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  • Hamas clears the way for a possible cease-fire after dropping key demand

    Hamas clears the way for a possible cease-fire after dropping key demand

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    DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza (AP) — Hamas has given initial approval for a U.S.-backed proposal for a phased cease-fire deal in Gaza, dropping a key demand that Israel give an up-front commitment for a complete end to the war, a Hamas and an Egyptian official said Saturday.

    What You Need To Know

    • A Hamas and an Egyptian official said Saturday that Hamas has given initial approval for a U.S.-backed proposal for a phased cease-fire deal in Gaza, dropping a key demand that Israel give an up-front commitment for a complete end to the war

    • The two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations, said Washington’s phased deal will first include a “full and complete” six-week cease-fire that would see the release of a number of hostages, including women, older people and the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners

    • The Hamas representative told The Associated Press the group’s approval came after it received “verbal commitments and guarantees” from the mediators that the war won’t be resumed and that negotiations will continue until a permanent cease-fire is reached

    • Netanyahu’s office did not respond to requests for comment, and there was no immediate comment from Washington

    The apparent compromise by the militant group — which controlled Gaza before triggering the war with an Oct. 7 attack on Israel — could help deliver the first pause in fighting since November and set the stage for further talks on ending a devastating nine months of fighting. But all sides cautioned that a deal is still not guaranteed.

    The two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations, said Washington’s phased deal will first include a “full and complete” six-week cease-fire that would see the release of a number of hostages, including women, older people and the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. During the 42 days, Israeli forces would withdraw from densely populated areas of Gaza and allow the return of displaced people to their homes in northern Gaza, the officials said.

    Over that period, Hamas, Israel and mediators would negotiate the terms of the second phase that could see the release of the remaining male hostages, both civilians and soldiers, the officials said. In return, Israel would free additional Palestinian prisoners and detainees. The third phase would see the return of any remaining hostages, including bodies of dead captives, and the start of a yearslong reconstruction project.

    Hamas still wants “written guarantees” from mediators that Israel will continue to negotiate a permanent cease-fire deal once the first phase goes into effect, the officials said.

    The Hamas representative told The Associated Press the group’s approval came after it received “verbal commitments and guarantees” from the mediators that the war won’t be resumed and that negotiations will continue until a permanent cease-fire is reached.

    “Now we want these guarantees on paper,” he said.

    Months of on-again off-again cease-fire talks have stumbled over Hamas’ demand that any deal include a complete end to the war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered to pause the fighting but not end it until Israel reaches its goals of destroying Hamas’ military and governing capabilities and returning all hostages held by the militant group.

    Hamas has expressed concern Israel will restart the war after the hostages are released. Israeli officials have said they are worried Hamas will draw out the talks and the initial cease-fire indefinitely, without releasing all the hostages.

    Netanyahu’s office did not respond to requests for comment, and there was no immediate comment from Washington. On Friday, the Israeli prime minister confirmed that the Mossad spy agency’s chief had paid a lightning visit to Qatar, a key mediator. But his office said “gaps between the parties” remained.

    Israel launched the war in Gaza after Hamas’ October attack in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250. Israel says Hamas is still holding about 120 hostages — about a third of them now thought to be dead.

    Since then, the Israeli air and ground offensive has killed more than 38,000 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The offensive has caused widespread devastation and a humanitarian crisis that has left hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of famine, according to international officials.

    In line with previous proposals, the deal would see around 600 trucks of humanitarian aid entering Gaza daily — including 50 fuel trucks — with half of them bound for the hard-hit northern of the enclave, the two officials said. Following Israel’s assault on the southernmost city of Rafah, aid supplies entering Gaza have been reduced to a trickle.

    Israel’s ariel bombardment in Gaza continued.

    The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said four police officers were killed in an Israeli airstrike Saturday in Rafah. The ministry, which oversees civilian police, said the officers were killed during foot patrol securing properties. It said eight other police officers were wounded. Israel’s military did not immediately respond to questions.

    In Deir al-Balah, prayers were held for 12 Palestinians, including five children and two women, killed in three separate strikes in central Gaza on Friday and Saturday, according to hospital officials. The bodies were taken to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where AP journalists counted them.

    Two of those killed in a strike that hit the Mughazi refugee camp Friday were employees with the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, the organization’s director of communications told the AP. Juliette Touma said a total of 194 workers with the agency have been killed since October.

    Earlier this week, an Israeli evacuation order in the southern city of Khan Younis and the surrounding areas affected about 250,000 Palestinians. Many headed to an Israeli-declared “safe zone” centered on the Muwasi coastal area or Deir al-Balah.

    Ground fighting has raged in Gaza City’s Shijaiyah neighborhood for the past two weeks, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. Many have sheltered in the Yarmouk Sports Stadium, one of the strip’s largest soccer arenas.

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    Associated Press

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  • U.K.’s Starmer vows ‘national renewal’ as he becomes next prime minister

    U.K.’s Starmer vows ‘national renewal’ as he becomes next prime minister

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    In his first remarks outside of 10 Downing Street after becoming the next British prime minister, Labour leader Keir Starmer invited all of the United Kingdom — those who voted for him and “especially” those who did not — to join “this government of service in the mission of national renewal.”

    “Our work is urgent and we begin it today,” Starmer told a crowd of his supporters hours after his Labour party rode to a landslide victory in Thursday’s elections, snapping a 14 years of Conservative leadership.

    What You Need To Know

    • Keir Starmer became the next prime minister of the United Kingdom on Friday after his center-left Labour party won a decisive victory in Thursday’s elections

    • Starmer replaces Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whose Conservative Party ruled for 14 years until the Labour landslide 

    • With the results nearly finalized, Starmer’s center-left Labour party won at least 410 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons, more than enough for an outright majority; the Conservatives lost roughly 250 seats in Parliament



    With the results nearly finalized, Starmer’s center-left Labour party won at least 410 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons, more than enough for an outright majority. The Conservatives, led by Rishi Sunak since 2022 after a tumultous period that saw five prime ministers in just six years, had around 120, a loss of roughly 250 seats in Parliament. 

    In his farewell address ahead of offering his resignation to King Charles III, Sunak, who said he will step down as his party’s leader, acknowledged the anger of the voting public.

    “To the country, I would like to say first and foremost, I am sorry. I have heard your anger, your disappointment, and I take responsibility for this loss,” he said. “To all the Conservative candidates and campaigners who worked tirelessly but without success, I’m sorry that we could not deliver what your efforts deserved.”

    “This is a difficult day, but I leave this job honored to have been prime minister of the best country in the world,” Sunak said.

    Britain’s outgoing Conservative Party Prime Minister Rishi Sunak looks down as he makes a short speech outside 10 Downing Street before going to see King Charles III to tender his resignation in London, Friday, July 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

    Starmer honored Sunak in his speech outside of No. 10, acknowledging not only his status as the country’s first British Asian Prime Minister, but also “the dedication and hard work he brought to his leadership.”

    “But now our country has voted decisively for change, for national renewal, and return of politics to public service,” Starmer continued. “When the gap between the sacrifices made by people and the service they receive from politicians grows this big, it leads to awareness in the heart of a nation, a draining away of the hope, the spirit, the belief in a better future that we need to move forward together.”

    “Now, this wound, this lack of trust, can only be by actions, not words,” he said. “I know that, but we can make a start today with the simple acknowledgement that public service is a privilege, and that your government should treat every single person in this country with respect.”

    “If you voted Labour yesterday, we will carry the responsibility of your trust as we rebuild our country,” Starmer declared. “But whether you voted Labour or not — in fact, especially if you did not — I say to you directly: My government will serve you.”

    Britain’s King Charles III, right, shakes hands with Keir Starmer where he invited the Labour Party leader to become prime minister and to form a new government, following the landslide general election victory for the Labour Party, in London, Friday, July 5, 2024. (Yui Mok, Pool Photo via AP)

    Britain has experienced a run of turbulent years — some of it of the Conservatives’ own making and some of it not — that has left many voters pessimistic about their country’s future. The U.K. divorce from the European Union followed by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine battered the economy, while lockdown-breaching parties held by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his staff caused widespread anger.

    Rising poverty, crumbling infrastructure and overstretched National Health Service have led to gripes about “Broken Britain.”

    Johnson’s successor, Liz Truss, rocked the economy further with a package of drastic tax cuts and lasted just 49 days in office. Truss, who lost her seat to Labour, was one of a slew of senior Tories kicked out in a stark electoral reckoning.

    The result is a catastrophe for the Conservatives as voters punished them for 14 years of presiding over austerity, Brexit, a pandemic, political scandals and internecine conflict.

    The historic defeat — the smallest number of seats in the party’s two-century history — leaves it depleted and in disarray and will spark an immediate contest to replace Sunak.

    The Liberal Democrats, another center-left party in the U.K., saw a big gain, winning about 70 seats. Reform UK, a far-right party led by Nigel Farage, an ally of former U.S. President Donald Trump, won four seats, including one for Farage after his eighth attempt. Aside from the Conservatives, one of the biggest losers was the Scottish National Party, which saw a near wipeout amid Labour gains.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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    Justin Tasolides

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  • Israeli strike kills another senior Hezbollah commander

    Israeli strike kills another senior Hezbollah commander

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    An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Wednesday killed a senior Hezbollah commander as tensions between the two sides continue to boil, a Hezbollah official told The Associated Press.

    The strike near the southern coastal city of Tyre took place as global diplomatic efforts have intensified in recent weeks to prevent escalating clashes between Hezbollah and the Israeli military from spiraling into an all-out war that could possibly lead to a direct confrontation between Israel and Iran.

    What You Need To Know

    • An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon has killed a senior Hezbollah commander as tensions continue to boil

    • The strike Wednesday near the southern coastal city of Tyre took place as global diplomatic efforts have intensified in recent weeks to prevent clashes between Hezbollah and the Israel from spiraling into an all-out war

    • Mohammad Naameh Nasser, who went by the name “Abu Naameh,” his nom de guerre, was the most senior official from the Iran-backed group to be killed since Taleb Sami Abdullah, who was killed in an airstrike June 11

    • Naameh led the Aziz Unit, a division that operates along Lebanon’s southern border


    A Hezbollah statement identified the killed commander as Mohammad Naameh Nasser, who went by the name “Abu Naameh,” his nom de guerre. A Hezbollah official speaking anonymously in line with regulations, said he was head of the group’s Aziz Unit, one of three regional divisions in southern Lebanon.

    This picture released by Hezbollah media relations office, shows a portrait of Hezbollah commander Mohammad Naameh Nasser, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit his car, in the southern costal town of Tyre, Lebanon, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (Hezbollah Media Relations Office via AP)

    Nasser is the most senior official from the Iran-backed group killed since Taleb Sami Abdullah, who was killed in an airstrike June 11. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a speech honoring Abdullah said he played a pivotal role on the front line since clashes began on Oct. 8 leading the Nasr Unit.

    Hezbollah said in response to the killing of Nasser, it launched Falaq rockets with heavy warheads targeting the headquarters of the Israeli military’s 769th Brigade in Kiryat Shmona, as well as 100 salvos of Katyusha rockets targeting the headquarters of Israel’s 210th division and the Kilaa air base in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

    The group also shared footage of Nasser taking part in what they said was an operation at an Israeli military outpost in southern Lebanon in 1999 back when it was under occupation.

    In a video circulated by local media, residents rushed toward a charred vehicle with a large plume of smoke. Civil Defense said its first responders transported an unnamed wounded person to a hospital.

    The Israeli military acknowledged the attack, saying that Nasser alongside Abdullah are “two of the most significant Hezbollah” militants in southern Lebanon. It said Nasser led attacks from southwestern Lebanon.

    Hezbollah launched rockets on northern Israel a day after a Hamas surprise attack on southern Israel in October, leading to limited clashes along the tense border. The attacks have since gradually escalated, with Hezbollah introducing new weapons in their attacks and Israel striking deeper into Lebanon.

    The group maintains that it will stop its attacks once there is a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. Until then, it says it will continue with its attacks to pile pressure on Israel and the international community. Israeli officials have threatened to launch a larger military operation should Hezbollah not stop its attacks.

    Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Kassem told The Associated Press in an interview Monday that Israel cannot expect the group’s attacks to remain limited should it launch a military operation within Lebanon, even if it aims to keep the conflict below the threshold of all-out war. Allies, including thousands of Iran-backed militiamen in Iraq, have offered to join Hezbollah on the front lines.

    Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon since October have killed over 450 people, most of them Hezbollah fighters, but the dead also include more than 80 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 16 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed since the war in Gaza began. Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the tense frontier have been displaced in the monthslong war.

    Senior adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden, Amos Hochstein, who has been shuttling between Lebanon and Israel, is set to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron’s Lebanon envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian in Paris on Wednesday as part of his ongoing diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.

    French officials had invited Hochstein to the French capital to discuss the latest developments in their ongoing diplomatic scrambles, according to administration officials.

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    Associated Press

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  • Israeli strike kills another senior Hezbollah commander

    Israeli strike kills another senior Hezbollah commander

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    An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Wednesday killed a senior Hezbollah commander as tensions between the two sides continue to boil, a Hezbollah official told The Associated Press.

    The strike near the southern coastal city of Tyre took place as global diplomatic efforts have intensified in recent weeks to prevent escalating clashes between Hezbollah and the Israeli military from spiraling into an all-out war that could possibly lead to a direct confrontation between Israel and Iran.

    What You Need To Know

    • An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon has killed a senior Hezbollah commander as tensions continue to boil

    • The strike Wednesday near the southern coastal city of Tyre took place as global diplomatic efforts have intensified in recent weeks to prevent clashes between Hezbollah and the Israel from spiraling into an all-out war

    • Mohammad Naameh Nasser, who went by the name “Abu Naameh,” his nom de guerre, was the most senior official from the Iran-backed group to be killed since Taleb Sami Abdullah, who was killed in an airstrike June 11

    • Naameh led the Aziz Unit, a division that operates along Lebanon’s southern border


    A Hezbollah statement identified the killed commander as Mohammad Naameh Nasser, who went by the name “Abu Naameh,” his nom de guerre. A Hezbollah official speaking anonymously in line with regulations, said he was head of the group’s Aziz Unit, one of three regional divisions in southern Lebanon.

    This picture released by Hezbollah media relations office, shows a portrait of Hezbollah commander Mohammad Naameh Nasser, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit his car, in the southern costal town of Tyre, Lebanon, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (Hezbollah Media Relations Office via AP)

    Nasser is the most senior official from the Iran-backed group killed since Taleb Sami Abdullah, who was killed in an airstrike June 11. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a speech honoring Abdullah said he played a pivotal role on the front line since clashes began on Oct. 8 leading the Nasr Unit.

    Hezbollah said in response to the killing of Nasser, it launched Falaq rockets with heavy warheads targeting the headquarters of the Israeli military’s 769th Brigade in Kiryat Shmona, as well as 100 salvos of Katyusha rockets targeting the headquarters of Israel’s 210th division and the Kilaa air base in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

    The group also shared footage of Nasser taking part in what they said was an operation at an Israeli military outpost in southern Lebanon in 1999 back when it was under occupation.

    In a video circulated by local media, residents rushed toward a charred vehicle with a large plume of smoke. Civil Defense said its first responders transported an unnamed wounded person to a hospital.

    The Israeli military acknowledged the attack, saying that Nasser alongside Abdullah are “two of the most significant Hezbollah” militants in southern Lebanon. It said Nasser led attacks from southwestern Lebanon.

    Hezbollah launched rockets on northern Israel a day after a Hamas surprise attack on southern Israel in October, leading to limited clashes along the tense border. The attacks have since gradually escalated, with Hezbollah introducing new weapons in their attacks and Israel striking deeper into Lebanon.

    The group maintains that it will stop its attacks once there is a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. Until then, it says it will continue with its attacks to pile pressure on Israel and the international community. Israeli officials have threatened to launch a larger military operation should Hezbollah not stop its attacks.

    Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Kassem told The Associated Press in an interview Monday that Israel cannot expect the group’s attacks to remain limited should it launch a military operation within Lebanon, even if it aims to keep the conflict below the threshold of all-out war. Allies, including thousands of Iran-backed militiamen in Iraq, have offered to join Hezbollah on the front lines.

    Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon since October have killed over 450 people, most of them Hezbollah fighters, but the dead also include more than 80 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 16 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed since the war in Gaza began. Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the tense frontier have been displaced in the monthslong war.

    Senior adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden, Amos Hochstein, who has been shuttling between Lebanon and Israel, is set to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron’s Lebanon envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian in Paris on Wednesday as part of his ongoing diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.

    French officials had invited Hochstein to the French capital to discuss the latest developments in their ongoing diplomatic scrambles, according to administration officials.

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    Associated Press

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  • Israeli officials say Netanyahu has dissolved War Cabinet

    Israeli officials say Netanyahu has dissolved War Cabinet

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    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dissolved the influential War Cabinet tasked with steering the war in Gaza, Israeli officials said Monday, a move that comes days after a key member of the body bolted the government over frustrations surrounding the Israeli leader’s handling of the war.

    What You Need To Know

    • Israeli officials said Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved the influential War Cabinet that was tasked with steering the war in Gaza

    • The War Cabinet was dissolved following the departure from the government of Benny Gantz, an opposition lawmaker who had joined the coalition in the early days of the war

    • He had demanded that a small Cabinet be formed as a way to sideline far-right lawmakers in Netanyahu’s government

    • Gantz, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were its members and made key decisions together throughout the war

    The move was widely expected following the departure of Benny Gantz, a centrist former military chief, earlier this month. Gantz’s absence from the government makes Netanyahu more dependent on his ultranationalist allies to govern and the dissolution of the War Cabinet underlines that shift as the eight-month-long war in Gaza drags on.

    The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the change with the media, said that going forward Netanyahu would hold smaller forums with some of his government members for sensitive issues surrounding the war. That includes his security Cabinet, where far-right governing partners who oppose cease-fire deals and have voiced support for reoccupying Gaza, are members.

    The War Cabinet was formed in the early days of the war, when Gantz, then an opposition party leader and Netanyahu rival, joined the coalition in a show of unity following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel. He had demanded that a small decision-making body steer the war, in a bid to sideline far-right members of Netanyahu’s government.

    It was made up of three members — Gantz, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant — and together they made important decisions throughout the course of the war.

    The move to scrap the War Cabinet comes as Israel faces more pivotal decisions.

    Israel and Hamas are weighing the latest proposal for a cease-fire in exchange for the release of hostages taken by Hamas during its attack. Israeli troops are still bogged down in the Gaza Strip, fighting in the southern city of Rafah and against pockets of Hamas resurgence elsewhere. And violence continues unabated between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group — with a Biden administration envoy in the region in a bid to avert a wider war on a second front.

    Netanyahu has played a balancing act throughout the war between pressures from Israel’s top ally, the U.S., and the growing global opposition to the war and from his government partners, chief among them Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

    Both have threatened to topple the government should Israel move ahead on a cease-fire deal. The latest proposal being considered is part of the Biden administration’s most concentrated push to help wind down the war. For now, progress on a deal appears to remain elusive.

    Critics say Netanyahu’s wartime decision-making has been influenced by the ultranationalists in his government and by his desire to remain in power. Netanyahu denies the accusations and says he has the country’s best interests in mind.

    Gantz’s departure, while not posing a direct threat to Netanyahu’s rule, rocked Israeli politics at a sensitive time. The popular former military chief was seen as a statesman who boosted Israel’s credibility with its international partners at a time when Israel finds itself at its most isolated. Gantz is now an opposition party leader in parliament.

    Netanyahu’s government is Israel’s most religious and nationalist ever. In Israel’s fractious parliamentary system, Netanyahu relies on a group of small parties to help keep his government afloat and without the support of Gantz’s party, Netanyahu is expected to be more beholden to the far-right allies.

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    Associated Press

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  • LGBTQ soldiers in Ukraine hope their service will help the push for legal rights

    LGBTQ soldiers in Ukraine hope their service will help the push for legal rights

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    Several hundred LGBTQ Ukrainian servicemen and their supporters marched in central Kyiv Sunday to demand more rights and highlight their service to their country in its war with Russia.

    The servicemembers — many wearing rainbow and unicorn patches on their uniforms — called on the government to grant them official partnership rights. They described the event as a pride march but it did not have the celebratory atmosphere of peacetime events and took place in the rain and under a heavy police guard amid threats from counterprotesters.

    What You Need To Know

    • Several hundred LGBTQ Ukrainian servicemen and their supporters have marched in central Kyiv to demand more rights and highlight their service to their country in its war with Russia
    • They had encountered difficulties in being granted a venue and threats from counterprotests
    • The servicemembers — many wearing rainbow and unicorn patches on their uniforms — called on the government to grant them official partnership rights
    • They described the event as a pride march but it did not have the celebratory atmosphere of peacetime events
    • The role of LGBT members in the military has been credited with shifting public attitudes toward same-sex partnerships in the socially conservative country

    The role of LGBTQ members in the military has been credited with shifting public attitudes toward same-sex partnerships in the socially conservative country.

    “We are ordinary people who are fighting on an equal footing with everyone else, but deprived of the rights that other people have,” Dmitriy Pavlov, an army soldier who used a cane to walk, told The Associated Press.

    Campaigners are seeking legal reforms to allow people in same-sex partnerships to take medical decisions for wounded soldiers and bury victims of the war that extended across Ukraine more than two years ago.

    They argue that an improvement in gay rights would create a further distinction between Ukraine and Russia, where LGBTQ rights are severely restricted.

    Staff from the U.S. Embassy and several European embassies attended the pride rally.

    Organizers had faced difficulties in organizing the rally. City authorities turned down a petition to allow it to be held at a metro station, and it was condemned by one of the main branches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

    “This action is part of a left-wing radical political movement and is aimed at imposing a political ideology, and also aimed at destroying the institution of the family and weakening Ukrainian society in the conditions of war and repelling Russian aggression,” the church said in a statement.

    Police set up cordons in central Kyiv to keep the marchers clear of a counterdemonstration, ushering protesters into a central metro station at the end of the event.

    Protesters in the counterdemonstration, some wearing face masks and carrying anti-gay signs, marched to a memorial for fallen soldiers in the center of the city.

    An injured soldier, in Kyiv for physical therapy, said he attended the counter rally out of concern that divisive societal issues should not be raised during the war.

    “I came because I think its not the right time for LGBT (activism),” said the soldier, who asked to be identified by his call sign “Archy.”

    “We need to strengthen our country.”

    Both those on the LGBTQ rally and the counterprotest took the opportunity to demand that foreign countries come to Ukraine’s aid in its war with Russia, chanting “Arm Ukraine now!” ___ Dmytro Zhyhinas in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed.

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    Associated Press

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  • Blinken: Some of Hamas’ proposed changes to plan workable

    Blinken: Some of Hamas’ proposed changes to plan workable

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    U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the war in Gaza would go on after Hamas proposed “numerous” changes to a U.S.-backed cease-fire plan, some that he said were “workable” and some not.

    What You Need To Know

    • U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the war in Gaza will go on after Hamas proposed “numerous” changes to a U.S.-backed cease-fire plan, some that he said were “workable” and some not

    • Speaking to reporters in Qatar on Wednesday, Blinken said the U.S. and other mediators will keep trying to “close this deal”
    • Blinken is in the region to push a cease-fire proposal with global support that has not been fully embraced by Israel or Hamas
    • His comments came as Lebanon’s Hezbollah fired a massive barrage of rockets into northern Israel to avenge the killing of a top commander, further escalating regional tensions

    “A deal was on the table that was virtually identical to the proposal that Hamas made on May 6, a deal that the entire world is behind, a deal Israel has accepted,” Blinken said. Hamas could have answered with a single word. ‘Yes.’ Instead, Hamas waited nearly two weeks and then proposed more changes, a number of which go beyond positions that had previously taken and accepted.”

    He did not spell out what the changes were. Speaking to reporters in Qatar, Blinken said the U.S. and other mediators will keep trying to “close this deal.”

    Blinken is in the region to push a cease-fire proposal with global support that has not been fully embraced by Israel or Hamas. The militant group submitted its first official response late Tuesday, requesting “amendments” to the deal.

    “In the coming weeks, we will put forward proposals for the key elements of a ‘day after plan,’ including concrete ideas for how to manage governance, security, reconstruction,” Blinken said. “That plan is key to turning a cease-fire into an enduring end to the conflict, but also turning an end of a war into a just and durable peace, and using that peace as a foundation for building a more integrated, a more stable, a more prosperous region.”

    “I can’t speak for Hamas or answer for Hamas, and ultimately it may not be the path that Hamas wants to pursue, but Hamas cannot and will not be allowed to decide the future for this region and its people,” he added.

    The American’s comments came as Lebanon’s Hezbollah fired a massive barrage of rockets into northern Israel to avenge the killing of a top commander, further escalating regional tensions.

    Hezbollah, an Iran-backed ally of Hamas, has traded fire with Israel nearly every day since the 8-month-long Israel-Hamas war began and says it will only stop if there is a truce in Gaza. That has raised fears of an even more devastating regional conflagration.

    Air raid sirens sounded across northern Israel, and the military said that about 160 projectiles were fired from southern Lebanon, making it one of the largest attacks since the fighting began. There were no immediate reports of casualties as some were intercepted while others ignited brush fires.

    Hamas asks for ‘amendments’

    Hamas has expressed support for the broad outline of the deal but wariness over whether Israel would implement its terms.

    Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha told the Lebanese news outlet ElNashra that the “amendments” requested by the group include guarantees of a permanent cease-fire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

    Hamas’s official reply to the proposal, which it conveyed to mediators on Tuesday, appeared to be short of outright acceptance but kept negotiations alive. Qatar and Egypt, which have been key mediators alongside the United States, said they were studying it.

    Blinken is on his eighth visit to the region since the start of the war.

    The proposal has raised hopes of ending a conflict in which Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza have killed over 37,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials, and driven some 80% of the population of 2.3 million from their homes. Israeli restrictions and ongoing fighting have hindered efforts to bring humanitarian aid to the isolated coastal enclave, fueling widespread hunger.

    Israel launched its campaign after Hamas and other militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage. Over 100 hostages were released during a weeklong cease-fire last year in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Hamas is still holding around 120 hostages, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

    The proposal announced by Biden calls for a three-phase plan that would begin with a six-week cease-fire and the release of some hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Israeli forces would withdraw from populated areas and Palestinian civilians would be allowed to return to their homes.

    Phase one also requires the safe distribution of humanitarian assistance “at scale throughout the Gaza Strip,” which Biden said would lead to 600 trucks of aid entering Gaza every day.

    At the same time, negotiations would be launched over the second phase, which is to bring “a permanent end to hostilities, in exchange for the release of all other hostages still in Gaza, and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.”

    Phase three would launch “a major multi-year reconstruction plan for Gaza and the return of the remains of any deceased hostages still in Gaza to their families.”

    The militant group accepted a similar proposal last month that was rejected by Israel.

    Netanyahu’s far-right coalition allies have rejected the latest proposal and have threatened to bring down his government if he ends the war leaving Hamas intact. But Netanyahu is also under mounting pressure to accept a deal to bring the hostages back. Thousands of Israelis, including families of the hostages, have demonstrated in favor of the U.S.-backed plan.

    Revenge for slain commander

    Hezbollah said it fired missiles and rockets at two military bases in retaliation for the killing of Taleb Sami Abdullah, 55. Known within Hezbollah as Hajj Abu Taleb, he is the most senior commander killed since the fighting began eight months ago. The Israeli strike destroyed a house where Abdullah and three other officials were meeting, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border, late Tuesday.

    A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press that Abdullah was in charge of a large part of the Lebanon-Israel front, including the area facing the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, which Hezbollah has repeatedly attacked in recent days, causing fires in the area.

    The official, who was not authorized to speak to media and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Abdullah had joined Hezbollah decades ago and took part in attacks against Israeli forces during their 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in May 2000.

    Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have killed over 400 people, most of them Hezbollah members, but the dead also include more than 70 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 15 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed since the war in Gaza began.

    Other groups allied with Iran, including powerful militias in Iraq and Syria, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen, have also attacked Israeli, U.S. and other targets since the start of the war, often drawing Western retaliation. In April, Israel and Iran traded fire directly for the first time.

    U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has said the best way to calm regional tensions is for Hamas to accept a proposal for a phased cease-fire that it says would end of the war in Gaza and bring about the release of the remaining hostages abducted in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that ignited the war. The U.N. Security Council voted overwhelmingly in favor of the plan on Monday.

    Biden says it is an Israeli proposal, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sent conflicting signals, saying Israel remains committed to destroying Hamas. It’s unclear how it would do that if the U.S.-backed proposal, which includes an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, is fully implemented.

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  • Blinken returns to Mideast as Israel-Hamas cease-fire proposal hangs in balance

    Blinken returns to Mideast as Israel-Hamas cease-fire proposal hangs in balance

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    Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned Monday to the Middle East as a proposed Israel-Hamas cease-fire deal hangs in the balance after the rescue of four Israeli hostages held in Gaza in a military raid and following the latest turmoil in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

    What You Need To Know

    • Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to the Middle East on Monday as the proposed cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas hangs in the balance

    • Blinken met with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt, a key mediator with the militant Hamas group, and held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

    • Blinken once again called on Hamas to accept the plan, which he said has wide international support


    With no firm public response yet from Hamas or Israel to the proposal they received 10 days ago, Blinken started his eighth visit to the region since the conflict began in October by meeting with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt, a key mediator with the militant Hamas group, and then talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    Blinken once again called on Hamas to accept the plan, which he said has wide international support.

    “If you want a cease-fire, press Hamas to say ‘yes,’” he told reporters before leaving Cairo on the trip that will take him to Israel, Jordan and Qatar. Blinken said Israel has accepted the proposal, though Netanyahu has not said so directly.

    “I know that there are those who are pessimistic about the prospects,” Blinken said, putting the onus squarely on Hamas. “That’s understandable. Hamas continues to show extraordinary cynicism in its actions, a disinterest not only in the well-being and security of Israelis but also Palestinians.”

    Blinken said the plan on the table is the “single best way” to get to a cease-fire, release the remaining hostages and improve regional security.

    While President Joe Biden, Blinken and other U.S. officials have praised the hostage rescue, the operation resulted in the deaths of a large number of Palestinian civilians and may complicate the cease-fire push by emboldening Israel and hardening Hamas’ resolve to carry on fighting in the war it started with its Oct. 7 attack into Israel.

    “It’s hard to say how Hamas will process this particular operation and what it will do to its determination about whether it will say yes or not,” Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Sunday. “We are hopeful that with enough of a chorus, the international community all speaking with one voice, Hamas will get to the right answer,” Sullivan told ABC’s “This Week.”

    In his talks with el-Sissi, Blinken also discussed plans for post-conflict governance and reconstruction in Gaza, following massive destruction there.

    “It’s imperative that there be a plan, and that has to involve security, it has to involve governance, it has to involve reconstruction,” Blinken said.

    Netanyahu and his government have resisted calls for any ‘day after’ plan that would bar Israel from having some form of security presence in the territory. Blinken said he would urge Israel to come up with alternatives that would be acceptable.

    “It would be very good if Israel put forward its own ideas on this, and I’ll be talking to the government about that,” he said. “But one way or another, we’ve got to have these plans, we’ve got to have them in place, we’ve got to be ready to go if we want to take advantage of a cease-fire.”

    The three-phase cease-fire plan calls for the release of more hostages and a temporary pause in hostilities that will last as long as it takes to negotiate the second phase, which aims to bring the release of all hostages, a “full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza” and “a permanent end to hostilities,” according to an American-drafted resolution put before the U.N. Security Council. The third phase calls for reconstruction in Gaza.

    The Security Council is to vote Monday afternoon on the resolution, which welcomes the proposal and urges Hamas to accept it.

    But Hamas may not be the only obstacle.

    Although the deal has been described as an Israeli initiative and thousands of Israelis have demonstrated in support of it, Netanyahu has expressed skepticism, saying what has been presented publicly is not accurate and that Israel is still committed to destroying Hamas.

    Netanyahu’s far-right allies have threatened to collapse his government if he implements the plan. Benny Gantz, a popular centrist, resigned on Sunday from the three-member War Cabinet after saying he would do so if the prime minister did not formulate a new plan for postwar Gaza. In the aftermath of the hostage rescue, Netanyahu had urged him not to step down.

    Blinken has met with Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Gantz and Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid on nearly all his previous trips to Israel. Officials said Blinken is expected to meet with Gantz on Tuesday.

    Despite Blinken’s roughly once-a-month visits to the region since the war began, the conflict has ground on with more than 37,120 Palestinians killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its counts. Hamas and other militants killed some 1,200 people in the Oct. 7 attack, mostly civilians, and took around 250 people hostage.

    The war has severely hindered the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to the Palestinians in Gaza, who are facing widespread hunger. U.N. agencies say more than 1 million people in the territory could experience the highest level of starvation by mid-July.

    In Jordan, Blinken will take part in an emergency international conference on improving the flow of aid to Gaza.

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  • Israel rescues 4 hostages kidnapped in a Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7

    Israel rescues 4 hostages kidnapped in a Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7

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    Israel said Saturday it rescued four hostages who were kidnapped in a Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, in the largest hostage recovery operation since the war with Hamas began in Gaza.

    What You Need To Know

    • The army said the hostages were rescued in two separate locations in the heart of Nuseirat

    • The rescue comes as international pressure mounts on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in its war in Gaza, which reached its eighth month on Friday

    • Saturday’s operation is the largest recovery of alive hostages since the war erupted, bringing the total of rescued captives to seven

    • Hamas kidnapped some 250 hostages during its attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, which triggered the Israel-Hamas war. About half were released in a weeklong cease-fire in November

    The army said it rescued Noa Argamani, 25; Almog Meir Jan, 21; Andrey Kozlov, 27; and Shlomi Ziv, 40, in a complex special daytime operation in Nuseirat. The hostages were rescued in two separate locations in the heart of Nuseirat, it said.

    Hamas kidnapped some 250 hostages during its attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, which triggered the Israel-Hamas war. About half were released in a weeklong cease-fire in November. Israel says more than 130 hostages remain, with about a quarter of those believed dead, and divisions are deepening in the country over the best way to bring them home.

    The rescue comes as international pressure mounts on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in its war in Gaza, which reached its eighth month on Friday. Seeking a breakthrough in the apparently stalled cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to the Middle East next week.

    Israel’s offensive has killed at least 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its figures.

    Saturday’s operation is the largest recovery of alive hostages since the war erupted, bringing the total of rescued captives to seven.

    Two men were rescued in February when troops stormed a heavily guarded apartment in a densely packed town and another hostage, a woman, was rescued in the aftermath of October’s attack. Israeli troops have so far recovered at least 16 bodies of hostages from Gaza, according to the government.

    Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing growing pressure to end the fighting in Gaza, with many Israelis urging him to embrace a deal announced last month by U.S. President Joe Biden, but far-right allies are threatening to collapse his government if he does.

    One of those rescued on Saturday, Argamani, has been one of the most widely recognized hostages since she was abducted from a music festival.

    The video of her abduction was among the first to surface, images of her horrified face widely shared — Argamani detained between two men on a motorcycle, one arm outstretched and the other held down as she screams “Don’t kill me!”

    Her mother, Liora, has stage four brain cancer and in April released a video pleading to see her daughter before she dies.

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  • Ukraine uses U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia, official says

    Ukraine uses U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia, official says

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    Ukraine has used U.S weapons to strike inside Russia in recent days, according to a Western official familiar with the matter.

    What You Need To Know

    • A western official says that Ukraine has used U.S weapons to strike inside Russia in recent days

    • The weapons were used under recently approved guidance from President Joe Biden allowing American arms to be used to strike inside Russia for the limited purpose of defending Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city

    • Ukrainian officials had stepped up calls on the U.S. to allow Kyiv’s forces to defend themselves against attacks originating from Russian territory

    • In advancing in the northeast Kharkiv region, Russian forces have exploited a lengthy delay in the replenishment of U.S. military aid


    The weapons were used under recently approved guidance from President Joe Biden allowing American arms to be used to strike inside Russia for the limited purpose of defending Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

    Biden’s directive allows for U.S.-supplied weapons to be used to strike Russian forces that are attacking or preparing to attack. It does not change U.S. policy that directs Ukraine not to use American-provided ATACMS or long-range missiles and other munitions to strike offensively inside Russia, U.S. officials have said.

    Ukrainian officials had stepped up calls on the U.S. to allow Kyiv’s forces to defend themselves against attacks originating from Russian territory. Kharkiv sits just 12 miles from the Russian border and has come under intensified Russian attack.

    In advancing in the northeast Kharkiv region, Russian forces have exploited a lengthy delay in the replenishment of U.S. military aid. In addition, Western Europe’s inadequate military production has slowed crucial deliveries to the battlefield for Ukraine.

    On Tuesday, White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that he could not confirm that Ukraine had used U.S. weapons at targets in Russia.

    “We’re just not in a position on a day-to-day basis of knowing exactly what the Ukrainians are firing at what,” Kirby said. “It’s certainly at a tactical level.”

    According to a June 3 report from the Institute for the Study of War, Ukrainian forces struck a Russian S-300/400 air defense battery in Belgorod Oblast, likely with the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, on June 1 or June 2. The air defense system was located roughly about 40 miles from the current front line in northern Kharkiv Oblast and more than 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the city of Kharkiv, which is within the range of HIMARS, the institute reported.

    Confirmation of the strikes comes as Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, visited Qatar, which along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, has been a key mediators in prisoner swaps and other negotiations between Russia and Ukraine since the war began.

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  • Profound sadness, anger grip Israel on its Memorial Day

    Profound sadness, anger grip Israel on its Memorial Day

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    Ruby Chen’s son, Itay, was killed in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. But unlike scores of other families of soldiers killed that day, Chen doesn’t have a grave to visit because his son’s remains are held captive in Gaza.

    What You Need To Know

    • Memorial Day is always a somber occasion in Israel, but it has taken on a profound and raw sadness coupled with percolating anger in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack

    • Families of the fallen and broad segments of the public are demanding accountability from Israeli leaders over the failures that led to the deadliest attack in the country’s history

    • Israel marks its Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of attacks beginning at sundown Sunday with an official ceremony and smaller events the following day at military cemeteries across the country; the solemnity is then abruptly interrupted by the fanfare of Independence Day, which begins Monday evening

    • With the trauma of Oct. 7 looming large, each day is expected to feel dramatically different from previous years


    The absence of a final resting place is being felt acutely now, as Israel marks its Memorial Day for fallen soldiers, when cemeteries are brimming with relatives mourning over the graves of their loved ones.

    “Where are we supposed to go?” Chen said. “There is no burial site for us to go to.”

    Memorial Day is always a somber occasion in Israel, a country that has suffered through repeated war and conflict throughout its 76-year history. But Chen’s torment underscores how this year it has taken on a profound and raw sadness coupled with percolating anger over the failures of Oct. 7 and the war it sparked.

    Families of the fallen, along with broad segments of the public, are demanding accountability from political and military leaders over the blunders that led to the deaths of hundreds in the deadliest attack in the country’s history.

    “Too many people were killed on that day because of a colossal misjudgment,” said Chen, who for months thought his son was still alive after he was snatched into Gaza, before receiving confirmation earlier this year that he was dead. “People who made the misjudgment need to pay, from the prime minister down.”

    Israel marks its Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of attacks beginning at sundown Sunday with an official ceremony and smaller events the following day at military cemeteries across the country. The solemnity is then abruptly interrupted by the fanfare of Independence Day, which begins Monday evening.

    Grouping the two days together is intentionally meant to highlight the link between the costly wars Israel has fought and the establishment and survival of the state, a contrast that this year will be hard to reconcile at a time when Israel is actively engaged in warfare and Israelis feel more insecure than ever.

    With the trauma of Oct. 7 looming large, each day is expected to feel dramatically different from previous years.

    More than 600 Israeli soldiers have been killed since Hamas launched its surprise attack on Oct. 7, when thousands of militants rampaged across southern Israeli military bases and sleepy communities on a Jewish holiday.

    Roughly 1,200 people were killed that day, about a quarter of them soldiers, and another 250 were taken captive into Gaza, according to Israeli authorities. The attack sparked the war, now in its eighth month, which has killed more than 34,700 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to local health officials.

    The militants stormed past Israel’s vaunted defenses, bursting through a border fence, blinding surveillance cameras and battling the country’s first line of defense soldiers, many of whom were outnumbered. Itay Chen, an Israeli-American, was one of them.

    Militants reached roughly 20 different locations in southern Israel, stretching into cities beyond the belt of farming communities that straddles Gaza. It took hours for the region’s most powerful military to send reinforcements to the area and days for it to clear all the militants.

    The attack shook Israel to its core. It shattered the broad trust the country’s Jewish population has long placed in the military, which has compulsory enlistment for most Jewish 18-year-olds.

    Beyond the crisis of confidence in the military, the attack smashed Israelis’ faith in their government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose public support plummeted. Thousands of people take part in weekly protests demanding an early election so that a new leadership can take over.

    Military and defense leaders have said they shoulder the blame for what transpired during the attack, and the country’s head of military intelligence resigned as a result. But Netanyahu has stopped short of accepting responsibility, saying that he will answer tough questions after the war and even blaming his security chiefs last year in a late night post on X that he later deleted. His refusal to own up to his role has infuriated many.

    But many Israelis have also lost patience with the protracted war, where soldiers continue to die and where thousands have been wounded.

    The war’s twin aims, of defeating Hamas’ governing and military capabilities and freeing the hostages, haven’t been accomplished, casting a shadow over events typically meant as a salute to the military’s prowess, said Idit Shafran Gittleman, an expert on the military and Israeli society at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv think tank. Tens of thousands of Israelis also remain displaced from the country’s south and volatile north.

    “Since Oct. 7, Israelis have asked themselves how they will endure Memorial Day and Independence Day. And I don’t think anyone has an answer,” she said, adding that the one thing that might improve public sentiment is an election and a new government.

    The anger that has surged is likely to boil over at the Memorial Day ceremonies, which take place at military cemeteries across the country. The ceremonies are typically seen as sacred, solemn and apolitical, even though they are attended by government ministers and lawmakers.

    Some families have asked that the ministers refrain from joining, fearing a repeat of last year, when attendees at multiple ceremonies yelled at lawmakers who supported a divisive government plan to overhaul the judiciary.

    “This is an event that the failing leadership and the failing security apparatus led us to,” Eyal Eshel, whose daughter, Roni, was killed at a base stormed by militants on Oct. 7 and who is leading the charge to prevent ministers from attending, told Israeli Channel 12. “Respect the families’ request: Don’t come.” Regardless, ministers are still slated to fan out across cemeteries nationwide.

    But other changes are being made to reflect the somber mood, especially for Independence Day. The official ceremony marking the start of celebrations will be scaled down and have no live audience. The traditional air force flyby has been canceled.

    Israelis are wondering what the right way to celebrate is — and whether there is much to celebrate at all.

    “People have stopped believing that the country is able to defend us,” said Tom Segev, an Israeli historian. “The basic faith in the ability of the state to ensure a good future here has been undermined.”

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  • Israel pushes deeper into Rafah and battles a regrouping Hamas in northern Gaza

    Israel pushes deeper into Rafah and battles a regrouping Hamas in northern Gaza

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    Israeli forces pushed deeper into Gaza’s southern city of Rafah on Sunday and battled Hamas in parts of the devastated north that the military said it had cleared months ago but where militants have regrouped.

    What You Need To Know

    • Israeli forces are battling Palestinian militants across Gaza, including in parts of the devastated north that the military said it cleared months ago
    • Warnings continue against Israel’s growing offensive in the southern city of Rafah. It’s considered the last refuge in Gaza for more than a million civilians as well as Hamas’ last stronghold
    • Israel says it must invade to dismantle Hamas and return scores of hostages taken in the Oct. 7 attack against Israel that sparked the war
    • Neighboring Egypt says it intends to formally join South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, which alleges genocide in Gaza

    Warnings continued against the growing offensive in Rafah, considered the last refuge in Gaza for more than a million civilians as well as Hamas’ last stronghold. Some 300,000 people have fled Rafah following evacuation orders from Israel, which says it must invade to dismantle Hamas and return scores of hostages taken in the Oct. 7 attack against Israel that sparked the war.

    U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated opposition to a major military assault on Rafah, telling CBS that Israel would “be left holding the bag on an enduring insurgency” without an exit from Gaza and postwar governance plan.

    The expanding Rafah operation has drawn warnings from neighboring Egypt, whose foreign ministry said it intends to formally join South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice alleging Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, which Israel rejects. The statement cited “the worsening severity and scope of the Israeli attacks against Palestinian civilians.”

    “A full-scale offensive on Rafah cannot take place,” United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement, adding he cannot see how it can be reconciled with international humanitarian law.

    Gaza has been left without a functioning government, leading to a breakdown in public order and allowing Hamas’ armed wing to reconstitute itself in even the hardest-hit areas. Israel has yet to offer a detailed plan for postwar governance in Gaza, saying only that it will maintain open-ended security control over the coastal enclave home to about 2.3 million Palestinians.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a Memorial Day speech vowed to continue fighting until victory in memory of those killed in the war.

    Netanyahu has rejected postwar plans proposed by the United States for the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to govern Gaza with support from Arab and Muslim countries. Those plans depend on progress toward the creation of a Palestinian state, which Netanyahu’s government opposes.

    The Oct. 7 attack killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 250 hostage. Militants still hold about 100 captives and the remains of more than 30. Internationally mediated talks over a cease-fire and hostage release appear to be at a standstill.

    Israel’s air, land and sea offensive has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures. Israel says it has killed over 13,000 militants, without providing evidence.

    Heavy bombardment in the north

    Palestinians reported heavy Israeli bombardment overnight in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp and other areas in northern Gaza, which has suffered widespread devastation and been largely isolated by Israeli forces for months. U.N. officials say there is a “full-blown famine” there.

    Residents said Israeli warplanes and artillery struck across the camp and the Zeitoun area east of Gaza City, where troops have battled militants for over a week. They have called on tens of thousands of people to relocate to nearby areas.

    “It was a very difficult night,” said Abdel-Kareem Radwan, a 48-year-old from Jabaliya. He said they could hear intense and constant bombing since midday Saturday. “This is madness.”

    First responders with the Palestinian Civil Defense said they were unable to respond to multiple calls for help from both areas, as well as from Rafah.

    Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the top Israeli military spokesman, said forces were also operating in Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun. The two towns near Gaza’s northern border with Israel were heavily bombed in the opening days of the war.

    “Hamas’ regime cannot be toppled without preparing an alternative to that regime,” columnist Ben Caspit wrote in Israel’s Maariv daily, channeling the growing frustration felt by many Israelis more than seven months into the war. “The only people who can govern Gaza after the war are Gazans, with a lot of support and help from the outside.”

    Civilians flee in the south

    The United Nations’ agency for Palestinian refugees, the main provider of aid in Gaza, said 300,000 people have fled Rafah since the operation began there. Most are heading to the heavily damaged nearby city of Khan Younis or Mawasi, a tent camp on the coast where some 450,000 people are already living in squalid conditions.

    Rafah was sheltering some 1.3 million Palestinians before the Israeli operation began, most of whom had fled fighting elsewhere.

    Israel has now evacuated the eastern third of Rafah, and Hagari said dozens of militants had been killed there as “targeted operations continued.” The United Nations has warned that a planned full-scale Rafah invasion would further cripple humanitarian operations and cause a surge in civilian deaths.

    Rafah borders Egypt near the main aid entry points, which are already affected. Israeli troops have captured the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing, forcing it to shut down. Egypt has refused to coordinate with Israel on the delivery of aid though the crossing because of “the unacceptable Israeli escalation,” the state-owned Al Qahera News television channel reported.

    A senior Egyptian official told The Associated Press that Cairo has lodged protests with Israel, the United States and European governments, saying the offensive has put its decades-old peace treaty with Israel — a cornerstone of regional stability — at high risk. The official was not authorized to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity.

    U.S. President Joe Biden has said he won’t provide offensive weapons to Israel for Rafah. On Friday, his administration said there was “reasonable” evidence that Israel had breached international law protecting civilians — Washington’s strongest statement yet on the matter.

    Israel rejects those allegations, saying it tries to avoid harming civilians. It blames Hamas for the high toll because the militants fight in dense, residential areas. But the military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.

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  • U.N. assembly approves resolution granting Palestine new rights

    U.N. assembly approves resolution granting Palestine new rights

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    The U.N. General Assembly voted by a wide margin on Friday to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine and called on the Security Council to favorably reconsider its request to become the 194th member of the United Nations.

    What You Need To Know

    • The U.N. General Assembly has voted by a wide margin to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine and has called on the Security Council to favorably reconsider its request to become the 194th member of the United Nations

    • The 193-member world body approved the Arab and Palestinian sponsored resolution on Friday by a vote of 143-9 with 25 abstentions

    • The United States vetoed a widely backed council resolution on April 18 that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for Palestine, a goal the Palestinians have long sought and Israel has worked to prevent

    The 193-member world body approved the Arab and Palestinian-sponsored resolution by a vote of 143-9 with 25 abstentions.

    The United States vetoed a widely backed council resolution on April 18 that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for Palestine, a goal the Palestinians have long sought and Israel has worked to prevent.

    U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood made clear on Thursday that the Biden administration opposed the assembly resolution. The United States was among the nine countries voting against it, along with Israel.

    “We’ve been very clear from the beginning there is a process for obtaining full membership in the United Nations, and this effort by some of the Arab countries and the Palestinians is to try to go around that,” Wood said Thursday. “We have said from the beginning the best way to ensure Palestinian full membership in the U.N. is to do that through negotiations with Israel. That remains our position.”

    Under the U.N. Charter, prospective members of the United Nations must be “peace-loving,” and the Security Council must recommend their admission to the General Assembly for final approval. Palestine became a U.N. non-member observer state in 2012.

    The resolution “determines” that a state of Palestine is qualified for membership — dropping the original language that in the General Assembly’s judgment it is “a peace-loving state.” It therefore recommends that the Security Council reconsider its request “favorably.”

    The renewed push for full Palestinian membership in the U.N. comes as the war in Gaza has put the more than 75-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict at center stage. At numerous council and assembly meetings, the humanitarian crisis facing the Palestinians in Gaza and the killing of more than 34,000 people in the territory, according to Gaza health officials, have generated outrage from many countries.

    The original draft of the assembly resolution was changed significantly to address concerns not only by the U.S. but also by Russia and China, according to three Western diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations were private.

    The first draft would have conferred on Palestine “the rights and privileges necessary to ensure its full and effective participation” in the assembly’s sessions and U.N. conferences “on equal footing with member states.” It also made no reference to whether Palestine could vote in the General Assembly.

    According to the diplomats, Russia and China, which are strong supporters of Palestine’s U.N. membership, were concerned that granting the list of rights and privileges detailed in an annex to the resolution could set a precedent for other would-be U.N. members — with Russia concerned about Kosovo and China about Taiwan.

    Under longstanding legislation by the U.S. Congress, the United States is required to cut off funding to U.N. agencies that give full membership to a Palestinian state — which could mean a cutoff in dues and voluntary contributions to the U.N. from its largest contributor.

    The final draft drops the language that would put Palestine “on equal footing with member states.” And to address Chinese and Russian concerns, it would decide “on an exceptional basis and without setting a precedent” to adopt the rights and privileges in the annex.

    The draft also adds a provision in the annex on the issue of voting, stating categorically: “The state of Palestine, in its capacity as an observer state, does not have the right to vote in the General Assembly or to put forward its candidature to United Nations organs.”

    The final list of rights and privileges in the draft annex includes giving Palestine the right to speak on all issues not just those related to the Palestinians and Middle East, the right to propose agenda items and reply in debates, and the right to be elected as officers in the assembly’s main committees. It would give the Palestinians the right to participate in U.N. and international conferences convened by the United Nations — but it drops their “right to vote” which was in the original draft.

    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas first delivered the Palestinian Authority’s application for U.N. membership in 2011. It failed because the Palestinians didn’t get the required minimum support of nine of the Security Council’s 15 members.

    They went to the General Assembly and succeeded by more than a two-thirds majority in having their status raised from a U.N. observer to a non-member observer state. That opened the door for the Palestinian territories to join U.N. and other international organizations, including the International Criminal Court.

    In the Security Council vote on April 18, the Palestinians got much more support for full U.N. membership. The vote was 12 in favor, the United Kingdom and Switzerland abstaining, and the United States voting no and vetoing the resolution.

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  • Heavy fighting in Gaza’s Rafah keeps aid crossings closed

    Heavy fighting in Gaza’s Rafah keeps aid crossings closed

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    Heav(y fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants on the outskirts of the southern Gaza city of Rafah has left crucial nearby aid crossings inaccessible and caused over 100,000 people to flee north, a United Nations official said Friday.

    What You Need To Know

    • A United Nations official says heavy fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants on the outskirts of the southern Gaza city of Rafah has left crucial nearby aid crossings inaccessible and caused over 100,000 people to flee north

    • Israel’s plans for a full-scale invasion of Rafah appear to be on hold for now

    • The United States is deeply opposed to that and is stepping up pressure by threatening to withhold arms

    • But even the more limited incursion launched earlier this week threatens to worsen Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe

    Israel’s plans for a full-scale invasion of Rafah appear to be on hold for now, with the United States deeply opposed and stepping up pressure by threatening to withhold arms. But even the more limited incursion launched earlier this week threatens to worsen Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe.

    Heavy fighting was also underway in northern Gaza, where Hamas appeared to have once again regrouped in an area where Israel has already launched punishing assaults.

    Over a million Palestinians have fled to Rafah to escape fighting elsewhere, with many packed into U.N.-run shelters or squalid tent camps. The city on the border with Egypt is also a crucial hub for bringing in food, medicine, fuel and other goods.

    The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA, says about 110,000 people have fled Rafah and that food and fuel supplies in the city are critically low. Georgios Petropoulos, an OCHA official working in Rafah, said the two main crossings near the city remain closed, cutting off supplies and preventing medical evacuations and the movement of humanitarian staff.

    “Even if there were assurances to us being able to pass through a corridor, the proximity so close to a military involved in fighting is just not acceptable for something that has to be a humanitarian zone,” he said.

    The U.N.’s World Food Program will run out of food for distribution in southern Gaza by Saturday unless more aid arrives, Petropoulos said. He said about 30,000 people were leaving Rafah daily in search of safety, but that humanitarian workers had no supplies to help them set up camp in a new location.

    “We simply have no tents, we have no blankets, no bedding, none of the items that you would expect a population on the move to be able to get from the humanitarian system,” he said.

    Israeli troops captured the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt on Tuesday, forcing it to shut down. Rafah was the main point of entry for fuel needed to power vehicles, as well as the generators on which hospitals and water treatment plants rely.

    Israel says the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing — Gaza’s main cargo terminal — is open on its side, but the U.N. says it remains inaccessible on the Gaza side because of ongoing fighting.

    Israeli troops are battling Palestinian militants in eastern Rafah, not far from the crossings. An Associated Press reporter in the city heard heavy artillery and gunfire throughout the night into Friday.

    The military said in a statement that it had located several tunnels and eliminated militants “during close-quarters combat and with an aerial strike.”

    Hamas’ military wing said it carried out a complex attack in which it struck a house where Israeli troops had taken up position, an armored personnel carrier and soldiers operating on foot. There was no comment from the Israeli military,

    It is not possible to independently confirm battlefield accounts from either side.

    Hamas also said it launched a number of mortar rounds at the Kerem Shalom crossing, close to where Israeli troops are operating. The military said it intercepted two launches. The crossing was initially closed after a Hamas rocket attack last weekend that killed four Israeli soldiers.

    Israel says Rafah is the last Hamas stronghold in Gaza and key to its goal of dismantling the group’s military and governing capabilities and returning scores of hostages captured in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war.

    But Hamas has repeatedly regrouped, even in the hardest-hit parts of Gaza.

    Heavy battles erupted this week in the Zeitoun area on the outskirts of Gaza City in the northern part of the territory. Northern Gaza was the first target of the ground offensive, and Israel said late last year that it had mostly dismantled Hamas there.

    The north remains largely isolated by Israeli troops, and the U.N. says the estimated 300,000 people there are experiencing “full-blown famine.”

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to proceed with the offensive with or without U.S. arms, saying “we will fight with our fingernails” if needed in a defiant statement late Thursday. The Israeli military says it has what it needs for the missions it has planned, including in Rafah.

    The war began with Hamas’ surprise attack into southern Israel last year, in which it killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 250 hostage. The militants are still holding some 100 captives and the remains of more than 30 after most of the rest were released during a cease-fire last year.

    The war has killed over 34,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures. Israel’s offensive, waged with U.S.-supplied munitions, has caused widespread devastation and forced some 80% of Gaza’s population to flee their homes.

    Israel’s surprise incursion into Rafah complicated what had been months of efforts by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt to broker a cease-fire and the release of hostages. Hamas this week said it had accepted an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal, but Israel says the plan does not meet its “core” demands. Several days of follow-up talks appeared to end inconclusively on Thursday.

    Hamas has demanded guarantees for an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as part of any deal — steps Israel has ruled out.

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  • An American soldier was arrested in Russia and accused of stealing

    An American soldier was arrested in Russia and accused of stealing

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — An American soldier visiting a girlfriend in Russia’s port city of Vladivostok was arrested on charges of stealing from her and remains in custody, according to several U.S. officials.

    What You Need To Know

    • An American soldier visiting a girlfriend in Russia’s port city of Vladivostok was arrested on charges of stealing from her and remains in custody, according to several U.S. officials
    • The soldier, Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, 34, was stationed in South Korea and was in the process of returning home to Fort Cavazos in Texas

    • Officials also said that Black, an infantry soldier, did not tell his unit that he was going to Russia, and did not receive any authorization to go there. They said he was essentially on leave, as he left Korea to redeploy back home to Fort Cavazos

    • The arrest comes less than a year after American soldier Travis King sprinted into North Korea across the heavily fortified border between the Koreas. North Korea later announced that it would expel King, who was returned to the U.S. He was eventually charged with desertion

    U.S. officials said Monday the soldier, Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, 34, was stationed in South Korea and was in the process of returning home to Fort Cavazos in Texas. Instead, officials said that Black, who is married, traveled to Russia to see a longtime girlfriend. His arrest only further complicates U.S. relations with Russia, which have grown increasingly tense as the war in Ukraine drags on.

    The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel details.

    Cynthia Smith, Army spokeswoman, confirmed that a soldier was detained on Thursday in Vladivostok, a major military and commercial Pacific port, on charges of criminal misconduct. She said Russia notified the U.S. and the Army told the soldier’s family.

    “The U.S. Department of State is providing appropriate consular support to the soldier in Russia,” Smith said.

    According to Smith, on May 3 an official from the Russian Ministry of Interior informed the U.S. Embassy Moscow that Black was arrested on May 2. He is currently in a pre-trial detention facility and will stay in detention until his next hearing, pending determination.

    According to officials, the Russian woman had lived in South Korea, and last fall she and Black got into some type of domestic dispute or altercation. After that, she left South Korea. It isn’t clear if she was forced to leave or what, if any, role Korean authorities had in the matter.

    Officials also said that Black, an infantry soldier, did not tell his unit that he was going to Russia, and did not receive any authorization to go there. They said he was essentially on leave, as he left Korea to redeploy back home to Fort Cavazos.

    It’s unclear, however, if U.S. service members are specifically prohibited from traveling to Russia, although the State Department strongly advises U.S. citizens not to go.

    Black enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2008 and was deployed to Iraq from October 2009 through September 2010, and to Afghanistan from June 2013 until March 2014, according to a statement from Smith.

    The arrest comes less than a year after American soldier Travis King sprinted into North Korea across the heavily fortified border between the Koreas. North Korea later announced that it would expel King, who was returned to the U.S. He was eventually charged with desertion.

    Russia is known to be holding a number of Americans in its jails, including corporate security executive Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. The U.S. government has designated both as wrongfully detained and has been trying to negotiate for their release.

    Others detained include Travis Leake, a musician who had been living in Russia for years and was arrested last year on drug-related charges; Marc Fogel, a teacher in Moscow, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison, also on drug charges; and dual nationals Alsu Kurmasheva and Ksenia Khavana.

    The soldier’s arrest in Russia was first reported by NBC News.

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  • Hamas says latest cease-fire talks have ended. Israel vows military operation

    Hamas says latest cease-fire talks have ended. Israel vows military operation

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    The latest round of Gaza cease-fire talks ended in Cairo after “in-depth and serious discussions,” the Hamas militant group said Sunday, reiterating key demands that Israel again rejected.

    What You Need To Know

    • Hamas says the latest round of Gaza cease-fire talks has ended in Cairo after “in-depth and serious discussions”
    • The militant group reiterates key demands that Israel again rejects
    • After signs of progress, the outlook appears to dim. Israel has closed its main crossing point for delivering badly needed humanitarian aid for Gaza after Hamas militants attacked it
    • And the defense minister warns of “a powerful operation in the very near future in Rafah and other places across all of Gaza”
    • Egyptian state media says the Hamas delegation has left for discussions in Qatar and will return to Cairo for further negotiations on Tuesday

    After signs of progress, the outlook appeared to dim as Israel closed its main crossing point for delivering badly needed humanitarian aid for Gaza after Hamas militants attacked it. The defense minister claimed Hamas wasn’t serious about a deal and warned of “a powerful operation in the very near future in Rafah and other places across all of Gaza.”

    Israel didn’t send a delegation to the talks mediated by Egypt and Qatar, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that “we see signs that Hamas does not intend to go to any agreement.”

    Egyptian state media reported that the Hamas delegation left Cairo for discussions in Qatar and will return to the Egyptian capital for further negotiations on Tuesday.

    Another threat to talks came as Israel ordered the local offices of Qatar’s Al Jazeera satellite news network to close, accusing it of broadcasting anti-Israel incitement. The ban did not appear to affect the channel’s operations in Gaza.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under pressure from hard-liners in his government, continued to lower expectations for a cease-fire deal, calling the key Hamas demands “extreme” — including the withdrawal of Israel forces from Gaza and an end to the war. That would equal surrender after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that triggered the fighting, Netanyahu said.

    Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a statement earlier said the militant group was serious and positive about the negotiations and that stopping Israeli aggression in Gaza is the main priority.

    But Israel’s government again vowed to press on with a military operation in Rafah, the southernmost Gaza city on the border with Egypt where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents now seek shelter from Israeli attacks. Rafah is a key entry point for aid.

    Kerem Shalom, now closed, is another. The Israeli military reported 10 projectiles were launched at the crossing in southern Israel and said its fighter jets later struck the source. Hamas said it had been targeting Israeli soldiers in the area. Israel’s Channel 12 TV channel said 10 people were wounded, three seriously. It was unclear how long the crossing would be closed.

    Land and sea routes are available to get humanitarian aid to people in the Gaza Strip. (AP Digital Embed)

    The attack came shortly after the head of the U.N. World Food Program asserted “full-blown famine” in devastated northern Gaza, one of the most prominent warnings yet of the toll of restrictions on food and other aid entering the territory. The comments were not a formal famine declaration.

    In expanded remarks as the full NBC interview was released Sunday, WFP chief Cindy McCain said famine was “moving its way south” in Gaza and that Israel’s efforts to allow in more aid were not enough. “We need more ability to be able to get more trucks in,” she said. “We have right now a mass on the outside border, about enough trucks and enough food for 1.1 million people for about three months. We need to get that in.”

    Gaza’s vast humanitarian needs put further pressure on the pursuit of a cease-fire. The proposal that Egyptian mediators had put to Hamas sets out a three-stage process that would bring an immediate, six-week cease-fire and partial release of Israeli hostages taken in the Oct. 7 attack, and would include some sort of Israeli pullout. The initial stage would last for 40 days. Hamas would start by releasing female civilian hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

    Netanyahu claimed that Israel has shown willingness to make concessions but said it “will continue fighting until all of its objectives are achieved.” That includes the stated aim of crushing Hamas. Israel says it must target Rafah to strike remaining fighters there despite warnings from the U.S. and others about the danger to civilians.

    An Israeli strike Sunday on the al-Attar family house in an urban refugee camp near Rafah killed four children, including a baby, and two adults, according to Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital.

    In later remarks for Israel’s annual Holocaust memorial day, Netanyahu added: “We will defend ourselves in every way. We will overcome our enemies and we will ensure our security — in the Gaza Strip, on the Lebanese border, everywhere.”

    The Hamas cross-border attack on Oct. 7 killed some 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. Israel says militants still hold around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others. Netanyahu is under growing pressure from some hostages’ families to make a deal to end the war and get hostages freed.

    Israeli’s air and ground offensive has killed over 34,500 people, according to Palestinian health officials, who don’t differentiate between civilians and combatants but say women and children make up a majority of those killed.

    Israel blames Hamas for civilian deaths, accusing it of embedding in residential and public areas. The Israeli military says it has killed 13,000 militants, without providing evidence to back up the claim.

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  • Netanyahu’s Cabinet votes to close Al Jazeera offices in Israel

    Netanyahu’s Cabinet votes to close Al Jazeera offices in Israel

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    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his government has voted unanimously to shut down the local offices of Qatar-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera, escalating Israel’s long-running feud with the channel at a time when cease-fire negotiations with Hamas — mediated by Qatar — are gaining steam.

    What You Need To Know

    • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his government has voted unanimously to shutter the offices of the Qatar-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera in Israel
    • Details on when it would go into effect or whether it was permanent or temporary were not immediately clear
    • The vote comes amid deeply strained ties between Israel and the channel, which have worsened during the war against Hamas
    • It also comes as Qatar is helping to broker a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas in the war in Gaza

    According to a statement from Netanyahu’s office, the decision goes into effect immediately. It could include closing the channel’s offices in Israel, confiscating broadcast equipment, preventing the broadcast of the channel’s reports and blocking its websites, among other measures, the statement said.

    Israeli media said the vote allows Israel to block the channel from operating in the country for 45 days, according to the decision.

    “Al Jazeera reporters harmed Israel’s security and incited against soldiers,” Netanyahu said in the statement. “It’s time to remove the Hamas mouthpiece from our country.”

    The extraordinary move is believed to be the first time Israel has ever shuttered a foreign news outlet, although its government has taken action against individual reporters in the past. The statement from Netanyahu’s office said that under a law passed last month, the government can take action against a foreign channel seen as “harming the country.”

    There was no immediate comment from Al Jazeera headquarters in the Qatari capital of Doha. But several Al Jazeera correspondents went on air to give their understanding of how the decision would affect the channel.

    An Al Jazeera correspondent on its Arabic service said the order would affect the broadcaster’s operations in Israel and in east Jerusalem, where it has been doing live shots for months since the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war in Gaza.

    It would not affect Al Jazeera’s operations in the Palestinian territories, the correspondent said.

    Another correspondent, on Al Jazeera’s English channel, said the order barred the channel from “holding offices or operating them” in Israel. He said the broadcaster’s websites would be blocked, though they were still accessible by Sunday afternoon in Jerusalem.

    The decision threatens to heighten tensions with Qatar at a time when the Doha government is playing a key role in mediation efforts to halt the war in Gaza, along with Egypt and the United States.

    Qatar has had strained ties with Netanyahu in particular since he made comments suggesting that Qatar is not exerting enough pressure on Hamas to prompt it to relent in its terms for a truce deal. Qatar hosts Hamas leaders in exile.

    The sides appear to be close to striking a deal, but multiple previous rounds of talks have ended with no agreement.

    Shortly after the government’s decision, Cabinet members from the National Unity party criticized its timing, saying it “may sabotage the efforts to finalize the negotiations and stems from political considerations.” The party said that in general, it supported the decision.

    Israel has long had a rocky relationship with Al Jazeera, accusing it of bias. Relations took a major downturn nearly two years ago when Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh was killed during an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank.

    Those relations further deteriorated following the outbreak of Israel’s war against Hamas on Oct. 7, when the militant group carried out a cross-border attack in southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage.

    In December, an Israeli strike killed an Al Jazeera cameraman as he reported on the war in southern Gaza. The channel’s bureau chief in Gaza, Wael Dahdouh, was injured in the same attack.

    In 2017, Israel threatened to revoke an Al Jazeera reporter’s credentials after an interview surfaced in which the reporter expressed support for Palestinian “resistance.”

    An order barring a broadcaster is seen as an extraordinary measure by the Israeli government, which broadly allows media outlets to operate in the country. However, the government has in the past revoked press cards issued to individual correspondents over their coverage.

    The country has a critical and outspoken local media scene, though Israel views some international outlets as harboring bias against it.

    Al Jazeera is one of the few international media outlets to remain in Gaza throughout the war, broadcasting bloody scenes of airstrikes and overcrowded hospitals and accusing Israel of massacres. Israel accuses Al Jazeera of collaborating with Hamas.

    Al Jazeera, which is funded by Qatar’s government, did not immediately respond to a request from The Associated Press for comment.

    While Al Jazeera’s English operation often resembles the programming found on other major broadcast networks, its Arabic arm often publishes verbatim video statements from Hamas and other militant groups in the region. It similarly came under harsh U.S. criticism during America’s occupation of Iraq after its 2003 invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

    Al Jazeera has been closed or blocked by other Mideast governments. Those include Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain during a yearslong boycott of Doha by the countries amid a yearslong political dispute that ended in 2021.

    Sunday’s development immediately recalled Egypt’s shutdown of Al Jazeera after the country’s 2013 military takeover following mass protests against President Mohammed Morsi, a member of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group. The channel covered many of the Brotherhood’s protests live, to the anger of Egypt’s military government. At the time, Egyptian security forces raided a luxury hotel the channel operated out of, arresting its correspondents.

    Australian Peter Greste, Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed received 10-year prison sentences, but were later released in 2015 amid widespread international criticism.

    Egypt considers the Brotherhood a terrorist group and accused both Qatar and Al Jazeera of supporting it.

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  • Ukraine marks its third Easter at war under fire from Russian drones and troops

    Ukraine marks its third Easter at war under fire from Russian drones and troops

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    As Ukraine marked its third Easter at war, Russia on Sunday launched a barrage of drones concentrated in Ukraine’s east, wounding more than a dozen people, and claimed its troops took control of a village they had been targeting.

    What You Need To Know

    • Russia has launched a barrage of drones on eastern Ukraine and claimed its troops took control of a village they had been targeting as Ukraine marks its third Easter at war
    • President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians in an Easter address to be “united in one common prayer” and called God an “ally” in the war with Russia
    • Ukraine’s air force said Sunday that Russia had launched 24 Shahed drones, of which 23 were shot down. At least 16 people, including a child, were wounded in the Kharkiv region
    • Russia said its troops took control of the village of Ocheretyne in the Donetsk region

    Ukraine’s air force said that Russia had launched 24 Shahed drones overnight, of which 23 were shot down.

    Six people, including a child, were wounded in a drone strike in the eastern Kharkiv region, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said. Ten more were wounded in an airstrike Sunday afternoon on the Kharkiv regional capital, also called Kharkiv, Syniehubov said, adding the city was attacked by an aerial bomb.

    Fires broke out when debris from drones that were shot down fell on buildings in the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region. No casualties were reported.

    The Russian Ministry of Defense announced Sunday that its troops had taken control of the village of Ocheretyne, which has been in the crosshairs of Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. Drone footage obtained by The Associated press showed the village battered by fighting. Not a single person is seen in the footage obtained late Friday, and no building in Ocheretyne appears to have been left untouched by the fighting.

    Officials in Kyiv urged residents to follow Orthodox Easter services online due to safety concerns. Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv city administration, warned that “even on such bright days of celebration, we can expect evil deeds from the aggressor.”

    In his Easter address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Ukrainians to be “united in one common prayer.”

    In a video filmed in front of Kyiv’s Saint Sophia Cathedral, wearing a traditional Vyshyvanka embroidered shirt, Zelenskyy said that God “has a chevron with the Ukrainian flag on his shoulder.” With “such an ally,” Zelenskyy said, “life will definitely win over death.”

    A majority of Ukrainians identify as Orthodox Christians, though the church is divided. Many belong to the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The rival Ukrainian Orthodox Church was loyal to the patriarch in Moscow until splitting from Russia after the 2022 invasion and is viewed with suspicion by many Ukrainians.

    In Moscow, worshippers including President Vladimir Putin packed Moscow’s landmark Christ the Savior Cathedral late Saturday for a nighttime Easter service led by Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church and an outspoken supporter of the Kremlin.

    Eastern Orthodox Christians usually celebrate Easter later than Catholic and Protestant churches, because they use a different method of calculating the date for the holy day that marks Christ’s resurrection.

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  • Blinken pushes Hamas to agree on Gaza cease-fire

    Blinken pushes Hamas to agree on Gaza cease-fire

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    Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel on Wednesday to press for a cease-fire deal in the Israel-Hamas war, saying “the time is now” and warning that Hamas would bear the blame for any failure to reach an agreement to halt the war in Gaza.

    Blinken greeted the families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza who were protesting outside a meeting between him and Israel’s president, telling them that setting their loved ones free was “at the heart of everything we’re trying to do.”

    What You Need To Know

    • Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli leaders on Wednesday in his push for a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas

    • Blinken, saying “the time is now” for an agreement that would free hostages and pause fighting, contended that Hamas would bear the blame for any failure to achieve a deal

    • A truce could avert an Israeli incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering

    • The current round of talks appears to be serious, but the sides remain far apart on whether the war should end as part of an emerging deal
    • Blinken said the deal would also allow much needed food, medicine and water to get into Gaza


    Blinken is on his seventh visit to the region since the war erupted in October, aiming to secure what’s been an elusive deal between Israel and Hamas that could avert an Israeli incursion into the southern Gaza town of Rafah, where some 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering.

    The current round of talks appears to be serious, but the sides remain far apart on one key issue — whether the war should end as part of an emerging deal.

    Before agreeing to an initial, short-term cease-fire and partial hostage release, Hamas wants assurances that the eventual freeing of all the hostages will bring the end of Israel’s offensive and its full withdrawal from Gaza. Israel has offered only a pause after which it would resume its offensives until Hamas is destroyed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his determination to attack Rafah in talks with Blinken on Wednesday.

    Blinken put pressure on Hamas, saying it would bear the blame for any failure to get a deal. Hamas said in a statement it would likely reply to the latest proposal on Thursday.

    “We are determined to get a cease-fire that brings the hostages home and to get it now, and the only reason that that wouldn’t be achieved is because of Hamas,” Blinken told Israel’s ceremonial President Isaac Herzog at a meeting in Tel Aviv.

    “There is a proposal on the table, and as we’ve said, no delays, no excuses. The time is now,” he said.

    Blinken said the deal would also allow much needed food, medicine and water to get into Gaza, where the war has sparked a humanitarian crisis and displaced much of the territory’s population.

    Blinken later Wednesday visited the Port of Ashdod, located south of Tel Aviv, where American flour — enough for one-and-a-half million Palestinians — arrived to be transported to Gaza. The United States’ top diplomat hailed the “real, demonstrable progress” made in getting increased aid to the people of Gaza, but said that “given the immense need in Gaza, it needs to be accelerated” and “sustained.”

    But Netanyahu’s vow to carry out a military operation in Rafah, which Israel says is the last major Hamas stronghold showed the remaining challenges in the talks.

    “The operation in Rafah doesn’t depend on anything. The prime minister made this clear to Secretary Blinken,” Netanyahu’s office said after the two met Wednesday. A day earlier, Netanyahu pledged to move on Rafah “with or without” a cease-fire deal.

    The United States has staunchly supported Israel’s campaign of bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza since Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Oct. 7 into southern Israel. But it has grown increasingly critical of the staggering toll borne by Palestinian civilians and has been outspoken against an assault on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has packed in and around the town after fleeing fighting elsewhere in the territory.

    Washington says it opposes a major offensive but that if Israel conducts one it must first evacuate civilians.

    In Rafah, Palestinians terrified of a potential Israeli invasion clung to hope that, after months of reported near-deals, this time a cease-fire would be sealed. Hundreds of thousands are living in vast tent camps filling the once empty areas around Rafah

    Salwa Abu Hatab, a woman who fled Khan Younis, said she wants to go home. “Do you think we like life in tents? We are tired and suffering,” she said. “Every day they say there is a truce and negotiations, and in the end it fails. We hope they will succeed this time.”

    “If the invasion happens, we do not know where to go,” said Enas Syam, a woman from Gaza City carrying her child in the camp. “There is no safe place left.”

    In his talks with Netanyahu, Blinken urged him to build on what he said has been the “improvement” in the delivery of aid to Gaza over the past month. Bowing to U.S. pressure to increase aid deliveries, Israel re-opened its Erez crossing into the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday for the first time since it was damaged in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

    Throughout his regional visit, with previous stops in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, Blinken urged Hamas to accept the latest cease-fire proposal, calling it “extraordinarily generous” on Israel’s part.

    The proposal — brokered by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar — would put a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza up for discussion, according to leaked details confirmed by an Egyptian official and a Hamas official.

    The proposal lays out three stages of six to seven weeks each with a detailed timetable of steps. The first phase would bring a pause during which Hamas would release some hostages, particularly civilian women, in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

    Israeli troops would withdraw from a coastal road in Gaza to facilitate passage of aid and the return of displaced people to the north, then the troops would withdraw from central Gaza. In the meantime, talks would start on restoring “a permanent calm,” the Egyptian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal negotiations.

    The next stage would bring implementation of the calm, including Hamas’ release of all remaining hostages – soldiers and civilians – and a withdrawal of Israeli forces out of Gaza.

    The last stage would see the release of bodies of dead hostages and the start of a five-year reconstruction plan. The plan says that Hamas would agree not to rebuild its military arsenal. The details were first reported in the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, which is close to Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group.

    The Egyptian official said Hamas wanted the language of the second phase to be strengthened to specify a “complete Israeli withdrawal from the entire Gaza Strip” to avoid different interpretations. It also wants clearer terms for the unconditional return of displaced people to the north of Gaza, since the current outline didn’t fully explain who would be allowed back, the official said.

    Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes in Gaza continued. Late Tuesday, a strike hit a house in Rafah — where strikes have been continual despite the masses of Palestinians taking refuge there — killing at least two children, according to hospital authorities. An Associated Press journalist saw the children’s bodies at Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital as their relatives mourned the deaths.

    On Wednesday, Israel’s military said it was operating in central Gaza, where it said jets struck militants, including one said to be setting up explosives.

    The Israel-Hamas war was sparked by the unprecedented Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. Israel says the militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.

    The war in Gaza has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials. The war has driven around 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million from their homes, caused vast destruction in several towns and cities and pushed northern Gaza to the brink of famine.

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  • Dozens in Italy give a fascist salute on anniversary of Mussolini’s execution

    Dozens in Italy give a fascist salute on anniversary of Mussolini’s execution

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    Dozens of people raised their arms in the fascist salute and shouted a fascist chant during ceremonies Sunday to honor Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on the 79th anniversary of his execution.

    Dressed in black, these nostalgics marched through northern Italian towns where Mussolini was arrested and executed at the end of World War II, and also in Predappio, Mussolini’s birthplace and final resting place.

    What You Need To Know

    • Dozens of people in northern Italy have raised their arms in the fascist salute to honor Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on the 79th anniversary of his execution
    • Dressed in black, the neo-fascist supporters marched through northern Italian towns where Mussolini was arrested and executed at the end of World War II
    • The anniversary Sunday fell on the same day that Premier Giorgia Meloni was leading her far-right Brothers of Italy party in an election rally in the city of Pescara
    • Brothers of Italy traces its roots to the Italian Social Movement, which was founded in 1946 by a chief of staff in Mussolini’s last government and drew fascist sympathizers and officials into its ranks


    Mussolini was stopped by anti-fascist partisans in Dongo, on the shores of Lake Como, on April 27, 1945, as he tried to escape with his lover, Clara Petacci, following the Allied liberation of Italy.

    On Sunday, a group of his supporters marched through Dongo and placed 15 roses in the lake in memory of the ministers and officials from the Mussolini government who were killed there, according to video of the event by LaPresse news agency.

    The partisans executed Mussolini and Petacci the following day in the nearby lakeside town of Mezzegra-Giulino, where commemorations were also held Sunday. After a rendition of Taps, the leader of the commemorations shouted “Comrad Benito Mussolini,” and the crowd responded with a stiff-armed fascist salute and chant of “present.”

    Several police trucks separated the demonstrators in Dongo from hundreds of protesters who sang the famous partisan song “Bella Ciao” during the ceremony.

    The anniversary of Mussolini’s execution fell on the same day that Premier Giorgia Meloni was leading her far-right Brothers of Italy party in an election rally in the city of Pescara. Brothers of Italy traces its roots to the Italian Social Movement, which was founded in 1946 by a chief of staff in Mussolini’s last government and drew fascist sympathizers and officials into its ranks after Mussolini’s fall.

    Meloni, who joined the MSI’s youth branch as a teenager, has tried to distance her party from its neo-fascist roots. She has condemned fascism’s suppression of democracy and insisted that the Italian right handed fascism over to history decades ago. On Sunday, Meloni accused the left of being more of a totalitarian threat to Italy today.

    She noted that Communist Party members had made a formal complaint about the tent structures built on the Pescara beachfront to host the Brothers of Italy rally, during which Meloni announced she would head the party’s campaign ahead of European Parliament elections in June.

    “I note that the Communist Party still exists, and I say so to show where the nostalgics for totalitarianism are in Italy today,” she said.

    She earned rounds of applause as she listed her government’s accomplishments since coming to power in 2022, and drew cheers when she reaffirmed her working-class roots.

    “If you still believe in me, just write ‘Giorgia’ on the ballot, because I am and always will be one of you,” she said.

    The message recalled one of her most famous campaign slogans, “I am Giorgia,” which emphasized her Christian nationalistic messaging and went onto become a viral meme and the title of her memoir.

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    Associated Press

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