Biden is asking Congress for $100 billion for wars in Israel and Ukraine
In a rare Oval Office address, President Joe Biden advocated providing financial and military aid to Israel and Ukraine.
Israeli forces continued heavy airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on Friday, bombing areas in the south where Palestinians had been ordered to seek safety. Many of them returned north as hundreds of trucks full of humanitarian aid remained piled up on the Egypt-Gaza border.
“Airstrikes, coupled with extremely difficult living conditions in the south, appear to have prompted some to return to the north, despite ongoing heavy bombing there,” Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Friday.
Shamdasani told reporters that the U.N. human rights office had heard from some of the roughly one million people evacuated to the south, including an unidentified Palestinian who said: “I might as well die in my own house.”
An explosion at a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City late Thursday killed and injured scores of Palestinians. The exact death toll could not yet be determined because the bodies were still lying under rubble.
At the Egyptian border, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters that “restrictions” are preventing humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza, where Israel has been cut off from food, water, fuel and electricity since Hamas’ surprise attack on Oct. 7.
“We are actively working with all parties to resolve these restrictions so we can get these trucks where they are needed. We have to move these trucks as quickly as possible,” Guterres said, adding: “We have two million people here who are suffering enormously.”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, on Friday wrote on X“We hope that the Rafah border crossing will be opened today. Further delays will lead to more suffering and more deaths.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops on the Gaza border on Thursday that they would soon see the Palestinian enclave “from the inside,” Portal reported. He called on the armed forces to “organize and be ready” to receive an order to leave, indicating an impending Israeli ground invasion. Israel also evacuated a large Israeli city in the north, near the Lebanese border.
The death toll among Israelis and Palestinians topped 5,000, making the conflict the deadliest of five wars fought in the narrow, densely populated strip of land bordering Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean.
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Latest developments:
∎ Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Friday that the Israeli military does not plan to control “life in the Gaza Strip” following the defeat of the militant group Hamas, The Associated Press reported. Gallant further added that three phases are planned for the war between Israel and Hamas, including air strikes, ground maneuvers and the eventual termination of “responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip.”
∎ According to CNN, Israel’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on Friday that the majority of the 200 people taken hostage by Hamas were still alive. According to the IDF, around 10 to 20 of the hostages were over 60 years old; over 20 are under 18 years old.
∎ UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, gave a statement on X On Friday it was said that two workers had been killed in Gaza. A total of 16 UNRWA staff have been killed since the war began. “UNRWA remains committed to upholding international humanitarian law – UN staff and civilians must be protected at all times,” the agency said.
∎ UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said on Friday that 14 Palestinians were reportedly killed in a drone strike on Thursday.
Second Mr. Doug Emhoff tells Jewish students: “It’s been a tough few weeks”
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff visited a Jewish day school in Washington, D.C., on Friday to speak to students about the war in Israel. Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, is the first Jewish spouse of a U.S. president or vice president.
“It’s been a tough few weeks,” he said as he spoke to a group of eighth-graders. “My emotions are very raw.”
The Second Gentleman told students that after the attack, President Joe Biden held his hand, looked him in the eyes and asked him how he was doing.
“It really helped me to come out and talk about how terrible the situation is and how I feel,” Emhoff told students.
His visit to Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School on Thursday was his second visit to the campus. Emhoff visited the school to help students prepare for Passover in April 2022.
Emhoff has emerged as a key mediator between the Biden administration and the Jewish community. The White House said on Thursday that Emhoff met in Washington DC with Natalie Sanandaji, an American who survived the Hamas attack on a music festival in Israel.
–Francesca Chambers
The Biden administration is asking Congress for billions in aid for Israel and Ukraine
The Biden administration has formally asked Congress for $105 billion in emergency funding for the wars in Israel and Ukraine. The aid package includes $10.6 billion for military support to Israel.
However, the relief package cannot pass Congress until the House of Representatives appoints a speaker. The chamber has been without a speaker for more than two weeks since lawmakers ousted Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., during a vote sparked by a group of conservative rebels. Republicans failed to choose a successor to McCarthy, bringing House business to a standstill.
Biden argued during a prime-time address at the White House on Thursday that U.S. leadership abroad and support from Congress are essential to both countries.
“Hamas and Putin pose different threats, but they have one thing in common: They both want to completely destroy a neighboring democracy,” Biden said.
An explosion at a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City late Thursday resulted in deaths and injuries and the displacement of Palestinians seeking refuge there.
Mohammed Abu Selmia, general director of Shifa Hospital, told the Associated Press that dozens were injured in the church of Saint Porphyrios but could not give an exact death toll because bodies were still under the rubble. The Holy Orthodox Order of St. George the Great Martyr confirmed the explosion, adding that more than 500 people were sheltered in the church and monastery.
“The bombs hit the two church rooms where the refugees, including children and babies, were sleeping. “Survivors are currently searching the rubble for more victims,” the order said in a statement on Thursday.
The explosion came after an explosion on Tuesday that rocked Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, whose grounds many Palestinians had sought refuge from the ongoing Israeli bombardment. According to a preliminary analysis by US intelligence, the death toll was at the “low end” of 100 to 300.
Human Rights Watch has accused Western states such as the United States and Europe of “double standards” for failing to condemn Israel’s war crimes in the Gaza conflict.
The agency said American and European governments swiftly condemned wartime violations by Russian forces, including surprise attacks, unlawful killings and torture. Eighteen months later, Hamas was indicted for the surprise attack on Israel. But since October 7, these states have largely remained silent about Israel’s actions in Gaza, HRW said in a statement.
“Where is the outrage at statements by Israeli politicians who seek to blur the all-important distinction between civilians and combatants in Gaza, even as they order ever-intensifying bombardment of this densely populated area, reducing city blocks and neighborhoods to rubble?” Tom said Porteous, HRW deputy program director. “Where are the clear and unambiguous calls for Israel to respect international norms, let alone accountability, in its attack on Gaza?”
The agency said the Western state’s hypocrisy was “blatant and obvious” and that it risked undermining years of humanitarian efforts to standardize norms to protect civilians in times of conflict.
The Israel Defense Forces, also known as the IDF, is the national army of Israel. It consists of three branches: Army, Navy and Air Force. It is a military service, meaning that Israel requires IDF service for Jewish, Druze and Circassian citizens over the age of 18, with some exceptions. It was founded in 1948, two weeks after Israel became an independent country.
Before the war began, the IDF had 169,500 active-duty soldiers and was the 28th largest military in the world in terms of active-duty personnel, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ “Military Balance 2023.” In addition, there were 465,000 reserve forces to supplement the active forces should the need arise. Read more here.
−Olivia Munson
Hamas – an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Resistance Movement – was founded in 1987 by activists with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood during the first Palestinian uprising against Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. The State Department designated Hamas a terrorist organization in 1997, and several other nations also consider Hamas a terrorist organization.
In 2006, Hamas won parliamentary elections and in 2007 the group violently seized control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority, which was controlled by the rival Fatah movement, which still rules the West Bank. There have been no elections since then. The group calls for the establishment of an Islamic Palestinian state that would replace the current state of Israel and believes in the use of force to destroy Israel.
Hamas receives financial, material and logistical support from Iran. However, so far the United States and other nations have said there is no evidence that Iran was directly involved in the Hamas attack.
Contribution: The Associated Press