The Latest | Largest hospital in central Gaza faces imminent shutdown due to lack of fuel

The largest hospital serving central Gaza faces imminent shutdown because it is running out of power after Israel’s military assault in Rafah severely limited entry of fuel for generators, the Health Ministry in Gaza said Thursday.

Losing Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital would leave only two hospitals operating in Deir al-Balah, according to the U.N., at a time when the town is flooded with Palestinians fleeing Rafah.

In Israel, Benny Gantz, one of three members of the War Cabinet, called for an urgent investigation into the country's failures leading to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. It's another sign of escalating divisions within the War Cabinet let by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who says Israel must focus on winning the war and only then investigate its failures.

Hamas, diminished but not deterred, is still putting up a fight after seven brutal months of war with Israel, regrouping in some of the hardest-hit areas in northern Gaza and resuming rocket attacks into nearby Israeli communities.

Israel faces global criticism over the mounting death toll and devastating humanitarian crisis in Gaza. More than 900,000 Palestinians have been displaced by fighting in the past few weeks alone, and now lack shelter, food, water and other essentials, the U.N. humanitarian agency said Wednesday.

At least 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians.

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

Currently:

— How does this end? With Hamas holding firm and fighting back in Gaza, Israel faces only bad options.

— ICC prosecutor’s warrant requests for Israel and Hamas leaders ignite debate about the court’s role.

— Norway, Ireland and Spain recognize a Palestinian state in a historic move.

— Families of Israeli hostages release video of female soldiers being captured by Hamas.

— First aid from the U.S. pier in Gaza has reached starving Palestinians, the U.N. says.

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

Here's the latest:

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Gaza’s Health Ministry says the largest hospital serving central Gaza faces imminent shutdown because it is running out of power after Israel’s military assault in Rafah severely limited entry of fuel for generators.

The ministry said Thursday afternoon that Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah would have to stop operations within two hours. Later, after nightfall, the hospital appeared largely blacked out in Associated Press footage, although it was not clear if it had shut down.

The ministry said the hospital was currently treating more than 600 patients and wounded people and that some 650 other kidney dialysis patients rely on treatment there – warning that their lives could be threatened if the hospital closes.

Losing Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital would leave only two hospitals operating in Deir al-Balah, according to the U.N., at a time when the town has been flooded by Palestinians fleeing Rafah. Across Gaza, only about a third of its original 36 hospitals still function, and those only partially.

The hospital received 3,000 liters of fuel on Wednesday but needs 5,000 liters a day to operate, the Health Ministry said.

On May 6, Israeli troops seized the Rafah border crossing into Egypt, the main entry point for fuel into Gaza.

The U.N. needs 200,000 liters a day to keep hospitals and other operations running, but Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said entry of fuel since May 6 has become “extremely uneven.” The U.N. received 70,000 liters on Sunday, another 100,000 on Tuesday, he said.

The Rafah crossing has been closed since the Israeli seizure. Israel has asked Egypt to coordinate with it over the entry of aid trucks. Egypt has refused, fearing the Israeli seizure will become permanent, and says Palestinians must be allowed to run the crossing.

JERUSALEM -- Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s three-member War Cabinet, has called for an urgent investigation into Israel’s failures leading to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Gantz’s statement, made in a video posted to X, was another sign of escalating divisions in the Israeli War Cabinet.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads the War Cabinet, has put off investigating what went wrong on Oct. 7 -- when Hamas militants stormed into Israel and killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 250 others. Netanyahu says Israel must focus on winning the war and only then investigate its failures.

But Gantz said the time has come for a special investigative commission to be formed.

“It is not enough that we take responsibility for what happened - we must learn lessons and act so that it never happens again,” he wrote on X.

Gantz has threatened to resign if Netanyahu does not adopt a postwar plan for Gaza in three week’s time. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the third member of the War Cabinet, has also urged Netanyahu to present a postwar plan.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Hospital officials in Gaza say 15 Palestinians were killed, including three women, when an Israeli strike hit an aid warehouse where displaced people had been sheltering in central Gaza.

The strike hit the warehouse of Gaza’s Social Development Ministry in the town of Deir al-Balah on Thursday. Officials at the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital confirmed the death toll.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

A number of displaced families were taking shelter in the warehouse, run by the ministry in Gaza’s Hamas-led government, and it was not clear if it was still storing aid as well. Deir al-Balah has been flooded by thousands of Palestinians fleeing Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah after Israel launched a ground assault there two weeks ago.

Israel’s bombardment and offensives in Gaza have killed more than 35,500 Palestinians in Gaza over the past seven months, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Israel launched its campaign after Hamas’ Oct 7 attack, in which militants killed around 1,200 people and took around 250 hostage, around half of whom remain in captivity.

UNITED NATIONS – U.N. humanitarian officials warn that Israel's closing of the Rafah border crossing and the limited functioning of the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza “have choked off the flow of life-saving supplies” including food and fuel.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the World Food Program reports that no food distribution is taking place in the south “except for some limited stocks that are being provided to community kitchens for hot meals.”

Since the beginning of May, he said WFP has worked with more than 70 community kitchens across Gaza to provide some 4.4 million hot meals to people in Gaza.

U.N. humanitarian officials warn that “if aid does not begin to enter Gaza in massive quantities, desperation and hunger will spread even further,” the U.N. spokesman said.

As for fuel, Dujarric said just over one million liters of fuel (264,000 gallons) have entered the Gaza Strip since Israel launched its military operation in Rafah on May 6.

That's just 29% of the fuel that would have entered Gaza under arrangements in place before May 6, he said.

Dujarric said this is “further hindering the functioning of bakeries, hospitals, water wells, and other critical infrastructure.”

Meanwhile, the U.N. World Health Organization reports that many hospitals in Gaza lack fuel and medicine due to the closure of the Rafah crossing, he said.

WHO said another hospital in the north, Al-Awda, “was reportedly invaded” early Wednesday after days of siege, Dujarric said. And WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned in a social media post that access to health care throughout Gaza is shrinking and Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north is no longer functioning.

JERUSALEM -- Israel’s Foreign Ministry has reprimanded the ambassadors of Spain, Ireland and Norway for their governments’ decisions to recognize a Palestinian state.

The Foreign Ministry said Thursday that the ambassadors were summoned to the ministry and shown a video of Hamas militants capturing five female soldiers during the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war.

“The twisted decision by your governments is a prize to Hamas,” the ministry quoted its director general, Yaakov Blitshtein, as saying to them. “Hamas congratulates you.”

He also warned them that there would be additional repercussions for relations with the three European countries.

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli police have closed a Jewish pilgrimage site in northern Israel ahead of a major festival there over concerns that the area could be targeted by the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews, gather each year on the Jewish holiday of Lag BaOmer to honor Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a 2nd-century sage and mystic who is believed to be buried on Mount Meron. Large crowds, which can reach over 100,000, light bonfires, pray and dance as part of the celebrations, which this year were set for Saturday.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, Hezbollah has launched dozens of rockets and missiles toward Mount Meron and nearby Safed, which houses a major Israeli military base. Israel and Hezbollah have traded frequent attacks since the war began, most confined to the area around the border. Mount Meron is located around 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of the border with Lebanon.

Israel’s parliament passed an emergency law to shutter the pilgrimage site earlier this week, due to the Hezbollah threat. A small ceremony with about 30 people will take place instead of the large festival.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The United Nations’ top court says it will rule Friday on South Africa’s latest urgent request for the judges to order a cease-fire in Gaza.

South Africa’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Vusimuzi Madonsela, had urged the panel of 15 international judges to order Israel to “totally and unconditionally withdraw” from the Gaza Strip. Israel strongly denies charges of genocide, telling the International Court of Justice that it is doing everything it can to protect the civilian population during its military operation in Gaza.

It was the third time the International Court of Justice held hearings on the war in Gaza since South Africa filed proceedings in December at the court, based in The Hague in the Netherlands, accusing Israel of genocide.

The International Court of Justice said Thursday it will deliver its decision Friday afternoon at 1300 GMT, just days after the chief prosecutor at another Hague-based court, the International Criminal Court, announced he is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders on charges linked to the Gaza war.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A missile splashed down in the waters of the Red Sea near the crucial Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Thursday, but caused no damage to a passing commercial vessel in an attack likely carried out by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.

The Houthis did not immediately claim the attack, though it can take hours or even days for them to acknowledge their assaults.

The Houthis have launched attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in recent months, demanding that Israel ends the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostage.

The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sunk another since November, according to the United States Maritime Administration.

Shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has declined because of the threat. In recent weeks, the tempo of Houthi attacks has dropped, though the rebels have claimed shooting down U.S. surveillance drones.

TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military said Thursday it has completed a two-day operation in the occupied West Bank that the Palestinian Health Ministry says killed 12 Palestinians and wounded 25.

The military launched the operation Tuesday in the city of Jenin and an adjacent urban refugee camp as part of a crackdown against militants in the area. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group said its fighters battled the Israeli forces.

Militant groups claimed at least eight of the dead as fighters: one from Hamas and seven from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party. Islamic Jihad group said an unspecified number of its fighters were killed.

Among those killed was a surgeon at a local hospital, according to Wissam Abu Baker, the director of Jenin Governmental Hospital. The surgeon was killed on his way to work, Abu Baker said.

The military did not immediately disclose additional details about the operation.

Jenin and the adjacent urban refugee camp have long been a bastion of armed struggle against Israel’s occupation, and the frequency of raids by Israeli troops has increased during the war in Gaza.

Violence has surged in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza. The Palestinian Health Ministry says more than 500 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since Oct. 7. Many were shot dead in armed clashes during military raids, others for throwing stones or explosives at troops. People not involved in the confrontations have also been killed.

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency says an Israeli drone strike killed one person and wounded three school students who were passing nearby in a bus.

The agency said the Thursday morning strike damaged the bus and destroyed a car on a road leading to the southern market town of Nabatiyeh. It said the wounded students were taken to hospitals in the area.

The man who was killed was identified as Mohammed Farran, whom Hezbollah identified as one of its members.

Israeli airstrikes have killed scores of Hezbollah members in recent months.

The exchange of fire between Hezbollah and Israel began a day after the Israel-Hamas war broke out on Oct. 7. Since then, more than 400 people have been killed in Lebanon. Most of the dead were fighters, but more than 70 were civilians and non-combatants.

FILE - Benny Gantz, a key member of Israel's War Cabinet and the top political rival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leaves a meeting in the office of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., at the Capitol in Washington, on March 4, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Palestinians wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip are brought to Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Thursday, May 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A boy plays with his ball next to debris of a heavily damaged building after an Israeli forces raid in the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, May 23, 2024. The Israeli military said Thursday it has completed a two-day operation in the occupied West Bank that the Palestinian Health Ministry says killed 12 Palestinians. Militant groups claimed at least eight of the dead as fighters, one from Hamas and seven from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Mourners carry the bodies of Palestinians, some are draped in the Islamic Jihad militant group flags during their funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, May 23, 2024. The Israeli military said Thursday it has completed a two-day operation in the occupied West Bank that the Palestinian Health Ministry says killed 12 Palestinians. Militant groups claimed at least eight of the dead as fighters, one from Hamas and seven from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Gunmen march as mourners carry the bodies of Palestinians, some draped in the Islamic Jihad militant group flags during their funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, May 23, 2024. The Israeli military said Thursday it has completed a two-day operation in the occupied West Bank that the Palestinian Health Ministry says killed 12 Palestinians. Militant groups claimed at least eight of the dead as fighters, one from Hamas and seven from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A Palestinian man inspects the damage to a building after Israeli forces raided the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, May 23, 2024. The Israeli military said Thursday it has completed a two-day operation in the occupied West Bank that killed and wounded multiple Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group said its fighters battled the Israeli forces. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

A girl looks out from a window of a building damaged by shrapnels after an Israeli forces raid in the West Bank Jenin refugee camp, Thursday, May 23, 2024. The Israeli military said Thursday it has completed a two-day operation in the occupied West Bank that the Palestinian Health Ministry says killed 12 Palestinians. Militant groups claimed at least eight of the dead as fighters, one from Hamas and seven from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A gunman holds up his weapon as mourners carry the bodies of Palestinians, with some draped in the Islamic Jihad militant group flags, during their funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, May 23, 2024. The Israeli military said Thursday it has completed a two-day operation in the occupied West Bank that the Palestinian Health Ministry says killed 12 Palestinians. Militant groups claimed at least eight of the dead as fighters, one from Hamas and seven from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Palestinians place the body of the doctor Ossayed Kamal Jabareen on a CT scan before his funeral at the government hospital in the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, May 23, 2024. The Israeli military said Thursday it has completed a two-day operation in the occupied West Bank that the Palestinian Health Ministry says killed 12 Palestinians. Militant groups claimed at least eight of the dead as fighters, one from Hamas and seven from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Mourners carry the body of a Palestinian draped in the Islamic Jihad militant group flag during his funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, May 23, 2024. The Israeli military said Thursday it has completed a two-day operation in the occupied West Bank that the Palestinian Health Ministry says killed 12 Palestinians. Militant groups claimed at least eight of the dead as fighters, one from Hamas and seven from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A gunman holds up his weapon as mourners carry the bodies of Palestinians, some draped in the Islamic Jihad militant group flags, during their funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, May 23, 2024. The Israeli military said Thursday it has completed a two-day operation in the occupied West Bank that the Palestinian Health Ministry says killed 12 Palestinians. Militant groups claimed at least eight of the dead as fighters, one from Hamas and seven from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza hold photos of their loved ones during a performance calling for their return in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, May 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Palestinians mourns over the body of the doctor Ossayed Kamal Jabareen, at the government hospital in the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, May 23, 2024. The Israeli military said Thursday it has completed a two-day operation in the occupied West Bank that the Palestinian Health Ministry says killed 12 Palestinians. Militant groups claimed at least eight of the dead as fighters, one from Hamas and seven from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

After being blindfolded, a Palestinian man is detained by Israeli forces during a raid in the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, May 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A paramedic holds the leg of an injured Palestinian during clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Jenin, Wednesday, May 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Palestinians carry the bodies of their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of Al Zawayda in central Gaza Strip, at the morgue of Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, early Wednesday, May 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners hold photos of the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during a vigil in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, May 22, 2024. Raisi and several other officials were found dead on Monday after their helicopter crashed in a foggy, mountainous region of Iran's northwest. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

A Palestinian demonstrator burns tires next to a model of a rocket during clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Jenin, Wednesday, May 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

A Palestinian man walks past burning tires during clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Jenin, Wednesday, May 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Black smokes rise to the sky during clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians demonstrators in the West Bank city of Jenin, Wednesday, May 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's military announced on Sunday that it would pause fighting throughout daytime hours along a route in southern Gaza to free up a backlog of humanitarian aid deliveries destined for desperate Palestinians enduring a humanitarian crisis sparked by the war, now in its ninth month.

The “tactical pause” announced by the military, which applies to about 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) of road in the Rafah area, falls far short of a complete cease-fire in the beleaguered territory that has been sought by the international community, including Israel's top ally, the United States. If it holds, the limited halt in fighting could help address some of the overwhelming needs of Palestinians that have surged even more in recent weeks with Israel's incursion into Rafah.

The army said the pause would begin at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) and remain in effect until 7 p.m. (1600 GMT). It said the pauses would take place every day until further notice.

The pause is aimed at allowing aid trucks to reach the nearby Israel-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing, the main entry point for incoming aid, and travel safely to the Salah a-Din highway, a main north-south road, the military said. The crossing has suffered from a bottleneck since Israeli ground troops moved into Rafah in early May.

COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees aid distribution in Gaza, said the route would increase the flow of aid to other parts of Gaza, including Khan Younis, Muwasi and central Gaza. Hard-hit northern Gaza, which was an early target in the war, is being served by goods entering from a crossing in the north.

The military said the pause came after discussions with the United Nations and international aid agencies.

Aid agencies, including the U.N., did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The pause along the southern route comes as Israel and Hamas are weighing the latest proposal for a cease-fire, a plan that was detailed by President Joe Biden in the administration’s most concentrated diplomatic push for a halt to the fighting and the release of hostages taken by the militant group. While Biden described the proposal as an Israeli one, Israel has not fully embraced it and Hamas has demanded changes that appear unacceptable to Israel.

Israel’s eight-month military offensive against the Hamas militant group, sparked by the group's Oct. 7 attack, has plunged Gaza into a humanitarian crisis, with the U.N. reporting widespread hunger and hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of famine. The international community has urged Israel to do more to ease the crunch and has said the ongoing fighting, including in Rafah, has complicated aid deliveries throughout the war.

From May 6 until June 6, the U.N. received an average of 68 trucks of aid a day, according to figures from the U.N. humanitarian office, known as OCHA. That was down from 168 a day in April and far below the 500 trucks a day that aid groups say are needed.

The flow of aid in southern Gaza declined just as the humanitarian need grew. More than 1 million Palestinians, many of whom had already been displaced, fled Rafah after the invasion, crowding into other parts of southern and central Gaza. Most now languish in ramshackle tent camps, using trenches as latrines, with open sewage in the streets.

COGAT says there are no restrictions on the entry of trucks. It says more than 8,600 trucks of all kinds, both aid and commercial, entered Gaza from all crossings from May 2 to June 13, an average of 201 a day. But much of that aid has piled up at the crossings and not reached its final destination.

A spokesman for COGAT, Shimon Freedman, said it was the U.N.’s fault that its cargos stacked up on the Gaza side of Kerem Shalom. He said the agencies have “fundamental logistical problems that they have not fixed,” especially a lack of trucks.

The U.N. denies such allegations. It says the fighting between Israel and Hamas often makes it too dangerous for U.N. trucks inside Gaza to travel to Kerem Shalom, which is right next to Israel’s border.

It also says the pace of deliveries has been slowed because the Israeli military must authorize drivers to travel to the site, a system Israel says was designed for the drivers’ safety. Due to a lack of security, aid trucks in some cases have also been looted by crowds as they moved along Gaza’s roads.

The new arrangement aims to reduce the need for coordinating deliveries by providing an 11-hour uninterrupted window each day for trucks to move in and out of the crossing.

It was not immediately clear whether the army would provide security to protect the aid trucks as they moved along the highway.

A Palestinian girl reacts as she collects food aid ahead of the upcoming Eid al-Adha holiday in Jerusalem, Saturday, June 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians collect food aid ahead of the upcoming Eid al-Adha holiday in Jerusalem, Saturday, June 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinian men collect food aid ahead of the upcoming Eid al-Adha holiday in Jerusalem, Saturday, June 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinian children collect food aid ahead of the upcoming Eid al-Adha holiday in Jerusalem, Saturday, June 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians collect food aid ahead of the upcoming Eid al-Adha holiday in Jerusalem, Saturday, June 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A Palestinian boy watches his portion of food aid ahead of the upcoming Eid al-Adha holiday in Jerusalem, Saturday, June 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)