EU Commission chief urges North Macedonia's political parties to cooperate on accession push

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen praised North Macedonia’s reform efforts Thursday, but stressed the need for progress on constitutional changes if the country was to make progress with its bid to join the EU.

North Macedonia's dispute with neighbor and EU member Bulgaria has delayed its EU accession process. The previous center-left government agreed to add a reference to a Bulgarian ethnic minority in the constitution to break the impasse, but lacked the parliamentary majority to enact the change.

Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski’s new conservative government maintains it will only amend the constitution if Bulgaria first approves North Macedonia’s EU membership without additional conditions.

“We are almost there, but we know it's about the constitutional change that your country has committed to," von der Leyen told a joint conference with Mickoski in Skopje, while on a six-nation tour of the region.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and fears of broader instability in Europe have added urgency to EU accession bids by Balkan countries seeking entry.

The EU started membership talks with North Macedonia and Albania in 2022, and the bloc recently pushed ahead with Albania’s accession process independently, departing from the previous approach of moving both countries forward together.

Von der Leyen urged cross-party support in North Macedonia for the constitutional amendment. Her regional tour continues with visits to Bosnia Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro as the EU seeks to reassure Western Balkan nations of their membership prospects.

Arriving in Bosnia from North Macedonia, von der Leyen went first to Donja Jablanica, a village in central Bosnia that was devastated in recent floods and landslides in the country.

The disaster in early October claimed 27 lives, and the small village was virtually buried in rocks that descended on the village from a quarry located on a hill above.

“It was very important for me to see with my own eyes what happened and how the floods have destroyed the region here so let me assure you we stand by your side and Europe is with you,” said von der Leyen.

Bosnia has sought EU aid and many countries have sent teams to help through the EU's civil protection mechanism.

“We will be with you, your friends and partners,” said von der Leyen. “You are a candidate country to the European Union, you’ve seen that the Civil Protection Mechanism was immediately activated and it is heart-warming to see the volunteers but also the servicemen and servicewomen from different nations being here."

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen talks to Eufor soldiers during her visit to the area that was recently hit by floods and landslides, in Jablanica, Bosnia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024.(AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

A mosque is seen submerged in mud following flash floods and landslides in Donja Jablanica, Bosnia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

A children's bicycle is seen covered in mud following flash floods and landslides in Donja Jablanica, Bosnia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

A view inside a house missing a floor following flash floods and landslides in Donja Jablanica, Bosnia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

A car is seen covered in mud following flash floods and landslides in Donja Jablanica, Bosnia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

A view inside a house covered with mud following flash floods and landslides in Donja Jablanica, Bosnia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, centre, visits the area which was recently hit by floods and landslides in Jablanica, Bosnia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024.(AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen shakes hands with an Effort soldier during her visit to the area that was recently hit by floods and landslides, in Jablanica, Bosnia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024.(AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, centre, visits the area which was recently hit by floods and landslides in Jablanica, Bosnia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024.(AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, centre, visits the area which was recently hit by floods and landslides in Jablanica, Bosnia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a media conference at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

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.

In Gaza, Palestinian officials said an Israeli strike on a school where displaced people were sheltering killed at least 17 people on Thursday, mostly women and children.

An additional 42 people were wounded in the strike in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the Awda Hospital, which received the casualties. Among the dead were seven children as young as 11 months, as well as three women. The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants inside the school, without providing evidence.

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.

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.

Over the past several weeks, Israeli strikes have killed much of Hezbollah’s top leadership.

Here's the latest:

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s health ministry said Thursday that 19 people were killed and 118 wounded in the past 24 hours, raising the total toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,593 killed and 12,119 wounded.

Lebanon’s crisis response unit recorded 111 airstrikes and shelling incidents in the past day, mostly concentrated in southern Lebanon and the Nabatiyeh province.

An Israeli airstrike in the Bekaa Valley killed five people and wounded several others on a Hillaniyeh town in Baalbeck, Lebanon’s state media said.

Some 1,096 centers are sheltering 191,692 people, including 44,319 families, displaced by the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, the health ministry report said. Among these shelters, 928 have reached full capacity.

Despite a major border crossing between Lebanon and Syria being out of commission after Israel hit the road several times, crowds have flowed across the border seeking relative safety in Syria. Between Sept. 23 and Oct. 24, Lebanese General Security recorded nearly half a million people crossing into Syria, including 346,529 Syrian and 153,282 Lebanese citizens, the report said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced another $135 million in aid to the Palestinians. He said it is critical that aid enters Gaza.

Blinken spoke in Qatar on Thursday on his 11th visit to the region since the outbreak of the war in Gaza. The United States has pressed Israel to allow more aid into the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

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.

Jewish revelers dance in a circle during the holiday of Simchat Torah, on the first anniversary on the Jewish calendar of the day Hamas militants attacked Israel, in Jerusalem, Thursday Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike on Mansouri village, as it seen from the southern city of Tyre, south Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

FILE - United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, after visiting it, on Saturday, March 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)

FILE - Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith, File)

Damaged furnitures left on destroyed apartments that were hit by Israeli airstrikes, in Tyre, south Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

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)