The Roman Catholic church's most senior cleric in the Holy Land said Tuesday that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was "morally unacceptable", after visiting the war-torn Palestinian territory.

"We have seen men holding out in the sun for hours in the hope of a simple meal," Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa told a news conference. "It's morally unacceptable and unjustified," he added.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Tuesday she told her Israeli counterpart that Israel's military "must stop" killing civilians at aid distribution points in Gaza.

"The killing of civilians seeking aid in Gaza is indefensible. I spoke again with Gideon Saar to recall our understanding on aid flow and made clear that IDF must stop killing people at distribution points," Kallas wrote on X.

The ceasefire that ended Iran's 12-day war with Israel has held for nearly a month without incident, but many Iranians remain uneasy, struggling with uncertainty as fears of another confrontation linger.

The World Health Organization said its facilities in Gaza had come under Israeli attack, echoing calls from Western countries for an immediate ceasefire as Israel expanded military operations to the central city of Deir el-Balah.

Britain and 24 Western allies, including Australia, Canada, France and Italy, declared on Monday that the war in Gaza "must end now", arguing that civilians' suffering had "reached new depths".

"We urge the parties and the international community to unite in a common effort to bring this terrible conflict to an end, through an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire," the grouping added in a joint statement.

Libya's eastern authorities recently expelled a senior European delegation in a move analysts say was meant to send a message: the unrecognized administration backed by military leader Khalifa Haftar cannot be ignored.

Gaza's civil defense agency and eyewitnesses reported Israeli shelling in the central city of Deir el-Balah on Monday, after the military warned of imminent action in an area where it had not previously operated.

At the main hospital in south Syria's Sweida city, dozens of bodies are still waiting to be identified as the death count of days of sectarian clashes continues to rise.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said on Monday that it was "receiving desperate messages of starvation" from its Gaza staff, as the Palestinian territory experiences surging levels of hunger.

By Asher Kaufman, University of Notre Dame

(THE CONVERSATION) A fragile ceasefire was put in place in southern Syria on July 19, 2025, after days of violence between Druze militias and Bedouin tribes that drew in government forces and prompted Israeli strikes on the capital, Damascus, as a warning to pull back from Druze areas. The United States helped broker the latest agreement, fearing a spillover of violence to other parts of Syria.