Day: October 21, 2023

Kyiv says Russia is looking to leverage the Israel-Hamas war to dampen support for Ukraine, while Moscow is calling it a failure of the West.

LONDON (AP) — Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through a rainy London on Saturday 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’ deadly incursion on Oct. 7.

Israel continued to bombard targets in Gaza on Saturday 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-Palestinians 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 in Düsseldorf on Saturday. 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 through Rome on Saturday, 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 through central Sydney on Saturday, shouting “Shame, shame Israel” and “Palestine will never die.”

The war sparked protests across the Arab world and beyond on 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 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 on 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.

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Associated Press writers Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Karl Ritter in Stockholm, Philipp Reissfelder in Cologne, Germany, and Llazar Semini in Tirana, Albania, contributed to this story.

As an initial aid convoy of 20 trucks entered the Gaza Strip from Egypt Saturday, Arab and world leaders met in Cairo to discuss how to implement a cease-fire in the 14 day-old conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Attending a peace conference hosted by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who visited Egypt’s Rafah Border Crossing with Gaza on Friday, expressed his frustration over the inability to get enough aid to civilians who need it.

“We meet in a region that is in pain and that is one step from the precipice, a region where it is impossible not to be rocked to the core by heart-wrenching, soul-searing images of suffering,” said Guterres.

“Yesterday, I went to the Rafah Border Crossing. There I saw a paradox — a humanitarian catastrophe playing out in real time,” he said. “On one hand, I saw hundreds of trucks, teeming with food and other essential supplies … full trucks on one side, empty stomachs on the other.” 

A U.N. aid official estimated that Saturday’s 20-truck convoy into the Gaza Strip represents only 3% of the needs of its estimated 2.2 million residents. 

Marwan Jilani, a Palestinian Red Crescent official, told Qatar’s al-Jazeera TV that aid supplies were being taken to U.N. facilities at Deir al-Balah, near the center of Gaza, for distribution.

A Palestinian journalist sympathetic to Hamas told the TV network the convoy “contained no fuel,” while noting Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital — the largest in the strip — “needs it urgently” to run its generators. Al-Shifa is controlled by Hamas. 

Meanwhile, at the Cairo conference on Saturday, Jordan’s King Abdullah blasted Israel for its treatment of Palestinian civilians and excoriated world leaders for what he claimed was their indifference to Palestinian suffering and double standard regarding international humanitarian law. 

“I am outraged and grieved by those acts of violence waged against innocent civilians in Gaza, in the West Bank and in Israel,” he said. “The relentless bombing campaign underway in Gaza, as we speak, is cruel and unconscionable on every level. It is collective punishment of a besieged and helpless people. It is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.” 

Several European leaders, including Spain’s Pedro Sanchez, said “Israel has the right to defend itself against attacks,” referring to Hamas’ October 7 attack in Israel, killing Israeli civilians — including women and children — and kidnapping others. 

“We strongly condemn the terrorist attacks perpetrated against Israel,” said Sanchez “And we also recognize Israel’s right to defend itself in strict compliance with international law and international humanitarian law.” 

The Egyptian president called the conflict in Gaza “an unprecedented crisis that is threatening the peace of the region and the peace of the world.”  

 

“We must begin,” he said, “by sending aid into Gaza and then move immediately to a cease-fire and finally discuss the setting up of a Palestinian state, side-by-side with Israel.” 

The Egyptian president insisted he would “not allow Palestinians from Gaza to be pushed into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula “to liquidate” — as he put it — “the 75-year-old Palestinian cause. This is not going to happen, and certainly not at the expense of Egypt.”   

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated his PLO movement’s long-standing position that “violence is the result of the lack of” — what he termed — “a just solution,” based on an Israeli and a Palestinian state, living side-by-side.

Palestinians are “not going to leave their land,” he said, adding that they “won’t go away.” 

(NewsNation) — The Orionid meteor shower will reach its peak intensity on Saturday, with as many as 80 meteors an hour expected to streak through the night sky.

According to the American Meteor Society (AMS), the best time to see the meteors fly is between 1 a.m. CDT and dawn when the Orionid radiant is more than 30 degrees above the horizon. NASA recommends viewers face southeast toward the constellation Orion.

“The best way to see these meteors is to lie in a comfortable lounge chair with the back angled so that you are looking about half-way up in the sky,” the AMS said. “You can look straight up if your sky near the horizon is brightly lit, but more meteors are seen in the lower half of the sky than straight up as you are looking through a much thicker column of the atmosphere.”

First step? Find yourself a dark place.

If you live in a major city this one is going to be tough. You can work with light pollution in general if it is not too extensive. But the darker the sky is, the better your chances of seeing meteors.

Let your eyes adjust.

To fully appreciate the darkness of the sky and spot even the fainter meteors, you have to ensure your eyes are adjusted to dark conditions. This takes 20 to 30 minutes.

NewsNation affiliate KARK and Reuters contributed to this report.

(NewsNation) — A man whose ex-wife and daughter were released after being taken hostage by Hamas in southern Israel spoke out on NewsNation’s “CUOMO” in an exclusive interview.

Uri Raanan said he saw on the news that Hamas was releasing an American mother and daughter, and he spent the day hoping they meant his ex-wife, Judith Raanan, and his daughter, 17-year-old Natalie, who live in Evanston, Illinois.

“I was waiting for this day, for two weeks,” Raanan said. “And this is the best day of my life.”

Raanan said that he has spoken to his daughter since her release, saying, “She’s doing good.

“She’s doing very good,” Uri Raanan said. “I’m in tears, and I feel very, very good.”

Raanan believes she will be home soon, adding that he believes Natalie and Judith are on their way to Tel Aviv to reunite with relatives before returning to the U.S.

Raanan said that Natalie indicated her captors treated “her nice.”

Natalie’s return to the U.S. means she will be able to celebrate her 18th birthday next week with family and friends.

President Joe Biden was among the many celebrating the stunning news that the Raanans had been freed.

Raanan stressed that he was thankful for the support of the president, saying he was hopeful Hamas would “release the rest of the hostages.”

The release comes amid growing expectations of a ground offensive that Israel says is aimed at rooting out the Hamas militants who rule Gaza.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Give us 5 minutes, and we’ll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

On October 7, the world as we know it changed. In the early hours of the morning, hundreds of armed Hamas operatives broke into Israel, launching a surprise attack on the IDF headquarters in the South of Israel in order to neutralize resistance for several hours. They set out to perform premeditated and meticulously planned crimes against humanity, sent by Iran.

The terrorists proceeded to massacre innocent and unarmed civilians, inhabitants of the Israeli villages bordering the Gaza Strip. Mothers were raped in front of the gaping eyes of their children. Babies and infants were tied together and shot in front of their parents. People were burnt alive. Young women were gang raped until their limbs were dismembered. Babies were beheaded.

Simultaneously, other Hamas operatives raided a peace festival in which hundreds were executed, gang raped, and burned. All these atrocities were documented by the perpetrators themselves and proudly posted on social media.

The meticulously laid plans were found, in Arabic, on the bodies of those operatives who were later killed and/or captured by the Israel Defense Forces. This was the beginning of a war that has little to do with Israel. It has everything to do with humanity.

People call on the release of Israelis held hostage by Hamas militants in Gaza, outside the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, October 18, 2023. (credit: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Iran is using the hate against the Jewish state

The Iranian plan to dominate the region and spread its hegemony has begun with Israel because of their knowledge that it is easy to galvanize hatred, incitement, and fury towards Israel and the Jewish people. Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hezbollah are pawns in the grand plan which calls for the involvement of Jihadists throughout the world to join the religious extremist Islamic battle against the “disbelievers” – that is everyone who is not of their kind. As I write these very words, similar hate crimes are conducted in several European capitals in the name of this so-called “holy war.”

Hamas, funded and trained by the mullah regime in Iran, was encouraged to set forth and begin its unholy crusade in the South of Israel while its members laid out, loudly and clearly, in Arabic, that the next step in their plan was to galvanize support amid Palestinians in the West Bank.

IN THAT arena, the Iranian backing of Hamas and PIJ has been long and systematic, working its way amidst the disillusioned population, vastly disappointed and disenchanted with its corrupt Palestinian secular Fatah leadership.

The Israeli government’s longtime weakening of Palestinian rule in the West Bank, while allowing Qatar to stream in funding to the Hamas in return for quiet on Israel’s Southern border, has also backfired. The current Palestinian Authority – far from being an innocent bed of roses itself – is currently trying to quench the growing fury of its own Palestinian inhabitants as they are encouraged by Hamas and Iran to take up arms and join the fight against Israel and the Jews. The Palestinian Fatah leadership in the West Bank, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, know that the Hamas will not allow them to continue their rule over the Palestinian people.

They most certainly understand what Hamas is — and what a threat it poses to them, recalling that their own officers were lynched and thrown off rooftops by Hamas and its people, when the they took over the Gaza Strip in 2005. The next step in the Iranian roadmap is the Northern front, where Hamas is also present, and Hezbollah has become the long arm of Iran. Slowly, but surely, Hezbollah had taken power over Lebanon, disintegrating the beautiful Swiss-like country into a ruined, destitute, and failed state, while arming themselves with approximately 150,000 precision artillery provided for and funded by Iran. Syria, too, has long ago been turned into an Iranian backyard in which despite the Israeli bombardment of constant shipments of weapons from Iran, significant strength and capabilities have been concentrated in it for the opportune moment to attack Israel.

A war against the Jewish people

Meanwhile, Iran is calling Iraqi Shi’ites to join in the “holy” war against Israel on the Northern front, while Hezbollah is attempting infiltration after infiltration into Israeli territory and shooting rockets at Israeli cities and towns in the North.

The idea is that a Jihad will be launched, worldwide, first against Jewish institutions and Jews, and then against all those who are not Muslim, including those who are not the “right” kind of Muslims, similarly to what ISIS did to Muslims in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere. Indeed, this is a clash of civilizations of completely different proportions than an Israel-Hamas war. The very understanding of the magnitude of these events is perhaps the first step towards beginning to create the international coalition and the solutions needed to quell it.

The next step is preventing the dissemination of this pure hatred and incitement, which is deeply entrenched in school books funded by European, Canadian and American tax payers’ hard-earned cash. Once these caviats are realized, then perhaps the international community can begin to create a new world order in which a much-needed coalition will be established for the purposes of ridding itself of extremist terrorist regimes such as Hamas and creating a real opportunity for growth for the region.

The writer is a former MK from the Blue and White party, a former adviser to president Shimon Peres, and past deputy ambassador in Cairo.

Hurricane Norma weakened to a Category 2 storm on Saturday as it approached the south of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula where it was expected to make landfall later in the day, bringing with it a “dangerous storm surge.”

The center of Norma was located about 45 kilometers (28 miles) west-southwest of the popular tourist destination of Cabo San Lucas, moving northwards at a speed of 13 kilometers per hour, and packing maximum sustained winds of 155 kilometers per hour, the U.S National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest report.

Mexican authorities called on residents of the state of Baja California Sur to take precautions and stay in their homes, while shelters were set up.

“Norma is expected to remain a hurricane while it moves over the southern portion of Baja California Sur,” the NHC said, noting nonetheless that further weakening was expected over the weekend.

Local authorities maintained a “prevention zone” between the towns of Todos Santos and Los Barriles, in the state of Baja California Sur.

They also called on tourists and maritime navigation to take extreme precautions.

“Precipitation could come with electric shocks and generate landslides, increased levels of rivers and streams, overflows and floods,” a government meteorological report indicated on Saturday.

Norma had reached Category 4 status earlier in the week as it clambered over the Mexican Pacific.

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The top job in the U.S. House of Representatives remained vacant on Saturday, after hardline Republican Jim Jordan failed in his third bid for the gavel and dropped out of the race.

Here are the seven lawmakers who have announced they are running to be speaker of the chamber, which has been without a leader since Oct. 3, as well as two potential candidates:

IN: KEVIN HERN

Representative Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, the largest caucus in Congress, kicked off his run for speaker minutes after Jordan said he had dropped out of the race, although the Oklahoma lawmaker did not win any votes in Friday’s contest.

IN: AUSTIN SCOTT

Representative Austin Scott, a Georgia lawmaker who has kept a relatively low profile in his 12 years in Congress, also launched his candidacy on Friday, after he challenged Jordan for the nomination last week and failed. He did not receive any votes on Friday.

IN: PETE SESSIONS

Representative Pete Sessions, a Texas congressman since 1997 who chairs the House Rules Committee, declared his candidacy on Friday, saying he has the experience to unite the party.

IN: JACK BERGMAN

Representative Jack Bergman of Michigan, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general who has been in congress since 2017, said on Friday his “hat is in the ring.”

IN: TOM EMMER

Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the House’s No. 3 Republican and chief vote counter, received only one vote on Friday but won ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s endorsement. The former ice hockey coach said in a social media post on Saturday that he was running “to bring our conference together and get back to work”.

IN: BYRON DONALDS

Representative Byron Donalds, a Black Republican from Florida and member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, was the choice for two from his party on Friday. He announced his candidacy in a statement late on Friday. Last month, a source close to Donalds told Fox News that he was considering whether to run for Florida governor in 2026.

IN: MIKE JOHNSON

Representative Mike Johnson from Louisiana, a socially and fiscally conservative constitutional law attorney who has been a member since 2017, said in a letter to colleagues on Saturday that he was running as a consensus candidate and billed himself as a “team player and a bridge-builder”.

IN: HAKEEM JEFFRIES

Democrats have voted unanimously for their leader, Hakeem Jeffries, though, as the minority party in a chamber controlled 221-212 by Republicans, they do not have enough votes to elect him speaker.

POSSIBLE: TOM COLE
Powerful Rules Committee chair Tom Cole, who has represented Oklahoma since 2003 as one of only five Native Americans in Congress, could gain support from Democrats if nominated, although he has repeatedly tamped down talk of putting his name forward. After receiving one vote on Tuesday, no votes were cast for him on Friday.

POSSIBLE: JODEY ARRINGTON

Representative Jodey Arrington, a Texas Republican who is chair of the House Budget Committee, told reporters on Friday he would make a decision on whether to seek the speaker’s job by Sunday ahead of a noon EST (1600 GMT) deadline for declarations.

OUT: STEVE SCALISE
The Louisiana lawmaker and No. 2 House Republican, who was widely seen as McCarthy’s heir apparent, received eight votes on Friday, the most of anyone other than Jordan, after being nominated as speaker last week and withdrawing after being unable to unify Republicans. Wounded during a baseball practice in 2017 and being treated for since August for multiple myeloma, Scalise had faced questions about his health.

OUT: JIM JORDAN

Representative Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee and a driving force in the impeachment investigation of Democratic President Joe Biden, lost his third bid for the job after winning just 194 votes, well short of the 214 he needed, when 25 Republicans voted against him. After the vote, the Ohio lawmaker and Trump ally said the party should unite behind a new nominee and he would support whoever is chosen.

OUT: KEVIN MCCARTHY
Representative and former speaker Kevin McCarthy has sent conflicting signals on whether he would seek the job again. The California lawmaker netted two votes during Friday’s vote.

OUT: PATRICK MCHENRY

Republican Representative Patrick McHenry, acting speaker since Kevin McCarthy was ousted Oct. 3, received six votes for speaker during Friday’s contest but has not entered the race, though some Republicans have suggested the North Carolina lawmaker could stay on and even some Democrats appeared open to him keeping the gavel. Asked on Friday if he was interested in the job, he said, “I’m not seeking it.”

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(JTA) — Two days after Hamas killed 1,400 of his fellow Israelis, Raz Elispur saw something on social media that broke through the fog of the crisis. It was a first-person account by May Hayat, written in Hebrew, that explained exactly how she had survived the massacre at the Nova dance party.

Hayat’s account described how the day began with a beautiful sunrise and ended with her fleeing Hamas captors who murdered a man in front of her, then covering herself in the blood of other victims to play dead until rescuers arrived hours later.

“It was the first time that we read content from someone, first person, with a face, with a name told from her perspective that tells everything and shares everything,” Elispur told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Elispur, a video editor who lives in Tel Aviv, was inspired to take action. Working with his sister, Adi Clinton, he began reaching out to survivors within their own networks to offer to take down their stories. Soon, the project spiraled into something even more ambitious: a sweeping effort to collect survivor testimonies on a website whose name is simply the date of the devastating attack.

“We built this website to make sure that the stories of survivors who endured these unimaginable horrors are never forgotten,” October7.org says. “It is our duty to ensure that the world bears witness to these atrocities.”

Elispur is often awake until 3 a.m. on Zoom calls with small groups of volunteers from around the world to coordinate the collection, translation, and publication of the stories, which include the first names and last initials of the survivors along with photos and videos from the time of the attacks.

In one story, a soldier describes the daylong ordeal that reduced her army unit to just seven survivors. In another, a man recounts how he and his running partners initially thought they had been saved by soldiers, only to see both of them murdered by Hamas terrorists. In a third, a woman describes escaping captivity, where her neighbor says she saw her baby daughter shot in the head, with the help of soldiers who fell around her. Many of the testimonies are from the nature party, where 260 bodies were recovered.

So far, the website has published 100 testimonies, and the number is growing by the day. Some survivors are submitting stories directly, and others first appeared in the Israeli press.

Elispur sees the enterprise as both a way to be useful at a time of communal service and to provide a direct benefit to survivors.

“For them, it’s also a way to just let it out, I would say,” Elispur said. “But for me, and also for my sister — I think for everyone that read it — when you read it, you can relate to it and you could imagine yourself in the same scenario, as horrible as it might sound.”

Given the number of casualties during the Hamas attack, Israeli media has been flooded with obituaries. Survivor testimonies play a different role. For one thing, they can for obvious reasons offer more details about the assault that Israeli civilians faced during the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. They also can offer an antidote to denial and distortion in a climate of misinformation.

Survivor testimonies have been a crucial part of Holocaust education for decades, under the theory that hearing from people who lived through atrocities is a vital component of guarding against future genocides. Now, one organization that has been collecting Holocaust survivors’ testimony for the last three decades has announced that it is also taking testimony from Oct. 7 survivors.

“At such times, it is essential that we do not give ground to despair,” the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation said in a statement. “We have a duty to bear witness, to remember, and to act. We must learn from the experiences of those most affected, particularly the survivors of this deadly genocidal hatred.”

So far, everyone the October7.org team has reached out to for testimonies has agreed to have their story shared.

“People are thanking us and [saying], ‘Please spread it to the world, please do it,’” Elispur said.

To make the stories widely accessible, they need to be translated — and not by an automatic translation service, which can make errors and, crucially, lose the emotional tenor of the original. The October7.org team includes volunteer translators with knowledge of Japanese, English, German, Arabic, Spanish and French and is producing stories in each language.

While he says managing the website is tough, Elispur knows the translators have the toughest job because they read the stories so closely, watching as the narratives transition from descriptions of the “best party ever” to scenes of mass death.

“It’s super hard for them,” he said. “If I take responsibility for one person that reads more than two or three stories a day, I will feel guilty. I myself, when I post those stories, when I do the technical job, for me, it’s hard.”

The team repeatedly encourages each other to take breaks and spend time with their children in between translations. But the work, too, is a sort of salve in a time of great pain, Elispur said.

“Nothing we can do will bring back the 1,500 people that were murdered,” he said. “Nothing we can do will bring back my friend’s parents. But if you feel that you did a bit, it helps.”

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

The post Inside the volunteer effort to preserve the harrowing testimonies of Israel’s Oct. 7 survivors appeared first on The Forward.