Middle East latest: Blinken in Doha to discuss Gaza cease-fire with Qatari officials

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Doha on Thursday to meet with Qatari officials who have been key mediators for Hamas, as the U.S. struggles to break the logjam of cease-fire negotiations between Israel and the militant group.

Blinken is on his 11th trip to the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

In Gaza, Palestinian officials said an Israeli strike on a school where displaced people were sheltering killed at least 17 people on Thursday, mostly women and children.

An additional 42 people were wounded in the strike in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the Awda Hospital, which received the casualties. Among the dead were seven children as young as 11 months, as well as three women. The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants inside the school, without providing evidence.

The Israel-Hamas war began after Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023, blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not differentiate between militants and civilians.

Israel is also fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon. Lebanon’s health ministry says the total toll over the past year is over 2,500 killed and 12,000 wounded. The fighting in Lebanon has driven 1.2 million people from their homes, including more than 400,000 children, according to the United Nations children’s agency.

Over the past several weeks, Israeli strikes have killed much of Hezbollah’s top leadership.

Here’s the latest:

Israel says it has killed 2,000 Hezbollah militants in past year

JERUSALEM — Israel estimates it has killed 2,000 Hezbollah militants since its military began fighting the Lebanese Shiite group along its northern border in October 2023.

The army did not explain how it arrived at that number on Thursday. It was not possible to independently corroborate its count.

Some 1,200 of the militants were killed after Israel began its ground invasion of southern Lebanon on Sept. 30, the military said.

Lebanon’s health ministry has reported more than 2,590 people in Lebanon killed by Israel’s bombardment and invasion over the past year, with women and children accounting for 25% of the dead. The health officials haven’t offered a breakdown for militants.

The Israeli military also raised its death toll for its soldiers killed in fighting with Hezbollah over the past year to 56.

Driver for UN agency killed by Israeli forces

UNITED NATIONS — A driver for the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees in Gaza was killed when a U.N.-marked vehicle was hit by Israeli forces, the United Nations said Thursday.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters that the Israeli fire also killed the driver’s brother, and left three passers-by with minor injuries.

There was no immediate reply to a request for comment from Israel’s U.N. mission.

The attack on the UNRWA pickup vehicle in central Deir Al-Balah was the latest against U.N. staff. More than 230 U.N. employees in Gaza have been killed in Israel’s ongoing offensive in the territory following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in southern Israel.

4 Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon

JERUSALEM — The Israeli army says that four soldiers have been killed in combat with Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon.

In a statement released Thursday, the Israeli military said 11 other troops were wounded during fighting with Hezbollah the day before, without elaborating on what happened.

The announcement makes Wednesday one of the deadliest days of Israel’s offensive in Lebanon, which it invaded over three weeks ago after a year of exchanging cross-border fire with Hezbollah. Israel has expanded its campaign in the country on its northern border, increasing airstrikes against Hezbollah targets across the country.

Israel’s military casualties have begun to climb in southern Lebanon, with another four soldiers killed by a Hezbollah drone attack earlier this month.

In a speech Thursday, Israel’s military chief Lt. Gen Herzi Halevi signaled that Israel hoped to wrap up its operations in Lebanon.

“In the north, there’s a possibility of reaching a sharp conclusion,” Halevi said. “We thoroughly dismantled Hezbollah’s senior chain of command.”

Doctors of the World aid group calls for end to hostilities

PARIS — Jean-François Corty, vice president of Paris-based aid group Doctors of the World, said Thursday that “Gaza is dying” and called for an immediate cessation of hostilities.

Speaking at an international conference for Lebanon in Paris, Corty welcomed the mobilization of aid for Lebanon but lamented the lack of concrete efforts to pressure the warring parties to stop the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza.

“There was no mention of any potential constraints on the parties involved in the conflict, particularly the Israeli government,” he said.

“I also reminded them that whilst we are mobilizing for Lebanon, Gaza is dying today. Thousands of people are being eliminated … in the north of Gaza, and it seems that the international community no longer considers the Gazans to be our fellow human beings,” he added.

Head of Mossad will go to Qatar for cease-fire talks

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israel’s government says it will be sending the head of its Mossad spy agency to Qatar on Sunday to partake in a new round of in-person talks about a potential cease-fire and the release of hostages held by Hamas.

The Israeli prime minister’s office said Thursday that its spy chief, David Barnea, would leave Sunday for talks in Doha, the capital of Qatar, with the head of the CIA, Bill Burns, and the prime minister of Qatar.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier Thursday that he expected the revival of cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas “in the coming days.” Hamas has not publicly confirmed whether it will be sending a delegation to Doha. Many of the militant leaders are based in the Gulf Arab emirate.

Washington and Qatar have been key mediators in the long-stalled negotiations. Neither Hamas nor Israel have shown any sign of softening their demands since negotiations sputtered to a halt over the summer.

19 killed in 24 hours in Lebanon, health officials say

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s health ministry said Thursday that 19 people were killed and 118 wounded in the past 24 hours, raising the total toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,593 killed and 12,119 wounded.

Lebanon’s crisis response unit recorded 111 airstrikes and shelling incidents in the past day, mostly concentrated in southern Lebanon and the Nabatiyeh province.

An Israeli airstrike in the Bekaa Valley killed five people and wounded several others on a Hillaniyeh town in Baalbeck, Lebanon’s state media said.

Some 1,096 centers are sheltering 191,692 people, including 44,319 families, displaced by the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, the health ministry report said. Among these shelters, 928 have reached full capacity.

Despite a major border crossing between Lebanon and Syria being out of commission after Israel hit the road several times, crowds have flowed across the border seeking relative safety in Syria. Between Sept. 23 and Oct. 24, Lebanese General Security recorded nearly half a million people crossing into Syria, including 346,529 Syrian and 153,282 Lebanese citizens, the report said.

Blinken announces further $135 million in aid to Palestinians

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced another $135 million in aid to the Palestinians. He said it is critical that aid enters Gaza.

Blinken spoke in Qatar on Thursday on his 11th visit to the region since the outbreak of the war in Gaza. The United States has pressed Israel to allow more aid into the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

At least 1 killed in Israeli airstrikes in Syria

BEIRUT — At least one person was killed and others wounded in Israeli airstrikes targeting Syria’s Damascus and Homs countryside, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syria’s state media reported.

Israeli warplanes targeted a government building near a military fuel station in the Kafr Sousa neighborhood in Damascus, killing one person and injuring three others, according to the Syrian Observatory. The strike also triggered fires in the area.

Citing a military source, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that the Israeli strikes were launched from the direction of the Golan Heights and from the direction of northern Lebanon.

On a road in Al-Qusayr countryside, less than 10 kilometers from the Lebanese-Syrian border, an Israeli airstrike targeted a truck near a military site, killing one soldier and wounding four others, the Syrian Observatory said.

SANA reported that one soldier was killed and seven others were injured, though it did not specify which strike caused the casualties.

Israel has conducted strikes on Iranian-linked targets in Syria for years but has intensified these attacks following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel last year.

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister calls for immediate cease-fire

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister is calling for an immediate cease-fire, the full implementation of the U.N. resolution that ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war and the deployment of 8,000 Lebanese troops to a buffer zone along the border with Israel.

Najib Mikati spoke Thursday at a conference in Paris in support of Lebanon.

The Lebanese army has largely kept to the sidelines in the latest conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. It says Israeli forces have targeted its soldiers on eight occasions, killing and wounding several. Israel apologized for a deadly strike on Sunday.

U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war, called for Hezbollah and Israeli forces to withdraw from areas south of Lebanon’s Litani River and for the area to be controlled by the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers.

Israel says the resolution was never implemented and that Hezbollah built up military infrastructure all the way to the border. Lebanon has accused Israel of ignoring other provisions, including by violating its airspace.

The Lebanese army has around 80,000 forces, with around 5,000 deployed in the south.

Representing the Lebanese Army at the Paris conference, Brig. Gen. Youssef Haddad said that Lebanon is working on recruiting 1,500 additional soldiers to help implement the U.N. resolution, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Hezbollah boasts tens of thousands of fighters. Lebanon’s military is not strong enough to impose its will on the militant group or to resist Israel’s ground invasion.

Hospital director in Gaza warns of ‘catastrophic’ shortage of medical supplies

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The director of a hospital in the northern Gaza Strip says it is facing a “catastrophic” shortage of basic supplies and that ambulances can no longer service the facility.

Israel has been carrying out a major offensive in northern Gaza for more than two weeks. Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands have fled their homes. The military says it is battling Hamas fighters who regrouped in the north, which was one of the first targets of the ground offensive at the start of the war.

Dr. Hossam Abu Safiyeh, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, said in a video message released Thursday that some 150 wounded people are being treated there, including 14 children in intensive care or the neonatal department.

“There is a very large number of wounded people, and we lose at least one person every hour because of the lack of medical supplies and medical staff,” he said.

“Our ambulances can’t transfer wounded people,” he said. “Those who can arrive by themselves to the hospital receive care, but those who don’t just die in the streets.”

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Footage shared with The Associated Press shows medical staff tending to premature babies and several older children in hospital beds, some with severe burns. One child is seen attached to a breathing machine, with bandages on her face and flies hovering over her.

“We are providing the bare minimum to patients. Everyone is paying the price of what is happening now in northern Gaza,” Abu Safiyeh said.

Kamal Adwan is one of three hospitals in the north left largely inaccessible because of the fighting. The war has gutted the health system across Gaza, with only 16 of 39 hospitals even partially functioning, according to the World Health Organization.

French President Macron pledges 100 million euros in aid to support Lebanon

PARIS — France pledged to provide a 100-million euro ($108-million) package to support Lebanon at an international conference Thursday, as President Emmanuel Macron said “massive aid” is needed to support the country where war between Hezbollah militants and Israel has displaced a million people, killed over 2,500 and deepened an economic crisis.

“In the immediate term, massive aid is needed for the Lebanese population, both for the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the war and for the communities hosting them,” Macron said in his opening speech at the conference.

French organizers hope participants’ financial pledges of humanitarian aid will meet the $426 million the United Nations says is urgently needed.

Italy this week announced new aid of 10 million euros ($10.8 million) and Germany on Wednesday pledged an additional 60 million euros ($64.7 million) for people in Lebanon.

An Israeli strike kills 3 members of Lebanon’s military, including an officer

BEIRUT — The Lebanese military says an Israeli strike killed three of its troops, including an officer, as they were evacuating wounded people in southern Lebanon.

In a Thursday post on X, it said the strike hit the outskirts of the southern town of Yater. The army says Israeli forces have targeted it on eight occasions since all-out war broke out between Israel and Hezbollah in September.

The Israeli military said Thursday it was looking into whether “a number of soldiers of the Lebanese army were accidentally harmed” after it targeted what it says was Hezbollah infrastructure.

The military said in a statement that it does not deliberately target Lebanese troops.

It earlier apologized for a strike on Sunday that killed three Lebanese soldiers, saying it had targeted a vehicle in an area where Hezbollah had recently launched attacks without realizing it belonged to the army.

Lebanon’s armed forces have largely kept to the sidelines in the latest conflict. The army is not powerful enough to impose its will on Hezbollah or to resist Israel’s ground invasion.