JERUSALEM (AP) — In the hours after Hamas blew through Israel’s heavily fortified separation fence and crossed into the country from Gaza, Ahal Besorai tried desperately to reach his sister. There was no answer. Soon after, he learned from witnesses that militants had seized her, her husband and their teenage son and daughter, along with dozens of others. Now, aching uncertainty over their fate has left Besorai and scores of other Israelis in limbo.

NEW YORK (AP) — Humanitarian groups are scrambling to assist civilians caught in the war between Israel and Hamas and determine what aid operations are still safe to continue — efforts that are being complicated by an intensified blockade of Gaza and ongoing fighting. Two days after Hamas militants went on a rampage that took the world by surprise, Israel increased airstrikes on Gaza and blocked off food, fuel and other supplies from going into the territory, a move that raised concerns at the United Nations and among aid groups operating in the area home to 2.3 million people.

ZINDA JAN, Afghanistan (AP) — Clinging to hope that finding survivors was still possible, Afghan rescuers and villagers kept digging through rubble in western Herat province on Tuesday, three days after one of the deadliest earthquakes in the region left more than 2,000 dead. Elsewhere in Herat, people were digging graves for loved ones killed in Saturday’s 6.3 magnitude quake.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia will move to revoke the ratification of a global nuclear test ban to put itself on par with the United States but will only resume nuclear tests if Washington does it first, a senior Russian diplomat said Tuesday. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters that Moscow will rescind the ratification of the nuclear test ban treaty to “mirror” the action by the U.S

MOSCOW (AP) — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich lost an appeal Tuesday to be released from jail on espionage charges, meaning he will remain behind bars at least through Nov. 30. Gershkovich, 31, had a mostly blank expression as he appeared in the defendant's glass cage in Moscow City Court in blue shirt, T-shirt and jeans. He marked six months in custody on Sept. 29.

JERUSALEM (AP) — The night was a getaway. Thousands of young men and women gathered at a vast field in southern Israel near the Gaza border to dance without a care. Old and new friends jumped up and down, reveling in the swirl of the bass-heavy beats. Maya Alper was standing toward the back of the bar with teams of environmentally conscious volunteers, picking up trash and passing out free vodka shots to party-goers who reused their cups. Just after 6.a.m., as a light-blue dawn broke and the headliner D.J. took the stage, air raid sirens cut through the ethereal trap music. Rockets streaked overhead.

ZINDA JAN, Afghanistan (AP) — People dug through the rubble of the quake in western Afghanistan for their few possessions but the material losses seemed unimportant. Saturday’s 6.3 magnitude quake killed and injured thousands when it leveled an untold number of homes in Herat province. Picking through the rubble on Monday, Asadullah Khan paused to think about a future marred by grief.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel increased airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and sealed off the Palestinian territory from food, fuel, and other supplies in retaliation for a deadly incursion by Hamas militants, as the toll rose to nearly 1,600 dead on both sides. Hamas mounted its own escalation on Monday, pledging to kill captured Israelis if its attacks targeted civilians without warnings.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A senior Taliban delegation was visiting western Afghanistan’s Herat province on Monday in the aftermath of the powerful earthquake that killed at least 2,000 people over the weekend and flattened entire villages, a statement said. Saturday’s magnitude 6.3 quake hit a densely populated area in Herat and was followed by strong aftershocks in what was one of the deadliest temblors to strike the country in two decades.

GANGTOK, India (AP) — Air force helicopters rescued scores of stranded tourists Monday in India's Himalayan northeast after a 6-year-old hydroelectric dam cracked open last week in intense rain, flooding a valley with glacial lake water and killing at least 74 people. Officials told the Press Trust of India news agency that they recovered 34 bodies in Sikkim state since the flooding began on Wednesday, while authorities in neighboring West Bengal state have retrieved 40 bodies from the Teesta River as the floodwaters carried them downstream.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Men dug through rubble with their bare hands and shovels in western Afghanistan Sunday in desperate attempts to pull victims from the wreckage left by powerful earthquakes that killed at least 2,000 people. Entire villages were flattened, bodies were trapped under collapsed houses and locals waited for help without even shovels to dig people out.

Indonesia denied Friday that forest and peat fires on Sumatra and Borneo islands were causing the haze in Malaysia, after the neighboring government sent a letter complaining about the air quality and asking for both countries to work together to deal with the blazes.

An Egyptian policeman opened fire Sunday on Israeli tourists in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, killing at least two Israelis and one Egyptian, Israeli and Egyptian authorities said.

MANAUS, Brazil (AP) — Communities dependent on the Amazon rainforest's waterways are stranded without supply of fuel, food or filtered water. Dozens of river dolphins perished and washed up on shore. And thousands of lifeless fish float on the water's surface.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The Israeli government formally declared war Sunday and gave the green light for “significant military steps” to retaliate against Hamas for its surprise attack, as the military tried to crush fighters still in southern towns and intensified its bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The toll passed 1,000 dead and thousands wounded on both sides.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Powerful earthquakes killed at least 2,000 people in western Afghanistan, a Taliban government spokesman said Sunday. It’s one of the deadliest earthquakes to strike the country in two decades.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli soldiers battled Hamas fighters in the streets of southern Israel on Sunday and launched retaliation strikes that leveled buildings in Gaza, while in northern Israel a brief exchange of strikes with Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group raised fears of a broader conflict.

The cafe had been closed throughout the war but reopened especially for a dead soldier’s wake, and almost every household in the village sent someone to mourn the native son.

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Hamas militant group says it is holding “dozens” of Israeli soldiers captive in the Gaza Strip.

A delegation of U.S. lawmakers led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer arrived in China on Saturday in the first congressional visit to the country since 2019.

Two 6.3 magnitude earthquakes killed at least 15 and injured nearly 40 others in western Afghanistan on Saturday, said a spokesperson for the country's national disaster authority.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Backed by a barrage of rockets, dozens of Hamas militants broke out of the blockaded Gaza Strip and into nearby Israeli towns, killing dozens and abducting others in an unprecedented surprise early morning attack during a major Jewish holiday Saturday. A stunned Israel launched airstrikes in Gaza, with its prime minister saying the country is now at war with Hamas and vowing to inflict an “unprecedented price.”

NEW DELHI (AP) — Hundreds of rescuers dug through slushy debris and fast-flowing, icy water Friday in a search for survivors after a glacial lake overflowed and burst through a dam in India's Himalayan north, a disaster that many had warned was possible for years.

KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian missile attack killed a 10-year-old boy and his grandmother Friday in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, officials said, a day after a strike in the same region killed at least 51 civilians in one of the deadliest attacks in the war in months. Associated Press reporters saw emergency crews pulling the boy’s body from the rubble of a building after the early morning attack. He was wearing pajamas with a Spider-Man design.

HOMS, Syria (AP) — Family members of some of the victims of a deadly drone attack on a crowded military graduation ceremony that killed scores gathered outside a military hospital in the central city of Homs on Friday to collect the bodies of their loved ones, who died in one of Syria’s deadliest single attacks in years. Thursday’s strike on the Homs Military Academy killed 89 people, including 31 women and five children, and wounded as many as 277, according to the health ministry.