Israel-Hamas war latest: Netanyahu is in Washington to address Congress ahead of cease-fire talks

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington to address Congress on Wednesday. He has signaled that a cease-fire deal could be taking shape after nine months of war. Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters gathered near the U.S. Capitol to denounce Israel's war in Gaza.

Palestinians displaced by the Israeli military’s latest order to leave parts of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis say they are sleeping in the streets. The Health Ministry in Gaza says over 39,100 Palestinians have been killed in the war.

Officials from Egypt, Israel, the United States and Qatar had been expected to meet in Doha on Thursday with the aim of resuming talks for a proposed three-phase cease-fire to end the war between Israel and Hamas and free the remaining hostages. But an Israeli official said Wednesday that Israel's negotiating team was delayed and would likely be dispatched next week.

Here’s the latest:

Palestinian Health Ministry releases an updated list of Palestinians killed

CAIRO — The Palestinian Health Ministry has released an updated comprehensive list of Palestinians killed in Israel’s nine-month military offensive.

While the ministry releases a daily update to the overall death toll, this is just the fifth time it has released a detailed list identifying the dead by name, age and gender.

The document, dated June 30, reported a total of 37,900 dead. That includes 28,185 names, and 9,715 others who remained unidentified.

The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. It said 14,671 people, or 52% of the identified dead, were women or children. That percentage, which has dropped over the course of the war, is widely seen as an indicator of civilian deaths.

The large numbers of unidentified deaths have drawn accusations from Israel that the Hamas-linked Health Ministry has inflated the death toll. Israel says its forces have killed roughly 15,000 militants, without providing evidence to back the claim.

Palestinian health officials say it takes time to identify the dead because the health system has been overwhelmed by the war and some bodies are badly disfigured or not immediately claimed by their families. They say the true death toll is likely much higher because thousands of bodies are believed to be trapped in the rubble of buildings destroyed in Israeli strikes.

Protesters taken into custody near US Capitol ahead of Netanyahu's speech

WASHINGTON — Police have taken people into custody near the U.S. Capitol at a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the war in Gaza. A handful of people were led away by officers from the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., while others chanted for them to be released.

More than 1,000 people gathered Wednesday morning on Pennsylvania Avenue within sight of the Capitol building. Protesters carried signs branding Netanyahu a war criminal.

A large group of protesters marched toward the Capitol after blocking a nearby intersection and calling for a “student intifada,” invoking an Arabic word for “uprising” or “resistance.”

“Shut it down!” they repeatedly chanted.

“Bibi, Bibi, We’re not done! The intifada has just begun!” they also shouted, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.

Across the street from Union Station, Jewish Americans gathered for a prayer service led by T’ruah, an organization of rabbis calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. Rabbi Bill Plevan, of New York, said he believed prayer could be a catalyst for peace.

“We’re here to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech in Congress,” he said. “We’re here to say we don’t stand by his policies. As American Jews, we don’t support this war.”

Mourners attend the funeral of 2 killed in Israeli raid in the West Bank

TULKAREM, West Bank — Hundreds of mourners have attended the funeral of two people killed during an Israeli raid in the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem that killed six people, at least three of them known militants. The bodies of Iman Juma’a, a 50-year-old woman, and Yazan Abdo, a 30-year-old man, were carried through the streets.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military released footage of a person dressed as a woman wearing a paramedic vest and holding a gun, but did not show the person’s face. The video could not be independently verified by the AP, and the military did not provide any further evidence.

At the funeral, the body of Juma’a was covered with a paramedic jacket.

Tulkarem and its two refugee camps have become a flashpoint in the West Bank and are regularly raided by Israeli forces. Palestinian militant groups, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, are active in the city.

Netanyahu's office rejects far-right minister's comment on prayers at the Temple Mount

JERUSALEM — Israel’s far-right national security minister says Jews are allowed to pray at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, threatening to stoke tensions that are already soaring over the war in Gaza.

Itamar Ben-Gvir has said before it's his policy that Jews should be able to pray at the hilltop compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. But his statement on Wednesday comes at a politically sensitive time, hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of Congress in Washington.

Netanyahu’s office quickly released a statement saying nothing had changed in the decades-old arrangement that prohibits Jewish prayer at the site.

“I am the political echelon and the political echelon permits Jewish prayer there,” Ben Gvir said during a conference focused on Jewish access to the compound.

Since Israel captured the site in the 1967 Mideast war, Jews have been allowed to visit but not pray there. Perceived encroachments have set off widespread violence on a number of occasions going back decades.

Musk says Starlink is active at a Gaza hospital, with Israel's OK

JERUSALEM — Billionaire Elon Musk in a statement on X says his satellite internet service Starlink is active for a hospital in Gaza, as the besieged territory has faced months of communication issues.

Israel’s Communication Ministry said the service has been in use at the Emirati-run field hospital in Rafah in southern Gaza for the past six months, and they were unclear why Musk mentioned it Wednesday.

During a visit to Israel in November, Musk met with Israel’s Communications Minister Shlomi Karhi and agreed that Starlink would operate in Gaza only with approval from the Israeli government. In February, the ministry announced that Starlink would be available at certain hospitals in Gaza for videoconferencing.

Gaza has experienced frequent communications blackouts as the infrastructure crumbles with months of fighting and a lack of fuel.

Dozens die in Gaza, raising the death toll over 39,100

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The Gaza Health Ministry says the bodies of 55 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to local hospitals over the past 24 hours.

Hospitals also received 110 wounded, the ministry said Wednesday. The ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

The overall Palestinian death toll from the Israel-Hamas war rose to at least 39,145, the ministry said, and another 90,257 have been wounded.

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.

Israeli delegation heads to Cairo ahead of planned cease-fire talks in Doha

BEIRUT — An Israeli delegation will head to Cairo on Wednesday for negations with Egyptian officials, according to Lebanon’s daily Al-Akhbar newspaper, which is close to Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group. According to Egyptian sources, the negotiations will focus on the Rafah border crossing and Philadelphi corridor.

On Thursday, officials from Egypt, Israel, the United States and Qatar will meet in Doha with the aim of resuming talks for a proposed three-phase cease-fire to end the war between Israel and Hamas, Al-Akhbar said. It added that Egyptian and Qatari mediators see that the first phase of the deal is close but they are concerned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might destroy a possible deal in the final hours.

A spokesperson for Netanyahu’s office confirmed that a delegation is expected in Cairo.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq sends drones to attack ‘a vital target’ in Eilat

BEIRUT — An umbrella group of Iran-backed factions in Iraq says it has carried out an attack with drones on “a vital target” in the southern Israeli city of Eilat.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq said the early Wednesday attack comes in retaliation for what it called Israel’s massacres in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said its air force shot down two drones that were flying toward Israel from the east. It added that the drones did not enter Israel’s air space.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has claimed responsibility for scores of attacks against Israel in recent months, but most of the drones were shot down before reaching their targets. A drone attack by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi last week rebels killed one person in the center of Tel Aviv and wounded at least 10 others near the United States Embassy.