Israel-Hamas war latest: Drone strike hits Tel Aviv, killing 1 and injuring at least 10

A drone attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels killed one person in the center of Tel Aviv, Israel's biggest city, and wounded at least 10 others near the United States Embassy early Friday, authorities said.

Meanwhile, the top United Nations court issued a non-binding opinion that Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is unlawful, saying Israel could not claim sovereignty in the territories and was impeding Palestinians’ right to self-determination. Friday's decision by the International Court of Justice is separate from South Africa's case saying Israel's war in Gaza amounts to genocide, a charge Israel vehemently denies.

The war was sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, when Palestinian militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting about 250. Since then, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 38,800 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. It does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are now crammed into squalid tent camps in central and southern Gaza. Israeli restrictions, fighting and the breakdown of law and order have limited humanitarian aid efforts, causing widespread hunger and sparking fears of famine.

Here’s the latest:

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli airstrike killed a pregnant woman in Gaza but her baby survived after the mother’s body was rushed to a hospital delivery room, medical officials said.

The baby boy was in stable condition but had suffered oxygen shortages and was placed in an incubator at Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza, said Dr. Khalil Dajran.

The mother, Ola al-Kurd, 25, had previously survived an Israeli airstrike four months ago that killed her parents and some of her siblings. She was nine months pregnant at the time of her death.

She was among seven people killed in an Israeli strike that slammed into the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Her husband, Anas Yassin, was wounded in the same strike and was being treated at the hospital same hospital as his son, his first child. The boy yet to be given a name.

Two Israeli strikes in Nuseirat on Friday killed 14 people, including al-Kurd, an Associated Press journalist and hospital officials said. Seven of the dead, including three women and two children, were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah, and seven bodies were taken to Al-Awda Hospital.

UNITED NATIONS – U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the deadly drone attack in Tel Aviv that Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for and expressed concern at “the risk such dangerous acts pose for further escalation in the region,” his spokesman said.

“He urges all to exercise maximum restraint and to de-escalate to avoid further enflaming the situation in the region,” U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Friday. “The United Nations remains committed to supporting efforts for peace and stability in the region.”

BERLIN — Adidas said Friday that it is “revising” its campaign for running shoes inspired by a design dating back to the time of the 1972 Munich Olympics, which has drawn criticism from Israel over the involvement of supermodel Bella Hadid.

Hadid, whose father is Palestinian, has repeatedly made public remarks criticizing the Israeli government and supporting Palestinians over the years.

The German-based sportswear company has been advertising the SL72 sneakers, which it describes as a “timeless classic.” Israel’s official account on social media network X objected to Hadid as “the face of their campaign” in a post Thursday which noted that “eleven Israelis were murdered by Palestinian terrorists during the Munich Olympics.”

Adidas said in an emailed statement that the campaign for the SL72 shoe “unites a broad range of partners.”

“We are conscious that connections have been made to tragic historical events — though these are completely unintentional — and we apologize for any upset or distress caused,” it said. “As a result, we are revising the remainder of the campaign.”

It did not specify what changes would be made.

Members of the Palestinian group Black September broke into the Olympic Village, killed two athletes from Israel’s national team and took nine more hostage on Sept. 5, 1972. The attackers hoped to force the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel as well as two left-wing extremists in West German jails.

All nine hostages and a West German police officer died during a rescue attempt by German forces.

AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan’s Foreign Minister welcomed the International Court of Justice’s decision that Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territories and its settlement policy is unlawful.

“It is a clear ruling on the side of Palestinians people’s right to justice, freedom & statehood,” said minister Ayman al-Safadi in a post on X. “The end of occupation is the only path to peace that will guarantee the rights and security of all.”

Along with Egypt, Jordan is one of few Middle East countries with established diplomatic ties with Israel. But it has been highly critical of the Israeli army’s conduct in Gaza, publicly accusing it of trying to remove Palestinians from Gaza and West Bank.

Jordan, which borders the Israeli-occupied West Bank, is home to over 2 million Palestinian refugees, according to the United Nations. Jordan also serves as the custodian of the Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site.

LONDON — The British government said it would carefully consider before responding to Friday International Court of Justice opinion that Israel must end its presence in the occupied Palestinian territories.

“The UK respects the independence of the ICJ,” the Foreign Office said in a statement. “The foreign secretary was clear on his visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories earlier this week that the U.K. is strongly opposed to the expansion of illegal settlements and rising settler violence."

David Lammy, the new British foreign secretary, also said the Palestinian Authority needs to be “reformed and empowered.” The PA administers parts of the West Bank. Lammy also called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.

“This government is committed to a negotiated two-state solution which can deliver a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state,” the statement said.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said a cease-fire deal between Hamas and Israel that will release Israeli hostages in Gaza are “inside the 10-yard line,” as talks between warring sides in Cairo appear to make progress.

“But we know that anything in the last 10 yards are the hardest,” said Blinken, speaking from the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on Friday.

International mediators, including the United States, are pushing Israel and Hamas toward an internationally-backed phased deal that would halt the fighting and free about 120 hostages in Gaza.

Fruitless stop-and-start negotiations between the warring sides have been ongoing since November’s one week cease-fire. Both Hamas and Israel having accused each other of sabotaging the agreement as a deal nears.

Negotiations appeared to be rattled last weekend when Israel said it targeted Hamas’ military commander, Mohammed Deif in a massive strike. Despite the attack, Hamas said the talks were ongoing.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Speaking from outside the courtroom, Riyad Malki, the Palestinian Foreign Minister, commended the decision by the International Court of Justice to label Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territories and settlement policy as unlawful.

“The ICJ fulfilled its legal and moral duties with this historic ruling. All states must now uphold the clear obligations: No aid, no assistance, no complicity, no money, no arms, no trade, no nothing. No actions of any kind ... to support Israel’s illegal occupation,“ said Malki.

Malki was in the courtroom when Friday’s decision was read out and represents the Palestinian Authority at the International Court of Justice, and other U.N. courts

The Palestinian Authority administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Its forces were driven from Gaza when Hamas seized power in 2007, and it has no power there.

Hussein Shiekh, a senior official in the Palestinian Liberation Organization, called the court's opinion “a historic victory for the rights of the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination.” He said the international community must listen to what the court decided and pressure Israel to end the occupation.

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the West Bank and east Jerusalem were part of the Jewish people’s historical “homeland,” and harshly criticized Friday's decision by the International Court of Justice.

“The Jewish people are not conquerors in their own land — not in our eternal capital Jerusalem and not in the land of our ancestors in Judea and Samaria,” he said in a post on the social media platform X. “No false decision in The Hague will distort this historical truth and likewise the legality of Israeli settlement in all the territories of our homeland cannot be contested.”

Israel considers the West Bank to be disputed territory, whose future should be decided in negotiations, while it has moved population there in settlements to solidify its hold. It has annexed east Jerusalem in a move that is not internationally recognized, while it withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but maintained a blockade of the territory after Hamas took power in 2007. The international community generally considers all three areas to be occupied territory.

Israel, which normally considers the United Nations and international tribunals as unfair and biased, did not send a legal team to the hearings. But it submitted written comments, saying that the questions put to the court are prejudiced and fail to address Israeli security concerns. Israeli officials have said the court’s intervention could undermine the peace process, which has stagnant for more than a decade.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The top U.N. court said Friday that Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is unlawful and called on it to end and for settlement construction to stop immediately, issuing an unprecedented, sweeping condemnation of Israel’s rule over the lands it captured 57 years ago.

The decision is separate from another case the ICJ is considering, in which South African claims Israel’s war in Gaza amounts to genocide, a charge that Israel vehemently denies.

Friday's non-binding opinion by the ICJ could have more effect on international opinion than it will on Israeli policies.

The court pointed to a wide list of policies, including the building and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, use of the area’s natural resources, the annexation and imposition of permanent control over lands and discriminatory policies against Palestinians, all of which it said violated international law.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek all three areas for an independent state.

Israel considers the West Bank to be disputed territory, whose future should be decided in negotiations, while it has moved population there in settlements to solidify its hold. It has annexed east Jerusalem in a move that is not internationally recognized, while it withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but maintained a blockade of the territory after Hamas took power in 2007. The international community generally considers all three areas to be occupied territory.

LONDON — The new British government has overturned its predecessor’s suspension of funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for the Palestinians.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy told lawmakers that humanitarian aid in Gaza is “a moral necessity” and that UNRWA is “absolutely central” to U.K. efforts to support civilians on the ground.

In January, the previous government paused funding for UNRWA due to allegations that staff from the aid organization had been involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Lammy, who travelled to Israel last weekend and urged a ceasefire, said UNRWA is already feeding more than half of Gaza’s population and that the organization will be vital for the future reconstruction of the territory.

Lammy said he was “appalled” by the allegations against UNRWA staff but having spoken to senior officials at the U.N. is “reassured” that the organization is meeting “the highest standards of neutrality and strengthening its procedures.”

The U.K., he added, will provide 21 million pounds ($27 million) in new funds.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Two Israeli strikes on central Gaza killed 12 people overnight Thursday, according to Associated Press journalists and Palestinian medical officials.

Seven of the dead, including two women and three children, were killed in an airstrike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza late Thursday evening, while the second airstrike hit Bureij refugee camp, also in central Gaza, killing five people early Friday morning, ambulance crews said.

The bodies were taken to al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah, where they were counted by AP journalists.

BEIRUT — The militant Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have called on the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization to withdraw its recognition of Israel in retaliation for a resolution approved by Israel’s parliament rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The two groups made the announcement late Thursday following a meeting in the Gulf nation of Qatar between Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Islamic Jihad chief Ziad Nakhaleh and his deputy Mohammed al-Hindi, according to a Hamas statement.

The two groups said the Palestinian people have the right to set up their own independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.

Beirut — Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group said it fired a volley of rockets on a northern Israeli village Friday morning in retaliation for Israeli airstrikes the night before on south Lebanon that killed several Hezbollah members and wounded civilians.

In another attack, the group also said that it used for the first time a new rocket with heavy warhead to strike an Israeli army post in the disputed Kfar Chouba hills. Hezbollah said in a statement that the Wabel rocket, produced by the group in Lebanon, destroyed parts of the Rweisat al-Alam post and caused a fire inside it.

Hezbollah said its fighters fired a salvo of rockets on the northern Israeli village of Abirim for the first time since fighting along the Lebanon-Israel border began in early October.

Hezbollah began firing rockets shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, saying it aimed to ease pressure on Gaza. Since then, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed over 450 people, mostly Hezbollah members but also around 90 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 21 soldiers and 13 civilians have been killed.

Tel Aviv — Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for a drone strike early Friday that hit part of central Tel Aviv near the U.S. Embassy, killing one person and injuring 10.

The aerial strike rumbled through the streets causing shards of shrapnel to rain down and spreading shards of glass over a large radius. The Houthis have launched drones and missiles toward Israel throughout the Israel-Hamas war, in solidarity with the Palestinian people and against Israel. But until Friday, all were intercepted by either Israel or Western allies with forces stationed in the region.

Yahya Sare’e, the Houthis’ spokesperson, said in a statement published on the social media platform X that the strike was made in retaliation for the war and had hit one of many of the group’s targets.

The Houthis claimed their newest drones can bypass Israel’s aerial defense systems. However, an Israeli military official on Friday that the explosive-laden drone had been identified on Thursday and attributed the hit to “human error.”

“It was a terror attack that was targeted to kill civilians in Israel,” the official said of the strike, the first to threaten Tel Aviv in months.

Cactus grows in the West Bank village of Umm al-Khair, as homes from the nearby Israeli settlement of Carmel are seen in the background, Wednesday, July 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

People stand next to a destroyed car that was hit by an Israeli airstrike late Thursday, in the southern village of Jmaijmeh, Lebanon, Friday, July 19, 2024. Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group said it fired a volley of rockets on a northern Israeli village Friday morning in retaliation for Israeli airstrikes the night before on south Lebanon that killed several Hezbollah members and wounded civilians. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sits in a military vehicle during a surprise visit to Israeli soldiers in the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, Thursday, July 18, 2024. (Avi Ohayon/Israel Prime Minister's Office via AP)

FILE - A Jewish settler comes to 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. The top United Nations court has ruled on Friday, July 19, 2024 that Israel's settlement policy and use of natural resources in the occupied Palestinian territories violate international law. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)

The Judges enter the International Court of Justice, or World Court, in The Hague, Netherlands, Friday July 19, 2024, where the United Nations top court is delivering a nonbinding advisory opinion Friday on the legality of Israel's 57-year occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state, a ruling that could have more effect on international opinion than it will on Israeli policies. (AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis)

FILE - Israeli soldiers use pepper spray on a Palestinian demonstrator near the Jewish settlement Yitzhar, near the West Bank city of Nablus, on Friday, Feb. 21, 2020. The top U.N. court says Friday, July 19, 2024 that Israel's presence in the Palestinian occupied territories is "unlawful."(AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed, File)

Palestinian foreign policy advisor Riad Malki speaks to media at the International Court of Justice, or World Court, in The Hague, Netherlands, Friday, July 19, 2024. The top U.N. court said Friday that Israel’s presence in the Palestinian occupied territories is “unlawful” and called on it to end and for settlement construction to stop immediately, issuing an unprecedented, sweeping condemnation of Israel’s rule over the lands it captured 57 years ago. (AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis)

Israeli police investigate the scene of an explosive drone attack in Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, July 19, 2024. Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for a drone believed to have exploded above Tel Aviv early Friday morning, leaving one dead and at least 10 injured. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Israeli police investigate the scene of a deadly explosion in Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, July 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

People gather at the scene of an deadly explosion in Tel Aviv, Israel, early Friday, July 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Erik Marmor)

Israeli police and first responders gather at the scene of a deadly explosion in Tel Aviv, Israel, early Friday, July 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Erik Marmor)

Palestinians sit around the bodies of their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Thursday, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians gather near the bodies of their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Thursday, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

FILE - Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir attends a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Sept. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, Pool, File)

Relatives and friends of Israeli soldiers who were killed and of those who were kidnapped during the Oct. 7 Hamas cross-border attack take part in a march in southern Israel, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, demanding the creation of a committee of inquiry to investigate the events on that day. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Destroyed buildings stand in the Gaza Strip during the sunset as seen from southern Israel, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A Palestinian man holds a child wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Thursday, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

People watch from their balcony as Israeli police investigate the scene of a deadly explosion in Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, July 19, 2024.(AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

A runner stops to speak with Israeli police investigating the scene of a deadly explosion in Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, July 19, 2024.(AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Caution tape surrounds debris at the scene of a deadly explosion in Tel Aviv, Israel, early Friday, July 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Erik Marmor)

A man eats breakfast in a cafe near the scene of a deadly explosion in Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, July 19, 2024.(AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay (AP) — Ahead of her 15th birthday, Diana Zalazar's body had gotten so big she could no longer squeeze into the dress she bought for her quinceañera to celebrate her passage into womanhood in Paraguay.

Her mother sought help from a doctor, who suspected that growing inside of the 14-year-old Catholic choir girl could be a giant tumor. Next thing Zalazar knew, a gynecologist was wiping down the probe she’d applied to her belly and informing her that she was in her sixth month of pregnancy.

It made no sense to Zalazar, who had recently had sex for the first time without realizing it could make her pregnant.

In Catholic Paraguay, which has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in South America, many young mothers explained their teen pregnancies to The Associated Press as the result of growing up in a country where parents avoid the birds and the bees talk at all costs and national sex education is indistinguishable from a hygiene lesson.

“I didn’t decide to become a mother," Zalazar said. "I didn’t have a chance to choose because I didn’t have the knowledge.”

Over the years that Zalazar, now 39, has gone from sexual ignorance and shame to raising her 23-year-old son and advocating for children's rights, Paraguay's lack of sex education has remained unchanged — until now. For the first time, the Ministry of Education has endorsed a national sex ed curriculum. But in a surprising twist, it's the sexual health educators and feminists who are panicked. Conservative lobbyists are thrilled.

The curriculum, a copy of which was obtained by the AP, promotes abstinence, explains sex as “God’s invention for married people,” warns about the inefficacy of condoms and says nothing of sexual orientation or identity.

“We have a very strong Judeo-Christian culture that still prevails, and there’s fierce resistance to anything that goes against our principles,” said Miguel Ortigoza, a key proponent of the curriculum and evangelical pastor from Capitol Ministries, a Washington-based nonprofit that ran Bible study for former President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.

As a new generation of activists campaigning for legal abortion and gay rights scores victories across Latin America, a conservative backlash has gathered in Paraguay. The country already has among the world’s strictest abortion laws — punishable by prison time even in cases of incest or rape, though not when the mother’s life is in danger.

“Laws everywhere now allow girls to kill their babies, but Paraguay is among the remaining few saying no for Jesus’ sake,” said Oscar Avila, manager of an anti-abortion shelter for young mothers in Paraguay’s capital. At a recent morning Mass, girls no older than 15 filled the pews, some heavily pregnant, others with infants on their hips.

Critics explain the outsized power of Paraguay’s right-wing pressure groups as the consequence of a peculiar history. The conservative Colorado party has ruled the country for 76 of the past 80 years — including during a dictatorship openly sympathetic to Adolf Hitler.

“Growing up under the dictatorship, I was told homosexuality is a deviation,” said Simón Cazal, founder of Paraguayan LGBTQ+ rights group SomosGay. “The dictatorship legally ended, but the same political clans kept running the show.”

More recently, the rise of the far right in Latin America has given the governing party’s platform of religion, family and “patria,” or fatherland, newer resonance — emboldening conservative culture warriors with evangelical ties to take their battles to classrooms.

In 2017, Paraguay became the first country to ban school discussions about gender identity, an unwitting trailblazer for European populists and Republican governors. Now its sex ed curriculum has become a national flashpoint.

“The text is very dangerous, it’s an affront to science,” leftist Sen. Esperanza Martínez told a government committee recently convened to debate the curriculum.

Education Minister Luis Fernando Ramirez downplayed the controversy, stressing there was still time to improve the curriculum before enforcing it. “There’s no expenditure of state funds,” he told lawmakers. “Let’s not pass judgement until we do deeper work.”

Authorities assembled teams to revise the curriculum, called “12 Sciences of Sexuality and Affectivity Education," which it plans to pilot in September across five eastern regions before taking it nationwide. Parents' rights groups praise the 12 books, one for each grade, as a way of teaching morals and protecting young people.

“It's a real battle for life, family, the true rights of children and the freedom of parents,” said curriculum author Maria Judith Turriaga. “It's the reason parents fought for it to be included in public schools.”

The curriculum instructs children to treat others with respect and cultivate healthy relationships.

But in discouraging contraception and enforcing traditional gender norms, it has become a lightning rod for social tensions. Critics say it perpetuates sexist stereotypes: “Men conquer, not seduce,” “girls have smaller and lighter brains,” “boys don't cry easily,” “girls don't like taking risks."

Masturbation, it says, causes "frustration and isolation." Marital love lasts forever. Girls should beware of “how their way of dressing makes men behave.” Female puberty is “the body preparing to become a wife and mother.”

The books are filled with unexpected claims, too — “Boys do not clearly perceive high-pitched voices," it says.

Any talk of sex is about the heterosexual variety.

“Without a truly inclusive education that allows you to understand your reality, it’s scary,” said Yren Rotela, a trans activist whose identity as female at 13 pushed her into indentured servitude and sex work in a country where transgender identity is not legally recognized, there’s no legislation recognizing hate crimes and discrimination is widespread.

At a workshop in August, participants voiced alarm over parts of the curriculum emphasizing the duty of obedience to parents and authorities and urging pregnant teens to confide in their families — even as sexual assault is typically perpetrated in the home.

“I never got help from my family, they were threatening me not to tell anyone,” said Liliana, who was raped by her stepfather and became pregnant at 13, speaking on condition that only her first name be used because her case is under investigation.

The focus on unquestioned deference carries a political charge in Paraguay, where experts say Latin America’s longest-ruling dictatorship instilled an enduring autocratic tradition.

“It's easy in this country to create authoritarian projects that play on people's fears,” said Adriana Closs, president of Feipar, a Paraguayan group promoting comprehensive education. “Political factions are taking advantage of this because of the favorable global context.”

As the politics of social conservatism surge from Brazil to Hungary, Paraguayan lawmakers have found immense promise in agitating against what they hold is a Western conspiracy to feminize boys and make girls gay.

Panic over foreign influence taps into collective trauma from the War of the Triple Alliance, which pitted Paraguay against Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, and decimated more than half of its population. Paraguayans still have a habit of invoking the 1865-1870 conflict as if it happened last week.

"Paraguay is the perfect breeding ground for globalist conspiracies,” said Esteban Caballero, adviser for the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, a regional research group. “It’s not a fringe group of fanatics promoting this narrative, it’s a conservative society terrified by nonbinary identities. That means votes.”

Before 2023’s parliamentary elections, an annual transfer of European Union funds to Paraguay’s Education Ministry plunged politicians into a galvanizing battle.

Electoral debate pivoted from Paraguay's rampant corruption and neglected schools to accusations that the EU indoctrinates children about “gender ideology" through its financing agreement, “Transforming Education.”

The Senate narrowly rejected a bill that swept through the lower house ordering authorities to repeal EU funds, which in reality support anti-hunger initiatives.

As controversy swirled, European diplomats held a ceremony to change the agreement's name to “Strengthening Education” for fear the word “transforming” caused offense. President Santiago Peña appeared at Paraguay's biggest evangelical church, promising religious leaders increased influence over the national educational agenda.

“We see stronger support than in previous times,” Pastor Ortigoza said. “There's greater sensitivity to our causes."

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Teenage women hold their babies before attending Mass at the Catholic shelter for young mothers, Casa Rosa Maria, in Asuncion, Paraguay, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. Abortion is punishable by prison time with no exemptions in Paraguay, which has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in South America. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

Eighth graders take notes during a geography class at the Nueva Asuncion public school in Chaco-i, Paraguay, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. Paraguay seeks to roll out its first national sex-ed curriculum in September 2024. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

Eighth graders take notes during a geography class at the Nueva Asuncion public school in Chaco-i, Paraguay, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. Paraguay seeks to roll out its first national sex-ed curriculum in September 2024. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

Diana Zalazar, 39, shows a photo of her with her son Ato at her home in Lambare, Paraguay, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. Zalazar said she got pregnant after having sex with her first partner when she was 14 years old but that no one had talked to her about the risks of pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

Diana Zalazar and her son Ato Martino pose for a portrait at their home in Asuncion, Paraguay, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. Zalazar said she got pregnant after having sex with her first partner when she was 14 years old but that no one had talked to her about the risks of pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)