The Palestinian Authority holds a funeral procession for an American activist who a witness says was shot and killed by Israeli forces. The shooting occurred last week following a demonstration against settlements in the occupied West Bank. Dozens of mourners — including several leading officials of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority — attended the procession for Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old from Seattle who also held Turkish citizenship. Eygi's body was draped in a Palestinian flag and her face was covered with a traditional black-and-white checkered scarf as security forces carried her. Turkey's foreign ministry says it is working on repatriating her body. Israel says it is conducting an investigation into Eygi's death.
By JULIA FRANKEL and NASSER NASSER Associated Press
Israel has launched a major military operation in the occupied West Bank that has killed at least 10 Hamas militants. Israel said on Wednesday the operation is aimed at preventing attacks on Israeli civilians. Palestinian health officials say the operations into Jenin and Tulkarem have blocked access to hospitals and ripped up roads and infrastructure. Israel has carried out near-daily raids across the West Bank since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza triggered the ongoing war there. The Palestinian Health Ministry says over 600 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the war in Gaza began.
Hamas is still putting up a fight after seven brutal months of war with Israel, regrouping in some of the hardest-hit areas in northern Gaza and resuming rocket attacks into nearby Israeli communities. Israel initially made tactical advances against Hamas after a devastating aerial bombardment paved the way for its ground troops. But those early gains have given way to a grinding struggle against an adaptable insurgency — and a growing feeling among many Israelis that their military faces only bad options, drawing comparisons with U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The other two members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's three-man War Cabinet are demanding that he come up with detailed postwar plans.
By TIA GOLDENBERG, WAFAA SHURAFA and ABBY SEWELL Associated Press
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is fending off criticism that he is not planning for a postwar reality in the Gaza Strip, saying it's impossible to prepare for any scenario in the embattled Palestinian enclave until Hamas is defeated. Netanyahu has faced increasing pressure from critics at home and allies abroad, especially the United States, to present a postwar plan for Gaza. Meanwhile, Palestinians are marking the 76th anniversary of mass expulsion from what is now Israel in the war surrounding the country's creation in 1948. More than twice the number expelled have been displaced within Gaza in this war.
