A federal judge in San Francisco on Friday stopped Secretary of State Marco Rubio from proceeding with plans to downsize the State Department, saying that it was prohibited behavior under an injunction she issued last month.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston barred the Republican administration from carrying out much of its plans to reorganize and slash departments while she hears a legal challenge brought by labor unions and others. She said that President Donald Trump had failed to seek Congressional cooperation to do so when he ordered government-wide cuts.
But, in late May, the State Department notified Congress of an updated reorganization of the agency that would cut programs and personnel even more deeply than previously revealed.
Rubio this week also ordered U.S. embassies to fire all remaining staffers with the U.S. Agency for International Development. He said the State Department will take over USAID’s foreign assistance programs by Monday.
The Trump administration said Rubio had launched a reorganization of the State Department independently of the president's directive and so was exempt.
Illston, who was nominated to the bench by former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, was not convinced.
“If the State Department has any question about whether planned actions fall within the scope of the Court’s injunction, the Court ORDERS the Department to first raise those questions with the Court before taking action,” she wrote in an order issued Friday.
President Donald Trump, right, speaks with reporters as Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens upon arriving at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J., en route to Camp David, Md., Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip killed at least 19 people on Sunday, including six children at a water collection point, local health officials said, despite attempts by mediators to bring about a ceasefire.
Israel and Hamas appeared no closer to a breakthrough in talks meant to pause the 21-month war and free some Israeli hostages. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington last week to discuss the deal with the Trump administration, but a new sticking point has emerged over the deployment of Israeli troops during the truce, raising questions over the feasibility of a new deal.
Israel wants to keep forces in what it says is an important land corridor in southern Gaza. Hamas views the insistence on troops in that strip of land as an indication that Israel intends to continue the war once a temporary ceasefire expires.
Israel says it will only end the war once Hamas surrenders, disarms and goes into exile, something it refuses to do. Hamas says it is willing to free all the remaining 50 hostages, less than half said to be alive, in exchange for an end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Throughout the war in Gaza, violence has also surged in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where funerals were held Sunday for two Palestinians, including Palestinian-American Sayfollah Musallet, 20, who was killed in an attack by Israeli settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
In Gaza, officials at Al-Awda Hospital in central Gaza said it received 10 bodies after an Israeli strike on a water collection point in Nuseirat, also in central Gaza. Among the dead were six children, the hospital said.
Ramadan Nassar, a witness who lives in the area, told The Associated Press that around 20 children and 14 adults were lined up Sunday morning to fill up water. When the strike occurred, everyone ran and some, including those who were severely injured, fell to the ground, he said.
He said Palestinians walk some 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) to fetch water from the area.
In the central town of Zawaida, an Israeli strike on a home killed nine, including two women and three children, officials at Al- Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said.
The Israeli military said it struck more than 150 targets over the past day, without commenting directly on the specific strikes. Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the militant group operates out of populated areas.
In the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 57,800 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, under Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count. The U.N. and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.
In the West Bank, where violence between Israeli troops and Palestinians has been compounded by attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers, funerals were held for a Palestinian-American and a Palestinian friend of his.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said Musallet, a Florida native, was killed after being beaten by Israeli settlers. Diana Halum, a cousin, said the attack occurred on his family's land. The Health Ministry initially identified him as Seifeddine Musalat, 23.
Musallet's friend, Mohammed al-Shalabi, was shot in the chest, according to the ministry.
On Sunday, their bodies were carried through the streets of Al-Mazraa a-Sharqiya, a town south of where they were killed. Mourners, waving Palestinian flags, chanted “God is great.”
In a statement Saturday, Musallet's family said he was “a kind, hard-working, and deeply-respected young man, working to build his dreams.” It said he built a business in Tampa, Florida, and that he was deeply connected to his Palestinians heritage.
Musallet's family said it wants the U.S. State Department to investigate his death and hold the settlers accountable. The State Department said it was aware of the reports of his death but had no comment out of respect for the family.
Israel's military has said Palestinians hurled rocks at Israelis in the area on Friday, lightly wounding two people and setting off a larger confrontation.
Palestinians and rights groups have long accused the military of ignoring settler violence.
Isseid reported from Al-Mazraa a-Sharqiya, West Bank. Associated Press writer Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip attend a rally demanding their release from Hamas captivity and calling for an end to the war, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, July 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Smoke from an explosion rises in the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from a southern Israel location on Sunday, July 13, 2025. (Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
A Palestinian boy mourns over the body of his 12-year-old friend, Abdullah Ahmed, who was killed in an Israeli strike that targeted a drinking water distribution point, at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, wrapped in plastic bags, lie on the ground at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Relatives carry the body of 13-year-old Seraje Ebrahim, killed in an Israeli strike on a drinking water distribution point, for burial outside Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
