Israeli military tells Palestinians not to return to north Gaza after witnesses say troops killed 5

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli military renewed warnings on Monday for Palestinians not to return to northern Gaza, a day after witnesses and medical officials said Israeli troops opened fire and killed five people among throngs of displaced residents trying to walk back to their homes in the devastated area.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were driven from the north after Israeli forces first launched their offensive there soon after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. In the months of fighting since, vast parts of the north have been flattened, including much of Gaza City. After months of Israeli restrictions on aid to the north, some 300,000 who remained there are on the brink of famine, according to the United Nations.

Still, many Palestinians have wanted to go back, saying they are sick of the conditions they endured in displacement. For months, families have been crammed into tent camps, schools-turned-shelters and homes of relatives throughout the south of the Gaza Strip. Some also fear remaining in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost town, as Israel says it plans to attack it eventually to root out Hamas.

Late Monday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met with top officials to work on preparations for the Rafah invasion, his office said. The international community, including the United States, have voice strong objections to the planned offensive, saying it will endanger the estimated 1.4 million Palestinians sheltered in Rafah.

Gallant's office said Monday's meeting included plans for evacuating civilians and expanding deliveries of food and medical equipment to Gaza.

Israel, which has reduced the number of its troops across Gaza, has repeatedly rejected calls to let Palestinians back to the north of the territory, saying Hamas militants continue to operate there. The military says it has loosened the militants' control over the north, but it is still carrying out airstrikes and raids against what it says are reorganizing militants. Last month, Israeli troops raided Gaza’s main hospital, Shifa, in two weeks of fighting that left the facility in ruins.

Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that Palestinians should stay in southern Gaza because the north is a “dangerous combat zone.”

People appeared to be heeding the new warning, especially after Sunday’s shootings.

On Sunday, thousands of Palestinians tried going up Gaza’s coastal road back to the north, most on foot and some on the backs of donkey carts. Some said they had heard rumors that Israeli troops were allowing people to enter the north.

“We want our homes. We want our lives. We want to return, whether with a truce or without a truce,” said Um Nidhal Khatab, who was among those trying to return home.

Several witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire as the crowds neared checkpoints at Wadi Gaza, the line that the military has drawn separating northern Gaza from the rest of the territory. Five people were killed and 54 wounded, according to officials at nearby Awda Hospital in central Gaza, where the casualties were brought.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment. It was not clear what triggered the shooting.

Farida Al-Ghoul, 27, said that as she and her family neared the checkpoint, she saw a woman rushing back with blood on her telling them not to continue. Ignoring her, they kept going ahead, but soon there was heavy gunfire and shelling around them. She said she saw Israeli troops shooting.

She and another witness said the troops were letting some women and children through to go north but opened fire when some young men tried to pass.

“People on the side were falling down,” al-Ghoul said. “When we saw these scenes, we decided to turn back and never try again.”

Karam Abu Jasser said he, his wife and four children, were among the crowd and they heard gunshots and shelling from up ahead at the checkpoint. “People were panicked, especially women and children. There were many women and children. We ran away,” Abu Jasser said, speaking from a shelter in central Gaza.

He said his family wanted to return home to the Jabalia refugee camp in the north, even though they know their house was hit and damaged.

“We’ll have to live in a tent, but it will be at our home,” he said. “There is bombing everywhere in Gaza. If we will die, it’s better to die in our home.”

The return of the population to northern Gaza has been a key sticking point between Israel and Hamas in negotiations underway for a cease-fire deal that would bring the release of hostages taken by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attack.

Israel wants to try to delay the return to prevent militants from regrouping in the north, while Hamas says it wants a free flow of returnees, a full withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza and an end to the war.

“The permanent ceasefire is the only guarantee to protect our people and stop the flow of blood and massacres,” Izzat al-Risheq, a top Hamas official, said in a statement.

The war has had a staggering toll on civilians in Gaza, with most of the territory’s 2.3 million people displaced by the fighting and living in dire circumstances, often in tents and with little food and no end in sight to their misery. Large swaths of the urban landscape have been damaged or destroyed, leaving many displaced Palestinians with nowhere to return to.

Six months of fighting in Gaza have pushed the tiny Palestinian territory into a humanitarian crisis, leaving more than 1 million people on the brink of starvation.

Famine is said to be imminent in the hard-hit north, where aid has struggled to reach because of the fighting. Israel has opened a new crossing for aid trucks into the north as it ramps up aid deliveries to the besieged enclave. However, the United Nations says the surge of aid is not being felt in Gaza because of persistent distribution difficulties.

The U.N. food agency on Monday said it managed to deliver fuel and wheat flour to a bakery in isolated Gaza City in the north for the first time since the war started.

The conflict started on Oct. 7, when Hamas killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in a surprise attack and incursion into southern Israel. Around 250 people were seized as hostages by the militants and taken to Gaza. A deal in November freed about 100 hostages, leaving about 130 in captivity, although Israel says about a quarter of those are dead.

Israeli bombardments and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 33,700 Palestinians and wounded over 76,200, the Gaza Health Ministry says. Women and children make up around two-thirds of the dead, according to the ministry, whose count doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Israel says it has killed over 12,000 militants during the war, but it has not provided evidence to back up the claim.

Magdy reported from Cairo.

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

Israeli soldiers stand next to personnel carriers (APC) near the Israeli-Gaza border, in southern Israel, Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Israeli soldiers talk near the Israeli-Gaza border, in southern Israel, Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Israeli soldiers stand next to personnel carriers (APC) near the Israeli-Gaza border, in southern Israel, Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Parachutes drop supplies into the northern Gaza Strip, seen from southern Israel, Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

A Palestinian woman kisses Yazan Shtayyeh,17, killed in an Israeli military raid, just befor his funeral in West Bank village of Salem, Near the Palestinian town of Nablus, Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

A Palestinian man kisses Yazan Shtayyeh,17, killed in an Israeli military raid, during his funeral in West Bank village of Salem, Near the Palestinian town of Nablus, Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Palestinian men prayer near to the body of Yazan Shtayyeh,17, killed in an Israeli military raid, during his funeral in West Bank village of Salem, Near the Palestinian town of Nablus, Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

A Palestinian man kisses Yazan Shtayyeh,17, killed in an Israeli military raid, during his funeral in West Bank village of Salem, Near the Palestinian town of Nablus, Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Palestinian men carry the body of Yazan Shtayyeh,17, killed in an Israeli military raid, during his funeral in West Bank village of Salem, Near the Palestinian town of Nablus, Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Israeli soldiers drive personnel carriers (APC) near the border with Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Israeli soldiers launch a drone near the Israeli-Gaza border, southern Israel, Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg

An Israeli soldier walks near the Israeli-Gaza border, in southern Israel, Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Displaced Palestinians trying to walk back from central Gaza Strip to northern Gaza Strip , Sunday, April 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians trying to walk back from central Gaza Strip to northern Gaza Strip , Sunday, April 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians trying to walk back from central Gaza Strip to northern Gaza Strip , Sunday, April 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians trying to walk back from central Gaza Strip to northern Gaza Strip , Sunday, April 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians trying to walk back from central Gaza Strip to northern Gaza Strip , Sunday, April 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians trying to walk back from central Gaza Strip to northern Gaza Strip , Sunday, April 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians trying to walk back from central Gaza Strip to northern Gaza Strip , Sunday, April 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians trying to walk back from central Gaza Strip to northern Gaza Strip , Sunday, April 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Israeli soldiers stand next to personnel carriers (APC) near the Israeli-Gaza border, in southern Israel, Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Displaced Palestinians trying to walk back from central Gaza Strip to northern Gaza Strip , Sunday, April 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

An Israeli soldier attaches an Israeli flag on top of an armoured personnel carriers (APC) near Israel's border with Gaza, in southern Israel, Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — The trial of a Massachusetts woman who allegedly killed her Boston police officer boyfriend by intentionally driving her SUV into him opened Monday with prosecutors saying a cracked taillight and her own words to firefighters that she "hit him" will prove she is guilty.

Karen Read, 44, of Mansfield, faces several charges including second degree murder in the death of John O’Keefe, 46, in 2022. The 16-year police veteran was found unresponsive outside a home of a fellow Boston police officer and later was pronounced dead at a hospital. Read has pleaded not guilty and is free on bond.

“The defendant, Karen Read, is guilty of murder in the second degree, striking the victim, Mr. O’Keefe with her car, knocking him back onto the ground, striking his head on the ground, causing the bleeding in his brain and swelling, and then leaving him there for several hours in a blizzard," Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally told the jury.

As the case unfolded, the defense's strategy has been to portray a vast conspiracy involving a police coverup. It has earned Read a loyal band of supporters — who often can be found camped out at the courthouse — and has garnered the case national attention.

“Karen Read was framed,” Read's defense attorney David Yannetti told the jury. “Her car never struck John O'Keefe. She did not cause his death and that means somebody else did.”

The couple had been to two bars on a night in January 2022, prosecutors alleged, and were then headed to a party in nearby Canton. Read said she did not feel well and decided not to attend. Once at the home, O’Keefe got out of Read's vehicle, and while she made a three-point turn, she allegedly struck him then drove away, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors haven't said where they think she went after that. However, they allege she later became frantic after she said she couldn't reach O'Keefe. She returned to the site of the party where she and two friends found O’Keefe covered in snow. While on the scene, firefighters said she told them “I hit him, I hit him, I hit him.”

He was pronounced dead at a hospital. An autopsy concluded he died from head trauma and hypothermia.

Investigators found a cracked right rear tail light near where O'Keefe was found and scratches on her SUV. Prosecutors are also expected to present evidence of injuries suffered by O'Keefe consistent with him being hit by the car and strains in the couples relationship including a “20 minute screaming match” witnessed by O'Keefe's two adopted children they had while on vacation in Aruba.

The defense have spent months arguing in court that the case was marred by conflicts of interest and accused prosecutors of presenting false and deceptive evidence to the grand jury. In a motion to dismiss the case, the defense called the prosecution's case “predicated entirely on flimsy speculation and presumption.” A Superior Court judge denied the request.

On Monday, Yannetti argued that close relationships between investigators and those in the house resulted in authorities focusing solely on Reid, whom the defense described as a “convenient outsider.”

Yannetti also claimed investigators failed to consider the possibility that O'Keefe got into a fight at the party and was left for dead outside. While not offering evidence of who was responsible, they laid out of a series of missteps in the investigation — failing to investigate a history of animosity between O'Keefe and the family who owned the home nor searching the home for evidence of a struggle.

They also are expected to provide evidence that Read's taillight was damaged when she hit O'Keefe's car hours later at their home — not at the party — and dispute that the couple had a strained relationship. They got along well that night and had made plans for several trips in the months ahead.

“You will question the Commonwealth's theory of the case,” Yannetti said. “You will question the quality of the Commonwealth's evidence. You will question the veracity of the Commonwealth's witnesses and you will question their shoddy and biased investigation.”

In August, Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey criticized suggestions that state and local enforcement were orchestrating a cover up, saying there is no evidence to support O'Keefe was in the Canton home where the party took place nor was in a fight.

The idea that multiple police departments and his office would be involved in a “vast conspiracy” in this case is “a desperate attempt to reassign guilt.”

Such comments have done little to silence Read's supporters, dozens of whom dressed in pink for the first day of the trial.

Most days, a few dozen supporters — some carrying signs or wearing shirts reading “Free Karen Read” — can be seen standing near the courthouse. Many had no connection to Read, who worked in the financial industry and taught finance at Bentley University before this case.

Among her most ardent supporters is a confrontational blogger Aidan Timothy Kearney, known as “Turtleboy." He has been charged with harassing, threatening and intimidating witnesses in the case. For months, he has raised doubts about Read's guilt on his blog that has become a popular page for those who believe Read is innocent.

Friends and family of O’Keefe fear the focus on Read and the conspiracy theories are taking away from the fact a good man was killed.

The first witness in the trial was O'Keefe's brother, Paul, who described in harrowing detail having to rush to the hospital that morning, walking past Read who was repeatedly screaming “Is he alive?" and into a room where his body was covered partially with a white sheet.

“He was pretty banged up,” Paul O'Keefe told the jury, detailing how his brother had blood running down his mouth and nose and markings on his right arm. “What really stood out to me was the eyes. It was as if there were ping pong balls under his eyelids.”

FILE - Karen Read sits in court during jury selection for her murder trial at Norfolk County Superior Court, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. Read's trial is scheduled to begin Monday, April 29. (David McGlynn//New York Post via AP, Pool,File)

FILE - Karen Read, of Mansfield, Mass., center, departs Norfolk Superior Court following a day of jury selection, April 17, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. Read's trial is scheduled to begin Monday, April 29. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

FILE - This undated photograph provided by the Boston Police Department shows Officer John O'Keefe of Canton, Mass. O'Keefe was found dead outside the home of a fellow officer in January 2022, and his girlfriend, Karen Read, has been charged with his death. Read's trial is scheduled to begin Monday, April 29, 2024. (Boston Police Department via AP, File)

Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally gives his opening statement as the murder trial for Karen Read begins in Norfolk County Superior Court, Monday, April 29, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is accused of backing her SUV into her Boston Police officer boyfriend, John O'Keefe, and leaving him to die in a blizzard in Canton, in 2022. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)

Judge Beverly J. Cannone addresses the jury before opening statements for the murder trial of Karen Read in Norfolk County Superior Court, Monday, Aapril 29, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is accused of backing her SUV into her Boston Police officer boyfriend, John O'Keefe, and leaving him to die in a blizzard in Canton, in 2022. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)

The facts of the case against Karen Read are read as the murder trial for Read begins in Norfolk County Superior Court, in front of Judge Beverly J. Cannone., Monday, April 29, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is accused of backing her SUV into her Boston Police officer boyfriend, John O'Keefe, and leaving him to die in a blizzard in Canton, in 2022. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)

Karen Read talks with lawyer David Yannetti in court during jury selection at Norfolk County Superior Court, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. (David McGlynn/New York Post via AP, Pool)

Karen Read departs Norfolk Superior Court following a day of jury selection, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Karen Read, center, departs Norfolk Superior Court following a day of jury selection, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Karen Read sits in court during jury selection at Norfolk County Superior Court, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. (David McGlynn/New York Post via AP, Pool)

Karen Read sits in court during jury selection at Norfolk County Superior Court, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. (David McGlynn/New York Post via AP, Pool)

Karen Read talks with lawyers in court during jury selection at Norfolk County Superior Court, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. (David McGlynn/New York Post via AP, Pool)

Karen Read departs Norfolk Superior Court following a day of jury selection, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)