The Latest | Israel unveils plan for Muslims visiting Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan

An Israeli airstrike killed at least 17 people in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Tuesday, Palestinian officials said, as talks on a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas ended without a breakthrough.

First responders with Gaza’s Civil Defense department circulated footage of rescuers pulling dead and wounded people from the rubble of a house, including a child with blood on his face who was not moving. The nearby European Hospital said it received 17 bodies overnight.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it was carrying out targeted raids on militant infrastructure in Khan Younis while trying to evacuate civilians from the area.

The latest fatalities brought the overall Palestinian toll from the nearly five-month war to 30,631, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its figures but says women and children make up around two-thirds of the total casualties. It says over 72,000 people have been wounded.

Israel launched its offensive after Hamas-led militants stormed across the border on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Over 100 hostages were released last year in exchange for 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

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Currently:

— The latest Gaza cease-fire talks have ended with no breakthrough, officials say. Ramadan is days away.

— Biden’s allies are increasing pressure on the White House to act to ease Gaza suffering.

— Vice President Kamala Harris hosts Israeli war Cabinet member as the U.S. pushes to get more aid into Gaza.

— A U.N. envoy says there are ‘reasonable grounds’ to believe Hamas committed sexual violence on Oct. 7.

— Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

Here’s the latest:

ISRAEL UNVEILS PLAN FOR MUSLIMS VISITING AL-AQSA MOSQUE DURING RAMADAN

JERUSALEM — Israel announced Tuesday its long-awaited plans for dealing with Muslim worshippers who want to pray at a flashpoint holy site during the upcoming holy month of Ramadan.

The announcement came amid high tensions because of the nearly five months of fighting in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas.

There had been concerns that Israel would sharply curtail the number of worshippers allowed at the site. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would allow a similar number of Muslims to worship at the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the first week of Ramadan as it has in previous years.

The decision followed a government meeting with top security officials. Netanyahu said security forces would determine if any changes are needed.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir slammed the decision, saying it was a danger to Israelis.

Netanyahu’s office would not comment on whether Palestinians from the West Bank would be able to enter Jerusalem to pray at Al-Aqsa during Ramadan. Most of the checkpoints between Israel and the West Bank have been closed since the Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 that sparked the war.

In previous years, Israel allowed women and young children from the West Bank to enter Jerusalem without a permit during Ramadan, as well as men between the ages of 45 and 55 who have a permit.

For Palestinian worshippers, praying at the third-holiest site in Islam is a centerpiece of Ramadan. Jews revere the site as the Temple Mount, home to the biblical Temple. The competing claims often spill over into violence.

UN SAYS IT NEEDS MORE FOOD TO MEET GAZA’S OVERWHELMING NEEDS

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. and its partners are reporting a lack of food to distribute in Gaza, and say the dire conditions are forcing some 340 people to share a single toilet and roughly 1,300 to share one shower on average in overcrowded shelters.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday that the food entering Gaza “is very limited compared to the overwhelming needs,” and that continuing airstrikes and heavy fighting are impeding humanitarian operations.

He said the U.N. humanitarian office reports that between Feb. 26 and March 3 a daily average of some 245,000 people received food assistance including food parcels and hot meals from 17 of its partner organizations. He said 42% of the food went to Palestinians in southern Rafah and the rest to Deir Al Balah, Khan Younis, Gaza City and northern Gaza.

But the U.N. says the entire 2.3 million population of Gaza needs food, with starvation levels rising and children already dying of malnutrition.

The U.N. children’s agency UNICEF, which deals with water and sanitation in crises, reports that more than 80% of Gaza households lack clean drinking water, Dujarric said. UNICEF has been providing fuel to operate public and private water wells and desalination plants, the U.N. spokesman said.

ISRAEL SAYS MARITIME CORRIDOR FOR AID DELIVERIES TO GAZA MAY OPEN SOON

JERUSALEM — Israel’s Foreign Ministry said it hopes to open a corridor for humanitarian aid from Cyprus to Gaza via the Mediterranean Sea soon, in response to international pressure to increase aid to the beleaguered Palestinian territory.

Cyprus proposed a maritime corridor for humanitarian aid in October, just weeks after the Hamas attack in southern Israel that triggered the war. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat said Tuesday that “logistics are being resolved” that would finally allow the direct delivery of aid to Gaza’s shores. He would not confirm a delivery start date.

Israel inspects all goods and humanitarian aid that enter the Gaza Strip to check for weapons and military equipment. Aid groups have complained that the inspections slow aid delivery; Israel says the bottleneck is because aid groups cannot distribute the goods.

Israel could inspect the aid at Cyprus’ port of Larnaca, some 240 miles (385 kilometers) from Gaza. Cypriot officials say several countries, including Britain, have sent aid that is being stored at Larnaca port.

Gaza City’s seaport was targeted early in the war, so finding ways to deliver the aid to Gaza’s coast has been challenging. Israel’s former Foreign Minister Eli Cohen visited Cyprus in December to hammer out the details of the humanitarian maritime route.

UN AGENCY SAYS ISRAEL BLOCKED FOOD DELIVERY INTO NORTHERN GAZA

The World Food Program said it tried to deliver urgently needed food to northern Gaza Tuesday but that Israel’s military turned its 14-truck convoy away.

Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the U.N. agency, said in a news release that WFP won’t give up its efforts to deliver food to Gaza’s north, “where children are dying of hunger-related diseases and suffering severe levels of malnutrition.”

The trucks were held at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint for three hours before being dismissed. WFP said the rerouted convoy was later looted by “a crowd of desperate people” who took around 200 tons of food. The agency said trucks are the only way to deliver the quantity of food needed to avert famine in northern Gaza.

UNICEF said Tuesday that at least 10 children have reportedly died in northern Gaza because of dehydration and malnutrition.

WFP also airdropped 6 tons of food in northern Gaza with the help of the Royal Jordanian Air Force, but Skau called the airdrops “a last resort” that cannot avert famine.

“We need entry points to northern Gaza that will allow us to deliver enough food for half a million people in desperate need,” Skau said.

He called for a cease-fire deal that would allow the delivery of food and other aid across the Palestinian territory.

HAMAS OFFICIAL DECRIES PROPOSED TEMPORARY CEASE-FIRE DEAL

BEIRUT — Hamas is insisting on a permanent cease-fire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza rather than a temporary pause in hostilities, a political official with the group said.

“The security and safety of our people will be achieved only by a permanent cease-fire, the end of the aggression and the withdrawal from every inch of the Gaza Strip,” Osama Hamdan told reporters in Beirut on Tuesday. Cease-fire talks in Cairo ended Tuesday without a breakthrough.

The Biden administration is pushing for a temporary cease-fire before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins. Hamdan said Washington’s position is essentially that “Israel has the right to stop killing for a few weeks and then return to that killing.”

Israel’s bombardment and invasion of Gaza following a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The proposed deal on the table would provide a six-week break in hostilities, an influx of aid, Hamas would release some 40 hostages and Israel would return an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners.

Israel did not send a delegation to Cairo, saying it was waiting for Hamas to hand over a list of hostages who are still alive. Hamdan said that was not relevant to the proposed cease-fire and accused Israel of using it as an excuse to avoid the negotiations.

He said recent airdrops of humanitarian aid, including by the United States, were inadequate and called on the international community to “use more effective methods of delivering aid, such as opening crossings to bring such aid by land.”

BIDEN URGES GAZA CEASE-FIRE DEAL BEFORE RAMADAN BEGINS

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said Tuesday that it’s crucial a temporary cease-fire deal for Gaza comes together in time for the start of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

Three days of negotiations involving the United States, Qatar, Egypt and Hamas ended Tuesday without a breakthrough, Egyptian officials said. The start of Ramadan — expected on the evening of March 10 — has been set as an informal deadline to finalize a deal for a temporary cease-fire and the release of Israeli hostages.

“If we get into a circumstance where this continues through Ramadan ... it could be very, very dangerous,” Biden told reporters.

The president said he continues to press to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza — an issue that has been central to talks with Israel war cabinet member, Benny Gantz, who has been meeting with top administration officials in Washington this week.

“We must get more aid into Gaza,” Biden said. “There’s no excuse. None.”

Gantz, a political rival of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, came to Washington without Netanyahu’s blessing. White House officials have downplayed Netanyahu’s objections to the visit.

Biden has shown frustration with Netanyahu during the nearly five-month-old war. Asked Tuesday about their relationship, Biden said it is “like it’s always been.”

ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES KILL 3 IN LEBANESE BORDER TOWN

BEIRUT — Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon Tuesday killed a family of three in the border town of Houla, first responders said.

The intense strikes took place a day after White House senior adviser Amos Hochstein visited Lebanese political and military officials in Beirut in an effort to deescalate ongoing clashes between Hezbollah and the Israeli military along the Lebanon-Israel border.

Lebanon’s Civil Defense and Hezbollah’s Islamic Health unit said first responders pulled the bodies of Hassan Hussein, his wife Rwaida Mostafa, and their 25-year-old son from the rubble of a house that was targeted in the airstrikes. Civil Defense responders were searching for more bodies.

Later Tuesday, the Israeli military said it struck what it described as a Hezbollah military site near Ayta ash Shab in southern Lebanon, saying two anti-tank missiles had been launched from there toward Biranit on the Israeli side of the border. It said no injuries were reported.

The military said it also struck a Hezbollah operational command center near Jabal al Baba, launch posts close to Matmoura, and military compounds near Majdal Zoun, Houla, and Kafra. It did not mention the family reported killed in Houla.

AT LEAST 17 KILLED IN KHAN YOUNIS IN SOUTHERN GAZA STRIP

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian officials say an Israeli airstrike has killed at least 17 people in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

Civil Defense department first responders circulated video footage of rescuers pulling dead and wounded people from the rubble of a house, including a child with blood on his face who was not moving.

The nearby European Hospital said Tuesday that it had received 17 bodies overnight.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says a total of 97 people have been killed in the last 24 hours, bringing the overall Palestinian death toll from the nearly five-month war to 30,631. It does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its figures but says women and children make up around two-thirds of the casualties. It says over 72,000 people have been wounded.

Israel launched its offensive after Hamas-led militants stormed across the border on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Over 100 hostages were released last year in exchange for 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames the high toll on Hamas because the militants operate in dense, residential areas. The military rarely comments on individual strikes.

The military said in a statement on Tuesday that it was carrying out targeted raids on militant infrastructure in Khan Younis while trying to evacuate civilians from the area.