Netanyahu hints at expanded war in Gaza but former Israeli military and spy chiefs object

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted at wider military action in devastated Gaza on Tuesday, even as former Israeli army and intelligence chiefs called for an end to the nearly 22-month war.

The new pressure on Netanyahu came as Gaza's Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll had surpassed 61,000. Health officials reported new deaths of hungry Palestinians seeking food at distribution points. As desperation mounts, the Israeli defense body coordinating aid announced a deal with local merchants to improve aid deliveries.

Among those speaking out were former leaders of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service, Mossad spy agency and the military — and also ex-Prime Minister Ehud Barak. In a video posted to social media this week, they said far-right members of the government are holding Israel “hostage” in prolonging the conflict.

Netanyahu's objectives in Gaza are “a fantasy," Yoram Cohen, former head of Shin Bet, said in the video.

“If anyone imagines that we can reach every terrorist and every pit and every weapon, and in parallel bring our hostages home — I think it is impossible,” he said.

Netanyahu convened his Security Cabinet to direct the military on the war's next stage, hinting that even tougher action was possible. However, the meeting wrapped up hours later without any announcements about Israel's plans.

U.S. President Donald Trump, asked by a reporter whether he supported the reoccupation of Gaza, said he wasn't aware of the “suggestion” but that “it’s going to be pretty much up to Israel.”

Netanyahu said his objectives include defeating Hamas, releasing all 50 remaining hostages and ensuring Gaza never again threatens Israel after the Hamas-led 2023 attack sparked the war.

Israeli media reported disagreements between Netanyahu and the army chief, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, on how to proceed. The reports, citing anonymous officials in Netanyahu’s office, said the prime minister was pushing the army, which controls about three quarters of Gaza, to conquer the entire territory — a step that could endanger hostages, deepen the humanitarian crisis and further isolate Israel internationally.

Zamir reportedly opposes this step and could step down or be pushed out if it is approved. Israeli officials did not respond to requests for comment on the reports.

Health officials in Gaza said Israeli forces opened fire on Tuesday morning toward Palestinians seeking aid and in targeted attacks in central and southern Gaza, killing at least 45 people.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has said after previous shootings around aid distribution that it only fired warning shots at people who approached its forces.

The dead include at least 26 people killed in the Morag Corridor, an Israeli military zone where looters and desperate crowds unloaded U.N. aid convoys.

Six people were killed in Teina, near a road leading to a site run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an American contractor. Morgue records at the nearby Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies, detailed the deaths and locations.

The hospital is part of the Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians but says roughly half the dead from the war have been women and children. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The United Nations and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of casualty data.

Sami Arafat, a father of seven, described the chaos in the Morag Corridor early Tuesday, saying crowds rushed toward a convoy of U.N. aid trucks and Israeli forces fired toward them.

“There are no buildings to shelter us from the shooting,” he said. "The area is all rubble.”

He said looters brandishing knives climbed aboard the trucks first and tore into the aid boxes, taking sugar that could be resold at the market while leaving less expensive rice behind.

Elsewhere in central Gaza, Al-Awda hospital said it received the bodies of six Palestinians who were killed when Israeli troops targeted crowds near another GHF aid distribution site.

The GHF said there were no incidents at its sites Tuesday and that most of the recent violence has been linked to U.N. aid deliveries.

Several hundred Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since May while heading toward food distribution sites, airdropped parcels and aid convoys, according to witnesses, local health officials and the U.N. human rights office. Israel's military says it only has fired warning shots and disputes the toll.

The Israeli defense body in charge of coordinating aid, COGAT, said on social media there will be a “gradual and controlled renewal of the entry of goods through the private sector in Gaza.”

It said a limited number of local merchants were approved for the plan.

Mohammed Qassas from Khan Younis said his young children are so hungry that he is forced to storm aid trucks, which rarely reach warehouses these days because they are stopped by hungry crowds.

“How am I supposed to feed them? No one has mercy,” he said Monday. “If we fight, we get the food. If we don’t fight, we don’t get anything.”

It has become routine to see men returning from aid-seeking carrying bodies as well as sacks of flour.

Israel’s blockade and military offensive have made it nearly impossible to safely deliver aid, contributing to the territory’s slide toward famine. Aid groups say Israel’s week-old measures to allow more aid in are far from sufficient.

Families of hostages in Gaza fear starvation affects them too, and blame Hamas.

As international alarm has mounted, several countries have airdropped aid over Gaza. The U.N. and aid groups call such drops costly and dangerous for residents, and say they deliver far less aid than trucks.

Palestinians gather daily for funeral prayers.

"We are unarmed people who cannot endure this," shouted Maryam Abu Hatab in the yard of Nasser hospital.

Ekram Nasr said her son was shot dead while seeking aid near the Morag corridor.

“I had to go alone to carry my son," she said, tears in her eyes. "I collected the remains of my son like the meat of dogs from the streets.”

“The entire world is watching," she added. "They are watching our patience, our strength and our faith in God. But we no longer have the power to endure."

Shurafa reported from Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Palestinians collect humanitarian aid packages from the United Arab Emirates after they were airdropped into Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians rush to collect humanitarian aid airdropped by parachutes into Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Humanitarian aid is airdropped to Palestinians over Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians collect humanitarian aid packages from the United Arab Emirates after they were airdropped into Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians rush to collect humanitarian aid airdropped by parachutes into Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians struggle to get food and humanitarian aid from the back of a truck as it moves along the Morag corridor near Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, Monday, Aug. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

Palestinians struggle to get food and humanitarian aid from the back of a truck as it moves along the Morag corridor near Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, Monday, Aug. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

Palestinians struggle to get food and humanitarian aid from the back of a truck as it moves along the Morag corridor near Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, Monday, Aug. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

Palestinians stand next the body of a woman who was hit by a truck while attempting to reach a humanitarian aid convoy moving along the Morag corridor near Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, Monday, Aug. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department has released tens of thousands more documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, a tranche that included multiple mentions of President Donald Trump but added little new revelatory information to the long-anticipated public file on the late financier and convicted sex offender.

The release is the most voluminous so far and comes after a massive public campaign for transparency into the U.S. government’s Epstein investigations.

Many of the mentions of Trump in the file came from news clippings, though it includes an email from a prosecutor pointing out the flights that Trump took on Epstein’s private jet during the 1990s.

The two men were friends for years before a falling out. Trump has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein. The Justice Department issued a statement that some documents contain “untrue and sensationalist claims” about Trump made shortly before the 2020 election.

Here are some takeaways:

Among the mentions of Trump in the latest batch of the Epstein files is a note from a federal prosecutor from January 2020 that said Trump had flown on the financier’s private plane more often than had been previously known.

An assistant U.S. attorney from the Southern District of New York said in an email that flight records the office received on Jan. 6, 2020, showed that Trump was on Epstein’s jet “many more times than previously has been reported (or that we were aware).”

The prosecutor who flagged the Trump mentions in the flight logs said they did so because lawyers “didn’t want any of this to be a surprise down the road.”

His travels on Epstein’s plane spanned the time that would likely be covered in any criminal charges against Epstein’s co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell. Trump was listed as a passenger on at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996, and on at least four of those flights, Maxwell was also there, according to the email.

On one of those eight flights, in 1993, Trump and Epstein were the only two passengers listed in the flight logs. On another flight, the three passengers listed in records are Epstein, Trump, and a redacted individual, who was 20 years old at the time. Two other flights included two women -- whose names were redacted in follow-up emails — identified as potential witnesses in a Maxwell case.

Several additional Trump trips on Epstein’s plane had been previously disclosed during Maxwell’s criminal proceedings.

Asked for comment about the email, the White House pointed to a Justice Department statement saying Monday’s release contained “unfounded and false” claims against the president submitted to the FBI shortly before the 2020 election, but they were nevertheless being released for full transparency.

The Justice Department specifically raised questions about the validity of a document mentioning Trump that was styled as a letter from Epstein to Larry Nassar, the sports doctor convicted of sexually abusing Olympic athletes. The department pointed out that it was processed three days after Epstein's death.

Trump complained that the files were a distraction from the work he and other Republicans are doing for the country.

Speaking during an unrelated event at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday, the president blamed Democrats and some Republicans for the controversy.

“What this whole thing is with Epstein is a way of trying to deflect from the tremendous success that the Republican Party has,” Trump said.

He also expressed frustration about the famous people shown with Epstein in photos released by the Justice Department — people who he said may not have known him but ended up in the shot anyway.

“You probably have pictures being exposed of other people that innocently met Jeffrey Epstein years ago, many years ago. And they’re, you know, highly respected bankers and lawyers and others,” Trump said.

Well-known people shown in the files include former President Bill Clinton, the late pop star Michael Jackson and singer Diana Ross. The mere inclusion of someone’s name or images in files from the investigation does not imply wrongdoing.

The latest release also includes files that put the U.K.'s former Prince Andrew back in the headlines.

Among those documents is correspondence between Maxwell and someone who signs off with the initial “A.”

The email exchange includes other references that suggest Maxwell’s correspondent may be Andrew. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The August 2001 email from someone identified only as “The Invisible Man,” said he is “up here at Balmoral Summer Camp for the Royal Family,” an apparent reference to the Scottish estate where the royal family have traditionally taken their late summer holidays.

“A” writes: “How’s LA? Have you found me some new inappropriate friends?”

The writer says he has left “the RN” and refers to the challenges of looking after “the Girls.” Andrew retired from the Royal Navy in 2001 and has two daughters.

Andrew, one of King Charles III’s younger brothers, was stripped of the right to be called a prince and his other royal titles and honors in October, amid continued publicity about his links to Epstein and concerns about the potential damage to the rest of the royal family. He is now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

Andrew has repeatedly denied committing any crimes, including having sex with Virginia Giuffre, who alleged that she was trafficked by Epstein and had sex with Andrew when she was 17.

Trump tried for months to keep the records sealed before relenting to political pressure, including from some fellow Republicans, though he eventually signed a bill mandating the release of most of the Justice Department’s files on Epstein.

Monday's release was the biggest dump yet, including nearly 30,000 more pages. The data released by the law's Friday deadline contained a fraction of that amount, mostly photographs taken during FBI searches of Epstein’s homes.

The new cache includes news clippings, emails and surveillance videos from the New York jail where Epstein was held before taking his own life in 2019, much of which was already in the public domain.

The law called for the files to be released within 30 days, but the Justice Department has instead released them in stages starting Friday. Officials have said they’re going slowly to protect victims, though some women assaulted by Epstein have spoken out publicly to call for greater transparency.

Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Washington and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)