CAIRO (AP) — The United States and the United Nations are seeking to rally international support for humanitarian aid to war-ravaged Sudan, kicking off a new Sudan Humanitarian Fund with $700 million in contributions from the United Arab Emirates and the U.S.
The Trump administration said Tuesday that it would contribute $200 million to the initiative from a basket of $2 billion it set aside late last year to fund humanitarian projects around the world. The UAE said it would contribute $500 million. Saudi Arabia and several other participants promised they would make pledges but did not specify amounts.
“Today we are signaling that the international community will work together to bring this suffering to an end, and to ensure lifesaving aid reaches communities in such desperate, desperate need,” said U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, who heads the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA. Fletcher co-hosted the fundraising event in Washington on Tuesday with U.S. senior adviser for Arab and African affairs Massad Boulos.
Fletcher said they have set the beginning of Ramadan, on February 17, as a date “to make visible progress on this work.”
Boulos said the U.S. has put forward a “comprehensive proposal” for a humanitarian truce that could be agreed on in the next few weeks.
Sudan has been in the throes of war since 2023, with the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary force and the Sudanese military clashing for power over the country. The U.N. estimates that over 40,000 people have been killed in the war, but consider that the true number could be many times higher.
The conflict created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with over 14 million people forced to flee their homes and with famine declared in several regions of Sudan.
Fighting has concentrated in the Kordofan regions recently after the RSF took over el-Fasher, one of the army's last strongholds in the Darfur region. But the military has since been making gains in Kordofan by breaking a siege in Kadugli and the neighboring town of Dilling. On Tuesday, the Sudanese military announced that it had opened a crucial road between Kadugli and Dilling.
Kadugli was under siege by the RSF since the start of the war, and famine was declared there by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification in November.
The RSF launched a drone attack Tuesday that hit a medical center in Kadugli, killing 15 people including seven children, according to Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the war.
FILE - Massad Boulos, senior advisor to President Donald Trump, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at the United States' embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli fire in Gaza killed at least 17 Palestinians, most of them women and children, hospital officials said Wednesday. Israel said its strikes came after militants fired on its soldiers, seriously wounding one.
Seven women and five children were killed, hospital officials said, including a 5-month-old and a baby just 10 days old. They are the latest Palestinians in Gaza to die since a ceasefire deal, which has been punctuated by deadly Israeli strikes, came into effect on Oct. 10, 2025. More than 530 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli in that time, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
“The genocidal war against our people in the Gaza Strip continues,” said Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya, director of Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, in a Facebook post. “Where is the ceasefire? Where are the mediators?”
The attacks and the escalating death toll have rocked the U.S.-backed truce and caused Palestinians in the strip to say it does not feel like the war has ended. Mediators have condemned the attacks and Hamas has called them violations of the deal, but Israel’s military says it is responding to Hamas violations or militant attacks on its soldiers. The military says four soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire took hold.
Early Wednesday, Israeli troops fired on a building in the Tuffah neighborhood in north Gaza, killing at least 11 people, most from the same family, said Shifa Hospital, which received the bodies. The dead included two parents, their 10-day-old girl, her 5-month-old cousin and their grandmother.
Israel’s military said its aircraft and armored units had returned fire after militants started shooting at troops, badly wounding a reservist soldier who was evacuated to a hospital. Israel called the militant attack a violation of the deal.
After the Tuffah strike, Israeli fire continued across the strip, said hospital officials. An Israeli strike on a family’s tent in the southern city of Khan Younis killed three people including a 12-year-old boy, said Nasser hospital, which received the bodies. Tank shelling in Gaza City’s eastern neighborhood of Zaytoun killed another three Palestinians, according to Shifa Hospital, including a husband and his wife.
Over 71,800 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Gaza health ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.
Magdy reported from Cairo.
Palestinians carry 1-week-old baby Wateen al-Khabaz, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City , Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
A Palestinian man mourns over Ahmed Haboush, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians mourn over the dead who were killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinian wife and children bid farewell to their father, Youssef Haboush, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians mourn over the dead who were killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinian Raed al-Khabba carries his 3-month-old daughter Mira al-Khabbaz, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
