By JOSEPH KRAUSS, Associated Press

An Israeli strike that targeted top Hamas leaders Tuesday as they gathered in the Gulf nation of Qatar marked a major escalation against the group and could upend negotiations aimed at ending the war in Gaza and returning Israeli hostages.

It could also spark a diplomatic crisis with Qatar, a U.S. ally hosting thousands of American troops that has served as a key mediator between Israel and Hamas for several years, even before the latest war.

Hamas said its top leaders survived, while acknowledging the deaths of two lower-ranking members and three bodyguards. The group, which has sometimes only confirmed the killing of its leaders months later, offered no immediate proof that senior figures were still alive.

The strike came as Hamas leaders based in the Qatari capital, Doha, were weighing a new ceasefire proposal from the Trump administration. The White House said Israel had informed the U.S. before the strike and that it had in turn warned the Qataris.

President Donald Trump viewed the strike as an “unfortunate incident” that did not advance peace in the region, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. He spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the attack and “made his thoughts and concerns very clear,” she said.

Here’s what to know:

Hamas’ exiled leadership

Nearly all of Hamas’ top leaders in Gaza, including the two architects of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war, have been killed. But part of the group’s senior leadership, including Khalil al-Hayya, Mahmoud Darwish and Khaled Meshaal, have long resided abroad, mainly in Qatar and Turkey.

Israel has threatened to target Hamas leaders wherever they are, but until now had steered clear of Qatar, likely because of the Gulf nation’s close ties to the United States and its role as a mediator.

Hamas has survived the assassination of several top leaders since it was established in the 1980s, but it has never faced an onslaught on the scale of Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attack.

The war has killed over 64,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says women and children make up around half of the dead. Entire towns and neighborhoods have been bombed to rubble, 90% of the population of 2 million has been displaced, often multiple times, and parts of the territory are experiencing famine.

The Hamas-run government and police have largely vanished, but the group is still able to mount guerrilla-style attacks on Israeli forces. Four soldiers were killed Monday when a bomb was thrown into a tank.

Hamas-led fighters abducted 251 people in the Oct. 7 attack and killed some 1,200, mostly civilians. Forty-eight hostages are still inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.

They are Hamas’ last bargaining chip, and the group say it will release them only in return for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.

Impact on ceasefire negotiations

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until all the hostages are returned and Hamas has been disarmed. Even then, he says Israel will maintain open-ended security control over Gaza.

Israelis have held mass protests accusing Netanyahu of prolonging the war for political reasons. They want a ceasefire that would return the hostages, and many fear that further escalation could doom the surviving captives, held in tunnels and other secret locations around Gaza.

Earlier this week, Trump said he was giving his “last warning” to Hamas, while Israel is in the initial stages of another major offensive in Gaza City. Hamas said it received a new U.S. ceasefire proposal calling for the immediate release of all the remaining hostages in return for talks on ending the war and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Israel said it accepted the deal, while a senior Hamas official, Bassem Naim, described it as a “humiliating surrender document” offering no guarantees that Israel would end the war or leave Gaza. Still, Hamas said it would discuss the proposal with other armed groups and respond within days.

Those discussions were underway when the explosions rang out in Doha.

Hamas already harbored deep mistrust of Israel and the United States after Israel ended a ceasefire in March that Trump helped broker. The Doha strike plunges the talks into even greater uncertainty.

The final decision on the hostages, in any case, is likely to be made by Hamas’ battered but still intact armed wing inside Gaza that is holding them. It’s led by Ezzedin al-Haddad, a veteran commander who has gone deep underground.

Hamas’ surviving leaders are likely to further limit their communications in the wake of the strike, which could slow the negotiations even if they continue.

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Regional implications

Israel has carried out multiple strikes against top fighters, as well as Iranian generals and nuclear scientists, as the war sparked by the Oct. 7 attack has convulsed the region over the past two years.

But the strike in Qatar, a close U.S. ally that had cultivated close ties with Trump — even giving him a free replacement for Air Force One — shocked the region and could deepen Israel’s already unprecedented international isolation.

Key American allies, including Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, strongly condemned Tuesday’s strike.

In addition to hosting thousands of U.S. forces at the Al Udeid military base, Qatar has also served as a key mediator, not only with Hamas but the Afghan Taliban and other armed groups.

Critics accuse Qatar of bolstering Islamist groups across the region to extend its own influence. Qatari officials have denied those allegations, saying it is focused on regional stability and that its mediation efforts are undertaken with the full knowledge and support of the U.S.

By JOHN LEICESTER, Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — French authorities say they’re bracing for possible acts of sabotage and other violence when tens of thousands of protesters are expected to respond to online calls to disrupt the country on Wednesday, potentially compounding France’s latest political crisis triggered by the government’s collapse.

The “Bloquons Tout” (Block Everything) movement gathered steam on social media and in encrypted chats over the summer, before François Bayrou’s ouster as prime minister in a parliamentary confidence vote on Monday.

Its called-for day of blockades, strikes, demonstrations and other acts of protest on Wednesday is now falling as President Emmanuel Macron — one of the movement’s targets — is installing a fourth prime minister in 12 months. Sébastien Lecornu, the outgoing defense minister, was named as Macron’s latest new prime minister on Tuesday evening.

A leaflet pinned on a window reads “September 10, answer the national call and join the general strike” in Paris, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025, at the eve of a national protest. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Although ostensibly unrelated to the planned protests, the discovery of severed pigs’ heads — five of them written with Macron’s name — near nine Paris-area mosques on Tuesday added to unease, bearing possible hallmarks of previous suspected Russian-linked acts of attempted destabilization that have targeted France and other allies of Ukraine.

Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said that although investigations are still underway, “we cannot help but draw links with previous acts that happened, often at night, and which later proved to be acts of foreign interference.”

He said the depositing of pigs’ heads — near four mosques in Paris and five others in its suburbs — appeared to have been “carried out simultaneously, necessarily by several people.”

French authorities have characterized other suspected Russian-linked acts as being part of a sustained effort to sow discord, unrest and disinformation. Coffins left near the Eiffel Tower — some draped in the French flag and inscribed with the words “French soldiers of Ukraine” — in 2024 were linked by French authorities to Russian intelligence services. So, too, was an attack on a Holocaust memorial in Paris, daubed with blood-red hands.

‘Massive’ police deployment

The “Block Everything” movement, which has grown virally with no clear identified leadership, has a broad array of demands — many targeting contested belt-tightening budget plans that Bayrou championed before his demise — as well as broader complaints about inequality. Calls online for strikes, boycotts, blockades and other forms of protest on Wednesday have been accompanied with appeals to avoid violence.

A man walks past a graffiti that reads, “September 10, all-out strike” in Paris, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025, at the eve of a national protest. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

French authorities said they were unsure how many people might take part Wednesday. French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said that as well as peaceful protests, “there are other actions that could be far more intense — blockages, possible acts of sabotage, acts that could be far more violent.”

Potential targets could include oil refineries, fuel stocks, train stations and ring roads, he said. He warned of “small groups that aren’t very numerous but which are very determined, very organized, very, very seasoned and are looking for violence.”

The police response would be “absolutely massive,” he said, with 80,000 police and gendarmes deployed to keep order, backed by helicopters, drones, and armored vehicles.

Paris transport authorities said Metro, train and bus services were expected to run largely as normal, with only moderate disruptions on some lines. Aviation authorities warned of possible disruptions and delays to flights.

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‘It won’t be a riot’

The spontaneity of “Block Everything” is reminiscent of the “Yellow Vest” movement that rocked Macron’s first term as president. It started with workers camping out at traffic circles to protest a hike in fuel taxes, sporting high-visibility vests. It quickly spread to people across political, regional, social and generational divides angry at economic injustice and Macron’s leadership.

Fédérico Tarragoni, a researcher of protest movements at the University of Caen in Normandy, said “Block Everything” supporters appear to believe that protest marches aren’t effective and so are looking for more radical ways to attract Macron’s attention, including blockades and other tactics used by the Yellow Vests.

He described the planned security deployment as war-like. “They’re anticipating blockades of roads, banks, production sites, everything — and there will doubtless be some,” he said.

Wednesday’s protests will test the popularity of both Macron and the movement, he said.

“It won’t be a riot. And it won’t be the Capitol after the election of (Joe) Biden,” he said, referring to the mob that stormed the seat of the U.S. Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

“But it will be potentially unmanageable,” because of the possibility of blockades, he said. “Managing that with police forces isn’t necessarily going to be easy.”

By AMANDA SEITZ, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is imploring the nation’s public health agencies to prioritize investigations of vaccine injuries, prescription drug use, and the cause of autism in a new “Make America Healthy Again” report focused on children released on Tuesday.

The 20-page report, overseen by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., promises to put an end to childhood diseases in the U.S. by refocusing the nation’s public health agencies on the topics that those in Kennedy’s wide-ranging and politically diverse “MAHA” movement have demanded the government prioritize.

His renewed push to investigate vaccine injuries could deepen a clash between Kennedy and the public health agencies he oversees, which have been upended by mass layoffs and disagreements over his controversial policies.

Kennedy is releasing his blueprint for healthy children after weeks of tumult prompted by disagreements over vaccine policy at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that resulted in the director’s firing and other top leaders walking out on the job. Just last week, senators grilled Kennedy over his anti-vaccine agenda and his leadership of the public health agencies.

Kennedy is also expected to release a report that he says will lay out the causes of autism, a complex developmental disorder.

Those who have spent decades researching autism have found no single cause. Besides genetics, scientists have identified various possible factors, including the age of a child’s father, the mother’s weight, and whether she had diabetes or was exposed to certain chemicals.

Kennedy’s latest report, released on Tuesday, calls for the government to investigate vaccine injuries and develop a framework to ensure “America has the best childhood vaccine schedule” that is simultaneously “addressing vaccine injuries.”

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An earlier version of the report was first leaked and publicized in August. Slight changes have been made to the final draft, which was developed by a “MAHA” commission that included Kennedy and other members of the president’s Cabinet. Despite pledging “radical transparency,” the commission never held a public meeting ahead of the report’s release.

Among the differences in the final version of the report released on Tuesday is a call for the National Institutes of Health to use personal medical records and health insurance claims data to investigate the cause of diseases and disorders, including autism.

“The NIH will link multiple datasets, such as claims information, electronic health records, and wearables data, into a single integrated dataset for researchers studying the causes of, and developing treatments for, the chronic disease crisis,” the report says.

Kennedy has vowed for months that he would unveil the cause of autism, a complex developmental disorder that impacts the brain, by September. He has promised to execute a massive research effort to identify the disorder’s causes, but has stayed mum on details regarding who is conducting that research and when it will be released.

The “MAHA” report addressed a number of other issues, including ultraprocessed food consumption, water quality, fluoride and the use of prescription drugs in children. Agencies, including the health department and the Department of Justice, should increase enforcement and oversight of prescription drug ads, especially those published by social media influencers and telehealth companies, the report says.

The report tasks the NIH, which is facing a 40% cut to its budget under the Trump administration, with undertaking most of the studies on Americans’ health.

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A 13-year-old boy described by police as obsessed with school shooters was arrested on multiple firearms possession charges and causing a threat after they say they found social media posts about intentions to kill and seized 23 guns and ammunition from his home.

The boy pleaded not guilty to a total of five charges, four of them felonies, in juvenile court on Monday. He was arrested over the weekend in Washington’s Pierce County.

The boy’s name has not been released. It was not immediately known if he had a lawyer. Juvenile court records are generally confidential.

This image provided by Pierce County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025 shows weapons seized from the home of a 13-year-old boy in Pierce County, Wa., who authorities said had appeared to idolize school shooters. (Pierce County Sheriff’s Office via AP)

Firearms were mounted on walls and handguns were found unsecured throughout the home, sheriff’s Deputy Carly Cappetto said in a news release Monday.

“Several pieces of evidence from the suspect’s bedroom indicated he was obsessed with past school shooters and imitated similar behaviors with photos and inscriptions throughout his room,” she said. Loaded magazines with school shooter writings on them were removed.

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“It appeared the suspect had everything ready to go to commit a mass shooting type of incident. It is unknown who or what the intended target was going to be, but it’s clear it was a matter of time before a tragic incident occurred,” Cappetto said.

The boy’s parents said their son had no intention of harming anyone. His mother, who attended the court hearing, suggested in an interview afterward that the social media posts were an attempt to “be cool” among peers, KOMO-TV reported.

Cappetto said the boy was last enrolled in the Franklin Pierce School District in 2021. He was currently unenrolled and was not currently an active student in any school district.