DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes in Gaza City on Saturday killed at least nine Palestinians, including three children, hospital officials said.
A strike on an apartment in the Nasr neighborhood killed at least five people, including the children between the ages of 8 and 18, said Mohammed Abu Selmiya, director of Shifa Hospital where the bodies were taken. Six other people were wounded, including four children between the ages of 8 and 16, he said.
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Residents inspect the site of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city, Saturday, July 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Residents inspect the site of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city, Saturday, July 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Residents inspect the site of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city, Saturday, July 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Residents inspect the site of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city, Saturday, July 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Residents inspect the site of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city, Saturday, July 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians spend the day on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea in Zawaida, central Gaza Strip, Friday, July 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Israel's military said it targeted Hamas infrastructure and had located Hamas militants in the area, without elaborating.
Another Israeli strike hit a group of people in the Zeitoun neighborhood, killing four and wounding another critically, health officials said.
The Israeli military said it targeted a “Hamas terrorist” and it was looking into the results of the strike.
Palestinians have reported an increase in the scale of Israeli strikes across the enclave over the past few days.
Despite a ceasefire agreement reached in October between Israel and the Hamas militant group, Israel still carries out near-daily attacks across the territory. It says it is targeting Hamas and other militants who pose a threat. Hamas and Israel have traded accusations of violating the ceasefire.
At least 1,127 Palestinians, including at least 260 children, have been killed since the ceasefire, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed in that time.
The Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas-led militants that sparked the war killed some 1,200 people in Israel and saw 251 others taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed 73,250 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-led government and is staffed by medical professionals who maintain detailed records viewed as generally reliable by United Nations agencies and independent experts. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says women and children make up around half of all deaths.
Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Residents inspect the site of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city, Saturday, July 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Residents inspect the site of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city, Saturday, July 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Residents inspect the site of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city, Saturday, July 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Residents inspect the site of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city, Saturday, July 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Residents inspect the site of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city, Saturday, July 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians spend the day on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea in Zawaida, central Gaza Strip, Friday, July 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares declined in early Tuesday trading, as rising oil prices and worries about inflation worked as a dampener on some markets, countering the optimism that had come from robust corporate earnings reports.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 dipped 1.6% to 68,098.54. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.2% to 9,088.60. South Korea's Kospi reversed course after surging earlier to drop 0.6% to 6,933.60. Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.6% to 25,289.88, while the Shanghai Composite shed 0.5% to 3,963.53.
Analysts said robust earnings reports in Asia, following those from the U.S., are helping counter worries about what the war in Iran will do to the global flow of crude and its impact on energy prices. Japan, for one, imports almost all its oil.
“First, the beneficiary base from AI investment has broadened. Demand spread across a wide range of industries, including semiconductor production equipment, power equipment, machinery, electronic components, and materials. AI demand effectively helped rediscover globally competitive companies across these sectors,” Masashi Akutsu and Tetsuhiro Tokuyama said in a recent report for BofA Securities.
They noted the recent strong earnings reports out of Japanese companies for the April-June quarter, adding that, just as with the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan will likely start moving to raise interest rates in the next few months.
On Wall Street, stocks edged further away from their record heights on Monday. The S&P 500 fell 0.5% but remains near its all-time high set Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 272 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.3%.
Wall Street’s losses solidified in the afternoon when oil prices accelerated upward. Benchmark U.S. crude added 34 cents to $84.84 a barrel in Asian trading early Tuesday.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 21 cents in Tuesday trading to $91.08 a barrel. It gained 2.7% to $90.87 on Monday.
Last month alone, the Brent zigzagged between $72 and $102 as hopes rose and fell that the United States and Iran could reach a deal that would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf again.
The rally in oil prices sent Treasury yields in the bond market higher, which in turn raised the pressure on the economy and prices for all kinds of investments.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.72% from 4.68% late Friday. It has shot up from just 3.97% before the war with Iran, largely because higher oil prices are worsening inflation and upping the probability that the U.S. Federal Reserve will have to hike interest rates.
Higher rates could keep a lid on inflation, but they do so by intentionally slowing the economy. The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate has already jumped near its highest level in a year because of the rise in the 10-year Treasury yield, though reports last week said that inflation in July was not as bad as earlier in the summer.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 40.70 points to 7,745.06. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 272.63 to 53,459.78, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 84.25 to 26,644.91.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 159.43 Japanese yen from 159.37 yen. The euro cost $1.1585, inching up from $1.1581.
AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed to this report.
Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama
A general view shows the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
People walk past the Nasdaq MarketSite, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A person walk in front of an electronic stock chart board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person walk in front of Tokyo Stock Exchange Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People look at an electronic stock chart board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
