Those returning found their hometown, Gaza’s second largest city, unrecognizable, with thousands of buildings destroyed or damaged. Men, women and children went down streets bulldozed into stretches of dirt, searching for their homes among fields of rubble and debris that were once blocks of apartments and businesses. On other blocks, buildings still stood but were gutted shells, scorched and full of holes, with partially shattered upper floors dangling off precipitously.

The scenes of destruction in Khan Younis underscored what has been one of world’s most destructive and lethal military assaults in recent decades, which has left vast swaths of the tiny coastal territory unlivable for its 2.3 million people. It also portended what is likely to happen in Gaza’s southernmost town of Rafah, where half of Gaza’s uprooted population is now crowded, if Israel goes ahead with plans to invade it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu escalated his pledge to invade Rafah, declaring in a video statement Monday, “It will happen. There is a date,” without elaborating. He spoke as Israeli negotiators were in Cairo discussing international efforts to broker a cease-fire deal with Hamas, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Magdy Abu Sahrour was stunned seeing his house in Khan Younis flattened.

“I couldn’t find my home because of all the destruction,” he said as he stood in front of the rubble. “Where is my place, where is my home? … It’s a tragic situation.”

Israel sent troops into Khan Younis in December, part of its blistering ground offensive that came in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and hostage-taking into southern Israel. Its withdrawal brought Israeli troops in the tiny coastal enclave to one of the lowest since the war began.

The war, now in its seventh month, has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities. Israeli authorities say 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and roughly 250 people taken hostage in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

Many of the thousands who filtered into Khan Younis by foot and on donkey cart on Monday have been sheltering in Rafah since they fled their homes. The withdrawal gave them a chance to see the wreckage of their homes and retrieve a few possessions. But with the city now unlivable, they said they had little immediate chance to return.

An estimated 55% of the buildings in the Khan Younis area – around 45,000 buildings – have been destroyed or damaged, according to the latest figures from two researchers in the U.S. who have been using satellite imagery to track destruction throughout the war — Corey Scher of City University of New York and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University.

Mahmoud Abdel-Ghani, who fled to Rafah in December, found his and his neighbors’ houses flattened. “Many areas, especially the city center, have become unfit for life,” he said.

One woman clambered over slabs of collapsed concrete atop a mountain of wreckage that was once her home. Her son crawled on all fours into a hollow under the rubble and twisted rebar, clearing away concrete blocks.

“There are no words to describe the pain inside me,” the woman said, her voice breaking. “Our memories, our dreams, our childhood here, our family — we were raised with them here … It’s all gone.” The woman, who identified herself only by her first name, Hanan, put a few items they found into a backpack, including a plastic red flower.

Khan Younis’ main Nasser Hospital was trashed inside, with debris strewn around the wards and ceiling panels collapsed. The exterior appeared largely intact, but the extent of the damage was not immediately clear. Israeli troops stormed the facility during the offensive, saying they believed the remains of hostages were inside, though they did not report finding any.

Israel said Khan Younis was a major Hamas stronghold and that its operations there killed thousands of fighters and inflicted heavy damage to a vast network of tunnels used by Hamas to move weapons and fighters. It also claimed to have found evidence that hostages were held in the city.

With the troops’ withdrawal, Hamas could seek to regroup there as it has in northern Gaza, where the military scaled back forces earlier.

Israel plans to invade Rafah, which it says is Hamas’ last major stronghold, have raised international alarm over the fate of the around 1.4 million Palestinians sheltering there, most displaced from other parts of the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s top ally, the U.S., has said invading Rafah would be a mistake and has demanded to see a credible plan to protect civilians.

Israel is purchasing 40,000 tents to prepare for the evacuation of Rafah, an Israel official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Allowing people to return to Khan Younis could relieve some pressure on Rafah, but many have no homes to return to. The city also is likely filled with dangerous unexploded ordnance left by the fighting.

Israel’s military quietly drew down troops in devastated northern Gaza earlier in the war. But it has continued to carry out airstrikes and raids in areas where it says Hamas regrouped, including Gaza’s largest hospital, Shifa, leaving what the head of the World Health Organization called “an empty shell.” Israel blames Hamas for the damage, saying it fights from within civilian areas.

Israel says its war aims to destroy Hamas’ military and governing capabilities and return the roughly 130 remaining hostages, a quarter of whom Israel says are dead. Negotiations brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. meant to bring about a cease-fire in exchange for the release of hostages are underway.

Magdy reported from Cairo.

JERUSALEM (AP) — When Israel declared war against Hamas last October, it stood unified at home and enjoyed broad backing from around the world following an unprecedented attack by the Islamic group.

Six months later, Israel finds itself in a far different place: bogged down in Gaza, divided domestically, isolated internationally and increasingly at odds with its closest ally. The risk of a broader regional war remains real.

Despite Israel’s fierce military onslaught, Hamas is still standing, if significantly weakened. The offensive has pushed Gaza into a humanitarian crisis, displacing more than 80% of the population and leaving over 1 million people on the brink of starvation. Yet Israel hasn’t presented a postwar vision acceptable to its partners, and cease-fire talks remain at a standstill.

Here are six takeaways from the first six months of war.

BATTLEFIELD STALEMATE

Israel declared war in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 cross-border attack, in which the group killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapped about 250 others. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set two objectives: destroying Hamas and bringing home the hostages. Despite his repeated pledges to achieve “total victory,” his goals remain elusive.

After steadily conquering most of Gaza in a bruising offensive, Israeli ground troops are in a holding pattern marked by small tactical operations and uncertainty over whether the army will march into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, Hamas’ last significant stronghold.

Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to invade Rafah, but he faces broad international opposition, including from the United States, because of the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians sheltering there. Netanyahu claims to have a plan to evacuate the civilians, but it isn’t clear whether it is ready or would satisfy the Americans.

Even if Israel does invade Rafah, there is no guarantee of long-term success. Although Hamas appears to have suffered heavy losses, its forces have managed to regroup in areas abandoned by Israel.

At the same time, Israel hasn’t been able to halt the daily attacks it faces on its northern front from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. In contrast to Hamas, Hezbollah’s much larger arsenal remains intact, leaving the fate of tens of thousands of uprooted civilians on both sides of the border up in the air. The tensions have threatened to drag in Hezbollah’s sponsor, Iran, especially after an airstrike widely attributed to Israel killed two Iranian generals in neighboring Syria this week.

GROWING ISOLATION

Israel enjoyed broad international support following the Oct. 7 massacre, which was the deadliest attack against Jews since the Holocaust. However, that goodwill has been replaced by impatience and outrage as conditions in Gaza worsen.

Initial expressions of solidarity from Israel’s allies have given way to calls for a halt to the fighting. Meanwhile, the U.N. world court, looking into genocide allegations against Israel, has ordered Israel to do more to protect Gaza’s civilians.

This isolation appeared to peak on March 25, when the U.N. Security Council, over Israeli objections, passed a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire. The U.S. infuriated Israel by allowing the resolution to pass.

Things have only worsened for Israel since then, especially following its killing of seven aid workers in what it says was an errant airstrike. Six of the victims were volunteers from countries allied with Israel, antagonizing them and outraging U.S. President Joe Biden. The alleged Israeli airstrike on an Iran’s embassy in Syria and Netanyahu’s efforts to shutter the Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera have further alienated allies.

ISRAEL IS DIVIDED

After a period of broad unity early in the war, Israel has returned to its divided self — with its polarizing leader at the center of the storm.

Weekly protests against the government have grown and attract thousands. They are rooted in longstanding grievances against Netanyahu — from his political alliances with far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties to his open-ended corruption trial. However, they have drawn new strength from his failure to bring home the hostages. Roughly half of the hostages were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November. But Israel says 134 remain in captivity.

Israel has already declared more than 30 hostages dead — and there are widespread fears that the true number is higher and will continue to rise the longer they are held.

The plight of the hostages and the anguished cries of their families have resonated deeply with the Israeli public. Some hostage families were among the tens of thousands of people who took to the streets this week calling on the government to resign. It was the largest anti-government demonstration since the war began.

NETANYAHU ISN’T GOING ANYWHERE

Netanyahu’s popularity has plummeted since the outbreak of the war, with many holding him responsible for the intelligence and security failures that allowed the Oct. 7 attack to occur. Yet he has rebuffed calls to resign or launch investigations into what went wrong.

Netanyahu faces no immediate threat to his rule. For now, his coalition partners, also facing likely losses at the polls, remain firmly behind him.

Ironically, the biggest immediate threat to Netanyahu is only peripherally related to the war. Israel’s Supreme Court has ordered a halt to a long-standing controversial system of exempting ultra-Orthodox men from compulsory military service.

With over 600 soldiers killed since Oct. 7, Netanyahu will have a tough time continuing this system. But if he tries to force religious men into military service, he could lose the support of his ultra-Orthodox partners and be forced into early elections.

“Netanyahu is incapable of either feeling shame or taking responsibility,” wrote Anshel Pfeffer, a Haaretz columnist and author of a Netanyahu biography. “He has no intention of ever resigning on his own accord.”

HAMAS ISN’T GOING ANYWHERE

The Israeli offensive has caused mass destruction across Gaza and inflicted heavy losses on Hamas. Israel claims to have killed some 13,000 Hamas fighters and dismantled the group’s military capabilities across most of Gaza.

Yet even if these claims are true, Hamas is still intact in Rafah, and its fighters have regrouped in areas where Israel previously declared victory. Although there have been small shows of public discontent with Hamas in Gaza, there have been no public signs of broad opposition to the group.

Khalil Sayegh, a Palestinian analyst, said Hamas keeps reappearing and Israel hasn’t allowed any alternative to emerge.

“When you’re fighting a guerrilla war, I think the ultimate success or failure is whether you’re able to survive,” he said. “So if Hamas survives as a governing body, then this will be a success.”

Michael Milshtein, a former high-ranking Israeli military intelligence officer who is now an expert in Palestinian studies at Tel Aviv University, says Israel faces two unappealing choices: Accept a hostage and cease-fire deal that acknowledges Hamas has survived, or step up the military campaign and conquer Gaza in hopes that Hamas will eventually be destroyed.

He said expectations that the Israeli military’s current approach can destroy Hamas or force it to surrender is “wishful thinking.”

NO POSTWAR POLICY

There is no consensus for the future of Gaza.

Netanyahu has presented a vague vision that calls for open-ended Israeli control of the territory, with local Palestinian partners in Gaza administering day-to-day affairs. Israel hopes for reconstruction to be funded by the international community, including wealthy Arab Gulf states.

These plans, though, clash with visions promoted by the U.S., other international partners and the Palestinians.

The U.S. has called for a return of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, which Hamas ousted from Gaza in 2007, and for renewed efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. The PA, based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, recently appointed a new prime minister to address American calls for reform.

Netanyahu opposes Palestinian statehood or any role for the PA. Meanwhile, there is little appetite among donor nations to contribute to reconstruction without a political consensus. The United Arab Emirates, for instance, says it will not fund reconstruction without a viable two-state approach.

Ofer Shelah, a former lawmaker who is now a senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said the battlefield successes are “almost meaningless” without a diplomatic vision.

“The real threat to Hamas will not be Israeli tanks or warplanes. It’s an alternative to running life in postwar Gaza,” he said.

Associated Press reporters Melanie Lidman and Julia Frankel contributed.

The Israeli army dismissed two officers over a missile strike on a World Central Kitchen vehicle convoy this week that killed seven aid workers.

Monday’s assault was “a grave mistake stemming from a serious failure,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Friday, concluding an investigation into the incident. It was “due to a mistaken identification, errors in decision-making, and an attack contrary to standard operating procedures.”

The discharged officers were a colonel and a major. The IDF’s chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, also formally reprimanded the head of the Southern Command, which includes Gaza, for his overall responsibility.

World Central Kitchen, a disaster-relief group founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, said in response that although the IDF has acknowledged responsibility, it still wants “the creation of an independent commission to investigate the killings of our WCK colleagues.”

“The IDF cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza,” WCK said in a statement.

Three British nationals were killed in the attack along with a Palestinian, a Pole, an Australian and a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the administration is reviewing Israel’s report on the incident as part of a broader evaluation of efforts to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza and prevent more civilian deaths.

“It’s very important that Israel is taking full responsibility for this incident,” Blinken told reporters Friday before departing Brussels. “It’s also important that it appears to be taking steps to hold those responsible accountable. Even more important, is making sure that steps are taken going forward to ensure that something like this can never happen again.”

The fatal incident was front-page news across the world and angered Israel’s allies. U.S. President Joe Biden said he was “outraged” and told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday that U.S. support for Israel’s campaign in Gaza depends on new steps to protect civilians.

Following the call between the two leaders, Israel said that it would help boost the flow of aid to “prevent a humanitarian crisis.”

Israel will allow the delivery of aid into Gaza through the previously closed Erez checkpoint in the north of the enclave, and increase the amount of goods entering via Kerem Shalom in the south. Still, Israel has said distribution of aid once it gets into Gaza is a significant problem.

Mistaken identity

The IDF said its forces recognized two gunmen and that Monday’s attack was approved after one of the commanders mistakenly assumed they were in the convoy. The forces did not identify the vehicles as being associated with WCK.

Recent negotiations for a cease-fire in return for the release of hostages have stalled.

Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union.

(With assistance from Courtney McBride.)

©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump offered a tough message to Israel over its war against Hamas on Thursday, urging the country to: “Get it over with.”

In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Trump said that Israel is “absolutely losing the PR war” and called for a swift resolution to the bloodshed.

“Get it over with and let’s get back to peace and stop killing people. And that’s a very simple statement,” Trump said. “They have to get it done. Get it over with and get it over with fast because we have to — you have to get back to normalcy and peace.”

RELATED: Biden tells Netanyahu future support for Israel-Hamas war depends on new steps to protect civilians

The presumptive GOP nominee, who has criticized President Joe Biden for being insufficiently supportive of Israel, also appeared to question the tactics of the Israeli military as the civilian death toll in Gaza continues to mount. Since Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, Israel’s military has battered the territory, killing more than 30,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and creating a humanitarian catastrophe.

“I’m not sure that I’m loving the way they’re doing it, because you’ve got to have victory. You have to have a victory, and it’s taking a long time,” Trump said.

He specifically criticized Israel’s decision to release footage of its offensive actions. Throughout the war, the Israeli military has released videos of airstrikes and other attacks against what it describes as “terrorist infrastructure.”

“They shouldn’t be releasing tapes like that,” he said. “That’s why they’re losing the PR war. They, Israel is absolutely losing the PR war.”

“They’re releasing the most heinous, most horrible tapes of buildings falling down. And people are imagining there’s a lot of people in those buildings, or people in those buildings, and they don’t like it,” he added. “They’re losing the PR war. They’re losing it big. But they’ve got to finish what they started, and they’ve got to finish it fast, and we have to get on with life.”

The comments offered a vivid example of the attention Trump pays to imagery and optics as he measures the cost of war. But they also show the similarities between Trump’s and Biden’s positions, even as Trump has criticized Biden’s handling of the conflict, going so far as to charge that Jews who vote for Democrats “hate Israel” and hate “their religion”

Until Thursday, Biden’s administration had broadly backed Israeli efforts to try to remove Hamas’ grip over Gaza, even as he called for a short term cease-fire to free hostages and surge humanitarian aid. He had also expressed concern that Israel’s operation was isolating it on the world stage.

That concern has intensified since an Israeli air strike this week killed seven World Central Kitchen humanitarian aide workers try to deliver food to Palestinians, adding a new layer of complication to Biden and Netanyahu’s increasingly strained relationship.

In a phone call Thursday Biden issued a stark new warning to Israel, telling Netanyahu that future U.S. support for the war depends on new steps to protect civilians and aid workers.

Biden “made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers,” the White House said in a statement. He also told Netanyahu that an “immediate cease-fire is essential” and urged Israel to reach a deal “without delay.”

The tougher stance comes as the administration continues to try to dissuade Israel from launching a major offensive against the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than a million civilians are sheltering.

Biden had issued an unusually sharp statement after the aid workers’ deaths criticizing Israel for not doing more to protect humanitarian workers and civilians and for refusing to allow more food into the Gaza Strip.

Trump has long labeled himself the most pro-Israel president in the nation’s history and often notes his decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.

But Trump has also had a tense relationship with Netanyahu since he left the White House. Though the two were close allies for years, the former president responded with fury after the Israel leader congratulated then-President-elect Biden for winning the 2020 election while Trump was still trying to overturn the results.

In interviews for a book about his Middle East peace efforts, Trump, according to the author, used an expletive to describe Netanyahu, accused him of disloyalty and said he believed the Israeli leader never really wanted to make peace.

In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, Trump drew rare condemnation from his GOP rivals when he lashed out at Netanyahu, saying Israeli leaders needed to “step up their game” and that Netanyahu “was not prepared” for the deadly incursion that killed some 1,200 people. More than 250 people were also taken hostages.

At the time, Trump said that he supported the country’s efforts to “crush” Hamas.

Trump was also criticized by some in Israel for comments he made to the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom last month calling for a swift end to the war.

“I will say Israel has to be very careful because you are losing a lot of the world. You are losing a lot of support,” he had warned.

___ Associated Press writers Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Zeke Millers in Washington contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden issued a stark warning to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that future U.S. support for Israel’s Gaza war depends on the swift implementation of new steps to protect civilians and aid workers.

Biden and Netanyahu ‘s roughly 30-minute call just days after Israeli airstrikes killed seven food aid workers in Gaza added a new layer of complication to the leaders’ increasingly strained relationship. Biden’s message marks a sharp change in his administration’s steadfast support for Israel’s war efforts, with the U.S. leader for the first time threatening to rethink his backing if Israel doesn’t change its tactics and allow much more humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The White House would not specify what could change about U.S. policy, but it could include altering military sales to Israel and America’s diplomatic backup on the world stage. Administration officials said they expected the Israelis to make announcements on next steps within hours or days and that the U.S. would then assess whether the Israeli moves go far enough.

Biden “made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers,” the White House said in a statement following the leaders’ call. “He made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps.”

RELATED: Trump says Israel has to get Gaza war over ‘fast,’ warns it is ‘losing the PR war’

Biden also told Netanyahu that an “immediate cease-fire is essential” and urged Israel to reach such an accord “without delay,” according to the White House, which described the conversation as “direct” and “honest.”

There was no immediate reaction to the call from the Israeli government.

The leaders’ conversation comes as the World Central Kitchen, founded by restauranteur José Andrés to provide immediate food relief to disaster-stricken areas, called for an independent investigation into the Israeli strikes that killed the group’s staff members, including an American citizen.

The White House has said the U.S. has no plans to conduct its own investigation even as it called on Israel to do more to prevent the harming of innocent civilians and aid workers as it carries out its operations in Gaza.

Separately, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Brussels that U.S. support would be curtailed if Israel doesn’t make significant adjustments to how it’s carrying out the war. “If we don’t see the changes that we need to see, there will be changes in our policy,” he said.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby echoed the call for “tangible” and “concrete” changes to be taken by the Israelis beyond reiterating long stated calls for allowing additional aid to get into Gaza.

“If there’s no changes to their policy in their approaches, then there’s going to have to be changes to ours,” Kirby said. “There are things that need to be done. There are too many civilians being killed.”

The demands for Israel to bring the conflict to a swift close were increasing across the political spectrum, with former President Donald Trump, the Republicans’ presumptive nominee to face Biden this fall, saying Thursday that Israel was “absolutely losing the PR war” and calling for a resolution to the bloodshed.

“Get it over with and let’s get back to peace and stop killing people. And that’s a very simple statement,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “They have to get it done. Get it over with and get it over with fast because we have to — you have to get back to normalcy and peace.”

The two leaders also discussed Iranian threats against Israel, Kirby said. Earlier this week, Iranian leaders vowed to hit back after an airstrike widely blamed on Israel destroyed Iran’s Consulate in Syria, killing 12 people, including two elite Iranian generals. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said Wednesday the attack “will not remain without answer.”

Biden also renewed his concerns about Netanyahu’s plan to carry out an operation in the southern city of Rafah, where about 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, as Israel looks to eliminate Hamas following the militant group’s deadly Oct. 7 attack. Vice President Kamala Harris, Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan also joined the call.

Still, the Biden administration has proceeded apace with arms transfers and deliveries to Israel, many of which were approved years ago but had only been partially or not at all fulfilled. Just this week, on Monday, the Democratic administration’s “Daily List” of munitions transfers included the sale to Israel of more than 1,000 500-pound (225-kilograms) bombs and more than 1,000 1,000-pound (450-kilogram) bombs.

Officials said those transfers had been approved before the publication of the list on Monday — the day Israeli airstrikes hit a World Central Kitchen aid convoy in Gaza, killing seven of the group’s employees — and that they fell below the threshold for new congressional notification. Also, they noted that the bombs are not for delivery to Israel until 2025.

Israel has acknowledged responsibility for the strikes but said the convoy was not targeted and the workers’ deaths were not intentional. The country continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding the killings.

Andrés harshly criticized the Israeli military for the strike, and his organization has paused its work in Gaza.

“The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing. It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon,” he wrote on X. “No more innocent lives lost.”

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage.

The Israeli military campaign in Gaza, experts say, is among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history. Within two months, researchers say, the offensive already has wreaked more destruction than the razing of Syria’s Aleppo between 2012 and 2016, Ukraine’s Mariupol or, proportionally, the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II. It has killed more civilians than the U.S.-led coalition did in its three-year campaign against the Islamic State group.

AP writers Matthew Lee in Brussels, Jill Colvin in New York and Colleen Long and Chris Megerian contributed.

Cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas are stalling again, Israeli officials say, with large gaps between the sides over hostages, prisoners and the future of Gaza.

A delegation of Israeli negotiators returned late Tuesday from two days of talks in Cairo and reported that Hamas is insisting on an immediate end to the war and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential talks.

The Iran-backed group also wants people in Gaza to be able to return to the north of the territory after the Israeli military urged them to move south at the start of the conflict, the officials said. Another sticking point, they said, is Hamas’s call for all Palestinians to be released from Israeli jails.

These reflect a hardening of Hamas’s stance compared with earlier talks, according to the Israeli officials, and are demands that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government won’t accept.

Israel has proposed a 42-day cease-fire during which several dozen hostages would be exchanged for several hundred prisoners. Many north Gazans could also return home after being screened by Israeli forces for arms and links to Hamas.

The officials said Hamas believes its position is stronger because of growing international pressure on Israel as the war rages. That was manifested by a U.S. decision not to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution last month calling for an immediate cease-fire. President Joe Biden, who’s scheduled to speak to Netanyahu on Thursday by phone, also said he was “outraged” but an Israeli strike on Monday that killed seven aid workers in Gaza, including a US national.

Hamas is intent on remaining in power in Gaza even after fighting stops, the officials said, while Israel insists the war will continue until the group’s destroyed. Hamas swarmed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting around 250.

The talks between Israel and Hamas are mediated by Qatar, the U.S. and Egypt.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said on Wednesday that the negotiations were deadlocked over the return of displaced people to their homes in Gaza.

Israel was wary of Gazans returning to the north because of the risk of Hamas rocket fire returning from there into Israel. The officials, though, said Israel has shifted its stance and is offering to permit thousands, even tens of thousands, of civilians to return.

The officials said Israel still wants to move forces into the southern Gaza city of Rafah to destroy the four remaining Hamas battalions there. Israel estimates they have roughly 8,000 fighters between them.

The U.S. and others have expressed alarm over the plan, saying there’s no way for the more than one million civilians in Rafah to be moved out quickly, and nowhere safe for them to go.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Iran vowed revenge on Israel after blaming it for a deadly air strike on its embassy in Syria — a rare direct confrontation in the adversaries’ escalating conflict over the war in Gaza.

Israel “will be punished. We will make them regret their crime,” Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Tuesday, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.

The strike in Damascus late Monday destroyed the consulate building and killed at least 13 people including seven Iranian military personnel and six Syrian nationals, according to Iranian state media.

While Israel has frequently struck Iran-linked targets in Syria, Monday night’s attack would be the first time that it’s directly hit an Iranian diplomatic facility. Its air strikes have increased since the outbreak in October of the war with Gaza-based Hamas, an Iran-backed group that’s designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union.

Oil rose to its highest level since October on heightened geopolitical tensions and OPEC+ supply cuts.

Israel hasn’t confirmed the attack, in keeping with its usual response to accusations of targeting Iran. Without mentioning Monday’s strike specifically, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Tuesday that Israel is fighting a “multi-front war” in order to “make it clear to anyone who threatens us – all over the Middle East – that the price for such action will be a big one.”

Among the dead was Mohammadreza Zahedi, a high-ranking general linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who previously led its Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon.

Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia backed by Iran that’s been involved in near-daily tit-for-tat border attacks with Israel, vowed that the strike “won’t go without punishment and revenge against the enemy.” It described Zadehi as a “loyal friend” who had worked for years to support the group.

Midnight diplomacy

In a flurry of late-night diplomatic activity, Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Swiss envoy who represents U.S. diplomatic interests in Iran at 12:45 a.m. local time on Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian wrote on X that Iran sent Washington an “important message” and emphasized “the responsibility of the American government” in Monday’s attack due to its support for Israel.

The U.S. “had no involvement in the strike and we did not know about it ahead of time,” White House National Security Council spokesperson, Adrienne Watson, said.

Iran’s state-run Nour News said the U.S. bore “direct responsibility” regardless of whether or not it knew about the attack.

Retaliation

Iran’s top security body also held a late-night meeting to discuss the incident. A statement said the Supreme National Security Council took “appropriate decisions,” without elaborating.

Any retaliation will need to be measured against the risk of inviting a further Israeli counterstrike and the possibility of a wider regional conflict.

In January, Iran fired missiles at what it called an Israeli spy base in northern Iraq in response to the assassination of another of its commanders in Syria.

——-

(With assistance from Jennifer Jacobs and Dana Khraiche.)

___

©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

JERUSALEM (AP) — World Central Kitchen, the food charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, called a halt to its work in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli strike killed seven of its workers, mostly foreigners.

The group, which said it will make decisions about longer-term plans in the region soon, has been bringing desperately needed food to Gazans facing widespread hunger and pioneered the recently launched effort to deliver aid by sea from Cyprus. Its absence, even if temporary, is likely to deepen the war-torn territory’s misery as the United Nations warns that famine is imminent.

Here’s a look at the charity’s work in Gaza and what its absence could mean:

WHAT IS WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN?

Founded in 2010, World Central Kitchen delivers freshly prepared meals to people in need following natural disasters, like hurricanes or earthquakes, or to those enduring conflict. The group has also provided meals to migrants arriving at the southern U.S. border, as well as to hospital staff who worked relentlessly during the coronavirus pandemic.

The aid group sends in teams who can cook meals that appeal to the local palate on a large scale and fast.

“When you talk about food and water, people don’t want a solution one week from now, one month from now. The solution has to be now,” Andrés is quoted as saying on the group’s website.

World Central Kitchen has worked in dozens of affected areas and currently has teams in Haiti, addressing the needs of Ukrainians displaced by Russia’s invasion, as well as providing meals to people affected by the war in Gaza.

WHAT HAS IT DONE DURING THE WAR IN GAZA?

Teams from the charity have fanned out across the region since Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7 and throughout the war that it sparked. It has fed Israelis displaced by the attack as well as former hostages, according to its website, and people in Lebanon displaced by fighting with Israel. But its work in Gaza has been the most demanding.

In Gaza, the group says it has provided more than 43 million meals to Palestinians.

The group has set up two main kitchens, in the southern city of Rafah and the central town of Deir al-Balah. It lends support to 68 community kitchens throughout the territory, serving more than 170,000 hot meals a day. The group ramped up its work during Ramadan, the holy month when Muslims traditionally fast from sunrise to sundown and then eat a lavish meal, distributing 92,000 food boxes or about 4.7 million meals.

The group has also provided meals through airdrops and has led two shipments by sea carrying hundreds of tons of food for northern Gaza, where the food emergency is most acute.

In an interview with The Associated Press last month, Andrés credited the charity’s sea deliveries with prompting the U.S. to declare that it would build a floating pier for aid delivered to Gaza by sea.

“I think this has been our achievement,” he said.

WHAT WILL THE CHARITY’S ABSENCE MEAN FOR PEOPLE IN GAZA?

With World Central Kitchen immediately suspending its work, tens of thousands of meals a day won’t be handed out.

Following the deadly strike, Cyprus’ foreign ministry spokesperson said aid ships that arrived in Gaza this week will return to the Mediterranean island nation with some 240 tons of undelivered aid. Roughly 100 tons have already been offloaded, the spokesperson said.

Other aid organizations are still on the ground providing assistance to Palestinians, including the U.N. But aid groups say supplies are not coming in quickly enough and once they have entered Gaza, delivery is hobbled by logistical problems as well as the constant fighting. Israel denies there is a food shortage in Gaza and blames the U.N. and other aid groups for failing to scale up deliveries inside the territory.

World Central Kitchen was at the vanguard of the two sea shipments that have arrived in Gaza so far. It was not clear in what capacity the sea corridor would continue without the group, but the president of Cyprus said Tuesday that more aid could be shipped to Gaza from Cyprus “before the end of the month,” as the U.S. completes construction of a floating pier off the Palestinian territory’s coastline.

President Nikos Christodoulides said the Cyprus-Gaza aid shipments “will continue as humanitarian needs are there.”

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Some of Israel’s closest allies, including the United States, on Tuesday condemned the deaths of seven aid workers who were killed by airstrikes in Gaza — a loss that prompted multiple charities to suspend food deliveries to Palestinians on the brink of starvation.

The deaths of the World Central Kitchen workers threatened to set back efforts by the U.S. and other countries to open a maritime corridor for aid from Cyprus to help ease the desperate conditions in northern Gaza.

President Joe Biden issued an unusually blunt criticism of Israel by its closest ally, suggesting that the incident demonstrated that Israel was not doing enough to protect civilians.

“Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians,” he said, adding he was “outraged and heartbroken” by their killings.

“Incidents like yesterday’s simply should not happen,” he added. “The United States has repeatedly urged Israel to deconflict their military operations against Hamas with humanitarian operations, in order to avoid civilian casualties.”

Ships still laden with some 240 tons of aid from the charitable group turned back from Gaza just a day after arriving, according to Cyprus. Other humanitarian aid organizations also suspended operations in Gaza, saying it was too dangerous to offer help. Israel has allowed only a trickle of food and supplies into Gaza’s devastated north, where experts say famine is imminent.

The dead from Monday night’s strikes included three British citizens, Polish and Australia nationals, a Canadian-American dual national and a Palestinian. Those countries have been key backers of Israel’s nearly 6-month-old offensive in Gaza, and several of them denounced the killings.

Israel already faces growing isolation as international criticism of the Gaza assault has mounted. On the same day as the deadly airstrikes, Israel stirred more fears by apparently striking Iran’s consulate in Damascus and killing two Iranian generals. The government also moved to shut down a foreign media outlet — Qatari-owned Al Jazeera television.

Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, announced the results of a preliminary investigation early Wednesday.

“It was a mistake that followed a misidentification – at night during a war in very complex conditions. It shouldn’t have happened,” he said. He gave no further details. He said an independent body would conduct a “thorough investigation” that would be completed in the coming days.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier acknowledged the “unintended strike … on innocent people” and said officials would work to ensure it does not happen again.

World Central Kitchen said it had coordinated with the Israeli military over the movement of its cars. Three vehicles moving at large distances apart were hit in succession. They were left incinerated and mangled, indicating multiple targeted strikes.

At least one of the vehicles had the charity’s logo printed across its roof to make it identifiable from the air, and the ordnance punched a large hole through the roof. Footage showed the bodies at a hospital in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah, several of them wearing protective gear with the charity’s logo.

Israeli TV said the initial military investigation found that the army identified the cars carrying World Central Kitchen’s workers arriving at its warehouse in Deir al-Balah and observed suspected militants nearby. Half an hour later, the vehicles were struck by the air force as they headed south. The reports said it was not clear who ordered the strikes or why.

Throughout the war, Israel has said it seeks to avoid civilian casualties and uses sophisticated intelligence to target Hamas and other militants. Israeli authorities blame them for civilian deaths because they operate in populated areas. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

At the same time, Israel has also insisted that no target is off-limits. Israeli forces have repeatedly struck ambulances and vehicles carrying aid, as well as relief organization offices and U.N. shelters, claiming that armed fighters were in them.

Israeli forces have also shown a readiness to inflict widespread destruction on suspicion of a militant presence or out of tactical need. Homes with Palestinian families sheltering inside are leveled by strikes almost daily with no explanation of the intended target. Videos of strikes released by the military often show them hitting individuals without visible weapons, while identifying them as militants.

More than 32,900 Palestinians have been killed in the war, around two-thirds of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

Celebrity chef José Andrés, who founded the World Central Kitchen charity, said he was “heartbroken” by the deaths of the staffers.

“The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing. It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

The U.S., Britain, Poland, Australia and Canada all called on Israel to give answers on the deaths. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant launched an investigation and ordered the opening of a joint situation room enabling coordination between the military and aid groups.

But anger among its allies could put new pressure on Israel.

The British government summoned Israel’s ambassador for a rebuke and called for an immediate humanitarian pause to allow more aid in and the release of hostages.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told Netanyahu that he was “appalled” by the workers’ deaths and described the situation in Gaza as “increasingly intolerable.”

A senior Canadian government official said there will be a joint formal diplomatic rebuke at the foreign ministry in Israel on Wednesday. The official also said a top official with Canada’s Global Affairs department made a formal representation to Israel ambassador’s to Canada on Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The deaths sent a further chill through U.N. agencies and other aid groups that have said for months that sending truck convoys around Gaza — particularly in the north — has been extremely difficult because of the military’s failure to either grant permission or ensure safe passage. Israel has barred UNRWA, the main U.N. agency in Gaza, from making deliveries to the north.

The U.S. and other countries have been working to set up the sea passage from Cyprus to get around the difficulties.

World Central Kitchen was key to the new route. It and the United Arab Emirates sent a pilot shipment last month. Their second delivery of around 400 tons of food and supplies arrived in three ships to Gaza hours before the strikes on the convoy.

Around 100 tons were unloaded before the charity suspended operations, and the rest was being taken back to Cyprus, Cypriot Foreign Ministry spokesman Theodoros Gotsis said.

Still, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said Tuesday that ship deliveries would continue.

Anera, a Washington-based aid group that has been operating in the Palestinian territories for decades, said that in the wake of the strikes it was taking the “unprecedented” step of pausing its own operations in Gaza, where it had been helping to provide around 150,000 meals daily.

“The escalating risks associated with aid delivery leave us with no choice,” it said in a statement.

Jamie McGoldrick, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said the strikes were “not an isolated incident.” The U.N. says more than 180 humanitarian workers have been killed in the war.

“This is nearly three times the death toll recorded in any single conflict in a year,” he said.

The war began when Hamas-led terrorists stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage. Israel responded with one of the deadliest and most destructive offensives in recent history.

Two other Israeli strikes late Monday killed at least 16 Palestinians, including eight children, in Rafah, where Israel has vowed to expand its ground operation. The city on the Egyptian border is now home to some 1.4 million Palestinians, most of whom have sought refuge from fighting elsewhere.

One strike hit a family home, killing 10 people, including five children, according to hospital records. Another hit a gathering near a mosque, killing at least six people, including three children.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland; Rod McGuirk in Melbourne, Australia; Rob Gillies in Toronto; and Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus, contributed to this report.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli military withdrew from Gaza’s largest hospital early Monday after a two-week raid that engulfed the facility and surrounding districts in fighting. Footage showed widespread devastation, with the facility’s main buildings reduced to burned-out husks.

The military has described the raid on Shifa Hospital as a major battlefield victory in the nearly six-month war and said its troops killed 200 fighters in the operation, though the claim they were all fighters could not be confirmed.

But the raid came at a time of mounting frustration in Israel, with tens of thousands protesting Sunday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and demanding that he do more to bring home dozens of hostages held in Gaza. It was the largest anti-government demonstration since the start of the war.

Elsewhere, Syrian state media reported that an Israeli airstrike destroyed the consular section of Iran’s embassy in Damascus, killing or wounding everyone inside.

The Iranian Arabic-language state television Al-Alam and pan-Arab television station Al-Mayadeen, which has reporters in Syria, said the strike killed Iranian military adviser Gen. Ali Reza Zahdi, who led the elite Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria until 2016.

In other developments, Netanyahu said he would shut down satellite broadcaster Al Jazerra immediately. Netanyahu vowed to close the “terror channel” after parliament passed a law Monday clearing the way for the country to halt the Qatari-owned channel from broadcasting from Israel.

Netanyahu accused Al Jazeera of harming Israeli security, participating in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and inciting violence against Israel. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Meanwhile, a second shipment of food aid arrived by sea in the latest test of a new maritime route from the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus. One of the three boats could be seen off the coast, and Cyprus’ foreign minister said they had received permission to unload. The precise mechanism of delivery was not yet clear.

The fighting around Shifa showed that Hamas can still put up resistance even in one of the hardest-hit areas. Israel said it had largely dismantled Hamas in northern Gaza and withdrew thousands of troops late last year.

The raid also gutted a hospital that had once been the heart of Gaza’s health system but which doctors and staff had struggled to get even partially operating again after a previous Israeli assault in November.

Israel said it launched the latest raid on Shifa because senior Hamas operatives had regrouped there and were planning attacks. It identified six officials from Hamas’ military wing it said were killed inside the hospital during the raid. It also said it seized weapons and valuable intelligence.

The raid triggered days of heavy fighting for blocks around Shifa, with witnesses reporting airstrikes, the shelling of homes and troops going house to house to force residents to leave.

After the troops withdrew, hundreds of Palestinians returned to search for lost loved ones or examine the damage.

Among the dead were Ahmed Maqadma and his mother — both doctors at Shifa — and his cousin, said Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, a Palestinian-British doctor who volunteered at Shifa and other hospitals during the first months of the war before returning to Britain.

The fate of the three had been unknown since they talked by phone with family as they tried to leave Shifa nearly a week ago and the line suddenly went dead. On Monday, relatives found their bodies with gunshot wounds about a block from the hospital, said Abu Sitta, who is in touch with the family.

Bassel al-Hilou said the bodies of seven of his relatives were found in the wreckage of a house near Shifa where they had been sheltering when it was demolished by a strike.

“There was a massacre in my uncle’s house,” he told The Associated Press. “The situation was indescribable.”

Mohammed Mahdi, who was among those who returned to the area, described a scene of “total destruction.” He said several buildings had been burned down and that he counted six bodies in the area, including two in the hospital courtyard, though it was not clear when they died.

Video footage circulating online showed the main buildings of Shifa charred and heavily damaged. Several witnesses said army bulldozers had plowed up a mass grave that had been dug in November in Shifa’s courtyard, leaving many bodies exposed.

At least 21 patients died during the raid, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted late Sunday on X, formerly Twitter.

He said over a hundred patients were still inside the compound during the operation, including four children, 28 critical patients and many who suffered from infected wounds and dehydration.

The military denied that its forces harmed any civilians inside the compound. Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes and has raided many hospitals across the territory.

Critics accuse the army of recklessly endangering civilians and of decimating a health sector already overwhelmed with wounded.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the top military spokesman, said Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group established their main northern headquarters inside the hospital. He described days of close-quarters fighting and blamed Hamas for the destruction, saying some fighters barricaded themselves inside hospital wards while others launched mortar rounds at the compound.

Hagari said the troops arrested some 900 suspected fighters during the raid, including more than 500 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters, and seized over $3 million in different currencies, as well as weapons.

He said the army evacuated more than 200 of the estimated 300 to 350 patients and delivered food, water and medical supplies to the rest. Two Israeli soldiers were killed in the raid, the military said.

The military previously raided Shifa in November, after saying Hamas maintained an elaborate command and control center inside and beneath the compound. It revealed a tunnel running beneath the hospital that led to a few rooms, as well as weapons it said it had confiscated from inside medical buildings, but nothing on the scale of what it had alleged prior to that raid.

The war began on Oct. 7, when Hamas-led terrorists stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage.

The war has displaced most of the territory’s population and driven a third of its residents to the brink of famine. Northern Gaza, where Shifa is located, has suffered vast destruction and has been largely isolated since October, leading to widespread hunger.

The aid ships that arrived Monday carried some 400 tons of food and supplies in a shipment organized by the United Arab Emirates and the World Central Kitchen, the charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés. Last month a ship delivered 200 tons of aid in a pilot run.

Netanyahu has vowed to keep up the offensive until Hamas is destroyed and all hostages are freed. He says Israel will soon expand ground operations to the southern city of Rafah, where some 1.4 million people — more than half of Gaza’s population — have sought refuge.

But he faces mounting pressure from Israelis who blame him for the security failures of Oct. 7 and from some families of the hostages who blame him for the failure to reach a deal despite several weeks of talks mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt. Allied countries, including main backer the United States, have warned him against an invasion of Rafah.

Hamas and other militants are still believed to be holding some 100 hostages and the remains of 30 others, after freeing most of the rest during a cease-fire last November in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

Magdy reported from Cairo and Goldenberg from Tel Aviv, Israel.

Find more of AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war