MIAMI (AP) — A hurricane watch for the Cayman Islands and a tropical storm warning for Jamaica were issued as a weather system in the Caribbean is expected to strengthen this week, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
On the opposite side of the Atlantic, Patty transitioned from subtropical to a tropical storm located about 380 miles (615 kilometers) east of the Azores early Monday, the hurricane center reported.
The northwestern Caribbean storm system was expected to become a hurricane and could bring heavy rainfall to Cuba and Florida and possibly the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico later this week, the center said early Monday morning.
“Potential Tropical Cyclone Eighteen” was located about 275 miles (445 kilometers) south of Kingston, Jamaica, and about 465 miles (745 kilometers) southeast of Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph) while moving north at 6 mph (9 kph), the center said.
A hurricane is defined as a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained surface winds of 74 mph (119.1 kph) or greater. A tropical storm has maximum sustained winds of 39 mph (62.8 kph) up to 73 mph (117.5 kph).
The storm was expected to be near Jamaica by late Monday and the Cayman Islands on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the center, which urged residents in Cuba and the Florida Keys to monitor the storm's progress.
Heavy rainfall will affect the western Caribbean with totals of 3 to 6 inches (76 to 152 mm) and up to 9 inches (229 mm) expected locally in Jamaica and southern Cuba. Flooding and mudslides are possible in those nations.
Heavy rains will reach Florida and adjacent areas of the southeast U.S. by mid- to late-week, the center said.
Tropical Storm Patty had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph) while moving east at 20 mph (31 kph), the hurricane center said, noting in a 3 a.m. advisory that Patty is forecast to become post-tropical in the coming days near the Azores, an island chain about 800 miles (1,287 kilometers) off Portugal.
This satellite image provided by NOAA shows weather systems Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024. (NOAA via AP)
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes killed at least 26 people across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, hitting Hamas security officers and an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone, as the daily bombardment continues and the latest efforts toward a ceasefire appear to have stalled.
“Everyone was taking shelter in their tents from the cold, and suddenly we found the world turning upside down. Why, and for what?” said Ziyad Abu Jabal, displaced from Gaza City, after the strike in the seaside humanitarian zone known as Muwasi.
Hundreds of thousands of displaced people are huddling in Muwasi in damp winter weather.
The early morning strike there killed at least 10 people, including three children and two senior Hamas police officers.
Israel’s military said it targeted a senior officer in the Hamas-run police force. It said he was involved in gathering intelligence used by Hamas’ armed wing in attacks on Israeli forces.
Another Israeli strike killed at least eight Palestinians in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. The men were members of local committees that help secure aid convoys, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies. An Associated Press reporter there confirmed the toll.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strike.
In southern Gaza, Israel’s military killed five policemen in eastern Khan Younis. Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said the strike targeted the head of the Hamas internal security force in southern Gaza.
“Where did we find him? Where else, but of course hiding in the humanitarian zone in Khan Younis, where Gazans are sheltering from this war,” Mencer said.
Israel has repeatedly targeted the police in Gaza during 15 months of war, contributing to a breakdown of law and order in the territory that has made it difficult for humanitarian groups to deliver aid. Israel accuses the militant Hamas group of hijacking aid for its own purposes.
The Hamas-run government had a police force numbering in the tens of thousands that maintained a high degree of public security before the war, while also violently suppressing dissent. Now officers have largely vanished from the streets in many areas.
Meanwhile, three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a group of people walking in the street in Maghazi in central Gaza. Their bodies were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
The war was sparked by Hamas-led militants’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack into Israel. The militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive in retaliation has killed over 45,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territory's Health Ministry, which says women and children make up more than half the dead. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their tally.
Israel's military says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in dense residential areas. The army says it has killed 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war has caused widespread destruction and displaced some 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, many of them multiple times.
Hunger is widespread. Children, some barefoot or in sandals, waited in line with metal pails or other containers at a food distribution center in Deir al-Balah on Thursday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was released from the hospital Thursday after having prostate surgery Sunday.
Doctors at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital said Netanyahu was recuperating well, although he has a period of recovery ahead. Despite doctor’s orders to remain hospitalized, the 75-year-old leader briefly left the facility to participate in a vote in Israel’s parliament on Tuesday.
Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed. But the militant group, while greatly weakened, has repeatedly regrouped in parts of the territory — notably the largely isolated north — after Israeli forces withdraw.
Khaled reported from Cairo.
Follow AP coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Palestinians collect donated food at a food distribution center in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Thursday Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Two Palestinian boys wait to collect donated food at a food distribution center in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Thursday Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
An Israeli soldier weeps in front of a memorial at the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed or kidnapped by Hamas, near Kibbutz Re'im in southern Israel, close to the Gaza Strip, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A man mourns over the body of a Palestinian man killed during an Israeli army strike in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, Thursday Jan. 2, 2025. The strike killed at least eight men members of local committees that help secure aid convoys, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians pray over the body before the funeral of a man killed during an Israeli army strike in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, Thursday Jan. 2, 2025.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
A body is carried to the area outside the hospital after an Israeli army strike early Thursday morning in the Muwasi area, in Khan Younis in the central Gaza Strip, Thursday Jan. 2, 2025. According to Palestinian medical officials, the airstrike killed at least 10 people, including three children and two senior police officers, in an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians inspect the site of an earlier Israeli army strike in the Muwasi area, in Khan Younis, central Gaza Strip, Thursday Jan. 2, 2025. According to Palestinian medical officials, the airstrike killed at least 10 people, including three children and two senior police officers, in an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
An Israeli soldier covers his ears as an artillery gunner fires into the Gaza Strip from a position in southern Israel, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025.(AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Israeli soldiers stand in a bullet-ridden house during a tour for army personnel to observe the damage caused by the Oct. 7 Hamas onslaught at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, near the Israeli-Gaza border, in Israel, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Palestinian girls collect donated food at a food distribution center in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Thursday Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
A destroyed part of Gaza City as seen from southern Israel, Thursday Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov))
