By JULIA FRANKEL (Associated Press)

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military confirmed Friday that its forces are operating in central parts of Rafah in its expanding offensive in the southern Gaza city.

Israel launched its ground assault into the city on May 6, triggering an exodus of around 1 million Palestinians out of the city and throwing U.N. humanitarian operations based in the area into turmoil. Still, U.S. President Joe Biden has said Israel has not crossed the “red lines” of a full-fledged invasion that he has urged them against.

Friday’s statement by the Israeli military suggested its forces have been operating in most parts of the city. For its first weeks, the Israeli assault focused on Rafah’s eastern districts and in areas close to the border with Egypt. Israeli troops seized the Rafah crossing into Egypt on the first day of the offensive and have since claimed control over the Philadelphi Corridor, a road running the length of the Gaza-Egypt border on the Gazan side.

Earlier this week, Israeli troops also moved into Rafah’s western district of Tel al-Sultan, where heavy clashes with Hamas fighters have been reported by witnesses.

In its statement Friday, the military said its troops in central Rafah had uncovered Hamas rocket launchers and tunnels and dismantled a weapons storage city of the group. It did not specify where in central Rafah the operations were taking place, but previous statements and witness reports have pointed to raids in the Shaboura refugee camp and other sites near the city center.

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Israel has said an offensive in Rafah is vital to uprooting Hamas fighters in its military’s campaign to destroy the group after its Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.

Palestinians who fled the city have scattered around southern and central Gaza, most of them living in squalid tent camps. Up to around 300,000 people are believed to remain in the area, some of them still in the central urban parts of the city, a U.N. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press. Shaina Low, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Refugee Council, a humanitarian group that operates in the area, said most have flocked to rural area west of the city near the coast — an area that has seen deadly Israeli strikes and shelling the past week.

On Jamal Mitchell’s third day on patrol as a Minneapolis police officer, he and another officer ran into a burning house and rescued an elderly couple.

“He was a hero,” Assistant Chief Katie Blackwell said Thursday night. “I’ve never met an officer that received an award on the third day on the job during his” field training.

Mitchell, 36, was killed in the line of duty Thursday afternoon in gunfire that resulted in the deaths of two other people and the wounding of four more.

“Like everyone, every police officer has a story; every officer has hopes and dreams,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in a statement early Friday. “Sadly, Officer Jamal Mitchell’s hopes and dreams ended with his life on Thursday.”

Mitchell responded to a report of a double shooting in an apartment building in the Whittier neighborhood. “While rendering aid to an injured male, the injured male pulled a gun and assassinated Officer Mitchell and continued to shoot him after he fell to the ground,” O’Hara said.

Mitchell was a father and was engaged to be married. O’Hara asked people to keep Mitchell’s loved ones and friends in their prayers.

“I knew Jamal,” O’Hara said. “I had the distinct honor of swearing in Jamal as a Minneapolis police officer. Shortly after hitting the street, I commended and honored him for running into a burning house in the 5th Precinct to rescue an elderly couple. He loved the job, he loved the MPD, and he was faithful to the oath he swore.”

After the fire rescue in February 2023, Mitchell told KARE 11: “We’re not trained to run into fires, but being in the field of policing, it’s a potential. We’re here to serve our community and we’re often first on scene.”

Mitchell previously worked for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport Police Department, according to a proclamation from Gov. Tim Walz ordering flags to fly at half-staff at all state buildings on Friday.

After the fire rescue, Mitchell told Fox 9 he got into law enforcement “to do what I can to save lives, serve the community.” And that’s what authorities says Mitchell was doing Thursday.

Investigators are determining the circumstances of what happened, but the head of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said Thursday night that he’d seen video and Mitchell “was ambushed.”

After Mitchell was shot, responding officers exchanged gunfire with the gunman, according to O’Hara. Another Minneapolis officer who was shot has been treated and released from the hospital. A firefighter was also wounded in the shooting. The suspect died at the scene.

Another person, believed to be a bystander, was shot and was in critical condition as of Thursday night.

The location where Mitchell was attacked was about a block and a half from the original call.

Police found two adult male victims with gunshot wounds at an apartment, according to BCA Superintendent Drew Evans. One was pronounced dead and the second, who was gravely injured, was taken to the hospital.

“We believe this is isolated to the two different locations,” Evans said Thursday night. “… We believe that the individuals in the apartment had some level of acquaintance with each other.”

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By PAUL J. WEBER and JAMIE STENGLE (Associated Press)

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Supreme Court on Friday rejected a challenge to one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the U.S. following a lawsuit by women who had serious pregnancy complications.

The ruling from the court, whose nine justices are all elected Republicans, is the latest decision to uphold Texas’ abortion ban, which critics say does not offer enough clarity over when exceptions are allowed.

“Texas law permits a life-saving abortion,” the court wrote in the order signed by Republican Justice Jane Bland.

Last summer, state District Judge Jessica Mangrum had granted a temporary injunction preventing Texas from enforcing the ban against doctors who in their “good faith judgment” ended a pregnancy that they determined was unsafe because of complications. But that was immediately blocked by an appeal from the Texas attorney general’s office to the state’s Supreme Court.

The lawsuit filed in March 2023 didn’t seek to repeal Texas’ abortion ban, but instead aimed to force more clarity on when exceptions are allowed.

It argued that exemptions under the law, which allows an abortion to save a mother’s life or prevent the impairment of a major bodily function, are written too vaguely and create confusion among doctors, who were turning away some pregnant women experiencing health complications because they feared repercussions.

The plaintiffs said the abortion ban has made medical professionals wary of facing liability if the state does not consider the situation a medical emergency.

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Stengle reported from Dallas.