middle-east
9 Israeli soldiers killed as ground offensive continues in Gaza, despite US criticism
At least nine Israeli soldiers were killed in an ambush, marking one of the deadliest single attacks that Palestinian militants have carried out since the ground invasion of Gaza began, Israel's military said. The attack in a dense urban neighborhood came after repeated recent claims by the military that it had broken Hamas’ command structure in northern Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with Israel’s Gaza offensive “until the end,” rejecting international pressure for a cease-fire.
Israel has drawn international outrage and rare criticism from the United States over the killing of thousands of civilians. The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly this week to demand a humanitarian cease-fire — General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, but the message in favor of ending the Israel-Hamas war serves as an important barometer of world opinion.
Just hours before the vote, U.S. President Joe Biden warned that Israel was losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza.
The Israel-Hamas war has resulted in the deaths of over 18,400 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory, which does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. Israel says 113 of its soldiers have died in its ground offensive after Hamas raided southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 240 hostages.
Currently:
— Israel-Hamas war tensions roil U.S. campuses; Brown protesters are arrested, Haverford building is occupied.
— Wartime Palestinian poll shows surge in Hamas support; close to 90% want U.S.-backed Abbas to resign,
— Families of American hostages in Gaza say Biden reaffirms commitment to freeing their loved ones.
— New sanctions from the U.S. and Britain target Hamas officials who help manage its financial network.
— Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Here’s what’s happening in the war:
ISRAEL'S ARMY WEBSITE IS HACKED BY A PRO-PALESTINIAN GROUP
JERUSALEM — Israel’s army website was briefly hacked on Wednesday by a pro-Palestinian group that warned of more attacks against Israeli forces, including further cyberattacks.
In a short letter that covered the main page of the Israeli army website, the group, calling itself “Anonymous Jo,” said the military’s “arrogance and injustice toward our people in Gaza will only harm you through terror, killing and war, whether by land, air or electronically.”
The letter went on to call for the “liberation of Palestine.”
Little is known about Anonymous Jo, although the group or individual behind the attack indicated that they are of Jordanian origin.
Read: Iraq scrambles to contain fighting between US troops and Iran-backed groups, fearing Gaza spillover
“From your brothers in Jordan to our people in Gaza and Palestine,” one of the lines read. Jordan, which borders the occupied West Bank, has a large Palestinian population and the public is very sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians.
The army confirmed the hack.
ISRAEL DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS MILITARY DIFFERENCES WITH U.S. OVER GAZA CAN BE RESOLVED
JERUSALEM — Israel’s defense minister has acknowledged the differences with the United States over Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip, but says he is confident the two sides will find a way for the operation to continue.
At a news conference, Yoav Gallant said Wednesday that Israel appreciates the diplomatic and military support it has received from the U.S. He said despite the differences, both sides agree that Israel must prevail over Hamas.
“We will find a way to help Americans help us.” Gallant said.
He said Israel “is aware” that it must take into account the U.S. needs, “without giving up on the goals of the war.”
A MEETING AIMED AT FINDING WAYS TO SANCTION HAMAS IS HELD IN PARIS
PARIS -- France’s foreign ministry said a meeting focusing on finding ways to sanction Hamas has been held Wednesday in Paris in the presence of “international partners,” without providing details about participants.
The meeting discussed “concrete actions to be taken against this terrorist group” and “ways of increasing international coordination,” the ministry said in a statement. Participants discussed ways to combat Hamas financing, strengthen sanctions targeting the group and its members, as well as the effective implementation of the standards of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), including the control of risks relating to the use of crypto-currencies, the statement said.
Participants also discussed how to combat content spread online by Hamas and reiterated the importance of “robust regulatory mechanisms,” it said.
NETANYAHU VOWS TO FIGHT ‘UNTIL THE END’ AND REJECTS CALLS FOR CEASE-FIRE
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is vowing to press ahead with Israel’s Gaza offensive “until the end,” rejecting international pressure for a cease-fire.
Netanyahu’s comments on Wednesday came at a time of rising international criticism of the heavy civilian death toll in the offensive. On Tuesday, President Joe Biden criticized what he described as “indiscriminate bombing” by Israel, and the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly called for a cease-fire in a nonbinding vote.
Read: Battles rage across Gaza as Israel indicates it's willing to fight for months or more to beat Hamas
Netanyahu spoke to Israeli military commanders, a day after at least nine soldiers were killed in Gaza. It was one of the deadliest days for Israel of the operation.
Netanyahu said Tuesday was a “very difficult day,” but that the war will continue.
“We are continuing until the end, there is no question. I say this even given the great pain, and the international pressure. Nothing will stop us, we will continue until the end, until victory, nothing less,” said Netanyahu.
CLASHES AT LEBANON-ISRAEL BORDER DISRUPTING EDUCATION OF CHILDREN
BEIRUT — Clashes on Lebanon’s southern border against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war have exacerbated an education crisis in the small Mediterranean country that has been in the throes of a major economic meltdown for the past four years, UNICEF said Wednesday.
A survey of Lebanese as well as Syrian and Palestinian refugee households living in Lebanon conducted by the U.N. agency in November found that 26% of households had school-aged children who were not attending school, up from 18% in April.
Syrians reported the highest prevalence of children out of school, at 52% of households, followed by Lebanese at 13% and Palestinians at 7%.
While the “cost of education materials” was the most-cited reason, UNICEF said, thousands of children were also out of education due disruptions related to ongoing fighting on the border between the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces.
The clashes have killed about 130 people in Lebanon, including 17 civilians, according to a tally by The Associated Press, and have displaced nearly 59,000, according to the International Organization for Migration.
PALESTINIANS KILLED DURING ISRAELI RAID OF WEST BANK REFUGEE CAMP
TEL AVIV, Israel — At least seven Palestinians were killed and a dozen were arrested during a two-day Israeli raid in the northern West Bank.
The Israeli military said Wednesday that troops operating in the Jenin refugee camp seized weapons, ammunition and explosives, and uncovered tunnel shafts, observation posts and six explosive laboratories.
Read more: Gaza sees intense fighting as Israel advances with renewed US support
The Palestinian Health Ministry said seven Palestinians were killed in Jenin on Tuesday.
The dense, urban refugee camp has long been a stronghold for Palestinian militants. Israeli forces have carried out frequent raids over the past two years that have often set off gunbattles with Palestinian fighters.
Israel seized the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.
Over 270 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, according to the Health Ministry.
AT LEAST 9 ISRAELI SOLDIERS ARE KILLED IN AN AMBUSH IN GAZA CITY, MEDIA SAY
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli media say at least nine soldiers were killed in an ambush in Gaza City. The dead include Col. Itzhak Ben Basat, 44, the most senior officer to have been killed since the ground operation in Gaza began in late October; and Lt. Col. Tomer Grinberg, commander of the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion.
Army Radio said troops who were searching a cluster of buildings lost communication with four soldiers who had come under fire, sparking fears of a possible abduction by Hamas militants. When the other soldiers launched a rescue operation, they were ambushed with heavy gunfire and explosives. Other Israeli media outlets carried similar accounts of the battle.
The military confirmed that a total of 10 soldiers were killed in Gaza on Tuesday. It did not respond to a request for comment about the circumstances.
Hamas said the ambush showed that Israel’s offensive was a failure.
POPE FRANCIS RENEWS CALL FOR PEACE IN GAZA
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis renewed his call for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza on Wednesday and for the return of hostages taken by Hamas when its militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
“May both sides involved have courage to take up the negotiations again, and I ask everyone to take on the urgent job of getting humanitarian aid to the population of Gaza. They are at the end of their rope and really need it,” he said. “Free all the hostages immediately who saw some hope in the cease-fire a few days ago, may this great suffering for the Israelis and the Palestinians end. Please no to arms and yes to peace.”
Francis has sought to maintain the Vatican’s traditional neutrality in conflicts, but he has angered Israelis in particular with his generic reference to the war degenerating into “terrorism” without explicitly condemning Hamas for its initial attack.
2 MISSILES FIRED FROM HOUTHI-HELD TERRITORY MISS A SHIP NEAR YEMEN, A U.S. OFFICIAL SAYS
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Two missiles fired from territory held by Yemen’s Houthi rebels missed a commercial tanker near the key Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Wednesday, a U.S. official said.
An American warship also shot down a suspected Houthi drone flying in its direction during the incident, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. No one was hurt in the attack, the official said.
The ship that was targeted, the oil and chemical tanker Marshall Islands-flagged Ardmore Encounter, was traveling north toward the Suez Canal in the Red Sea, satellite tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed. The vessel had been coming from India and had an armed security crew aboard it, according to data transmitted by the ship.
The Houthis did not immediately acknowledge the attack.
Iraq scrambles to contain fighting between US troops and Iran-backed groups, fearing Gaza spillover
Dozens of attacks on U.S. military facilities by Iran-backed factions in Iraq over the past two months as the Israel-Hamas war has raged have forced Baghdad into a balancing act that's becoming more difficult by the day.
A rocket attack on the sprawling U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Friday marked a further escalation as Iraqi officials scramble to contain the ripple effects of the latest Middle East war.
Iran holds considerable sway in Iraq and a coalition of Iran-backed groups brought Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to power in October 2022. At the same time, there are some 2,000 U.S. troops in Iraq under an agreement with Baghdad, mainly to counter the militant Islamic State group.
Baghdad also relies heavily on Washington's sanctions waivers to buy electricity from Iran, and since the 2003 U.S. invasion, Iraq's foreign currency reserves have been housed at the U.S. Federal Reserve, giving the Americans significant control over Iraq's supply of dollars.
Al-Sudani's predecessors also had to walk a delicate line between Tehran and Washington, but the Israel-Hamas war has considerably upped the stakes.
Since the war erupted on Oct. 7, at least 92 attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria have been claimed by an umbrella group of Iran-backed Iraqi militants dubbed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq. The militants say their attacks are in retaliation for Washington's backing of Israel and its military presence in Iraq and Syria.
Al-Sudani has condemned the attacks and U.S. counter-strikes as a violation of his country's sovereignty. He has also ordered authorities to pursue militants involved in the attacks, most of which caused no injuries and only minor damage. His office declined further comment.
Washington has sent messages that its patience is wearing thin.
Also read: Battles rage across Gaza as Israel indicates it's willing to fight for months or more to beat Hamas
After the embassy attack, the Pentagon said that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin "made clear (to al-Sudani) that attacks against U.S. forces must stop."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told al-Sudani that Washington expects Iraqi officials to take more action to prevent such attacks, and believes they have the capability to do so, a U.S. official told The Associated Press.
Also read: Blinken defends bypassing Congress to sell weapons to Israel and presses lawmakers to help Ukraine
During a recent trip to the region, CIA Director William Burns warned al-Sudani of "harsh consequences" if Iraq doesn't act to stop the attacks, an Iraqi official said.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with briefing regulations.
In a call with the Iraqi premier earlier this month, Blinken said that Americans would take matters into their own hands, arguing that Baghdad had not done enough to pursue the perpetrators, according to two Iraqi officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
Two days later, a U.S. strike on a drone launch site near the Iraqi city of Kirkuk killed five militants.
The U.S. and much of the international community have scrambled to prevent the war in the besieged Gaza Strip from expanding across the region.
Analyst Renad Mansour said he believes Iran is making sure the attacks remain below a threshold that would provoke a major U.S. response.
"Both Iran and Iraq have maintained thus far a clear line that, at the moment, Iraq cannot turn into a playground that could destabilize the Sudani government," said Mansour, a senior research fellow at the Chatham House think tank.
He said that's partially due to Iraq's role of passing messages between Washington and Tehran.
Sometimes the messenger is al-Sudani.
In early November, Blinken met with al-Sudani in Baghdad a day before the Iraqi prime minister was set to visit Tehran. Al-Sudani had won a specific promise from the militias that no attacks would be launched during Blinken's visit, according to an Iraqi official and a member of the Kataib Hezbollah militia. Following the visit, al-Sudani carried a message from Blinken to Iran to restrain the militias.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
A week after the Iraqi premier's diplomatic efforts, the United States extended Iraq's sanctions waiver by four months to purchase Iranian electricity. Iran-hawks in Washington criticized the move, saying it would shore up revenue for Tehran while its proxies are at war with Israel.
Mansour says Washington has used the sanctions waiver as "one of its cards" in economy-centered efforts to pressure Iran and Iraq.
Unlike Lebanon's Hezbollah group, seen as Iran's most powerful proxy in the region, Iraq's militias have so far only played a limited role in the conflict.
For now, only small number of militiamen from Iraq are in southern Lebanon, near Israel's northern border, said the official from the Kataib Hezbollah group. He said the Iraqis are working on "battle management" alongside Hezbollah and representatives of Hamas, the militant group that has ruled Gaza for 16 years and is currently battling Israel.
He said Iran-backed groups in Iraq don't want the conflict to spread across the region, but are prepared to respond with force to any attacks.
Should Iran and allies choose to escalate, al-Sudani's government will likely be unable to rein them in or prevent consequences on Iraqi soil, said Iyad al-Anbar, a political science professor at Baghdad University.
"And this is why all al-Sudani has been able to do is try to bring some calm through statements," said al-Anbar.
Battles rage across Gaza as Israel indicates it's willing to fight for months or more to beat Hamas
Battles raged across Gaza on Sunday as Israel indicated it was prepared to fight for months or longer to defeat the territory's Hamas rulers, and a key mediator said willingness to discuss a cease-fire was fading.
Israel faces international outrage after its military offensive, with diplomatic support and arms from close ally the United States, has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians. About 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced within the besieged territory, where U.N. agencies say there is no safe place to flee.
The United States has lent vital support in recent days by vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution to end the fighting and pushing through an emergency sale of over $100 million worth of tank ammunition to Israel.
Russia backed the resolution. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and expressed dissatisfaction with “anti-Israel positions” taken by Moscow’s envoys at the U.N. and elsewhere, an Israeli statement said.
Netanyahu told Putin that any country assaulted the way Israel was "would have reacted with no less force than Israel is using,” the statement added.
The U.N. General Assembly scheduled an emergency meeting Tuesday to vote on a draft resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the U.N., told The Associated Press that it's similar to the Security Council resolution the U.S. vetoed Friday.
There are no vetoes in the General Assembly but unlike the Security Council its resolutions are not legally binding. They are important nonetheless as a barometer of global opinion.
Israel’s air and ground war has killed thousands of Palestinians, mostly civilians, since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and other militants killed 1,200 people and captured around 240. Over 100 of them were released during a weeklong cease-fire last month.
With very little aid allowed in, Palestinians face severe shortages of food, water and other basic goods. Some observers openly worry that Palestinians will be forced out of Gaza altogether.
"Expect public order to completely break down soon, and an even worse situation could unfold including epidemic diseases and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a forum in Qatar, a key intermediary.
Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesman, called allegations of mass displacement from Gaza “outrageous and false.”
Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, told the forum that mediation efforts seeking to stop the war and have all hostages released will continue, but “unfortunately, we are not seeing the same willingness that we had seen in the weeks before.”
Read: Gaza sees intense fighting as Israel advances with renewed US support
Israel's national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, told Israel's Channel 12 TV that the U.S. has set no deadline for Israel to achieve its goals. “The evaluation that this can’t be measured in weeks is correct, and I’m not sure it can be measured in months,” he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN that as far as the duration and the conduct of the fighting, "these are decisions for Israel to make."
This is a war that cannot be won, Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, asserted to the Qatar forum, warning that “Israel has created an amount of hatred that will haunt this region that will define generations to come.”
FIGHTING AND ARRESTS IN THE NORTH
Israeli forces face heavy resistance, including in northern Gaza, where neighborhoods have been flattened by air strikes and where ground troops have operated for over six weeks.
Israel’s Channel 13 TV broadcast footage showing dozens of detainees stripped to their underwear, hands in the air. Several held assault rifles above their heads, and one man walked forward and placed a gun on the ground.
Other videos have shown groups of unarmed men held in similar conditions, without clothes, bound and blindfolded. Detainees from a group released Saturday told The Associated Press they had been beaten and denied food and water.
Read: A British Palestinian surgeon gave testimony to a UK war crimes unit after returning from Gaza
Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said dozens of arrests took place in two Hamas strongholds and that people are undressed to make sure they are not hiding explosives.
Residents said there was still heavy fighting in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shijaiyah and the Jabaliya refugee camp, a dense urban area housing Palestinian families who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war.
“They are attacking anything that moves,” said Hamza Abu Fatouh, a Shijaiyah resident. He said the dead and wounded were left in the streets as ambulances could not reach the area.
Israel ordered the evacuation of the northern third of the territory, including Gaza City, early in the war, but tens of thousands of people have remained.
Heavy fighting also was underway in and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
WAITING DAYS FOR FOOD
The price of dwindling food in Gaza has soared. Abdulsalam al-Majdalawi said he had come every day for nearly two weeks to a U.N. distribution center, hoping to get supplies for his family of seven.
“Thank God, today they drew our name,” he said.
Read more: Protests at UN climate talks, from cease-fire calls to detainees, see 'shocking level of censorship'
One hundred trucks with humanitarian aid entered Sunday, said Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority. That's far short of what's needed.
With the war in its third month, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 17,900, the majority women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.
Israel holds Hamas responsible for civilian casualties, saying the militants put civilians in danger by fighting in residential neighborhoods. The military says 97 Israeli soldiers have died in the offensive. Palestinian militants have continued firing rockets into Israel.
Netanyahu’s office said Hamas still has 117 hostages and the remains of 20 people killed in captivity or during the Oct. 7 attack. The militants hope to exchange them for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Israel says it has provided detailed instructions for civilians to evacuate to safer areas, even as it strikes what it says are militant targets. Thousands have fled to areas along the border with Egypt — one of the last places where aid agencies are able to deliver food and water.
Demonstrations were again held in several cities in support of the Palestinians and calling for an end to the war, while thousands marched in Europe against antisemitism.
The war has raised tensions across the Middle East, with Lebanon's Hezbollah trading fire with Israel along the border and other Iran-backed militant groups targeting the U.S. in Syria and Iraq. Israeli artillery, drone, and airstrikes over Lebanon border towns intensified.
Gaza sees intense fighting as Israel advances with renewed US support
Heavy fighting raged overnight and into Sunday across Gaza, including in the devastated north, as Israel pressed ahead with its offensive after the U.S. blocked the latest international push for a cease-fire and rushed more munitions to its close ally.
Israel has faced rising international outrage and calls for a permanent cease-fire after the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians. Nearly 85% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced within the besieged territory, where U.N. agencies say there is no safe place to flee.
The United States has lent vital support to the offensive once again in recent days, by vetoing United Nations Security Council efforts to end the fighting that enjoyed wide international support, and by pushing through an emergency sale of over $100 million worth of tank ammunition to Israel.
A British Palestinian surgeon gave testimony to a UK war crimes unit after returning from Gaza
The U.S. has pledged unwavering support for Israel's goal of crushing Hamas' military and governing abilities in order to prevent any repeat of the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war. Hamas and other Palestinian militants stormed into southern Israel that day, killing some 1,200 people and capturing around 240, over 100 of whom were released during a weeklong cease-fire late last month.
In response to the attack, Israel launched an air and ground war that has killed thousands of Palestinians, mostly civilians, and forced some 1.9 million people to flee their homes. With only a trickle of aid allowed in, and delivery rendered impossible in much of the territory, Palestinians face severe shortages of food, water and other basic goods.
Protests at UN climate talks, from cease-fire calls to detainees, see 'shocking level of censorship'
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who invoked a rarely-used power last week to call for a cease-fire, said "we are facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system."
"The situation is fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for the Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region," he told a forum in Qatar.
Israel's national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, told Israel's Channel 12 TV late Saturday that the U.S. has set no deadline for Israel to achieve its goals of dismantling Hamas and returning all the hostages.
"The evaluation that this can't be measured in weeks is correct, and I'm not sure it can be measured in months," he said.
FIGHTING AND ARRESTS IN THE NORTH
Israeli forces continue to face heavy resistance, even in northern Gaza, where entire neighborhoods have been flattened by air strikes and where ground troops have been operating for over six weeks.
Israel's Channel 13 TV broadcast footage showing dozens of detainees stripped to their underwear with their hands in the air. Several held assault rifles above their heads, and one man could be seen slowly walking forward and placing a gun on the ground before returning to the group.
Other videos in recent days have shown groups of unarmed men held in similar conditions, without clothes, bound and blindfolded. Men from a separate group of detainees who were released on Saturday told The Associated Press they had been beaten and denied food and water. The Israeli military had no comment when asked about the alleged abuse.
Israeli media have portrayed the mass detentions as a sign that Hamas is surrendering in the north.
But residents said there was still heavy fighting underway in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shijaiyah and the Jabaliya refugee camp, a dense urban area housing Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation and their descendants.
Israel presses on with its Gaza offensive after US veto derails Security Council efforts to halt war
"They are attacking anything that moves," said Hamza Abu Fatouh, a resident of Shijaiyah. He said the dead and wounded were left in the streets as ambulances could no longer reach the area, where Israeli snipers and tanks had positioned themselves among the abandoned buildings.
"The resistance also fights back," he added, saying gunbattles had raged late Saturday.
The Israeli military said it raided a Hamas command center in Shijaiyah and captured several weapons, including assault rifles, grenades, anti-tank missile launchers and ammunition.
Israel ordered the evacuation of the northern third of the territory, including Gaza City, early in the war, but tens of thousands of people have remained there, fearing that the south would be no safer or that they would never be allowed to return to their homes.
Israel presses on with Gaza bombardments, including in areas where it told civilians to flee
In Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, where ground forces moved in earlier this month, residents said they heard constant gunfire and explosions through the night as warplanes bombarded areas in and around Gaza's second largest city.
"It doesn't stop," said Radwa Abu Frayeh, who lives close to the European Hospital in Khan Younis. "There's bombing, and then the ambulances head out to bring back victims."
NO SAFE PLACES
With the war in its third month, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 17,700, the majority women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.
Israel holds Hamas responsible for civilian casualties, saying it uses civilians as human shields in dense residential areas. The military says 97 Israeli soldiers have died in the ground offensive. Palestinians militants have also continued firing rockets into Israel.
Israel strikes north and south Gaza after US vetoes a UN cease-fire resolution
Israel says it has provided detailed instructions for civilians to evacuate to safer areas, even as it continues to strike what it says are militant targets in all parts of the territory. Thousands have fled to the southern town of Rafah and other areas along the border with Egypt in recent days — one of the last areas where aid agencies are able to deliver food and water.
Israel has designated a narrow patch of barren southern coastline, Muwasi, as a safe zone. But Palestinians described desperately overcrowded conditions with scant shelter and no toilets. They faced an overnight temperature of around 11 degrees Celsius (52 degrees Fahrenheit).
"I am sleeping on the sand. It's freezing," said Soad Qarmoot, who described herself as a cancer patient forced to leave her home in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.
As she spoke, her children huddled around a fire.
A British Palestinian surgeon gave testimony to a UK war crimes unit after returning from Gaza
A British Palestinian surgeon who spent weeks in the Gaza Strip during the current Israel-Hamas war as part of a Doctors Without Borders medical team said he has given testimony to a British war crimes investigation unit.
Ghassan Abu Sitta, a plastic surgeon specializing in conflict medicine, has volunteered with medical teams in multiple conflicts in Gaza, beginning as a medical student in the late 1980s during the the first Palestinian uprising. He has also worked in other conflict zones, including in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Abu Sitta crossed from Egypt into Gaza on Oct. 9, two days after the war began and remained in the besieged enclave for 43 days, working mainly in the al-Ahli and Shifa hospitals in northern Gaza.
The war was triggered by a deadly Hamas-led incursion on Oct. 7 into southern Israel in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Since then, Israel has launched a punishing air and ground campaign that has killed more than 17,700 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory.
Also read: Protests at UN climate talks, from cease-fire calls to detainees, see 'shocking level of censorship'
Abu Sitta told The Associated Press in an interview during a visit to the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut on Saturday that the intensity of other conflicts he experienced and the war in Gaza is like “the difference between a flood and a tsunami.” Apart from the staggering numbers of killed and injured, he said, the health system itself has been targeted and destroyed in Gaza.
“The worst thing was initially the running out of morphine and proper strong analgesics and then later on running out of anesthetic medication, which meant that you would have to do painful procedures with no anesthetic,” Abu Sitta said.
He said that when he returned to the UK, he was asked by the war crimes unit at the Metropolitan Police to give evidence in a possible war crimes investigation, and did so.
The police had issued a call for people returning from Israel or the Palestinian territories who “have witnessed or been a victim of terrorism, war crimes or crimes against humanity” to come forward.
Abu Sitta said much of his testimony related to attacks on health facilities.
Also read: Israel presses on with its Gaza offensive after US veto derails Security Council efforts to halt war
He was working in al-Ahli hospital in northern Gaza on Oct. 17 when a deadly blast struck the hospital’s courtyard, which had become a shelter for displaced people, killing hundreds. Israeli authorities, along with U.S. and French intelligence agencies, have said the explosion was caused by a misfired Palestinian rocket.
Hamas maintained that it was an Israeli strike. Abu Sitta said many of the injuries he saw were more consistent with damage caused by an Israeli Hellfire missile which he said “disintegrates into shards of metal that cause amputations."
The international group Human Rights Watch said the fragmentation pattern around the impact crater lacked the pattern typical of the Hellfire missile or others used by Israel.
Abu Sitta said while in Gaza he also treated patients who had burn wounds consistent with white phosphorus shelling, which he had also seen during the 2009 war.
Phosphorus shells cause a “chemical burn that ... bursts into the deep structures of the body rather than a thermal burn, which starts at the outside and (covers a) much larger surface area,” he said.
Human rights groups have alleged that Israeli forces have dropped shells containing white phosphorus on densely populated residential areas in Gaza and Lebanon during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Israel maintains it uses the incendiaries only as a smokescreen and not to target civilians.
Also read: Israel strikes north and south Gaza after US vetoes a UN cease-fire resolution
Abu Sitta, who rotated between al-Ahli and Shifa hospital, had left Shifa when Israeli forces encircled the hospital, eventually storming it in search of what they described as a Hamas command center. Israeli officials released visuals of an underground tunnel and rooms that they said were used by Hamas, but have not provided further evidence.
Abu Sitta, like other medical workers in the hospital, denied the allegations.
He said he had complete access to Shifa and there “was never, ever even any military presence.” He said policemen whose job was to control the crowds in front of the emergency department only carried truncheons.
The physician said he hopes the UK war crimes investigation will lead to prosecutions, locally or internationally.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, said after a visit to the West Bank and Israel last week that a probe by the court into possible crimes by both Hamas militants and Israeli forces is a priority for his office.
Protests at UN climate talks, from cease-fire calls to detainees, see 'shocking level of censorship'
Activists designated Saturday a day of protest at the COP28 summit in Dubai. But the rules of the game in the tightly controlled United Arab Emirates at the site supervised by the United Nations meant sharp restrictions on what demonstrators could say, where they could walk and what their signs could portray.
At times, the controls bordered on the absurd.
A small group of demonstrators protesting the detention of activists — one from Egypt and two from the UAE — was not allowed to hold up signs bearing their names. A late afternoon demonstration of around 500 people, the largest seen at the climate conference, couldn't go beyond the U.N.-governed Blue Zone in this autocratic nation. And their calls for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip couldn't name the parties involved.
“It is a shocking level of censorship in a space that had been guaranteed to have basic freedoms protected like freedom of expression, assembly and association,” Joey Shea, a researcher at Human Rights Watch focused on the Emirates, told The Associated Press after their restricted demonstration.
Pro-Palestinian protesters who were calling for a cease-fire and climate justice were told they could not say “from the river to the sea,” a slogan prohibited by the U.N. over the days of COP28.
In the aftermath of a brutal Hamas attack on Israel in October and the subsequent Israeli bombing and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, that phrase has been used at pro-Palestinian rallies to call for single state on the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. Some Jews hear a clear demand for Israel’s destruction in the call.
Protesters got around rules banning national flags by instead wearing keffiyeh scarves and holding signs depicting watermelons to show their support for the Palestinians.
Protestor Dylan Hamilton of Scotland said it remained important for demonstrators to cry out their grievances, even if they sounded like a cacophony of concerns ranging from climate change, the war or Indigenous rights.
“It's essential to remind negotiators what they are negotiating about,” Hamilton said. “It's trying to remind people to care about people you'll never meet.”
Despite the restrictions, activists protesting for a cease-fire in Gaza called the action historic due to its size.
“I don’t want to look back one day where a Palestinian can’t remember what their history and their culture used to look like, because that’s exactly what happened to us in Mexico," climate activist Isavela Lopez said. “I’m here to say to end with the colonial powers and with the white supremacy.”
Many climate activists point to the same causes for today's climate crisis.
Typically, COP summits see mass demonstrations of tens of thousands of people outside of the Blue Zone. But given the UAE's rules, the only place where activists can protest is inside that U.N.-controlled space, which has its own tight restrictions on speech.
Just before the demonstration about the detained activists, organized by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, protesters had to fold over signs bearing the names of the detainees — even after they already had crossed out messages about them. The order came roughly 10 minutes before the protest was due to start from the U.N., which said it could not guarantee the security of the demonstration, Shea said.
While speaking during the protest, Shea also had to avoid naming the Emirates and Egypt as part of the U.N.'s rules.
“The absurdity of what happened at this action today speaks volumes,” she said.
The Emirati government, in response to questions from the AP about the detainees protest, said it "does not comment on individual cases following judicial sentences.”
“In the spirit of inclusivity, peaceful assemblies in designated areas have been and continue to be welcomed,” the statement said. “We remain dedicated to fostering dialogue and understanding as we work together at COP28 to deliver impactful solutions for accelerating climate action.”
Demonstrators carried signs bearing the image of Emirati activist Ahmed Mansoor and Egyptian pro-democracy activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah.
Mansoor, the recipient of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in 2015, repeatedly drew the ire of authorities in the United Arab Emirates by calling for a free press and democratic freedoms in the autocratic federation of seven sheikhdoms. He was targeted with Israeli spyware on his iPhone in 2016 likely deployed by the Emirati government ahead of his 2017 arrest and sentencing to 10 years in prison over his activism.
Abdel-Fattah, who rose to prominence during the 2011 pro-democracy Arab Spring uprisings, became a central focus of demonstrators during last year's COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, as he had stopped eating and drinking water to protest his detention. He has spent most of the past decade in prison because of his criticism of Egypt’s rulers.
Since 2013, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s government has cracked down on dissidents and critics, jailing thousands, virtually banning protests and monitoring social media. El-Sissi has not released Abdel-Fattah despite him receiving British citizenship while imprisoned and interventions on his behalf from world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden.
Demonstrators also held up the image of Mohamed al-Siddiq, another Emirati detained as part of the crackdown.
The detainees protest had been scheduled to take place days earlier, but negotiations with U.N. officials dragged on — likely due to the sensitivity of even mentioning the detainees' names in the country.
Meanwhile, protesters briefly staged a sit-in at OPEC's stand over a leaked letter reportedly calling on cartel member states to reject any attempt to include a phase-down of fossil fuels in any text at the summit.
“It’s like having, you know, a convention on fighting the tobacco industry and having the tobacco industry present in a negotiation. That is not okay,” campaigner Nicholas Haeringer said. “It’s like having a fox in the henhouse. And to be honest with you guys, I think at some point we will run out of analogies before these guys run out of oil.”
Israel presses on with its Gaza offensive after US veto derails Security Council efforts to halt war
Israel's military pushed ahead with its punishing air and ground offensive in Gaza on Saturday, bolstered by a U.S. veto derailing U.N. Security Council efforts to end the war and word that an emergency sale of $106 million worth of tank ammunition had been approved by Washington.
Unable to leave Gaza, a territory 25 miles (40 kilometers) long by about 7 miles (11 kilometers) wide, more than 2 million Palestinians faced more bombardment Saturday, even in areas that Israel had described as safe zones.
The sale of nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition was announced a day after the U.S. vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, a measure that had wide international support. The U.S. said Secretary of State Antony Blinken determined that “an emergency exists” in the national interest requiring the immediate sale, meaning it bypasses congressional review. Such a determination is rare.
A day after Israel confirmed it was rounding up Palestinian men for interrogation, some men released Saturday told The Associated Press they had been treated badly, providing the first accounts of the conditions from the detentions.
Osama Oula said Israeli troops had pulled men out of a building in the Shujaiyah area of Gaza City, ordering them to the street in their underwear. Oula said Israeli forces bound him and others with zip ties, beat them for several days and gave them little water to drink.
Ahmad Nimr Salman showed his hands, marked and swollen from the zip ties, and said older men with diabetes or high blood pressure were ignored when they asked soldiers to remove their ties.
He said the troops asked, ”‘Are you with Hamas?’ We say ‘no,’ then they would slap us or kick us." He said his 17-year-old son Amjad is still held by the troops.
The group was released after five days and told to walk south. Ten freed detainees arrived at a hospital in Deir al-Balah on Saturday after flagging down an ambulance.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment when asked about the alleged abuse.
With the war in its third month, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 17,700, the majority women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.
Two hospitals in central and southern Gaza received the bodies of 133 people from Israeli bombings over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said midday Saturday.
Israel holds the Hamas militants responsible for civilian casualties, accusing them of using civilians as human shields, and says it has made considerable efforts with evacuation orders to get civilians out of harm’s way. It says 97 Israeli soldiers have died in the ground offensive after Hamas raided southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 240 hostages.
Hamas said Saturday that it continued its rocket fire into Israel.
In Gaza, residents reported airstrikes and shelling, including in the southern city of Rafah near the Egyptian border — one area where the Israeli army had told civilians to go. In a colorful classroom there, knee-high children's tables were strewn with rubble.
“We now live in the Gaza Strip and are governed by the American law of the jungle. America has killed human rights," said Rafah resident Abu Yasser al-Khatib.
In northern Gaza, Israel has been trying to secure the military’s hold, despite heavy resistance from Hamas. The military said that it found weapons inside a school in Shujaiyah, a densely populated neighborhood of Gaza City, and that, in a separate incident, militants shot at troops from a U.N.-run school in the northern town of Beit Hanoun.
More than 2,500 Palestinians have been killed since the Dec. 1 collapse of a weeklong truce, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The truce saw hostages and Palestinian prisoners released, but Israel says 137 hostages remain in Gaza.
On Saturday, a kibbutz that came under attack on Oct. 7 said 25-year-old hostage Sahar Baruch had died in captivity. His captors said Baruch was killed during a failed rescue mission by Israeli forces Friday. The Israeli military said Hamas killed him.
With no new cease-fire in sight and humanitarian aid reaching little of Gaza, residents reported severe food shortages. Nine of 10 people in northern Gaza reported spending at least one full day and night without food, according to a World Food Program assessment during the truce. Two of three people in the south said the same. The WFP called the situation “alarming.”
“I am very hungry,” said Mustafa al-Najjar, sheltering in a U.N.-run school in the devastated Jabaliya refugee camp in the north. “We are living on canned food and biscuits and this is not sufficient.”
While adults can cope, “it’s extremely difficult and painful when you see your young son or daughter crying because they are hungry,” he said.
Israelis who had been taken hostage also saw the food situation deteriorate, the recently freed Adina Moshe told a rally of thousands of people in Tel Aviv seeking the rapid return of all. "We ended up eating only rice,” said Moshe, who was held for 49 days.
The rally speakers accused Israel's government of not doing enough to bring loved ones home. "How can I sleep at night? How can I protect my daughter?” asked Eli Albag, the father of 18-year-old hostage Liri Albag.
On Saturday, 100 trucks carrying unspecified aid entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, said Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority. That is still well below the daily average before the war.
Despite growing international pressure, President Joe Biden's administration remains opposed to an open-ended cease-fire, arguing it would enable Hamas to continue posing a threat to Israel.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has argued that “a cease-fire is handing a prize to Hamas."
Blinken continued to speak with counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and elsewhere amid open criticism of the U.S. stance.
“From now on, humanity won’t think the U.S.A. supports the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech.
Protesters at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai called for a cease-fire, despite restrictions on demonstrations.
Amid concerns about a wider conflict, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen threatened to prevent any ship heading to Israeli ports from passing through the Red Sea and Arabian Sea until food and medicine can enter Gaza freely. Spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said in a speech that all ships heading to Israel, no matter their nationality, will be a target.
The French navy said the frigate Languedoc in the Red Sea shot down two drones Saturday night coming “straight toward it” from a Houthi-held port city. The statement did not say whether the French navy assessed its frigate was the target of the drones.
Meanwhile, Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group claimed responsibility for nine attacks on Saturday, saying one targeted an Israeli post near the town of Metula. The Israeli army said one of its fighter jets struck a Hezbollah operational command center in Lebanon. The U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said the tower of one of its bases along the border with Israel was hit during the skirmishes, with no injuries.
In southern Gaza, thousands were on the run after what residents called a night of heavy gunfire and shelling.
Israel has designated a narrow patch of barren southern coastline, Muwasi, as a safe zone. But Palestinians described desperately overcrowded conditions with scant shelter and no toilets. They faced an overnight temperature of around 11 degrees Celsius (52 degrees Fahrenheit).
“I am sleeping on the sand. It’s freezing,” said Soad Qarmoot, who described herself as a cancer patient forced to leave her home in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.
As she spoke, her children huddled around a fire.
Israel presses on with Gaza bombardments, including in areas where it told civilians to flee
Israeli warplanes struck parts of the Gaza Strip overnight into Saturday in relentless bombardments, including some of the dwindling slivers of land Palestinians had been told to evacuate to in the territory's south.
The latest strikes came a day after the United States vetoed a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, despite it being backed by the vast majority of Security Council members and many other nations. The vote in the 15-member council was 13-1, with the United Kingdom abstaining.
"Attacks from air, land and sea are intense, continuous and widespread," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said before the vote. Gaza residents "are being told to move like human pinballs – ricocheting between ever-smaller slivers of the south, without any of the basics for survival."
Guterres told the council that Gaza was at "a breaking point" with the humanitarian support system at risk of total collapse, and that he feared "the consequences could be devastating for the security of the entire region."
Israel strikes north and south Gaza after US vetoes a UN cease-fire resolution
Gaza's borders with Israel and Egypt are effectively sealed, leaving Palestinians with no option other than to seek refuge within the territory. The overall Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 17,400, the majority of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory, whose counts do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Israel holds Hamas responsible for civilian casualties, accusing the militants of using civilians as human shields, and says it's made considerable efforts with its evacuation orders to get civilians out of harm's way. It has said 93 Israeli soldiers have died since the ground offensive began.
On Saturday, the Israeli military said its forces fought and killed Hamas militants and found weapons inside a school in Shijaiyah in a densely populated neighborhood of Gaza City. It said soldiers discovered a tunnel shaft in the same neighborhood where they found an elevator, and in a separate incident, militants shot at troops from an U.N.-run school in the northern town of Beit Hanoun. Hamas said Saturday it had continued its rocket fire into Israel.
US vetoes UN resolution demanding immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza
Residents reported airstrikes and shelling in Gaza's north and south, including the city of Rafah, which lies near the Egyptian border and where the Israeli army had ordered civilians to move to.
Two hospitals in central and southern Gaza received the bodies of a total of 133 people from Israeli bombings over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said.
Israel has been trying to secure the military's hold on northern Gaza, where furious fighting has underscored heavy resistance from Hamas. Tens of thousands of residents are believed to remain despite evacuation orders, six weeks after troops and tanks rolled in during the war sparked by Hamas' deadly Oct. 7 raid targeting civilians in Israel.
About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Hamas raid, and more than 240 taken hostage. A temporary truce saw hostages and Palestinian prisoners released, but more than 130 hostages are believed to remain in Gaza.
On Saturday, a kibbutz that had come under attack on Oct. 7 announced that 25-year-old hostage Sahar Baruch had died in captivity. His captors said Baruch was killed during a failed rescue mission by Israeli forces early Friday. The Israeli military has only confirmed that two soldiers were seriously wounded in an attempted hostage rescue and that no hostages were freed.
More than 2,200 Palestinians have been killed since the Dec. 1 collapse of the truce, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
With only a trickle of humanitarian aid getting into just a few parts of the Gaza Strip, residents were reporting severe food shortages.
"I am very hungry," said Mustafa al-Najjar, sheltering in a U.N.-run school in the devastated Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. "We are living on canned food and biscuits and this is not sufficient."
UN experts urge States to unite for peace and push for ceasefire in Gaza
While the adults can cope with the hunger, "it's extremely difficult and painful when you see your young son or daughter crying because there are hungry and you are not able to do anything," he said.
Despite growing international pressure, the Biden administration remains opposed to an open-ended cease-fire, arguing it would enable Hamas to continue posing a threat to Israel. Officials have expressed misgivings in recent days about the rising civilian death toll and dire humanitarian crisis, but have not pushed publicly for Israel to wind down the war, now in its third month.
"We have not given a firm deadline to Israel, not really our role," deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told a security forum a day before the U.S. veto in the U.N. Security Council. "That said, we do have influence, even if we don't have ultimate control over what happens on the ground in Gaza."
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant argued that "a cease-fire is handing a prize to Hamas, dismissing the hostages held in Gaza, and signalling terror groups everywhere."
A delegation of foreign ministers from mainly Arab nations and Turkey was in Washington to push the U.S. to drop its objections to an immediate cease-fire. Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Friday ahead of a meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel's bombardment and siege of Gaza is a war crime that is destabilizing the region.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the U.S. veto showed Washington's isolation.
"The American political system is now helpless on issues related to Israel. Therefore, Israel acts recklessly on this issue and continues its oppression.," Fidan told Turkey's state-run news agency Anadolu and broadcaster TRT.
Fidan and the Palestinian, Saudi, Indonesian, Egyptian, Jordanian, Qatari and Nigerian ministers met with Blinken to press for an end to the fighting, while the group is to meet Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Minister Melanie Joly on Saturday.
As fighting resumed after a brief truce more than a week ago, the U.S. urged Israel to do more to protect civilians and allow more aid to besieged Gaza. The appeals came as Israel expanded its blistering air and ground campaign into southern Gaza, especially Khan Younis, sending tens of thousands more fleeing.
"It was a night of heavy gunfire and shelling as every night," Taha Abdel-Rahman, a Khan Younis resident, said by phone early Saturday.
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Airstrikes were reported overnight in the Nuseirat refugee camp, where resident Omar Abu Moghazi said a family home was hit, causing casualties.
Israel has designated a narrow patch of barren coastline in the south, Muwasi, as a safe zone. But Palestinians who have headed there portrayed a grim picture of desperately overcrowded conditions with scant shelter and poor hygiene facilities.
"We didn't see anything good here at all. We are living here in a tough cold. There are no bathrooms. We are sleeping on the sand," said Soad Qarmoot, who was forced to leave her home in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.
"I am a cancer patient," Qarmoot said late Friday as children circled a wood fire for warmth. "There is no mattress for me to sleep on. I am sleeping on the sand. It's freezing."
Imad al-Talateeny, a displaced man from Gaza City, said the area lacks basic services to accommodate the growing number of displaced families.
"I lack everything to feel a human," he said, adding that he had a peaceful, comfortable life before the war in Gaza City. "Here I'm not safe. Here I live in a desert. There is no gas, no water. The water that we drink is polluted water."
Israel strikes north and south Gaza after US vetoes a UN cease-fire resolution
Israel pounded areas of the Gaza Strip with airstrikes and artillery on Saturday, a day after the United States vetoed a U.N. resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for the first time invoked Article 99 of the U.N. Charter, which enables a U.N. chief to raise threats he sees to international peace and security. He warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza. But U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood said on Friday that halting military action would allow Hamas to continue to rule Gaza and “only plant the seeds for the next war.”
The war was triggered by Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, in which militants from Gaza killed about 1,200, most of them civilians and took more than 240 people hostage.
US vetoes UN resolution demanding immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll in the territory has surpassed 17,400 over the past two months, with more than 46,000 wounded. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but said 70% of the dead were women and children.
Desperation grows among Palestinians trapped with little aid as Israel battles Hamas in Gaza
Desperation grew Thursday among Palestinians largely cut off from supplies of food and water as Israeli forces engaged in fierce urban battles with Hamas militants. Strikes in the southern Gaza town of Rafah sowed fear in one of the last places where civilians could seek refuge.
United Nations officials say there are no safe places in Gaza nearly a week after Israel widened its offensive into the southern half of the territory. Heavy fighting in and around the city of Khan Younis has displaced tens of thousands of people and cut most of Gaza off from aid deliveries. More than 80% of the territory's population has already fled their homes.
Two months into the war, the grinding offensive has triggered renewed international alarm. U.N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres used a rarely exercised power to warn the Security Council of an impending "humanitarian catastrophe," and Arab and Islamic nations called for a vote Friday on a draft Council resolution demanding a humanitarian cease-fire.
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Gutteres explicitly cited Article 99 of the U.N. Charter, which allows the secretary-general to bring to the council's attention any matter that he believes threatens international peace and security. The power has only been used a handful of times in the history of the world body.
The United States, Israel's closest ally, appears likely to block any U.N. effort to halt the fighting. Still, U.S. concern over the devastation was growing. Before the southern offensive, U.S. officials told Israel it must limit civilian deaths and displacement, saying too many Palestinians were killed when it obliterated much of Gaza City and the north.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said casualties are still too high in a call with Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, a senior State Department official said. Blinken told Dermer that Israel must also do more to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private diplomatic discussion.
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Speaking at a joint news conference in Washington with visiting British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, Blinken said it remains imperative that Israel put a premium on civilian protection.
"And there does remain a gap between exactly what I said when I was there (last week) between the intent to protect civilians and the actual results that we're seeing on the ground," he said.
Israel says it must crush Hamas' military capabilities and remove it from power following the Oct. 7 attack that ignited the war.
In photos and video published Thursday, at least 100 Palestinian men are seen sitting in rows on a street in northern Gaza, stripped down to their underwear with their heads bowed as they are being guarded by Israeli troops. The Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news outlet said its correspondent Diaa Al-Kahlout was among those detained and had been taken to an unknown location.
The images were the first showing such detentions in the Israeli-Hamas war. Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said troops have detained and interrogated hundreds of people in Gaza suspected of militant links.
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS WORSENS
In a sign of the growing desperation, thousands of Palestinians crushed together Thursday waiting to receive aid at a U.N. distribution center in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, the crowds growing more frantic as they swelled. Rami Ashour, one those waiting, said he left when it seemed hopeless his turn would come to pick up a ration of flour.
Residents said the chaotic scene has become common in Deir al-Balah, where a trickle of humanitarian aid is met by hordes of hungry and exhausted families sheltering in U.N. schools or with relatives. The World Food Program has warned of a "catastrophic hunger crisis."
"There are 8,000 people in this shelter, and any vegetables disappear before I see them because people seize everything so fast," said Mazen Junaid, a father of six from northern Gaza.
Deir al-Balah is trapped between ground fighting in northern Gaza and in Khan Younis to the south, and it has continued to come under bombardment. Another 115 bodies arrived at the town's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital over the past 24 hours, the international aid group Doctors Without Borders said.
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"The hospital is full, the morgue is full," the group said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Only a few trucks have managed to reach central Gaza in recent days because fighting has largely prevented aid groups from distributing beyond the area of Rafah, at Gaza's far southern end by the Egypt border, the U.N. said. Meanwhile, entry of aid from Egypt has slowed.
Rafah is part of the rapidly shrinking area where civilians can seek shelter, and tens of thousands of people have flowed into it from Khan Younis and elsewhere.
The town, normally home to around 280,000 people, was already hosting more than 470,000 displaced people. Shelters and homes have overflowed, and many people have been sleeping in tents or in the streets. Across Gaza, 1.87 million people — over 80% of the population of 2.3 million — have been driven from their homes.
Even in Rafah, safety has proven elusive. Several strikes hit late Wednesday and early Thursday, sending a wave of wounded and dead streaming into a nearby hospital.
The Israeli military accused militants of firing rockets from open areas near Rafah. It released footage of a strike Wednesday on what it said were launchers positioned outside the town and a few hundred meters (yards) from a U.N. warehouse.
Israel's campaign has killed more than 17,100 people in Gaza — 70% of them women and children — and wounded more than 46,000, according to the territory's Health Ministry, which says many others are trapped under rubble. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.
Hamas and other militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war and resulted in the taking of some 240 people hostage. An estimated 138 hostages remain in Gaza, mostly soldiers and civilian men, after 105 were freed during a cease-fire in late November.
BATTLES IN NORTH AND SOUTH
Troops have pushed into Khan Younis, Gaza's second-largest city, which Israeli officials have portrayed as Hamas' center of gravity — something they previously said was in Gaza City and its Shifa Hospital.
In the afternoon, a strike in the center of Khan Younis left a large field of rubble, and survivors said many people were believed buried underneath. Rescuers pulled bloodied women and children from the shells of gutted buildings.
The military said Thursday that it struck dozens of militant targets in Khan Younis, including a tunnel shaft from which fighters had launched an attack.
Heavy fighting was also still underway in the northern refugee camp of Jabaliya, even after two months of bombardment and encirclement by ground troops. The Israeli military said troops raided a militant compound, killing a number of fighters and uncovering a network of tunnels.
The military reported "close-quarter combat" in the nearby district of Shujaiya, including militants found in a tunnel under a school. The reports could not be independently confirmed.
In the evening, a seven-story building in Gaza City's Rimal district was leveled with dozens of people inside, but with medical services collapsed in the north, no ambulances arrived, a neighbor said.
Israel blames the high civilian death toll on Hamas, accusing it of using them as human shields in residential areas. But Israel has not given detailed accounts of its individual strikes, some of which have destroyed entire city blocks.
Israel says some 5,000 militants have been killed, without saying how it arrived at that count. The military says 87 of its soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive.
An anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon into northern Israel killed an Israeli man, the emergency services said. Hezbollah said its fighters attacked Israeli military posts along the border. Israel responded with intense strikes with helicopters, tanks and artillery, the military said.
Hezbollah and other militants in Lebanon have been exchanging fire nearly daily with Israeli forces over the border. Visiting a northern base Thursday, Netanyahu warned that if Hezbollah escalates to all-out war, Israel's response will be to "turn Beirut and southern Lebanon … into Gaza and Khan Yunis."