Israel-Gaza updates: Harris to meet with Israeli war Cabinet member on Monday

Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with Israeli war Cabinet member Benny Gantz at the White House on Monday as part of an ongoing effort to engage with a wide range of Israeli officials on the war in Gaza, a White House official has confirmed to ABC News.

During the meeting, Harris is expected to reiterate Israel's right to defend itself in the face of threats by Hamas and the urgency of securing a hostage deal, the White House official said. Harris and Gantz are also planning to discuss the dire need to increase the aid flow into Gaza through continued U.S. airdrops and work on a maritime corridor to deliver aid directly by sea, according to the official.

While reiterating the need to reduce civilian casualties, Harris is expected to express the Biden administration's concern for the safety of the 1.5 million people reportedly taking shelter in the city of Rafah, the official said.

In their discussion of the ongoing war, Harris and Gantz are also expected to focus on "the day after the fighting ends" and plans to eventually rebuild Gaza and the Palestinian Authority so that it may govern a unified Gaza and West Bank in creating a "hopeful political horizon for the Palestinian people," the official said.

Harris previously met Gantz in 2022 at the Munich Security Conference. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will also meet with Gantz separately, according to the White House.

-ABC News' Noah Minnie

At least 10 children have reportedly died in recent days from dehydration and malnutrition while at a hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, a UNICEF official said Sunday.

The children died at the Kamal Adwan Hospital, Adele Khodr, UNICEF's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.

"These tragic and horrific deaths are man-made, predictable and entirely preventable," Khodr said in the statement. "The widespread lack of nutritious food, safe water and medical services, a direct consequence of the impediments to access and multiple dangers facing U.N. humanitarian operations, is impacting children and mothers, hindering their ability to breastfeed their babies, especially in the northern Gaza Strip."

Khodr said the disparity in conditions in Gaza's north and south "is clear evidence that aid restrictions in the north are costing lives."

Nearly 16% of children, or one in six, under the age of 2 in the northern Gaza Strip are acutely malnourished, said Khordr, citing malnutrition screenings in January by UNICEF and the U.N. World Food Program.

Khodr said similar screenings conducted in southern Gaza found that 5% of children under 2 are acutely malnourished.

"Now, the child deaths we feared are here and are likely to rapidly increase unless the war ends and obstacles to humanitarian relief are immediately resolved," Khodr said.

Khodr's statement came a day after the U.S. Department of Defense conducted its first combined humanitarian assistance airdrop across Gaza with the Royal Jordanian Air Force.

About one-quarter of Gaza's population -- 576,000 people -- are "one step away from famine" and facing a "grave situation," Ramesh Rajasingham, director of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said last week..

-ABC News Nadine Shubailat

Hours after the U.S. Department of Defense conducted its first combined humanitarian assistance airdrop in Gaza with the Royal Jordanian Air Force, senior administration officials asserted this would be part of a sustained effort to scale up life-saving aid into Gaza and confirmed significant progress on a six-week hostage ceasefire deal currently in the hands of Hamas.

Senior administration officials said they are exploring every channel possible to get assistance into Gaza and that the Department of Defense is currently planning additional drops. However, they say their biggest obstacle is opening more avenues to get aid into Gaza, including a martine route that would deliver assistance directly by sea.

"We're looking at the land routes, we're looking at the sea route, we're looking at the air route, to really ensure that we're exploring every opportunity to get assistance in," officials said Saturday.

Officials confirmed this was the first U.S. airdrop conducted in Gaza since the war began and that U.S. and Jordanian C-130 aircraft were operated jointly out of Jordan to distribute aid.

Administration officials suggested the removal of police from the U.N. and other humanitarian convoys has exacerbated the lawlessness already prevalent in the region as gangs allegedly take and resell aid. Officials said the way to address this problem is by flooding the market with aid to discourage the commercialization of assistance.

Officials said a ceasefire is essential for the distribution of life-saving aid throughout Gaza. A deal is on the table and in the hands of Hamas, according to officials.

Senior administration officials told reporters there would be a six-week ceasefire as soon as today if Hamas agreed to release a defined category of vulnerable hostages, which include the sick, elderly, and women.

When asked about the specifics of these progressions towards a ceasefire hostage deal, admin officials said they'd worked hard with the Israelis to develop a framework which the admin believes is now "in the zone of a compromise amongst all the positions that had been on the table," after several meeting in Israel last week.

Admin officials hope to have this deal in place by Ramadan, confirming significant progress has been made over the last few weeks.

"The onus right now is on Hamas, their talks still underway," a senior admin official said Saturday.

They continued, "There has been significant progress over the last few weeks. But like all things, until the deal is actually done, It's not done. The Israelis have basically signed on to the elements of the arrangement. And right now, the ball is in the court of Hamas, and we are continuing to push this as hard as we possibly can."

-ABC News' Noah Minnie

The U.S. Central Command provided more details on the food aid delivered into Gaza Saturday in a combined effort with the Royal Jordanian Air Force.

The U.S. C-130s dropped over 38,000 meals along the coastline of Gaza, "allowing for civilian access to the critical aid,” according to a statement.

"The DoD humanitarian airdrops contributes to ongoing U.S. government efforts to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to the people in Gaza," read the statement.

CENTCOM said this was the first aid drop into Gaza by the U.S. but plans are being made for potential "follow-on airborne aid delivery missions."

"These airdrops are part of a sustained effort to get more aid into Gaza, including by expanding the flow of aid through land corridors and routes," the statement said.

-ABC News' Anne Flaherty