(WASHINGTON) — Embattled GOP Rep. George Santos is facing another resolution to expel him from Congress.
Republican Rep. Michael Guest, chairman of the House Ethics Committee, filed the resolution on Friday — one day after his panel released an explosive report stating a monthslong probe of the New York congressman “revealed a complex web of unlawful activity involving Representative Santos’ campaign, personal, and business finances.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LOS ANGELES) — Los Angeles has a new timeline for the opening of the I-10 freeway, which was damaged by fire last weekend. The 10, a major east-to-west artery for the city, will reopen by Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday afternoon.
Earlier this week, Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass said it was going to take between three and five weeks for repairs to be completed.
“Our timeline has changed,” Newsom said at Thursday’s press conference, crediting those who have been working to repair the damage for speeding the timeline up.
Newsom said they had “doubled down” on crews, efforts and supplies, with around 250 people working on freeway repairs presently. The number is expected to go up, the governor said.
Newsom said they will be opening five lanes in each direction.
“Trucks, passenger vehicles in both directions will be moving again,” he told reporters.
Bass thanked the public for heeding officials’ requests to try and reduce traffic by taking the Metro or telecommuting, and for staying off the side streets and on the highways.
“The last few days have been difficult, but everybody has cooperated, and I want to thank you, thank you, thank you,” Bass said.
The fire broke out underneath the I-10 just after midnight last Saturday, ripping through numerous wooden pallets, trailers and vehicles stored below the raised interstate, officials said previously. The fire sent thick smoke and towering flames into the sky and dealt a challenge to more than 160 firefighters who responded to put out the blaze.
The out-of-control fire burned for three hours and spread over what authorities described as the equivalent of six football fields before it was extinguished. About 16 people living underneath the highway were evacuated to shelters, officials said.
Authorities said earlier this week they are investigating arson as the cause of the fire.
(NEW YORK) — When Harry and Jen Appel lost their home in Big Pine Key, Florida, to Hurricane Irma in 2017, they thought their insurance policies would cover the cost to repair and they’d rebuild in the same location.
The couple showed ABC News’ meteorologist Rob Marciano the spot where their home used to be, now an empty lot covered in sea lavender and some shards of their former life.
“If we would have got paid by insurance the right amount of money, it would have been a you would have been standing in a new house,” Harry Appel said. “Insurance was tough — that was worse than a storm.”
In September 2017, Hurricane Irma barrelled across the Atlantic with winds reaching 185 miles per hour — the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The Category 4 storm ravaged the Appel’s dream home, along with much of the region, leaving those hit hardest by the storm to contend with an insurance market already struggling to cover its claims.
Since moving into their home in Big Pine Key in 2015, the Appels paid into premium homeowner insurance policies — the National Flood Insurance Program provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“A week afterward, the guy came up from Texas — the underwriter for flood insurance for FEMA — and he came up and he looked at the house and for him to write a check on the spot for this entire policy, which was amazing. And at that point, I really felt better,” Harry Appel said.
Harry Appel told ABC News that FEMA paid out the $110,000 flood policy, but when the private insurance company responsible for the Appels’ wind coverage came to assess the damage, they claimed the damage had only been done by flooding, so the company wasn’t liable.
“We were entitled to this money,” Jen Appel said. “This was a contractual obligation that they did not live up to and it should have been paid.”
Home insurance isn’t mandatory by law, but banks often require homeowners to get insurance as a condition of a mortgage.
“The insurer’s goal is to collect more in premiums than they pay out in claims,” said Ben Keys, University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business professor of real estate and finance. “We’re seeing higher costs of materials, higher costs of labor, and those are growing faster than inflation.”
In recent decades, the intensity of some hurricanes has exploded, fueled by the warming seas, according to experts.
“We’re having more disasters, we’re having more costly disasters, and importantly, more people live in harm’s way,” Keys said. “So any individual disaster now leads to more payouts coming from the insurers — and they’re recognizing that these costs are rising quickly, not just because of inflation, and they’re reacting accordingly.”
2023 marked the most “billion dollar disasters” on record for the United States, with 25 climate-related disasters, according to NOAA.
As these events have gotten more costly, some of the largest private insurance companies, like Farmers, have left states like Florida entirely.
Still, other companies have gone insolvent due to the increasing cost of claims, leaving a market with fewer options for residents to choose from.
Three-fourths of Florida’s 21.5 million residents live in coastal counties, according to the Insurance Information Institute, and it was Hurricane Andrew in 1992 that first exposed the vulnerabilities of the private insurance market in the state.
In the aftermath of Andrew, Florida created a last-resort state-run program called Citizens Property Insurance Corporation with the mission of insuring homeowners who can’t otherwise find coverage.
“We’ve seen a number of large insurers go belly up, and in response, we’ve seen a lot of homeowners who are now dependent on the state’s public insurance plan. So Citizens Property Insurance is now the largest homeowner’s insurer in the state,” Keys said. “And what that points to is a private insurance market that’s simply not working.”
Florida is just one of 32 states and the District of Columbia that offers a state-run FAIR (Fair Access to Insurance Requirements) plan. Another of the 32, Louisiana, is struggling with some of the same issues.
Keys explained that sea level rise and more severe flooding after storms, “have continued to drive up costs for homeowners in that state.”
Tammy and Charles Guillory and their daughter Caylee lived inside the cramped quarters of an RV parked in their driveway for two years during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic after their home was hit by Hurricanes Laura and Delta in 2020.
“Some days I didn’t know how we was gonna make it, but we made it,” Tammy Guillory said. “It was hard.”
After the one-two punch of the hurricanes, just six weeks apart, the Guillorys turned to their insurance companies to pay out their policies.
“We did what we were supposed to do on our end of the bargain,” Tammy Guillory said. “Now it’s time for them to do what they are supposed to do.”
To have their policy paid, the Guillorys had to take their unmet claim to the courts.
They won their case, but the insurer appealed, so the family had to wait even longer.
“I was a client of this company for over 20 years with no missed payments — nothing,” Charles Guillory said. “But when it’s time for us to be able to receive, we have to go through this, and I don’t think it’s right.”
Attorney Michael Cox represented the Guillorys, along with hundreds of similar cases in the area.
“When you have this massive catastrophe, I think the insurance companies came in and they know statistically that most people will just walk away with the mistreatment — and they did,” Cox said. “Most people won’t fight like Charles and Tammy fought. They stood up for themselves and they were willing to go all the way to bat with this company.”
While the Guillorys eventually won their case, the story across the state doesn’t always have a happy ending.
Louisiana still has the third highest insurance premiums in the country, according to III. The market has been deteriorating since the state was hit by record hurricane activity in 2020, causing upwards of $23 billion in damage.
In the aftermath of the disasters, 12 insurers were declared insolvent because of their losses during that time and another 12 voluntarily withdrew from the state.
Over the last two years, Louisiana’s state-run insurance plan — Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. — more than tripled the number of policies it carries, from 35,000 to 128,000, according to the Louisiana Department of Insurance.
“The drama in Louisiana was that the state insurance regulator increased premiums by 65% earlier this year for the state-run plan,” Keys said. “And that was a recognition that they simply didn’t have enough capital on hand to weather an even moderate storm.”
The state government approved a $45 million fund in February of this year to help stabilize the market.
Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon says it’s a first step to court companies to come back to the state.
“That’s a balance between the obligation we have to make insurance available, to attract companies and the obligation we have to make them responsive and fair with their policyholders,” Donelon said.
Reinsurance often creates another kink in the chain.
“Reinsurance is most easily thought of as insurance for insurance companies,” Keys explained. “So insurance companies are going to take on risky policies from homeowners all over the country, and they’re going to have a portfolio of risk, and they’d like to protect themselves from the worst case scenarios.”
As natural disasters become more costly around the country, the cost to stay for reinsurers is also increasing.
“They have a lot of influence in the decisions that insurers make,” Keys said. “They have invested heavily in climate modeling and they have some of the best data and the best models out there. And because this is the only business that they do, they have a lot of money at stake.”
As insurance issues continue across the Gulf Coast, some have looked to fortifying their homes to withstand these powerful storms as a possible solution.
At the University of Miami, researchers are testing how to fortify homes with their hurricane simulator, showing us that the way homes are built could be one key to reversing the insurance market retreat.
“Insurance companies, as well as reinsurance, rely heavily on numerical models,” UMiami assistant scientist Milan Curcic said. “How likely is it that certain areas will experience wind of this threshold, flooding of this level, and so on.”
While some can afford to fortify their homes and choose to self-insure, Keys said those who can’t should “shop around” for policies.
As for the Appels, they settled for a fraction of their policy payout after two years of litigation and being forced into escrow with their bank.
They now live in their bed and breakfast and have given up on rebuilding their home.
“When we don’t have a mortgage here, there will be no insurance here,” Jen Appel said. “So I’m joining the ranks with self-insuring, really self-insuring — don’t just say you’re going to self-insure. You better have a bankroll.”
While Harry is ready to move away, Jen says she doesn’t want to go.
“The only reason we’re still here is because I don’t want to go,” Jen Appel said. “But I didn’t go through all that to get to this point where I haven’t enjoyed any of it.”
(NEW YORK) — When a recent federal report published last week showed routine childhood vaccination rates had fallen among kindergartners for the 2022-23 school year, public health experts were disheartened to see the drop.
However, there was one state that lagged behind the rest: Idaho.
For all four major vaccines — measles, mumps and rubella (MMR); diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis (DTaP); poliovirus (polio) and varicella (chickenpox) — Idaho had the lowest percentage of kindergartners who met school requirements for vaccinations, all around 81% compared to a nationwide rate of 93%.
What’s more, Idaho was the state with the highest percentage of exemptions from one or more required vaccines at 12.1%. Comparatively, the rate of exemptions across the U.S. was about 3%.
“This is concerning not only at a state level but nationally, as well, because we’re not the only state experiencing this; we just appear to be experiencing it a little more than other states,” Dr. Bethaney Fehrenkamp, a clinical assistant immunologist at Idaho WWAMI — a partnership between the University of Washington School of Medicine and Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho — told ABC News.
Public health experts noted that clusters of unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children can lead to outbreaks of preventable diseases such as measles, which is exceptionally contagious and can lead to serious complications such as pneumonia, encephalitis — which is inflammation of the brain — and even death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In one case, between November 2022 and February 2023, a measles outbreak swept across several schools and day cares in central Ohio, infecting 85 children, 80 of whom were unvaccinated.
In Idaho, there was a measles outbreak last month that infected 10 people, according to the Idaho Department of Health & Welfare. Prior to that, there had been just two cases reported in Idaho in 20 years.
When you have an under-vaccinated population and a contagious disease, “it’ll spread and it’ll spread more easily,” Dr. Kevin Cleveland, an associate professor at the College of Pharmacy at Idaho State University, told ABC News.
The type of exemptions allowed also may pose a problem. All 50 states and Washington, D.C. allow exemptions for medical reasons while 45 states and D.C. grant exemptions on religious grounds, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).
However, there are also 15 states that grant philosophical exemptions due to “personal, moral or other beliefs,” the NCSL says. This means that parents can ask for an exemption for their child for just about any reason.
Experts say there are a few reasons why rates might be low. One is access. Idaho is a state with 35 of its 44 counties being rural and 174 physicians per 100,000 people, which may make it hard for people to reach providers or schedule appointments.
Additionally, the rates may be an after-effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the hesitancy around COVID-19 vaccines may have inadvertently spilled into concerns about other vaccines.
“We’ve seen a slow but kind of steady increase in vaccine hesitancy but that was exasperated by COVID-19,” Fehrenkamp said. “While some of the decreased vaccination rates during the pandemic itself were probably likely due to access and availability and maybe a fear of bringing your child to a health care facility during a pandemic — potentially, like misinformation and some lack of trust as well as incomplete transparency has also just kind of exasperated that trust, and made it worse.”
Cleveland said people may also be experiencing vaccine fatigue after being recommended by health experts to get COVID-19 boosters and updated vaccines to help combat circulating variants at various times.
“Every time we talk about a vaccine, it goes back to COVID vaccine,” he said. “I think people are just a little tired. It’s like, ‘Oh, no, another vaccine.'”
Another reason may be that because these diseases have been circulating at low rates due to vaccines, people have forgotten how serious they were before the advent of vaccines.
For example, in the decade before the MMR vaccine became available, it was estimated that 48,000 people were hospitalized with measles each year and between 400 and 500 people died each year, according to the CDC.
“These diseases are really, really contagious and they’re really serious and I think potentially, we’ve forgotten how serious these diseases can be and we require a certain number of the population to be vaccinated in order to get that protection for those that can’t be vaccinated,” Fehrenkamp said. “We’ve previously eradicated these diseases in the U.S., which is why I think maybe, culturally we have forgotten how serious and how detrimental they can be.”
To try to increase these numbers, Fehrenkamp said it’s important for health care providers to have honest conversations with parents about why they’re hesitant or concerned about vaccines to try to assuage their fears.
“I want parents to choose to vaccinate their children, but I want them to feel really good about it and I want them to feel really informed about it and so we need to do a better job informing on vaccine safety,” she said.
At Idaho WWAMI, Fehrenkamp said they bring in students from Idaho that have links to underserved communities to help educate them with the hope they’ll go back and practice in those areas and fill a health care gap.
Cleveland, who specializes in immunization outreach to underserved populations in Idaho, said it’s also important to bring those vaccines into rural or underserved communities to make it easier for people to keep up with vaccine schedules.
“Taking the vaccines to the people, especially in the rural areas or even like workplaces or schools, we usually have really good success in vaccine uptake,” he said.
(LONDON) — Two 12-year-old boys have been arrested and charged with murder following the death of 19-year-old Shawn Seesahi earlier this week, police have said.
Seesahai was found dead on Monday evening in the British city of Wolverhampton, located approximately 16 miles northwest of England’s second most populous city of Birmingham.
The two 12-year-old boys, who cannot be named due to their age, were arrested and charged the following day on Tuesday following a warrant of further detention from the court and subsequently charged with his murder.
“The boys have also been charged with possession of a bladed article,” according to a statement published by the West Midlands Police. “Police patrols are continuing in East Park to offer reassurance to the public and our thoughts remain with Shawn’s family and friends.”
Seesahai’s mother released a statement via the West Midlands Police, saying “Shawn Seesahai was a courageous, compassionate and confident young soul who sadly lost his life at the age of 19. He cared deeply about his friends and family” and “absolutely loved to help people.”
“He was a generous person and had a good personality,” she continued. “We will always have him in our hearts.”
The two juvenile suspects have been remanded in custody and are set to appear at Birmingham Magistrates Court on Friday regarding Seesahai’s murder.
The investigation into Seesahai’s murder is currently ongoing.
(WASHINGTON) — In another sign that Democrats are focusing some of their attacks on former President Donald Trump one year out from the 2024 race, the Democratic National Committee is trying to call out Trump’s record on abortion ahead of his visit to campaign in Iowa along with other GOP candidates.
The billboards, paid for by the Democratic National Committee, will run around the Des Moines area on Friday and Saturday and read “Trump’s America 2025: Impose a National Abortion Ban.”
The DNC will also run another billboard grouping Republican primary candidates Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley — all of whom support abortion restrictions of various kinds, though only DeSantis embraces a national ban — with the banner “MAGA’s America 2025: Extreme Abortion Bans.”
“It’s important that voters know what Donald Trump and members of the MAGA GOP field have promised on the campaign trail: if elected, they’ll push to pass extreme abortion bans and rip away reproductive freedom from women across the country,” DNC spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika told ABC News.
Despite what the Democratic billboard claims, Trump has remained noncommittal on whether he’d support a federal abortion ban, saying in September, “It could be state or it could be federal. I don’t frankly care,” though he added it was “probably better” at the state level.
On the campaign trail, however, Trump often touts how his naming three conservatives justices to the Supreme Court led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade’s abortion access protections as well as run ads on the issue.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement responding to the billboards: “Joe Biden doesn’t know where he is or what’s going on for most of the day.” He added, “This is another desperate attempt by a flailing campaign who can’t even keep their own coalition together.”
Ramaswamy’s campaign responded to the planned billboards with this comment: “We never turn down free advertising.”
The Iowa billboard campaign is part of a larger effort by Biden’s reelection strategy to ramp up attacks on Trump and other Republicans, seeking to contrast them with Biden on issues like abortion, infrastructure and immigration, at the same time that polls show the public broadly disapproves of Biden and Trump is hypothetically running ahead of him in some swing states.
Biden has stepped up his direct criticism of Trump in recent weeks as he gears up for their potential rematch in 2024.
“Now Trump’s running for president bragging about how he killed Roe v. Wade, quote. But he’s trying to change that now too, you know. Now let’s be absolutely clear what Trump’s bragging about. The only reason there is an abortion ban in America is because of Donald Trump,” Biden said at a fundraiser on Tuesday night in San Francisco.
Biden’s messaging on Trump comes in the wake of internal polling from progressive-aligned groups that, these groups say, shows Biden is in trouble if he doesn’t make more pointed attacks on Republicans.
“The only reason that fundamental [abortion] right was stripped away from American people for the first time in American history is because of Donald Trump. And just as all his Republican friends have found out about the power of women in America, Donald Trump is about to find out about the power of women,” Biden said Tuesday in what’s becoming a stump line.
Republicans have struggled to navigate talking about abortion after the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision striking down Roe, with some presidential candidates saying they’d support a 15-week federal ban while others dodge the question by saying they don’t think it would pass through Congress.
Voters have repeatedly supported abortion rights in elections last year and this year; in some battlegrounds, like Michigan, exit polling showed abortion access was a major issue.
Democrats have credited their support for abortion rights with helping aid those wins, including last week in Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia — as they argue the issue is indirectly on the ballot for 2024.
“Voters have repeatedly rejected their radical anti-abortion agenda at the ballot box, but Trump and his MAGA minions are still ramping up their crusade against women’s right to make their own health care decisions – and Americans will hold them accountable yet again in 2024,” said Chitika.
ABC News’ Kendall Ross contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — There have been dozens of eye drops pulled off shelves in the past year due to bacterial and fungal contamination, with multiple warnings issued by the Food and Drug Administration.
Experts and advocates say one reason is likely that in-person faculty inspections slowed significantly during the pandemic, meaning there’s been less regulatory oversight. Now, however, federal regulators may be cracking down after some consumers reported serious health effects.
The latest warning alone included over two dozen eye drops from big name retailers such as CVS Health, Rite Aid, and Target.
FDA action on eye drop products seemingly started to ramp up following an initial warning by the agency back in February that warned of at least one death linked to products contaminated with bacteria.
The agency has also regained the ability to conduct more in-person inspections of manufacturing facilities, following a lull during the pandemic. In fact, the FDA was unable to complete more than 1,000 of its planned fiscal year 2020 inspections, according to the Government Accountability Office.
In the most recent case, the FDA found “insanitary conditions in the manufacturing facility and positive bacterial test results from environmental sampling of critical drug production areas in the facility,” according to the warning issued by the agency.
These inspections occur periodically to ensure the quality and safety of products – akin to a surprise food inspector at a restaurant.
“FDA has an algorithm that they use…kind of a risk-based model where they pick and choose the facilities that they inspect based on kind of the level of risk,” Erin Fox, the associate chief pharmacy officer at University of Utah Health, told ABC News.
“In general, it should happen like every three years on average, but some are inspected more frequently than others,” Fox added.
While the FDA is charged with regulating over the counter products, it has limited legal authority to issue a mandatory recall, often times leaving the decision whether or not eye drops are pulled from shelves to the manufacturers or retailers.
“The FDA can’t, in general, force any company to recall a product or a drug product, whether it’s OTC or prescription. That’s why, like, a lot of times when you see a recall, notice, you’ll see it’s a voluntary recall,” Fox said.
In fact, the federal agency can only issue mandatory recalls for a few kinds of products including infant formula, medical devices, food, tobacco products, electronic products, controlled substances, biological products and, more recently, cosmetics, according to an FDA spokesperson.
There are also instances where mandatory recalls can be issued for false marketing of product efficacy, according to Teresa Murray, a consumer watchdog with U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
“So conceivably, the manufacture could sell like a daily vitamin that contains some kind of bacteria and the FDA would not be able to do a mandatory recall. But if the label says that the vitamin will help you live 1000 years, then the FDA could do a recall for false marketing,” Murray said.
If a manufacturer or retailer won’t comply with a mandatory recall, some of the only recourse regulators like the FDA have at their disposal are civil penalties.
“There’s a process where they can go ahead and file a civil action, take a company to court and say, okay, you’re not going to comply, doggone it, we’re going to take you to court. But then, of course, that’s a long protracted process, and it costs, frankly, money and resources that these regulators don’t have,” Murray said.
Along with the lack of authority to issue mandatory recalls, voluntary recalls can sometimes take an extensive period of time to be issued.
“A lot of times, the regulator and the company, and all of their team of lawyers will negotiate the wording of the recall. And that can take days or weeks,” Murray said.
In the meantime, the FDA can put out a warning, as the many that have been issued for contaminated eye drops.
Multiple bills have been introduced in Congress to broaden the FDA’s ability to issue mandatory recalls for prescription and over the counter medicines, such as the Protecting Americans from Unsafe Drugs Act, yet none have made it into law.
Eye drops that have been listed as contaminated should not be purchased or used and should be disposed of, according to the FDA.
“If anyone using these drops has eye discharge, redness or pain (i.e. signs of infection) they should see an ophthalmologist immediately,” said Dr. Christopher Starr, an associate professor of ophthalmology at Weill Cornell Medicine and spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology told ABC News.
Eye drops can also expire, where they pose a higher risk of contamination.
“I remind everyone to also check expiration dates of their eye drop bottles. If expired, please discard them, as there is a higher risk of contamination even with non-recalled, well-manufactured eye drops,” Starr added.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York in a $250 million civil lawsuit that could alter the personal fortune and real estate empire that helped propel Trump to the White House.
Trump, his sons Eric Trump and and Donald Trump Jr., and other top Trump Organization executives are accused by New York Attorney General Letitia James of engaging in a decade-long scheme in which they used “numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation” to inflate Trump’s net worth in order get more favorable loan terms. The trial comes after the judge in the case ruled in a partial summary judgment that Trump had submitted “fraudulent valuations” for his assets, leaving the trial to determine additional actions and what penalty, if any, the defendants should receive.
The former president has denied all wrongdoing and his attorneys have argued that Trump’s alleged inflated valuations were a product of his business skill.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 16, 8:51 PM EST
With gag order lifted, Trump blasts judge’s clerk online
Hours after an appeals court temporarily lifted a gag order that prohibited Donald Trump from commenting about court staff in his civil fraud trial, the former president criticized Judge Arthur Engoron’s law clerk on social media.
Describing the gag order as “Ridiculous and Unconstitutional,” Trump applauded the appeals court for its decision and described Engoron’s clerk as “politically biased and out of control.”
Engoron issued the limited gag order after Trump made a false social media post about the clerk last month. This evening’s post marked the first time Trump has explicitly mentioned her since then.
Trump also attacked New York Attorney General Letitia James, calling her a “worldwide disgrace,” and his former attorney Michael Cohen, who testified against him during the trial.
Nov 16, 5:55 PM EST
Engoron ends day without addressing gag order
After attentively watching the testimony of the defense’s real estate expert Steven Laposa, Judge Engoron adjourned court for the day without referencing the stay of his limited gag order issued this afternoon by an appellate court.
The judge’s clerk, Allison Greenfield — who was the subject of Trump’s false social media post that triggered Engoron’s limited gag order last month — remained in her regular seat next to the judge after the ruling came down.
Court will resume with Laposa back on the stand Friday.
Nov 16, 5:38 PM EST
Real estate expert describes NY AG’s approach as ‘flawed’
The New York attorney general’s approach to valuing Donald Trump’s properties was “flawed,” according to testimony from the defense’s real estate expert Steven Laposa.
Laposa said that the attorney general’s complaint relied on a market value analysis of Trump’s properties, rather than the investment value of the assets, which would consider the asset’s value based on an individual’s investment requirements instead of market norms.
“In my opinion, it’s flawed,” Laposa said about the attorney general’s findings.
Judge Arthur Engoron appeared attentive during Laposa’s testimony, overruling an objection from the state that would have limited the scope of his testimony.
“I want to hear what he says about evaluations,” Engoron said.
Nov 16, 4:19 PM EST
Defense teams applauds lifting of gag order
Defense attorney Alina Habba, speaking to reporters outside court, said that an appellate judge’s decision to temporarily stay Judge Engoron’s limited gag order on Donald Trump would allow the defense team to continue raising issues with the conduct of Engoron’s clerk, Allison Greenfield.
Habba also said she saw no reason to advise Trump to refrain from attacking Greenfield now that the gag order has been stayed — despite Judge Engoron’s concerns about his staff facing threats.
“There is not a day that I don’t get a threat. It’s just part of the game,” Habba said. “If I put something out on social media, and I get a threat for it, which has happened to me every single day, I don’t get to cry.”
“Ms. James is continuing to disparage my client,” Habba said, referring to New York Attorney General Letitia James, who filed the lawsuit against Trump. “And they were grasping at straws for a reason to say that the president should be gagged. There was no reason.”
James did not ask for the gag order, which was issued by Judge Engoron last month out of concern for the safety of his staff after Trump posted on social media about Greenfield.
Nov 16, 4:00 PM EST
Responses to gag order stay due by Wednesday
New York Attorney General Letitia James and representatives for Judge Arthur Engoron have until Wednesday to file a response to the appellate judge’s stay of the limited gag order imposed last month on Donald Trump by Engoron, according to the appellate judge’s order.
Trump’s reply is then due on Nov. 27 before the appellate court decides whether to fully lift the gag order. The civil fraud trial is expected to wrap up in mid-December.
Engoron’s “gag orders entered during the non-jury trial in the underlying proceeding are unconstitutional, and sanctions imposed there under are in violation of the Judiciary Law and Rules of this court,” Trump’s attorneys said in arguing for the order to be lifted.
Oral arguments about the gag order were presented at a separate courthouse from the courtroom where Trump’s civil trial is taking place. Engoron, who is hearing testimony from an expert witness, has not commented on the decision.
Nov 16, 3:10 PM EST
Appeals court temporarily lifts Trump gag order
A New York appeals court has temporarily lifted the limited gag order imposed on Donald Trump by Judge Arthur Engoron.
Judge David Friedman of the appellate division’s first department ruled from the bench after a brief oral argument.
The judge stayed the limited gag order, citing constitutional concerns over Trump’s free speech rights.
“Considering the constitutional and statutory rights at issue, an interim stay is granted,” Judge Friedman said in a handwritten order.
The gag order was imposed by the Engoron last month after Trump posted about the judge’s law clerk on social media.
Nov 16, 2:51 PM EST
Trump seeks emergency stay of limited gag order
Attorneys for Donald Trump have filed an emergency application for a stay of the limited gag order issued by last month Judge Engoron, asking that an appeals court annul and vacate the gag order and fines imposed against him.
Trump has been fined on two occasions, for a total of $15,000, after making statements referencing the judge’s clerk, and the judge recently extended the gag order to apply to lawyers in the case.
Trump’s lawyers argue that the gag order is an unconstitutional violation of Trump’s freedom of speech, which they say Engoron has used as a “unfettered license to inflict public punishments on a defendant for the defendant’s out-of-court statements.”
“As applied to President Trump, it also prevents a presidential candidate from commenting on the public conduct and possible ethical violations of a critical member of Justice Engoron’s chambers,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
Engoron has said the gag order is meant to protect his staff from violence, noting that his chambers has received hundreds of threatening phone calls, messages, and packages over the course of the trial. While Trump’s lawyers described Engoron’s desire to protect his staff as “understandable,” they argue the gag order is too broad a “curtailment of plainly protected speech in a trial playing out on a national and international stage.”
An attorney for the New York attorney general responded to the filing by describing the gag order as the least restrictive means available to protect Engoron’s staff.
“The First Amendment does not prohibit courts from restricting speech that threatens the safety of the court’s staff or frustrates the orderly progression of a trial,” the attorney general responded in a letter to the appeals court.
Nov 16, 1:55 PM EST
Trump attorney jokes about football coach
In a moment of levity during a break between witnesses, Judge Arthur Engoron noted that Trump attorney Chris Kise has not yet led the questioning of any witnesses.
“How come you don’t get the pleasure of questioning people?” Engoron asked.
“There’s still time left,” Kise responded, saying that he prefers to coach his team from the sideline like famed New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick or Jimbo Fisher.
Fisher received a record buyout after being fired as coach of Texas A&M this week.
“I’d like to be fired from my job and collecting $77 million,” Kise quipped.
“I’ll see if I can arrange that,” Engoron joked.
Nov 16, 1:22 PM EST
GSA flagged issues with Trump’s financial statements
Steven Collins, an expert in contract procurement, testified that the federal government’s General Services Administration — which reviewed Donald Trump’s proposal to renovate the Old Post Office in Washington, D.C. — identified issues in Donald Trump’s statement of financial condition.
“Financial statements provided by Mr. Trump was qualified by his accountants as not complying with GAAP” or generally accepted accounting principles, a GSA document entered into evidence said about a “notable weakness” of Trump’s proposal.
However, said Collins, Trump’s financial capability as reflected in the statements comprised no more than 15% of the evaluation factors considered by the GSA, which more heavily weighed Trump’s site plan and financial offer in ultimately deciding to award Trump the contract.
Collins testified for roughly an hour for the defense and faced no questions during cross-examination.
Nov 16, 11:45 AM EST
Lawyer suggests Trump trying to throw ‘accountants under the bus’
State attorney Kevin Wallace, in his redirect examination of the defense’s expert witness Jason Flemmons, asked the accounting expert a single question.
“When you were at the Securities and Exchange Commission, did you ever encounter issuers facing allegations of fraud [try] to throw their accountants under the bus?” Wallace asked, in an apparent jab at the defense’s contention that the responsibility for Donald Trump’s financial statements lies with his accountants.
Trump’s lawyers quickly objected to the question. Judge Engoron, visibly smirking, sustained the objection.
Earlier, when asked by Judge Engoron about his compensation for serving as an expert witness, Flemmons said he was unable to estimate the total amount but that his hourly rate was $925 per hour. Michiel McCarty, who testified as an expert witness for the state, testified earlier this month that he charged a similar rate.
Nov 16, 10:56 AM EST
Valuing properties ‘not an exact science,’ says expert
The defense’s accounting expert, Jason Flemmons, testified that the process of determining the estimated value of a property could result in a range of values “no one of which is the right or wrong answer.”
The assertion from Flemmons supports the defense’s long-standing argument that performing valuations such as the ones listed on Donald Trump’s statements of financial condition is more akin to an art than a science.
“Estimated current value is not an exact science. There is not one single correct value that comes of this exercise,” Flemmons said.
Flemmons testified that insofar as Trump used an approved method to determine value, and disclosed that method, the value would be appropriate.
“You are communicating that to the user and allowing that user to be in a position to agree or disagree,” Flemmons said.
State attorney Kevin Wallace has concluded his cross-examination of Flemmons, allowing defense lawyer Jesus Suarez to begin his redirect examination of the accounting expert.
Nov 16, 9:25 AM EST
NY AG requests Dec. 8 deadline to respond to mistrial motion
New York Attorney General Letitia James has requested a Dec. 8 deadline to respond to what she called the “spurious allegations” in Donald Trump’s motion for a mistrial, a day after Trump sought a mistrial claiming bias on the part of Judge Arthur Engoron and his clerk.
If granted, the request would delay any decision on the mistrial motion until later in the trial and likely push any potential appeal until after the trial has concluded.
State attorney Kevin Wallace cited the “considerable daily attention” of the trial and the impending Thanksgiving holiday as reasons for the extended deadline.
“The Office of the Attorney General’s position is that — putting aside the total lack of merit to Defendants’ application for a mistrial — it is preferable to have the Court hear and decide the application on full briefing,” Wallace wrote.
Nov 15, 5:52 PM EST
Expert acknowledges he didn’t review each of Trump’s statements
State attorney Kevin Wallace, cross-examining defense expert Jason Flemmons, attempted to challenge Flemmons’ testimony by pressing the accountant on his experience with personal financial statements and his work reviewing Trump’s statements.
Flemmons testified that he himself had compiled fewer than five statements of financial condition, none of which were done after 2000. He also acknowledged that he did not review each of Trump’s financial statements between 2011 and 2021, which are the subject of the New York attorney general’s complaint.
Flemmons generally underplayed the importance of the financial statements by suggesting that most issues Wallace raised were “easily curable with a phone call.”
Asked if he could provide a specific example where he was involved in such a follow-up inquiry, Flemmons failed to offer an example and instead generally referred to his time working for the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Court was subsequently adjourned for the day, with Wallace scheduled to continue his testimony tomorrow morning.
Nov 15, 3:27 PM EST
Trump adequately disclosed accounting methods, expert says
The defense’s accounting expert could not identify any departures from generally accepted accounting principles — known as GAAP — in Donald Trump’s statements of financial condition that were not disclosed, according to his testimony.
“I don’t believe I have identified any additional discrepancies with GAAP that were not covered by those disclosures,” Jason Flemmons testified toward the end of his direct examination.
Flemmons also testified that the statements appropriately cited their use of appraisals, challenging the state’s assertion that Trump ignored vital appraisal information.
“Was the use of appraisals accurately described in the statements?” defense attorney Jesus Suarez asked.
“I believe so. I don’t believe there was anything that contradicted the use of appraisals but also other bases for evaluating the properties,” Flemmons responded.
Suarez concluded his lengthy direct examination, setting up state attorney Kevin Wallace’s cross-examination of Flemmons.
Nov 15, 2:06 PM EST
Accounting expert says he’s attesting to methodology, not results
After Jason Flemmons, the defense’s expert accounting witness, had testified at length about how Donald Trump’s financial statements included adequate disclaimers to explain his departure from normal accounting standards, Judge Engoron interjected to push back on the testimony.
That prompted Flemmons to confirm he is attesting largely to the general accounting methods used by the Trump Organization — not the specific numbers they provided for each of their assets.
As Flemmons gets further into his second day on the stand, Judge Engoron’s initial enthusiasm regarding his testimony appears to be on the wane, with the judge sustaining more of the state’s objections and asking increasingly skeptical questions.
Nov 15, 12:44 PM EST
Trump warned lenders statements may be unreliable, expert says
Donald Trump disclosed that 95% of the assets listed in his 2014 statement of financial condition departed from generally accepted accounting principles — known in the industry as GAAP — according to the defense’s expert witness Jason Flemmons.
The testimony from the defense’s accounting expert bolsters Trump’s argument that the departures from GAAP in his statements were adequately disclosed to lenders, making the lenders themselves responsible for drawing their own conclusions about the valuations listed in the documents.
It also supports the defense’s position that Trump’s statements fell within the regulations on personal financial statements, thus shielding him from allegations of fraud.
Nov 15, 12:03 PM EST
Judge delays ruling on mistrial after Trump claims bias
Judge Arthur Engoron did not issue a ruling on the defense’s motion for a mistrial in court, opting to give the New York attorney general time to determine if the state wants to respond to the request.
“I would ask if we could have until tomorrow to determine if we want to put in anything,” state attorney Kevin Wallace said after Engoron’s asked if the state plans to file a response.
The testimony of expert witness Jason Flemmons is now resuming.
Nov 15, 11:49 AM EST
Motion accuses judge of ‘predetermining’ trial’s outcome
In their motion for a mistrial, lawyers for Donald Trump and his adult sons argue that Judge Engoron has “predetermined the outcome of this proceeding and is merely going through the motions before it ultimately doles out punishment.”
Writing that the actions of both Engoron and his clerk create an appearance of impropriety that has resulted in “biased rulings,” Trump’s lawyers warn of wide-reaching implications.
“Left unchecked, the introduction of such demonstrable pro-Attorney General and anti-Trump/big real estate bias into a case of worldwide interest involving the front-runner for the Presidency of the United States impugns the integrity of the entire system,” they write.
Their three-pronged motion argues that the extrajudicial conduct of Engoron, the political activity of his clerk, and their rulings — including their gag order and fines — are each irreparable harms that can only be remedied by scrapping the entire trial.
“Only the grant of a mistrial can salvage what is left of the rule of law,” they write.
Nov 15, 10:50 AM EST
Trump is ‘trying to dismiss the truth,’ NY AG spokesperson says
A spokesperson for New York Attorney General Letitia James described Donald Trump’s motion for a mistrial as an effort “to dismiss the truth and the facts.”
“Donald Trump is now being held accountable for the years of fraud he committed,” the spokesperson said. “He can keep trying to distract from his fraud, but the truth always comes out.”
Trump’s motion for a mistrial takes aim at Judge Engoron as well as his law clerk, who frequently collaborates with the judge before he rules on objections, the admissibility of evidence, and other legal matters.
The judge imposed a limited gag order prohibiting statements about his staff after Trump posted about the clerk on social media.
Nov 15, 10:31 AM EST
Trump moves for mistrial, claiming bias on part of judge, clerk
Donald Trump and his co-defendants have filed a motion seeking a mistrial on the grounds that the trial has been “tainted” by the appearance of bias on the part of Judge Arthur Engoron and his law.
“This appearance of bias threatens both Defendants’ rights and the integrity of the judiciary as an institution,” Trump’s attorneys say in the filing. “As developed herein, in this case the evidence of apparent and actual bias is tangible and overwhelming.”
“Specifically, the Court’s own conduct, coupled with the Principal Law Clerk, Allison Greenfield’s unprecedented role in the trial and extensive, public partisan activities, would cause even a casual observer to question the Court’s partiality,” they write.
“Such evidence, coupled with an unprecedented departure from standard judicial procedure, has tainted these proceedings and a mistrial is warranted,” the filing says.
Nov 15, 9:23 AM EST
Expert witness to resume testimony for defense
Donald Trump’s lawyers are scheduled to resume their direct examination of expert witness Jason Flemmons this morning, continuing a line of questioning yesterday that largely placed responsibility for Trump’s financial statements on Trump’s external accountants.
Flemmons, who was qualified as an expert on accounting, explicitly criticized the testimony of Donald Bender, Trump’s accountant at Mazars USA who was the New York attorney general’s first witness, disputing Bender’s claim that he would have wanted to see any appraisals that the Trump Organization conducted.
Flemmons also testified that Trump’s financial statements should have sent a “buyer beware” signal to lenders due to the “highly cautionary language” in their disclaimer, which allowed Trump to make claims that significantly departed from generally accepted accounting principles.
To the extent that the statements and the Trump Organization’s representations about the statements were inaccurate, Flemmons placed responsibility on Bender and his colleagues at Mazars, rather than the Trump Organization.
Nov 14, 5:56 PM EST
Expert calls Trump CPA’s testimony ‘not professionally plausible’
Expert witness Jason Flemmons cast doubt on the testimony of the Trump Organization’s former external accountant Donald Bender, who said he would have wanted to review any appraisals that the Trump Organization conducted.
“That’s not something that is required by professional standards,” said Flemmons, testifying for the defense. “His testimony was not professionally plausible.”
That prompted a strong objection from state attorney Kevin Wallace.
“Is he trying to say the witness is lying?” Wallace said.
“Not to put too fine a point on it,” Judge Engoron quipped.
Asked to confirm what he meant by “professional plausible,” Flemmons said it would be “highly unusual” for Bender to request appraisals outside what was mentioned in the statement of financial condition.
“Accountants in the industry do not go seeking records for things that are not in the four corners of the statement of financial condition,” Flemmons said.
Court was subsequently adjourned for the day, with Flemmons scheduled to continue his testimony tomorrow.
Nov 14, 4:07 PM EST
Trump’s disclaimer told bankers to ‘beware,’ expert says
Defense expert Jason Flemmons described the disclaimer included in Donald Trump’s financial statement as the “highest level disclaimer” that could have been provided to bankers reviewing the document.
Flemmons said that the disclaimer, which he said includes “highly cautionary language,” would allow a user to make claims that significantly departed from generally accepted accounting principles, known in the industry as GAAP.
“Was that language present in a substantially similar form in the compilation statements issued by Mazars for Donald Trump?” defense attorney Jesus Suarez asked.
“Yes,” Flemmons said, adding that the disclaimer was “effectively saying ‘user beware.'”
During his testimony and in statements to the media, Trump has claimed that the disclaimer shields him from liability in the case.
Suarez also used Flemmons’ testimony to suggest that Trump’s external accountants were responsible for understanding the methods used in the financial statement and determining their appropriateness.
That appeared to conflict with testimony of former Trump accountant Donald Bender of Mazars USA, who described his role as akin to plugging numbers provided by the Trump Organization into a template.
Nov 14, 2:49 PM EST
Expert says property valuations can be ‘wildly different’
Taking the witness stand as an expert witness for the defense, accountant Jason Flemmons offered testimony in support of Donald Trump’s approach to valuing his Mar-a-Lago property, which has been the subject of debate throughout the seven weeks of the trial.
In his summary judgment decision, Judge Engoron found that Trump overvalued the estate by at least 2,300% because the Palm Beach County Assessor appraised the property’s market value between $18 and $27.6 million after Trump signed a deed that restricted its use to a social club, potentially limiting its resale value as a residence but ensuring a tax cut. Trump, in contrast, listed its value in his financial statement between $426 million and $612 million, and during his appearances in court and online he has repeatedly attacked Engoron’s finding.
Flemmons argued that Trump’s approach to valuing his assets gave him latitude to consider his property’s future revenue streams. That approach, according to Flemmons, could result in “wildly different values” between the numbers listed on a personal financial statement and a tax assessed value.
“Tax assessed values are typically on the lower end of the spectrum,” Flemmons said, while Engoron looked on attentively.
While he never mentioned Mar-a-Lago by name, Flemmons was asked by defense attorney Jesus Suarez about a hypothetical property assessed at $18 million but valued closer to $500 million using a comparable sales approach — the same approach used to value Mar-a-Lago.
“It would not be unusual to have a value in the hundreds of million using projected cash receipts,” Flemmons said.
Engoron then turned his chair toward Flemmons and began asking his own questions.
“I am trying to get to the order of magnitude we are talking about here,” Engoron said. “What is the highest value you have ever seen legitimately placed on such a property?”
Flemmons could not provide a specific example to answer Engoron’s question but reiterated that a massive discrepancy could be appropriate.
Nov 14, 2:04 PM EST
House Republicans call for probe of Cohen after his testimony
House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Michael Turner and House GOP Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik have requested that the Department of Justice investigate Michael Cohen for perjury following his testimony in the trial last month.
During his trial testimony, Cohen said that he lied to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 2019 when he said that Donald Trump and Allen Weisselberg did not ask him to inflate Trump’s personal statement.
“So, you lied under oath in February of 2019? Is that your testimony?” defense attorney Alina Habba asked in court.
“Yes,” Cohen responded.
Shown his 2019 testimony in court, Cohen subsequently reversed himself and said that his 2019 testimony was truthful, explaining the contradiction by clarifying that Trump speaks like a “mob boss” and that he indirectly asked for his statement to be inflated.
In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland sent today, Stefanik and Turner requested that the Department of Justice open an investigation into Cohen potentially committing perjury.
“That Mr. Cohen was willing to openly and brazenly state at trial that he lied to Congress on this specific issue is startling,” they wrote. “His willingness to make such a statement alone should necessitate an investigation.”
Last week, Stefanik sent a separate judicial complaint to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct related to the conduct of the judge overseeing Trump’s trial. In a statement to ABC News, a court representative said in response that the judge’s actions “speak for themselves.”
Nov 14, 1:18 PM EST
Judge stops expert’s testimony following state’s objection
Donald Trump’s lawyers abruptly stopped the testimony of their first expert witness — who was expected to testify for a full day or two — after Judge Engoron limited the topic areas of his testimony.
Steven Witkoff, a real estate investor and longtime friend of Trump’s, was brought into court by the defense team to testify that Trump’s Doral golf club was undervalued in Trump’s financial statements.
But Judge Engoron sustained an objection from the state barring any testimony about the valuation of Doral, significantly limiting Witkoff’s testimony and appearing to hamper the defense strategy proposed by Trump’s attorney Chris Kise.
Kise argued that the inaccuracies in Trump’s statement of financial condition can cut both ways: Even if some properties were overvalued, other properties like Doral were significantly undervalued and balanced out the statement, according to Kise.
“It is highly, extraordinarily relevant if there are assets that are undervalued substantially on those same statements,” Kise said. “They can’t look at this one-sided.”
State attorney Andrew Amer fiercely rebutted that argument, telling Engoron he should not take the defense’s position that the inconsistencies “come out in the wash.”
That argument appeared to convince Engoron, who said that overvaluations would not “insulate” a false valuation. He promised to sustain any objection that related to the value of Doral — an approach Kise described as “lunacy.”
“The reader of the financial statement has the right to know whether each particular number was accurate,” Engoron said. “They are looking for accuracy.”
Nov 14, 10:26 AM EST
Judge doesn’t address post Trump shared calling for his arrest
As court got underway this morning, Judge Engoron — who has said he has received harassing messages regarding his role in the trial — did not address Trump’s sharing of a post on his Truth Social platform calling for his arrest.
The former president yesterday shared a user’s post calling for the “citizens arrest” of Engoron and Attorney General Letitia James “for blatant election interference and harassment.”
When he expanded the case’s limited gag order earlier this month, Engoron said that his chambers had received hundreds of “harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters, and packages” since the start of the trial.
The gag order does not prohibit attacks against Engoron himself or the New York attorney general.
Nov 14, 9:40 AM EST
Defense to call first expert witness
Donald Trump’s defense team plans to call their first of several expert witnesses to the stand today.
Steven Witkoff, a New York-based real estate investor and developer, is set to testify about his expert opinion that the Trump National Doral golf course in Miami was undervalued in Trump’s financial statement, despite the attorney general’s claim to the contrary.
The expert report Witkoff prepared for the case also criticized the finding from the state’s expert regarding the value of Trump’s 40 Wall Street property.
During a 2018 roundtable on tax reform, Trump called Witkoff a “pal” who he inspired to enter the real estate industry.
“You know, people don’t realize Steve started out as a lawyer — a very good lawyer, a top lawyer in New York. And then he said, ‘I’m going to go into the real estate business because I can do this, too,” Trump said. “He saw me do it, and he said, ‘If Trump can do it, I guess I can do it, right?'”
Nov 14, 9:02 AM EST
James, Trump respond as defense begins its case
In a video statement posted to social media, New York Attorney General Letitia James said that the testimony of Donald Trump Jr. yesterday failed to refute any of her case against Donald Trump and his adult sons.
“After spending a full day walking through a marketing presentation to sell us all on the greatness of the Trump Organization, the defendants did not make a single point to refute the case we brought against them,” James said of Trump Jr., who led off the defense’s case.
Trump’s eldest son, an executive VP with the family firm, functionally served as a summary witness to explain the history and notable assets of the Trump Organization, repeatedly using words like “spectacular” and “incredible” to spell out the details of Trump’s properties.
James, meanwhile, drew the ire of Donald Trump for appearing to smile in court.
“A.G. Letitia James is smirking all day long from her seat in Court, as New York continues to set records in murder and other violent crimes, and businesses flee to other States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social this morning, despite murders in New York City being down nearly 10% this year, according to the NYPD.
Nov 13, 5:55 PM EST
Court adjourns for day after tax lawyer’s testimony
The defense wrapped up the first day of its case with testimony from Donald Trump’s former external tax lawyer, Sheri Dillon, who returned to the witness stand to clarify her actions related to conservation easements at Trump’s properties.
Dillon previously testified during a lengthy and combative portion of the state’s case.
“Welcome back. I feel like I am at a reunion — Trump trial reunion,” Judge Engoron joked when Dillon returned to the courtroom.
Dillon, explaining a potential gap in email communications about specific deals, testified that she often communicated with Eric Trump over the phone.
“If I picked up the phone and talked to him, I would know he knew what he needed to know,” Dillon testified.
She also said she advised Trump’s appraiser, David McArdle, that the company could add 40 additional residential units at Trump National Golf Club in New York’s Westchester County by filing a new offering plan, according to an email shown in court. The clarification challenges the New York attorney general’s allegation that a $101 million increase in the value of undeveloped land was based on an unfounded plan by Eric Trump to add units to the property.
During a short cross-examination, state attorney Louis Solomon attempted to challenge Dillon’s authority to provide such legal information to McArdle.
“Do you know if a sponsor has a right to have an offering plan accepted for filing merely because the development meets the requirements for zoning?” Solomon asked.
“No, I do not,” she responded.
Dillon concluded her testimony, and court then adjourned for the day.
Nov 13, 5:41 PM EST
Trump Jr. acknowledges positive rapport with judge
Speaking outside the courthouse following his testimony for the defense, Donald Trump Jr. told ABC News that he seems to have a positive relationship with Judge Engoron.
“Perhaps there’s a New York personality there, but no I think he understood,” Trump Jr. said when ABC News suggested he and the judge appeared to get along. “I can’t help myself even in this very serious situation. If you take yourself too seriously the world sort of sucks. You got to have a little bit of fun with it, so I did.”
His relationship with the judge appears to stand in contrast to that of his father, who has accused Engoron of bias and insulted him from the witness stand.
“We had some quips in the courtroom the first time I was here,” Trump Jr. said of Engoron. “Sort of gave me a fist bump on the way out. I guess I had a rather snappy response to something that was — I can’t even remember what it was right now. He said, ‘That was really funny.'”
Asked by ABC News whether Trump Jr. shared his father’s views about the judge being biased, the son demurred.
“Listen, I don’t even know how far the gag order applies, so I don’t need to do that and put myself — I’m in enough crosshairs, guys,” he said.
Nov 13, 4:56 PM EST
Trump Jr. says aunt’s death made for a ‘rough day’
Following the completion of his testimony, Donald Trump Jr. made the first family comments acknowledging the death of his aunt, Maryanne Trump Barry, calling it “a rough day.”
“Obviously, a little bit of a rough day, but I’ve still got to deal with this stuff. We’ve got to keep doing it. That’s the nature of all of this. But no, it’s a rough day for myself and my family,” Trump Jr. said of the news that former President Trump’s sister had passed away at 86.
Trump Jr. also slammed New York Attorney General Letitia James for bringing the civil fraud case despite what Trump Jr. said was “no actual person complaining other than the attorney general herself.”
“Hopefully, one day the people of this great city will realize what’s going on. They’ll realize the destructive practices here. They’ll realize just how insane that is. And they’ll be begging for guys like Donald Trump to come back to New York City to reshape the skyline as he’s done for decades,” Trump Jr. said.
He said he does not plan to return to court for the continuation of the defense’s case tomorrow.
Nov 13, 3:43 PM EST
Donald Trump Jr. concludes testimony
Donald Trump Jr. stepped off the witness stand after roughly three hours of testimony.
His own attorney, Clifford Robert, concluded his direct examination by asking Trump Jr. about the fate of the Trump Organization.
“I guess a lot of that depends on what happens next November,” Trump Jr said, speculating that the company might be “sued into oblivion.”
Assistant New York Attorney General Colleen Faherty cross-examined Trump Jr. for less than ten minutes about the deterioration of Trump’s assets, including financial problems at 40 Wall Street and Trump’s licensed hotel in Hawaii. Trump Jr. appeared unfamiliar with the 40 Wall Street issues and said he was happy with the Hilton’s deal to buy out the Trump Organization’s Hawaii hotel licensing deal.
Nov 13, 2:54 PM EST
Trump Jr. says golf course site was ‘old-school New York mob job’
Donald Trump Jr., in testimony for the defense, touted the work of the Trump Organization to convert a landfill in the Bronx, New York, into a “absolutely incredible” golf course.
“It was raw dirt. It had been that way for a long time,” Trump Jr. said of the original site of Trump Links Ferry Point near the Whitestone Bridge.
“People were supposedly trying to build a golf course for years,” Trump Jr. said about previous efforts to build the facility, describing it as an “old-school New York mob job” where people got paid to move dirt around but not build anything.
Trump Jr. said that once his father got involved in the project, the site was successfully transformed in a matter of months.
Nov 13, 1:42 PM EST
Trump Jr. to get new and improved sketch
When he was last in court, Donald Trump Jr. took a particular interest in his courtroom sketch.
“He said, ‘Make me look sexy,'” the sketch artist Jane Rosenberg told ABC News. By some accounts, the result was underwhelming.
Rosenberg has another opportunity to draw Trump Jr. with his return to court, and she thinks the new iteration is coming along well.
“I think they get better every time,” she told ABC News.
Earlier in his testimony, Trump Jr. joked about a photo of his brother Eric Trump.
When the slideshow Trump Jr. was narrating displayed a professional headshot of his brother, Trump Jr. took a job at his younger sibling.
“A lot of Photoshop,” Trump Jr. joked.
Nov 13, 1:12 PM EST
Trump Jr. assails judge’s finding on Mar-a-Lago
In presenting a slideshow chronicling the Trump Organization’s properties, Donald Trump Jr. highlighted many of their luxury features and iconic views — implicitly suggesting their value.
That’s particularly true of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, which Judge Engoron in a pretrial ruling determined was worth only a fraction of the amount claimed by Donald Trump, because Trump signed a deed that restricted its use to a social club, thereby limiting its resale value.
Describing how he took “umbrage” to the judge’s determination that Mar-a-Lago was worth between $18 and $28 million, Trump Jr. highlighted specific features to challenge that finding. Showing an aerial photo of the property, Trump Jr. said that a nearby home whose size was dwarfed by the social club has been on sale for $50 million.
“You couldn’t build that atrium for $18 million today,” Trump Jr. said while presenting a photo of the building’s historic atrium.
Nov 13, 12:53 PM EST
With glossy slides, Trump Jr. recounts firm’s story
Donald Trump’s testimony in the defense’s case has so far centered around a slide show being presented by the defense, entitled “The Trump Story,” that paints a timeline of Donald Trump’s real estate acquisitions. When state attorneys objected to the glossy presentation — which Trump Jr. acknowledged was created by his marketing team — the judge allowed the slides, and thus permitted Trump Jr. to testify unrestrained about the company’s properties.
“He’s an artist with real estate. He sees the things other people don’t,” Trump Jr. said at one point when describing his father.
As he narrates the slide show, Trump Jr.’s testimony resembles a lecture on real estate, sprinkled with details about his family’s properties — such as the individual stones used to construct the Seven Springs estate or the bank safes at 40 Wall Street, which he said once stored gold from the Federal Reserve.
“They’re actually spectacular … it’s truly a mechanical work of art,” Trump Jr. said of the safes.
Referencing broken down historic properties that the company has transformed back to their former glory, Trump Jr. called such properties the “canvas” for his his “father’s art.”
“He understands and has an incredible vision that other people don’t,” Trump Jr. said.
After a particular lengthy response, Trump Jr. referenced his father’s own tendency to speak in prolonged monologues, joking, “I got half the genes.”
Nov 13, 11:06 AM EST
Trump Jr. details history of Trump Organization
Testifying for the defense, former President Trump’s eldest son described his father as a real estate “visionary” who “sees the sexiness in a real estate project,” creating value for the family business that cannot be captured on paper.
Donald Trump Jr. began his testimony with a quip after Judge Engoron welcomed him back to the stand following his testimony earlier in the month.
“I’d say it’s good to be here, but the attorney general would probably sue me for perjury,” Trump Jr. joked.
In his testimony, Trump Jr. described the Trump Organization as “a large family business,” with Trump and his eldest children at the top and other executives handling many of the details.
“If there were numbers and things, I would rely on them to give me that,” Trump Jr. said.
He recounted the history of the Trump Organization, beginning with his great-grandfather who he said built hotels in the Yukon Territories of Canada. His grandfather, Fred Trump, “started working on job sites around Queens, learned the trades” and eventually “created an incredible portfolio, by the time of his passing, of rental apartments in Brooklyn and Queens.”
A state attorney jokingly objected that references to the 1800s were outside the statute of limitations — then more seriously objected to the history lesson’s relevance.
“I think it is relevant to get the historical perspective — I find it interesting,” Judge Engoron said in overruling the objection. “Let him go ahead and say how great the Trump Organization is.”
Trump Jr. obliged.
“My father learned a lot of the business from him, but had some flair and saw New York City and Manhattan as the ultimate frontier,” he said. Speaking of Trump Tower, he said, “I think it would have been one of the first, I think great, ultra-luxury real estate emerging in Manhattan.”
Nov 13, 10:20 AM EST
Donald Trump Jr. takes the stand for the defense
“Would you like to call your first witness, defense?” Judge Arthur Engoron asked to begin court this morning.
“The defense calls Donald Trump Jr. to the stand,” defense attorney Clifford Robert responded.
Like his last time on the witness stand when he was called by state attorneys, Trump Jr. appears comfortable on the stand, punctuating his testimony with lighthearted remarks.
Robert began his direct examination with some questions about Trump Jr. ‘s biography, starting with his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania.
“Was a bartender for about 18 months,” Trump Jr. said about his first job out of college.
“Did you enjoy that?” Robert asked.
“I did,” said Trump Jr., joking that he had a challenging conversation with his father when he began that job.
Nov 13, 9:45 AM EST
Trump Jr., arriving in court, met with chants of ‘crime family’
Donald Trump Jr. and his defense lawyers arrived at the New York State Supreme Courthouse this morning to be met with a small crowd of protestors chanting “crime family.”
Trump Jr. did not make a statement before entering the courthouse, but offered a brief response to a question about his expected testimony.
Asked what he plans on saying today on the stand, he replied, “We’ll see what I’m asked.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James arrived at court shortly after Trump Jr. and took a seat in the courtroom with her staff.
Nov 13, 9:06 AM EST
Donald Trump Jr. attends UFC event ahead of testimony
Donald Trump Jr. took in some ultimate fighting ahead of his scheduled return to the witness stand this morning.
Trump Jr. attended a UFC doubleheader at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night with his father, in addition to Tucker Carlson, Kid Rock, and UFC president Dana White.
“I legitimately can’t think of a better squad to roll with,” Trump Jr. posted on social media.
Earlier that day while speaking at a campaign rally in New Hampshire, Donald Trump appeared to joke about appointing White to a position in a potential future administration.
“He’s a guy I’d like to make my Defense Chief. I wouldn’t call him my defense chief. I’d call him my ‘Offense Chief.’ He’d be my Offense Chief,” Trump said.
Nov 13, 8:32 AM EST
Defense to begin presenting its case
As Trump’s legal team prepares to begin presenting its case this morning, defense attorney Alina Habba says responsibility for the financial statements that the New York attorney general says are fraudulent lies with Trump’s external accounting firm.
Previewing the defense’s case during an appearance on Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, Habba also said the banks that loaned money to the Trump Organization were responsible for conducting their own due diligence regarding Trump’s financial statements.
The state rested its case last week in the sixth week of the trial. The defense has said they expect their case to wrap up by Dec. 15.
Habba also suggested that Donald Trump plans to file a motion seeking a mistrial.
While Habba declined to comment on alleged misconduct by Judge Arthur Engoron’s clerk — which she is prohibited from doing due to the limited gag order handed down by the judge — she said the issue would be addressed in their mistrial motion “very soon.”
“I actually can’t tell you why, because I am gagged. I can tell you that we will be filing papers to address all of those issues,” Habba said.
However, Habba downplayed the chance the motion would be favorably decided Engoron.
“The problem we have is the judge is the one who is going to make those decisions, and he has proven himself to be quite motivated by the other side,” Habba said.
Nov 11, 1:51 PM EST
Court administrator responds to Stefanik’s complaint
In response to Rep. Elise Stefanik’s letter of complaint against Judge Engoron that she filed Friday with the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, a spokesperson for New York State Office of Court Administration has issued a statement.
“Judge Engoron’s actions and rulings in this matter are all part of the public record and speak for themselves,” said Office of Court Administration communications director Al Baker. “It is inappropriate to comment further.”
Nov 10, 8:17 PM EST
Rep. Stefanik files complaint against Judge Engoron
Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York has filed a judicial complaint against Judge Arthur Engoron.
The letter, addressed to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, largely concerns the judge’s rulings in the case and his public statements, and is unlikely to impact the proceedings of the trial.
“Judge Engoron’s bizarre and biased behavior is making New York’s judicial system a laughingstock,” Stefanik, a staunch Trump supporter, wrote.
The lengthy letter echoes some of Trump’s attacks on the trial, criticizing Engoron’s limited gag order in the case, the actions of his legal clerk, his summary judgment ruling, and his comments during Trump’s testimony this week.
“Simply put, Judge Engoron has displayed a clear judicial bias against the defendant throughout the case, breaking several rules in the New York Code of Judicial Conduct,” Stefanik wrote.
(NEW YORK) — Thousands of people have died and thousands more have been injured since the militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated with a bombing campaign and total siege of the neighboring Gaza Strip, leaving the region on the verge of all-out war.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 17, 5:46 AM EST
150,000 liters of fuel for hospitals reportedly entering Gaza
An additional 150,000 liters (40,000 gallons) of fuel will be delivered to the Gaza Strip on Friday, according to Egyptian media.
The fuel, which is earmarked for Gaza’s hospitals, will enter the war-torn enclave from neighboring Egypt through the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing, according to Egyptian state-allied television channel Al-Qahers News.
Al-Qahers News reported that “Egyptian pressure on all parties have succeeded in increasing the volume of aid” and “restoring the flow of fuel” to Gaza.
World Health Organization spokesperson Tarik Jašarević had said last month that 150,000 liters of fuel are required to offer basic services in Gaza’s five main hospitals.
-ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy
Nov 16, 7:58 PM EST
Discussions over release of hostages remain fluid, source says
Many details remain up in the air regarding a deal to release the Hamas-held hostages in exchange for a pause in fighting in Gaza, according to U.S. officials.
One of the biggest sticking points is the number of hostages that will be released, according to an Israeli source.
Israel wants all the children, their mothers and all of their family members released, the source said. If you count just women and young children, that’s about 50 hostages; if you add the family members, you get up to about 80 hostages, according to the source.
The discussions remain fluid, the source said.
It’s too soon to tell if a deal will come together, but people participating in negotiations have yet to throw in the towel, the U.S. officials said.
Asked about the deal by “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir on Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. is focused “intensely” on bringing hostages home.
“But having said that, honestly the less that I say the better at this moment because we don’t want to jeopardize anything that we’re doing to try to bring people home,” he said. “I’m hopeful that we can bring people home.”
-ABC News’ Shannon K. Crawford and Matt Gutman
Nov 16, 6:32 PM EST
Discussions over release of hostages remain fluid, source says
Many details remain up in the air regarding a deal to release the Hamas-held hostages in exchange for a pause in fighting in Gaza, according to U.S. officials.
One of the biggest sticking points is the number of hostages that will be released, according to an Israeli source.
Israel wants all the children, their mothers and all of their family members released, the source said. If you count just women and young children, that’s about 50 hostages; if you add the family members, you get up to about 80 hostages, according to the source.
The discussions remain fluid, the source said.
It’s too soon to tell if a deal will come together, but people participating in negotiations have yet to throw in the towel, the U.S. officials said.
-ABC News’ Shannon K. Crawford and Matt Gutman
Nov 16, 4:29 PM EST
State Department: ‘Impossible’ to safely evacuate patients from Al-Shifa Hospital
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller, who said earlier that the U.S. supported evacuating patients from Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital and was liaising with partners who could potentially carry that out, said Thursday the conditions in Gaza wouldn’t allow for it.
“There are third parties that have expressed an interest to do so,” he said, however, “it’s been impossible to ensure that they could move safely to conduct these evacuations.”
He later specified that “the problem has been Hamas.”
Miller again expressed confidence in U.S. intelligence supporting the assertion that Hamas was using Al-Shifa Hospital as cover for a command-and-control center.
Miller disagreed with the assertion that the evidence supplied by the Israel Defense Forces — like weapons recovered from the hospital — was not compelling.
“I saw a host of assault rifles,” Miller said. “I’m not aware that there’s a sort of acceptable threshold level for assault rifles held in hospitals — that’s not general humanitarian practice.”
Miller later added, “It is an ongoing operation. I think people should wait until the operation is finished to draw their own conclusions.”
About 300 American citizens as well as approximately 600 legal, permanent U.S. residents and their eligible family members remain in Gaza, Miller said.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Nov 16, 2:07 PM EST
Body of 65-year-old hostage found near Al-Shifa Hospital, IDF says
The body of Yehudit Weiss, a 65-year-old woman who was abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7, was found at a “structure adjacent” to Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, the Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement Thursday.
Her body was “extracted” and “transferred to Israeli territory,” the IDF said.
“In the structure in which Yehudit was located, military equipment including Kalashnikov rifles and [rocket-propelled grenades] were also found,” the IDF said.
“For us, it is too late,” Weiss’ daughter-in-law told The Times of Israel. “But it is important for us to support all the families of the hostages, and to tell the world — bring them home now.”
Nov 16, 1:19 PM EST
IDF says it found Hamas intelligence material, information on hostages at Al-Shifa Hospital
The Israel Defense Forces said it’s still operating at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, searching the hospital floor-by-floor as doctors and patients remain sheltered inside.
The IDF said during its searches at the hospital forces have found Hamas intelligence material, weapons and information about the hostages.
Nov 16, 12:21 PM EST
Kirby says US ‘still convinced of the soundness’ of intelligence on Al-Shifa Hospital
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby reiterated that the U.S. is “still convinced of the soundness” of its intelligence that Hamas is using Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital as a command center.
“We have our own intelligence that convinces us that Hamas was using Al-Shifa as a command-and-control node, and most likely as well as a storage facility,” Kirby said. “And they were sheltering themselves in a hospital, using the hospital as a shield against military action and placing the patients and medical staff at a greater risk. We are still convinced of the soundness of that intelligence.”
ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Nov 16, 12:11 PM EST
70% of people in southern Gaza have no clean water
Seventy percent of the population in southern Gaza had no access to clean water as of Wednesday, Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, told Al Jazeera.
He said raw sewage is “starting to flow in the streets,” and if fuel isn’t brought into Gaza soon, he warned, “We run the risk to have to suspend the entire humanitarian operation.”
Nov 16, 11:54 AM EST
What we know about the conflict
The war, which has now moved into its second stage, according to Israel, has passed the one-month mark.
In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured since Oct. 7, according to Israeli officials. In the neighboring Gaza Strip, at least 11,320 people have been killed and another 29,200 have been injured, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
Aid workers and officials fear that Israel’s call for an evacuation of the northern part of Gaza is precipitating a humanitarian disaster as electricity and other supplies have been cut off in preparation for what appears to be an imminent ground offensive.
Humanitarian groups have urged Israel to call off the evacuation and agree to a cease-fire, even as the country has asserted a right to defend itself — a right the United States endorses.
Nov 16, 10:53 AM EST
Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital ‘a disaster,’ doctor says
Dr. Sara Al Saqqa, a surgeon at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, fled the hospital complex several days ago “because everything was pretty horrific and terrifying,” she told ABC News.
She said most of her colleagues and patients evacuated the hospital, where Israeli troops are carrying out a dayslong raid, but she said nearly 100 doctors remain there, along with more than 700 patients and thousands of people seeking refuge.
“The situation now is a disaster at Al-Shifa,” she said. “Israeli occupational forces have invaded Shifa Hospital with their tanks and destroyed most of the medical equipment there. … They shot a lot of people and they arrested more.”
The Israeli army alleges that Hamas has placed its command centers under Al-Shifa and other hospitals in Gaza and is deliberately sheltering behind Palestinian civilians — claims that the militant group denies.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. has intelligence that Hamas has used Gaza’s hospitals, including Al-Shifa, to support its military operations and hold hostages.
Progress being made on deal to free at least 50 Hamas hostages: officials
The IDF’s operations at the hospital are ongoing Thursday.
The Israelis said that they found explosives inside the medical complex, but Al Saqqa said the Israelis “didn’t find the things that they are looking for because there is no military activity inside the hospital. And this is something that’s obvious to all of us, the ones working there for several years.”
Nov 16, 9:41 AM EST
Clashes intensify along Israel-Lebanon border amid fears of wider war
The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday that its “soldiers struck a terrorist cell in Lebanon that attempted to launch anti-tank missiles toward Israeli territory.”
“In addition, terrorists attempted to carry out a number of launches toward the area of Misgav Am in northern Israel, as well as IDF posts in the areas of Metula and Yiftah,” the IDF said in a statement. “No injuries were reported.”
“In response, IDF soldiers are striking with artillery fire toward the sources of the launches,” the IDF added.
In recent weeks, there have been continued exchanges between Israeli forces and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border. Although the clashes remain within the notional 10-kilometer corridor along the shared border, they are now a daily occurrence and have intensified in recent days, which raises the potential for escalation as each side responds to the other’s strikes.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been walking a delicate line with regard to the group’s response to the latest outbreak of war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas. In remarks made a couple weeks ago, Nasrallah effectively distanced himself from Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, saying it was wholly a Palestinian conceived, planned and undertaken operation. At the same time, he has pledged support to the Palestinians in their struggle amid Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip. He also said that Hezbollah had joined the fight against Israeli forces from Oct. 8 with strikes across the border, but ruled out a full-scale war at this time.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah has been scrupulously issuing regular statements taking responsibility for strikes on northern Israel and providing precise details.
The types of ordinance used in these cross-border strikes are also ramping up. The Lebanese Armed Forces recently posted on their official Facebook page “general guidelines for avoiding the dangers of phosphorus munitions.” Lebanon has repeatedly accused Israel of using incendiary and phosphorus munitions in their attacks.
But Hezbollah’s leader made clear in his speech last Saturday that the group does not want a war with Israel right now. Acting Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has indicated the same and has praised the patriotism and restraint of Hezbollah.
For now, there appears to be a slow-burn battle between Israel and Hezbollah but within the 10-kilometer corridor of the border and therefore contained. It’s unclear how long that will last.
Nov 16, 8:52 AM EST
US ‘hopeful’ in securing release of remaining hostages, Kirby says
U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told ABC News on Thursday that “there’s still working going on, literally by the hour,” to secure the release of the remaining hostages being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“We’ve got folks on the ground. We’ve been talking to them, our negotiators are talking to their negotiators and we’re working on this really, really hard,” Kirby said during an interview on ABC News’ Good Morning America.
“I don’t have an announcement to make today,” he added. “But, as the president said yesterday, we’re hopeful that we can actually get a good result here.”
Nov 16, 8:48 AM EST
US maintains Hamas is using Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital
During an interview Thursday on ABC News’ Good Morning America, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby was asked whether Israel’s raid on the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip was justified.
“Well, the raid, they’re going in on the ground here. They’re not bombing it,” Kirby said. “They’re going after the Hamas leadership that is there. This presents a real dilemma for them.”
“Hamas is using that hospital as a command and control mode and as a way to store weapons, and even house their fighters. Israel has to do something about that threat,” he continued. “But they also have an added burden of protecting the civilians, the medical staff, the doctors and the patients that are at that hospital. And they are trying hard to strike that balance.”
The IDF alleges that Hamas has placed its command centers under Al-Shifa and other hospitals in Gaza and is deliberately sheltering behind Palestinian civilians — claims that the militant group denies.
Kirby told a press gaggle on Tuesday that the U.S. has intelligence that Hamas has used Gaza’s hospitals, including Al-Shifa, to support its military operations and hold hostages.
Nov 16, 6:39 AM EST
IDF raid on Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital continues for second day
Israeli ground troops continued to carry out a raid on the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip for a second day.
A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces told ABC News that, as of 1 p.m. local time on Thursday, soldiers were still inside Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, some 34 hours after launching the raid.
The IDF spokesperson also confirmed that they found explosives inside the medical complex.
The IDF alleges that Hamas has placed its command centers under Al-Shifa and other hospitals in Gaza and is deliberately sheltering behind Palestinian civilians — claims that the militant group denies.
Nov 15, 5:46 PM EST
Negotiations progressing in hostage release deal, officials say
Negotiations are progressing towards a U.S. and Qatari-brokered hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas, according to multiple officials in the U.S. and Israel.
The potential deal could see Hamas free dozens of Israeli hostages taken on Oct. 7 in exchange for Israel’s release of jailed Palestinians and occur during a multi-day cease-fire in Gaza, the officials said.
The contours of that deal are still being worked out, including how many Israeli hostages would be released and how long a cease-fire would last.
Multiple officials in the U.S. and Israel told ABC News that the current figure is at least 50 Israeli hostages — women, children and the elderly — would be released, though the exact number is not yet final. This would likely take place in batches, with hostages released in exchange for a yet unspecified number of Palestinian women and minors held in Israeli jails, the officials said.
The cease-fire could last between three and seven days though the length is being negotiated and remains a sticking point, the officials said.
There would be other Israeli concessions as well, potentially including the delivery of fuel into Gaza, according to the officials.
Two U.S. officials told ABC News that an agreement seems to be within reach, but that multiple similar proposals have fallen apart just before reaching the finish line in recent weeks.
-ABC News’ Matt Gutman, Jordana Miller and Shannon K. Crawford
Nov 15, 5:03 PM EST
1st fuel truck enters Gaza
A fuel truck crossed the Rafah border crossing from Egypt into Gaza on Wednesday, marking the first time fuel entered Gaza since Oct. 7, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority said, according to The Associated Press.
Fuel has been drying up in Gaza as the war continued.
Smoke from shelling rises above the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Nov. 15, 2023.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine said their trucks — which deliver aid from Egypt to Gaza — ran out of fuel Tuesday.
In hospitals, a lack of fuel has prevented doctors for running incubators for babies.
And without fuel, many residents of Gaza have been trapped, unable to drive south toward the Egyptian border.
Nov 15, 3:39 PM EST
43 patients died in Al-Shifa Hospital as ICU oxygen ran out, doctor says
At Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, 43 out of the 63 intensive care patients have died as oxygen in the intensive care unit runs out, according to Dr. Ahmed Mokhallalati, head of the hospital’s plastic surgery department.
Mokhallalati told ABC News the mission of burying bodies is ongoing as more people die inside and outside the hospital.
Mokhallalati said he could still hear the Israeli tanks at the hospital gates Wednesday night.
Nov 15, 2:42 PM EST
Over half of Gaza’s hospitals are non-functional: WHO
Twenty-two of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are now “non-functional,” the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
The “14 hospitals remaining open have barely enough supplies to sustain critical and lifesaving surgeries and provide inpatient care,” the WHO warned.
The organization in a statement reiterated its calls for a cease-fire, protection of civilians and “respect for international humanitarian law.”
Nov 15, 2:01 PM EST
Operation at Al-Shifa hospital complex ongoing, IDF says
The Israel Defense Forces said its operation at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital complex is ongoing.
The IDF said its forces “engaged with” and killed “a number of terrorists” when entering the hospital complex.
Following searches in the hospital, the IDF said its troops “located a room with technological assets, along with military and combat equipment used by the Hamas terrorist organization.”
Palestinian journalist Khadr al Zanoon, who is at the hospital, told ABC News no fighting has taken place inside, but he can hear tanks outside.
He said Hamas fighters are not in the hospital but are in the area around it and are fighting with Israeli forces.
He said Israeli forces have detained some Palestinians who were inside the hospital.
The raid on Al-Shifa Hospital began early Wednesday around 3 a.m. local time, after Israeli forces had moved closer to the medical complex for several days.
Thousands of civilians, along with hundreds of patients — most of whom are seriously ill — have been sheltering at Al-Shifa, according to hospital staff and Gaza health officials.
The IDF alleges that Hamas has placed its command centers under Al-Shifa and other hospitals in Gaza and is deliberately sheltering behind Palestinian civilians — claims that the militant group denies.
Nov 15, 12:46 PM EST
Kirby says US did not give ‘OK’ on Israel’s hospital operation
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby on Wednesday denied that the U.S. gave any “OK” for the Israeli operation at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital.
“These are Israeli military operations that they plan and they execute on, you know, in accordance with their own established procedures, that the United States is not, was not, involved in,” Kirby said.
He also denied that the U.S. confirming intelligence that Hamas uses the hospital as a control center had anything to do with the timing of the Israeli military operation at the hospital, which began only hours after Kirby’s announcement.
Kirby also said Israel’s hospital operation was “not a focus” of President Joe Biden’s Tuesday night conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and would not say if the U.S. got a heads up about the operation.
“Again, we don’t expect the Israelis to advise us or inform us when they are going to conduct operations,” Kirby said. “We talked to them routinely every day, and certainly we talked to them about our continued concerns over civilian casualties and sharing our perspectives on the best way to minimize, but these are their operations.”
ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky
Nov 15, 12:12 PM EST
Israeli forces have left Al-Shifa hospital complex, hospital director says
The director of Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital said Israeli forces have now left the hospital complex following an hourslong raid, but said “tanks and forces are completely stationed in its surroundings.”
The raid on Al-Shifa Hospital began early Wednesday around 3 a.m. local time, after Israeli forces had moved closer to the medical complex for several days.
Thousands of civilians, along with hundreds of patients — most of whom are seriously ill — have been sheltering at Al-Shifa, according to hospital staff and Gaza health officials.
The IDF alleges that Hamas has placed its command centers under Al-Shifa and other hospitals in Gaza and is deliberately sheltering behind Palestinian civilians — claims that the militant group denies.
Nov 15, 10:01 AM EST
Al-Shifa Hospital doctor describes Israeli raid: ‘They told us no one should look through the windows’
As Israeli ground forces continue to carry out an hour-long raid on the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, staff there told ABC News that none of the patients have been moved out.
There are about 600 patients admitted to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, many of whom are seriously ill or wounded. Thousands of other people have been sheltering in the vast medical complex amid Israel’s bombardment of the area.
Speaking to ABC News via telephone from inside the hospital, Dr. Ahmed Mokhallalati described the moment Israeli troops arrived at the complex before dawn on Wednesday.
“They told us no one should look through the windows,” said Mokhallalati, who is the head of the hospital’s plastic surgery department.
“The whole situation is really horrible,” he added. “They are just scaring everyone here.”
ABC News’ Dragana Jovanovic
Nov 15, 8:06 AM EST
IDF suggests it has not yet encountered Hamas fighters inside Al-Shifa Hospital
A senior Israeli defense official said Wednesday that so far Israeli troops have not engaged in combat inside Al-Shifa Hospital itself and suggested they have not yet encountered Hamas fighters within the vast medical complex, the largest in the Gaza Strip.
However, the Israel Defense Forces’ ground operation at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City is ongoing and they have allegedly found evidence — specifically weapons — that Hamas, the militant group that rules the strip, is operating inside there, according to the official. More details will be revealed later Wednesday, the official said.
Hamas has since released a statement calling Israel’s claim that it found weapons inside Al-Shifa Hospital “a blatant lie.”
The senior Israeli defense official told reporters that Israeli soldiers went into Al-Shifa Hospital to destroy Hamas infrastructure, not to go after Hamas leaders.
The official noted that four Hamas fighters were killed near the medical complex as Israeli troops approached, but said they are still investigating if they came from inside the hospital.
The official said Israeli forces are currently operating only in “one area” of the hospital but warned that they will enter other areas as needed. The IDF has “no intention” of sending its soldiers to fight “among the patients or the active personnel of the hospital,” according to the official.
The official told reporters that the hospital’s youngest patients — dozens of premature babies — are in a building of the complex not where Israeli troops are currently operating. Israeli soldiers delivered incubators and baby food at the front gate of the hospital in hopes that the staff there would take them, according to the official.
The official declined to say where exactly Israeli forces were operating within the complex, citing operational security.
Al-Shifa Hospital was designed by Israeli architects decades ago and the IDF knows its layout well.
Nov 15, 5:50 AM EST
UN official ‘appalled’ by Israeli raid on Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital
The head of the United Nations’ humanitarian relief operations condemned on Wednesday the Israeli military’s ongoing raid on the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital, saying he is “appalled” by the reports of the operations.
“I’m appalled by reports of military raids in Al Shifa hospital in #Gaza. The protection of newborns, patients, medical staff and all civilians must override all other concerns. Hospitals are not battlegrounds,” U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths wrote in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Nov 15, 5:23 AM EST
IDF continues hourslong raid on Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital
The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday morning that its ground troops are continuing to carry out “a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area” of the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip.
“The activity in this specified area is based on operational necessities, as well as intelligence information that indicates Hamas terrorist activity is being directed from the area,” the IDF said in a statement. “Prior to their entry, the IDF troops encountered explosive devices and terrorist cells, and an engagement began in which terrorists were killed.”
The raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City began after midnight local time, after Israeli forces had moved closer to the medical complex for several days. Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health said gunfire was heard on the hospital grounds and Israeli troops entered through the main building and the emergency department.
Thousands of civilians, along with hundreds of patients — most of whom are seriously ill — have been sheltering at Al-Shifa, according to hospital staff and Gaza health officials.
The IDF alleges that Hamas has placed its command centers under Al-Shifa and other hospitals in Gaza and is deliberately sheltering behind Palestinian civilians — claims which the militant group denies.
The IDF said Wednesday that its troops “are conducting searches for Hamas terror infrastructure and weapons” at Al-Shifa Hospital. They also “delivered humanitarian aid to the entrance of the hospital,” according to the IDF.
Doctors at Al-Shifa Hospital have been warning of its imminent collapse due to a lack of electricity as well as limited fuel and medical supplies.
Nov 14, 7:19 PM EST
IDF says it’s carrying out ‘targeted operation’ in Al-Shifa Hospital
The Israel Defense Forces said they are carrying out a “precise and targeted operation against Hamas” in an area in the Al-Shifa Hospital.
“The IDF forces include medical teams and Arabic speakers, who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment, with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians being used by Hamas as human shields,” IDF said in a statement.
IDF called upon Hamas militants in the hospital to surrender.
The operation comes after IDF called for military activities in the hospital to “cease within 12 hours,” IDF said, adding: “Unfortunately, it did not.”
Nov 14, 6:35 PM EST
IDF says it will storm Al-Shifa Hospital soon, Gaza Health Ministry says
The Israel Defense Forces have informed the Gaza Health Ministry that they will storm the Al-Shifa Hospital in several minutes, Dr. Ashraf al Qadra, spokesman of the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, said on Al-Jazeera TV.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta
Nov 14, 5:53 PM EST
State Department grappling with dissent over US handling of conflict: Sources
State Department employees have sent multiple internal communications in recent days expressing concerns over the administration’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war, including at least one dissent cable, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The dissent channel is a system that allows diplomats to confidentially register their opposition to specific policies with department leadership, but employees can also formally express their disagreement to high-level officials through other avenues.
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller confirmed Tuesday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken sent a department-wide email on Monday where he noted the tensions and different views among employees.
“He did address in that email…all the issues underlying our policy and made clear people understood what our policy is, just as he has done in meetings he’s had with a number of employees in the department,” Miller told reporters.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Nov 14, 4:29 PM EST
Nearly 1,000 Americans and family members still possibly waiting to leave Gaza: State Department
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Tuesday that just under 1,000 Americans and their family members may be waiting to leave Gaza, as hundreds have left so far through the Rafah border crossing.
“There are now over 600 American citizens and lawful permanent residents and their family members who have departed Gaza through Rafah gate,” Miller said during a briefing. “There are a little under 1,000 that we know of that are left now whose departure we hope to facilitate over the coming days should they wish to depart.”
The number of eligible individuals who may be looking to leave the enclave is higher than previously anticipated, based on previous State Department figures. Before the Rafah gate opened to outbound traffic, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said some 400 Americans and roughly 600 of their eligible family members were in contact with the department about leaving Gaza.
-ABC News’ Shannon K. Crawford
Nov 14, 4:11 PM EST
Israel claims Hamas has ‘lost control of Northern Gaza’
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a briefing Tuesday that “Hamas has lost control of Northern Gaza.”
“We control Northern Gaza, especially Gaza City,” Gallant said.
Gallant said the Israel Defense Forces have uncovered 500 tunnels, including in schools, mosques and hospitals, as it seeks to remove Hamas’ leadership and military from Gaza.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Nov 14, 2:56 PM EST
Breakthrough in hostage deal could come in next 48-72 hours: Israeli source
A senior Israeli political source said Tuesday that progress has been made on a hostage deal and a breakthrough could come in the next 48-72 hours.
The Israeli War Cabinet is meeting Tuesday night to discuss the deal, the source said.
Israeli officials have said as many as 239 Israelis are being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Nov 14, 2:55 PM EST
US intelligence shows Hamas using hospitals to support military operations, hold hostages: Kirby
The U.S. has intelligence that shows Hamas has used hospitals in Gaza to support its military operations and hold hostages, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby confirmed Tuesday.
“I can confirm for you that we have information that Hamas, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, used some hospitals in the Gaza Strip — including Al-Shifa — and tunnels underneath them to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages,” Kirby said during a gaggle on Air Force One.
Kirby said Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad operate a command and control node from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City where “they have stored weapons there, and they’re prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility.”
Kirby said the information comes from a “variety” of intelligence sourcing.
He cautioned again that these actions by Hamas “do not lessen Israel’s responsibilities to protect civilians in Gaza.”
“This is something that we obviously are going to continue to have an active conversation with our counterparts about,” he said.
During a Pentagon briefing Tuesday, deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh described the information as an independent U.S. intelligence assessment and “newly downgraded information that we felt was important to get out today because there have been a lot of questions about the hospital and how Hamas operates.”
Singh did not go into specifics on the intel but said “we feel very confident in our sourcing and what the intelligence community has gathered on this topic.”
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez and Luis Martinez
Nov 14, 2:42 PM EST
Fuel shortage stalls aid deliveries from Egypt into Gaza Strip, official says
A fuel shortage has stalled aid deliveries from Egypt into the Gaza Strip, a Rafah border crossing official told ABC News on Tuesday.
“No aid got in today because [the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees] trucks have no fuel,” Wael Abu Omar, the Palestinian spokesman for the Rafah border crossing, said.
The UNRWA, which is responsible for receiving and distributing humanitarian aid coming from Egypt in Gaza, said Monday its trucks ran out of fuel and it would not be able to to receive aid coming through Rafah on Tuesday.
Tuesday marks the first day no aid trucks crossed into Gaza through Egypt since Oct. 21 amid the war.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said it received the last convoy of trucks from Egypt on Monday, including 155 trucks, following the UNRWA’s announcement.
-ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy
Nov 14, 12:28 PM EST
Mass grave dug inside Al-Shifa Hospital, official says
A mass grave has been dug inside Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza to bury dozens of corpses after Israeli forces banned the Red Cross from collecting the bodies, according to Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, the director general of the Palestinian Health Ministry.
“There are approximately 100 corpses lying on the hospital courtyard that have rotted and decomposed,” Al-Bursh told Al-Hadath TV on Tuesday, speaking from inside the hospital, the largest in Gaza. “We are walking on worms and we fear there will be an epidemic.”
Medical staff and people sheltering inside the medical complex have dug a “large hole” to bury the dead bodies, he said. Dozens of other bodies stored in refrigerators at the facility will also be buried in the mass grave, he said.
“Israel tanks are at the gates of the hospital and we are burying bodies under gunfire and with tanks around,” Al-Bursh said.
The hospital ceased to function on Saturday after it ran out of fuel, and staff and health ministry officials inside say the facility has been under siege by Israeli forces for five days, with drones and snipers firing into it.
“We are trying to dig a mass grave to bury the martyrs inside Al-Shifa Hospital. Our efforts to remove the bodies of the martyrs from Al-Shifa complex have failed,” said Dr. Youssef Abu Al-Rish, undersecretary of the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.
Israeli officials have said Hamas is operating a command center from under the hospital, something denied by Hamas.
-ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy and Morgan Winsor
Nov 14, 11:31 AM EST
Humanitarian corridor in Gaza is less than 1.5 miles long, Israeli officer says
One of two humanitarian corridors that the Israeli military has temporarily opened in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday is less than 1.5 miles long, according to an executive officer of an Israeli battalion in charge of the route.
The officer told ABC News that the corridor is a 2-kilometer stretch of Salah al-Din, the main highway connecting the north and south of Gaza. He said his troops have come under sniper fire and that “there were casualties.”
The Israeli military has distributed leaflets directing civilians in the north to routes that take them to the corridors, offering safe passage to evacuate to the south of the war-torn enclave within a designated window of time on Tuesday.
ABC News’ Matt Gutman, Becky Perlow and Juan Rentaria
Nov 14, 7:53 AM EST
IDF says it’s offered to transfer incubators to Gaza
The Israel Defense Forces announced Tuesday morning that it “is in the process of coordinating the transfer of incubators from a hospital in Israel to Gaza.”
“We are doing everything we can to minimize harm to civilians, assist in evacuation, and facilitate the transfer of medical supplies and food,” the IDF wrote in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “Our war is not with the people of Gaza.”
It was unknown whether the process to transfer incubators was underway and there was no confirmation of Israel’s offer from health officials or medical staff in the Gaza Strip. It was also unclear how the incubators would be powered at Gaza’s hospitals with little to no electricity and fuel.
The announcement came amid worldwide calls to save dozens of premature newborn babies at Gaza’s second-largest hospital.
Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City had been struggling to run with limited fuel for days as doctors warn of its imminent collapse. On Friday, fighting in the area intensified and a strike hit the courtyard outside the hospital.
Three of the 39 babies that were being cared for in Al-Shifa’s neonatal unit have died since their incubators stopped working on Saturday, according to the hospital’s head of plastic surgery, Dr. Ahmed Mokhallalati. The hospital staff has been trying their best to look after them, swaddling them and using what power is left to heat the room they are in.
In recent days, several hospitals across Gaza said they have been under attack as heavy fighting occurs between Israeli troops and the militant group that rules the enclave, Hamas. The IDF alleges that Hamas has placed its command centers in tunnels under hospitals in Gaza and is deliberately sheltering behind Palestinian civilians — claims which the group denies.
Nov 14, 5:11 AM EST
IDF announces two evacuation corridors open in Gaza on Tuesday
The Israel Defense Forces announced Tuesday the temporary opening of evacuation corridors in the war-torn Gaza Strip to allow more people in the north of the Hamas-run enclave to move south.
A “safe passage” will be open “for humanitarian purposes” via the Salah al-Din highway toward the area south of Wadi Gaza on Tuesday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. local time, according to the IDF.
The IDF said it will also temporarily suspend military activities “for humanitarian purposes” in the neighborhoods of Al-Daraj and Al-Tuffah on Tuesday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. local time.
“Please, for your safety, join the hundreds of thousands of residents who have moved south in recent days,” the IDF said in a statement. “We encourage you to seize the time and move south!”
The IDF also urged Gaza residents to “not surrender to Hamas,” alleging that the militant group “has lost control over the northern Gaza Strip area and is trying to do everything it can to prevent you from moving south and protect yourselves.”
Nov 13, 8:36 PM EST
Israel claims to have evidence of Hamas headquarters at hospital
Israeli military officials brought several journalists, including ABC’s Matt Gutman, into the Al-Rantisi Hospital inside Gaza, which had been hit with artillery.
The hospital, Gaza’s sole children’s hospital, was allegedly a Hamas command center, Israel’s chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari, who led the tour, claimed.
The hospital was surrounded by Israeli tanks from Thursday into Friday, the director of Al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital said on Friday.
Inside the basement of the hospital, which officials said has been evacuated, were abandoned AK-47s, grenades and what Hagari said were suicide vests. In another room of the basement was a chair where Hagari claims a hostage was kept.
The spokesperson said the Israeli military was set to detonate the grenades and vests they claim they found inside and a forensic team was going to probe the hospital for more evidence.
The tour came after the hospital’s resources deteriorated due to nearby attacks, according to UNICEF.
The hospital’s operations almost ceased between Thursday and Friday, according to UNICEF.
By Friday, Al-Rantisi Hospital had only a small generator powering the intensive care and neonatal intensive care units, UNICEF said.
(NEW YORK) — Thousands of people have died and thousands more have been injured since the militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated with a bombing campaign and total siege of the neighboring Gaza Strip, leaving the region on the verge of all-out war.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 17, 7:33 AM EST
Hostage negotiations are ongoing and fluid, sources say
Negotiations for a hostage deal with Hamas are still ongoing, Israeli and U.S. sources told ABC News on Friday.
The potential agreement would involve Hamas releasing a certain number of hostages in exchange for a pause in fighting of some length of time in the Gaza Strip. But many of the details are still up in the air, according to U.S. sources.
The discussions are intense and remain fluid, according to an Israeli source. A disagreement has unfolded inside Israel’s defense cabinet with some ministers wanting to accept a deal to free about 50 women and children, while other ministers want all of the women and children as well as their family members released — about 80 hostages in total, ABC News has learned.
Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, took more than 200 people hostage — including Americans — while carrying out an unprecedented attack on neighboring Israel on Oct. 7, according to Israeli and U.S. authorities.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford and Matt Gutman
Nov 17, 5:46 AM EST
150,000 liters of fuel for hospitals reportedly entering Gaza
An additional 150,000 liters (40,000 gallons) of fuel will be delivered to the Gaza Strip on Friday, according to Egyptian media.
The fuel, which is earmarked for Gaza’s hospitals, will enter the war-torn enclave from neighboring Egypt through the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing, according to Egyptian state-allied television channel Al-Qahers News.
Al-Qahers News reported that “Egyptian pressure on all parties have succeeded in increasing the volume of aid” and “restoring the flow of fuel” to Gaza.
World Health Organization spokesperson Tarik Jašarević had said last month that 150,000 liters of fuel are required to offer basic services in Gaza’s five main hospitals.
-ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy
Nov 16, 7:58 PM EST
Discussions over release of hostages remain fluid, source says
Many details remain up in the air regarding a deal to release the Hamas-held hostages in exchange for a pause in fighting in Gaza, according to U.S. officials.
One of the biggest sticking points is the number of hostages that will be released, according to an Israeli source.
Israel wants all the children, their mothers and all of their family members released, the source said. If you count just women and young children, that’s about 50 hostages; if you add the family members, you get up to about 80 hostages, according to the source.
The discussions remain fluid, the source said.
It’s too soon to tell if a deal will come together, but people participating in negotiations have yet to throw in the towel, the U.S. officials said.
Asked about the deal by “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir on Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. is focused “intensely” on bringing hostages home.
“But having said that, honestly the less that I say the better at this moment because we don’t want to jeopardize anything that we’re doing to try to bring people home,” he said. “I’m hopeful that we can bring people home.”
-ABC News’ Shannon K. Crawford and Matt Gutman
Nov 16, 6:32 PM EST
Discussions over release of hostages remain fluid, source says
Many details remain up in the air regarding a deal to release the Hamas-held hostages in exchange for a pause in fighting in Gaza, according to U.S. officials.
One of the biggest sticking points is the number of hostages that will be released, according to an Israeli source.
Israel wants all the children, their mothers and all of their family members released, the source said. If you count just women and young children, that’s about 50 hostages; if you add the family members, you get up to about 80 hostages, according to the source.
The discussions remain fluid, the source said.
It’s too soon to tell if a deal will come together, but people participating in negotiations have yet to throw in the towel, the U.S. officials said.
-ABC News’ Shannon K. Crawford and Matt Gutman
Nov 16, 4:29 PM EST
State Department: ‘Impossible’ to safely evacuate patients from Al-Shifa Hospital
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller, who said earlier that the U.S. supported evacuating patients from Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital and was liaising with partners who could potentially carry that out, said Thursday the conditions in Gaza wouldn’t allow for it.
“There are third parties that have expressed an interest to do so,” he said, however, “it’s been impossible to ensure that they could move safely to conduct these evacuations.”
He later specified that “the problem has been Hamas.”
Miller again expressed confidence in U.S. intelligence supporting the assertion that Hamas was using Al-Shifa Hospital as cover for a command-and-control center.
Miller disagreed with the assertion that the evidence supplied by the Israel Defense Forces — like weapons recovered from the hospital — was not compelling.
“I saw a host of assault rifles,” Miller said. “I’m not aware that there’s a sort of acceptable threshold level for assault rifles held in hospitals — that’s not general humanitarian practice.”
Miller later added, “It is an ongoing operation. I think people should wait until the operation is finished to draw their own conclusions.”
About 300 American citizens as well as approximately 600 legal, permanent U.S. residents and their eligible family members remain in Gaza, Miller said.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Nov 16, 2:07 PM EST
Body of 65-year-old hostage found near Al-Shifa Hospital, IDF says
The body of Yehudit Weiss, a 65-year-old woman who was abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7, was found at a “structure adjacent” to Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, the Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement Thursday.
Her body was “extracted” and “transferred to Israeli territory,” the IDF said.
“In the structure in which Yehudit was located, military equipment including Kalashnikov rifles and [rocket-propelled grenades] were also found,” the IDF said.
“For us, it is too late,” Weiss’ daughter-in-law told The Times of Israel. “But it is important for us to support all the families of the hostages, and to tell the world — bring them home now.”
Nov 16, 1:19 PM EST
IDF says it found Hamas intelligence material, information on hostages at Al-Shifa Hospital
The Israel Defense Forces said it’s still operating at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, searching the hospital floor-by-floor as doctors and patients remain sheltered inside.
The IDF said during its searches at the hospital forces have found Hamas intelligence material, weapons and information about the hostages.
Nov 16, 12:21 PM EST
Kirby says US ‘still convinced of the soundness’ of intelligence on Al-Shifa Hospital
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby reiterated that the U.S. is “still convinced of the soundness” of its intelligence that Hamas is using Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital as a command center.
“We have our own intelligence that convinces us that Hamas was using Al-Shifa as a command-and-control node, and most likely as well as a storage facility,” Kirby said. “And they were sheltering themselves in a hospital, using the hospital as a shield against military action and placing the patients and medical staff at a greater risk. We are still convinced of the soundness of that intelligence.”
ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Nov 16, 12:11 PM EST
70% of people in southern Gaza have no clean water
Seventy percent of the population in southern Gaza had no access to clean water as of Wednesday, Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, told Al Jazeera.
He said raw sewage is “starting to flow in the streets,” and if fuel isn’t brought into Gaza soon, he warned, “We run the risk to have to suspend the entire humanitarian operation.”
Nov 16, 11:54 AM EST
What we know about the conflict
The war, which has now moved into its second stage, according to Israel, has passed the one-month mark.
In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured since Oct. 7, according to Israeli officials. In the neighboring Gaza Strip, at least 11,320 people have been killed and another 29,200 have been injured, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
Aid workers and officials fear that Israel’s call for an evacuation of the northern part of Gaza is precipitating a humanitarian disaster as electricity and other supplies have been cut off in preparation for what appears to be an imminent ground offensive.
Humanitarian groups have urged Israel to call off the evacuation and agree to a cease-fire, even as the country has asserted a right to defend itself — a right the United States endorses.
Nov 16, 10:53 AM EST
Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital ‘a disaster,’ doctor says
Dr. Sara Al Saqqa, a surgeon at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, fled the hospital complex several days ago “because everything was pretty horrific and terrifying,” she told ABC News.
She said most of her colleagues and patients evacuated the hospital, where Israeli troops are carrying out a dayslong raid, but she said nearly 100 doctors remain there, along with more than 700 patients and thousands of people seeking refuge.
“The situation now is a disaster at Al-Shifa,” she said. “Israeli occupational forces have invaded Shifa Hospital with their tanks and destroyed most of the medical equipment there. … They shot a lot of people and they arrested more.”
The Israeli army alleges that Hamas has placed its command centers under Al-Shifa and other hospitals in Gaza and is deliberately sheltering behind Palestinian civilians — claims that the militant group denies.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. has intelligence that Hamas has used Gaza’s hospitals, including Al-Shifa, to support its military operations and hold hostages.
Progress being made on deal to free at least 50 Hamas hostages: officials
The IDF’s operations at the hospital are ongoing Thursday.
The Israelis said that they found explosives inside the medical complex, but Al Saqqa said the Israelis “didn’t find the things that they are looking for because there is no military activity inside the hospital. And this is something that’s obvious to all of us, the ones working there for several years.”
Nov 16, 9:41 AM EST
Clashes intensify along Israel-Lebanon border amid fears of wider war
The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday that its “soldiers struck a terrorist cell in Lebanon that attempted to launch anti-tank missiles toward Israeli territory.”
“In addition, terrorists attempted to carry out a number of launches toward the area of Misgav Am in northern Israel, as well as IDF posts in the areas of Metula and Yiftah,” the IDF said in a statement. “No injuries were reported.”
“In response, IDF soldiers are striking with artillery fire toward the sources of the launches,” the IDF added.
In recent weeks, there have been continued exchanges between Israeli forces and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border. Although the clashes remain within the notional 10-kilometer corridor along the shared border, they are now a daily occurrence and have intensified in recent days, which raises the potential for escalation as each side responds to the other’s strikes.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been walking a delicate line with regard to the group’s response to the latest outbreak of war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas. In remarks made a couple weeks ago, Nasrallah effectively distanced himself from Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, saying it was wholly a Palestinian conceived, planned and undertaken operation. At the same time, he has pledged support to the Palestinians in their struggle amid Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip. He also said that Hezbollah had joined the fight against Israeli forces from Oct. 8 with strikes across the border, but ruled out a full-scale war at this time.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah has been scrupulously issuing regular statements taking responsibility for strikes on northern Israel and providing precise details.
The types of ordinance used in these cross-border strikes are also ramping up. The Lebanese Armed Forces recently posted on their official Facebook page “general guidelines for avoiding the dangers of phosphorus munitions.” Lebanon has repeatedly accused Israel of using incendiary and phosphorus munitions in their attacks.
But Hezbollah’s leader made clear in his speech last Saturday that the group does not want a war with Israel right now. Acting Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has indicated the same and has praised the patriotism and restraint of Hezbollah.
For now, there appears to be a slow-burn battle between Israel and Hezbollah but within the 10-kilometer corridor of the border and therefore contained. It’s unclear how long that will last.
Nov 16, 8:52 AM EST
US ‘hopeful’ in securing release of remaining hostages, Kirby says
U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told ABC News on Thursday that “there’s still working going on, literally by the hour,” to secure the release of the remaining hostages being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“We’ve got folks on the ground. We’ve been talking to them, our negotiators are talking to their negotiators and we’re working on this really, really hard,” Kirby said during an interview on ABC News’ Good Morning America.
“I don’t have an announcement to make today,” he added. “But, as the president said yesterday, we’re hopeful that we can actually get a good result here.”
Nov 16, 8:48 AM EST
US maintains Hamas is using Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital
During an interview Thursday on ABC News’ Good Morning America, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby was asked whether Israel’s raid on the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip was justified.
“Well, the raid, they’re going in on the ground here. They’re not bombing it,” Kirby said. “They’re going after the Hamas leadership that is there. This presents a real dilemma for them.”
“Hamas is using that hospital as a command and control mode and as a way to store weapons, and even house their fighters. Israel has to do something about that threat,” he continued. “But they also have an added burden of protecting the civilians, the medical staff, the doctors and the patients that are at that hospital. And they are trying hard to strike that balance.”
The IDF alleges that Hamas has placed its command centers under Al-Shifa and other hospitals in Gaza and is deliberately sheltering behind Palestinian civilians — claims that the militant group denies.
Kirby told a press gaggle on Tuesday that the U.S. has intelligence that Hamas has used Gaza’s hospitals, including Al-Shifa, to support its military operations and hold hostages.
Nov 16, 6:39 AM EST
IDF raid on Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital continues for second day
Israeli ground troops continued to carry out a raid on the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip for a second day.
A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces told ABC News that, as of 1 p.m. local time on Thursday, soldiers were still inside Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, some 34 hours after launching the raid.
The IDF spokesperson also confirmed that they found explosives inside the medical complex.
The IDF alleges that Hamas has placed its command centers under Al-Shifa and other hospitals in Gaza and is deliberately sheltering behind Palestinian civilians — claims that the militant group denies.
Nov 15, 5:46 PM EST
Negotiations progressing in hostage release deal, officials say
Negotiations are progressing towards a U.S. and Qatari-brokered hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas, according to multiple officials in the U.S. and Israel.
The potential deal could see Hamas free dozens of Israeli hostages taken on Oct. 7 in exchange for Israel’s release of jailed Palestinians and occur during a multi-day cease-fire in Gaza, the officials said.
The contours of that deal are still being worked out, including how many Israeli hostages would be released and how long a cease-fire would last.
Multiple officials in the U.S. and Israel told ABC News that the current figure is at least 50 Israeli hostages — women, children and the elderly — would be released, though the exact number is not yet final. This would likely take place in batches, with hostages released in exchange for a yet unspecified number of Palestinian women and minors held in Israeli jails, the officials said.
The cease-fire could last between three and seven days though the length is being negotiated and remains a sticking point, the officials said.
There would be other Israeli concessions as well, potentially including the delivery of fuel into Gaza, according to the officials.
Two U.S. officials told ABC News that an agreement seems to be within reach, but that multiple similar proposals have fallen apart just before reaching the finish line in recent weeks.
-ABC News’ Matt Gutman, Jordana Miller and Shannon K. Crawford
Nov 15, 5:03 PM EST
1st fuel truck enters Gaza
A fuel truck crossed the Rafah border crossing from Egypt into Gaza on Wednesday, marking the first time fuel entered Gaza since Oct. 7, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority said, according to The Associated Press.
Fuel has been drying up in Gaza as the war continued.
Smoke from shelling rises above the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Nov. 15, 2023.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine said their trucks — which deliver aid from Egypt to Gaza — ran out of fuel Tuesday.
In hospitals, a lack of fuel has prevented doctors for running incubators for babies.
And without fuel, many residents of Gaza have been trapped, unable to drive south toward the Egyptian border.
Nov 15, 3:39 PM EST
43 patients died in Al-Shifa Hospital as ICU oxygen ran out, doctor says
At Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, 43 out of the 63 intensive care patients have died as oxygen in the intensive care unit runs out, according to Dr. Ahmed Mokhallalati, head of the hospital’s plastic surgery department.
Mokhallalati told ABC News the mission of burying bodies is ongoing as more people die inside and outside the hospital.
Mokhallalati said he could still hear the Israeli tanks at the hospital gates Wednesday night.
Nov 15, 2:42 PM EST
Over half of Gaza’s hospitals are non-functional: WHO
Twenty-two of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are now “non-functional,” the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
The “14 hospitals remaining open have barely enough supplies to sustain critical and lifesaving surgeries and provide inpatient care,” the WHO warned.
The organization in a statement reiterated its calls for a cease-fire, protection of civilians and “respect for international humanitarian law.”
Nov 15, 2:01 PM EST
Operation at Al-Shifa hospital complex ongoing, IDF says
The Israel Defense Forces said its operation at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital complex is ongoing.
The IDF said its forces “engaged with” and killed “a number of terrorists” when entering the hospital complex.
Following searches in the hospital, the IDF said its troops “located a room with technological assets, along with military and combat equipment used by the Hamas terrorist organization.”
Palestinian journalist Khadr al Zanoon, who is at the hospital, told ABC News no fighting has taken place inside, but he can hear tanks outside.
He said Hamas fighters are not in the hospital but are in the area around it and are fighting with Israeli forces.
He said Israeli forces have detained some Palestinians who were inside the hospital.
The raid on Al-Shifa Hospital began early Wednesday around 3 a.m. local time, after Israeli forces had moved closer to the medical complex for several days.
Thousands of civilians, along with hundreds of patients — most of whom are seriously ill — have been sheltering at Al-Shifa, according to hospital staff and Gaza health officials.
The IDF alleges that Hamas has placed its command centers under Al-Shifa and other hospitals in Gaza and is deliberately sheltering behind Palestinian civilians — claims that the militant group denies.
Nov 15, 12:46 PM EST
Kirby says US did not give ‘OK’ on Israel’s hospital operation
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby on Wednesday denied that the U.S. gave any “OK” for the Israeli operation at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital.
“These are Israeli military operations that they plan and they execute on, you know, in accordance with their own established procedures, that the United States is not, was not, involved in,” Kirby said.
He also denied that the U.S. confirming intelligence that Hamas uses the hospital as a control center had anything to do with the timing of the Israeli military operation at the hospital, which began only hours after Kirby’s announcement.
Kirby also said Israel’s hospital operation was “not a focus” of President Joe Biden’s Tuesday night conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and would not say if the U.S. got a heads up about the operation.
“Again, we don’t expect the Israelis to advise us or inform us when they are going to conduct operations,” Kirby said. “We talked to them routinely every day, and certainly we talked to them about our continued concerns over civilian casualties and sharing our perspectives on the best way to minimize, but these are their operations.”
ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky
Nov 15, 12:12 PM EST
Israeli forces have left Al-Shifa hospital complex, hospital director says
The director of Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital said Israeli forces have now left the hospital complex following an hourslong raid, but said “tanks and forces are completely stationed in its surroundings.”
The raid on Al-Shifa Hospital began early Wednesday around 3 a.m. local time, after Israeli forces had moved closer to the medical complex for several days.
Thousands of civilians, along with hundreds of patients — most of whom are seriously ill — have been sheltering at Al-Shifa, according to hospital staff and Gaza health officials.
The IDF alleges that Hamas has placed its command centers under Al-Shifa and other hospitals in Gaza and is deliberately sheltering behind Palestinian civilians — claims that the militant group denies.
Nov 15, 10:01 AM EST
Al-Shifa Hospital doctor describes Israeli raid: ‘They told us no one should look through the windows’
As Israeli ground forces continue to carry out an hour-long raid on the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, staff there told ABC News that none of the patients have been moved out.
There are about 600 patients admitted to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, many of whom are seriously ill or wounded. Thousands of other people have been sheltering in the vast medical complex amid Israel’s bombardment of the area.
Speaking to ABC News via telephone from inside the hospital, Dr. Ahmed Mokhallalati described the moment Israeli troops arrived at the complex before dawn on Wednesday.
“They told us no one should look through the windows,” said Mokhallalati, who is the head of the hospital’s plastic surgery department.
“The whole situation is really horrible,” he added. “They are just scaring everyone here.”
ABC News’ Dragana Jovanovic
Nov 15, 8:06 AM EST
IDF suggests it has not yet encountered Hamas fighters inside Al-Shifa Hospital
A senior Israeli defense official said Wednesday that so far Israeli troops have not engaged in combat inside Al-Shifa Hospital itself and suggested they have not yet encountered Hamas fighters within the vast medical complex, the largest in the Gaza Strip.
However, the Israel Defense Forces’ ground operation at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City is ongoing and they have allegedly found evidence — specifically weapons — that Hamas, the militant group that rules the strip, is operating inside there, according to the official. More details will be revealed later Wednesday, the official said.
Hamas has since released a statement calling Israel’s claim that it found weapons inside Al-Shifa Hospital “a blatant lie.”
The senior Israeli defense official told reporters that Israeli soldiers went into Al-Shifa Hospital to destroy Hamas infrastructure, not to go after Hamas leaders.
The official noted that four Hamas fighters were killed near the medical complex as Israeli troops approached, but said they are still investigating if they came from inside the hospital.
The official said Israeli forces are currently operating only in “one area” of the hospital but warned that they will enter other areas as needed. The IDF has “no intention” of sending its soldiers to fight “among the patients or the active personnel of the hospital,” according to the official.
The official told reporters that the hospital’s youngest patients — dozens of premature babies — are in a building of the complex not where Israeli troops are currently operating. Israeli soldiers delivered incubators and baby food at the front gate of the hospital in hopes that the staff there would take them, according to the official.
The official declined to say where exactly Israeli forces were operating within the complex, citing operational security.
Al-Shifa Hospital was designed by Israeli architects decades ago and the IDF knows its layout well.
Nov 15, 5:50 AM EST
UN official ‘appalled’ by Israeli raid on Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital
The head of the United Nations’ humanitarian relief operations condemned on Wednesday the Israeli military’s ongoing raid on the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital, saying he is “appalled” by the reports of the operations.
“I’m appalled by reports of military raids in Al Shifa hospital in #Gaza. The protection of newborns, patients, medical staff and all civilians must override all other concerns. Hospitals are not battlegrounds,” U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths wrote in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Nov 15, 5:23 AM EST
IDF continues hourslong raid on Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital
The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday morning that its ground troops are continuing to carry out “a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area” of the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip.
“The activity in this specified area is based on operational necessities, as well as intelligence information that indicates Hamas terrorist activity is being directed from the area,” the IDF said in a statement. “Prior to their entry, the IDF troops encountered explosive devices and terrorist cells, and an engagement began in which terrorists were killed.”
The raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City began after midnight local time, after Israeli forces had moved closer to the medical complex for several days. Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health said gunfire was heard on the hospital grounds and Israeli troops entered through the main building and the emergency department.
Thousands of civilians, along with hundreds of patients — most of whom are seriously ill — have been sheltering at Al-Shifa, according to hospital staff and Gaza health officials.
The IDF alleges that Hamas has placed its command centers under Al-Shifa and other hospitals in Gaza and is deliberately sheltering behind Palestinian civilians — claims which the militant group denies.
The IDF said Wednesday that its troops “are conducting searches for Hamas terror infrastructure and weapons” at Al-Shifa Hospital. They also “delivered humanitarian aid to the entrance of the hospital,” according to the IDF.
Doctors at Al-Shifa Hospital have been warning of its imminent collapse due to a lack of electricity as well as limited fuel and medical supplies.
Nov 14, 7:19 PM EST
IDF says it’s carrying out ‘targeted operation’ in Al-Shifa Hospital
The Israel Defense Forces said they are carrying out a “precise and targeted operation against Hamas” in an area in the Al-Shifa Hospital.
“The IDF forces include medical teams and Arabic speakers, who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment, with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians being used by Hamas as human shields,” IDF said in a statement.
IDF called upon Hamas militants in the hospital to surrender.
The operation comes after IDF called for military activities in the hospital to “cease within 12 hours,” IDF said, adding: “Unfortunately, it did not.”
Nov 14, 6:35 PM EST
IDF says it will storm Al-Shifa Hospital soon, Gaza Health Ministry says
The Israel Defense Forces have informed the Gaza Health Ministry that they will storm the Al-Shifa Hospital in several minutes, Dr. Ashraf al Qadra, spokesman of the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, said on Al-Jazeera TV.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta
Nov 14, 5:53 PM EST
State Department grappling with dissent over US handling of conflict: Sources
State Department employees have sent multiple internal communications in recent days expressing concerns over the administration’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war, including at least one dissent cable, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The dissent channel is a system that allows diplomats to confidentially register their opposition to specific policies with department leadership, but employees can also formally express their disagreement to high-level officials through other avenues.
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller confirmed Tuesday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken sent a department-wide email on Monday where he noted the tensions and different views among employees.
“He did address in that email…all the issues underlying our policy and made clear people understood what our policy is, just as he has done in meetings he’s had with a number of employees in the department,” Miller told reporters.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Nov 14, 4:29 PM EST
Nearly 1,000 Americans and family members still possibly waiting to leave Gaza: State Department
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Tuesday that just under 1,000 Americans and their family members may be waiting to leave Gaza, as hundreds have left so far through the Rafah border crossing.
“There are now over 600 American citizens and lawful permanent residents and their family members who have departed Gaza through Rafah gate,” Miller said during a briefing. “There are a little under 1,000 that we know of that are left now whose departure we hope to facilitate over the coming days should they wish to depart.”
The number of eligible individuals who may be looking to leave the enclave is higher than previously anticipated, based on previous State Department figures. Before the Rafah gate opened to outbound traffic, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said some 400 Americans and roughly 600 of their eligible family members were in contact with the department about leaving Gaza.
-ABC News’ Shannon K. Crawford
Nov 14, 4:11 PM EST
Israel claims Hamas has ‘lost control of Northern Gaza’
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a briefing Tuesday that “Hamas has lost control of Northern Gaza.”
“We control Northern Gaza, especially Gaza City,” Gallant said.
Gallant said the Israel Defense Forces have uncovered 500 tunnels, including in schools, mosques and hospitals, as it seeks to remove Hamas’ leadership and military from Gaza.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Nov 14, 2:56 PM EST
Breakthrough in hostage deal could come in next 48-72 hours: Israeli source
A senior Israeli political source said Tuesday that progress has been made on a hostage deal and a breakthrough could come in the next 48-72 hours.
The Israeli War Cabinet is meeting Tuesday night to discuss the deal, the source said.
Israeli officials have said as many as 239 Israelis are being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Nov 14, 2:55 PM EST
US intelligence shows Hamas using hospitals to support military operations, hold hostages: Kirby
The U.S. has intelligence that shows Hamas has used hospitals in Gaza to support its military operations and hold hostages, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby confirmed Tuesday.
“I can confirm for you that we have information that Hamas, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, used some hospitals in the Gaza Strip — including Al-Shifa — and tunnels underneath them to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages,” Kirby said during a gaggle on Air Force One.
Kirby said Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad operate a command and control node from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City where “they have stored weapons there, and they’re prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility.”
Kirby said the information comes from a “variety” of intelligence sourcing.
He cautioned again that these actions by Hamas “do not lessen Israel’s responsibilities to protect civilians in Gaza.”
“This is something that we obviously are going to continue to have an active conversation with our counterparts about,” he said.
During a Pentagon briefing Tuesday, deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh described the information as an independent U.S. intelligence assessment and “newly downgraded information that we felt was important to get out today because there have been a lot of questions about the hospital and how Hamas operates.”
Singh did not go into specifics on the intel but said “we feel very confident in our sourcing and what the intelligence community has gathered on this topic.”
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez and Luis Martinez
Nov 14, 2:42 PM EST
Fuel shortage stalls aid deliveries from Egypt into Gaza Strip, official says
A fuel shortage has stalled aid deliveries from Egypt into the Gaza Strip, a Rafah border crossing official told ABC News on Tuesday.
“No aid got in today because [the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees] trucks have no fuel,” Wael Abu Omar, the Palestinian spokesman for the Rafah border crossing, said.
The UNRWA, which is responsible for receiving and distributing humanitarian aid coming from Egypt in Gaza, said Monday its trucks ran out of fuel and it would not be able to to receive aid coming through Rafah on Tuesday.
Tuesday marks the first day no aid trucks crossed into Gaza through Egypt since Oct. 21 amid the war.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said it received the last convoy of trucks from Egypt on Monday, including 155 trucks, following the UNRWA’s announcement.
-ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy
Nov 14, 12:28 PM EST
Mass grave dug inside Al-Shifa Hospital, official says
A mass grave has been dug inside Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza to bury dozens of corpses after Israeli forces banned the Red Cross from collecting the bodies, according to Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, the director general of the Palestinian Health Ministry.
“There are approximately 100 corpses lying on the hospital courtyard that have rotted and decomposed,” Al-Bursh told Al-Hadath TV on Tuesday, speaking from inside the hospital, the largest in Gaza. “We are walking on worms and we fear there will be an epidemic.”
Medical staff and people sheltering inside the medical complex have dug a “large hole” to bury the dead bodies, he said. Dozens of other bodies stored in refrigerators at the facility will also be buried in the mass grave, he said.
“Israel tanks are at the gates of the hospital and we are burying bodies under gunfire and with tanks around,” Al-Bursh said.
The hospital ceased to function on Saturday after it ran out of fuel, and staff and health ministry officials inside say the facility has been under siege by Israeli forces for five days, with drones and snipers firing into it.
“We are trying to dig a mass grave to bury the martyrs inside Al-Shifa Hospital. Our efforts to remove the bodies of the martyrs from Al-Shifa complex have failed,” said Dr. Youssef Abu Al-Rish, undersecretary of the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.
Israeli officials have said Hamas is operating a command center from under the hospital, something denied by Hamas.
-ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy and Morgan Winsor
Nov 14, 11:31 AM EST
Humanitarian corridor in Gaza is less than 1.5 miles long, Israeli officer says
One of two humanitarian corridors that the Israeli military has temporarily opened in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday is less than 1.5 miles long, according to an executive officer of an Israeli battalion in charge of the route.
The officer told ABC News that the corridor is a 2-kilometer stretch of Salah al-Din, the main highway connecting the north and south of Gaza. He said his troops have come under sniper fire and that “there were casualties.”
The Israeli military has distributed leaflets directing civilians in the north to routes that take them to the corridors, offering safe passage to evacuate to the south of the war-torn enclave within a designated window of time on Tuesday.
ABC News’ Matt Gutman, Becky Perlow and Juan Rentaria
Nov 14, 7:53 AM EST
IDF says it’s offered to transfer incubators to Gaza
The Israel Defense Forces announced Tuesday morning that it “is in the process of coordinating the transfer of incubators from a hospital in Israel to Gaza.”
“We are doing everything we can to minimize harm to civilians, assist in evacuation, and facilitate the transfer of medical supplies and food,” the IDF wrote in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “Our war is not with the people of Gaza.”
It was unknown whether the process to transfer incubators was underway and there was no confirmation of Israel’s offer from health officials or medical staff in the Gaza Strip. It was also unclear how the incubators would be powered at Gaza’s hospitals with little to no electricity and fuel.
The announcement came amid worldwide calls to save dozens of premature newborn babies at Gaza’s second-largest hospital.
Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City had been struggling to run with limited fuel for days as doctors warn of its imminent collapse. On Friday, fighting in the area intensified and a strike hit the courtyard outside the hospital.
Three of the 39 babies that were being cared for in Al-Shifa’s neonatal unit have died since their incubators stopped working on Saturday, according to the hospital’s head of plastic surgery, Dr. Ahmed Mokhallalati. The hospital staff has been trying their best to look after them, swaddling them and using what power is left to heat the room they are in.
In recent days, several hospitals across Gaza said they have been under attack as heavy fighting occurs between Israeli troops and the militant group that rules the enclave, Hamas. The IDF alleges that Hamas has placed its command centers in tunnels under hospitals in Gaza and is deliberately sheltering behind Palestinian civilians — claims which the group denies.
Nov 14, 5:11 AM EST
IDF announces two evacuation corridors open in Gaza on Tuesday
The Israel Defense Forces announced Tuesday the temporary opening of evacuation corridors in the war-torn Gaza Strip to allow more people in the north of the Hamas-run enclave to move south.
A “safe passage” will be open “for humanitarian purposes” via the Salah al-Din highway toward the area south of Wadi Gaza on Tuesday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. local time, according to the IDF.
The IDF said it will also temporarily suspend military activities “for humanitarian purposes” in the neighborhoods of Al-Daraj and Al-Tuffah on Tuesday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. local time.
“Please, for your safety, join the hundreds of thousands of residents who have moved south in recent days,” the IDF said in a statement. “We encourage you to seize the time and move south!”
The IDF also urged Gaza residents to “not surrender to Hamas,” alleging that the militant group “has lost control over the northern Gaza Strip area and is trying to do everything it can to prevent you from moving south and protect yourselves.”
Nov 13, 8:36 PM EST
Israel claims to have evidence of Hamas headquarters at hospital
Israeli military officials brought several journalists, including ABC’s Matt Gutman, into the Al-Rantisi Hospital inside Gaza, which had been hit with artillery.
The hospital, Gaza’s sole children’s hospital, was allegedly a Hamas command center, Israel’s chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari, who led the tour, claimed.
The hospital was surrounded by Israeli tanks from Thursday into Friday, the director of Al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital said on Friday.
Inside the basement of the hospital, which officials said has been evacuated, were abandoned AK-47s, grenades and what Hagari said were suicide vests. In another room of the basement was a chair where Hagari claims a hostage was kept.
The spokesperson said the Israeli military was set to detonate the grenades and vests they claim they found inside and a forensic team was going to probe the hospital for more evidence.
The tour came after the hospital’s resources deteriorated due to nearby attacks, according to UNICEF.
The hospital’s operations almost ceased between Thursday and Friday, according to UNICEF.
By Friday, Al-Rantisi Hospital had only a small generator powering the intensive care and neonatal intensive care units, UNICEF said.
