Hundreds killed in Israeli airstrike on Gaza City hospital, Health Ministry says

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza — The Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike Tuesday hit a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter, killing hundreds. If confirmed, the attack would be by far the deadliest Israeli airstrike in five wars fought since 2008.

Photos from al-Ahli Hospital showed fire engulfing the hospital halls, shattered glass and body parts scattered across the area. The ministry said at least 500 people had been killed.

Several hospitals in Gaza City have become refuges for hundreds of people, hoping they would be spared bombardment after Israel ordered all residents of the city and surrounding areas to evacuate to the southern Gaza Strip.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said there were still no details on the hospital deaths: “We will get the details and update the public. I don’t know to say whether it was an Israeli air strike.”

In the south, continued strikes killed dozens of civilians and at least one senior Hamas figure Tuesday in attacks it says are targeted at militants. U.S. officials worked to convince Israel to allow delivery of supplies to desperate civilians, aid groups and hospitals after days of failed hopes for an opening in the siege.

With Israel barring entry of water, fuel and food into Gaza since Hamas’ brutal attack last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken secured an agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss creation of a mechanism for delivering aid to the territory’s 2.3 million people. U.S. officials said the gain might appear modest, but stressed that it was a significant step forward.

“The return of the hostages, which is sacred in our eyes, is a key component in any humanitarian efforts,” he told reporters, without elaborating whether Israel was demanding the release of all of the roughly 200 people Hamas abducted before allowing supplies in.

U.S. President Joe Biden prepared to head to the region as he and other world leaders tried to prevent the war from sparking a broader regional conflict. Violence flared Tuesday along Israel’s border with Lebanon, where Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants operate.

With tens of thousands of troops massed along the border, Israel has been expected to launch a ground invasion into Gaza — but plans remained uncertain.

“We are preparing for the next stages of war,” military spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said. “We haven’t said what they will be. Everybody’s talking about a ground offensive. It might be something different.”

In Gaza, dozens of injured were rushed to hospitals after heavy attacks outside the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, residents reported. Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official and former health minister, reported 27 people were killed in Rafah and 30 in Khan Younis.

An Associated Press reporter saw around 50 bodies brought to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Family members came to claim the bodies, wrapped in white bedsheets, some soaked in blood.

An airstrike in Deir al Balah reduced a house to rubble, killing a man and 11 women and children inside and in a neighboring house, some of whom had evacuated from Gaza City. Witnesses said there was no warning before the strike.

Shelling from Israeli tanks hit a U.N. school in central Gaza where 4,000 Palestinians had taken refuge, killing six people and wounding dozens, the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency said. At least 24 U.N. installations have been hit the past week, killing at least 14 of the agency’s staff.

The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas hideouts, infrastructure and command centers.

A barrage of strikes crashed into the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, leveling an entire block of homes and causing dozens of casualties among families inside, residents said. Among those killed was one of Hamas’ top military commanders, Ayman Nofal, the group’s military wing said — the most high-profile militant known to have been killed so far in the war.

Nofal, formerly the intelligence chief of Hamas’ armed wing, was in charge of Hamas militant activities in the central Gaza Strip, including coordinating activities with other militant groups.

Netanyahu sought to put the blame on Hamas for Israel’s retaliatory attacks and the rising civilian casualties in Gaza. “Not only is it targeting and murdering civilians with unprecedented savagery, it’s hiding behind civilians,” he said.

In Gaza City, Israeli airstrikes also hit the house of Hamas’ top political official, Ismail Haniyeh, killing at least 14 people. Haniyeh is based in Doha, Qatar, but his family lives in Gaza City. The Hamas media office did not immediately identify those killed.

Israel sealed off Gaza after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed over 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and resulted in some 200 taken captive into Gaza. Hamas militants in Gaza have launched rockets every day since, aiming at cities across Israel.

Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed at least 2,778 people and wounded 9,700, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Nearly two-thirds of those killed were children, a ministry official said.

Another 1,200 people across Gaza are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead, health authorities said.

More than 1 million Palestinians have fled their homes — roughly half of Gaza’s population — and 60% are now in the approximately 14-kilometer (8-mile) long area south of the evacuation zone, the U.N. said.

Aid workers warned that the territory was near complete collapse. Hospitals were on the verge of losing electricity, threatening the lives of thousands of patients, and hundreds of thousands of people searched for bread and water.

The U.N. agency for Palestinians said more than 400,000 displaced people are crowded into schools and other facilities in the south. The agency said it has only 1 liter of water a day for each of its staff members trapped in the territory.

Israel opened a water line into the south for three hours that benefitted only 14 percent of Gaza’s population, the U.N. said.

At the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only connection to Egypt, truckloads of aid were waiting to enter. The World Food Program said that it had more than 300 tons of food waiting to cross into Gaza.

Civilians with foreign citizenship — many of them Palestinians with dual nationalities — also waited in Rafah, desperate to get out.

“We come to the border crossing hoping that it will open, but so far there is no information,” said Jameel Abdullah, a Swedish citizen.

Repeated reports that an opening was imminent have proven false as negotiations continued to grind on, including the U.S., Israel and Egypt.

A senior Egyptian official called it a “very tough, complicated back-and-forth process” and said talks were over deliveries through Rafah and Israel’s Karam Shalom crossing to Gaza. He said Israel was insisting to search all aid, and wants to “ensure that such aid won’t benefit Hamas.” He said Egypt proposed that the U.N. oversee the whole process, including inside Gaza. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to brief the press on the talks.

Officials for Hamas and Israel cast doubt on an immediate opening, saying they were unaware of an agreement.

Blinken arrived in Israel last Thursday with a full-throated message of unequivocal U.S. support for Israel in its campaign to destroy Hamas. But in meetings with seven Arab leaders over the next three days, Blinken’s tone shifted subtly, talking more prominently about the need for humanitarian aid.

U.S. officials said it had become clear by then that already limited Arab tolerance of Israel’s military operations would evaporate entirely if conditions in Gaza worsened. They said that outright condemnation of Israel by Arab leaders would be a boon to Hamas and could encourage Iran, according to four officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration thinking. That prompted Blinken to press Netanyahu on an aid deal.

Biden’s visit to Israel Wednesday will signal the White House’s support for a key ally. He will also travel to Jordan to meet with Arab leaders amid fears the fighting could spread in the region.

Israel evacuated towns near its northern border with Lebanon, where the military has exchanged fire repeatedly with Hezbollah militants.

Israel said it killed four militants wearing explosive vests who were attempting to cross into the country from Lebanon on Tuesday morning. No group immediately claimed responsibility.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that Israel’s continuing offensive in Gaza could cause a violent reaction across the region.

“Bombardments should be immediately stopped. Muslim nations are angry,” Khamenei said, according to state media.

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Hamas admits Israel killed a top commander

Ayman Nofal is reportedly the second top Hamas commander killed in Israeli strikes since the militant group launched an attack on Israel.

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Former U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman to cease donations to UPenn over school’s response to Hamas attack

Former U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman slammed the University of Pennsylvania’s response to the ongoing fighting between Israel and Hamas, and pledged to stop giving money to the institution where he and his family have been prominent donors.

“To the outsider, it appears that Penn has become deeply adrift in ways that make it almost unrecognizable,” Huntsman, who graduated from the university in 1987, wrote to the school’s president, Liz Magill, according to an email obtained by the student newspaper The Daily Pennsylvanian.

The former Utah governor told Magill that the Huntsman Foundation “will close its checkbook on all future giving to Penn,” ending years of giving that, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian, has amounted to tens of millions of dollars.

Huntsman did not immediately respond to POLITICO's request for comment.

The controversy on campus began before the Oct. 7 Hamas-led surprise attack on Israel. In September, the school hosted the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, a multiday event that included some speakers who had a history of making antisemitic remarks. The event received pushback from prominent donors and trustees at the university, including billionaire Marc Rowan and “Law & Order” creator Dick Wolf.

Administrators including Magill issued a statement condemning antisemitism ahead of the event.

“While the Festival will feature more than 100 speakers, many have raised deep concerns about several speakers who have a documented and troubling history of engaging in antisemitism by speaking and acting in ways that denigrate Jewish people. We unequivocally — and emphatically — condemn antisemitism as antithetical to our institutional values,” the administrators wrote at the time.

In the days following the Oct. 7 attack, Magill and Penn’s Provost John L. Jackson Jr. condemned the assault as “abhorrent.”

“Many members of our community are hurting right now. Our thoughts are especially with those grieving the loss of loved ones or facing grave uncertainty about the safety of their families and friends,” the pair wrote.

That didn’t stop Huntsman from criticizing what he said was the university’s “silence” on the issue.

“The University’s silence in the face of reprehensible and historic Hamas evil against the people of Israel (when the only response should be outright condemnation) is a new low. Silence is antisemitism,” Huntsman wrote in the email.

In response to the backlash over the initial statement, and the resignation of one of the university's trustees, Vahan Gureghian — who said in his resignation that the school community had been "failed by an embrace of antisemitism," according to CNN — Magill followed up with an email addressed to members of the Penn community on Sunday morning that more explicitly condemned Hamas.

“The University has made public statements denouncing acts of antisemitism on our campus and the terrorist attacks in Israel,” Magill wrote. “I want to leave no doubt about where I stand. I, and this University, are horrified by and condemn Hamas’s terrorist assault on Israel and their violent atrocities against civilians. There is no justification—none—for these heinous attacks, which have consumed the region and are inciting violence in other parts of the world.”

The University of Pennsylvania is one of several elite universities across the country mired in controversy over leaders' responses to the current fighting in the Middle East. Students, alumni and supporters at Harvard, Columbia, and Stanford, among other schools, have been bitterly divided by the fighting.

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Scott’s super PAC cancels TV ad reservations as campaign sputters

The super PAC supporting Tim Scott’s presidential bid is canceling most of its remaining TV spending, reversing course after reserving $40 million in ads for him ahead of the Iowa caucuses.

The retreat from TV is the latest sign of how dire the primary has become for a candidate who once anticipated outside help from big donors — but who is now polling in low single digits and hasn’t yet qualified for the third debate.

In a memo to donors, Trust In the Mission PAC, also known as “TIM PAC,” announced it will cancel “all of our Fall media inventory,” according to a copy of the document obtained by POLITICO.

“We are doing what would be obvious in the business world but will mystify politicos — we aren’t going to waste our money when the electorate isn’t focused or ready for a Trump alternative,” wrote Rob Collins, co-chair of the super PAC, who said the “Never-Trump field” is going to be “wasting money this fall” trying to undermine Trump’s current lead.

“This electorate is locked up and money spent on mass media isn’t going to change minds until we get a lot closer to voting,” Collins continued.

The group will instead “fully fund” its current grassroots and door-knocking program, Collins told donors. “The field remains splintered, so we will be patient,” he said.

It’s unclear how much of the $40 million television ad program the super PAC is canceling. A person with knowledge of the plan, granted anonymity to speak freely, said some winter advertising scheduled closer to the Iowa caucuses will remain.

The super PAC’s reversal of strategy illustrates the continued difficulty anyone but Donald Trump has had gaining traction in the GOP primary. The pivot comes as the South Carolina senator is lagging in both early state and national polling, and as he has been eclipsed by his homestate rival, Nikki Haley. While Scott’s polling average remains around 6 percent in the first-caucus state of Iowa, his national standing is even lower, at 2 percent, with a recent Fox News poll showing him at 1 percent.

Collins wrote that the super PAC will host events for Scott, a strategy that for months has been employed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his allied super PAC as the governor’s own campaign faced a cash crunch. Scott on Sunday reported raising $4.6 million in the third quarter, while burning through more than $12 million from July through September.

Scott was once seen by high-dollar GOP donors and some Republican consultants as one of the top alternatives to Trump, should DeSantis’ momentum fizzle out. DeSantis’ polling lead over his non-Trump rivals has indeed all but vanished, though Haley is now the one with the attention of top Republican financiers desperately trying to stop Trump from securing the nomination — a task that remains a longshot.

The pro-Scott super PAC, headed by Collins and former Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), in July touted its substantial $40 million fall television advertisement reservation, a series of ads that would run in the early states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina through January. To date, TIM PAC has run just over $10 million worth of television ads, a nearly equal amount to Scott’s campaign, according to AdImpact.

Scott in the past week has dismissed questions about whether he intends to drop out soon, including after conservative columnist George Will called on him to leave the race and endorse Haley.

Collins also cautioned against any movement to unite around Haley, writing that those at the super PAC “reject this advice” and slamming her as not being conservative enough to win the Republican nomination.

“No serious person thinks a moderate will win this primary no matter how many elite insiders champion their candidacies,” he said, while later saying “DeSantis and Haley have only traded vote share.”

In response to a request for comment on the super PAC’s change in strategy, Scott campaign spokesperson Matt Gorman said the campaign, from its launch, “was built for the long haul,” noting Scott’s early cash advantage and high favorability ratings.

“On issues ranging from foreign policy to abortion, he has been the clearest and strongest voice, leading while others have followed,” Gorman said in a statement. “We’re ready, as ever, to take our message into the early states and beyond.”

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Senator-turned-university-president disses fellow educators for silence

University of Florida President Ben Sasse, a former Nebraska senator, criticized other academic leaders around the nation for not publicly condemning the Hamas-led attack on Israel last week.

“You got so many universities around the country [who] speak about every topic under the sun, Halloween costumes and microaggressions. But somehow in a moment of the most grave grotesque attacks on Jewish people since the Holocaust, they all of a sudden say there’s too much complexity to say anything,” the former Republican senator said during an interview on "Fox News Sunday."

In Sasse’s own statement, addressed to Jewish students and alumni at the University of Florida, he forcefully condemned the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and slammed those in “elite academia” inadvertently or explicitly expressing support for Hamas. Sasse also promised to “protect our students” in the event it becomes the site of any “anti-Israel” protests.

The current fighting between Israel and Hamas forces in Gaza has caused bitter division on numerous college campuses across the country.

At Harvard, a statement from student groups that blamed Israel for the Hamas-led attack spurred outrage from several prominent alumni, including members of Congress. Harvard issued its own statement, which was also the subject of fierce online backlash.

Following that response, Harvard University President Claudine Gay issued an independent statement on Tuesday condemning the “terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas.”

Saying "it's easy to condemn evil as evil," Sasse told host Shannon Bream he didn't understand all the ambiguity from other educational leaders.

"We just did two basic things," Sasse said Sunday. "We announced that we’re going to protect our Jewish students, and we’re going to protect speech."

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In Hamas’ horrific killings, Israeli trauma over the Holocaust resurfaces

TEL AVIV, Israel — Women, children and older adults hiding in safe rooms gunned down mercilessly. Homes set ablaze with terrified residents still inside them. Children, some bound, forced into a room and slaughtered. Jews, helpless.

For many Israelis and Jews around the world, the horrors committed by Hamas militants during their stunning onslaught on southern Israeli communities is triggering painful memories of a calamity of a far greater scale: the Holocaust.

Long seen as a catastrophe so horrific nothing else should be compared to it, Israelis are now drawing direct parallels between the murder of 6 million Jews in Europe eight decades ago and their most recent tragedy, underscoring how traumatic the attack has been for a country that rose from the ashes of World War II and was created as a safe haven for Jews.

“I have been strict about not using the word ‘Shoah’ in any context other than the Holocaust,” political commentator Ben Caspit wrote in the daily Maariv, referring to the Holocaust by its Hebrew name. “When Jewish children hide in a protected room and their anguished parents pray that they won’t cry, so that the marauders won’t come in and set the house on fire, it’s a Shoah.”

Israel’s retaliation against Hamas in Gaza has also drawn comparisons to the Palestinians’ greatest national tragedy, the Nakba, when hundreds of thousands fled or were forced to flee following the 1948 war that led to Israel’s creation. Many Palestinians fear a repeat of that mass exodus after Israel ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza.

Just a few years ago, comparisons to the Holocaust would have been promptly denounced as cheapening its memory and diminishing the horror of the Nazi crimes.

That has begun to erode in recent years — with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alluding to the Nazis when talking about Iran and its nuclear program and protesters on rival sides of the political aisle calling each other “Nazis.” Still, such incidents remain rare and often draw criticism.

But the horrors of the Oct. 7 Hamas assault, which killed at least 1,300 Israelis, have tapped into Israel’s deepest fears and revived memories of the Jews’ greatest trauma.

Hundreds of militants stormed across the border, catching the country and its vaunted military off guard on a major Jewish holiday. They attacked sleepy farming villages, slaughtering terrified residents.

The militants killed at least 260 revelers at a music festival, with survivors telling harrowing stories of methodical massacres.

Dozens were dragged away as hostages on motorcycles and golf carts. Some of the dead and captured were Holocaust survivors.

“This is a massacre. This is a pogrom,” said Maj. Gen. Itai Veruv, leader of forces that cleared one of the besieged villages, referring to historic massacres of European Jews.

In the Holocaust, Nazis led a campaign of genocide, rounding up and murdering many of Europe’s Jews, while sending others on trains to death or labor camps.

Israel made protecting Jews from similar atrocities part of its raison d’etre. Many Israelis see their country as a refuge, a nation with a strong army that could protect Jews despite regional threats. Many Jews in the diaspora share that feeling, seeing Israel as a safe haven should Jews be persecuted again.

While the Hamas attack did not nearly approach the Holocaust’s scale, it marked the deadliest day for Jews since then and its well-planned slaughter reopened a wound that remains fresh for many in Israel.

Netanyahu compared the festival killings to the Babi Yar massacre, one of the most infamous mass slaughters of World War II in which more than 33,000 Jews were killed. He has declared that Israel will “never forget,” a clear reflection of Israel’s vow to never let the Holocaust disappear from the world’s collective memory. Dany Cushmaro, an Israeli newscaster, began referring to the Hamas militants as “those Nazis.”

Israel’s allies abroad also have made the connection.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken referred to his late father-in-law, a Holocaust survivor, during a visit to Israel and said the attacks had “harrowing echoes” of Nazi massacres. A reel posted to Instagram by the pro-Israel group Stand With Us shows a candle and the number 6 million slowly ticking up to include the 1,300 slain Israelis.

The memory of the mass murder of Jews looms large over Israel. It holds a memorial day, where Israelis stand still during a one-minute siren to remember the dead. The Holocaust is taught in depth in schools. Youth groups and soldiers visit the death camps in Europe. And visiting dignitaries are taken to the country’s Holocaust memorial.

Israeli historian Tom Segev said it was natural for Israelis to make the connection between the Hamas attack and the nation’s deeply embedded trauma. “This is the ultimate evil that the person in Israel recognizes,” he said.

But he said Israeli leaders across the political spectrum have for decades tried to exploit the memory of the Holocaust for political gain.

Israelis have, in some cases, become furious when comparisons are made.

In a 2016 speech marking Israel’s Holocaust memorial day, Yair Golan, then deputy military chief, said he was witnessing “nauseating processes” in Israeli society that reminded him of the fascism of Nazi-era Germany. The speech drew angry reactions from Israeli leaders and is widely believed to be the reason Golan was passed over for the army’s top job.

Prominent activists on rival sides of Israel’s recent judicial overhaul controversy sparked uproars over Holocaust-related comments.

Some critics of Israel, meanwhile, compare Israeli actions against the Palestinians to the Nazis, which Israel condemns as antisemitism.

Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the Holocaust is being used by Israel and its allies to build legitimacy for its strikes against Hamas, which have killed at least 2,200 Palestinians, and to appeal to Jews in the diaspora.

She said the comparisons could also have dangerous consequences for the way the war plays out.

“When you invoke the Holocaust, it’s the worst of the worst,” Zonszein said, adding that Israel’s response could be severe.

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Biden speaks with Netanyahu, Abbas

President Joe Biden reiterated U.S. efforts to prevent the Israel-Hamas conflict from escalating into a regional war and to safeguard civilians’ access to vital resources, according to readouts of separate calls with Israeli and Palestinian leaders Saturday.

Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that all countries must “condemn Hamas as a terrorist organization that does not represent the aspirations of the Palestinian people,” while reiterating U.S. support for Israel.

Biden’s call with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was the first between the two since Hamas’ attack last week, while his conversation with Netanyahu was their fifth such call.

“President Biden condemned Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel and reiterated that Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination,” said the White House readout of the call with Abbas, adding that Biden offered Abbas and the Palestinian Authority his full support for humanitarian efforts in Gaza.

The president spoke to both leaders about coordination with the United Nations, Egypt, Jordan and other countries in the region to ensure access to water, food and medical care for all civilians.

In both calls, Biden emphasized the need to prevent the conflict from expanding, reflecting widespread concern that other parties such as Iran, which has backed Hamas, or Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group also backed by Iran, might jump into the war.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who visited Israel on Friday, also spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant on Saturday to discuss humanitarian concerns and the possibility of the conflict widening, according to a readout of their call.

Austin raised the “importance of adhering to the law of war” and abiding by civilian protection obligations, and noted the need to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The defense secretary also told Gallant that “posture increases in the region are intended to make clear his commitment to deter any state or non-state actor seeking to escalate this war.”

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