Trump says talks on Iran war will begin on Monday after he holds off on 'massive' strikes

CAIRO (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said new talks to wind down the war in Iran will start Monday afternoon, after announcing he is holding off on new massive strikes he had threatened to unleash on the country.

The talks will seek to end the conflict and revive stalled cargo traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway through which about a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed before the war.

Iranian state media quoted the country’s foreign ministry as saying Tehran was not currently holding negotiations with the United States.

In Gaza, local hospitals said at least 17 were killed in Israeli strikes over the weekend, including children. A strike on a residential apartment in southern Gaza killed three family members including a 4-year-old child, according to Nasser hospital, where the bodies arrived.

The Israeli military said the strikes had targeted militant operatives.

Here is a look at the most important developments in the Middle East today.

Trump said Sunday he decided not to carry out major strikes against Iran at the urging of Gulf allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. He said a plan was in place for U.S. forces to carry out “the biggest attack since World War II,” but he decided to give diplomacy more time after hearing from key Gulf leaders, as well as at the request of unnamed Iranian officials.

“Now what we’re doing is we’re talking to them in the form of a negotiation. It begins tomorrow afternoon,” he said. He did not provide further details or say who would be involved in the talks.

Trump has had a pattern of threatening massive strikes which he later calls off, with the announcements often later upended by renewed attacks. The abrupt shifts have been a defining feature of the five-month war that has upended global markets and sent the prices of fuel and other basic goods soaring.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, said Monday that Tehran was not currently holding negotiations with the United States. He said ongoing talks were with Oman, the country that lies on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz, and were focused only on establishing a temporary route for safe navigation through the strait.

Iran’s judiciary said it executed two men on Monday after convicting them of spying for Israel during both last year’s 12-day war and the ongoing conflict.

The judiciary’s Mizan news agency identified the two as Omid Behzad and Pouria Safvat, who were accused of providing military coordinates, images and other intelligence used in attacks on Iranian targets. It did not specify where the executions took place.

Last week, Iran publicly hanged two men convicted of killing four police officers during nationwide anti-government protests in January.

Soaring temperatures in Gaza this summer have turned the makeshift tents sheltering hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians into suffocating ovens. Made of plastic sheets, the shelters trap heat during the day and offer little ventilation, forcing many families to spend hours outside.

The extreme weather compounds an already dire humanitarian crisis. With limited access to clean water, electricity and sanitation, overcrowded camps are grappling with flies, mosquitoes and other insects. Humanitarian agencies such as the Norwegian Refugee Council warn that the conditions heighten the risk of dehydration, heat-related illnesses and the spread of skin infections, diarrheal diseases and other communicable illnesses.

“It’s very hot. We can’t stay inside the tents. Our tent is made of nylon,” said Aida Abu Hadeesha, a woman displaced from the town of Rafah, near the border with Egypt. “There is no breeze, nothing, and our kids are suffering," she said, adding that the stifling heat didn't let up all night. "The flies and the cockroaches attack us.”

Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Associated Press writer Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Palestinians try to extinguish a burning car after an Israeli military strike in Gaza City, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian planes dropped eight powerful glide bombs in a span of 90 minutes on residential districts of the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing one person and wounding dozens of others, regional chief Ivan Fedorov said Monday.

Russia has used glide bombs to smash Ukrainian towns and cities since it invaded its neighbor more than four years ago. The weapons are Soviet-era bombs retrofitted with guidance systems and can carry up to 3,000 kilograms (6,600 pounds) of explosives, leaving huge craters. Ukraine has no effective countermeasures against them.

The Sunday evening onslaught on Zaporizhzhia killed a 71-year-old woman and wounded 31 people, including a 16-year-old girl, as the bombs damaged 22 apartment buildings in four districts of the city, Fedorov said.

Other large-scale damage of civilian areas of Ukraine has resulted from Russian ballistic missiles, and late Sunday President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made yet another urgent plea to other countries to send Ukraine more U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems.

Only Patriot interceptors can reliably stop ballistic missiles, but they are in short supply due to the Iran war.

“The world has Patriot missiles. What matters now is for our partners to make the political decision to provide the necessary packages,” Zelenskyy said on social media. “The United States knows what we need. Europe knows what we need. Anti-ballistic missiles must protect people — not sit in stockpiles.”

U.S. President Donald Trump last week appeared to back off from his earlier commitment to give Ukraine a license to make Patriots itself. He said Friday that the licensing matter is still under discussion and said he hasn’t made a final decision.

Zelenskyy has suggested an alternative to Trump whereby Elon Musk allows Ukraine to use Starlink satellites to target ballistic missile launch sites inside Russia. Officials haven't publicly said whether that is being considered.

Russia attacked Ukraine with 181 long-range strike drones overnight from Sunday to Monday, according to the Ukrainian air force. It said air defenses jammed and intercepted 163 drones, but 14 caused damage at 13 locations.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces struck four bulk carriers carrying cargo for the Ukrainian armed forces, including three in waters of the Black Sea and one in the port of Mykolaiv, but provided no further information.

Meanwhile, three people were killed and two were wounded in Kyiv's overnight attack on Ukraine’s illegally annexed Crimea, the peninsula’s Russian-installed head Sergei Aksyonov said. He gave no further details.

Ukrainian also drones struck another major warehouse belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online shopping company, as part of a campaign that has hit more than a dozen of the retailer’s distribution hubs and caused severe disruption to its business.

A Wildberries warehouse in the Vladimir region east of Moscow caught fire in the latest attack, the company said Monday.

Three people were injured, Vladimir Gov. Alexander Avdeyev said.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Monday reported that its air defenses overnight intercepted 131 Ukrainian drones over a number of Russian regions, as well as annexed Crimea and the Black Sea.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

A burned car is seen after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)