A year of war disrupted people’s lives
Hezbollah and Israel: Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip and in Damascus after the September 29 Gaza Re-Consolidation
Israel has always called for the complete removal of northern Gaza during the opening weeks of the war. Up to 300,000 people are estimated to have remained in the heavily destroyed north after earlier Israeli warnings that sent around a million fleeing to the south.
An Israeli airstrike killed two children in Gaza City’s Zaytoun neighborhood, according to the civil defense first responders’ group that operates under the Hamas-run government.
At least 41,000 Palestinians were killed in Gaza since Israel’s military response began, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry says that more than 100,000 people have been injured.
Israel launched a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon last week after a series of attacks that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The fighting is the worst since Israel and Hezbollah fought a brief war in 2006. Nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in the ground clashes that Israel says have killed 440 Hezbollah fighters.
The tents on the Corniche are just steps from some of the best homes in Lebanon. “We don’t care if we die, but we don’t want to die at the hands of Netanyahu,” said Om Ali Mcheik.
Hilal is one of many Syrian refugees who are returning to their homeland after two days in Lebanon. “The roads were very crowded … it was very difficult. We almost died trying to get here. Some children whimpered or cried.
Associated Press journalists saw hundreds continuing to cross the Masnaa Border Crossing on foot, crunching over the rubble after Israeli airstrikes left huge craters in the road leading to it on Thursday. Much of Hezbollah’s weaponry is believed to come from Iran through Syria.
Israel launched a series of attacks against southern Lebanon, which it said were directed at Hezbollah targets. One that hit a residential building in downtown Beirut killed a top Hezbollah commander.
In late September, Secretary of State Antony Blinken summed up the U.S. position, saying, “Israel has the right to defend itself against terrorism. The way it does so matters.”
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told reporters in Damascus that “we are trying to reach a cease-fire in Gaza and in Lebanon.” The minister said the unnamed countries putting forward initiatives include regional states and some outside the Middle East.
At least 1,400 Lebanese, including civilians, medics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and 1.2 million driven from their homes in less than two weeks. Israel says it aims to drive the militant group away from its border so that tens of thousands of Israeli citizens can return to their homes.
Israel has killed several Hamas officials in Lebanon since the Israel-Hamas war began, in addition to most of the top leadership of the Lebanon based Hezbollah.
Associated Israeli attacks on a mosque in the Dahiyeh suburb: Two Palestinians are killed and another four are killed in a school in Deir al-Balah
A gas station on the main highway leading to the airport and a warehouse for medical supplies were the targets, the agency said. Some of the overnight strikes set off a long series of explosions, suggesting that ammunition stores may have been hit.
The explosions began around midnight and went on into the early hours of Sunday after Israel’s military urged residents in Dahiyeh to leave. AP video showed the blasts illuminating the densely populated southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. They followed a day of sporadic strikes and the nearly continuous buzz of reconnaissance drones.
The United Nations says about a million people have fled their homes in Lebanon. More than 60,000 Israelis remain displaced from the border area because of Hezbollah rocket fire.
The attacker who attacked at the bus station has yet to be identified. It is being treated as a terror incident, with the country currently on high alert after several stabbing, shooting and ramming attacks in the past year.
As Israel is on high alert ahead of memorial events to commemorate the Oct. 7 attack, it was the same place where the attack happened.
An Israeli strike in Gaza hit a mosque where displaced people were sheltering near the main hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah. Another four people were killed in a strike on a school-turned-shelter near the town. The Israeli military said both strikes targeted militants, without providing evidence.
An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue. The records show that the dead from the mosque were all men.
The Gaza Strip During the First World War: Humanitarian Aid, Food Distribution, and Security in the Light of Israel’s Encroachment
The military said Israeli forces encircled the town as warplanes struck militant sites inside. In the course of the war, Israel has carried out many large operations in the area, only to see militant groups regroup.
People mourned their relatives on social media. Imad Alarabid claimed on Facebook that his parents and other family members were killed in an airstrike. Saeed Abu Elaish, a Health Ministry medic, said he was wounded and bleeding.
Hassan Hamd, a freelance TV journalist whose footage had aired on Al Jazeera and other networks, was killed in artillery shelling on his home in Jabaliya. Anas al-Sharif, an Al Jazeera reporter, confirmed his death.
The first few months of the fighting, the Israeli military designated the area around the border with Egypt in southern Gaza as a safe zone, meaning that civilians could shelter there and get access to international humanitarian aid. Israel continued to strike at Hamas and other people, even though it was clear they wanted to free Israeli hostages. A number of people were killed and many were injured when some of the airstrikes hit homes, and food distribution sites. Half of the population of Gaza is believed to have taken shelter in the Rafah area. In May, Israel issued evacuation orders for the city and launched an offensive that sealed the border with Egypt, which until then was one of the main entry points for humanitarian aid.
Hundreds of people were killed in the Oct. 7 attack, and another 250 were taken hostage. They are still holding around 100 captives, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
The National News Agency in Lebanon said the area was bombarded with more than 30 strikes overnight.
Hezbollah said it successfully targeted a group of Israeli soldiers in northern Israel “with a large rocket salvo, hitting them accurately.” It was not possible to confirm the claim.
The widening conflict risks further drawing in the United States, which has provided crucial military and diplomatic support to Israel. Iran-allied militant groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen have already joined in with long-distance strikes on Israel.
In the northern part of Gaza, the Israeli military issued fresh orders to evacuate several hundred thousand residents as they warned of a new phase of war.
“All I can do is pray”: The Jordanian woman’s first name: Riqad al-Jamal, an Israeli citizen from Tyre, Lebanon
“Enough, world, enough, tomorrow will be a complete year,” said Hakima Al Jamal, as she watched her dying father be carried out of the mosque. “We are tired. By God, we’re so tired.”
More Israeli troops are being moved to the border with Gaza to protect one-year commemoration ceremonies in communities affected by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks last year that killed some 1,200 people and saw more than 200 hostages taken into Gaza.
While local residents sit on blue plastic benches — young men sharing videos on their phones, older couples whiling away the time — the Israeli airstrikes penetrate further north into the country, leaving few secure locations for civilians.
One man, Riqad, who only gave his first name out of concerns for his safety, had arrived four days ago with his family from the southern suburbs of Beirut, after earlier fleeing Israeli attacks near their home in the southern city of Tyre.
The impact on the society of Lebanon has been swift. A pre-med student with the same name started college a month earlier.
“I thought it would be one of the best years of my life. She said that she had worked so much to get to the university. “Now, all I miss is my university days … the coffee there, my friends, studying in the library. I want that now.
Up First Newsletter: Israel-Hamas War Revisited and Its Annihilation Attacks for Michigan Voters
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He often meets a young girl named Habiba at the hospital in central Gaza. Since birth, she’s been colorblind. She said she saw a man drown with water coming out of his nose. It was blood, not water.
I was at a hospital in southern Israel. The waiting room was full of parents in a daze, waiting for word about their children who had come under attack at an outdoor techno rave near the Gaza border. Anas was taking pictures of people who were leaving their homes in Gaza.
A Palestinian woman’s nightmare turned into a reality: How did she decide to continue? What she wanted to do now that she’s gone?
I really thought about it. And then I decided that I wanted to continue to live,” she said. Today, she is learning how to kayak in the sea to help her face her fears. “I do everything to give some meaning to life now that they’re gone.”
On our day in the Israeli village of Kibbutz Be’eri, I remembered a woman called Batya Ofir, who was tragically killed with over 100 other people. Her brother was killed along with his family. She felt survivor’s guilt, and she told us she asked herself whether she wanted to keep on living.
It was the worst day in Israeli history. It sparked the deadliest war in Palestinian history. It has evolved into a regional war one year later. Every day is a surprise to us.
An Overview of Economic Plans for Michigan Governor Michael Harris’s 2020 Campaign and the Implications for the Mid-Asia Middle East
Michigan, a “blue wall” state, is part of Vice President Harris’ clearest path to the White House. The victory will not be easy. Harris and former President Donald Trump remain in a close battle. Key factors that may affect which way Michigan swings are listed.
In Michigan the war in the Middle East is very personal. The GOP and Democrats are focused on the Arab and Muslim American voting bloc, and the state has the largest Lebanese American population in the country. The areas of Lebanon that are being bombed now have many families living in the state.
A new report has found that both Harris’ and Trump’s economic plans would increase the national debt. The Committee for Responsible Federal Budget estimates that Trump’s plan would add at least $7.5 trillion to the nation’s debt over the next decade, while Harris’ proposal would cost the government approximately $3.5 trillion. The committee has cautioned that there could be a future fiscal crisis if politicians do not take more decisive action on the national debt. Let’s check out the details of the economic plans.
This year is likely to be the most important election in history, as NPR is visiting six key swing states. This week, Morning Edition is in Michigan to listen to voters about what matters to them and how that will affect their vote.
Gaza During the Dawn of the Arab Spring: The War Between Israel and the United States in the High-Seventy-Year-Old
A crowd of people broke a border fence. Others arrived in speedboats. A year ago, a dawn attack by Hamas on Israel left 1,200 people dead and another 250 as hostages, and many came by paraglider. It also set in motion events that now threaten to turn Israel’s long-running conflict with Iran’s proxies into a direct and dangerous war with Tehran.
Netanyahu came under intense pressure to stop the fighting in Gaza and get the freed hostages back as a result of his intelligence failures.
As Israelis mourned those who died in the attack, they also worried about the safety of the hostages. Hostages Square was transformed into a gathering place for the captives’ families, friends and supporters. Posters featuring the faces and names of the hostages became popular, as “Bring them home now!” emerged as a potent rally cry. Many Israelis began wearing special necklaces, bracelets and T-shirts to show their support for the captives. Daily vigils in Hostages Square drew large crowds.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has called the humanitarian situation in Gaza a “moral stain on us all,” and the aid group Refugees International has said that Israel’s military response “has wrought disproportionate death and suffering among civilians in Gaza, generating famine-like conditions while obstructing and undermining the humanitarian response.”
Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, which Israeli authorities considered to be a Hamas stronghold, experienced some of the most intense bombardment of the conflict.
International relief organizations carry food, water, and supplies for temporary shelters in short supply. 50,000 children in the age group of 6 months and 5 years are in urgent need of nutrition treatment because of a lack of food in Gaza.
Efforts to fast track aid to Gaza have not gone well. A special $230 million temporary floating pier known as the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore system (JLOTS) operated only intermittently as damage from high winds and rough seas in the eastern Mediterranean repeatedly rendered it inoperable.
Repeated rounds of peace talks have failed to make much headway since the brief cease-fire was supposed to be a goodwill gesture. Deep-seated animosities and the fragmented nature of the Palestinian leadership have played a part in preventing any lasting peace deal.
There is a difference between public opinion on Israel and Palestine in the U.S., with conservatives showing support while younger and more liberal supporters turn out for pro-Palestinian rallies.
According to the Pearson Institute/ AP-NORC poll, about half of the Democrats and about a third of the Republicans think Israel bears a lot of responsibility for the war in Gaza.
That political dichotomy could influence the outcome of a likely tight U.S. presidential race, with some Democrats suggesting that Netanyahu is ignoring the Biden administration’s peace entreaties in an effort to tip the election toward former President Donald Trump. According to a recent poll, voters in key battleground states give Trump a higher rating on foreign policy than Vice President Harris.
The Fate of Hassan Nasrallah: The Deadly End of a Long-Lived Hezbollah Campaign?
Fast-forward to last month. At least twelve people, including two children, and thousands of other people were wounded when electronic pagers belonging to Hezbollah suddenly exploded across Lebanon over a two day period.
As Israeli airstrikes continued days later, multiple residential buildings in southern Beirut were demolished. On Sept. 27, Israel announced that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who led the militant group for more than three decades, was killed in one of the strikes. Hezbollah later confirmed his death.
