(NEW YORK) — At least 25,000 people have been forced to evacuate due to wildfires in Jasper National Park in Canada, officials said.
The town of Jasper and Jasper National Park in Alberta have closed and are being evacuated due to active wildfires, the park said Tuesday.
The evacuation impacts 15,000 people who were visiting and staying in the park when the order was issued, as well as about 10,000 people in the town of Jasper, including seasonal workers, according to the Alberta Emergency Management Agency.
“The Town of Jasper and Parks Canada’s priority is the safety of our staff, residents and visitors,” Jasper National Park said in a statement on Tuesday. “We acknowledge this is a stressful time and appreciate patience as this is an evolving and complex situation.”
Thousands of residents and visitors already evacuated overnight, as multiple wildfires burn in Jasper National Park, the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies, the park said.
Parks Canada is mobilizing additional firefighting resources and aircraft to assist in battling the blazes, according to Jasper National Park.
“Our priority is to protect the town and community of Jasper, limiting wildfire growth towards town, Highway 16 and critical infrastructure,” Jasper National Park said.
Reservations through Aug. 6 in Jasper National Park have been canceled. A reopening date has not yet been announced.
Alberta is experiencing “extreme wildfire conditions,” with more than 170 wildfires burning across the province, according to the government of Alberta.
(NEW YORK) — As the Israel-Hamas war continues, efforts to secure the release of hostages taken by the terrorist organization are ongoing, and Israeli forces have launched an assault in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Gaza death toll passes 39,000
The death toll in Gaza has risen to 39,006, with another 89,818 people hurt since the war broke out on Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.
About one-third of the war victims were children, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health
Dozens killed, including children, in Israeli strike in Khan Yunis, hospital official says
At least 44 people, including six children, were killed in an Israeli strike on Khan Yunis, in the Gaza Strip, an official at Nasser Hospital told ABC News.
At least 90 people were injured, the hospital’s head of nursing said.
The Israeli military on Monday ordered the evacuation of part of a designated humanitarian zone in Gaza. The military said it will begin an operation against Hamas militants who are in the area and use it to launch rockets toward Israel.
The deadly strike in Khan Yunis began Sunday night before the evacuation order was announced.
-ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian
2 hostages ‘no longer alive,’ IDF says
The Israel Defense Forces on Monday said two hostages, Alex Dancyg and Yagev Buchshtab, who were taken by Hamas militants, were “no longer alive.”
Their bodies “were being held by the Hamas terror organization,” IDF said in a statement. They were determined to be dead based on intelligence gathered by Israel’s Ministry of Health, in cooperation with the Ministry of Religious Services and the Israel Police, the IDF said.
“The circumstances of their death in Hamas captivity are being examined by all the professional authorities,” IDF said.
-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor
Poliovirus detected in wastewater across Gaza: WHO
Poliovirus has been detected in wastewater in multiple locations of the Gaza Strip, including two major cities in the region, the World Health Organization (WHO), Gaza health and Israeli officials confirmed on Sunday.
Among the locations where the poliovirus has been found in wastewater are Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and Khan Younis in southern Gaza, two major cities where the majority of people in the war-torn region currently reside, the officials said.
WHO officials said that while they have received no reports of people contracting polio symptoms in Gaza, an investigation is underway to identify how the virus has spread. WHO said it is working with UNICEF and the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to investigate and establish “prompt vaccination campaigns.”
Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that largely affects children under 5 years of age, according to WHO’s website. Since 1988, poliovirus cases worldwide have decreased by 99%, according to WHO.
The Israel Defense Forces announced Sunday that it will vaccinate all soldiers operating in Gaza to prevent the spread of poliovirus.
The IDF also said is is working with international organizations to provide polio vaccines for people in Gaza.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of WHO, sounded the alarm in a statement on Friday, saying, “The decimation of the health system, lack of security, access obstruction, constant population displacement, shortages of medical supplies, poor quality of water and weakened sanitation are increasing the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases, including polio.”
Ghebreyesus added, “This poses a risk for children and creates the perfect environment for diseases like polio to spread.”
-ABC News’ Victoria Beaulé
Netanyahu to meet with Biden on Tuesday in Washington
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet with President Joe Biden in Washington on Tuesday, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement Sunday.
The meeting between the two leaders is scheduled to occur at noon on Tuesday, Netanyahu’s office said.
Netanyahu’s flight to Washington is scheduled to leave Israel on Monday morning, the prime minister’s office said.
The meeting between Biden and Netanyahu will come ahead of the Israeli prime minister’s July 24 address to a joint session of Congress.
The two governments had tentatively scheduled a meeting between Biden, who is recovering from COVID, and Netanyahu on Monday.
However, a Biden administration official on Sunday disputed that a date and time have been set for the meeting with Netanyahu, and that an exact date and time are still dependent on when the president tests negative for COVID and returns to Washington, D.C. Biden has been self-isolating in Rehoboth, Delaware.
-ABC News’ Victoria Beaulé and Justin Ryan Gomez
Jul 20, 2024, 2:05 PM EDT Houthis say ‘multiple’ dead, injured in Israeli airstrike on Yemen
Multiple people were killed and others have been injured in an Israeli strike on oil storage facilities in the port of Hodeidah in Yemen, according to the Houthis who said the attack will “only increase the resolve […] of the Yemeni people.”
The Houthis accused Israel of an attack that “targeted civilian facilities, oil tanks and the electricity station in Hodeidah, with the aim of doubling people’s suffering and pressuring Yemen to stop supporting Gaza.”
Israel said its attack came in response to over 200 projectiles that the Houthis have launched toward Israel, saying they targeted the port as as the main supply route for weapons transfers with Iran.
(NEW YORK) — As the Israel-Hamas war continues, efforts to secure the release of hostages taken by the terrorist organization are ongoing, and Israeli forces have launched an assault in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
49 minutes ago 2 hostages ‘no longer alive,’ IDF says
The Israel Defense Forces on Monday said two hostages, Alex Dancyg and Yagev Buchshtab, who were taken by Hamas militants, were “no longer alive.”
Their bodies “were being held by the Hamas terror organization,” IDF said in a statement. They were determined to be dead based on intelligence gathered by Israel’s Ministry of Health, in cooperation with the Ministry of Religious Services and the Israel Police, the IDF said.
“The circumstances of their death in Hamas captivity are being examined by all the professional authorities,” IDF said.
-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor
12:11 PM EDT Poliovirus detected in wastewater across Gaza: WHO
Poliovirus has been detected in wastewater in multiple locations of the Gaza Strip, including two major cities in the region, the World Health Organization (WHO), Gaza health and Israeli officials confirmed on Sunday.
Among the locations where the poliovirus has been found in wastewater are Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and Khan Younis in southern Gaza, two major cities where the majority of people in the war-torn region currently reside, the officials said.
WHO officials said that while they have received no reports of people contracting polio symptoms in Gaza, an investigation is underway to identify how the virus has spread. WHO said it is working with UNICEF and the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to investigate and establish “prompt vaccination campaigns.”
Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that largely affects children under 5 years of age, according to WHO’s website. Since 1988, poliovirus cases worldwide have decreased by 99%, according to WHO.
The Israel Defense Forces announced Sunday that it will vaccinate all soldiers operating in Gaza to prevent the spread of poliovirus.
The IDF also said is is working with international organizations to provide polio vaccines for people in Gaza.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of WHO, sounded the alarm in a statement on Friday, saying, “The decimation of the health system, lack of security, access obstruction, constant population displacement, shortages of medical supplies, poor quality of water and weakened sanitation are increasing the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases, including polio.”
Ghebreyesus added, “This poses a risk for children and creates the perfect environment for diseases like polio to spread.”
-ABC News’ Victoria Beaulé
11:52 AM EDT Netanyahu to meet with Biden on Tuesday in Washington
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet with President Joe Biden in Washington on Tuesday, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement Sunday.
The meeting between the two leaders is scheduled to occur at noon on Tuesday, Netanyahu’s office said.
Netanyahu’s flight to Washington is scheduled to leave Israel on Monday morning, the prime minister’s office said.
The meeting between Biden and Netanyahu will come ahead of the Israeli prime minister’s July 24 address to a joint session of Congress.
The two governments had tentatively scheduled a meeting between Biden, who is recovering from COVID, and Netanyahu on Monday.
However, a Biden administration official on Sunday disputed that a date and time have been set for the meeting with Netanyahu, and that an exact date and time are still dependent on when the president tests negative for COVID and returns to Washington, D.C. Biden has been self-isolating in Rehoboth, Delaware.
-ABC News’ Victoria Beaulé and Justin Ryan Gomez
Jul 20, 2024, 2:05 PM EDT Houthis say ‘multiple’ dead, injured in Israeli airstrike on Yemen
Multiple people were killed and others have been injured in an Israeli strike on oil storage facilities in the port of Hodeidah in Yemen, according to the Houthis who said the attack will “only increase the resolve […] of the Yemeni people.”
The Houthis accused Israel of an attack that “targeted civilian facilities, oil tanks and the electricity station in Hodeidah, with the aim of doubling people’s suffering and pressuring Yemen to stop supporting Gaza.”
Israel said its attack came in response to over 200 projectiles that the Houthis have launched toward Israel, saying they targeted the port as as the main supply route for weapons transfers with Iran.
People wait to receive food cards after registering as new arrivals at a camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) in Agari, North Kordofan, on June 17, 2024. — Guy Peterson/AFP via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Civilians across Sudan are enduring “indiscriminate and widespread” violence as fighting between the Sudanese Army (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group and allied militias approaches its 16th month, a new report by Doctors Without Borders said Monday.
The report — created by curating months of operational data, medical data and first-hand accounts from civilians and MSF teams on the ground — has found civilians across the Northeast African nation have faced “horrendous levels of violence” over the past year, “succumbing to widespread fighting and surviving repeated attacks, abuse and exploitation” by warring parties, according to the organization, which is also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF),
“The situation has deteriorated exponentially,” Ada Yee, MSF’s emergency coordinator, told ABC News over the phone from Nyala, South Darfur. “The situation in Sudan was not easy before, but now it is much worse. It has been staggering to witness this level of violence and the impact on women, children and vulnerable persons who have been left with no choice but to endure it.”
The report found the conflict has had “disastrous consequences” on the health and well-being of civilians in Sudan, physical and mental wounds of the violence exacerbated by a collapsing health system and a flow of humanitarian aid and lifesaving care routinely hindered by “widespread obstruction” by warring parties, insecurity, and looting of medical supplies.
The report highlights that many civilians are now dying from preventable complications; many unable to reach medical facilities on time due to factors such as conflict, and skyrocketing prices which have left them unable to afford medicine, if available.
“People are resilient, trying to carry on with their everyday life. But who knows what their personal story is? The ordinary person has probably been forced to relocate multiple times. Who knows how many of their family members have died or been injured? All that they have lost?”
A snapshot of the violence is illustrated through a small hospital near Sudan’s capital Khartoum: The Al-Nao Hospital in Omdurman. From August 2023 to April 2024, the hospital — one of the last functioning health facilities in Omdurman — admitted at least 6,776 war-wounded patients according to MSF, most suffering from gunshot, shrapnel or stab wounds.
In October 2023, Al-Nao Hospital’s emergency department was stuck by shelling, leaving two patient caretakers dead and at least 5 people injured. At least 399 have died from their injuries at the hospital, according to the report.
Sexual and gender-based violence was found to be “pervasive but critically underreported” due to factors such as social stigma and silence due to fear of retaliation, according to the report.
It comes as monitors warn the conflict is spreading across the Northeast African nation: Fighting recently intensifying in Sennar State as active conflict areas also continue in Sudan’s capital Khartoum, and across Darfur states.
The war broke out in Sudan in April of 2023, following months of simmering tensions between Sudan’s military and the RSF paramilitary group and allied militias over a planned transition to civilian rule.
The conflict has resulted in more than 16,000 deaths, precipitated one of the ‘world’s worst humanitarian crises in recent history’ and sparked the world’s ‘largest displacement’ crisis forcing over 10 million from their homes, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
“The humanitarian situation is horrible,” Yasin, who recently fled the besieged city of El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, told ABC News over the phone. “People no longer have homes, they need shelters.”
Like many Sudanese civilians, Yasin has been displaced at least three times since the onset of the war.
“As always in times of war, it is civilians who are bearing the brunt,” said Radhouane Nouicer, the designated expert on Sudan of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. “The scale and magnitude of human rights violations and abuses committed in Sudan are appalling.”
The U.N. says recently concluded talks with warring parties in Geneva have proven an “encouraging” first step towards an end to the war, with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ personal envoy to Sudan, Ramtane Lamamra, meeting separately with delegations from the Sudanese army and the RSF under a proximity format.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced last week that the United States is providing nearly $203 million in additional humanitarian assistance to the people of Sudan and refugees who have fled to neighboring Chad, Egypt and South Sudan.
“The people of Sudan are facing the worst humanitarian crisis in the world,” Thomas-Greenfield said, adding that “only two-thirds” of the over $2.1 billion in humanitarian aid pledged during the Paris conference in April have so far been disbursed, and only “a quarter” of the response funded.
“We hope this new round of aid serves as a call to action for others to follow suit,” said Thomas-Greenfield.
(NEW YORK) — Over 1,100 flights have been canceled and 2,867 delayed in the U.S. as private and public sector industries continue to be impacted by the the CrowdStrike outage around the world more than a day after it began. While many businesses appear to have recovered, the issue has not yet been fully resolved.
The outage impacted 8.5 million Windows devices, according to Microsoft, sparking global chaos with airline, bank and other disruptions. Crowdstrike, a cybersecurity firm, is not owned by Microsoft but still operates largely on their systems.
“While the percentage was small, the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services,” Microsoft said in a post.
The outage came from a faulty software update sent to computers running Microsoft Windows by CrowdStrike, causing flights to be grounded, disruptions to financial services and hospital systems to be knocked offline.
Rebooting systems multiple times worked for some agencies while others continue to be impacted, according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency report reviewed by ABC News.
Multiple U.S. government facilities have reported not being able to operate because they do not have access to multiple Microsoft 360 applications. Election related and voting registration databases in Arizona, South Dakota, Texas and Washington state were impacted by the outage as well, according to the report.
While American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Airlines issued a global ground stop on Friday due to communications issues, TSA systems were not impacted, according to the report. There are at least 1,143 cancelled flights in the U.S. on Saturday, far fewer than the over 3,200 cancelations on Friday.
Delta continues to be the airline most impacted by the outage and Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson International Airport continues to see the highest number of delays and cancellations on Saturday.
American Airlines said it has “fully recovered” and canceled less than 1% of flights today — 43 flights.
Emergency 911 systems that were affected by the outage switched to fully operational backup systems, according to the DHS report.
It was early Friday when reports started coming in that a tech outage was beginning to knock services offline across the globe, a cascading effect that would impact millions.
In an update Friday night, the company said they were “actively working with customers impacted” by the issue.
Hospital systems like Mass General Brigham, who halted elective and non-emergency surgeries yesterday, said they would be working through the night and expect to be fully operational on Saturday.
“We are doing everything possible to restore the electronic systems that support our patient care delivery across our system. Our teams will continue to work throughout the night to implement solutions and, at this time, we expect to be operational on Saturday, July 20, 2024,” Mass General Brigham said in a statement late Friday.
-ABC News’ Ayesha Ali and Luke Barr contributed to this report
(NEW YORK) — As the Israel-Hamas war continues, efforts to secure the release of hostages taken by the terrorist organization are ongoing, and Israeli forces have launched an assault in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Here’s how the news is developing:
July 20, 2024, 1:27 PM EDT Israel strikes Yemen in retaliation after drone attack
Israel has officially taken responsibility for airstrikes that hit Hodeidah, Yemen, Saturday saying it is in retaliation for the “hundreds of attacks carried out against” Israel in the last few months.
A strike reportedly hit the port city of Hodeidah, on the country’s western coast, hitting oil storage tanks near the port, according to Al Masirah TV, a media outlet affiliated with the Houthis, and Yemeni national news agency Saba news.
The airstrike comes after the Houthis took responsibility for a drone that flew into Tel Aviv undetected on Friday, killing one person and injuring 10 others.
-ABC News’ Victoria Beaule
July 19, 2024, 5:06 PM EDT Israeli soldier who refuses to serve in Gaza speaks out
Yuval Green, a 26-year-old reservist who was called up to fight in southern Gaza, told ABC News he decided to leave the Israel Defense Forces when his unit was asked to set fire to a Palestinian house there.
Green served as a combat medic in Khan Younis, Gaza, last November and December.
Yuval Green, seen here in an undated picture from his time in Gaza served as a combat medic as a combat medic.
“They gave us an order to burn down a house, and I went to my commander and asked him, ‘Why are we doing that?'” Green said. “And the answers he gave me were just not satisfying enough, were not even close to being satisfying enough. And I said, ‘I’m not willing to participate in that. If we’re doing that, I’m leaving.'”
In June, Green cosigned a letter with 40 other reservists, who remained anonymous, refusing to serve in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The IDF told ABC News that its “actions are based on military necessity and in accordance to international law” and there was “no IDF doctrine that aims at causing maximal damage to civilian infrastructure regardless of military necessity.”
Exceptional incidents were investigated by an independent body, the IDF said.
-ABC News’ Guy Davies and Britt Clennett
July 19, 2024, 5:01 PM EDT Biden and Netanyahu to discuss cease-fire and hostage deal next week
President Joe Biden’s focus next week in his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be on nailing down the specifics of a ceasefire that could bring the hostages home, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Friday.
“The overriding focus of the meeting between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu is going to be about the cease-fire and hostage deal,” he said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.
Netanyahu will meet with Biden in Washington, D.C., on July 22.
“We are mindful that there remain obstacles in the way, and let’s use next week to try to clear through those obstacles and get to a deal,” Sullivan added.
The details that will be discussed between Biden and Netanyahu include Israel’s military presence in Gaza after a cease-fire, access to humanitarian aid, the “long-term disposition” of Gaza and how to execute the remaining hostage and prisoner swap as part of phase two.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
July 19. 2024, 12:38 PM EDT Top UN court says Israel’s presence in occupied Palestinian territories is ‘unlawful’
The top U.N. court said Friday that Israel’s presence in the Palestinian occupied territories is “unlawful” and should end.
The International Court of Justice said several policies, including the building and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, the use of the area’s natural resources, the annexation and imposition of permanent control over lands and discriminatory policies against Palestinians, violated international law.
The 15-judge panel said Israel’s “abuse of its status as the occupying power” renders its “presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful.” It says its continued presence was “illegal” and should be ended as “rapidly as possible.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the court’s ruling in a statement.
“The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land, including in our eternal capital Jerusalem nor in Judea and Samaria, our historical homeland. No absurd opinion in The Hague can deny this historical truth or the legal right of Israelis to live in their own communities in our ancestral home,” he said.
-ABC News’ Morgan Windsor, Bruno Nota and Dana Savir
Jul 18, 2024, 11:21 PM EDT 1 killed, 4 injured by shrapnel in Tel Aviv explosion: Officials
A man in Tel Aviv has died after being injured in an explosion resulting from what authorities believe was an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
“During searches of the scene, an unconscious man was found in one of the buildings, with penetrating injuries,” Zachi Heller, a spokesperson for Israel’s emergency medical service Magen David Adom (MDA), confirmed to ABC News.
The man, who Heller said was 50, did not exhibit signs of life and it was determined he had died.
Information is still developing, but the Israel Defense Forces said early Friday morning that the person who died was hit by a fragment of the UAV.
IDF Chief spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the military assessed that the drone was an upgraded Iranian-made Samad-3 model.
“Our estimation is that it arrived from Yemen to Tel Aviv,” he told a briefing with journalists.
Four people were treated for shrapnel injuries at the scene and four were treated by EMS for shock/anxiety. All eight were taken to the Wolfson and Ichilov hospitals, Heller said.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Jul 18, 2024, 9:33 PM EDT 2 injured, taken to hospital following blast in Tel Aviv: Officials
Two people were injured in a blast in Tel Aviv early Friday morning local time, Israel’s emergency medical service, Magen David Adom (MDA) confirmed.
Emergency services received a report at 3:12 a.m. that an object had exploded in Tel Aviv. After arriving on the scene, medics transported a 37-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman in mild condition to Ichilov Hospital. The victims had “shrapnel injuries to the limbs and shoulder,” MDA spokesman Zachi Heller said. Four additional victims were treated for shock/anxiety.
Following the incident report, five fire crews arrived and extinguished the fire. They are currently conducting searches in the area.
A United States official confirmed to ABC News that the explosion had occurred near the U.S. embassy branch office in Tel Aviv, but the building was not damaged. The official said that the cause of the blast is still being assessed and that the office is advising American citizens in Tel Aviv to shelter in place.
The Israel Defense Forces said it was unaware that an unmanned aerial vehicle infiltrated Israel’s defenses. The IDF is currently reviewing the incident.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky and Shannon Kingston
Jul 18, 2024, 5:13 PM EDT Poliovirus detected in sewage samples in Gaza, health ministry says
Poliovirus has been detected in sewage samples in the Gaza Strip according to testing conducted in coordination with the United Nations, the Gaza Ministry of Health announced Thursday.
Samples were taken from sewage water that “collects and flows between the tents of the displaced and in the places where residents are located as a result of the destruction of the infrastructure” in war-torn Gaza, according to the ministry.
“The presence of the virus that causes polio … represents a new health disaster,” the ministry said in a statement. “There is severe overcrowding, a scarcity of available water and its contamination with sewage water, the accumulation of tons of garbage and the occupation’s prevention of the entry of hygiene materials, which creates a suitable environment for the spread of various epidemics.”
The ministry called for “an immediate halt to the Israeli aggression, the provision of usable water, the repair of sewage lines and an end to the overcrowding at displacement camps.”
Polio, or poliomyelitis, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus, which attacks the nervous system and can lead to irreversible paralysis, according to the World Health Organization.
Polio mainly affects children under 5, though the virus can strike at any age. It’s incurable but completely vaccine-preventable. The virus is highly contagious and can live for weeks in an infected person’s feces, which can contaminate food and water in unsanitary conditions and spread to other people. Polio remains endemic in two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to the WHO.
-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor
Jul 18, 2024, 1:47 PM EDT At least 2 people killed in Israeli strike on 9th school in 10 days
At least two people were killed and five others were injured after Israel carried out a strike on Al-Falah School in Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, the ninth school the IDF has targeted in the last 10 days, according to the Gaza Civil Defense.
Jul 18, 2024, 1:07 PM EDT Netanyahu shuts down plan to build field hospital for Gazan children
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has scrapped Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s plans to establish a field hospital for Gazans along the border with Gaza.
Netanyahu “announced in writing that he does not approve the establishment of a hospital for Gazans on Israeli territory — therefore it will not be built,” his office said in a statement Thursday.
Gallant had announced Wednesday that he had ordered the establishment of a temporary field hospital in southern Israel along the border with Gaza to treat sick Palestinian children who are unable to leave the war-torn enclave for medical care abroad, amid the extended closure of Gaza’s Rafah crossing into Egypt. Gallant said he had told his American counterpart, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, about the plan for the field hospital during a call earlier this week, according to a readout.
The World Health Organization’s representative for Gaza and the West Bank, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, told reporters Wednesday that some 10,000 patients in Gaza still require urgent evacuation for medical treatment.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Jul 18, 2024, 11:17 AM EDT Palestinians held in Israeli secret detention describe torture, beatings, starvation
Human rights group Amnesty International has accused Israel of mass incommunicado detention and torture of Palestinian detainees from Gaza, citing the documented cases of 27 Palestinians who were detained for periods of up to four-and-a-half months without access to their lawyers or contact with their families.
Those detained included doctors taken into custody at hospitals for refusing to abandon their patients, mothers separated from their infants while trying to cross the so-called “safe corridor” from northern Gaza to the south, human rights defenders, U.N. workers, journalists and other civilians.
The Israeli Prison Service told the Israeli NGO HaMoked that — as of July 1 — 1,402 Palestinians were detained under a law that grants its military sweeping powers to detain anyone from Gaza they suspect of engaging in hostilities against Israel or of posing a threat to state security for indefinitely-renewable periods without having to produce evidence. This count excludes those held for an initial 45-day period without a formal order.
“The Israeli authorities must immediately repeal this law and release those arbitrarily detained under it. Torture and other ill-treatment including sexual violence are war crimes – these allegations must be independently investigated by the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor’s office,” Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard.
“The Israeli authorities must also grant immediate and unrestricted access to all places of detention to independent monitors – access that has been denied since 7 October,” Callamard said.
Israel said it holds detainees lawfully and denies allegations of torture and says prisoners are granted their basic rights, according to the Associated Press.
Jul 17, 2024, 4:29 PM EDT Gaza aid pier shut down, aid to flow in through Ashdod
The JLOTS temporary pier system has been shut down, with humanitarian aid from Cyprus to Gaza will now taking place through the civilian port of Ashdod, CENTCOM told reporters.
The pier had successfully delivered close to 20 million pounds of humanitarian aid to Gaza, which USAID estimates provided food for 500,000 people for a month. The pier’s overall cost will come in “well underneath” the $230 million costs currently estimated though he couldn’t say by how much, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the deputy commanding general of CENTCOM, told reporters.
Cooper said that 1 million pounds of aid has already entered Gaza as a “proof of concept” and that there are about 5 million pounds of aid to still deliver from Cyprus.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jul 17, 2024, 3:29 PM EDT Netanyahu ally urges him to accept cease-fire deal
The leader of Israel’s Shas party, Areyeh Deri, is urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a cease-fire deal, publicly adding its voice to the choir of those calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, according to a letter from the Shas party.
“We believe that the conditions created now following the welcomed military pressure and the targeted assassinations create an appropriate time to reach a deal that preserves Israel’s vital security interests and returns the abductees home,” the letter said.
This comes amid reports in Israeli media that Mossad chief David Barnea and Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant have pushed Netanyahu to accept the deal. Without Shas, the Netanyahu-coalition would crumble.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Jul 17, 2024, 3:08 PM EDT Group calls on Netanyahu to release journalists, allow access to Gaza ahead of US visit
The Committee to Protect Journalists released a statement calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release journalists held without charge and allow free, unimpeded access to Gaza ahead of his planned trip to the U.S.
“From the start of the war, Israel has continuously denied independent access to the media as Palestinian journalists struggle to survive. The loss of local journalists, an almost total ban on media from outside Gaza leaves a vacuum for propaganda, mis and disinformation. Claims and counterclaims remain extraordinarily difficult to verify independently. Facts are easily evaded and truth withers. No credible democracy engages in what is, in effect, a growing censorship regime,” Jodie Ginsburg, the CEO of CPJ, said in a statement Wednesday.
More than 100 journalists have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7 and others have been arrested, often without charge, according to the CPJ.
“Journalists, like the thousands of civilians in Gaza killed, arrested or displaced continue to pay an astonishing toll,” Ginsburg said.
“An unprecedented number of journalists and media workers have been arrested, often without charge. They have been mistreated and tortured. The number of journalists reporting in Gaza is dwindling, and those who remain are doing so in treacherous conditions, but they cannot do so alone,” Ginsburg said.
-ABC News’ Guy Davies
Jul 17, 2024, 12:20 PM EDT Over 1,000 attacks on health care facilities in Gaza, West Bank since Oct. 7: WHO
The World Health Organization has registered more than 1,000 attacks on health care facilities in the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, the agency’s top official in the region said in a press briefing on Wednesday.
There are currently no functional hospitals in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, following Israel’s recent offensive there, according to Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the West Bank and Gaza.
Peeperkorn highlighted the urgency of allowing critically ill patients to leave the war-torn enclave, stating that around 10,000 patients in Gaza still require urgent evacuation –- half of whom are suffering from severe trauma, including spinal injuries and amputations.
-ABC News’ Camilla Alcini
Jul 16, 2024, 2:54 PM EDT IDF says it carried out 37,000 airstrikes on Gaza since October
The Israel Defense Forces has carried out 37,000 airstrikes on Gaza and targetted more than 25,000 terrorist infrastructures and launch sites since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, the IDF said Tuesday.
The IDF also acknowledged carrying out strikes on hospitals, schools and humanitarian shelters throughout the Gaza Strip, claiming to target “terrorists who are located and based in sensitive sites,” the IDF said in a statement.
Jul 16, 2024, 2:03 PM EDT Dozens killed in Israeli strikes on UNRWA facility, safe zone
At least 23 people were killed and 73 others were injured after Israel struck a UNRWA school in a designated safe zone where displaced people are sheltering. Five UNRWA schools have been hit in the last 10 days, according to the UNRWA.
“UN facilities must be protected at all times. They must never be used for military or fighting purposes. No one is safe in Gaza, wherever they are. The people of #Gaza are children, women & men who have the right to live,” the UNRWA said Tuesday.
In another strike on a safe zone in Mawasi Khan Yunis, at least 17 people were killed and 26 others were injured.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that it struck the school, alleging it struck terrorists who were operating in a UNRWA school.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Jul 16, 2024, 11:52 AM EDT Israel strikes Nuseirat refugee camp for second day in a row
Israel has carried out a strike on Nuseirat refugee camp, where internally displaced Palestinians have been told to shelter, for the second day in a row, according to Gaza Civil Defense.
This is the sixth school — a designated safe zone — to be targeted by Israeli Defense Forces’ airstrikes in one week.
Israel has not confirmed whether Saturday’s strike that killed 90 Palestinians killed two Hamas officials, including military chief Mohammed Deif, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a press conference.
“There is still no absolute certainty that the two have been eliminated, but I want to assure you that one way or another we will reach the entire top of Hamas,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu said he was briefed about the type of weapons that would be used and the expected “collateral damage,” as well as confirming Israel did not believe any hostages were held in the area, before giving the go ahead for the strike.
“Why should we risk something leaking out? Suppose something leaked, Deif and his deputy would go underground in a second. We update our American friends when necessary,” Netanyahu said.
Asked about not telling the U.S. about the strike beforehand, Netanyahu said it was to avoid an information leak.
-ABC News’ Anna Burd
Jul 13, 2024, 4:14 PM EDT UN Human Rights Office condemns IDF’s strikes in Gaza humanitarian zones
The United Nations Human Rights Office has condemned the Israel Defense Forces’ use of weapons in populated areas of Gaza, including humanitarian zones, hours after an attack killed 90 Palestinians.
“The latest attack and casualty followed right after another massive attack on the north, which lasted for a week, resulting in further destruction and casualties,” the UN Human Rights Office said in a statement.
The U.N. said the IDF’s use of weapons in densely populated areas “despite the overwhelming evidence that these means and methods have led to disproportionate harm to civilians and damage to civilian infrastructure, suggests a pattern of willful violation of the disregard of [International Humanitarian Law] principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution.”
“The use of such weapons in an area to which IDF is ordering people to evacuate demonstrates a rampant disregard for the safety of civilians. Even if Palestinian armed group members were using the presence of civilians in these areas in an attempt to shield themselves from attack, which would violate IHL, this would not remove IDF’s obligations to comply with these fundamental IHL principles of proportionality, distinction and precaution,” the U.N. said.
Jul 13, 2024, 3:14 PM EDT Death toll from Israeli attack on Khan Younis rises to 90
The death toll from Israel’s deadly attack on Al Mawasi, west of the southern city of Khan Younis, has now risen to 90 people killed and 300 injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Israel had admitted earlier that the strike was in the expanded humanitarian zone.
(NEW YORK) — As the Israel-Hamas war continues, efforts to secure the release of hostages taken by the terrorist organization are ongoing, and Israeli forces have launched an assault in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Here’s how the news is developing:
July 19, 2024, 5:06 PM EDT Israeli soldier who refuses to serve in Gaza speaks out
Yuval Green, a 26-year-old reservist who was called up to fight in southern Gaza, told ABC News he decided to leave the Israel Defense Forces when his unit was asked to set fire to a Palestinian house there.
Green served as a combat medic in Khan Younis, Gaza, last November and December.
Yuval Green, seen here in an undated picture from his time in Gaza served as a combat medic as a combat medic.
“They gave us an order to burn down a house, and I went to my commander and asked him, ‘Why are we doing that?'” Green said. “And the answers he gave me were just not satisfying enough, were not even close to being satisfying enough. And I said, ‘I’m not willing to participate in that. If we’re doing that, I’m leaving.'”
In June, Green cosigned a letter with 40 other reservists, who remained anonymous, refusing to serve in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The IDF told ABC News that its “actions are based on military necessity and in accordance to international law” and there was “no IDF doctrine that aims at causing maximal damage to civilian infrastructure regardless of military necessity.”
Exceptional incidents were investigated by an independent body, the IDF said.
-ABC News’ Guy Davies and Britt Clennett
July 19, 2024, 5:01 PM EDT Biden and Netanyahu to discuss cease-fire and hostage deal next week
President Joe Biden’s focus next week in his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be on nailing down the specifics of a ceasefire that could bring the hostages home, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Friday.
“The overriding focus of the meeting between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu is going to be about the cease-fire and hostage deal,” he said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.
Netanyahu will meet with Biden in Washington, D.C., on July 22.
“We are mindful that there remain obstacles in the way, and let’s use next week to try to clear through those obstacles and get to a deal,” Sullivan added.
The details that will be discussed between Biden and Netanyahu include Israel’s military presence in Gaza after a cease-fire, access to humanitarian aid, the “long-term disposition” of Gaza and how to execute the remaining hostage and prisoner swap as part of phase two.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
July 19. 2024, 12:38 PM EDT Top UN court says Israel’s presence in occupied Palestinian territories is ‘unlawful’
The top U.N. court said Friday that Israel’s presence in the Palestinian occupied territories is “unlawful” and should end.
The International Court of Justice said several policies, including the building and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, the use of the area’s natural resources, the annexation and imposition of permanent control over lands and discriminatory policies against Palestinians, violated international law.
The 15-judge panel said Israel’s “abuse of its status as the occupying power” renders its “presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful.” It says its continued presence was “illegal” and should be ended as “rapidly as possible.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the court’s ruling in a statement.
“The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land, including in our eternal capital Jerusalem nor in Judea and Samaria, our historical homeland. No absurd opinion in The Hague can deny this historical truth or the legal right of Israelis to live in their own communities in our ancestral home,” he said.
-ABC News’ Morgan Windsor, Bruno Nota and Dana Savir
Jul 18, 2024, 11:21 PM EDT 1 killed, 4 injured by shrapnel in Tel Aviv explosion: Officials
A man in Tel Aviv has died after being injured in an explosion resulting from what authorities believe was an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
“During searches of the scene, an unconscious man was found in one of the buildings, with penetrating injuries,” Zachi Heller, a spokesperson for Israel’s emergency medical service Magen David Adom (MDA), confirmed to ABC News.
The man, who Heller said was 50, did not exhibit signs of life and it was determined he had died.
Information is still developing, but the Israel Defense Forces said early Friday morning that the person who died was hit by a fragment of the UAV.
IDF Chief spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the military assessed that the drone was an upgraded Iranian-made Samad-3 model.
“Our estimation is that it arrived from Yemen to Tel Aviv,” he told a briefing with journalists.
Four people were treated for shrapnel injuries at the scene and four were treated by EMS for shock/anxiety. All eight were taken to the Wolfson and Ichilov hospitals, Heller said.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Jul 18, 2024, 9:33 PM EDT 2 injured, taken to hospital following blast in Tel Aviv: Officials
Two people were injured in a blast in Tel Aviv early Friday morning local time, Israel’s emergency medical service, Magen David Adom (MDA) confirmed.
Emergency services received a report at 3:12 a.m. that an object had exploded in Tel Aviv. After arriving on the scene, medics transported a 37-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman in mild condition to Ichilov Hospital. The victims had “shrapnel injuries to the limbs and shoulder,” MDA spokesman Zachi Heller said. Four additional victims were treated for shock/anxiety.
Following the incident report, five fire crews arrived and extinguished the fire. They are currently conducting searches in the area.
A United States official confirmed to ABC News that the explosion had occurred near the U.S. embassy branch office in Tel Aviv, but the building was not damaged. The official said that the cause of the blast is still being assessed and that the office is advising American citizens in Tel Aviv to shelter in place.
The Israel Defense Forces said it was unaware that an unmanned aerial vehicle infiltrated Israel’s defenses. The IDF is currently reviewing the incident.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky and Shannon Kingston
Jul 18, 2024, 5:13 PM EDT Poliovirus detected in sewage samples in Gaza, health ministry says
Poliovirus has been detected in sewage samples in the Gaza Strip according to testing conducted in coordination with the United Nations, the Gaza Ministry of Health announced Thursday.
Samples were taken from sewage water that “collects and flows between the tents of the displaced and in the places where residents are located as a result of the destruction of the infrastructure” in war-torn Gaza, according to the ministry.
“The presence of the virus that causes polio … represents a new health disaster,” the ministry said in a statement. “There is severe overcrowding, a scarcity of available water and its contamination with sewage water, the accumulation of tons of garbage and the occupation’s prevention of the entry of hygiene materials, which creates a suitable environment for the spread of various epidemics.”
The ministry called for “an immediate halt to the Israeli aggression, the provision of usable water, the repair of sewage lines and an end to the overcrowding at displacement camps.”
Polio, or poliomyelitis, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus, which attacks the nervous system and can lead to irreversible paralysis, according to the World Health Organization.
Polio mainly affects children under 5, though the virus can strike at any age. It’s incurable but completely vaccine-preventable. The virus is highly contagious and can live for weeks in an infected person’s feces, which can contaminate food and water in unsanitary conditions and spread to other people. Polio remains endemic in two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to the WHO.
-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor
Jul 18, 2024, 1:47 PM EDT At least 2 people killed in Israeli strike on 9th school in 10 days
At least two people were killed and five others were injured after Israel carried out a strike on Al-Falah School in Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, the ninth school the IDF has targeted in the last 10 days, according to the Gaza Civil Defense.
Jul 18, 2024, 1:07 PM EDT Netanyahu shuts down plan to build field hospital for Gazan children
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has scrapped Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s plans to establish a field hospital for Gazans along the border with Gaza.
Netanyahu “announced in writing that he does not approve the establishment of a hospital for Gazans on Israeli territory — therefore it will not be built,” his office said in a statement Thursday.
Gallant had announced Wednesday that he had ordered the establishment of a temporary field hospital in southern Israel along the border with Gaza to treat sick Palestinian children who are unable to leave the war-torn enclave for medical care abroad, amid the extended closure of Gaza’s Rafah crossing into Egypt. Gallant said he had told his American counterpart, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, about the plan for the field hospital during a call earlier this week, according to a readout.
The World Health Organization’s representative for Gaza and the West Bank, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, told reporters Wednesday that some 10,000 patients in Gaza still require urgent evacuation for medical treatment.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Jul 18, 2024, 11:17 AM EDT Palestinians held in Israeli secret detention describe torture, beatings, starvation
Human rights group Amnesty International has accused Israel of mass incommunicado detention and torture of Palestinian detainees from Gaza, citing the documented cases of 27 Palestinians who were detained for periods of up to four-and-a-half months without access to their lawyers or contact with their families.
Those detained included doctors taken into custody at hospitals for refusing to abandon their patients, mothers separated from their infants while trying to cross the so-called “safe corridor” from northern Gaza to the south, human rights defenders, U.N. workers, journalists and other civilians.
The Israeli Prison Service told the Israeli NGO HaMoked that — as of July 1 — 1,402 Palestinians were detained under a law that grants its military sweeping powers to detain anyone from Gaza they suspect of engaging in hostilities against Israel or of posing a threat to state security for indefinitely-renewable periods without having to produce evidence. This count excludes those held for an initial 45-day period without a formal order.
“The Israeli authorities must immediately repeal this law and release those arbitrarily detained under it. Torture and other ill-treatment including sexual violence are war crimes – these allegations must be independently investigated by the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor’s office,” Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard.
“The Israeli authorities must also grant immediate and unrestricted access to all places of detention to independent monitors – access that has been denied since 7 October,” Callamard said.
Israel said it holds detainees lawfully and denies allegations of torture and says prisoners are granted their basic rights, according to the Associated Press.
Jul 17, 2024, 4:29 PM EDT Gaza aid pier shut down, aid to flow in through Ashdod
The JLOTS temporary pier system has been shut down, with humanitarian aid from Cyprus to Gaza will now taking place through the civilian port of Ashdod, CENTCOM told reporters.
The pier had successfully delivered close to 20 million pounds of humanitarian aid to Gaza, which USAID estimates provided food for 500,000 people for a month. The pier’s overall cost will come in “well underneath” the $230 million costs currently estimated though he couldn’t say by how much, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the deputy commanding general of CENTCOM, told reporters.
Cooper said that 1 million pounds of aid has already entered Gaza as a “proof of concept” and that there are about 5 million pounds of aid to still deliver from Cyprus.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jul 17, 2024, 3:29 PM EDT Netanyahu ally urges him to accept cease-fire deal
The leader of Israel’s Shas party, Areyeh Deri, is urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a cease-fire deal, publicly adding its voice to the choir of those calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, according to a letter from the Shas party.
“We believe that the conditions created now following the welcomed military pressure and the targeted assassinations create an appropriate time to reach a deal that preserves Israel’s vital security interests and returns the abductees home,” the letter said.
This comes amid reports in Israeli media that Mossad chief David Barnea and Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant have pushed Netanyahu to accept the deal. Without Shas, the Netanyahu-coalition would crumble.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Jul 17, 2024, 3:08 PM EDT Group calls on Netanyahu to release journalists, allow access to Gaza ahead of US visit
The Committee to Protect Journalists released a statement calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release journalists held without charge and allow free, unimpeded access to Gaza ahead of his planned trip to the U.S.
“From the start of the war, Israel has continuously denied independent access to the media as Palestinian journalists struggle to survive. The loss of local journalists, an almost total ban on media from outside Gaza leaves a vacuum for propaganda, mis and disinformation. Claims and counterclaims remain extraordinarily difficult to verify independently. Facts are easily evaded and truth withers. No credible democracy engages in what is, in effect, a growing censorship regime,” Jodie Ginsburg, the CEO of CPJ, said in a statement Wednesday.
More than 100 journalists have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7 and others have been arrested, often without charge, according to the CPJ.
“Journalists, like the thousands of civilians in Gaza killed, arrested or displaced continue to pay an astonishing toll,” Ginsburg said.
“An unprecedented number of journalists and media workers have been arrested, often without charge. They have been mistreated and tortured. The number of journalists reporting in Gaza is dwindling, and those who remain are doing so in treacherous conditions, but they cannot do so alone,” Ginsburg said.
-ABC News’ Guy Davies
Jul 17, 2024, 12:20 PM EDT Over 1,000 attacks on health care facilities in Gaza, West Bank since Oct. 7: WHO
The World Health Organization has registered more than 1,000 attacks on health care facilities in the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, the agency’s top official in the region said in a press briefing on Wednesday.
There are currently no functional hospitals in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, following Israel’s recent offensive there, according to Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the West Bank and Gaza.
Peeperkorn highlighted the urgency of allowing critically ill patients to leave the war-torn enclave, stating that around 10,000 patients in Gaza still require urgent evacuation –- half of whom are suffering from severe trauma, including spinal injuries and amputations.
-ABC News’ Camilla Alcini
Jul 16, 2024, 2:54 PM EDT IDF says it carried out 37,000 airstrikes on Gaza since October
The Israel Defense Forces has carried out 37,000 airstrikes on Gaza and targetted more than 25,000 terrorist infrastructures and launch sites since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, the IDF said Tuesday.
The IDF also acknowledged carrying out strikes on hospitals, schools and humanitarian shelters throughout the Gaza Strip, claiming to target “terrorists who are located and based in sensitive sites,” the IDF said in a statement.
Jul 16, 2024, 2:03 PM EDT Dozens killed in Israeli strikes on UNRWA facility, safe zone
At least 23 people were killed and 73 others were injured after Israel struck a UNRWA school in a designated safe zone where displaced people are sheltering. Five UNRWA schools have been hit in the last 10 days, according to the UNRWA.
“UN facilities must be protected at all times. They must never be used for military or fighting purposes. No one is safe in Gaza, wherever they are. The people of #Gaza are children, women & men who have the right to live,” the UNRWA said Tuesday.
In another strike on a safe zone in Mawasi Khan Yunis, at least 17 people were killed and 26 others were injured.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that it struck the school, alleging it struck terrorists who were operating in a UNRWA school.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Jul 16, 2024, 11:52 AM EDT Israel strikes Nuseirat refugee camp for second day in a row
Israel has carried out a strike on Nuseirat refugee camp, where internally displaced Palestinians have been told to shelter, for the second day in a row, according to Gaza Civil Defense.
This is the sixth school — a designated safe zone — to be targeted by Israeli Defense Forces’ airstrikes in one week.
Israel has not confirmed whether Saturday’s strike that killed 90 Palestinians killed two Hamas officials, including military chief Mohammed Deif, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a press conference.
“There is still no absolute certainty that the two have been eliminated, but I want to assure you that one way or another we will reach the entire top of Hamas,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu said he was briefed about the type of weapons that would be used and the expected “collateral damage,” as well as confirming Israel did not believe any hostages were held in the area, before giving the go ahead for the strike.
“Why should we risk something leaking out? Suppose something leaked, Deif and his deputy would go underground in a second. We update our American friends when necessary,” Netanyahu said.
Asked about not telling the U.S. about the strike beforehand, Netanyahu said it was to avoid an information leak.
-ABC News’ Anna Burd
Jul 13, 2024, 4:14 PM EDT UN Human Rights Office condemns IDF’s strikes in Gaza humanitarian zones
The United Nations Human Rights Office has condemned the Israel Defense Forces’ use of weapons in populated areas of Gaza, including humanitarian zones, hours after an attack killed 90 Palestinians.
“The latest attack and casualty followed right after another massive attack on the north, which lasted for a week, resulting in further destruction and casualties,” the UN Human Rights Office said in a statement.
The U.N. said the IDF’s use of weapons in densely populated areas “despite the overwhelming evidence that these means and methods have led to disproportionate harm to civilians and damage to civilian infrastructure, suggests a pattern of willful violation of the disregard of [International Humanitarian Law] principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution.”
“The use of such weapons in an area to which IDF is ordering people to evacuate demonstrates a rampant disregard for the safety of civilians. Even if Palestinian armed group members were using the presence of civilians in these areas in an attempt to shield themselves from attack, which would violate IHL, this would not remove IDF’s obligations to comply with these fundamental IHL principles of proportionality, distinction and precaution,” the U.N. said.
Jul 13, 2024, 3:14 PM EDT Death toll from Israeli attack on Khan Younis rises to 90
The death toll from Israel’s deadly attack on Al Mawasi, west of the southern city of Khan Younis, has now risen to 90 people killed and 300 injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Israel had admitted earlier that the strike was in the expanded humanitarian zone.
A view of the Sverdlovsk Regional Court building prior to a hearing in the trial of US journalist Evan Gershkovich, accused of espionage, in Yekaterinburg on July 18, 2024. — Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been sentenced to16 years in a Russian penal colony on charges of espionageafter a guilty verdict was announced in the American journalist’s trial on Friday.
The State Prosecutors Office in Russia were looking for a sentence of 18 years but was given 16 instead.
The trial of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich moved to closing arguments early Friday morning after only two days of hearings in a case his newspaper and the United States have denounced as a sham.
Gershkovich has already been in detention for 15 months.
The exceptional speed of the trial has prompted speculation that Russia may be hurrying to convict Gershkovich in order to conduct a prison exchange that may have been agreed. In the past, Russia has preferred to only trade people once they have been convicted. However, the State Department on Thursday said it doesn’t have any assessment of why the trial was moved up so quickly.
Gershkovich, a 32-year-old American, has spent more than a year in Russia detention since he was arrested on espionage charges that the Wall Street Journal and the United States say are fabricated. Gershkovich’s trial began in June with a one-day hearing behind closed doors in the Sverdlovsk Regional Court in Yekaterinburg, a city about 900 miles from Moscow.
After just a second day of hearings on Thursday, the court announced it had already completed considering all the evidence in the case and that closing arguments would now be heard on Friday.
After that, Gershkovich will be asked for his “final statement” and the court will consider its verdict, a spokesman for the court said, without giving a time frame for when those might happen.
The process is moving exceptionally fast for an espionage trial, which normally take months or even years. The second hearing was also moved up abruptly by a month, after originally being scheduled for mid-August.
If convicted Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison.
Gershkovich was arrested by Russia’s FSB intelligence agency while on a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg in March last year. The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. and dozens of international media organisations have vehemently denied the charges against him.
The U.S. has accused Russia of seizing Gershkovich and a number of other Americans as hostages using sham charges with the goal of exploiting them as a political bargaining chips. In recent years Russia has arrested several U.S. citizens including WNBA star Brittney Griner and later traded them for Russians imprisoned in western countries on serious charges.
Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have publicly signalled Russia wants to trade Gershkovich. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier this week again confirmed negotiations for an exchange have continued with the Biden administration.
“The intelligence services of the two countries, by agreement between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden back in June 2021, have been in contact to see if someone can be exchanged for someone else,” he said.
Gershkovich’s trial is being held in secret and Russian authorities have never presented any evidence publicly to support the charges against him. Russian prosecutors have charged him with gathering secrets on the “production and repair of military equipment” for the CIA, a claim his newspaper has denied as a “transparent lies,” saying Gershkovich was doing his job as a reporter.
“Evan’s wrongful detention has been an outrage since his unjust arrest 477 days ago, and it must end now,” the Journal said in a statement. “Even as Russia orchestrates its shameful sham trial, we continue to do everything we can to push for Evan’s immediate release and to state unequivocally: Evan was doing his job as a journalist, and journalism is not a crime. Bring him home now.”
Thursday’s hearing lasted for more than five hours, with a few short breaks, according to reporters sitting outside the courtroom. A local news outlet It’s My City reported that only one witness appeared in court Thursday, Vyacheslav Vegner, a lawmaker from Putin’s ruling United Russia party in Sverdlovsk’s regional parliament, who has previously said he gave an interview to Gershkovich before his arrest.
Vegner told the local website 66.ru that Gershkovich at the time had asked him about public support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, the activities of the Wagner mercenary group and how the Sverdlovsk region’s industrial enterprises were being repurposed.
Vegner on Thursday told Interfax that he had been questioned in court by the prosecution and defense for about a half-hour.
The Biden administration has said it is negotiating with Russia to try to free Gershkovich and another American, former Marine Paul Whelan, who has spent more than five years imprisoned by Russia on espionage charges the U.S. also says are fabricated. Russia freed Brittney Griner in exchange for the arms trafficker Viktor Bout, and another former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed was traded for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot convicted in the U.S. on drug smuggling charges.
Another American journalist, Alsu Kurmasheva, a reporter for the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has also spent 9 months in detention in Russia on charges relating to her coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Roger Carstens, the U.S. State Department’s special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, this week said that both Gershkovich and Whelan would make it back to U.S. soil one day, but he couldn’t say when.
“The U.S. government is going to bring both of them home,” he said, speaking at the annual Aspen Security Forum. “And when we go into negotiation with the Russians, we are intent on something that brings both people home.”
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Mike Levine contributed to this report.
Catherine, Princess of Wales during the trophy ceremony for the Mens Singles Final at The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship at the All England Lawn and Tennis Club at Wimbledon, on July 14, 2024, in London. — Simon M Bruty/Getty Images
(LONDON) — Kate, the Princess of Wales, appears to be working amid her ongoing treatment for cancer.
On Thursday, the royal shared her support for the opening of the new gardens at London’s Natural History Museum, for which she is royal patron.
“I am hugely supportive of the Museum’s commitment to create a special space which encourages people of all ages to reconnect with nature and learn more about how we can protect our natural world,” Kate said in a statement shared on the royals’ official Instagram account.
The statement from Kate was accompanied by a photo of her admiring the garden with young children.
Another slide showed an image of Kate in the garden, holding a jar of honey and surrounded by children.
“I know the power of nature to support our development and wellbeing, both by bringing us joy and helping to keep us physically, mentally and spiritually healthy,” the statement from the princess continued. “I hope these gardens will be inspiring and transformative for the thousands of people who visit.”
The messages from Kate come just days after she attended the men’s singles final at Wimbledon on Sunday with her daughter, Princess Charlotte.
Kate, who is a longtime tennis fan and royal patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, sat in the Royal Box to watch Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic compete in the final.
She was also greeted with applause from spectators as she entered the stadium. When Alcaraz defeated Djokovic, she presented him with his trophy.
Wimbledon and the photos taken at the Natural History Museum gardens are recent instances that the princess has been out and about since announcing her cancer diagnosis in March.
In a pre-recorded video that was shared at the time, amid growing speculation about her health and absence from the public eye, Kate said that the cancer was discovered in post-operative tests after abdominal surgery in January. The type of cancer has not been disclosed, and she started a course of preventative chemotherapy in late February, according to Kensington Palace.
The palace added that she would return to official duties when she is cleared by her medical team.
In June, the Princess of Wales shared an update on her health and said that she is “making good progress” as she undergoes chemotherapy but is not “out of the woods yet.”
She also joined royal family members days later for Trooping the Colour.
While Kate has limited the number of royal engagements she’s taken on, her husband, Prince William, who she shares daughter Charlotte and sons Prince George and Prince Louis with, has continued to undertake engagements and work.
(LONDON) — The espionage trial of The Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich resumed on Thursday, proceeding behind closed doors in a remote Russian courtroom after Washington and Moscow officials each raised the potential for the journalist to be part of an international prisoner exchange.
Gershkovich’s court date had been moved forward from August 13 after a request from his defense team, Grainne McCarthy, an international editor at the Journal, told staff in an email on Wednesday.
“The process remains opaque but what we do know is that the sooner this is over, the better,” McCarthy wrote in the email, which was shared with ABC News. “Evan cannot be freed soon enough.”
The trial of Gershkovich, a 32-year-old American, began in June behind closed doors in Sverdlovsk Regional Court in Yekaterinburg, a city hundreds of miles from Moscow. A second closed-door hearing began Thursday morning. U.S. officials accused the Kremlin of using the case “to achieve its political objectives.”
Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 while reporting in the Sverdlovsk region, where Russian officials claimed he was collecting secrets on the “production and repair of military equipment” for the CIA. The indictment against Gershkovich was approved by prosecutors in June, sending the case to the regional court for trial.
Prosecutors began at the June 26 hearing to lay out their evidence against the journalist. Whatever evidence Russia has against the journalist hasn’t been publicly released, according to U.S. officials. The trial amounted to “a performance put on by Russian authorities to justify their repression of journalists and independent voices,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in June.
“Russia should stop using individuals like Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan as bargaining chips,” Miller said, referring to a Marine veteran separately detained in Russia. “They should both be released immediately.”
During a United Nations Security Council meeting on Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield addressed Gershkovich’s detention, telling Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that Americans wrongfully detained in Russia should be released.
“We will not rest until Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich come home, and Russia has ceased this barbaric practice of holding human pawns once and for all,” she said on social media afterward.
Lavrov following the meeting said that using journalists for intelligence gathering was “absolutely natural,” adding that Russia has “irrefutable evidence that Gershkovich was engaged in espionage.” But he also said an international prisoner exchange may be possible, echoing what Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously said.
“The intelligence services of the two countries, by agreement between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden back in June 2021, have been in contact to see if someone can be exchanged for someone else,” Lavrov said.
Russia and the United States carried out similar high-profile swaps in 2022 when WNBA star Brittney Griner was exchanged for Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms trafficker, and a former U.S. Marine, Trevor Reed, was traded for a pilot convicted of drug smuggling.
Russia has maintained that discussions about trades for Gershkovich can only start in earnest after the trial is over, Brian D. Taylor, a Syracuse University political science professor who serves as director of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs, told ABC News.
“So the quicker the trial and the inevitable verdict, the quicker they can offer Evan as a piece in a possible trade,” Taylor said.
Miller, of the State Department, said in June that the U.S. continued to negotiate for Whelan’s and Gershkovich’s releases in private discussions, including putting a “significant” offer on the table months earlier.
“We shouldn’t have to do that. They should both be released immediately, but we will continue our efforts,” he said. “Those have been happening before Evan’s trial, they will continue during the trial. And should he be convicted — which, of course, he will be, it’s not a free trial — they will continue after the trial. But we want to see him returned home immediately.”
ABC News’ Mike Levine, Will Gretsky, Joe Simonetti and Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.
