The Hamas-Second Gaza Conflict: U.S. Forces and Gaza’s First Comprehensive Planned Emergency Plan
Gaza is in a humanitarian crisis and getting aid to it through the closed Rafah border crossing with Egypt is of particular importance. There are trucks on the Egyptian side, and people are gathered on the Gaza side.
President Biden spoke with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattat el- Sisi after he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
With two million Palestinians facing shortages of food and water, all eyes were on the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza to see if a deal to deliver relief would hold.
It isn’t clear if the shipment will include any fuel. With Gaza’s main power plant unable to operate, aid groups say fuel is badly needed to power desalination and wastewater plants, along with hospital generators.
Previous attempts to secure an agreement that would get aid into Gaza from Egypt have failed to yield concrete results. One sticking point has been over how to ensure that Hamas is not involved in the deliveries or able to divert aid from civilians for its own use.
As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza intensifies and Israel readies an expected ground invasion, scores of people have been waiting on the Gaza side for days in hopes of leaving.
Among those desperately awaiting word of the border’s status were the hundreds of U.S. citizens who have been trapped in Gaza since the outbreak of the war.
Calls for a cease-fire have mounted since an explosion at the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, the cause of which remains in dispute. Reports of the death toll have varied; Gaza’s Ministry of Health says the blast killed more than 470 people, most of whom were patients at the hospital or people who had come to the hospital’s courtyard to seek a safe place to stay.
An Israeli airstrike and exchange of fire between Israel’s police and Palestinians occurred after a search and arrest operation in the camp. A number of terrorists were killed in operations conducted by the IDF, and Palestinian health officials said at least 11 people died. The media reported the death of an Israeli policeman.
On Wednesday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called for an “immediate cease-fire” in order to facilitate Hamas’s release of the hostages and for Israel to allow unrestricted access to aid.
The diplomatic efforts to address the crisis are expected to intensify in the coming days with the arrivals of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Cairo Thursday and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Israel Thursday to meet Netanyahu.
Up First Briefing: Gaza Aid Deal; Preventing Catalytic Converter Theft: a New House-Right Vote
About 1,400 people in Israel have been killed in the conflict, most of them on Oct. 7, Israeli officials say. More than 60 people have died in the West Bank, according to Palestinian health officials.
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In a second vote, House Republicans again rejected Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, as the new speaker. Opposition to his nomination grew from 20 GOP defections to 22.
The average American family’s net worth jumped 37% between 2019 and 2022, according to a new Federal Reserve survey. The jump is the biggest since the surveys began. The wealth gap between rich and poor also narrowed slightly. The COVID relief measures could be the reason for the gains.
Source: Up First briefing: Gaza aid deal; preventing catalytic converter theft
How to Protect Your Car: Timms, 24, a Vander Sloot Murder Victim, Theoret and Their Revival
For the last 18 years, the family of the American teen known as “Timms” has been missing after she vanished while on a high school graduation trip. She was murdered by Joran van der Sloot. As part of the plea deal, he agreed to tell Holloway’s mother, Beth, how her daughter died and where her body was stashed.
The National Insurance Crime Bureau says that catalytic converters have gone up in price since 2019. They’re located underneath cars and help them clean exhaust. Thieves target them because they’re made of expensive precious metals. It can cost thousands to replace one. Here’s how to protect your car:
Source: Up First briefing: Gaza aid deal; preventing catalytic converter theft
The Gazan Red Crescent and Hamas: An Emergency Plan for the Rescue of an American Astronomer of Color, Abood Okal,
When she lived in a small town as a child, TV was used as an escape. Star Trek: The Next Generation was one of her favorite shows. Her father pointed out the morals in the show and taught her that diversity was important. The basis for her sense of social justice as an astronomer of color was helped by this.
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Diplomats and aid workers on Thursday were hammering out the logistics of getting food and medicine into Gaza a day after President Biden said Israel agreed to allow it.
Israel has bombarded the area around the crossing. On Thursday, Egyptian workers were repairing roads so that the large trucks loaded with aid would be able to pass, according to an aid official briefed on the situation.
Major humanitarian groups including the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross also have sent equipment and supplies.
In Cairo, Egyptian officials are having talks with both the U.N. and the U.S. envoy on how to move aid to Gaza.
The area is closed to non-Egyptian officials. The province where it sits is home to many militant groups that have fought in Egypt.
Efforts were underway to address those concerns by having the Egyptian Red Crescent take the aid from the Egyptian side and give it to the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza, according to officials.
Another sticking point is Israel’s demand that the cargo be checked for weapons that Hamas could use for attacks. A person who is close to the matter said that the US, U.N. and Egypt are discussing who will carry out those cargo inspections.
Abood Okal, a Palestinian American who has been stranded with his wife and one-year-old son, said in a message on a messaging service that he was very concerned that there had not been any updates on an plan to get them out.
Mr. Okal said that there had been an explosion not far from the house where he was staying on Thursday morning. With no safe place to go, and no evacuation plan in sight, he wrote, “We are extremely afraid for our lives.”
The Abuzayda’s Story of Survival: Israel’s Rafah Border Crossing Gaza Humanitarian Aid, as a Warning to Gaza
Israeli officials say the siege is necessary to stamp out Hamas, which governs Gaza — and they will not allow in aid via Israel’s border crossings until Hamas releases approximately 200 hostages captured during the attack.
Gaza residents are facing an increasingly acute humanitarian crisis. The territory’s main power plant, desalination plants and wastewater facilities have all been unable to operate for days, the U.N. reports. More than 4,100 people have been killed byIsraeli airstrikes and thousands of homes have been destroyed.
The Abuzayda family moved to the south of Gaza, after Israel urged people in the northern part of the enclave to leave.
The window on the building that was struck was broken as her son slept nearby. I hugged him after I pulled him. He was freaking out. He was looking at me — he doesn’t know what is going on,” she said. “We are not safe here.”
Source: As desperate Gaza residents run out of food and water, aid trucks back up at border
The conflict between Israeli forces and the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank collapsed overnight after an Israeli-Israel refugee camp near the border with Israel
The situation in the occupied West Bank deteriorated overnight after Israeli forces clashed with Palestinians at a refugee camp near the border with Israel.