Israel-Hamas war latest: Israeli airstrikes kill 16 in Gaza, including 4 children, Palestinians say

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.

TEL AVIV, Israel — Hundreds of Israeli protesters have reportedly gathered in central Tel Aviv in a show of anger following reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing to fire his popular defense minister.

Israeli media reported Monday that Netanyahu is set to dismiss Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and replace him with opposition lawmaker Gideon Saar.

Gallant, a gruff retired general, has emerged as Netanyahu’s biggest rival in the Cabinet. In recent weeks, the pair have clashed over Gallant’s call for Israel to reach a temporary cease-fire with Hamas and to seek a diplomatic solution to end daily fighting with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Israeli media reports said hundreds of demonstrators gathered near Saar’s home in central Tel Aviv. Protesters held signs that said, “Saar, values before politics,” as they marched through the streets. A grassroots group representing hostage families said dismissing Gallant would hurt efforts to bring their loved-ones home.

Saar is a former Netanyahu ally who became a fierce rival after quitting the ruling Likud Party four years ago. However, he has struggled as leader of a small party in parliament. Saar has held a number of senior Cabinet posts but has little military experience.

Netanyahu’s office said that reports of negotiations with Saar were incorrect. But Israeli media said the pair were close to a deal.

TEL AVIV, Israel — A key White House Mideast envoy is meeting with Israeli leaders in hopes of lowering tensions between Israel and Lebanon.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah began striking Israel shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack ignited the war. Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging blows daily while avoiding an all-out war. The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the border.

During his meeting with U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that time is running out for a political settlement and that Israel is moving toward taking tougher action against Hezbollah.

Gallant warned “the only way left to ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes will be via military action,” his office said.

Hochstein in 2022 brokered a maritime border deal between Lebanon and Israel. The two countries have formally been at war since Israel’s independent in 1948.

SANAA, Yemen — The leader of Hamas Yahya Sinwar has told Yemen’s Houthi rebels that their recent missile attack has sent a message to Israel.

Yahya Sinwar’s letter to Abdul-Malek al-Houthi was published by the Houthis’ al-Masirah news channel Monday, a day after a missile fired by the Iran-backed rebels landed in an open area in central Israel and triggered air raid sirens at its international airport.

“I congratulate you for succeeding in making your missile reach the depth of the enemy’s entity after surpassing all defense systems,” Sinwar’s letter read, according to al-Masirah.

Sinwar added that the Yemeni missile attack sent a message that that attempts to “contain” Hamas have failed and that the back-up fronts by Iran-backed groups are becoming more effective.

Sinwar said that Hamas carried out the Oct. 7, attack on southern Israel and has since been fighting “a defensive war that has exhausted the enemy.” He added that Hamas had prepared for “a long war of attrition that will break” Israel’s political will.

Shortly after the Israel-Hamas war started, Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq have claimed responsibility for scores of attacks against Israel saying they are backing their allies in Hamas.

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.

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.

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.

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.”