Middle East latest: Israel prepares to move deeper into Gaza and orders Rafah evacuated

The Israeli military indicated on Monday it could soon launch another major offensive in Rafah and ordered most of the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip evacuated.

Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas and renewed its air and ground war earlier this month. At the beginning of March it cut off all supplies of food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid to the territory’s roughly 2 million Palestinians to pressure Hamas to accept changes to the truce agreement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has nominated a new domestic security chief, after he moved to fire the current one over a crisis of confidence that critics say was politically motivated.

Here's the latest:

At least 140,000 people were affected by the Israeli evacuation order for Rafah on Monday, according to Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees.

“People are treated like pinballs with constant military orders playing with their fate and lives,” Lazzarini wrote on the social platform X.

“This is causing panic, anxiety & uncertainty on the first day of Eid, a time to be with family & loved ones,” he added. Eid al-Fitr is normally a festive Muslim holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

People fled Gaza’s southernmost city on Monday with their belongings loaded onto donkeys and stacked on car roofs. Families traveled by foot carrying luggage as children held adults’ hands.

“We are dying. There is no food, no drink, no electricity, no medicine,” said Hanadi Dahoud, who was displaced from the southern city of Khan Younis. “We want to live. We just want to live. We are tired.”

Israel's sweeping evacuation orders cover Rafah and nearby areas. Palestinians are being told to head to Muwasi, a sprawl of squalid tent camps along the coast.

U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher made the demands, saying, “They were killed by Israeli forces while trying to save lives.”

Jonathan Whittall, the U.N. aid coordination agency’s top official for Gaza, said the clearly identified humanitarian workers from the Palestine Red Crescent Society, Palestine Civil Defense and the U.N. had been sent to collect injured people on March 23 in the Rafah area of southern Gaza when they came under fire from advancing Israeli forces.

Fifteen emergency responders were killed including eight Red Crescent staff members. Israel’s military has said its forces opened fire on several vehicles that raised suspicions by advancing without headlights or emergency signals. The military said a Hamas operative and eight other militants were among those killed.

The Israeli military only granted access to the area five days later, and Whittall said the buried bodies were recovered on Sunday.

“They were killed in their uniforms, driving their clearly marked vehicles, wearing their gloves, on their way to save lives,” he said. “This never should have happened.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was summoned by police Monday to give testimony in an investigation into ties between his office and the Gulf Arab state of Qatar.

Police confirmed the summons but declined to comment further, citing a gag order on the case. Israeli media said Netanyahu testified for approximately an hour and said he was not currently a suspect in the case.

Earlier Monday, police said they arrested two suspects in connection with the investigation. One of the suspects was later identified by Netanyahu’s Likud party as Jonatan Urich, a top aide to the Israeli leader.

The investigation is looking into accusations that Qatar, which is a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, hired people in Netanyahu’s orbit to manage public relations campaigns.

Dozens of people gathered Monday as the bodies of eight Palestinian Red Crescent Society paramedics killed by Israel arrived at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza. Grieving family members and mourners bid them a final farewell, many overcome with tears.

Saleh Muammar’s mother Asmahan said she waited for days to hear from her son, and was later told he was either killed or wounded. The first responders' bodies were pulled from beneath a mound of sand on Sunday after they'd been missing for over a week.

“The fact is that they (Israel) killed them from the very first moment,” she told The Associated Press, adding that she believes the Israeli military buried the bodies to “cover their awful actions so that no one knows what the Israelis are doing.”

Israel has said its forces opened fire on several vehicles that raised suspicions by advancing without headlights or emergency signals. The military said a Hamas operative and eight other militants were among those killed.

Funeral prayers for the eight paramedics were held outside the hospital, their corpses wrapped in white body bags with their pictures on them, before they were loaded to ambulances to be taken for a dignified burial.

Raed al-Nems, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent, said the paramedics were “killed in cold blood” despite wearing uniforms and operating in clearly labeled ambulances.

Lebanese security officials said they have arrested two Lebanese and one Syrian in connection with rocket attacks from southern Lebanon into Israel.

At least eight rockets were launched into Israel on March 22 and 28. The militant group Hezbollah denied involvement, and no group claimed responsibility. In response, Israel carried out strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon, as well as in Beirut’s southern suburbs. They were first strikes there since ae ceasefire took effect between Israel and Hezbollah in late November.

The security officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

— By Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party has slammed the arrest of a top aide to the Israeli leader, saying it is part of a civil servant-driven effort to topple Netanyahu’s rule.

The Likud named the adviser arrested as Jonatan Urich, a longtime aide to Netanyahu. It said in a statement that his arrest was “a new low in the political witch hunt” against the Israeli leader.

Police said earlier Monday it had arrested two suspects in connection with an investigation looking into ties between the Gulf state of Qatar and people in Netanyahu’s close orbit.

Israeli police say they have arrested two suspects in connection with an investigation into ties between the Gulf Arab state of Qatar and the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The case is under a sweeping gag order and police did not name the suspects in their announcement on Monday.

The investigation is looking into accusations that Qatar, which is a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, hired people in Netanyahu’s orbit to manage public relations campaigns.

The alleged Qatar links are also being investigated by the country’s internal security agency.

Netanyahu moved to dismiss the agency’s head earlier this month, saying he had lost confidence in the official in part because of the security failures leading up to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack.

Critics accuse Netanyahu of trying to derail the Qatar probe and undermine state institutions that check his authority.

The Israeli military on Monday issued sweeping evacuation orders covering most of the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.

Israel ended a ceasefire and renewed its air and ground war against the Hamas militant group earlier this month.

Israel launched a major operation in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, last May, leaving large parts of it in ruins.

Israeli forces seized a strategic buffer zone along the border and did not withdraw from it as called for in the ceasefire agreement. Israel said it needed to maintain a presence there to prevent weapons smuggling.

A former Israeli hostage who learned upon his release that his wife and two young children were killed in captivity in Gaza called on U.S. President Donald Trump to bring an end to the war in Gaza.

In his first media interview since being freed in a ceasefire last month, Yarden Bibas told CBS’ 60 Minutes on Sunday that Trump was “the only one” who can convince Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas to halt the renewed fighting.

He said as a hostage, as he was held in Hamas’ underground tunnels, Israeli strikes were terrifying. “You’re afraid for your life,” he said. “Everything could collapse at any moment.” He said his captors, who had taunted him over his family’s fate, told him “you’ll get a new wife. New kids. Better wife. Better kids.”

“Please stop the war and help bring all the hostages back,” Bibas called on Trump.

The United Nations has released footage from the operation to recover 15 first responders killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.

The footage released Sunday showed members of the Civil Defense, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, exhuming a body from a mound of sand. The body was wearing the same orange vest as the rescuers.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies called it the deadliest attack on its workers since 2017.

Israel said its forces opened fire on several vehicles that raised suspicions by advancing without headlights or emergency signals. The military said a Hamas operative and eight other militants were among those killed.

The United Nations humanitarian office said eight Red Crescent workers, six members of the Civil Defense and a U.N. worker were killed.

The shooting occurred when Israeli forces launched a surprise ground incursion into the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah on March 23.

Palestinian girls dressed for Eid al-Fitr celebrations walk next to destructions in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Displaced Palestinians carry water next to destructions in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Mourners react during the funeral of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech during the International Conference on Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem, Israel, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Palestinian girls dressed for Eid al-Fitr celebrations walk next to destructions in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Displaced Palestinians, who flee from Rafah, arrive in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Monday, March 31, 2025, after the Israeli military issued sweeping evacuation orders covering most of Rafah. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners follow the convoy carrying the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Hassan Abu Sultan mourns over the body of her son Jehad, who, along with his wife and three children, was killed when an Israeli army strike hit their tent, as heir bodies lie on the floor at a hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, awaiting burial on the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners walk by the bodies of the Abu Sultan family, killed when an Israeli army strike hit their tent before their burial at the hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

In this image made from a video released by the Israeli Government Press Office, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a statement Tuesday, March 18, 2025, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Israeli Government Press Office via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio travels this week to a gathering of top diplomats from NATO countries and is sure to find allies that are alarmed, angered and confused by the Trump administration’s desire to reestablish ties with Russia and its escalating rhetorical attacks on longtime transatlantic partners.

Allies are deeply concerned by President Donald Trump’s readiness to draw closer to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who sees NATO as a threat, amid a U.S. effort to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine. Recent White House comments and insults directed at NATO allies Canada and Denmark — as well as the military alliance itself — have only increased the angst, especially as new U.S. tariffs are taking effect against friends and foes alike.

Rubio arrives in Brussels on Thursday for two days of meetings with his NATO counterparts and European officials, and he can expect to be confronted with questions about the future U.S. role in the alliance. With him on the trip will be newly confirmed U.S. ambassador to NATO Matt Whitaker.

For 75 years, NATO has been anchored on American leadership, and based on what they have seen and heard since Trump took office in January, European officials have expressed deep concerns that Trump may upend all of that when he and other NATO leaders meet for a June summit in the Netherlands.

As Rubio did last month at a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of 7 industrialized democracies, America's top diplomat, who is regarded by many overseas as a more pragmatic and less dogmatic member of Trump's administration, may be able to salvage a watered-down group consensus on the war in Ukraine.

That's even as Trump said this week that Ukraine “was never going to be a member of NATO” despite leaders declaring at last year's summit that the country was on an “irreversible” path to join.

But Rubio will be hard-pressed to explain Washington’s unprovoked verbal attacks on NATO allies Canada, which Trump says he wants to claim as the 51st state, and Denmark, whose territory of Greenland he says the U.S. should annex. Both have been accused of being “bad allies” by Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

“It’s pretty clear neither territory has any interest in joining a Trumpian America,” said Ian Kelly, U.S. ambassador to Georgia during the Obama and first Trump administrations and now an international studies professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

“There’s going to be a lot of very anxious Euros about what Trump is going to call for and what announcements he’s going to make,” he said. “If he isn't already, Rubio is going to be in a mode of trying to reassure European allies that we are not, in fact, not dependable.”

Yet, in just under two months, NATO has been shaken to its core, challenged increasingly by Russia and the biggest land war in Europe since 1945 from the outside, and by the Trump administration from within, breaking with decades of relatively predictable U.S. leadership.

Trump has consistently complained about NATO members' defense spending and even raised doubts about the U.S. commitment to mutual defense in the alliance's founding treaty, which says an attack on one NATO member is considered an attack on all.

Since Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned last month that U.S. security priorities lie elsewhere — in Asia and on its own borders — the Europeans have waited to learn how big a military drawdown in Europe could be and how fast it may happen.

In Europe and Canada, governments are working on “burden shifting” plans to take over more of the load, while trying to ensure that no security vacuum is created if U.S. troops and equipment are withdrawn from the continent.

These allies are keen to hear from Rubio what the Trump administration’s intentions are and hope to secure some kind of roadmap that lays out what will happen next and when, so they can synchronize planning and use European forces to plug any gaps.

At the same time, NATO’s deterrent effect against an adversary like Russia is only credible when backed by U.S. firepower. For the Europeans and Canada, this means that U.S. nuclear weapons and the 6th Fleet must remain stationed in Europe.

“America is indispensable for credible deterrence," a senior NATO diplomat told reporters on condition of anonymity to speak ahead of the meeting.

Around 100,000 U.S. troops are deployed across the continent. European allies believe at least 20,000 personnel sent by the Biden administration after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago could be withdrawn.

Another priority for U.S. allies is to understand whether Trump believes that Russia still poses the greatest security threat. In their summit statement last year, NATO leaders insisted that “Russia remains the most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security.”

But Trump’s receptiveness to Putin and recent favorable remarks by some U.S. officials have raised doubts. The question, diplomats say, is why allies should spend 5% of their gross domestic product on their defense budgets if Russia is no longer a threat.

At the same time, the Europeans and Canada know they must spend more — not least to protect themselves and keep arming Ukraine. At their next summit in June, NATO leaders are expected to raise the alliance’s military budget goal from at least 2% to more than 3%.

Rubio “is in a very difficult position,” said Jeff Rathke, president of the American-German Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Trump “has tried to convince allies that a U.S. realignment with Russia is in the best interests of the U.S. and presumably Europe, and at the same time tell them that they need to double their defense spending to deal with threats posed by Russia," he said. "The logical question they will ask is ‘why?'”

Cook reported from Brussels.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, walks out with Bahraini Foreign Minister Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani, Wednesday, April 2, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., second from right, arrive before President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce new tariffs in the Rose Garden of the White House, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaks during the International Women of Courage award ceremony, Tuesday April 1, 2025, at the State Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)