The Israeli military said Wednesday it launched a “limited ground operation” to retake part of a key Gaza corridor that bisects northern Gaza from the south.

The move into the Netzarim corridor appeared to deepen the renewed Israeli offensive in Gaza, which has shattered the two-month-long ceasefire with Hamas. The wave of heavy strikes Tuesday killed more than 400 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, nearly two-thirds of them women and children, the Health Ministry said. Its records do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the ministry’s records department, said Tuesday was the deadliest day in Gaza since the start of the war. The strikes have continued into Wednesday but at a lower intensity.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will press ahead until it achieves all of its war aims — destroying Hamas and freeing all hostages held by the militant group since its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel ignited the war. Hamas has yet to respond militarily.

The Israeli military says it launched a ’limited ground operation to retake part of a key Gaza corridor

As part of the ceasefire, Israel had withdrawn from the Netzarim corridor, which it had used as a military zone and which bisected northern Gaza from the south.

The move appeared to deepen the renewed Israeli offensive in Gaza, which shattered the two-month-long ceasefire with Hamas.

Israeli defense minister says evacuation of Palestinians from Gaza combat zones will start again soon

In a statement Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that Israel was preparing to step up its new offensive.

Katz said that if the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are not freed, “Israel will act with an intensity that you have not seen.”

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had returned to what remained of their homes and Israeli forces had pulled back to a buffer zone during the ceasefire in Gaza, which began in late January.

Lebanese army deploys in northeast border town after dayslong clashes

The clashes along the Lebanon-Syria border, where smuggling is widespread, was the worst fighting there since the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government in December.

The fighting happened after Syria’s interim government accused militants from Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group of crossing into Syria on Saturday, abducting and killing three soldiers. Hezbollah denied involvement and some other reports pointed to local clans in the border region that are not directly affiliated with Hezbollah but have been involved in cross-border smuggling. The Lebanese government said the three Syrians killed were smugglers.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said seven people in Lebanon were killed in the fighting, and 52 others were wounded. Four Syrian journalists embedded with the Syrian army were lightly wounded after an artillery shell fired from the Lebanese side of the border hit their position.

UN says an international staffer was killed and at least 5 others wounded by a strike in the Gaza Strip

An international United Nations staffer was killed and at least five others were wounded in a strike on a U.N. guesthouse in the Gaza Strip, a U.N. official said Wednesday.

Jorge Moreira da Silva, head of the U.N. Office for Project Services, declined to say who carried out the strike but said the explosive ordnance was “dropped or fired” and the blast was not accidental or related to demining activity. UNOPS operates the mechanism tracking aid trucks into Gaza, does demining and helps bring fuel in.

He did not provide the nationalities of those killed and wounded.

The Israeli military, which has carried out a heavy wave of airstrikes since early Tuesday, denied earlier reports that it had targeted the U.N. compound. There have been no reports of rocket fire or other Palestinian militant attacks.

Moreira da Silva said strikes had hit near the compound on Monday and struck it directly on Tuesday and again on Wednesday, when the staffer was killed. He said the agency had contacted the Israeli military after the first strike and confirmed that it was aware of the facility’s location.

“Israel knew this was a U.N. premise, that people were living, staying and working there,” he said.

At least 436 dead in airstrikes, Gaza Health Ministry says

The Gaza Health Ministry says at least 436 people, mostly women and children, have been killed since Israel launched a wave of heavy airstrikes early Tuesday.

The ministry said another 678 people have been wounded in the strikes, which continued into Wednesday but at a lower intensity.

The Israeli military says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in densely populated areas.

The ministry said at least 183 children and 94 women have been killed since the strikes began early Tuesday. Its records do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Israeli military denies striking UN compound in Gaza

The Israeli military has denied striking a United Nations compound in central Gaza.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said an Israeli strike on a U.N. building in Gaza on Wednesday wounded five international staffers.

There was no immediate comment from U.N. officials.

“Contrary to reports, the (Israeli military) did not strike a U.N. compound” in the central city of Deir al-Balah, the army said in a statement.

Macron calls Israeli strikes in Gaza ‘tragic step backwards’

French President Emmanuel Macron said Israel’s airstrikes are “tragic step backwards” for the Palestinian people and for Gaza, and for Israeli hostages and their families.

Macron, speaking alongside Jordan’s King Abdullah II on a visit to France, called for an immediate end to hostilities and resumption of negotiations including with the U.S. administration toward a permanent ceasefire and the release of all hostages.

The two leaders were also expected to discuss the need to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza and restoring access to water and electricity in the Palestinian territory, Macron’s office said.

Malaysia will accept 15 Palestinians released from Israeli prisons

Malaysia said it will accept 15 Palestinians who were released from Israeli jails and exiled as part of the January ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said in remarks published Wednesday in The Star newspaper that the move was a small contribution from Malaysia, a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause, to ensure peace in Gaza.

Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil told local media that security agencies would strictly monitor the Palestinians’ movement once they arrive.

A UN peacekeeper wounded in a mine explosion in southern Lebanon

Lebanon’s state news agency said a U.N. peacekeeper was wounded when a mine exploded in the country’s south.

National News Agency did not give further details about the blast between the villages of Zibqine and Yater, near the border with Israel.

Andrea Tenenti, a spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL, confirmed that a peacekeeper was wounded during an operational activity and was taken to a Beirut hospital for surgery.

An Israeli strike wounds 5 UN workers, Gaza medics say

The Gaza Health Ministry says an Israeli strike has wounded five international U.N. workers.

It says they were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in central Gaza after their headquarters was struck on Wednesday.

It was not clear which U.N. body they were affiliated with. There was no immediate comment from U.N. spokespeople or the Israeli military.

Israel launched a wave of airstrike across Gaza on Tuesday, killing over 400 Palestinians, according to the ministry. Israel says it targeted Hamas militants.

Thousands in Jerusalem protest the resumption of war

Thousands of Israelis marched in Jerusalem on Wednesday to protest a resumption of the war in the Gaza Strip, fearing it could further endanger some two dozen hostages held by Hamas.

A sea of Israeli flags could be seen outside the Israeli parliament a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shattered a fragile ceasefire by launching heavy strikes on Gaza.

Families and supporters of the hostages fear renewed fighting could be a death sentence for their loved ones in captivity. The hostages “are waiting for us to take them out and to bring them home, but war will not do it. Only negotiations will do it,” protester Alon Shirizly said.

Hamas is still holding 59 hostages, including 24 who are believed to be alive.

The demonstrators are also protesting Netanyahu’s plan to fire the head of Israel’s internal security agency, the latest in a series of moves that his critics view as an assault on Israeli democracy.

Ben-Gvir returns to Netanyahu’s government

A government statement on Wednesday said Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the ultranationalist Jewish Power party, regained his portfolio as national security minister. He had left the coalition in January to protest the ceasefire with Hamas.

His return strengthens Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition ahead of a crucial budget vote this month and improves its chances of surviving until the next scheduled elections in October 2026.

Ben-Gvir supports the full resumption of the war with the aim of annihilating Hamas, depopulating Gaza through what he refers to as the voluntary migration of Palestinians and rebuilding Jewish settlements there.

BEIRUT (AP) — The death toll from two days of clashes between Syrian security forces and loyalists of ousted President Bashar Assad and revenge killings that followed has risen to more than 1,000, a war monitoring group said Saturday, making it one of the deadliest acts of violence since Syria’s conflict began 14 years ago.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in addition to 745 civilians killed, mostly in shootings from close distance, 125 government security force members and 148 militants with armed groups affiliated with Assad were killed. It added that electricity and drinking water were cut off in large areas around the city of Latakia.

The clashes, which erupted Thursday, marked a major escalation in the challenge to the new government in Damascus, three months after insurgents took authority after removing Assad from power.

The government has said that they were responding to attacks from remnants of Assad’s forces and blamed “individual actions” for the rampant violence.

The revenge killings that started Friday by Sunni Muslim gunmen loyal to the government against members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect are a major blow to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the faction that led the overthrow of the former government. Alawites made up a large part of Assad’s support base for decades.

Residents of Alawite villages and towns spoke to The Associated Press about killings during which gunmen shot Alawites, the majority of them men, in the streets or at the gates of their homes. Many homes of Alawites were looted and then set on fire in different areas, two residents of Syria’s coastal region told the AP from their hideouts.

They asked that their names not be made public out of fear of being killed by gunmen, adding that thousands of people have fled to nearby mountains for safety.

Residents of Baniyas, one of the towns worst hit by the violence, said bodies were strewn on the streets or left unburied in homes and on the roofs of buildings, and nobody was able to collect them. One resident said that the gunmen prevented residents for hours from removing the bodies of five of their neighbors killed Friday at close range.

Ali Sheha, a 57-year-old resident of Baniyas who fled with his family and neighbors hours after the violence broke out Friday, said that at least 20 of his neighbors and colleagues in one neighborhood of Baniyas where Alawites lived, were killed, some of them in their shops, or in their homes.

Sheha called the attacks “revenge killings” of the Alawite minority for the crimes committed by Assad’s government. Other residents said the gunmen included foreign fighters, and militants from neighboring villages and towns.

“It was very very bad. Bodies were on the streets,” as he was fleeing, Sheha said, speaking by phone from nearly 20 kilometers (12 miles) away from the city. He said the gunmen were gathering less than 100 meters from his apartment building, firing randomly at homes and residents and in at least one incident he knows of, asked residents for their IDs to check their religion and their sect before killing them. He said the gunmen also burned some homes and stole cars and robbed homes.

The Observatory’s chief Rami Abdurrahman said that revenge killings stopped early Saturday.

“This was one of the biggest massacres during the Syrian conflict,” Abdurrahman said about the killings of Alawite civilians.

The previous figure given by the group was more than 600 dead. No official figures have been released.

A funeral was held Saturday afternoon for four Syrian security force members in the northwestern village of Al-Janoudiya after they were killed in the clashes along Syria’s coast. Scores of people attended the funeral.

Syria’s state news agency quoted an unnamed Defense Ministry official as saying that government forces have regained control of much of the areas from Assad loyalists. It added that authorities have closed all roads leading to the coastal region “to prevent violations and gradually restore stability.”

On Saturday morning, the bodies of 31 people killed in revenge attacks the day before in the central village of Tuwaym were laid to rest in a mass grave, residents said. Those killed included nine children and four women, the residents said, sending the AP photos of the bodies draped in white cloth as they were lined in the mass grave.

Lebanese legislator Haidar Nasser, who holds one of the two seats allocated to the Alawite sect in parliament, said that people were fleeing from Syria for safety in Lebanon. He said he didn’t have exact numbers.

Nasser said that many people were sheltering at the Russian air base in Hmeimim, Syria, adding that the international community should protect Alawites who are Syrian citizens loyal to their country. He said that since Assad’s fall, many Alawites were fired from their jobs and some former soldiers who reconciled with the new authorities were killed.

Under Assad, Alawites held top posts in the army and security agencies. The new government has blamed his loyalists for attacks against the country’s new security forces over the past several weeks.

France expressed “its deep concern” over recent violence in Syria. Paris “condemns in the strongest possible terms atrocities committed against civilians on the basis of religion grounds and against prisoners,” its foreign ministry said in a statement Saturday.

France urged Syrian interim authorities to make sure independent investigations “shed full light on these crimes.”

The most recent clashes started when government forces tried to detain a wanted person near the coastal city of Jableh, and were ambushed by Assad loyalists, according to the Observatory.

Omar Albam in Al-Janoudiya, Syria and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

JERUSALEM (AP) — A baby girl froze to death overnight in Gaza, while Israel and Hamas accused each other of complicating ceasefire efforts that could wind down the 14-month war.

The 3-week old baby was the third to die from the cold in Gaza’s tent camps in recent days, doctors said, deaths that underscore the squalid conditions, with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians crammed into often ramshackle tents after fleeing Israeli offensives.

Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza has killed over 45,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count.

The offensive has caused widespread destruction and displaced some 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands are packed into tent camps along the coast as the cold, wet winter sets in. Aid groups have struggled to deliver food and supplies and say there are shortages of blankets, warm clothing and firewood.

Israel has increased the amount of aid it allows into the territory, reaching an average of 130 trucks a day so far this month, up from around 70 a day in October and November. Still, the amount remains well below than previous months and the United Nations says it is unable to distribute more than half the aid because Israeli forces deny permission to move within Gaza or because of rampant lawlessness and theft from trucks.

The father of 3-week-old Sila, Mahmoud al-Faseeh, wrapped her in a blanket to try and keep her warm in their tent in the Muwasi area outside the town of Khan Younis, but it wasn’t enough, he told The Associated Press.

He said the tent was not sealed from the wind and the ground was cold, as temperatures on Tuesday night dropped to 9 degrees Celsius (48 degrees Fahrenheit.) Muwasi is a desolate area of dunes and farmland on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast.

“It was very cold overnight and as adults we couldn’t even take it. We couldn’t stay warm,” he said. Sila woke up crying three times overnight and in the morning they found her unresponsive, her body stiff.

“She was like wood,” said al-Faseeh. They rushed her to a field hospital where doctors tried to revive her, but her lungs had already deteriorated. Images of Sila taken by the AP showed the little girl with purple lips, her pale skin blotchy.

Ahmed al-Farra, director of the children’s ward at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, confirmed that the baby died of hypothermia. He said two other babies — one 3 days old, the other a month old — had been brought to the hospital over the past 48 hours after dying of hypothermia.

Meanwhile, hopes for a ceasefire looked complicated Wednesday, with Israel and the militant Hamas group that runs Gaza trading accusations of delaying an agreement. In recent weeks, the two sides appeared to be inching toward a deal that would bring home dozens of hostages held by the militants in Gaza, but differences have emerged.

Although Israel and Hamas have expressed optimism that progress was being made toward a deal, sticking points remain over the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, people involved in the talks say.

On Wednesday, Hamas accused Israel of introducing new conditions related to the withdrawal from Gaza, the prisoners and the return of displaced people, which it said was delaying the deal.

Israel’s government accused Hamas of reneging on understandings that have already been reached.” Still, both sides said discussions are ongoing.

Israel’s negotiating team, which includes members from its intelligence agencies and the military, returned from Qatar on Tuesday evening for internal consultations, following a week of what it called “significant negotiations.”

During its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, Hamas and other groups took about 250 people hostages and brought them to Gaza. A previous truce in November 2023 freed more than 100 hostages, while others have been rescued or their remains have been recovered over the past year.

Israel says about 100 hostages remain in Gaza — at least a third whom it believes were killed during the Oct. 7 attack or died in captivity.

Sporadic talks have taken place for a year, but in recent weeks there’s been a renewed push to reach a deal.

President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office next month for his second term, has demanded the immediate release of Israeli hostages, saying on social media that if they’re not freed before he is sworn in, there will be “HELL TO PAY.”

Families of the hostages are becoming increasingly angry, calling on the Israeli government for a ceasefire before Trump is sworn in.

After Israel’s high-level negotiation team returned from Doha this week, hostage families called an emergency press conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, pleading for a ceasefire and a complete end to the war.

Shir Siegel, the daughter of Israeli-American Keith Siegel, whose mother was released after more than 50 days in captivity, said every delay could endanger their lives. “There are moments when every second is fateful, and this is one of those moments,” she said.

Families of the hostages marked the first night of Hannukah with a candle lighting ceremony in Tel Aviv as well as by the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

The agreement would take effect in phases and include a halt in fighting, an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, and a surge in aid to the besieged Gaza, according to Egyptian, Hamas and American officials. The last phase would include the release of any remaining hostages, an end to the war and talks on reconstruction.

Also Wednesday, a missile launched by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels triggered air raid sirens across central Israel, sending residents fleeing to shelters. The Houthis said they operations were aimed at Israeli targets in the cities of Jaffa and Ashkelon.

It was the fourth time in a week that fire from the Yemeni rebels set off sirens in Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will strike anyone threatening lives in Israel and warned the Houthis that they would learn lessons that Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria’s ousted President Bashar Assad have learned.

Israel also requested an emergency meeting by the U.N. Security Council to address the recent attacks. The meeting is set for Monday.

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said he expects the council to condemn the Houthi attacks and called on it “to enforce international law and hold Iran, the Houthis’ patron, accountable.”

Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel, and Khaled from Cairo. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Lee Keith in Cairo and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war