TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel announced Saturday it had completed construction of a new security corridor cutting off the southern city of Rafah from the rest of Gaza, and the military said it would soon expand “vigorously” in most of the small coastal territory.

Palestinians were further squeezed into shrinking areas.

“Activity will expand rapidly to additional locations throughout most of Gaza and you will have to evacuate the fighting zones,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement, without saying where Palestinians were meant to go.

The statement urged Palestinians to remove Hamas and release the remaining hostages, saying: “This is the only way to stop the war.”

Israeli troops were deployed last week to the new security corridor referred to as Morag, the name of a Jewish settlement that once stood between Rafah and Khan Younis, after the army ordered sweeping evacuations covering most of Rafah — an indication it could soon launch another major ground operation.

The Rafah municipality in a statement called Israel’s actions a “flagrant breach of international legitimacy.”

Israel has vowed to seize large parts of Gaza to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages, 24 of them believed to be alive, and accept proposed new ceasefire terms.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has also imposed a monthlong blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left the territory’s roughly 2 million Palestinians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle — a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime.

Israel has claimed that enough supplies entered Gaza during the two-month ceasefire that it shattered last month. Aid groups have disputed that.

Netanyahu has said Morag would be “a second Philadelphi corridor,” referring to the Gaza side of the border with Egypt farther south, which has been under Israeli control since May 2024. Israel has also reasserted control of the Netzarim corridor, which cuts off Gaza’s northern third from the rest of the territory.

The corridors, coupled with a buffer zone that Israel has razed and expanded, give it more than 50% control of the territory.

Katz said Palestinians interested in “voluntarily” relocating to other countries would be able to as part of a proposal by U.S. President Donald Trump. Palestinians have rejected the proposal and expressed their determination to remain in their homeland.

Trump and Israeli officials have not said how they would respond if Palestinians refuse to leave Gaza. But Human Rights Watch and other groups say the plan would amount to “ethnic cleansing” — the forcible relocation of the civilian population of an ethnic group from a geographic area.

Many Palestinians have been crowding into squalid tent camps or the rubble of their previous homes, often displacing multiple times in response to Israel’s evacuation orders since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, killed some 1,200 people, many of them civilians, and sparked the war.

Israel on Saturday ordered the evacuation of areas east of Khan Younis ahead of an attack. Military spokesperson Avichay Adraee added that militants had fired rockets into Israel from these areas. In the evening, several neighborhoods in Nuseirat in central Gaza were told to evacuate after Israel said it had intercepted a projectile from the territory.

Hamas has said the bombardment poses risks to the hostages as well. On Saturday, the family of the last living American held in Gaza responded to the release of a new video showing Edan Alexander speaking under duress.

“When you sit down to mark Passover, remember that this is not a holiday of freedom as long as Edan and the other 58 hostages are not home,” the family said in a statement.

Families and supporters again rallied in Tel Aviv for a deal to bring everyone home.

Israeli strikes across Gaza continued, killing at least 21 people in the last 24 hours, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants but says most of the over 50,000 Palestinians killed in the war have been women and children.

The ministry said at least 1,500 people have been killed since Israel’s surprise bombardment resumed the war last month.

Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants in the war, without providing evidence.

Magdy reported from Cairo.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 32 people, including over a dozen women and children, local health officials said Sunday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed to the United States to meet with President Donald Trump about the war.

Israel last month ended its ceasefire with Hamas and renewed its air and ground offensive, carrying out waves of strikes and seizing territory to pressure the militant group to accept a new deal for a truce and release of remaining hostages. It has also blocked the import of food, fuel and humanitarian aid for over a month to the coastal territory heavily reliant on outside assistance.

“Stocks are getting low and the situation is becoming desperate,” the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said on social media.

The latest Israeli strikes overnight into Sunday hit a tent and a house in the southern city of Khan Younis, killing five men, five women and five children, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies.

A female journalist was among those killed. “My daughter is innocent. She had no involvement, she loved journalism and adored it,” said her mother, Amal Kaskeen.

The body of one child, under 2 years old, took up just one end of an emergency stretcher.

“Trump wants to end the Gaza issue. He is in a hurry, and that is clear from this morning,” said Mohammad Abdel-Hadi, cousin of a woman killed.

Israeli shelling killed at least four people in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The bodies of seven people, including a child and three women, arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, according to an Associated Press journalist there.

And a strike in Gaza City hit people waiting outside a bakery and killed at least six, including three children, according to the civil defense, which operates under the Hamas-run government.

Israel’s military said about 10 projectiles were fired from Gaza and most were intercepted, in the largest barrage from the territory since Israel resumed the war. Hamas’ military arm claimed responsibility. Israeli police said some fragments fell in Ashkelon city. There were no reports of injuries.

Dozens of Palestinians took to the streets in Jabaliya for a new round of anti-war protests. Footage circulating on social media showed people marching and chanting against Hamas. Such protests, while rare, have occurred in recent weeks.

There is also anger inside Israel over the war’s resumption and its effects on remaining hostages in Gaza. Families of hostages along with some of those recently freed from Gaza and their supporters on Saturday urged Trump to help ensure the fighting ends.

Netanyahu on Monday will meet with Trump for the second time since Trump began his latest term in January. The prime minister said they would discuss the war and the new 17% tariff imposed on Israel, part of a sweeping global decision by the new U.S. administration.

“There is a very large queue of leaders who want to do this with respect to their economies. I think it reflects the special personal connection and the special connection between the United States and Israel, which is so vital at this time,” Netanyahu said while wrapping up a visit to Hungary.

The U.S., a mediator in ceasefire efforts along with Egypt and Qatar, expressed support for Israel’s resumption of the war last month.

Hundreds of Palestinians since then have been killed, among them 15 medics whose bodies were recovered only a week later. Israel’s military this weekend backtracked on its account of what happened in the incident, captured in part on video, that caused anger by Red Cross and Red Crescent and U.N. officials.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Fifty-nine hostages are still held in Gaza — 24 believed to be alive — after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 50,695 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants but says more than half were women and children. It says another 115,338 people have been wounded. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.

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

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel said Wednesday that it planned to seize large areas of the Gaza Strip and add them to its “security zones” as it launched a wave of strikes that killed more than 40 people, including several women and children, according to Palestinian health officials.

Israel has vowed to escalate the nearly 18-month war with Hamas until the militant group returns dozens of remaining hostages, disarms and leaves the territory. Israel ended a ceasefire in March and has imposed a monthlong halt to all imports of food, fuel and humanitarian aid.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that the offensive is now aimed at “seizing large areas that will be added to the security zones,” without elaborating. Israel controls a buffer zone along Gaza’s entire border and recently ordered the full evacuation of the southern city of Rafah.

In northern Gaza, an Israeli airstrike hit a U.N. building in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp, killing 15 people, including nine children and two women, according to the Indonesian Hospital. The Israeli military said it struck Hamas militants in a command and control center.

The building, previously a clinic, had been converted into a shelter for displaced people, with more than 700 residing there, according to Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, the main aid provider in Gaza. No U.N. staff were wounded in the strike.

She said U.N. staff warned people about the dangers of remaining there after Wednesday’s strike but that many chose to stay, “simply because they have absolutely nowhere else to go.”

More than 60% of Gaza is now considered a “no-go” zone because of Israeli evacuation orders, according to Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the U.N. humanitarian aid office. Hundreds of thousands people are living in squalid tent camps along the coast or in the ruins of their destroyed homes.

Katz, the defense minister, called on Gaza residents to “expel Hamas and return all the hostages,” saying “this is the only way to end the war.”

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel plans to maintain overall security control of Gaza after the war and implement President Donald Trump’s proposal to resettle much of its population elsewhere through what the Israeli leader referred to as “voluntary emigration.”

Palestinians have rejected the plan, viewing it as expulsion from their homeland after Israel’s offensive left much of it uninhabitable, and human rights experts say implementing the plan would likely violate international law.

Hamas has said it will only release the remaining 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — in exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli pullout. The group has rejected demands that it lay down its arms or leave the territory.

The decision to resume the war has fueled protests in Israel, where many fear it has put the hostages at grave risk and are calling for another ceasefire and exchange with Hamas.

The Hostage Families Forum, which represents most captives’ families, said they were “horrified to wake up this morning to the Defense Minister’s announcement about expanding military operations in Gaza.”

The group called on the Trump administration, which took credit for brokering the ceasefire but has supported Israel’s decision to end it, to do everything possible to free the remaining captives.

“Our highest priority must be an immediate deal to bring ALL hostages back home — the living for rehabilitation and those killed for proper burial — and end this war,” the group said.

In addition to the 15 killed in northern Gaza, Israeli airstrikes overnight into Wednesday killed another 28 people across the territory, according to local hospitals. The Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis said the dead included five women, one of them pregnant, and two children.

Israel says it targets only militants and makes every effort to spare civilians, blaming Hamas for their deaths because the militants operate in densely populated areas.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages, most of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements and other deals. Israel rescued eight living hostages and has recovered dozens of bodies.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say whether those killed are civilians or combatants. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The war has left vast areas of Gaza in ruins and at its height displaced around 90% of the population.

Wafaa Shurafa reported from Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip. Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece, Bassem Mroue in Beirut, and Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel’s military on Monday issued sweeping evacuation orders covering Rafah and nearby areas, indicating it could soon launch another major ground operation in the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city.

Israel ended its ceasefire with the Hamas militant group and renewed its air and ground war earlier this month. At the beginning of March it cut off all supplies of food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid to the territory’s roughly 2 million Palestinians to pressure Hamas to accept proposed changes to the truce agreement.

Israel’s military ordered Palestinians to head to Muwasi, a sprawl of squalid tent camps along the coast. The orders came during Eid al-Fitr, a normally festive Muslim holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

Last May, Israel launched a major operation in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, leaving large parts in ruins. The military seized a strategic corridor along the border as well as the Rafah crossing with Egypt, Gaza’s only gateway to the outside world that was not controlled by Israel.

Israel was supposed to withdraw from the corridor under the ceasefire it signed with Hamas in January under U.S. pressure, but it later refused to do it, citing the need to prevent weapons smuggling.

Dozens gathered at a funeral for some of the 15 emergency responders killed by Israeli fire during a ground operation in Rafah last week. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies called it the deadliest attack on its medics in several years.

Raed al-Nems, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent, said the paramedics were “killed in cold blood” despite wearing uniforms and operating in clearly labeled ambulances. At funeral prayers, their shrouds were draped with Red Crescent banners.

Israel’s military has said its forces opened fire on several vehicles that raised suspicions by advancing without headlights or emergency signals. The military said a Hamas operative and eight other militants were among those killed.

The United Nations humanitarian office said the dead included eight Red Crescent workers, six members of Gaza’s Civil Defense, which operates under the Hamas-run government, and a U.N. worker.

Rescuers were only allowed to access the area nearly a week later to recover the bodies. Footage of Sunday’s recovery operation released by the U.N. showed Civil Defense workers digging into a mound of sand and pulling out a body wearing the same orange vest as theirs.

Israel has vowed to intensify its military operations until Hamas releases the remaining 59 hostages it holds — 24 of them believed to be alive. Israel has also demanded that Hamas disarm and leave the territory, conditions that were not included in the ceasefire agreement and which Hamas has rejected.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel would take charge of security in Gaza after the war and implement U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to resettle Gaza’s population in other countries, describing it as “voluntary emigration.”

That plan has been universally rejected by Palestinians, who view it as forcible expulsion from their homeland. Human rights experts say it would likely violate international law.

Hamas has insisted on implementing the signed agreement, which called for the remainder of the hostages to be released in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli pullout. Negotiations over those parts of the agreement were supposed to begin in February but only preliminary talks have been held.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, rampaging through army bases and farming communities and killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The militants took another 251 people hostage, most of whom have been released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. At its height, the war had displaced some 90% of Gaza’s population, with many fleeing multiple times.

Large areas of Gaza have been destroyed, and it’s unclear how or when anything will be rebuilt.

Khaled reported from Cairo.

HEBRON, West Bank (AP) — Israeli authorities released an Oscar-winning Palestinian director who was detained by the army after being attacked by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank. He said they beat him in front of his home while filming the assault.

Hamdan Ballal and the other directors of “No Other Land,” which looks at the struggles of living under Israeli occupation, had mounted the stage at the 97th Academy Awards in Los Angeles earlier this month when it won the award for best documentary film.

On Tuesday, with bruises on his face and blood on his clothes, he was released from an Israeli police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba. He and two other Palestinians who had been attacked and detained were driven to a nearby hospital.

Ballal said he was held at an army base and forced to sleep under a freezing air conditioner.

“I was blindfolded for 24 hours,” he told The Associated Press. “All the night I was freezing. It was a room, I couldn’t see anything… I heard the voice of soldiers laughing about me.”

Lea Tsemel, the attorney representing the three men, said they received only minimal care for their injuries from the attack and that she had no access to them for several hours after their arrest. She had earlier said they were accused of throwing stones at a young settler, allegations they deny.

Palestinian residents say around two dozen settlers — some masked, some carrying guns and some in military uniforms — attacked the West Bank village of Susiya on Monday evening as residents were breaking their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Soldiers who arrived pointed their guns at the Palestinians, while settlers continued throwing stones, they said.

The Israeli military said Monday it had detained three Palestinians suspected of hurling rocks at forces and one Israeli civilian involved in a what it described as a violent confrontation. On Tuesday, it referred further queries to police, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lamia Ballal, the director’s wife, said she heard her husband being beaten outside their home as she huddled inside with their three children. She heard him screaming, “I’m dying!” and calling for an ambulance. When she looked out the window, she saw three men in uniform beating Ballal with the butts of their rifles and another person in civilian clothes who appeared to be filming the violence.

“Of course, after the Oscar, they have come to attack us more,” Lamia said. “I felt afraid.”

West Bank settlers are often armed and sometimes wear military-style clothing that makes it difficult to distinguish them from soldiers.

On Tuesday, a small bloodstain could be seen outside their home, and the car’s windshield and windows were shattered. Neighbors pointed to a nearby water tank with a hole in the side that they said had been punched by the settlers.

Ballal said he was attacked by a well-known settler who had threatened him in the past. The settler can be seen with other masked men in a widely circulated video from August in which they threaten Ballal.

“This is my land, I was given it by God,” the settler says in the video, in which he also uses profanity and tries to get Ballal to fight him. “Next time it won’t be nice,” the settler says.

“No Other Land,” which won the Oscar this year for best documentary, chronicles the struggle by residents of the Masafer Yatta area to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages.

The joint Israeli-Palestinian production has won a string of international awards, starting at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2024. It has also drawn ire in Israel and abroad, as when Miami Beach proposed ending the lease of a movie theater that screened it.

Basel Adra, another of the film’s co-directors who is a prominent Palestinian activist in the area, said there’s been a massive upswing in attacks by settlers and Israeli forces since the Oscar win.

“Nobody can do anything to stop the pogroms, and soldiers are only there to facilitate and help the attacks,” he said. “We’re living in dark days here, in Gaza, and all of the West Bank … Nobody’s stopping this.”

Masked settlers with sticks also attacked Jewish activists in the area on Monday, smashing their car windows and slashing tires, according to Josh Kimelman, an activist with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence. Video provided by the group showed a masked settler shoving and swinging his fists at two activists in a dusty field at night.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians want all three for their future state and view settlement growth as a major obstacle to a two-state solution. Most of the international community considers the settlements illegal.

Israel has built well over 100 settlements, home to over 500,000 settlers who have Israeli citizenship. The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering population centers.

The Israeli military designated Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank as a live-fire training zone in the 1980s and ordered residents, mostly Arab Bedouin, to be expelled. Around 1,000 residents have largely remained in place, but soldiers regularly move in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards — and Palestinians fear outright expulsion could come at any time.

The Palestinians also face threats from settlers at nearby outposts. Palestinians and rights groups say Israeli forces usually turn a blind eye to settler attacks or intervene on behalf of the settlers.

The war in Gaza has sparked a surge of violence in the West Bank, with the Israeli military carrying out widescale military operations that have killed hundreds of Palestinians and displaced tens of thousands. There has been a rise in settler violence as well as Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

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

Israeli forces separately killed two Palestinian journalists in Gaza within hours of each other on Monday, including an Al Jazeera correspondent who had prewritten his final words to be released after his death.

The Israeli military first killed Palestine Today correspondent Mohammed Mansour in Khan Younis, along with his wife and son, in an airstrike. All three were in their house in southern Gaza when the strike hit, according to Al Jazeera.

Many of Gaza’s surviving journalists shared posts on social media mourning Mansour, including Al Jazeera Mubasher correspondent Hossam Shabat. Less than an hour after reporting on Mansour’s death, Shabat himself was killed in northern Gaza.

“Hossam was not just a brother or a passing journalist, but a pure soul walking the earth, an influential journalist and a symbol of northern Gaza,” said Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif, who posted several graphic clips on X showing the immediate aftermath of the attack on his 24-year-old friend and colleague. Shabat’s dead body can be seen on the ground by his car near Beit Lahiya.

Anticipating his death as a prominent Palestinian journalist, Shabat had composed final words to be published posthumously by his colleagues. He begins by saying he has likely been targeted and killed by Israeli forces if the public is reading his message.

“When this all began, I was only 21 years old – a college student with dreams like anyone else,” he wrote. “For the past 18 months, I have dedicated every moment of my life to my people. I documented the horrors in northern Gaza minute by minute, determined to show the world the truth they tried to bury. I slept on pavements, in schools, in tents – anywhere I could. Each day was a battle for survival. I endured hunger for months, yet I never left my people’s side.”

Shabat was also a contributor to Drop Site News, a U.S.-based media outlet that has joined the calls condemning the attack and accusing Israel of targeting him. The well-known journalist never stopped trying to show the reality in Gaza, even when Israel put him and five other Al Jazeera colleagues on what Drop Site’s co-founder described as a kill list in October. At the time, Shabat said he felt like he was “hunted” and accused Israel of fabricating a dossier to frame him for terrorism.

“His writing was lyrical and arresting. I struggled to translate and edit his pieces – to do them justice, to convey his emotive use of Arabic into something relatable in English,” his editor Sharif Abdel Kouddous said in publishing Shabat’s last article “through tears” for Drop Site.

“In the typical editorial see-saw back and forth of finalizing a piece, I would often return to him with clarifications and questions, asking him for additional details and direct quotes,” Kouddous continued. “He was always quick to respond despite his extraordinary circumstances.”

The Israeli military has a history of trying to paint Palestinian journalists as terrorists — particularly those who work for Qatar-based Al Jazeera, one of the few media networks able to broadcast from inside Gaza. On Monday, though Israeli strikes killed the two Palestinian journalists, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department blamed Hamas for their deaths.

“By God, I fulfilled my duty as a journalist. I risked everything to report the truth, and now, I am finally at rest – something I haven’t known in the past 18 months,” Shabat said in his posthumous message. “I did all this because I believe in the Palestinian cause. I believe this land is ours, and it has been the highest honor of my life to die defending it and serving its people.”

Israel has killed more than 206 journalists in Gaza since October 2023, according to the Gaza Media Office and the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate — the deadliest incident for journalists in modern history. In response to Mansour and Shabat’s deaths, PJS demanded the international community end its “disgraceful complicity” to “move beyond mere condemnation” and take actionable steps to hold Israel accountable.

The attacks come as Israel continues to relentlessly bomb Gaza after breaking a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. In recent days, the Israeli strikes have killed hundreds of Palestinians. With Gaza’s journalists trying to do their job while surviving what human rights groups and the international community say is a genocide, Shabat had a special posthumous message for his colleagues.

“I ask you now: do not stop speaking about Gaza. Do not let the world look away,” he said. “Keep fighting, keep telling our stories – until Palestine is free.”

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli settlers beat up one of the Palestinian co-directors of the Oscar-winning film “ No Other Land ” in the occupied West Bank on Monday, and he was then detained by the Israeli military, Jewish activists on the scene said.

Dozens of settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Susiya in the Masafer Yatta area, destroying property, said the activist group Center for Jewish Nonviolence.

They attacked Hamdan Ballal, one of the documentary’s co-directors, leaving his head bleeding, the activists said. As he was being treated in an ambulance, soldiers detained him and a second Palestinian man, the group said.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the episode but did not immediately comment.

“We don’t know where Hamdan is because he was taken away in a blindfold,” said 28-year-old Josh Kimelman, who was at the scene.

A group of 10-20 masked settlers attacked him and other Jewish activists with stones and sticks, and smashed their car windows and slashed their tires.

Video provided by the Center for Jewish Nonviolence showed a masked settler shoving and swinging his fists at two activists from the group in a dusty field at night. The activists rush back to their car. “Get in, get in!” one shouts, and they duck inside as the thuds of rocks being thrown can be heard. “Car window was broken,” the driver says as they drive off.

“No Other Land,” which won the Oscar this year for best documentary, chronicles the struggle by residents of Masafer Yatta to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages. It has two Palestinian co-directors, Ballal and Basel Adra, both residents of Masafar Yatta, and two Israeli directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor.

The joint Palestinian-Israeli production has won a string of international awards, starting at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2024. It has also drawn ire in Israel and abroad, as when Miami Beach briefly proposed ending the lease of a movie theater that screened the documentary.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel cut off the electricity supply to Gaza, officials said Sunday, affecting a desalination plant producing drinking water for part of the arid territory. Hamas called it part of Israel’s “starvation policy.”

Israel last week suspended supplies of goods to the territory of more than 2 million Palestinians, an echo of the siege it imposed in the earliest days of the war.

Israel is pressing the militant group to accept an extension of the first phase of their ceasefire. That phase ended last weekend. Israel wants Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for a promise to negotiate a lasting truce.

Hamas instead wants to start negotiations on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, which would see the release of remaining hostages from Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and a lasting peace. Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others.

The militant group — which has warned that discontinuing supplies would affect the hostages — said Sunday that it wrapped up the latest round of ceasefire talks with Egyptian mediators without changes to its position.

Israel has said it would send a delegation to Qatar on Monday in an effort to “advance” the negotiations.

Israel had warned when it stopped all supplies that water and electricity could be next. The letter from Israel’s energy minister to the Israel Electric Corporation tells it to stop selling power to Gaza.

The territory and its infrastructure have been largely devastated, and most facilities, including hospitals, now use generators. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassam said that Israel has ”practically” cut off electricity since the war began and called the latest decision part of Israel’s “starvation policy, in clear disregard for all international laws and norms.”

The desalination plant was providing 18,000 cubic meters of water per day for central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah area, according to Gisha, an Israeli organization dedicated to protecting Palestinians’ right to freedom of movement. Executive director Tania Hary said that it’s expected to run on generators and produce around 2,500 cubic meters per day, about the amount in an Olympic swimming pool.

Israel’s restrictions on fuel entering Gaza have a larger impact, Hary said, and water shortages are a looming issue, because fuel is needed for distribution trucks.

Israel has faced sharp criticism over suspending supplies.

“Any denial of the entry of the necessities of life for civilians may amount to collective punishment,” the U.N. human rights office said Friday.

The International Criminal Court said there was reason to believe Israel had used “starvation as a method of warfare” when it issued an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year. The allegation is central to South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide.

Israel has denied the accusations, saying it has allowed in enough aid and blaming shortages on what it called the United Nations’ inability to distribute it. It also accused Hamas of siphoning off aid.

The leader of the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, warned Friday that attacks against Israel-linked vessels off Yemen would resume within four days if aid doesn’t resume to Gaza. The Houthis described their earlier attacks as solidarity with Palestinians there.

The ceasefire has paused the deadliest and most destructive fighting ever between Israel and Hamas, sparked by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The first phase allowed the return of 25 living hostages and the remains of eight others in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli forces have withdrawn to buffer zones inside Gaza, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza and hundreds of trucks of aid entered per day until Israel suspended supplies.

The White House on Wednesday made the surprise confirmation of direct U.S. talks with Hamas.

On Sunday, envoy Adam Boehler told Israeli broadcaster Kan that Hamas has suggested a truce of five to 10 years while it would disarm. The militant group has previously called disarming unacceptable.

A senior Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss contacts with the U.S., said that the group had expressed its longstanding position that it would lay down its arms in return for a “fair and just solution” that includes an independent Palestinian state.

Boehler also told CNN that “I think you could see something like a long-term truce, where we forgive prisoners, where Hamas lays down their arms, where they agree they’re not part of the political party going forward. I think that’s a reality. It’s real close.”

When asked if he would speak with the militant group again, Boehler replied, “You never know.”

He added: “I think something could come together within weeks,” and expressed hope for a deal that would see all hostages released, not only American ones. Boehler has said four of the five American hostages in Gaza are dead, with Edan Alexander alive.

Hamas on Sunday didn’t mention the talks, but reiterated its support for a proposal for the establishment of an independent committee of technocrats to run Gaza until Palestinians hold presidential and legislative elections.

Hamas’ attack in October 2023 killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, inside Israel and took 251 people hostage. Most have been released in ceasefire agreements or other arrangements.

Many Israelis are pressing for a deal to bring everyone home. “We are here to send a clear message to the Israeli government: stop stalling,” Zahiro Shahar Mor, nephew of slain hostage Avraham Munder, said in front of tents set up outside Israel’s defense ministry in one demonstration.

Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say how many of the dead were militants.

With the cutoff of supplies to Gaza, Palestinians are reporting sharp price increases for dwindling items during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

“Since the ceasefire began, the situation has improved a little. But before that, the situation was very bad,” said Fares al-Qeisi in the southern city of Khan Younis.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel stopped the entry of all goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip on Sunday and warned of “additional consequences” if Hamas doesn’t accept a new proposal to extend a fragile ceasefire.

Hamas accused Israel of trying to derail the existing ceasefire agreement and said its decision to cut off aid was “cheap extortion, a war crime and a blatant attack” on the truce, which took hold in January after more than a year of negotiations. Both sides stopped short of saying the ceasefire had ended.

The first phase of the ceasefire, which included a surge in humanitarian assistance, expired on Saturday. The two sides have yet to negotiate the second phase, in which Hamas was to release dozens of remaining hostages in return for an Israeli pullout and a lasting ceasefire.

Egypt, which has served as a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, condemned the closure and accused Israel of using “starvation as a weapon.” Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty called for the immediate implementation of Phase 2 of the existing ceasefire agreement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that under the existing agreements Israel could resume fighting after the first phase if it believed negotiations were ineffective. He said the ceasefire would only continue if Hamas kept releasing hostages, telling his Cabinet that “there will be no free lunches.” He said Israel was “full coordinated” with President Donald Trump’s administration.

There was no immediate comment from the United States on the proposal announced by Israel or its decision to cut off aid.

Hundreds of aid trucks have entered Gaza daily since the ceasefire began on Jan. 19. But residents said prices doubled on Sunday as word of the closure spread and people raced to stock up.

“Everyone is worried,” said Sayed al-Dairi, a man living in Gaza City. “This is not a life.”

Fayza Nassar, a woman living in the heavily destroyed urban Jabaliya refugee camp, said the closure would exacerbate already dire living conditions.

“There will be famine and chaos,” she said. “Closing the crossings is a heinous crime.”

Israel said the new proposal, which it said came from U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, called for extending the ceasefire through Ramadan — the Muslim holy month that began over the weekend — and the Jewish Passover holiday, which ends on April 20.

Under that proposal, Hamas would release half the hostages on the first day and the rest when an agreement is reached on a permanent ceasefire, Netanyahu said.

Hamas warned that any attempt to delay or cancel the ceasefire agreement would have “humanitarian consequences” for the hostages and reiterated that the only way to free them was through implementing the existing deal, which did not specify a timeline for freeing the remaining captives.

Hamas has said it is willing to free the hostages all at once in Phase 2, but only in return for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

An Egyptian official said Hamas and Egypt would not accept a new proposal aimed at returning the remaining hostages without ending the war. The official noted that the agreement had called on the two sides to begin negotiations over Phase 2 in early February.

The official, who was not authorized to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity, said mediators were trying to resolve the dispute.

Under the first, six-week phase of the ceasefire, Hamas released 25 Israeli hostages and the bodies of eight others in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Israeli forces pulled back from most of Gaza and Israel allowed a surge of humanitarian aid to enter.

But the first phase was marred by repeated disputes, with each side accusing the other of violations.

Israeli strikes have killed dozens of Palestinians who the military said had approached its forces or entered areas in violation of the truce. Israel carried out an airstrike on Palestinians who it said were planting an explosive device in northern Gaza near the border on Sunday. Gaza’s Health Ministry said two men were killed in the strike and that Israeli fire killed two other people elsewhere.

Hamas paraded the captives — some of whom were emaciated — before crowds in public spectacles that Israel and the United Nations said were cruel and degrading. It initially returned the wrong set of remains instead of those of a mother who was killed in captivity along with her two young children.

Hamas said Israel’s aid suspension was another violation, saying the ceasefire and aid deliveries were supposed to continue during negotiations over Phase 2.

Israel imposed a complete siege on Gaza in the opening days of the war and only eased it later under U.S. pressure.

U.N. agencies and aid groups accused Israel of not facilitating enough aid during 15 months of war, and the Biden administration repeatedly pressed it to do more. Experts warned on several occasions that hunger was widespread in Gaza and that there was a risk of famine.

The International Criminal Court said there was reason to believe Israel had used “starvation as a method of warfare” when it issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu last year. The allegation is also central to South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide.

Israel has denied the accusations and rejected both court actions as being biased against it. Israel says it has allowed enough aid to enter and blamed shortages on what it said was the U.N.’s inability to distribute it. It also accused Hamas of siphoning off aid.

Kenneth Roth, the former head of Human Rights Watch who is now a visiting professor at Princeton University, said that Israel as an occupying power has an “absolute duty” to facilitate humanitarian aid under the Geneva Conventions.

“Israel’s latest threat to cut off all aid is a resumption of the war-crime starvation strategy” that led to the ICC warrant, he said.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostage. The militants are currently holding 59 hostages, 35 of whom are believed to be dead, after releasing most of the rest in two ceasefire agreements.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It says more than half of those killed were women and children but does not specify how many of the dead were combatants.

Israeli bombardment and ground operations pounded large areas of the strip to rubble and at the height of the conflict displaced some 90% of the population of 2.3 million Palestinians. The war has left most of Gaza’s population dependent on international aid for food and other essentials.

This story has been corrected to show that 35 of the remaining hostages are believed to be dead, not 32.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed to this report.

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

At least six Palestinian newborn babies have recently died from extreme cold in Gaza, as families try to survive the winter with virtually no shelter, no heating and an insufficient amount of humanitarian assistance.

The Friends of the Patient Charity Hospital received nine cases over the past two weeks of premature infants experiencing breathing difficulties, blood circulation failure, low blood pressure and some organ dysfunction caused by the harsh weather, hospital director Saeed Salah said Monday. When the babies arrived at the hospital’s neonatal unit, Salah said their body temperatures were below 34 degrees Celsius — in other words, hypothermic.

“We treated these infants immediately, following the established protocol for cold injury,” the doctor told Middle East Eye. “However, while we managed to save some cases, we were unable to save others. This was due to their critically low body [temperature] or because they arrived too late.”

Out of the nine babies, five of them died. Three of the remaining infants were treated and discharged to their families, while one remains on a ventilator receiving critical support as medical workers stabilize blood pressure. Separately, another infant died from the cold Tuesday morning — this time in southern Gaza, while inside her family’s tent.

The five infants who passed at the hospital had come from north Gaza, which until the current ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas had been walled off from humanitarian assistance as Israeli forces turned the region — from families’ homes to hospitals — into rubble. Displaced Palestinians have begun to return north, but have little to no shelter and no heat in the middle of a cold, rainy winter.

“Cold is definitely an issue. And even people who return to their homes, usually they don’t have four walls around them. They just have some kind of solid structure that they use as a shelter, and then they still put their tarps,” Dr. Adam Hamawy, who recently volunteered in Gaza, told HuffPost earlier this month.

“They’ve taken their tents with them to what’s left of their homes to survive there. And they don’t have electricity, no refrigeration, no lights,” he continued. “It’s not like everyone just gets to go home. There’s not much standing left that has been untouched in Gaza.”

Local journalists have documented Palestinians’ struggle to survive in the winter with only a tent — made of items like fabric, plastic and cardboard — that often gets flooded due to the frequent rain and wind. More than 945,000 Palestinians are in need of winterization support, according to the United Nations.

“Adults can survive the 50-degree winter — but even adults, not if they’re wet constantly. I mean you’re talking about being wet for three months straight,” Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, who has volunteered in Gaza, told “Democracy Now!” in December. “And furthermore they’re not just wet, they’re living in a land that literally doesn’t have a sewage system anymore. It’s one of the most crowded places in the world. … 1.8 million people are living in a place that has 121 toilets. This is just outrageous.”

The UN agency responsible for assisting Palestinian refugees said that eight babies died of extreme cold in January alone — putting the total number of babies who died of hypothermia this winter at 15.

“For kids in these conditions, it’s not only frightening to be outside, exposed and in the cold, but it’s also very dangerous for their wellbeing,” UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram told Al Jazeera.

“We’ve had a number of children in Gaza die of hypothermia and it’s clear here when you meet with families that they don’t have what they need to protect them from that cold,” she continued. “Families are lacking warm clothes for their children. There’s many children without shoes.”

When the ceasefire agreement went into effect on Jan. 19, Israel agreed to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza — including 60,000 caravans and 200,000 tents. But aid groups and Palestinians say that the shelter and fuel aid coming into the territory isn’t remotely sufficient.

“My understanding from our humanitarian colleagues is that there’s been a lot of challenges in getting tents and caravans and tarpaulins in,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, said on Tuesday. “We continue to push. Some are going in, but we need more.”

Aid trucks entering Gaza in January carried 4,807 tons of shelter equipment, 1,556 tons of gas and 1,244 tons of medical supplies, according to data from COGAT, the Israeli military’s branch that oversees the aid going into Gaza. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency also distributed a total of 2,485 tents earlier this month in northern Jabalia and Gaza City, while last week shelter partners distributed 2,358 tents in the north.

A spokesperson for COGAT did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

“The failure to provide these essentials, combined with the extreme cold, will inevitably increase the death toll. This is why I urge everyone to acknowledge the gravity of the situation,” Salah said. “We’re talking about five deaths in two weeks. This is a shocking figure that cannot be ignored.”