Israel-Hamas war latest: ‘Complex operation’ by Israeli forces to free a hostage in Gaza

Israeli forces conducted a “complex operation” to free a hostage in Gaza, the military said Tuesday.

Qaid Farhan Alkadi was abducted during the October attack by Hamas that sparked the war in Gaza. Overjoyed family members sprinted through the hospital where he was brought after they received the news of the rescue.

It brought a rare moment of joy to Israelis after nearly 11 months of war. Dozens of hostages remain in captivity despite international efforts to broker a cease-fire and secure their release. After the latest high-level cease-fire talks came to a halt in Cairo on Sunday, negotiations are expected to soon resume in the Qatari capital of Doha.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says Israel’s offensive has killed more than 40,000 people in Gaza. The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people.

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Houthi rebels blocking efforts to help Greek-flagged tanker that’s ablaze in the Red Sea

WASHINGTON — Efforts to reach and assist the Greek-flagged tanker that remains ablaze in the Red Sea have been blocked by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters that the U.S. is “aware of a third party that attempted to send two tugs to the vessel to help salvage, but they were warned away by the Houthis and threatened with being attacked.”

He did not identify the “third party,” but said the Houthis’ actions demonstrate “their blatant disregard for not only human life, but also for the potential environmental catastrophe that this presents.”

He said U.S. Central Command has been monitoring the situation to determine how best to assist the Sounion, which is loaded with 150,000 tons (136,000 metric tons) of Iraqi crude oil, and mitigate any environmental impact.

Right now, however, there are no U.S. Navy ships in the Red Sea or nearby in the Gulf of Aden.

Biden’s top Mideast adviser meets with Qatari leaders

DOHA, Qatar — President Joe Biden’s top Middle East adviser on Tuesday held talks in Doha with senior Qatari leaders on the ongoing efforts to complete a cease-fire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, according to a U.S. official.

White House senior adviser Brett McGurk’s meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani comes after the prime minister traveled to Tehran to speak with Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday.

The talks also come as ongoing cease-fire talks to pause the war between Israel and Hamas are set to shift to Doha after several days of intense negotiations in Cairo.

The official, who was not authorized to discuss the sensitive talks and spoke on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that McGurk met with the Qatari officials and discussed the negotiations and the prime minister’s recent meeting with Iran’s president.

Tensions have been escalating between Israel and Iran, and with militant groups — Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis — that are backed by Tehran. Iran has vowed to retaliate against Israel for last month’s assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.

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Associated Press reporter Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.

Site of negotiations to move from Egypt to Qatar, US official says

WASHINGTON — Ongoing talks aimed at bringing about a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in the 10-month Israel-Hamas war in Gaza are shifting to the Qatari capital of Doha after several days of intense negotiations in Cairo, according to a U.S. official.

A round of high-level talks in Cairo meant to bring about a cease-fire and hostage deal to at least create a temporary pause in the war ended Sunday without a final agreement. Those talks included CIA director William Burns and David Barnea, the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency. A Hamas delegation was briefed by Egyptian and Qatari mediators but have not directly taken part in negotiations.

But lower-level working teams had remained in Cairo as media as mediators from the United States, Qatar, and Egypt in hopes to address remaining disagreements.

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly, said White House Middle East adviser Brett McGurk, who has been a key U.S. negotiator, has arrived in Doha and is expected to take part in the talks.

The official did not offer explanation for why the parties have decided to move the talks. Both Cairo and Doha have served as hosts for talks aimed at ending the war throughout the conflict.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s office confirmed that an Israeli delegation will head to Doha on Wednesday. They did not release further details about who will be traveling or what is on the agenda.

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Associated Press reporter Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.

Israeli military says it rescues hostage abducted in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it has rescued a hostage who was among scores of people abducted in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

The military said on Tuesday that Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, was rescued “in a complex operation in the southern Gaza Strip.”

Hamas-led militants abucted about 250 people in the Oct. 7 attack, in which around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who don’t say how many of them were fighters. The offensive has displaced 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes and caused heavy destruction across the besieged territory.

Hamas is still holding around 110 hostages, about a third of whom are believed to be dead. Most of the rest were released in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a cease-fire last November.

Jewish settlers rampage in Israeli-occupied West Bank, killing 1, Palestinian officials say

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian officials say Jewish settlers rampaged through a town in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, fatally shooting a Palestinian and wounding three others.

The Israeli military said its forces opened fire to disperse clashes between Israelis and Palestinians, and that it was investigating the reported fatality.

Settler violence has surged since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza, which ignited the war there. Israeli troops have also carried out near-nightly raids in the West Bank in which hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, and there has been a rise in attacks on Israelis.

Hamdi Ziyada, head of the local council in Wadi Rahal, said settlers entered the village near Bethlehem late Monday and hurled rocks at homes and cars. He says one of the settlers fired live rounds, killing and wounding the four people. The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the casualties.

He said Israeli forces arrived more than a half-hour after the violence began and removed the settlers. He said it was not the first time settlers had attacked the village.

The Israeli military said Palestinians had thrown rocks at an Israeli vehicle and at Israeli civilians in the area. It said fighting broke out between the two sides and that Israeli troops “opened fire toward the rioters.”

Palestinians and rights groups have long accused Israeli forces of turning a blind eye or openly supporting settler violence in the West Bank.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 war, territories the Palestinians want for a future state.

Over 500,000 Jewish settlers live in scores of settlements across the territory that most of the international community considers illegal. The territory’s 3 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited control over population centers. The settlers have Israeli citizenship.

Iran’s supreme leader opens door to negotiations with US over Tehran’s nuclear program

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s supreme leader has opened the door to renewed negotiations with the United States over his country’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, telling its civilian government there was “no barrier” to engaging with its “enemy.”

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s remarks on Tuesday set clear red lines for any talks taking place under the government of reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian and renewed his warnings that America wasn’t to be trusted.

But his comments mirror those around the time of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which saw Tehran’s nuclear program greatly curtailed in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

“We do not have to pin our hope to the enemy. For our plans, we should not wait for approval by the enemies,” Khamenei said in a video broadcast by state television. “It is not contradictory to engage the same enemy in some places, there’s no barrier.”

Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, also warned Pezeshkian’s Cabinet, “Do not trust the enemy.”

Khamenei, 85, has occasionally urged talks or dismissed them with the U.S. after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the deal.

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff meets with Israeli defense leaders

TEL AVIV, Israel — Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with top Israeli defense leaders on Monday, and visited the military’s Northern Command headquarters.

Navy Capt. Jereal Dorsey, Brown’s spokesperson, said the chairman met with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Israeli Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi in Tel Aviv, and he participated in operational updates with Israeli Defense Force senior leaders.

“The leaders reaffirmed the importance of the U.S.-Israeli strategic partnership while also discussing the most recent engagement across the Israeli-Lebanese border and the need to de-escalate tensions to avoid a broader conflict,” said Dorsey.

He said they also discussed Israel’s need to defend itself as well as the need to get more humanitarian support into Gaza and the importance of minimizing civilian casualties. Dorsey said they talked about Brown’s recent meetings with other partners in the region. He visited Jordan and Egypt.

He said the U.S. “continues to coordinate with Israel and other allies and partners on ways to improve regional security and stability, protect U.S. forces in the Middle East, and deter a broader conflict.”

Gallant’s office said the Israeli defense chief thanked Brown for “his unequivocal commitment to Israel’s security,” including through the deployment of U.S. forces in the Middle East.

Israeli airstrike kills 5 Palestinians in the West Bank, health officials say

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian health officials say an Israeli airstrike has killed five Palestinians in the northern West Bank.

The military said late Monday that it struck an “operations room” used by militants in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the city of Tulkarem. Palestinian health officials said five bodies arrived at a nearby hospital.

Neither Palestinian health officials nor the military immediately identified those killed.

It’s the latest violence to occur in the West Bank, where around 640 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, most from Israeli raids into Palestinian cities and towns.