Friday, October 13, 2023

10/13 WAKE-UP CALL: 1.1M Israeli Civilians Told Get Out Of Gaza Now


Israel's military on Friday called for all civilians of Gaza City, more than 1 million people, to relocate south within 24 hours, as it amassed tanks near the Gaza Strip ahead of an expected ground invasion. "Now is a time for war," Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Thursday as Israeli warplanes continued pounding Gaza in retaliation for the weekend attacks by Hamas militants that killed more than 1,300 Israelis, mostly civilians.

The Israeli military said it would operate "significantly" in Gaza City in the coming days and civilians would only be able to return when another announcement was made. "Civilians of Gaza City, evacuate south for your own safety and the safety of your families and distance yourself from Hamas terrorists who are using you as human shields," the military said in a statement. "Hamas terrorists are hiding in Gaza City inside tunnels underneath houses and inside buildings populated with innocent Gazan civilians."

➤GETTING OUT IS A STRUGGLE: People are struggling to leave Israel as most major airlines pause flights. Some Israelis, tourists and foreign workers are so desperate that they are resorting to renting private jets. The U.S. said today that it will charter flights from Israel to Europe, beginning tomorrow, to help evacuate Americans who don’t have commercial airline tickets. Meanwhile, international pressure is building on Egypt to open its border to a potential exodus of two million Gazans. Israel has warned people to leave and has cut off food, fuel and water in Gaza. Hamas has said that it is reluctant to allow an evacuation because it could mean permanent exile for those Palestinians. According to U.S. and Arab officials, discussions between the U.S. and Egypt have focused solely around securing safe passage for the 500 to 600 Americans in Gaza.


➤CONGRESSMAN EVACUATES AMERICANS: Rep. Cory Mills is on his way back to Capitol Hill to help his party select a new House speaker after shuttling 77 Americans out of Israel via neighboring Jordan during a two-day visit. On Tuesday, Mills (R-Fla.) read a NY Post report highlighting the plight of Silver Prout, an American trapped in Israel with a California-based church group who had been on a Holy Land tour when the Hamas terror group attacked the Jewish state on Oct. 7. The account was one of several Mills had heard of US citizens stuck in a war zone after major airlines grounded flights to and from Israel. “I just immediately left DC and I just decided within an hour’s notice that I couldn’t sit there and do nothing anymore,” Mills said. “… I campaigned on the fact that I wanted to be a statesman who acts – and not a politician who talks.”

➤BILLIONAIRE QUITS HARVARD BOARD: Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer and his wife are resigning their posts on the executive board of Harvard’s Kennedy School in protest of school President Claudine Gay’s belated lukewarm response to the student letter blaming Israel for the massacre committed by Hamas terrorists on Saturday. Ofer, the shipping and chemicals magnate whose net worth was valued by Forbes at $14 billion as of Thursday, said that he and his wife were quitting the board, according to the Hebrew-language news site TheMarker. Ofer and his wife, Batia, who is also a member of the executive board, said they resigned “in protest of the shocking and insensitive response by the president of the university, who did not condemn the letter by student organizations who blamed Israel for the massacres.” Gay has come under fire from Harvard alums including former school president Larry Summers, who decried the “delayed” statement from her office in response to the student letter.

➤HAMAS HAS DETAILED MAPS: Hamas militants who flooded into southern Israel from Gaza on Saturday carried detailed maps of the towns and military bases that they targeted. Some carried tactical guides identifying weak spots on Israeli army armored vehicles. Israeli civilians, soldiers and emergency personnel recovered the documents, seen by WSJ, from the attack sites or bodies of dead Hamas fighters. The detailed information, written in Arabic, indicates that Hamas had planned to attack civilian population centers and take hostages, not just target military installations. The documents also show the scale of Hamas’s intelligence-gathering and planning. More than 1,300 Israelis were killed in the assault. As much of the country’s military gathers in the south for a major ground offensive in Gaza, fears of a second front at the northern border are growing. A conflict with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon would stretch Israel’s army and air defenses, military experts say.

➤SCALISE DROPS SPEAKER'S BID: Rep. Steve Scalise withdrew from contention for House speaker late Thursday, after clinching the Republican Party’s nomination but failing to win over a stubborn bloc of critics who stood between him and the gavel, the latest dramatic turn in the party’s leadership fight. The party has been trying to move quickly to fill the absence created by the ouster of Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) that was engineered by Republican rebels, but the intraparty divisions on display last week have only grown deeper. Scalise, the House majority leader, narrowly won the party’s speaker nomination Wednesday over Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) in a 113-99 tally, a margin that did little to convince many Jordan supporters to unify behind Scalise.

➤DeSANTIS AMPS-UP CRITICISM OF TRUMP: Ron DeSantis began a two-day New Hampshire swing Thursday by displaying a revamped campaign style that includes amped-up criticism of Donald Trump. DeSantis focused on Trump's comments Wednesday criticizing the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netahnyahu and his government over the war with Hamas, and describing Hezbollah militants as "very smart." 

"Now is not the time to be attacking our ally," DeSantis told supporters at the New Hampshire State House. Several Republicans noted that, after the 2020 election, Trump attacked Netanyahu for hailing Biden as the president-elect. "It’s clear he’s angry at Netanyahu for recognizing Trump lost in 2020," said a statement from Never Back Down, a pro-DeSantis political action committee. "Trump puts himself first.


➤SENATOR CHARGED WITH ACTING AS FOREIGN AGENT: Senator Bob Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat, has been charged in a new indictment with acting as a foreign agent for Egypt. The new charge was in addition to previous charges that Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, received hundreds of thousands of dollars and a Mercedes convertible from a New Jersey businessman in return for actions that benefitted Egypt’s government. The senator pleaded not guilty to the previous charges and has temporarily stepped down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

➤OFFICER CONVICTED IN DEATH OF COLORADO MAN: A police officer was convicted of criminally negligent homicide and a second officer was found innocent in the death of a young Black man after he was detained in Aurora, Colorado, in 2019. Elijah McClain, age 23, was unarmed and was carrying a plastic bag containing iced tea when he was confronted by police. He was wrestled to the ground and injected with the sedative ketamine before having a fatal heart attack on the way to a hospital.


🏈NFL CHIEFS 19 BRONCOS 8: Patrick Mahomes passed for 306 yards and one touchdown and the Kansas City Chiefs used a strong defensive performance on Thursday night to post a 19-8 victory over the visiting Denver Broncos. Travis Kelce caught nine passes for 124 yards as Kansas City (5-1) defeated the AFC West-rival Broncos for the 16th consecutive time. Kadarius Toney caught a touchdown pass and Isiah Pacheco accumulated 98 scrimmage yards (62 rushing, 36 receiving) as the Chiefs improved their overall winning streak to five games. Harrison Butker kicked four field goals -- including a 60-yarder -- and Nick Bolton and Justin Reid intercepted passes for Kansas City.  Mahomes was 30-of-40 passing while improving to 12-0 in his starts against the Broncos. The Chiefs outgained Denver 389 to 197.


⚾MLB PHILLIES 3 BRAVES 1:   Nick Castellanos likes being punched in the face, metaphorically speaking. He believes that's often when he and his teammates are at their best. After squandering a lead and losing Game 2 of the National League Division Series, the question was whether the Philadelphia Phillies would throw their counterpunch. "I feel like our play answered that question," Castellanos said. Castellanos blasted two more home runs, rookie center fielder Johan Rojas preserved a tight lead on a running catch and the Phillies finished off the Atlanta Braves 3-1 on Thursday to win their National League Division Series in four games.

For the second straight year, Philadelphia upset its higher-seeded division rival in the best-of-five NLDS to advance to the best-of-seven NL Championship Series. The Phillies will host the Arizona Diamondbacks for Game 1 on Monday. Castellanos -- who entered Wednesday with one career playoff homer in 26 games -- became the first player in major league history to produce back-to-back multi-homer games in the postseason. Trea Turner went 4-for-4 with the go-ahead solo homer for Philadelphia.


➤RUSSIA BOOTED FROM OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: The executive board of the International Olympic Committee has suspended the Russian Olympic Committee for trying to claim Ukraine’s athletes for Russia. That is a breach of the Olympic Charter, which recognizes Ukraine as a nation. The indefinite suspension raises the possibility that Russia will be banned from competing at the 2024 Paris Olympics and the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, or that Russian athletes will be able to compete only as neutral participants.



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