The Latest | Israeli politician's visit to a Jerusalem holy site threatens Gaza cease-fire talks

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, visited Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site on Thursday, a move that threatened negotiations to end the 9-month-old war in Gaza.

Hours later, Netanyahu made a surprise visit to troops in the southern Gaza Strip, saying it was essential that Israel keep control of a strip of territory along Gaza's border with Egypt. His Gaza tour comes just days before he is set to give a speech to the U.S. Congress.

Israeli negotiators were in Cairo on Wednesday to press ahead with talks on a cease-fire and hostage release deal, as Israel and Hamas consider the latest proposal. In recent weeks, Israel has stepped up strikes in central Gaza, where many Palestinians have fled to escape fighting in other parts of the beleaguered territory.

Hamas' Oct. 7 attack sparked the war when militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting about 250. Since then, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 38,600 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. It does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

Two international courts have accused Israel of war crimes and genocide – charges Israel denies. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are crammed into squalid tent camps in central and southern Gaza. Israeli restrictions, fighting and the breakdown of law and order have limited humanitarian aid efforts, causing widespread hunger and sparking fears of famine.

Here’s the latest:

More than 10,000 women have died in the war in Gaza, head of UN agency says

UNITED NATIONS – More than 10,000 women have died in the war in Gaza, over 6,000 families have lost their mothers, and nearly one million women and girls “have lost their homes, their loved ones, their life memories,” the head of the U.N. women’s agency in the Palestinian territories says.

“Wars are never gender neutral, but no doubt in Gaza one million women and girls are bearing the worst brunt of nine months of war,” Maryse Guimond, UN Women’s special representative for Gaza and the West Bank, told U.N. reporters Thursday.

In her six years in the job, Guimond said, she has visited Gaza more than 50 times but nothing prepared her “for the total destruction and inhumanity” she saw during a recent one-week visit.

“I saw live shattered, homes destroyed and communities and families torn apart,” she said. “It was unbearable to witness the daily escalation of violence and destruction of a war on women with no end in sight."

UN Women’s data show 557,000 women are suffering from acute food insecurity, Guimond said in the video press conference from Jerusalem.

Her voice filled with emotion, Guimond said she spoke to women who have been displaced more than half a dozen times with no money and no possessions “and with no clue how and where they’re going to live.”

“Many women told me that they will not move again as it does not make a difference for their safety or survival” because “there are no safe places to be a woman in Gaza,” she said.

Guimond urged the international community to support women-led organizations risking their lives and working to help women in Gaza.

Drones attacked a base housing US troops in Iraq this week, Pentagon says, in first such attack since April

WASHINGTON — A base housing U.S. troops and members of the U.S.-led coalition in western Iraq was subjected to an attack with two explosive drones earlier this week that caused some material damage but no casualties, a Pentagon spokesperson says.

During the attack on Ain al-Asad airbase in western Iraq, one drone was successfully destroyed and one impacted the base, “but it caused minimal damage,” Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, told reporters Thursday.

The attack Tuesday was the first on a base housing U.S. troops since April.

On Tuesday, two Iraqi militia officials said they had launched a new drone attack targeting the Ain al-Asad air base. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

Days after the Israel-Hamas war broke out in Gaza, a coalition of Iran-backed militias dubbed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq began launching dozens of attacks on bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and eastern Syria.

Those attacks dropped sharply in February — but only after a series of retaliatory U.S. strikes following a drone hit on a base in Jordan that killed three American soldiers.

Israel's military offers details on draft for ultra-Orthodox Jewish men

JERUSALEM — Israel's military said Thursday that 1,000 ultra-Orthodox men will get their military conscription orders next week and 3,000 will be drafted by year's end.

Half of those being called up Sunday will be 18 to 20-year-olds, and the rest ages 20 to 26, the military said. It expects to keep up the same pace of enlistment next year. Assignments for the men will be designed to meet the needs of ultra-Orthodox Israelis, the army said.

Military service is compulsory for most Jewish men and women in Israel. But politically powerful ultra-Orthodox parties have won exemptions for their followers to skip military service and instead study in religious seminaries.

A landmark ruling by Israel's Supreme Court last month said the system of exemptions amounts to unequal treatment of different segments of the population and ordered the army to begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men.

The exemptions had bred widespread resentment among the broader public – a sentiment that has grown stronger during the war in Gaza. Tens of thousands of military reservists have been activated, harming their careers, businesses and family lives.

Ultra-Orthodox parties and their followers oppose any change in the system. The parties are key members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition and could potentially force new elections if they decide to leave the government in protest.

Polio virus found in Gaza sewage, health officials say, suggesting the virus is circulating

DEIR Al-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Traces of the virus that causes polio were found in sewage samples in the Gaza Strip tested in coordination with the U.N. children’s agency, said Gaza's Health Ministry on Thursday.

The ministry warned of a “heath catastrophe” in the Gaza Strip because the virus is spread in sewage water amid sprawling tent camps for displaced families. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have taken shelter in crowded and unsanitary areas across southern and central Gaza that doctors describe as breeding grounds for disease — especially as summer temperatures soar.

Water is scarce in the Gaza Strip and some is contaminated with sewage, the ministry said, and this could contribute to the spread of different diseases. It said that finding traces of the virus that causes polio “puts thousands of residents in danger of being affected with polio.”

The ministry called for an end to the war, supplying Gaza with clean water and fixing the sewage system in areas housing displaced people.

Doctors also fear an outbreak of cholera is increasingly likely without dramatic changes to living conditions. The U.N., aid groups and local officials are scrambling to build latrines, repair water lines and bring desalination plants back online.

Israeli airstrike kills several elite Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon

BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike killed a commander and other militants from Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force late Thursday in southern Lebanon, according to the group and Israel's military.

Hezbollah confirmed the death of one of its commanders, Ali Jaafar Maatouq, also known as Habib Maatouq. Israel said in a statement it had killed Maatouq and another Radwan Force commander, as well as other members of Hezbollah's secretive special forces, which operates along the border.

Earlier in the day, two separate drone strikes in southern Lebanon and another in the eastern Bekaa Valley killed a Hezbollah member and an official of the Sunni Muslim al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group, which has close links to the Palestinian group Hamas and is also allied with Hezbollah.

The three separate targeted killings in one day were a rare spike in violence on the Lebanon-Israel border, where Hezbollah and Israel have been fighting for more than nine months.

Hezbollah began firing rockets shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, saying it aimed to ease pressure on Gaza. Since then, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed over 450 people, mostly Hezbollah members but also around 90 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 21 soldiers and 13 civilians have been killed.

UN chief is dismayed at Israeli parliament rejecting a Palestinian state

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations chief is “very disappointed” at a resolution approved by Israel’s parliament rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state, and he emphasized that “you can’t vote away the two-state solution,” his spokesman says.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said many times he believes that ending “Israel’s occupation” and negotiating a two-state solution “is the only viable path to a sustainable peace for the people of Israel and for the people of Palestine,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Thursday.

He stressed that the solution must see “Israel and an independent, democratic, contiguous, viable and sovereign Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security within secure and recognized order based on 1967 lines with Jerusalem as the capital of both states.”

Dujarric said the resolution approved by Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, is “clearly inconsistent with U.N. resolutions, international law and prior agreements.”

Guterres once again calls on the Israelis and all sides not to do anything “that takes us further away from the two-state solution,” Dujarric said.

Guterres said in a speech to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, delivered by his chief of staff, that, “Recent developments are driving a stake through the heart of any prospect for a two-state solution.”

He pointed to Israel’s seizure of large land parcels in strategic areas of the West Bank and changes to planning, land management and governance that are expected “to significantly accelerate settlement expansion.”

The Gaza Strip also faces decades of rebuilding from devastation caused by the war.

No Israeli hospital for children from Gaza, Netanyahu says, canceling a plan by his defense minister

JERUSALEM — Sick and wounded kids from Gaza who need urgent medical treatment won't be cared for inside Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Thursday, scrapping a plan by his defense minister to set up a military field hospital.

The short-term plan to treat Palestinian patients in Israel was ordered earlier this week by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. His office said these patients haven’t been able to leave for other countries because of the extended closure of Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt. It's the only exit for travelers, and has been shut down since Israeli forces captured it in early May. Egypt has refused to reopen it while it's still under Israeli control.

In a statement Thursday, Netanyahu's office said he doesn't approve of the hospital “and therefore it will not be built.”

In response, Gallant released a statement saying that his initial plan to transfer Palestinian patients through Israel to other countries was stalled, and he wanted to set up the field hospital “in light of the urgent need to take a decision.” It was not clear when the hospital would have opened.

In June, Israel allowed 19 sick or wounded children plus their companions out of Gaza through Israel to Egypt and further abroad. At the time, Dr. Mohammed Zaqout, the head of Gaza’s hospitals, said over 25,000 patients in Gaza required treatment abroad, including some 980 children with cancer.

A senior White House adviser is heading to the Mideast amid Gaza cease-fire talks

WASHINGTON — Brett McGurk, the White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, was headed back to the Mideast on Thursday as the Biden administration holds out hope for sealing a Gaza cease-fire and hostage release deal, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said McGurk is scheduled to stop in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan for talks with officials in both countries about the ongoing negotiations.

Israeli negotiators landed in Cairo on Wednesday to keep working on talks that could end the 9-month-old Israel-Hamas war.

International mediators are pushing Israel and Hamas toward a phased deal that would halt the fighting and free about 120 hostages held by the militant group in Gaza.

Israel kills a Hezbollah member in Lebanon and the militant group says it attacked Israeli army positions

BEIRUT — The Israeli military said Thursday it killed a member of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah's engineering unit.

The army's announcement came hours after Hezbollah said one of its members, Hassan Ali Muhanna, was killed in southern Lebanon. It gave no other details, adding that he was from the southern area of Jbal el-Botm.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported a drone strike on a car earlier in the day in Jbal el-Botm.

The Israeli military said Muhanna was a member of an engineering unit in the southern village of Qana and played a role in planning and carrying out attacks against Israel.

Hezbollah later issued several statements that its fighters attacked Israeli army positions along the border, using in some of the strikes Burkan rockets that carry heavy warheads.

Earlier in the day, a drone strike on the eastern Bekaa Valley killed a member of the of the Sunni Muslim al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group, which has close links to the Palestinian group Hamas and is also allied with Hezbollah.

Since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza started on Oct. 7, Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have killed over 450 people, mostly Hezbollah members but also around 90 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 21 soldiers and 13 civilians have been killed.

Netanyahu makes a surprise visit to troops in southern Gaza, days before his speech to US Congress

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a surprise visit to troops in southern Gaza on Thursday, days before his speech to the U.S. Congress.

Netanyahu’s visit to Rafah was announced just hours after Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, visited Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site.

Ben-Gvir's move threatens to disrupt sensitive talks aimed at reaching a cease-fire in the 9-month-old Israel-Hamas war. Israeli negotiators landed in Cairo on Wednesday to keep working to bridge gaps between Israel and Hamas.

Netanyahu’s office announced his visit to Rafah once the prime minister had exited the war-torn Palestinian territory, with more details expected later Thursday.

Israeli forces invaded Rafah in early May, forcing most of the 2 million people sheltering there to flee and leaving the city a dusty ghost town full of bullet-riddled apartment buildings with blasted out walls and shattered windows.

Israel says it has nearly defeated Hamas forces in Rafah — an area identified earlier this year as the militant group’s’ last stronghold in Gaza.

In recent weeks, Israel has stepped up strikes in central Gaza, where many Palestinians have fled to escape fighting in other areas.

The two leaders’ visits came hours after Israel’s parliament overwhelmingly passed a resolution rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state. The vote, in an overnight session that lasted into Thursday morning, was largely symbolic and meant to send a message ahead of Netanyahu’s trip to the U.S.

Human rights group accuses Israel of torturing Palestinian detainees from Gaza

JERUSALEM — Human rights organization Amnesty International accused Israeli authorities on Thursday of mass incommunicado detention and torture of Palestinian detainees from Gaza.

The organization interviewed 27 former Palestinian detainees, including a 14-year-old boy, who it says were held without charge, trial, or access to their lawyers or family for up to 4 1/2 months under an Israeli law on unlawful combatants.

Citing Israeli rights group Hamoked, Amnesty said that 1,402 Palestinians were being held under the law as of July 1, 2024. That’s the highest figure since the war began, according to Hamoked’s figures.

Amnesty in a statement said the law allows the Israeli military to detain anyone from Gaza suspected of engagement in hostilities or posing a security threat “for indefinitely renewable periods without having to produce evidence to substantiate the claims.”

The group said that all the former detainees they interviewed had alleged torture or ill-treatment while they were held.

One interviewee, 57-year-old pediatrician Said Maarouf, said guards kept him blindfolded and handcuffed for the duration of his 45-day detention at the Sde Teiman military facility, and said he was “starved, repeatedly beaten, and forced to sit on his knees for long periods.”

One woman who spoke to Amnesty on condition of anonymity said she was beaten, forced to remove her veil and “photographed without it,” and was forced to watch what she said was a mock execution of her husband.

Amnesty called on Israel to grant all detainees, including those suspected of being part of armed groups, access to lawyers and monitoring groups such as the International Committee for the Red Cross.

“This law blatantly fails to provide these safeguards,” said Amnesty’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard. “It enables rampant torture and, in some circumstances, institutionalizes enforced disappearance.”

Israel says it holds detainees lawfully, denies allegations of torture and says prisoners are granted their basic rights.

Lebanese militant group says one of its leaders was killed in an Israeli drone strike

BEIRUT — Israeli drone strikes early Thursday in Lebanon killed at least one person, who was identified as Mohammad Hamed Jabbara, one of the leaders of the militant Sunni al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or Islamic Group.

In a statement, the political and militant group said Jabbara was killed in a strike in the western Bekaa area in Lebanon not far from the Syrian border. The group gave no further details but Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the drone fired a rocket at him while he was driving a pickup truck.

The Israeli military described Jabara as a Hamas operative in Lebanon who helped coordinate Islamic Group attacks targeting northern Israel.

The armed wing of the Islamic Group, the Fajr Forces, has also attacked northern Israel alongside its allies, Hamas and the Lebanese group Hezbollah. Similarly to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the group’s founded was inspired by the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Elsewhere in Lebanon, an Israeli drone struck a civilian vehicle in a village near the southern coastal city of Tyre. It’s unclear who was in the vehicle and whether they were killed or wounded.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes, though it has acknowledged in previous instances that its attacks have targeted Hezbollah militants and allies.

Hezbollah launched attacks against Israel after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on Oct. 7 with the Hamas attack on southern Israel.

Since then, Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have killed over 450 people, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also more than 80 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 21 soldiers and 13 civilians have been killed since the war in Gaza began.

Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the tense Lebanon-Israel frontier have been displaced in the monthslong war.

Israel extends law restricting foreign media on security grounds

JERUSALEM — Israel’s parliament extended a temporary law which allows the country to shut down foreign media outlets they consider a threat to Israel’s security. In a marathon session that lasted until early Thursday morning, the parliament gave final approval to extend the emergency law until Nov. 30.

Israeli officials used the new law on May 5 to close Qatar-based Al Jazeera within Israel, confiscating its equipment, banning its broadcasts and blocking its websites.

Under the law, Israel’s Communications Ministry also briefly seized AP broadcasting equipment from southern Israel after accusing it of violating a new media law by providing images to Al Jazeera. The government returned the equipment to AP several hours later.

A bill that would make the emergency legislation permanent is currently making its way through the Israeli parliament. The draft said a permanent bill is needed because Israel “has faced serious security threats since its establishment and is expected to continue to face them in the future, possibly even more severely.”

Critics say the measure passed earlier this year is undemocratic and a threat to press freedom.

Israeli strikes kill at least 11 people in central Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Overnight Israeli strikes Thursday in central Gaza killed at least 11 people, including women and children.

Early Thursday an Israeli strike hit a house in central Gaza, killing at least six people, while another strike later hit a car, killing at least three. The dead were taken to the Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where an Associated Press journalist counted the bodies.

Among the six killed in the early strike in Zawaida were two children and two women. The area struck is close to Deir al-Balah, where many Palestinians displaced from across the war-torn Gaza Strip have fled.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s Civil Defense organization said they pulled two dead bodies and seven wounded from the rubble following an Israeli airstrike in Bureij that hit a family house.

Israel’s military said it had targeted two commanders from the militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, one from the group's naval forces and the other responsible for launches in the city of Shujaiya.