FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — A.J. Brown arrived in New England following his trade from Philadelphia saying he was in “awe” about getting a fresh start as a member of the Patriots.
On Wednesday, surrounded by many of the faces and coaches the wide receiver left behind, Brown said as the Patriots welcomed the Eagles for a joint training camp practice that he continues to leave any raw feelings about how his Philly tenure ended in the past.
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Philadelphia Eagles running back Ja'Quinden Jackson runs with the ball during a joint NFL football practice with the New England Patriots, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye (10) winds up to pass during a joint NFL football practice with the Philadelphia Eagles, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Jordan Davis (90), offensive lineman Myles Hinton (78) and outside linebacker A.J. Epenesa (57) warm up with teammates during a joint NFL football practice with the New England Patriots, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) warms up with teammates during a joint NFL football practice with the New England Patriots, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
New England Patriots wide receiver A.J. Brown takes questions from reporters following a joint NFL football practice with the Philadelphia Eagles, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
“It’s not about no closure or anything, man. It’s love,” Brown said. “I won a Super Bowl ring with them. It’ll always be love, no matter how anyone feels. I love Philly and I will always love Philly. But I’m here now. This is where my feet are and that’s what I’m focused on.”
Because of proximity of the Patriots' new practice facility, players must run across a smaller practice field to reach a hill that leads to the two main fields. With Philadelphia stretching on the lower field, Brown had to jog through his former teammates before practice began Wednesday.
He kept his helmet on and his head down for most of that short journey, only briefly acknowledging a few assistant coaches as he went past.
But once practice started and he was lined up for an 11-on-11 drill will Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell, Brown had no problem ratcheting up the intensity.
On the first play, Brown hand fought with Mitchell before getting separation along the sideline. Quarterback Drake Maye lofted a deep pass to Brown, who got one hand on it before Mitchell was able to knock it away at the last second.
The play, though ultimately incomplete, still drew one of the loudest reactions of the day from the bleachers packed with fans.
It was only time that Brown, a three-time Pro Bowler, and the Eagles’ third-year All-Pro cornerback matched up during the session.
“The first rep, man, Q got away with a little holding,” Brown said with a chuckle. “I won and he pulled himself back into the play. I just got to finish the play.”
Mitchell acknowledged the intensity on the play.
“It was a little more amped up, knowing the battles we had in Philly,” Mitchell said. “He’s just a great receiver. He gives you so many battles and tough assignments. ... It was really great to just go out there and compete with him again today.”
Brown’s relationship with the Eagles franchise, and notably Super Bowl LIX MVP QB Jalen Hurts, soured as much as his production last season.
The frustrating year for Brown came to a head during the Eagles’ 23-19 wild-card round loss to San Francisco when the receiver and Philadelphia coach Nick Sirianni were caught by television cameras bickering on the sideline. The spat caused a security officer to intervene. Brown ripped off his helmet in frustration at one point and yelled in Sirianni’s direction.
Brown said he had not spoken to Hurts since the trade.
“Listen, honestly guys, none of that stuff even matters,” Brown said. “You know asking the question is going to turn negative. Let’s not get into that. Let’s keep everything positive. It’s love my way and just move forward. That’s all.”
Asked if he had any messages to fans about what turned out to be one of the final images of Brown in a Philadelphia jersey, Brown said he has left that, too, behind him.
“What’s my message to Eagles fans? I love you and I’m not looking in the past,” Brown said. “That game, no I didn’t play my best. But I’m not going backwards, you know? It doesn’t exist."
Hurts said he isn't harboring any bad feelings about Brown's departure.
“I know he's going out there and competing,” Hurts said. “I've got a lot of love for him, always have.”
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
Philadelphia Eagles running back Ja'Quinden Jackson runs with the ball during a joint NFL football practice with the New England Patriots, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye (10) winds up to pass during a joint NFL football practice with the Philadelphia Eagles, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Jordan Davis (90), offensive lineman Myles Hinton (78) and outside linebacker A.J. Epenesa (57) warm up with teammates during a joint NFL football practice with the New England Patriots, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) warms up with teammates during a joint NFL football practice with the New England Patriots, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
New England Patriots wide receiver A.J. Brown takes questions from reporters following a joint NFL football practice with the Philadelphia Eagles, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s military on Wednesday announced its first criminal investigations into troop conduct in Gaza, focusing on the killings of 5-year-old Hind Rajab and her family and of 15 Palestinian paramedics.
The military said it would not probe three other attacks that killed aid workers from World Central Kitchen and Doctors Without Borders. It said it had completed reviews of 150 incidents of troop conduct in Gaza and made decisions on the five cases.
Chef José Andrés, founder of U.S.-based World Central Kitchen, condemned the decision on X as “wrong and painful.”
The investigations involve killings that drew a heavy international outcry. Hind was trapped in a vehicle with her slain relatives, pleading for help by phone before she too was killed in February 2024. After the shooting of the 15 medics in March 2025, troops bulldozed their bodies into a mass grave.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 73,000 people, including tens of thousands of women and children, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. Rights groups and U.N. commissions have said the campaign amounts to genocide and that Israeli forces have committed a litany of war crimes, including indiscriminate use of force and deliberate killings of civilians.
Israel denies accusations of genocide and war crimes and says it is targeting Hamas after its October 2023 attack on southern Israel. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militant group operates in populated areas in the tiny, overcrowded strip.
Israeli officials contend the country's justice system can address any violations by its troops, but rights groups say soldiers are almost never held accountable.
Wednesday's statement did not mention many other high-profile killings that Israel has pledged to investigate, such as its strikes on a hospital in southern Gaza that killed five journalists in August 2025, including Mariam Dagga, a visual journalist who freelanced for The Associated Press and other news organizations.
Hind's grandmother, also named Hind Rajab, told the AP by phone that the Israeli investigation into her killing is not enough.
“An international investigation is required to uncover the truth and hold all those responsible accountable,” she said. “We call for justice, not only for Hind, but for all Gaza children.”
The military in Wednesday's statement admitted to firing at the car carrying the 5-year-old, four of her cousins and her aunt and uncle as they fled an Israeli invasion of Gaza City.
As gunfire sprayed around them, the girl's cousin, 15-year-old Layan Hamada, called the Palestinian Red Crescent paramedic center, telling staff there her family had been killed. Seconds later, more gunshots were heard, and Layan’s screaming stopped, according to the Red Crescent recording of the call.
Palestinian paramedics dispatched an ambulance to rescue Hind and stayed on the line with her until contact was lost. Hind, her five relatives and two medics from the ambulance were found dead 12 days later.
The military admitted Wednesday that troops had fired toward that ambulance, killing the two medics.
Dyab Abou Jahjah, director of the Belgium-based Hind Rajab foundation, told Al-Jazeera he considered the military investigations a “charade meant to whitewash the culprits instead of convicting them.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent also insists on an international investigation, according to Raed al-Nims, a spokesman for the organization in Gaza. “Israeli measures are not enough,” he told the AP.
A movie docudrama about Hind's death, “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” won international awards and was nominated for an Oscar.
In the killing of the paramedics, Israeli troops fired on an ambulance driving to retrieve casualties from an Israeli offensive in the southern city of Rafah, then fired on other emergency vehicles that came looking for the first one, according to phone footage and the sole survivor of the shootings. Fifteen medics and emergency responders from the Red Crescent and Gaza's Civil Defense were killed.
Troops then bulldozed over the bodies and vehicles, burying them in a mass grave. U.N. and rescue workers were only able to reach the site a week later to dig out the bodies.
The Israeli military initially said it opened fire because the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously” on troops without headlights or emergency signals. But it backtracked after the footage emerged, showing the teams driving slowly with their emergency lights flashing and logos visible. A deputy commander was directed to step down over the killings.
“We are not obligated to prove the truth because it is already proven to the whole world,” Eid Azizi, a Palestinian Red Crescent spokesperson, told the AP in a phone call. “We shouldn’t have reached this point if they respected and followed international humanitarian law.”
The military said it had decided against a criminal investigation into April 2024 airstrikes that hit a convoy of World Central Kitchen vehicles, killing seven staffers.
The aid group, which distributes food in Gaza, said at the time it had coordinated with the military over the convoy's movement. The vehicles, which had the group’s logo on their roofs visible from the air, were left incinerated and mangled.
Wednesday's military statement said individuals in the vehicles were mistakenly identified as armed Hamas operatives. But it concluded that the commanders' decisions "did not raise reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct.” At the time, two officers were removed from their positions and three others reprimanded.
World Central Kitchen responded in a statement saying the military’s account of the strike was untrue, “conflates different timelines and events, muddies the story and shifts the blame.” It called for an independent investigation.
The military also decided not to take criminal action over the killings of four staffers from Doctors Without Borders in two separate instances in November 2023 and February 2024.
Military investigators will now take up the probes and present their findings to military prosecutors. The military advocate general can then decide to keep investigating, indict any soldiers involved or decline to charge them.
Any action will take a long time, if it comes at all, said Tal Steiner, head of the Israeli rights group HaMoked.
Indictments are very uncommon and convictions even more so, she said, recalling only one soldier who had spent time behind bars since Oct. 7, 2023, for alleged abuse of Palestinian prisoners. That soldier was imprisoned for seven months under a June 2025 plea bargain.
“It’s very rare that soldiers accused of harming Palestinians even go to court ... and even rarer that they get a severe punishment,” Steiner said.
Just 0.17% of all military investigations launched during three Gaza operations from 2014 to 2022 led to prosecution, according to an analysis by Israeli rights group Yesh Din.
The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel and abducted 251 others.
Israeli strikes have continued in Gaza since a ceasefire deal came into effect in October, killing at least 1,270 people, according to the Health Ministry.
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Erin Cunningham in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Hind Rajab poses in Gaza City, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, with a photo of her granddaughter, Hind Rajab, a 5-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed alongside her family in Gaza in February 2024. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
FILE.- Mourners gather around the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana,File)
