Pope Leo XIV stepped out onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to thunderous applause and an electric atmosphere, to deliver his first Sunday blessing and an address calling for peace in Ukraine and Gaza.

The last time he stood on the same velvet-draped ledge, the fragrant scent of white smoke was still hanging in the air and looks of shock permeated the crowd. Just days ago, the election of a US-born pope seemed almost impossible.

But those gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday knew exactly what to expect – a pontiff who was born in Chicago, shaped in Peru and well-experienced in Vatican leadership.

“Let us take up the invitation that Pope Francis left us in his Message for today: the invitation to welcome and accompany young people,” Leo said Sunday from the balcony, speaking in fluent Italian. “And let us ask our heavenly Father to assist us in living in service to one another.”

“In today’s dramatic scenario of a third world war being fought piecemeal, as Pope Francis said, I too turn to the world’s leaders with an ever timely appeal: never again war!,” he said.

Pope Leo called for peace in Ukraine, as well as a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages. He also called for humanitarian aid to be provided “to the exhausted population” in Gaza.

“I welcomed the announcement of the ceasefire between India and Pakistan and I hope that through negotiations we can reach a lasting agreement,” he added.

He delivered a “message of peace” and led the faithful crowd in the Regina Caeli (“Queen of Heaven”) prayer for the first time, surprising those gathered by singing part of the prayer.

The prayer is one of four Marian antiphons, or prayers to the Virgin Mary, which is said throughout the Easter season.

The city of Rome said 150,000 people were expected to gather in St. Peter’s Square for the prayer and significant law enforcement resources are deployed, but an official estimate of the crowd has yet to be announced.

The square was booming with music ahead of Leo’s address, as hundreds of musicians from around the world marched into St. Peter’s Square for a Jubilee of Bands, playing classic songs from their home countries and even pop songs like Village People’s 1978 hit “YMCA.”

As he finished his address, loud shouts of “viva il papa,” or “long live the pope,” were heard among the tens of thousands of people.

Pope Leo is indicated on Saturday that his papacy will follow closely in the footsteps of the late Pope Francis, setting out a vision for a church led be a missionary focus, courageous dialogue with the contemporary world and “loving care for the least and the rejected.”

Leo is expected to lean in a more progressive way on social issues like migration and poverty but fall more in line with moderates on moral issues of Catholic doctrine.

In his first meeting with cardinals on Saturday, the new pontiff said that he chose his papal name to continue down the path of Pope Leo XIII, who addressed “the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution.” Leo XIII, who was pope from 1878 to 1903, had a strong emphasis on workers’ rights and Catholic social doctrine.

Leo XIV also used his first weekend as pontiff to visit the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, where he prayed at the tomb of Francis.

He also traveled to an Augustinian sanctuary just outside Rome, the Madonna del Buon Consiglio (Mother of Good Counsel), in Genazzano, Italy.

Leo is the first pontiff from the Augustinian order, which places an emphasis on service work and building community. He spent more than a decade leading the Augustinians as the prior general, giving him experience of heading an order spread across the world.

Even larger crowds are expected to fill St. Peter’s Square during Pope Leo’s installation Mass, which will take place on Sunday, May 18.

A fourth round of talks between the US and Iran on Tehran’s nuclear program have begun in Oman, according to Iranian state media, with the two sides aiming to overcome divisions that could scupper the tentative negotiations.

The talks, held indirectly, are the latest between the two countries, and are aimed at addressing Tehran’s nuclear program and lifting sanctions.

The Iranian delegation is led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who said before the talks got underway that the US side “holds contradictory positions which is one of the issues in our negotiations.”

“We have been clear about our boundaries,” Araghchi added, according to the Fars news agency.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been heading the American side, warned that if talks were not productive, “then they won’t continue and we’ll have to take a different route.”

Speaking to Breitbart, Witkoff outlined the US’ expectations for the talks, including on the country’s uranium enrichment program. “An enrichment program can never exist in the state of Iran ever again. That’s our red line. No enrichment,” he said.

Iran has said it will not surrender its capability to enrich uranium. The country has long insisted it does not want a nuclear weapon and that its program is for energy purposes.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Around 160,000 people in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region were warned to stay inside on Saturday after a fire at an industrial estate caused a toxic cloud of chlorine over a wide area, emergency services said.

The blaze at a swimming pool cleaning products company started at 2.20 a.m. local time (8:20 p.m. Friday ET) in Vilanova i la Geltru, a town 48 kilometers (30 miles) south of Barcelona and caused a huge plume of chlorine smoke over the area.

“If you are in the zone that is affected do not leave your home or your place of work,” the Civil Protection service said on social media site X.

No one has been hurt in the fire, Catalan emergency services said on Saturday, but residents in five towns were sent a message on their mobile phones telling them to remain inside.

“It is very difficult for chlorine to catch fire but when it does so it is very hard to put it out,” the owner of the industrial property, Jorge Vinuales Alonso, told local radio station Rac1.

He said the cause of the fire might have been a lithium battery.

Trains which were due to pass through the area were held up, roads were blocked and other events were canceled.

The fire was under control, Civil Protection spokesperson Joan Ramon Cabello told the TVE television channel.

The leaders of Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Poland have arrived in Kyiv for meetings with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, a symbol of a united European position to publicly pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Friedrich Merz, the new German Chancellor, French President Emmanuel Macron, Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk arrived together Saturday morning at Kyiv’s main railway station, where they were met by Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak.

The meetings are a sign of a renewed diplomatic urgency aimed at achieving a ceasefire in the war between Russia and Ukraine, which is grinding on despite US efforts to broker peace.

“There is much work to be done and many issues to discuss. This war must be ended with a just peace. Moscow must be forced to agree to a ceasefire,” Yermak wrote on his Telegram channel.

The first stop for the European leaders was Kyiv’s Independence Square where they stood to honor fallen Ukrainian soldiers.

Ukraine, supported by the Europeans, has been calling for an immediate unconditional 30-day ceasefire, something that US President Donald Trump is also demanding.

Russia has so far refused to commit, saying it supports the idea of a 30-day ceasefire in principle but insists there are what it calls “nuances” that need addressing first.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in an interview with ABC News on Saturday suggested that one of these “nuances” was putting a halt to the supply of US and European weapons to Ukraine.

Putin has often spoken about the need to address what he calls “root causes” – which are taken to mean, among others, the eastward expansion of NATO.

In a Truth Social post on Thursday, Trump wrote that “if the ceasefire is not respected, the US and its partners will impose further sanctions,” adding to a sense he is growing frustrated with Russian stalling.

The inauguration of Trump in January ushered in a complete change in the US’ diplomatic focus on the war, with Ukraine and key allies fearful of a significant tilt in US policy towards Moscow.

European leaders have convened a series of meetings in response, aimed both at showing the US that Europe can do more to support Ukraine militarily, as well as providing a single voice urging the US president not to take Russia’s side in the war.

“A just and lasting peace begins with a full and unconditional ceasefire. That is the proposal we are advancing with the United States,” French President Macron wrote on his X account Saturday morning.

“Ukraine accepted [the ceasefire proposal] on March 11. Russia, however, delays, sets preconditions, plays for time, and continues its war of invasion. If Moscow continues to obstruct, we will step up the pressure—together, as Europeans and in close coordination with the United States. We welcome President Trump’s call to move forward in this direction,” Macron added.

Two men have been found guilty of criminal damage for felling a landmark sycamore tree in northern England.

Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, were each found guilty of two counts of criminal damage, one relating to the tree and the other to Hadrian’s Wall that the tree fell on, according to the UK’s PA Media news agency on Friday.

The verdict was handed down following a trial at Newcastle Crown Court in northeast England. Both men will be sentenced on July 15.

The tree had stood sentinel on Britain’s Roman-built Hadrian’s Wall for more than 200 years before being “deliberately felled” in September 2023 in what authorities at the time called an “act of vandalism.”

The sycamore tree, located in the Northumberland National Park in northern England, was made famous to millions around the world when it appeared in Kevin Costner’s 1991 blockbuster movie “Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.”

The tree – at a spot known as “Sycamore Gap” – was located on the historic UNESCO World Heritage listed Hadrian’s Wall, which was constructed around 1,900 years ago to guard the furthest northwestern frontier of the Roman Empire.

During the trial, prosecutor Richard Wright KC said the felling was an act of “mindless vandalism.” He detailed how the two men drove 30 miles (48 kilometers) at night to reach the tree before one cut it down while the other filmed it.

The jury determined Graham and Carruthers caused £622,191 (about $826,000) of criminal damage to the tree and £1,144 ($1,500) of damage to Hadrian’s Wall, according to PA Media.

Jurors heard how the two men sometimes worked together and had experience of cutting down large trees. Although originally the “best of pals,” the two defendants now appear to have fallen out and their friendship has “unravelled,” the court was told.

During testimony, Graham told the court that Carruthers had told him that the tree “was the most famous tree in the world” and had spoken about cutting it down, reports PA Media.

For the first time in history, the majority of humans live in cities — spaces often defined by concrete, glass and a disconnect from the natural world. Access to nature is no longer guaranteed.

In 2020, Miles founded Nature Is a Human Right, a campaign advocating for daily access to green spaces to be recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Frustrated by the slow pace of institutional change, Miles says she “lost faith in the top-down process.” So she took matters into her own hands. Her weapon? Not protest banners or petitions, but seeds and shovels.

She became a so-called guerrilla gardener — “Grassroots planting in a public place, with a purpose,” Miles explains. “Think of it like graffiti, but with wildflowers instead of spray paint.” This form of urban activism involves transforming neglected or overlooked spaces — cracks in pavements, roadside verges, abandoned lots — into mini-oases for people, pollinators and biodiversity.

What began during the Covid pandemic — when parks were shut and access to green space became scarce — grew into a weekly ritual. Miles and her neighbors would meet on Sunday mornings, armed with bulbs and trowels, planting in overlooked corners of the London Borough of Hackney.

Guerrilla gardening

In the UK, guerrilla gardening occupies a legal gray area: while planting on public land without permission is not technically lawful, authorities often turn a blind eye — so long as it doesn’t cause damage, obstruction or a public nuisance.

According to the Royal Horticultural Society, guerrilla gardeners should ensure their planting doesn’t inconvenience others and be careful to not restrict public access or create trip hazards. It’s also important that anything planted is removable, and that the roots won’t cause structural damage to sidewalks and buildings.

Guerrilla gardening dates back to the 1970s, when the Green Guerrillas, founded by Liz Christy in the US, transformed vacant lots into community gardens. The movement has since spread worldwide, from Ron Finley, the “Gangsta Gardener” in Los Angeles, to Ta Mère Nature in France, and the Ujamaa Guerrilla Gardening Collective in South Africa.

Miles has brought the underground movement into the spotlight on TikTok and other social media. Her upbeat videos demystify the process, showing everything from creating seed bombs to planting moss graffiti — a form of street art where living moss is used to create patterns or words on walls. “I wasn’t a gardener. I was learning as I went along,” she admits. “But I just wanted the streets to be greener.”

As Miles’ seeds grew, so did her online following. “Young people today are very awake to issues like climate change, inequality, and mental health,” Miles says. “Guerrilla gardening intersects with all of that. It’s something you can do with your own two hands and see the impact immediately.”

“A lot of activism can feel intangible,” she adds. “With guerrilla gardening, you see the results. It’s empowering.”

And it’s more than just symbolic: “It’s been shown that having access to green spaces is as vital to your mental and physical health as regular exercise and a healthy diet,” says Miles. “We need it around us. We need the phytoncides (compounds plants release into the air) that plants produce. The experience of having plants around us calms us.”

A study of 20,000 participants by the UK’s University of Exeter found that people who spent at least 120 minutes a week in green spaces reported significantly better physical health and psychological well-being than those who didn’t. For young children, access to green spaces has been linked to reduced hyperactivity and improved attention spans. Communities can benefit too: a US study showed that greening vacant lots can lead to lower crime rates.

Miles’ message is simple: anyone can get involved. “It’s spring now,” she continues. “Find native wildflowers, scatter them when it’s raining then you won’t even have to water them.” For those who want to go further, Miles has written a book on the subject and teaches a free four-week online course through the nonprofit Earthed, which has attracted over 300 participants. She advises gardening as a group — community is key.

Her vision is bold but refreshingly practical: “Why aren’t all our sidewalks lined with hedges?” says Miles. “Our buildings could be covered in plants. Our rooftops and bus stops could be buzzing with flowers. It’s a no-brainer.”

This week’s clashes between Pakistan and India are the most serious escalation in tensions between these two historic foes in decades with millions on both sides of their border now wondering what might come next.

Despite a vow to “avenge” India’s strikes on its territory, Pakistan has yet to retaliate in kind on India, and both sides appear to have already claimed victory. But hostilities continue.

Palpable panic rocked both nations Wednesday after New Delhi launched targeted military strikes on its neighbor, while Islamabad claimed it had shot down its rival’s fighter jets.

The fear is that each additional confrontational step by either side could quickly spiral into an all out conflict.

Indian media was euphoric after Wednesday’s strikes. “Strokes of justice,” ran an editorial from one of India’s leading English newspapers commending the country’s “sharp” and “resolute” response to the massacre of 26 people in Indian-administered Kashmir, at the hands of militants. A headline from The Indian Express echoed a similar tune: “Justice Served” it said across the front page.

In Pakistan, the public response from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was similarly bellicose.

He has vowed to “avenge” the deaths of 31 people Pakistan says were killed in India’s strikes but still appeared to declare triumph for its apparent shooting of India’s airplanes.

“It only took a few hours for the enemy to fall on its knees,” he said in a late-night address to the nation.

India says it struck “terrorist infrastructure” belonging to two Islamist groups – Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed – who have been accused of being behind some the deadliest militant attacks on the country. Wednesday’s strikes did not target military infrastructure and didn’t kill civilians, New Delhi said, potentially giving India and Pakistan an opportunity to find a way to avoid an all-out war.

One location India struck was deep in Pakistan’s Punjab province, the deepest attack in Pakistan’s undisputed territory since both countries fought a major war in 1971. It also targeted multiple other locations in Punjab – the heartland of the powerful military and home of the Sharif government – and hit a mosque, according to Pakistani officials, angering millions in the Muslim-majority nation.

What happens now, analysts say, mostly depends on Islamabad’s next move.

“All eyes are on Pakistan,” said Washington-based South Asia analyst, Michael Kugelman. “If it decides to save face and claim victory — perhaps by pointing to the downing of Indian jets (which New Delhi has not confirmed) — and call it a day, an off ramp could be in sight.”

But he warned “all bets would be off” should Pakistan decide to strike back.

‘Something to lose’

Most analysts agree the nuclear-armed neighbors cannot afford another battle.

India and Pakistan have already fought three wars over Kashmir, a contested region they both claim in its entirety and each control a part of. Another conflict could have catastrophic consequences.

Since its birth seven decades ago in the partition of what was British India, Pakistan – now home to 230 million people – has faced mounting challenges, from political instability to an alarming militant insurgency, climate catastrophes and economic disarray.

India is seemingly in a stronger position; its military is seen as superior in any conventional conflict based on number alone and it boasts an economy more than 10 times the size of Pakistan’s. But it too would have something to lose should the conflict escalate, according to Tanvi Madan, a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution.

“Largely on the basis of what we’ve seen in previous times, these are two rational actors who don’t want a broader war,” Madan said.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to elevate India’s status on the global stage, bidding to host the Olympics and seeking to overtake China as the world’s manufacturing hub.

Not to mention, India already faces security threats on multiple fronts — particularly along contested borders with China.

De-escalation or more to come?

India was quick to project that its response to the April 22 massacre was “focused, measured and non-escalatory” and make clear that they were in response to the tourist’s massacre.

Top officials in New Delhi reached out to key counterparts in the United States, Middle East and Russia, among others, “presumably to encourage international pressure for Pakistan to avoid escalation,” said Nisha Biswal, Senior Advisor at The Asia Group.

Pakistan’s leaders touted a victory by the country’s air force, saying five Indian fighter jets were shot down during an hour-long battle fought at ranges over 160 kilometers (100 miles).

India’s leaders have said little in response to those claims and have not acknowledged any aircraft losses. The Pakistanis have yet to show any evidence proving they downed fighter jets, but a French Defense Ministry source said at least one of India’s newest and most-advanced warplanes – a French-made Rafale fighter jet – was lost in the battle.

If there have indeed been losses for India, Pakistan could claim victory “even if the circumstances are murky,” said Milan Vaishnav, a senior fellow and director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“This would allow Pakistan to claim it has imposed costs on Indian military targets.”

Yet, amid the fog of war, Pakistan’s powerful army general Asim Munir had already vowed to match any aggression from India.

And Munir, who is known for his hardline stance on Hindu-nationalist Modi, has a reputation of being more assertive than his predecessor Qamar Javed Bajwa.

Meanwhile there have been many voices within Modi’s Hindu nationalist party pushing for a decisive blow against Pakistan for years.

Kugelman, the South Asia analyst, said the US, which has historically interceded in these crises, could try to defuse the tension, but it’s unclear how much bandwidth the Trump administration is willing to allocate.

“China has called for de-escalation, but its fraught ties with India rule it out as a viable intermediary. The top mediator candidates are the Arab Gulf states, especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates,” he said, given their strong ties with both nations.

Qatar was quick to urge diplomacy in the hours after Wednesday’s strikes.

While most analysts think there is an off-ramp for both nations, they all agree the situation remains fluid and tense.

“This crisis is as unpredictable as it is dangerous—an unsettling combination,” Kugelman added.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping hailed Russia and China’s “stable and resilient” ties as he began talks with counterpart Vladimir Putin on Thursday in Moscow, a show of solidarity in the face of global uncertainties unleashed by US President Donald Trump’s “America First” diplomacy.

Sitting across a table from Putin, Xi said the countries’ “political mutual trust has grown deeper” and “practical cooperation has strengthened.”

“In this new era, China-Russia relations are more composed and confident, stable and resilient,” he added.

Xi arrived Wednesday for a four-day state visit to Russia, where he’ll top a list of foreign leaders attending Putin’s heavily choreographed Victory Day military parade, which is taking place in the shadow of Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine. This year’s events mark 80 years since the Allied victory over Nazi Germany, which ended World War II.

Putin welcomed his Chinese counterpart to the Kremlin, where they shook hands in a cavernous hall before posing for photos flanked by oversized Chinese and Russian flags. During opening remarks, each referred to the other as a “friend.”

Talks held over breakfast, as well as an informal, one-on-one tea on Thursday morning, are expected to cover their strategic partnership, the war in Ukraine and Russia’s relations with the United States, according to the Kremlin.

The two leaders have met more than 40 times over the past decade and steadily strengthened their partnership in recent years in the face of shared tensions with the West. Their diplomacy this week comes at a pivotal moment in each country’s relations with the United States.

China is now locked in an escalated trade war with Washington, sparked by Trump’s heavy tariffs on the world’s second-largest economy. Moscow, meanwhile, has found a more sympathetic America under Trump than it did during Joe Biden’s presidency, but is now warily eying recently warming ties between Washington and Kyiv.

Both Beijing and Moscow have appeared keen to use the gathering to showcase themselves as stable partners and reliable powers, part of a broader bid to reshape an international order they see unfairly dominated by the West.

“Currently, in the face of an international countercurrent of unilateralism and the hegemonic practices of the powerful, China together with Russia will take on our special responsibilities as major world powers and permanent members of the UN Security Council,” Xi said during his opening remarks, using language Beijing typically employs in veiled references to the US.

Putin noted that the two countries were developing their “ties for the benefit of the peoples of both countries and not against anyone” and said the two governments were working to implement “an entire array of practical agreements, including a detailed plan for economic cooperation until 2030.”

Ukraine war hangs over Putin’s military parade

The meeting takes place hours after a three-day ceasefire in Ukraine — unilaterally declared by Putin last month — came into effect, coinciding with the parade. Russian state news agency Tass said the ceasefire began at midnight local time on Wednesday (5 p.m. ET Wednesday).

Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned dignitaries traveling to the event that Kyiv “cannot be responsible for what happens on the territory of the Russian Federation,” amid the ongoing conflict, a statement the Kremlin said amounted to a threat.

Ukraine has launched multiple drone attacks on Moscow over the course of the war, including in recent days, prompting temporary closures of airports in the capital for several hours. Ukraine says its attacks are in response to Russia’s continued assault on Ukrainian territory, including residential areas and energy infrastructure.

More than two dozen leaders are expected to gather in the Russian capital for the Victory Day celebrations, while troops from 13 countries will march in the parade, according to the Kremlin. Leaders expected to attend include Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Belarussian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko.

The gathering, a key chance for Putin to project himself as a global power player, takes place amid an increasingly contentious global backdrop, including tensions between India and Pakistan which threaten to spiral into a full-blown conflict.

Russia’s May 9 Victory Day is one of the country’s largest celebrations. It marks Nazi Germany’s 1945 surrender to the Soviet Union, a day which has become increasingly important under Putin, who has falsely claimed his war in Ukraine is a “denazification.” In recent years the parade has seen a diminished supply of military hardware, as Russian tanks are instead mobilized on that war’s front lines.

Europe celebrates its VE Day, marking Germany’s surrender on all fronts, on Thursday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kept up appearances for nearly 19 months: Freeing the hostages and defeating Hamas, he insisted, stood equally atop the pyramid of Israel’s war goals.

Even as members of his right-wing governing coalition threatened to topple his government if he agreed to a ceasefire and hostage release deal. Even as he himself threw up eleventh-hour obstacles to reaching such a deal. And even as evidence mounted that Israel’s military operations had both directly and indirectly led to the killing of Israeli hostages. Amid all those contradictions, Netanyahu insisted both objectives were just as important.

But not anymore. Now, Netanyahu is unabashedly prioritizing war – and the survival of his government – over the fate of 59 hostages still in Gaza and the will of most Israelis.

A week after calling the defeat of Israel’s enemies the “supreme objective” of the war, Netanyahu is turning that rhetoric into action: calling up tens of thousands of reservists to pummel, seize and occupy large swaths of Gaza – what the prime minister calls the “final moves” against Hamas.

Israeli officials say the plan won’t be implemented immediately, giving Hamas at least another week-and-a-half to agree to another limited hostage and ceasefire deal on Israel’s terms – with some insisting that is the government’s preference. The deadline, they say, is the conclusion of US President Donald Trump’s visit to the region next week. But such a deal is unlikely to materialize in that timeframe and these are no longer idle threats.

The right-wing ministers who have sabotaged previous ceasefire deals and long called for conquering Gaza are now celebrating, viewing the newly approved plans as the first step toward their vision of occupying and ultimately annexing the enclave. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich now vows that there will be “no retreat from the territories we have conquered, not even in exchange for the hostages.”

For Netanyahu, that means political security – taking Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s repeated threats to leave the government and force new elections off the table, keeping him in the prime minister’s office.

It also means going against the will of a clear majority of Israelis – 56% according to Israel’s Kan 11 and 69% according to Channel 12 – who support a deal to end the war in exchange for the release of all remaining hostages.

Hamas has repeatedly said it is open to such an all-in-one deal, hoping to salvage its position of power in Gaza, but the Israeli government has rejected any end to the war that leaves the group armed and governing the strip.

For the families of Israeli hostages, Netanyahu’s decision has been a gut punch, one they fear won’t just delay the return of their loved ones but actively endanger them.

“It seems the government has placed defeating Hamas above rescuing and returning the hostages, because doing so would require stopping the war,” Anat Angrest, the mother of captive Israeli soldier Matan Angrest, told Haaretz. “Ministers are sending soldiers into harm’s way and putting the hostages at further risk, when all that was needed was a pause to develop a real strategic plan. What’s happening now is a war fueled by revenge and conquest, not by a genuine desire to save lives.”

“It doesn’t reflect the will of the people, or the Jewish heart,” she said.

The expanded Israeli assault in Gaza won’t just bring the risk to the hostages of more Israeli bombs. Hamas has repeatedly said it will execute hostages if Israeli forces close in on their positions, a threat it carried out last August in murdering six of them. Israel’s plan to displace nearly all of Gaza’s population to its southern part while continuing to starve the rest of the strip of humanitarian aid could also endanger the hostages’ access to the already limited food they are given.

For the people of Gaza, Netanyahu’s decision threatens catastrophe beyond the dire humanitarian crisis already gripping the besieged territory. The expanded Israeli assault guarantees another mass forced displacement of Palestinians, more death and destruction and the continued use of starvation as a weapon of war.

Even as Netanyahu’s decision to prioritize destroying Hamas over the fate of the remaining hostages becomes clear, the Israeli military’s ability to achieve its aims vis-à-vis the group remain uncertain.

The factors that have allowed Hamas to survive and stay in power in Gaza after nearly 19 months of war still remain, and Israeli national security analysts remain skeptical that tens of thousands of additional troops will fundamentally change the dynamics of the conflict. Sending them with the goal of occupying large swaths of Gaza could drive up Israeli military casualties, with the risk of bogging the military down for years in a counterinsurgency morass.

Perhaps that is why Netanyahu did not barrel headfirst down the path he has now chosen.

Trump’s return to power allowed Netanyahu to shed the guardrails imposed on him by President Joe Biden during the first 15 months of the war. But even as Trump and his administration made clear they would not seek to constrain Israel’s military actions in Gaza, Netanyahu did not immediately pursue the expanded war his right-wing allies have been clamoring for.

But in a fulcrum moment, he has now chosen – a decision that will shake the Gaza Strip, forever altering the fate of more than 2 million Palestinians and 59 hostages.

Families of October 7 hostages held in Gaza demanded any new information from the Israeli government after US President Donald Trump said three more captives had died.

“As of today, it’s 21. Three have died. So, this is a terrible situation,” Trump said on Tuesday.

The remark was a shock to the families of the hostages.

“We demand once again from the Israeli government – if there is new information that has been hidden from us, pass it on to us immediately,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said on Wednesday.

“The headquarters once again calls on the Prime Minister to stop the war until the last abductee is returned. This is the most urgent and important national task.”

Israel’s public and official position, reiterated on Tuesday by Israel’s Coordinator for the Captives and the Missing Gal Hirsch, is that 24 hostages are alive. “The Hamas terror organization is currently holding 59 hostages,” Hirsch said on social media several hours after Trump’s comments. “24 of them are on the list of living hostages.”

But there have been clear indications that Israel has reason to believe the true number is fewer, even beyond Trump’s comments.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a video statement in which he made the clearest acknowledgement, yet that Israel believes not all 24 are alive.

“We know for certain that there are 21 alive. There’s no argument about this. There’s three where there is doubt about whether they are alive,” he said in the prerecorded video. “We’re not giving up on anyone.”

Earlier this week, Netanyahu approved an expansion of the war in Gaza and a plan to force the Palestinian population into a shrinking tract of land in the southern part of the besieged territory. Israel says its military operations are intended to put pressure on Hamas to make a ceasefire agreement, but prospects for an imminent deal are quickly dwindling, and with them the hope of bringing the remaining hostages out soon.

Even before the latest video statement, Netanyahu has recently been careful to say that “up to 24” hostages are being held alive in Gaza.

Last week, when Netanyahu said there were “up to 24” living, his wife, Sara, interrupted him and said: “Fewer.”

The open mic moment sparked its own outcry from the families of the hostages. “If the wife of the prime minister has new information about the kidnapped who were killed, I demand from her to know if my Matan is still alive, or if he was murdered in captivity because your husband refuses to finish the war,” Einav Zangauker, the mother of one of the hostages, said on social media.

Israeli officials have said there are “grave concerns” about three of the hostages but would not say whether Israel knows for certain that they are dead.

Trump’s comments strongly suggest otherwise and appear to indicate that Israel has shared sensitive information about the condition of the hostages with the Trump administration.

More than 250 people were taken hostage when Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 – sparking the ongoing war in Gaza.