The Latest | Palestinians name a new Cabinet in West Bank, and a shooting attack wounds 3 Israelis
The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, announced the formation of a new Cabinet on Thursday as it faces international pressure to reform.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli authorities say an attacker wounded three people after opening fire at several vehicles on a main route in the territory. The military says it’s still searching for the shooter.
The U.S. wants a revitalized Palestinian Authority to administer postwar Gaza, although Israel has rejected that idea, saying it will maintain open-ended security control.
Palestinian Authority forces were driven from Gaza when Hamas seized power there in 2007, and the PA has little popular support or legitimacy among Palestinians, many of whom view it as a subcontractor of the Israeli occupation.
Tensions in the West Bank have surged since the start of the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 32,000 people and wounded 74,000, according to the Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.
The United Nations says 100% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are at severe levels of food insecurity. Aid groups say complicated inspection procedures at the border, continued fighting, and a breakdown in public order have caused massive slowdowns in convoys. Israel accuses the U.N. of disorganization.
Some 1,200 people were killed in Israel and another 250 people abducted when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, triggering the war in Gaza.
Currently:
— Doctors visiting a Gaza hospital are stunned by the war’s toll on Palestinian children.
— Talks resume on bringing Israeli officials to the U.S. to discuss Gaza operation, the White House says.
— Israeli strikes in Lebanon kill 16, militant rockets kill 1 Israeli as cross-border violence soars.
— U.S sanctions online media site Gaza Now and its founder for allegedly supporting Hamas.
— Israelis who fled towns near Gaza border must weigh whether to return.
— Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Here’s the latest:
U.N. PEACEKEEPERS DECRY ESCALATING VIOLENCE ON LEBANON-ISRAEL BORDER
BEIRUT — The U.N. peacekeeping force deployed in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel is calling for ending the escalation a day after exchanges of fire killed 17 people.
The force known as UNIFIL said Thursday it is very concerned over the surge of cross-border violence between the Israeli military and Lebanese militant groups including Hezbollah.
On Wednesday, a series of Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon killed 16 people and a barrage of rockets fired by Hezbollah killed one Israeli man, making it the deadliest day in more than five months of fighting along the border.
UNIFIL said the escalation has caused a high number of civilian deaths adding that it is imperative that “this escalation cease immediately.”
“We urge all sides to put down their weapons and begin the process toward a sustainable political and diplomatic solution,” UNIFIL said. It added that the peacekeeping force remains ready to support that process in any way it can.
The fighting along the border started a day after the attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas into southern Israel on Oct. 7. The violence has displaced tens of thousands in both countries, caused widespread damage in towns and villages and killed civilians, including journalists.
Nine civilians and 11 soldiers have died in Israel, and more than 240 Hezbollah fighters and about 50 civilians have been killed in Lebanon.
ABBAS ANNOUNCES NEW CABINET FOR PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian Authority has announced the formation of a new Cabinet as it faces international pressure to reform.
President Mahmoud Abbas, who has led the PA for nearly two decades and remains in overall control, announced the new government in a presidential decree on Thursday. None of the incoming ministers is a well-known figure.
Abbas tapped Mohammad Mustafa, a longtime adviser, to be prime minister earlier this month. Mustafa, a politically independent U.S.-educated economist, had vowed to form a technocratic government and create an independent trust fund to help rebuild Gaza. Mustafa will also serve as foreign minister.
Interior Minister Ziad Hab al-Rih is a member of Abbas’ secular Fatah movement and held the same portfolio in the previous government. The Interior Ministry oversees the security forces. At least five of the incoming 23 ministers are from Gaza, but it was not immediately clear if they are still in the territory.
The PA administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Its forces were driven from Gaza when Hamas seized power in 2007, and it has no power there.
The United States has called for a revitalized PA to administer postwar Gaza ahead of eventual statehood.
Israel has rejected that idea, saying it will maintain open-ended security control over Gaza and partner with Palestinians who are not affiliated with the PA or Hamas. It’s unclear who in Gaza would be willing to take on such a role.
Hamas has rejected the formation of the new government as illegitimate, calling instead for all Palestinian factions, including Fatah, to form a power-sharing government ahead of national elections.
ATTACKER WOUNDS 3 AFTER OPENING FIRE IN WEST BANK
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli authorities say an attacker wounded three people after opening fire at several vehicles on a main route in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military says the attacker fled the scene following Thursday’s shooting and that forces were conducting searches. Magen David Adom of the Israeli rescue service said the injuries were moderate or light and that a 13-year-old was among the wounded.
Tensions in the West Bank have surged since the start of the war in Gaza and Israeli forces have engaged in near-nightly raids in the territory to clamp down on militancy. There has been a spike in shooting attacks by Palestinians during that time.
Since the start of the war, Israel has arrested roughly 3,600 Palestinians in the West Bank, the military says.
The Palestinian Health Ministry says at least 454 Palestinians have been killed and about 4,700 wounded in the West Bank and east Jerusalem since Oct. 7.
U.N. SAYS A HOSPITAL IN SOUTHERN GAZA HAS CLOSED, LEAVING ONLY 12 LEFT
UNITED NATIONS — Two-thirds of Gaza’s 36 hospitals aren’t functioning after Al Amal Hospital in the south of the territory ceased operation amid intense military activity, U.N. humanitarian officials report.
According to the U.N. World Health Organization, Gaza now has just 12 operating hospitals – two that are “minimally functional” and 10 that are partially functional, four in the north and six in the south, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Wednesday.
More than two dozen staff, six patients and a companion and the bodies of two people killed inside Al Amal were moved Monday by the U.N. humanitarian office, the Palestine Red Crescent Society and the International Committee for the Red Cross before the hospital was closed Tuesday, Dujarric said.
Andrea De Domenico, the head of U.N. humanitarian operations in the Palestinian territories, visited the partially functioning Kamal Adwan hospital in the north last week and reported that it is receiving “about 15 malnourished children a day and is struggling to maintain services,” Dujarric said.
“The hospital’s only generator has been heavily damaged, and health workers and patients desperately need food, water and sanitation assistance,” the U.N. spokesman said.
According to the U.N. World Food Program, Dujarric said, roughly 70% of northern Gaza’s population “is facing catastrophic hunger” but efforts to deliver life-saving aid have been impeded by fighting and “access constraints” in getting food to those in need.
This month, WFP was only able to send 11 convoys to the north with food for some 74,000 people, far below the colossal needs of the population, Dujarric said.
ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES IN LEBANON KILL 9 PEOPLE INCLUDING PARAMEDICS, STATE NEWS AGENCY SAYS
BEIRUT — Israeli airstrikes killed nine people in southern Lebanon late Wednesday, including paramedics who were preparing to respond to the first strike, the state-run National News Agency said.
That raises the number of people killed by Israeli strikes Wednesday to 16, after an earlier attack hit a different paramedic center linked to a Lebanese Sunni Muslim group, killing seven of the group’s members.
And earlier Wednesday, the Shiite militant group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for firing a barrage of rockets into the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona and a military base, which killed one person. It said the rockets were in response to the deadly strike on the paramedics center.
The Lebanese news agency said Israel bombed the village of Teir Harfa after sunset, killing five, and a second strike killed four people as paramedics gathered near a cafe in the coastal town of Naqoura.
Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Society said two of its paramedics were killed in Teir Harfa while the Islamic Risala Scout Association, also a paramedic group, said one of its members was killed in the strike on Naqoura. Hezbollah said two of its fighters were killed, without saying where.
The Amal movement, a Shiite political and paramilitary organization, said the strike on Naquora killed one of its local commanders, identified as Ali Mahdi.
Israel’s military said it had struck a Hezbollah military compound in Teir Harfa and a “terrorist cell” in Naqoura.
Israel said the earlier strike in Hebbariye killed a member of the Sunni al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group, and several other militants. It said the man was involved in attacks against Israel.
Hezbollah has been firing rockets into northern Israel since the day after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7. The near-daily violence has mostly been confined to the area along the Lebanon-Israel border.
Nearly 240 Hezbollah fighters and about 40 civilians have died in Lebanon. The fighting has killed nine civilians and 11 soldiers in Israel.
IN RARE SPEECH, HEAD OF HAMAS FIGHTERS IN GAZA CALLS ON MUSLIMS TO LIBERATE JERUSALEM MOSQUE
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Hamas has released a rare recording of what it says is the shadowy head of its military wing calling on Muslims around the world to liberate Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Wednesday’s recording was a reminder of the difficulty Israel has faced in realizing its stated goal of destroying Hamas’ military capabilities.
Mohammed Deif delivered the message in a voice recording posted Wednesday on the militant group’s channel in the messaging app Telegram.
“Start marching today, now, not tomorrow, toward Palestine,” Deif says in a message aimed at Muslims globally, calling them to join “the honor of jihad and participation in the liberation of Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
Al-Aqsa is the third-holiest site in Islam, and sits on a disputed hilltop revered by Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem’s Old City.
No image of Deif appears in the recording, and it was not possible to authenticate it. It was not clear when the recording was made.
The leader of Hamas’ Qassam Brigades has not been seen in public in decades, and the last time Hamas published a voice recording of him was the day of the Oct. 7. attack that triggered the war.
Israel says Deif is one of the masterminds of the attack, and he tops Israel’s most-wanted list alongside Yehya Sinwar, the overall leader of Hamas in Gaza.
Deif is thought to be paralyzed after surviving multiple assassination attempts. Israel has released a small number of photos of what it says are Deif.
NETANYAHU SAYS CIVILIANS IN RAFAH CAN ‘JUST MOVE’ AWAY FROM AN ISRAELI GROUND INVASION
TEL AVIV, Israel — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has downplayed U.S. fears of a humanitarian catastrophe if Israel launches a planned ground invasion into Gaza’s southernmost city, saying civilians would be able to flee the fighting into other parts of the war-torn territory.
Speaking Wednesday to a bipartisan U.S. Congressional delegation visiting Israel, Netanyahu said people sheltering in Rafah – now more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population – will be able to move away from the fighting.
“People just move, they move with their tents,” Netanyahu said. “People moved down (to Rafah). They can move back up.”
Israel says a ground offensive is needed to destroy thousands of Hamas fighters in Rafah. The planned incursion has raised global alarm because the city on the Gaza-Egypt border is jammed with 1.4 million Palestinians in sprawling tent camps and U.N. shelters, most of whom have fled fighting elsewhere.
The United States, Israel’s top ally, has urged Israel not to carry out the operation without a “credible” plan to evacuate civilians. Rafah is also the main entry point for desperately needed aid into Gaza, where the U.N. says 100% of the population is at severe levels of food insecurity.
Netanyahu suggested that the dispute over Rafah was just another in a series of disagreements between the allies and that he “appreciates” President Joe Biden’s support, but that Israel will act alone “if we have to.”
Israel’s military has said it plans to direct the civilians to “humanitarian islands” in central Gaza ahead of the planned offensive.