Live updates | Fighting rages by central Gaza hospital; Israel kills Hezbollah commander in Lebanon

A senior commander of the militant group Hezbollah was killed Monday in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon, raising concerns of a wider Mideast war as fighting raged near the main hospital in central Gaza.

The strike targeting an SUV driven by Wissam al-Tawil comes as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is visiting regional capitals in a bid to head off an expanded conflict.

In Gaza, Israel says it has largely concluded major operations in northern part of the territory and is now focusing on the central region and the southern city of Khan Younis.

Medical staff, patients and displaced people fled the main hospital in central Gaza as fighting drew closer, witnesses said Monday. Omar al-Darawi, an employee at the Al-Aqsa hospital, said the facility has been struck multiple times in recent days.

Hamas' Oct. 7 attack from Gaza into southern Israel triggered the war and killed around 1,200 people, and militants took some 250 others hostage. Israel’s air, ground and sea assault in Gaza has killed more than 22,400 people, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. The count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Currently:

— With every strike and counterstrike, Israel, the US and Iran’s allies inch closer to all-out war

— Israel says Hezbollah struck sensitive air traffic base in the north and warns of ‘another war’

— Blinken brings US push on post-war Gaza planning and stopping conflict to UAE and Saudi Arabia

— Seven Palestinians, an Israeli policewoman and a motorist are killed in West Bank violence

— An Al Jazeera journalist is the fifth member of his family killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza

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

Here's what's happening in the war:

REPORTERS CAN'T HAVE INDEPENDENT ACCESS TO GAZA VIA ISRAEL, SUPREME COURT SAYS

JERUSALEM — Israel’s Supreme Court has rejected a request from international media organizations to allow independent access for journalists to report in the war-battered Gaza Strip.

The Foreign Press Association, which represents dozens of media organizations operating in Israel and the Palestinian territories, including The Associated Press, asked the court last month to order Israeli authorities to allow journalists to enter.

In a ruling Monday, the court said that while it recognizes the right of freedom of the press, the current wartime circumstances justify the restrictions.

It said that journalists inside Gaza could endanger soldiers by reporting about troop positions. It also said it was too dangerous for Israeli personnel to work at border crossings.

Instead, it said that journalists could continue to enter Gaza under Israeli military escort. The army has offered limited opportunities for some media to “embed” with soldiers in short, highly controlled visits.

While the court acknowledged the shortcomings of this system, it called it a “balanced and reasonable policy” in the current circumstances. It offered to revisit the matter if the circumstances change.

Before the war broke out on Oct. 7, foreign journalists entered and exited Gaza through the Erez crossing — a heavily fortified facility that was attacked in the Hamas invasion and remains closed. Egypt’s Rafah crossing with Gaza is closed to journalists as well.

ISRAEL KILLS 3 MILITANTS IN WEST BANK RAID

WEST BANK, Ramallah — Israeli forces have killed three Palestinian militants in the northern West Bank in the latest in a surge of deadly violence in the occupied territory.

In a joint statement, Israeli police and the Shin Bet intelligence service said Israeli forces killed the men in an exchange of fire that broke out late Monday during an arrest operation in the village of Iktaba.

The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the deaths of the three men, and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, an armed offshoot of the ruling Fatah party, identified them as members.

Iktaba is near Tulkarem, a city in the northern West Bank that has experienced heavy fighting in recent months.

The West Bank has experienced an increase in violence since Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza erupted on Oct. 7. The Palestinian Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed 337 Palestinians in the West Bank during that time.

BLINKEN RALLIES MIDEAST COUNTRIES TO HELP PLAN POST-WAR GAZA

AL ULA, Saudi Arabia — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says four Arab nations and Turkey have agreed to begin planning for post-conflict reconstruction and governance of Gaza once Israel’s war against Hamas ends.

On an urgent Mideast mission aimed primarily at preventing the conflict from spreading amid resurgent fears of a regional war, Blinken said Monday that Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey would consider participating in and contributing to “day after” scenarios for the territory, which has been decimated by three months of Israeli bombardment. Those countries had previously resisted U.S. calls for post-war planning to begin, insisting that there must first be a cease-fire and sharp reduction in civilians suffering caused by Israel’s response to Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attacks in Israel.

On his latest Mideast tour, his fourth since the war began in October, Blinken said those countries were now open to such planning and that each would consider their own involvement in what is eventually decided upon.

“We agreed to work together and to coordinate our efforts to help Gaza stabilize and recover, to chart a political path forward for the Palestinians and to work toward long-term peace, security and stability in the region as a whole,” Blinken told reporters.

He did not offer specifics on potential contributions.

He also said the countries had agreed to use what leverage and influence they may have to prevent the Gaza war from widening into a broader Mideast conflict that would be devastating for the region and have significant negative impacts on international trade and the global economy.

Blinken made the comments after meeting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at his winter camp outside the city of Al Ula in western Saudi Arabia, which the country is transforming into a major tourist destination.

FIRST DAY ON THE JOB FOR FORMER DUTCH POLITICIAN, NOW THE U.N. AID CHIEF IN GAZA

UNITED NATIONS – Former Dutch deputy premier Sigrid Kaag met with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and senior officials at the start of her new job Monday as the U.N. coordinator for humanitarian aid and reconstruction in war-torn Gaza.

Kaag is also scheduled to travel to Washington for meetings this week before heading to the Mideast where she will initially be based in Amman, Jordan, U.N. associate spokesperson Florencia Soto Niño said.

Guterres appointed Kaag, a Mideast expert fluent in Arabic and five other languages, on Dec. 27 to facilitate, coordinate, monitor, and verify humanitarian relief consignments to Gaza.

Under terms of a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted on Dec. 22, she is also mandated to establish a U.N. “mechanism” to accelerate humanitarian relief consignments to Gaza through states which are not party to the conflict.

In late December, 23 U.N. and nongovernmental organizations said Gaza’s entire 2.3 million population is in food crisis, with 576,000 people at catastrophic or starvation levels and the risk of famine “increasing each day.” Their report blamed the widespread hunger on insufficient aid entering Gaza.

Kaag started working for the United Nations in 1994 in Sudan and has worked for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the West Bank, as regional director for the Mideast for the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF, and as U.N. special envoy for Lebanon.

She then entered politics in the Netherlands and was named minister for trade and development in 2017. Most recently, she served as deputy prime minister and the first female minister of finance, but she announced last July was leaving Dutch politics because of “hate, intimidation and threats” that put “a heavy burden on my family.”

PROTESTS IN NEW YORK CITY BLOCK BRIDGES, OVER 300 PEOPLE ARRESTED

NEW YORK — Hundreds of protesters calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war disrupted the Monday morning rush hour in New York City by blocking major bridges and a tunnel leading into Manhattan.

Police said more than 325 people were arrested, with many facing misdemeanor charges.

Demonstrators sat in roadways and locked themselves together using zip ties and even cement-filled tires, which at times required officers to use power tools to pry the demonstrators apart.

Protest organizers included the Palestinian Youth Movement and Jewish-led groups long opposed to Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians, such as Jewish Voice for Peace.

A steady stream of demonstrations have broken out in cities across the United States and in other countries during the war. The groups said they want to see a permanent cease-fire and an end to the U.S. government’s arming of the Israel, among other things.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams questioned the demonstrators' tactics, telling reporters, “The right to protest does not give one the right to block bridges and tunnels.”

UNITED NATIONS WARNS OF ‘DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES’ FROM EXPANDED ISRAELI OFFENSIVE IN GAZA

UNITED NATIONS — The intensifying Israeli offensive in central and southern Gaza has “devastating consequences,” driving up civilian casualties, severely curtailing aid operations in the central region and risking the closure of three major hospitals, the U.N. humanitarian office says.

U.N. associate spokesperson Florencia Soto Niño told reporters Monday that the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that attacks have impacted tens of thousands of Palestinians, many of whom had fled from Gaza City and the north to seek safety in central areas like Deir al-Balah.

As a result of increased attacks, she said, shelters, health centers, warehouses and distribution points in Deir al-Balah have newly been issued with Israeli evacuation orders and several bakeries supported by the U.N. and its partners have been forced to stop operating.

“As casualties rise, the ability to treat people is in jeopardy, with three hospitals in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis in the south at risk of closure due to the issuance of evacuation orders in nearby areas and fighting approaching the hospitals, Soto Niño said.

“We continue to call for restraint and for all of the actors involved to do everything in their power to prevent the escalation of the situation in the region,” Soto Niño said.

ISRAELI MILITARY SAYS IT UNCOVERED A WEAPON-MAKING SITE IN CENTRAL GAZA

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it has uncovered a large weapons-production site in central Gaza where Hamas was building long-range rockets capable of reaching northern Israel.

It says the site, in the Bureij urban refugee camp, was connected by several tunnels as deep as 30 meters (100 feet) underground and included production facilities for long-range rockets, mortar shells, explosives, and drones.

Videos released by the army Monday showed at least a dozen molds for manufacturing rocket parts, a melting furnace, and seven rockets with a range of at least 100 kilometers (60 miles).

It says the facility included elevators that led to a tunnel network that allowed Hamas to transport the weapons to units across the Gaza Strip. Parts of the tunnels featured tiled floors, fire extinguishers, a kitchen, workshop, and supplies.

The army says the facility is the largest weapons production site found in the war so far.

Hamas has fired thousands of rockets into Israel during three months of fighting. Some have reached as far away as Tel Aviv, some 70 kilometers (50 miles) away, but most have been fired at communities in southern Israel near the Gaza border.

EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT MEETS WITH HEAD OF WEST BANK'S PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY

CAIRO — The head of the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has traveled to Cairo for a meeting with Egypt’s president to discuss ways to end the war in Gaza.

Egypt has acted as a key peace broker in past conflicts between Israel and Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and the two leaders have called for an immediate cease-fire.

Monday’s talks between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi focused on Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza and the surging violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to a statement released by Egypt’s presidential office.

No other significant details about their discussions were made public.

In December, Egypt unveiled a plan to end the war that included an initial cease-fire agreement and then working with all Palestinian factions, including Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, to establish a coalition government of Palestinian experts that would govern Gaza and the West Bank.

Abbas’ Palestinian Authority has not had any political power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, when Hamas seized control after winning Palestinian elections there a year earlier. Abbas himself is unpopular among Palestinians.

Israel hasn’t publicly reacted to the proposal, but has said it will not agree to any solution that involves a role for Hamas or Abbas.

ISRAELI STRIKE IN LEBANON KILLS A TOP HEZBOLLAH COMMANDER

BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Monday killed a senior commander of the militant group Hezbollah, a Lebanese security official said.

The targeted killing of Wissam al-Tawil comes as clashes between Iran-backed Hezbollah militants and the Israeli military along the Lebanon-Israel border have intensified. The strike took place less than a week after an apparent Israeli strike in the Lebanese capital of Beirut killed Hamas’ No. 2 political leader. Two days later, Hezbollah launched a wide-ranging missile attack on an Israeli military base in Mount Meron in north Israel in retaliation.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike Monday. It said fighter jets have targeted Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese security official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said that Israel struck a commander from Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Forces. Hezbollah identified him as al-Tawil. The strike hit a Honda SUV in the southern village of Khirbet Selm, while he was driving it, the official said.

In the decades-old standoff pitting the U.S. and Israel against Iran and allied militant groups, there are fears that any party could trigger a wider war.

— By Associated Press writer Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut.

ISRAELI JUDGE WILL JOIN ICJ PANEL HEARING GENOCIDE CASE AGAINST ISRAEL

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s Justice Ministry says former Supreme Court Chief Justice Aharon Barak will serve as a judge at the International Court of Justice, joining a panel that will hear South Africa’s genocide case against Israel.

Barak, an influential Israeli jurist with international renown, is at the center of a national divide in Israel over the power of the courts. Critics, including from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, say he is an overly activist judge who in the 1990s spearheaded legal changes that granted courts more sway. Opponents of Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the judiciary see Barak as a champion of democracy and liberal values.

Israel and South Africa are both entitled to send judges to sit alongside the regular 15-judge panel, according to Israeli international law expert Robbie Sabel. Israel will have British international law expert Malcolm Shaw as part of its defense team, the Justice Ministry also said Monday.

Barak, 87, is a Holocaust survivor. He will be among the judges deciding whether to issue an interim order demanding Israel halt its war. Such orders are legally binding but not always enforceable.

The court this week will begin hearing South Africa’s allegations against Israel that it is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel says it is acting in self-defense after hundreds of Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 250 people hostage during its attack on Oct. 7.

ISRAELI FINANCE MINISTER SAYS ISRAEL SHOULD RESETTLE GAZA STRIP

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s ultranationalist finance minister says Israel must resettle the Gaza Strip, saying that otherwise the country will need to contend with “2 million Nazis who want to annihilate us.”

Bezalel Smotrich, a champion of West Bank Jewish settlements, has repeatedly made inflammatory remarks about Israel’s post-war intentions in Gaza. He recently sparked an international outcry over his comments calling for Palestinians in Gaza to leave the territory.

He and other far-right Cabinet ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have used the war against Hamas to promote their view that Israel should resettle Gaza, from where it withdrew troops and several thousand civilians in 2005.

Speaking late Sunday to a conservative television station, Smotrich said Israel must reestablish a Jewish presence in the coastal enclave because “if we won’t be there and there will be 2 million Nazis who want to annihilate us every morning when they wake up, we won’t exist, period.”

He said Israel would face more militant attacks like Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault without Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip. Israeli settlements in Gaza, which were established in the 1967 Mideast war, also faced attacks by militants.