The Latest | Overnight strike kills 9 in Khan Younis, hours after Israel ordered a mass evacuation

An Israeli strike has killed at least nine people in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Palestinian health officials said Tuesday, within a day of Israel ordering parts of the city to evacuate ahead of a likely ground operation.

The overnight strike hit a home near the European Hospital, which is inside the zone that Israel said should be evacuated. After the initial evacuation orders, the military said the facility itself was not included, but its director says most patients and medics have already been relocated.

Sam Rose, the director of planning at the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said Tuesday that the agency believes some 250,000 people are in the evacuation zone — over 10% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million — including many who have fled earlier fighting. He says another 50,000 people living just outside the zone may also choose to leave because of their proximity to the fighting. Evacuees have been told to seek refuge in a sprawling tent camp along the coast that is already overcrowded and has few basic services.

Israel launched the war in Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.

Since then, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,900 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and basic goods to Gaza, and people there are now totally dependent on aid. The top U.N. court has concluded there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza — a charge Israel strongly denies.

Currently:

— Israel orders Palestinians to flee Khan Younis, signaling a likely new assault on the southern Gaza city.

— Turkey’s president accuses opposition of stoking racism after anti-Syrian rioting erupts.

— Lawsuit accuses Iran, Syria and North Korea of providing support for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

— Iranian presidential candidates accuse each other of having no plan or experience ahead of runoff.

— Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Here’s the latest:

Israel will power a desalination plant in Gaza but water in the territory will remain limited

JERUSALEM — Israel says it will begin to power a major desalination plant in the southern Gaza Strip, a move that Israeli officials say could increase the amount of water produced by the plant.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant this week officially approved the plan to run a new power line to the desalination plant in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. The plant is a major source of clean water for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians crowded into the neighboring areas, many of whom were displaced by Israeli evacuation orders.

COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, said the plan could quadruple the amount of water the plant is able to produce. Water is scarce in Gaza as summer approaches, with many Palestinians lining up for hours on end for a jug of water to be shared among an entire family. Israeli bombardment has decimated much of the strip’s water system.

UNICEF, the U.N. agency running the plant, confirmed an agreement had been reached with Israel. The agency said the plan to deliver power to the plant was “an important milestone,” and said it was “very much looking forward to seeing it implemented.”

The move is unlikely to solve the water crisis in Gaza. Even before the war, desalination plans accounted for only a fraction of the potable water in the strip. The territory’s main water source, a coastal aquifer, has been overpumped and almost none of its water is drinkable.

Israel taps a critic of the International Court of Justice as its ad hoc judge in the genocide case brought by South Africa

JERUSALEM — Israel has tapped a professor critical of the International Court of Justice to be its ad hoc judge in the case before the court accusing Israel of genocide.

On Tuesday, Israeli officials confirmed the appointment of Ron Shapira to replace Aharon Barak, a former chief justice of Israel’s highest court who had served on the panel. Barak stepped down from the ICJ post in June, citing family reasons.

Shapira, the rector of the Peres Academic Center and a former Dean of the Faculty of Law at Bar-Ilan University, has called the court “a body that almost all residents of Israel think is unworthy of any level of trust” on his personal Facebook page, according to reports in Israeli media. Now, Shapira will be part of the panel of judges on that same court charged with adjudicating South Africa’s claim that Israel’s offensive in Gaza constitutes genocide.

Israel denies South Africa’s allegations, saying it is waging a war of self-defense against Hamas, the Palestinian militant group whose Oct. 7 attack triggered the war.

In May, the court ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, an order that Israel has ignored.

2 Israeli soldiers are killed and a third wounded fighting in central Gaza, military says

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says two of its soldiers have been killed and a third soldier was severely wounded fighting in central Gaza. It did not provide details of the battle in a statement issued Tuesday.

The Islamic Jihad militant group said it shelled Israeli supply lines Monday in the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza. The army carved out the corridor, which stretches from the border to the sea, early on in the war to sever northern Gaza from the south.

It was not possible to independently confirm battlefield reports from either side.

The military says 674 soldiers have been killed since the start of the war in Gaza, more than half of them in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that triggered the fighting.

At least 9 are killed in an Israeli strike overnight in southern Gaza

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Palestinian health officials say an Israeli strike has killed at least nine people in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

The overnight strike came after Israel ordered the evacuation of parts of the city Monday ahead of a likely ground operation.

Records at Nasser Hospital, where the dead and wounded were taken, show that three children and two women were among those killed. Associated Press reporters at the hospital counted the bodies.

The strike hit a home near the European Hospital, which is inside the zone that Israel said should be evacuated. After the initial evacuation orders, the military said the facility itself was not included, but its director says most patients and medics have already been relocated.

The military said it launched retaliatory strikes after Palestinian militants fired a barrage of some 20 projectiles into Israel from Khan Younis on Monday. There were no reports of casualties or damage from the rocket attack. The main United Nations agency providing aid in Gaza says the latest evacuation orders apply to some 250,000 people, many of whom have already been displaced. That’s more than 10% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.

About 250,000 people live in the latest mass-evacuation zone ordered by Israel, UNRWA official says

BEIRUT — A United Nations official says around 250,000 people live in the areas in southern Gaza where Israel has ordered another mass evacuation.

The Israeli military on Monday ordered new evacuations in and around the city of Khan Younis, which suffered widespread devastation during an offensive earlier in the year. It was the third mass evacuation ordered in less than three months.

Sam Rose, the director of planning at the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said Tuesday that the agency believes some 250,000 people are in the evacuation zone — over 10% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million — including many who have fled earlier fighting. He says another 50,000 people living just outside the zone may also choose to leave because of their proximity to the fighting. Evacuees have been told to seek refuge in a sprawling tent camp along the coast that is already overcrowded and has few basic services.

Issam Shahwan, the director of the European Hospital located within the evacuation zone, said the facility was nearly evacuated, with the last patients and medics awaiting transport to other medical facilities. After issuing the initial evacuation order, the military clarified that the European Hospital did not need to evacuate.

Palestinian militants fired a barrage of around 20 projectiles at Israel from Khan Younis on Monday, without causing any casualties or damage.

Over a million Palestinians fled the southern city of Rafah in May after Israel launched operations there. Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to areas of Gaza where they had previously operated. Palestinians and aid groups say nowhere in the territory feels safe.

Liora Argamani, mother of a freed hostage, dies at 61, less than a month after being reunited with her daughter

JERUSALEM — The mother of a well-known Israeli hostage who was freed from captivity in Gaza in a recent rescue operation has died, the Ichilov Hospital said in a brief statement Tuesday.

Liora Argamani, 61, who had Stage 4 brain cancer, had pleaded for the release of her daughter, Noa, saying she wanted to see her only child before she died.

Noa Argamani, who emerged as an icon of the hostage crisis after a video from the Oct. 7 Hamas attack showed her being forced onto a motorbike and shouting at her captors not to kill her, was freed along with three other hostages in early June in an Israeli military operation in central Gaza. Palestinian health officials said at least 274 Palestinians were killed.

The two were reunited, but Yaakov Argamani, Noa’s father, said Liora was in a “very difficult situation” and barely registered seeing her daughter, Israeli media reported.

Hamas took around 250 hostages in its surprise attack into Israel and is still holding around 120 after most of the rest were released during a cease-fire in November. Around a third of those still held are believed to be dead. Some 1,200 people were killed in the attack. Israel’s ongoing offensive, launched in response, has killed at least 37,900 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and fighters in their count.