USA TODAY reporter reports on dangerous conditions on the ground in Israel
USA TODAY reporter Kim Hjelmgaard discussed the situation on the ground in Israel and how Israelis are coping after the Hamas attack.
An Israeli airstrike killed at least 45 people and injured dozens at a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, the territory’s Interior Ministry said. This may have fueled global protests, which a former Hamas leader had already called for, and which caused fears among travelers.
Ministry spokesman Eyad Bozum told The Associated Press that the late afternoon airstrike hit the al-Shihab family home in the center of the densely populated Jabaliya camp in northern Gaza, adding that the death toll was likely to rise. The list of victims shows that more than half of the dead were children.
Israeli forces have been bombing Gaza repeatedly for several days in retaliation for Saturday’s stunning Hamas attack on Israeli territory that killed at least 1,300 people and left a trail of atrocities in its wake. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called this “depravity in the worst way imaginable.”
The Israeli bombardment that followed killed more than 1,400 people in Gaza. A White House spokesman said Thursday the death toll from Hamas attacks in the United States had risen to 27 and 14 remained missing.
Footage of former Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal, reviewed by Portal, recently resonated on social media, sparking rumors that a “jihad” in the “squares and streets of the Arab and Islamic world” could lead to violence on Friday .
Natalie Sanandaji, 28, of Long Island, New York, was in Greece on Thursday and was considering flying home.
“I hope to get home as soon as possible, but I am afraid to travel tomorrow on the 13th,” said Sanandaji, who was in Israel during the attack, said USA TODAY. “People tell us to avoid crowded places and I look at these stopovers in Egypt, London or Paris and those are high risk places.”
The White House announced on Thursday that it would organize charter flights to Europe starting Friday. On Wednesday, the State Department raised the alert level for American travelers to Israel and the West Bank and urged them to reconsider their plans. There are already travel advisories advising U.S. citizens to exercise increased caution when traveling to Jordan and Turkey and advising them to reconsider trips to Egypt and Lebanon because of terrorism. “Terrorists can attack with little or no warning,” the agency warns.
The uncertainty follows a trip to Israel by Blinken, who met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on Thursday to show his support. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to arrive in Israel on Friday to discuss military aid. Blinken continues his trip with stops in Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt to prevent an escalation of the conflict and promote the release of hostages.
In the US, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said federal, state and local authorities are working to identify and deter threats to the Jewish community. He said 14 Americans remained missing in Israel.
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Developments:
∎ Two Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank when Israeli settlers opened fire at a funeral for three Palestinians killed in a settler rampage the day before, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported.
“Israeli officials were informed by neighboring Egypt three days before the attack that an attack was possible,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas. Netanyahu denied the claim, but the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee blamed it on an “intelligence failure.”
The death toll in the USA is rising US death toll rises; Lawmaker says Egypt warned Israel of attack: updates
Blinken expressed U.S. solidarity with Israel, its military operations in Gaza and its goal to destroy the militant Hamas organization during his meeting with Netanyahu in Tel Aviv.
“Hamas has only one agenda: the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews,” Blinken said. “No country can or would tolerate the slaughter of its citizens or return to the conditions that allowed it.”
The war has already claimed over 2,500 lives on both sides. International aid groups warn the death toll could rise after Israel cut off all deliveries of food, water, fuel and electricity to Gaza.
Blinken said the victims of Saturday’s attack included citizens from 36 nations. He said that instead of promoting the well-being of Gazans, Hamas governs repressively and uses resources for “terror tunnels and rockets.”
Blinken said the Israeli government shared photos and videos of Hamas atrocities, calling them “mind-blowing.”
“A baby, a toddler, riddled with bullets. Soldiers beheaded. Young people burned alive in their cars or on their highway journeys,” Blinken said. “It’s just depravity in the worst way imaginable.”
The social media site Yaccarino posted a opinion in response to a European Commission warning that X could face penalties if it does not act against “illegal content and disinformation” since Hamas’ attack on Israel.
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Gillian Kaye woke up on Saturday to a nightmare: her stepson was missing.
Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, was last seen by his family in Israel early this morning as Hamas destroyed his home in an unprecedented attack on Israeli towns near the Gaza border. He lived with his wife, two daughters and 400 others on Kibbutz Nir Oz until it was decimated by the militant group and only about 160 people survived and were brought to justice.
“This is so unbelievable,” said Kaye, a Sarasota, Fla., resident who was traveling when she learned of the attack.
Dekel-Chen, who has dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship, is among an estimated 130 Israelis missing after the attacks.
According to his family, he sent his wife and children to the house’s bomb shelter while he confronted the attackers upstairs. Kaye and her family are calling on Americans to write to their representatives in Congress to increase search and rescue efforts. Since she had no information about her stepson’s whereabouts, Kaye felt it was the only way to get the word out.
“We do what needs to get done,” Kaye said. “And what needs to be done is to do everything possible to bring Sagui home.”
− Heather Bushman, Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Hamas has vowed to destroy Israel and has been responsible for numerous suicide bombings and other deadly attacks since the militant group’s founding in 1987. On Saturday, about 1,000 Hamas fighters stormed across the Israeli border by land and sea, catching the Israeli military off guard.
Hamas says Saturday’s attack was partly a response to Israeli police activity on the grounds of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam. The Jerusalem mosque is located on a site holy to Jews, which it calls the Temple Mount. But Hamas leaders also blame relentless Israeli crackdowns and a 16-year blockade in Gaza and the West Bank, continued settlement construction – which the international community considers illegal – and Israel’s tight military control of Gaza.
Additionally, the attack came amid thawing relations between some Arab nations and Israel, Hamas’s blood enemy. The attack and Israel’s harsh response could slow or derail these diplomatic overtures.
By land, sea, air and online: How Hamas used the Internet to terrorize Israel
Hamas – an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Resistance Movement – was founded in 1987 by a Palestinian activist with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood during the first Palestinian uprising against Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The State Department designated Hamas a terrorist group in 1997. Several other nations also consider them 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, although international leaders, including in Israel, have so far said there is no evidence that Iran was directly involved in the Hamas attack.
How big is the Gaza Strip?
Gaza or the Gaza Strip is a densely populated Palestinian enclave with around 2.3 million inhabitants. The narrow strip of land — about 150 square miles, or less than half the size of New York City — is about 25 miles long and six miles wide. Gaza borders Israel to the north and east and Egypt to the southwest, while its western side borders the Mediterranean Sea.
Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006 and took control of the Gaza Strip from the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority in 2007. The Palestinian Authority, controlled by the rival Fatah movement, administers semi-autonomous areas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Since coming to power, Hamas has fought four wars against Israel.
The current war is the culmination of a decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinian territory, which has been occupied since Israel’s founding in 1948 and where Hamas rules the Gaza Strip. Jews and Muslims have some of their holiest sites in Jerusalem. Before the creation of Israel, the country was known as the Palestinian Mandate and was officially ruled by Great Britain. Prompted by the Holocaust, the United Nations passed a resolution in 1947 aimed at dividing the Palestinian mandate into two states, one Arab and one Jewish.
War quickly broke out between Israel and its Arab neighbors, leading to Israeli expansion of three-quarters of the Palestinian mandate. More than half of the Palestinian Arab population fled or was displaced, the UN said. The next few decades saw several conflicts between Israel and Arab states in the region, and peace efforts that improved relations with other nations did not resolve the problem of Palestinian self-determination.
Israel captured the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and has restricted the freedom of movement of Palestinians there ever since. These are all areas sought by the Palestinians for their future independent state. But Hamas rejects proposals for a two-state solution and believes in the complete annihilation of Israel by violent means.
Palestinian uprisings, or intifadas, resulted in military clashes and protests against Israeli occupation and led to raids by Israeli forces, leaving many people dead and injured on both sides.
− Jeanine Santucci
Contribution: The Associated Press