President #Biden said his admin is doing what they can to rescue #hostages held by #Hamas.
“We’re pursuing every avenue to bring your loved ones home,” he said.
“Hamas & #Putin represent different threats,” Biden says. “But they both want to completely annihilate a neighboring #democracy.”
Biden ties the 2 conflicts together.
#POTUS toggles back & forth between Ukraine & Israel, 2 very different conflicts but 2 w/a through line that Biden is trying to connect for the American public.
In the Jewish morning blessings, there’s a prayer about “freeing the captives.” I’ve always interpreted this prayer metaphorically. After the horror of the Holocaust, it has been beyond my imagination that Jews would actually be taken hostage. And yet here we are. Maybe if we all say the prayer, it will come true: Baruch ata Adonai eloheinu ruach Elohim, matir asurim. #israel#hamas#hostages#Mazeldon
Next time I'm negotiating for #hostages to be released, I'll be sure to include the Persian Empire AND destroy a hospital just to show everyone the Art of the Deal.
I felt it was important to respond to calls for a "ceasefire" without a return of the hostages. No ceasefire will bring hostages home. Hamas is not interested in negotiation or in peace. The story of Gilad Shalit might not be familiar to many gentiles, but it is telling in this time of crisis.
Waiting For News, Families Of Israeli Hostages In Gaza Tell Stories Of Their Loved Ones
The families of Israeli hostages are waiting, desperate to find out whether their loved ones are even alive.
They range from babies to the elderly. Most are civilians. Israel says at least 199 people taken during the Hamas attack are being held captive in Gaza.
Some of their families received frantic phone calls or texts during the attack.
#Blinken, just finished a marathon 7½ hour meeting at a military base in Tel Aviv w/ PM Benjamin #Netanyahu of #Israel & his #WarCabinet. At 3AM local time Blinken addressed the world to announce the President #Biden’s visit.
Blinken said Biden's visit is meant to show unwavering support for Israel & that he would speak w/Israeli ldrs about urgent issues, including #hostages held by #Hamas & #humanitarian#aid to #Palestinians in #Gaza.
In the past week, I've discovered a lot of antisemitism among progressives, so it's a relief every time someone recognizes that both Israelis and Palestinians are suffering in this conflict, both groups have civilian victims, and leaders of both are culpable. Hamid posits that even oppressed people have moral agency (meaning both Israelis and Palestinians) and must not commit atrocities. He includes others too, such as American college students backing Hamas.
Judith Raanan, left, and her daughter Natalie, 18, after Natalie's recent high school graduation. Judith and Natalie are missing while visiting relatives in Nahal Oz for Simchat Torah, a festive Jewish holiday that marks the conclusion of the annual reading of the Torah. (Raanan Family via AP) (AP)
President #Biden spoke w/President Mahmoud #Abbas of the #PalestinianAuthority on Saturday afternoon, the #WhiteHouse said in a readout of the call.
“President Biden condemned #Hamas’ brutal attack on #Israel & reiterated that Hamas does not stand for the #Palestinian people’s right to dignity & self-determination,” the WH said.
The State Dept said Sat that 29 #Americans have died in the Hamas attack on Israel & subsequent violence, & that 15 US citizens & 1 US permanent resident are missing.
The State Dept said it had been in contact w/the families of the citizens who are unaccounted for, & that intense work was underway to locate them & to free #hostages.
“The U.S. govt is working around the clock to determine their whereabouts & is working w/ the Israeli govt on every aspect of the #HostageCrisis, including sharing #intelligence & deploying experts from across the #UnitedStates govt to advise the Israeli govt on hostage recovery efforts,” the stmnt said.
A guest on #chrishayes (Oct 13) #msnbc at the 8.35pm point, said even #bibinetanyahu did not mention the hostages in his Friday (Oct 13 2023 ) latenight (in her opinion) BS short 3min speech
Many families are still waiting for a phone call back from the Israeli govt about their relatives that are #hostages
RE
that the government of Israel isn’t equivalent to the people of Israel and Hamas controls Gaza and also isn’t equivalent to all of Palestine
A recap of main events today (while i was working on a completely different story so details to come later):
-emergency government and war cabinet formed in #Israel
#Gaza 's only power station stopped working, leaving the territory without main electricity
17 Brits, including children are dead or missing after #hamas attack in Israel
V NBC:
'Documents exclusively obtained by NBC News show that #Hamas created detailed plans to target schools and a youth center in the #Israeli kibbutz of Kfar Sa'ad, to "kill as many people as possible," seize #hostages and move them into the #Gaza Strip.
The attack plans, which are labeled "top secret" in Arabic, appear to be orders for two highly trained Hamas units to surround and infiltrate villages and target places where civilians, incl children, gather'
There's been a protest outside #Israel’s def min by families demanding more information about those missing and the #hostages held by #Hamas.
Some there believed the area around #Gaza was left unprotected because troops had been deployed to the occupied West Bank by the hardline, ultranationalist govt of Netanyahu.
"The #IDF is supposed to defend us, not to secure some crazy adventure of settlers which only harm the security of Israel and the security of its soldiers" a participant said
#Russia has asked the United Nations' Security Council #UNSC to vote on Monday on a draft resolution on the #Israel - #Hamas conflict that calls for a humanitarian ceasefire and condemns violence against civilians and "all acts of terrorism", Reuters news agency said
The draft resolution calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected #humanitarian#ceasefire, the secure release of all #hostages, and the distribution of humanitarian assistance and the safe evacuation of civilians in need
From #UN Sec Gen Guterres stmt - he made two appeals - for #Hamas to release the #hostages without any conditions, and for #Israel to grant rapid and unimpeded access for £humanitarian #aid to #Gaza.
"The UN has stocks available of food, water, non-food items, medical supplies and fuel....These goods can be dispatched within hours," he said.
"Each one of these two objectives are valid in themselves. They should not become bargaining chips."
#UNRWA 's Philippe Lazzarini says his agency is no longer able to provide #humanitarian assistance to #Gaza. The number of people seeking shelter in UNRWA facilities in the south is 'overwhelming, 14 members of his org. have been killed, and Gaza is running out of body bags'.
“Last week’s attack on #Israel was horrendous. The attack and the taking of #hostages are a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. But the answer to killing civilians cannot be to kill more civilians"
V BBC Monitoring, haven'tseen elsewhere: #Israeli media have been discussing a quid pro quo deal - in exchange for aid via #Rafah#Israel has requested #ICRC access to the #hostages