Live updates | Palestinians live in dire conditions in Gaza despite Israel's safe zone

Israel has designated a safe zone in southern Gaza, but its widening

air and ground offensive

has left Palestinians packed together in dire humanitarian conditions.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday urged the U.N. Security Council to push for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in the Gaza Strip to protect civilians and deliver lifesaving aid. The U.S. reiterated that it does not support an immediate cease-fire.

Aid groups are severely limited by fighting and restrictions placed by the military. The United Nations estimates 1.9 million people have been displaced and

new military evacuation orders

are squeezing people into

ever-smaller areas

. Most lack food, water and medicine.

Around 1,200 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war. The

Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza

said the death toll in the territory has surpassed 17,400, with more than 46,000 wounded. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but said 70% of the dead were women and children.

Currently:

— Six Palestinians are killed in the Israeli military’s latest

West Bank raid,

health officials say

— Palestinians

try to survive

war’s new chapter in southern Gaza.

— Israel

designates a safe zone in Gaza

. Palestinians and aid groups say it offers little relief.

— Find more of AP’s coverage at

https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

.

Here’s what’s happening in the war:

4 KILLED IN ISRAELI DRONE STRIKE IN SYRIA

DAMASCUS, Syria — An Israeli drone strike hit a car in southern Syria on Friday, killing four people, two Syrian pro-government media outlets reported.

A Hezbollah official in Beirut said three of the dead were members of the Lebanese militant group. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the group usually does not announce where its fighters were killed.

Hezbollah has deployed fighters in different parts of Syria over the past decade alongside government forces in the country’s conflict, now in its 13th year.

The latest deaths raise to 93 the number of Hezbollah fighters killed during battles with Israeli troops since the Israel-Hamas war started two months ago. There was no comment from Israel.

The newspaper Al-Watan and Sham FM radio said the strike targeted a car in the southern town of Baath, and that the bodies were taken to a hospital in the Syrian town of Quneitra on the edge of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Israel captured the Golan Heights during the 1967 Mideast war. It annexed the strategic territory overlooking northern Israel in 1981, a move not recognized by most of the international community.

— Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue contributed.

US SAYS IT DOES NOT SUPPORT IMMEDIATE CEASE-FIRE

UNITED NATIONS — The United States is reiterating its opposition to a cease-fire in Gaza, saying it would leave Hamas in charge of the territory still holding over 100 Israeli hostages.

U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood’s statement to an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Friday was a strong signal that the United States will veto a draft resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. The resolution is backed by Arab and Islamic nations, the U.N. secretary-general and many other countries.

The council has scheduled a vote for later Friday. The resolution is sponsored by the United Arab Emirates, the Arab representative on the council.

Wood said the U.S. does not believe that an immediate cease-fire would lead to “durable peace, in which both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security” because Hamas would remain in charge. A halt to military action would only “plant the seeds for the next war" he said, "because Hamas has no desire to see a durable peace, to see a two-state solution.”

He also called the Security Council’s failure to condemn Hamas’ cross-border attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7 “a serious moral failure.”

UN CHIEF SAYS GAZA IS AT A BREAKING POINT

UNITED NATIONS — United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Friday that he invoked

Article 99 of the U.N. Charter

for the first time since 1971 because “there is a high risk of the total collapse of the humanitarian support system in Gaza.” That article allows a U.N. chief to raise threats he sees to international peace and security.

Guterres warned that the Gaza Strip is at “a breaking point” and desperate people are at serious risk of starvation. He said the U.N. anticipates this would result in “a complete breakdown of public order and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt.”

The council was scheduled to hold a meeting later Friday to vote on a resolution by the United Arab Emirates demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire. The United Arab Emirates is the Arab representative on the 15-member body.

The United States, Israel’s closest ally, has not supported a cease-fire.

The vote will take place after a ministerial delegation from the Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation, led by Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, meets U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington.

The U.N. secretary-general told the Security Council that Hamas’ brutality against Israelis on Oct. 7 “can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.” He stressed that “while indiscriminate rocket fire by Hamas into Israel, and the use of civilians as human shields, are in contravention of the laws of war, such conduct does not absolve Israel of its own violations.”

EU PUTS 2 HAMAS LEADERS ON TERRORIST LIST

BRUSSELS — The European Union on Friday put two senior members of the militant group Hamas on its terrorist list over the Oct 7. attack on Israel.

EU headquarters said that it is freezing the funds and other assets in Europe of the commander general of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, and deputy commander Marwan Issa.

The move came in “response to the threat posed by Hamas and its brutal and indiscriminate terrorist attacks in Israel.” No further details were provided.

Hamas and its military wing as organizations have been on the EU’s terrorist list for about 20 years.

ISRAELI MILITARY SAYS IT FOUND WEAPONS AND A TUNNEL AT A GAZA UNIVERSITY

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said Friday that it found weapons and a tunnel under the campus of Al-Azhar University in Gaza.

The military said the tunnel stretched one kilometer (0.6 mile) from the university to a nearby school. It did not provide video or photo evidence of the tunnel, but released photos of weapons it said soldiers found at the university, including explosives and rocket parts.

The military said it also found a Hamas control room with cameras, phones, walkie-talkies and weapons near a hospital in northern Gaza, as well as an additional tunnel entrance. A photo released by the military showed an opening to an underground passageway with a ladder stretching downward.

Israel said the discoveries show that Hamas is embedded in civilian zones — a claim central to Israel’s justification for heavily striking civilian areas in Gaza and calling for mass evacuations. Israel says the militants use an extensive tunnel network running underneath civilian infrastructure such as schools and hospitals to conduct military operations.

ISRAELI TROOPS DETAIN HUNDREDS

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — U.N. monitors said Israeli troops reportedly detained men and boys from the age of 15 in a school-turned-shelter in the town of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza.

Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesperson, said Friday that authorities were questioning the detainees — who he said were picked up in Hamas strongholds — to determine whether they were members of the militant group.

Those detained were “military-aged men who were discovered in areas that civilians were supposed to have evacuated weeks ago,” Levy said, indicating there would be more such sweeps going forward as troops move from north to south.

There also has been a dramatic

surge in deadly military raids

and an increase on restrictions on Palestinian residents in the occupied West Bank since the start of the war.

Israeli forces

stormed into a refugee camp

in the West Bank on Friday to arrest suspected Palestinian militants, unleashing fighting with local gunmen in which six Palestinians were killed, health officials said. The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment on the operation.

ISRAELI DRONE STRIKE KILLS FOUR IN SOUTHERN SYRIA, REPORTS SAY

DAMASCUS, Syria -- An Israeli drone strike hit a car in southern Syria on Friday, killing four people instantly, two Syrian pro-government media outlets reported.

The attack came a day after the Israeli military said shells were fired from Syria toward areas controlled by Israeli troops in the Golan Heights.

There was no comment from Israel on the drone strike. Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said Friday that the Israeli military struck a number of targets in Syria in response to two launches on Thursday that fell in open areas.

The newspaper Al-Watan said the strike targeted a car in the southern town of Baath, and that the bodies were taken to a hospital in the Syrian town of Quneitra on the edge of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Sham FM, a pro-government radio station, also reported the strike in Baath.

Israel captured the Golan Heights during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, a move not recognized by most of the international community.

POET KILLED IN ISRAELI STRIKE ON GAZA CITY

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Friends and colleagues of a locally celebrated poet, editor and professor of English literature in Gaza say he has been killed by an Israeli strike on Gaza City.

Refaat Alareer, a 45-year-old English-language writer and activist known for poems of protest against Israel’s military campaigns, was killed Thursday.

Alareer’s death was confirmed by his colleagues at “We Are Not Numbers,” a Palestinian group he helped establish in 2015 that seeks to “tell the stories behind the numbers of Palestinians in the news.”

He was killed along with his brother, sister and her four children in a strike on their house in Gaza City where they had stayed despite Israeli military demands that the population evacuate south.

On Monday, Alareer wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that his walls were shaking with the thunder of bombing, shelling and gunfire that was getting closer and closer. The last poem he wrote and shared on social media read, “If I must die/let it bring hope/let it be a tale.”

Alareer taught English literature with a focus on Shakespeare at Gaza’s Islamic University and wrote and edited several books of poetry and short stories, including “Gaza Unsilenced” and “Gaza Writes Back,” featuring the work of young Palestinian writers from the blockaded enclave.

Alareer drew fierce criticism for his rhetorical attacks on Israel, particularly his praise of Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted about 240 others, including women and children. In an interview with the BBC, he described the rampage as “legitimate and moral.”

“For Refaat, English was a tool of liberation, a way to break free from Gaza’s prolonged siege, a teleportation device that defied Israel’s fences and the intellectual, academic, and cultural blockade of Gaza,” Jehad Abusalim, a Palestinian writer and former student, wrote on social media.

US EMBASSY IN BAGHDAD IS ATTACKED FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR

BAGHDAD — A rocket attack at the sprawling United States Embassy in Baghdad set off alarms Friday morning and caused minor material damage but no casualties, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

It's the first

confirmed attack on the U.S. Embassy

since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, hitting Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses Iraqi government buildings and embassies on the west bank of the Tigris River.

Iran-backed militias in Iraq have claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks that targeted bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria

since the Israel-Hamas war

began two months ago. The U.S. military says a total of 78 attacks have been carried out against U.S. facilities over the past weeks of which 37 were in Iraq and 41 in Syria.

Later Friday morning no specific group had claimed responsibility, but a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations said indications are the attacks were from Iran-aligned militias.

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Associated Press writers Abby Sewell and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.