This is the same Bari Weiss that is rabidly anti-trans and a religious racist bigot. She is often used as a warrior to get the crimes against trans kids out, and Teldeb that used to come here and spew Weiss’s lies. No matter who many times I debunked and showed that everything Weiss had reported was lies and misinformation rabid trans haters like Teldeb kept pushing her lies. Because the truth doesn’t matter to them, making sure no child can be who they really are or fit the mold they demand children fit in. Now it is trans kids but as we have seen in the US they are coming for every not straight cis kid demanding they fit into the regressive world they demand everyone live in. Weiss is also a Jewish person who is an Islamophobe. She supports the genocide in Gaza. Hugs
Israeli ministers said the settler outpost at Homesh will be retrospectively legalised (file photo from May 2023)
Israeli ministers say 22 new Jewish settlements have been approved in the occupied West Bank – the biggest expansion in decades.
Several already exist as outposts, built without government authorisation, but will now be made legal under Israeli law. Others are completely new, according to Defence Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Settlements – which are widely seen as illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this – are one of the most contentious issues between Israel and the Palestinians.
Katz said the move “prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel”, while the Palestinian presidency called it a “dangerous escalation”.
The Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now called it “the most extensive move of its kind” in more than 30 years and warned that it would “dramatically reshape the West Bank and entrench the occupation even further”.
BBC team’s tense encounter with sanctioned Israeli settler while filming in West Bank
Israeli settlers are seizing Palestinian land under cover of war – they hope permanently
Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem – land Palestinians want, along with Gaza, for their hoped-for future state – in the 1967 Middle East war. An estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them.
Successive Israeli governments have allowed settlements to grow. However, expansion has risen sharply since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022 at the head of a right-wing, pro-settler coalition, as well as the start of the Gaza war, triggered by Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.
On Thursday, Israel Katz and Bezalel Smotrich – an ultranationalist leader and settler who has control over planning in the West Bank – officially confirmed a decision that is believed to have been taken by the government two weeks ago.
A statement said they had approved 22 new settlements, the “renewal of settlement in northern Samaria [northern West Bank], and reinforcement of the eastern axis of the State of Israel”.
It did not include information about the exact location of the new settlements, but maps being circulated suggest they will be across the length and width of the West Bank.
Katz and Smotrich did highlight what they described as the “historic return” to Homesh and Sa-Nur, two settlements deep in the northern West Bank which were evacuated at the same time as Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005.
Nine of the settlements would be completely new, according to the watchdog. They include Mount Ebal, just to the south of Homesh and near the city of Nablus, and Beit Horon North, west of Ramallah, where it said construction had already begun in recent days.
The last of the settlements, Nofei Prat, was currently officially considered a “neighbourhood” of another settlement near East Jerusalem, Kfar Adumim, and would now be recognised as independent, Peace Now added.
Katz said the decision was a “strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel, and serves as a buffer against our enemies.”
“This is a Zionist, security, and national response – and a clear decision on the future of the country,” he added.
Smotrich called it a “once-in-a-generation decision” and declared: “Next step sovereignty!”
But a spokesperson for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas – who governs parts of the West Bank not under full Israeli control – called it a “dangerous escalation” and accused Israel of continuing to drag the region into a “cycle of violence and instability”.
“This extremist Israeli government is trying by all means to prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state,” Nabil Abu Rudeineh told Reuters news agency.
Lior Amihai, director of Peace Now, said: “The Israeli government no longer pretends otherwise: the annexation of the occupied territories and expansion of settlements is its central goal.”
Elisha Ben Kimon, an Israeli journalist with the popular Ynet news site who covers the West Bank and settlements, told the BBC’s Newshour programme that 70% to 80% of ministers wanted to declare the formal annexation of the West Bank.
“I think that Israel is a few steps from declaring this area as Israeli territory. They believe that this period will never be coming back, this is one opportunity that they don’t want to slip from their hands – that’s why they’re doing this now,” Mr Ben Kimon told the BBC’s Newshour programme.
Israel effectively annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, in a move not recognised by the vast majority of the international community.
AFP
Israeli soldiers accompanied settlers establishing the Homesh outpost in May 2023
This latest step is a blow to renewed efforts to revive momentum on a two-state solution to the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict – the internationally approved formula for peace that would see the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel – with a French-Saudi summit planned at the UN’s headquarters in New York next month.
Jordan’s foreign ministry condemned what it called a “flagrant violation of international law” that “undermines prospects for peace by entrenching the occupation”.
UK Foreign Office Minister Hamish Falconer said the move was “a deliberate obstacle to Palestinian statehood”.
Since taking office, the current Israeli government has decided to establish a total of 49 new settlements and begun the legalisation process for seven unauthorised outposts which will be recognised as “neighbourhoods” of existing settlements, according to Peace Now.
Last year, the UN’s top court issued an advisory opinion that said “Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful”. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) also said Israeli settlements “have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law”, and that Israel should “evacuate all settlers”.
Netanyahu said at the time that the court had made a “decision of lies” and insisted that “the Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land”.
A Texas doctor who has been treating children in a measles outbreak was shown on video with a measles rash on his face in a clinic a week before Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. met him and praised him as an “extraordinary” healer.
Dr. Ben Edwards appeared in the video posted March 31 by the anti-vaccine group Kennedy once led, Children’s Health Defense. In it, Edwards appears wearing scrubs and talking with parents and children in a makeshift clinic he set up in Seminole, Texas, ground zero of the outbreak that has sickened hundreds of people and killed three, including two children.
This image from video posted on the Children’s Health Defense website on March 31, 2025, shows Dr. Ben Edwards with a measles rash on his face, while working in a makeshift clinic in Seminole, Texas. (AP Photo)
“Yesterday was pretty achy. Little mild fever. Spots came in the afternoon. Today, I woke up feeling good,” Edwards said in the video.
Measles is most contagious for about four days before and four days after the rash appears and is one of the world’s most contagious diseases, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Doctors and public health experts said Edwards’ decision to go into the clinic put children, their parents and their community at risk because he could have spread it to others. They said there was no scenario in which Edwards’ conduct would be reasonable.
Kennedy met with Edwards about a week after the video was posted by Children’s Health Defense, the group Kennedy led for years until December. In an April 6 post on X, Kennedy said he “visited with these two extraordinary healers,” including Edwards and another doctor, and praised their use of two unproven treatments for measles.
Even as measles has exploded in Texas and spread across the country, Kennedy, the nation’s top health official, has declined to consistently and forcefully encourage people to vaccinate their children and remind them that the vaccine is safe. Kennedy’s post drawing attention to Edwards is inappropriate but unsurprising given Kennedy’s record, said Dr. Craig Spencer, a medical doctor who is also a professor at the Brown University School of Public Health.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., right, stands with Dr. Ben Edwards, left, outside the Reinlander Mennonite Church in Seminole, Texas, on Sunday, April 6, 2025, after a second measles death. (AP Photo/Annie Rice, File)
“I think is unfortunately perfectly on-brand for how he thinks that medicine should be practiced,” Spencer said. “And that is what makes me remarkably uncomfortable and extremely concerned and scared for the next three-and-a-half years.”
It was unclear whether Kennedy knew that Edwards had gone into his clinic while infected with measles before meeting him. A spokesperson for Kennedy said he is not anti-vaccine and that he is “committed to improving children’s health in America and has re-deployed resources to Texas to help with the current outbreak.” He did not answer why the health secretary chose to meet with and praise Edwards rather than any of the other doctors in West Texas who have been treating children in the outbreak.
Edwards told The Associated Press in an email that he “interacted with zero patients that were not already infected with measles” during the time he was infectious. “Therefore, obviously, there were no patients that were put in danger of acquiring measles since they already had measles.”
But Jessica Steier, a public health scientist, said the video shows Edwards in the room with people who do not appear sick, including parents of sick children and the people who visited the clinic from Children’s Health Defense. She also questioned what steps Edwards was taking to confirm people were sick with measles, rather than relying on guesswork.
Steier, who runs the Science Literacy Lab and co-wrote an article about Edwards’ conduct, said while there may be some extraordinary emergencies where it would be appropriate for a sick doctor to work, this is not one of those situations because there is no shortage of providers who are not infected. She also pointed out that the video shows Edwards was not wearing a mask.
“You have the HHS secretary lifting him up,” she said. “You know, it’s so, so dangerous. I really feel for the people who are on the ground.”
Children’s Health Defense has sued a number of news organizations, among them the AP, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines.
Kennedy’s promotion of a doctor who has touted unproven measles treatments is “wholly irresponsible” but is in line with Kennedy’s long public record of anti-vaccine views, said Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He said Kennedy has carried those views to his new job as the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“He’s not the director of Children’s Health Defense anymore. He’s responsible for the health and well-being of children in this country,” Offit said. “It’s an emergency, but Kennedy is not treating it that way.”
So what happened to the idea of the right just wanting immigrants to come here legally. Right? All they wanted was to get the illegals and criminals out. But these are people who came here the legal way and are working, living their lives as good members of the communities. No see to the current white supremacists the crime was brown people coming to the US at all. They want a white majority in charge with others second class or lower people. tRump once asked why no one from the Scandinavian countries immigrate to the US. The reason tRump wants them is they are white. But their country is doing so much better than ours and rated so much higher on the happiness index so why would they. The only ones who want to come here are from countries the US has made worse, ruined, and allowed for dictators or drug lords to take over. Hugs
The move could leave over 900,000 immigrants vulnerable to deportation — unless they self-deport, DHS said.
“Under federal law, Secretary [Kristi] Noem — in support of the president — has full authority to revoke parole,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told POLITICO in a statement. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
The Trump administration is revoking parole status for immigrants who entered the U.S. via the Biden-era CBP One app, in a push to get immigrants to voluntarily leave the country.
“Under federal law, Secretary [Kristi] Noem — in support of the president — has full authority to revoke parole. Canceling these paroles is a promise kept to the American people to secure our borders and protect national security,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told POLITICO in a statement.
Some immigrants began receiving formal email notices from the DHS on Tuesday stating that the department would be using its discretionary authority to revoke parole. The move could leave over 900,000 immigrants vulnerable to deportation.
The CBP One app, launched in January 2023, was one of the Biden administration’s key efforts to control illegal immigration, by organizing appointments at different ports of entry along the southern border for immigrants seeking asylum. The parole designation protected immigrants from deportation and also issued work authorizations for up to two years.
The Trump administration quickly suspended the app’s appointment system and rebranded it as CBP Home — with a built-in function for immigrants to report their intention to leave the U.S.
“Formal termination notices have been issued, and affected aliens are urged to voluntarily self-deport using the CBP Home App,” the DHS spokesperson said. “Those who refuse will be found, removed, and permanently barred from reentry.”
The parolees designated under United for Ukraine — which provided legal status for Ukrainians affected by the war — and Operation Allies Welcome — which resettled Afghans following the U.S. exit from Afghanistan — will not be affected, DHS added.
Wow oh wow! This is a great video and a must watch video if you support trans people. I wouldn’t have expected a man of the Christian faith to come out for trans people but never would have expected them to do this that strongly and seriously. I watched it twice to be sure I heard what I did. After I post this I will watch it again. I am not even sure how to post this in the labels. Hugs and loves. This is why I really like this Christian man. Hugs
This is the comment I left on this post. I wonder if he will reply. Hugs
Hello Rev. I had only commented once before where I asked you if a caring loving atheist such as myself could find a place in your god’s paradise. You welcomed me and told me I did not have to believe in the supernatural but live a decent life helping others as I could, which I had said I did, you replied I was totally accepted by your god. I was honestly surprised by your answer. Since then I have followed your channel and often posted it to my blog. Most of my readers are not religious but all are caring wonderful people of different faiths, sexual orientations, and some are trans. But all have found wisdom in your videos. I thank you for this one. The trans community and trans kids are under heavy attack in the US. I suspect because it undermines the cis straight majority that has long ruled the US, but also driven by religious people who feel this allowing their children to be who they wee born to be, LGBTQ+ is an affront to their god they will be held to account for. Thank you, Hugs. Scottie
I know I posted a link to the story via email as I was reading on my phone at the time. But here I am reposting the story in full as it is a grand reason while the camp is being closed. I am so happy for the reason. Hugs.
Willow River, Minn., camp One Heartland is for sale after serving kids there for nearly three decades.
By Jana Hollingsworth
The Minnesota Star Tribune
December 27, 2024 at 7:00AM
Campers paddle on a Willow River lake at One Heartland, a camp for kids affected by HIV/AIDS. (Submitted by One Heartland)
The ashes of 12-year-old Chris Edwards are buried on the grounds of a Pine County camp, where his mother insisted his memorial service be held after his HIV-related death in 1999.
It’s one of the reasons former campers are saddened by the news that One Heartland in Willow River, Minn., about 40 minutes southwest of Duluth, is for sale. The 80-acre site is home to a camp that has served kids living with or affected by HIV/AIDS for more than 30 years. But the number of babies contracting the virus through their mothers has declined to the point where such a camp no longer needs to exist.
“It’s a heartbreaker,” said Chris’ brother, Dylan Edwards, who attended the camp with Chris for years.
“But the purpose of the camp was for sick kids,” he said, and if there are so few that a camp isn’t feasible, “it’s hard to feel bad about that.”
In the United States, the perinatal HIV transmission rate, or the rate of a mother passing the virus on to a child through pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding, is now less than 1% thanks to antiretroviral medications, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The World Health Organization says that globally, new HIV infections among children up to age 14 have declined by 38% since 2015 and AIDS-related deaths have fallen by 43%.
As a Wisconsin college student, founder Neil Willenson read about a 5-year-old boy in the Milwaukee area living with HIV who faced isolationism and discrimination at his school. Willenson reached out to the family and got to know them, learning the virus’s deep effects on each member.
He founded One Heartland in 1993 when he was 22, intending it to be a short project. Now 53, he often marvels at how quickly his college-age dreams of working in Hollywood as an actor and producer diverged to running a nonprofit.
“The impact was so transformative the first summer in 1993 that during the week the children were already saying ‘When can we come back?’ ” Willenson said.
Most Read
Real Estate
Former UnitedHealth HQ building goes into receivership as loan deadline looms for owner
Gophers
Bring on the bath: Gophers cap season with 24-10 victory over Virginia Tech in Duke’s Mayo Bowl
Twin Cities Suburbs
Lottery ticket bought in Minnesota just misses Mega Millions jackpot, but still good for $1M
Vikings
Vikings or Lions: Who will win NFC North, No. 1 seed in the playoffs?
They rented camps around the country the first few summers. Because knowledge of the virus was still minimal at the time, at least one camp didn’t want kids with HIV swimming in its pool, said Edwards, who attended the camp its first year. One Heartland was forced to go elsewhere the next year.
Willenson bought the Willow River property from an Optimist Club in 1997. Former Minnesota Twins player and manager Paul Molitor donated money for the purchase and was a spokesman for the camp for several years.
“We wanted to create a safe haven where children affected by the disease, perhaps for the first time in their young lives, could speak openly about it and be in an environment of unconditional love and acceptance,” said Willenson, who is the president of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Milwaukee, as well as a public speaker and founder of other camps. He stepped away from One Heartland leadership in 2010.
With referrals from the National Institutes of Health, children were flown to Minnesota from around the country at no cost to their families; expenses were paid by donors.
Nile Sandeen was the boy who inspired the camp. Now 38, he is a married pastor and doctoral student living in South Carolina. His mother, a nurse who died from the virus in 2010, had tried to provide AIDS education to parents and others concerned about Sandeen attending school. He recalled one student backing off and throwing his hands in the air when he got near him, and one friendship a boy kept a secret from fearful parents.
Sandeen attended camp for several years and traveled the country with the nonprofit, speaking at schools. One Heartland was an outsized presence in his life, giving him a place to “let go and be a kid” and be among others feeling the same isolation, sorrow and pain, he said. It fostered a community created among kids living “radically different” lives than most.
“It was a level of camaraderie and commiseration that is hard to put into words,” Sandeen said.
Chris Edwards was Sandeen’s first close camp friend, and Sandeen reeled from his death, recognizing his own mortality at age 13. Campers and staff members united during those dark periods, a support system Sandeen continues to feel.
The camp “is still part of the tide pushing you forward in life,” he said. “And so many people had that.”
The Edwards brothers are from the Atlanta area and had never had a northwoods experience, Edwards said. The volunteers and medical staff there helped quell some of the cynicism campers had from living with HIV or AIDS, he said, and when kids wanted to talk about death, they led those conversations with grace. The Edwardses lost their father to the virus when they were small children. Their mother died from it when Dylan was 20.
During the first several years of One Heartland’s existence, death was common. Now, many of the thousands who swam and hiked and made crafts at the camp have married and had children, Willenson said. He noted a documentary is being filmed about the camp, which eventually broadened its reach to serve different campers, including those with diabetes and LGBTQ youth. It was largely serving the latter group last summer. The nonprofit hopes to sell the camp to another group that will serve kids.
That there’s no longer a need for the camp’s original purpose “is the greatest story that I ever could have imagined,” Willenson said. “It’s something I never could have predicted.”
Unaccompanied children detained at the border are first processed by Customs and Border Patrol before being handed over to other US authorities.
Donald Trump’s incoming border tsar, Tom Homan, has said that the US government “can’t find” more than 300,000 migrant children – and that many have been lured into forced labour and sex trafficking.
President-elect Donald Trump and his political allies, including Vice-President-elect JD Vance, have repeatedly made similar claims.
Some experts have accused them of distorting statistics to suggest the children are “lost” and victims of crime, although there is agreement that aspects of the system need to be changed.
The incoming administration has made immigration enforcement a priority, promising to clamp down on the US-Mexico border and conduct mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Let’s take a look at the claims of missing migrant children.
What are the Trump team’s claims?
In an interview with Fox News on 26 November – just before a visit to the US-Mexico border in Texas – Homan accused the Biden administration of “bragging” about how quickly children are released from custody, as well as “not properly vetting” adult sponsors in the US.
“Shame on them,” he said of the Biden administration. “They have over 300,000 children that they have released [to] unvetted sponsors that they can’t find.”
“Many are going to be in forced labour. Many forced sex trade,” Homan added. “We need to save these children.”
In his October debate against Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, JD Vance also said that the Department of Homeland Security “effectively lost” a total of 320,000 migrant children.
Concerns over the plight of migrant children were also starkly highlighted earlier this week when authorities in Texas shared an image of a two-year-old girl from El Salvador found at the border clutching a piece of paper with a phone number.
“Putting optics over safety has led to countless children in danger or unaccounted for,” Tennessee Republican representative Mark Green told the New York Post.
“This refusal to protect vulnerable alien children from abuse, exploitation, and human trafficking will be one of the defining failures of the Biden-Harris administration.”
Are the children actually missing?
According to immigration experts and attorneys, the claims largely stem from an August report from the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general’s office, which found that 32,000 unaccompanied minors failed to show up for court dates at immigration courts from 2019-23.
The report noted that 291,000 migrant children received no court notices at all. It also called on the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) to “take immediate action to ensure the safety” of unaccompanied migrant children in the US.
Migrant children “who do not appear for court are considered at higher risk for trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor”, the inspector general’s office reported.
But Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, a migrant advocacy group, told the BBC the figures are indicative of a bureaucratic “paperwork issue” rather than “anything nefarious”.
“When you hear the phrase ‘missing’, you think that there is a child that someone is trying to find and can’t,” he said.
“That’s not the case here. The government has not made any effort to find these children.”
Many of the children, experts say, may well be at the addresses that are on file with the government, but were simply unable to make their court dates.
“That doesn’t mean something bad happened to them,” Mr Reichlin-Melnick said. “It means you missed a court hearing.”
Mr Reichlin-Melnick added that there are “valid concerns” about exploitation.
“We cannot, however, suggest that all 320,000 of those children are being labour trafficked,” he said.
Eric Ruark, an immigration researcher with NumbersUSA – which calls for tighter border controls – said that the children are difficult to track “because of some combination of apathy, incompetence and bureaucratic inefficiency”.
“Many, hopefully even most, are safe with caring sponsors,” he added. “But the Biden administration can’t actually say one way or the other, and apparently doesn’t care enough to find out.”
What happens to children at the border?
Unaccompanied minors detained at the US-Mexico border go through a complicated process that begins with detention and processing by Customs and Border Patrol, or CBP.
If the child is from a foreign country that is not Mexico or Canada, they are placed into removal proceedings and transferred to the US Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS.
HHS, through its Office of Refugee Resettlement office, cares for the children in a network of state-licensed providers.
The office also seeks to reunify children with family members in the US or with individual or organizational sponsors – who in turn are obligated to ensure they arrive at immigration court dates.
What can the Trump administration do?
Homan and other Trump administration officials have so far not provided many details about how they plan to address the issues that plague the detention of undocumented minors.
Several immigration attorneys contacted by the BBC suggested that the administration is likely to make becoming a “sponsor” for undocumented children much more difficult, even if the sponsor is a member of their family.
In practice, this would mean that more undocumented children are kept in detention.
“They could do what the Obama administration did, and detain them,” said Alexander Cuic, an immigration attorney and professor at Case Western Reserve University.
The controversial “Remain in Mexico” programme could also be applied to children, forcing them to wait across the border for the outcome of immigration proceedings.
“I’m not sure even they know what they’re going to do with the kids,” Mr Cuic said of the Trump administration. “But there’s a border problem they’re trying to figure out first, and that’s the first concern before whether they’re going to be harsh to both children and adults.”
When the BBC asked the Trump transition team what plan they have for the undocumented migrant children, spokesman Taylor Rogers said only that “Democrats’ wide-open border policies” have led to the children going “missing”.
“President Trump and leaders in his administration will deliver on their promise to end the invasion at our southern border that puts innocent children in harm’s way,” she added.
Israeli strikes pounded the Gaza Strip overnight and into Wednesday, with one attack ripping through a home where displaced people were sheltering in the isolated north. The strikes killed at least 33 people including children, Palestinian health officials said.
Violence also flared in outside Jerusalem, where an Israeli bus came under fire from a suspected Palestinian attacker late Wednesday, wounding three people including a 10-year-old boy, according to the military and hospital officials. The attack took place on a highway near major Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and the army was looking for the shooter in the area around Bethlehem.
The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza shows no end in sight, even after Israel reached a ceasefire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants and attention shifted to the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad by insurgents. Both the current and incoming U.S. administrations have said they hope to end the war in Gaza before the inauguration in January, but ceasefire talks have repeatedly stalled.
The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved resolutions Wednesday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and backing the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees that Israel has moved to ban.
General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, although they do reflect world opinion. The votes in the 193-nation assembly were 158-9 with 13 abstentions to demand a ceasefire. Israel and its close ally the United States were in the tiny minority voting against.
Israeli strike in north Gaza wipes out 3 generations
The strike on the home killed 19 people in the northern town of Beit Lahiya near the border with Israel, according to nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, which received the bodies. Hospital records show that a family of eight was among those killed: four children, their parents and two grandparents.
The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas militant in the vicinity of the hospital. It said reports about the number of casualties in the strike were inaccurate, without elaborating. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and accuses militants of hiding among them, putting their lives in danger.
The hospital said another strike near its entrance on Wednesday killed a woman and her two children.
The hospital director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, said Israeli drones struck nearby residential blocks overnight, causing explosions that sparked panic among the facility’s more than 120 sick and wounded patients.
“We have received distress calls from neighbors and trapped people, but we’re not able to leave the hospital because of the continued risk,” he said. “We are witnessing a massive loss of life, with many martyrs in the targeted areas.”
Another strike in the decades-old Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least seven people, according to the Awda Hospital. The dead included two children, their parents and three other relatives, it said. Later, the hospital said another attack hit the same camp, killing four people and injuring 16 more.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the other strikes.
In Lebanon, where near-daily Israeli attacks have continued despite the ceasefire, at least five people died Wednesday in Israeli strikes in the south, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state news agency.
Elsewhere in southern Lebanon, Israeli forces withdrew from a strategic town and handed it back to the Lebanese army in coordination with U.N. peacekeepers, the two militaries said. It appeared to be the first Israeli pullout from a Lebanese border town captured during the ground invasion.
In Syria, the Israeli military estimates it has destroyed 70% to 80% of Syrian military assets in recent days, according to an official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss an intelligence assessment. The military has said it has carried out hundreds of airstrikes.
Evacuation orders in camp after rocket fire
Militants in central Gaza fired four projectiles into Israel on Wednesday, two of which were intercepted, the military said. The other two fell in open areas, and there were no reports of casualties.
The military ordered the evacuation of a five-block area of the built-up Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, saying the rockets had been fired from there. The orders indicated that Israel would soon carry out strikes in the area.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people, including children and older adults. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third believed to be dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 44,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health officials. They say women and children make up more than half the dead but do not distinguish between fighters and civilians in their count. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
UN says Gaza civilians face ‘utterly devastating situation’
Israel has been waging a renewed offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza’s heavily destroyed north since early October. Troops have surrounded Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, allowing in almost no humanitarian aid and ordering tens of thousands to flee to nearby Gaza City.
Israeli officials have said the three communities are mostly deserted, but the United Nations humanitarian office said Tuesday it believes around 65,000 to 75,000 people are still there, with little access to food, water, electricity or health care. Experts have warned that the north may be experiencing famine.
Sigrid Kaag, the senior U.N. humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, told reporters on Tuesday that civilians trying to survive all across Gaza face an “utterly devastating situation.”
Kaag said she and other U.N. officials repeatedly ask Israel for access for convoys to northern Gaza and elsewhere, to allow in commercial goods, to reopen the Rafah crossing from Egypt in the south and to approve dual-use items.
The Israeli military says it allows in enough humanitarian aid and blames U.N. agencies for not distributing it, saying large amounts of aid have accumulated just inside Gaza’s borders. U.N. officials say Israeli restrictions, the breakdown of law and order and ongoing fighting make it difficult to access the aid and distribute it, and have repeatedly called for a ceasefire.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have mediated talks between Israel and Hamas for nearly a year, and diplomats say those efforts have recently gained momentum.
But Hamas has said it will not release the remaining hostages without an end to the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed and all the hostages are returned and has said Israel will maintain a lasting military presence in some areas.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Edith Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
I admit I felt real emotion, I cried real tears as I watched this. I never had decent or even normal parents as anyone who reads this blog knows. But for a parent to apologize to a child shocks me and I love the idea. Parents can be wrong also and should be forgiven when they do admit it. My abusers never did. But to accept a child that is different is hard for some, they may not really understand. I have read so many stories of kids as young as 13 being kicked out of their homes to live on the street having to sell their body’s to survive. Far too many choose suicide. We need more of this to combat the shit red states are throwing out / doing calling it a culture war against woke. We need more of this to combat the religious assholes like Libs of TikTok who said it was OK for her to lie making trans / gay / drag queen people targets because lying was not against the law. Please spread this and help save more trans kids and help more parents find it in them to love their child more than their beliefs. Thanks. Hugs. Scottie
OK it has started, we are getting heavy rain and wind bands that will continue and get stronger until the hurricane Milton pass us inland. If it stays the course it is on, we will get the second tier wind / rain effects not the most drastic eye wall strength we got for over 8 hours during Ian. The storm is projected to hit at 1 or 2 overnight so we hopefully will be asleep. The storm is moving at 16 mph so it shouldn’t be over us long. Thanks for all those that reached out and sent support. Our home is very secure and we have the best roof that 17,000 dollars could provide. Ron reinforced the thinnest part of the roof with 4X4s because he was worried the inner pan roof was flexing. He built the carport with 6X6 posts and so many supports the house will go before the car port. Every window is boarded up. We have plenty of food and after the hurricane passes if we lose power the generator we have named the beast is ready to go. It has a surge power of 7,500 watts and ran stuff in our home and a neighbor’s after Ian. We only need it to run ours now. We have a hot plate and counter top microwave we can pull out and hook to the generator. We are in good shape, the best we could be. Hugs. Scottie
Not Losing You is a two minute PSA micro-movie supporting trans youth in the wake of unrelenting anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ legislation sweeping the U.S., and during the 2024 election season. Following an argument earlier that day over what clothing a trans daughter can wear and what name she can use, a farmer-father makes a decision that will change both of their lives
AFP
Israeli ministers said the settler outpost at Homesh will be retrospectively legalised (file photo from May 2023)AFP
![Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) was upended by Detroit Lions safety Ifeatu Melifonwu (6) in the second quarter after picking up a first down Sunday December ,24,2023 in, Minneapolis , Minn. ] JERRY HOLT • jerry.holt@startribune.com](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/L76S4N2SALMCVYNGJGFNOQ6PDI.jpg?&w=80&ar=1:1&fit=crop)
Scottie's Playtime 