WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior U.S. administration officials will meet with a Chinese delegation on Monday in London for the next round of trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing, President Donald Trump said Friday.
The meeting comes after a phone call between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday, which the U.S. president described as a “very positive” conversation as the two countries attempt to break an impasse over tariffs and global supplies of rare earth minerals.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will represent the U.S. side in the trade talks.
“The meeting should go very well,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Friday afternoon.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One Friday, Trump said Xi had agreed to restart exports of rare earth minerals and magnets to the U.S. which China had slowed, threatening a range of U.S. manufacturers that relied on the critical materials. The was no immediate confirmation from China.
The Thursday conversation between Trump and Xi, who lead the world’s two biggest economies, lasted about an hour and a half, according to the U.S. president. The Chinese foreign ministry has said Trump initiated the call.
The ministry said Xi asked Trump to “remove the negative measures” that the U.S. has taken against China. It also said that Trump said “the U.S. loves to have Chinese students coming to study in America,” although his administration has vowed to revoke some of their visas.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Migrants placed on a deportation flight originally bound for South Sudan are now being held in a converted shipping container on a U.S. naval base in Djibouti, where the men and their guards are contending with baking hot temperatures, smoke from nearby burn pits and the looming threat of rocket attacks, the Trump administration said.
Officials outlined grim conditions in court documents filed Thursday before a federal judge overseeing a lawsuit challenging Immigration and Customs Enforcement efforts to swiftly remove migrants to countries they didn’t come from.
Authorities landed the flight at the base in Djibouti, about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) from South Sudan, more than two weeks ago after U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Boston found the Trump administration had violated his order by swiftly sending eight migrants from countries including Cuba and Vietnam to the east African nation.
The judge said that men from other countries must have a real chance to raise fears about dangers they could face in South Sudan.
The men’s lawyers, though, have still not been able to talk to them, said Robyn Barnard, senior director of refugee advocacy at Human Rights First, whose stated mission is to ensure the United States is a global leader on human rights. Barnard spoke Friday at a hearing of Democratic members of Congress and said some family members of the men had been able to talk to them Thursday.
The migrants have been previously convicted of serious crimes in the U.S., and President Donald Trump’s administration has said that it was unable to return them quickly to their home countries. The Justice Department has also appealed to the Supreme Court to immediately intervene and allow swift deportations to third countries to resume.
The case comes amid a sweeping immigration crackdown by the Republican administration, which has pledged to deport millions of people who are living in the United States illegally. The legal fight became another flashpoint as the administration rails against judges whose rulings have slowed the president’s policies.
The Trump administration said the converted conference room in the shipping container is the only viable place to house the men on the base in Djibouti, where outdoor daily temperatures rise above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius), according to the declaration from an ICE official.
Nearby burn pits are used to dispose of trash and human waste, and the smog cloud makes it hard to breathe, sickening both ICE officers guarding the men and the detainees, the documents state. They don’t have access to all the medication they need to protect against infection, and the ICE officers were unable to complete anti-malarial treatment before landing, an ICE official said.
“It is unknown how long the medical supply will last,” Mellissa B. Harper, acting executive deputy associate director of enforcement and removal operations, said in the declaration.
The group also lacks protective gear in case of a rocket attack from terrorist groups in Yemen, a risk outlined by the Department of Defense, the documents state.
Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana contributed to this story.
HOUSTON (AP) — Investigators are looking into whether the sexual orientation of “King of the Hill” voice actor Jonathan Joss played a role in his shooting death in Texas, authorities said Thursday, walking back a previous statement about the potential motive.
Joss’ husband has claimed the person who killed the actor yelled “violent homophobic slurs” before opening fire outside his home in San Antonio on Sunday night. A day after the shooting, San Antonio police issued a statement saying they had found “no evidence whatsoever to indicate that Mr. Joss’ murder was related to his sexual orientation.”
But during a news conference on Thursday, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said the statement was “premature” and that whether Joss’ sexual orientation played a role in the shooting “is part of the investigation.”
“I will own that and simply say again that we simply shouldn’t have done that. It was way too early in the process for any statement of that nature to be issued,” McManus said.
The police chief said many in the LGBTQ+ community “are feeling anxious and concerned” after Joss’ shooting and that “a lot of it has to do with that premature statement.”
“The loss of Jonathan Joss was tragic, most heavily felt by the LGBTQ+ community,” McManus said.
Texas does not have separate hate crimes charges. But if homophobia is found to have been a motive in the shooting, that could result in a harsher sentence at trial under the state’s hate crimes law.
Candles, flowers, and notes make up make-shift memorial for voice actor Jonathan Joss who was recently killed, Tuesday, June 3, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Candles, flowers, and notes make up make-shift memorial for voice actor Jonathan Joss who was recently killed, Tuesday, June 3, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Adriane Reyes adds a cross to candles, flowers, and notes that create a make-shift memorial for voice actor Jonathan Joss who was recently killed, Tuesday, June 3, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Candles, flowers, and notes are placed at a makeshift memorial in San Antonio, on Thursday, June 5, 2025, for voice actor Jonathan Joss who was recently killed. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
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Candles, flowers, and notes make up make-shift memorial for voice actor Jonathan Joss who was recently killed, Tuesday, June 3, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
“We gather the facts, and we give those facts to the district attorney’s office. And then that hate crime designation is determined at sentencing,” McManus said.
The actor’s home burned down in January. Joss’ husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, has said that they were checking mail there Sunday when a man approached them, pulled out a gun and opened fire.
In a statement, de Gonzales said he and Joss had previously faced harassment, much of it “openly homophobic.”
Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez, who is a neighbor of Joss, is charged with murder in the shooting. Ceja Alvarez has been released on a $200,000 bond.
Ceja Alvarez’s attorney, Alfonso Otero, did not immediately return an email seeking comment Thursday.
McManus said police had been called to Joss’ home and his neighborhood about 70 times over the past two years related to “neighborhood type disturbances.”
“Sometimes (Joss) was the caller. Other times, the neighbors were calling on him,” McManus said.
The San Antonio Police Department’s mental health unit as well as a unit known as SAFFE that works with residents to help prevent crime “had extensive engagements with Mr. Joss, making repeated efforts to mediate conflicts and connect him with services that he may have needed,” McManus said.
The January fire at Joss’ home is still being reviewed by arson investigators, McManus said.
Joss lost all his belongings in the blaze and his three dogs were killed.
Actors who worked with Joss, along with friends and fans have honored Joss’ memory with tributes.
“His voice will be missed at King of the Hill, and we extend our deepest condolences to Jonathan’s friends and family,” the show’s creators and producers — Mike Judge, Greg Daniels and Saladin Patterson — said in a statement on the animated series’ Instagram page.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday he’s “disappointed” with Elon Musk after his former backer and advisor lambasted the president’s signature bill.
Trump suggested the world’s richest man misses being in the White House and has “Trump derangement syndrome.”
The Republican president reflected on his breakup with Musk in front of reporters in the Oval Office as Musk continued a storm of social media posts attacking Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and warning it will increase the federal deficit.
“I’m very disappointed in Elon,” Trump said. “I’ve helped Elon a lot.”
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam abolished its long-standing two-child limit on Tuesday to try and reverse declining birth rates and ease the pressures of an aging population.
The National Assembly passed amendments scrapping rules that limit families to having one or two children, state media Vietnam News Agency reported on Wednesday.
The rules were usually stricter for Communist Party members, who could miss out on promotions or bonuses if they had a third child.
Vietnamese families are having fewer children than ever before. The birth rate in 2021 was 2.11 children per woman, just over the replacement rate required for a population to avoid shrinking over the long term. Since then, the birth rate has steadily declined: to 2.01 in 2022, 1.96 in 2023 and 1.91 in 2024.
Vietnam isn’t the only Asian country with low fertility. But, unlike Japan, South Korea or Singapore, it is still a developing economy.
Nguyen Thu Linh, 37, a marketing manager in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi, said that she and her husband decided to have only one child because they wanted to give their 6-year-old son the best education and upbringing that they could afford.
“Sometimes, I think about having another child so my son can have a sibling, but there’s so much financial and time pressure if you have another child,” she said.
Vietnam introduced rules blocking families from having more than two children in 1988 to reduce pressure on limited resources after years of war, first with France and then the United States, as the country transitioned into a more market-oriented economy
Vietnam’s “golden population” period — when working age people outnumber those who depend on them — began in 2007 and is expected to last until 2039. The number of people who can work is likely to peak in 2042 and, by 2054, the population may start shrinking. All of this could make it harder to grow the economy, since there will be fewer workers while the cost of supporting the needs of the elderly increases.
Birth rates in Vietnam aren’t falling evenly. In Ho Chi Minh City — the country’s biggest city and economic hub — the fertility rate in 2024 was just 1.39 children per woman, much lower than the national average. At the same time, nearly 12% of the city’s population was over 60, putting pressure on welfare services. To help, local officials started offering about $120 to women who have two children before turning 35 last December.
It also offers some of the most generous family benefits in the region, including six months of fully paid maternity leave and free healthcare for children under six. Tuition in government schools is free until the age of 15 years and, starting in September it’ll be free till the end of high school.
Vietnam is also dealing with a unbalanced gender ratio, partly due to long-standing preferences for sons. According to state media, the distortion is more concentrated in Vietnam’s northern Red River delta, which includes Hanoi.
Doctors aren’t allowed to tell parents the baby’s sex before birth, and sex-selective abortions are banned. But despite this, some still hint at the baby’s gender using coded language, said state media VN Express, citing a government report.
On Tuesday, the health ministry proposed tripling the fine for choosing a baby’s sex before birth to $3,800, state media reported.
China imposed a one-child policy in 1979 amid worries about overpopulation. But as the country faces growing concerns about the long-term economic and societal challenges of an aging population, it has been slowly easing the policy to allow a second child and then a third child in 2021, but with little success in boosting birthrates.
Associated Press journalist Hau Dinh contributed to this report.
Childhood vaccination rates against measles fell in the years after the COVID-19 pandemic in nearly 80% of the more than 2,000 U.S. counties with available data — including in states that are battling outbreaks this year.
A Johns Hopkins University study, published in JAMA this week, illustrates where more vulnerable communities are located. The results mirror trends established at state and national levels: Routine childhood vaccination rates are dropping.
“When you look at the state level or national level … you really don’t see those drastic drops. Those are there. They’re real and they’re really problematic,” said Lauren Gardner, an expert in infectious disease modeling at Johns Hopkins University who is the paper’s senior author. Gardner also built the university’s COVID-19 database.
Measles was eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, and the vaccine is safe and highly effective. Public schools nationwide require two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine before kindergarten, but the number of children with non-medical exemptions from those requirements hit an all-time high in the 2023-2024 school year. Health experts say community-level vaccination needs to be at 95% or higher to prevent outbreaks.
The Johns Hopkins study looked at 2,066 counties across 33 states, comparing kindergarten vaccination rates averaged over school years from 2017-2020 to averages from 2022-2024. Where kindergarten data wasn’t available, the researchers used a comparable rate.
Texas has logged 742 measles cases since late January, most in West Texas.
Gaines County has 411 cases, the most in the state. Almost 2% of its population got measles. While the county saw a two percentage-point increase in vaccination rates after the pandemic, its 82.4% rate remains below herd immunity.
Terry County (60 cases) and Yoakum County (20 cases) dropped below the 95% threshold for herd immunity after the pandemic, to 93.7% and 91.8% respectively.
Lubbock County — which has seen 53 cases and is the closest metro area to Gaines County — was just below 95% before the pandemic, but dropped three percentage points after to 91.8%.
El Paso County on the border of Mexico has had the third-most measles cases in Texas this year with 57. Its vaccination rate is higher than 95% but saw a 2.1 percentage-point decline to 96.5%.
Kansas
Counties with outbreaks in Kansas include Gray with 25 cases, Haskell with 11 and and Stevens with seven.
Vaccination rates in Gray County dropped 23 percentage points after the pandemic, from 94% to 71%.
Haskell County dropped 18 percentage points to 65%. And Stevens County dropped 0.5 percentage points to 90.5%.
Colorado
Colorado’s outbreak, which is linked to an international flight that landed at the Denver airport in mid-May, involves six cases: five in state residents and one out-of-state traveler.
Two people who got measles live in Arapahoe County in the Denver metro, where the vaccination rate dropped 3.5 percentage points to 88.4%. Three others live in El Paso County, home to Colorado Springs, where the vaccination rate dropped 3.8 percentage points to 80% post-pandemic.
North Dakota
Pre-pandemic data in North Dakota wasn’t available to Johns Hopkins researchers, but they looked at rates from school years ending in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
North Dakota’s first outbreak started in Williams County, which now has 16 measles cases. In the timeframe researchers looked at, vaccination rates in Williams rose from 84.6% in 2022 to 87.7% in 2023, only to drop back to 83.5% in 2024.
Cass County has seven cases, and its rate has stayed steady at about 92.7%, while Grand Forks County, which has 10 measles cases, dropped from 95.4% to 93.4%.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
BENGALURU, India (AP) — Several people were feared dead and many more injured in a stampede on Wednesday outside a cricket stadium in southern India’s Karnataka state.
The incident happened as thousands of cricket fans gathered outside the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru city to celebrate the winners of the Indian Premier League, which is the world’s most popular T20 cricket tournament.
The Times of India newspaper reported at least seven people had died in the crush. Local TV news channels showed visuals of police shifting the injured persons and those who fell unconscious to ambulances.
D.K. Shivakumar, the deputy chief minister of Karnataka state, told reporters that “the crowd was very uncontrollable.”
The event was being held to celebrate Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s first Indian Premier League title win on Tuesday.
Stampedes are relatively common in India when large crowds gather at a place. In January, at least 30 people were killed as tens of thousands of Hindus rushed to bathe in a sacred river during the Maha Kumbh festival, the world’s largest religious gathering.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Dozens of protesters converged in the heart of the Latino community in Minneapolis on Tuesday after a large force of federal and local authorities wearing tactical gear conducted what they called a law enforcement action.
The protesters flocked to the area near a Mexican restaurant and other Latino-owned businesses after seeing livestreams that claimed an immigration raid was underway, reflecting opposition to such raids in a city that has declared itself a sanctuary for migrants. However, statements from local authorities said it was not an immigration enforcement matter, but a criminal case.
“While we are still gathering details, this incident was related to a criminal search warrant for drugs and money laundering and was not related to immigration enforcement,” Mayor Jacob Frey said in a Facebook post soon after the police action. “No arrests were made.”
But several dozen protesters remained at the intersection occupied by federal agents hours earlier, using cars to block traffic. A few held signs saying “abolish ICE” and “stop the deportations.”
A driver went through the crowd. At least one person appeared to have been knocked to the ground but got up and said they were OK. Protesters deflated the car’s tires; police moved in to take the driver away, and a scuffle ensued. At least one man was taken into custody.
Bystander video showed officers wearing logos from local agencies but also federal ones, including the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations. An armored vehicle at the scene bore the initials of Homeland Security Investigations. Minneapolis’ police chief also was present.
FBI officers secure the area as federal agents conduct an operation in Minneapolis, on Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
Michelle Gross, president of the local Communities United Against Police Brutality group, said the show of force appeared designed to “terrorize people into submission.”
“This is jackbooted thuggery, and we aren’t having it in our city,” she said.
Onlooker Jennifer Davila, who works in the community, said it already had been on edge because of raids. It’s tight-knit, and “if something happens, we know about it,” she said.
“They had a white van, a black van and a tank. For a raid, that’s pretty excessive,” Davila said. “And then coming into a brown community and doing this, because we have all kinds of immigrants, not just Latinos.”
Protesters confront ICE, ATF, and FBI officers as federal agents conduct an operation in Minneapolis, on Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
ICE, ATF, and FBI officers are seen as tensions escalate between community members and federal agents following an operation, Tuesday, June 3, 2025, in Minneapolis, Minn. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
Federal agents detain a man during an operation, Tuesday, June 3, 2025, in Minneapolis, Minn. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
ICE, ATF, and FBI officers are seen as tensions escalate between community members and federal agents following an operation, Tuesday, June 3, 2025, in Minneapolis, Minn. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
ICE, ATF, and FBI officers are seen as tensions escalate between community members and federal agents following an operation, Tuesday, June 3, 2025, in Minneapolis, Minn. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
ICE, ATF, and FBI officers are confronted by protesters as federal agents conduct an operation in Minneapolis, on Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
Protesters confront ICE, ATF, and FBI officers as federal agents conduct an operation in Minneapolis, on Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
FBI officers stand on an armored vehicle as demonstrators gather in Minneapolis on Tuesday, June 3, 2025, after multiple law enforcement officers entered a restaurant in a Hispanic neighborhood, escalating tensions in the community. (Kerem Yucel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara walks down a street as protesters clash with federal agents on Tuesday June 3, 2025, in Minneapolis, Minn. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara walks down a street as protesters clash with federal agents on Tuesday, June 3, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minn.. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
A Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officer fires a chemical agent as federal agents conduct an operation in Minneapolis, on Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (Kerem Yücel /Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
Federal agents detain a man during an operation, Tuesday, June 3, 2025, in Minneapolis, Minn. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
Community members protest as federal agents, including officers with the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), conduct an operation, Tuesday, June 3, 2025, in Minneapolis, Minn. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
ICE, ATF, and FBI officers are seen as tensions escalate between community members and federal agents following an operation, Tuesday, June 3, 2025, in Minneapolis, Minn. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
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Protesters confront ICE, ATF, and FBI officers as federal agents conduct an operation in Minneapolis, on Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
While the mayor said there were no arrests, a few protesters were at least temporarily detained as tensions grew between the crowd and the law enforcement officers. A Minnesota Public Radio photographer was pepper-sprayed and had his camera broken.
A Facebook post from the sheriff’s office said it “partnered with federal agencies on a criminal investigation and part of that investigation included the execution of multiple search warrants at multiple locations in the metro area.”
Frey said the police department’s only role was helping with crowd control, and that the department was not involved in “anything related to immigration enforcement.” Both the police department and sheriff’s offices have policies against cooperating with immigration enforcement actions.
The sheriff’s office said that in conducting criminal investigations, “We work with federal partners regularly.” A local FBI spokesperson, Diana Freedman, declined in a text message to provide details about the operation.
Associated Press writers Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed reporting.
Borrowers who have defaulted on their federal student loans will no longer be at risk of having their Social Security benefits garnished, an Education Department spokesperson said Tuesday.
The government last month restarted collections for the millions of people in default on their loans. An estimated 452,000 people aged 62 and older had student loans in default, according to a January report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The department has not garnished any Social Security benefits since the post-pandemic resumption of collections and has paused “any future Social Security offsets,” department spokesperson Ellen Keast said.
“The Trump Administration is committed to protecting Social Security recipients who oftentimes rely on a fixed income,” Keast said.
Advocates encouraged the Trump administration to go further to provide relief for the roughly 5.3 million borrowers in default.
“Simply pausing this collection tactic is woefully insufficient,” said Persis Yu, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center. “Any continued effort to restart the government’s debt collection machine is cruel, unnecessary and will further fan the flames of economic chaos for working families across this country.”
Student loan debt among older people has grown at a staggering rate, in part due to rising tuition that has forced more people to borrow heavily. People 60 and older hold an estimated $125 billion in student loans, according to the National Consumer Law Center, a sixfold increase from 20 years ago.
That led Social Security beneficiaries who have had their payments garnished to balloon from approximately 6,200 beneficiaries to 192,300 between 2001 and 2019, according to the CFPB.
Associated Press writer Collin Binkley contributed to this report.
The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinian health officials and witnesses say Israeli forces fired on people as they headed toward an aid distribution site on Tuesday, killing at least 27, in the third such shooting in three days. The army said it fired “near a few individual suspects” who left the designated route, approached its forces and ignored warning shots.
The near-daily shootings have come after an Israeli and U.S.-backed foundation established aid distribution points inside Israeli military zones, a system it says is designed to circumvent Hamas. The United Nations has rejected the new system, saying it doesn’t address Gaza’s mounting hunger crisis and allows Israel to use aid as a weapon.
The Israeli military said it was looking into reports of casualties on Tuesday. It previously said it fired warning shots at suspects who approached its forces early Sunday and Monday, when health officials and witnesses said that 34 people were killed. The military denies opening fire on civilians or blocking them from reaching the aid sites.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates the sites, says there has been no violence in or around them. On Tuesday, it acknowledged that the Israeli military was investigating whether civilians were wounded “after moving beyond the designated safe corridor and into a closed military zone,” in an area that was “well beyond our secure distribution site.”
A spokesperson for the group said that it was “saddened to learn that a number of civilians were injured and killed after moving beyond the designated safe corridor”.
‘Either way we will die’
The shootings all occurred at the Flag Roundabout, around a half-mile from one of the GHF’s distribution sites in the now mostly uninhabited southern city of Rafah. The entire area is an Israeli military zone where journalists have no access outside of army-approved embeds.
Yasser Abu Lubda, a 50-year-old displaced from Rafah, said that the shooting started around 4 a.m. on Tuesday and that he saw several people killed or wounded.
Neima al-Aaraj, a woman from Khan Younis, said that the Israeli fire was “indiscriminate.” She added that when she managed to reach the distribution site, there was no aid left.
“After the martyrs and wounded, I won’t return,” she said. “Either way we will die.”
Rasha al-Nahal, another witness, said that “there was gunfire from all directions.” She said that she counted more than a dozen dead and several wounded along the road.
When she reached the distribution site, she also found that there was no aid left, she said. So she gathered pasta from the ground and salvaged rice from a bag that had been dropped and trampled upon.
“We’d rather die than deal with this,” she said. “Death is more dignified than what’s happening to us.”
Palestinians carry the body of Reem Al-Akhras who was killed while heading to a Gaza aid hub, during her funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians carry bags filled with food and humanitarian aid provided by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization approved by Israel, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians carry bags filled with food and humanitarian aid provided by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization approved by Israel, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians mourn beside the body of Abdul Rahman Al-Qudra who was killed while heading to a Gaza aid hub, during his funeral at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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Palestinians carry the body of Reem Al-Akhras who was killed while heading to a Gaza aid hub, during her funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
At least 27 people were killed early Tuesday, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Hisham Mhanna, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, confirmed the toll, saying its field hospital in Rafah received 184 wounded people, 19 of whom were declared dead on arrival and eight more who later died of their wounds. The 27 dead were transferred to Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis.
Jeremy Laurence, a spokesman for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva that it also had information indicating that 27 people were killed.
There were three children and two women among the dead, according to Mohammed Saqr, head of nursing at Nasser Hospital. Hospital director Atef al-Hout said that most of the patients had gunshot wounds.
An Associated Press reporter who arrived at the Red Cross field hospital at around 6 a.m. saw wounded people being transferred to other hospitals by ambulance.
Outside, people were passing by on their way back from the aid hub, mostly empty-handed, while empty flour bags stained with blood lay on the ground.
“Palestinians have been presented the grimmest of choices: die from starvation or risk being killed while trying to access the meager food that is being made available through Israel’s militarized humanitarian assistance mechanism,” Volker Türk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said that it distributed 21 truckloads of food at the Rafah site on Tuesday, while its other two operational sites were closed.
During a ceasefire earlier this year, around 600 aid trucks entered Gaza daily. The territory’s roughly 2 million people are almost completely reliant on international aid because Israel’s offensive has destroyed nearly all of Gaza’s food production capabilities.
3 Israeli soldiers killed in northern Gaza
The Israeli military, meanwhile, said that three of its soldiers were killed in northern Gaza, in what appeared to be the deadliest attack on Israel’s forces since it ended a ceasefire with Hamas in March.
The military said the three soldiers, all in their early 20s, died during combat on Monday, without providing details. Israeli media reported that they were killed in an explosion in the Jabaliya area.
Israel ended the ceasefire after Hamas refused to change the agreement to release more hostages sooner. Israeli strikes have killed thousands of Palestinians since then, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Israel also imposed a complete blockade on food and other imports for 2½ months, leading to warnings of famine before the restrictions were loosened in May.
Israel says the restrictions and the new system are designed to prevent Hamas from stealing aid. The U.N. says its ability to deliver aid across Gaza has been hindered by Israeli restrictions, the breakdown of law and order and widespread looting, but that there’s no evidence of systematic diversion of aid by Hamas.
Hamas-led terrorists killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people hostage in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack into southern Israel that ignited the war. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada, and European Union.
They are still holding 58 hostages, a third of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. The ministry is led by medical professionals but reports to the Hamas-run government. Its toll is seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts, though Israel has challenged its numbers.
Israel says it has killed around 20,000 combatants, without providing evidence. Around 860 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the Oct. 7 attack, including more than 400 during the fighting inside Gaza.
Magdy and Khaled reported from Cairo. Julia Frankel and Areej Hazboun in Jerusalem, and Jamey Keaten in Geneva, contributed to this report.
