Hamas

FILE- U.S. United Nations Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, center, addresses a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the war in Gaza, on March 11, 2024, at U.N. headquarters. The United Nations Security Council is set to vote on a United States-sponsored resolution declaring that "an immediate and sustained cease-fire" in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is "imperative" to protect civilians and enable humanitarian aid to be delivered to more than 2 million hungry Palestinians. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)

The UN will vote on a US resolution declaring that an immediate cease-fire in Gaza is imperative

The U.N. Security Council is set to vote on a U.S.-sponsored resolution declaring that “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Israel-Hamas war is “imperative” to protect civilians and allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to more than 2 million hungry Palestinians.

Israeli soldiers move on the top of a tank near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, March 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Blinken says an Israeli assault on Gaza’s Rafah would be a mistake and isn’t needed to defeat Hamas

Palestinians look at a residential building destroyed in an Israeli strike in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)

Why Israel is so determined to launch an offensive in Rafah

FILE - Jewish ultra-Orthodox men and children, some wearing costumes, celebrate the festival of Purim at a synagogue in Bnei Brak, Israel, March 17, 2022. Purim celebrates the biblical story of how a plot to exterminate Jews in Persia was thwarted, and thus is embraced as an affirmation of Jewish survival throughout history. For many Jews, it will have extra significance in 2024 during a war in Gaza triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel in which Hamas killed 1,200 people and took about 250 others hostage. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)

During the Israel-Hamas war, Jews will soon celebrate Purim — one of their most joyous holidays

Palestinians mourn relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip at a hospital morgue in Rafah, Tuesday, March 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Heavy fighting rages around Gaza’s biggest hospital as Israel raids it for a second day

Air drops of aid parachuted into Gaza Strip

Aid continued to be parachuted into the the Gaza Strip on Friday. The airdrops are part of an international effort to work around extreme difficulties plaguing ground transport of aid into Gaza.

Watch More

Blinken: Israeli assault on Gaza’s Rafah would be a ‘mistake’ and isn’t needed to defeat Hamas

US Secretary of State Blinken arrives in Egypt and meets Foreign Minister Shoukry

AP Top Stories March 21 A

More News

Palestinian Muslims break their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan outside the Dome of Rock at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem, Saturday, March 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Cease-fire talks with Israel and Hamas are expected to resume on Sunday in Qatar

Stalled talks aimed at securing a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war are expected to resume in earnest in Qatar as soon as Sunday.

Palestinian women wait to cross the Israeli military Qalandia checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah to Jerusalem, to participate in Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on Friday, March 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Ramadan prayers in Jerusalem pass without the violence feared amid the Gaza war

The first Friday prayers of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan passed without violence at the revered Al-Aqsa mosque under tight Israeli restrictions.

A Lebanese army officer stands next to a destroyed car in the southern outskirts of Tyre, Lebanon, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. An Israeli drone strike Wednesday targeting a car in southern Lebanon near the coastal city of Tyre killed a member of Hamas and at least one other person. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)

An Israeli drone strikes a car in southern Lebanon and kills a member of Hamas’ military wing

An Israeli drone strike targeting a car in southern Lebanon near the coastal city of Tyre has killed a member of the Palestinian militant Hamas group and another person.

Pramila Patten, right, United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, addresses a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the war in Gaza, Monday, March 11, 2024, at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

UN envoy: Finding that some hostages were victims of sexual violence doesn’t justify Israeli attacks

The U.N. envoy focusing on sexual violence in conflict is warning Israel that the finding of “clear and convincing information” that some hostages taken by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel were subjected to sexual violence “does not in any way legitimize further hostilities.”

Port staffers prepare the aid on a platform near to the docked ship belonging to the Open Arms aid group, as it prepares to ferry some 200 tonnes of rice and flour directly to Gaza, at the port in Larnaca, Cyprus, on Sunday, March 10, 2024. The European Commission president said Friday the Open Arms ship will make a pilot voyage as international donors launched a sea corridor to supply the besieged territory that is facing widespread hunger after five months of war. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

An effort to get aid to Gaza by sea is moving ahead. But the first ship is still waiting in Cyprus

The voyage began just two days after U.S. President Joe Biden announced plans to ramp up aid deliveries by sea to the besieged enclave where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been going hungry.

President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign rally Saturday, March 9, 2024, at Pullman Yards in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Biden says Netanyahu is ‘hurting Israel’ by not preventing more civilian deaths in Gaza

President Joe Biden says he believes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” in how he is approaching its war against Hamas in Gaza.

File - Muslim women walk through a market, ahead of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan, in the Old City of Jerusalem, Thursday, March 7, 2024. Restrictions put in place amid the Israel-Hamas war have left many Palestinians concerned they might not be able to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which is revered by Muslims. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)

On eve of Ramadan, Jerusalem’s Old City offers little festivity as Gaza war rages

On the eve of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, Jerusalem’s Old City bears few of its usual hallmarks of festivity.

FILE- The U.S. Treasury Department building is shown at dusk in Washington on June 6, 2019. A top U.S. Treasury official visiting Beirut pressed Lebanese authorities to prevent funds from being funneled to Hamas by way of Lebanon, officials said. Jesse Baker, deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for Asia and the Middle East in the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes, met with Lebanese politicians and officials from the financial sector Thursday March 7 and Friday, March 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

US Treasury official pushes Lebanon to halt the flow of funding to Hamas

A top U.S. Treasury official has pressed Lebanese authorities to prevent funds from being funneled to Hamas by way of Lebanon during a visit to Beirut.

FILE - A United Nations worker prepares aid for distribution to Palestinians at UNRWA warehouse in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. The spokesperson for Israel's welfare ministry says it has stopped providing the documentation needed for international aid workers to renew their visas because the ministry does not have the investigative muscle to look into their potential militant affiliations. (AP Photo/Hassan Eslaiah, File)

Leading NGOs slam Israel’s halt in visa renewals for aid workers in Gaza and West Bank

A coalition of humanitarian and nongovernmental groups has slammed Israel’s halt in renewing visas for international aid workers in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.

FILE - Britain's Science Secretary Michelle Donelan leaves after a cabinet meeting at Downing Street in London, Jan. 31, 2023. British taxpayers have been left footing the bill after a Cabinet minister apologized and paid damages to an academic she had accused of expressing sympathy for Hamas. Michelle Donelan acknowledged there was “no evidence” Kate Sang, a professor of gender and employment studies at Heriot-Watt University, supported Hamas, which is outlawed as a terrorist group in Britain. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

A UK Cabinet minister accused a professor of sympathizing with Hamas, but now she’s apologizing

A Cabinet minister in Britain has apologized and paid damages to a professor she had accused of expressing sympathy for Hamas.

Israeli troops move near the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel, Monday, March 4, 2024. The army is battling Palestinian militants across Gaza in the war ignited by Hamas' Oct. 7 attack into Israel. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)

Hostage crisis poses dilemma for Israel and offers a path to victory for Hamas

Over five months, Israel has killed thousands of Hamas fighters, destroyed dozens of their tunnels and wreaked unprecedented destruction on the Gaza Strip.

Mideast Starbucks franchisee firing 2,000 workers after being targeted in Israel-Hamas war boycott

The Middle East franchisee of Starbucks has begun firing some 2,000 staff at its coffee shops across the region after the brand found itself targeted by activists during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

The sun sets over the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Monday, March 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Gaza cease-fire talks fail to achieve a breakthrough with Ramadan just days away, Egypt says

Egyptian officials say three days of negotiations with Hamas over a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages have failed to achieve a breakthrough.

FILE - Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, speaks during a joint press conference with his Greek counterpart Nikos Panagiotopoulos, at the Greek Ministry of Defence, in Athens, Greece, on Nov. 18, 2022. Benny Gantz, who is in Washington this week for meetings with U.S. leaders, is a crucial member of Israel’s War Cabinet. He is also the top political rival to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Gantz is a centrist politician who joined Netanyahu’s ultranationalist and religious government soon after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. (AP Photo/Michael Varaklas, File)

Netanyahu leaned on his top rival to help unify Israel. Now, Benny Gantz is more popular

Benny Gantz, who is in Washington this week for meetings with U.S. leaders, is a crucial member of Israel’s War Cabinet.

People protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, March 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Rival of Netanyahu visits US, signaling wider cracks in Israel’s wartime leadership

An Israeli official says a top Cabinet minister’s trip to Washington has angered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It comes as talks aimed at brokering a Gaza cease-fire are underway in Egypt.

Humanitarian aid is dropped by the United States over Gaza City, Gaza Strip, on Saturday, March 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Hajjar)

US says Israel has agreed to the framework for a Gaza cease-fire. Hamas must now decide

A senior U.S. official says Israel has essentially endorsed a framework of a proposed Gaza cease-fire and hostage release deal, and it is now up to Hamas to agree to it.

In this screen grab taken from video and released by the Israeli army on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, Palestinians surround aid trucks in northern Gaza in what officials described the day before as the first major delivery in a month. (IDF via AP)

How US airdrops of humanitarian aid into Gaza can help and why the operation is complicated

The United States has begun airdrops of emergency humanitarian assistance into Gaza. President Joe Biden, who announced the operation on Friday, said the U.S. was looking into additional ways to help Palestinians in the Hamas-ruled territory as the Israel-Hamas war goes on.

FILE - The Commissioner-General of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the UNRWA headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023.The head of the main United Nations agency supporting people in Gaza alleges that Israel is intent on “destroying” it along with the idea that Palestinians are refugees and have a right one day to return home. Philippe Lazzarini in an interview with a Swiss newspaper accuses Israel of having a “long-term political goal” of eliminating the agency created decades ago to assist Palestinians who fled during the war over Israel’s creation. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)

The EU says it will send funds to Gaza’s main aid provider after the UN agency agrees to an audit

The European Union says it will pay $54 million to the main provider of aid in Gaza next week. It says the cash-strapped U.N. agency has agreed to allow EU-appointed experts to audit the way it screens staff to identify extremists.

Palestinians inspect the rubble of destroyed buildings after an Israeli airstrike in Nusseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Palestinians say Israeli troops fired at people seeking food. Israel says scene was deadly stampede

Witnesses say Israeli troops fired on a large crowd of Palestinians racing to pull food off an aid convoy in Gaza City.

Abbas Alawich speaks during an election night gathering, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in Dearborn, Mich. Some Democratic voters pledged to vote "uncommitted" in Tuesday's primary to let President Joe Biden know they aren't happy with his support for Israel in its response to the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Michigan’s largest Arab American cities reject Biden over his handling of Israel-Hamas war

Dearborn and two other Michigan cities with large Arab and Muslim populations turned against President Joe Biden in the state’s primary after Democratic leaders there warned for months that voters were angry about his handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

Tourists hold umbrellas against the rain as they walk in Parliament Square next to the the Houses of Parliament in London, Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024. U.K. lawmakers have called for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. But the move came after dozens of lawmakers walked out of the House of Commons in protest at how the vote was handled on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

The UK is stepping up lawmakers’ security as tensions flare over the Israel-Hamas war

The British government is stepping up security for lawmakers after politicians reported threats and intimidation connected to the Israel-Hamas war.

People gather at Israel's Nitzana border crossing with Egypt in southern Israel, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, protesting against the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip until all hostages held by Hamas militants are released. Israel inspects international aid bound for Gaza before it is delivered into the territory. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

The Latest | Families of hostages held in Gaza launch a 4-day march to demand their freedom

The families of hostages held in Gaza and their supporters are launching a four-day march from southern Israel to Jerusalem to demand their loved ones be set free.

FILE - Demonstrators wave signs and shout slogans during a protest calling for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024. Israel and Hamas are inching toward a new deal that would free some of the roughly 130 hostages held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for a weeks-long pause in the war, now in its fifth month. A deal would bring some respite to desperate people in Gaza, who have borne a staggering toll in the war, as well as to the anguished families of hostages taken during Hamas' Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)

A deal between Israel and Hamas appears to be taking shape. What would it look like?

Israel and Hamas are inching toward a new deal that would free some of the roughly 130 hostages held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for a weekslong pause in the war. U.S.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani delivers a speech during a state dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024. Qatar's emir has arrived in France for a two-day state visit as his country plays a key role in ongoing diplomatic efforts to achieve a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of hostages. (Yoan Valat, Pool via AP)

Qatar’s emir speaks of “race against time” to win hostage releases in Gaza diplomatic efforts

The emir of Qatar has spoken of “a race against time” to secure hostage releases as part of diplomatic efforts for a cease-fire in Gaza.

A Palestinian mourner bids farewell to one of three men killed by Israeli fire in Faraa refugee camp, at the morgue in the West Bank town of Tubas, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024. Israeli troops shot and killed three Palestinian men including Mohammed Daraghmeh, a co-founder of the local branch of Islamic Jihad in the northern town of Tubas, early Tuesday, Palestinian health authorities said. Thee was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

The Latest | Biden says hostage deal could pause Gaza war, but Israel and Hamas show skepticism

President Joe Biden says Israel would be willing to halt its war on Hamas in Gaza during the upcoming Muslim fasting month of Ramadan if a deal is reached to release some of the hostages held by the militants.

A Palestinian woman mourns a child killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip at a morgue in Khan Younis, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)

Israel and Hamas indicate no deal is imminent after Biden signals Gaza cease-fire could be close

Negotiators from the U.S., Egypt and Qatar are working on a framework deal under which Hamas would free some of the dozens of hostages it holds, in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners and a six-week halt in fighting.

FILE - Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh speaks during a meeting with officials from Western and Arab nations, the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023. Prime Minister Shtayyeh says his government is resigning, in a move that could open the door to U.S.-backed reforms in the Palestinian Authority. (Ludovic Marin/Pool Photo via AP, File)

What would a new Palestinian government in the West Bank mean for the war in Gaza?

The Palestinian Authority’s prime minister has announced his government’s resignation. It’s seen as the first step in a reform process urged by the United States as part of its latest ambitious plans to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A woman holds a mask depicting the faces of Shiri Bibas and her sons Kfir and Ariel, Israelis who are being held hostage in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, during a protest demanding the release of the hostages from Hamas captivity, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024. Relatives of hostages still being held by Hamas and other militant groups have endured a nightmare. Nearly five months into the war that began with Hamas' deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the hostages relatives hold on to hope that they will be freed but are growing increasingly desperate for a resolution. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Relatives of hostages in Gaza endure a nightmare, but dream their loved ones will be freed

Relatives of hostages still being held by Hamas and other militant groups have endured a nightmare. Nearly five months into the war that began with Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the hostages’ relatives hold on to hope that they will be freed.

Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli strike on residential buildings and a mosque in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Mideast cease-fire efforts gain steam as US envoy visits. Mediators report ‘encouraging’ signs

International efforts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas appear to be gaining new momentum.

FILE - The site of a music festival near the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel, on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023. The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024, said it has found evidence of “systematic and intentional” rape and sexual abuse during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that ignited the war in Gaza. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)

Rape and sexual assault took place during Hamas attack, Israeli association says

The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel says it has found evidence of “systematic and intentional” rape and sexual abuse during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that ignited the war in Gaza.