(WASHINGTON) — Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a sweeping crackdown Wednesday on dueling efforts by the Russian government to influence the upcoming 2024 election through covert networks aimed at spreading disinformation to American voters.
For months, the Biden administration has been publicly warning of Russia’s efforts to influence Americans through disinformation and propaganda to sow distrust in the election.
In a meeting Wednesday at the Justice Department, Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray highlighted both foreign and domestic incidents of attempts to influence voters, as well as pervasive and growing threats against those who administer elections.
“The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing,” Garland said.
The Justice Department alleged that two employees of Russia Today, or RT — a Russian state-controlled media outlet, implemented a nearly $10 million scheme “to fund and direct a Tennessee-based company to publish and disseminate content deemed favorable to the Russian government.”
To carry this out, the attorney general said the two employees — 31-year-old Kostiantyn Kalashnikov, also known as Kostya, and Elena Afanasyeva, 27 — allegedly directed the company to contract with social media influencers to amplify Russian propaganda.
“The company never disclosed to the influencers or to their millions of followers its ties to RT and the Russian government. Instead, the defendants and the company claimed that the company was sponsored by a private investor, but that private investor was a fictitious persona,” Garland said.
Russian entities also created fake websites to allegedly further influence the election, officials said.
“RT has used people living and working inside the U.S. to facilitate contracts with American media figures to create and disseminate Russian propaganda here. The content was pitched as legitimate independent news when, in fact, much of it was created in Russia by RT employees who work for the Russian government,” Wray said. “The second operation reveals even more malign activities by companies working under the direction and control of the Russian government, companies that created media websites to trick Americans into unwittingly consuming Russian propaganda.”
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said they will continue to investigate election threats without fear or favor.
“Russia remains a predominant foreign threat to our elections, and as the intelligence community has publicly reported, and as I have previously warned, Iran also is accelerating its efforts to influence our elections, including the presidential election,” Monaco said.
Wray also delivered a blunt message for Iran and China when asked what the bureau’s response would be to those who intend to meddle in the presidential election: “Knock it off.”
The attorney general said Russia is using new techniques Russia such as artificial intelligence and other cyber techniques.
“They’re now using bot farms in a way that was not possible before, and therefore it’s a bigger threat than it ever was before. I would just say that [the] reality is that Russia has meddled in our society and tried to sow discord for decades,” Garland said.
The DOJ also announced that it’s targeting a Russian disinformation campaign referred to as “Doppelganger.”
The DOJ has seized 32 internet domains it claims have been used by the Russian government and government-sponsored actors to allegedly engage in the Doppelganger influence campaign by spreading propaganda intended to reduce international support for Ukraine, bolster support for pro-Russian policies and influence American voters, according to newly unsealed court records.
Garland on Wednesday also highlighted domestic efforts to threaten election officials around the country.
Since March, the Election Threats Task Force has participated in more than 25 engagements, trainings and tabletop exercises, including both with law enforcement partners and partners in the election community, the attorney general said.
Over the next several weeks, task force representatives will be on the ground meeting with election workers and, in early November, both in advance of and after Election Day, the FBI will host federal partners at its headquarters command center to address events, issues and potential crimes related to the elections in real time, Garland said.
“Election officials and administrators do not need to navigate this threat environment alone,” he added.
CNN first reported news of the expected law enforcement actions.
In a statement Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken outlined the steps the State Department said it’s taking to “counter Kremlin-backed media outlets’ malicious operations seeking to influence or interfere in the 2024 U.S. elections.”
The measures include introducing a new visa restriction policy to penalize adversaries, designating RT’s parent company and subsidiaries as entities controlled by a foreign government, and offering cash rewards for information on the Russian intelligence-linked hacking group RaHDit under its “Rewards for Justice” program.
“Today’s announcement highlights the lengths some foreign governments go to undermine American democratic institutions. But these foreign governments should also know that we will not tolerate foreign malign actors intentionally interfering and undermining free and fair elections,” Blinken said.
In addition, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said Wednesday that it’s designating 10 individuals — including several RT employees — and two entities as part of the U.S. response to “Moscow’s malign influence efforts targeting the 2024 U.S. presidential election.”
The head of a “hacktivist” group RaHDit and two associates were also part of Wednesday’s sanctions, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
ABC News’ Shannon Kingston and Molly Nagle contributed to this report.
(INDIANAPOLIS) — A man has been arrested in the 1993 rape and murder of his 19-year-old neighbor in Indiana after he was linked to the case through genetic genealogy, authorities said.
On March 24, 1993, Carmen Van Huss’ father went to her Indianapolis apartment to check on her after she didn’t show up for work. He found his daughter dead on the floor, according to the probable cause affidavit.
She was naked and had multiple puncture wounds to her head, face and body, the document said.
“There were obvious signs of a struggle, including a knocked over table, clothing thrown on the floor, a large pooling of blood near the victim’s head, and blood spatter around the victim’s body,” the probable cause affidavit said.
A resident in the apartment directly below Van Huss told police that, in the early hours of March 23, he heard screams, crying, slamming, banging and “noises and voices of a male arguing that lasted approximately 30 minutes,” the probable cause affidavit said.
In the years that followed, police said they interviewed dozens of people and followed up on hundreds of leads. But the case went cold.
In 2013, the unknown suspect’s DNA was uploaded to CODIS — the nationwide law enforcement DNA database — but there wasn’t a match, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Then, in 2018, police said they submitted a DNA sample from the crime scene to Parabon NanoLabs to try to solve the case with forensic genetic genealogy — a new investigative tool that takes unknown DNA and identifies it by comparing it to family members who voluntarily submitted their DNA samples to a database.
In 2023, police said “various investigative methods and lead information from the genetic genealogy analysis” led to a suspect’s name: Dana Shepherd.
Police determined Shepherd was Van Huss’ neighbor in 1993. Their apartment buildings were connected internally by a shared common area, according to the probable cause affidavit.
In February, police were granted a warrant to obtain DNA from Shepherd, who was now living in Missouri and working at the University of Missouri, the probable cause affidavit said.
When police showed Shepherd the warrant, he “was visibly shaking,” the document said.
In June, testing determined that Shepherd’s DNA matched the DNA on Van Huss’ body and at the crime scene, police said.
Shepherd, 52, was arrested in Missouri last week on charges of murder, felony murder and rape, police said. He has not yet been extradited to Indiana, police said.
“There’s a lot of people that missed Carmen all these years,” Van Huss’ brother, Jimmy Van Huss Jr., said at a news conference Tuesday. “She had a lot of family, a lot of friends. She had cousins that loved her like sisters.”
“She wasn’t able to experience her college graduation or have a wedding or any of life’s events,” he said.
“She was taken from me when I was a freshman in high school. And I’m thankful that, finally, the man that did it is where he needs to be,” he said. “I do have hope that any similar case with DNA can get this same treatment with the genealogy and everything we have available today.”
(NEW YORK) — As the Israel-Hamas war continues, the latest round of cease-fire discussions appears to have reached an impasse.
Meanwhile, after six hostages were found dead in Gaza, protests erupted in Israel. Protesters have demanded its government bring the hostages home.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Netanyahu defends keeping troops in Philadelphi corridor
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down on his position that Israeli forces cannot leave the Philadelphi corridor and still achieve Israel’s goals of the war in Gaza during a press conference in Jerusalem Wednesday.
“I’m telling you that if we relieve the pressure, if we get out of the Philadelphi corridor, we are not going to get the hostages back,” Netanyahu said.
The Philadelphi corridor — a narrow strip of land on the Gaza side of the Gaza-Egypt border — has been one of the main sticking points in reaching a hostage and cease-fire deal.
Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel needs to control the corridor to release the remaining hostages in Gaza.
“I’m committed to returning the remaining 101 [hostages]. I’ll do everything to get them, but leaving Philadelphi does not advance the release of the hostages, because the deal cannot be advanced,” he said.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman
Israel hits southern Lebanon after dozens of rockets fired, IDF says
Around 65 projectiles were fired into Israel from Lebanon on Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces said, with air raid sirens sounding and air defense units active in border areas.
“The IDF Aerial Defense Array successfully intercepted some of the projectiles, and some fell in open areas,” the force said.
“A number of fires were ignited by fallen projectiles,” it added, noting that emergency services were responding.
The IDF said it was “currently striking Hezbollah terror targets in southern Lebanon.”
Hamas threatens Netanyahu with more hostage deaths
Hamas has issued a new threat tying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s premiership to the fate of the surviving Gaza hostages.
“Aggression stops = prisoners return alive,” a Wednesday morning post on the group’s official Telegram channel said. “Aggression continues = prisoners’ fate unknown.”
“Every day that Netanyahu continues to rule may mean a new coffin,” the post — which was written in English, Arabic and Hebrew — continued. “The decision is yours.”
Hamas and Netanyahu have blamed each other for the failure to reach a cease-fire deal. Hamas said Netanyahu’s demands are “aimed at obstructing reaching an agreement to preserve his power.”
Netanyahu, for his part, said this weekend of the militant group: “Whoever murders hostages — does not want a deal.”
There are 101 hostages still inside Gaza, around half of whom are believed to still be alive.
187,000 Gaza children receive polio vaccine, WHO says
More than 187,000 children in central Gaza have received polio vaccines since Sunday, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X on Wednesday that the “first phase of polio vaccination in central Gaza is complete,” with more than 187,000 children under the age of 10 vaccinated.
That is higher than the target number of 156,500, Ghebreyesus said.
“Four fixed sites will continue to offer polio vaccination for the next three days in central Gaza to ensure no child is missed,” the WHO chief added.
Preparations are underway to expand the vaccine roll out campaign into southern Gaza, Ghebreyesus said. Vaccinations there are expected to begin on Thursday.
Palestinian health authorities and United Nations agencies hope to vaccinate 640,000 children.
Israel agreed to partial pauses in the fighting in Gaza to facilitate the polio vaccination campaign, saying the drive will continue through Sept. 9 and last eight hours a day.
“We ask for the humanitarian pauses to continue to be respected,” Ghebreyesus wrote. “We continue to call for a cease-fire.”
Protesters plan gathering at Netanyahu ally’s home
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum will again lead cease-fire and hostage release demonstrations across Israel on Wednesday, according to a schedule posted to social media.
“The public is called to join and come together with the families of the abductees to the houses of the ministers and coalition members and hold demonstrations and protest vigils demanding that they exercise their authority to bring about a deal now,” the Forum wrote on X.
Among the gatherings will be one outside the Jerusalem home of Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer — a former member of the dissolved war cabinet and long considered a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Activists plan to protest at the homes of eight other government ministers and three members of parliament, the Forum said.
Far-right minister ‘working to stop’ cease-fire talks
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said he is “working to stop the negotiations with Hamas,” as talks over a cease-fire and hostage release deal continue under massive public and international pressure.
Ben-Gvir — one of the most vocally hawkish members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government — wrote on X that Israel should end negotiations and cut fuel and electricity to Gaza in response to Hamas’ recent killing of six hostages in the southern strip.
“Continuing the negotiations only spurs them to produce more and more terror,” including in the West Bank, Ben-Gvir said.
Ben-Gvir is a longstanding proponent of expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank. He has called on the government to “encourage” Israelis to settle in Gaza while suggesting “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians from the territory.
Ben-Gvir was convicted of incitement to racism and supporting a terror organization in 2008, related to an anti-Arab placard he displayed at a protest following a Palestinian terrorist attack in Jerusalem. Signs referring to the far-right Kach movement — a Jewish group banned as a terror organization — were also found in his car.
Emhoff says parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin told him, Harris they don’t want son’s death to ‘be in vain’
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff said Tuesday night that the parents of Oct. 7 hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who the Israeli military found had been killed last week, do not want their son’s “death to be in vain.”
Emhoff opened up about the recent conversation he and his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris, had with the couple after learning of the death of their son.
Speaking at a vigil hosted at the Adas Israel Congregation synagogue in Washington, D.C., which was organized to honor the memory of the six Israeli hostages found killed by Hamas in Gaza, Emhoff said Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin remained committed to seeing the remaining hostages released.
“And yet, with this unspeakable tragedy that they were going through … they were comforting us, but also asking about the latest in the negotiations,” Emhoff told those gathered at the vigil about the call with the grieving couple, which occurred last week. “They were asking how we can use this terrible moment to make progress on the deal. And they told the vice president, in no uncertain terms, they do not want Hersh’s death to be in vain. And they spoke with such grace, such compassion, such strength. And even though part of Rachel and Jon’s world had just ended, they were somehow still looking forward and looking out for others.”
DOJ charges senior Hamas leaders over involvement in Americans’ deaths in Oct. 7 attack
The Justice Department unsealed charges Tuesday targeting multiple senior members of Hamas’ leadership for their alleged involvement in the kidnapping and murdering of Americans during the Oct. 7 attack.
The criminal complaint, unsealed in the Southern District of New York, names six members of Hamas’ leadership structure and details extensively their terrorist activities on behalf of the group.
White House says Israel originally agreed to remove IDF from areas of Philadelphi corridor
The White House is pushing back on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stance of keeping Israeli troops along the Philadelphi corridor — a narrow strip of land on the Gaza side of the Gaza-Egypt border — saying the prime minister originally agreed to removing troops in the Israel-approved framework that was announced in May.
“I’m not going to get into a debate with the prime minister and what he said over the weekend about the Philadelphi corridor,” White House national security communications adviser John Kirby said. “The deal itself, the proposal, including the bridging proposal that we started working with … included the removal of Israeli Defense Forces from all densely populated areas, and that includes those areas along that corridor. That’s the proposal that Israel had agreed to.”
Kirby acknowledged Israel’s belief that they need “some security” along the corridor, but Kirby did not give the U.S. position on whether the administration supports the IDF remaining in less dense areas along the border.
“The proposal says that they have to remove themselves to the east from densely populated areas — and that core essential element of the proposal has not changed,” Kirby said. “But the Israelis have said publicly that they believe that … they would need some security along that corridor.”
-ABC News’ Justin Ryan Gomez
Gantz: Netanyahu is holding up a deal
National Unity party leader Benny Gantz slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, claiming he is holding up a cease-fire and hostage deal.
Gantz said that on Monday, Netanyahu in his speech “did not look directly at the public and told the truth: That he will not bring the kidnapped alive, that he will not truly protect the southern bracket, that he will not return the residents of the north to their homes, that he will not deny Iran nuclear weapons.”
“This did not surprise me, because during the period that we sat in the War Cabinet, Netanyahu delayed the ability to move forward with the abducted deals serially, including in the first outline,” Gantz said. “This does not surprise me because already at the beginning of the war, when we asked to extend the military pressure to Khan Yunis and then to Rafah, Netanyahu hesitated and stopped.”
“The time has come to say yes and move forward: we need to bring a deal – either in stages or in one stage,” Gantz said.
Netanyahu in response laid out the Israeli military’s recent successes.
“Since Gantz and his party resigned from the government, Israel has eliminated the Hamas Chief of Staff and the Hezbollah Chief of Staff, attacked the Houthis, captured the Philadelphia axis – Hamas’s armament pipeline – and carried out a pre-emptive strike against Hezbollah that thwarted its malicious plan and destroyed thousands of rockets aimed at the Galilee,” Netanyahu said. “Whoever does not contribute to the victory and the return of our hostages, it is better not to interfere.”
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Thousands gather for new protest in Tel Aviv
Thousands gathered in Tel Aviv Tuesday for a new protest organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
The event was led by the younger members of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum who are calling for a deal to bring all of the hostages home, the organization said.
43 killed in Israeli operation in Gaza
Forty-three people have been killed from ongoing operations in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.
Israeli forces said its soldiers “struck a compound where Hamas terrorists were operating” and killed eight Hamas members. The strike was near the Al-Ahli hospital compound but wasn’t within the hospital premises, the IDF said.
“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence,” the IDF said in a statement.
-ABC News’ Sami Zayara and Jordana Miller
Kirby hedges on ‘final proposal’ reports, says Biden is personally still working on deal
White House national security communications adviser John Kirby hedged on reports that the U.S. is putting forward a “final proposal” when it comes to hostage negotiations, saying the administration — including President Joe Biden – is still working to get a deal.
Kirby refused to give any details about the current proposal, or how it might differ from previous offers put forward, but he stressed that the deal is “actively” being worked on with Qatar and Egypt.
“The president himself is personally involved in working with our team and working with leaders around the world to secure this deal,” Kirby said, adding that this weekend’s recovery of six slain hostages “underscores the sense of urgency that we have.”
Asked about the United Kingdom’s new restrictions on some arms exports to Israel, Kirby said he would not “comment one way or another on the decisions that our British counterparts made.”
U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy told Parliament on Monday about 30 of its 350 export licenses were suspended because “there does exist a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”
“I can just tell you that, No. 1: We’re going to continue to do we have to do to support Israel’s defensive capabilities,” Kirby said. “No. 2: We have, as I’ve said many times, reviewed individual reports as best we can, and talking to the Israelis about individual reports about compliance with international humanitarian law. And as we speak, there’s been no determination by the United States that they have violated international humanitarian [law].”
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Al-Shifa Hospital reopens 2 departments
Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest and most comprehensive hospital in the Gaza Strip, reopened two of its departments on Sunday after facing shelling, raids and two sieges in the ongoing war, Al-Shifa Medical Complex Director Dr. Marwan Abu Saada told ABC News.
The reopened departments are the Emergency and Accidents Department — which has 70 beds, two operating rooms, one intensive care unit room and one X-ray room — and the Kidney Dialysis Department, which has about 22 kidney dialysis machines and serves 36 patients with kidney failure, Abu Saada said.
The hospital had capacity for 800 beds before the war, Abu Saada said.
“As for the medical staff, there is a large deficit in medical personnel, but at least we want to work and serve the community,” he said.
The maternity building will undergo a six-month restoration to become a general surgery building, he added.
-ABC News’ Camilla Alcini
Cease-fire protesters plan action near Tel Aviv Defense Ministry
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum announced a fresh protest scheduled for 7 p.m. local time Tuesday in Tel Aviv, close to the entrance of the Defense Ministry building.
The action will be “led by the younger members of the families,” the Forum wrote in a post on X, who will “call for a deal to bring all 101 hostages home.”
Attendees will protest what the Forum called “the abandonment of the hostages in Hamas captivity.”
Additional demonstrations elsewhere will include a gathering outside the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, a protest outside Foreign Minister Israel Katz’s residence in Kfar Ahim, one in front of Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter’s home in Ashkelon and another outside Deputy Prime Minister Yariv Levin’s home in Modi’in.
Gaza polio vaccination drive reaches 160,000 children
Some 160,000 Gaza children received their first vaccination for polio on Sunday and Monday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The emergency rollout began on Sunday, facilitated by a partial pause in fighting in the strip. Medical teams in the central part of the territory said they were able to vaccinate 72,611 children on the first day of the campaign.
Palestinian health authorities and United Nations agencies said they were hoping to vaccinate 640,000 children during the push. Israel agreed to some pauses in fighting to support the campaign, though airstrikes have continued in its first two days.
Israel has said the vaccination program will continue through Sept. 9 and last eight hours a day.
Polio is among the illnesses feared to be thriving in Gaza after 10 months of war. The strip’s long-standing humanitarian difficulties have been exacerbated by the destruction of health care facilities, critical infrastructure, and the displacement — sometimes repeated displacement — of most of the territory’s residents.
Gaza recently reported its first polio case in 25 years — a 10-month-old boy, now paralyzed in a leg. The World Health Organization said the case suggests there could be hundreds more infected who are not symptomatic.
Netanyahu asks hostage families for forgiveness, says pressure should be directed at Hamas
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is asking for forgiveness from the families of the six slain hostages whose bodies were recovered this weekend.
“I ask you for forgiveness that we did not succeed to bring your loved ones back alive. We were close, but we did not succeed,” Netanyahu said at a Monday news conference.
Netanyahu again said the Israel Defense Forces must maintain a presence on the Egyptian border, but he said the IDF does not need a “large” presence of forces there. It needs groups of forces in key areas all along the border, he said. Netanyahu also reiterated that the IDF must maintain a presence in the Philadelphi corridor to reach the goals of the war.
When asked how he would define “total victory” in the war, Netanyahu responded, “When Hamas no longer rules Gaza — we throw them out. I would define the end of the war of World War II when the Nazis no longer ruled Germany. To do that you need to have a military victory and you have to have also a political victory to destroy their governance.”
Netanyahu also said that international “pressure” must be directed at Hamas, not Israel.
“These murderers executed six of our hostages, they shot them in the back of the head. And now after this we’re asked to show seriousness, we’re asked to make concessions? What message does this send Hamas?” he said.
Netanyahu added, “I don’t believe President [Joe] Biden or anyone serious about achieving peace and achieving the release [of hostages] can seriously ask Israel to make these concessions. We’ve already made them. Hamas has to make concessions.”
A Hamas military spokesman said in a new statement the Israeli hostages won’t be freed by force.
“Netanyahu’s insistence on freeing the prisoners through military pressure instead of concluding a deal will mean their return to their families in coffins, and their families will have to choose between dead or alive,” the spokesperson said.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Biden: ‘We’re in the middle of negotiations’ on hostage, cease-fire deal
President Joe Biden told reporters “we’re still negotiating” when asked if there will be a final hostage and cease-fire deal proposed this week.
Asked what he wants Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do, Biden replied, “We’re in the middle of negotiations.”
“We’re still in negotiations. Not with him [Netanyahu], with my colleagues from Qatar and from Egypt,” Biden said.
Earlier on Monday, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with the U.S. hostage deal negotiating team in the Situation Room.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke on the phone Monday morning with Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, a U.S. official said. They discussed efforts to conclude a deal for the release of the hostages and for a cease-fire in Gaza, the official said.
-ABC News’ Karen Travers, Elizabeth Schulze and Lauren Peller
Protesters break through barriers near Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s residence
Protesters broke through barriers near Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem on Monday as they demanded progress on a deal to return the hostages in Gaza.
Monday marks the second day of large protests across Israel after six murdered hostages were recovered in Gaza this weekend.
Israeli defense minister ‘deeply disheartened’ by UK decision to suspend some arms exports to Israel
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement he was “deeply disheartened” to learn of the United Kingdom’s new restrictions on some arms exports to Israel.
“This comes at a time when we fight a war on 7 different fronts — a war that was launched by a savage terrorist organization, unprovoked,” Gallant said. “At a time when we mourn 6 hostages who were executed in cold blood by Hamas inside tunnels in Gaza. At a time when we fight to bring 101 hostages home.”
U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy told Parliament on Monday about 30 of 350 export licenses are suspended because “there does exist a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
29 Palestinians killed in West Bank since IDF operation began
Twenty-nine Palestinians have been killed and 121 have been injured in the West Bank since the Israeli military’s operation began last Wednesday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement Monday.
Eighteen people were killed in the Jenin governate of the West Bank, four in the Tubas governate, four in the Tulkarm governate and three in the Hebron governate, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta
Biden, Harris meet with US hostage deal negotiating team
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with the U.S. hostage deal negotiating team in the Situation Room on Monday, according to the White House.
Biden and Harris received an update from the negotiation team on the “status of the bridging proposal outlined by the United States, Qatar and Egypt” and “they discussed next steps” in the release of the hostages, the White House said.
Biden also “expressed his devastation and outrage at the murder” of Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages and he “reaffirmed the importance of holding Hamas’s leaders accountable,” the White House said.
Officials participating in the briefing included Secretary of State Antony Blinken, CIA Director Bill Burns and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
Netanyahu doubles down on Israeli troops remaining in Philadelphi corridor
In an Israeli cabinet meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down on his stance that he will not agree to a cease-fire and hostage deal that includes the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Philadelphi corridor in Gaza, according to an Israeli official.
Israeli troops remaining in the Philadelphi corridor has been a key sticking point in the ongoing negotiations. Hamas wants a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
“Everyone who says that it is possible to leave Philadelphi for 42 days, knows very well that it will be for 42 years. The world will not allow us to return,” Netanyahu said during Sunday night’s cabinet meeting, according to an Israeli official. “Everyone understands the importance of Philadelphi, and [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar understands it best. That is why he insists. All smuggling the weapons to Gaza were through Philadelphi. If we change the cabinet’s decision, it will be a terrorist award, you will not return the hostages.”
The Hostages Families Forum said in a statement that Netanyahu’s comments are “dangerous.” The families said Netanyahu’s statement means “there will be no deal, and the families will not get to see their loved ones return home.”
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller and Dana Savir
Israeli president apologizes to Hersh Goldberg-Polin and his parents for not keeping him safe
As Israeli President Isaac Herzog gave a eulogy at the funeral of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, he apologized to the slain 23-year-old.
“I apologize that the country you immigrated to at the age of 7, wrapped in the Israeli flag, could not keep you safe,” Herzog said Monday, two days after the Israeli-American’s body was recovered in Gaza, along with five others.
The president also asked for forgiveness from Goldberg-Polin’s parents, Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin, for not bringing their son home alive.
He said he learned of “a mother’s and father’s limitless love” from Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin.
“Jon and Rachel, against the senseless hatred, and unthinkable brutality of Hamas terror, pure barbaric evil, you have taught the world about human dignity,” Herzog said. “As a human being, as a father, and as the President of the State of Israel, I want to say how sorry I am. How sorry I am that we didn’t protect Hersh on that dark day. How sorry I am that we failed to bring him home.”
Though he said Israel will “continue fighting relentlessly against” Hamas, Herzog stressed that the remaining 101 hostages must be released.
“The time to act is now: Bring them home,” Herzog said.
“Decision-makers must do everything possible, with determination and courage, to save those who can still be saved,” he said. “This is not a political goal, and it must not become a political dispute. It is a supreme moral, Jewish, and human duty of the State of Israel to its citizens.”
-ABC News’ Becky Perlow
Biden says Netanyahu is not doing enough, says ‘we are very close’ to presenting final deal
When asked by reporters if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doing enough on the hostage deal, President Joe Biden on Monday replied, “No.”
Asked about presenting a final hostage deal this week, Biden said, “We are very close to that.”
“Hope springs eternal,” Biden said, when asked what makes this final deal different, but he declined to provide details.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are meeting with the U.S. hostage negotiation team Monday morning.
-ABC News’ Lauren Peller
‘We failed you,’ dad of slain hostage says
Hersh Goldberg-Polin was curious, self-assured and a deep, independent thinker, his dad, Jon Polin, said at his funeral on Monday.
The 23-year-old, who was found dead in Gaza this weekend, was “always seeking to understand the other, and always with dignity and respect,” Polin said.
“Hersh, we failed you. We all failed you,” Polin said with a “332” on his shirt, marking how many days his son was held hostage. “You would not have failed you. You would’ve pushed harder for justice … to bridge differences. … What you would be pushing for now is to ensure your death … [and the others’ deaths are] not in vain.”
“Maybe, just maybe, your death … is the fuel that will bring home the remaining 101 hostages,” Polin said.
“You have become a global symbol of bringing improvement to our world,” he said.
“The 23 years of life that we had with you were a blessing. We now will work to make your legacy a similar blessing,” he said.
Funeral underway for slain American hostage
A funeral procession is underway in Jerusalem for slain Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin. The 23-year-old was one of six murdered hostages recovered this weekend.
The Israeli Ministry of Health said the six hostages were killed “in a number of short-range shots” between Thursday and Friday morning.
The funeral comes one day after thousands of people took to the streets of Tel Aviv to protest the deaths of the six hostages.
2 hours and 31 minutes ago Tel Aviv braces for fresh protests
More than 1,000 people have gathered in the northern Israeli city of Tel Aviv for continued anti-government protests, demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conclude a cease-fire and hostage-release deal with Hamas.
Other marches are taking place elsewhere in Israel. A general strike — called by Histadrut, Israel’s largest trade union — also began on Monday morning in protest of the government’s failure to free those still held hostage inside Gaza.
Police reported violent clashes with anti-government protesters in Tel Aviv on Sunday night, saying officers had arrested 29 people.
The current wave of demonstrations was sparked by the recovery of the bodies of six of Hamas’ hostages from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday.
-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and David Brennan
3 hours and 57 minutes ago Israel Police accuses Tel Aviv marchers of ‘brutal’ vandalism, violence
The Israel Police has condemned what it called “brutal vandalism” during a night of anti-government demonstrations in Tel Aviv, sparked by the deaths in captivity of six of Hamas’ Gaza hostages.
In a statement, the Police Spokesperson’s Unit said officers arrested 29 suspects for a range of offenses including disorderly conduct, assaulting officers and vandalism.
The violence followed a planned protest at the Kaplan Junction in Tel Aviv, the statement said, after which “hundreds of protesters” left the approved demonstration area and moved to the Ayalon Highway, “with the intent to disrupt traffic and public order.”
Some marchers “violently pushed against barricades and officers, leading to a confrontation during which a policewoman was injured and lost consciousness,” the statement said. The officer was evacuated for medical treatment.
As officers attempted to clear the area, some protesters “breached security perimeters, blocked the Ayalon Highway, and set fires, while firing fireworks that nearly hit officers,” police said.
“The Israel Police strongly condemns the acts of vandalism and violence directed at officers,” the statement read. “We will pursue legal action against those responsible to the fullest extent of the law.”
The protesters were demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government agree to a cease-fire and hostage-release deal with Hamas.
A general strike called by Israel’s largest trade union — Histadrut — began on Monday morning in a bid to pressure the government into reaching an accord with the militant group.
Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff spoke with the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American-Israeli hostage who was found dead in Gaza on Saturday along with five other Oct. 7 hostages, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
The vice president and her husband called parents Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin on Sunday to “express our condolences following the brutal murder of their son by Hamas terrorists,” Harris said in a statement on X.
“My heart breaks for their pain and anguish,” Harris continued.
“I told them: As they mourn this terrible loss, they are not alone. Our nation mourns with them,” Harris said.
4:59 PM EDT Protest erupts in Tel Aviv as demonstrators demand cease-fire deal
Protesters took to the streets of Tel Aviv Sunday night, demanding a cease-fire agreement and the release of the remaining hostages being held by Hamas terrorists.
The demonstration came a day after Israel Defense Forces recovered the bodies of six hostages in tunnels under the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
Protesters were seen waving Israeli flags as they demanded a cease-fire agreement, chanting “Deal. Now.”
-ABC News’ Victoria Beaule
3:25 PM EDT 6 killed in IDF strike on Gaza school, says Gaza Civil Defense
At least six people were killed on Sunday when Israel Defense Forces conducted an airstrike on a school in Gaza City, according to Gaza Civil Defense.
The IDF said in a statement that the strike was aimed at Hamas terrorists they allege were operating a command-and-control center inside the Safad school to plan and carry out terrorist attacks against the IDF and Israel.
“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence,” the IDF said in a statement.
The Gaza Civil Defense confirmed the Safad school was hit in the IDF strike, but said the school houses displaced people from the Al-Zeitoun area east of Gaza City.
(WASHINGTON) — The Pentagon is aware of reports Wednesday that an American service member was recently detained in Venezuela, a U.S. official told ABC News.
The Department of Defense is “working closely” with the State Department on the matter, according to a statement from the official.
“We are aware of reports that U.S. Navy Sailor was detained on or about August 30, 2024, by Venezuelan law enforcement authorities while on personal travel to Venezuela. The U.S. Navy is looking into this and working closely with the State Department. We refer you to the State Department for additional questions,” the U.S. defense official told ABC News.
The U.S. Navy believes the sailor was detained by Venezuelan law enforcement on or around Aug. 30, another U.S. defense official confirmed to ABC News.
The sailor is based on the West Coast and was not on authorized travel to Venezuela, according to the official.
The news was first reported by CNN.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Though Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced last month he was suspending his struggling independent campaign and endorsing former President Donald Trump, voters in many states are still likely to see him on their ballot this fall.
Announcing his decision in Phoenix, Arizona, Kennedy said that he would remove himself from the ballot in battleground states where he could act as a “spoiler” for Trump, but he encouraged voters in solidly Democratic or Republican states to vote for him.
Kennedy did not name the states from which he would withdraw, but ABC News has confirmed that he has successfully removed himself from several battleground state ballots.
However, in a hiccup for the campaign — and for Trump — Kennedy was unable to remove his name from the ballot in at least three states expected to be competitive: Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina.
Here’s a look at where Kennedy has been taken off from the ballot — and where he’ll still be on them.
Where has Kennedy been removed from the ballot?
As of Wednesday, ABC News had confirmed that Kennedy has successfully withdrawn his name from the ballot in at least 10 states: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and South Carolina.
Many of those states are considered presidential battlegrounds, or at least contain some competitive congressional districts — such as Maine’s 2nd District, which Trump won in 2020, but is currently a seat held by Democratic Rep. Jared Golden.
Kennedy has moved quickly to scratch his name from ballots: in Arizona, his team scrambled to file withdrawal paperwork the night before he suspended his campaign. They were working to beat a crucial deadline: the Arizona secretary of state’s office was set to print ballots, which included Kennedy’s name, just hours later.
Then, in the hours after his announcement, Kennedy’s campaign successfully withdrew his name from the ballot in Texas, Pennsylvania and Ohio, ABC News confirmed.
In the days since, officials in several other states have told ABC News that Kennedy has successfully removed his name from the ballot.
In Georgia, a key battleground, the secretary of state’s office received two letters from lawyers for Kennedy asking to remove him from the ballot, according to a spokesperson.
But the office never considered Kennedy to be “on the ballot” in the first place — as an administrative judge ruled that the independent candidate did not meet the qualifications.
A spokesman for the office told ABC News, “He won’t be on the ballot.”
Officials in Nevada confirmed to ABC News last week that Kennedy is now off the ballot in the state — in that case, because of a court order received by the office.
The Nevada Independent reported that the court order is due to an agreement between Kennedy’s lawyers and the Nevada Democratic Party, which had challenged his petition to get on the ballot in Nevada, to drop the lawsuit and to mutually agree that Kennedy should not be on the ballot.
In New Hampshire, the office of the secretary of state confirmed to ABC News that Kennedy’s campaign submitted signatures to get him on the ballot the morning he suspended his campaign. But days later, a spokesperson for the office told ABC News that the Kennedy campaign “withdrew the nomination petitions required to be a certified candidate on the general election ballot.”
Where is Kennedy still on the ballot?
As of Wednesday, ABC News had confirmed that Kennedy will likely be on the ballot in about 30 states, although this could shift with any further successful withdrawals, legal challenges or decisions by elections offices ahead of state ballot certifications.
That number includes battleground states whose ballots Kennedy tried in recent days to withdraw from, such as Wisconsin, Michigan and North Carolina.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted 5-1 on Tuesday to certify Kennedy and some other independent candidates for the ballot. The board debated over whether to remove him given his withdrawal from the race, with commissioner Ann S. Jacobs, a Democratic Party appointee on the board, arguing that Kennedy could not withdraw due to state statutes.
“It literally says, ‘if you filed nomination papers you cannot withdraw unless you’re dead.’ I mean, all of this is just vibing to try to ignore a statute. And this statute’s clear — like this isn’t even equivocal,” Jacobs said during a meeting of the commission.
A lawyer for Kennedy had submitted a letter to the Wisconsin Elections Commission requesting to withdraw him from the state’s ballot. But a spokesperson for the commission told ABC News recently that if a candidate files to get on the ballot in Wisconsin, “there is no mechanism to ‘take back’ the filing.”
ABC News has reached out to the Kennedy campaign to see if he plans to appeal the decision.
In Michigan, a judge ruled against Kennedy, who had sued Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson for ordering his name to remain on the ballot.
Nominees of minor political parties may not remove themselves from the ballot, a representative for Benson’s office told ABC News.
The Natural Law Party, a two-member political party with ballot access in Michigan, nominated Kennedy to lead its ticket in April.
And in North Carolina, election officials voted to keep Kennedy’s name on the ballot since nearly two million ballots had already been printed across the state.
Reprinting them would be costly and leave most counties without ballots until at least mid-September (under state law, absentee ballots must go out by Sept. 6 to voters who have requested them).
On Friday, Kennedy sued the North Carolina Board of Elections to get his name removed from the ballot.
In an oddity, there are also some states where Kennedy’s campaign filed to get on the ballot even after he announced suspending his campaign.
Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams wrote on X on Monday afternoon that Kennedy filed to run in Kentucky (a state that his campaign had not discussed much or at all previously) that afternoon.
“Having just completed review of his submission of signatures, we are placing him on the ballot,” Adams wrote. The Kentucky secretary of state’s website also shows his filing.
And in Oregon, Kennedy achieved a spot on the ballot three days after announcing his suspension through the We the People Party and “at this time” will be on the ballot in the state, a spokesman for the Oregon secretary of state’s office said. The Oregon secretary of state’s website also has an entry for his filing.
(WASHINGTON) — While polling sites around the country are gearing up for huge voter turnout on Election Day, data and experts predict that a majority of the votes that will decide this year’s key races will be cast months before.
In fact, many of those votes could be cast in the next few weeks.
Analysts who have been studying early-voting trends say mail-in balloting and voting done at early opening polling sites will not only be a crucial indicator for this year’s races, but also future voting methods adopted by the country.
Early in-person voting options are available for almost all registered voters in 47 states with some allowing voters to cast their ballot as early as September, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks election laws across the country.
Michael McDonald, a professor of political science at the University of Florida who helps run the school’s election lab, told ABC News that early voting exploded during the 2020 election and its effectiveness has reshaped the way the electorate and campaigns navigate the election.
“People find it easier to navigate and return the ballot at their convenience and it gives them more chances. They’re more likely to cast a ballot with those options,” he said.
How and where voters can cast a ballot early
In addition to offering voters a chance to cast their ballot through the mail, many states offer voters two ways of casting a ballot in person: either dropping off their absentee ballot at an election office or site, known as in-person absentee voting; or at a polling machine polling place that is open prior to Election Day.
As of 2024, 22 states offer all voters who vote via absentee the option to turn in their ballot in person early, according to NCSL data.
Alabama and New Hampshire offer no in-person early voting options — something the state’s election officials have not opted to do. Mississippi only offers in-person absentee to voters who meet specific criteria such as a physical disability, or proof that they will not be in the state on Election Day, such as military members.
Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia give voters both in-person absentee and early in-person poll site options, NCSL data shows.
Eight states — California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Vermont and Hawaii — and D.C. have adopted all-mail ballots and allow voters to cast their ballots in person before Election Day. With this process, states mail ballots to all registered voters and they can send it back, drop it off in-person absentee or ballot box, or simply choose to vote in a polling site either early or on Election Day.
Some election offices will offer voters a chance to submit their paper ballots in person as early as mid-September.
In Pennsylvania, some voters may be able to cast absentee ballots in person at their county’s executive office starting Sept. 16, which is the date for when counties must begin processing applications for mail-in or absentee ballots. The Pennsylvania Department of State told ABC News, however, that counties might not necessarily have the ballots ready by that date.
Rise in popularity
Charles Stewart, the director of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s election data science lab, told ABC News that voting data has shown a gradual increase in votes cast before Election Day over nearly three decades.
In fact, during the 2020 election, more than 69% of votes cast in the election were done through either mail-in ballots or early in-person voting, according to election data. By comparison, only 40% voted early in the 2016 election and 33% in the 2012 election, the data showed.
The data did not indicate how many mail ballots were turned in person.
Stewart noted that the pandemic was a factor behind the 2020 surge in early voting, and even though there was a decrease in early voting numbers during the 2022 midterms, there was still a jump in the number of people who cast their ballots either through the mail or at an early-voting site compared to previous midterms.
“If you extend the trend line and extend it to 2022, there is only a little bit more voting by mail,” he said. “That tells me that voters have, on aggregate, returned to patterns we saw before 2020, which is that of a slowly growing reliance on convenience voting methods.”
The extra convenience isn’t the only incentive that is moving more voters to early voting, particularly mail-in ballots, according to Stewart.
Stewart said that several studies that have been published about voting behaviors have shown that voters who cast their ballot through the mail are thinking about their choices “more deeply and thoroughly.”
“I heard it from a voter the other day who said they appreciate being able to lay the ballot on the table and do the research on the issues and the candidates,” he said.
The enthusiasm has also had ripple effects, according to research conducted by McDonald.
McDonald said that data has shown that the states that opted to give all registered voters their ballot in the mail, such as Colorado, Washington and Oregon, saw the highest turnout rates in the country in 2020.
“In the early states that opted [into] mail balloting, places like Oregon and Washington, they’ve done satisfaction surveys and voters there love it, both Democrats and Republicans,” he said.
A boon for voters, election offices and campaigns
Election experts said that 2020’s jump in early voting helped to decrease long lines on Election Day at a time when the pandemic required smaller indoor crowds and social distancing.
Even though the need to decrease crowds has lessened, McDonald stressed there is still a need for “safety valves” when it comes to Election Day lines.
“It means if someone has a problem … and they try to catch their problem earlier, they have more time to rectify that problem,” he said, citing examples such as an error on their form or improper voter ID.
McDonald also cited the sudden snowstorm that hit northern Arizona in November 2022 as a major obstacle that voters and election offices faced when it came to Election Day voting.
“These are the things that can happen and campaigns kind of know they shouldn’t rely too much on Election Day because there could be things that go wrong,” he said.
Christopher Mann, the research director for the non-profit group, The Center for Election Innovation & Research, told ABC News that early voting also gives election office teams, many of whom are understaffed and underfunded, extra time to handle the large number of ballots that come through during presidential cycles.
“They can move more people around during those early weeks, especially on the weekends,” he said.
At the same time, early voting has reshaped how campaigns are conducted.
Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden pushed for their debates to take place prior to October because of early voting. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are scheduled to debate on Sept. 10 on ABC News.
Aside from the campaign trail, McDonald said that early voting also affects the campaign staffers on the ground who receive voter information from election offices.
“Then the campaigns can say, ‘OK this voter already voted, I don’t need to call them or mail them something. I can scratch them off the list,” he said.
Trump’s false claims on early voting shift dynamics
In both the 2020 election and in this year’s contest, Trump has been vocal about his distrust in early voting, falsely claiming it is not secure and pushed for only voting on Election Day.
Despite appearing in a video at the Republican National Convention encouraging Republicans to vote by mail or early if available, Trump has been criticizing early voting at his events.
“We should have one-day voting. We should have paper ballots, we should have voter ID, and we should have proof of citizenship,” he told reporters at a news conference last month.
McDonald said Trump’s rhetoric led to a major shift in the 2020 election as the number of Republicans who voted by mail dropped compared to Democrats. Prior to 2020, more Republicans cast their vote in the mail, according to McDonald.
“We can see that those patterns really haven’t restored themselves [to] pre-pandemic,” he said.
The election experts stressed that there is no evidence of fraud when it comes to mail-in ballots and, in fact, showed there is no correlation between the number of early votes cast and the outcome of the election.
“If you look at states where half of the ballots were issued before Election Day, Trump won half of that vote,” Mann said.
The experts say the election data is showing an upward trend of more voters opting to vote early versus on Election Day, with mail-in voting seeing the biggest increases, and they predict more states will expand those early voting offerings.
Stewart noted that the momentum is still there as several states failed to pass measures in the last four years that would have restricted early-voting options, specifically ending pandemic-era rules that allowed for no-excuse absentee.
Ultimately, Stewart contended that giving voters as many options to safely and properly cast their ballot leads not only to more convenience, but a stronger electorate.
“I would encourage voters to think about their own lives, their own habits, their own values and choose their mode that is keeping with all of those things,” he said.
A view of the burned vehicles after a Russian missile attack that killed 7 people including 3 children, and wounded 45 people including 7 children, in Lviv, Ukraine, on September 4, 2024. (Olena Znak/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Russian missiles struck Lviv in western Ukraine early on Wednesday, killing at least seven people and injuring dozens of others, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a local official said.
A 14-year-old girl was among the dead, Zelenskyy said in a statement posted to the messaging app Telegram.
“More than 30 people were injured,” he added. “Ordinary residential buildings in the city, schools and medical institutions were damaged.”
Serhiy Kiral, the deputy mayor of Lviv, told ABC News that at least seven people — including three children — are confirmed killed.
“Firefighters are still working to put out the fire, to rescue people who may still be under the debris,” Kiral said early on Wednesday.
“It’s not clear what genius planned the target — these are purely residential neighborhoods in downtown Lviv, around the central train station,” Kiral added.
The strike was the western Ukrainian city’s worst since an attack last year that killed 10 people, Kiral said, adding, “Impunity leads to more crime; rule of thumb.”
Lviv was one of several cities that were targeted on Wednesday by Russian missiles, Zelenskyy said. Five people were also injured in Kryvyi Rih, he added. Ukraine’s air force wrote on Telegram that it downed seven cruise missiles and 22 attack drones overnight. Russia fired a total of two ballistic missiles, 11 cruise missiles, and 29 drones, the update said.
The most recent wave of attacks followed missile-and-drone barrages on Monday night and Tuesday morning that killed dozens of people in three cities. The deadliest incident was a double ballistic missile strike on the Poltava Military Communications Institute and a nearby hospital which killed more than 50 and wounded hundreds, Ukrainian officials said.
First lady Olena Zelenska said Tuesday’s attack was a “shocking tragedy for the whole of Ukraine. Zelenskyy said he “ordered a full and prompt investigation into all the circumstances of what happened.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram that the Poltava and Lviv strikes targeted military and defense industry targets.
The military college in Poltava, it said, was used to train communications and electronic warfare specialists, as well as drone operators who conducted strikes with uncrewed aerial vehicles, or UAVs, within Russia. Training there was conducted under the “guidance of foreign instructors,” the ministry alleged.
The Lviv attack was conducted using “long-range precision weapons,” including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and attack drones, the ministry’s report said. The strike targeted “enterprises of the Ukrainian defense industry complex” involved in the production and repair of “electronic components of aircraft and missile weapons.”
“The strike targets have been achieved,” the ministry said. “All designated objects have been hit.”
The Poltava attack came against a backdrop of intensifying Russian long-range strikes on Ukrainian cities, military targets and critical infrastructure nationwide.
Zelenskyy and his top officials have been pressing their Western partners, including the U.S., to loosen restrictions on Kyiv’s use of Western weapons, and to allow Ukrainian forces to strike airfields and launch sites within Russia.
“Russia does not have a free hand,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters in a Tuesday press briefing when questioned on the issue. “We continue to supply Ukraine with air-defense systems,” he continued.
“We continue to supply Ukraine with other equipment that it can use to push back on Russian military assaults, and that’ll continue to be our policy,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — As the Israel-Hamas war continues, the latest round of cease-fire discussions appears to have reached an impasse.
Meanwhile, after six hostages were found dead in Gaza, protests erupted in Israel. Protesters have demanded its government bring the hostages home.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Hamas threatens Netanyahu with more hostage deaths
Hamas has issued a new threat tying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s premiership to the fate of the surviving Gaza hostages.
“Aggression stops = prisoners return alive,” a Wednesday morning post on the group’s official Telegram channel said. “Aggression continues = prisoners’ fate unknown.”
“Every day that Netanyahu continues to rule may mean a new coffin,” the post — which was written in English, Arabic and Hebrew — continued. “The decision is yours.”
Hamas and Netanyahu have blamed each other for the failure to reach a cease-fire deal. Hamas said Netanyahu’s demands are “aimed at obstructing reaching an agreement to preserve his power.”
Netanyahu, for his part, said this weekend of the militant group: “Whoever murders hostages — does not want a deal.”
There are 101 hostages still inside Gaza, around half of whom are believed to still be alive.
187,000 Gaza children receive polio vaccine, WHO says
More than 187,000 children in central Gaza have received polio vaccines since Sunday, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X on Wednesday that the “first phase of polio vaccination in central Gaza is complete,” with more than 187,000 children under the age of 10 vaccinated.
That is higher than the target number of 156,500, Ghebreyesus said.
“Four fixed sites will continue to offer polio vaccination for the next three days in central Gaza to ensure no child is missed,” the WHO chief added.
Preparations are underway to expand the vaccine roll out campaign into southern Gaza, Ghebreyesus said. Vaccinations there are expected to begin on Thursday.
Palestinian health authorities and United Nations agencies hope to vaccinate 640,000 children.
Israel agreed to partial pauses in the fighting in Gaza to facilitate the polio vaccination campaign, saying the drive will continue through Sept. 9 and last eight hours a day.
“We ask for the humanitarian pauses to continue to be respected,” Ghebreyesus wrote. “We continue to call for a cease-fire.”
Protesters plan gathering at Netanyahu ally’s home
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum will again lead cease-fire and hostage release demonstrations across Israel on Wednesday, according to a schedule posted to social media.
“The public is called to join and come together with the families of the abductees to the houses of the ministers and coalition members and hold demonstrations and protest vigils demanding that they exercise their authority to bring about a deal now,” the Forum wrote on X.
Among the gatherings will be one outside the Jerusalem home of Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer — a former member of the dissolved war cabinet and long considered a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Activists plan to protest at the homes of eight other government ministers and three members of parliament, the Forum said.
Far-right minister ‘working to stop’ cease-fire talks
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said he is “working to stop the negotiations with Hamas,” as talks over a cease-fire and hostage release deal continue under massive public and international pressure.
Ben-Gvir — one of the most vocally hawkish members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government — wrote on X that Israel should end negotiations and cut fuel and electricity to Gaza in response to Hamas’ recent killing of six hostages in the southern strip.
“Continuing the negotiations only spurs them to produce more and more terror,” including in the West Bank, Ben-Gvir said.
Ben-Gvir is a longstanding proponent of expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank. He has called on the government to “encourage” Israelis to settle in Gaza while suggesting “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians from the territory.
Ben-Gvir was convicted of incitement to racism and supporting a terror organization in 2008, related to an anti-Arab placard he displayed at a protest following a Palestinian terrorist attack in Jerusalem. Signs referring to the far-right Kach movement — a Jewish group banned as a terror organization — were also found in his car.
Emhoff says parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin told him, Harris they don’t want son’s death to ‘be in vain’
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff said Tuesday night that the parents of Oct. 7 hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who the Israeli military found had been killed last week, do not want their son’s “death to be in vain.”
Emhoff opened up about the recent conversation he and his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris, had with the couple after learning of the death of their son.
Speaking at a vigil hosted at the Adas Israel Congregation synagogue in Washington, D.C., which was organized to honor the memory of the six Israeli hostages found killed by Hamas in Gaza, Emhoff said Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin remained committed to seeing the remaining hostages released.
“And yet, with this unspeakable tragedy that they were going through … they were comforting us, but also asking about the latest in the negotiations,” Emhoff told those gathered at the vigil about the call with the grieving couple, which occurred last week. “They were asking how we can use this terrible moment to make progress on the deal. And they told the vice president, in no uncertain terms, they do not want Hersh’s death to be in vain. And they spoke with such grace, such compassion, such strength. And even though part of Rachel and Jon’s world had just ended, they were somehow still looking forward and looking out for others.”
DOJ charges senior Hamas leaders over involvement in Americans’ deaths in Oct. 7 attack
The Justice Department unsealed charges Tuesday targeting multiple senior members of Hamas’ leadership for their alleged involvement in the kidnapping and murdering of Americans during the Oct. 7 attack.
The criminal complaint, unsealed in the Southern District of New York, names six members of Hamas’ leadership structure and details extensively their terrorist activities on behalf of the group.
White House says Israel originally agreed to remove IDF from areas of Philadelphi corridor
The White House is pushing back on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stance of keeping Israeli troops along the Philadelphi corridor — a narrow strip of land on the Gaza side of the Gaza-Egypt border — saying the prime minister originally agreed to removing troops in the Israel-approved framework that was announced in May.
“I’m not going to get into a debate with the prime minister and what he said over the weekend about the Philadelphi corridor,” White House national security communications adviser John Kirby said. “The deal itself, the proposal, including the bridging proposal that we started working with … included the removal of Israeli Defense Forces from all densely populated areas, and that includes those areas along that corridor. That’s the proposal that Israel had agreed to.”
Kirby acknowledged Israel’s belief that they need “some security” along the corridor, but Kirby did not give the U.S. position on whether the administration supports the IDF remaining in less dense areas along the border.
“The proposal says that they have to remove themselves to the east from densely populated areas — and that core essential element of the proposal has not changed,” Kirby said. “But the Israelis have said publicly that they believe that … they would need some security along that corridor.”
-ABC News’ Justin Ryan Gomez
Gantz: Netanyahu is holding up a deal
National Unity party leader Benny Gantz slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, claiming he is holding up a cease-fire and hostage deal.
Gantz said that on Monday, Netanyahu in his speech “did not look directly at the public and told the truth: That he will not bring the kidnapped alive, that he will not truly protect the southern bracket, that he will not return the residents of the north to their homes, that he will not deny Iran nuclear weapons.”
“This did not surprise me, because during the period that we sat in the War Cabinet, Netanyahu delayed the ability to move forward with the abducted deals serially, including in the first outline,” Gantz said. “This does not surprise me because already at the beginning of the war, when we asked to extend the military pressure to Khan Yunis and then to Rafah, Netanyahu hesitated and stopped.”
“The time has come to say yes and move forward: we need to bring a deal – either in stages or in one stage,” Gantz said.
Netanyahu in response laid out the Israeli military’s recent successes.
“Since Gantz and his party resigned from the government, Israel has eliminated the Hamas Chief of Staff and the Hezbollah Chief of Staff, attacked the Houthis, captured the Philadelphia axis – Hamas’s armament pipeline – and carried out a pre-emptive strike against Hezbollah that thwarted its malicious plan and destroyed thousands of rockets aimed at the Galilee,” Netanyahu said. “Whoever does not contribute to the victory and the return of our hostages, it is better not to interfere.”
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Thousands gather for new protest in Tel Aviv
Thousands gathered in Tel Aviv Tuesday for a new protest organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
The event was led by the younger members of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum who are calling for a deal to bring all of the hostages home, the organization said.
43 killed in Israeli operation in Gaza
Forty-three people have been killed from ongoing operations in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.
Israeli forces said its soldiers “struck a compound where Hamas terrorists were operating” and killed eight Hamas members. The strike was near the Al-Ahli hospital compound but wasn’t within the hospital premises, the IDF said.
“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence,” the IDF said in a statement.
-ABC News’ Sami Zayara and Jordana Miller
Kirby hedges on ‘final proposal’ reports, says Biden is personally still working on deal
White House national security communications adviser John Kirby hedged on reports that the U.S. is putting forward a “final proposal” when it comes to hostage negotiations, saying the administration — including President Joe Biden – is still working to get a deal.
Kirby refused to give any details about the current proposal, or how it might differ from previous offers put forward, but he stressed that the deal is “actively” being worked on with Qatar and Egypt.
“The president himself is personally involved in working with our team and working with leaders around the world to secure this deal,” Kirby said, adding that this weekend’s recovery of six slain hostages “underscores the sense of urgency that we have.”
Asked about the United Kingdom’s new restrictions on some arms exports to Israel, Kirby said he would not “comment one way or another on the decisions that our British counterparts made.”
U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy told Parliament on Monday about 30 of its 350 export licenses were suspended because “there does exist a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”
“I can just tell you that, No. 1: We’re going to continue to do we have to do to support Israel’s defensive capabilities,” Kirby said. “No. 2: We have, as I’ve said many times, reviewed individual reports as best we can, and talking to the Israelis about individual reports about compliance with international humanitarian law. And as we speak, there’s been no determination by the United States that they have violated international humanitarian [law].”
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Al-Shifa Hospital reopens 2 departments
Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest and most comprehensive hospital in the Gaza Strip, reopened two of its departments on Sunday after facing shelling, raids and two sieges in the ongoing war, Al-Shifa Medical Complex Director Dr. Marwan Abu Saada told ABC News.
The reopened departments are the Emergency and Accidents Department — which has 70 beds, two operating rooms, one intensive care unit room and one X-ray room — and the Kidney Dialysis Department, which has about 22 kidney dialysis machines and serves 36 patients with kidney failure, Abu Saada said.
The hospital had capacity for 800 beds before the war, Abu Saada said.
“As for the medical staff, there is a large deficit in medical personnel, but at least we want to work and serve the community,” he said.
The maternity building will undergo a six-month restoration to become a general surgery building, he added.
-ABC News’ Camilla Alcini
Cease-fire protesters plan action near Tel Aviv Defense Ministry
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum announced a fresh protest scheduled for 7 p.m. local time Tuesday in Tel Aviv, close to the entrance of the Defense Ministry building.
The action will be “led by the younger members of the families,” the Forum wrote in a post on X, who will “call for a deal to bring all 101 hostages home.”
Attendees will protest what the Forum called “the abandonment of the hostages in Hamas captivity.”
Additional demonstrations elsewhere will include a gathering outside the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, a protest outside Foreign Minister Israel Katz’s residence in Kfar Ahim, one in front of Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter’s home in Ashkelon and another outside Deputy Prime Minister Yariv Levin’s home in Modi’in.
Gaza polio vaccination drive reaches 160,000 children
Some 160,000 Gaza children received their first vaccination for polio on Sunday and Monday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The emergency rollout began on Sunday, facilitated by a partial pause in fighting in the strip. Medical teams in the central part of the territory said they were able to vaccinate 72,611 children on the first day of the campaign.
Palestinian health authorities and United Nations agencies said they were hoping to vaccinate 640,000 children during the push. Israel agreed to some pauses in fighting to support the campaign, though airstrikes have continued in its first two days.
Israel has said the vaccination program will continue through Sept. 9 and last eight hours a day.
Polio is among the illnesses feared to be thriving in Gaza after 10 months of war. The strip’s long-standing humanitarian difficulties have been exacerbated by the destruction of health care facilities, critical infrastructure, and the displacement — sometimes repeated displacement — of most of the territory’s residents.
Gaza recently reported its first polio case in 25 years — a 10-month-old boy, now paralyzed in a leg. The World Health Organization said the case suggests there could be hundreds more infected who are not symptomatic.
Netanyahu asks hostage families for forgiveness, says pressure should be directed at Hamas
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is asking for forgiveness from the families of the six slain hostages whose bodies were recovered this weekend.
“I ask you for forgiveness that we did not succeed to bring your loved ones back alive. We were close, but we did not succeed,” Netanyahu said at a Monday news conference.
Netanyahu again said the Israel Defense Forces must maintain a presence on the Egyptian border, but he said the IDF does not need a “large” presence of forces there. It needs groups of forces in key areas all along the border, he said. Netanyahu also reiterated that the IDF must maintain a presence in the Philadelphi corridor to reach the goals of the war.
When asked how he would define “total victory” in the war, Netanyahu responded, “When Hamas no longer rules Gaza — we throw them out. I would define the end of the war of World War II when the Nazis no longer ruled Germany. To do that you need to have a military victory and you have to have also a political victory to destroy their governance.”
Netanyahu also said that international “pressure” must be directed at Hamas, not Israel.
“These murderers executed six of our hostages, they shot them in the back of the head. And now after this we’re asked to show seriousness, we’re asked to make concessions? What message does this send Hamas?” he said.
Netanyahu added, “I don’t believe President [Joe] Biden or anyone serious about achieving peace and achieving the release [of hostages] can seriously ask Israel to make these concessions. We’ve already made them. Hamas has to make concessions.”
A Hamas military spokesman said in a new statement the Israeli hostages won’t be freed by force.
“Netanyahu’s insistence on freeing the prisoners through military pressure instead of concluding a deal will mean their return to their families in coffins, and their families will have to choose between dead or alive,” the spokesperson said.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Biden: ‘We’re in the middle of negotiations’ on hostage, cease-fire deal
President Joe Biden told reporters “we’re still negotiating” when asked if there will be a final hostage and cease-fire deal proposed this week.
Asked what he wants Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do, Biden replied, “We’re in the middle of negotiations.”
“We’re still in negotiations. Not with him [Netanyahu], with my colleagues from Qatar and from Egypt,” Biden said.
Earlier on Monday, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with the U.S. hostage deal negotiating team in the Situation Room.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke on the phone Monday morning with Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, a U.S. official said. They discussed efforts to conclude a deal for the release of the hostages and for a cease-fire in Gaza, the official said.
-ABC News’ Karen Travers, Elizabeth Schulze and Lauren Peller
Protesters break through barriers near Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s residence
Protesters broke through barriers near Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem on Monday as they demanded progress on a deal to return the hostages in Gaza.
Monday marks the second day of large protests across Israel after six murdered hostages were recovered in Gaza this weekend.
Israeli defense minister ‘deeply disheartened’ by UK decision to suspend some arms exports to Israel
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement he was “deeply disheartened” to learn of the United Kingdom’s new restrictions on some arms exports to Israel.
“This comes at a time when we fight a war on 7 different fronts — a war that was launched by a savage terrorist organization, unprovoked,” Gallant said. “At a time when we mourn 6 hostages who were executed in cold blood by Hamas inside tunnels in Gaza. At a time when we fight to bring 101 hostages home.”
U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy told Parliament on Monday about 30 of 350 export licenses are suspended because “there does exist a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
29 Palestinians killed in West Bank since IDF operation began
Twenty-nine Palestinians have been killed and 121 have been injured in the West Bank since the Israeli military’s operation began last Wednesday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement Monday.
Eighteen people were killed in the Jenin governate of the West Bank, four in the Tubas governate, four in the Tulkarm governate and three in the Hebron governate, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta
Biden, Harris meet with US hostage deal negotiating team
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with the U.S. hostage deal negotiating team in the Situation Room on Monday, according to the White House.
Biden and Harris received an update from the negotiation team on the “status of the bridging proposal outlined by the United States, Qatar and Egypt” and “they discussed next steps” in the release of the hostages, the White House said.
Biden also “expressed his devastation and outrage at the murder” of Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages and he “reaffirmed the importance of holding Hamas’s leaders accountable,” the White House said.
Officials participating in the briefing included Secretary of State Antony Blinken, CIA Director Bill Burns and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
Netanyahu doubles down on Israeli troops remaining in Philadelphi corridor
In an Israeli cabinet meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down on his stance that he will not agree to a cease-fire and hostage deal that includes the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Philadelphi corridor in Gaza, according to an Israeli official.
Israeli troops remaining in the Philadelphi corridor has been a key sticking point in the ongoing negotiations. Hamas wants a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
“Everyone who says that it is possible to leave Philadelphi for 42 days, knows very well that it will be for 42 years. The world will not allow us to return,” Netanyahu said during Sunday night’s cabinet meeting, according to an Israeli official. “Everyone understands the importance of Philadelphi, and [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar understands it best. That is why he insists. All smuggling the weapons to Gaza were through Philadelphi. If we change the cabinet’s decision, it will be a terrorist award, you will not return the hostages.”
The Hostages Families Forum said in a statement that Netanyahu’s comments are “dangerous.” The families said Netanyahu’s statement means “there will be no deal, and the families will not get to see their loved ones return home.”
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller and Dana Savir
Israeli president apologizes to Hersh Goldberg-Polin and his parents for not keeping him safe
As Israeli President Isaac Herzog gave a eulogy at the funeral of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, he apologized to the slain 23-year-old.
“I apologize that the country you immigrated to at the age of 7, wrapped in the Israeli flag, could not keep you safe,” Herzog said Monday, two days after the Israeli-American’s body was recovered in Gaza, along with five others.
The president also asked for forgiveness from Goldberg-Polin’s parents, Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin, for not bringing their son home alive.
He said he learned of “a mother’s and father’s limitless love” from Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin.
“Jon and Rachel, against the senseless hatred, and unthinkable brutality of Hamas terror, pure barbaric evil, you have taught the world about human dignity,” Herzog said. “As a human being, as a father, and as the President of the State of Israel, I want to say how sorry I am. How sorry I am that we didn’t protect Hersh on that dark day. How sorry I am that we failed to bring him home.”
Though he said Israel will “continue fighting relentlessly against” Hamas, Herzog stressed that the remaining 101 hostages must be released.
“The time to act is now: Bring them home,” Herzog said.
“Decision-makers must do everything possible, with determination and courage, to save those who can still be saved,” he said. “This is not a political goal, and it must not become a political dispute. It is a supreme moral, Jewish, and human duty of the State of Israel to its citizens.”
-ABC News’ Becky Perlow
Biden says Netanyahu is not doing enough, says ‘we are very close’ to presenting final deal
When asked by reporters if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doing enough on the hostage deal, President Joe Biden on Monday replied, “No.”
Asked about presenting a final hostage deal this week, Biden said, “We are very close to that.”
“Hope springs eternal,” Biden said, when asked what makes this final deal different, but he declined to provide details.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are meeting with the U.S. hostage negotiation team Monday morning.
-ABC News’ Lauren Peller
‘We failed you,’ dad of slain hostage says
Hersh Goldberg-Polin was curious, self-assured and a deep, independent thinker, his dad, Jon Polin, said at his funeral on Monday.
The 23-year-old, who was found dead in Gaza this weekend, was “always seeking to understand the other, and always with dignity and respect,” Polin said.
“Hersh, we failed you. We all failed you,” Polin said with a “332” on his shirt, marking how many days his son was held hostage. “You would not have failed you. You would’ve pushed harder for justice … to bridge differences. … What you would be pushing for now is to ensure your death … [and the others’ deaths are] not in vain.”
“Maybe, just maybe, your death … is the fuel that will bring home the remaining 101 hostages,” Polin said.
“You have become a global symbol of bringing improvement to our world,” he said.
“The 23 years of life that we had with you were a blessing. We now will work to make your legacy a similar blessing,” he said.
Funeral underway for slain American hostage
A funeral procession is underway in Jerusalem for slain Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin. The 23-year-old was one of six murdered hostages recovered this weekend.
The Israeli Ministry of Health said the six hostages were killed “in a number of short-range shots” between Thursday and Friday morning.
The funeral comes one day after thousands of people took to the streets of Tel Aviv to protest the deaths of the six hostages.
2 hours and 31 minutes ago Tel Aviv braces for fresh protests
More than 1,000 people have gathered in the northern Israeli city of Tel Aviv for continued anti-government protests, demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conclude a cease-fire and hostage-release deal with Hamas.
Other marches are taking place elsewhere in Israel. A general strike — called by Histadrut, Israel’s largest trade union — also began on Monday morning in protest of the government’s failure to free those still held hostage inside Gaza.
Police reported violent clashes with anti-government protesters in Tel Aviv on Sunday night, saying officers had arrested 29 people.
The current wave of demonstrations was sparked by the recovery of the bodies of six of Hamas’ hostages from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday.
-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and David Brennan
3 hours and 57 minutes ago Israel Police accuses Tel Aviv marchers of ‘brutal’ vandalism, violence
The Israel Police has condemned what it called “brutal vandalism” during a night of anti-government demonstrations in Tel Aviv, sparked by the deaths in captivity of six of Hamas’ Gaza hostages.
In a statement, the Police Spokesperson’s Unit said officers arrested 29 suspects for a range of offenses including disorderly conduct, assaulting officers and vandalism.
The violence followed a planned protest at the Kaplan Junction in Tel Aviv, the statement said, after which “hundreds of protesters” left the approved demonstration area and moved to the Ayalon Highway, “with the intent to disrupt traffic and public order.”
Some marchers “violently pushed against barricades and officers, leading to a confrontation during which a policewoman was injured and lost consciousness,” the statement said. The officer was evacuated for medical treatment.
As officers attempted to clear the area, some protesters “breached security perimeters, blocked the Ayalon Highway, and set fires, while firing fireworks that nearly hit officers,” police said.
“The Israel Police strongly condemns the acts of vandalism and violence directed at officers,” the statement read. “We will pursue legal action against those responsible to the fullest extent of the law.”
The protesters were demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government agree to a cease-fire and hostage-release deal with Hamas.
A general strike called by Israel’s largest trade union — Histadrut — began on Monday morning in a bid to pressure the government into reaching an accord with the militant group.
Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff spoke with the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American-Israeli hostage who was found dead in Gaza on Saturday along with five other Oct. 7 hostages, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
The vice president and her husband called parents Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin on Sunday to “express our condolences following the brutal murder of their son by Hamas terrorists,” Harris said in a statement on X.
“My heart breaks for their pain and anguish,” Harris continued.
“I told them: As they mourn this terrible loss, they are not alone. Our nation mourns with them,” Harris said.
4:59 PM EDT Protest erupts in Tel Aviv as demonstrators demand cease-fire deal
Protesters took to the streets of Tel Aviv Sunday night, demanding a cease-fire agreement and the release of the remaining hostages being held by Hamas terrorists.
The demonstration came a day after Israel Defense Forces recovered the bodies of six hostages in tunnels under the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
Protesters were seen waving Israeli flags as they demanded a cease-fire agreement, chanting “Deal. Now.”
-ABC News’ Victoria Beaule
3:25 PM EDT 6 killed in IDF strike on Gaza school, says Gaza Civil Defense
At least six people were killed on Sunday when Israel Defense Forces conducted an airstrike on a school in Gaza City, according to Gaza Civil Defense.
The IDF said in a statement that the strike was aimed at Hamas terrorists they allege were operating a command-and-control center inside the Safad school to plan and carry out terrorist attacks against the IDF and Israel.
“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence,” the IDF said in a statement.
The Gaza Civil Defense confirmed the Safad school was hit in the IDF strike, but said the school houses displaced people from the Al-Zeitoun area east of Gaza City.
(SAN FRANCISCO) — Charges were filed in juvenile court against the 17-year-old boy arrested in connection with the shooting of San Francisco 49ers’ player Ricky Pearsall, according to prosecutors.
The teen is facing three charges: Attempted murder, assault with a semi-automatic firearm and attempted second degree robbery charge.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said the city has been “traumatized and it’s now my job and my office’s job to make sure that we have accountability.”
The DA’s office does not make the determination if the juvenile will be tried as an adult, however, Jenkins can request a fitness hearing in front of a judge but a decision has not been made yet if the hearing will be requested.
The teen is set to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon at the Youth Guidance Center in San Francisco.
San Francisco Police Department is looking for every possible camera that captured the incident and actively collecting and reviewing to put together timeline, officials said.
Pearsall was released from the hospital 24 hours after being shot during an attempted robbery in San Francisco’s Union Square.
The 23-year-old rookie “sustained a bullet wound to his chest,” the 49ers said in a statement.
“He is extremely lucky,” Pearsall’s mom, Erin Pearsall, wrote on Facebook.
“By the grace of God, Ricky Pearsall is here with the team and doing really well,” said John Lynch, general manager of the San Francisco 49ers. “He’s doing remarkably, so much better today than he was yesterday. Really, really miraculous. Didn’t touch organs and feels like all the nerve stuff is good. I mean, it’s pretty, pretty remarkable.”
Lynch said Pearsall was luggage shopping for game day road trips before he was attacked in Union Square and that the team has rallied around Pearsall since the shooting.
“We had a team party that was scheduled when I got to the hospital and visited with Ricky,” Lynch said. “We were able to pipe Ricky into the party and he FaceTimed the entire group and and that show of love and respect was … a real special moment for our team.”
“Just super happy, super happy that he’s alive,” said 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk. “We’re able to see him and talk to him.”
“Thank god Ricky’s alive and he’s healthy and he’s going to make a full recovery,” said 49ers offensive lineman Jake Brendel.
On Monday, the National Football League added Pearsall to the reserve/non-football injury list, stating he will miss at least four games of the season, according to ESPN.
(NEW YORK) — A Minnesota man faces multiple charges for allegedly driving while intoxicated and crashing his vehicle into a restaurant patio, killing two people and injuring nine others, officials said Tuesday.
Steven Frane Bailey, 56, was charged Tuesday with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide for intoxication and negligence, as well as nine counts of criminal vehicular operation for the injured victims, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said.
The incident occurred Sunday evening when authorities say a man drove into the patio area of the Park Tavern in St. Louis Park around 8 p.m. local time.
“According to the criminal complaint, Bailey was observed on surveillance video pulling into the Park Tavern parking lot Sunday, driving past an open parking spot, hitting a parked car when he tried to back into that spot, pulling out and then accelerating toward the patio,” the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said in a press release. “He plowed through the metal fence into the patio seating area and hit several people.”
Several people seated or walking in the patio area were struck, according to the complaint, which alleged that Bailey continued to accelerate, reaching speeds of 30 to 45 mph, before finally coming to an “abrupt and violent halt” upon hitting several boulders at the base of a hill.
Officers who approached Bailey’s vehicle allegedly heard him on the phone saying, “I hit the gas instead of the brake and went right through a thing” and “I’m probably going to jail,” according to the complaint.
Bailey’s speech was slurred, and his eyes were bloodshot and watery, according to the complaint. He was unsteady on his feet upon exiting the vehicle, and when told by officers that they were going to perform field sobriety tests, he allegedly responded, “You don’t need to do fields. I know what I did,” the complaint stated.
He was transported to a hospital, where a preliminary breath sample showed a BAC of .325, according to the complaint. Results of a blood kit test were pending as of Tuesday, the complaint stated.
Bailey was booked into the Hennepin County Jail following a medical evaluation. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance Wednesday afternoon. It is unclear if he has an attorney.
“Bailey could have simply decided to stay home or take a Lyft rather than driving while intoxicated,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement. “This tragedy killed two people and injured several others, and it was entirely avoidable. We extend our deepest sympathy to the families of those killed, everyone injured, and the entire close-knit St. Louis Park community as they grieve this devastating incident.”
The attorney’s office identified the victims killed in the crash as Kristina Folkerts, a mother of three who worked at the restaurant, and Gabe Harvey, who was celebrating with several co-workers from Methodist Hospital at the time.
Folkerts was pinned under the vehicle and died at the scene despite life-saving efforts after officers lifted the vehicle off of her, prosecutors said. Harvey was transferred to a local hospital, where he died, prosecutors said.
One of the victims is currently unconscious and intubated at a hospital after sustaining broken legs, a broken pelvis, broken ribs and dislocated knees, according to the complaint.
Other victims suffered injuries, including head trauma, “serious” road rash and bruises, according to the complaint.
A memorial to the victims has been set up outside the Park Tavern, which is scheduled to reopen Wednesday in the wake of the crash.
The St. Louis Park Police Department believes more people were injured in the crash, and the number of charges against Bailey could increase if additional victims come forward, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said.
Bailey has two prior DWI convictions, including for gross misdemeanor third-degree DWI in 2015 and misdemeanor fourth-degree DWI in 2014, according to the attorney’s office.
