middle-east
Israeli airstrikes killed 10 Lebanese civilians in a single day
The civilian death toll from two Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon has risen to 10, Lebanese state media reported Thursday, making the previous day the deadliest in more than four months of cross-border exchanges.
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate for Wednesday's strikes, which hit in the city of Nabatiyeh and a village in southern Lebanon, just hours after projectiles from Lebanon killed an Israeli soldier.
More Israeli strikes were reported in south Lebanon on Thursday and Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the escalation.
Read: Protesting Indian farmers clash with police for a second day as they march toward the capital
“At a time where we are insisting on calm and call all sides to not escalate, we find the Israeli enemy extending its aggression,” read a statement from his office.
The Israeli military said Thursday's strikes targeted Hezbollah infrastructure and launch posts.
In Nabatiyeh, the strike knocked down part of a building, killing seven members of the family, including a child, the state-run National News Agency said. A boy initially reported missing was found alive under the rubble. Initial reports had said four people were killed.
Hussein Badir, a neighbor of the Berjawi family that was killed in the strike, said he and other neighbors had rushed to the street to dig through the rubble. He said the family was “decent and respectable" and "not involved in anything.”
For Badir, the strike brought back memories of Israeli bombardment during its 2006 war with Hezbollah and also during a 1996 offensive.
“Nobody is doing anything to help us,” he said. “It’s our right to defend ourselves in our country in Lebanon.”
Read: Gaza cease-fire and hostage release talks appear to stall as Netanyahu blames Hamas
In the village of Souaneh, a woman and her two young children were killed. The Lebanese civilian death toll included six women and three children while three Hezbollah fighters were also killed.
Earlier Wednesday, the fire from Lebanon struck the northern Israeli town of Safed, killing a female Israeli soldier and wounding eight others, all soldiers, according to the Israeli military, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strikes in Lebanon.
Hezbollah did not claim the strike in Safed.
Senior Hezbollah official Sheikh Nabil Kaouk said at an event Thursday in southern Lebanon that the militant group was “prepared for the possibility of expanding the war” and would meet “escalation with escalation, displacement with displacement, and destruction with destruction.”
The fatalities marked a significant escalation in more than four months of daily cross-border exchanges triggered by the Oct. 7 outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The war began with the surprise attack in southern Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, an ally of Hezbollah.
Government institutions, schools and Lebanese University were to close on Thursday in protest of the airstrikes.
Gaza cease-fire and hostage release talks appear to stall as Netanyahu blames Hamas
International efforts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas suffered a setback on Wednesday as Israel reportedly recalled its negotiating team and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of hobbling the high-stakes negotiations by sticking to “delusional” demands.
Netanyahu's remarks came hours after local media reported that the Israeli leader had ordered an Israeli delegation not to continue talks in Cairo, raising concerns over the fate of the negotiations and sparking criticism from the families of the roughly 130 remaining captives, about a fourth of whom are said to be dead.
The relatives of the hostages said Netanyahu's decision amounted to a “death sentence” for their loved ones.
The mediation efforts, steered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar, have been working to bring the warring sides toward an agreement that might secure a truce in the monthslong war, which has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to local health officials. The fighting has destroyed vast parts of Gaza, displaced most of the territory's population and sparked a humanitarian catastrophe.
“In Cairo, Israel did not receive any new proposal from Hamas on the release of our captives,” Netanyahu said in a statement. "A change in Hamas' positions will allow progress in the negotiations."
Hamas officials had no immediate comment.
On Tuesday, CIA chief William Burns and David Barnea, the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, attended the talks in the Egyptian capital, but there were no signs of a breakthrough. The talks continued Wednesday at a lower level, even as deadly violence persisted both in the Gaza Strip and along Israel's border with Lebanon, where fighting has simmered since the war broke out.
Israeli media reported Wednesday that Netanyahu told his delegation not to return to the talks unless Hamas softens its demands.
The sides have been far apart on their terms for a deal. Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until “total victory” over Hamas and the return of all the remaining hostages.
Hamas has said it will not release all the captives until Israel ends its offensive, withdraws from Gaza and releases a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including top militants. Netanyahu has rejected those demands, calling them “delusional.”
The plight of the hostages has deeply shaken Israelis, who see their lengthy captivity as an enduring symbol of the failure of the state to protect its citizens from Hamas' attack.
A group representing the families of the hostages called Netanyahu's reported decision to keep the delegation away from the talks “scandalous” and said the families would set up a “mass barricade” outside the Israeli Defense Ministry unless Netanyahu agreed to meet them.
Over 100 hostages were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November in return for 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
The war, which erupted after Hamas launched a surprise attack into Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 captive, ground on even as the talks appeared to be stalling.
Palestinians began evacuating the main hospital in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, according to videos shared by medics Wednesday. Weeks of heavy fighting had isolated the medical facility and claimed the lives of several people inside it.
Now in its fifth month, the war has devastated Gaza's health sector, with less than half of its hospitals only partially functioning as scores of people are killed and wounded in daily bombardments. Israel accuses the militants of using hospitals and other civilian buildings as cover.
Khan Younis is now the main target of a rolling ground offensive that Israel has said will soon be expanded to Gaza’ southernmost city of Rafah. Some 1.4 million people — over half the territory’s population — are crammed into tent camps and overflowing apartments and shelters in Rafah, on the Egyptian border.
The videos of the evacuation in Khan Younis showed dozens of Palestinians carrying their belongings in sacks and making their way out of the Nasser Hospital complex. A doctor wearing green hospital scrubs walked ahead of the crowd, some of whom were carrying white flags.
The Israeli military said it had opened a secure route to allow civilians to leave the hospital, while medics and patients could remain inside. Troops have been ordered to “prioritize the safety of civilians, patients, medical workers, and medical facilities during the operation,” it said.
The military had ordered the evacuation of the hospital and surrounding areas last month. But as with other health facilities, medics said patients were unable to safely leave or be relocated, and thousands of people displaced by fighting elsewhere remained there. Palestinians say nowhere is safe in the besieged territory, as Israel continues to carry out strikes in all parts of it.
The Gaza Health Ministry said last week that Israeli snipers on surrounding buildings were preventing people from entering or leaving the hospital. It said 10 people have been killed inside the complex over the past week, including three shot and killed on Tuesday.
The ministry says around 300 medical staff were treating some 450 patients, including people wounded in strikes. It says 10,000 displaced people were sheltering in the facility.
The war in Gaza has become one of the deadliest and most destructive air and ground offensives in recent history. At least 28,576 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Over 68,000 people have been wounded in the war.
Around 80% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes, large areas in northern Gaza have been completely destroyed and a humanitarian crisis has left a quarter of the population starving.
In northern Israel, meanwhile, a rocket attack killed a female soldier, the Israeli military said, and wounded eight people when one of the projectiles hit a military base in the town of Safed on Wednesday.
Israel carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon in response, killing four people, including a Syrian woman and her two Lebanese children, and wounding at least nine, Lebanese security officials and local media said.
The U.N. children’s agency condemned the killings of “two innocent children" and called "for the protection of children in times of war and at all times.”
Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, which supports Hamas, have traded fire along the border nearly every day since the start of the war in Gaza, raising the risk of a wider conflict. Hezbollah did not immediately claim responsibility for the rocket attack.
Blasts hit a natural gas pipeline in Iran that an official says was an act of sabotage
Explosions struck a natural gas pipeline in Iran early Wednesday, with an official blaming the blasts on a “sabotage and terrorist action” in the country as tensions remain high in the Middle East amid Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Details were scarce, though the blasts hit a natural gas pipeline running from Iran's western Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province up north to cities on the Caspian Sea. The roughly 1,270-kilometer (790-mile) pipeline begins in Asaluyeh, a hub for Iran's offshore South Pars gas field.
Saeed Aghli, the manager of Iran's gas network control center, told Iranian state television that a “sabotage and terrorist” action caused explosions along several areas of the line.
Israel and Hamas making progress in Cairo ceasefire talks, officials say
There are no known insurgent groups operating in that province, home to the Bakhtiari, a branch of Iran's Lur ethnic group. Aghli did not name any suspects in the blasts.
In the past, Arab separatists in southwestern Iran have claimed attacks against oil pipelines. However, attacks against such infrastructure are rare elsewhere.
Iran has faced low-level separatist unrest from Kurds in its northwest, the Baluch in its east and Arabs in its southwest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
However, tensions have risen in recent years as Iran faces an economy hobbled by international sanctions over its nuclear program. The country has faced years of mass demonstrations, most recently in 2022 over the death of Mahsa Amini after her arrest allegedly over how she wore her mandatory headscarf.
Meanwhile, Israel has carried out attacks in Iran, but have predominantly targeted its nuclear program. On Tuesday, the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog warned that Iran is “not entirely transparent” regarding its atomic program, particularly after an official who once led Tehran’s program announced the Islamic Republic has all the pieces for a weapon “in our hands.”
Yemen's Houthi rebels fire missiles at ship bound for Iran, their main supporter
Tensions over Iran's nuclear program comes as militias it arms in the region — Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels — have launched attacks targeting Israel during the war in Gaza. The Houthis continue to attack commercial shipping in the region, sparking repeated airstrikes from the U.S. and the United Kingdom.
Israel and Hamas making progress in Cairo ceasefire talks, officials say
Israel and Hamas are making progress toward another cease-fire and hostage-release deal, officials said Tuesday, as negotiations went on and Israel threatened to expand its offensive to Gaza's southern edge, where some 1.4 million Palestinians have sought refuge.
The talks continued in Egypt a day after Israeli forces rescued two captives in Rafah, the packed southern town along the Egyptian border, in a raid that killed at least 74 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and caused heavy destruction. The operation offered a glimpse of what a full-blown ground advance might look like.
A cease-fire deal, on the other hand, would give people in Gaza a desperately needed respite from the war, now in its fifth month, and offer freedom for at least some of the estimated 100 people still held captive in Gaza. Qatar, the United States and Egypt have sought to broker a deal in the face of starkly disparate positions expressed publicly by both Israel and Hamas.
Israel has made destroying Hamas’ governing and military capabilities and freeing the hostages the main goals of its war, which was launched after thousands of Hamas-led militants rampaged through southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 people captive. Tens of thousands of Israelis were displaced from destroyed communities.
The war has brought unprecedented destruction to the Gaza Strip, with more than 28,000 people killed, more than 70% of them women and minors, according to local health officials. Vast swaths of the territory have been flattened by Israel's offensive, around 80% of the population has been displaced and a humanitarian catastrophe has pushed more than a quarter of the population toward starvation.
In other developments, South Africa, which has lodged genocide allegations against Israel at the International Court of Justice, said Tuesday that it filed an “urgent request” with the court to consider whether Israel's military operations in Rafah constitute a breach of provisional orders handed down by the justices last month. Those orders called on Israel to take greater measures to spare civilians.
Israel has adamantly denied the genocide allegations and says it is carrying out operations in accordance with international law. It blames Hamas for the high death toll because the militants operate in dense residential areas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press on until “total victory,” and has insisted that military pressure will help free the hostages. But the rescued hostages, 60-year-old Fernando Marman and 70-year-old Louis Har, were just the second and third captives to be freed by the military since the war erupted.
Other Israeli officials have said only a deal can bring about the release of large numbers of hostages.
Over 100 were freed in exchange for 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a weeklong truce last year. Three hostages were killed erroneously by Israeli forces in December and one female Israeli soldier was freed in a rescue mission in the early weeks of the war. Israeli officials say around 30 hostages taken on Oct. 7 have died, either during the initial attack or in captivity.
BRIDGING THE GAPSA senior Egyptian official said mediators have achieved “relatively significant” progress ahead of a meeting Tuesday in Cairo of representatives from Qatar, the U.S. and Israel. The official said the meeting would focus on “crafting a final draft” of a six-week cease-fire deal, with guarantees that the parties would continue negotiations toward a permanent cease-fire.
CIA chief William Burns and David Barnea, head of Israel's Mossad spy agency, attended the Cairo talks. Both men played a key role in brokering the previous cease-fire.
A Western diplomat in the Egyptian capital also said a six-week deal was on the table but cautioned that more work is still needed to reach an agreement. The diplomat said the meeting Tuesday would be crucial in bridging the remaining gaps.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive talks with the media.
While the officials did not disclose the precise details of the emerging deal, the sides have been discussing varying proposals for weeks.
Israel has proposed a two-month cease-fire in which hostages would be freed in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, and top Hamas leaders in Gaza would be allowed to relocate to other countries.
Hamas rejected those terms. It laid out a three-phase plan of 45 days each in which the hostages would be released in stages, Israel would free hundreds of imprisoned Palestinians, including senior militants, and the war would wind down, with Israel withdrawing its troops. That was viewed as a non-starter for Israel, which wants to topple Hamas before ending the war.
But President Joe Biden signaled Monday that a deal might be within reach.
“The key elements of the deal are on the table,” Biden said alongside visiting Jordanian King Abdullah II, adding, “there are gaps that remain.” He said the U.S. would do “everything possible” to make an agreement happen.
DEATH TOLL MOUNTSThe signs of progress came despite ongoing fighting.
Palestinians were still counting the dead after Israel’s hostage rescue mission as the death toll climbed Tuesday to 74. Residents and displaced Palestinians in Gaza were searching through the rubble from Israeli airstrikes that provided cover for the rescue mission.
Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab broadcaster funded by Qatar, said an Israeli airstrike in Rafah wounded two of its journalists, with one having to undergo an amputation. It identified the wounded as cameraman Ahmad Matar and reporter Ismail Abu Omar. It was unclear when the strike took place, and the Israeli military had no immediate comment.
While concerns have grown over Rafah because it is sheltering such a large number of Palestinians, fighting continued throughout the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said troops were battling militants in Gaza’s second-largest city, Khan Younis, and in central Gaza. It said Tuesday that three soldiers were killed in combat, raising the death toll among troops since the Gaza ground operation began in late October to 232.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the bodies of 133 people killed in Israeli strikes were brought to hospitals over the past day. The fatalities brought the death toll in Gaza to 28,473 since the war began on Oct. 7, according to the ministry, which says more than 68,000 people have been wounded.
China calls on Israel to halt military operations in Gaza as soon as possible
China on Tuesday called on Israel to halt military operations in Gaza as soon as possible, a day after Israeli forces rescued two hostages from the Gaza Strip in a dramatic operation that also killed at least 74 Palestinians, according to Palestinian hospital officials.
The raid took place in Rafah, the city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip where 1.4 million Palestinians have fled to escape fighting elsewhere in the Israel-Hamas war. Women and children were among those killed in the airstrikes, Palestinian officials said.
China's Foreign Ministry added in a brief statement on Tuesday that Israel should "do everything possible to avoid casualties among innocent civilians and prevent a more devastating humanitarian disaster in Rafah."
The Palestinian death toll from the war has surpassed 28,000 people, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. A quarter of Gaza's residents are starving.
The war began with Hamas' assault into Israel on Oct. 7, in which militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. Israel says about 100 hostages remain in Hamas captivity, while Hamas is holding the remains of roughly 30 others who were either killed on Oct. 7 or died in captivity. Three hostages were mistakenly killed by the army after escaping their captors in December.
CHINA CALLS ON ISRAEL TO STOP MILITARY OPERATIONS IN GAZA AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
BEIJING — China has called on Israel to halt military operations in Gaza as soon as possible following a raid that rescued two hostages and killed at least 74 Palestinians.
The Foreign Ministry in Beijing added in a brief statement on Tuesday that Israel should "do everything possible to avoid casualties among innocent civilians and prevent a more devastating humanitarian disaster in Rafah."
Israel has signaled its ground offensive may soon target Rafah, the town where the hostages were freed by the raid.
China has consistently opposed the Israeli offensive, calling from the start for a cease-fire and talks to find a permanent solution to the crisis.
HEALTH MINISTRY IN GAZA SAYS 133 BODIES BROUGHT TO HOSPITALS IN THE PAST DAY
CAIRO — The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the bodies of 133 people killed in Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals in the war-wrecked territory over the past day.
Hospitals also received 162 wounded patients, the ministry said.
Also Tuesday, the death toll from an Israeli hostage rescue operation in the town of Rafah rose to 74, according to Dr. Marawan al-Hams, director of the local Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital. Israeli forces conducting the operation, which freed two hostages, were backed by heavy airstrikes on the town, to where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have fled.
The fresh fatalities brought the death toll in Gaza to 28,473 since the war began on Oct. 7, according to the ministry.
The ministry doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says more than 70% of the dead are women and minors. Israel says its forces have killed 10,000 Hamas fighters without providing evidence. It blames Hamas for the death toll, saying it embeds in civilians areas, putting noncombatants at risk.
More than 68,000 people have been wounded in the war, of them 11,000 who need urgent evacuation for treatment out of Gaza, the ministry said.
The ministry said many of the dead remain under the rubble of destroyed buildings and on roadsides with first responders unable to reach many areas and collect the bodies.
ISRAELI FORCES KILL PALESTINIAN MAN IN WEST BANK, PALESTINIAN OFFICIALS SAY
CAIRO — Palestinian health officials say Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the man as 20-year-old Mohammed Sherif Hassan Selmi and said he was shot in his chest, shoulders and head.
The Israeli military said Tuesday that forces were operating in the West Bank city of Qalqilya when the man allegedly attempted to run over soldiers, who opened fired and killed the man. The military said it was not aware of whether any soldiers were wounded.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed offshoot of the secular Fatah party, said its fighters clashed with the Israeli forces but did not claim Selmi as a member.
The West Bank has seen a surge of violence since the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza broke out in October. The Health Ministry says more than 380 Palestinians have been killed during that time. The Israeli military says it has arrested more than 3,000 Palestinians in the West Bank since the war began.
ARAB LEAGUE SECRETARY-GENERAL WARNS ISRAEL AGAINST FORCEFULLY DISPLACING PALESTINIANS
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The secretary-general of the Arab League has warned Israel against policies he described as forcefully displacing Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Ahmed Aboul Gheit decried what he called an "Israeli mentality" to try and seize land the Palestinians want for their future state. He warned any seizure of the Gaza Strip or the West Bank by Israel would mean "a confrontation for the next thousand years."
"The United States must order Israel to stop these policies or otherwise the Middle East will explode in an unprecedented way," he said.
He also called on Israel to "empty the settlements" in Palestinian land as well.
Aboul Gheit, a former ambassador to the United Nations and Egypt's last foreign minister under ousted president Hosni Mubarak, spoke at the World Government Summit in Dubai.
COUNCIL MEETS ON GAZA TOLL AND ISRAEL'S EXPECTED MOVE INTO RAFAH
UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council held an emergency closed meeting on the escalating civilian death toll in Gaza and Israel's plans to move its offensive to Rafah where some 1.5 million Palestinians have fled hoping to find safety.
China's U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun told The Associated Press after Monday's late meeting that there was "a loud cry" among council members about the need for urgent action -- to deal with the "unfolding humanitarian catastrophe," Israel's announced intentions in Gaza, and further spillover of the war.
Algeria, the Arab representative on the 15-member Security Council who called the meeting, has circulated a draft resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in the war that began after Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostage. More than 28,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel's offensive, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.
Zhang said the "very strong and overwhelming position of council members" is for the Security Council to act but one member – a clear reference to Israel's closest ally the United States – "worries about the complication of Security Council action with the bilateral efforts" it is undertaking.
The Chinese envoy said discussions on the Algerian draft resolution are still taking place, and he expressed hope "that eventually the council will be demonstrating our united position."
Yemen's Houthi rebels fire missiles at ship bound for Iran, their main supporter
Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired two missiles at a ship carrying corn bound for a port in Iran on Monday, causing minor damage but no injuries to its crew, authorities said.
The attack on the Marshall Islands-flagged, Greek-operated bulk carrier Star Iris shows just how widely the Houthis now target ships traveling through the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the two waterways.
The Star Iris had been heading from Brazil to Bandar Khomeini in Iran, the main backer and armer of the Houthis in Yemen's yearslong war.
“The group owner and operator regularly trade bulk cargo with Iran, so this was assessed to be the likely destination,” said Ambrey, a private security firm. Ambrey added that the Star Iris sustained damage to its starboard side in the attack.
The Houthis sought to describe the Star Iris as an “American” vessel, and said they targeted the ship with multiple missiles. The Star Iris' ultimate owner, Star Bulk Carriers Corp. of Athens, Greece, is traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market in New York. It did not respond to a request for comment.
Read: US conducts new airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels
Days earlier, another ship owned by Star Bulk, the Star Nasia, came under attack from the Houthis.
The Houthis' military “will not hesitate to carry out more operations in retaliation to the Zionist crimes against our brothers in the Gaza Strip, as well as in response to the ongoing American-British aggression against our dear country,” Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said in a statement after the attack.
Iran did not acknowledge the Star Iris' destination, though the U.S. military's Central Command did in a statement early Tuesday. Central Command identified its cargo as Brazilian corn bound for Iran. Corn is a major Brazilian export to Iran, likely used in animal feed.
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, which oversees Mideast waters, reported the attack, saying it happened while the Star Iris was traveling south through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that separates East Africa from the Arabian Peninsula.
Read: Houthi rebels strike a US-owned ship off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden, raising tensions
The ship's captain “reports his vessel was attacked by two missiles and reports minor damage,” the UKMTO said. “Vessel and crew are safe. Vessel proceeding to next port of call.”
The attack on the Star Iris follows days in which no Houthi attacks on ships were reported. It's unclear what caused the pause, though the U.S. and British militaries have conducted multiple rounds of airstrikes targeting the Houthis' missile arsenals and launch sites in territory they hold.
Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea over Israel’s offensive in Gaza. They have frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel, imperiling shipping in a key route for trade among Asia, the Mideast and Europe.
Read more: US Navy helicopters fire at Yemen's Houthi rebels and kill several in latest Red Sea shipping attack
Israeli forces rescue 2 hostages in dramatic Gaza raid that killed at least 67 Palestinians
Israeli forces rescued two hostages early Monday, storming a heavily guarded apartment in a densely packed town in the Gaza Strip as airstrikes carried out to cover the raid killed more than 60 Palestinians, including women and children.
The rescue in Rafah briefly lifted the spirits of Israelis shaken by the plight of the dozens of hostages held by Hamas. The nation is still reeling from the militant group’s cross-border raid last year that started the war.
The overnight bombardment brought devastation in Rafah, which is packed with some 1.4 million people, most of whom fled their homes elsewhere in Gaza to escape fighting. Associated Press footage showed a large area of flattened houses, tattered tents and lines of bloodied bodies brought into nearby hospitals.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians in the territory, displaced over 80% of the population and set off a massive humanitarian crisis.
More than 12,300 Palestinian children and young teens have been killed in the conflict, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Monday. About 8,400 women were also among those killed. That means children and young teens make up about 43% of the dead, and women and minors together make up three quarters.
The ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, provided the breakdown at the request of the AP. Israel claims to have killed about 10,000 Hamas fighters but has not provided evidence.
In Hamas’ cross-border raid on Oct. 7, an estimated 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, and militants took 250 people captive, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel has described Rafah as the last remaining Hamas stronghold in the territory and signaled that its ground offensive may soon target the town on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip.
Israel says about 100 hostages remain in Hamas captivity after dozens were freed during a cease-fire in November. Hamas also holds the remains of roughly 30 others who were either killed on Oct. 7 or died in captivity.
The government has made freeing the hostages a top aim of its war, along with destroying Hamas’ military and governing capabilities. But as the fighting drags on, rifts have emerged in Israel over how to retrieve them.
Read: Israeli strikes hit Rafah after Biden warns Netanyahu to have 'credible' plan to protect civilians
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says persistent military pressure will bring about the captives’ freedom even as families of the hostages and many of their supporters have called on the government to make another deal with Hamas.
A DRAMATIC RAID
Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said special forces broke into a second-floor apartment in Rafah under fire at 1:49 a.m. Monday, accompanied a minute later by airstrikes on surrounding areas. He said Hamas militants were guarding the captives and that members of the rescue team shielded the hostages with their bodies as the battle erupted.
The army identified those rescued as Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70, who were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak on Oct. 7. They also hold Argentinian citizenship. They are among just three hostages to be rescued; a female soldier was rescued in November.
The rescue, which Hagari said was based on precise intelligence and planned for some time, is a morale booster for Israelis but a small step toward winning the release of the remaining hostages, who are believed to be spread out and hidden in tunnels.
Har's son-in-law, Idan Begerano, who saw the released captives at the hospital where they were airlifted, said the two men were thin and pale, but communicating well and aware of their surroundings.
Begerano said Har told him immediately upon seeing him: “You have a birthday today, mazal tov." The men held long, tearful embraces with their relatives at the hospital, according to video released by Netanyahu's office.
DOZENS KILLED IN STRIKES
The airstrikes hit jam-packed Rafah in the middle of the night, and dozens of explosions could be heard around 2 a.m. Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman for the Health Ministry, said at least 67 people, including women and children, were killed in the strikes.
Read: Egypt threatens to suspend key peace treaty if Israel pushes into Gaza border town, officials say
Al-Qidra said rescuers were still searching the rubble. An Associated Press journalist counted at least 50 bodies at the Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah.
Mohamed Zoghroub, a Palestinian living in Rafah, said he saw a black jeep speeding through the town followed by clashes and heavy airstrikes.
“We found ourselves running with our children, from the airstrikes, in every direction,” he said, speaking from an area flattened by the bombardment.
Footage circulating on social media from Rafah's Kuwaiti hospital showed dead or wounded children. The footage could not immediately be verified but was consistent with AP reporting.
A young man could be seen carrying the body of an infant who he said was killed in the attacks. He said the girl, the daughter of his neighbor, was born and killed during the war.
“Let Netanyahu come and see: Is this one of your designated targets?" he said.
CONCERNS ABOUT RAFAH
Netanyahu has said sending ground troops into Rafah is essential to meeting Israel's war goals. On Sunday, the White House said President Joe Biden had warned Netanyahu that Israel should not conduct a military operation there without a “credible and executable” plan to protect civilians.
Read more: Iran marks the 45th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution as tensions grip the wider Middle East
More than half of Gaza's 2.3 million population is now crammed into Rafah, where hundreds of thousands live in sprawling tent camps and overcrowded U.N. shelters.
Biden's remarks, made in a phone call with Netanyahu, were his most forceful language yet on the possible operation.
Discussion of the potential for a cease-fire agreement took up much of the call, a senior U.S. administration official said. The official said that after weeks of diplomacy, a “framework” is now “pretty much” in place for a deal that could see the release of remaining hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a halt to fighting.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss negotiations, acknowledged that “gaps remain” but declined to give details. The official said military pressure on Hamas in the southern city of Khan Younis in recent weeks helped bring the group closer to accepting a deal.
Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on the call. Hamas’ Al-Aqsa television station earlier quoted an unnamed Hamas official as saying any invasion of Rafah would “blow up” the talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
Biden and Netanyahu spoke after two Egyptian officials and a Western diplomat said Egypt threatened to suspend its peace treaty with Israel if troops are sent into Rafah.
Death toll exceeds 100 in Israel's heavy strikes on Gaza's Rafah
The death toll in the Israeli army's heavy strikes on the southern city of Rafah and surrounding areas of the Gaza Strip exceeded 100 on Monday, with hundreds of injuries, including women and children, reported the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
About 40 airstrikes on the Rafah area in the early hours of Monday were conducted by the Israeli army, with intensive ground shelling, it said.
The Israeli army said in a statement that it conducted "a series of strikes on terror targets" in southern Gaza on Monday, but did not provide other details.
Read: Israeli strikes hit Rafah after Biden warns Netanyahu to have 'credible' plan to protect civilians
The death toll of Palestinians from Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip has risen to 28,176 since Oct. 7, 2023, with 67,784 others being injured, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza, about half of the residents there have fled to Rafah, adjacent to Egypt, in search of safety.
Read: Egypt threatens to suspend key peace treaty if Israel pushes into Gaza border town, officials say
The border city, which receives food and medicine aid from foreign countries and UN agencies through the Rafah crossing, is crowded with tents on empty agricultural lands, in schools and along roadsides.
Israeli strikes hit Rafah after Biden warns Netanyahu to have 'credible' plan to protect civilians
A series of Israeli strikes early Monday hit Rafah, the city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip where 1.4 million Palestinians have fled to escape fighting elsewhere in the four-month Israel-Hamas war.
Israel has been signaling its ground offensive in Gaza may soon target the densely populated city on the Egyptian border. On Sunday, the White House said President Joe Biden had warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel should not conduct a military operation against Hamas in Rafah without a “credible and executable” plan to protect civilians.
The strikes hit around Kuwait Hospital early Monday morning, an Associated Press journalist in Rafah said. Some of those wounded in the strikes had been brought to the hospital.
The Israeli military said it struck “terror targets in the area of Shaboura” — which is a district in Rafah. The military statement said the series of strikes had concluded, without elaborating on the targets or assessing the potential damage or casualties.
Palestinian health officials did not immediately offer any casualty information.
Biden's remarks were his most forceful language yet on the possible operation. Biden, who last week called Israel’s military response in Gaza “over the top,” also sought “urgent and specific” steps to strengthen humanitarian aid. Israel’s Channel 13 television said the conversation lasted 45 minutes.
Discussion of the potential for a cease-fire agreement took up much of the call, a senior U.S. administration official said, and after weeks of diplomacy, a “framework" is now “pretty much” in place for a deal that could see the release of remaining hostages held by Hamas in exchange for a halt to fighting.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss negotiations, acknowledged that “gaps remain,” but declined to give details. The official said military pressure on Hamas in the southern city of Khan Younis in recent weeks helped bring the group closer to accepting a deal.
Netanyahu's office declined to comment on the call. Hamas’ Al-Aqsa television station earlier quoted an unnamed Hamas official as saying any invasion of Rafah would “blow up” the talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
Biden and Netanyahu spoke after two Egyptian officials and a Western diplomat said Egypt threatened to suspend its peace treaty with Israel if troops are sent into Rafah, where Egypt fears fighting could push Palestinians into the Sinai Peninsula and force the closure of Gaza's main aid supply route.
The threat to suspend the Camp David Accords, a cornerstone of regional stability for nearly a half-century, came after Netanyahu said sending troops into Rafah was necessary to win the four-month war against Hamas. He asserted that Hamas has four battalions there.
Over half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million have fled to Rafah to escape fighting in other areas, and they are packed into tent camps and U.N.-run shelters. Egypt fears a mass influx of Palestinian refugees who may never be allowed to return.
Netanyahu told “Fox News Sunday” that there’s “plenty of room north of Rafah for them to go to” after Israel’s offensive elsewhere in Gaza, and said Israel would direct evacuees with “flyers, with cellphones and with safe corridors and other things.” But the offensive has caused widespread destruction, with little capacity to take in people.
The standoff between Israel and Egypt, two close U.S. allies, took shape as aid groups warned that an offensive in Rafah would worsen the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza. Around 80% of residents have fled their homes, and the U.N. says a quarter of the population faces starvation.
A ground operation in Rafah could cut off one of the only avenues for delivering food and medical supplies. Forty-four trucks of aid entered Gaza on Sunday, said Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority. About 500 entered daily before the war.
WHERE WOULD CIVILIANS GO?
Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters on the sensitive negotiations. Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other countries have also warned of severe repercussions if Israel goes into Rafah.
“An Israeli offensive on Rafah would lead to an unspeakable humanitarian catastrophe and grave tensions with Egypt,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote on X. Human Rights Watch said forced displacement is a war crime.
Israel and Egypt fought five wars before signing the Camp David Accords, brokered by the U.S., in the late 1970s. The agreement includes provisions governing the deployment of forces on both sides of the heavily fortified border.
Egyptian officials fear that if the border is breached, the military would be unable to stop a tide of people fleeing into the Sinai Peninsula.
The United Nations says Rafah, normally home to fewer than 300,000 people, now hosts 1.4 million more and is “severely overcrowded.”
Inside Rafah, some displaced people packed up again. Rafat and Fedaa Abu Haloub, who fled Beit Lahia in the north earlier in the war, placed their belongings onto a truck. “We don’t know where we can safely take him,” Fedaa said of their baby. “Every month we have to move.”
Om Mohammad Al-Ghemry, displaced from Nuseirat, said she hoped Egypt would not allow Israel to force Palestinians to flee into the Sinai “because we do not want to leave.”
112 BODIES TAKEN TO GAZA HOSPITALS IN A DAY
Heavy fighting continues in central Gaza and Khan Younis.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday that the bodies of 112 people killed across the territory had been brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours. The death toll is 28,176 since the start of the war. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters but says most of those killed were women and children.
The war began with Hamas' attack into southern Israel on Oct. 7, when Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted around 250. Over 100 hostages were released during a cease-fire in November.
Hamas won't release more unless Israel ends its offensive and withdraws from Gaza. Netanyahu has ruled out both demands.
Egypt threatens to suspend key peace treaty if Israel pushes into Gaza border town, officials say
Egypt is threatening to suspend its peace treaty with Israel if Israeli troops are sent into the densely populated Gaza border town of Rafah, and says fighting there could force the closure of the territory's main aid supply route, two Egyptian officials and a Western diplomat said Sunday.
The threat to suspend the Camp David Accords, a cornerstone of regional stability for nearly a half-century, came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said sending troops into Rafah was necessary to win the four-month-old war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Over half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million have fled to Rafah to escape fighting in other areas, and are packed into sprawling tent camps and U.N.-run shelters near the border. Egypt fears a mass influx of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who may never be allowed to return.
The stand-off between Israel and Egypt, two close U.S. allies, comes as aid groups warn that an offensive in Rafah would worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, where around 80% of residents have fled their homes and where the U.N. says a quarter of the population faces starvation.
Hamas' Al-Aqsa television station, meanwhile, quoted an unnamed Hamas official as saying that any invasion of Rafah would "blow up" talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar aimed at a cease-fire and the release of Israeli hostages.
UNCLEAR WHERE CIVILIANS WOULD GO
Netanyahu, in an interview with ABC News "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," suggested civilians in Rafah could flee north, saying there are "plenty of areas" that have been cleared by the army. He said Israel is developing a "detailed plan" to relocate them.
But the offensive has caused widespread destruction, particularly in northern Gaza, and heavy fighting is still taking place in central Gaza and the southern city of Khan Younis. A ground operation in Rafah could also force the closure of its crossing, cutting off one of the only avenues for delivering badly needed food and medical supplies.
All three officials confirmed Egypt's threats, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters on the sensitive negotiations. Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other countries have also warned of severe repercussions if Israel goes into Rafah.
"An Israeli offensive on Rafah would lead to an unspeakable humanitarian catastrophe and grave tensions with Egypt," European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote on X.
Israel and Egypt had fought five wars before signing the Camp David Accords, a landmark peace treaty brokered by then-U.S. President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s. The treaty includes several provisions governing the deployment of forces on both sides of the border.
Egypt has heavily fortified its border with Gaza, carving out a 5-kilometer (3-mile) buffer zone and erecting concrete walls above and below ground. It has denied Israeli allegations that Hamas still operates smuggling tunnels beneath the border, saying Egyptian forces have full control on their side.
But Egyptian officials fear that if the border is breached, the military would be unable to stop a tide of people fleeing into the Sinai Peninsula.
The United Nations says Rafah, which is normally home to less than 300,000 people, now hosts 1.4 million more who fled fighting elsewhere and is "severely overcrowded."
Netanayahu said Hamas still has four battalions there. "Those who say that under no circumstances should we enter Rafah are basically saying lose the war, keep Hamas there," he told ABC News.
PALESTINIAN TOLL MOUNTS
Israel has ordered much of Gaza's population to flee south with evacuation orders covering two-thirds of the territory, even as it regularly carries out airstrikes in all areas, including Rafah. Airstrikes on the town in recent days have killed dozens of Palestinians, including women and children.
Gaza's Health Ministry said Sunday that the bodies of 112 people killed across the territory have been brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours, as well as 173 wounded people. The fatalities brought the death toll in the strip to 28,176 since the start of the war. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters but says most of those killed were women and children.
The war began with Hamas' attack into southern Israel on Oct. 7, when Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. Over 100 hostages were released in November during a weeklong cease-fire in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas has said it won't release any more unless Israel ends its offensive and withdraws from the territory. It has also demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including senior militants serving life sentences.
Netanyahu has vehemently ruled out both demands, saying Israel will fight on until "total victory" and the return of all the captives.