By The Associated Press
Palestinian officials say Israeli airstrikes killed 16 people in the Gaza Strip on Monday, including five women and four children.
A strike flattened a home in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 10 people there, including four women and two children. The Awda Hospital, which received the bodies, confirmed the toll and also said 13 people were wounded. Hospital records show that the dead included a mother, her child and her five siblings.
Another strike on a home in Gaza City killed six people, including a woman and two children, according to the Civil Defense, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government.
Israel says it only targets militants and accuses Hamas and other armed groups of endangering civilians by operating in residential areas. The military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack triggered the Israel-Hamas war nearly a year ago. The ministry does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count but says a little over half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war has caused vast destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.
Here’s the latest:
Israeli settlers storm a West Bank school and beat staffers, Palestinians say. Israeli troops later arrest school’s principal and 2 others
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinians say Israeli settlers wielding sticks stormed a Palestinian school in the occupied West Bank, beating staff members and tying up the principal.
The Israeli military said Palestinians had attacked an Israeli nearby, inflicting a head injury, before fleeing to the school on Monday. It said a group of Israelis followed the attackers and a confrontation ensued in which a number of Palestinians were hurt.
Hassan Malihat, a Palestinian lawyer who at the time was visiting the school near the city of Jericho, said the settlers entered at around 8 a.m. He says the Israeli army arrived about two hours later and arrested three staff members, including the principal.
The military said soldiers and police were dispatched to the school, ended the confrontation and arrested a number of suspects.
The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service says seven Palestinians were wounded in the confrontation.
Settler violence has surged across the West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack ignited the war in Gaza. In some cases, Israeli settlers have stormed Palestinian villages setting cars and properties ablaze.
There has also been a rise in car-ramming, stabbing and shooting attacks carried out against Israelis by Palestinian militant groups and lone attackers.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war — lands the Palestinians want for a future state.
The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority exercising limited autonomy in some areas. Over 500,000 settlers with Israeli citizenship live in well over 100 settlements considered illegal by most of the international community.
Turkish autopsy indicates American-Turkish activist killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank died from a gunshot wound to the head
ANKARA, Turkey — Initial findings from an autopsy by Turkish authorities indicate that Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi who was killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank died from a gunshot wound to the head.
The eight-page report, signed by four forensic doctors and a forensic technician, was made available to The Associated Press on Monday. It described details such as skull fractures caused by the gunshot and brain tissue damage, noting that a toxicology report and tissue sample analysis are still pending.
The 26-year-old activist from Seattle, who held dual U.S. and Turkish citizenship, was killed on Sept. 6 during a demonstration against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Her funeral and burial took place in the Turkish Aegean coastal town of Didim on Saturday.
The Israeli military stated last week that Eygi was likely shot “indirectly and unintentionally” by Israeli forces. Turkey is conducting its own investigation into her death.
A U.N. agency says polio campaign in Gaza has reached 90% of the children targeted
JERUSALEM — The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees says the first round of a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza ended successfully by reaching 90% of the children it targeted.
UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on the social media platform X, that Israel and Palestinian militants had largely observed humanitarian pauses to allow the campaign to proceed.
The vaccination drive showed that “when there is a political will, assistance can be provided without disruption,” Lazzarini wrote on Monday.
UNRWA is the main provider of humanitarian assistance in the coastal enclave. Health workers plan to administer a second dose of the vaccine at the end of this month.
The campaign was launched after the detection of Gaza’s first polio case in 25 years and sought to reach some 640,000 children under the age of 10. Health workers faced a host of challenges, including damaged roads, gutted health facilities and ongoing fighting nearly a year into the Israel-Hamas war.
Israeli defense minister says time is running out for agreement with Hezbollah to halt fighting along Israel-Lebanon border
JERUSALEM — Israel’s defense minister has told his U.S. counterpart that time is running out for an agreement with Hezbollah to halt the fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border.
Yoav Gallant told Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that “the possibility for an agreed framework in the northern arena is running out as Hezbollah continues to ‘tie itself’ to Hamas.”
“The trajectory is clear,” Gallant added, according to a statement released from his office on Monday.
Hezbollah began firing rockets and drones into northern Israel after the outbreak of the war in Gaza, which was ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. Both armed groups are allied with Iran, and Hezbollah says it is acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.
Israel has responded to the attacks with airstrikes and the targeted killing of Hezbollah commanders. It has threatened a wider operation, raising fears of another all-out war.
Hezbollah has said it will halt its attacks if there is a cease-fire in Gaza, but months of talks brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt have repeatedly stalled.
Hamas has demanded a lasting cease-fire and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza as part of any agreement to release the scores of hostages it still holds from the Oct. 7 attack.
Gallant told Austin that “in any possible scenario, Israel’s defense establishment will continue to operate with the aim of dismantling Hamas and ensuring the return of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza — by any means.”
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