Israel-Hamas war latest: Hamas chooses Oct. 7 mastermind as their new leader as wider war feared

The Palestinian militant group Hamas said Tuesday it has chosen Yahya Sinwar, its top official in Gaza who masterminded the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, as its new leader. The choice of the hardliner was a defiant move by Hamas, whose political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Iran last week in a presumed Israeli strike.

Meanwhile, at least 19 people including six soldiers were wounded in northern Israel on Tuesday after Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants launched drone attacks, emergency officials said, as world leaders try to stop tensions in the Middle East from boiling over into a regional war.

Most of the people were hurt by an Israeli interceptor rocket that missed and hit the ground. Local authorities issued sweeping new guidelines in northern Israel for all residents to “avoid all non-vital activity and to stay near a safe area” until further notice. Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months during the war in Gaza.

Efforts continue around the region to prevent the war from becoming a wider conflict after the killings last week of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet over the weekend that Israel is already in a “multi-front war” with Iran and its proxies.

Inside Gaza, the only corridor for humanitarian aid to enter the south has been shut down because of fighting in the area. The Palestinian territory faces a severe humanitarian crisis as its Health Ministry says the death toll in the war approaches 40,000.

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Here’s the latest:

Hamas’ new political leader has the power to ensure that a cease-fire deal is reached, Blinken says

WASHINGTON — Reacting to Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack, becoming Hamas’ new political leader, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sinwar has the power to ensure that a cease-fire deal is reached.

Sinwar “has been and remains the primary decider when it comes to concluding the cease-fire, and so I think this (today’s announcement) only underscores the fact that it’s really on him to decide whether to move forward with a cease-fire that manifestly will help so many Palestinians in desperate need, women, children, men who are caught in a crossfire,” Blinken said. “… It really is on him.”

U.S. sends Navy fighter jets to a base in the Middle East to help protect Israel

WASHINGTON — About a dozen F/A-18 fighter jets from the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier have flown to a military base in the Middle East, as part of the Pentagon’s effort to help defend Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its proxies and to safeguard U.S. troops, according to a U.S. official.

The F/A-18s and a E-2D Hawkeye surveillance aircraft took off from the carrier in the Gulf of Oman and arrived at the undisclosed base on Monday, said the official.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the increased military presence in the region as officials worry about escalating violence in the Middle East in the wake of the killings last week of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran, in suspected Israeli strikes. Both groups are backed by Iran.

The Navy jets’ land-based deployment is expected to be temporary, because a squadron of Air Force F-22 fighter jets is enroute to the same base from their home station in Alaska. The roughly dozen F-22s are expected to arrive in the Middle East in the coming days, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements.

It’s not clear how long all of the aircraft will remain together at the base, and that may depend on what — if anything — happens in the next few days.

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Associated Press writer Lolita Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

Israeli Olympians receive threats in Paris

PARIS — Israel’s Olympic team said some athletes have received threats as they compete in Paris amid larger tensions over Palestinian deaths during the war in Gaza and the threat of a wider regional conflict in the Middle East.

Yael Arad, president of the Israeli National Olympic Committee, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that team members had received “centralized” threats meant to generate “psychological terror” in athletes, without giving further details.

Last week, Paris prosecutors opened an investigation into emailed death threats to Israeli athletes, and the national cybercrime agency is looking into the leak of some Israeli athletes’ personal data online, which has since been taken down. Prosecutors also launched an inquiry into inciting racial hated after Israeli athletes received ’’discriminatory gestures” during an Israel-Paraguay match.

Tom Reuveny, a 24-year-old Israeli athlete who won a gold in wind surfing over the weekend, was among those who said he’s received threats. Politics “should be put aside” during the Games, he told AP during a memorial Tuesday for 11 Israeli athletes killed during the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany.

Israel confirms the death of the only person who was still missing from the Oct. 7 attack

The Israeli military announced on Tuesday that it had confirmed the death of the only person still considered missing from the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

The army said it had officially informed the family of Bilha Ynon that she was not alive, after a committee of health experts, IDF and police officials and Israel’s chief rabbi had determined that she was murdered on Oct. 7. The conclusion followed “an extensive investigative effort” and testing of new evidence found in the area of Ynon’s home in the community of Netiv Ha’asara, the army said.

The Hamas border attack that triggered the ongoing Gaza war killed 1,200 people and saw some 250 others taken hostage, 110 of which are still held in Gaza. Over a third of the hostages in captivity are believed to be dead.

Israeli says it rema

ins committed to killing Hamas’ new political leader

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military’s chief spokesperson said Israel remains committed to killing Yahya Sinwar, in response to news about his election as leader of Hamas’ political bureau.

“There is only one place for Yahya Sinwar, and it is beside Mohammed Deif and the rest of the October 7th terrorists,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in an interview with Saudi news channel Al-Arabiya.

Israel said it killed Deif, the head of Hamas’ military wing, in a huge strike in southern Gaza last month. Hamas has not confirmed Deif’s death.

Sinwar, who is Hamas’ chief in Gaza, is considered along with Deif to be the chief architect of the deadly Oct. 7, on southern Israel, the act that sparked the Israel-Hamas.

Since then, Israel has repeatedly vowed to kill him.

“Yahya Sinwar is a terrorist, who is responsible for the most brutal terrorist attack in history — October 7th,” Hagari said during the interview with Al-Arabiya.

Hamas’ new leader is Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the Oct. 7 attacks

BEIRUT — The Palestinian militant group Hamas said Tuesday it has chosen Yahya Sinwar, its top official in Gaza who masterminded the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, as its new leader.

The choice of Sinwar, a secretive figure who leads Hamas’ hardliners and is close to Iran, was a defiant step. Sinwar is at the top of Israel’s kill list as it seeks to destroy Hamas and its leadership after the Oct. 7 attack in which militants killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took about 250 as hostages.

Hamas said in a statement it named Sinwar as the new head of its political bureau to replace Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Iran last week in a presumed Israeli strike.

Unlike Haniyeh, who had lived in exile in Qatar for years, Sinwar has remained in Gaza. As Hamas’ leader in the territory since 2017, he rarely appeared in public but kept an iron grip on Hamas’ rule. Close to the armed wing, known as the Qassam Brigades, he worked to build up the group’s military capabilities.

Sinwar has been in deep hiding since the Oct. 7 attacks, while Israel unleashed its campaign in Gaza and the death toll among Palestinians, now near 40,000, rose.

Biden and Egypt’s El-Sisi speak about ‘final stage’ of negotiations

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Tuesday about their hopes of calming tensions in the Middle East through a cease-fire and hostage release deal.

In a statement, the White House said negotiations “have now reached a final stage,” and that Biden and El-Sisi “agreed on the urgency of bringing the process to closure as soon as possible.”

Israeli airstike on house in central Gaza kills 3, injures 20 others

DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA — Three Palestinian men were killed and 20 other people were injured late Tuesday afternoon after an Israeli airstrike hit a house in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

The chaotic scene at Al-Aqsa hospital where the victims were taken showed an injured man taken out of an ambulance on a stretcher and crowds inside the hospital where one man with apparent severe injuries to the arms and legs laid on a stretcher.

Several people could be seen using a blanket to transfer one wounded person. An injured woman and child were also taken inside the hospital.

Ambulances continued to transfer victims of the strike to Al-Aqsa hospital, including one man whose body was almost completely bloodied. Inside the hospital morgue, all three men laid on the floor as their loved ones bid them farewell.

Footage by the Associated Press showed massive destruction where the house was struck with several buildings also being severely damaged.

Egypt working with China to reduce tensions in the Middle East

CAIRO — Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty on Tuesday told his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi over the phone that efforts are being exerted to reduce tensions in the Middle East amid Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.

Abdelatty also warned against the risks of an expanded conflict that could destabilize the region and its security, according to a statement released by the Egyptian foreign ministry.

The Egyptian minister confirmed during his call that Egypt is collaborating with China as well as regional and international leaders to “stop the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip.”

He also pointed out that Israel’s policy of “political assassinations and violations of states’ sovereignty has worsened the crisis and significantly increased regional tension.”

Palestinians in Gaza still struggling to get food and clean water

KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA — Palestinians in Gaza are still struggling to secure food and clean water for their families as Israel continues to restrict the entry of life-saving aid.

Children in Khan Younis have to line up for a long time to get food at charity kitchens and fill up 10 liters (2.6 gallons) of water in plastic containers — hardly enough for large families. Water has become severely scarce in Gaza after water wells across the enclave were destroyed in Israeli airstrikes.

“Life here is unbearable,” Ghalia Hamouda, a woman displaced from Beit Lahiya, told The Associated Press. “There is no water. We don’t have charity kitchens. Our children have been sick all day … and stomach cramps never go away.”

A woman from a displaced family cooked white beans in thin tomato sauce over a basic stove as seven relatives gathered around to eat two plates of the beans with pieces of bread.

“My son is young. He runs a distance of around 2 kilometers to reach a charity kitchen to get food and sometimes he comes back with only his tears and he’s empty-handed because he couldn’t get his turn in line to get food,” Rafat Abed Al-Dayem said.

Al-Dayem said his family gets around 20 liters to 40 liters (5.3 to 10.5 gallons) of “not drinkable” water: “We only drink it because we are thirsty.”

Last month, UN experts declared that famine has spread throughout the Gaza Strip as they reported cases of malnutrition and dehydration.

“We’re deprived from everything, including aid which we don’t see. Where is the humanitarian aid?” said Rahaf Al-Refi, a woman displaced from Gaza City.

Hezbollah vows to retaliate against Israel for Beirut airstrike

BEIRUT — The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group vowed to retaliate against Israel for its recent airstrike in Beirut that killed a top commander, “no matter what the consequences are.”

Hassan Nasrallah said Hezbollah could either act unilaterally or in unity with its allies in the so-called “axis of resistance” that includes Iran and its proxies in Iraq, Yemen and Syria.

Tension has been rising in the Middle East since last week’s attacks in which a top military commander Fouad Shukur was killed in Beirut and a Hamas political leader was killed in Iran.

Israel said it killed Shukur but did not claim or deny the rocket attack that killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was visiting Tehran.

“The Israelis chose escalation by carrying out assassinations,” Nasrallah said. He said Hezbollah will not be silent regarding the Beirut airstrike.

He added that Israel has been on high alert since last week while waiting for Hezbollah’s retaliation, adding that making them wait “is part of the punishment.”

Shortly before Nasrallah gave his speech, Israeli warplanes flew over Beirut twice Tuesday afternoon, shaking buildings and increasing anxiety among the capital’s residents. It came two days after the Lebanese marked the fourth anniversary of the massive port blast in Beirut that killed more than 200 people, wounded thousands and caused wide destruction.

At least 19 hurt in northern Israel after Hezbollah launches drone strikes

NAHARIYA, Israel — At least 19 people including six soldiers have been wounded in northern Israel after Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants launched drone attacks, emergency officials said. Most were hurt by an Israeli interceptor rocket that missed and hit the ground.

The attack did not appear to be linked to Hezbollah’s vow to avenge the killing of one of its top commanders in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut last week, which has raised fears of an all-out war. Still, local authorities issued sweeping new guidelines in northern Israel for all residents to “avoid all non-vital activity and to stay near a safe area” until further notice.

Tuesday’s strikes appeared to be part of the near-daily exchanges of fire across the Israeli-Lebanon border. Hezbollah says its rocket and drone barrages since the start of the war in Gaza are an act of solidarity with the Palestinians.

An Israeli airstrike earlier Tuesday killed four people in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities.

Hezbollah’s drones targeted sites near the coastal town of Nahariya, the military said. It said an interceptor missed its target in one case, falling and injuring a number of people. The Nahariya Medical Center said 12 people were hurt in that incident, including one seriously. Seven others were injured in another drone strike, the center said.

Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli army bases after an Israeli strike Monday killed a lower-level commander in southern Lebanon.

Ultra-Orthodox protesters enter Israeli military base, objecting to draft order

JERUSALEM — Ultra-Orthodox protesters have jumped barriers and broken through fences to storm an Israeli military recruitment base in another demonstration against their impending enlistment.

A landmark Supreme Court order said young religious men must begin enlisting for military service. Under long-standing political arrangements, ultra-Orthodox men had been exempt from the draft that is compulsory for most Jewish men.

In videos aired on Hebrew media, at least a dozen men could be seen wandering through the woods at the base. Others could be seen scuffling with police on horseback. Israeli police said 21 people were arrested and three policemen were injured. The military condemned the violent behavior and called the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox “an operational necessity.”

Hezbollah launches drone attack in northern Israel, wounding at least 7

NAHARIYA, Israel — Lebanon’s Hezbollah launched a drone attack Tuesday on northern Israel, wounding at least seven people, in response to the killing of one of its fighters in an Israeli airstrike.

The attack did not appear to be linked to Hezbollah’s vow to avenge the killing of one of its top commanders in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut the previous week, which has raised fears of an all-out war.

Hezbollah has launched near-daily drone and rocket attacks since the start of the Gaza war in what it says is an act of solidarity with the Palestinians. Israel has responded with airstrikes, one of which killed four people in southern Lebanon earlier Tuesday, according to Lebanese authorities.

Hezbollah said it launched a drone attack targeting army bases in northern Israel in retaliation for the killing of a lower-level commander in a strike late Monday.

Gal Zaid, spokesperson for Galilee Medical Center, said it was treating one severely wounded person and four others with mild injuries. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said it was treating seven wounded in three locations in Western Galilee.

The Israeli military said “a number” of drones entered from Lebanon, one of which was intercepted. It said several civilians were wounded near the coastal town of Nahariya, some 6 kilometers (4 miles) south of the border, without giving a precise number.

The only humanitarian air corridor into southern Gaza is shut down

JERUSALEM — The only corridor for humanitarian aid to enter southern Gaza has been shut down, apparently because of fighting in the area.

The Israeli military said the humanitarian route leading from the crossing into the city of Rafah was closed Tuesday until further notice after anti-tank missiles were fired at troops and multiple soldiers were wounded. It said the Kerem Shalom crossing was open.

Hamas’ armed wing said it attacked an Israeli tank in the area. It is not possible to confirm battlefield reports in Gaza.

The Palestinian territory has been plunged into a severe humanitarian crisis in the war ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel. The vast majority of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have been displaced by the fighting, often multiple times, and hundreds of thousands are sheltering in crowded, squalid tent camps. International experts said in June that Gaza was at “high risk” of famine.

Aid groups say efforts to bring in desperately needed food and supplies have been hindered by Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order.

An Israeli strike on a village in south Lebanon kills 4, Health Ministry says

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Health Ministry says an Israeli airstrike on a village in the country’s south killed four people. The ministry said Tuesday’s airstrike targeted a home in the village of Maifadoun near the market town of Nabatiye.

It was not immediately clear if the dead were civilians or militants.

Since early October, Hezbollah began attacking Israeli military posts along the border calling it a backup front for their Palestinian allies in the Gaza Strip. Since then, more than 500 people have been killed in Lebanon, including around 90 civilians. On the Israeli side, 22 soldiers and 24 civilians have been killed.

An Israeli officer is stabbed on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Israeli police say

JERUSALEM — Israeli police say a stabbing at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem lightly wounded one Border Police officer.

Police said that the attack occurred after Israeli officers at the checkpoint asked passengers to disembark from a bus for what it called a “routine check.” One of the passengers then stabbed a Border Police officer with a screwdriver.

Military Police immediately shot and killed the attacker, police said without identifying the assailant. Israel’s rescue services said the 20-year-old female officer wounded in the attack was fully conscious and was being transferred to the hospital.

Violence has surged in the occupied West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack triggered the war in Gaza. More than 600 Palestinians have been killed, mostly in military raids, gun battles between the army and militants, and violent protests. Palestinians have carried out a number of attacks against Israelis, including stabbings at checkpoints.

10 Palestinians are killed and 10 wounded in Israeli raids in the West Bank

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian officials say 10 Palestinians were killed, including four teenagers, and another 10 were wounded by Israeli fire during military raids and operations across the north of the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Tuesday that four people, including two 19-year-olds and a 14-year-old, were killed in an overnight raid in the village of Aqaaba in the northern West Bank. It said another four people, including an 18-year-old, were killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in Jenin — a frequent flashpoint — where the Islamic Jihad militant group said its fighters were battling the army.

Meanwhile two more Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces in the village of Kafr Qud, near Jenin, later Tuesday, the ministry said.

Israel’s military said it “eliminated four terrorists” with an airstrike in the Jenin area and that it and border police “eliminated” seven others it said threw explosive devices at security forces or tried to plant explosives. It said a soldier was injured during the operation.

Israel has carried out near-daily military raids across the West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. Palestinians from the West Bank have carried out a number of attacks on Israelis. The Health Ministry says over 600 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the start of the war. Most were killed during military arrest raids and violent protests.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state. The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority exercising limited control over population centers. Over 500,000 Jewish settlers, who live in scores of settlements across the territory that most of the international community views as illegal or illegitimate, have Israeli citizenship.

Australia’s prime minister condemns Iranian ambassador’s comments on social media as ‘abhorrent’

SYDNEY — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday condemned as “abhorrent” an Iranian ambassador’s social media comment on Israel.

Albanese said ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi had been called in for a meeting with Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials over his recent post on the social media platform X.

Sadeghi cites Hamas spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin advocating that “wiping out the Zionist plague out of the holy lands of Palestine happens no later than 2027.” Sadeghi added: “Looking forward to such a heavenly & divine promise Inshaa-Allah.” The Arabic expression means “if God wills.”

Albanese told reporters: “I make it clear: There’s no place for the sort of comments that were made online on social media by the Iranian ambassador.”

“They’re abhorrent. And they are hateful, they are antisemitic and they have no place,” Albanese added.

Asked by a reporters if the ambassador should be expelled from Australia, Albanese did not directly answer.

The Iranian Embassy in Australia later told The Associated Press in an email that Sadeghi’s post “has nothing to do with Jewish People, anti-Semitism or raising hate speech or violent ways.”