DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes have killed about a dozen people in Gaza over the past two days, local health officials said on Wednesday, part of a wider campaign of attacks on the territory by Israel despite a months-old ceasefire with Hamas.

Among the dead were a woman and six police officers killed in an airstrike on a police station in the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp, in northern Gaza, on Tuesday, hospital officials said.

In another strike on Wednesday, three members of the same family were killed in central Gaza, while a man died on Tuesday in the bombing of a tent camp in Khan Younis in the south. Israeli forces also shot and killed a child on Tuesday in the Muwasi area, west of the southernmost city of Rafah, according to hospital officials.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes in central and southern Gaza. In a statement addressing the attack in Jabaliya, it claimed that four of the slain police officers were Hamas militants, without providing evidence on how those killed were involved in planning or carrying out attacks.

One of the officers, Col. Mohamad Marwan Salem, was a senior police commander and head of the Jabaliya police station, the Hamas-run Interior Ministry said.

Hamas, which ruled Gaza for years, maintains an armed wing, as well as civilian police and security services that are overseen by its Interior Ministry. Throughout the war, Israel has targeted local police, including those guarding aid convoys.

Israel’s military has claimed it considers police stations legitimate targets if they’re “being used to advance military activities, or if those present are military operatives involved in advancing terrorist activities.”

It did not say what military activities it believed were taking place at the Jabaliya police station, nor did it provide evidence that attacks were being planned. Hamas says the police force is engaged in maintaining law and order in the territory.

The deaths were the latest among Palestinians in Gaza since a fragile ceasefire deal in October attempted to halt a two-year-long war between Israel and Hamas. While the heaviest fighting has subsided, Israeli forces have continued to carry out strikes and other military operations.

At least 1,123 people have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.

Militants have also carried out shooting attacks on troops, and Israel says its strikes are in response to that and other violations. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire.

The war began after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 73,264 Palestinians, including those killed since the ceasefire, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. — Magdy reported from Cairo. Sam Metz contributed reporting from Ramallah, West Bank.

MADRID (AP) — Five days after a fire ravaged a remote expat community in southern Spain, authorities late Tuesday identified all 13 fatalities using biological samples.

Meanwhile, French firefighters brought under control a forest fire in the historic and much-visited Fontainebleau area south of Paris as parts of the continent continued to face extremely hot temperatures.

All but one of the deceased in the Spanish wildfire, all of whom were adults, were foreign nationals. They include seven British citizens — including a 93 year-old woman who died in the hospital — three Belgian nationals, a French woman, an American and a Spanish national, judicial authorities said in a statement.

Of the 13 victims, eight were women and five were men.

Regional authorities initially believed 23 people were missing but they all have been accounted for since investigators identified all of the fire’s victims.

The Los Gallardos fire affected some 70 square kilometers (27 square miles) of forest and farmland. It was one of fire-prone Spain’s deadliest blazes in years.

Spain is experiencing extreme heat, which, combined with wind and little rainfall, is creating the ideal conditions for small wildfires to grow unchecked.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Temperatures remained exceptionally high across France on Wednesday, with highs locally reaching 39 degrees Celsius (102 Fahrenheit).

The national weather agency Météo-France warned the combination of extreme heat and dry soil conditions continued to pose a significant wildfire risk across the country.

The blaze that swept through the historic Fontainebleau forest, south of Paris, and prompted the evacuation of several residential areas was brought under control, although firefighters continued to tackle small flare-ups in the affected areas, local authorities said.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — When a Brazilian police officer killed Ana Paula Oliveira’s 19-year-old son in a Rio de Janeiro favela in 2014, the mother of two didn’t think she would survive the grief.

Founding a group with other grieving mothers — attending judicial hearings, protests and commemorative events together and providing essential psychological support to one another — saved her life, Oliveira says.

“Without any doubt, if I had been alone I wouldn’t have made it here, 12 years later,” she said, at a recent event at her son’s old school marking the anniversary of his death. “We need one another to cry together, to smile together and to fight together.”

Oliveira and other Brazilian mothers turn to activism to ensure that their sons are remembered as more than a statistic. Now, they are demanding a nationwide policy to support relatives of victims of state violence and are seeking public funding to finance their activities.

The nonprofit Crossfire Institute said 460 people died during police operations in Rio last year, the highest number since 2016 and a 52% increase from the previous year.

Much like the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, a human rights organization created by women whose children were kidnapped by the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983, Oliveira and her group draw attention to the pain generated by police killings and seek judicial accountability — sometimes successfully.

Last year, they traveled to the capital Brasilia and met with the judiciary, legislative and executive branches to present their project, developed with the support of Raave, a network of organizations supporting people affected by police killings in Rio.

“Raave is negotiating with the federal government to implement a pilot project … developed by the mothers, so that we can provide care and guarantee the rights of this population,” said Guilherme Pimental, a coordinator for Raave.

As in other Latin American countries, including Peru and Colombia, crime is a key issue for voters in Brazil’s elections in October.

Supporters and allies of presidential hopeful Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, argue that police must be given full support in their fight against heavily armed gangs in favelas, or impoverished sprawling urban communities.

But grieving mothers and nonprofits contend that Brazil’s police too often use excessive force, sometimes ending in death.

Oliveira’s son Johnatha was shot in the back as he passed through a street in Manguinhos favela in Rio after visiting his grandmother, his mother said. He later died of his injuries.

“Police officers allege that they shot him to disperse a crowd” that was protesting, said Oliveira, who wants the law enforcement official who fired the shot convicted of intentional homicide. In 2024, a jury convicted the official of manslaughter without intent to kill. Prosecutors successfully appealed, but a new court date for a second trial hasn’t been set.

Like Oliveira, Monica Cunha also transformed her pain into activism. After her 20-year-old son was killed by police in 2006, she became a councilwoman and this month will launch her precandidacy to run for state lawmaker in the upcoming October elections.

“I fight for memory, truth, justice, reparations and guarantees of nonrepetition — not only for myself, but so that no other family has to endure this pain,” Cunha said in an Instagram post on the 18th anniversary of her son’s death. “The racism that kills our children and loved ones is not an isolated problem, and it must be confronted through state policies. I will keep going, turning grief into struggle.”

Brazilian police have killed more than 6,000 people every year since 2018, according to the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety, a prominent nonprofit. The largest number of victims are age 18 to 24, while 82% of victims of lethal police violence are Black, the nonprofit said in its 2025 annual publication on violence in Brazil.

Anti-gang tactics in Rio’s favelas came under scrutiny once again last year, when police killed 117 suspected gang members in the state’s most lethal raid ever, targeting members of the criminal group Red Command in two favelas. Five police officers also died. Officers arrested 113 people, seized 118 weapons and confiscated more than a ton of drugs in that operation, police said.

Then-Rio Gov. Cláudio Castro, a Bolsonaro ally, defended the operation, which he said targeted “ narco-terrorists ” — a term echoing U.S. President Donald Trump. Last month, the Trump administration classified the Red Command as well as its rival First Command Capital as foreign terrorist organizations.

Nadia dos Santos’ sons Cleyton and Cleyverson were both killed by police: the former in 2015 when he was 18 and the latter when he was 17 in 2022. Police also killed the son of her sister, Glaucia dos Santos, Fabricio, in 2014 when he was 17. A memorial honoring and depicting the three boys covers the front wall of the family’s home in Rio’s Chapadao complex of favelas.

The sisters founded support groups and began the long work of investigating the circumstances of each boy’s death, seeking accountability through the courts.

In 2023, the police officers involved in the death of Fabricio were sentenced to nine years in prison, a decision that was celebrated by other mothers and gave them hope, Glaucia dos Santos said.

“We want others to stay alive, so we have to stay upright” despite the immense toll of the grief, said Glaucia dos Santos.

Her sister Nadia said the mothers need a nationwide public policy on restitution that she went to Brasilia to demand.

“The state should have the obligation to give us mothers who lose our sons because of the state’s violence reparations. … We fight, we work, but we become ill. We need solutions,” she said.

Oliveira suggested restitution could take the form of placing victims’ names in public places and naming facilities after them, such as schools, hospitals and daycare centers.

“There are other forms of reparation as well, such as building other public policies of nonrepetition that would help prevent new cases. … Many things need to be done, repaired, so that this barbarity does not continue,” she said.

___

Associated Press journalist Diarlei Rodrigues contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) – Britain’s populist Reform UK called on Wednesday for all lawmakers to be given “full security” if they want it after the murder of Ann Widdecombe, a prominent member of the party led by veteran Brexit campaigner, Nigel Farage.

At a news conference, Zia Yusuf, Reform’s home affairs policy chief, accused other politicians and the media of fuelling hostility against the party, which, he said, had led to death threats against Farage and other lawmakers.

Paying tribute to Widdecombe, a 78-year-old former Conservative minister who was found murdered in her home last week, Yusuf said lawmakers needed better security provision. A British man has been arrested.

“If Reform win the next general election … I will ensure that all members of parliament, of all parties, are provided with round-the-clock protection,” Yusuf said.

“We will also allocate significant new resources to protect former politicians still active in public life.”

In Britain, politicians are no strangers to abuse from the public, but in recent years many lawmakers have said the tone has become increasingly ugly and dangerous, with some changing their routines and behaviour to avoid confrontation.

In 2021, Conservative lawmaker David Amess was stabbed to death in a church by a man inspired by Islamic State. Five years earlier, Labour lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed by a Nazi-obsessed attacker during the Brexit campaign.

Yusuf said Farage, who is under pressure over funds he received from wealthy donors, had received almost 600 death threats since February.

That was why, he said, Farage had accepted donations to fund his own security detail — an argument, among others, the Reform leader has used to justify his acceptance of a £5 million ($6.70 million) donation from a billionaire cryptocurrency investor.

“Those who question Nigel Farage’s need for security should stop,” Yusuf said.

Security measures were bolstered after Cox’s murder, with lawmakers offered panic buttons and additional locks at their homes and offices. After Amess’ murder, the Conservative government and parliament offered lawmakers trained security protection when meeting voters.

(Reporting by Elizabeth PiperEditing by Ros Russell)

RABAT, July 15 (Reuters) – A Moroccan prosecutor said on Wednesday he had ordered the release of veteran journalist and political commentator Ali Lmrabet after questioning him, although an investigation continues following allegations of defamation and libel.

Lmrabet, 66, who holds French nationality and lives in Spain, was arrested on Sunday on arrival at Tangier airport. He is a political commentator on social media and has been an outspoken critic of Morocco’s political system for decades.

“The appropriate legal consequences will be determined once the investigation is completed,” the prosecutor’s office in Casablanca said in a statement.

In an earlier statement, the prosecutor’s office said Lmrabet’s arrest was on the basis of several notices issued against him over online content suspected of constituting criminal offences under Moroccan law, including alleged defamation and libel targeting individuals and institutions.

In 2003, Lmrabet was jailed after being convicted on charges that included offending King Mohammed VI. In 2005, a Moroccan court banned him from practising journalism in Morocco for 10 years.

Since then, Lmrabet has remained active as a political commentator on social media.

(Reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen went to Kyiv on Wednesday to mark Ukraine’s annual Statehood Day, pledging continued military and financial support for the country’s independence as it holds out against Russia’s 4-year-old full-scale invasion.

Ukraine’s sovereignty has been threatened since Russian forces occupied Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014 and Moscow illegally annexed the peninsula, followed eight years later by the all-out invasion of February 2022. Statehood Day, celebrating the country’s self-determination, is a public holiday in Ukraine.

The war has killed thousands of soldiers and civilians, forced millions to flee their homes, reduced Ukrainian cities to rubble and fueled fears the confrontation could slide into an open conflict between Russia and NATO, whose member nations have supported Kyiv. No peace settlement is in sight.

Senior officials from southeastern European countries also were expected in Kyiv on Wednesday for a periodic gathering focused on Black Sea and regional security. Last year’s meeting in the southern Ukraine city of Odesa reaffirmed the countries’ support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has recently won important pledges of further support, including from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations and the so-called Coalition of the Willing countries.

Von der Leyen, the European Union’s top official, said her trip to the Ukrainian capital was her 11th in wartime. Europe is watchful of Russia’s broader intentions on the continent and has provided billions of euros (dollars) to Ukraine as well as diplomatic support.

Von der Leyen said she would announce new steps toward integrating the European and Ukrainian defense industries as well as providing new help to prepare Ukrainian air defenses for next winter, when Russia usually tries to knock out the power.

Her visit came as Western officials and analysts say Ukraine’s increasingly frequent and accurate drone and missile attacks are hitting high-profile targets deep inside Russia, severely disrupting the Russian army’s supply lines and causing civilian fuel shortages.

“It’s a special moment,” Von der Leyen said of her visit on social media. “Ukraine has built a strong military momentum. The tide is turning.”

Meanwhile, Serbia’s Moscow-friendly president, Aleksandar Vucic, was taking part in the Southeast Europe Summit in Kyiv.

Serbia, which relies almost fully on Russia for its energy supplies, has refused to join Western sanctions on Moscow that were imposed after its invasion, although it officially supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

Ukrainian officials said Wednesday that at least eight civilians were killed and 11 others were injured in Russian aerial attacks.

Russian forces dropped six powerful glide bombs mostly targeting infrastructure in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, killing three people and wounding seven, the head of the regional military administration Oleh Hryhorov said.

Three people were killed and three others wounded in a Russian attack on Odesa, according to the head of the city’s military administration, Serhii Lysak.

Also, in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region, Russian drone attacks killed two people and seriously wounded an 18-year-old, regional military administration head, Viacheslav Chaus said.

In Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry said its air defenses overnight intercepted 93 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions, as well as over Crimea and the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.

___

Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal. Associated Press reporter Justin Spike in Budapest contributed to this story.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer fielded questions, criticism and even a bit of praise from lawmakers in the House of Commons for the last time Wednesday before he leaves office next week.

Starmer bid farewell to the boisterous weekly Prime Minister’s Questions sessions where he has traded barbs with opposition politicians and defended his government’s record. On Monday, he will step down after just two years in office, handing over power to a new Labour Party leader, Andy Burnham.

Britain’s parliamentary democracy allows governing parties to change leaders, and thus prime ministers, without the need for a general election. The next national election does not have to be held until 2029.

In a session that mixed somber seriousness and political criticism with personal tributes and jokes, Starmer opened by saying he was “horrified” at the killing last week of the former lawmaker Ann Widdecombe. Counterterror police are investigating it as murder.

Starmer called it “ chilling” that three serving or former members have been killed during his 11 years in Parliament, and urged politicians to “do more to defend our democracy.”

Instead of mentioning upcoming meetings with ministers, as he has every other week, Starmer said he had “an important appointment with the television” later when England faces Argentina in the World Cup semifinal.

Opposition Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch — the fourth leader of her party since 2022 — cautioned Starmer’s Labour Party that changing leaders is no “silver bullet,” and recalled how Starmer had predicted she wouldn’t last a year in charge.

“Life comes at you fast,” said Badenoch.

Britain’s parliamentary democracy allows governing parties to change leaders, and thus prime ministers, without the need for a general election. The next national election does not have to be held until 2029.

Starmer was elected in a landslide in July 2024, but is quitting after two years in office marred by missteps and judgment errors that eroded his standing with his party and the public.

He struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living. And he was hamstrung by repeated missteps, including his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, a scandal-tarnished friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as U.K. ambassador to the United States.

After Labour was hammered in May’s local elections, he gave in to mounting pressure from the party and announced he would step down. Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester, is the only candidate in the contest to replace him and will be announced as the new Labour leader on Friday.

On Monday, Starmer will go to Buckingham Palace and announce his resignation as prime minister to King Charles III, who will then ask Burnham to take over.

At Prime Minister’s Questions, Starmer said he was proud of his government’s domestic policy achievements, including stronger protections for working people, a law designed to stop official cover-ups after tragedies, and higher defense spending.

“I am proud to leave this country in better shape than I found it,” he said.

Badenoch praised Starmer for supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia’s full-scale invasion, including by inviting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to London immediately after the Ukrainian leader was insulted by President Donald Trump in the White House last year.

On Tuesday, Starmer attended Bastille Day celebrations in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron, who awarded him the Legion of Honor in recognition of his work with France on European security.

Back in London, Starmer held a reception in the garden of the prime minister’s 10 Downing St. residence to thank people who had campaigned for accountability from the authorities after losing loved ones to violence.@

“I leave on Monday with good grace,” he told them. “I’m very pleased I’ve had the privilege of being prime minister. I’m pleased to have delivered on the promises that are made to many people in this garden. And I’ll make this last promise, which is I will stand with you and walk with you, as long as I’ve got breath in my body.”

KYIV, July 15 (Reuters) – Ukraine and the European Union have sealed a “drone deal” to combine Kyiv’s expertise with European industrial capacity to establish joint projects and scale up production, European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.

“We need to combine our strengths,” von der Leyen said in a speech in Kyiv at a ceremony to mark the countryss Statehood Day. “This deal will bring together Ukrainian ingenuity and Europe’s industrial scale.”

Ukraine has signed a series of such deals with individual countries. At last week’s NATO summit in Akara, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed three more, saying that brought the total to nine.

But Wednesday’s deal is the first agreement intended to cover countries and companies across the European Union.

“The knowledge you have gained on how to work drone and anti-drone systems is truly unique,” von der Leyen said, addressing Zelenskiy.

“We must tap into this together. Because we know the threats that Europe faces in this area – we have seen incursions and alerts across many (EU) member states,” she added.

Von der Leyen said the EU could offer advantages to Ukraine such as “huge technological and industrial capacity” and “safe and secure production sites”.

Ukraine has developed a highly ⁠sophisticated drone industry after having only limited expertise in ​the sector when Russia invaded its smaller neighbour in February ​2022.

Zelenskiy has travelled widely to promote drone deals, particularly in the Middle East, where Gulf countries have been keen to tap into Ukrainian expertise to counter Iranian strikes.

(Reporting by Andrew Gray, editing by Bart Meijer)

By Dan Peleschuk

KYIV, July 15 (Reuters) – As President Volodymyr Zelenskiy prepares to reshuffle his cabinet, the focus will be on Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov — a 35-year-old tech expert with “Cossack military cunning” — whose ouster could impact Kyiv’s efforts in its war with Russia.

Since his appointment just six months ago, Fedorov has led an ambitious campaign to transform Ukraine’s outmanned army into a more efficient fighting force.

Maria Berlinska, a prominent volunteer and drone warfare advocate, said Fedorov’s “out-of-the-box thinking” has helped break through bureaucracy in all the roles he has held.

“I see before me a thoughtful, mature Ukrainian with Cossack military cunning,” Berlinska wrote on Tuesday, recalling her first meeting with him after his appointment.

It is unclear whether Zelenskiy, embarking on his second cabinet shake-up in a year, plans to keep Fedorov in his post at a time when the war with Russia is at a critical juncture. 

Even if he is nominated again, some lawmakers have suggested that parliament may not approve him given cross-party concerns, adding an element of risk ahead of a vote scheduled for Thursday.

Fedorov’s attempts to clean up defence procurement have angered parts of the establishment, his supporters say. He has also been criticized by some lawmakers for failing to deliver quickly enough on his pledge to reform recruitment.

POLITICAL UPHEAVAL

In a surprise announcement on Sunday, Zelenskiy said his overhaul was aimed at “renewal” in government and law enforcement but left much of Kyiv’s political class reeling.

Outgoing Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko’s removal, after just a year in office, triggered the resignation of the whole government. Under Ukraine’s system, the president picks the defence and foreign ministers, which parliament must approve.

Critics of the changes warn that replacing Fedorov could destabilise a key ministry just as Ukraine appears to be putting fresh pressure on Russia by disrupting energy supplies and slowing its battlefield advances.

Ukraine also still faces critical challenges like a shortage of air defences and manpower.

“We can shuffle around anything we want, but I have a request: at least leave the defence ministry stable,” opposition lawmaker Solomiia Bobrovska said in parliament on Tuesday.

Even if the broadly popular Fedorov stays, the episode threatens to further dent public and parliamentary trust in Zelenskiy’s wartime leadership, just when Ukraine’s fortunes appear to be reversing.

WIDESPREAD MILITARY SUPPORT

Previously, as Ukraine’s first minister for digital transformation, Fedorov streamlined key state services into a now-ubiquitous app.

As defence minister, he has been credited with boosting drone procurement and pursuing a data-driven strategy of exhausting Russian forces.

Andriy Nazarenko, commander of the 72nd Mechanised Brigade’s unmanned systems battalion “Bulava”, told Reuters he “unequivocally” supports Fedorov — a position he said was shared widely among his military contacts.

PRECARIOUS TIMING

In its strongest military position since late 2022, Ukraine is targeting Russian oil refineries and battlefield logistics in strikes that are weakening the Kremlin’s war machine.

Russia says it is on course to achieve its goals in the war, now in its fifth year.

Despite its success, Ukraine lacks U.S.-designed interceptors to shoot down the ballistic missiles that have rained down on major cities like Kyiv in greater numbers.

Officials are bracing for another winter of Russian strikes on the power grid.

Meanwhile, Fedorov’s sprawling reforms to alleviate the army’s manpower shortage remain in progress, while abuse and mismanagement still plague the draft and some military units.

And on the battlefield, Russia is grinding toward Ukraine’s “fortress belt” of key cities in the eastern Donetsk region that Russian President Vladimir Putin is pushing to occupy in its entirety.

Whether or not Fedorov remains in post, any progress made under him must be “institutionalised” within the ministry to make it less reliant on any one individual, said Serhii Kuzan, head of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center think-tank in Kyiv.   

“It is exactly this kind of approach that ensures the stability of state processes in the long term.”

(Additional reporting by Anna Pruchnicka, Olena Harmash and Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Sharon Singleton)

July 15 (Reuters) – The European Union is providing a further €20 million ($22.8 million) in humanitarian aid to help Venezuela deal with last month’s earthquake, it said on Wednesday.

• The EU said this latest package of aid, which would fund medical equipment and help search-and-rescue teams, comes in addition to a €5 million aid package approved in June and €52 million in assistance announced for Venezuela at the start of the year.

• Two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela on June 24. The death toll has risen to over 4,700.

• A magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit about ​160 km (100 miles) west of Caracas, followed less than a minute later by a magnitude 7.5 tremor, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

($1 = 0.8759 euros)

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-GuptaEditing by Ros Russell)