Middle East latest: Arab countries are working on a postwar plan for Gaza

Arab foreign ministers met in Cairo on Monday for talks focusing on Egypt's plan to rebuild the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, hoping to counter President Donald Trump’s proposal to expel Palestinians from the coastal enclave and take it over.

In Israel, an attacker fatally stabbed a man in his 60s and wounded four others in the northern city of Haifa, police said. Israeli authorities said the assailant was a Palestinian citizen of Israel and that bystanders killed him. The militant group Hamas praised the attack but stopped short of claiming responsibility for it.

The attack took place as regional tensions are high surrounding the fate of the ceasefire in Gaza. Israel has stopped the entry of all food and other supplies into Gaza and warned of “additional consequences” for Hamas if the ceasefire's first phase isn’t extended. Hamas accused Israel of trying to derail the second phase. Mediators Egypt and Qatar accused Israel of violating humanitarian law by using starvation as a weapon against the Palestinians in Gaza.

Here's the latest:

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are deeply concerned that their already dire situation will get much worse now that Israel has cut off all food and humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.

“This is a decision of genocide … Our children are being starved,” said Mohammed Abu Shalhoub, a displaced man from Rafah, who was waiting alongside dozens of people to receive a hot meal from a charity in the Muwasi area, west of the city of Khan Younis.

He urged other countries to pressure Israel to give Palestinians their most basic rights: "food, clothing, and drink — nothing more.”

A displaced woman, Umm Akram Shalhoub, said Israel's decision to cut off aid was “an execution.”

The war has displaced at least 90% of Gaza's population of over 2 million and left them dependent on international aid.

Foods like flour and vegetables are 100 times more expensive in Gaza than before Israel halted all food from entering a day earlier, the United Nations says.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the price increases were reported by the U.N.’s humanitarian partners on the ground Monday who are currently assessing stocks that are still available in the Gaza Strip.

Dujarric said the United Nations has not received reports that militants or other groups were diverting aid meant for civilians. “What we have seen since the ceasefire is a much freer and more direct flow of aid, and we have not seen any of the looting that we had seen prior to the ceasefire,” he told reporters.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Hamas of selling aid and preventing Palestinians from getting it.

Chaos erupted in the Israeli parliament on Monday when security guards scuffled with relatives of people killed or taken hostage in the Hamas attack that triggered the war in Gaza.

Relatives of people killed tried to enter the parliament hall as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared for a debate about a governmental inquiry into the events of October 2023. Security guards blocked them from entering the observation area. Some family members wailed in frustration and grief before the two sides began pushing and hitting one another outside the hall, including on a crowded stairwell.

“You are hitting bereaved parents!” one person screamed in footage of the episode released by the October Council, a group representing the families. “Our children were killed and murdered!” One family member fainted, according to Israeli media.

A spokesperson for Israel's parliament said too many people had attempted to enter the hall and they would examine the episode. The families were eventually allowed in.

The heated scene reflects the heightened emotions in Israel as Netanyahu’s government debates whether to resume the war against Hamas after a six-week ceasefire. It also came a day before a group of newly freed Israeli hostages are expected to press President Donald Trump at a White House meeting to continue the ceasefire and bring home all remaining hostages from Hamas captivity.

There was no immediate word on casualties. Israel has carried hundreds of airstrikes in different parts of the country since President Bashar Assad was overthrown by Islamist rebels in December, destroying much of the Syrian army’s assets.

The Israeli military said Thursday it struck a military site where weapons belonging to the previous government were stored in the area of Qardaha.

Al-Watan newspaper said an apparent Israeli airstrike struck a post near the highway linking Tartus with the coastal town of Baniyas.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said residents in the area received messages on the cellular telephones asking them to stay away from military posts. It added that shortly afterward an explosion was heard and smoke billowed from the area.

A man in his 60s was killed and four other people were wounded in a stabbing attack Monday in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, police said. Israeli authorities said the assailant was killed.

Police said they were treating the stabbing, which took place in a central transit hub, as a militant attack. A security guard and a civilian killed the attacker, who police said was an Arab citizen of Israel who had recently returned to Israel after some time abroad.

The attack took place as regional tensions are high surrounding the fate of the ceasefire in Gaza. The militant group Hamas praised the attack but stopped short of claiming responsibility for it.

A senior Hamas official said Monday the three-phase ceasefire deal is Israel’s sole way to get its hostages back from the militant group in Gaza.

Ossama Hamdan said that Israel “is pushing to return things to square one and overturn the agreement through the alternatives it is proposing.”

He said that implementation of the deal, including by engaging immediately in the second phase, is the sole way to return the hostages.

The first phase expired over the weekend. Israel said that a new U.S. proposal calls for extending the ceasefire through Ramadan — the Muslim holy month that began over the weekend — and the Jewish Passover holiday, which ends April 20.

Hamas accused Israel of trying to derail the second phase during which Hamas is set to release living hostages, while Israel ends the war and withdraws its forces from Gaza.

Mourners in Israel attended one of the last funerals for eight hostages whose bodies were returned from Gaza during the first phase of the ceasefire.

Crowds lined the long route of the funeral procession for Itzhak Elgarat, who was 68 when he was abducted by Hamas militants from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.

Israel has said that Elgarat was killed in captivity but the circumstances surrounding his death are not known. His brother, Danny Elgarat, told mourners at the funeral that in their last phone conversation, on Oct. 7, 2023, his brother had said to him, “Danny, this is the end.”

“Unfortunately you were right,” Danny Elgarat said in the eulogy for his brother. “We fought with all our might to prove you wrong. We failed. We didn’t do enough.”

A prominent and outspoken figure in the public struggle for the release of the hostages, Danny Elgarat also railed against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to bring back his brother alive.

“The enemy who caused your death was not the one who abducted you but the one who abandoned you,” he said. “You managed to survive the kidnapping, the kidnappers, and the injury for many months, and in the end, did not survive your own prime minister’s torpedoing (of the hostage deal) and abandonment.”

This post has been corrected to show that Elgarat's funeral is not the final hostage funeral this week.

Hospital officials in Gaza said Monday that two Palestinian men were killed in an Israeli strike. The Israeli military said the men posed a threat to troops, who opened fire.

Naser hospital in Khan Younis received the two bodies. The deaths come as the fate of the ceasefire that paused the war in Gaza is unclear.

The Israeli military also said Monday forces struck a “suspicious motorized boat” off the coast of Khan Younis which it said was violating security restrictions.

Arab foreign ministers are meeting in Cairo Monday for talks focusing on an Egyptian plan to rebuild the war-ravaged Gaza Strip that is meant to counter President Donald Trump’s proposal to transfer Palestinians out of the coastal enclave and take it over.

The ministers’ meeting comes ahead of an Arab summit Tuesday in Cairo which is meant to adopt the Egyptian plan, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said.

The Egyptian plan would not remove the population from Gaza. It designates three zones within Gaza to relocate Palestinians during an initial six-month period. The zones will be equipped with mobile houses and shelters, with humanitarian aid streaming in.

The proposal also includes the establishment of an interim Palestinian administration that is not aligned with either Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, to run the strip and oversee the reconstruction efforts until a revamped PA, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank, takes over.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to a freed Israeli hostage for taking so long to secure his release, his office said Monday.

According to a statement from Netanyahu’s office, the Israeli leader told Eli Sharabi, who was released last month as part of a ceasefire with Hamas: “I am sorry that it took us so long. We fought hard to get you out.” They spoke Sunday.

A gaunt looking Sharabi was released after 16 months in captivity to discover that his wife and two teenage daughters were killed in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack.

Sharabi, who has spoken of the tough conditions in captivity, is set to meet with President Donald Trump in Washington on Tuesday. Netanyahu said the meeting was important and Sharabi responded, according to the statement, that perhaps “with joint efforts, we will bring this whole saga to an end.”

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, right, meets with his Tunisian counterpart Mohamed Ali Nafti ahead of the Arab Summit at Tahrir Palace in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, March 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Mourners attend the funeral of Itzhak Elgarat, a slain hostage who was held captive by Hamas in Gaza, in Kibbutz Nir Oz, Israel, on Monday, March 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Danny Elgarat, kisses coffin of his brother, Itzhak Elgarat, a slain hostage who was held captive by Hamas in Gaza, during his funeral procession in Kibbutz Nir Oz, Israel, on Monday, March 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

A tent camp for displaced Palestinians is set up amid destroyed buildings in the west of Al-Shati camp, west of Gaza City, on Monday, March 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians shop at Sheikh Radwan Market, west of Gaza City, before the Iftar, the fast-breaking meal, during the holy month of Ramadan on Monday, March 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A tent camp for displaced Palestinians is set up amid destroyed buildings in the west of Al-Shati camp, west of Gaza City, on Monday, March 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians shop at Sheikh Radwan Market, west of Gaza City, before the Iftar, the fast-breaking meal, during the holy month of Ramadan on Monday, March 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Mourners carry the coffin of Itzhak Elgarat, a slain hostage who was held captive by Hamas in Gaza, during his funeral procession in Kibbutz Nir Oz, Israel, on Monday, March 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

A tent camp for displaced Palestinians is set up amid destroyed buildings in the west of Al-Shati camp, west of Gaza City, on Monday, March 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Members of ZAKA rescue services carry the body of a 70-year-old killed in stabbing attack in Haifa, Israel, on Monday, March 30, 2025. Four others were also injured in the incident. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Members of ZAKA rescue services carry the body of a 70-year-old killed in stabbing attack in Haifa, Israel, on Monday, March 30, 2025. Four others were also injured in the incident. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Members of ZAKA rescue services clean blood stains at the scene of a stabbing attack in Haifa, Israel, on Monday, March 30, 2025, where a 70-year-old man was killed and four others were injured. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israeli security forces secure the scene of a stabbing attack in Haifa, Israel, on Monday, March 30, 2025, where a 70-year-old man was killed and four others were injured. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israeli rescue and security forces examine the scene of a stabbing attack in Haifa, Israel, on Monday, March 30, 2025, where a 70-year-old man was killed and four others were injured. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israeli rescue and security forces examine the scene of a stabbing attack in Haifa, Israel, on Monday, March 30, 2025, where a 70-year-old man was killed and four others were injured. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israeli security forces secure the scene of a stabbing attack in Haifa, Israel, on Monday, March 30, 2025, where a 70-year-old man was killed and four others were injured. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israelis take part in a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, and the release of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Jerusalem, Sunday, March 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Israelis take part in a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, and the release of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Jerusalem,Sunday, March 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Israelis take part in a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, and the release of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Jerusalem,Sunday, March 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Jack Eichel and Mark Stone made clear they belong together, on a Vegas first line that can be one of the most potent in these NHL playoffs.

Eichel and Stone each had a goal and an assist and Adin Hill made 29 saves for the Golden Knights, who became the first Western Conference team to reach the second round with a 3-2 victory in Game 6 that ousted the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night.

“They gave us everything we could handle,” Eichel said. “They played so hard.”

Shea Theodore scored on a power play early in the first period, Eichel got his first goal of the series late in the second period and Stone had the critical late score for Vegas, which will face the winner of the Edmonton-Los Angeles series. The Oilers took a 3-2 lead on the Kings into Game 6 on their home ice later on Thursday.

The Wild have lost nine consecutive series, tied for the third-longest streak in NHL history, according to Sportradar. Their skid of eight straight one-and-done appearances is tied for the second-longest in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Wild, who last made it out of the first round 10 years ago, got two goals from Ryan Hartman, including a wraparound with 3:27 left that came 31 seconds after Stone had given the Golden Knights a two-goal lead.

Stone, who set up Eichel with a long pass out of the zone that was inches out of reach of the stick of Kirill Kaprizov after he dived to try to prevent the breakaway that beat goalie Filip Gustavsson, had four points in the last three games.

“Everyone stepped up at different parts of the series and found ways to contribute,” Eichel said. “That’s how you win this time of year.”

Neither Stone nor Eichel recorded a single point in the first three games, thanks in part to the bruising Wild who frequently took away the middle of the ice and most of the Golden Knights' opportunities to use their speed.

Coach Bruce Cassidy shuffled the lines for Game 4, which helped ignite more of an attack. The absence of Pavel Dorofeyev in Game 6 prompted Cassidy to reunite Eichel and Stone in the top trio alongside William Karlsson.

“They got better as the series went on,” Cassidy said.

Hartman tied the game for the Wild with 4 seconds left in the first period, a goal safe from replay review unlike his go-ahead score in Game 5 with 1:15 remaining in regulation that was revoked for an offside call after Vegas challenged.

The Golden Knights went on to win their second straight overtime decision, before finishing off the Wild with a third consecutive one-goal win.

“We hear the noise of getting by the first round. We understand it,” Wild left wing Marcus Foligno said. “We really felt like we could’ve done it this year, and that’s the disappointing part, right?”

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

Vegas Golden Knights right wing Mark Stone (61) skates with the puck while Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson defends the net during the second period of Game 6 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series Thursday, May 1, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Bailey Hillesheim)

Vegas Golden Knights center Jack Eichel (9) is congratulated by teammates after scoring during the second period of Game 6 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Minnesota Wild, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Bailey Hillesheim)

Vegas Golden Knights right wing Mark Stone (61) celebrates after scoring against Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson during the third period of Game 6 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series Thursday, May 1, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Bailey Hillesheim)

Minnesota Wild left wing Matt Boldy (12) and Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore (27) battle for the puck during the first period of Game 6 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series Thursday, May 1, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Bailey Hillesheim)

Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore (27) celebrates with teammates after scoring a power play goal during the first period of Game 6 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Minnesota Wild, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Bailey Hillesheim)

Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Adin Hill watches the play during the first period of Game 6 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Minnesota Wild, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Bailey Hillesheim)

Minnesota Wild left wing Matt Boldy (12) and Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore (27) battle for the puck during the first period of Game 6 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series Thursday, May 1, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Bailey Hillesheim)

Minnesota Wild right wing Ryan Hartman, right, celebrates with teammates after scoring during the first period of Game 6 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Vegas Golden Knights, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Bailey Hillesheim)