The Latest | Gaza families bid a tearful goodbye to critically ill kids leaving for treatment abroad

Families bid a tearful goodbye to over a dozen critically ill children who left Gaza for treatment abroad on Thursday. It’s the first medical evacuation since the territory’s sole travel crossing shut down in early May after Israeli forces captured it, Palestinian officials say.

Kamela Abukweik burst into tears after her son got on the bus heading to the crossing with her mother. Neither she nor her husband were cleared to leave.

“He has tumors spread all over his body and we don’t know what the reason is. And he constantly has a fever,” she said. “I still don’t know where he is going.”

Israeli authorities say 68 people — 19 sick and injured children plus their companions — have been allowed out of the Gaza Strip and into Egypt. It was not clear where they would receive treatment.

The nearly nine-month Israel-Hamas war has devastated Gaza’s health sector and forced most of its hospitals to shut down. Dr. Mohammed Zaqout, the head of Gaza’s hospitals, said over 25,000 patients require treatment abroad, including some 980 children with cancer, a quarter of whom need “urgent and immediate evacuation.”

International criticism is growing over Israel’s campaign against Hamas as Palestinians face severe and widespread hunger. The eight-month war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and basic goods to Gaza, and people there are now totally dependent on aid. The top United Nations court has concluded there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza — a charge Israel strongly denies.

Israel launched the war in Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.

Since then, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,600 people in Gaza, according to the territory's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

Currently:

— Gunfire, lawlessness and gang-like looters are preventing aid distribution in Gaza, an official says.

— A Palestinian was shot, beaten and tied to an Israeli army jeep. The army says he posed no threat.

— The U.S. military shows reporters the pier project in Gaza as it takes another stab at aid delivery.

— Ship attacked in Red Sea in latest maritime assault likely carried out by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

— Man who police say urged ‘Zionists’ to get off NYC subway train faces criminal charge.

— Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

Here’s the latest:

Thousands of Israelis demonstrate for cease-fire and hostage release deal

JERUSALEM — Thousands of people demonstrated in central Jerusalem late Thursday, calling on the Israeli government to agree to a cease-fire deal with Hamas that would free dozens of hostages held by the militant group.

The crowd marched through central Jerusalem and gathered near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence. Many blew horns, held posters of captive hostages and chanted anti-Netanyahu slogans and called on him to to resign.

Police accused protesters of disturbing the peace and moved to break up the gathering after a group ignited a large fire on a central street.

The country has grown increasingly divided as the war in Gaza has dragged on and cease-fire efforts have faltered, with tens of thousands of people joining months of anti-government protests across the country.

Blinken says Israel appears to be speeding up humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza but hasn't fully implemented commitments

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Israel appears to be acting on requests for speed up humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza but that its commitments need to be fully implemented to secure the safe delivery of assistance to civilians in dire need.

Blinken said Thursday that he had raised the matter with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at a meeting in Washington earlier this week and told him of the “urgent challenges” that need to be addressed to keep aid flowing into areas in desperate need of food, water, medicine and other basic necessities.

“Over the past week or so, we’ve been working to address urgent challenges that are making it difficult to deliver the necessary humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza who so desperately need it, particularly when it comes to the security of deliveries and those delivering the assistance,” Blinken said before meeting with the U.N.’s coordinator for Gaza aid, Sigrid Kaag, at the State Department.

“I raised these concerns clearly and directly with Israel’s Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, who was here just a few days ago, and I think we’ve seen over the last couple of days some progress in Israel committing to address some of these,” Blinken said. “It’s good and important that Israel is addressing these very concrete needs, but they have to be implemented as quickly as possible. There is no time to lose.”

Kaag said it was critical that aid not only be delivered to Gaza but also distributed to people in need. “There’s an absence of almost anything anyone could possibly imagine,” she said. “So it’s our task indeed, not only to get the aid to Gaza, but also to have the ability to distribute it safety and securely.”

Israeli military says it bombed targets in Lebanon after militants fired 35 rockets

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it has struck more targets in Lebanon after militants fired 35 rockets into northern Israel.

The barrage came in response to an earlier Israeli strike that killed a Hezbollah militant. Israel says most of the rockets were intercepted and there were no injuries from the rocket fire.

Iranian-backed Hezbollah began striking Israel almost immediately after the war in Gaza began in October. Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire nearly every day since then, displacing tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border. Hezbollah says it will only stop the attacks if there is a truce in Gaza.

The fighting has escalated in recent weeks, raising fears of a full-blown war.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 400 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah and other militants, but also over 80 civilians and non-combatants. In northern Israel, 16 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed by strikes launched from Lebanon.

US-built pier in Gaza will be removed again due to weather, US officials say

WASHINGTON — The U.S.-built military pier off the coast of the Gaza Strip could be pulled up again as soon as Friday due to expected rough sea conditions, two U.S. officials said.

The pier will be pulled as the U.S. is looking at alternative ways to get aid into Gaza, including potentially using an existing Israeli pier in nearby Ashdod as an alternative route, one of the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military planning.

This would be the third time weather has disrupted pier operations. The floating pier was anchored back on Gaza’s shoreline on June 19 after heavy seas and high winds led the military to disconnect it from the beach. In May, similar conditions forced a two-week pause in operations after the pier broke apart and four U.S. Army vessels ran aground, injuring three service members, one critically.

The Pentagon has said previously it was likely going to have to be shut down the pier by the end of the summer due to weather conditions.

While the pier has been effective in getting millions of pounds of food into Gaza, much of that aid is still piling up in a secure holding yard just onshore instead of making it through to areas where it’s needed most. The U.N. has halted distribution from the pier pending the release of the results of a security review.

The pier cannot supply Palestinians with anywhere near the level of aid they need, the head of the World Health Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean region said Monday. Aid groups have regularly criticized the plan to deliver aid to Gaza by sea as ineffective and a distraction that has taken pressure off Israel to open land border crossings that can deliver aid in larger numbers.