A year and a half ago, a few weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, I traveled to Poland with photographer Michal Halbin and producer Yasmin Harel to record in words and photos the stories of Ukrainian women who had fled their country with their children and found refuge with Polish host families.
Among the heart-wrenching stories of women and children who had managed to escape ruined houses and cities through peril, we discovered a great deal of kindness and boundless human generosity.
Early last week, two days after this still-nameless, terrible war began and as the enormity of the horrors perpetrated on towns near the Gaza border was just starting to emerge, the terror of that far-off war in Europe arrived at Israel’s doorstep. We were struggling with feelings of helplessness, sympathy for the victims and their families, and paralyzing anxiety over the fate of the hostages. We felt the only way to handle it was to once more portray the stories and the faces and use them to stitch our sense of reality back together again.
The Israel-Hamas war, which began on October 7 with a surprise attack which left over 1,300 Israelis dead, entered day 11 on Tuesday.
Here’s what’s happening right now:
- The IDF has conducted dozens of airstrikes around the Gaza Strip since early this morning, targeting Hamas’ military capabilities in Rafah, Jabalia, Khan Younis and more. Over the last 24 hours, the IDF attacked more than 200 targets.
- The IDF has also launched airstrikes in Lebanon in response to Hezbollah firing anti-tank missiles and wounding three Israelis.
- Israel is preparing for U.S. President Joe Biden’s arrival on Wednesday. Later on Tuesday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected to arrive in Tel Aviv.
- After Hamas published a video of kidnapped French-Israeli Mia Schem, her mother – Keren Sherf Schem – held a press conference. “I’m begging the world to bring my baby home,” she said.
- Israel’s Health Ministry says 344 remain hospitalized following the October 7 attacks, including 82 in serious condition. More than 4,000 Israelis were wounded and taken to hospitals around the country. In Gaza, the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry says the death toll has reached 2,837.
The Israeli military is getting ready for the next phase of its campaign against the Gaza Strip but plans may not conform to widespread expectations of an imminent ground offensive, an army spokesperson said on Tuesday.
“We are preparing for the next stages of war. We haven’t said what they will be. Everybody’s talking about the ground offensive. It might be something different,” IDF international spokesperson Lt. Colonel Richard Hecht told a regular briefing with reporters.
U.S. President Joe Biden plans to arrive in the Middle East Wednesday to visit Israel and Egypt in a bid to try to keep the war from spreading. On Monday, the 10th day of the war in the Gaza Strip – which is more than half the duration of the Yom Kippur War, and which has seen more than half of that war’s deaths – Israel still continued to prepare for a ground operation in the Strip.
In the north, Hezbollah and the Israel Defense Forces are waging a deadly ping-pong, but the Shi’ite Muslim organization in Lebanon has not launched a significant offensive of its own as it waits to see what Israel does on the ground in Gaza.
On Monday, the IDF said it will evacuate the residents of 28 communities within two kilometers (1.2 miles) of the Lebanese border. The state will pay for their accommodations in guest houses. The move came after an anti-tank missile fired by Hezbollah hit a construction site in Moshav Shtula on Sunday, killing one man and injuring three more. On Saturday, an IDF officer was killed when a missile hit a tank.
French President Emmanuel Macron has condemned Hamas for airing a video of a Franco-Israeli woman the Islamist militant group has taken hostage and demanded her unconditional release.
French President Emmanuel Macron has denounced hostage taking as “odious” and an “ignominy” after Hamas aired a video of a Franco-Israeli woman it kidnapped. The Elysee presidential palace says Macron “calls for her immediate and unconditional release”, adding: “France is fully mobilized and is working with its partners to free French hostages held by Hamas.”
The Israel Defense Forces has conducted dozens of airstrikes around Gaza since early Tuesday. Among the targets are operations centers, military infrastructure used by Hamas and Hamas safe houses.
The airstrikes have been carried out in northern Rafah, the Zeitoun neighborhood, Jabalia, Khan Younis and more.
118 terrorists who crossed into Israel from Gaza since October 7 and took part in Hamas’ massacres along the border with the Strip, are being held in Israeli prisons, according to Israel Prison Service Chief Israel Prison Service Chief Katy Perry.
Perry added that since October 7, more than 500 suspected Palestinian terrorists have been detained on all fronts, this is in addition to some 300 criminal prisoners added in the past week. The total number of prisoners processed since the start of the war is equivalent to about half of the prisoners processed in the past year – some 2,000 prisoners on the eve of the war.
Since the war began, Israel’s detention facilities have operated in an emergency format known as “lock” in which prisoners are kept in restricted conditions. Criminal prisoners have been exempted and the lockdown applies only to security prisoners. Family visits have been suspended, as has the role of a spokesperson for each security win; access to public telephones has been blocked, and electrical appliances disconnected. “They receive what they are entitled to by law – lodging, food and drink – and nothing more,” said Commissioner Perry, “The goal is to prevent disturbances, the ability to direct terrorist operations, contact with the outside world and attempts to harm prison guards, including kidnapping or murder.” According to Perry, there have been isolated incidents of support for Hamas in security wings, and the prisoners involved were tried and transferred to solitary confinement.
Yesterday, the Knesset passed its first reading of a government bill that would allow security prisoners to sleep on mattresses on the floor in order to make room for new detainees even though detention facilities are at full capacity. The terrorists, who are defined by law as unlawful combatants, are interrogated in Shin Bet facilities located in the prisons and following interrogation are transferred to detention in wings separate from the other security prisoners. Regarding the possibility that some security prisoners may be released as part of a prisoner exchange, the commissioner said that the issue “has not come to my attention. If it does, we will know how to carry out the decisions of the political echelon, as we have done in the past.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israeli officials should face trial for their “crimes against Palestinians”, state TV reported on Tuesday, a day before U.S. President Joe Biden was due to visit Israel.
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran’s clerical rulers have been vocal in their support for the Palestinian cause. Tehran makes no secret of its backing for Hamas, funding and arming the Islamist group that controls Gaza.
“No one can confront Muslims and the resistance forces if the Zionist regime’s crimes against Palestinians continue … the bombardment of Gaza must stop immediately,” Khamenei said.
“The Zionist regime’s officials should be tried for their crimes against Palestinians in Gaza,” he added.
Keren Sherf Schem, the mother of French-Israeli Mia Schem who was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, spoke to the press on Tuesday morning, less than a day after the Gaza-based terrorist organization pubished a video of her daughter.
“Yesterday I saw my baby on television, I saw she’s alive. I saw that she was… I heard before rumors that she was shot in the shoulder or in the leg. So I can see she was shot in her shoulder. I see she had an operation, she looks very terrified. She looks like she’s in big pain … I can see that she’s saying what they tell her to say, but I can see that she’s stable. I can see she needs medical care … I didn’t know [if] she’s dead or alive until yesterday. All I knew is that she might be kidnapped. I’m begging the world to bring my baby back home. She only went to a party, to a festival party, to have some fun. And now she’s in Gaza and she’s not the only one. There are many children who went to this party. There are many babies, and children and old people and holocaust survivors that were kidnapped, that their houses were burned. This is a crime against humanity. We should all gather and stop this terror and bring everybody back home,” she said in English.
The Hamas-appointed head of crossings in Gaza, Fouad Abu Btihan, and some of his relatives were killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza on Tuesday, Hamas radio reported.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that Israeli officials should be tried for their crimes committed against Palestinians in Gaza, state TV reported.
The Israeli Health Ministry released an update on Tuesday that as of today, 344 wounded are still hospitalized of which 82 are in serious condition, 194 are in moderate condition, and 68 are in minor condition.
Since the war with Hamas began, 4,229 wounded have been evacuated to hospitals.
Dozens of deaths were reported in Gaza after bombings hit the southern Strip, raising the current death toll to 2,837 people, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza.
I would like to call upon political science to contribute to the discussion of the aim of Israel’s policy in the Gaza Strip. Given that the declared aim is “crushing and wiping out” Hamas, as the prime minister declared in his statement, it is necessary to call Israel’s action by its clear name: regime change in Gaza.
The Gaza Strip is a state in every respect, even if it is not recognized as such and its independence is limited. For fifteen years now, this state has been controlled by Hamas, which is based on a developed political infrastructure. Hamas has a military arm, including the forces that carried out the crimes against citizens of Israel, but also a political arm that functions as the leadership of a state in almost every respect.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II says that taking Palestinian refugees from Gaza is a red line, adding that there will be no refugees in Jordan, no refugees in Egypt.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday called for preventing an escalation in the Middle East and warned Hezbollah and Iran against intervening in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
“I expressly warn Hezbollah and Iran not to intervene in the conflict,” Scholz told a news conference after a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah in Berlin.
David Azulay, the head of the Metula local council, said that a civilian’s car was hit during a security incident. Azulay added that three people were wounded and many mortars hit the town.
“We’re under attack,” Azulay said, adding that the Israeli army is firing back towards targets in southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen news channel reported Tuesday that 30 percent of the surveillance camera placed along the Israel-Lebanon border by the Israeli army are not operational.
“A report was received regarding a shooting toward the town of Metula on the border with Lebanon,” the IDF said in a statement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping may discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during their meeting in Beijing this week, Russia’s RIA news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Tuesday.
The Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari, clarified on Tuesday that “there is no ceasefire. We’re continuing to prepare for the next stages of war.”
Regarding the video of an Israeli-French hostage published by Hamas on Monday night, Hagari said it’s “psychological terrorism.”
Trucks carrying aid for the Gaza Strip arrived on Tuesday at the only border crossing into the territory not controlled by Israel, a witness and Egyptian security sources said, after the U.S. said it was developing with Israel a plan for aid delivery.
Egypt says the Rafah crossing, a vital artery before the fighting and now a key route for desperately needed supplies into the Israeli-besieged Palestinian enclave, had not been officially closed but was made inoperable due to Israeli air strikes on the Gaza side.
On Monday, local media and Egyptian security sources said that Israel had struck the vicinity of the crossing in Gaza. Two of the sources said the aid deliveries were now waiting for the Gaza side of the border to open and for assurances of safe passage before entering the crossing.
Some 160 trucks left al-Arish in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula in the early hours of Tuesday, where hundreds of tonnes of aid has been awaiting an agreement on aid delivery, the witness told Reuters.
Aziz Dweik, the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, was arrested overnight by the Israeli army, according to the Palestinians.
A 17-year-old Palestinian from the Nablus area died Tuesday morning after being shot during clashes with the IDF, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. 8 more Palestinians were wounded in the same incident.
In Nablus, a 72-year-old man died of gunshot wounds he sustained last Friday during clashes with the Israeli army.
Dozens of U.S. citizens from Israel arrived in Cyprus early Tuesday on the first evacuation boat organized by the United States amid the escalating crisis in the Middle East.
Some 159 people were on board the luxury liner Rhapsody of the Seas which left Haifa and sailed into Limassol port in Cyprus early Tuesday.
Cypriot government official Victor Papadopoulos told Cyprus state TV more evacuation vessels were expected to arrive over the next 12 hours.
Cyprus has been used as a transit hub for foreign governments to evacuate their civilians since just after the latest outbreak of violence on Oct. 7.
>>>Read more on U.S. nationals escaping the Israel-Hamas war on an emergency cruise<<<
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz travels to Israel on Tuesday in a show of solidarity following the Hamas terrorist attack mounted from the Gaza Strip.
“It is important to me to express solidarity with Israel also in a very practical way through my visit,” Scholz said during a visit to the Albanian capital Tirana on Monday, adding that this was important for Israel and its people.
Scholz is the first head of government to travel to Israel following the attack 10 days ago. He is expected to hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before flying on to Egypt to meet President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi.
The German chancellor said he wanted to discuss the situation in the war zone and how to prevent a further escalation. “This presupposes good talks, by the way, also with many other states in the region. It is simply a matter of being in constant talks with everyone and developing a perspective that prevents such an escalation.”
The talks are expected to center on freeing the almost 200 hostages that Hamas is holding, including several Germans, and on attempts to prevent a regional conflagration.
Scholz is also expected to offer support in the form of military assistance to Israel and humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.
“The Hamas attack was a terrorist act that was irresponsible, that has terrible consequences, that has killed an incredible number of people and humiliated an incredible number. And therefore Israel has every right to defend itself,” Scholz said.
Scholz first plans to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Berlin on Tuesday morning. Over recent days he has held talks on the escalating crisis with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Berlin and by phone with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
At least 49 people were killed in Israeli strikes on the southern Gazan cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah overnight on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Interior Ministry.
CENTCOM Commander General Michael Kurilla arrived in Israel on Tuesday morning.
The IDF killed 4 terrorists who attempted to infiltrate Israel from Lebanon, the army said on Tuesday morning.
According to the IDF statement, the four terrorists attempted to place an explosive device near the border fence. In response, the army launched an aerial attack on the area.
Shin Bet security service chief Ronen Bar on Monday took responsibility for the failures that led to Hamas’ massacre on October 7. By doing so, Bar joins several prominent figures who have taken responsibility, including the IDF chief of staff, senior army commanders and the National Security Adviser.
On Sunday, several ministers within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government stated that the government bears responsibility for the war, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Education Minister Yoav Kisch.
Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have not done so.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on Monday for a humanitarian corridor to be opened into the Gaza Strip, saying urgent help was needed to address an increasingly dire situation in the besieged enclave of 2.3 million people.
“Canada is calling for unimpeded humanitarian access and a humanitarian corridor, so that essential aid like food, fuel and water, can be delivered to civilians in Gaza. It is imperative that this happens,” Trudeau said.
Canada fully supported Israel’s right to defend itself in accordance with international law, but “even wars have rules”, he told the House of Commons lower chamber of parliament.
“Terrorism is always indefensible, and nothing can justify Hamas’ acts of terror. … Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people nor their legitimate aspirations,” he said.
The Ottawa government said separately that it had withdrawn some non-essential staff and their families from the Canadian Embassy in Tel Aviv and the Representative Office of Canada in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
However, essential personnel remain at both missions, and additional staff have been brought in from other Canadian embassies around the world “to provide assistance to Canadians in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,” Canada’s government said.
Earlier in the day, Ottawa said Canadians should consider leaving Lebanon while they can because of heightened security risks in the region.
Canada has been using two military planes to airlift people who needed help leaving Israel. The first group of Canadians has safely crossed from the West Bank into Jordan and there are also about 300 people in Gaza that Canada is seeking to bring out through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.
Five Canadians have been killed in the Hamas attack on Israel while three are still missing.
Japan will provide $10 million in emergency aid for civilians in Gaza, foreign minister Yoko Kamikawa said on Tuesday.
Japan is the current president of the Group of 7 developed nations and Kamikawa said it was monitoring the situation in Gaza “with concern”, adding that Japan expects the situation to be calmed down as soon as possible.
Kamikawa said she was also making final preparations for talks with her Iranian counterpart. Japan maintains a friendly relationship with Iran. In September, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi in New York and told that Japan will continue its diplomatic efforts toward easing tensions and stabilizing the situation in the middle east.
European Union leaders aim on Tuesday to settle on a united approach to the crisis triggered by the Hamas attack on Israel after days of confusion, infighting and mixed messaging.
In an emergency video conference at 3:30 P.M. GMT (6:30 P.M. Israel time), the European Council, which brings together the leaders of the EU’s 27 member countries, will also tackle potentially grave consequences for the continent arising from the crisis.
While the EU and its member governments all condemned the Hamas assault from Gaza, which killed some 1,300 Israelis, they diverged on other political statements and policy implications.
The disarray has exposed old divisions within the EU on the Middle East and underscored the severe limits of its influence in the region.
It has also undermined the EU’s calls to be treated as a major geopolitical player in its own right.
Tuesday’s virtual summit is an effort by the EU’s 27 national leaders to grab firm control of the response to the crisis after disquiet among some of them about the approach of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“It is of utmost importance that the European Council … sets our common position and establishes a clear unified course of action that reflects the complexity of the unfolding situation,” European Council President Charles Michel said in a letter inviting leaders to attend the meeting.
Von der Leyen’s Commission, the EU’s executive body, sowed confusion last week when one of its members declared on social media that all EU development aid to Palestinians had been frozen – only for the announcement to be later rescinded.
Some officials and lawmakers also criticized von der Leyen, who visited Israel on Friday, for not declaring that the EU expects Israel to abide by international humanitarian law in its response to the attack, as other EU leaders did. Von der Leyen stated that position publicly for the first time over the weekend.
Commission officials have insisted von der Leyen had already conveyed the message privately to Israeli officials and defended her swift visit to Israel as an important sign of solidarity.
The Israel Defense Forces’ action plan in Gaza is based on one main goal – destroying Hamas’ capabilities and obliterating the prospect of its revival as the local leadership in Gaza. It’s an ambitious and necessary plan, but its price is likely to be very heavy and its results not assured, assuming that they are possible altogether.
It’s enough to imagine what the public reaction would be if a ground incursion into Gaza coincides with an effort by Hamas and Islamic Jihad to publicize horrific videos showing executions, one after another, of Israeli hostages who were abducted from the border communities during the October 7 attack. Every day, one child; every day, one elderly woman or teenage girl; people who have already come to be considered the family of every household in Israel. In other words, “the children and parents of every one of us.”
The harsh rhetoric and the frenzy that have taken hold on some TV panel discussions could quickly shift, to be replaced by demands for the release of the hostages at any price. No one will remember the lesson of the 2011 prisoner exchange for Gilad Shalit – the Israeli soldier held captive for five years in the Gaza Strip – in exchange for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, after which there were those who swore that Israel would never again pay such a heavy price for the release of an Israeli citizen.
The IDF announced Tuesday morning that over the past 24 hours it had launched strikes against more than 200 terror targets belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The Israel-Hamas war, which began with a surprise attack which left over 1,300 Israelis dead, enters day 11 on Tuesday.
Here are the highlights of the past 24 hours:
- After two visits by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (the latest on Monday) and one visit by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, President Joe Biden is expected to visit Israel on Wednesday.
- In Israel, over 1,300 have been killed, including nearly 300 soldiers. The IDF has confirmed that at least 199 people – civilians and soldiers alike – are currently being held by Hamas.
- One of the kidnapped civilians is 21-year-old French-Israeli Maya Sham. On Monday evening, Hamas released the first sign-of-life video from one of the hostages – a short clip of Sham speaking directly to the camera.
- In Gaza, the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry says more than 2,700 have been killed.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel on Wednesday will delay Israel’s planned ground operation in the Gaza Strip for at least 24 hours.
The IDF’s spokesperson for the foreign press, Jonathan Conricus, responded to questions about the timing of an Israeli ground operation by saying, “We’ll have to wait and see.”
Conricus added that Israel’s announcement telling Gazans to leave their homes was a significant strategic risk from an Israeli perspective, but said it was intended to safeguard the lives of civilians in the Strip. “We have no desire whatsoever to kill or hurt noncombatants,” he said.
The New York Times also reported that Israel has requested emergency aid from the U.S. to the tune of $10 billion.
Hamas released a video of a 21-year-old Israeli hostage in Gaza. In the video, the dual French-Israeli national says: “I am is Maya Sham, I’m twenty-one years old from Shoham. Right now, I’m in Gaza. I came back early on Saturday morning from a party in the Sderot area. I was seriously injured in the arm. They brought me to Gaza, and they took me to the hospital here for three hours. They’ve been taking care of me, providing medication. I’m just asking that you bring me back home as soon as possible to my family, my parents, my siblings. Please get me out of here as quickly as possible.”
The family conveyed, “We are happy.”
WASHINGTON – U.S. President Joe Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Tuesday after a nearly eight-hour long meeting with Israeli officials in Tel Aviv.
Blinken told reporters that the president would arrive to show unshakable support to Israel and speak first-hand with Israeli leaders about the hostages held captive in Gaza, as well as the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
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