Israeli forces are operating in central parts of Rafah, the military confirmed Friday, widening the invasion of southern Gaza after seizing control of the entire border with Egypt earlier this week

The offensive in Rafah, which was once the main hub of humanitarian aid operations for the Gaza Strip, has drastically cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians facing widespread hunger. Fighting and Israeli evacuation orders forced more than 1 million Palestinians to flee Rafah, most of whom had already been displaced earlier in the war.

Still, the United States says Israel's operations has not crossed the “red lines” of a full-fledged invasion of Rafah that the Biden administration has urged them against, citing the risk to civilians.

Israel has vowed to expunge Hamas and other Palestinian militants from the entire Gaza Strip, and says Rafah is Hamas' last stronghold. Israeli troops in central Rafah uncovered Hamas rocket launchers and tunnels and dismantled a weapons storage facility, the army said Friday.

Israel faces growing international criticism for its strategy of systematic destruction — at a huge cost in civilian lives — in the nearly 8-month-old war against Hamas in Gaza.

Israeli bombardments and ground offensives in the besieged territory have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Israel launched its war in Gaza after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250. Israel says around 100 hostages are still captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of around 30 more.

Currently:

— Houthi rebels say joint U.S.-British airstrikes in Yemen killed at least 16 and wounded 42

— Slovenia's government endorses recognition of a Palestinian state

— A pro-Palestinian camp at Wayne State is dismantled while MIT students walk out of commencement

— A global aid group asks warring forces to respect its neutrality, saying 24 of its aid workers have been killed

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

Here's the latest:

BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon killed Friday a member of the Hezbollah militant group's paramedic arm and wounded another, the group’s Al-Manar TV reported.

The strike Friday afternoon on the coastal border town of Naqoura came amid a violent day along the border during which Hezbollah attacked Israeli military posts with explosive drones and rockets with heavy warheads while Israel’s air force struck areas on the Lebanese side of the border.

Al-Manar identified the dead member of Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Society as Haidar Juhair adding that his death brings to 10 the number of paramedics with the group who have been killed over the past seven months.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

The Lebanon-Israel border has between witnessing almost daily exchange since a day after the Israel-Hamas war started on Oct. 7.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the border and since Oct. 8, more than 400 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them fighters, but they also include more than 70 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 15 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed during the same period.

JERUSALEM, Israel — The Israeli military has confirmed that its forces are operating in central parts of Rafah in its expanding offensive in the southern Gaza city.

The military said in a statement Friday that its troops in central Rafah had uncovered Hamas rocket launchers and tunnels and dismantled a weapons storage city of the group.

The statement did not specify where in central Rafah the operations were taking place, but previous statements and witness reports have pointed to raids in the Shaboura refugee camp and other sites near the city center.

More than 1 million Palestinians have fled the city since the assault began, scattering around southern and central Gaza..

TEL AVIV, Israel — In an aggressive meeting Thursday, Israel’s national security adviser told hostage families that the government wasn’t ready to sign a deal to bring all of the hostages home and that there was no plan B.

Gil Dickmann, who’s cousin Carmel is being held hostage, told The Associated Press that during a face-to-face meeting with Tzachi Hanegbi and several hostage families, they were told the government wasn’t prepared to end the war to bring their loved ones back.

“I said: ‘Does that mean that we’re doomed, we’re lost?’ He said, yes,” said Dickmann.

The remarks came a day after the official said he expects the war to drag on for another seven months, in order to destroy the military and governing capabilities of Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group.

Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and abducted around 250 others in the Oct. 7 attack. Around half of those hostages have since been freed, most in swaps for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel during a weeklong cease-fire in November.

After months of on-and-off negotiations, cease-fire talks are at a standstill.

Dickmann said it was the harshest and most difficult meeting with officials since the war began, because it left them hopeless.

At one point in the meeting, Hanegbi lashed out at one of the women who criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling her she was “full of hate”, said Dickmann.

Hanegbi told the hostage families the only way to possibly get the government to sign a deal was through public pressure, said Dickmann. Opinion polls need to show that most Israelis are willing to bring the hostages back at the cost of ending the war, he said.

Israelis are divided into two main camps: those who want the government to put the war on hold and free the hostages, and others who think the hostages are an unfortunate price to pay for eradicating Hamas

Hanegbi’s office didn’t respond to request for comment.

On Friday, a group supporting the hostages accused the government of making a “conscious and deliberate decision to sacrifice” them, forgoing the Israeli principle that it will never leave anyone behind.

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s army said Friday that it completed its mission in part of the Gaza Strip’s northern city of Jabaliya and will continue operations in other parts of the enclave.

The army said during its operations in eastern Jabaliya that it killed hundreds of fighters, destroyed dozens of targets and combat compounds and located hundreds of weapons.

It also said it destroyed more than 10 kilometers (6 miles) of underground tunnels and retrieved the bodies of seven hostages and returned them to their families in Israel.

Israeli troops returned to Jabaliya and the surrounding areas in northern Gaza in early May, months after an earlier operation. The United Nations said that about 100,000 Palestinians were displaced in northern Gaza following Israel’s evacuation orders.

Northern Gaza was the first target of Israel’s ground offensive launched after Hamas and other militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people.

Israeli troops have relaunched attacks in the north as Hamas repeatedly returns to areas that Israel withdraws from.

DEIR AL-BALAH — At least a dozen people were killed, including children, in two airstrikes Friday in Central Gaza, according to hospital officials and Associated Press journalists who counted the bodies.

The strikes hit Nuseirat and Bureij, two children and four women were among those killed and the bodies were brought to the Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah.

A funeral for all 12 people was held Friday.

Israel's campaign of bombardment and offensives in Gaza has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 80,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Its count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Joint British-United States airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels killed at least 16 people and wounded 42 others, the rebels said Friday — the highest publicly acknowledged death toll from the multiple rounds of strikes carried out over the rebels’ attacks on shipping.

The Houthis have stepped up attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, demanding that Israel end the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage.

Houthis said Friday morning that one of the strikes struck a building housing Hodeida Radio and civilian homes in the port city on the Red Sea. Their Al Masirah satellite news channel aired images of one bloodied man being carried downstairs and others receiving aid in the hospital. It said all the dead and nearly all the wounded from the strikes came from there.

The Houthis described all those killed and hurt in Hodeida as civilians, something The Associated Press couldn't immediately confirm. The rebel force that’s held Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since 2014 includes fighters who often are not in uniform.

Other strikes hit outside of Sanaa near its airport and communication equipment in Taiz, the broadcaster said. Little other information was released on those sites — likely signaling that Houthi military sites had been struck. One person was wounded in Sanaa.

The U.S. and the U.K. have launched strikes against the Houthis since January. Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the Houthis’ secretive supreme leader, offered an overall death toll for the strikes up to that point as 40 people killed and 35 others wounded. He did not offer a breakdown between civilian and combatant casualties at the time.

The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, killed three sailors, seized one vessel and sunk another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration. This week, they attacked a ship carrying grain to Iran, the rebels' main benefactor.

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