MASYAF, Syria (AP) — The number of people killed in overnight Israeli strikes in Syria has risen to 18 with dozens more wounded, Syria’s health minister said Monday — the largest death toll in such an attack since the beginning of the war in Gaza.

One of the sites targeted was a research center used in the development of weapons, a war monitor said. Syrian officials said civilian sites were targeted.

Israel regularly targets military sites in Syria linked to Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Those strikes have become more frequent as Hezbollah has exchanged fire with Israeli forces for the past 11 months against the backdrop of Israel’s war against Hamas — a Hezbollah ally — in Gaza.

However, the intensity and death toll of Sunday night’s strikes were unusual.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria in recent years, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations. The strikes often target Syrian forces or Iranian-backed groups.

Israel has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment in Syria, particularly since Syria is a key route for Iran to send weapons to Hezbollah.

Israeli strikes hit several areas in central Syria, damaging a highway in Hama province and sparking fires, Syrian state news agency SANA said.

Speaking to reporters, Syrian Health Minister Hassan al-Ghabbash described the strikes as a “brutal and barbaric aggression.” He said the death toll had risen to 18 with nearly 40 wounded.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, said 25 were killed, including at least five civilians, while the others included Syrian army soldiers and members of Hezbollah and other Iran-linked armed groups.

One strike targeted a scientific research center in Masyaf, and other sites where “Iranian militias and experts are stationed to develop weapons in Syria,” the observatory said. It said the research center was reportedly used for developing weapons, including short- and medium-range precision missiles and drones.

Minister of Electricity Mohammad al-Zamel said the strikes had caused “truly significant” damage to water and electricity infrastructure.

“This brutal attack targeted civilian targets, and the martyrs were mostly civilians, as were the wounded,” he said.

Muhammad Sumaya, a firefighter with the Hama Fire Brigade, was wounded when shrapnel from one of the strikes hit his foot.

When the strikes began, he said while being treated in the Masyaf hospital Monday, “we moved from one place to another to deal with the fires and work to extinguish them.” While they were working, he said, “a missile landed right next to us.”

Azzam al-Omar, a SANA photographer, said he was hit by shrapnel in the chest when a missile landed while he was photographing the aftermath of a strike.

Local media also reported strikes around the coastal city of Tartous, which the observatory said were the result of air defense missiles falling.

On Monday afternoon, a charred car remained at the scene of one strike and smoke was still rising from some spots where fires had been put out.

Also on Monday, Saudi Arabia officially reopened its embassy in Damascus, marking a full restoration of relations between the two countries.

Syria was widely shunned by Arab governments over the brutal crackdown by the government of Bashar Assas on protesters in a 2011 uprising that descended into civil war. The breakdown in relations culminated with Syria being ousted from the Arab League.

As Assad consolidated his control over most of the country and the civil war turned into a largely frozen conflict, Arab states moved toward a rapproachement with Damascus.

Saudi Arabia cut off diplomatic relations with Syria in 2012. Last year, soon after Syria was reinstated to the Arab League, the two countries announced they were restoring relations.

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Sewell reported from Istanbul. Associated Press journalist Samar Kassaballi in Damascus contributed to this report.

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization launched on Friday a continent-wide response plan to the outbreak of mpox, three weeks after WHO declared outbreaks in 12 African countries a global emergency.

The estimated budget for the six-month plan is almost $600 million, with 55% allocated to the response to mpox in 14 affected nations and boosting readiness in 15 others, Africa CDC director-general Dr. Jean Kaseya told reporters on Friday. The other 45% is directed towards operational and technical support through partners. The organization didn’t give an indication of who would be funding it.

The plan focuses on surveillance, laboratory testing and community engagement, Kaseya said, underscoring the fact that vaccines aren’t enough to fight the spreading outbreak.

The organization said that since the start of 2024, there have been 5,549 confirmed mpox cases across the continent, with 643 associated deaths, representing a sharp escalation in both infections and fatalities compared to previous years. The cases in Congo constituted 91% of the total number. Most mpox infections in Congo and Burundi, the second most affected country, are in children under age 15.

The plan comes a day after the first batch of mpox vaccines arrived in the capital of Congo, the center of the outbreak. The 100,000 doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine, manufactured by the Danish company Bavarian Nordic, have been donated by the European Union through HERA, the bloc’s agency for health emergencies. Another 100,000 are expected to be delivered on Saturday, Congolese authorities said.

“These vaccines are vital in safeguarding our health workers and vulnerable populations, and in curbing the spread of mpox,” Kaseya said Thursday.

The 200,000 doses are just a fraction of the 3 million that doses authorities have said are needed to end the mpox outbreaks in Congo, the epicenter of the global health emergency. The European Union countries pledged to donate more than 500,000 others, but the timeline for their delivery remained unclear.

Emmanuel Lampaert, a representative of Doctors Without Borders in Congo, said that vaccination was an additional tool. Basic health measures were still crucial to combat the outbreak, and there were challenges with that in many parts of Congo.

Congo issued an emergency approval of the vaccine, which has already been used in Europe and the United States in adults, but it remained unclear on Friday when the vaccination campaign would begin. For the moment, the rollout would be reserved for adults, Kaseya said, with priority targeted groups being those who have been in close contact with infected people and sex workers.

The European Medicines Agency is examining additional data to be able to administer it to children ranging in age from 12 to 17, which could happen at the end of the month, HERA Director-General Laurent Muschel said.

“We don’t have all the answers,” Muschel told reporters on Friday. “We learn by doing. We are going to adapt the strategy depending on the impact of the vaccination campaign.”

BERLIN — The suspects in the foiled plot to attack Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna earlier this month sought to kill “tens of thousands” of fans before the CIA discovered intelligence that disrupted the planning and led to arrests, the agency’s deputy director said.

The CIA notified Austrian authorities of the scheme, which allegedly included links to the Islamic State group. The intelligence and subsequent arrests ultimately led to the cancellation of three sold-out Eras Tour shows, devastating fans who had traveled across the globe to see Swift in concert.

CIA Deputy Director David Cohen addressed the failed plot during the annual Intelligence and National Security Summit, held this week in Maryland.

“They were plotting to kill a huge number — tens of thousands of people at this concert, including I am sure many Americans — and were quite advanced in this,” Cohen said Wednesday. “The Austrians were able to make those arrests because the agency and our partners in the intelligence community provided them information about what this ISIS-connected group was planning to do.”

Austrian officials said the main suspect, a 19-year-old Austrian man, was inspired by the Islamic State group. He allegedly planned to attack outside the stadium, where upwards of 30,000 fans were expected to gather, with knives or homemade explosives. Another 65,000 fans were likely to be inside the venue. Investigators discovered chemical substances and technical devices during a raid of the suspect’s home.

Austria’s interior minister, Gerhard Karner, previously said help from other intelligence agencies was needed because Austrian investigators, unlike some foreign services, can’t legally monitor text messages.

The 19-year-old’s lawyer has said the allegations were “overacting at its best,” and contended Austrian authorities were “presenting this exaggeratedly” in order to get new surveillance powers.

Swift broke her silence about the cancellations last week after her London shows had concluded.

“Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating,” she wrote in a statement posted to Instagram. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”

She thanked authorities — “thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives,” she wrote — and said she waited to speak until the European leg of her Eras Tour concluded to prioritize safety.

“Let me be very clear: I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows,” she wrote.

Concert organizer Barracuda Music said it canceled the three-night Vienna run that would have begun Aug. 8 because the arrests made in connection to the conspiracy were too close to showtime.

The main suspect and a 17-year-old were taken into custody on Aug. 6, the day before the cancellations were announced. A third suspect, 18, was arrested Aug. 8. Their names have not been released in line with Austrian privacy rules.

The shows in London, the next stop after Vienna, came on the heels of a stabbing at a Swift-themed dance class that left three little girls dead in the U.K. In a statement issued after the Southport attack, Swift said she was “just completely in shock” and “at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families.” News outlets reported that Swift met with some of the survivors backstage in London.

The Vienna plot also drew comparisons to a 2017 attack by a suicide bomber at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people. The bomb detonated at the end of Grande’s concert as thousands of young fans were leaving, becoming the deadliest extremist attack in the United Kingdom in recent years.

Cohen on Wednesday praised the CIA’s work in preventing the planned violence, saying that other counterterrorism “successes” in foiling plots typically go unheralded.

“I can tell you within my agency, and I’m sure in others, there were people who thought that was a really good day for Langley,” he said, referring to the CIA headquarters. “And not just the Swifties in my workforce.”

The record-smashing tour is on hiatus until the fall.

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HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong court on Thursday convicted two former editors of a shuttered news outlet in a sedition case widely seen as a barometer for the future of media freedoms in a city once hailed as a bastion of free press in Asia.

The trial of Stand News former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen and former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam was Hong Kong’s first involving the media since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Stand News, which closed in December 2021, had been one of the city’s last media outlets that openly criticized the government as it waged a crackdown on dissent following massive pro-democracy protests in 2019.

It was shut down just months after the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, whose jailed founder Jimmy Lai is fighting collusion charges under a sweeping national security law enacted in 2020.

Chung and Lam had pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious publications — charges that were brought under a colonial-era sedition law used increasingly to crush dissidents. They face up to two years in prison and a fine of 5,000 Hong Kong dollars (about $640) for a first offense.

Best Pencil (Hong Kong) Ltd., the outlet’s holding company, was convicted on the same charge. It had no representatives during the trial, which began in October 2022.

Judge Kwok Wai-kin said in his written judgment that Stand News became a tool for smearing the Beijing and Hong Kong governments during the 2019 protests.

He said a conviction is deemed proportional “when speech, in the relevant context, is deemed to have caused potential damage to national security and intends to seriously undermine the authority of the Chinese central government or the Hong Kong government, and that it must be stopped.”

The case was centered on 17 articles Stand News had published. Prosecutors said some promoted “illegal ideologies,” or smeared the security law and law enforcement officers. Judge Kwok ruled that 11 carried seditious intent, including commentaries written by activist Nathan Law and esteemed journalists Allan Au and Chan Pui-man. Chan is also Chung’s wife.

The judge found that the other six did not carry seditious intent, including in interviews with pro-democracy ex-lawmakers Law and Ted Hui, who are among overseas-based activists targeted by Hong Kong police bounties.

Chung appeared calm after the verdict while Lam did not appear in court due to health reasons. They were given bail pending sentencing on Sept. 26.

Defense lawyer Audrey Eu read out a mitigation statement from Lam, who said Stand News reporters sought to run a news outlet with fully independent editorial standards. “The only way for journalists to defend press freedom is reporting,” Eu quoted Lam as saying.

Eu did not read out Chung’s mitigation letter in court. But local media outlets quoted his letter, in which he wrote that many Hong Kongers who are not journalists have held to their beliefs, and some have lost their own freedom because they care about everyone’s freedom in the community.

“Accurately recording and reporting their stories and thoughts is an inescapable responsibility of journalists,” he wrote in that letter.

After the verdict, former Stand News journalist Ronson Chan said nobody had told reporters that they might be arrested if they did any interviews or write anything.

The delivery of the verdict was delayed several times for various reasons, including awaiting the appeal outcome of another landmark sedition case. Dozens of residents and reporters lined up to secure a seat for the hearing.

Resident Kevin Ng, who was among the first in the line, said he used to be a reader of Stand News and has been following the trial. Ng, 28, said he read less news after its shutdown, feeling the city has lost some critical voices.

“They reported the truth, they defended press freedom,” Ng, who works in risk management industry, said of the editors.

Stand News shut down following a police raid at its office and the arrests of its leaders. Armed with a warrant to seize relevant journalistic materials, more than 200 officers participated in the operation.

Days after Stand News shut down, independent news outlet Citizen News also announced it would cease operations, citing the deteriorating media environment and the potential risks to its staff.

Hong Kong was ranked 135 out of 180 territories in Reporters Without Borders’ latest World Press Freedom Index, down from 80 in 2021. Self-censorship has also become more prominent during the political crackdown on dissent. In March, the city government enacted another new security law that raised concerns it could further curtail press freedom.

Francis Lee, journalism and communication professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the ruling on which articles were seditious appears to be drawing lines. Whenever an article is about a one-sided political stance, highly critical or viewed as lacking factual basis, then that could be considered as smearing, Lee said.

Some of the court’s logic differs from how journalists typically think, he said. Journalists “may have to be more cautious from now on.”

Eric Lai, a research fellow at Georgetown Center for Asian Law, said the ruling is in line with “the anti-free-speech trend” of rulings since the 2020 security law took effect, criminalizing journalists carrying out their professional duties.

Foreign governments criticized the convictions. U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller wrote on X that it was a “direct attack on media freedom.”

However, Eric Chan, Hong Kong’s Chief Secretary for Administration, insisted that when journalists conduct their reporting based on facts, there would not be any restrictions on such freedom.

Steve Li, chief superintendent of the police national security department, told reporters the ruling showed their enforcement three years ago — criticized by some as a suppression of free press — was necessary.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — One of Gaza’s last functioning hospitals has been emptying out in recent days as Israel has ordered the evacuation of nearby areas and signaled a possible ground operation in a town that has been largely spared throughout the war, officials said Monday.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah is the main hospital serving central Gaza. The Israeli military has not ordered its evacuation, but patients and people sheltering there fear that it may be engulfed in fighting or become the target of a raid.

Also on Monday, Israeli strikes in Gaza City and Khan Younis killed at least 12 people, according to local officials, and fighting between Israel and Hezbollah resumed across the Lebanon border.

Israeli forces have invaded several hospitals in Gaza over the course of the 10-month-old war, accusing Hamas of using them for military purposes, allegations denied by Palestinian health officials.

Israeli evacuation orders now cover around 84% of Gaza’s territory, according to the United Nations, which estimates that around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have been forced from their homes. Many have been displaced multiple times.

The evacuation orders have reduced the size of the humanitarian zone declared by Israel at the start of the war while crowding more Palestinians into it. Thousands of Palestinian families have packed into tent camps along the beach where aid groups say food and clean water are scarce and disease spreads quickly.

The most recent satellite images available from PlanetLabs and analyzed by The Associated Press show the increase in tent density along the beachfront since July 19.

AP reporters saw people fleeing the hospital and surrounding areas on Monday, many on foot. Some pushed patients on stretchers or carried sick children, while others held bags of clothes, mattresses and blankets. Four schools in the area were also being evacuated.

“Where will we get medicine?” Adliyeh al-Najjar said as she rested outside the hospital gate. “Where will patients like me go?”

Fatimah al-Attar fought back tears as she left the hospital compound heading in the direction of the tent camps. “Our fate is to die,” she said. “There is no place for us to go. There is no safe place.”

The U.N. Office for Humanitarian Affairs known as OCHA said that since Friday the Israeli military has issued three evacuation orders for over 19 neighborhoods in northern Gaza and in Deir al Balah, affecting more than 8,000 people staying in these areas.

The order covers an area including or near UN and other humanitarian centers, the Al Aqsa hospital, two clinics, three wells, one water reservoir and one desalination plant, said Jens Laerke, a spokesman for OCHA.

“This effectively upends a whole lifesaving humanitarian hub,” Laerke said.

Doctors Without Borders, an international charity known by its French acronym MSF, said an explosion around 250 meters (yards) from the hospital on Sunday caused panic, accelerating the exodus.

“As a result, MSF is considering whether to suspend wound care for the time being, while trying to maintain life-saving treatment,” it said on the platform X.

The hospital says it was treating over 600 patients before the evacuation orders, which apply to residential areas about a kilometer (0.6 mile) away. Around 100 patients remain, including seven in intensive care and eight in the children’s ward.

The Israeli military said it was operating against Hamas in Deir al-Balah and working to dismantle its remaining infrastructure there. It said the evacuation orders were issued to protect civilians, and did not include nearby hospitals or medical facilities. It said it had also informed Palestinian health officials that the facilities did not need to be evacuated.

The army has excluded hospitals from past evacuation orders, but patients and others have still fled, fearing for their safety.

Israel’s military said Monday that its forces were expanding operations on the outskirts of Deir al-Balah and had discovered weapons in a residential apartment and dismantled an underground Hamas tunnel about 700 meters (765 yards) long.

Local health officials said an Israeli airstrike hit a group of people on the seashore in Gaza City, killing at least seven men while they were fishing.

Another strike hit a vehicle inside the Israeli-declared humanitarian zone near the southern city of Khan Younis, killing at least five people, according to a Kuwaiti field hospital, where the bodies were taken.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on those attacks.

The war began on Oct. 7 when Hamas-led militants attacked Israeli army bases and farming communities. The militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and dragged around 250 hostages back to Gaza.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and caused heavy destruction across much of the territory. Hamas is still holding around 110 hostages, about a third of whom are believed to be dead, after most of the rest were freed in a cease-fire last year.

Israel has continued carrying out strikes across Gaza as the United States, Egypt and Qatar have tried to broker a lasting cease-fire and the release of the remaining hostages. Major gaps remain despite several months of high-level negotiations.

Hospitals have repeatedly been turned into battlegrounds, both literally and in the rival narratives surrounding the war.

Israel’s army has raided a number of medical facilities since the start of the war and has provided some evidence that militants were inside some of them. Medical staff deny the allegations and accuse the army of reckless disregard for civilians.

Hospitals can lose their protected status under international law if they are used for military purposes, but any operations against them must be proportional and seek to spare civilians.

Only 16 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are even partially functioning, according to the World Health Organization, even as they treat casualties from daily Israeli airstrikes across the territory. The difficulty of importing and distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza has contributed to widespread hunger and disease outbreaks, further stressing the health sector.

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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem contributed.

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

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia battered much of Ukraine on Monday, firing scores of missiles and drones that killed four people, injured more than a dozen and damaged energy facilities in attacks that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as “vile.”

The barrage of over 100 missiles and a similar number of drones began around midnight and continued through daybreak in what appeared to be Russia’s biggest onslaught in weeks.

Ukraine’s air force said swarms of Russian drones fired at eastern, northern, southern, and central regions were followed by volleys of cruise and ballistic missiles.

“Like most previous Russian strikes, this one was just as vile, targeting critical civilian infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said, adding that most of the country was targeted — from the Kharkiv region and Kyiv to Odesa and the west.

Explosions were heard in the capital of Kyiv. Power and water supplies in the city were disrupted by the attack, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Russia fired drones, cruise missiles and hypersonic ballistic Kinzhal missiles at 15 Ukrainian regions — more than half the country.

“The energy infrastructure has once again become the target of Russian terrorists,” Shmyhal said, adding that the state-owned power grid operator, Ukrenergo, has been forced to implement emergency power cuts to stabilize the system.

He urged Ukraine’s allies to provide it with long-range weapons and permission to use them on targets inside Russia.

“In order to stop the barbaric shelling of Ukrainian cities, it is necessary to destroy the place from which the Russian missiles are launched,” Shmyhal said. “We count on the support of our allies and will definitely make Russia pay.”

U.S. President Joe Biden called the Russian attack on energy infrastructure “outrageous” and said he had “re-prioritized U.S. air defense exports so they are sent to Ukraine first.” He also said the U.S. was “surging energy equipment to Ukraine to repair its systems and strengthen the resilience of Ukraine’s energy grid.”

The Russian Defense Ministry said the attacks used “long-range precision air- and sea-based weapons and strike drones against critical energy infrastructure facilities that support the operation of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex. All designated targets were hit.”

At least four people were killed — one in the western city of Lutsk, one in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, one in Zhytomyr in the country’s center, and one in the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region in the southeast, local officials said. Thirteen others were wounded — one in the Kyiv region that surrounds the capital, five in Lutsk, three in the southern Mykolaiv region and four in the neighboring Odesa region.

Blackouts and damage to civilian infrastructure and residential buildings were reported from the region of Sumy in the east, to the Mykolaiv and Odesa regions in the south, to the region of Rivne in the west.

In Sumy, a province in the east that borders Russia, local administration said that 194 settlements lost power, while 19 others had a partial blackout.

The private energy company DTEK introduced emergency blackouts, saying in a statement that “energy workers throughout the country work 24/7 to restore light in the homes of Ukrainians.”

In the wake of the barrage and the power cuts, officials across Ukraine were ordered to open “points of invincibility” — shelter-type places where people can charge their phones and other devices and get refreshments during blackouts, Shmyhal said. Such points were first opened in the fall of 2022, when Russia targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with weekly barrages.

In neighboring Poland, the military said Polish and NATO air defenses were activated in the eastern part of the country as a result of the attack.

In Russia, meanwhile, officials reported a Ukrainian drone attack overnight.

Four people were injured in the central region of Saratov, where drones hit residential buildings in two cities. One drone struck a residential high-rise in the city of Saratov, and another hit a residential building in the city of Engels, home to a military airfield that had been attacked before, local officials said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said a total of 22 Ukrainian drones were intercepted overnight and in the morning over eight provinces, including the Saratov and Yaroslavl regions in central Russia.

Russia also said its troops had fended off Ukrainian attempts to advance on half a dozen settlements in the Kursk region, where Ukraine launched an incursion on Aug. 6 that caught Russia off-guard.

The fighting in the region has raised concerns about the nuclear power plant there. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said he would visit the plant Tuesday.

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Follow AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Gunmen in southwestern Pakistan killed at least 38 people in three separate attacks on Monday, officials said, while the military said security forces killed 21 insurgents, marking one of the deadliest days of violence in the restive Baluchistan province, with reports of other shootings and destruction in the area as well.

Twenty-three people were fatally shot overnight after being taken from buses, vehicles and trucks in Musakhail, a district in Baluchistan, senior police official Ayub Achakzai said. The attackers burned at least 10 vehicles before fleeing.

In a separate attack, gunmen killed at least nine people, including four police officers and five passersby, in Baluchistan’s Qalat district, authorities said. The bodies of six people were found in Bolan, where insurgents also blew up a railway track. They also attacked a police station in Mastung and attacked and burned vehicles in Gwadar, all districts in Baluchistan. No casualties were reported in those attacks.

The military said 14 security forces were “martyred” while responding to the attacks. Those appeared to be included in the overall death toll.

“Sanitization operations are being conducted and the instigators, perpetrators, facilitators and abettors of these heinous and cowardly acts, targeting innocent civilians, will be brought to justice,” the military said in a statement.

Sarfraz Bugti, the chief minister in Baluchistan, told reporters in Quetta that operations against the insurgents are underway, and “those who killed our innocent civilians and security with be dealt with a full force.”

Baluchistan has been the scene of a long-running insurgency in Pakistan, with an array of separatist groups staging attacks, mainly on security forces. The separatists have been demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad. Although Pakistani authorities say they have quelled the insurgency, violence in Baluchistan has persisted.

The attack in Musakhail came hours after the outlawed Baluch Liberation Army separatist group warned people to stay away from highways as they launched attacks on security forces in various parts of the province.

But there there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest killings.

In a statement on Monday, the BLA only said it inflicted heavy losses on security forces in attacks in the province. Pakistan’s military and government did not immediately comment on that claim. The group often provides exaggerated figures of troop casualties.

It said one female suicide bomber also took part in the attack on security forces.

Separatists are known to ask people for their ID cards, and then abduct or kill those who are from outside the province. Many recent victims have come from neighboring Punjab province.

Uzma Bukhari, a spokesperson for the Punjab provincial government, denounced the latest killings, saying the “attacks are a matter of grave concern” and urging the Baluchistan government to “step up efforts to eliminate BLA terrorists.”

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi in separate statements called the attack in Musakhail “barbaric” and vowed that those behind it would not escape justice.

In May, gunmen fatally shot seven barbers in Gwadar, a port city in Baluchistan.

In April, separatists killed nine people after abducting them from a bus on a highway in Baluchistan. They also killed two people and wounded six in another car they forced to stop. The BLA claimed responsibility for those attacks.

Syed Muhammad Ali, an Islamabad-based security analyst, said the latest killings of non-Baluch people are an attempt by separatists to harm the province economically.

Ali told The Associated Press that most such attacks are carried out with the aim of weakening Baluchistan economically, noting that “the weakening of Baluchistan means the weakening of Pakistan.”

Separatists in Baluchistan have often killed workers and others from the country’s eastern Punjab region as part of a campaign to force them to leave the province.

Most such previous killings have been blamed on the outlawed group and others demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad. The Pakistani Taliban also have a presence in the province, and they are closely connected to the BLA.

In a separate attack on Monday in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a roadside bomb killed four people and wounded 12 others in North Waziristan district, said local administration official Abid Khan.

The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, is a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war.

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Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Asim Tanveer in Multan, Pakistan, and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

LONDON (AP) — Icelandic police on Monday called off the search for anyone trapped in the previous day’s collapse of an ice cave that killed one person and injured another, saying that all members of the tourist expedition had been accounted for.

Authorities had initially mounted a large-scale rescue operation, with as many as 200 rescuers sifting through the icy rubble by hand to find two people believed to have been missing.

But police eventually determined that no one was unaccounted for after examining the tour operator’s records and finding that only 23 people were on the ice cave tour, not 25 as was first believed. Even so, rescuers continued the search until all of the collapsed ice had been moved to be sure that no one had been left behind.

“The police field manager located at the scene announced that all the ice that was thought to have fallen on the people had been moved,” police said. “It has come to light that no one (was) hidden under the ice.’’

The rescue operation began around 3 p.m. local time on Sunday when authorities received reports that an ice cave had collapsed at the Breidamerkurjokull glacier in southeastern Iceland. One man died at the scene and a woman was transported to a hospital in Reykjavik, the capital, by helicopter. Both victims are American citizens, police said.

The search, which was suspended overnight when conditions made it too dangerous, had resumed at about 7 a.m., Icelandic broadcaster RUV reported. Video showed rescuers working inside two large craters surrounded by the sand-blackened ice of the Breidamerkurjokull glacier.

But by the end of the day, they were satisfied that no one else was missing. Police said there had been “misleading information” about the number of people on the trip.

The Association of Icelandic Mountain Guides called for a full investigation and tighter regulations on ice cave tours. Glacier trips during the warmer summer months can be very dangerous, the association said.

The tourism agency is working on a report for the government to discuss regulations regarding trips on the glaciers and especially ice caves tours. The Minister of Tourism Lilja Alfredsdóttir said that the matter will be discussed in parliament.

Ice caves are a popular destination for visitors to Iceland, with tour operators offering customers the chance to “explore the insides of glaciers” and see the blue color and “stunning patterns” in the ice.

Glaciers cover about 11% of Iceland, an island nation in the north Atlantic that sits on the southern edge of the Arctic Circle. The largest is Vatnajokull, which covers 7,900 square kilometers (3,050 square miles). Breidamerkurjokull is a tongue of Vatnajokull that ends at the Jokulsarlon Lagoon, where icebergs constantly break off from the glacier.

Moving rescue equipment and personnel up to the glacier was difficult due to the rugged terrain, and rescuers had to cut through the ice using chainsaws.

The glacier is about 300 kilometers (185 miles) from a volcano that erupted Friday on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwestern Iceland.

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Associated Press Writer Marco Di Marco contributed.

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Keyton reported from Berlin.

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended his ninth visit to the Middle East since the war in Gaza began without securing any major breakthrough for a cease-fire deal, warning on Tuesday that “time is of the essence” even as Hamas and Israel signaled that challenges remain.

After meetings in fellow mediating countries Egypt and Qatar, Blinken said that because Israel has accepted a proposal to bridge gaps with the militant group, the focus turns to doing everything possible to “get Hamas on board” and ensure both sides agree to key details on implementation.

“Our message is simple. It’s clear and it’s urgent,” he told reporters before leaving Qatar. “We need to get a cease-fire and hostage agreement over the finish line, and we need to do it now. Time is of the essence.”

There has been added urgency after the recent targeted killings of militant leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah in Iran and Lebanon, both attributed to Israel, and vows of retaliation that have sparked fears of a wider regional war.

Few details have been released about the so-called bridging proposal put forth by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar. Blinken said it is “very clear on the schedule and the locations of (Israeli military) withdrawals from Gaza.”

Hamas earlier Tuesday called the latest proposal a reversal of what it had agreed to, accusing the U.S. of acquiescing to new conditions from Israel. There was no immediate U.S. response to that.

Blinken’s comments on ending his latest Israel-Hamas peace mission were notably bare of the optimism that Biden administration officials expressed going into his trip, and earlier.

The upbeat tone through much of the spring and summer — with U.S. officials at times describing a cease-fire and hostage deal as nearer than ever — reflected necessary messaging, at least in part, said Jonathan Panikoff, director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Program.

“If they don’t project optimism then it won’t create … even the potential for sufficient momentum to keep things going,” Panikoff said.

Americans have little alternative to continuing to push Israel and Hamas to agree to a negotiated end to fighting, but it’s fundamentally about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who helped mastermind the Oct. 7 attacks, Panikoff said. And they are “the two people that have been, frankly, most skeptical from the beginning” about making peace.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, met with right-wing groups of families of fallen soldiers and hostages in Gaza. The groups, which oppose a cease-fire deal, said he told them Israel will not abandon two strategic corridors in Gaza whose control has been an obstacle in the talks. Netanyahu’s office did not comment on their account.

A senior U.S. official rejected as “totally untrue” that Netanyahu had told Blinken that Israel would never leave the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors. Such statements are “not constructive to getting a cease-fire deal across the finish line,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss Blinken’s private diplomatic talks.

Blinken’s meetings in Egypt, which borders Gaza, and in Qatar, which hosts some Hamas leaders in exile, came a day after he met Netanyahu. Wide gaps appeared to remain between Israel and Hamas, though angry statements often serve as pressure tactics during negotiations.

Both men have seen their political standing improve at home, as Israelis turn their attention from the war in Gaza to a threatened wider conflict with Iran and Hezbollah, and as Hamas further consolidates Sinwar’s leadership of the group. That’s lessened the pressure on both to close a deal, Panikoff said.

And while the U.S. could try restricting arms sales to Israel to push it to end the war with Hamas, Panikoff argued that risks making Netanyahu dig in his heels further, instead.

Netanyahu’s meeting with the families came as Israel’s military said it recovered the bodies of six hostages taken in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that started the war, bringing fresh grief for many Israelis who have long pressed Netanyahu to agree to a cease-fire that would bring remaining hostages home.

New protests were held Tuesday. “The longer they’re there, the more body bags we get,” said one protester, Adi Israeli, in Tel Aviv.

Israel’s military said it recovered the six bodies in an overnight operation in southern Gaza, saying they were killed when troops were operating in Khan Younis. Hamas says some captives have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, though returning hostages have talked about difficult conditions, including lack of food or medications.

The recovery of the remains also is a blow to Hamas, which hopes to exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners, an Israeli withdrawal and a lasting cease-fire.

The military said it had identified the remains of Chaim Perry, 80; Yoram Metzger, 80; Avraham Munder, 79; Alexander Dancyg, 76; Nadav Popplewell, 51; and Yagev Buchshtav, 35.

Kibbutz Nir Oz, the farming community where Munder was among around 80 residents seized, said he died after “months of physical and mental torture.” Israeli authorities previously determined the other five were dead.

Hamas is still believed to be holding around 110 hostages captured during the Oct. 7 attacks, when militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israeli authorities estimate around a third are dead. Over 100 other hostages were released during last year’s cease-fire in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The war has caused widespread destruction and forced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to flee their homes, often multiple times. Aid groups fear the outbreak of polio and other diseases.

An Israeli airstrike Tuesday killed at least 12 people at a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City. The Palestinian Civil Defense, first responders operating under the Hamas-run government, said around 700 people had been sheltering at the Mustafa Hafez school. Israel’s military said the strike targeted Hamas militants who had set up a command center there.

“We don’t know where to go … or where to shelter our children,” said Um Khalil Abu Agwa, a displaced woman.

An Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah hit people walking down the street and seven were killed, including a woman and two children, according to an Associated Press journalist who counted the bodies. Another airstrike in central Gaza killed five children and their mother, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where an AP journalist counted the bodies.

Palestinians displaced by recent Israeli evacuation orders crowded into already teeming areas. One child in Deir al-Balah slept on cardboard as insects flew around his face.

“Are they going to dig the ground and dump us there, or put us on a boat and throw us in the sea? I don’t know,” said one man, Abu Shady Afana.

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Frankel reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press reporters Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Samy Magdy in Cairo, Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington and Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

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

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s top court on Tuesday set up a national task force of doctors who will make recommendations on safety of health care workers at their workplace, days after the rape and killing of a trainee doctor that sparked outrage and nationwide protests.

The Supreme Court said the doctors’ panel will frame guidelines for ensuring safety and protection of medical professionals and health care workers across the country.

“Protecting safety of doctors and women doctors is a matter of national interest and principle of equality. The nation cannot await another rape for it to take some steps,” Chief Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud said.

Doctors and medics across India have been holding protests, candlelight marches and even temporarily refused care for non-emergency patients since Aug. 9 when the killing in the eastern city of Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state. The doctors say the assault highlights the vulnerability of health care workers in hospitals and medical campuses across India.

The court also asked the federal agency investigating the killing to submit a report on Thursday on the status of its investigation. A police volunteer has been arrested and charged with the crime, but the family of the victim alleges it was a gang rape and more people were involved.

The suspension of work by doctors has affected thousands of patients across India. They are demanding more stringent laws to protect them from violence, including making any attack on on-duty medics an offense without the possibility of bail.

The rape and killing of the 31-year-old trainee doctor at Kolkata city’s R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital has also focused rage on the chronic issue of violence against women.

Thousands of people, particularly women, have marched in the streets of Kolkata and other Indian cities demanding justice for the doctor. They say women in India continue to face rising violence despite tough laws that were implemented following the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in Delhi in 2012.

That attack had inspired lawmakers to order harsher penalties for such crimes and set up fast-track courts dedicated to rape cases. The government also introduced the death penalty for repeat offenders.

Despite tougher legislation, sexual violence against women has remained a widespread problem in India.

In 2022, police recorded 31,516 reports of rape — a 20% jump from 2021, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.