TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Marking nine months since the war in Gaza started, Israeli protesters blocked highways across the country Sunday, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down and pushing for a cease-fire to bring back scores of hostages held by Hamas.

The demonstrations come as long-running efforts to broker a truce gained momentum last week when Hamas dropped a key demand for an Israeli commitment to end the war. The militant group is still seeking a permanent cease-fire, while Netanyahu has vowed to keep fighting until Hamas is destroyed.

The war was triggered by Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 others taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 38,000 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

Israelis launch ‘Day of Disruption’

Sunday’s “Day of Disruption” started at 6:29 a.m., the same time Hamas militants launched the first rockets toward Israel in the initial attack. Protesters blocked main roads and demonstrated outside of the homes of government ministers.

Near the border with Gaza, Israeli protestors released 1,500 black and yellow balloons to symbolize those fellow citizens who were killed and abducted.

Hannah Golan said she came to protest the “devastating abandonment of our communities by our government.” She added: “It’s nine months today, to this black day, and still nobody in our government takes responsibility.”

About 120 hostages remain captive after more than 100 hostages were released as part of a November cease-fire deal. Israel has already concluded that more than 40 of the remaining hostages are dead, and there are fears that the number will grow as the war drags on.

The United States has rallied the world behind a proposal for a phased cease-fire in which Hamas would release the remaining captives in return for a lasting cease-fire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. But Hamas wants guarantees from mediators that the war will end, while Israel wants the freedom to resume fighting if talks over releasing the last batch of hostages drag on.

Netanyahu has also said Israel is still committed to destroying Hamas’ military and governing abilities, and that it would resume the war after a pause to release hostages.

Israel continues to battle pockets of Palestinian militants across Gaza after months of heavy bombing and ground operations that have devastated the territory’s major cities and driven most of its population of 2.3 million people from their homes, often multiple times.

Bodies found with hands tied

The Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis said the bodies of three Palestinians were retrieved from the area of the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel. A hospital statement said they were handcuffed, and an Associated Press reporter saw one of the bodies with bound hands.

Abdel-Hadi Ghabaeen, an uncle of one of the deceased, said they had been working to secure the delivery of humanitarian aid and commercial shipments through the crossing. He said he saw soldiers detain them on Saturday, and that the bodies bore signs of beatings, with one having a broken leg.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.

Thousands of Palestinians have been detained since the start of the war, and many of those who have been released, as well as some Israelis who have worked at detention facilities, say detainees have been tortured and held under harsh conditions. Israeli authorities have denied abusing prisoners.

Israeli airstrikes overnight and into Sunday meanwhile killed at least 13 Palestinians, including the undersecretary of labor in the largely dismantled Hamas-run government.

Ihab al-Ghussein was among four people killed in a strike on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City, according to the Civil Defense, a first responders group. Hamas mourned his loss in a statement and said a strike earlier in the war had destroyed his house and killed his wife and daughter.

The Israeli military said it had struck a militant complex “in the area of a school building,” as well as a nearby Hamas weapons-making facility in Gaza City after taking steps to mitigate harm to civilians.

Six people were killed in a strike on a house in the central town of Zawaida, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, and another three were killed in a strike on a house near Gaza City, according to the Civil Defense, which is under the Hamas-run government.

Israel trades fire with Hezbollah

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said early Sunday that it launched dozens of projectiles toward northern Israel, targeting areas more than 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, deeper than most launches. A 28-year-old man was seriously wounded, Israel’s national rescue service reported. The barrage came after an Israeli airstrike killed a Hezbollah militant on Saturday.

Hezbollah began launching rocket and mortar attacks after the outbreak of the war in Gaza. The range and severity of the attacks and Israel’s counterstrikes have escalated in recent weeks, raising fears of an all-out war that would have catastrophic consequences for people on both sides of the border.

Mediators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar have intensified their efforts in the past week to broker an agreement between Israel and Hamas. Hezbollah has said it will halt its attacks if there is a cease-fire in Gaza.

The compromise on Saturday by Hamas could lead to the first pause in fighting since November and set the stage for further talks, though all sides still warned that a deal is not yet guaranteed.

Washington’s phased deal would start with a “full and complete” six-week cease-fire during which older, sick and female hostages would be released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. During those 42 days, Israeli forces would withdraw from densely populated areas of Gaza and allow the return of displaced people to their homes in northern Gaza.

War-weary Palestinians in the Gaza Strip appeared pessimistic, after previous instances in which the two sides appeared to be closing in on a deal.

“We have lived nine months of suffering,” said Heba Radi, a mother of six children living in a tent in the central city of Deir al-Balah, where she has been sheltering since they fled their home in Gaza City. “The cease-fire has become a distant dream.”

___ Magdy reported from Cairo.

___

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FIELD, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA – In the spring of 2023, a Parks Canada team strung electric fence along a section of the Trans Canada Highway from Lake Louise to the B.C.-Alberta boundary.

It was part of an attempt to help keep animals including a beloved white grizzly bear named Nakoda away from the dangers of the road. But tragedy struck last month when Nakoda’s two cubs were struck and killed by a vehicle, followed by their mother, killed in a second collision about 12 hours later.

The deaths in British Columbia’s Yoho National Park near the provincial boundary highlight the ongoing effort to spare large animals from peril on the highways, as well as its limitations. Parks Canada and a private group are pushing for more and better maintained electric fencing along highways and private property, particularly as interactions between bears and human activity increase.

Parks Canada spokeswoman Saundi Stevens said installing an electric fence was only part of the battle.

“If you look through the length of the Trans Canada fence from the east park boundary through Yoho, it’s 100 kilometres of fence and so you try to imagine what that takes to keep an electric wire functioning,” she said.

A fallen tree could take out a fence, she said, and there were “leaky spots” involving culverts and wildlife overpasses and underpasses, she said.

In the case of Nakoda, it was believed she had found one such section of unpowered fence to clamber through. “(She) was kind of getting up over the fence in this two-foot section that didn’t have a hot electric wire on it,” Stevens said, adding that Nakoda was “a very smart bear” who was fond of eating roadside vegetation.

“We do the best we can, but there’s always times (when) a tree falls and until we can get out there and inspect the fence … there may be a period of time when the fence or the electric wire is deficient,” said Stevens.

Stevens said Parks Canada is now having conversations with highway engineers about improving electric fencing on highways after the June 6 collisions that killed Nakoda and her cubs.

Wildlife management staff from Parks Canada were in the area repairing the fencing when the bears were killed.

“The electric fence works, but I think where we need to stay on top is just doing fence repairs and keeping the highway fence in good shape every spring and doing the maintenance … before bears come out,” said Stevens, adding that Parks Canada is taking the issue seriously.

One of the challenges is that crew can’t get out until the snow pile melts, by which time bears are already emerging from dens, Stevens said.

Parks Canada said about $50,000 was allocated annually for fence repairs in the Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay Field Unit, an area including Yoho National Park and the border area.

It’s not just parks officials who worry about the sometimes deadly interface between bears and humans.

A beekeeper for more than 30 years, Gillian Sanders from the North Kootenay Lake area said bears visit her property every year. She started using electric fencing in 1997 with the goal of making better neighbours of the black and grizzly bears.

Sanders is the founder of Grizzly Bear Coexistence Solutions, a project that promotes a better relationship between grizzlies and rural residents in the Columbia Region. It advocates for electric fencing on private properties and has been involved with the installation of more than 525 electric fences in the Kootenay region to reduce conflicts with bears.

It provides 50-per-cent cost sharing for electric fencing to protect livestock or crops from bears.

Sanders said she found bears to be “very respectful” and easygoing neighbors, as long as they are not presented with food.

Sanders said electric fencing is more important than ever since grizzly bears started showing up in low-elevation habitats where they have never been seen before.

“We want to enable the bears to move through valley bottoms and utilize those low-elevation habitats without coming into conflict with people,” said Sanders.

She said electric fencing wasn’t just of benefit to the bears — residents enjoyed seeing bears near their properties without the risk of conflict that typically resulted in the deaths of the animals.

“It’s a real shame if bears end up dying for preventable causes,” said Sanders.

“It’s quite easy to coexist with bears when you have the tools to deter them from the areas we don’t want them to be.”

Although it has been a month since the deaths of Nakoda and her cubs, Stevens said the loss was still “incredibly difficult” for parks staff, especially those who spent “hundreds and hundreds of hours” monitoring Nakoda, who she described as a “super special” bear.

She said Nakoda had developed a “certain level of tolerance around people” and had learned how to climb the fence, which she did frequently. “Our staff worked really hard to try and teach her not to. So they were constantly kind of hazing her, pushing her back over the fence. But she never really learned,” she said.

“When something like this happens, it has an impact on everybody,” said Stevens. “It’s super unfortunate.”

— By Nono Shen in Vancouver

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 7, 2024.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Marking nine months since the war in Gaza started, Israeli protesters blocked highways across the country Sunday, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down and pushing for a cease-fire that could bring back the hostages held by Hamas.

The demonstrations come as international mediators have renewed efforts to broker a deal. Hamas over the weekend appeared to have dropped a key demand for an Israeli commitment to end the war, according to Egyptian and Hamas officials who spoke to The Associated Press.

The war, triggered by the Palestinian militant group following a cross-border attack on Oct. 7, saw 1,200 people killed and 250 others taken hostage. A retaliatory Israeli air and ground offensive has killed over 38,000 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

Sunday’s “Day of Disruption” started at 6:29 AM, the moment that Hamas militants launched the first rockets toward Israel in October. Protesters blocked main roads and demonstrated outside of the homes of members of Israel’s parliament.

Near the border with Gaza, Israeli protestors released 1,500 black and yellow balloons to symbolize those who were killed and abducted.

Hannah Golan said she came to protest the “devastating abandonment of our communities by our government.” She added: “It’s nine months today, to this black day, and still nobody in our government takes responsibility.”

About 120 hostages remain captive after more than 100 hostages were released as part of a November cease-fire deal. Israel has already concluded that more than 40 of the remaining hostages are dead, and fears spread the number may grow as the war drags on.

The Israeli prime minister had previously said while he was open to pausing the war as part of a hostage deal, Israel would press on until it reached its goals of destroying Hamas’ military and governing capabilities and bringing home all those held captive by Hamas.

Meanwhile, fighting in Gaza continued, with nine Palestinians reported dead from Israeli strikes overnight and into the early hours of Sunday.

Six Palestinians were killed in central Gaza after a strike hit a house in the town of Zawaida, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Another Israeli airstrike early Sunday hit a house west of Gaza City, killing another 3 people, the strip’s Hamas-linked civil defense said.

The Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday an Israeli airstrike killed at least 16 people and wounded at least 50 others in a school-turned-shelter in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The Israeli military said they were targeting Hamas militants and had taken “numerous steps” to reduce civilian casualties.

Also Sunday morning, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it launched dozens of projectiles toward northern Israel in the north, targeting areas more than 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, deeper than most launches.

A 28-year-old Israeli man was seriously wounded in Kfar Zeitim, a small town near the city of Tiberias, Israel’s national rescue service reported.

The barrage came after the Israeli military said in a statement an airstrike targeted a car and killed an engineer in Hezbollah’s air defense unit Saturday. Hezbollah confirmed al-Attar’s death but did not give information on his position.

Near-daily clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces over the past nine months have threatened to turn into an all-out regional war and have catastrophic consequences for people on both sides of the border.

Mediators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar have intensified their efforts in the past week to reach an agreement.

The compromise on Saturday by Hamas could deliver the first pause in fighting since November and set the stage for further talks, though all sides still warned that a deal is not yet guaranteed.

Washington’s phased deal would start with a “full and complete” six-week cease-fire during which older, sick and female hostages would be released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. During those 42 days, Israeli forces would withdraw from densely populated areas of Gaza and allow the return of displaced people to their homes in northern Gaza, the officials said.

War-weary Palestinians in the Gaza Strip appeared pessimistic about the possibility of reaching a cease-fire as the Israel-Hamas war marked nine months on Sunday.

“We have lived nine months of suffering,” Heba Radi, a displaced Palestinian woman, told the AP. “The cease-fire has become a distant dream,”

The mother of six children spoke from her tent in the central city of Deir al-Balah where she sheltered after they fled their home in Gaza City.

“Every day, we tell ourselves tomorrow (there will be a cease-fire),” she said, “and tomorrow will be better. And when tomorrow comes, they say (the negotiations) were postponed.”

Zakia Hasanein is an 80-year-old Palestinian woman, who also sheltered in Deir al-Balah, appealed to Netanyahu and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh to agree on a cease-fire, saying they “lived like the dead.”

The Israel-Hamas war has caused widespread damage in Gaza. Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order have curtailed humanitarian aid efforts, causing widespread hunger and sparking fears of famine. The top U.N. court has concluded there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza — a charge Israel strongly denies.

— Magdy reported from Cairo.