Israel-Hamas war latest: Palestinian death toll surpasses 40,000 as mediators hold cease-fire talks

International mediators were set to hold a new round of talks Thursday aimed at halting the Israel-Hamas war and securing the release of scores of hostages, with a potential deal seen as the best hope of heading off an even larger regional conflict.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt were to meet with an Israeli delegation in Qatar as the Palestinian death toll from the 10-month-old war surpassed 40,000. A Palestinian official said Hamas would not take part in Thursday’s talks but that its senior officials, who reside in Qatar, were ready to discuss any proposals from the mediators, as they have in past rounds.

A cease-fire in Gaza would likely calm tensions across the region and may persuade Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah to refrain from retaliatory strikes on Israel after the killing of a top Hezbollah commander in an Israeli airstrike and of Hamas’ top political leader in an explosion in Iran’s capital.

The mediators have spent months trying to hammer out a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release scores of hostages captured in the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war in exchange for a lasting cease-fire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

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Here’s the latest:

Palestinians in Gaza hope the latest talks will end the Hamas-Israel war

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip —Palestinians in the Gaza Strip say they hope the latest round of cease-fire talks hosted by Qatar will bring an end to the devastating Israel-Hamas war.

“Oh Lord, we hope they reach an agreement and the war ends, because the population has been annihilated completely,” Abu Nidal Eweini told The Associated Press in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah. “People have no breath left in them anymore. People are tired.”

Riyad Hasan, who was displaced from Gaza City, said people want to return to their homes. The vast majority of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people have been displaced, often multiple times, and hundreds of thousands are living in squalid tent camps.

“We are people who want to live,” he said. “Let them accept the deal and end this. Find a solution for us.”

Amna Abu Hajaier, who is living in a tent, said one of her sons was killed and another is missing.

“We have suffered a lot,” she said. “We hope that someone will stand with us and support us and care for us a bit. The Palestinian people have been destroyed.”

Iranian military adviser in Revolutionary Guard dies from injuries sustained in airstrike in Syria

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian military adviser Colonel Ahmadreza Afshari, a member of the country’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, has died from injuries sustained in an airstrike in Syria, the state-run IRNA news agency reported on its Telegram channel.

He died on Thursday after being wounded days earlier in the coalition strike and transferred to Iran for medical treatment, it said.

Iran occasionally reports on its fallen military personnel in Syria, though officials say Iranian forces only have an advisory role there.

Iran has been the No. 1 regional supporter of Assad in that nation’s lengthy civil war. Hundreds of Iranian forces have been killed in the war.

Palestinian death toll tops 40,000 in Israel-Hamas war, says Health Ministry in Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The Health Ministry in Gaza says more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war.

Thursday’s announcement comes during new efforts to broker a cease-fire to the conflict, now in its 11th month. The count does not distinguish between civilians and militants.

It reflects the magnitude of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history. The war began Oct. 7 after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and dragging roughly 250 hostages to Gaza.

The United Nations’ human rights chief said the latest number of dead in Gaza “marks a grim milestone for the world.”

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement issued in Geneva that “this unimaginable situation is overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the Israeli Defense Forces to comply with the rules of war.”

Türk added that “the scale of the Israeli military’s destruction of homes, hospitals, schools and places of worship is deeply shocking.”

He said that his office has documented serious violations of international humanitarian law both by the Israeli military and Palestinian armed groups, including the armed wing of Hamas.

11 children with cancer evacuated from Gaza for medical treatment, WHO says

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza — The World Health Organization says 11 children with cancer have been evacuated from the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Israel has mostly sealed off the territory since launching an operation in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, in May. Israel controls all transfer points into and out of Gaza and has only allowed a small number of patients to leave for treatment.

Nermine Abu Shaaban, the patient evacuation coordinator for the WHO, says the children were transferred through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Israel and were headed to neighboring Jordan for treatment. Seven of the children were transferred by ambulance and the remainder on a bus. The evacuation was organized by the WHO and two U.S. charities.

One of the children being transferred, 2-year-old Mecca Zorab, has already undergone three surgeries in war-ravaged Gaza since a tumor was found in her head three months ago. Her mother, Fatima, could be seen holding and kissing her tiny hand as she lay on a stretcher in an ambulance with a breathing tube.

With another infant child to care for, Fatima is unable to accompany her daughter. She said the child’s grandmother will go with her instead.

Israel allows each patient to be accompanied by a female escort vetted by security services, who can bring a small bag of clothes, one mobile phone and a charger.

The war between Israel and Hamas, now in its 11th month, has decimated Gaza’s health system.

Most hospitals have shut down after running out of fuel or supplies, or following raids by Israeli forces. Israel accuses Hamas and other militants of sheltering in hospitals, allegations denied by hospital staff.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says some 28,000 patients require medical treatment outside Gaza.

Five-year-old Careeman al-Farra, who was also included in Thursday’s evacuation, was diagnosed with blood cancer as a baby and previously received treatment outside Gaza. Her mother said the cancer returned shortly before the war.

“There was no clean place for her to stay or be well fed to help with her medical condition,” Zaher al-Farra said. “We tried to provide those things, but it was hard because we were displaced from one place to the other.”

Israeli forces kill 2 Palestinians in West Bank, says the Health Ministry in the occupied territory

RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Health Ministry in the West Bank said Thursday that Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the occupied territory, the latest deaths in surging violence there.

The Israeli military said aircraft killed two gunmen who were identified as a threat to troops operating in the city of Nablus. It said it also returned fire when troops were shot at.

The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the men killed as Wael Misha, 18, and Ahmed Khalil, 20. There was no immediate claim from militant groups over whether the men had any affiliation.

The West Bank has seen surging violence since the war in Gaza erupted last year.

More than 600 Palestinians have been killed since then, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, most in clashes with the Israeli military or people throwing stones. Others not involved in the confrontations have also been killed.

Australian opposition leader called ‘racist’ in heated exchange in Parliament

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Australia’s opposition leader was called “racist” by an independent lawmaker in a heated scene in Parliament on Thursday after the leader repeated a call for the country to stop the arrival of refugees from Gaza.

Peter Dutton, the opposition leader, said those fleeing the conflict between Israel and Hamas were a “national security risk” and that Australia had inadequate screening measures for those arriving in the country as refugees.

Australia has issued almost 3,000 visitor visas to people fleeing Gaza or the West Bank since Oct. 7, 2023, while denying applications for just over 7,000 others, according to figures the government released in response to Dutton’s remarks initially made on Wednesday — and then repeated on Thursday.

“These are families that you are seeking to paint — that somehow they are all terrorists, that they should all be mistrusted and not worthy of humanitarian aid,” lawmaker Zali Steggall told Dutton in Parliament on Thursday.

As Dutton interjected, Steggall told him to “stop being racist.”

Steggall withdrew the rebuke after the opposition leader said it was “offensive and unparliamentary.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also criticized Dutton in Parliament on Thursday, saying: “He sows fear and he sows division. That is what he does, that’s what he has done his entire political career and that’s what he continues to do.”

Albanese said the government would not divulge all of its national security screening practices.