Israel's military struck what it says was a Hamas position inside a U.N.-run school in northern Gaza. Palestinian emergency officials said three people were killed.
The attack Friday came a day after an Israeli strike on a U.N. school in central Gaza killed at least 33 people, including 12 women and children, according to local health officials. The Israeli military said in that case as well that Hamas militants were operating from within the school, which the U.N. said was sheltering displaced Palestinian families.
International pressure is mounting on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in its war against Hamas. The top United Nations court has concluded there is a 鈥減lausible risk of genocide鈥� in Gaza 鈥� a charge Israel strongly denies.
As the war completed its eighth month on Friday, Gaza鈥檚 Health Ministry said Israel鈥檚 campaign has killed more than 36,730 people. The Health Ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. The war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians who are facing widespread hunger. United Nations agencies say over 1 million in Gaza could experience the highest level of starvation by mid-July.
Israel launched the war after Hamas鈥� Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people 鈥� mostly civilians 鈥� and abducted about 250. Around 80 hostages captured on Oct. 7 are believed to still be alive in Gaza, alongside the remains of 43 others.
Here's the latest:
Israel lists names of 17 alleged militants killed
JERUSALEM 鈥� Israel鈥檚 military said Friday an additional eight militants were among those killed in a strike on a U.N.-run school in central Gaza, raising the number of alleged militants to 17.
The army released the names of the militants it said were killed in Thursday's strike. However, only nine of those names matched with records of the dead from the hospital morgue.
One of the names Israel listed as a militant was an 8-year-old boy, Shaheen Mahmoud Ibrahim Abu Sharif, according to the hospital records. Two boys on the morgue鈥檚 list, age 10 and 14, had names that suggested they were sons of a man Israel identified as a slain militant, although he was not listed among the hospital's dead.
The AP could not independently confirm whether any names on the Israeli list were militants.
The army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the discrepancy Friday evening.
The strike in Nuseirat refugee camp on Thursday killed over 33 people inside the school, including three women and nine children, according to reports at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
Israel said Thursday that some 30 militants were inside the school at the time. The military said it was unaware of any civilian casualties.
Some 6,000 people were sheltering in the school when it was hit, according to Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. agency that cares for Palestinian refugees.
Israel and Hamas violating children's rights: UN
UNITED NATIONS -- The UN secretary-general will list Israel and Hamas as violating the rights and protection of children in armed conflict in an upcoming annual report to the Security Council.
According to the preface of last year's report, listed parties engaged in "the killing and maiming of children" and in "attacks on schools, hospitals and protected persons in relation to schools and/or hospitals."
The head of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' office, Courtenay Rattray, called Israel's UN Ambassador, Gilad Erdan, on Friday to inform him that Israel would be listed on the next report when it is sent to the council within a few weeks, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad is also are being listed.
"Israel reacted with outrage, sending news organizations a video of Erdan berating Rattray, supposedly on the other end of a phone call.
Israel raises number of alleged militants killed
JERUSALEM 鈥� Israel鈥檚 military said says identified an additional eight militants among those killed in a strike on a U.N.-run school in central Gaza, raising the total number of alleged militants killed in the strike to 17.
The announcement Friday came a day after Israel said nine of the people killed in the strike were militants. Israel released the names of those it said were militants among the dead, but The Associated Press could not verify the claim.
The strike Thursday killed over 33 people inside the school in central Gaza, including three women and nine children, according to hospital reports.
Israel said Thursday that some 30 militants were sheltering inside the school at the time. The military said it was unaware of any civilian casualties.
Some 6,000 people were sheltering in the school when it was hit, according to Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. agency that cares for Palestinian refugees.
Blinken to visit Mideast
WASHINGTON 鈥� U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is returning to the Middle East on his eighth diplomatic mission to the region since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began in October.
The State Department says Blinken, who is currently in France accompanying President Joe Biden on a state visit, will fly from Paris to Cairo on Monday before traveling to Israel, Jordan and Qatar. Blinken will then go to Italy to join Biden at a G7 summit.
The lightning tour comes as the Biden administration is pushing hard for Hamas to accept a three-phase cease-fire proposal that would see the release of hostages held by the group and potentially pave the way for an end to the conflict and the reconstruction of Gaza.
However, Blinken may have trouble selling the proposal 鈥� or at least its implementation 鈥� to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Although the deal has been described as an Israeli initiative, some members of Netanyahu鈥檚 far-right coalition government are strongly opposed to it. And Netanyahu himself has expressed skepticism, saying what has been presented publicly is not accurate and rejecting calls for Israel to cease all fighting until Hamas is eradicated.
Hamas has said it viewed the offer 鈥減ositively鈥� and called on Israel to declare an explicit commitment to an agreement that includes a permanent cease-fire, a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, a prisoner exchange and other conditions.
Biden, Blinken and other U.S. officials have also lobbied Arab nations to use what influence they have with Hamas to get the Palestinian militant group to accept the deal. So far, there has been no definitive response since Biden announced the deal last week.
Israeli strike kills 3
JERUSALEM 鈥� The Israeli military says it struck a Hamas position inside a U.N.-run school in northern Gaza. Palestinian emergency officials said three people were killed.
The attack Friday came a day after an Israeli strike on a U.N. school in central Gaza killed at least 33 people, including 12 women and children, according to local health officials. The Israeli military said in that case as well that Hamas militants were operating from within the school.
Friday鈥檚 airstrike targeted the Asmaa School in the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza, a facility run by the U.N. agency that cares for Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA.
The Israeli military said it hit a shipping container on the grounds of the school that Hamas was using as a meeting point to plan attacks. It said one militant was killed. Israel's claims could not be independently confirmed.
The Palestinian Civil Defense said three people were killed in the strike, without giving details on their identity.
More than 180 United Nations facilities have been damaged during Israel鈥檚 campaign of bombardment and ground offensives across Gaza, according to UNRWA. Most of them have been schools, which have turned into shelters for tens of thousands of people fleeing the violence. Israel accuses Hamas of using schools and other civilian infrastructure to position its fighters, weapons and command posts.
As the war completed its eighth month on Friday, Gaza鈥檚 Health Ministry said Israel鈥檚 campaign has killed more than 36,730 people. Its count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The Israeli army says it follows international law and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, saying militants operate among the population. The Geneva Conventions say civilians must not be targeted deliberately or indiscriminately, and military operations must be proportionate.
American pier reconnected to beach
WASHINGTON 鈥� The U.S. military-built pier designed to carry badly needed aid into Gaza by boat has been reconnected to the beach after a section broke apart in storms and rough seas, U.S. Central Command announced Friday, saying food and other supplies will begin to flow soon.
The section that connects to the beach in Gaza, the causeway, was rebuilt nearly two weeks after heavy storms damaged it and abruptly halted what had already been a troubled delivery route.
Central Command Vice Admiral Brad Cooper said operations at the reconnected pier will be ramped up soon with a goal to get a million pounds of food and other supplies moving through the pier into Gaza every two days.
The pier was only operational for a week before a storm broke it apart, and had initially struggled to reach delivery goals.
The maritime route for a limited time had been an additional way to help get more aid into Gaza because the Israeli offensive in the southern city of Rafah has made it difficult, if not impossible at times, to get anything through land routes that are far more productive. Israel鈥檚 Rafah invasion and strikes in northern Gaza had also temporarily halted U.S. airdrops of food.
Cooper said Friday the U.S. also expects to resume those airdrops in the coming days.
Several wounded in West Bank fire
RAMALLAH 鈥� Several people were wounded when settlers set fire to a northern West Bank village, a local official said Friday.
Hani Odeh, head of Qusra鈥檚 municipality council, told The Associated Press that settlers set fire in the area Thursday night, attacking houses, burning warehouses and destroying trees.
Videos seen by The Associated Press show several fires blazing with plumes of smoke in the air. Three people were injured, one by live ammunition and the others by live bullets, said Odeh.
The army told the AP that Israeli civilians lit Palestinian property on fire Thursday evening. It said there was a violent confrontation between Israeli civilians and Palestinians with mutual rock throwing and the army dispersed them by firing shots in the air.
Violence has surged in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since Hamas鈥� Oct. 7 attack triggered the war in Gaza.
The Health Ministry, part of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, says around 530 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war.
18 killed in overnight airstrikes
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza 鈥� Palestinian health officials say at least 18 people were killed, including children, in Israeli airstrikes overnight across Central Gaza.
Strikes hit the Nuseirat and Maghazi refugee camps and Deir al-Balah and Zawaiyda towns, they said Friday. The bodies were taken to the al-Aqsa hospital where an Associated Press journalist counted them.
Four children and one woman were among those killed as well as the mayor of the Nuseirat municipality, according to hospital records.
Israel鈥檚 army said Friday it was continuing operations in parts of Central Gaza including eastern Bureji and Deir al-Balah. It said its troops had killed dozens of militants, located tunnel shafts and destroyed infrastructure in the area.
The strikes come a day after at least 33 people were killed at a United Nations-run school sheltering displaced Palestinian families. Israel said the school was being used as a Hamas compound, without providing evidence.
Israel鈥檚 military said it was not aware of any civilian casualties in the strike on the school in Nuseirat refugee camp, and later said it had confirmed killing nine militants.
Unemployment nears 80 per cent: UN
JERUSALEM 鈥� Unemployment in Gaza has reached nearly 80 per cent since the war erupted eight months ago, a new United Nations report said Friday.
The United Nations International Labour Organization and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said the war has plunged Gaza as well as the West Bank into economic crisis. In Gaza, virtually the entire private sector ground to a halt or significantly reduced, losing more than 85 per cent of its production value -- the equivalent of more than US$810 million-- during the first half of the war, said the report.
In the West Bank, unemployment reached 32 per cent bringing the average rate across both areas to more than 50 per cent. The findings don鈥檛 include people who left the workforce because they couldn鈥檛 find jobs.
This is the fourth report since the war began on Oct 7. when Hamas militants stormed southern Israel killing some 1,200 people.
A separate report last month by the UN said the unprecedented destruction from the war in Gaza would take at least until 2040 to restore
U.S. urged to stop sending weapons
The U.S. civil rights group NAACP has called on the Biden administration to end the shipment of weapons to Israel for use in attacks on Gaza.
It said Thursday that President Joe Biden鈥檚 three-stage proposal for a ceasefire and the return of Israeli hostages held by Hamas does not go far enough.
鈥淥ver the past months, we have been forced to bear witness to unspeakable violence, affecting innocent civilians, which is unacceptable,鈥� President and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement. 鈥淚t is one thing to call for a ceasefire, it is another to take the measures necessary to work towards liberation for all.鈥�
The group also urged an end of artillery shipments to states that supply weapons to Hamas.
The NAACP appears to be the first legacy U.S. civil rights organization to call for a ceasefire. However, racial justice activists and the Black Lives Matter movement have been calling for a ceasefire since shortly after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Militants killed about 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage in the attack.
Since Israel鈥檚 offensive in response to that attack, over 36,000 Palestinians have died according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
Gaza ceasefire resolution circulated
UNITED NATIONS 鈥� The United States has circulated a revised Security Council draft resolution that says a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza must be agreed to by Israel and Hamas.
It also spells out a three-phase plan to end the eight-month war and start the reconstruction of the devastated Gaza Strip that it says Israel has accepted and calls on Hamas to accept.
In exchange for the agreement by both parties to a permanent ceasefire, the plan says all Israeli hostages in Gaza will be released and all Israeli forces will withdraw from Gaza.
But Israel is privately objecting to its close ally鈥檚 latest attempt to stop the war.
An Israeli official told The Associated Press that the language overlooks Israel鈥檚 stated aim of destroying Hamas as a military force. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussion.
Because Israel believes that Hamas will engage in future military attacks, it is wary of signing a document that specifically stipulates a ceasefire, the official said. That language has a more permanent implication than a 鈥渃essation of hostilities,鈥� which has also been mentioned in draft discussions.
Israel also objects to proposed language that 鈥渞ejects any attempt at demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip.鈥�
That includes 鈥渁ctions that reduce the territory of Gaza, such as through the permanent establishment officially or unofficially of so-called buffer zones,鈥� which Israel has already said it plans.
Far-right members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu鈥檚 government have threatened to bring down the coalition if he signs onto a ceasefire deal.
Egyptian and Qatari mediators have told top Biden administration officials in the Middle East that they expect Hamas will submit its formal response to the latest hostage and ceasefire offer in the coming days, according to a U.S. official.
The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said ongoing talks in Doha and Cairo have been constructive, but that Hamas has still not delivered its formal response to the three-phase deal that President Joe Biden outlined last week.
Hamas has said it viewed the offer 鈥減ositively鈥� and called on Israel to declare an explicit commitment to the agreement.
More than a dozen countries joined the U.S. in a statement Thursday to show support for the proposed deal.
Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer, Michael Weissenstein and Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.
Fewer women, children killed at school
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip 鈥� The hospital where bodies were brought after an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in the Gaza Strip has amended its records to show that fewer women and children were among those killed.
The Israeli military says it carried out a precise strike Thursday on three classrooms in the UN-run school where it says around 30 Palestinian militants were planning and orchestrating attacks. It said it has confirmed killing nine militants.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital initially reported that nine women and 14 children were among 33 people killed in the strike on the school.
The hospital morgue later amended those records to show that the dead included three women, nine children and 21 men. It was not immediately clear what caused the discrepancy.
Spain applies to join genocide case
MADRID 鈥� Spain will ask a United Nations court for permission to join South Africa鈥檚 case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, its foreign minister announced.
Spain is the first European country to take the step after South Africa filed its case with the International Court of Justice in late 2023. It alleged that Israel was breaching the genocide convention in its military assault that has laid waste to large swaths of Gaza.
Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua, Libya and the Palestinians have already requested to join the case currently being heard at the court in The Hague, Netherlands.
The court has ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah but stopped short of ordering a ceasefire for the enclave. Israel has not complied.
Spain鈥檚 request on Thursday to join the case is the latest move by the government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to support peacemaking efforts in Gaza.
