Norris raises hopes of home F1 win at the British GP after leading both practices

SILVERSTONE, England (AP) — McLaren driver Lando Norris raised hopes of a home victory at the British Grand Prix by topping both practice sessions at Silverstone on Friday.

Norris has emerged as a rival for Formula 1 leader Max Verstappen in recent races, and they crashed into each other late at the Austrian GP last weekend.

Norris led the first practice from Aston Martin's Lance Stroll, and Norris' teammate Oscar Piastri clocked the third best time.

Verstappen was fourth fastest in his Red Bull and .3 seconds behind Norris. He dropped to seventh in the second session and was .7 seconds behind Norris, who led it from Piastri and Red Bull's Sergio Perez.

Record eight-time British GP winner Lewis Hamilton was seventh and sixth in his last Silverstone appearance for Mercedes before joining Ferrari next year.

Several teams brought upgrades; among them a new floor for Red Bull; front and rear wings for Mercedes; and a new rear wing and engine cover for McLaren.

Piastri had a hydraulic problem a few minutes from the end of the first practice and McLaren team members rolled his car to the garage.

Norris had a narrow escape in the final seconds of P1 when Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar — replacing Perez in that session — impeded him. Hadjar raised a hand to apologize to Norris and received a formal warning from race stewards.

There is a third practice on Saturday followed by qualifying.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain steers his car during the second free practice at the Silverstone racetrack, Silverstone, England, Friday, July 5, 2024. The British Formula One Grand Prix will be held on Sunday. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands steers his car during the second free practice at the Silverstone racetrack, Silverstone, England, Friday, July 5, 2024. The British Formula One Grand Prix will be held on Sunday. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands steers his car during the second free practice at the Silverstone racetrack, Silverstone, England, Friday, July 5, 2024. The British Formula One Grand Prix will be held on Sunday. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri of Australia steers his car during the second free practice at the Silverstone racetrack, Silverstone, England, Friday, July 5, 2024. The British Formula One Grand Prix will be held on Sunday. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain steers his car during the first free practice at the Silverstone racetrack, Silverstone, England, Friday, July 5, 2024. The British Formula One Grand Prix will be held on Sunday. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain steers his car during the second free practice at the Silverstone racetrack, Silverstone, England, Friday, July 5, 2024. The British Formula One Grand Prix will be held on Sunday. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces advanced deeper into the Gaza Strip's largest city in pursuit of militants who had regrouped there, sending thousands of Palestinians fleeing on Monday from an area ravaged in the early weeks of the nine-month-long war.

Hamas warned that the latest raids and displacement in Gaza City could lead to the collapse of long-running negotiations over a cease-fire and hostage release, after the two sides had appeared to have narrowed the gaps in recent days.

Israeli troops were again battling militants in areas that the army said had been largely cleared months ago in northern Gaza. The military ordered evacuations ahead of the raids, but Palestinians said nowhere feels safe. Most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands are packed into sweltering tent camps.

Israel ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza in the first weeks of the war and has prevented most people from returning. But hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain, living in shelters or the shells of homes.

“We fled in the darkness amid heavy strikes,” said Sayeda Abdel-Baki, a mother of three who had sheltered with relatives in the Daraj neighborhood. “This is my fifth displacement.”

Residents reported artillery and tank fire, as well as airstrikes. Gaza's Health Ministry, with limited access to the north, did not immediately report casualties.

Israel issued additional evacuation orders for areas in other neighborhoods of central Gaza City. The military said it had intelligence showing that militants from Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group were in the area, and called on residents to head south to the city of Deir al-Balah.

Israel accuses Hamas and other militants of hiding among civilians. In Shijaiyah, a Gaza City neighborhood that has seen weeks of fighting, the military said troops raided and destroyed schools and a clinic that had been converted into militant compounds.

The war has decimated large swaths of urban landscape and sparked a humanitarian catastrophe.

Israel and Hamas seem to be the closest they have been in months to agreeing to a cease-fire deal that would pause the fighting in exchange for the release of dozens of hostages captured by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war.

CIA Director William Burns returned to the region Monday for talks in Cairo, according to Egypt's state-run Qahera TV, which is close to the security services. An Israeli delegation was also heading to the Egyptian capital, Israeli media reported.

But obstacles remain, even after Hamas agreed to relent on its key demand that Israel commit to ending the war as part of any agreement. A key part of that shift, officials told The Associated Press, is the level of destruction caused by Israel’s rolling offensive.

Hamas still wants mediators to guarantee that negotiations conclude with a permanent cease-fire, according to two officials with knowledge of the talks. The current draft says the mediators — the United States, Qatar and Egypt — “will do their best” to ensure that negotiations lead to an agreement to wind down the war.

Israel has rejected any deal that would force it to end the war with Hamas intact — a condition Netanyahu reiterated Sunday.

Hamas on Monday said it is “offering flexibility and positivity" to facilitate a deal, while accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “putting more obstacles in the way of negotiations."

Meanwhile, Hamas' top political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, warned mediators of “catastrophic consequences” if Israel continued its operations in Gaza City, saying Netanyahu and the army would bear “full responsibility” for the collapse of the talks, the group said in a subsequent statement.

The two officials said there's also an impasse around whether Hamas can choose the high-profile prisoners held by Israel that it wants released in exchange for hostages. Some prisoners were convicted of killing Israelis, and Israel does not want Hamas to determine who is released. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive talks with the media.

Inside Gaza, residents saw no end to their suffering.

Maha Mahfouz fled her home with her two children and many neighbors in Gaza City’s Zaytoun neighborhood. She said their area was not included in the latest evacuation orders but “we are panicked because the bombing and gunfire are very close to us.”

Fadel Naeem, the director of the Al-Ahli hospital, said patients fled the facility even though there was no evacuation order for the surrounding area. He said those in critical condition had been evacuated to other hospitals in northern Gaza.

Marwan al-Sultan, director of the Indonesian Hospital, said it received 80 patients and wounded people from Al-Ahli who were packed into “every corner."

“Many cases require urgent surgeries. Many cases suffer from direct shots in the head and require intensive care. Fuel and medical supplies are dwindling,” he said in a text message. He said the hospital also received 16 bodies of people killed in the Israeli incursion, half of them women and children.

Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for the Civil Defense first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, said the neighborhoods of Tufah, Daraj and Shijaiyah had become inaccessible because of Israeli bombing. In a voice message, he said the military shelled houses in Gaza City's Jaffa area and first responders “saw people lying on the ground and were not able to retrieve them.”

The war has killed more than 38,000 people in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

Hamas' cross-border raid on Oct. 7 killed 1,200 people in southern Israel, most of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities. The militants took roughly 250 people hostage. About 120 are still in captivity, with about a third said to be dead.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

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

ADDS DETAILED INFORMATION Blood can be seen in the aftermath of the Israeli airstrike on a U.N.-run school-turned-shelter that killed at least 16 Palestinians in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 6, 2024, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Israel’s military said it struck several “terrorists” operating in the area of the school and had tried to lessen the risk to civilians. (AP Photo/Saher Alghorra)

Relatives mourn over the body of a Palestinian man killed in an Israeli airstrike on a U.N.-run school-turned-shelter that killed at least 16 people in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 6, 2024, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Israel’s military said it struck several “terrorists” operating in the area of the school and had tried to lessen the risk to civilians. (AP Photo/Saher Alghorra)

ADDS DETAILED INFORMATION Palestinians look at the aftermath of the Israeli airstrike on a U.N.-run school–turned-shelter that killed at least 16 in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 6, 2024, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Israel’s military said it struck several “terrorists” operating in the area of the school and had tried to lessen the risk to civilians. (AP Photo/Saher Alghorra)

Israeli soldiers move on the top of a tank near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Monday, July 8, 2024. Israeli forces advanced deeper into the Gaza Strip's largest city in pursuit of militants who had regrouped there, sending thousands of Palestinians fleeing on Monday from an area ravaged in the early weeks of the nine-month-long war. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Smoke rises to the sky after an explosion in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Monday, July 8, 2024. Israeli forces advanced deeper into the Gaza Strip's largest city in pursuit of militants who had regrouped there, sending thousands of Palestinians fleeing on Monday from an area ravaged in the early weeks of the nine-month-long war. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Destroyed buildings stand in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Monday, July 8, 2024. Israeli forces advanced deeper into the Gaza Strip's largest city in pursuit of militants who had regrouped there, sending thousands of Palestinians fleeing on Monday from an area ravaged in the early weeks of the nine-month-long war. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

An Israeli soldier moves on an armoured personnel carriers (APC) near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Monday, July 8, 2024. Israeli forces advanced deeper into the Gaza Strip's largest city in pursuit of militants who had regrouped there, sending thousands of Palestinians fleeing on Monday from an area ravaged in the early weeks of the nine-month-long war. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Israeli soldiers move near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Monday, July 8, 2024. Israeli forces advanced deeper into the Gaza Strip's largest city in pursuit of militants who had regrouped there, sending thousands of Palestinians fleeing on Monday from an area ravaged in the early weeks of the nine-month-long war. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Demonstrators march with Israeli flags during a protest marking nine months since the start of the war and calling for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Jerusalem, Sunday, July 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip hold baby dolls during a performance marking nine months since the start of the war and calling for their return, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, July 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Jewish settlers pray in the Eviatar outpost in the Israeli-occupied West Bank during morning prayers calling for the legalization of the outpost and the return of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, Sunday, July 7, 2024. Far-right ministers in Israel’s government have said they want to legalize unauthorized outposts in the West Bank in a sweeping expansion of settlements. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Israel deepens its operation in Gaza City, as pockets of militancy continue to dog the military

A demonstrator holds a sign during a protest marking nine months since the start of the war and calling for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, July 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Israel deepens its operation in Gaza City, as pockets of militancy continue to dog the military