By NAJIB JOBAIN, SAMY MAGDY and RAVI NESSMAN (Associated Press)

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The U.N. warned on Wednesday that without more fuel it will soon sharply curtail relief operations in the Gaza Strip, which has been blockaded and devastated by Israeli airstrikes since Hamas terrorists launched an attack on Israel more than two weeks ago.

The warning came as hospitals in Gaza struggled to treat masses of wounded with dwindling resources, and as the U.N.’s top official faced an angry backlash from Israel after saying the Hamas massacre of Israelis that sparked the fighting did not “take place in a vacuum.”

The Health Ministry in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, said airstrikes killed more than 750 people over the past 24 hours, without saying how many were militants. The Associated Press could not independently verify the death toll.

The Israeli military said its strikes killed militants and destroyed tunnels, command centers, weapons storehouses and other military targets. It accuses Hamas of magnifying the suffering of Gazan civilians by hiding its terrorists among them. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Hamas and other militants have launched unrelenting rocket barrages into Israel since the conflict started.

The rising death toll in Gaza — following a reported 704 killed the day before — was unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even greater loss of life could come if Israel launches an expected ground offensive aimed at crushing Hamas.

The force of a blast in the southern city of Rafah flipped and crumpled cars and left tattered clothing hanging in the branches of a tree.

Another strike destroyed a bakery in a refugee camp in Deir al-Balah, witnesses said. The Hamas-run government said at least 10 people were killed. As witnesses described the attack to an AP journalist, a projectile whistled overhead followed by two bangs — another airstrike hit nearby. Men ran through rubble-strewn streets carrying the injured.

In the wreckage of about 15 houses in Khan Younis, a backhoe peeled away layers of broken concrete tangled with rebar where a home once stood. A worker waded into the rubble and lifted a dead baby from the ruins. A teddy bear lay nearby.

The U.N. says about 1.4 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are now internally displaced, with nearly half of them crowded into U.N. shelters.

Gaza’s population has been running out of food, water and medicine since Israel sealed off the territory following the attack on southern Israel by Hamas.

In recent days, Israel allowed a small number of trucks with aid to enter from Egypt but barred deliveries of fuel — needed to power hospital generators — to keep it out of Hamas’ hands.

The U.N. said it has delivered some of the aid to hospitals in the south of Gaza. But the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, the largest provider in Gaza, said it was running out of fuel for its trucks, forcing it to reduce operations to ration its supply.

That will impact distribution of food and water and other services, said Lily Esposito, a spokesperson for UNRWA.

More than half of Gaza’s primary healthcare facilities and roughly a third of its hospitals have stopped functioning, the World Health Organization said.

Overwhelmed hospital staff struggled to triage cases as constant waves of wounded were brought in. The Health Ministry said many wounded are laid on the ground without even simple medical aid and others wait for days for surgeries because there are so many critical cases.

At Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital – located in the north, where aid distribution is barred – the lack of medicine and clean water have led to “alarming” infection rates, the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders said. Amputations are often required to prevent infection from spreading in the wounded, it said.

One surgeon with the group described amputating half the foot of a 9-year-old boy with “slight sedation” on the floor in a hallway as his mother and sister watched.

The conflict threatened to spread across the region, as Israeli airstrikes hit Syrian military sites Wednesday, killing eight soldiers and wounding seven, according to Syria’s state-run SANA news agency. The Israeli military said its strikes were in response to rocket launches from Syria.

One airstrike Wednesday hit the international airport in the city of Aleppo, putting its runway out of service, Syrian media reported. It was the fourth attack on the airport since the fighting began.

Israel has also hit the Damascus airport, in an apparent attempt to prevent arms shipments from Iran to militant groups, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Israel has been exchanging near daily fire with Iranian-backed Hezbollah across the Lebanese border.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah met Wednesday with top Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad officials in their first reported meeting since the war started. Such a meeting could signal coordination between the groups, as Hezbollah officials warned Israel against launching a ground offensive in Gaza.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Iran was helping Hamas with intelligence and “whipping up incitement against Israel across the world.” He said Iranian proxies were also operating against Israel from Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon.

The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 6,500 Palestinians have been killed in the war. The figure includes the disputed toll from an explosion at a hospital last week.

The fighting has killed more than 1,400 people in Israel — mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government. Hamas also holds some 222 people that it captured and brought back to Gaza.

The prime minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, whose country has helped mediate the release of four hostages held in Gaza, said more breakthroughs were possible, “hopefully soon.”

In the West Bank, Islamic Jihad militants said they fought with Israeli forces in Jenin overnight. The Palestinian Health Ministry in the West Bank said Israel killed four Palestinians in Jenin, including a 15-year-old, and two others in other towns. That brought the total number of those killed in the occupied West Bank since Oct. 7 to 102.

On Wednesday, Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Gilad Erdan, said his country will stop issuing visas to U.N. personnel after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that Hamas’ attack “did not happen in a vacuum.” It was unclear what the action, if implemented, would mean for U.N. aid personnel working in Gaza and the West Bank.

“It’s time to teach them a lesson,” Erdan told Army Radio, accusing the U.N. chief of justifying a slaughter.

The U.N. chief told the Security Council on Tuesday that “the Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.” Guterres said “the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”

Guterres said Wednesday he is “shocked” at the misinterpretation of his statement “as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas.”

“This is false. It was the opposite,” he told reporters.

___

Magdy reported from Cairo and Keath from Athens. Associated Press writers Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah; Gaza Strip; Aamer Madhani in Washington; Amy Teibel in Jerusalem; Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Brian Melley in London contributed to this report.

___

FOXBORO — The Patriots took a risk Tuesday by waiving rookie quarterback/wide receiver Malik Cunningham. And head coach Bill Belichick was willing to show his hand Wednesday.

Belichick said that the Patriots will want to add Cunningham back to their practice squad if he clears waivers Wednesday. Belichick said waiving Cunningham on Tuesday was what was “best for the team.”

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It’s not unreasonable to believe Cunningham could clear waivers. He was waived in late August, and no other NFL team claimed him. He spent the first five weeks of the 2023 season on the practice squad, and no team signed him off and onto their 53-man roster.

Cunningham has played wide receiver, quarterback and special teams for the Patriots since entering the NFL as an undrafted free agent out of Louisville.

FOXBORO — The Patriots have been forced to make some difficult roster decisions in recent weeks with players ready to return off of reserve lists.

The Patriots have activated wide receiver Tyquan Thornton, offensive lineman Riley Reiff, safety Cody Davis and cornerback Jack Jones off of PUP and injured reserve lists since Week 5. They’ve also had to navigate difficult injury situations at wide receiver and on the offensive and defensive line.

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Their latest move was to waive quarterback/wide receiver Malik Cunningham on Tuesday, opening up a spot on their 53-man roster. Cunningham was signed to the 53-man roster to back up starting quarterback Mac Jones and provide wide receiver depth in Week 6. The Patriots could not have used Bailey Zappe as their emergency third quarterback if Cunningham had only been temporarily elevated from the practice due to an NFL rule. The hope is to get Cunningham back on the practice squad if he clears waivers.

The Patriots now have some freedom to add a 53rd player to their roster, and they have a number of in-house options.

The top candidate is wide receiver Jalen Reagor, who played a season-high 25 snaps in Sunday’s win over the Bills. Reagor, who’s impressed the team in practice, has used up all three of his practice squad elevations seven weeks into the season. If the Patriots want to put him back on the field Sunday against the Dolphins, then they would need to sign him.

“Jalen’s come in, been a really good scout team player for us,” head coach Bill Belichick said Wednesday. “We played against a lot of top receivers, and he’s gotten a lot of good opportunities with some of the routes that those guys run to kind of be featured a little bit on some of the scout team plays. He’s earned some playing time, which has come from his practice time, practice performance.

“He’s picking up the offense, and we’ll see how it goes. But he’s got good talent, good guy to work with, glad we have him.”

If the Patriots signed Reagor to the 53-man roster, that move likely would not be made official until Saturday at 4 p.m.

There are other practice squad options to sign to the 53-man roster. Defensive tackle Jeremiah Pharms is out of practice squad elevations after serving as depth with Daniel Ekuale on injured reserve. The Patriots elevated another defensive tackle, Trysten Hill, last week against the Bills.

Offensive tackle Conor McDermott also recently re-signed to the practice squad. The Patriots settled their offensive line last week by moving Mike Onwenu from right guard to right tackle and starting rookie Sidy Sow at right guard. But left tackle Trent Brown suffered an injury in that game, and McDermott could be viewed as better tackle depth than Calvin Anderson and Vederian Lowe, both of whom have been benched this season. Lowe also suffered an ankle injury in Sunday’s win.

The Patriots also could use more depth at edge defender with Keion White (concussion) and Josh Uche (ankle/knee) banged up. Williams Bradley-King, a 2021 seventh-round pick by the Commanders out of Baylor, is on the practice squad. McDermott, Hill and Bradley-King could be practice squad elevations rather than 53-man roster signings, however.

The team also could sign a player from another team’s practice squad or make a trade before Tuesday’s 4 p.m. deadline.

President Joe Biden’s effort to sell millions of Americans on paying down their college loans is struggling to keep up with a group wielding a powerful megaphone: social media stars.

With debt collection starting this month for the first time in more than three years, the hashtag #studentloans has now surpassed 1.3 billion views on TikTok — and borrowers and self-appointed personal finance gurus are churning out videos to meet demand. They offer tips for slashing payments but some are adding to the internet’s stew of falsehoods that bury the occasional piece of solid advice.

Student loan borrowers say they want more from the Biden administration. But the White House is woefully outmatched by content creators — the social media stars with large followings and a knack for short-form video editing — reaping the benefits of people desperate to escape their debt. Losing Gen Z and millennial borrowers to online self help risks letting confusion fester into frustration and turning one of Biden’s biggest economic promises into an election liability.

“We’re hearing from people that there’s just a lot of confusion and they don’t really know where to go for help,” said Andrew Weber, the founder of MyCreditCounselor, who regularly posts videos on TikTok about student loans. “That opens the door for misinformation or these debt relief scammers.”

A few accounts offer tricks for reducing monthly payments to zero under Biden’s newest repayment plan, SAVE. Others encourage borrowers to join a debt strike and pay dues to a “debtors union” fighting for student loan forgiveness. And then there are videos from more traditional experts — lawyers and certified financial professionals — who are trying to push back on bad counsel.

While the Biden administration has sought to shore up student loan allies online among influencers, its own social media game — to use a technical term — is pretty cringe. The White House’s single TikTok video on SAVE has one lonely like and fewer than 100 views. The same video has about 101,000 views on its Instagram page. The Education Department has 49 followers on TikTok but hasn’t posted any videos about the repayment option it’s advertising elsewhere. And on Instagram, where the agency has about 55K followers, there’s only one post about SAVE and none about entering repayment.

The White House has posted several still photos encouraging people to apply for SAVE, but many borrowers say they prefer a video or person explaining the program.

Influencers, however, say they’ve seen an uptick in interest in their videos for borrowers. But debt holders searching for information from the administration feel abandoned.

“If the government is trying to help us be educated on what the next steps are and what it is that we need to do, they are failing pretty epically,” said Alex Kassan, who is working to pay down more than $100,000 in student loan debt from her master’s degree in public health. “It sort of feels like, to me personally and to a lot of my peers, that we’ve just been left high and dry.”

The White House did not respond to several requests for comment.

About 41 percent of millennials and Gen Z rely on social media for financial advice, according a Webster Bank survey released this month. In comparison, only 20 percent of older generations said they use the platforms for advice.

Kassan said she first found the Biden administration’s federal loan repayment simulator on Reddit, and then an Instagram live video from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) helped her to understand the administration’s SAVE plan before she enrolled.

“It was the first time I had ever seen anyone speak about it in that way and make it easily understandable to me,” Kassan said.

Kassan, who’s in her 20s, said an email she received from the Education Department led to a student loan website she found too difficult to follow. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been urging the department to ramp up its communication with borrowers about repayment. But their main lines of communication include snail mail and e-mail.

“Any of these social media platforms would really be a much better place than a spam email that I’ve never even seen or am not reading,” Kassan said.

Before the Supreme Court tossed Biden’s loan forgiveness program, many borrowers were not as interested in searching for repayment options because they were hopeful sweeping relief was on the way.

Jade Warshaw, co-host of The Dave Ramsey Show, a popular radio program that has offered financial advice for about 30 years, said she and the Ramsey team used to get pushback on social media for saying that student loan forgiveness was not coming. But now that borrowers have received their first bills, Warshaw said the tone has changed dramatically.

“We saw that mood shift into this, ‘Oh, crap. This is happening. This is a reality and I’ve got to get my stuff together,’” said Warshaw, who graduated college in 2007.

Warshaw joined the team in 2022. Sharing her story about paying off more than $280,000 in private student loan debt with her husband has been a key part of her pitch to listeners.

As the show started receiving more questions about repayment, the Ramsey team unveiled a hub for student loan information. In September, they hosted a livestream about student debt in America which has racked up more than 134,000 views on YouTube.

“We came out of school, and no one prepared us for personal finance,” she said. “We’re just winging it. So what are we supposed to do? Here’s social media coming to the rescue. And you really have to be careful because there are a lot of people out there who, really, what they’re operating on is a theory.”

During the repayment pause, a movement began to grow on social media for borrowers to ask their loan servicers to refund borrowers’ money in anticipation of receiving up to $20,000 of forgiveness under the administration’s initial plan, Warshaw said.

It was terrible advice, and guess what happened? There was no forgiveness,” she said.

Weber, who has a TikTok following of nearly 10,000 people and is a certified student loan counselor, said many of his followers come to his page for help with paying private loans. Several have also told him they’ve been struggling to get help from student loan servicers who have been overwhelmed with calls during the start of repayment.

“People like talking and interacting with a real person,” he said. “At the same time, there’s the capacity for more misinformation on TikTok and less policing of that.”

With his channel, Weber tries to focus on private student loan borrowers who are “getting crushed” by high interest rates and combating misinformation in that space.

Blair Huddy, a public relations professional in her 30s, has seen her TikTok following grow beyond 34,000 this year while posting videos on her own student loan situation. Huddy went viral after she responded to a podcast from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that characterized loan forgiveness seekers as “young unemployed slackers smoking bongs.” Huddy’s response video, which was her first on student loans, published in July and has 127,500 views on TikTok. She has continued to post videos while acknowledging that she is not a loan professional.

“I kind of just leaned into it and figured, you know, it seems like people are really responding to having somebody who knows what they’re going through that has learned a lot,” Huddy said, adding that she shares information as she learns more about her repayment options for the roughly $180,000 of debt she took on to get her master’s degree.

Huddy signed up for the SAVE Plan, which she learned about when her followers started asking her questions about it. She learned that she qualified for a $0 payment under the plan, which was far more manageable than the $1,000 a month she would have been required to pay. But Huddy said her following has increase because of the way she is able to break down loan repayment developments in a conversational way, unlike the Education Department.

“They’re using government terms, acronyms, things that the layperson doesn’t understand,” she said. “A lot of us wish that the government and specifically the Department of Education would just talk to us like people.”