Palestinians displaced by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip sit at a makeshift tent camp in Khan Younis, Gaza, Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians mourn their relative Tamer Mohsen killed in the Israeli bombardment of Nuseirat refugee camp, at the morgue of al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Saher Alghorra)

Palestinians mourn their relative Tamer Mohsen killed in the Israeli bombardment of Nuseirat refugee camp, at the morgue of al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Saher Alghorra)

A Palestinian girl stands at the entrance of her family tent at a makeshift tent camp for those displaced by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in Khan Younis, Gaza, Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

FILE – This image provided by U.S. Central Command, shows the U.S.-built floating pier being used to facilitate aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip, May 16, 2024. U.S. officials said Friday, June 14, 2024, that the pier will be detached from Gaza’s coast for the second time in a month due to rough seas, raising questions about the viability of the sea route. (U.S. Central Command via AP, File)Read More

 

FILE – A ship is seen off the coast of Gaza near a U.S.-built floating pier that will be used to facilitate aid deliveries, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, May 16, 2024. U.S. officials said Friday, June 14, 2024, that the pier will be detached from Gaza’s coast for the second time in a month due to rough seas, raising questions about the viability of the sea route. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)Read More

FILE – Palestinians storm rucks loaded with humanitarian aid brought in through a new U.S.-built pier, in the central Gaza Strip, Saturday, May 18, 2024. A persistent breakdown in law and order is rendering an aid route in south Gaza unusable, the UN and NGOs say, days after Israel’s military said it would pause combat there to help aid reach desperate Palestinians. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)

FILE – Trucks carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip pass through the inspection area at the Kerem Shalom Crossing in southern Israel, Thursday, March 14, 2024. A persistent breakdown in law and order is rendering an aid route in south Gaza unusable, the UN and NGOs say, days after Israel’s military said it would pause combat there to help aid reach desperate Palestinians. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)Read More

Palestinians mourn their relative Tamer Mohsen killed in the Israeli bombardment of Nuseirat refugee camp, at the morgue of al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Saher Alghorra)

Updated 8:16 AM GMT-4, June 21, 2024Share

Armenia said it would recognize a Palestinian state on Friday, prompting Israel to summon its ambassador for what the Foreign Ministry described as a “severe reprimand.”

Dozens of countries have recognized a Palestinian state, though none of the major Western powers has done so. Palestinians believe the recognitions confer international legitimacy on their struggle, especially as Israel’s war against Hamas, now in its ninth month, faces growing international criticism over the campaign of systematic destruction in Gaza and huge cost in civilian lives.

Also Friday, the head of a major hospital in north Gaza said his staff have seen some 250 children suffering from malnutrition, with numbers rising daily due to acute food shortages.

Palestinians face widespread hunger as the war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and basic goods to Gaza, which is now totally dependent on aid.

Meanwhile, Israel’s pledge to guard a new aid route into southern Gaza has fallen flat, as the U.N. and international aid organizations say a breakdown in law and order has made that route unusable.

The Israeli military said that two soldiers were killed in combat in central Gaza, while three were severely injured.

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Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,100 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

Israel launched the war after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.

Currently:

— The fate of the latest cease-fire proposal hinges on Netanyahu and Hamas’ leader in Gaza.

— Israel’s pledge to guard an aid route into Gaza falls flat as lawlessness blocks distribution.

— A rare public rift appears between Israel’s political and military leadership over how the war in Gaza is being conducted.

— The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group warns archenemy Israel against wider war.

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

Here’s the latest:

Bodies of 5 killed in an airstrike in Gaza City recovered from apartments

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The Palestinian Civil Defense organization says its teams have recovered the bodies of five people who were killed in an airstrike that hit two apartments in Gaza City.

The agency said several people were also injured in Friday’s strike that hit the apartments of two families in the center of the city.

An earlier airstrike hit a municipal garage in the city and killed five people, raising to 10 the number of people killed Friday.

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 37,400 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

Israel launched the war after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.

Qatari foreign minister says ceasefire negotiations are making progress ‘to some extent’

MADRID – Qatar’s foreign minister says some progress has been made in negotiations over a Gaza cease-fire deal but gaps remain between Israel and Hamas.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, whose country is a mediator alongside the U.S. and Egypt, said Friday “there has been progress to some extent in the situation.”

Mediators have held “successive meetings” with the Hamas leadership in an effort to bridge the gaps, he said during a visit to Spain.

“There cannot be one party to the conflict adopting the vision of the other party,” he said. The solution “must be based on compromises between the two parties.”

Two Israeli soldiers killed in central Gaza

JERUSALEM — Israel’s army said Friday that two Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in central Gaza.

No information was given about the circumstances about the deaths of the two, both of whom were men in their 20s. Three other soldiers were severely injured, the army said.

The news comes as public anger grows in Israel over the trajectory of the eight month conflict and exemptions from military service for young ultra-Orthodox men.

Last week, an explosion in southern Gaza killed eight Israeli soldiers. In January, 21 Israeli troops were killed in a single attack by Palestinian militants in Gaza.

Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that triggered the war, more than 660 Israeli troops have been killed, about half in the Israeli ground operation in Gaza, according to the latest figures from the military.

Over 37,000 Palestinians in the enclave have been killed by Israeli fire over that same period, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its figures

Gaza hospital chief says hundreds of children are suffering from malnutrition

DEIR Al-BALAH, Gaza Strip – The head of one of the largest hospitals in north Gaza says his staff has recently registered some 250 children suffering from malnutrition and the numbers are raising daily due to acute food shortages.

Dr. Husam Abu Safyia, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, urged the international community to pressure Israel to allow an increased flow of food and other products into the Gaza Strip, warning that conditions are dire in the coastal territory.

Abu Safyia told The Associated Press on Friday that medical authorities have sent teams from his hospital to centers housing displaced people in north Gaza to assess them for malnutrition.

He said flour is the most available foodstuff in north Gaza, and that people need more proteins and fats to keep healthy.

North Gaza was badly affected by the fighting during the early months of the Israel-Hamas war and continues to suffer food shortages.

Abu Safyia added that illnesses are spreading in Gaza as trash piles grow, because authorities lack the resources to remove garbage and sewage from the streets.

“We are facing a real disaster,” he said adding that more people could die in the coming days if food does not flow into the Gaza Strip.

Armenia recognizes Palestinian state

JERUSALEM — Armenia’s foreign ministry said Friday that the former Soviet republic would recognize a Palestinian state, prompting Israel to summon its ambassador for a “severe reprimand.”

A short statement from Israel’s Foreign Ministry provided no further details.

Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it joined United Nations resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire, and said “the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza and the ongoing military conflict” was one of the most important on the international agenda.

“We support the ‘two-state’ solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the statement said. “We are convinced that this is the only way to ensure that both Palestinians and Israelis can fulfill their legitimate aspirations.”

Dozens of countries have recognized a Palestinian state, though none of the major Western powers has done so. Palestinians believe the recognitions confer international legitimacy on their struggle, especially amid international outrage over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Last month, Spain, Ireland and Norway said they had decided to recognize a Palestinian state, and since then Slovenia and the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda have followed suit.

Israeli airstrike levels Gaza municipal garage, killing 5

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian Civil Defense authorities say an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City hit a municipal garage, killing five people.

The strike on the garage in the center of Gaza City came Friday and killed four municipal workers and one passer-by, while leaving an unknown number of others buried under the rubble of the damaged building, the Civil Defense said.

The Gaza municipality confirmed that the strike hit its employees but did not give a breakdown on the casualties.

Israel launched the war after Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.

Since then, the Gaza Strip’s infrastructure has suffered heavy damage, and the war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians who are facing widespread hunger.

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 37,400 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

Israel’s pledge to guard an aid route into Gaza falls flat as lawlessness blocks distribution

JERUSALEM — A breakdown in law and order in southern Gaza has made a new route to deliver aid unusable, according to the United Nations and international humanitarian organizations, just days after Israel declared the safe corridor.

With thousands of truckloads of aid piled up, groups of armed men are regularly blocking convoys, holding drivers at gunpoint and rifling through their cargo, according to a U.N. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media on the issue.

The lawlessness is a major obstacle to aid distribution for southern and central Gaza. In those areas, an estimated 1.3 million Palestinians displaced from Rafah — more than half of Gaza’s entire population — are now sheltering in tent camps and cramped apartments without adequate food, water, or medical supplies.

Israel announced Sunday it would observe daily pauses in combat along a route stretching from Kerem Shalom, the strip’s only operational aid crossing in the south, to the nearby city of Khan Younis.

The head of the U.N.’s World Food Program said Thursday that the pause has made “no difference at all” in aid distribution efforts. “We haven’t been able to get in,” said Cindy McCain in an interview with Al-Monitor. “We’ve had to reroute some of our trucks. They’ve been looted. As you know, we’ve been shot at and we’ve been rocketed.”

The Israeli military body in charge of coordinating humanitarian aid efforts, COGAT, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The U.N. official familiar with the aid effort said that there’s been no sign of Israeli activity along the route. The U.N. tried to send a convoy of 60 trucks down the road Tuesday to pick up aid at Kerem Shalom. But 35 of the trucks were intercepted by armed men, the official said.

In recent days, the groups have moved closer to the crossing and set up roadblocks to halt trucks loaded with supplies, the U.N. official said. They have searched the pallets for smuggled cigarettes, a rare luxury in a territory where a single smoke can go for $25.

The U.N. official said that 25 trucks of flour used the route Tuesday. Some private commercial trucks also got through — many of which used armed security to deter groups seeking to seize their cargo. An AP reporter stationed along the road Monday saw at least eight trucks pass by, armed security guards riding on top.