Aid deliveries have begun moving into , two weeks after the militant group Hamas rampaged through southern Israel and Israel responded with airstrikes.
Israel says Hamas has freed two American hostages who had been held in Gaza since the war began Oct. 7. Israeli airstrikes continued to hit southern Gaza, an area swollen by civilians who fled there from the north on Israeli instructions. Israel's military spokesman said the country planned to step up its attacks starting Saturday as preparation for the next stage of its war on Hamas.
The war, which is in its 15th day on Saturday, is the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday that the death toll has reached 4,385, while 13,561 people have been wounded.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly in the initial attack on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants stormed into Israel. In addition, 203 people were believed captured by Hamas during the incursion and taken into Gaza, the Israeli military has said.
Here's what's happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:
U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY ORDERS MORE DEFENCE SYSTEMS IN MIDDLE EAST
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced late Saturday he was sending additional air defence systems to the Middle East as well as putting more troops on prepare-to-deploy orders.
Austin said the U.S. would be delivering a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, battery along with additional Patriot missile defence system batteries "to locations throughout the region to increase force protection for U.S. troops." Bases in Iraq and Syria have been repeatedly targeted by drones in the days since hundreds were killed in a hospital blast in Gaza, and the destroyer USS Carney intercepted land attack cruise missiles in the Red Sea shot from Yemen on Thursday.
Austin said he had also placed additional forces on prepare-to-deploy orders, "part of prudent contingency planning" as the U.S. and others brace for the potential of a wider regional conflict and as Israel prepares to launch a ground assault into Gaza. He said he gave the orders after detailed discussions with President Joe Biden on the recent escalations by Iran and its proxy forces across the region.
ISRAEL STRIKES UNDERGROUND COMPOUND AT WEST BANK MOSQUE, MILITARY SAYS
Israeli Defense Forces said a military aircraft launched a strike early Sunday on the Al-Ansar mosque at the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
The IDF said via X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants had been using an "underground terror route" beneath the mosque. One Palestinian was killed in the shelling, Palestinian Red Crescent said.
Tensions have risen in the West Bank, where dozens of Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli troops, arrest raids and attacks by Jewish settlers.
ITALIAN PREMIER GOES TO ISRAEL
ROME -- Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has made a trip to Israel to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, her office said.
The meeting Saturday came after Meloni participated in a summit in Cairo focused on ways to de-escalate the raging Israel-Hamas war.
Meloni's office said that in her meeting she reiterated "the right of Israel to defend itself under international law and to live in peace" while also underlining "the importance of guaranteeing humanitarian access to Gaza and a prospect of peace for the region."
Her office said she brought "a message of solidary and Italy's closeness" following Hamas' unprecedented attack on Oct. 7.
PRESIDENT BIDEN SPEAKS WITH 2 FREED HOSTAGES
WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Joe Biden has spoken on the phone with two freed Americans who had been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.
Judith Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie, were released Friday. It was the first such hostage release from among the roughly 200 people the militant group abducted from Israel during its Oct. 7 rampage.
Video of Biden speaking with them by phone was posted Saturday on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter. He told the mother and daughter that he was glad they had been released.
"We're going to get them all out, God willing," he said.
Natalie thanked Biden for his "services" to Israel. Judith said they are in good health.
Hamas said it released the mother and daughter for humanitarian reasons in an agreement with the Qatari government.
Family members have said Judith and Natalie had been on a trip from their home in the Chicago suburb of Evanston to Israel to celebrate Judith's mother's birthday and the Jewish holidays.
ISRAEL SAYS IT WILL INCREASE ATTACKS ON GAZA
Israel plans to step up its attacks on the Gaza Strip starting Saturday as preparation for the next stage of its war on Hamas, Israel's military spokesman says.
Asked about a possible ground invasion into Gaza, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters Saturday night that the military was trying to create optimal conditions beforehand.
"We will deepen our attacks to minimize the dangers to our forces in the next stages of the war. We are going to increase the attacks, from today," Hagari said.
He repeated his call for residents of Gaza City to head south for their safety.
PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE SUMMIT
CAIRO -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is calling for an international peace summit to bring about the end of the Israel-Hamas war.
Speaking at a conference in Cairo on Saturday, Abbas reiterated his "complete rejection of the killing of civilians on both sides." He also urged the "release of all civilians, prisoners, and detainees," likely alluding to some 210 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Abbas leads the Palestinian Authority, a government exercising semi-autonomous control in the West Bank. The government is deeply loathed among Palestinians, who view it as corrupt and collaborationist with Israel.
Hamas seized control of the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip in 2007 and enjoys a strong base of support in the West Bank.
ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES HIT SEVERAL RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip -- A barrage of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis near a UN school struck several residential buildings, prompting a frantic rescue effort as medics rushed several dead bodies and dozens of wounded Palestinians to the hospital.
At the Hamouda family home seven people were killed and 40 others were wounded, survivors told The Associated Press at the scene of the attack.
CAIRO SUMMIT
CAIRO -- At a summit of world leaders in Cairo focused on ways to de-escalate the raging Israel-Hamas war, representatives from Arab and European nations called for more humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza and appealed for protection of civilians in the strip.
Several Arab leaders, including Egypt and Jordan, took the opportunity to castigate the international community over its inaction and a double standard they said that the world displayed on the devastating Israeli bombing campaign on Gaza.
The response of the world, the office of President Abdel Fatah el-Sissi said, displayed a "shortcoming in the values of the international community in addressing crises."
"While we see one place officials rushing and competing to promptly condemn the killing of innocent people, we find incomprehensible hesitation in denouncing the same act in another place," it said in reference to fierce western condemnation of Hamas' attack on Israel and a weaker reaction to Palestinian suffering.
The summit did not immediately produce any statements about the prospects of a ceasefire.
UN MONITOR SAYS MORE AID IS NEEDED
JERUSALEM --- A United Nations monitor says the 20 trucks of aid delivered to Gaza are just a "tiny fraction" of what is needed by the Palestinians who have been displaced since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Normally, 500 trucks pass through crossings into Gaza every day. The 20 trucks that arrived Saturday were the first to arrive there in two weeks.
Andrea De Domenico is the head of the UN office for the co-ordination of humanitarian affairs in the occupied Palestinian Territories. He says UNWRA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, is working the World Food Program, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization to direct the aid to those most in need. But he said it will be challenging to get aid into the hands of people who are not staying at UN facilities.
The aid consists of canned food such as tuna, basic medical supplies, medicines, and water. He said the UN is pushing for an "unimpeded" flow of aid into the strip through the Rafah crossing, but that discussions of further aid are mired in deliberations "between parties."
"If we don't stabilize the supply pipeline," Domenico said, "we head toward catastrophe.
DUAL CITIZENS CAN'T GET OUT OF GAZA
RAFAH, Gaza Strip -- Palestinian Americans and other dual citizens rushed to southern Gaza's Rafah crossing with Egypt on Saturday as 20 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid entered the besieged strip that has staggered under shortages of medicine and food.
Even as embassies asked their citizens in Gaza to stand ready at the border, crowds of disappointed Palestinians holding American, Canadian, German and British passports waited hours in vain for at least the fifth time this week.
"There is no opening of the crossing, and the suffering is the same," said U.S. citizen Dina al-Khatib. "They communicate with us, but there is no change."
With a humanitarian disaster brewing in Gaza, al-Khatib said she and her family were desperate to get out.
"It's is not like previous wars," she said. "There is no electricity, no water, no internet, nothing."
IDF OFFICIAL: PRIVATE HOMES CAN BE LEGITIMATE TARGETS IF HAMAS MILITANTS ARE IN THEM
JERUSALEM -- A senior Israel Defense Forces official says the military will try not to strike zones in Gaza where humanitarian aid is being distributed, unless rockets are fired from the area.
"It's a safe zone. We have a system which every time we decide that an area ... is a safe zone, we declare no attack in this area. We won't attack them," he told a group of foreign journalists.
He added that the definition of what constitutes a "legitimate target" has changed, because the use of civilian infrastructure by Hamas "turns a private home into a legitimate target. And anyone who supports that home is a legitimate target."
He acknowledged that the IDF has attacked houses where there are civilians living among militants.
Julia Frankel in Jerusalem.
AT LEAST 12 PEOPLE DIE IN A HOUSE IN GAZA HIT BY AN ISRAELI STRIKE
DEIR-AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip -- People searched for neighbours buried under the rubble of a house in central Gaza that was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Saturday. Witnesses said 12 people in one household died in the strike and five others were believed to be trapped.
People clambered on slabs of concrete and twisted metal looking for survivors. A woman in a bloodstained headscarf was helped out of the wreckage.
Men carried a body on a stretcher to an ambulance, and another man ran, carrying the limp body of a small child. Others helped lead away shocked-looking people covered in dust, including a boy with a bloody face.
The house was some 200 metres from the Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza.
FIGHTING INTENSIFIES ALONG ISRAEL'S BORDER WITH LEBANON
BEIRUT -- Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters exchanged fire Saturday in several areas along the Lebanon-Israel border as violence escalates over the Israel-Hamas war.
Tension has been picking up along the border over the past two weeks following the Oct. 7, attack by the Palestinian militant Hamas group on southern Israel that killed over 1,400 civilians and troops. Israel's strikes on Gaza since then have killed over 4,000 Palestinians.
An Associated Press journalist in south Lebanon heard loud explosions along the border close to the Mediterranean coast.
The state-run National News Agency reported that Israeli shelling hit several villages, adding that a car was directly hit in the village of Houla. There was no immediate word on casualties.
An Israeli army spokesman said a group of gunmen fired a shell into Israel adding that an Israeli drone then targeted them. He added that another group of gunmen fired toward the Israeli town of Margaliot and a drone attacked them shortly afterward.
"Direct hits were scored in both strikes," Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
BLINKEN WELCOMES AID BUT SAYS MORE IS NEEDED
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has welcomed the first delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip since the start of the war, but stressed that much more is needed.
"With this convoy, the international community is beginning to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza that has left residents of Gaza without access to sufficient food, water, medical care and safe shelter," he said in a statement.
"We urge all parties to keep the Rafah crossing open to enable the continued movement of aid that is imperative to the welfare of the people of Gaza" he adding, stressing that Hamas must not steal the aid or prevent it getting to civilians who need it.
Blinken said the U.S, was still working with Israel and Egypt to arrange for dual U.S. citizens to be able to leave Gaza via the Rafah crossing. Many Palestinians with foreign passports are gathered at the crossing, but have not yet been allowed to cross.
UNICEF SAYS INITIAL AID CONVOY WILL SAVE LIVES BUT IS INADEQUATE
RAFAH, Gaza Strip -- A two-truck UN convoy that entered Gaza from Egypt is carrying over 44,000 bottles of drinking water from the UN children's agency -- a day's supply for 22,000 people, according to UNICEF.
"This first, limited water will save lives, but the needs are immediate and immense," UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said.
The agency said it has supplies for up to 250,000 people at the Rafah crossing that can be brought into Gaza in a matter of hours.
TURKISH MINISTER WARNS OF INJUSTICE TOWARD PALESTINIANS
CAIRO -- Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Saturday that international support for Israel has created a growing injustice against the Palestinian people.
"Israel exploits the solidarity of some countries as an open check for unleashing blind rage on Palestinians, a rage that even targets mosques and hospitals," he told a summit in Cairo.
"Unconditional military aid to Israel or coercing regional countries to unrealistic and unsustainable plans serves nothing but deepening occupation, because these policies omit, neglect and ignore a vital part of the equation: the Palestinians."
He added: "By dehumanizing Palestinian lives, Israel aims to normalize Palestinian suffering. We say: never. Never for Palestinians, never for anybody else."
IRAQI PRIME MINISTER WARNS OF EFFECT ON OIL IF CONFLICT SPREADS
CAIRO -- Iraq's prime minister warned Saturday that if the war between Israel and Hamas spreads to other countries in the region it will affect the flow of oil to international markets.
Mohammed Shia al-Sudani was apparently referring to Iran-backed militias that have started launching attacks against U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria and have warned they will step in if Hamas is threatened.
Al-Sudani told an international summit held in Egypt that Baghdad rejects the emptying of the Gaza Strip because "the Palestinians have no other place but their land."
He called for an immediate ceasefire and an exchange of prisoners to end the current conflict.
Al-Sudani said that the situation would not have reached this point had UN Security Council resolutions been respected, an apparent reference to Israel's settlement policies in the West Bank.
Al-Sudani warned that the current conflict "will impact global security, escalate regional conflict, jeopardize energy supplies, exacerbate economic crises, and invite further conflicts."
UN CHIEF: HAMAS ATTACK DOESN'T JUSTIFY ISRAEL'S 'COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT' OF PALESTINIANS
CAIRO -- The United Nations' chief says Hamas' "reprehensible assault" on Israel "can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people."
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for protection of civilians and the sparing of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and UN premises, from the bombardment.
Speaking at a summit Egypt is hosting on the Israel-Gaza war, Guterres pointed to the "the wider context" of war, saying that the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is "the only realistic foundation for a true peace and stability."
"Israelis must see their legitimate needs for security materialized, and Palestinians must see their legitimate aspirations for an independent state realized," he said.
He said the UN is working around the clock with all parties to ensure a sustainable delivery of aid to Gaza, following the crossing of a first 20-truck convoy on Saturday.
"But the people of Gaza need a commitment for much, much more -- a continuous delivery of aid to Gaza at the scale that is needed," he said.
EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT SAYS FORCING PALESTINIANS INTO EGYPT ISN'T THE ANSWER
CAIRO -- Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has reiterated his government's rejection of forcing Palestinians in Gaza to flee into his country's Sinai Peninsula.
He said that the Palestinian cause won't be settled through forcing the Palestinians to leave their homes, and "end the statehood dream."
"The whole Egyptian people won't accept the liquidation of the Palestinian cause ... and will never happen on the expanse of Egypt," el-Sissi said.
Speaking at a summit his government is hosting on the war Saturday, the Egyptian leader set out a roadmap to end the ongoing war which included ensuring the flow of aid to Gaza, negotiating a ceasefire, and embarking on peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians to establish a Palestinian state based on the borders before the 1967 Mideast war.
"We are facing an unprecedented crisis that requires full attention to avert expanding the conflict," he said.
UN FOOD AGENCY HEAD SAYS MORE AID AND FUNDING NEEDED NOW
CAIRO -- The United Nations' food chief has called for more aid to flow into Gaza, saying a catastrophic humanitarian situation is unfolding in the besieged territory.
"People are going to starve unless they get humanitarian assistance now," Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Program, told The Associated Press in Cairo.
She said that the 20-truck convoy that was allowed into the war-wrecked enclave early Saturday was not sufficient.
"We need many, many, many more trucks and a continual flow of aid," she said, adding that the World Food Program has 1,000 metric tons of assistance in Egypt's Sinai ready to be sent to Gaza.
She said humanitarian agencies urgently need US$75 million to address the growing needs of more than 2.3 million Palestinians, about half of whom have been displaced since the war began on Oct. 7. The figure could reach US$100 million by the end of this year as the crisis unfolds, she said.
She appealed for world leaders to put pressure on the warring sides to get aid into Gaza and avoid a "humanitarian catastrophe waiting to really spread around the region."
WFP said that it has another 930 metric tons of emergency food items at or near the Rafah border, "ready to be brought into Gaza whenever access is allowed again." The agency said the stocks are needed to replenish WFP's "rapidly diminishing supplies inside Gaza."
ISRAEL TELLS CITIZENS NOT TO TRAVEL TO EGYPT OR JORDAN
JERUSALEM -- The Israeli government has increased its travel alert for Egypt and Jordan, telling its citizens not to travel there and that those already there should leave immediately.
"Hostility and violence have been displayed against Jewish and Israeli symbols. The rhetoric of global jihad has become more extreme, which is calling to harm Israelis and Jews around the world," the country's National Security Council said in a statement.
It also increased its warning for Morocco, telling Israelis to avoid all non-essential travel to the North African country. That advice has already been issued for a slew of other Muslim countries in the region.
Israel has also issued a more general warning against travel to Muslim nations further afield.
THE FIRST AID TRUCKS CROSS INTO GAZA FROM EGYPT
RAFAH, Gaza Strip -- The border crossing between Egypt and Gaza opened Saturday to let desperately needed aid flow to Palestinians running short of food, medicine and water in the territory that is under an Israeli siege.
More than 200 trucks carrying roughly 3,000 tons of aid had been positioned near the crossing for days waiting to head into Gaza. An Associated Press reporter saw the trucks entering.
Israel blockaded the territory and launched waves of punishing airstrikes following the Oct. 7 rampage by Hamas militants on towns in southern Israel.
Many in Gaza, reduced to eating one meal a day and without enough water to drink, are waiting desperately for the aid. Hospital workers were also desperate for medical supplies and fuel for their generators as they treat huge numbers of people wounded in the bombings.
Hundreds of foreign passport holders also waited to cross from Gaza to Egypt to escape the conflict.
EGYPT HOSTS SUMMIT WITH REGIONAL LEADERS, WESTERN OFFICIALS
CAIRO -- Egypt is hosting dozens of regional leaders and senior western officials for a summit on the war between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in Gaza.
The meeting on Saturday in Egypt's New Administrative Capital, just east of Cairo, will discuss ways to de-escalate the fighting and seek a ceasefire amid mounting concerns about a regional conflict, Egypt's state-run media reported. Among those attending the summit are the leaders of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the Palestinian Authority.
Also attending are the prime ministers of Italy, Spain, Greece and Canada and the president of the European Council, according to the state-run Al-Ahram daily newspaper. Foreign ministers from Germany, France, the U.K. and Japan are also attending, the paper reported.
PAKISTAN LEADER SPEAKS WITH PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT
ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by phone to discuss the "latest situation resulting from the ongoing brutalities of Israeli occupation forces against innocent Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank," a Pakistani government statement said Saturday.
Kakar expressed Pakistan's strong condemnation of the Israeli strikes on Gaza, the statement added. Kakar described the Israeli strikes on Gaza "as deplorable and willful acts of Israeli aggression against innocent Palestinians." Both leaders emphasized the need for the international community "to urge Israel to immediately halt the bloodshed," it added.
The two sides agreed on the necessity of lifting the blockade on Gaza to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid and medical assistance to affected people. Pakistan dispatched its first batch of assistance to Palestinian people on a plane that landed in Egypt on Friday.
BIDEN THINKS HAMAS ATTACK LINKED TO EFFORTS ON ISRAEL-SAUDI RELATIONS
WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden said he thinks Hamas' initial attack on Israel was tied in part to efforts to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, an initiative that Biden was trying to bring to fruition.
"They knew that I was about to sit down with the Saudis," the U.S. president said Friday, speaking at a fundraiser.
IRAN-BACKED MILITIAS IN IRAQ WARN U.S. FORCES TO LEAVE OR FACE MORE ATTACKS
BAGHDAD -- A group of Iranian-backed militias in Iraq said U.S. forces "must leave immediately" or their bases in Iraq and elsewhere in the region will continue to come under attack.
Militant groups have launched rocket and drone attacks in recent days against U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria, most of which were claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq. The group has said the attacks are retaliation for Washington's support of Israel and a warning not to intervene in the Israel-Hamas war.
"These are only warning messages to them, and serious work has not yet begun," the militias said in a statement.
The statement concluded by saying that if Israel launches a ground invasion into Gaza, "watch the border with Jordan carefully." It did not elaborate.
EGYPT OFFICIAL SAYS AID TRUCKS ENTERED RAFAH CROSSING BUT HAVEN'T PASSED INTO GAZA STRIP
CAIRO -- An Egypt official said two aid-packed trucks entered the Egyptian side of the border crossing early Saturday, but that they have not passed through into the Gaza Strip.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not briefed to speak with the media.
Israel announced Wednesday that aid would be allowed into Gaza from Egypt, via the Rafah crossing, but the border into the besieged territory has remained closed. Egypt says the crossing has been damaged by Israeli air strikes.
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Associated Press reporter Ashraf Sweilam in el-Arish, Egypt, contributed.
FRENCH PRESIDENT HOPES RELEASE OF U.S. HOSTAGES LEADS TO FREEDOM FOR OTHERS
PARIS -- French President Emmanuel Macron said the release of two Americans who were held hostage in Gaza is "a very good result" and expressed hope it could help pave the way for others to be freed, including French-Israelis.
So far, France has one confirmed hostage, 21-year-old Mia Schem, who was shown dazed and injured in a video that Hamas' military wing released Monday.
Six other French citizens also are missing and Macron said Friday that they're presumed to be hostages "but without certainty."
French contacts with Israeli authorities and other contacts via Qatar "keep up our hope that we will be able to find solutions to get the maximum number of hostages out," he said. "We are confident: the channels we have are the good ones and are useful," he said.
Macron said he is still weighing the possibility of traveling to the Middle East but that it would be dependent on more talks with leaders in the region.
He also announced 10 million euros (US$10.6 million) in additional humanitarian aid for Palestinians and said urgent aid, including medicines, will be airfreighted to Egypt.
NOBEL LAUREATES' PETITION URGES HAMAS TO FREE CHILD HOSTAGES
UNITED NATIONS -- A petition signed by 86 Nobel peace laureates demands that Hamas release all children taken hostage, saying holding them in captivity "constitutes a war crime, a grievous offense against humanity itself."
The petition noted that the Geneva Convention on safeguarding civilians in war mentions children 19 times, stressing that the "current plight of the kidnapped children far exceeds any scenario envisioned by the accord."
"Children should never be regarded as pawns in the theater of war," it said. "It is our sacred duty to protect the innocent and shield the vulnerable."
FRANCE SAYS GAZA HOSPITAL BLAST LIKELY CAUSED BY MISFIRED PALESTINIAN ROCKET
PARIS -- French military intelligence assesses that the most probable hypothesis for the explosion at Gaza City's al-Ahli Hospital was that it was caused by a Palestinian rocket that was carrying an explosive charge of about five kilograms (11 pounds) that possibly misfired.
Several rockets in the arsenal of Palestinian militant group Hamas carry explosive charges of about that weight, include an Iranian-made rocket and another that is Palestinian-made, said a senior French military intelligence official.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the intelligence assessment, cleared to do so by President Emmanuel Macron in what was described as an attempt to be transparent about the French findings.
The official said none of their intelligence points to an Israeli strike.
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Associated Press writer John Leicester contributed from Paris.
