Tel Aviv, Israel — Israeli protesters expressed concern for the hostages in Gaza on Saturday, after Qatar said it was pausing as a key mediator for a cease-fire that would help bring the captives home. Thousands of people rallied in Tel Aviv holding signs reading "400," the number of days since the hostages were taken when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Efforts to broker a truce in the ensuing war between Hamas and Israel have proven fruitless, and on Saturday Qatar put its mediation on hold until the two sides showed "willingness and seriousness" in talks. Protester Ruti Lior said she was unsure how much sway Qatar had, but was still "very, very worried" by their decision to pull back from negotiations. "This is further proof for me that there really is no seriousness, and these deals are being sabotaged," the 62-year-old psychotherapist told AFP. Saturday's rally featured an installation of masks representing Netanyahu along with signs bearing the word "Guilty." Other placards read "Hostage deal now" and "Drop your weapon, stop the war." "How many more tears must fall and how much more blood must be shed before someone does what needs to be done and brings our children home?" Niva Wenkert, mother of hostage Omer Wenkert, was quoted as saying in a statement released by campaign group Hostage and Missing Families Forum. In the October 7, 2023, attack, Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and captured about 250 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza. Israel says it believes Hamas is still holding 101 hostages, including 35 the military says are dead. Hamas has been designated a terror group by the United States, the U.K. and other Western countries. Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people, according to the territory's health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. Israelis have been protesting weekly to pressure their government to do more to secure the captives' release. Qatar, which has hosted Hamas's political leadership since 2012 with U.S. blessing, has been involved in months of protracted diplomacy aimed at ending the war in Gaza. But the talks, also mediated by Cairo and Washington, have repeatedly hit snags since a one-week truce in November 2023 -- the only one so far -- with both sides trading blame for the impasse. 

JERUSALEM — With virtually no food allowed into the northernmost part of Gaza for the past month, tens of thousands of Palestinians under Israeli siege are rationing their last lentils and flour to survive. As bombardment pounds around them, some say they risk their lives to search for cans of food in the rubble of destroyed homes. Thousands have staggered out of the area, hungry and thin, into Gaza City, where they find the situation little better. "We are being starved to force us to leave our homes," said Mohammed Arqouq, whose family of eight is determined to stay in the north, weathering Israel's siege. "We will die here in our homes." Medical workers warn that hunger is spiraling to dire proportions under a monthlong siege on north Gaza by the Israeli military, which has been waging a fierce campaign since the beginning of October, saying it's rooting out militants. Hamas militants, who are still holding hostages inside Gaza, have regrouped in the area and have been carrying out hit-and-run attacks from tunnels and bombed-out buildings. The military has severed the area with checkpoints, ordering residents to leave. Many Palestinians fear Israel aims to depopulate the north long-term. On Friday, experts from a panel that monitors food security said famine is imminent in the north or may already be happening. The growing desperation comes as the deadline approaches next week for a 30-day ultimatum the Biden administration gave Israel: raise the level of humanitarian assistance allowed into Gaza or risk possible restrictions on U.S. military funding. The U.S. says Israel must allow a minimum of 350 trucks a day carrying food and other supplies. Israel has fallen far short. In October, 57 trucks a day entered Gaza on average, according to figures from Israel's military agency overseeing aid entry, known as COGAT. In the first week of November, the average was 81 a day. The U.N. puts the number even lower — 37 trucks daily since the beginning of October. It says Israeli military operations and general lawlessness often prevent it from collecting supplies, leaving hundreds of truckloads stranded at the border. U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Israel had made some progress by announcing the opening of a new crossing into central Gaza and approving new delivery routes. But he said Israel must do more. "It's not just sufficient to open new roads if more humanitarian assistance isn't going through those roads," he said. A trickle of food has reached Gaza City, but as of Thursday, nothing entered the towns farther north for 30 days, even as an estimated 70,000 people remain there, said Louise Wateridge, spokesperson for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, speaking from Gaza City. The Israeli government acknowledged in late October that it hadn't allowed aid into Jabaliya because of military "operational constraints" in response to a petition by Israeli human rights groups. On Saturday, COGAT said it allowed 11 trucks of food and supplies into Beit Hanoun and Jabaliya. But Alia Zaki, a spokesperson for the U.N.’s World Food Program, said Israeli troops at a checkpoint forced the convoy to unload the food before it could reach shelters in Beit Hanoun. It was not clear what then happened to the supplies. Palestinians in the north described to The Associated Press a desperate daily struggle to find food, water and safety, as strikes level buildings, sometimes killing entire families. Arqouq said he goes out at night to search bombed-out buildings: "Sometimes you find a half-empty package of flour, canned food and lentils." His family relies on help from others sheltering at a Jabaliya school, he said, but their food, too, is running low. "We are like dogs and cats searching for their food in the rubble," said Um Saber, a widow. She said she and her six children had to flee a school-turned-shelter in Beit Lahiya when Israel struck it. Now they live in her father-in-law's home, stretching meager supplies of lentils and pasta with 40 others, mostly women and children. Ahmed Abu Awda, a 28-year-old father of three living with 25 relatives in a Jabaliya house, said they have a daily meal of lentils with bread, rationing to ensure children eat. "Sometimes we don't eat at all," he said. Dr. Rana Soboh, a nutrition specialist at Gaza City's Patient Friend Benevolent Hospital, said she sees about 350 cases of moderate to severe acute malnutrition daily, most from the north but also Gaza City. "The bone of their chest is showing, the eyes are protruding," she said, and many have trouble concentrating. "You repeat something a number of times, so they can understand what we are saying." She cited a 32-year-old woman shedding weight in her third month of pregnancy — when they put her on the scale, she weighed only 40 kilograms. "We are suffering, facing the ghost of famine that is hovering over Gaza," Soboh said. Even before the siege in the north, the Patient Friend hospital saw a flood of children suffering from malnutrition — more than 4,780 in September compared with 1,100 in July, said Dr Ahmad Eskiek, who oversees hospital operations. Soboh said staff get calls from Beit Lahiya and Jabaliya pleading for help: "What can we do? We have nothing." 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi will visit Iran next Wednesday and start consultations with Iranian officials the following day, state media reported on Sunday. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Wednesday he might head to Iran in the coming days to discuss its disputed nuclear program and that he expected to work cooperatively with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Long-standing issues between Iran, the IAEA, and Western powers include Tehran barring uranium-enrichment experts from IAEA inspection teams in the country and its failure for years to explain uranium traces found at undeclared sites. Iran has also stepped up nuclear activity since 2019, after then-President Trump abandoned a 2015 deal Iran reached with world powers under which it curbed enrichment -- seen by the West as a disguised effort to develop nuclear weapons capability -- and restored tough U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Tehran is now enriching uranium to up to 60% fissile purity, close to the roughly 90% required for an atom bomb. It has enough higher-enriched uranium to produce about four nuclear bombs, if refined further, according to an IAEA yardstick. Iran has long denied any nuclear bomb ambitions, saying it is enriching uranium for civilian energy uses only. 

Tehran, Iran — A militant attack near the Pakistani border with Iran left five Iranian forces dead, the state-run IRNA news agency reported Sunday. The report said the dead were ethnic Baluch members of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard's volunteer Basij force and were killed in Saravan city in Sistan and Baluchistan province. Saravan is some 1,400 km (870 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Earlier in the day, state TV reported that Revolutionary Guard forces killed three terrorists and arrested nine others in a military operation. The report did not specify which group the suspects belonged to. Last month, unknown gunmen killed four people, including the chief of the Revolutionary Guard in the province. In September, gunmen killed four border guards in Sistan and Baluchistan province in two separate attacks. The militant group Jaish al-Adl, which seeks greater rights for the ethnic Baluch minority, claimed responsibility for one attack in which one officer and two soldiers were killed. The province, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, has been the site of occasional deadly clashes involving militant groups, armed drug smugglers and Iranian security forces. It is one of the least developed parts of Iran. Relations between the predominantly Sunni Muslim residents of the region and Iran's Shiite theocracy have long been strained.

Jerusalem/Beirut — Israel said on Monday there was progress in talks about a Lebanon cease-fire and indicated Russia could play a part by stopping Hezbollah rearming via Syria, although the Iran-backed group said it had not received any new truce proposals. Pummeled by Israel's offensive, Hezbollah said diplomatic contacts were under way involving its backers in Tehran, Washington and Moscow, whilst reiterating its readiness to fight on, saying it had enough weapons for a "long war." In Jerusalem, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the war against Hezbollah was not yet over. The main challenge facing any cease-fire deal would be enforcement, he said, though there was "a certain progress" in talks. After previous rounds of fruitless U.S.-led diplomacy to secure a Lebanon truce, the comments indicate renewed focus on the issue as President Joe Biden prepares to leave office in January, with President-elect Donald Trump set to replace him. Hopes of a Gaza truce have meanwhile suffered a setback, with Qatar suspending its mediation role. Ignited by the war in Gaza, the conflict at the Lebanese-Israeli border had been rumbling on for a year before Israel went on the offensive in late September, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with airstrikes and sending troops into the south. Saar, addressing a Jerusalem news conference, said Israel was working with the United States on a cease-fire. Israel wants Hezbollah north of the Litani river – some 30 km from the border - and unable to rearm, he said. Saar said a basic principle for any agreement had to be that Hezbollah would not be able to bring weapons into Lebanon from Syria. "It is vital to the success of any arrangement in Lebanon," he said. "And the Russians are, as you know, present in Syria. And if they are in agreement with this principle, I think they can contribute effectively to this objective." Russia deployed forces into Syria nearly a decade ago to support President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war there. Hezbollah also sent fighters to help Assad, and carved out big sway on the ground alongside other Iran-backed groups. Syria is widely seen as a major conduit for Iran to supply weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Israel has struck targets in Syria regularly during the conflict. An Israeli airstrike temporarily cut Syria's main Homs-Damascus highway on Monday, Syrian media reported. In Lebanon, relatives held funerals for 20 people killed in a strike on the southern town of Deir Qanoun-Ras al-Ain, including seven medics from rescue groups affiliated with Hezbollah and its Shiite ally Amal. 'Testing the waters' In Beirut, Hezbollah official Mohammad Afif linked intensified political contacts to the looming change of U.S. leadership. "There is a great movement between Washington and Moscow and Tehran and a number of capitals," he said. "We hear a lot of talk, but so far, according to my information, nothing official has reached Lebanon or us in this regard," he told a news conference. The contacts were "in the phase of testing the waters and presenting initial ideas." Israel Hayom reported on Sunday that substantial progress has been made in diplomatic negotiations over a proposed Lebanon cease-fire that would require Hezbollah to withdraw north of the Litani River, barring its military presence near the Israeli border, while the IDF would return to the international border. Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's best-selling newspaper, reported on Monday that Israel and Lebanon have exchanged drafts through U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, signaling progress in efforts to reach a final agreement. The Lebanese government, which includes Hezbollah, has repeatedly called for a cease-fire based on the full implementation of a U.N. resolution that ended a war between the group and Israel in 2006. The resolution calls for the area south of the Litani river to be free of all weapons other than those of the Lebanese state. Lebanon and Israel have accused each other of violating the resolution. Israel says its campaign aims to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people forced to evacuate the north due to rockets fired by Hezbollah, which opened fire on Oct. 8, 2003, in solidarity with Hamas. Israel's offensive has forced more than 1 million people to flee their homes in Lebanon in the last seven weeks. Since the eruption of hostilities a year ago, Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,189 people in Lebanon, the majority of them since late September, according to health ministry figures, which do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Hezbollah attacks have killed roughly 100 civilians and soldiers in northern Israel, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and southern Lebanon over the last year.

BAKU, Azerbaijan — The head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog said Tuesday he's hopeful that meetings this week with Iranian officials, including the country's new president, can lead to a breakthrough in monitoring the country's nuclear program, a longstanding issue that has gained new urgency as Israel has twice struck Iran amid rising tensions in the Middle East. Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, will travel to Iran on Wednesday to meet for the first time with President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was elected in July. Grossi said he hopes to build on positive discussions he had with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during the U.N. General Assembly in September. "We have a problem that we need to solve," Grossi said in an interview at the U.N. climate conference in Azerbaijan. "That is this gap, this lack of confidence, which we should not allow to grow into a self-fulfilling prophecy of using nuclear facilities as targets." He added: "There has been a bit of a dire straits dynamic with Iran that we want to go beyond." Iran is rapidly advancing its atomic program while increasing stockpiles of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels, all in defiance of international demands, according to the IAEA. Iran says its program is for energy purposes, not to build weapons. Grossi's visit comes as Israel and Iran have traded missile attacks in recent months after more than a year of war in Gaza, which is governed by Hamas, a group supported by Iran. Grossi noted that international law prohibits the attack of nuclear facilities and "it's obvious that is something that can have radiological consequences." The Biden administration said last month that it had won assurances from Israel that it would not attack nuclear or oil sites. A 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers put limits on Iran's nuclear program, which the West fears could be used to make nuclear weapons. The deal included the lifting of economic sanctions on Iran. But that deal collapsed after Donald Trump's administration in 2018 pulled the United States from it. That led Iran to abandon all limits put on its program and enrich uranium to up to 60% purity. When asked if the IAEA feared Iran may be developing a bomb, Grossi said he didn't "have any information that would sustain that." He added that inspectors' job was not to "judge intentions," but rather verify that what Iran says about its nuclear program was true. Trump's reelection last week raises questions about whether and how the incoming administration and Iran may engage. Grossi said he had worked with the first Trump administration, which he said engaged in "seamless, professional work," and looked forward to looking with Trump's second administration. "Circumstances have changed in that the problem has grown bigger than it was," said Grossi. "The problem of not finding a solution."

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