The Latest | Israeli strikes kill 11 overnight in Gaza, including a family of 3 at a refugee camp

Palestinian health officials in the Gaza Strip said Israeli strikes killed at least 11 people overnight Tuesday, including a family of three in the Bureij refugee camp and eight police officers.

In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said it killed two Palestinian militants who were trying to launch a shooting attack on Israeli communities.

A ceasefire proposal announced by US President Joe Biden has placed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a crossroads. The proposal offers the chance to end Israel’s war against Hamas, return dozens of hostages held by the militant group, calm the northern border with Lebanon and potentially advance a historic deal to normalize ties with Saudi Arabia.

Israeli bombing and ground operations in Gaza have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to the Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Israel’s expanding offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah has cut the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians facing widespread hunger.

Israel launched war in Gaza after Hamas attack on October 7, in which militants swept into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 250. Israel’s military on Monday confirmed the deaths of four more hostages held by Hamas. Around 80 hostages captured on October 7 are believed to still be alive in Gaza, along with the remains of 43 others.

At the moment:

— The United States urges the UN Security Council to support a Gaza ceasefire plan announced by President Biden.

— Proposed ceasefire in Gaza puts Netanyahu at a crossroads that could shape his legacy.

— Iran’s acting top diplomat rejects the US-proposed Gaza ceasefire deal during a visit to Lebanon.

— Palestinian officials apply to join the South Africa case accusing Israel of genocide before the highest UN court.

— Israeli airstrikes near Aleppo, Syria, kill several peopleincluding an Iranian adviser, according to reports.

—Israel declares four more hostages are dead in Gaza.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Here’s the latest:

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip – Displaced Palestinians from the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis are setting up tents on the ruins of their destroyed homes.

Many residents who fled fighting in the city months ago were once again forced to flee the Israeli offensive on the southernmost city of Rafah. The returnees returned to a barely recognizable city, their homes part of a vast landscape of ruins.

“This is my house but I cannot see where its foundations or its limits are. I can’t find where it started and ended,” said Ayad Abu Khries, who returned to Khan Younis after being displaced to Rafah.

In a destroyed second-floor apartment, a woman was heating a pot on a makeshift stove: the building was a shell surrounded by rubble. One family’s dirty laundry was hanging from a line and hanging over piles of rocks, metal bars and other debris.

Israel withdrew its troops from Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, in April. Residents quickly returned and found what was left of their homes. The raid on Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians took refuge before fleeing again, sparked a new influx of returnees to Khan Younis. The United Nations says more than a million Palestinians have fled Rafah and many of them have already been displaced multiple times.

Those who have returned to Khan Younis have had difficulty finding services. Some returning residents said they had to walk a mile or more to access food and water.

“The infrastructure is destroyed. There is no electricity or sewage or water at all. We live in tents and life is exhausting,” said Basima Moammar, who lives in a tent near her destroyed house.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip – Palestinian health officials in the Gaza Strip said Israeli strikes killed at least 11 people overnight Tuesday, including a family of three and eight police officers.

An attack on a house in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza on Monday night killed two parents and their young daughter, while a second attack early Tuesday hit a police vehicle in the central city of Deir al-Balah, killing eight officers with the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.

An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies when they arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah on Tuesday and confirmed the details with hospital records.

Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths because the militant group places fighters, underground tunnels and rocket launchers in dense residential areas. The military rarely comments on individual attacks.

President Joe Biden detailed an Israeli ceasefire plan that the sides were considering.

The war, sparked by the Hamas attack on October 7, has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which Does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants in your account. Many of the dead were women and children, the ministry says.

TEL AVIV, Israel – The Israeli military said Tuesday that six soldiers were slightly injured in a forest fire in the country’s north that was sparked by fighting with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The fire, which has been burning since Sunday, was virtually under control on Tuesday, according to Israeli Army Radio. The Israeli military said it had sent reserve soldiers and equipment to help Israel Fire and Rescue services extinguish the fire.

Fires caused by the clashes have occurred sporadically in recent weeks, but this week’s fire was more widespread and appeared to cause more damage. The Israel Nature and Parks Authority said around 10,000 dunams (2,500 acres) burned in northern Israel this week as a result of wildfires.

Significant damage was caused to several nature reserves and parks that will take years to rehabilitate, the Parks and Nature Authority said. A total of nearly 40,000 dunams (9,900 acres) have burned since late May in multiple wildfires, many of which were started by rockets and other projectiles launched by Hezbollah, the authority said.

Sharon Levy, director of the Golan Region of the Parks and Nature Authority, said the dry summer season was exacerbating the fires.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel a day after war broke out in Gaza with Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. Since then, Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire daily in violence that has brought the region to the brink of a broader war.

TEL AVIV, Israel – The Israeli military said Tuesday it killed two Palestinian militants who were trying to launch a shooting attack on Israeli communities from the occupied West Bank.

The army said the two approached the West Bank separation barrier and were killed by Israeli forces. The military provided a photograph of a rifle they said the men were going to use to carry out the alleged attack.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militant group in the area, claimed the men were its fighters and said they were killed while carrying out a shooting attack near the Palestinian town of Tulkarem.

The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the deaths.

Residents of Israeli communities on the outskirts of the West Bank have reported an increase in shootings coming from the occupied Palestinian territory in recent days.

A wave of violence has gripped the West Bank since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October. Israel has been cracking down on militancy in the West Bank, killing more than 500 people there since the start of the war, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Many of them died fighting with the military or throwing stones at the troops. Other people who did not participate in the clashes have also been killed.