The Latest | Slovenia recognizes a Palestinian state, and new fighting flares in central Gaza

Slovenia is the latest European country to recognize a Palestinian state. The country’s parliament voted Tuesday in support of the move, following in the recent steps of Spain, Ireland and Norway.

Slovenia's prime minister has said he sped up efforts to recognize a State of Palestine in reaction to Israel's expanding invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The monthlong offensive has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians who are facing widespread hunger.

In central Gaza, the Israeli military said Tuesday that its troops backed by airstrikes have launched a ground operation into the Bureij refugee camp. Local hospital officials say a strike in the urban camp killed 11 Palestinians, including three children and a woman.

The Israeli airstrikes and ground offensives across the Gaza Strip come as international mediators wait for Israel and Hamas to respond to a new cease-fire and hostage release proposal, according to Qatar, which has played a key role in negotiations alongside Egypt and the United States.

Announcing the proposal last week, U.S. President Joe Biden said the three-phase plan was Israeli, however Israeli leaders have since appeared to distance themselves from the proposal and vowed to keep fighting Hamas until the group is destroyed.

Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

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. Around 80 hostages captured on Oct. 7 are believed to still be alive in Gaza, alongside the remains of 43 others.

Currently:

— The U.S. urges U.N. Security Council to support a cease-fire plan in Gaza announced by President Biden.

— Proposed Gaza cease-fire puts Netanyahu at a crossroads that could shape his legacy.

— Iran’s acting top diplomat dismisses U.S.-proposed Gaza cease-fire deal in visit to Lebanon.

— Palestinian officials apply to join South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide at the top U.N. court.

— Israeli airstrikes near Syria’s Aleppo kill several, including an Iranian adviser, reports say.

— Israel declares four more hostages are dead in Gaza.

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

Here's the latest:

U.N. HUMANITARIAN CHIEF WARNS OF GROWING DESPERATION AND HUNGER IN GAZA

UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. humanitarian chief says fuel and truckloads of food are desperately needed in Gaza, pointing to the massive looting of a U.N. convoy carrying aid and the theft of 27 of the 61 trucks last weekend as examples of lawlessness and the dire situation of hungry Palestinians.

Martin Griffiths told a U.N. press conference Tuesday that the United Nations doesn’t have the capacity to deliver humanitarian assistance at scale in southern Rafah, where Israel is carrying out a ground and air operation, or in central Gaza where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled the latest attacks.

Because of insecurity caused by the fighting, he said, there are also fewer aid workers to manage aid distribution to more than a million people in need, so “only a trickle” of food and other items are getting through to the neediest.

He called Saturday’s looting of 52 trucks carrying food and nutritional supplements for children, partial looting of nine others, and the recovery of only 34 of the 61 trucks in the World Food Program convoy a “terrible event” and “a seminal event.”

While the U.N. is remaining in Gaza, Griffiths said, it's unable to deliver nearly enough aid.

The U.N. and its humanitarian partners need all border crossings to reopen, the damaged U.S. pier to finish repairs repaired, and assurances of security and safety for convoys and aid workers, he said.

Griffiths said that for months, the U.N. has been calling for a humanitarian cease-fire, for safety and security on all convoy routes, and for embedding U.N. planners and humanitarian staff with the Israeli military “so that we can make sure that our movements are safe.” But this has not happened, he said.

Meanwhile, the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF warned that if nutrition supplies can’t be distributed, more than 3,000 children suffering from acute malnutrition will be have their nutrition supplies interrupted, U.N. associate spokesperson Florencia Soto-Nino said.

And in Rafah city, she said, the World Health Organization reported that the United Arab Emirates field hospital is the only facility providing health services, but ongoing hostilities are making it increasingly difficult to reach.

SLOVENIA RECOGNIZES A PALESTINIAN STATE, FOLLOWING 3 OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia — Slovenia recognized a Palestinian state on Tuesday after its parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of the move, following in the recent steps of three other European countries.

Slovenia’s government endorsed a motion last week to recognize a Palestinian state, and had sent the proposal to parliament for final approval, which was needed for the decision to take effect.

Parliament on Tuesday voted 52 for with no one against recognition in the 90-seat parliament. The remaining lawmakers were not present for the vote.

Slovenia’s decision came days after Spain, Norway and Ireland recognized a state of Palestinian, which was condemned by Israel. Previously only seven members of the 27-nation EU officially recognized a Palestinian state. Five of them are former East bloc countries that announced recognition in 1988, as did Cyprus, before joining the EU. Sweden’s recognition came in 2014.

WASHINGTON LAUNCHES BIG DIPLOMATIC PUSH FOR GAZA CEASE-FIRE

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has launched an intense drive to convince not only Hamas and Israel to accept a new cease-fire proposal in the nearly eight-month-old war in Gaza but is also pressing Arab nations to get the militant group to go along with the terms.

It comes as President Joe Biden suggested in a Time magazine interview published Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be prolonging the war against Hamas to ensure his political survival. Biden, who gave that interview a week ago, seemed to dial back his criticism in a brief exchange with reporters following an immigration speech at the White House.

In response to a question about whether Netanyahu is playing politics with the war, Biden said “I don’t think so. He’s trying to work out the serious problem he has.”

Netanyahu faces a far-right coalition that has threatened to break up his government if the prime minister agrees to a new cease-fire proposal, which Biden announced Friday as an Israeli plan. Since then, Biden and his top aides have not only pressed for Israel and Hamas to approve the deal but also have been working the phones to get Arab and Muslim nations to urge the militant group to agree to it.

Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan have all made calls, and Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, will be heading to region this week to further make the case for the deal.

ISRAEL LAUNCHES GROUND OPERATION INTO CENTRAL GAZA REFUGEE CAMP

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The Israeli military said Tuesday that ground troops backed by airstrikes have launched an operation in central Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp.

Local hospital officials say a strike on a home in the camp killed 11 Palestinians, including three children and one woman. A strike on another house in the neighboring Maghazi refugee camp killed two men, according to officials at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah, where the casualties were taken.

The extent of the Israeli incursion into Bureij camp was not immediately clear as of Tuesday evening. The military said in a statement that it was conducting “a precision operation” in the camp targeting Hamas positions.

Israeli forces have been battling militants in parts of Gaza that the army said it wrested control of months ago — potential signs of a simmering insurgency.

The military waged an offensive earlier this year for several weeks in Bureij and several other nearby refugee camps in central Gaza.

Troops pulled out of the Jabaliya camp in northern Gaza last Friday after weeks of fighting caused widespread destruction. First responders have recovered the bodies of 360 people, mostly women and children, killed during the battles.

Israel has also been expanding its nearly month-old ground offensive in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah. More than 1 million Palestinians have fled Rafah, mostly into tent camps that have arisen across central and southern Gaza.

Refugee camps in Gaza originally housed Palestinians who were driven from their homes in what is now Israel in the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s founding. Over the decades since, they have been built up into crowded urban districts.

A PERMANENT CEASE-FIRE MUST BE PART OF ANY DEAL WITH ISRAEL, HAMAS OFFICIAL SAYS

BEIRUT — A senior official with the Palestinian militant group Hamas said it will not accept any deal with Israel that does not clearly lay out a permanent cease-fire and a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Osama Hamdan said Hamas has told mediators that it was “waiting for an Israeli response regarding this matter.” Speaking Tuesday to reporters in Beirut, he said that Israel is seeking to bring the hostages held by Hamas out of Gaza, then resume the war there.

Hamdan’s comments came days after a cease-fire proposal, announced by U.S. President Joe Biden, offers the possibility of ending Israel’s war against Hamas, returning scores of hostages held by the militant group and quieting fighting on the northern border with Lebanon.

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Qatar said Tuesday that Qatar and the other mediators, Egypt and the U.S., were still waiting for a response from both Israel and Hamas to the proposal. Majid al-Ansari said “clear ideas” had been put to the two sides, but “we do not have clear positions on it from both sides.”

The Qatari spokesman pointed to disputes within the Israeli government, where ultra-nationalist allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have threatened to bring down the governing coalition if he signs onto a deal without destroying Hamas. Netanyahu says the deal includes provisions that ensure that goal — although none were publicly stated in Biden’s announced outline.

Al-Ansari said the “principles (of the proposal) bring together the demands of all parties.”

Hamdan said Hamas described Biden’s announcement as “positive.”

“We cannot accept an agreement that does not guarantee and confirm a permanent cease-fire and full withdrawal from Gaza followed by an (prisoners) exchange,” Hamdan said. “This is what we want as Palestinians, and any Israel ideas that contradict this do not concern us and have no value.”

Hamdan said that there are thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli jails adding that any deal should lead to their release. Around 80 hostages captured by Palestinian militants on Oct. 7 are believed to still be alive in Gaza, alongside the remains of 43 others.

SENIOR BIDEN ADVISER HEADING TO MIDEAST THIS WEEK, U.S. OFFICIAL SAYS

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden is dispatching a senior adviser, Brett McGurk, back to Mideast this week for talks on the hostage for truce negotiations between Israel and Hamas as well as to discuss about the situation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, according to a U.S. administration official.

The official requested anonymity to discuss the yet to be publicly announced travels for McGurk, the White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa.

McGurk has been shuttling between Washington and Mideast capitals throughout the nearly eight-month Israel-Hamas war for talks with key regional stakeholders.

This visit comes after a new cease-fire proposal was transmitted to Hamas last week. The Israeli plan could immediately bring home dozens of Israeli hostages, free Palestinian prisoners and perhaps even lead to an endgame in the war.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that Hamas has yet to offer its formal response to the proposal.

McGurk is also expected to discuss Israel’s ongoing military operations in Rafah with regional leaders.

Israel launched its ground assault into the city on May 6, triggering an exodus of around 1 million Palestinians out of the city and throwing U.N. humanitarian operations based in the area into turmoil.

Still, in the eyes of the Biden administration, it has yet to amount to a “major operation.” The U.N. humanitarian office reported Monday that only about 100,000 Palestinians are still in the city of Rafah.

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Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed.

WHITE HOUSE ADVISER JAKE SULLIVAN MEETS WITH FAMILIES OF AMERICAN HOSTAGES IN GAZA, U.S. OFFICIAL SAYS

WASHINGTON — White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met on Tuesday with families of Americans that are being held hostage in Gaza, according to an administration official.

The meeting comes as Biden is pressing Israel and Hamas officials to accept a three-phase hostage for truce deal and potentially end the eight-month war in Gaza. The official was not authorized to comment and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Israeli officials say about 80 people captured by militants in the Oct. 7 attack are still alive and Hamas is holding the bodies of 43 others.

Sullivan has periodically met and held calls with families of the American hostages throughout the nearly eight month crisis.

President Joe Biden in an interview with Time magazine published Tuesday said that he still believes Americans being held are alive, but acknowledged that U.S. officials “don’t have final proof on exactly who’s alive.”

Hundreds of people, including relatives of the captives, gathered outside Israel’s Defense Ministry and military headquarters in central Tel Aviv late Monday, calling for a hostage release deal. Smaller protests took place across the country.