Day: October 21, 2023

IDF reservist Omer Balva, a 22-year-old citizen of the U.S. and Israel, was killed  Friday in an anti-tank missile attack on the Lebanon border. The week before, he was looking forward to a reunion with his best friend in New York City, where Ethan Missner lives.

The two bonded when they were six at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Maryland, from which they graduated in 2019. Ethan headed to Georgetown University and Omer to Israel. There Omer joined the Israeli Defense Forces, studied economics at Reichman University and planned to marry his girlfriend of more than four years.

After Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, the IDF called Omer up, and the friends scuttled their New York plan. Omer had been staying with his parents, Sigal and Eyal, who split their time between their home in Israel and apartment in Rockville. Ethan said he would meet his friend there so they could spend time together before he deployed. They hung out at the Balva’s, where Omer’s girlfriend cooked dinner. They went shopping for Omer’s unit, which was short on equipment — Ethan’s father, Jon, gave them his credit card and told them to buy whatever was needed.

And then the young men did something they usually don’t.

“Ethan and Omer, who I would say are not overly religious, went to lay tefillin,” Jon Missner told me in a phone call Saturday night. Ethan was on the call too. It seemed the right thing to do, there in the Balva’s apartment before Omer went off to serve as a commander in the 9203rd Battalion of the Alexandroni Brigade.

‘A deep love of Israel’

Ethan’s mother Shani joined the call. She also wanted to talk about Omer, the second-youngest of four children. “He never talked about himself. He never bragged. He always just had a huge smile on his face,” she said. “You just wanted to be with him.”

Asked to describe his best friend, Ethan was quieter than his parents. He said simply: “He was the sweetest kid ever.”

It seemed easier for him to talk about their shared childhood. He used to call him “Omey.”

Omer liked sports, Ethan said. When they were kids they played ping pong and tennis, and kicked a soccer ball around in the backyard. Omer would eventually join the soccer team at their Jewish day school, known as JDS. The school sent an email to to students’ families and alumni after Shabbat that noted that Omer, who enrolled in JDS when he was 7, had been active in theater and participated in its program in Israel after graduation.

“Omer was loved by students and teachers alike. He had a deep love of Israel, Judaism, and the Jewish people,” the email read. “He was an unabashed advocate for the State of Israel, who was proud to serve in the Israel Defense Forces.”

His funeral was planned for Sunday in the military cemetery in Herzliya.

The post An American IDF reservist dies in a missile attack, days after a hurried reunion with his best friend appeared first on The Forward.

An extreme drought in parts of the Amazon has led to a dramatic drop in water levels in the river, exposing dozens of usually submerged rock formations with carvings of human forms that may date back some 2,000 years.

Livia Ribeiro, a longtime resident of the Amazon’s largest city, Manaus, said she heard about the rock engravings from friends and wanted to check them out.

“I thought it was a lie … I had never seen this. I’ve lived in Manaus for 27 years,” said Ribeiro, an administrator, after viewing the dazzling relics.

The rock carvings are not usually visible because they are covered by the waters of the Negro River, whose flow recorded its lowest level in 121 years last week.

The surfacing of the engravings on the riverbank have delighted scientists and the general public alike but also raised unsettling questions.

“We come, we look at (the engravings) and we think they are beautiful. But at the same time, it is worrying… I also think about whether this river will exist in 50 or 100 years,” Ribeiro said.

Drought in Brazil’s Amazon has drastically reduced river levels in recent weeks, affecting a region that depends on a maze of waterways for transportation and supplies.

The Brazilian government has sent emergency aid to the area, where normally bustling riverbanks are dry, littered with stranded boats.

According to experts, the dry season has worsened this year due to El Nino, an irregular climate pattern over the Pacific Ocean that disrupts normal weather, adding to the effect of climate change.

The engravings comprise an archaeological site of “great relevance,” said Jaime Oliveira of the Brazilian Institute of Historical Heritage (Iphan).

They are at a site known as Praia das Lajes and were first seen in 2010, during another period of drought not as severe as the current one.

The rock carvings appear against a backdrop of dense jungle, with the low brownish waters of the Negro River flowing nearby.

Most of the engravings are of human faces, some of them rectangular and others oval, with smiles or grim expressions.

“The site expresses emotions, feelings, it is an engraved rock record, but it has something in common with current works of art,” said Oliveira.

For Beatriz Carneiro, historian and member of Iphan, Praia das Lajes has an “inestimable” value in understanding the first people who inhabited the region, a field still little explored.

“Unhappily it is now reappearing with the worsening of the drought,” Carneiro said. “Having our rivers back (flooded) and keeping the engravings submerged will help preserve them, even more than our work.”  

Earlier this week Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted that she was praying for Jim Jordan to become Speaker of the House. It was a good reminder that God doesn’t listen to slimebalms her.

But Greene wasn’t done digging herself a hole, and on Saturday night she tweeted this: “The Earth spins at roughly 1,000 miles per hour. We have no idea we are even moving. Don’t ever let anyone tell you God’s not real.”

Huh? What could her tweet possibly have to do with religion? Suffice it to say that everyone was quick to pile on. Within hours she had thousands of mostly negative replies, mocking her for being so far removed from anything that could be considered a Christian.

One self-described “Fact Checker” account simply replies to Marjorie Taylor Greene with this: “I strongly urge the educated people to not even attempt to teach Marjorie Taylor Greene anything about that subject matter. Just back away slowly, and pretend you were never here. Trust me.”

The post Everyone piles on after Marjorie Taylor Greene steps in it appeared first on Palmer Report.

A suicide drone hit an air base in Iraq hosting U.S. troops, Iraqi security sources said Saturday, but the Pentagon said it could not confirm that such an attack took place. 

Armed factions close to Iran have threatened to attack U.S. interests in Iraq over Washington’s support for Israel since Hamas militants killed more than 1,400 people in a shock cross-border attack from Gaza on October 7. 

Israel’s retaliatory bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 4,300 people, according to its Hamas-controlled health ministry. 

“The drone came down inside the (Ain al-Assad) base” in the western province of Anbar, without causing any casualties or damage, a military source told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

A statement issued on Telegram channels used by pro-Iranian armed groups said the attack was carried out by a group calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq. 

A second Iraqi security source told AFP the attack had involved two suicide drones. “The first was intercepted and the second crashed because of a technical problem,” the source said. 

The Pentagon, however, said it was unaware of any such attack. 

“We have not seen any operational reporting confirming” that an attack occurred Saturday, a U.S. Defense Department official said on the condition of anonymity. 

Since Wednesday, three Iraqi bases used by U.S.-led coalition troops have been targeted in five separate attacks — Ain al-Assad, the Al-Harir base in northern Iraq, and a military camp near Baghdad airport. 

The United States currently has about 2,500 troops stationed at the three bases, alongside around 1,000 soldiers from other countries in the coalition set up to fight the Islamic State jihadi group. 

The attacks came after factions loyal to Iran stepped up threats against the United States.  

One of them, the Hezbollah Brigades, demanded that U.S. forces “leave” Iraq, “otherwise they will taste the fires of hell.” 

Donald Trump is a sociopath and a threat to humanity. And this week is one of the worst weeks he’s had in a long time. Do you know what I LOVE to see? I love to see people get what they deserve. And this week, if Trump was scared before, he might be doubly so now because he’s getting what he deserves.

So Sidney Powell took a plea deal. Kenneth Chesebro took a plea deal. Their trials are no more. How do you think Donald Trump feels right now? I imagine how he feels is akin to a scuba diver realizing their air tank is broken.

These people Trump thought were his friends will be testifying against him, and it must scare the living daylights out of him. How could it not? They know where ALL the bodies are buried. Then there’s Jack Smith, who’s on Trump like white on rice. No matter where Trump looks, Smith surfaces.

This week, he appeared a lot with a searing filing to the Judge in Florida, saying Trump does not deserve unique privileges because he’s just like everybody else. Just like everybody else. THAT must sting. Trump’s beloved candidate, Gym Jordan, lost — he lost, and he lost big. The moderates stood up for themselves. That can’t be good news for Trump.

But most of all are the sharp words of the Judge overseeing Trump’s fraud case. He actually warned Trump to be a good boy — or he’ll be thrown in prison. This judge said Trump blatantly violated the gag order: “The court is way beyond the warning stage.” Trump then got fined $5,000. But the real news is that this Judge fully seems intent on throwing Assolini in the slammer — if he doesn’t shut the heck up.

I know how fear feels. It’s a watery, immobilizing feeling that can leave one frozen. I, along with many, know how Trump must be feeling now. Fear. But Trump might not be ABLE to stop. What do I mean by that? Well — you have heard about being “called” to do something?

For example, many of us feel “called” to be activists. We feel like it’s our calling. But antisocial personalities can ALSO have callings. In Trump’s case, his calling is evil — and anarchy — and destruction.

Will the man be able to resist? He is going to want to post something awful. He’ll likely go to sleep with the venomous whispers singing their songs of anarchy in his brain. What will he do? Will he try to fight them? I imagine the walls of Trump’s home feel a bit haunted right now as the realization strikes the traitor that perhaps he’s not getting out of this one.

The post Another ugly blow for Donald Trump appeared first on Palmer Report.

Matt Gaetz, whom one Republican House member reportedly referred to as an “insect,” took a presser. Looking utterly at home in his sunglasses, hair standing at attention, a shit-eating grin on his face, Gaetz proceeded to whine about how people were not allowing Gym Jordan to become speaker.

This, of course, was before the vote, where Gym somehow wound up losing MORE votes. This appears to be a pattern for him. Now, since that third vote, Gym’s name is out of contention. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, Gymbo.

But the nerve of Gaetz. He held a pity party for himself as he chatted earnestly with reporters about how Gym should be the Speaker. And after the vote? An unhappy Gaetz declared Gym had been “knifed in the back.”

The lack of self-awareness is astounding. Gaetz also referred to Gym as “the most popular Republican in Congress.” What planet is Gaetz living on? Not the reality planet. The Gym is despised, and many who pretend to like him are putting on an act — they are ACTING — you know, the thing Republicans do every day, as they pretend to give a damn about the American people.

There is irony in all this. Allow me to explain. Matt Gaetz lives in a house, my friends. This house is made entirely of glass. And Gaetz, the owner of the house just threw a heck of a lot of stones. People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. In Matt’s case, this expression most definitely applies. In fact, I can’t think of one person it applies to more.

This whole damn thing started because of Matt Gaetz. Matt is now bristling at people for doing exactly what he did — not voting for someone they do not like as Speaker. It would be like if Clarence Thomas yelled about Judges who do not recuse themselves when they should.

In other words — Gaetz is the ultimate stone-thrower, and he shouldn’t be. People who live in glass houses — especially republican glass houses where they do things just to get the attention they are desperately starved for — most definitely should not throw stones as Gaetz is doing right now.

At least Gym lost. If Gaetz is THAT upset about it, perhaps he should quit Congress and become Gym’s publicist.

The post Matt Gaetz’s last stand is just getting bizarre appeared first on Palmer Report.

Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched Saturday through a rainy London to demand Israel stop its bombardment of Gaza, and similar calls were heard in cities around the world as the Israel-Hamas war entered its third week. 

On the day a trickle of aid entered Gaza, where more than 1 million people have left their homes because of the conflict, protesters gathered in at Marble Arch near London’s Hyde Park before marching to the government district, Whitehall. 

Police estimated the crowd that wound its way through the city for three hours at “up to 100,000.” 

Waving Palestinian flags and chanting “Stop bombing Gaza,” participants called for an end to Israel’s blockade and airstrikes launched in the wake of a brutal incursion into southern Israel by the Hamas militant group that controls Gaza. 

Authorities in Gaza say more than 4,300 people have been killed in the territory since the latest war began. More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel, mostly civilians slain during Hamas’ attack on October 7. 

Israel continued to bombard targets Saturday in Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive. A small measure of relief came when 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid were allowed to enter Gaza across the southern Rafah border crossing with Egypt. 

The war has raised tensions around the world, with both Jewish and Muslim communities feeling under threat. The British Transport Police force said it was investigating after footage was posted online that appears to show a London Underground driver leading passengers in a chant of “Free, free Palestine” over the subway intercom. 

British authorities urged demonstrators to be mindful of the pain and anxiety felt by the Jewish community. London’s Metropolitan Police force says it has seen a 13-fold upsurge in reports of antisemitic offenses in October compared to last year. Reports of anti-Muslim crimes have more than doubled. 

Police said there had been “pockets of disorder and some instances of hate speech” during protests over the war, but “the majority of the protest activity has been lawful and has taken place without incident.” 

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters also gathered in Belfast and in Northern Ireland’s second city, Londonderry, where speakers included lawmaker Colum Eastwood of the Irish nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party. 

“The murder of children is wrong,” he told the crowd, calling for an immediate cease-fire in the conflict. “I don’t know how that is so difficult for some of our world leaders to actually utter. It doesn’t matter whether they are Israeli children or Palestinian children.” 

Across the border in the Republic of Ireland, thousands marched through the capital, Dublin, calling for an end to Israel’s bombardment. 

In France, pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in several cities including Rennes, Montpellier, Dijon and Lyon, where thousands of people could be seen chanting “we all are Palestinians” in the central square. 

In Marseille, the country’s second-largest city, some people took to the streets, waving Palestinians flags and shouting “Free Gaza,” despite the protest being banned by local police. 

A pro-Palestinian gathering scheduled for Sunday in Paris has been allowed by police. 

German police said almost 7,000 people took part in a peaceful pro-Palestinian demonstration Saturday in Dusseldorf. The demonstrators carried Palestinian flags or banners calling for an end to “violence and aggression in Gaza.” 

Police in Berlin banned a pro-Palestinian demonstration that was scheduled for Sunday in the center of the city, German news agency dpa reported. Police in the German capital have stopped several similar events in recent weeks, citing the potential of violence and antisemitic hate speech. Some pro-Palestinian demonstrators have taken to the streets anyway, resulting in clashes with police. 

Authorities allowed a pro-Israel demonstration scheduled for Sunday that was expected to draw together thousands of people in central Berlin. 

Elsewhere, several hundred people marched Saturday through Rome, some holding signs saying “Palestine, Rome is with you,” and “No peace until we get freedom.” 

“Israel carries out war crimes there, crimes against humanity there, and the international community has never acted,” said Maya Issa, president of the Movement of Palestinian Students in Italy, which organized the demonstration. 

In Muslim-majority Kosovo, several hundred people walked from mosques to Pristina’s Zahir Pajaziti square after lunchtime prayers to express support for Palestinians. 

In Australia, thousands marched Saturday through central Sydney, shouting “Shame, shame Israel” and “Palestine will never die.” 

The war sparked protests across the Arab world and beyond Friday, including in the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians burned tires and threw stones at Israeli military checkpoints. Israeli security forces responded firing tear gas and live rounds. 

Crowds gathered in Israel’s northern neighbor Lebanon; in Iraq at the country’s border crossing with Jordan; in Jordan itself; in cities and towns across Egypt; in Turkey’s capital Ankara and its most populous city of Istanbul; and in Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Venezuela, and South Africa. 

In New York, hundreds of protesters from Muslim, Jewish and other groups marched to U.S. Sen. Kristen Gillibrand’s Manhattan office, many shouting “cease fire now.” Police later arrested dozens of protesters who blocked Third Avenue outside Gillibrand’s office by sitting in the road. 

Pro-Israel demonstrations and vigils have also been held around the world, many focused on securing the return of hostages captured by Hamas. 

Rome’s Jewish community Friday remembered the more than 200 people believed held by Hamas by setting a long Shabbat table for them outside the capital’s main synagogue and empty chairs for each of the hostages. 

On the back of each chair was a flyer featuring the name, age and photo of each missing person. On the table were candles, wine and loaves of challah, the braided bread typically eaten during the Friday night meal. 

Hurricane Norma made landfall near the resorts of Los Cabos at the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula on Saturday afternoon. 

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Norma, once a Category 4 hurricane, made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 130 kilometers per hour (81 miles per hour) near el Pozo de Cota, west-northwest of Cabo San Lucas. Norma is expected to continue weakening over the weekend as it crosses into the Sea of Cortez, also known as the Gulf of California. 

While in the Atlantic, Hurricane Tammy was near Antigua and threatened to batter the islands of the Lesser Antilles. 

Earlier on Saturday, businesses in Cabo San Lucas nailed sheets of plywood over their windows, and government personnel posted banners warning people not to try to cross gullies and stream beds after Norma again became a major storm on Friday. 

Norma had weakened early Saturday and was downgraded to Category 1 on the hurricane wind scale. By early afternoon Norma was located 24 kilometers (15 miles) west-northwest of Cabo San Lucas, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

The hurricane was expected to continue on that path through the evening before turning to the northeast and slowing down through Monday. The forecast track would take a weakened Norma toward the mainland of Mexico’s western Pacific Coast as a tropical storm. 

Its languid pace raised the possibility of severe flooding. Norma was expected to dump 15 to 30 centimeters of rain with a maximum of 45 cm in places across southern Baja California and much of Sinaloa state. 

John Cangialosi, a senior specialist at the National Hurricane Center, said the area is vulnerable to rain because it’s a dry region generally. 

He said 45 cm of rain “could result in flash and urban flooding and mudslides.” 

There were early reports of downed trees and power poles, but no reported injuries or deaths. 

The Los Cabos Civil Defense agency urged residents to stay indoors all day as winds and rain increased. Emergency workers worked quickly to evacuate people from low-lying areas and move them to shelters. 

Hotels in Los Cabos, which are largely frequented by foreign tourists, remained about three-quarters full and visitors made no major moves to leave en masse, Baja California Sur state tourism secretary Maribel Collins said. 

There was no way out anyway: Airports were closed Saturday, according to the local civil defense office. 

The local hotel association estimated there were about 40,000 tourists still in Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo on Friday. 

Homero Blanco, the state commander of the National Guard, said beaches at the resort had been ordered closed and Guard troops were sent to clear people from the seashore. 

In the Atlantic, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Hurricane Tammy had winds of 140 kph, (87 mph) and hurricane warnings were issued for the islands of Antigua, Barbuda, Montserrat, and St. Kitts and Nevis, Anguilla, St. Martin and St. Barthelmy. 

The storm was about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Guadeloupe and 55 kilometers (34 miles) east-southeast of the Caribbean island of Antigua. 

Tammy was expected to remain at hurricane strength and even strengthen slightly as it moved toward the Lesser Antilles through Saturday passing by Guadeloupe, Antigua and Barbuda. Both Martinique and Guadeloupe are French overseas departments. 

The hurricane center said in a report that “heavy rainfall and flooding (are) likely over much of the Lesser Antilles.” 

Two weeks after Tropical Storm Philippe rolled through Antigua and Barbuda, dumping 15 to 20 centimeters of rain and plunging both islands into darkness, residents of the islands braced for Tammy’s arrival. The slow-moving system was forecast to bring up to 30 cm of rain over a twin island nation where the devastation of Hurricane Irma in 2017 and recent wind damage and flooding from Philippe are still fresh memories. 

“This means therefore, that the earth is still somewhat saturated and with additional rainfall, the potential for flooding is elevated,” Prime Minister Gaston Browne said in a nationwide broadcast on Friday afternoon. He urged residents to take all necessary steps to secure life and property. 

And so it begins. As you will recall, brothers and sisters, one month ago I said that Donald Trump will be in jail before Christmas. No, I don’t own a crystal ball. What I do own is a long personal history with narcissists.

What I said then was that sooner or later, more sooner than later, Trump’s behaviour will trigger one or more gag orders. The mere existence of those gag orders will cause Trump to defy them. That defiance will lead to bail revocation, which is a polite way of saying a judge is going to throw Trump in jail.

Since then Trump has been issued with two gag orders. He’s already defied both of those gag orders. Specifically, in one case, Judge Arthur Engoron said in court on Friday that Trump had failed to remove an online post mocking one of his court clerks. So the judge fined Trump the princely sum of $5,000.

I know, I know, some MAGA moron is going to dig his or her life’s savings out of a coffee can and pay the ticket. Or, if Trump is as rich as he says he is, fining Trump an amount that paltry is like fining you or me a penny. But that’s beside the point.

The point is the process has begun, and Trump CANNOT back down. A judge has just drawn a line in the sand and Trump MUST cross it. Why? Because in Trump’s diseased mind, nobody tells him what to do. That’s how narcissists think.

If you or I were in Trump’s position we would conclude that we can’t continue defying the judge. We would stop immediately because we’re sane and rational and we wouldn’t want to face escalating consequences. But narcissists don’t think that way. Narcissists CANNOT allow someone else to get the upper hand, no matter the cost.

In short order Engoron (or Tanya Chutkan) is going to conclude that Trump has no intention of obeying their gag orders. At that point they will throw Trump in jail. QED.

The offending post was a repost from some idiot calling himself “Judicial Protest.” It consisted of a photo of a young woman standing next to Senator Chuck Schumer. Schumer has a collegial hand on her shoulder. The caption reads, “Why is Judge Engoron’s Principal Law Clerk, Allison R Greenfield, palling around with Chuck Schumer?”

What is really going on is the clerk, who has a private life just like anyone else, wanted to get a fan selfie with Senator Schumer. The Senator, being the kindly and obliging guy he is, accommodated her. It was just that innocent.

But some anonymous, sleazy pile of shit on the internet did a vast search of all the faces in judge Engoron’s court desperately looking for dirt. That photo was the “worst” thing he could come up with. He gleefully posted it like some pimply-faced adolescent trying to please one of his heroes on a poster in his bedroom in his mother’s basement.

So of course it was a disgusting, chickenshit thing for Trump to do. But that’s who Trump is. He’s shown us what he is time and time again. We understand it, the MAGA crowd knows it and doesn’t care,

Anyway, these little games will continue. Trump being Trump won’t believe anyone will put him in jail. His narcissistic delusion will keep him defying the judges no matter how much his two-bit, ambulance-chasing, cafeteria lawyers scream at him to stop. And it will end with Trump in jail. Before Christmas. And I am so down for it. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.

The post It’s beginning to look a lot like bail revocation appeared first on Palmer Report.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:  

No consensus at the Cairo Summit on the Israel-Palestinian violence.  
The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt opened Saturday, allowing the transportation of humanitarian aid.   
Clashes between Israel and Hamas continue, with Israeli airstrikes killing 19 people in Gaza, according to Palestinian media.  
Israel issued a warning advising its citizens against traveling to Egypt, Jordan and Morocco, and if they are in those countries to leave as soon as possible.     

 

A Cairo summit hosted by Egypt Saturday failed to reach an agreement on how to contain the violence between Israel and Hamas. Arab leaders condemned the Israeli bombardment of Gaza while mostly Western countries said civilians should be shielded, but with Israel and senior U.S. officials absent there was no consensus on how to resolve the conflict. 

Amid international fears of a widening war, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken cautioned Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati in a call Saturday that the Lebanese people would be affected if his country were drawn into the war, the U.S. State Department said. 

Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah and Israel’s military have been trading fire at the frontier almost daily, and Hezbollah said Saturday one of its fighters was killed on the border. 

In Iraq, a security source said two drones were shot down near the Ain al-Asad air base, where U.S. forces are stationed. U.S. troops have come under repeated attack in Syria and Iraq in recent days. 

Jordan’s King Abdullah II decried what he called global silence about Israel’s attacks, which have killed thousands in Hamas-ruled Gaza and made over 1 million homeless, urging an even-handed approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

“The message the Arab world is hearing is that Palestinian lives matter less than Israeli ones,” he said, adding he was outraged and grieved by acts of violence waged against innocent civilians in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and Israel. 

Mahmoud Abbas, who is the elected Palestinian president, said Palestinians would not be displaced or driven off their land. 

“We won’t leave, we won’t leave,” he told the summit. 

France called for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza that it said could lead to a cease-fire. Britain and Germany both urged Israel’s military to show restraint and Italy said it was important to avoid escalation. 

The United States, Israel’s closest ally and a vital player in all past peace efforts in the region, only sent its Cairo charge d’affaires, who did not address the meeting in public. 

Global protests 

Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched Saturday through London to demand Israel stop its bombardment of Gaza. Similar demonstrations took place in other cities around the world.  

In Tel Aviv, outside of the Israeli Defense Ministry headquarters, demonstrators protested Saturday, to “bring the hostages home.”  

In the Jordanian capital of Aman, more than 6,000 people took part in a protest Friday, arranged by opposition parties and tribal groups.  

Chanting slogans urging Islamist Hamas militants to intensify their strikes on Israel, thousands of Jordanians marched in the capital and around the country, decrying Israel’s strikes on Gaza. 

Israel-Hamas strikes 

Israeli airstrikes pounded the Gaza Strip early Saturday and Hamas fired fresh salvos of rockets into southern Israel as the bitter conflict between the foes entered its third week.   

There were no signs of a letup in the war that has killed more than 5,000 people.   

The Israel Defense Forces said its fighter jets struck multiple Hamas command centers in Gaza overnight into Saturday. Palestinian media reported airstrikes in northern Gaza hit six homes and killed at least 19 people.     

In Israeli cities near Gaza, warning sirens sounded, alerting residents of incoming rockets. The rocket attacks caused no reported injuries.   

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday night that his country intends to “fight until victory” against Hamas and will attempt to recover the more than 200 hostages Hamas seized when its fighters invaded Israel during the opening days of the war.   

Netanyahu’s remarks came hours after two Americans, a mother and daughter from the Chicago area who also hold Israeli citizenship, were released by Hamas. They were the first hostages held by the militant group in Gaza to be freed.  

Limited aid enters Gaza  

The Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt opened Saturday morning for the first time since the deadly October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, allowing a convoy of about 20 trucks to deliver food, water, medicine, and other necessities to Gaza’s residents.   

Palestinian officials expressed disappointment that Gaza did not receive fuel supplies.  

“Excluding the fuel from the humanitarian aid means the lives of patients and injured will remain at risk. Gaza hospitals are running out of the basic requirements to pursue medical interventions,” the Gaza health ministry said, adding that the aid was only 3% of what it used to get in Gaza before the crisis. 

Some Gazans said the aid arriving Saturday was too little to make a difference. 

“This is a drop in the ocean. You are trying to show the world that you are bringing aid. This is throwing dust in the eyes,” said Nabil El-Dhaba, a resident of the Shejaia district in Gaza City who has been displaced to Deir Al-Balah in the southern Gaza Strip. 

The United Nations has been pressing Israel and Egypt to allow aid to flow freely into Gaza, where hundreds of thousands need assistance after two weeks of Israeli bombing and a strict Israeli blockade of food and fuel.     

Martin Griffiths, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said Saturday that he is “confident that this delivery will be the start of a sustainable effort to provide essential supplies – including food, water, medicine and fuel — to the people of Gaza, in a safe, dependable, unconditional and unimpeded manner.”  

The United Nations said the life-saving supplies would be received and distributed by the Palestinian Red Crescent with the consent of Hamas, which rules Gaza. 

Blinken hailed the opening of the Rafah crossing but echoed a warning from Israel that no aid should end up in Hamas hands.  

“We have been clear: Hamas must not interfere with the provision of this life-saving assistance,” Blinken said in a statement. “We urge all parties to keep the Rafah crossing open to enable the continued movement of aid that is imperative to the welfare of the people of Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israel issued a warning advising its citizens against traveling to Egypt, Jordan and Morocco, and if they are in those countries to leave as soon as possible.  The warning advises Israelis to avoid traveling to any Middle Eastern countries.  It also warned against traveling to Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Maldives, countries with large Muslim populations.  Israel does not want its nationals to be targeted by people in those countries who may be angry about Israeli actions following the Hamas attack.    

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.