Live updates: Hamas frees 2 US hostages, even as Israel airstrikes continue in southern Gaza
In this photo provided by the Government of Israel, Judith Raanan, right, and her 17-year-old daughter Natalie are escorted by Israeli soldiers and Gal Hirsch, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s special coordinator for returning the hostages, as they return to Israel from captivity in the Gaza Strip, Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. Hamas released the pair in what it said was a goodwill gesture late Friday, nearly two weeks after they were captured in a bloody cross-border raid by the Islamic militant group. The Hamas attack sparked a war that is entering its third week, and Hamas is believed to still be holding some 200 people hostage. (Government of Israel via AP Photo)
Israel says Hamas has freed two American hostages who had been held in Gaza since militants rampaged through southern Israel Oct. 7. The hostage release Friday came even as Israeli airstrikes continued to hit southern Gaza, an area swelled by civilians who fled there from the north on Israeli instructions.
Israel was also evacuating a sizable town near the Lebanese border in the latest sign of a potential ground invasion of Gaza that could trigger regional turmoil.
Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy airstrikes in the southern city of Khan Younis, where civilians had been told to seek safety amid Israel’s bombardment of areas closer to the Israeli border.
The U.N. secretary general is at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza trying to find a way to get badly needed aid into the enclave.
President Joe Biden said he thinks Hamas’ initial attack on Israel was tied in part to efforts to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, an initiative that Biden was trying to bring to fruition.
“They knew that I was about to sit down with the Saudis,” the U.S. president said Friday, speaking at a fundraiser.
Hamas militants freed two Americans on Friday, a mother and her teenage daughter, who had been held hostage in Gaza since militants rampaged through Israel two weeks ago, a spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces said. (Oct. 20)
A man whose Chicago-area daughter and former wife were abducted by Hamas in southern Israel says he has spoken to his daughter since her release and he believes she will be home soon.
“She’s doing good. She’s doing very good,” Uri Raanan, who is based in the Chicago suburb of Bannockburn, said Friday. “I’m in tears, and I feel very, very good.”
The 71-year-old said he saw on the news Friday that Hamas was releasing an American mother and daughter, and he spent the day hoping they meant his ex-wife, Judith Raanan, and his 17-year-old daughter, Natalie, who live in Evanston.
He said he believes both are on their way to Tel Aviv to reunite with relatives before returning to the U.S., meaning Natalie will be able to celebrate her 18th birthday next week with family and friends.
CORRECTS: Updates to correct that the freed hostages are Uri Raanan’s former wife and daughter, not his daughter and granddaughter.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said he welcomes the release of the two hostages and shared in the families’ relief but noted there are many more captives, including children and elderly people.
Speaking to reporters Friday, Blinken said he and President Joe Biden had been able to speak with the families of some of the hostages during their trips to the Middle East.
“It’s impossible to adequately put into words the agony that they’re feeling,” Blinken said. “No family anywhere should have to experience this torture.”
Of the remaining hostages, he added: “The entire United States government will work every minute of every day to secure their release and bring their loved ones home.”
Blinken also thanked the Qataris for their work in securing the hostages’ release.
JERUSALEM — Hamas militants on Friday freed two Americans, a mother and her teenage daughter, who had been held hostage in Gaza since militants rampaged through Israel two weeks ago, the Israeli government said.
The pair, who also hold Israeli citizenship, were the first hostages to be released. More than 200 are still being held.
Hamas said it was releasing them in an agreement with the Qatari government for humanitarian reasons.
Relatives of other captives welcomed the release and appealed for others to be freed.
“We call on world leaders and the international community to exert their full power in order to act for the release of all the hostages and missing,’’ the statement said.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Funeral goers on Friday mourned the deaths of 40 people killed by air strikes in the Gaza Strip.
The dead included 22 members of two families in Deir al-Balah, and 18 displaced Palestinians who had taken shelter in a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City.
A distraught woman screamed in anguish outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Other women sat on a curb and stroked the feet of some of the bodies laid out on the ground covered in white sheets.
The sheets were pulled back to reveal the faces of two children. Two men knelt at their heads and caressed their faces.
Outside the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City, the Orthodox patriarch swung a burner of smoldering incense as he walked around 18 bodies, including four children, killed when an airstrike toppled a church wall.
Clergy prayed and sang during the service attended by dozens in a courtyard behind the church.
JERUSALEM — Hamas said Friday it was releasing two American citizens they were holding captive in Gaza since their Oct. 7 raid on Israel.
The Palestinian militant group said in a statement that in an agreement with the Qatari government it was freeing a mother and daughter for humanitarian reasons.
U.S. and Israeli officials did not immediately comment on the statement.
Israel says Hamas has taken 203 people from Israel into Gaza.
TULKAREM, West Bank — Militants carried rifles and shots rang out Friday during a funeral in the West Bank for 13 people killed in a battle with Israeli troops in the Nur Shams refugee camp.
Some of the bodies carried through the streets of Tulkarem were draped in the flags of the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad militant groups.
Chants of “There is no God but Allah, and the martyrs are the beloved ones of Allah,” were punctuated by the crack of gunshots.
Five of the Palestinians killed were minors, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
An Israeli border police officer was also killed in the fighting, Israeli authorities said.
The misery of life in Gaza can be seen from space.
The destruction and impact from Israeli airstrikes in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants is visible in satellite imagery of blocks leveled by missiles and smoke rising over the blast zones — and also in more subtle photos.
Images by Maxar Technologies showed people sheltering in the courtyards at two schools in Gaza City and one in Deir al Balah on Thursday.
A tractor appeared to be overturning fresh soil to make way for new graves as the Marzouq Street cemetery expands in Gaza City.
An overview of Shifa Hospital showed where tents were set up in what used to be a grassy, tree-covered area next to the hospital. Some hospitals have set up tents to treat the wounded and temporarily house the dead.
Along a stretch of road near the beach, a series of round craters marked the spots where airstrikes hit the dirt and didn’t flatten homes.
Israel’s defense minister said Friday that after the country destroys the Hamas militant group, the military does not plan to control “life in the Gaza Strip”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s comments to lawmakers were the first time an Israeli leader discussed its long-term plans for Gaza.
Gallant said Israel expected there to be three phases to its war with Hamas.
He said it first would attack the group in Gaza with airstrikes and ground maneuvers, then it would defeat pockets of resistance and finally it would cease its “responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip.”
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres arrived at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip Friday and called on all international parties to work together to ensure humanitarian aid reaches Palestinians in besieged Gaza
Speaking to the media in front of the border crossing, he said the lorries packed with vital aid were a “lifeline” for Palestinians in Gaza, “the difference between life and death,” and needed to be moved into the enclave as quickly as possible.
Guterres pointed out that the deal reached between Egypt and Israel to allow aid to flow into the Gaza Strip has some conditions and restrictions.
“We are actively engaging with Egypt, Israel and the United States in order to make sure that we can clarify those conditions and limit those restrictions in order to have these trucks headed to where they are needed,” he said. He did not provide a timeframe as to when the trucks of aid would enter Gaza.
The U.N. chief also reiterated his call for a cease-fire between the warring parties.
Arab Gulf and southeast Asian nations are calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war and the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The final statement of a summit hosted by Saudi Arabia on Friday also condemns “all attacks against civilians.”
The joint summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations brought together 16 member states.
Saudi Arabia, which has launched a number of diplomatic initiatives across the Middle East over the past year, has called for a halt to the fighting.
Before the outbreak of the war, the kingdom had been in talks with the United States on normalizing relations with Israel in exchange for a U.S. defense pact, help in establishing a civilian nuclear program and unspecified concessions to the Palestinians.
FILE - Palestinians flee from northern Gaza to the south after the Israeli army issued an unprecedented evacuation warning to a population of over 1 million people in northern Gaza and Gaza City to seek refuge in the south ahead of a possible Israeli ground invasion, on Oct. 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa, File)
A spokesperson for the U.N. human rights office says there are new signs that some Palestinians who initially moved south in response to the Israeli order to evacuate are returning to their homes because Israeli strikes are taking place in the south, too.
“We remain very concerned that Israeli Forces’ heavy strikes are continuing across Gaza, including in the south,” Ravina Shamdasani told reporters. “The strikes, coupled with extremely difficult living conditions in the south, appear to have pushed some to return to the north, despite the continuing heavy bombing there.”
Shamdasani said the rights office had heard accounts about people wanting to migrate back north, including from one unidentified Palestinian who said, “I might as well die in my own house.”
Satellite photos analyzed Friday by The Associated Press show a massive convoy of semitruck trailers lined up at the Rafah border crossing on the Egyptian side, likely waiting for approval to cross into the besieged Gaza Strip as the Israel-Hamas war rages.
The images, shot Thursday by Planet Labs PBC, show 55 trucks waiting in two lines, just half a kilometer (a third of a mile) away from the border. There are over 50 smaller vehicles visible in the image as well, many appearing to be with aid organizations, waiting at the crossing.
The Gaza Strip, home to over 2 million Palestinians, has been cut off from food, water, fuel and electricity by Israel since Hamas’ Oct. 7 surprise attack. There have been days of high-level negotiations over aid getting into the besieged seaside enclave, including officials all the way up to U.S. President Joe Biden.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has arrived in northern Sinai as the world body works on getting aid through, said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The deal to get aid into Gaza through Rafah, the territory’s only crossing not controlled by Israel, remains fragile. Israel said the supplies could only go to civilians and that it would “thwart” any diversions by Hamas. More than 200 trucks and some 3,000 tons of aid were positioned at or near Rafah.
Work began Friday to repair the road at the crossing that had been damaged in airstrikes, with trucks unloading gravel and bulldozers and other road repair equipment filling in large craters.
“Israel bombarded Gaza early Friday, hitting areas in the south where Palestinians had been told to seek safety, and it began evacuating a sizable Israeli town in the north near the Lebanese border, the latest sign of a potential ground invasion of Gaza that could trigger regional turmoil.
Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy airstrikes in Khan Younis in the south, and ambulances carrying men, women and children streamed into the town’s Nasser Hospital, Gaza’s second largest, which is already overflowing with patients and people seeking shelter.
On Thursday, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered ground troops to prepare to see Gaza “from the inside,” hinting at a ground offensive aimed at crushing Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers nearly two weeks after their bloody incursion into Israel. Officials have given no timetable for such an operation.
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Fifty years after the 1973 Arab oil embargo, the current crisis in the Middle East has the potential to disrupt global oil supplies and push prices higher. But don’t expect a repeat of the catastrophic price hikes and long lines at the gasoline pump, experts say.
The Israel-Hamas war is “definitely not good news” for oil markets already stretched by cutbacks in oil production from Saudi Arabia and Russia and expected stronger demand from China, the head of the International Energy Agency said.
Markets will remain volatile, and the conflict could push oil prices higher, “which is definitely bad news for inflation,” Fatih Birol, executive director of the Paris-based IEA, told The Associated Press. Developing countries that import oil and other fuels would be the most affected by higher prices, he said.
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A national Muslim civil rights group said Thursday it is moving its annual banquet out of a Virginia hotel that received bomb and death threats possibly linked to the group’s concern for Palestinians caught in the Israel-Hamas war.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, canceled plans to hold its 29th annual banquet on Saturday at the Marriott Crystal Gateway in Arlington, just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The group, who has used the hotel for a decade, will imove the banquet to an undisclosed location with heightened security, the group’s statement said.
“In recent days, according to the Marriott, anonymous callers have threatened to plant bombs in the hotel’s parking garage, kill specific hotel staff in their homes, and storm the hotel in a repeat of the Jan. 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol if the events moved forward,” the statement said.
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Nearly two weeks after Hamas militants left his village scorched and shattered, Shachar Butler returned to bury a friend who was slain. But it was the town itself, a quarter of its residents dead or missing, that he eulogized.
“It was the happiest place alive. It was a green place, with animals and birds and kids running around,” Butler said Thursday, standing in a landscape of ransacked homes and bullet-riddled cars, the heat thick with the odor of death.
“They burned the houses while the people were inside,” said Butler, a father of three who spent hours trading gunfire with militants on Oct. 7. “The people who came out are the people who got kidnapped, killed, executed, slaughtered. ... It’s unimaginable. It’s just unimaginable.”
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There are explosions audible in the cramped, humid room where Azmi Keshawi shelters with his family in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis. The bombardments keep coming closer, he says, and they’re wreaking death and destruction.
Keshawi, his wife, two sons, two daughters and tiny grandchildren are trying to survive inside.
The Israeli military has relentlessly attacked Gaza in retaliation for a devastating Hamas rampage in southern Israel almost two weeks ago and the Keshawi family’s sense of desperation is growing. Food is running out and Israel has so far stopped humanitarian attempts to bring it in.
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As the Israel-Hamas war intensifies, the United States Thursday launched a visa waiver program allowing Israelis wishing to visit the United States for 90 days or less to come without applying for a visa.
The U.S. announced Sept. 27 that it was admitting Israel into the visa waiver program, adding the country to a select group of 40 mostly European and Asian countries whose citizens can travel to the U.S. for three months without visas.
At the time, the U.S. said Israelis could start traveling to America without visas as of November 30. In a news release, the Department of Homeland Security said the program was operational as of Thursday.
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A suburban Chicago man has been charged with two hate crimes for allegedly verbally abusing and threatening to shoot two Muslim men, a prosecutor said Thursday.
Larry York, 46, of Lombard, was denied pretrial release during a court hearing Thursday, DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said.
York confronted the victims and cursed at them Tuesday night at an apartment complex, where one of the victims had gone to meet a friend, Berlin said.
The violence occurred amid heightened fears that the war between Israel and Hamas is sparking violence in the United States.
The confrontation came three days after authorities say a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy was stabbed 26 times by his landlord in suburban Chicago.
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President Joe Biden is urging support for additional U.S. aid for Ukraine and Israel, saying in a televised address from the Oval Office that “American leadership is what holds the world together.”
Biden spoke hours after returning to Washington from an urgent visit to Israel to show U.S. support in the wake of a deadly attack by Hamas on Oct. 7. Some 1,400 civilians were killed and roughly 200 others, including Americans, were taken to Gaza as hostages. Israel has responded with airstrikes, and 3,785 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The U.S. president argued that Israel needs help to defend itself from Hamas. He also said the U.S. must help Ukraine stop the advances of Russian President Vladimir Putin to keep other “would-be aggressors” from trying to take over other countries.
Biden said he will send lawmakers an “urgent budget request” Friday to fund U.S. national security needs. He called the request, said to carry a price tag of about $100 billion, a “smart investment” that will pay dividends for decades to come.
President Joe Biden will deliver an Oval Office address Thursday night as he prepares to ask for additional billions of dollars in military assistance for Israel and Ukraine.
His speech comes after his high-stakes trip to Israel, where he showed solidarity with the country in its battle against Hamas and pushed for more humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Ahead of his address, Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stress that the U.S. remained committed to backing Kyiv, the White House said.
The livestream is set to start at 8 p.m. ET. Watch the Oval Office address live above.
BEIRUT — An explosion struck a Greek Orthodox church housing displaced Palestinians late Thursday, resulting in deaths and dozens of wounded.
Mohammed Abu Selmia, director general of Shifa Hospital, said dozens were hurt at the Church of Saint Porphyrios but could not give a precise death toll because bodies were still under the rubble.
Palestinian authorities blamed the blast on an Israeli airstrike, a claim that could not be independently verified.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchy of Jerusalem issued a statement condemning the attack and said it would “not abandon its religious and humanitarian duty” to provide assistance.
A survivor told Qatar’s Al Jazeera Arabic television that there was no warning from the Israeli military beforehand.
Named after the Bishop of Gaza from 395 to 420, St. Porphyrios is located in the al-Zaytun section of Gaza’s Old City. Its thick limestone walls house an elaborate interior of gilded icons and ceiling paintings.
It became a mosque in the 7th century before a new church was built in the 12th century during the Crusades.
WASHINGTON — An unclassified U.S. intelligence assessment delivered to Congress estimates casualties in an explosion at a Gaza City hospital on the “low end” of 100 to 300 deaths.
That death toll “still reflects a staggering loss of life,” U.S. intelligence officials said in the findings, which were seen by The Associated Press. Officials were still assessing the evidence, and the estimate may evolve.
The explosion at Gaza’s al-Ahli hospital on Tuesday left body parts strewn on the hospital grounds, where crowds of Palestinians had clustered in hopes of escaping Israeli airstrikes.
Officials in Hamas-ruled Gaza quickly said an Israeli airstrike had hit the hospital. Israel denied it was involved. The Associated Press has not independently verified any of the claims or evidence released by the parties.
President Joe Biden and other U.S. officials already have said that U.S. intelligence officials believed the explosion was not caused by an Israeli airstrike. Thursday’s findings echoed that.
The U.S. assessment noted “only light structural damage” to the hospital itself was evident, with no impact crater visible.
JERUSALEM — An Israeli border police officer was killed during a military raid into a refugee camp in the northern West Bank, the police and border guard said in a joint statement.
Israeli forces killed at least seven Palestinians during the daylong raid of the Nur Shams camp, and prevented ambulances from retrieving the wounded, according to Palestinian state media.
CAIRO — A U.S. Navy warship took out three missiles that were fired from Yemen and were heading north, U.S. officials said.
The officials said the USS Carney, a Navy destroyer, was in the Red Sea and intercepted the missiles. It wasn’t immediately certain if they were aimed at Israel. One of the officials said the U.S. does not believe the missiles were aimed at the ship.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations not yet announced.
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have expressed support for the Palestinians and threatened Israel. Last week in Yemen’s Sanaa, which is held by the Houthi rebels still at war with a Saudi-led coalition, demonstrators crowded the streets waving Yemeni and Palestinian flags. The rebels’ slogan long has been, “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse of the Jews; victory to Islam.”
Last week Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, the rebel group’s leader, warned the United States against intervening in the Israel-Hamas conflict, saying his forces would retaliate by firing drones and missiles.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is planning a one-day visit to Israel this week to meet people affected by that country’s war with Hamas, stopping over en route to China where he will discuss policies to curb global warming.
The Democratic governor is set to arrive Friday in Israel with plans to depart later that same day for Hong Kong. His office didn’t immediately answer questions about his schedule and activities in Israel.
“I’m on my way to Israel,” Newsom confirmed in a message posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I’ll be meeting with those impacted by the horrific terrorist attacks and offering California’s support.”
California is also sending medical supplies to the region, including provisions intended for the Gaza Strip, his office said.
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This undated and unknown location photo shows married couple Or Levy, 33, and Eynav Elkayam Levy, 32. The couple fled the Nova music festival on Oct. 7 when Hamas rockets flew overhead and hid in a bomb shelter. Enyav’s family was told she was killed there and Or was taken hostage. (Michael Levy via AP)
In this undated, unknown location photo released by Iris Weinstein Haggai, Judih Weinstein and Gad Haggai hold each other as they pose for a photo. (Iris Weinstein Haggai via AP)
In this handout photo provided by Adva Adar and Elinor Shahar Personal Management, Yaffa Adar, left, hugs her granddaughter Adva Adar during her wedding, in 2021. Yaffa Adar is the elderly woman the world saw being driven by Hamas militants in a golf cart hours after they murdered Israelis in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. (Adva Adar and Elinor Shahar Personal Management via AP)
This undated and unknown location photo shows married couple Or Levy, 33, and Eynav Elkayam Levy, 32. The couple fled the Nova music festival on Oct. 7 when Hamas rockets flew overhead and hid in a bomb shelter. Enyav’s family was told she was killed there and Or was taken hostage. (Michael Levy via AP)
This undated and unknown location photo shows married couple Or Levy, 33, and Eynav Elkayam Levy, 32. The couple fled the Nova music festival on Oct. 7 when Hamas rockets flew overhead and hid in a bomb shelter. Enyav’s family was told she was killed there and Or was taken hostage. (Michael Levy via AP)
In this undated, unknown location photo released by Iris Weinstein Haggai, Judih Weinstein and Gad Haggai hold each other as they pose for a photo. (Iris Weinstein Haggai via AP)
In this undated, unknown location photo released by Iris Weinstein Haggai, Judih Weinstein and Gad Haggai hold each other as they pose for a photo. (Iris Weinstein Haggai via AP)
In this handout photo provided by Adva Adar and Elinor Shahar Personal Management, Yaffa Adar, left, hugs her granddaughter Adva Adar during her wedding, in 2021. Yaffa Adar is the elderly woman the world saw being driven by Hamas militants in a golf cart hours after they murdered Israelis in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. (Adva Adar and Elinor Shahar Personal Management via AP)
In this handout photo provided by Adva Adar and Elinor Shahar Personal Management, Yaffa Adar, left, hugs her granddaughter Adva Adar during her wedding, in 2021. Yaffa Adar is the elderly woman the world saw being driven by Hamas militants in a golf cart hours after they murdered Israelis in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. (Adva Adar and Elinor Shahar Personal Management via AP)
Keeping hope alive is getting harder for the families of the roughly 200 people who were taken hostage during the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas militants.
Nearly two weeks after their loved ones were abducted, family members are left struggling with thoughts of what they might be enduring and how to explain to young children what happened to their parents.
Here are some of their stories.
CAIRO — United Nations Secretary General António Guterres is urging Hamas and Israel to agree to a humanitarian cease-fire and for Palestinians in Gaza to be allowed access to fuel, food, water and medicine.
“Civilians in Gaza need core services and supplies and for that we need rapid and immediate humanitarian access, we need water, food and medicine now. We need it at scale, and we need it to be sustained,” António Guterres said.
Guterres was speaking during a news conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Cairo, where the U.N. chief is supervising preparations for the delivery of aid into Gaza via Egypt’s Rafah crossing, which could begin Friday.
Guterres also urged Hamas to release the hostages captured during their assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7.
NEW DELHI — India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday spoke to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and conveyed his condolences for the loss of civilian lives at the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza.
“We will continue to send humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people,” Modi said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
He said he “reiterated India’s long-standing principled position on the Israel-Palestine issue.” At a briefing earlier, India’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said India was in favor of negotiations to establish a two-state solution, which allows for an independent Palestinian state.
Modi told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week that “the people of India stand in solidarity with Israel in this difficult hour.”
During the Cold War, India leaned heavily in favor of the Palestinians, but its ties to Israel have grown since 1992 when the two countries established diplomatic relations. In 2017, Modi became the first prime minister to visit Israel.
CAIRO — A U.N. flag will be raised at the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza to protect against Israeli airstrikes under a U.N.-brokered deal between Israel and Egypt to allow aid into the Palestinian territory.
An Egyptian official and a European diplomat said observers from the U.N. will also inspect trucks carrying aid before crossing into Gaza.
They said the U.N will oversee the aid, along with the Egyptians and Palestinian Red Crescent societies, to ensure it is given to civilians and not used by Palestinian militants.
The Egyptian official said they are still negotiating with Israel over allowing fuel into Gaza, where a shortage has forced the closure of multiple hospitals.
The official and the diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
Israel’s defense minister told ground troops to be ready to enter the Gaza Strip, though he didn’t say when the invasion will start.
In a meeting with Israeli infantry soldiers on the Gaza border Thursday, Yoav Gallant urged the forces to “get organized, be ready” for an order to move in.
“Whoever sees Gaza from afar now, will see it from the inside...I promise you.”
Israel has massed tens of thousands of troops along the border following a bloody Oct. 7 cross-border massacre by Hamas militants.
The Gaza Health Ministry has issued an urgent request for diesel after a fifth major hospital closed due to a lack of fuel.
The Yemen al-Saeed Hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip was forced to shut down after running out of fuel, the ministry said Thursday.
Beit Hanoun Hospital, Dora Children’s Hospital, Karama Hospital and the International Eye Hospital in Gaza have already closed due to fuel shortages and air strike damage, the ministry said. Services have also halted at 14 smaller primary health centers in the enclave for the same reasons, it said.
The ministry issued an urgent call to all gas stations in Gaza and anyone else who may have a spare liter of diesel to immediately call a hotline so that the fuel can be transferred to Gaza’s hospitals, now powered by backup generators with scant fuel supplies.
The remaining healthcare facilities in Gaza are operating at over 150% capacity, the ministry said.
Mourners chanted and clapped as they carried the bodies of two Palestinian men killed in the West Bank through the streets of Ramallah during their funeral on Thursday.
“I am crying for those who left their parents,” they shouted. “Mother of the martyr, rejoice. Your son will definitely go to heaven.”
Mohammad Fuwaka, 21, was killed Wednesday while sitting with other young people gathered at a spring in the village of Dura el-Kari’a, his uncle Naseem Fuwaka said.
“They were surprised last night by the settlers who opened fire on them, resulting in the martyrdom of my nephew,” Fuwaka said. “May God have mercy on him.”
The other man, Jibril Awad, 32, was killed after the Israeli army raided the village of Budrus.
Israel’s Supreme Court is postponing a flashpoint hearing on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul because some of the government’s representatives in the case have been called up for reserve duty, according to the court postponement order.
The hearing, originally set for Sunday, has now been moved to Nov. 5.
The case deals with the legality of Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s refusal to convene the judicial appointments committee, a move which critics say will help Levin augment the bench to suit his far-right coalition’s policy preferences.
The case will make the third major hearing on the overhaul, after two cases were heard last month. Since the outbreak of war, Netanyahu’s government has largely put the overhaul on hold.
Hamas’ spokesman for the Rafah crossing, Wael Abu Omar, said that no aid or road repairing equipment has entered Gaza from Egypt as of Thursday afternoon.
Egypt and Israel reached a deal Wednesday evening that would allow aid to enter the Palestinian territory through the Rafah crossing.
Later that day, U.S. President Joe Biden said that aid could begin rolling into the region by Friday, but that the roads near the crossing would first need hours of repairs. The crossing has been hit by four Israeli airstrikes since Oct. 7, Egyptian authorities say.
The European Parliament has called for a “humanitarian pause” in Gaza to make sure aid can reach the needy and stressed that Israel’s right to defend itself can only be done within the strictures of international law.
In the nonbinding resolution adopted on Thursday in a 500-21 vote, with 24 abstentions, European lawmakers also called for the immediate release of all hostages kidnapped by Hamas.
The call for a “humanitarian pause” stopped short of demanding a cease-fire.
Gaza’s second-largest hospital has switched off the lights in the majority of the facility as staff try to conserve energy amid fuel shortages.
Lights are still on in Nasser Hospital’s intensive care unit, but in many other departments, doctors are using cellphones and flashlights to illuminate procedures.
Meanwhile, funerals were held for the victims of an earlier strike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. A mother wept, clutching the small body of her child cocooned in white cloth.
Gaza’s government press office says the commander of the Hamas-led National Security Forces, Maj. Gen. Jihad Muheisen, was killed in an Israeli strike on his home in Gaza City along with some of his relatives.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many of his relatives were killed in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza City. The National Security Forces is a paramilitary organization in Gaza taken over by Hamas after its 2007 seizure of the strip.
Separately, Hamas officials told The Associated Press that Hamas legislative council member Jamila al-Shanti was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Thursday. She was known as the first woman to be elected to political office within the Hamas group and the widow of one of the founders of the Islamist movement.
An Israeli airstrike hit a densely populated area in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, again on Thursday.
Many wounded were being rushed to the Nasser Hospital from the strike in the al-Amal neighborhood.
Earlier, a doctor at a hospital said that at least a dozen people were killed and 40 others were wounded in an Israeli strike that hit a residential building in Khan Younis.
The death toll in Gaza since Israel declared war has risen to 3,785 Palestinians killed, including 1,524 children, 1,000 women and 120 older people, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
In addition, 12,493 others have been wounded, including 3,983 children and 3,300 women.
The Israeli military has conducted an extensive raid in the West Bank, arresting more than 80 Palestinians.
The latest in a series of stepped-up Israeli operations in the territory since the outbreak of war, the raid on Wednesday night provoked violent clashes and left three Palestinians dead, including two children.
The military said that 63 of the 80 suspects arrested overnight were linked to Hamas. Of the 524 Palestinians arrested since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, 330 are Hamas affiliates.
Forces also demolished the home of a militant who killed an Israeli soldier, Staff Sgt. Shilo Yosef Amir, earlier this year. The militant, who the military identified as Ahmed Yasin Jidan, was shot shortly after killing Amir.
Clashes ensued across the territory in response to the raid, with Israeli forces firing on Palestinians who threw rocks and Molotov cocktails.
Since the latest war began, 69 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank. U.N. monitors are describing the period as the deadliest phase since they started recording data.
Syrian opposition activists say a drone attack has been conducted on an oil facility in eastern Syria housing American troops and a U.S. base in a nearby area.
There was no immediate word on casualties and the U.S. military didn’t immediately respond to requests for confirmation.
Omar Abu Layla, a Europe-based activist who heads the Deir Ezzor 24 media outlet, said that three drones with explosives struck the Conoco gas field in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour that borders Iraq on Thursday.
Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, confirmed that five explosions were heard at the Conoco gas field.
A Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson said it wasn’t known how much fuel hospitals had left in their stocks on Thursday.
“The MoH (Ministry of Health) asked all gasoline stations in the Gaza Strip to give whatever they have to sustain the operation of the standby generators of the hospitals,” Medhat Abbas told The Associated Press. “They have collected a very small amount of fuel which of course, because the generators of the hospitals are very large, they are consuming thousands of liters, so we don’t know how long they can continue.”
With medical supplies also running short, doctors are resorting to desperate measures to care for the hundreds of wounded Palestinian patients.
“Surgery is being performed in the corridors of hospitals without anaesthesia, yes without anaesthesia, to save the lives of those who may have hope to live,” he said. “Others are left to die, to succumb to their destiny.
Israel has bombed and targeted areas with bakeries in Gaza over the course of the war while dozens of Palestinians were lining up to buy bread, causing high numbers of dead and wounded, Salam Marouf, the head of the government media office, said in a statement.
By repeatedly targeting bakeries, he said that Israel sought to worsen the humanitarian situation, inflict a greater number of casualties and “make it more difficult for citizens, to the point that obtaining some loaves of bread has become a dangerous journey.” More than five bakeries were targeted in different areas to the north and south of Gaza, either directly or in the area where they are located, Maarouf said.
Aid groups, including the World Food Program, have warned Gaza is running low on food supplies with shops only having a few days worth of supplies left. More are available in warehouses run by humanitarian organizations, but these are hard to reach because of constant bombardment.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi met with Gen. Michael Kurilla, head of the U.S. Central Command, in Cairo to discuss efforts to “intensify cooperation” between the two countries and to “restore stability” in the region, the president’s office said.
Within hours of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, the U.S. began moving warships and aircraft to the eastern Mediterranean to provide Israel with support. Israel has conducted unrelenting airstrikes on Gaza.
Egypt has long acted as a key broker between Israel and Hamas. On Wednesday, Egypt and Israel reached a deal that would allow aid to enter the Palestinian territory.
Also Thursday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met with U.K. counterpart James Cleverly in Cairo, where they talked about ways to de-escalate the conflict and address the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
European Union interior ministers on Thursday debated how to manage the impact of the war between Israel and Hamas on the bloc, amid heightened security tensions after a firebomb assault on a Berlin synagogue and killings in Belgium and France by suspected Islamist extremists.
Officials from across the 27-nation EU have expressed concerns about a rise in antisemitic attacks, the radicalization of young people online, the use of encrypted messaging services by criminals or extremists, and the need to speed up the deportation of people who might pose a public danger.
But calls for an increase in security across the board are also creating deep unease as the solutions being discussed could undermine free movement and the right to assemble in Europe.
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A doctor at a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip says at least 12 people were killed and 40 others wounded in an Israeli strike that hit a residential building in a densely populated neighborhood in the city of Khan Younis.
Dr. Mohammed Qandeel said the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis received the patients on Thursday morning. The city is located within what Israel called a safe zone when it encouraged Gaza residents to evacuate the territory’s north.
Emergency crews rushed to rescue survivors around a crater at least one floor deep where people were believed to be trapped. One rescued woman staggered unsteadily from the scene, screaming that God would take revenge against Israel.
A rescue worker rushed a small, ash-covered child toward an ambulance, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has arrived in Israel at the start of a two-day trip aimed at showing solidarity with the country and preventing the crisis triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack from escalating.
Sunak is holding talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog before traveling to other regional capitals.
After landing at Ben Gurion Airport, Sunak said the people of Israel had “suffered an unspeakable, horrific act of terrorism, and I want you to know that the United Kingdom and I stand with you.”
The U.K. is pushing for the opening of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt to allow aid to get in and foreign nationals to leave. After a visit by U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday, Israel said it had agreed to allow limited humanitarian aid into Gaza, and Biden said Egypt had agreed to open the crossing to up to 20 trucks.
Sunak said before leaving for the Middle East that an explosion at the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza on Tuesday, which appears to have killed hundreds, “should be a watershed moment” for world leaders to unite and prevent escalation of the conflict.
British authorities have not said who they believe was responsible for the blast.
Australian government minister Ed Husic has accused Israel of collectively punishing Palestinians in its war on Hamas.
Husic told Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Thursday: “I feel very strongly that Palestinians are being collectively punished here for Hamas’ barbarism.” He added: “I really do feel there is an obligation on governments, particularly the Israeli government, to ... follow the rules of international law and to observe in particular that innocents should be protected.”
Opposition senator Jane Hume accused the Muslim lawmaker of using “loose language” that did not align with the government’s position. Australia’s House of Representatives this week passed a government motion that recognizes Israel’s “inherent right to defend itself” and “unequivocally condemns” the Hamas attacks. The motion also calls for the “protection of civilian lives and the observance of international law.”
Residents and doctors in this southern Gaza town said an airstrike slammed into a home, killing seven small children.
The news spread quickly on social media, as grisly images of dead and bloodied toddlers lined up side by side on a hospital stretcher stirred outrage in Gaza and the West Bank.
Bandaged and caked in dust, the bodies were brought to the Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis along with three other dead members of the Bakri family. Photographers swarmed the operation room as women covered their eyes and doctors wept.
“This is a massacre,” hospital director Dr. Yousef Al-Akkad said, his voice choking with emotion. “Let the world see, these are just children.”
Local medics also confirmed that the children were killed in a strike and said the Bakri family was just one of many such cases Wednesday.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
— Mohamed Salah (@MoSalah) October 18, 2023
Egyptian soccer star Mohamed Salah, arguably the most celebrated Arab footballer, called on world leaders to “come together to prevent further slaughter of all innocent souls” and for the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza.
“There has been too much violence and too much heartbreak and brutality,” the Liverpool striker said in a video that lasted a little under a minute. “The escalations in the recent weeks is unbearable to witness. All lives are sacred and must be protected. The massacres need to stop. Families are being torn apart.”
Aid to Gaza “must be allowed immediately,” he added. “The people there are in terrible conditions.”
They were Salah’s first comments on the Israel-Hamas war, after he was criticized by some Arab fans for his silence.
Officials said Wednesday that some aid will begin flowing into Gaza in the coming days.
Wounded Palestinians sit in al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, after arriving from al-Ahli hospital following an explosion there, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. The Hamas-run Health Ministry says an Israeli airstrike caused the explosion that killed hundreds at al-Ahli, but the Israeli military says it was a misfired Palestinian rocket. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled)
Senators who attended a classified briefing with top defense, intelligence and other administration officials said they were briefed that Israel was not responsible for the hospital blast.
“The intelligence community assesses that Israel is not to blame for the explosion of the hospital in Gaza,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said as he left. “They believe it was an errant rocket from terrorists in Gaza.”
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said the intelligence is “definitive” that it was not an Israeli operation.
In a joint statement earlier, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the panel, said they reviewed intelligence and “feel confident that the explosion was the result of a failed rocket launch by militant terrorists and not the result of an Israeli airstrike.”
Palestinians carry belongings as they leave al-Ahli hospital, which they were using as a shelter, in Gaza City, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023. The Hamas-run Health Ministry says an Israeli airstrike caused the explosion that killed hundreds at al-Ahli hospital, but the Israeli military says it was a misfired Palestinian rocket. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled)
U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that the deadly destruction of a hospital has heaped further pressure on Gaza’s crumbling health system, depriving the territory of a facility that cared for 45,000 patients every year.
Speaking in a video briefing from Qatar, Griffiths also said the Al Ahli hospital was previously struck on Oct. 14.
He also said the death toll in the 11 days since Hamas’ surprise attack inside Israel has already exceeded what was seen during seven weeks of Israeli-Hamas hostilities in 2014.
Meanwhile the U.N. Mideast envoy warned that the risk of the conflict expanding is “very real and extremely dangerous.”
Tor Wennesland told the council that recent events “have served to reignite grievances and re-animate alliances across the region.”
Earlier in the day at the U.N., the United States vetoed a resolution that would have condemned violence against civilians in the Israel-Hamas war and pushed for humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said President Joe Biden was in the region engaging in diplomacy and “We need to let that diplomacy play out.”
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is flying to Israel and nearby countries as part of diplomatic efforts to stop the crisis triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack from worsening.
Sunak’s office says he will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog on Thursday. He will condemn Hamas’ “horrific act of terror” and express condolences for the “terrible loss of life” in both Israel and Gaza.
He’ll also visit “a number of other regional capitals,” Downing Street said, without providing details.
The British leader’s trip follows a visit to Israel on Wednesday by U.S. President Joe Biden.
Sunak said in a statement that Tuesday’s explosion at the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza “should be a watershed moment for leaders in the region and across the world to come together to avoid further dangerous escalation of conflict.”
U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is also on a regional visit beginning with talks in Egypt on Thursday. He will also visit Qatar and Turkey.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday said Egypt’s president has agreed to open a border crossing into Gaza to allow in 20 trucks with humanitarian aid.
Biden said he spoke with Egypt President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi after his visit to Israel, where leaders there agreed to allow the aid in. Biden was speaking to reporters on Air Force One during a refueling stop in Germany on his way back to the U.S. from Tel Aviv.
Israel sealed off the Gaza Strip, stopping all entry of food, water, medicine and fuel to its 2.3 million people following the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.
White House officials said the aid would flow in the coming days. Biden said if Hamas confiscates the aid, “it will end.”
Earlier in the day, the United States promised $100 million in humanitarian assistance to help Palestinian people who have been displaced or otherwise affected by conflict in Gaza and the West Bank.
Rights groups in the occupied West Bank say Palestinian security forces arrested dozens of Palestinians protesting the deadly explosion at al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza.
The protests late Tuesday devolved into skirmishes with Palestinian security forces, who fired tear gas, stun grenades and live fire to disperse stone-throwing demonstrators, wounding several.
Lawyers for Justice, a legal aid group, said Wednesday that some 50 protesters were arrested overnight by Palestinian security forces in Ramallah.
The Palestinian Red Crescent meanwhile reported that Israeli soldiers using live rounds and rubber bullets shot and wounded 10 Palestinian protesters in the southern city of Hebron and 21 people in the northern city of Nablus. A 24-year-old Palestinian man was killed, according to the organization.
People gather outside the Israeli consulate during a protest to show solidarity with Palestinians, in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. A massive blast rocked a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter Tuesday, killing hundreds of people, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said. Hamas blamed an Israeli airstrike, while the Israeli military said the hospital was hit by a rocket misfired by Palestinian militants. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
A protester throws a stone towards Lebanese army soldiers during a demonstration, in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, near the U.S. embassy in Aukar, a northern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Demonstrators, calling for a ceasefire in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, are detained by U.S. Capitol Police during a protest inside the Cannon House Office Building at the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)
Lebanese army soldiers scuffle with protesters during a demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, near the U.S. embassy in Aukar, a northern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Protesters take cover from tear gas, fired by riot police during a demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, near the U.S. embassy in Aukar, a northern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023. Hundreds of angry protesters are clashing with Lebanese security forces in the Lebanese suburb Aukar near the United States Embassy. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Hundreds of Moroccans take part in a protest in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, following the bombing of AlAhli hospital, in Rabat, Morocco, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo)
People gather outside the Israeli consulate during a protest to show solidarity with Palestinians, in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. A massive blast rocked a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter Tuesday, killing hundreds of people, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said. Hamas blamed an Israeli airstrike, while the Israeli military said the hospital was hit by a rocket misfired by Palestinian militants. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
People gather outside the Israeli consulate during a protest to show solidarity with Palestinians, in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. A massive blast rocked a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter Tuesday, killing hundreds of people, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said. Hamas blamed an Israeli airstrike, while the Israeli military said the hospital was hit by a rocket misfired by Palestinian militants. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
A protester throws a stone towards Lebanese army soldiers during a demonstration, in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, near the U.S. embassy in Aukar, a northern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A protester throws a stone towards Lebanese army soldiers during a demonstration, in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, near the U.S. embassy in Aukar, a northern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Demonstrators, calling for a ceasefire in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, are detained by U.S. Capitol Police during a protest inside the Cannon House Office Building at the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)
Demonstrators, calling for a ceasefire in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, are detained by U.S. Capitol Police during a protest inside the Cannon House Office Building at the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)
Lebanese army soldiers scuffle with protesters during a demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, near the U.S. embassy in Aukar, a northern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Lebanese army soldiers scuffle with protesters during a demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, near the U.S. embassy in Aukar, a northern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Protesters take cover from tear gas, fired by riot police during a demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, near the U.S. embassy in Aukar, a northern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023. Hundreds of angry protesters are clashing with Lebanese security forces in the Lebanese suburb Aukar near the United States Embassy. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Protesters take cover from tear gas, fired by riot police during a demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, near the U.S. embassy in Aukar, a northern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023. Hundreds of angry protesters are clashing with Lebanese security forces in the Lebanese suburb Aukar near the United States Embassy. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Hundreds of Moroccans take part in a protest in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, following the bombing of AlAhli hospital, in Rabat, Morocco, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo)
Hundreds of Moroccans take part in a protest in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, following the bombing of AlAhli hospital, in Rabat, Morocco, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo)
Thousands demonstrated outside the consulates of Israel and the United States in Istanbul late Wednesday. Many waved Palestinian flags, shouted anti-Israeli slogans and called for revenge against Israel a day after the deadly explosion at a hospital in Gaza.
Betul Balcik, a 22-year-old student, told The Associated Press that “humanity is dying” in Gaza and she and friends were there to denounce “war crimes commited by Israel”.
Large protests also erupted in Tunisia and Morocco, with demonstrators outraged by the blast at the hospital in Gaza.
Protesters gathered outside the Parliament in Rabat chanting “Down with America” and demanding that Morocco reverse its 2020 decision to normalize relations and deepen security ties with Israel.
In Tunis, protesters gathered outside the U.S. and French Embassies to condemn those nations’ support of Israel and demand that their ambassadors be removed from Tunisia.
The demonstrations were among the largest since the Arab Spring more than a decade ago, observers said.
There was also a march by an estimated 10,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Athens, Greece, that was quelled by riot police who fired tear gas. Earlier in the day about 100 people took part in a pro-Israeli gathering.
Demonstrators in Amman, Jordan; the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh in south Lebanon; and Tokyo directed some of their criticism at the U.S. and Biden for their support of Israel.
Hamas is denying Israel’s claims that another militant group was responsible for the massive explosion at a Gaza City hospital that killed hundreds of people.
In a statement Wednesday, Hamas said that in the days before Tuesday’s blast at al-Ahli Hospital, Israeli authorities sent threats to several Gaza Strip hospitals and told each to evacuate or they would “be responsible for what happens.”
Hamas said Israeli forces have targeted several emergency departments and ambulances since the violence began, adding that Israeli military officials contacted 21 hospitals including Al-Ahli, demanding that they evacuate “immediately because they are located in area of operations for the Israeli” army.