Israeli strikes and gunfire kill 33 as Gaza City becomes focus of famine and a military offensive

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 33 Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, including people sheltering in tents or seeking scarce food, local hospitals said as a famine in Gaza’s largest city puts new pressure on Israel over its 22-month offensive.

Israel's defense minister has warned that Gaza City could be destroyed in a new military operation perhaps just days away, even as famine spreads there.

Aid groups have long warned that the war, sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, and months of Israeli restrictions on food and medical supplies entering Gaza are causing starvation.

Israel has rejected the data-based famine declaration as “an outright lie." Ceasefire efforts are on hold as mediators await Israel’s next steps.

Israeli strikes killed at least 17 people in southern Gaza, more than half of them women and children, according to morgue records and health officials at Nasser Hospital. The officials said the strikes targeted tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis.

“Awad, why did you leave me?” a small boy asked his brother's plastic-wrapped body.

Another grieving relative, Hekmat Foujo, pleaded for a truce.

“We want to rest,” Foujo said through her tears. ‘’Have some mercy on us."

In northern Gaza, Israeli gunfire killed at least five aid-seekers near the Zikim crossing with Israel, where U.N. and other truck convoys enter the territory, health officials at Sheikh Radwan field hospital told the AP.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said cameraman Khaled al-Madhoun was killed while covering events at the Zikim crossing, and asserted that he was targeted by Israeli troops. The local Palestine TV confirmed his death.

Eleven people were killed in attacks elsewhere, according to hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Israel's military said it was not aware of a strike in Khan Younis at that location and was looking into the other incidents.

AP journalists have seen chaos on roads leading to aid deliveries, and there have been almost daily reports of Israeli troops firing toward aid-seekers. Israel’s military says it fires warning shots if people approach troops or pose a threat.

Mohamed Saada was among thousands seeking food in the Zikim area — and one of many who left empty-handed. He cited the “huge numbers of people,” the shootings and “trucks running over people.”

Some carried sacks of food like lentils and flour. Others carried the wounded, including on a wooden pallet. They navigated fetid puddles and the rubble of war as temperatures reached above 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 Celsius).

Friday's famine report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said nearly half a million people — about one-fourth of Gaza's population — face catastrophic hunger.

The rare pronouncement came after Israel imposed a 2 1/2-month blockade on Gaza earlier this year, then resumed some access with a focus on a new U.S.-backed private aid supplier, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

In response to global outrage over images of emaciated children, Israel has also allowed airdrops and new deliveries by land, but the U.N. and others say it's far from enough.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office asserts it has allowed enough aid to enter during the war, while accusing Hamas of starving the hostages it holds.

With ground troops already active in Gaza City's outskirts, the military operation could start within days in an area with hundreds of thousands of civilians. Israel says Gaza City is still a Hamas stronghold, with a network of militant tunnels.

Aid group Doctors without Borders, or MSF, said its clinics around Gaza City see high numbers of patients as people flee. Caroline Willemen, MSF project coordinator there, noted a marked increase in airstrikes since early August.

“Those who have not moved are wondering what they should do,” she told the AP. “People want to stay, they have been displaced endlessly before, but they also know that at some point it will become very dangerous to remain.”

Many Israelis fear the assault on Gaza City could doom the 20 hostages who are believed to have survived since 2023. Another 30 are thought to be dead. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested a week ago for a deal to end the fighting and bring everyone home.

“Anyone who truly wants to bring the hostages home does not launch a ground invasion of Gaza,” Yotam Cohen, brother of hostage Nimrod Cohen, said ahead of a weekly rally in Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu said Thursday he had instructed officials to begin immediate negotiations to release hostages and end the war on Israel’s terms. It was unclear if Israel would return to talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar after Hamas said it accepted a new proposal from Arab mediators.

Hamas has said it will release hostages in exchange for ending the war, but rejects disarming without the creation of a Palestinian state.

U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed frustration with Hamas’ stance, suggesting the militant group is less interested in making deals with few hostages left alive.

“I actually think (the hostages are) safer in many ways if you went in and you really went in fast and you did it," Trump told reporters Friday.

Gaza's Health Ministry said at least 62,622 Palestinians have been killed in the war, including missing people now confirmed dead by a special ministry judicial committee.

The number of malnutrition-related deaths rose by eight to 281, the ministry said.

A small group of Israelis protested against the far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, as he walked to a synagogue in Kfar Malal, north of Tel Aviv. Videos showed the minister arguing with the protesters.

“We don’t want him in our village. Our message is to bring back the hostages,” one of the protesters, Boaz Levinstein, told the AP.

Ben-Gvir is a key partner in Netanyahu’s political coalition and a staunch opponent of reaching a deal with Hamas, which hostages’ families see as the only way to secure the release of loved ones.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Sam Mednick in Jerusalem and Michelle Price in Washington contributed to this report.

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

Israeli and Palestinian activists take part in a protest calling for the end of the war and an end to starvation in the Gaza Strip, as they gather in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)

Palestinian relatives mourn over the body of 13-year-old Karim Qdeih, who was killed along with others in overnight Israeli strikes, during his funeral outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

Palestinians carry a man injured while trying to reach a humanitarian aid convoy on the outskirts of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians carry sacks of flour unloaded from a humanitarian aid convoy on the outskirts of Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Aug, 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians, including an injured man, ride on an aid truck returning to Gaza City from the northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians carry sacks of flour unloaded from a humanitarian aid convoy on the outskirts of Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Aug, 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians cool off in the Mediterranean on a hot summer day near a tent camp by the seaside in Zawaida, central Gaza Strip, Friday, Aug. 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Somoud Wahdan looks at the camera while she and her child wait for trucks of humanitarian aid to arrive in Gaza City, July 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A Palestinian woman mourns her relative, who was killed along with others in Israeli strikes, during their funeral outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

Palestinian relatives mourn over the body of 13-year-old Karim Qdeih, who was killed along with others in overnight Israeli strikes, during his funeral outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

Mourners pray over the bodies of three Palestinians, killed along with others in Israeli strikes, during their funeral outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Protesters for and against the Trump administration's latest immigration crackdown clashed in Minneapolis on Saturday as the governor's office announced that National Guard troops had been mobilized and stood ready to assist state law enforcement, though they were not yet deployed to city streets.

There have been protests every day since the Department of Homeland Security ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers.

A large group of protesters turned out in downtown Minneapolis and confronted a much smaller group of people attending an anti-Somali and pro-Immigration and Customs Enforcement rally. They chased the pro-ICE group away and forced at least one member to take off a shirt they deemed objectionable.

Jake Lang, who organized the anti-Islam and pro-ICE demonstration, appeared to be injured as he left the scene, with bruises and scrapes on his head. He said via social media beforehand that he intended to “burn a Quran” on the steps of City Hall, but it was not clear if he carried out that plan.

Lang was previously charged with assaulting an officer with a baseball bat, civil disorder and other crimes before receiving clemency as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping act of clemency for Jan. 6 defendants last year. Lang recently announced that he is running for U.S. Senate in Florida.

In Minneapolis, snowballs and water balloons were also thrown before an armored police van and heavily equipped city police arrived.

“We’re out here to show Nazis and ICE and DHS and MAGA you are not welcome in Minneapolis,” protester Luke Rimington said. “Stay out of our city, stay out of our state. Go home.”

The state guard said in a statement that it had been “mobilized” by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz to support the Minnesota State Patrol “to assist in providing traffic support to protect life, preserve property, and support the rights of all Minnesotans to assemble peacefully.”

Maj. Andrea Tsuchiya, a spokesperson for the guard, said it was “staged and ready” but yet to be deployed.

The announcement came more than a week after Walz, a frequent critic and target of Trump, told the guard to be ready to support law enforcement in the state.

During the daily protests, demonstrators have railed against masked immigration officers pulling people from homes and cars and other aggressive tactics. The operation in the deeply liberal Twin Cities has claimed at least one life: Renee Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three, was shot by an ICE officer during a Jan. 7 confrontation.

On Friday a federal judge ruled that immigration officers cannot detain or tear gas peaceful protesters who are not obstructing authorities, including while observing officers during the Minnesota crackdown.

During a news conference Saturday, a man who fled civil war in Liberia as a child said he has been afraid to leave his Minneapolis home since being released from an immigration detention center following his arrest last weekend.

Video of federal officers breaking down Garrison Gibson's front door with a battering ram Jan. 11 become another rallying point for protesters who oppose the crackdown.

Gibson, 38, was ordered to be deported, apparently because of a 2008 drug conviction that was later dismissed. He has remained in the country legally under what’s known as an order of supervision. After his recent arrest, a judge ruled that federal officials did not give him enough notice that his supervision status had been revoked.

Then Gibson was taken back into custody for several hours Friday when he made a routine check-in with immigration officials. Gibson’s cousin Abena Abraham said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told her White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller ordered the second arrest.

The White House denied the account of the re-arrest and that Miller had anything to do with it.

Gibson was flown to a Texas immigration detention facility but returned home following the judge's ruling. His family used a dumbbell to keep their damaged front door closed amid subfreezing temperatures before spending $700 to fix it.

“I don’t leave the house,” Gibson said at a news conference.

DHS said an “activist judge” was again trying to stop the deportation of “criminal illegal aliens.”

“We will continue to fight for the arrest, detention, and removal of aliens who have no right to be in this country,” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.

Gibson said he has done everything he was supposed to do: “If I was a violent person, I would not have been out these past 17 years, checking in."

Associated Press writers Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis, Josh Boak in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed.

Garrison Gibson, a Liberian man who has lived in the U.S. for around three decades, shows reporters his shirt reading “Immigrants make America great” during a news conference Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jack Brook)

A Jake Lang supporter clashes with counterprotesters the March Against Minnesota Fraud rally near Minneapolis City Hall, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Jake Lang, center, who organized the protest March Against Minnesota Fraud, clutches his head as he leaves the rally near Minneapolis City Hall, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

A Jake Lang supporter bleeds from his head as he is chased away by pro-immigration protesters Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

A pro-immigration protester lifts up Jake Lang's vest after an altercation at the March Against Minnesota Fraud rally near Minneapolis City Hall, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

ADDS IDENTIFICATION: Garrison Gibson becomes emotional as he is arrested by federal immigration officers Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

ADDS IDENTIFICATION: Teyana Gibson Brown, second from left, wife of Garrison Gibson, reacts after federal immigration officers arrested Garrison Gibson, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Federal immigration officers prepare to enter a home to make an arrest after an officer used a battering ram to break down a door Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Garrison Gibson, a Liberian man who has lived in the U.S. for around three decades, shows a photo of his arrest on a t-shirt as he speaks with reporters during a news conference Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jack Brook)

Garrison Gibson, a Liberian man who has lived in the U.S. for around three decades, speaks with reporters during a news conference Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jack Brook)