Israel expanded its military assault deeper into the northern Gaza Strip as the U.N. and medical staff expressed fears over airstrikes hitting closer to hospitals, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have sought shelter alongside thousands of wounded. Relief workers said the largest convoy of humanitarian aid to arrive in Gaza still fell far short of needs.
The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 8,306, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 110 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them civilians slain in the initial Hamas rampage that started the fighting Oct. 7. In addition, 239 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group.
Currently:
1. Internet, phone service gradually returns to Gaza
2. People storm airportin Russia in antisemitic riot over arrival of plane from Israel
3. Israeli media, traumatized by Hamas attack, become communicators of Israel’s message
4. Biden says Mideast leaders must consider a two-state solution after the war ends
5. Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Here’s what is happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:
US SAYS AMERICAN AND COALITION FORCES WERE ATTACKED 23 TIMES IN IRAQ, SYRIAWASHINGTON — Two U.S. senior defense officials briefing reporters at the Pentagon on Monday said that from Oct. 17 to Oct. 30, U.S. and coalition forces were attacked at least 14 times in Iraq and nine times in Syria by a mix of drones and rockets for a total of 23 attacks.
The officials said many of the drones and rockets were intercepted and failed to reach their targets.
Bases housing U.S. troops in Syria and Iraq have come under rocket and drone attacks over the past weeks as tensions rise in the region over the Israel-Hamas war.
WORLD BANK SAYS WIDER MIDEAST CONFLICT COULD PUSH OIL PRICES INTO ‘UNCHARTERED WATERS’WASHINGTON — The World Bank reported Monday that oil prices could be pushed into “uncharted waters” if the violence between Israel and Hamas intensifies, which could result in increased food prices worldwide.
The World Bank’s Commodity Markets Outlook found that while the effects on oil prices should be limited if the conflict doesn’t widen, the outlook “would darken quickly if the conflict were to escalate.”
The attack on Israel by the militant organization Hamas and the ensuing Israel military operation against Hamas have raised fears of a wider Mideast conflict.
Indermit Gill, the World Bank’s chief economist, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has already had disruptive effects on the global economy “that persist to this day.”
“If the conflict were to escalate, the global economy would face a dual energy shock for the first time in decades — not just from the war in Ukraine but also from the Middle East,” Gill said.
LEBANON SAYS IT HAS DISMANTLED 21 ROCKET LAUNCHERSBEIRUT -- The Lebanese army says troops have discovered 21 launchers, one of them equipped with a rocket ready to be fired, in several locations near the border with Israel and dismantled them.
The army’s statement came as the militant Hezbollah group said its gunmen attacked two Israeli posts along the border on Monday, including one on the edge of the Israeli border town of Metula, destroying “technical equipment.”
Israeli forces fired shells toward the Lebanese side of the border, causing some fires around their posts, in an apparent attempt to prevent Hezbollah fighters from hiding in orchards.
After the Israel-Hamas war broke out on Oct. 7, Hezbollah and Palestinian fighters have fired rockets toward Israel and the frontier has been tense over the past three weeks.
Hezbollah has lost 47 of its fighters and four Lebanese civilians have been killed in Israeli shelling.
GAZA HEALTH MINISTRY SAYS 304 PEOPLE WERE KILLED IN THE PAST DAYGAZA -- The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza says 304 people were killed over the past day, raising the death toll since the conflict began to 8,306.
Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said Monday that the number of people wounded since Oct. 7 has reached 21,048.
He said the dead include 3,457 children and 2,136 women, adding that there are about 1,950 people still missing under the rubble.
Al-Qudra urged people to head to medical centers in Gaza to donate blood of all types.
He said the Israeli bombardment has been getting closer to medical centers and hospitals such as the Turkish Friendship hospital that specializes in treating people who have cancer.
OVERNIGHT AIRSTRIKES DAMAGE HOSPITAL SOUTH OF GAZA CITYCAIRO — Overnight airstrikes struck an area close to the Turkish hospital south of Gaza city, damaging roofs, doors and windows, a spokesperson for the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Monday.
Medhat Abbas shared images showing damage to a roof and a shattered window in the hospital, the only facility treating cancer patients in Gaza.
An initial report on the damage, seen by The Associated Press, said the hospital's water desalination system was also destroyed. The hospital treats 60 cancer patients and over two dozen other patients who were recently transferred from Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest.
VATICAN SAYS TWO-STATE SOLUTION NEEDED FOR STABLE, LASTING PEACEVATICAN CITY — A top Vatican official spoke by telephone Monday with the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, at the foreign minister’s request.
The Vatican said in a statement that the Vatican’s foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, expressed “serious concern in the Holy See about what is happening in Israel and Palestine, emphasizing the absolute necessity to avoid widening the conflict and to reach a two-state solution for a stable and lasting peace.”
UN SECURITY COUNCIL TO DISCUSS GAZA MONDAY AFTERNOONUNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting Monday afternoon on Israel’s ground incursion in Gaza and the dire humanitarian plight of Palestinians at the request of the United Arab Emirates.
The UAE, the Arab representative on the council, is one of 10 elected council members working on a new Security Council resolution on the Israel-Hamas war which is still in discussion. The council has rejected four draft resolutions — one vetoed by the United States, one vetoed by Russia and China, and two that failed to get the minimum nine “yes” votes.
The Gaza meeting will take place after the council meets first on Western Sahara and then on Colombia.
The General Assembly, where there are no vetoes, adopted a resolution Friday by a vote of 120-14 with 45 abstentions calling for humanitarian truces leading to a cessation of hostilities. Security Council resolutions are legally binding. General Assembly resolutions are not but they are an important barometer of world opinion.
4 PEOPLE KILLED IN CLASHES IN JENINCAIRO — Four Palestinians were killed early Monday in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, as Israeli forces clashed with Palestinians.
The ministry said five other Palestinians were wounded, including two with critical injuries.
Israeli media reported that there was heavy exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Palestinians in Jenin in a battle that included drone strikes.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since the war between Israel and Gaza broke out on Oct. 7. Since then, Israeli forces and settlers killed 115 Palestinians, including 33 minors, as of Sunday, according to the U.N. office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.
OCHA said half of the fatalities were during clashes that followed Israeli search-and-arrest operations.
GAZA'S WATER SHORTAGE MEANS PEOPLE BATHE AND WASH DISHES IN THE SEAOn a beach in Gaza, a young boy hunches over a plastic tub full of soapy water and laundry. Nearby, a woman uses sand to clean metal pots and pans. A man stands waist-deep in the sea cleaning a pair of sweatpants, while elsewhere, three women sit in the salty Mediterranean and let the lapping waves rinse their dresses.
The besieged Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people don’t have access to clean, running water after Israel cut off water and electricity to the enclave. If water does trickle from the tap, residents have said it's so contaminated with sewage and seawater that it’s undrinkable. Under these circumstances, some are forced to use the sea to bathe, wash clothes and clean their cookware.
On Sunday, 33 trucks carrying water, food and medicine entered the only border crossing from Egypt. Israel said it has opened two water lines in southern Gaza within the past week. The AP could not independently verify that either line was functioning.
GERMANY URGES ISRAEL TO PROTECT PALESTINIANS IN THE WEST BANKBERLIN -– Germany is calling on Israel to protect Palestinians against “activities of extremist settlers” in the West Bank.
Following deadly attacks by settlers in recent days, German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sebastian Fischer on Monday urged Israel to hold those responsible to account.
He told reporters in Berlin that Palestinian families must be able to remain where they have lived for decades and not be forced to leave for fear of their lives.
Germany is a close ally of Israel and has stressed Israel's right to defend itself following the attacks by Hamas from Gaza.
WOMAN MISSING AFTER HAMAS ATTACK ON MUSIC FESTIVAL IS REPORTED DEADBERLIN -– The mother of a German Israeli dual citizen missing after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 says she has been told that her daughter is dead.
Ricarda Louk told German news agency dpa on Monday that she was informed by the Israeli military of the death of Shani Louk, who was 22. She said her daughter’s body hasn’t been found, but a splinter of a skull bone was located and submitted for a DNA test.
Louk believes her daughter died on Oct. 7, when she was at a music festival in southern Israel that was attacked by militants from Gaza. Videos that circulated at the time appeared to show the young woman face-down on a pickup truck.
The German government has said that a “low two-digit number” of German Israeli dual citizens are believed to be held in Gaza.
