An Israeli airstrike hit a U.N.-run school compound in northern Gaza on Friday, killing three people according to Palestinian emergency officials, a day after a similar strike on a school in Gaza's center killed at least 33 people. In both airstrikes, the Israeli army said Hamas militants were operating from within the schools. The Associated Press could not verify the claims.
Israel on Friday released the names of 17 militants it said were killed in Thursday’s strike. However, only nine of those names matched with records of the dead from the hospital morgue. One of the alleged militants was an 8-year-old boy, according to hospital records.
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International pressure is mounting on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in its war in Gaza, which completed 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.
And at the United Nations, Israel and Hamas are both set to be listed as violating the rights and protection of children in armed conflict, in an upcoming annual report to the Security Council. Israel reacted with public outrage after being informed Friday about the designation.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 36,730 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. Palestinians are facing widespread hunger because the war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies. U.N. agencies say over 1 million in Gaza could experience the highest level of starvation by mid-July.
Israel launched the war after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250. Around 80 hostages captured on Oct. 7 are believed to still be alive in Gaza, alongside the remains of 43 others.
Currently:
— Women and children of Gaza are killed less frequently as war’s toll rises, AP data analysis finds
— Takeaways from AP analysis of Gaza Health Ministry’s death toll data.
— Baghdad rattled by attacks on businesses linked to U.S. brands as anger over the war in Gaza rises.
— Yemen’s Houthi rebels detain at least nine U.N. staffers and others in a sudden crackdown, officials say
— One image, seen by millions: A social media effort to draw attention to Rafah surges.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Here's the latest:
ISRAEL LISTS NAMES OF 17 ALLEGED MILITANTS KILLED IN GAZA SCHOOL STRIKE, BUT MANY DON'T MATCH HOSPITAL'S LIST OF DEAD
JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said Friday an additional eight militants were among those killed in a strike on a U.N.-run school in central Gaza, raising the number of alleged militants to 17.
The army released the names of the militants it said were killed in Thursday's strike. However, only nine of those names matched with records of the dead from the hospital morgue.
One of the names Israel listed as a militant was an 8-year-old boy, Shaheen Mahmoud Ibrahim Abu Sharif, according to the hospital records. Two boys on the morgue’s list, age 10 and 14, had names that suggested they were sons of a man Israel identified as a slain militant, although he was not listed among the hospital's dead.
The AP could not independently confirm whether any names on the Israeli list were militants.
The army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the discrepancy Friday evening.
The strike in Nuseirat refugee camp on Thursday killed over 33 people inside the school, including three women and nine children, according to reports at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
Israel said Thursday that some 30 militants were inside the school at the time. The military said it was unaware of any civilian casualties.
Some 6,000 people were sheltering in the school when it was hit, according to Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. agency that cares for Palestinian refugees.
U.N. WILL LIST ISRAEL AND HAMAS AS VIOLATING CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IN ARMED CONFLICT
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. secretary-general will list Israel and Hamas as violating the rights and protection of children in armed conflict in an upcoming annual report to the Security Council.
According to the preface of last year’s report, listed parties engaged in “the killing and maiming of children” and in “attacks on schools, hospitals and protected persons in relation to schools and/or hospitals.”
The head of Secretary-General António Guterres’ office, Courtenay Rattray, called Israel’s U.N. Ambassador, Gilad Erdan, on Friday to inform him that Israel would be listed on the next report when it is sent to the council within a few weeks, U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told reporters.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad is also are being listed.
Israel reacted with outrage, sending news organizations a video of Erdan berating Rattray, supposedly on the other end of a phone call.
BLINKEN TO VISIT MIDEAST AND PUSH FOR CEASE-FIRE PROPOSAL IN EIGHTH MIDEAST TRIP DURING GAZA WAR
WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is returning to the Middle East on his eighth diplomatic mission to the region since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began in October.
The State Department says Blinken, who is currently in France accompanying President Joe Biden on a state visit, will fly from Paris to Cairo on Monday before traveling to Israel, Jordan and Qatar. Blinken will then go to Italy to join Biden at a G7 summit.
The lightning tour comes as the Biden administration is pushing hard for Hamas to accept a three-phase cease-fire proposal that would see the release of hostages held by the group and potentially pave the way for an end to the conflict and the reconstruction of Gaza.
However, Blinken may have trouble selling the proposal — or at least its implementation — to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Although the deal has been described as an Israeli initiative, some members of Netanyahu’s far-right coalition government are strongly opposed to it. And Netanyahu himself has expressed skepticism, saying what has been presented publicly is not accurate and rejecting calls for Israel to cease all fighting until Hamas is eradicated.
Hamas has said it viewed the offer “positively” and called on Israel to declare an explicit commitment to an agreement that includes a permanent cease-fire, a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, a prisoner exchange and other conditions.
Biden, Blinken and other U.S. officials have also lobbied Arab nations to use what influence they have with Hamas to get the Palestinian militant group to accept the deal. So far, there has been no definitive response since Biden announced the deal last week.
ISRAEL STRIKES A U.N. SCHOOL IN NORTHERN GAZA. PALESTINIAN OFFICIALS SAY 3 PEOPLE KILLED
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it struck a Hamas position inside a U.N.-run school in northern Gaza. Palestinian emergency officials said three people were killed.
The attack Friday came a day after an Israeli strike on a U.N. school in central Gaza killed at least 33 people, including 12 women and children, according to local health officials. The Israeli military said in that case as well that Hamas militants were operating from within the school.
Friday’s airstrike targeted the Asmaa School in the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza, a facility run by the U.N. agency that cares for Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA.
The Israeli military said it hit a shipping container on the grounds of the school that Hamas was using as a meeting point to plan attacks. It said one militant was killed. Israel's claims could not be independently confirmed.
The Palestinian Civil Defense said three people were killed in the strike, without giving details on their identities.
Later, the Israeli military refused to say whether the strike caused civilian casualties.
More than 180 United Nations facilities have been damaged during Israel’s campaign of bombardment and ground offensives across Gaza, according to UNRWA. Most of them have been schools, which have turned into shelters for tens of thousands of people fleeing the violence. Israel accuses Hamas of using schools and other civilian infrastructure to position its fighters, weapons and command posts.
As the war completed its eighth month on Friday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Israel’s campaign has killed more than 36,730 people. Its count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The Israeli army says it follows international law and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, saying militants operate among the population. The Geneva Conventions say civilians must not be targeted deliberately or indiscriminately, and military operations must be proportionate.
AMERICAN-BUILT PIER IN GAZA IS RECONNECTED TO BEACH AND AID WILL FLOW SOON, U.S. MILITARY SAYS
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military-built pier designed to carry badly needed aid into Gaza by boat has been reconnected to the beach after a section broke apart in storms and rough seas, U.S. Central Command announced Friday, saying food and other supplies will begin to flow soon.
The section that connects to the beach in Gaza, the causeway, was rebuilt nearly two weeks after heavy storms damaged it and abruptly halted what had already been a troubled delivery route.
Central Command Vice Admiral Brad Cooper said operations at the reconnected pier will be ramped up soon with a goal to get a million pounds of food and other supplies moving through the pier into Gaza every two days.
The pier was only operational for a week before a storm broke it apart, and had initially struggled to reach delivery goals.
The maritime route for a limited time had been an additional way to help get more aid into Gaza because the Israeli offensive in the southern city of Rafah has made it difficult, if not impossible at times, to get anything through land routes that are far more productive. Israel’s Rafah invasion and strikes in northern Gaza had also temporarily halted U.S. airdrops of food.
Cooper said Friday the U.S. also expects to resume those airdrops in the coming days.
ISRAELI SETTLERS SET FIRE TO PALESTINIAN VILLAGE IN WEST BANK AND SEVERAL PEOPLE ARE WOUNDED, OFFICIALS SAY
RAMALLAH — Several people were wounded when settlers set fire to a northern West Bank village, a local official said Friday.
Hani Odeh, head of Qusra’s municipality council, told The Associated Press that settlers set fire in the area Thursday night, attacking houses, burning warehouses and destroying trees.
Videos seen by the AP show several fires blazing with plumes of smoke in the air. Three people were injured, one by live ammunition and the others by live bullets, said Odeh.
The army told the AP that Israeli civilians lit Palestinian property on fire Thursday evening. It said there was a violent confrontation between Israeli civilians and Palestinians with mutual rock throwing and the army dispersed them by firing shots in the air.
Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has surged throughout the war in Gaza. Israel has been conducting raids into Palestinian cities and towns in the territory to crack down on militancy and the incursions have led to the deaths of around 530 Palestinians. Most of those killed have been in clashes with the military. But people throwing stones as well as others not involved in the confrontations have also been killed.
Palestinian attacks against Israelis have also been on the rise in the territory.
Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.
The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, while the more than 500,000 Jewish settlers in the territory have Israeli citizenship.
GAZA HEALTH OFFICIALS SAY AT LEAST 18 KILLED IN OVERNIGHT ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza — Palestinian health officials say at least 18 people were killed, including children, in Israeli airstrikes overnight across Central Gaza.
Strikes hit the Nuseirat and Maghazi refugee camps and Deir al-Balah and Zawaiyda towns, they said Friday. The bodies were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where they were tallied by an Associated Press journalist.
Four children and one woman were among those killed as well as the mayor of the Nuseirat municipality, according to hospital records.
Israel’s army said Friday it was still carrying out operations in parts of Central Gaza including eastern Bureji and Deir al-Balah. It said its troops had killed dozens of militants, located tunnel shafts and destroyed infrastructure in the area.
The strikes come a day after an Israeli strike killed at least 33 people at a United Nations-run school sheltering displaced Palestinian families. Israel said the school was being used as a Hamas compound, without providing evidence.
Israel’s military said it was not aware of any civilian casualties in the strike on the school in Nuseirat refugee camp, and later said it had confirmed killing nine militants.
UNEMPLOYMENT IN GAZA REACHES NEARLY 80%, U.N. REPORT SAYS
JERUSALEM — Unemployment in Gaza has reached nearly 80% since the war erupted eight months ago, a new United Nations report said Friday.
The United Nations International Labour Organization and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said the war has plunged Gaza as well as the West Bank into economic crisis. In Gaza, virtually the entire private sector ground to a halt or significantly reduced, losing more than 85% of its production value -- the equivalent of more than $810 million-- during the first half of the war, said the report.
In the West Bank, unemployment reached 32% bringing the average rate across both areas to more than 50%. The findings don’t include people who left the workforce because they couldn’t find jobs.
This is the fourth report since the war began on Oct 7. when Hamas militants stormed southern Israel killing some 1,200 people.
A separate report last month by the UN said the unprecedented destruction from the war in Gaza would take at least until 2040 to restore
CIVIL RIGHTS GROUP URGES U.S. TO STOP SENDING WEAPONS FOR USE IN GAZA
The U.S. civil rights group NAACP has called on the Biden administration to end the shipment of weapons to Israel for use in attacks on Gaza.
It said Thursday that President Joe Biden’s three-stage proposal for a cease-fire and the return of Israeli hostages held by Hamas does not go far enough.
“Over the past months, we have been forced to bear witness to unspeakable violence, affecting innocent civilians, which is unacceptable,” President and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement. “It is one thing to call for a cease-fire, it is another to take the measures necessary to work towards liberation for all.”
The group also urged an end of artillery shipments to states that supply weapons to Hamas.
The NAACP appears to be the first legacy U.S. civil rights organization to call for a cease-fire. However, racial justice activists and the Black Lives Matter movement have been calling for a cease-fire since shortly after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Militants killed about 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage in the attack.
Since Israel’s offensive in response to that attack, over 36,000 Palestinians have died according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
U.S. IS CIRCULATING A GAZA CEASE-FIRE RESOLUTION AT THE U.N., BUT ISRAEL PRIVATELY OBJECTS
UNITED NATIONS — The United States has circulated a revised Security Council draft resolution that says a permanent cease-fire in the Gaza must be agreed to by Israel and Hamas.
It also spells out a three-phase plan to end the eight-month war and start the reconstruction of the devastated Gaza Strip that it says Israel has accepted and calls on Hamas to accept.
In exchange for the agreement by both parties to a permanent cease-fire, the plan says all Israeli hostages in Gaza will be released and all Israeli forces will withdraw from Gaza.
But Israel is privately objecting to its close ally’s latest attempt to stop the war.
An Israeli official told The Associated Press that the language overlooks Israel’s stated aim of destroying Hamas as a military force. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussion.
Because Israel believes that Hamas will engage in future military attacks, it is wary of signing a document that specifically stipulates a cease-fire, the official said. That language has a more permanent implication than a “cessation of hostilities,” which has also been mentioned in draft discussions.
Israel also objects to proposed language that “rejects any attempt at demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip.”
That includes “actions that reduce the territory of Gaza, such as through the permanent establishment officially or unofficially of so-called buffer zones,” which Israel has already said it plans.
Far-right members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have threatened to bring down the coalition if he signs onto a cease-fire deal.
Egyptian and Qatari mediators have told top Biden administration officials in the Middle East that they expect Hamas will submit its formal response to the latest hostage and cease-fire offer in the coming days, according to a U.S. official.
The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said ongoing talks in Doha and Cairo have been constructive, but that Hamas has still not delivered its formal response to the three-phase deal that President Joe Biden outlined last week.
Hamas has said it viewed the offer “positively” and called on Israel to declare an explicit commitment to the agreement.
More than a dozen countries joined the U.S. in a statement Thursday to show support for the proposed deal.
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Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer, Michael Weissenstein and Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.
GAZA HOSPITAL SAYS FEWER WOMEN AND CHILDREN WERE KILLED IN ISRAELI STRIKE ON SCHOOL
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The hospital where bodies were brought after an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in the Gaza Strip has amended its records to show that fewer women and children were among those killed.
The Israeli military says it carried out a precise strike Thursday on three classrooms in the U.N.-run school where it says around 30 Palestinian militants were planning and orchestrating attacks. It said it has confirmed killing nine militants.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital initially reported that nine women and 14 children were among 33 people killed in the strike on the school.
The hospital morgue later amended those records to show that the dead included three women, nine children and 21 men. It was not immediately clear what caused the discrepancy.
SPAIN APPLIES TO JOIN SOUTH AFRICA'S CASE ACCUSING ISRAEL OF GENOCIDE
MADRID — Spain will ask a United Nations court for permission to join South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, its foreign minister announced.
Spain is the first European country to take the step after South Africa filed its case with the International Court of Justice in late 2023. It alleged that Israel was breaching the genocide convention in its military assault that has laid waste to large swaths of Gaza.
Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua, Libya and the Palestinians have already requested to join the case currently being heard at the court in The Hague, Netherlands.
The court has ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah but stopped short of ordering a cease-fire for the enclave. Israel has not complied.
Spain’s request on Thursday to join the case is the latest move by the government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to support peacemaking efforts in Gaza.