By WAFAA SHURAFA, SAM METZ and SALLY ABOU ALJOUD, Associated Press
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli and American officials will meet in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the aftermath of war in Gaza, despite no sign that the conflict, which has killed tens of thousands and pushed its largest city into famine, is nearing its end.
Their meeting comes as ceasefire talks show little apparent movement and outrage mounts over deadly Israeli strikes on a southern Gaza hospital that killed 20, including journalists and emergency responders.
Israel’s military said it would investigate the hospital attack. In initial findings Tuesday, it offered no immediate explanation for striking twice and no evidence for an assertion that six of the dead were militants.
Israel prepares Gaza City for an evacuation it calls ‘inevitable’
Talks about the future of Gaza are unfolding in Washington as aid groups warn an expanded Israeli offensive could worsen the humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory, where most residents are displaced, neighborhoods lie in ruins, and a famine was declared in Gaza City and threatening other areas.
Israel’s military on Wednesday told Gaza City residents, many already displaced, to prepare for an impending evacuation.
Avichay Adraee, a spokesperson, said Israeli forces have surveyed the vast empty areas south of the city “to assist the evacuating residents as much as possible.”
“The evacuation of Gaza City is inevitable,” Adraee wrote in Arabic on X. He said the displaced would receive space for tents and infrastructure would be set up to distribute aid and water.
More than 80% of Gaza Strip is designated as an Israeli military zone or subject to displacement orders, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in June.
Hamas said last week it accepted a ceasefire plan from Arab mediators, even as Israel announced plans for a major military offensive to seize Gaza’s biggest city, where some health and infrastructure services remain online and hundreds of thousands are sheltering.
Israel has pressed ahead with plans to mobilize tens of thousands of reservists. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the military will launch its offensive while simultaneously pursuing a ceasefire.
An official from Qatar, one of the countries mediating the talks, said last week that the proposal under discussion was “almost identical” to an earlier draft that Witkoff put forth and Israel accepted. Hamas and Israel have both previously announced acceptance of truces under discussion. But many have fallen apart, with both sides accusing the other of last minute changes.
The deal said to be under discussion would include a 60-day truce, the release of some hostages held by Hamas in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and a road map toward talks on a lasting ceasefire.
Many in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition oppose such a phased deal.
U.S. and Israel to talk as strikes continue
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to meet with Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Wednesday.
U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News on Tuesday that President Donald Trump would chair a separate meeting, which would feature “a very comprehensive plan we’re putting together on the next day.”
He did not offer details about the meeting, which did not appear on Trump’s public schedule on Wednesday.
Pope demands end to ‘collective punishment’
As a growing chorus of international leaders urge Israel to reconsider its offensive and commit to talks, Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday called for Israel to halt the forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza.
Leo was interrupted twice by applause as he read out his latest appeal to end the war during his weekly general audience attended by thousands of people in the Vatican’s auditorium.
History’s first American pope also called for the release of hostages still in Gaza.
“I beg for a permanent ceasefire to be reached, the safe entry of humanitarian aid to be facilitated and humanitarian law to be fully respected,” Leo said.
Hospitals report strikes near aid sites and in displacement tents
On Wednesday, hospitals reported at least 10 casualties, including one near an aid distribution site in central Gaza and at a displacement camp in southern Gaza.
An Israeli strike killed three people, including a child and a woman, and injured 21 others when it hit displaced people’s tents in Khan Younis overnight on Wednesday, the Kuwait Specialized Field Hospital said. Three separate Israeli strikes killed at least six others in Khan Younis, Nasser Hospital said on Wednesday.
Israel’s military did not immediately respond to questions about the strikes. Its military offensive has killed 62,895 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children.
The ministry said Wednesday that 10 people died of starvation and malnutrition over the past 24 hours, bringing the total of victims of malnutrition and hunger to 313 people died, including 119 children.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
Hamas abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack that triggered the war. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals but 50 remain inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive.
Protests have swelled in Israel, with families of hostages and their supporters urging a ceasefire. The government argues that a broadened offensive is the best way to bring them home and cripple Hamas’ capacity to launch such attacks again.
Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank and Abou Aljoud from Beirut, Lebanon. Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel and Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.
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