Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 67 Palestinians overnight and into Wednesday, including in areas where civilians have been told to seek refuge.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah says it received 44 bodies after multiple strikes in central Gaza. Associated Press reporters saw the bodies arriving in ambulances and private vehicles.
Also Wednesday, the aid group Doctors Without Borders said two people were killed when a shelter housing staff in the Gaza Strip was struck during an Israeli operation in an area where Palestinians have been told to seek shelter.
“While details are still emerging, ambulance crews have now reached the site, where at least two family members of our colleagues have been killed and six people wounded. We are horrified by what has taken place,” the group said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The attack took place in Muwasi, a sandy, mostly undeveloped strip of land along the coast that has been transformed into a sprawling tent camp with little in the way of basic services.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage. About a fourth of some 130 captives still being held are believed to be dead. Israel has laid waste to much of the Palestinian territory in response. Gaza’s Health Ministry estimates more than 29,000 Palestinians have been killed.
Currently:
— U.S. vetoes Arab-backed UN Security Council cease-fire resolution
— A U.N. agency says it can’t deliver aid to northern Gaza because of chaos, and famine fears are rising
— Attacks on ships and U.S. drones show Yemen’s Houthis can still fight despite U.S.-led airstrikes
— More than 29,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel-Hamas war, Gaza Health Ministry says
— Israel orders new evacuations in northern Gaza, where U.N. says 1 in 6 children are malnourished
— Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Here’s the latest:
W.H.O. CHIEF SAYS HE HASN’T SPOKEN DIRECTLY TO NETANYAHU DURING GAZA WAR
GENEVA — The head of the World Health Organization says he hasn’t spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a decade and will “probably” make contact now, at a time when Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has devastated medical facilities there.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, when asked about his contact with Netanyahu in recent months, said he had not been in touch with the Israeli leader since he served as Ethiopia’s foreign minister in 2014.
“So probably I will take that as a recommendation and make contact,” Tedros told a WHO news conference on Wednesday, noting that the organization’s country office has been in contact with Israeli authorities.
Tedros has made repeated heartfelt statements on how Israel’s war in Gaza has decimated the health sector. However, his comments Wednesday were the first time he publicly said he hasn’t tried talking to Netanyahu about the how the war is being conducted.
Tedros, who led the U.N. health agency’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, has over the years met with many world leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping, before the pandemic was declared, and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Hospitals in Gaza have repeatedly come under fire by Israel’s military during the monthslong war. Israel has accused the militant group Hamas, which runs Gaza, of using medical facilities as cover for its operations.
WHO has listed a total of 754 “attacks on health care” — including strikes that hit ambulances, medical facilities, health care workers and any other attacks that affect the provision of health care — in occupied Palestinian areas since Oct. 7.
On Tuesday, WHO said 32 patients in critical condition had been transferred from Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza to other facilities in recent days, after the complex became “non-functional” following an Israeli siege and military raid.
“The health and humanitarian situation in Gaza is inhumane and continues to deteriorate,” Tedros said in his opening remarks on Wednesday.
SWITZERLAND WILL BAN HAMAS
GENEVA — Switzerland will ban the Palestinian militant group Hamas, the government said Wednesday.
Under the ban, Swiss authorities can more easily apply preventative measures to deny entry or expel anyone suspected of affiliation with Hamas, and exchange information with foreign authorities more openly in cases of suspected terrorism financing linked to the group.
The Federal Council, Switzerland’s seven-member executive branch, said the ban will affect Hamas and any potential successor organizations. The Swiss government already listed Hamas as a terror organization just days after the deadly Oct. 7 attacks in Israel.
Acts of support for Hamas could be punishable with penalties of up to 20 years in prison, depending on the level of influence in the group, the government said in a statement. However, the ban so far is limited to five years, but it can be extended by parliament.
ISRAELI LAWMAKERS OPPOSE UNILATERAL RECOGNITION OF A PALESTINIAN STATE
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s parliament has given overwhelming approval to a declaration expressing opposition to international efforts to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state.
Wednesday’s vote, approved by 99 of 120 lawmakers, is not binding but reflects the widespread sentiment in Israel as it battles Hamas militants in Gaza for a fifth month. Only nine lawmakers voted against the measure.
“Israel outright rejects international edicts regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians. The settlement, to the extent that it is reached, will be solely through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions,” it says.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet adopted the declaration earlier in the week.
Netanyahu went on the offensive after media reports arose last week of a possible roadmap toward establishing a Palestinian state from the U.S. administration and Arab countries. The United States has also said Palestinian statehood is a key element in a broader vision for the normalization of relations between Israel and regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia.
The international community overwhelmingly supports an independent Palestinian state as part of a future peace agreement. Netanyahu’s government is filled with hard-liners who oppose Palestinian independence.
RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT TOOK PLACE DURING HAMAS ATTACK, ISRAELI ASSOCIATION SAYS
TEL AVIV, Israel — The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel says it found evidence of “systematic and intentional” rape and sexual abuse during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that ignited the war in Gaza.
The report said that “in some cases, rape was conducted in front of an audience, such as partners, family, or friends, to increase the pain and humiliation for all present.” Orit Sulitzeanu, the executive director of the association, says that in many cases, the bodies of male and female victims, including their genitals, were severely mutilated.
The report, published on Wednesday, did not specify the number of cases it had documented or identify any victims, even anonymously. Sulitzeanu said such determinations were difficult because many of the victims were killed after being assaulted, and first responders were so overwhelmed by the scale of death and destruction that they did not document signs of sexual abuse.
The report’s authors said they based their research on confidential and public interviews with officials and first responders, as well as media reports. Sulitzeanu said they also relied on “confidential sources” but declined to say whether they had spoken to victims.
An Associated Press investigation also found that sexual assault was part of an atrocity-filled rampage by Hamas and other militants who killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took around 250 hostages on Oct. 7. Hamas has rejected allegations that its gunmen committed sexual assault.
According to the Israeli report, which was submitted to the United Nations and U.N. investigators carrying out a similar investigation, the sexual and gender-based violence occurred in four main places – the Nova music festival, communities near the Gaza border, Israeli military bases that were overrun by Hamas and places where hostages were held in Gaza.
Sulitzeanu says the purpose of the report was to document how the sexual violence was similar across multiple sites, indicating it was organized and directed by Hamas.
The association represents multiple rape crisis centers across Israel.
ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE KILLS A WOMAN AND HER DAUGHTER IN SOUTHERN LEBANON
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency says an Israeli airstrike on a southern village has killed a woman and her daughter.
Wednesday’s airstrike on the village of Majdal Zoun came after a series of strikes overnight, including one on Safi Mountain in the Hezbollah stronghold of Apple Province and another near the southern town of Khiam.
NNA identified the woman killed as Khadija Salman, 40. Security officials speaking on condition of anonymity, in line with regulations, identified her 7-year-old daughter, who later succumbed to her wounds, as Amal al-Dur.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah has been striking at Israeli posts along the border since the Israel-Hamas war broke out following the Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian militants on southern Israel.
More than 200 people, the vast majority of them Hezbollah fighters, have been killed in Lebanon since the latest round of violence broke out more than four months ago. The dead include more than 30 civilians.
ISRAELI STRIKES ACROSS GAZA KILL 67 PALESTINIANS OVERNIGHT
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 67 Palestinians overnight and into Wednesday, including in areas where civilians have been told to seek refuge.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah says it received 44 bodies after multiple strikes in central Gaza. Associated Press reporters saw the bodies arriving in ambulances and private vehicles. Relatives held funeral prayers in the hospital courtyard early Wednesday.
An airstrike on a home in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah killed a family of eight, according to Marwan al-Hams, the director of the Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital. Nasser Abuel-Nour, a university professor; his wife, Nour, a human rights lawyer; their five children and grandchild were all killed in the strike.
Al-Hams says another two people were killed in a strike on a vehicle in Rafah. At least seven people were killed in strikes in the southern city of Khan Younis, the main focus of Israel’s offensive in recent weeks, and another six were killed in Muwasi, an area Israel had declared a safe zone, the hospital said.
The war sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel has killed over 29,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and driven some 80% of the population of 2.3 million from their homes.
Most heeded Israeli orders to flee south and around 1.5 million have crowded into Rafah. Israel has vowed to expand its ground offensive to the southernmost city as it seeks to destroy Hamas, which is still fighting Israeli forces across the territory.
2 KILLED IN GAZA WHERE PALESTINIANS WERE TOLD TO SHELTER, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS SAYS
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — The aid group Doctors Without Borders says two people were killed when a shelter housing staff in the Gaza Strip was struck during an Israeli operation in an area where Palestinians have been told to seek shelter.
“While details are still emerging, ambulance crews have now reached the site, where at least two family members of our colleagues have been killed and six people wounded. We are horrified by what has taken place,” the group said Wednesday in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The attack took place in Muwasi, a sandy, mostly undeveloped strip of land along the coast that has been transformed into a sprawling tent camp with little in the way of basic services.
Doctors Without Borders, known by the French acronym MSF, did not identify the source of fire. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.
Israel has continued to carry out strikes in all parts of the territory, and has vowed to expand its ground offensive to the southernmost city of Rafah, adjacent to Muwasi, where hundreds of thousands of people are sheltering.
QATAR SAYS HAMAS IS DELIVERING MEDICATION TO ISRAELI HOSTAGES
The Qatari Foreign Ministry said Hamas has started delivering medication for the approximately 100 hostages held in Gaza, a month after the medications arrived in Gaza.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Dr. Majed Al-Ansari said Tuesday evening that Hamas confirmed they had begun to deliver the medications to the hostages in exchange for medicines and humanitarian aid for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
France and Qatar mediated a deal in January for the shipment of medicine for dozens of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. The deal was the first agreement between Israel and the militant group since a weeklong cease-fire in November, but there was no evidence that the medications had arrived.
France said it took months to organize the shipment of the medicines. Qatar, which has long served as a mediator with Hamas, helped broker the deal that will provide three months’ worth of medication for chronic illnesses for 45 of the hostages, as well as other medicine and vitamins.
U.N. WORLD FOOD PROGRAM SUSPENDS AID IN NORTHERN GAZA
The United Nations’ World Food Program announced a pause in food and aid deliveries to northern Gaza on Tuesday after its drivers faced gunfire and violence from desperate residents swarming the trucks.
The convoys “faced complete chaos and violence due to the collapse of civil order,” according to a statement from the program. WFP had attempted to resume aid deliveries in northern Gaza after a three-week pause following an Israeli strike on an aid convoy.
In a rare public criticism of Israel, a top U.S. envoy, David Satterfield, said this week that its targeted killings of Gaza police commanders guarding truck convoys have made it “virtually impossible” to distribute the goods safely.
The WFP said 1 in 6 children under age 2 are acutely malnourished and people are dying of hunger-related causes.
“In these past two days our teams witnessed unprecedented levels of desperation,” the WFP said.
Hamas’ government media office described the WFP decision as a “death sentence” for hundreds of thousands of people in northern Gaza. It called on all UN agencies to return and avert “catastrophic consequences of the famine” there.
ATTACKS SHOW YEMEN’S HOUTHIS CAN STILL FIGHT DESPITE U.S.-LED AIRSTRIKES
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels are still able to launch attacks in a crucial Red Sea corridor despite a month of U.S.-led airstrikes.
The rebels claimed more attacks Tuesday night after seriously damaging a ship and apparently downing an American drone worth tens of millions of dollars in recent days. The U.S. shot down 10 bomb-carrying Houthi drones, as well as a cruise missile heading toward a U.S. destroyer over the last day, Central Command said Tuesday. The U.S. military also targeted a Houthi surface-to-air missile launcher and a drone prior to its launch.
The Houthi have said they aim to prevent Israeli ships from navigating the Red Sea until Israel ends its war in the Gaza Strip, even though few of the ships targeted have any direct links to Israel. Their guerrilla-style attacks show the difficulty of suppressing asymmetrical warfare, and the U.S.-led campaign to protect the shipping route has boosted the rebels’ standing in the Arab world.
So far, no U.S. sailor or pilot has been wounded, but the U.S. continues to lose drones worth tens of millions of dollars and fire off million-dollar cruise missiles to counter the Houthis, who are using far-cheaper weapons that experts believe largely have been supplied by Iran.
Based off U.S. military’s statements, American and allied forces have destroyed at least 73 missiles before they were launched, as well as 17 drones, 13 bomb-laden drone boats and one underwater explosive drone, according to a tally by The Associated Press. Those figures don’t include the initial Jan. 11 joint U.S.-U.K. strikes that began the monthlong campaign. The American military also has shot down dozens of missiles and drones already airborne as well since November.
BRITAIN’S PRINCE WILLIAM LAMENTS ‘SHEER SCALE OF HUMAN SUFFERING’
LONDON — Prince William, the heir to the British throne, called Tuesday for an end to fighting in the Gaza Strip as soon as possible, lamenting the “terrible human cost” since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel and the “desperate need for increased humanitarian support for Gaza.”
William stopped short of calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza as the House of Commons prepares for a vote on that issue on Wednesday. The message, written in white on a black background, was placed under William’s cypher on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Sometimes it is only when faced with the sheer scale of human suffering that the importance of permanent peace is brought home,’’ William said.
William used careful language focused on universal humanity rather than taking sides. The prince plans to meet with aid workers active in the region and, separately, join a discussion at a synagogue with young people of different faiths who are fighting antisemitism.
“Even in the darkest hour, we must not succumb to the counsel of despair,? William said. “I continue to cling to the hope that a brighter future can be found and I refuse to give up on that.”
U.S. VETOES ARAB-BACKED U.N. CEASE-FIRE RESOLUTION
The U.S. vetoed an Arab-backed U.N. resolution Tuesday demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in the embattled Gaza Strip.
The vote in the Security Council reflected wide global support for ending the more than four-month war that started with Hamas’ surprise invasion of southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and saw 250 others taken hostage. Israel’s military response has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority are women and children.
It was the third U.S. veto of a Security Council resolution demanding a cease-fire in Gaza.
In a surprise move ahead of the vote, the U.S. circulated a rival U.N. Security Council resolution that would support a temporary cease-fire in Gaza linked to the release of all hostages, and call for the lifting of all restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid. Both of these actions “would help to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities,” the draft resolution obtained by the AP says.
U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told several reporters Monday that the Arab-backed resolution is not “an effective mechanism for trying to do the three things that we want to see happen — which is get hostages out, more aid in, and a lengthy pause to this conflict.”