Survivors of the Hamas attack describe their experiences
After the October 7 attacks on Israel, survivors from the region share their painful stories of coping with the war.
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Family separation, uncertainty about their fate, food shortages and limited access to toilets are among the many hardships suffered by Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity, says a former prisoner who was released two weeks ago.
Sharon Alony-Cunio and her three-year-old twin girls escaped after 52 days, but her husband David Cunio is still held in Gaza along with about 135 other Israelis. They were kidnapped during Hamas' October 7 rampage that killed more than 1,200 people in Israeli border communities.
In her first media interview since her release during a week-long ceasefire late last month, Alony-Cunio told Portal the captivity was “Russian roulette.” “You don't know if they're going to keep you alive or kill you tomorrow morning, just because they want to or just because their backs are against the wall.”
Alony-Cunio, 34, told the news agency that one of the girls was taken to Gaza individually and did not return to the family for 10 days. David was taken away three days before her release on November 27th.
“I'm afraid I'll get the bad news that he's no longer alive,” she said. “I am torn without my second half, the love of my life, the father of my daughters, who ask me every day: 'Where is dad?'”
Alony-Cunio said fellow hostages would sacrifice part of their meager rations of flatbread and sometimes dates, cheese or meat rice for their girls – Emma and Julie – who had difficulty waiting for a toilet and had to use a sink or trash can.
Their hostage group was held above ground rather than in the miles of Hamas tunnels beneath Gaza, but the endless days and the uncertainty of whether the Israeli government had given up on them made the agony of captivity almost unbearable. Alony-Cunio advocates that the remaining hostages be released as quickly as possible.
“We’re not just names on a poster,” she said. “We are people of flesh and blood. “My girls’ father is there, my partner and many other fathers, children, mothers, brothers.”
Netanyahu says dozens of Hamas fighters capitulate; Blinken defends veto of UN ceasefire resolution: updates
Developments:
∎ Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif's 90-year-old father was killed in an Israeli attack on his home in Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip, the media outlet said. The rest of the family had been evacuated to a UN shelter, but the father was unable to leave due to age and health, Al Jazeera reported.
∎ The resignations of University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill and Penn Board of Trustees Chairman Scott Bok have done little to dampen desire for further change at the school, students say. Magill and Bok were accused of failing to adequately denounce anti-Semitic intimidation and hate speech at Penn. Read more here.
∎ The Israeli Defense Forces said it killed Emad Krikaeand described him as the commander of Hamas' Shejaiya Battalion. The IDF said the unit's former commander was also “eliminated.”
∎ Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov urged an end to the fighting and the release of hostages held by militants during talks with Palestinian and Hamas officials, Russian media outlet Tass reported on Monday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Russia on Sunday of taking “anti-Israel” positions.
As University of Penn leaders step down, Students say: “A lot still needs to change”
Israel's overwhelming ground and air assault on Gaza is expected to continue for weeks, and a subsequent, lower-intensity campaign could continue for months, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced Monday.
Without
where it is trying to dismantle Hamas and
Israel will not commit to any fixed deadlines for the war
In a briefing with The Associated Press, Gallant declined to commit to firm deadlines but suggested that the current phase, characterized by heavy ground combat supported by air power, could drag on for weeks and that additional military activity could continue for months could.
“We will defend ourselves. I fight for the future of Israel,” he said.
The Israeli authority responsible for civil affairs in Gaza said Monday it had expanded its ability to inspect aid shipments to Gaza and blamed the United Nations for the long line of trucks waiting to pass into the war-torn Palestinian enclave.
The UN says the fighting makes it too dangerous for its staff to go to work.
The Israeli Defense Ministry's agency, Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), said it was ready to open a second border crossing to allow the flow of aid into Gaza. Israel only checked the trucks at the smaller Nitzana border crossing before they entered Gaza via Rafah on the Egyptian border.
“Kerem Shalom (crossing) is scheduled to be opened so the number of inspections will double,” COGAT said in a statement. “But help continues to wait at the entrance to Rafah. The UN must do better. The help is there and people need it.”
Israel says it has already cleared more than 200 trucks of aid to pass through Gaza each day, but the U.N. has been unable to process and distribute the aid as quickly as it arrives.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has repeatedly highlighted the lack of security for UN personnel and the intensity of military operations, which have so far resulted in at least 130 UN staff being killed.
“Some of our employees take their children to work with them so they know they will live or die together,” he said.
Israel's military operation in Gaza has made the enclave the most dangerous place in the world for women, says advocacy group ActionAid International.
“Women and girls in Gaza are suffering unprecedented violence as the Israeli military escalates,” says a new report from the organization, whose mission focuses on “feminist leadership.”
Health authorities in Gaza have estimated the total Palestinian death toll at about 18,000 and say about 70% were women and children. ActionAid says women and girls are being killed and injured in “horrific” numbers, are denied their basic rights to food, water and healthcare on a daily basis and are facing enormous psychological distress and trauma after two months of “living in terror”.
“According to figures describing the reality and conditions of women in Gaza, it is currently the most dangerous place for women,” ActionAid spokesman Riham Jafari said in an email to USA TODAY.
The Israeli military says it has discovered an RPG training facility hidden in a mosque in a civilian neighborhood in northern Gaza. The weapons seized included grenades, cartridges and various firearms, the military said in a statement. Some of the weapons pictured on the Military social mediaThey were found in bags belonging to civilian organizations, the statement said.
The military has defended its deadly and destructive ground invasion of Gaza, saying Hamas is constantly using civilians as human shields and setting up military facilities in civilian buildings. Hamas has denied the claims.
Jordanian Prime Minister Weiter Khasawneh accused Israel of trying to force Palestinian civilians out of Gaza, calling the attempt a “potential game changer.” Khasawneh said the conditions “suggest that there is a deliberate attempt to create conditions for Gazans – coupled with increasing violence in the West Bank, which is being left to settlers – that will force people to consider the possibility.” thinking about moving across the border.”
Philippe Lazzarini, the UN agency's commissioner general for Palestinian refugees, made similar claims in an editorial for the Los Angeles Times.
“The developments we are observing indicate attempts to bring Palestinians to Egypt, whether they remain there or are resettled elsewhere,” he wrote.
The UN General Assembly will vote on Tuesday on a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The resolution is similar to the one vetoed by the US in the Security Council last week. The difference, however, is that no member country has veto power in the General Assembly and the resolutions it adopts are not binding. Egypt, on behalf of the Arab Group, which includes 22 member states, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation group, which represents more than 50 countries, has sought the resolution, which is expected to win easy support.
“Israel endangers even more civilian lives, risks further deterioration of this already catastrophic situation and endangers regional and international peace and security, which is why it is urgent that the General Assembly convene to address this crisis,” Egypt and the Republic of Mauritania said in a joint letter to the President of the Assembly, Dennis Francis of Trinidad and Tobago.