latest response from Hamas “shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.”

The talks have been bogged down over competing demands for ending the war. Hamas says it will only release all hostages in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal and end to the war. Israel says it will not agree to end the war until Hamas gives up power and disarms — a condition the militant group rejects.

As Israel’s blockade and military offensive in Gaza grinds on, four leading news organizations said Thursday that their journalists there are facing the threat of starvation. The joint statement by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Reuters and the BBC called on Israel to allow journalists in and out of Gaza and allow adequate food supplies into the territory.

Israel’s war in Gaza, launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Its count doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says that more than half of the dead are women and children.

Here’s the latest:

5 children starve

Five starving children at a Gaza City hospital were wasting away, and nothing the doctors tried was working. The basic treatments for malnourishment that could save them had run out under Israel’s blockade. The alternatives were ineffective. One after another, the babies and toddlers died over four days.

In greater numbers than ever, children hollowed up by hunger are overwhelming the Patient’s Friends Hospital, the main emergency center for malnourished kids in northern Gaza.

The deaths last weekend also marked a change: the first seen by the center in children who had no pre-existing conditions. Symptoms are getting worse, with children too weak to cry or move, said Dr. Rana Soboh, a nutritionist. In past months, most improved, despite supply shortages, but now patients stay longer and don’t get better, she said.

“There is no uglier and more horrible phase than this,” said Soboh, who works with the U.S.-based aid organization Medglobal, which supports the hospital.

UN supports plea for food

The United Nations backs a call by four major media organizations for Israel to let adequate food supplies into Gaza and allow journalists to enter and exit freely.

U.N. staff in Gaza are hungry too, said deputy spokesman Farhan Haq on Thursday. People are starving “because we’re just not getting in,” he said, and reiterated obstacles imposed by Israel to the delivery of U.N. aid.

“If this does not get better soon and more aid goes through all the various checkpoints, people will die,” Haq said. “We’ve been saying this for months, and now we’re at the point where, in fact, people are dying.”

UK critical of situation

Ahead of an emergency phone call Friday with the leaders of France and Germany, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged Israel to allow aid into Gaza “without delay” and an immediate ceasefire, as well as the unconditional release of hostages held by Hamas.

“We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe,” Starmer said. He said a ceasefire could pave the way toward recognizing Palestinian statehood and a two-state solution.

Britain was one of 28 Western-aligned countries that called this week for an end to the war, the latest sign of Israel’s deepening isolation. Israel and the U.S. have rejected the criticism.