Israel-Hamas war latest: Blinken pushes for cease-fire in his 9th trip to Mideast since war began

By The Associated Press

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that Israel has accepted a proposal to bridge differences holding up a cease-fire and hostage release in Gaza. He called on Hamas to do the same.

Blinken was on his ninth urgent mission to the Middle East since the war in Gaza began more than 10 months ago. He did not say whether the “bridging proposal” addressed concerns cited by Hamas.

Even if the militant group accepts the proposal, negotiators will spend the coming days working on “clear understandings on implementing the agreement,” Blinken said.

His visit came days after mediators, including the United States, expressed renewed optimism that a deal was close. His trip also came amid fears the conflict could widen into a deeper regional war following the killings of top militant commanders in Lebanon that Iran blamed on Israel.

Here’s the latest:

UN chief calls for ‘constructive dialogue’ as a former Israeli ambassador to the UN returns to the post

UNITED NATIONS – From the early days of the Israel-Hamas war, Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan attacked U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, accusing him of being “an accomplice to terrorism” and calling for his resignation.

Now, Israel has a new ambassador, and the U.N. chief is calling for “a constructive dialogue.”

However, Danny Danon, who served as Israel’s U.N. ambassador from 2015-2020 and presented his credentials to the secretary-general on Monday, made clear he would be following in Erdan’s footsteps when it comes to Israel’s views about the United Nations.

Danon said he’s returning to the U.N. at a time of “immense challenges” for Israel and its people, saying 115 Israelis are still being held hostage in Gaza and face “ongoing atrocities and suffering.”

“I am committed to represent my country to show the real face of Israel, and to push back the lies and the hypocrisy that we unfortunately have to deal with here at this building,” he said.

Neither the U.N. Security Council nor the General Assembly have condemned Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people and triggered the war, though Guterres has repeatedly called for a cease-fire and the release of all hostages. He has also criticized the killing of over 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including many women and children, mainly in Israeli airstrikes, as well as Israel’s obstruction to humanitarian aid deliveries.

For his part, Guterres said that “for the U.N., it is extremely important to have an objective relationship with Israel.”

“We have different points of view in many aspects in relation to the two-state solution, in relation to what has been happening recently,” Guterres said, “but that doesn’t mean that we should not have a constructive dialogue based on truth.”

Multiple Israeli airstrikes reported in Lebanon

BEIRUT — The Israeli army said it hit “a number of Hezbollah weapons storage facilities” in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley Monday night.

At least three Israeli airstrikes hit towns in the Baalbek district, Lebanese state media reported.

Videos from the scene showed a large fire and multiple explosions following the initial strike.

“Following the strikes, secondary explosions were identified, indicating the presence of large amounts of weapons in the facilities struck,” the Israeli army statement said.

A spokesperson for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the strike.

A similar scene took place last month after an Israeli airstrike on the southern coastal village of Adloun hit an arms depot, setting off a series of explosions that hit nearby villages with shrapnel.

1 Israeli soldier killed in a Hezbollah drone attack

BEIRUT — One Israeli soldier was killed Monday in a Hezbollah drone attack on the Ya’ra Barracks near the Lebanon-Israel border, the Israeli military said.

Hezbollah said it had launched exploding drones at two Israeli bases, including in the northern town of Nahariya, as tensions increase along the Lebanon-Israel border and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken makes his ninth diplomatic mission to the Middle East to push for a cease-fire deal to end the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it intercepted some projectiles coming from southern Lebanon, while others “fell in the area of Ya’ra,” without providing additional information.

The Israeli military told The Associated Press that there were multiple launches into the area.

The powerful Iran-backed Lebanese group said the two drone attacks targeted the Ya’ra Barracks near the U.N.-mandated Blue Line and an Israeli military logistics base deeper into the country in Nahariya. Hezbollah earlier also said they fired rockets and artillery at a group of Israeli soldiers trying to cross into Lebanese territory in the central sector.

The Israeli military told the AP that it was unaware of Hezbollah’s drone attack on Nahariya, and the group’s allegations that a group of Israeli troops were trying to cross into Lebanese territory overnight.

Israeli jets over Beirut broke the sound barrier, causing sonic booms in the Lebanese capital. The Israeli military said that it also targeted Hezbollah militants in the southeastern town of Houla and struck Hezbollah military infrastructure in Hanin and Ain al Shaab.

The group announced the deaths of at least two combatants on Monday.

Hamas claims responsibility for Tel Aviv bombing

JERUSALEM — Hamas claimed responsibility Monday for a bombing the day before in Tel Aviv that killed the apparent attacker and wounded a bystander.

The bomb appeared to go off before it was intended and the presumed attacker was shown in security footage walking down the street wearing a large backpack just before the explosion.

Israeli media quoted police officials as saying the intended target was a nearby synagogue.

Hamas’ militant wing said in a statement Monday that the group and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s militant wing were responsible for the blast and threatened to continue attacking “as long as the occupation’s massacres, displacement of civilians, and the continuation of the assassination policy continues.”

UN says record number of aid workers killed in 2023, mostly from UNRWA

BERLIN — A record number of aid workers were killed in conflicts around the world last year, and this year may be on course to be even deadlier, the United Nations said Monday.

The U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that 280 aid workers were killed in 33 countries in 2023 — more than double the previous year’s figure of 118. It said that more than half of last year’s deaths were registered in the first three months of the Israel-Hamas war that started in October, mostly as a result of airstrikes.

The office said that this year “may be on track for an even deadlier outcome,” with 172 aid workers killed as of Aug. 7.

More than 280, the majority of them with the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, have been killed in Gaza so far, according to OCHA.

Israeli authorities say a ‘powerful explosive’ killed 1 person in Tel Aviv

JERUSALEM — A blast that killed one person and wounded another in Tel Aviv on Sunday night was a terror attack caused by a large explosive device, Israeli authorities said Monday.

A joint statement from the police and Israel’s Shin Bet security agency gave few details other than saying that the attack involved “a powerful explosive.” They didn’t identify the attacker or give a motive.

Police said Sunday that the explosion killed one person, presumed to be the bomber.

“We know that the mutilated body is not that of an innocent bystander but the one who carried the bomb,” Tel Aviv District Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner Peretz Amar said. The statement on Monday only referenced the bystander who was moderately wounded.

Israeli media provided security footage that showed the presumed attacker walking down the street wearing a large backpack just before the explosion.

1 Palestinian killed and 2 wounded in a shooting on a street in Istanbul

ISTANBUL — Police in Istanbul have launched a “large-scale investigation” after a Palestinian was killed and two others were wounded in a shooting as they sat in a car, officials and media said Monday.

The killer dropped a handgun fitted with a silencer at the scene, the Istanbul Governor’s Office said in a brief statement.

The Demiroren News Agency reported that the man sitting in the driver’s seat was killed and his friend seriously wounded in the shooting late Sunday. Another man, who the governor’s office described as the dead man’s bodyguard, was wounded in the foot.

The killing was carried out by a masked assailant or assailants, the agency said. The victims were sitting on Dilaver Street in the Kagithane district of north Istanbul when the attack happened. It described the seriously wounded victim as a businessman.

Saudi ex-official alleges MbS forged king’s signature on Yemen war decree

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A former Saudi official has alleged that Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman forged the signature of his father on the royal decree that launched the kingdom’s yearslong, stalemated war against Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

Saudi Arabia didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment over the allegations made without supporting evidence by Saad al-Jabri in an interview published Monday by the BBC, though the kingdom has described him as “a discredited former government official.” Al-Jabri, a former Saudi intelligence official who lives in exile in Canada, has been a yearslong dispute with the kingdom as his two children have been imprisoned in case he describes as trying to lure him back to Saudi Arabia.

The allegation comes as Prince Mohammed now serves as the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, often meeting leaders in place of his father, the 88-year-old King Salman. His assertive behavior, particularly at the start of his ascension to power around the beginning of the Yemen war in 2015, extended to a wider crackdown on any perceived dissent or power base that could challenge his rule.

In al-Jabri’s remarks to the BBC, he said a “credible, reliable” official linked to the Saudi Interior Ministry confirmed to him that Prince Mohammed signed the royal decree declaring war in place of his father.