Middle East latest: Jewish settlers attack Palestinian towns and clash with Israeli troops

Jewish settlers mounted a string of attacks on Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank overnight, burning homes and clashing with Israeli troops. There were no immediate reports of any Palestinian casualties.

The Israeli military said Jewish settlers attacked the village of Beit Furik after troops arrived in the area to dismantle an unauthorized farming outpost they had built nearby. It said the settlers hurled stones, wounding two members of the paramilitary Border Police, and one group entered the village and burned property.

The West Bank has seen a surge in settler violence since the start of the war.

In Lebanon, a tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has held despite Israeli forces carrying out several new drone and artillery strikes on Tuesday, killing a shepherd in the country's south. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed keep striking “with an iron fist” against perceived Hezbollah violations of the ceasefire.

Hezbollah began launching rockets, drones and missiles into Israel last year in solidarity with Hamas militants who are fighting in the Gaza Strip. The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage.

Israel’s blistering retaliatory offensive has killed at least 44,500 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The war in Gaza has destroyed vast areas of the coastal enclave and displaced 90% of the population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.

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JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said Wednesday that soldiers had entered a West Bank hospital the previous day during a raid in search of militants, after initially denying the claim.

The military said several soldiers entered the hospital’s entrance hall, suspecting that an armed militant was inside.

On Tuesday, a Palestinian doctor working at the hospital in the town of Tubas said Israeli soldiers opened fire inside, a claim the military did not address in its statement Wednesday. The military had said its troops were operating around the hospital searching for alleged militants struck in an earlier airstrike but had denied the troops had entered.

The doctor, Mahmoud Ghanam, said the troops had left after learning that a wounded man had been transferred to another hospital.

Israeli raids on hospitals in the occupied West Bank are rare but have grown more common since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

Violence in the occupied West Bank has surged since the war in Gaza began. The Palestinian Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed about 800 people in the West Bank during that time. Israel says many of the Palestinians killed have been militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting Israeli raids and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.

BEIR LAHIYA, Gaza Strip — Dozens of Palestinian families in northern Gaza said Wednesday they were forcibly displaced when Israel's military expelled them from schools they were using as makeshift shelters.

The fleeing civilians said Israel was expanding its major offensive in the north, the most heavily destroyed and isolated part of the Gaza Strip, which Israeli forces have almost completely besieged since early October. Experts say famine may be underway there.

Associated Press footage showed dozens of displaced families on the road leaving Beit Lahia — some on foot while others used motorized rickshaws, bicycles or donkey carts to carry kids, older adults and their remaining belongings.

Sadeia al-Rahel said Wednesday she was staying in a school in the town of Beit Lahiya when Israel's military dropped leaflets ordering everyone to evacuate.

“This morning a quadcopter (drone) detonated four bombs at the school. There were people injured, human remains, we left with nothing," she said. “They forcibly displaced us.”

The 57-year-old said her family has been eating grass, leaves, and animal feed for two months due to the lack of food aid in the north. “But no one cares” she added. Al-Rahel said her family didn’t even take blankets with them as they left.

Meanwhile, 20-year-old Hafez Warshal stayed in Beit Lahia with his family for 13 months before evacuating the school where he was sheltering. He said he had no idea where he would go next.

“We’ll stay wherever we find a place,” he said.

Israel’s war against Hamas has killed over 44,500 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The International Criminal Court is seeking to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister over accusations of using “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israel rejects the allegations and says it has been working hard to improve the entry of aid.

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said Wednesday that an investigation into the deaths of six hostages whose bodies were recovered from Gaza earlier this year determined that they were likely shot and killed by their captors in an underground tunnel after an Israeli strike hit nearby.

The military recovered the bodies of the six hostages – all men, including three in their 70s and one in his 80s — from the southern city of Khan Younis in August. The investigation said the strike in question was one targeting Hamas commanders in February.

“Due to the extended time that had passed, it was not possible to determine with complete certainty the precise cause of death of the hostages or the exact timing of the gunfire,” the military statement said.

An Israeli military official said the results were based on a “forensic examination” carried out after the bodies were recovered. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the findings with the media, and did not not provide details on the examination.

The military said it had no intelligence indicating that hostages were held in the area and would not have struck had it known. The military said that while troops followed all the necessary approvals for conducting the strike, it has added additional approvals to its protocols for certain strikes in response to the hostages’ deaths.

The war in Gaza was sparked when Hamas launched its Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on southern Israel, where militants killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 250. About 100 hostages remain in Gaza, with roughly a third said to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel has made destroying Hamas’ military and governing capabilities, as well as freeing the hostages, the goals for its war in Gaza. But critics say those goals are in conflict, with the lives of hostages in danger the longer Israeli fights in Gaza.

— By Tia Goldenberg

BERLIN — A Syrian photographer working for the German news agency dpa was killed by a fighter jet attack near the Syrian city of Hama, dpa reported on Wednesday.

The news agency couldn’t immediately give more details about when 32-year-old Anas Alkharboutli was killed. But the agency’s editor-in-chief, Sven Gösmann, said “all of us at dpa are in shock and infinitely saddened by the death of Anas Alkharboutli.”

“With his pictures he not only documented the horrors of war, he always worked for the truth,” Gösmann said. “In recent days in particular, his photos were seen around the world as he reported on the civil war that flared up again."

Alkharboutli joined dpa as a photographer in the Middle East in 2017. He mainly reported from the Syrian civil war zone.

Alkharboutli’s photography was recognized internationally. In 2020, he received the Young Reporter Trophy of the French Prix Bayeux for war reporting. At the 2021 Sony World Photography Awards, he won the Sports category with a series of images of children training in karate, the news agency said.

BEIT FURIK, West Bank — Jewish settlers mounted a string of attacks on Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank overnight, burning homes and clashing with Israeli troops.

There were no immediate reports of any Palestinian casualties.

The Israeli military said Jewish settlers attacked the village of Beit Furik after troops arrived in the area to dismantle an unauthorized farming outpost they had built nearby on land privately owned by Palestinians. It said the settlers hurled stones, wounding two members of the paramilitary Border Police.

Adel Hanni, a resident of the village, told the AP that a group of roughly 70 settlers gathered on the village lands early morning as the troops took down the outpost. The settlers burned Hanni’s son’s home, a car, a village shop and smashed the windows of several more homes. An Associated Press reporter saw a blackened home and a destroyed car on Wednesday morning.

"Some settlers started to break into the house, while others carried incendiary materials,” said Hanni, 57.

Settlers also attacked the village of Huwara, which has been the target of several previous attacks — even before the outbreak of the war in Gaza — and clashed with troops near Rujeib, another Palestinian village, the military said.

Israeli police and the Shin Bet security agency said in a statement that they were investigating the settler attacks. They said they arrested eight Israelis for suspected property damage and assaulting security forces.

The West Bank has seen a surge in settler violence since the start of the war, which was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack into Israel. Settlers have also raced to establish new farming outposts that rights groups say are among the biggest drivers of the violence.

The UN’s humanitarian office said settler attacks on Palestinian farmers during the recent olive harvest season “at least tripled” in 2024 compared to the last three years.

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

The West Bank is home to some 3 million Palestinians who live under Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority exercising limited autonomy in cities and towns. Some 500,000 Jewish settlers with Israeli citizenship live in more than 100 settlements across the West Bank, many of which resemble suburbs or small towns.

Most of the international community considers the settlements to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian medics said Israeli airstrikes in Gaza on Wednesday killed eight people, including four children.

The Awda Hospital, which received the bodies from one strike, said five were killed as they gathered outside of shelters in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, which dates back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.

The hospital said another 15 people, mostly children, were wounded in the strike.

Also in central Gaza, the Al-Aqsa Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah said it received the bodies of three people who were killed in what it says were two separate Israeli strikes early Wednesday.

The three dead include a man and a woman who were killed in a strike in Deir al-Balah, and another man killed in the urban refugee camp of Bureij, the hospital said.

The Israeli military said it struck a “terrorist target” in Nuseirat, without elaborating. It had no immediate comment on the other strikes.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 44,500 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said Wednesday it had returned the bodies of two militants who crossed into Israel from Jordan in October and shot two soldiers.

The militants entered Israeli territory south of the Dead Sea on Oct. 18, shooting and wounding two soldiers before being shot dead by Israeli troops. Hamas praised the incursion but not claim responsibility for it.

The Israeli military did not release the names of the militants who carried out the attack.

Israeli troops detain the director of the Turkish hospital doctor Mohammad Samara for interrogation before releasing him, while searching for the bodies of militants in a Palestinian hospital in the West Bank city of Tubas, Tuesday Dec. 3, 2024 (AP Photo/Majdi Muhammad).

Palestinians mourn over the body of victim of an overnight Israeli strike, during a funeral in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A wounded Palestinian child is carried on a stretcher at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, following an Israeli bombardment in Nuseirat, central Gaza, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A Palestinian walks past a destroyed building following an overnight Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Shaked Malka, center, and her partner Yair Amar collect items from their home in Metula, Israel's northernmost town, on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. Most residents of Israeli settlements and towns near the border with Lebanon have evacuated due to rocket attacks from Hezbollah in recent months.(AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

CORRECTS NAME OF LEBANESE VILLAGE .- Backdropped by the southern Lebanese village of El Adeise, houses damaged by Hezbollah rockets attacks are seen in Metula, Israel's northernmost town, Wednesday Dec. 4, 2024. 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Parts of the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Kila are seen flattened by bombardments from Metula, Israel's northernmost town, on Wednesday, December 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Yemeni graduates of fighting courses organised by Houthi group, burn Israeli British and American flags in support of Gaza during a parade, in Sanaa, Yemen, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

A Palestinian inspects the rubble of a destroyed building following an overnight Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians carry the body of victim of an overnight Israeli strike, outside a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A Palestinian man carries a wounded child, following an Israeli bombardment in Nuseirat, central Gaza, as they arrive at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A burnt house following a settler attack that damaged vehicles and houses in the village of Beit Furik, in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Mohammed Hanani looks at his burnt car following a settler attack that damaged vehicles and houses in the village of Beit Furik, in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Mohammed Hanani looks at his burnt car following a settler attack that damaged vehicles and houses in the village of Beit Furik, in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

A man carries a sack of donated flour distributed by UNRWA at the Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Tuesday Dec. 3, 2024.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A man grabs a sack of donated flour at a UNRWA distribution center in the Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Tuesday Dec. 3, 2024.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Israeli armoured vehicles move on in an area at the Israeli-Gaza border, seen from southern Israel, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump's Pentagon pick, was fighting to hold on to his Cabinet nomination amid growing questions Wednesday about his personal conduct as the president-elect's team considers alternatives, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The Trump transition team was increasingly concerned about Hegseth’s path to Senate confirmation and was actively looking at potential replacements, a person familiar with the matter said. Hegseth is under pressure as senators weigh a series of allegations that have surfaced against him.

DeSantis, who competed against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, is being discussed as a possible replacement if Hegseth’s nomination does not move forward, according to three other people familiar with the matter. They were not authorized to publicly discuss internal deliberations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Hegseth is the latest nominee-designate to be imperiled by personal baggage after the recent withdrawal of Trump’s pick to be attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, whose vulnerabilities were well-documented. But Hegseth’s past, including the revelation that he made a settlement payment after being accused of sexual assault, was not widely known.

Trump’s transition team did not do fulsome screening of potential picks before he announced them, and only on Tuesday was an agreement signed with the Department of Justice to allow for formal background checks of those under consideration.

Beyond DeSantis, there have been discussions about shifting Michael Waltz, who was named by Trump as his national security adviser, to the Defense Department, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity about private conversations. The Florida congressman is a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran.

Trump aides do not want to be caught flat-footed in case Trump's initial picks fall through. Trump, for now, was standing by Hegseth.

After meeting with Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the incoming majority leader, Hegseth told reporters that that he had received a fresh message of support from Trump.

“I spoke to the president this morning. He supports me fully. We’re not going anywhere,” Hegseth said. He ignored questions about the allegations he has faced.

Hegseth, accompanied by his wife, made the rounds for a third day on Capitol Hill, talking in private with GOP senators before heading to the House. While House members have no direct role in the confirmation process, conservatives can hold outsize influence on the debate.

The Trump transition team didn’t immediately comment. The Wall Street Journal, on Tuesday night, first reported that Trump was considering DeSantis.

Hegseth shared a series of messages of support from others on social media and a post of his own in which he said he would not “back down.”

“I’m doing this for the warfighters, not the warmongers. The Left is afraid of disrupters and change agents,” he wrote.

He blamed the pushback on fear of him and Trump and said, “So they smear w/ fake, anonymous sources & BS stories. They don’t want truth. Our warriors never back down, & neither will I.”

Earlier, Hegseth's mother appeared on Fox News to address multiple allegations that have emerged in the media about Hegseth's alcohol intoxication at work events, sexual misconduct and potential financial mismanagement.

Penelope Hegseth, on “Fox & Friends,” discussed her son and a 2018 email she wrote him that was obtained by The New York Times, in which she confronted him about mistreating women after he impregnated his current wife while he was married to his second wife.

That letter followed multiple allegations, reported by the New Yorker this week, of questionable conduct around female staffers. Hegseth also was accused of sexual assault in 2017, which Hegseth told California police at the time was a consensual encounter and has denied any wrongdoing.

Hegseth has never held a military or civilian leadership role in the Pentagon, but his mother said his time as a Fox News host and the pressure of that role was a good preparation for leading the Defense Department.

She acknowledged that the allegations against her son have become a distraction and raised concern among some GOP senators.

On Tuesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said some of the reports were “disturbing,” telling CBS News that he wants to “make sure that every young woman that joins the military feels respected and welcomed.”

Penelope Hegseth implored the lawmakers to listen to her son and give him a chance.

“I think it can be overcome,” Penelope Hegseth said.

Hegseth is a former Fox News host and a former Army National Guard major and combat veteran who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. If confirmed by the Senate, he would lead a 2 million member strong military — more than 17% of whom are female. The revelations have concerned some members of Congress.

DeSantis is a former Trump ally-turned-rival who became the subject of intense ridicule and hostility from Trump and his campaign when then Florida governor challenged him in the presidential primary.

When DeSantis dropped out and endorsed Trump, the two seemed to have struck a calculated truce, but deep distrust between their closest aides remained.

DeSantis, a 46-year-old former congressman and former Navy officer, would likely to face a smoother time than Hegseth in the Senate, where Republicans are regaining the majority in January.

The governor was a Navy judge advocate general officer, a position that took him to Iraq and the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. As a presidential candidate, he called for ridding the military of “woke” policies.

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Michelle L. Price in New York and Lisa Mascaro and Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.

FILE - President Donald Trump appears on Fox & Friends co-host Pete Hegseth at a Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, April 6, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

FILE - Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a campaign event on May 31, 2023, in Salix, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

FILE - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis delivers remarks and answers questions at a news conference, Sept. 16, 2024, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)

FILE - Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of defense, speaks with reporters following a meeting with senators on Capitol Hill, Nov. 21, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., File)

FILE - Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be Defense Secretary, meets with Sen. Tommy Tuberville R-Ala., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)