Middle East latest: Blinken in Doha to discuss Gaza cease-fire with Qatari officials

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Doha on Thursday to meet with Qatari officials who have been key mediators for Hamas, as the U.S. struggles to break the logjam of cease-fire negotiations between Israel and the militant group.

Blinken is on his 11th trip to the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese military said Thursday an Israeli strike killed three of its troops, including an officer, as they were evacuating wounded people in southern Lebanon, and French President Emmanuel Macron said his country will provide a 100 million-euro ($108 million) aid package to support Lebanon.

The Israel-Hamas war began after Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023, blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not differentiate between militants and civilians.

United Nations humanitarian officials are reporting “harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction” in northern Gaza as Israel wages another major operation there.

Israel is also fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon. Lebanon’s Health Ministry says the total toll over the past year is over 2,500 killed and 12,000 wounded. The fighting in Lebanon has driven 1.2 million people from their homes, including more than 400,000 children, according to the United Nations children’s agency.

Hezbollah confirmed Wednesday that Hashem Safieddine, one of its top officials who had been widely expected to be the group’s next leader, was killed in an Israeli airstrike. Over the past several weeks, Israeli strikes have killed much of Hezbollah’s top leadership.

Here's the latest:

BEIRUT — At least one person was killed and others wounded in Israeli airstrikes targeting Syria’s Damascus and Homs countryside, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syria’s state media reported.

Israeli warplanes targeted a government building near a military fuel station in the Kafr Sousa neighborhood in Damascus, killing one person and injuring three others, according to the Syrian Observatory. The strike also triggered fires in the area.

Citing a military source, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that the Israeli strikes were launched from the direction of the Golan Heights and from the direction of northern Lebanon.

On a road in Al-Qusayr countryside, less than 10 kilometers from the Lebanese-Syrian border, an Israeli airstrike targeted a truck near a military site, killing one soldier and wounding four others, the Syrian Observatory said.

SANA reported that one soldier was killed and seven others were injured, though it did not specify which strike caused the casualties.

Israel has conducted strikes on Iranian-linked targets in Syria for years but has intensified these attacks following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel last year.

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister is calling for an immediate cease-fire, the full implementation of the U.N. resolution that ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war and the deployment of 8,000 Lebanese troops to a buffer zone along the border with Israel.

Najib Mikati spoke Thursday at a conference in Paris in support of Lebanon.

The Lebanese army has largely kept to the sidelines in the latest conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. It says Israeli forces have targeted its soldiers on eight occasions, killing and wounding several. Israel apologized for a deadly strike on Sunday.

U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war, called for Hezbollah and Israeli forces to withdraw from areas south of Lebanon’s Litani River and for the area to be controlled by the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers.

Israel says the resolution was never implemented and that Hezbollah built up military infrastructure all the way to the border. Lebanon has accused Israel of ignoring other provisions, including by violating its airspace.

The Lebanese army has around 80,000 forces, with around 5,000 deployed in the south.

Representing the Lebanese Army at the Paris conference, Brig. Gen. Youssef Haddad said that Lebanon is working on recruiting 1,500 additional soldiers to help implement the U.N. resolution, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Hezbollah boasts tens of thousands of fighters. Lebanon’s military is not strong enough to impose its will on the militant group or to resist Israel’s ground invasion.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The director of a hospital in the northern Gaza Strip says it is facing a “catastrophic” shortage of basic supplies and that ambulances can no longer service the facility.

Israel has been carrying out a major offensive in northern Gaza for more than two weeks. Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands have fled their homes. The military says it is battling Hamas fighters who regrouped in the north, which was one of the first targets of the ground offensive at the start of the war.

Dr. Hossam Abu Safiyeh, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, said in a video message released Thursday that some 150 wounded people are being treated there, including 14 children in intensive care or the neonatal department.

“There is a very large number of wounded people, and we lose at least one person every hour because of the lack of medical supplies and medical staff,” he said.

“Our ambulances can’t transfer wounded people,” he said. “Those who can arrive by themselves to the hospital receive care, but those who don’t just die in the streets.”

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Footage shared with The Associated Press shows medical staff tending to premature babies and several older children in hospital beds, some with severe burns. One child is seen attached to a breathing machine, with bandages on her face and flies hovering over her.

“We are providing the bare minimum to patients. Everyone is paying the price of what is happening now in northern Gaza,” Abu Safiyeh said.

Kamal Adwan is one of three hospitals in the north left largely inaccessible because of the fighting. The war has gutted the health system across Gaza, with only 16 of 39 hospitals even partially functioning, according to the World Health Organization.

PARIS — France pledged to provide a 100-million euro ($108-million) package to support Lebanon at an international conference Thursday, as President Emmanuel Macron said “massive aid” is needed to support the country where war between Hezbollah militants and Israel has displaced a million people, killed over 2,500 and deepened an economic crisis.

“In the immediate term, massive aid is needed for the Lebanese population, both for the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the war and for the communities hosting them,” Macron said in his opening speech at the conference.

French organizers hope participants’ financial pledges of humanitarian aid will meet the $426 million the United Nations says is urgently needed.

Italy this week announced new aid of 10 million euros ($10.8 million) and Germany on Wednesday pledged an additional 60 million euros ($64.7 million) for people in Lebanon.

BEIRUT — The Lebanese military says an Israeli strike killed three of its troops, including an officer, as they were evacuating wounded people in southern Lebanon.

In a Thursday post on X, it said the strike hit the outskirts of the southern town of Yater. The army says Israeli forces have targeted it on eight occasions since all-out war broke out between Israel and Hezbollah in September.

The Israeli military said Thursday it was looking into whether “a number of soldiers of the Lebanese army were accidentally harmed” after it targeted what it says was Hezbollah infrastructure.

The military said in a statement that it does not deliberately target Lebanese troops.

It earlier apologized for a strike on Sunday that killed three Lebanese soldiers, saying it had targeted a vehicle in an area where Hezbollah had recently launched attacks without realizing it belonged to the army.

Lebanon’s armed forces have largely kept to the sidelines in the latest conflict. The army is not powerful enough to impose its will on Hezbollah or to resist Israel’s ground invasion.

France's President Emmanuel Macron reacts next to Lebanon's Prime Minister caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, left, and Lebanon's Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdallah Bou Habibas they arrive for an international press conference in support of Lebanon, in Paris, Thursday, Oct.24, 2024. (Alain Jocard, Pool via AP)

French President Emmanuel Macron gestures Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024 at the Elysee Palace in Paris. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani waits to receive U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in Doha, Qatar, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Nathan Howard/Pool Photo via AP)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meets with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in Doha, Qatar, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Nathan Howard/Pool Photo via AP)

Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs Chief of Protocol Ibrahim Fakhroo welcomes U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, as he arrives in Doha, Qatar, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Nathan Howard/Pool Photo via AP)

A displaced family, who fled the ongoing Hezbollah-Israel war in south Lebanon, sit on mattresses inside one of Beirut's oldest and best known movie theatres, Le Colisee, where they have taken shelter, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meets Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Wednesday Oct. 23, 2024. (Nathan Howard/Pool via AP)

Flame and smoke rises from buildings hit by Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Flames and smoke rise from buildings hit by Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

INZAI CITY, Japan (AP) — Taylor Moore shot a 7-under 63 to lead by one shot after the first round of the Zozo Championship, the only PGA Tour event in Japan, on Thursday.

Max Greyserman, Nico Echavarria and Eric Cole were a shot behind after rounds of 64 at the Narashino Country Club.

Two players from Taiwan — C.T. Pan and Kevin Yu — were two back after 65s.

Moore eagled the 562-yard 18th — his ninth hole of the round — when he chipped in from just more than 100 feet (30 meters) out.

“I had plenty of green to work with,” Moore said. “I hit a nice chip and it went in.”

Moore and Echavarria each have one victory on the PGA Tour. Greyserman and Cole are looking for their first.

Greyserman is playing a tournament for the first time in two months. He finished second in two of his last four tournaments, then put the clubs down for a break.

“I haven’t really played, practiced that much, to be honest,” he said. “I mean, when you hit as many shots as all the guys out here have in their whole life, it doesn’t really leave you.”

Cole lost a playoff last year in the Honda Classic as he looks for his first victory.

It was a so-so day for some of the better-known players in the no-cut field of 72.

Local favorite and 2021 Masters champions Hideki Matsyama shot a 1-over 71 and was far off the pace.

Defending champion Collin Morikawa opened with a 69, and Xander Schauffele, the PGA Championship and British Open winner, stumbled to a 3-over 73. He had company there with fellow American Max Homa.

Schauffele took an eight on the par-4 ninth when his tee shot landed behind a tree.

“I should have just taken an unplayable, but I was an idiot and tried to hit it,” he said. "Then I was stubborn and then tried to hit it again, then finally took an unplayable."

Schauffele was asked if there was a lesson to be learned.

“Having false confidence helps at times, and in those spots it really doesn’t,” he said. “So I’ll definitely try to assess it a little bit better next time and really think if I can get it out or not.”

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Takumi Kanaya, of Japan, hits from a fairway bunker at the 18th fairway in the first round of the PGA Tour Zozo Championship at the Narashino Country Club in Inzai on the outskirts of Tokyo, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Kyodo News via AP)

Hideki Matsuyama, of Japan, tees off on the 6th hole in the first round of the PGA Tour Zozo Championship at the Narashino Country Club in Inzai on the outskirts of Tokyo, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Kyodo News via AP)