SAM MEDNICK

Israel and Palestinian Territories correspondent

Mednick is an AP correspondent for Israel and the Palestinian Territories. She focuses on conflict, humanitarian crises and human rights abuses. Mednick formerly covered West & Central Africa and South Sudan.

Assi Nave, founder of Back2Life, stands in the farm in Kibbutz Sdot Yam, Israel, on Oct. 16, 2025. The group helps soldiers combat mental health problems by working with animals. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Israel’s longest war is leaving a trail of traumatized soldiers, with suicides also on the rise

Israel’s longest war is leaving a trail of traumatized soldiers in its wake. Psychologists, soldiers and their families say there are a growing number of fighters suffering from mental illness after two years of conflict with Hamas, with reports of post-traumatic stress disorder and suicides among s

A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches along Zawaida in the central Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

US proposes that the UN authorize a Gaza stabilization force for 2 years

The United States has circulated draft text for a U.N. Security Council resolution that would provide a mandate for an international stabilization force in Gaza for at least two years.

A Palestinian man pushes a wheelbarrow past a closed gate set up by Israeli authorities that blocks an entrance to the West Bank village of Sinjil, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Israel has erected nearly 1,000 barriers in the West Bank during the war in Gaza, group says

A Palestinian government body says Israel has erected nearly 1,000 barriers in the occupied West Bank since Israel’s war with Hamas began over two years ago.

Smoke from flares thrown by fans fills the field before the soccer derby between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv was called off Sunday after pregame disturbances led police to deem it unsafe to proceed at Bloomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025 . (AP Photo/Nir Keidar)

Israeli soccer game abandoned after rioting rival fans throw flares and smoke grenades

Police officers were among dozens of people injured during rioting between rival fans at a soccer game in Tel Aviv, Israeli authorities said.

Israeli tanks move along the Israeli-Gaza border as seen from southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

US envoys visit Israel to bolster truce, and Gaza militants hand over a hostage’s remains

Israel’s military says Palestinian militants in Gaza have handed over another body of a hostage. The remains of 13 hostages have been handed over since the ceasefire began.

Palestinians watch members of the Hamas militant group searching for bodies of the hostages in an area in Hamad City, Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Israel says Hamas hands over ‘2 coffins of deceased hostages’ from Gaza

Israel says Hamas has handed over “two coffins of deceased hostages” from Gaza. The handover took place late Saturday local time.

A gunman wearing the uniform of the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, stands guard as Red Cross vehicles enter a warehouse allegedly to collect coffins containing the bodies of four deceased hostages, in Gaza City, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Yousef Al Zanoun)

Israel says it has received the remains of 4 more deceased hostages as cuts to aid for Gaza loom

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office has confirmed that authorities received the remains of four more dead hostages.

Palestinians inspect the remains of a site that housed a distribution center operated by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in Netzarim, central Gaza Strip, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, after Israel and Hamas agreed to pause their war and release the remaining hostages. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Officials say food sites run by controversial US-Israeli-backed group in Gaza are being shut down

Two officials tell The Associated Press that food distribution sites run by the controversial U.S.-Israel backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation are being shut down under the terms of the ceasefire deal.

Holding up signs with images depicting the U.S. President Donald Trump people take part in a rally in support of hostages kidnapped by Hamas, at a plaza known as hostages square, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025, ahead of the expected release of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Palestinians return to ruins and US expects hostages freed on Monday as Gaza ceasefire holds

Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians are returning to neighborhoods in Gaza as a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is in its second day.

Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip celebrate after the announcement that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a peace plan, as they gather at a plaza known as the hostages square in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Families of Israeli hostages, mired in anguish, erupt into joy as freedom nears for the captives

The area of central Tel Aviv that has become known as Hostages Square has been a place of anguish and despair for the past two years.

Smoke rises following an Israeli military strike in the northern Gaza Strip, seen from southern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Israel and Hamas agree to part of Trump’s Gaza peace plan, will free hostages and prisoners

President Donald Trump says Israel and Hamas have agreed to the “first Phase” of his peace plan to pause fighting and release at least some hostages and prisoners.

This picture taken during a media tour organised by the Israeli army shows war-damaged and destroyed buildings in the vicinity of the Jordanian Field Hospital in Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (Jack Guez/Pool Photo via AP)

International journalists visit Gaza City under the supervision of Israel’s army

International journalists have been given a rare and limited glimpse of Gaza City under the supervision of the Israeli military.

People attend a rally calling for the release of all hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and urges a ceasefire, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025. ahead of the second anniversary of the Israel-Hamas war. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Netanyahu hopes to announce the release of all hostages from Gaza ‘in the coming days’

The announcement came hours after Trump ordered Israel to stop bombing Gaza once Hamas said it had accepted some elements of his plan.

(AP Illustration / Peter Hamlin)

Takeaways from AP’s report on the sexual exploitation of women in Gaza

As Gaza’s humanitarian crisis grows, some women say they have been exploited by local men promising food, money, water, supplies or work in exchange for sexual interaction.

(AP Illustration / Peter Hamlin)

Women in Gaza say they were promised food, money or work in exchange for sexual interactions

As Gaza’s humanitarian crisis grows, some women say they’re being exploited by local men promising food, money, or other aid in exchange for sexual interactions.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shakes hands with President Donald Trump after a news conference in the State Dining Room of the White House, Monday, Sept. 29, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Trump and Netanyahu say they’ve agreed on a plan to end the Gaza war. Hamas is now reviewing it

President Donald Trump has laid out a 20-point proposal that would end the war in Gaza and free remaining hostages.

Microsoft reduces Israel’s access to cloud and AI products over reports of mass surveillance in Gaza

Microsoft said it has disabled services to a unit within the Israeli military after a company review had determined its artificial intelligence and cloud computing products were being used to help carry out mass surveillance of Palestinians.

Israeli combat reservists take position during training in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights on May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)

Israeli soldiers, and their mothers, increasingly reject calls to return to Gaza

As Israel calls up tens of thousands of reservists for its invasion of Gaza City, a growing number of soldiers are saying no.

This frame grab taken from a video released by Reuters shows several people trying to remove a body from the the outside stairs of Nasser Hospital shortly after the first of two rounds of Israeli strikes in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. (Reuters via AP)

Takeaways from AP reporting on Israeli strike on Gaza hospital that killed journalists and medics

AP reporting raises questions about Israel’s rationale for a deadly attack on Gaza’s Nasser Hospital.

This frame grab from a video shows the second of two projectiles the Israeli army fired in quick succession at a stairwell outside Nasser Hospital, just minutes after an initial round of attacks hit the building in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. (UGC via AP)

AP reporting calls into question why and how Israel attacked a Gaza hospital

Associated Press reporting into an Israeli attack that killed 22 people at a Gaza Strip hospital, including five journalists, raises questions about Israel’s rationale for the attack and the way it was carried out.

A Palestinian children wait at a community kitchen before donated food is prepared and distributed in Gaza City, Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

UN food agency chief says women and children are starving in Gaza and pressed Netanyahu on aid

The director of the U.N. World Food Program says it’s “very evident” after a visit to Gaza that there is not enough food and that mothers and children are starving.

Freelance journalist Mariam Dagga, 33, who had been working with the Associated Press and other outlets during the Gaza war, poses for a portrait in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on June 14, 2024. Dagga was one of several journalists killed along with other people in Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Mariam Dagga, AP freelance journalist in Gaza, was killed by an Israeli strike

Mariam Dagga, a freelance visual journalist in Gaza for The Associated Press, was killed by an Israeli strike on a hospital. She was 33.

Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, July 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)

Experts warned that Gaza was at risk of famine. Here’s why they confirmed it for Gaza City

The world’s leading authority on food crises has determined that the Gaza Strip’s largest city is now gripped by famine.

Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)

For the first time, the world’s food crises authority announces a famine in Gaza

The world’s leading authority on food crises says the Gaza Strip’s largest city is gripped by famine, and that it is likely to spread without an immediate ceasefire and an end to restrictions on humanitarian aid.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee poses for a photo during an interview in Jerusalem, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Huckabee blames Europe for stalled Gaza talks, highlighting a growing Western divide

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee says he blames a recent breakdown in Gaza ceasefire talks on the decision by some European leaders to recognize Palestinian statehood.

In this Jan. 25, 2012, file photo, senior Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti appears at Jerusalem's court. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)

Far-right Israeli minister posts a video of his confrontation with an imprisoned Palestinian leader

A video widely circulated on Friday shows Israel’s far-right national security minister admonishing a Palestinian leader face-to-face inside a prison, saying Israel will confront anyone who acts against the country and “wipe them out.”

The silhouettes of South Sudanese people are seen through a South Sudanese flag as they line up to cast their votes in Juba, South Sudan, on Jan. 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)

Israel is in talks to possibly resettle Palestinians from Gaza in South Sudan

Israel is in talks with South Sudan about the possibility of resettling Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to the war-torn East African country.

Mourners attend the funeral of Palestinian activist Awdah Al Hathaleen, who was killed by Israeli settler according to Palestinian health officials, in the West Bank Bedouin village of Umm al-Khair, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Video appears to show the moment a Palestinian activist is killed as an Israeli settler opens fire

New video footage appears to show the moment a Palestinian activist was killed by an Israeli settler in the West Bank last month.

Demonstrators hold photos of Israeli hostages being held in the Gaza Strip during a protest demanding their release from Hamas captivity and an end to the war, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Plans to take Gaza City are met with defiance from war-weary Palestinians and anger by many Israelis

Israel’s decision to take over Gaza City has met with resignation and defiance by Palestinians who have survived two years of war and repeated raids.

Palestinians rush to collect humanitarian aid airdropped in central Gaza Strip, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Why not enough food is reaching people in Gaza even after Israel eased its blockade

International outcry over images of emaciated children and increasing reports of hunger-related deaths have pressured Israel to let more aid into the Gaza Strip.

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