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Bronzeville Lakefront will take years to complete, but it could get underway in months.

It’s good to see a $3.8 billion plan to revitalize the largely vacant former Michael Reese Hospital site take another step forward.

A successful turn-around of the dormant Bronzeville tract could be just the kind of grand slam the South Side needs after decades of occasional base hits and some absolute strike-outs in attempts to bring transformative development south of Roosevelt Road.

The city’s Community Development Commission voted last week to sell the land to developers GRIT Chicago for $97 million. The group plans to build residences, offices, retails space and a medical research facility on the site.

The Chicago Plan Commission approved zoning for the project’s $600 million first phase in February.

“The redevelopment of this large parcel will bring a vacant, tax-exempt site back into use,” a report from the city’s Planning Department said. “The project will serve as a catalyst for continuing development along the South Side and south lakefront.”

An albatross unleashed

The former Reese campus has long represented one of Chicago’s biggest development blunders — a 48-acre albatross the city killed and hung around its own neck in 2009 when the Daley administration paid $90 million for the site and wrecked it in a failed bid to win the 2016 Summer Olympics.

An original 1909 main hospital building was lost in the demolition, as were a nice collection of modernist structures and landscapes that had been part of the hospital’s postwar expansion.

But under the development team of GRIT Chicago, the currently barren-looking acreage bounded by 31st Street, 26th Street, the Metra Electric tracks and Vernon Avenue would blossom into a new community of 7,000 residences, 8 million square feet of office, retail, research facility space and 10 acres of parks and open space.

Called Bronzeville Lakefront, construction on the project’s first phase could begin later this year.

The 500,000-square-foot medical research facility, called the Chicago ARC Innovation Center, is planned for the initial phase. To be operated by Israel’s Sheba Medical Center, the facility is especially intriguing given that Michael Reese Hospital was a medical pioneer in its prime.

It would be good to see some medical research firepower return to the site.

And in many respects, it’s also good that the city and developers see the building of Bronzeville Lakefront — gosh, that is a soulless, developer-driven name if there ever was once — as a long-term project, rather than a quick-fix development slapped up over a few seasons.

“It’s going to take a while to get this thing built; there’s a lot to do here,” Scott Goodman, managing director with GRIT partner Farpoint Development, said during a virtual town hall meeting last year.

“We think it could take up to 20 years. We hope a lot less time than that, but there will be a lot of benefit to it,” he said. “The indirect economic benefit for the entire region will be over $8 billion [over 20 years].”

Expensive, but potentially worth it

If there is a point of concern involving Bronzeville Lakefront, it’s the amount of taxpayer funds needed to help get the multibillion project to completion.

The city gets to pocket $96.9 million for selling the site but then has to shell out at least $31 million to clean up buried radioactive waste left behind by a uranium processing plant that operated on the north end from 1915 to 1920.

The city is also on the hook for $60 million to cover the cost of building new streets on the site. The Lightfoot administration said it would likely seek federal funding to help pay for the work.

Still, we looking forward to seeing action. We can imagine this project becoming a catalyst for making things happen on other large and long-abandoned sites on Chicago’s South and West sides.

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Based on “Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class,” a 1999 nonfiction book by Lawrence Otis Graham, the series will join the network’s fall schedule, while midseason’s “The Cleaning Lady” will bring the rarity of an Asian lead character to TV.

LOS ANGELES — Affluent and well-connected Black families are the focus of “Our Kind of People,” a new Fox drama series from “Empire” creator Lee Daniels.

Based on “Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class,” a 1999 nonfiction book by Lawrence Otis Graham, the series will join the network’s fall schedule, while midseason’s “The Cleaning Lady” will bring the rarity of an Asian lead character to TV.

Elodie Yung (“The Hitman’s Bodyguard”) stars as a Cambodian doctor who is driven by family circumstances to work for mobsters as a crime scene “cleaner,” Fox said Monday in announcing its 2021-22 schedule

“Our Kind of People,” according to Fox’s thumbnail description, is an “unapologetic celebration of Black resilience and achievement.” Set on Massachusetts’ fabled Martha’s Vineyard island, it stars Yaya DaCosta (“Chicago Med,” “Whitney”) and Morris Chestnut (“The Resident”).

“We’re not only saying something culturally, we’re doing something culturally,” producer Daniels told advertising buyers, who are rotating among virtual presentations of next season’s offerings from Fox and other broadcasters this week.

Fox, which touted its success with young adult viewers favored by sponsors, will add four new dramas in total next year, along with two freshman sitcoms and an animated comedy. The singing contest “Alter Ego” is set for a fall debut, with other reality shows waiting in the midseason wings.

The newcomers will fill shelf space created by the cancellation of “Bless the Harts,” “Next,” “Prodigal Son” and “Filthy Rich,” with “The Moodys” still “on the bubble,” or at risk of being axed.

The new series’ themes reflect “hope and second chances and reinvention,” Charlie Collier, CEO of Fox Entertainment, said in a conference call Monday with reporters.

The other freshman dramas are fall’s “The Big Leap” starring Scott Foley, Teri Polo and Piper Perabo, about unlucky people trying to change their lives with a reality dance show, and “Monarch,” a midseason musical drama centered on “America’s first family of country music,” the fictional Romans.

“Welcome to Flatch,” set in a Midwestern town that’s under the eye of a documentary crew, and “Pivoting,” about three childhood friends seeking a new path in life, are the new comedies coming midseason, along with the animated comedy “Krapopolis.” Created by Dan Harmon (“Community”), it’s set in a mythical ancient Greece populated by humans, gods and monsters.

Returning series “9-1-1” will air this fall, with “9-1-1: Lone Star” taking over its Monday time slot at midseason.

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Reese and others were confronted by a man while they were inside a stolen car. Another person then appeared and opened fire. The motive of the shooter was unclear.

New details from police suggest rapper Lil Reese was wounded in a gunfight that broke out after a man tracked his son’s stolen car to a Near North Side parking garage and tried to detain the people inside.

The incident began shortly before 10 a.m. Saturday when the 55-year-old father tracked his son’s stolen car to a garage in the first block of West Grand Avenue, where the son had directed his father by using a GPS tracker in the car and his cellphone, police said.

As the father confronted Reese and others inside the car on the third level of the garage, another person appeared and opened fire on the car, a Chicago police spokeswoman said Monday. The motive of the shooter was unclear.

The car sped off and then crashed, and the people inside the car exchanged gunfire with the other shooter, police said. Three men were wounded in the shootout, including Lil Reese, whose legal name is Tavares Taylor.

Guns were recovered in the stolen car but no one was in custody, police said.

A group of witnesses described what they called a “weird” series of events in the garage connected to a luxury high-rise condominium in a bustling area. The group said they were on their way to their vehicle when they heard what sounded like a car crash. The group also heard two “pops,” which turned out to be gunshots.

When the group drove their car to the third floor of the garage, they saw a vehicle crashed into a cement barrier with its airbags deployed. The witnesses said it was unclear what led up to the crash. Officers told the witnesses that there were four suspects.

Saturday’s attack marked the second time Taylor has been shot since November 2019, when he suffered a neck wound in south suburban Country Club Hills.

Contributing: Madeline Kenney and Emmanuel Camarillo

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The Black Caucus joins the City Council’s Hispanic and Progressive caucuses in supporting the plan. Mayor Lori Lightfoot opposes it, but Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa said the three caucuses provide enough votes to override a veto.

The Chicago City Council’s Black Caucus has endorsed a civilian police oversight plan summarily rejected by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, setting the stage for what could be Lightfoot’s first Council defeat.

By a 75% vote, the Black Caucus agreed to join the Council’s Hispanic and Progressive caucuses in endorsing a compromise ordinance crafted by two groups that have long pushed dramatically different versions of civilian police oversight: the Civilian Police Accountability Council and the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability.

“We definitely need some level of civilian oversight and accountability in the Police Department in addition to what we have today. This is what our residents have asked for. …This is an ordinance that delivers that. We have to put something on the table that’s comprehensive in nature,” said Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), Black Caucus chairman.

“If the mayor sees something different, she’s obligated to put something on the table. To date, nothing has been put on the table. … We, as a City Council, have been waiting on that for a number of months. She definitely has an opportunity to put something on the table to have a conversation. But you can’t negotiate against yourself.”

Ervin refused to reveal the precise vote in the Black Caucus, except to say the 75% threshold was met.

Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) championed the more extreme version of civilian oversight proposed by the Civilian Police Accountability Council before helping to forge the compromise with the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability.

Now that the Black Caucus has joined the Hispanic and Progressive caucuses to back the compromise, the stage is set for Lightfoot’s first City Council defeat, Ramirez-Rosa said.

“With those three caucuses on board, we have the votes to pass this over the mayor’s objections,” Ramirez-Rosa told the Sun-Times.

Under the compromise, Chicago voters in the 2022 primary would be asked to approve a binding referendum empowering a civilian police oversight commission to hire and fire the police superintendent, negotiate police contracts and set CPD’s budget.

Lightfoot would lose the power to hire and fire the police superintendent. Her Law Department and hand-picked negotiators would lose the power to negotiate police contracts.

And Lightfoot and aldermen would be stripped of the power they now hold to establish the CPD budget, ceding that power as well to an 11-member civilian oversight commission that would have nine elected commissioners and two mayoral appointees.

Even if voters reject the binding referendum, the 11-member commission would have the final say in disputes over police policy unless two-thirds of the Council decides otherwise. The commission also would be empowered to take a vote of no-confidence in the superintendent and hire and fire the chief administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.

Lightfoot has said she can’t “outsource” responsibility for CPD to a civilian police oversight commission.

“I wear the jacket, as every mayor does, for violence in this city, for crime in this city. And the notion that we’re gonna outsource that to someone else and have no responsibility — no ability to impact this — I don’t know anybody who thinks that’s a good idea,” Lightfoot said last month during a conference call with City Hall reporters.

“When I hear, particularly from people in communities that are most impacted by violence, it’s, ‘Please, mayor don’t walk away from us. We need you to help us manage what’s going on in our neighborhoods.’ Those may not be the loudest voices. They may not be the people that are marching in the streets. But, they are very much concerned about what’s happening in their neighborhoods. So we have to come up with the plan that is also responsive to them.”

Ervin accused Lightfoot of overstating the case.

He noted the annual city budget still would have to be approved by the Council.

“If you want the power to budget, you need the power to tax and be held accountable for taxes,” Ervin said.

He added: “This is a good ordinance. It’ll go through the legislative process. If the mayor has an ordinance she wishes to put on the table, as she states that she has, it too can go through the legislative process.”

Defying the mayor on civilian police oversight gives African American aldermen a measure of revenge.

During the frenzied negotiations that preceded one of the closest City Council budget votes in decades, Lightfoot famously warned Black aldermen who dared to vote against her $12.8 billion spending plan, “Don’t ask me for s–t for the next three years” when it comes to choosing projects for her $3.7 billion capital plan.

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The athletic, blue-collar 6-8 forward is heading to DePaul to play for first-year coach Tony Stubblefield next season.

Even while living his boyhood dream of playing Division I basketball, first at Western Michigan and then last year at Minnesota, Brandon Johnson admits he would often miss home.

With one year of college basketball left to be played, the former TF South star is coming back home to play. The athletic, blue-collar 6-8 forward is heading to DePaul to play for first-year coach Tony Stubblefield next season.

“It’s a breath of fresh air for me,” said Johnson of the move back to Chicago. “There is no place like home. Basketball has been able to take me a lot of places, but to be surrounded by loved ones while playing this last year? This is the best opportunity for me.”

After putting up numbers in three seasons at Western Michigan and then one year as a Big Ten starter at Minnesota, Johnson said the new DePaul staff hit a home run with its messaging. The conversations in the recruiting pitch went beyond basketball.

“They really pushed me to think about things after basketball,” said Johnson. “Their focus on my life, starting with this Masters program, really stood out to me. When you include all of that, DePaul checked off every box for me.”

Johnson averaged 8.9 points and 6.3 rebounds a game for the Golden Gophers a year ago. Print to his transfer to Minnesota he put up 15.4 points and 8.1 rebounds a game in his third season at Western Michigan. He scored 1,000-plus career points in three years for the Broncos.

The highlight for Johnson last year was a monster performance in an upset win over Iowa. He scored 26 points and hauled in nine rebounds in the win while knocking down eight three-pointers.

He believes he can set a tone for the program. He offers a ton of experience as a seasoned veteran –– he has already started 116 college games in his career –– while bringing a mature approach.

“My first goal is to be a leader and to try and take them where they haven’t been recently,” said Johnson. “Each day I treat like it’s work, a day on the job. I will work hard, leave 100 percent on the floor. I want to show others how hard we need to work, to set an example.”

Johnson joins a revamped roster for the Blue Demons. Stubblefield has already added Oregon transfer Jalen Terry who was a four-star recruit coming out of high school. Kansas transfer Tyon Grant-Foster, a promising 6-7 wing, joins the mix, along with 6-7 Philmon Gebrewhit of South Plains Community College in Texas.

“It’s time to get the DePaul name out there again and to get kids in the Chicago area to stay home,” said Johnson.

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President Joe Biden stopped short of joining the growing demands from Democrats and others for an immediate cease-fire in the fighting.

President Joe Biden expressed support for a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers in a call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, the eighth day of air strikes and rocket barrages that have killed at least 200 people, most of them Palestinians in Gaza.

Biden stopped short of joining the growing demands from Democrats and others for an immediate cease-fire in the fighting. But the White House readout of the call showed increased White House concern that the fighting – including Israeli airstrikes aimed at weakening Hamas — come to an end, while still expressing support for Israel.

The U.S. leader also “encouraged Israel to make every effort to ensure the protection of innocent civilians,” according to a White House readout.

As the worst Israeli-Palestinian fighting since 2014 raged, the Biden administration had previously limited its public criticisms to Hamas and declined to send a top-level envoy to the region, or press Israel publicly and directly to wind down its latest military operation in the Gaza Strip, a six-mile by 25-mile territory that is home to more than 2 million people. Cease-fire mediation by Egypt and others have shown no sign of progress.

The United States, Israel’s top ally, also blocked for a third time Monday what would have been a unanimous statement by the 15-nation U.N. Security Council expressing “grave concern” over the intensifying Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the loss of civilian lives. The final U.S. rejection Monday killed the Security Council statement, at least for now.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki and national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States was focusing instead on “quiet, intensive diplomacy.”

The U.S. administration’s publicly tempered response comes despite calls from Security Council partners, some Democrats and others for Biden’ and other international leaders to wade more deeply into diplomacy to end the worst Israel-Palestinian violence in years and revive long-collapsed mediation for genuine peace there.

Speaking in Copenhagen, where he was making an unrelated tour of Nordic countries, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken ticked off other, quieter U.S. outreach so far to try to de-escalate hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel, and said he would be making more calls Monday.

“In all of these engagements we have made clear that we are prepared to lend our support and good offices to the parties should they seek a cease-fire,” Blinken said.

He said he welcomed efforts by the U.N., Egypt and other nations working for a cease-fire.

“Any diplomatic initiative that advances that prospect is something that we’ll support,” he said. “And we are again willing and ready to do that. But ultimately it is up to the parties to make clear that they want to pursue a cease-fire.”

Pulling back from Middle East diplomacy to focus on other policy priorities — such as Biden’s emphasis on dealing with the rise of China — carries political risk for the administration. That includes weathering any blame when violence flares as the U.S. steps back from conflict zones in the Middle East, and Afghanistan. But a relatively hands-off approach in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict also could spare the U.S. years of shuttle diplomacy in support of a peace process that neither side actively supports.

At least 200 Palestinians had been killed in the strikes as of Monday, including 59 children and 35 women, with 1,300 people wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Eight people in Israel have been killed in rocket attacks launched from Gaza, including a 5-year-old boy and a soldier.

Blinken also said he had asked Israel for any evidence for its claim that Hamas was operating in an Gaza office building housing The Associated Press and Al Jazeera news bureaus that was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike over the weekend. But he said that he personally had “not seen any information provided.”

Blinken’s comments came after U.N. Security Council diplomats and Muslim foreign ministers convened emergency weekend meetings to demand a stop to civilian bloodshed, as Israeli warplanes carried out the deadliest single attacks Sunday in the week of fighting.

Biden’s ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told an emergency high-level meeting of the Security Council on Sunday that the United States was “working tirelessly through diplomatic channels” to stop the fighting.

She warned that the return to armed conflict would only put a negotiated two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict even further out of reach.

However, the United States blocked moves by China, Norway and Tunisia in the Security Council for the statement by the U.N.’s most powerful body, including a call for the cessation of hostilities. The proposed statement called for an end to “the crisis related to Gaza” and the protection of civilians, especially children.

In Israel, Hady Amr, a deputy assistant dispatched by Blinken to try to de-escalate the crisis, met with officials. Blinken himself has no announced plans to stop in the Middle East on his current trip.

Rep. Adam Schiff, Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee, urged Biden on Sunday to step up pressure on both sides to end the fighting and revive talks to resolve Israel’s conflicts and flashpoints with the Palestinians.

“I think the administration needs to push harder on Israel and the Palestinian Authority to stop the violence, bring about a cease-fire, end these hostilities, and get back to a process of trying to resolve this long-standing conflict,” Schiff, a California Democrat, told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, the senior Republican on the Foreign Relations subcommittee for the region, joined Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, the subcommittee chairman, in asking both sides to cease fire. Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia separately joined 26 other Democratic senators and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent, on Sunday in urging an immediate cease-fire to prevent further civilian deaths and any further escalation of the overall conflict. More Democratic lawmakers joined the calls Monday.

Biden focused on civilian deaths from Hamas rockets in a call with Netanyahu on Saturday, and a White House readout of the call made no mention of the U.S. urging Israel to join in a cease-fire that regional countries were pushing. Thomas-Greenfield said U.S. diplomats were engaging with Israel, Egypt and Qatar, along with the U.N.

Netanyahu told Israelis in a televised address Sunday that Israel “wants to levy a heavy price” on Hamas. That will “take time,” Netanyahu said, signaling the war would rage on for now.

Representatives of Muslim nations met Sunday to demand Israel halt attacks that are killing Palestinian civilians in the crowded Gaza strip.

At the virtual meeting of the Security Council, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that returning to the Palestinian rocket fire and Israeli airstrikes in the fourth such war between Israel and Hamas, “only perpetuates the cycles of death, destruction and despair, and pushes farther to the horizon any hopes of coexistence and peace,.”

Eight foreign ministers spoke at the Security Council session, reflecting the seriousness of the conflict, with almost all urging an end to the fighting.

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Knickmeyer reported from Oklahoma City, Lee from Copenhagen, Denmark, and Lederer from New York. Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Alan Fram, Aamer Madhani, Padmananda Rama and Joshua Boak in Washington contributed.

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At least 212 Palestinians have been killed in the week of airstrikes, including 61 children and 36 women, with more than 1,400 people wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Ten people in Israel, including a 5-year-old boy and a soldier, have been killed in the ongoing rocket attacks

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Israeli military unleashed another heavy wave of airstrikes Monday on the Gaza Strip, saying it destroyed militant tunnels and the homes of nine Hamas commanders. International diplomacy to end the weeklong war that has killed hundreds appeared to make little headway.

Israel has said it will press on for now with its attacks against Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, and the United States signaled it would not pressure the two sides for a cease-fire even as President Joe Biden said he supported one.

The latest attacks destroyed the five-story building housing the Hamas-run Religious Affairs Ministry, a building Israel said housed the main operations center of Hamas’ internal security forces. Israel also killed a top Gaza leader of Islamic Jihad, another militant group whom the Israeli military blamed for some of the thousands of rocket attacks launched at Israel in recent days. Israel said its strikes destroyed 15 kilometers (9 miles) of tunnels used by militants.

At least 212 Palestinians have been killed in the week of airstrikes, including 61 children and 36 women, with more than 1,400 people wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Ten people in Israel, including a 5-year-old boy and a soldier, have been killed in the ongoing rocket attacks launched from civilian areas in Gaza toward civilian areas in Israel.

Violence has also erupted between Jews and Arabs inside Israel, leaving scores of people injured. On Monday, a Jewish man attacked last week by a group of Arabs in the central city of Lod died of his wounds, according to police.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with top security officials on Monday evening and later said Israel would “continue to strike terror targets” in Gaza. “We will continue to operate as long as necessary in order to return calm and security to all Israeli citizens,” he said.

The new airstrikes, which hit Gaza overnight Monday and again in the evening, hollowed out one floor of a multistory concrete building and killed five people. A woman picked through clothing, rubble and splintered furniture in a room that had been destroyed. One strike demolished the wall of one room, leaving untouched an open cabinet filled with bedding inside. Children walked over debris in the road.

A car in the street that witnesses said was hit by an airstrike was bent and torn, its roof ripped back and what was left of the driver’s side door smeared with blood. A beachside cafe the car had just left was splintered and on fire. Rescue workers tried to put out the blaze with a small fire extinguisher.

Gaza City’s mayor, Yahya Sarraj, said the strikes had caused extensive damage to roads and other infrastructure. He said water supplies to hundreds of households were disrupted. “We are trying hard to provide water, but the situation remains difficult,” he said.

The U.N. has warned that the territory’s sole power station is at risk of running out of fuel. Gaza already experiences daily power outages for between eight and 12 hours, and tap water is undrinkable. Mohammed Thabet, a spokesman for the territory’s electricity distribution company, said it has fuel to supply Gaza with electricity for two or three days.

Palestinian officials said Israel pledged to open its only cargo crossing with Gaza for several hours Tuesday to allow humanitarian aid — including fuel, food and medicine — to enter.

Israel also said it targeted what it suspected was a Hamas submersible weapon preparing for an attack on Israel’s coast.

The war broke out May 10, when Hamas fired long-range rockets at Jerusalem after weeks of clashes in the holy city between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police. The protests were focused on the heavy-handed policing of a flashpoint sacred site during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers.

More protests were expected across the region Tuesday in response to a call by Palestinian citizens of Israel for a general strike. The protest has the support of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party.

The Biden administration has declined so far to publicly criticize Israel’s part in the fighting or send a top-level envoy to the region. On Monday, the United States again blocked a proposed U.N. Security Council statement calling for an end to “the crisis related to Gaza” and the protection of civilians, especially children.

The White House said Monday evening that Biden expressed “support” for a cease-fire during a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But Secretary of State Antony Blinken signaled earlier that the U.S. did not intend to pressure the two sides.

“Ultimately it is up to the parties to make clear that they want to pursue a cease-fire,” Blinken told reporters during a trip to Denmark.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who spoke Monday with Netanyahu, emphasized her country’s solidarity with Israel, condemned the continued rocket attacks from Gaza, and expressed hope for a swift end to the fighting, according to her office.

Hamas’ top leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who is based abroad, said the group has been contacted by the United Nations, Russia, Egypt and Qatar as part of cease-fire efforts but “will not accept a solution that is not up to the sacrifices of the Palestinian people.”

Since the fighting began, the Israeli military has launched hundreds of airstrikes it says are targeting Hamas’ militant infrastructure. Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired more than 3,200 rockets into Israel. Israeli military officials said Hamas had stockpiled about 15,000 rockets before the war started. Rocket attacks continued Monday, with one hitting a building in the city of Ashdod that caused injuries, the Israeli police said.

Israel’s military said six rockets launched from Lebanon late Monday apparently fell inside Lebanese territory, and artillery returned fire into southern Lebanon.

Israel’s airstrikes have leveled a number of Gaza City’s tallest buildings, which Israel alleges contained Hamas military infrastructure. Among them was the building housing The Associated Press Gaza office and those of other media outlets.

Netanyahu alleged that Hamas military intelligence was operating inside the building and said any evidence would be shared through intelligence channels. Blinken said he hasn’t yet seen any evidence supporting Israel’s claim.

AP President Gary Pruitt called for an independent investigation into the attack.

“As we have said, we have no indication of a Hamas presence in the building, nor were we warned of any such possible presence before the airstrike,” he said in a statement. “This is something we check as best we can. We do not know what the Israeli evidence shows, and we want to know.”

The Israeli military said it struck 35 “terror targets” Monday as well as the tunnels, which it says are part of an elaborate system it refers to as the “Metro,” used by fighters to take cover from airstrikes. They included a strike against a building that housed the Qatari Red Crescent, Qatar said. That attack killed a man and a 12-year-old girl.

The tunnels extend for hundreds of miles, with some more than 20 yards deep, according to an Israeli Air Force official who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, in keeping with regulations. The official said Israel was not trying to destroy all the tunnels, just chokepoints and major junctions.

The military also said it struck nine houses in different parts of northern Gaza that belonged to “high-ranking commanders” in Hamas. Islamic Jihad said a strike killed Hasam Abu Harbid, the militant group’s commander for the northern Gaza Strip.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad say at least 20 of their fighters have been killed, while Israel says the number is at least 130 and has released the names of and photos of more than two dozen militant commanders it says were “eliminated.” The Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, does not give a breakdown of how many casualties were militants or civilians.

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Nessman reported from Atlanta, Associated Press writers Joseph Krauss in Jerusalem, Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Matthew Lee in Copenhagen, and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed.

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