Released hostages slam Israel, say they feared airstrikes 'would kill us': Live updates
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war Cabinet were assailed by released hostages and the families of those still being held by Hamas, who shared the horror of their experiences and questioned the government’s efforts to free the nearly 140 who remain in captivity.
In a heated meeting Tuesday, Netanyahu and his colleagues argued that the only way to obtain concessions from Hamas is through a military campaign, and some relatives of hostages shouted “shame’’ at the prime minister when he raised the question of how to get the rest of the captives back.
“This entire performance was ugly, insulting, messy,’’ Dani Miran, the father of a male hostage, told Israel's Channel 13, according to Reuters. Miran said he was so upset, he walked out midway through the meeting.
Israel’s Ynet News published portions of audio from the session, in which a hostage who had been kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz tells about her ordeal. She was released along with more than 100 other captives during the weeklong truce that ended Friday and said she feared for her life because of the Israeli airstrikes.
“We were in tunnels, terrified that it would not be Hamas but Israel that would kill us, and then they would say Hamas killed you,’’ she said. “So I strongly urge that the prisoner exchange begins as soon as possible and everyone needs to return home.’
Another former hostage who was freed with her daughters but not her husband questioned how much the Israeli government knows about what Hamas is doing and raised the alarm about plans to flush out its fighters from the tunnels under Gaza.
“We felt as though no one was doing anything for us. The reality is that I was in a hideout that was bombed and we became wounded refugees,’’ she said. “My husband was separated from us three days before we returned to Israel and was taken to the tunnels. And you're talking about flooding the tunnels with seawater?’’
Some families of hostages have accused Netanyahu of prioritizing the destruction of Hamas above freeing the hostages. He argued that it wasn’t until the Israel Defense Forces launched their ground attack that Hamas was willing to negotiate their release.
“The second matter you raised, which is distressing, is hearing about the ordeals you endured with our bombings and military operations, those of the IDF, and it continues. It’s true,’’ Netanyahu said. “I find it deeply saddening. I can assure you that it’s not just saddening, as my colleagues will affirm, it also influences their operational considerations. And if you intended to convey this message, you have succeeded.’’
Developments:
∎ Yehya Sinwar, Hamas' top leader in Gaza, and military chief Mohammed Deif grew up in a refugee camp in Khan Younis, the southern city Israel is now attacking. Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Sinwar is “not above ground, he is underground,” adding, ”Our job is to find Sinwar and kill him.”
∎ Some women in Gaza have been seeking increasingly scarce menstrual pads through social media. “For women and girls, the suffering is double,” said a Palestinian woman who identified herself as Umm Ahmed. “It’s more humiliation.”
∎ Netanyahu said a "minimal amount'' of fuel will be allowed into the southern Gaza Strip occasionally to prevent a humanitarian crisis and the spread of disease. Israel has mostly blocked fuel supplies from entering the territory since the war started, saying Hamas takes it for military purposes.
∎ With the border city of Rafah swelling to more than twice its usual population of 280,000 because of incoming refugees, Egypt has deployed thousands of troops and erected earthen barriers to prevent a mass influx of Palestinians. Egypt says such migration would undermine its decades-old peace treaty with Israel.
∎ The Gaza Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll has surpassed 16,200, and more than 42,000 people have been wounded. The ministry said 70% of the dead were women and children. Israel has not disputed the counts but says it has killed more than 5,000 militants and accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
'In the heart of Khan Younis':Israel sweeps into major city in south Gaza
'The worst of all wars': Hungry Palestinians fighting over food
Palestinians at shelters in Gaza's second-largest city were fighting each other over food Wednesday while the urban combat outside intensified, as Israeli ground forces clashed with Hamas militants in the center of Khan Younis.
The United Nations says the fighting and road closures have made it impossible to distribute humanitarian aid to almost all of Gaza's southern half, where the vast majority of the enclave's 1.87 million displaced people − more than 80% of the population − have fled.
The scarcity of sustenance has led to skirmishes in U.N.-run shelters, said Nawraz Abu Libdeh, a shelter resident who has been displaced six times. “The hunger war has started,” he said. “This is the worst of all wars.”
More than 1,200 Palestinians were killed − 70% of them women and children − in the first five days since hostilities resumed Friday after a weeklong truce, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The city of Rafah in the far south remains one of the few spots in Gaza that offers relative safety and distribution of essentials like food and water, so tens of thousands of displaced people have trekked there in recent days, creating massive overcrowding. Shelters are beyond capacity and many of the new arrivals are sleeping on the streets, some in tents, others under the stars.
“You find displaced people in the streets, in schools, in mosques, in hospitals … everywhere,” said Hamza Abu Mustafa, a teacher who lives near a school-turned-shelter in Rafah and is hosting three families.
They're not certain to remain safe. On Wednesday evening, an Israeli strike in the Shaboura district knocked down a home and sent several injured people to a hospital, including at least six children.
At least 10 hostages were sexually assaulted or abused, physician says
At least 10 men and women among the 110 released hostages were sexually assaulted or abused, a physician who treated some freed captives told the Associated Press. The doctor declined to provide more details and spoke on condition of anonymity to protect the hostages’ identities.
Freed Israeli girl says her dog a 'huge help' in captivity
Freed Israeli hostage Mia Leimberg, who took her dog with her when she was seized by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, says Bella was a “huge help” while in captivity.
Mia, 17, was released along with her mother a week ago. She says in a video posted Wednesday on social media that she believes her captors didn’t take Bella away because the puppy was quiet and went unnoticed.
“It was quite a journey for both of us,” Mia says. “Overall, she was a huge help to me. She kept me be busy. She was moral support.”
Mia, who lives in Jerusalem, was kidnapped with several other family members from a safe room in her aunt’s home in Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak. Israeli officials say 1,200 people were killed and at least 240 were taken hostage that day.
While in Gaza, she said she fed leftovers to Bella, a Shih Tzu, and tried to keep her from “exploring too much” around the area where they were held.
“I am so happy that I managed to do this journey with her,” Mia said. “I think honestly if it was a louder dog, if they had seen her as a bother, I think they would not have let me keep her.”
Mia said she feels fine physically, does not feel traumatized mentally and is able to sleep. But she says it was a difficult experience and that “it will take quite a while to sink in.”
Turkish leaders warn Israel not to kill Hamas beyond Gaza
Israel will pay a “heavy price” if it expands its war on Hamas to assassinate militant leaders living in Turkey or elsewhere outside the Gaza Strip, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
Hamas leaders have routinely sought safe havens in Qatar, Lebanon, Iran, Russia and Turkey. Israel has generally refrained from pursuing them to avoid diplomatic upheaval. But since the murderous foray into Israel on Oct. 7, Israel has warned that no place will be safe for Hamas leaders. Netanyahu recently said he instructed the Israeli spy agency Mossad to "act against the heads of Hamas wherever they are."
Erdogan warned that Israel would find Turkish intelligence and security agencies a powerful adversary.
“If they dare to take such a step against Turkey and Turkish people, they will be doomed to pay a price which they cannot recover from,” Erdogan told Turkey's Anadolu News Agency. “Those who attempt such a thing should not forget that the consequences can be extremely serious."
Blinken discusses Gaza with top Chinese diplomat
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday discussed recent U.S. diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the war. Blinken reiterated the imperative of all parties working to prevent the conflict from spreading, the State Department said in a statement.
Front and center was a discussion of the recent Houthi attacks against commercial ships in the Red Sea. Blinken said the attacks posed an unacceptable threat to maritime security and international law "that all nations have an obligation to uphold."
The two sides are mostly in agreement on Gaza, and both governments support a two-state solution. President Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed the need for an immediate cease-fire, ensuring the humanitarian corridors are safe and unimpeded, and preventing the expansion of the conflict.
Critical Gaza hospital on life support as war rages on
Fuel and medical supplies have reached critically low levels at Al-Aqsa Hospital in the central Gaza Strip because of road closures despite the hundreds of patients needing emergency treatment after the Israeli bombardment, Doctors Without Borders warned. The hospital has been receiving on average 150 to 200 war-wounded patients daily. Without electricity, ventilators would cease to function, blood donations would have to stop and the sterilization of surgical instruments would be impossible, the group said.
“There are 700 patients admitted in the hospital now, with new patients arriving all the time," said Marie-Aure Perreaut Revial, the group's emergency coordinator. "We are running out of essential supplies to treat them.”
85% of Gaza residents driven from their homes by war
Almost 1.9 million people, or 85% of the Gaza Strip population, have been forced from their homes since the war began two months ago, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees says. About 1.2 million of them are living in United Nations-provided shelters, the agency says. The death toll of UNRWA workers has climbed to 130.
“Palestinians in Gaza are living in utter, deepening horror,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said at a news conference in Geneva, calling for a cease-fire. “My humanitarian colleagues have described the situation as apocalyptic.”
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