Middle East latest: Israeli strikes kill 25 people in Gaza as Supreme Court hears Shin Bet cases

Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip overnight and into Tuesday killed at least 25 people, including eight children and five women, according to Palestinian medics. Gaza’s Health Ministry says the bodies of 58 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can't fire the head of the country’s internal security agency — at least for the next 12 days. Netanyahu said he was “puzzled” by the high court’s decision and would continue to interview candidates to replace the head of Shin Bet.

Israel ended a ceasefire with Hamas in March, and has cut off all food, fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza — a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime — while issuing displacement orders that have forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee Israeli bombardments and ground operations.

Israel's war in Gaza, in its 18th month, has killed over 50,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Israel has vowed to escalate the war until Hamas returns dozens of remaining hostages, disarms and leaves the territory.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, and taking 251 others hostage. The group still holds 59 captives — 24 believed to be alive.

Here is the latest:

Israeli authorities ordered the six schools to close within 30 days, meaning some 800 Palestinian children in east Jerusalem likely won’t finish the academic year.

That’s according to Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations aid agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, which provides an array of educational and medical services in east Jerusalem and across the region.

Israel has banned UNRWA from operating on its territory since January, although it appears most services in the West Bank and east Jerusalem have continued. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies claim the agency is deeply infiltrated by Hamas. UNRWA rejects that claim.

Israeli police and municipal authorities did not immediately comment on Tuesday’s school closure orders.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA’s director for the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said Jerusalem municipal officials backed by police entered three of the schools on Tuesday, while a group of over 20 heavily armed border police entered schools in the Shuafat neighborhood.

It’s not the first time, he said. Forces entered three of the schools in Shuafat on March 5, with 30 heavily armed Border Police alongside education officials.

A Palestinian wedding hall in the Israeli-occupied West Bank was torched overnight, reportedly by Israeli civilians. No one was injured in the fire, which reduced some of the structures to charred remains.

On one building, vandals spraypainted the words “revenge” and “fight the enemy not the lover” in Hebrew, as well as a Star of David.

Israeli security agencies condemned the vandalism in the town of Biddya and opened an investigation Tuesday. Israeli settlers in the West Bank have been accused of a growing number of attacks on Palestinian villages in retaliation for attacks or perceived efforts to hamper settlement construction.

Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled that the head of the country’s internal security agency will stay in his position for at least the next 12 days, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempt to fire him last month.

The government and the attorney general have until April 20 to come to a “creative solution” regarding Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar's future, the justices said at the close of Tuesday's marathon hearing, which lasted more than 10 hours.

Netanyahu said he was “puzzled” by the high court’s decision and he would continue to interview candidates to replace Bar.

The stormy hearing, the latest showdown between Netanyahu and the judiciary, was eventually closed to the public after multiple protests interrupted proceedings — including by right-wing members of parliament.

Critics say the decision to fire Bar is tainted by a conflict of interest because the internal security agency is investigating ties between Netanyahu’s office and the Gulf Arab state of Qatar. Bar’s supporters say Netanyahu demanded loyalty from the head of an organization that is meant to be apolitical.

Since the war began, Netanyahu has fired or forced out a string of top officials, including the defense minister and the military’s chief of staff.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says under the Geneva Conventions, Israel has “unequivocal obligations” to ensure the delivery of food and medical supplies and to maintain hospitals for Gaza’s population.

He said the Fourth Geneva Convention also provides that if part or all of the population is inadequately supplied, “the occupying power shall agree to relief schemes … and shall facilitate them by all means at its disposal.”

“None of this is happening today,” Guterres told reporters Tuesday. “No humanitarian supplies can enter Gaza.”

For more than a month, Israel has blocked food, medicine and commercial supplies from entering the Gaza Strip. Israel insists that enough food to feed the more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza was delivered during the ceasefire, a claim U.N. agencies insist is far from reality.

“As aid has dried up, the floodgates of horror have reopened,” Guterres said. “Gaza is a killing field — and civilians are in an endless death loop.”

The U.N. chief again called for the immediate release of all hostages abducted during Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel, a permanent ceasefire and humanitarian access to all parts of Gaza.

Military intervention is the only way to halt Iran’s nuclear program, insisted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“You go in, blow up the facilities, dismantle all the equipment, under American supervision, American execution,” he said in a video statement Tuesday, citing the U.S.-led intervention in Libya. Otherwise, he said, Iran will drag out talks for years.

Netanyahu repeated his support for U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial plan to force Palestinians to leave Gaza for other countries. He also said Israel would keep working against Turkey’s attempts to establish military bases in Syria, and would turn to Trump, who has a good relationship with the Turkish president.

Netanyahu said he told Trump that reducing Israel's trade deficit with the U.S. to zero — per a request from Trump — was “the least we can do for the United States and its president who do so much for us.”

The U.S. had a $7.4 billion trade deficit in goods last year with Israel, according to the Census Bureau.

Iran ’s foreign minister said Tuesday he’ll meet with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff in Oman for the first negotiations under the Trump administration seeking to halt Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program as tensions remain high in the Middle East.

Speaking to Iranian state television from Algeria, Abbas Araghchi maintained the talks would be indirect, likely with Omani mediators shuttling between the parties. U.S. President Donald Trump, in announcing the negotiations on Monday, described them as direct talks.

There was no immediate acknowledgment from the U.S. that Witkoff would lead the American delegation.

Years of indirect talks under the Biden administration failed to reach any success, as Tehran now enriches uranium up to 60% purity — a technical step away from weapons-grade levels.

Both the U.S. and Israel have threatened Iran with military attack over the nuclear program, while officials in Tehran increasingly warn they could potentially pursue a nuclear bomb. Trump has imposed new sanctions on Iran as part of his “maximum pressure” campaign targeting the country.

Gaza's Health Ministry says the bodies of 58 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours.

Hospitals also received 213 wounded, the ministry said in its daily report Tuesday.

The overall Palestinian death toll in the war rose to at least 50,810 since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the ministry said. Another 115,688 people have been wounded, it said.

It said the dead include 1,499 who have been killed since Israel resumed the war last month, shattering a ceasefire that had taken hold in January.

The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says more than half of those killed have been women and children.

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian woman in the occupied West Bank who they said had thrown rocks at them and tried to stab them.

No Israeli soldiers were wounded in Tuesday’s shooting, which occurred at a traffic junction near an Israeli settlement.

The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the woman as Amana Yacoub, 30, from the nearby town of Salfit.

There has been a surge in violence in the West Bank since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Rights groups say Israeli forces often use lethal force when their lives are not in danger, while Israel says its troops have to make split-second decisions when operating in a dangerous environment.

A Palestinian photojournalist who was wounded in an Israeli strike on a media tent outside of a hospital has died.

Ahmed Mansour suffered severe burns in the strike early Monday, according to Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis.

The strike killed two other people, including another journalist, and wounded another five reporters.

The Israeli military said the target of the strike was a man it described as a Hamas militant posing as a journalist. He was among those who were wounded.

Israel’s Supreme Court is hearing a group of eight cases challenging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s move to dismiss the head of the country’s internal security agency.

The hearing sets the stage for what will be the latest showdown between Netanyahu and the judiciary. Any decision it makes is likely to deepen a rift in Israel over the power of the courts over elected lawmakers.

Critics say the decision to fire Ronen Bar is tainted by a conflict of interest because the internal security agency is investigating ties between Netanyahu’s office and the Gulf Arab state of Qatar. Bar’s supporters say Netanyahu demanded loyalty from the head of an organization that is meant to be apolitical.

Netanyahu says his decision came after a crisis of confidence in his domestic security chief surrounding Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and the ensuing war in Gaza.

Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip overnight and into Tuesday killed at least 25 people, including eight children and five women, according to Palestinian medics.

A strike on a home in the central town of Deir al-Balah killed 11 people, including five children as young as two, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies.

Another four people were killed in a separate strike that hit a house in Deir al-Balah, it said.

Another strike in the northern town of Beit Lahiya flattened a home and killed a family of seven, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

A separate strike hit a group of people in an open area northwest of Gaza City, killing four people, including one who was planning to get married next week, the ministry said.

Israel says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because it operates in densely populated areas.

An Israeli shopkeeper places a price tag for his watermelon at his fruit and vegetable stall in the Machane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem, Israel, Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Israeli soldiers arrest a blindfolded Palestinian during an army raid in Nablus, West Bank, on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Mustafa Salama walks through the ruins of a wedding hall torched in an apparent settler attack in the West Bank town of Biddya, Tuesday, April 8, 2025. Hebrew graffiti: "fight the enemy not the lover," left, and "revenge," right. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

President Donald Trump, center right, meets with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center left, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, from right, and Vice President JD Vance listen in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Monday, April 7, 2025. (Pool via AP)

Israeli forces work at the site where soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian woman who they said had thrown rocks at them and tried to stab them at the Gitai Avisar junction near the West Bank settlement of Ariel, Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Monday, April 7, 2025. (Pool via AP)

Palestinians collect their belongings from the rubble at the site hit by an Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians inspect the destruction of a house hit by an Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians carry a body from a building hit by an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians mourn their relatives who were killed by an Israeli airstrike, at the hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians inspect the destruction of a site hit by an Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Awatif Sabbah mourns her daughter, Jana,10, killed by an Israeli airstrike, at the hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

People take part in a protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government over plans to dismiss the Shin Bet internal security agency's chief, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

People take part in a protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government over plans to dismiss the Shin Bet internal security agency's chief, Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Palestinians wait to get donated food at a distribution center in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian drones battered the Ukrainian port city of Odesa and glide bombs hit Zaporizhzhia, local authorities said Tuesday, as the Kremlin again warned that negotiators are unlikely to obtain a swift breakthrough in peace talks on the war.

Ukrainian, British, French and U.S. officials are due to meet in London on Wednesday to discuss the war. Anticipation is building over whether diplomatic efforts can stop more than three years of fighting since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor. Hostility has run deep since Russia invaded and illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula in 2014.

U.S. President Donald Trump said last week that negotiations were “coming to a head” and insisted that neither side is “playing” him in his push to end the war. That came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested the U.S. might soon back away from negotiations if they don't progress.

Rubio has suggested that Wednesday's meeting could be decisive in determining whether the Trump administration continues its involvement.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov cautioned that “the settlement issue is so complex that it would be wrong to put some tight limits to it and try to set some short time frame for a settlement, a viable settlement — it would be a thankless task."

Western analysts say Moscow is in no rush to conclude peace talks because it has battlefield momentum and wants to capture more Ukrainian land.

Russia has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting by imposing far-reaching conditions.

Odesa came under a “massive attack” by Russian drones overnight, injuring at least three people, the head of the regional administration, Oleh Kiper, wrote on his Telegram page.

A residential building in a densely populated urban area, civilian infrastructure and an educational facility were hit, he said.

Later Tuesday, Russia hit the southern city of Zaporizhzhia with two massive aerial glide bombs — a retrofitted Soviet weapon that for months has used to lay waste to eastern Ukraine.

The attack killed a 69-year-old woman and injured 24 people, including four children, according to regional governor Ivan Fedorov.

Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said there are no plans for talks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s proposal to halt strikes on civilian facilities. He said Moscow is prepared to consider such a step but noted that reaching an agreement could take time.

“While talking about civilian infrastructure, it’s necessary to clearly define when such facilities can be a military target and when they can’t,” he said. “If a military meeting is held there, is it a civilian facility? It is. But is it a military target? Yes, it is. There are some nuances here that need to be discussed.”

The Ukrainian air force said Russia fired 54 Shahed and decoy drones at Ukraine overnight, marking a resumption of long-range attacks that have blasted civilian areas and sown terror.

Russia has stepped up its use of Shahed drones, expanding its production of the weapon and refining its tactics, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said in a recent analysis.

After Putin declared a unilateral ceasefire on Saturday, Ukraine said it was ready to reciprocate but said Russian attacks continued. Zelenskyy asserted that Russia violated the ceasefire more than 2,900 times.

The Associated Press was unable to verify whether a ceasefire was in place along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line.

Meanwhile, both Russia and Ukraine are preparing for the spring-summer military campaign, Ukrainian and Western officials say.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - People try to give first aid to an injured civilian at a residential building damaged by a Russian strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)

A car burns near a residential building damaged by a Russian strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)

A residential building damaged by a Russian strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)

A woman walks in front of a multi-storey building damaged by a Russian strike on a residential neighbourhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Paramedics carry an injured woman to an ambulance near a multi-storey building damaged by a Russian strike on residential neighbourhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

A police officer calms an injured dog near a multi-storey building damaged by a Russian strike on residential neighbourhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

A police officer comforts an injured woman near a multi-storey building damaged by a Russian strike on residential neighbourhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

A multi-storey building is seen damaged by a Russian strike on residential neighbourhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Police officers evacuate a woman from a multi-storey building damaged by a Russian strike on residential neighbourhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Rescue workers inspect a multi-storey building damaged by a Russian strike on residential neighbourhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

A man checks the dead body of his neighbor near a multi-story building damaged by a Russian strike on residential neighborhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Police officers calm an injured dog while a dead body lies near a multi-story building damaged by a Russian strike on a residential neighborhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

In this photo provided by Ukraine's 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade press service, Ukrainian servicemen attend an Easter service on their position in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (Mykola Oliinyk/Ukraine's 93rd Mechanized Brigade via AP)