The heads of the European Union's 27 member nations will meet Thursday in Brussels to discuss tougher sanctions on Russia, ways to prevent painful new U.S. tariffs, and how to make their voices heard in the Middle East conflicts.

Most of the leaders will arrive from a brief but intense NATO summit where they pledged a big boost in defense spending, and papered over some of their differences with U.S. President Donald Trump.

The Trump administration has authorized providing $30 million to a U.S.- and Israeli-backed group that is distributing food in Gaza, a U.S. official said Tuesday, an operation that has drawn criticism from other humanitarian organizations.

The request is the first known U.S. government funding for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's aid distribution efforts amid the Israel-Hamas war. The American-led group had applied for the money to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has been dismantled and will soon be absorbed into the State Department as part of the Trump administration's deep cuts of foreign aid.

Iran's nuclear facilities were "badly damaged" in U.S. and Israeli strikes during the 12-day war with Israel, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei told Al Jazeera English on Wednesday.

The whipsaw chain of events involving Iran, Israel and the United States that culminated in a surprise ceasefire has raised many questions about how the Trump administration will approach the Middle East going forward.

Yet, the answer to the bottom line question — "what's next?" — remains unknowable and unpredictable. That is because President Donald Trump has essentially sidelined the traditional U.S. national security apparatus and confined advice and decision-making to a very small group of top aides operating from the White House.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a "very difficult day" Wednesday after seven soldiers were killed in combat in Gaza, where Israel's war against Hamas was in its 21st month.

"It is a very difficult day for the people of Israel," Netanyahu wrote on X.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the ceasefire that ended 12 days of war between ally Israel and Iran was going "very well", while leaked U.S. intelligence cast doubt on the damage caused by U.S. strikes to Tehran's nuclear program.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that "great progress" was being made to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza as a new ceasefire push began more than 20 months since the start of the conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the country "refrained" from further strikes on Iran on Tuesday after he spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump in a call.

Israel accused Iran of violating a fragile ceasefire agreement on Tuesday morning by firing two missiles, with Defense Minister Israel Katz immediately promising "to respond forcefully".

Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli forces killed 25 people waiting for aid in the south of the Palestinian territory in the second such incident on Tuesday, bringing the number of aid seekers killed to 46.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP that 25 people were killed and dozens wounded when "Israeli forces targeted civilian gatherings near Al-Alam and Al-Shakoush areas with bullets and tank shells as they attempted to reach an aid center in northwest Rafah, about two kilometers from a U.S.-backed aid distribution point."

Mediator Qatar’s said Tuesday it was working on resuming Gaza ceasefire talks in days, urging Israel not to exploit a truce with Iran to "unleash everything it wants to unleash" on the blockaded strip.

"We are still continuing our efforts, and God willing, we will try to look for an opportunity during the next two days for having indirect negotiations between the two parties... We hope that the Israeli side will not exploit the ceasefire with Iran to unleash what it wants to unleash on Gaza and continue its bombing of" the strip, said Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani during a joint press conference with his Lebanese counterpart.