World
After visiting Israel and Ramallah, the ICC prosecutor says he will intensify investigations
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court rounded off a historic first visit to Israel and Ramallah by posting video and written messages on Sunday, saying that a probe by the court into possible crimes by Hamas militants and Israeli forces “is a priority for my office.”
In a video message from Ramallah, where he met with top Palestinian leaders, Prosecutor Karim Khan said the investigation that was launched in 2021 is "moving forward at pace, with rigor, with determination and with an insistence that we act not on emotion but on solid evidence.”
There have been widespread claims of breaches of international law by Hamas and Israeli forces since war erupted after the deadly Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas and other militants that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel. Around 240 people were taken hostage.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said Saturday that the overall death toll in the strip since the start of the war had surpassed 15,200. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but it said 70% of the dead were women and children. It said more than 40,000 people had been wounded since the war began.
Khan said in a written statement issued after his visit that he witnessed “scenes of calculated cruelty” at locations of the Oct. 7 attacks. During the visit, he spoke to family members of Israeli victims and called for the immediate and unconditional release of hostages taken by Hamas and other militants.
“The attacks against innocent Israeli civilians on Oct. 7 represent some of the most serious international crimes that shock the conscience of humanity, crimes which the ICC was established to address,” Khan said in his written statement, adding that he and his prosecutors are working “to hold those responsible to account.”
In a statement released by the Forum for Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the families thanked Khan “for the extraordinary decision to come and stand by the families in the aftermath of the horrors perpetrated by Hamas in Israel on Oct. 7 and the continued detention of hostages. We expect him to work to bring Hamas terrorists to justice for crimes against humanity and genocide.”
Khan said he is ready to engage with local prosecutors in line with the principle of complementarity — the ICC is a court of last resort set up to prosecute war crimes when local courts cannot or will not take action. Israel is not a member state of the court and does not recognize its jurisdiction.
Khan also visited Palestinian officials in Ramallah, including President Mahmoud Abbas, and spoke to Palestinian victims. He said of the war in Gaza that fighting in “densely populated areas where fighters are alleged to be unlawfully embedded in the civilian population is inherently complex, but international humanitarian law must still apply and the Israeli military knows the law that must be applied.”
He said that Israel “has trained lawyers who advise commanders and a robust system intended to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law. Credible allegations of crimes during the current conflict should be the subject of timely, independent examination and investigation.”
In his video message, Khan also said that humanitarian aid must be allowed into Gaza.
“In Gaza, it is not acceptable — there’s no justification — for doctors to perform operations without light, for children to be operated upon without anesthetics," he said. "Imagine the pain of operations on children, on anybody, on any of us, without anesthetics. I also emphasized that Hamas must not divert any aid that’s given.”
Khan also expressed “profound concern” at what he called “the significant increase in incidents of attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.
“I emphasize, settler violence is unacceptable," he said in his video. "It’s something we are investigating. We have been investigating and we are accelerating investigations. No Israeli settler armed with an ideology and a gun can think it’s open season on Palestinians.”
Khan said he would seek to work with “all actors” in the conflict to “ensure that when action is taken by my office it is done on the basis of objective, verifiable evidence which can stand scrutiny in the courtroom and ensure that when we do proceed we have a realistic prospect of conviction.”
3 commercial ships hit by missiles in Houthi attack in Red Sea, US warship downs 3 drones
Ballistics missiles fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels struck three commercial ships Sunday in the Red Sea, while a U.S. warship shot down three drones in self-defense during the hourslong assault, the U.S. military said. The Iranian-backed Houthis claimed two of the attacks.
The strikes marked an escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Mideast linked to the Israel-Hamas war, as multiple vessels found themselves in the crosshairs of a single Houthi assault for the first time in the conflict. The U.S. vowed to “consider all appropriate responses” in the wake of the attack, specifically calling out Iran, after tensions have been high for years now over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program.
“These attacks represent a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security,” the U.S. military's Central Command said in a statement. “They have jeopardized the lives of international crews representing multiple countries around the world.”
It added: “We also have every reason to believe that these attacks, while launched by the Houthis in Yemen, are fully enabled by Iran.”
The attack began around 9:15 a.m. local time (0615 GMT) in Houthi-controlled Sanaa, Yemen's capital, Central Command said.
The USS Carney, a Navy destroyer, detected a ballistic missile fired from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen at the Bahamas-flagged bulk carrier Unity Explorer. The missile hit near the ship, the U.S. said. Shortly afterward, the Carney shot down a drone headed its way, although it's not clear if the destroyer was the target, Central Command said.
About 30 minutes later, the Unity Explorer was hit by a missile. While responding to its distress call, the Carney shot down another incoming drone. Central Command said the Unity Explorer sustained minor damage from the missile.
Two other commercial ships, the Panamanian-flagged bulk carriers Number 9 and Sophie II, were both struck by missiles. The Number 9 reported some damage but no casualties, and the Sophie II reported no significant damage, Central Command said.
While sailing to assist the Sophie II around 4:30 p.m. local time (1330 GMT), the Carney shot down another drone heading in its direction. The drones did no damage.
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The Carney, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, has shot down multiple rockets the Houthis have fired toward Israel during that nation's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It hasn't been damaged in any of the incidents and no injuries have been reported on board. The Defense Department initially described the assault as simply an attack on the Carney before providing more details.
Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed two of Sunday's attacks, saying the first vessel was hit by a missile and the second by a drone while in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Saree did not mention any U.S. warship being involved.
“The Yemeni armed forces continue to prevent Israeli ships from navigating the Red Sea (and Gulf of Aden) until the Israeli aggression against our steadfast brothers in the Gaza Strip stops,” Saree said. “The Yemeni armed forces renew their warning to all Israeli ships or those associated with Israelis that they will become a legitimate target if they violate what is stated in this statement.”
Saree also identified the first vessel as the Unity Explorer, which is owned by a British firm that includes Dan David Ungar, who lives in Israel, as one of its officers. The Number 9 is linked to Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, while the Sophie II is linked to Japan's Kyowa Kisen Co. Ltd. Managers for the three vessels could not be immediately reached for comment.
Israeli media identified Ungar as being the son of Israeli shipping billionaire Abraham “Rami” Ungar.
Iran has yet to directly address the attacks. However, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian threatened “that if the current situation continues, the region will enter a new phase” over the Israel-Hamas war.
Read: Israeli offensive shifts to crowded southern Gaza, driving up death toll despite evacuation orders
“All parties who are after igniting a war are warned, before it’s too late stop the killing of women and children, of which a new round has started," Amirabdollahian said.
Iran's top diplomat described his comments as coming after conversations with “resistance forces” in the region — a description Tehran uses for the Shiite militias it backs, including groups in Iraq, the Houthis and Lebanon's Hezbollah, as well as the Sunni fighters of Hamas. All have threatened or attacked Israel, Iran's regional archrival, during the war.
The Houthis have launched a series of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, as well as launching drones and missiles targeting Israel. Analysts suggest the Houthis hope to shore up waning popular support after years of civil war in Yemen between it and Saudi-backed forces.
The U.S. has stopped short of saying its Navy ships were targeted, but has said Houthi drones have headed toward the ships and have been shot down in self-defense. Washington so far has declined to directly respond to the attacks, as has Israel, whose military continues to try to describe the ships as not having links to their country.
Global shipping had increasingly been targeted as the Israel-Hamas war threatens to become a wider regional conflict — even as a truce briefly halted fighting and Hamas exchanged hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. However, the collapse of the truce and the resumption of punishing Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and a ground offensive there had raised the risk of more seaborne attacks.
Read more: Israel strikes Gaza after truce expires, in clear sign that war has resumed in full force
In November, the Houthis seized a vehicle transport ship also linked to Israel in the Red Sea off Yemen. The rebels still hold the vessel near the port city of Hodeida. Missiles also landed near another U.S. warship last week after it assisted a vessel linked to Israel that had briefly been seized by gunmen. Separately, a container ship owned by an Israeli billionaire recently came under attack by a suspected Iranian drone in the Indian Ocean.
The Houthis had not directly targeted the Americans for some time, further raising the stakes in the growing maritime conflict. In 2016, the U.S. launched Tomahawk cruise missiles that destroyed three coastal radar sites in Houthi-controlled territory to retaliate for missiles being fired at U.S. Navy ships at the time.
Israeli military says ground offensive expanded to every part of Gaza
The Israeli military said Sunday its ground offensive had expanded to every part of Gaza, and it ordered more evacuations in the crowded south while vowing that operations there against Hamas would be “no less strength” than its shattering ones in the north.
Heavy bombardment followed the evacuation orders, and Palestinians said they were running out of places to go in the sealed-off territory bordering Israel and Egypt. Many of Gaza's 2.3 million people are crammed into the south after Israel ordered civilians to leave the north in the early days of the war, which was sparked by the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack in Israel that killed about 1,200, mostly civilians.
The United Nations estimates that 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced. Nearly 958,000 of them are in 99 U.N. facilities in the south, said Juliette Toma, director of communications at the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.
After dark, gunfire and shelling were heard in the central town of Deir al-Balah as flares lit the sky. In Gaza’s second-largest city of Khan Younis, Israeli drones buzzed overhead. U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk urged an end to the war, saying civilian suffering was “too much to bear.”
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll there since Oct. 7 has surpassed 15,500, with more than 41,000 wounded. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but said 70% of the dead were women and children.
A Health Ministry spokesman asserted that hundreds had been killed or wounded since a weeklong cease-fire ended Friday. “The majority of victims are still under the rubble,” Ashraf al-Qidra said.
Fears of a wider conflict intensified. A U.S. warship and multiple commercial ships came under attack in the Red Sea, the Pentagon said. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed attacks on two ships they described as being linked to Israel but did not acknowledge targeting a U.S. vessel.
Hopes for another temporary truce in Gaza were fading. The cease-fire facilitated the release of dozens of the roughly 240 Gaza-held Israeli and foreign hostages in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. But Israel has called its negotiators home, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war will continue until “all its goals” are achieved. One is to remove Hamas from power in Gaza.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said resuming talks with Israel on further exchanges must be tied to a permanent cease-fire.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told NBC’s “Meet the Press” the U.S. was working "really hard” for a resumption of negotiations.
Israel's military widened evacuation orders in and around Khan Younis in the south, telling residents of at least five more areas to leave. Residents said the military dropped leaflets calling Khan Younis "a dangerous combat zone" and ordering them to move to the border city of Rafah or a coastal area in the southwest.
But Halima Abdel-Rahman, a widow and mother of four, said she won’t heed such orders anymore. She fled her home in October to an area outside Khan Younis, where she stays with relatives.
“The occupation tells you to go to this area, then they bomb it,” she said by phone. "The reality is that no place is safe in Gaza. They kill people in the north. They kill people in the south.”
Read: After visiting Israel and Ramallah, the ICC prosecutor says he will intensify investigations
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, has urged Israel to avoid significant new mass displacement and to do more to protect civilians. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris told Egypt's president that “under no circumstances” would the U.S. permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, an ongoing siege of Gaza or the redrawing of its borders. As Harris flew from Dubai and an appearance at the U.N. climate conference back to Washington, she spoke by phone with Israeli President Isaac Herzog. They discussed the situation in the West Bank, with Harris reiterating U.S. concerns with steps being taken that could escalate tensions — including extremist settler violence, according to a summary provided by Harris’ office.
Harris also spoke by phone during the flight to Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, and again stated U.S. support for the Palestinian peoples’ right to security, dignity and self-determination, according to the summary.
The vice president’s national security adviser, Phil Gordon, stayed behind in Dubai, and planned to travel to Israel and the West Bank this week to continue to discuss U.S. commitment to a two-state solution in post-war Gaza.
On the ground in Gaza, there was fear and mourning. Outside a Gaza City hospital, a dust-covered boy named Saaed Khalid Shehta dropped to his knees beside the bloodied body of his little brother Mohammad, one of several bodies laid out after people said their street was hit by airstrikes. He kissed him.
“You bury me with him!” the boy cried. A health worker at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital said more than 15 children were killed.
Israel's military said its fighter jets and helicopters struck targets in Gaza including “tunnel shafts, command centers and weapons storage facilities." It acknowledged "extensive aerial attacks in the Khan Younis area."
The bodies of 31 people killed in the bombardment of central Gaza were taken to the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, said Omar al-Darawi, a hospital administrative employee. One woman wept, cradling a child’s body. Another carried the body of a baby. Later, hospital workers reported 11 more dead after another airstrike. Bloodied survivors included a child carried in on a mattress.
Read: 3 commercial ships hit by missiles in Houthi attack in Red Sea, US warship downs 3 drones
Outside a hospital morgue in Khan Younis, resident Samy al-Najeila carried the body of a child. He said his sons had been preparing to evacuate their home, “but the occupation didn’t give us any time. The three-floor building was destroyed completely, the whole block was totally destroyed.” He said six of the bodies were his relatives.
“Five people are still under the rubble,” he said. “God help us.”
In a video from the same crowded al-Nasser hospital, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said: “I feel like I’m almost failing in my ability to convey the endless killing of children here.”
Israel says it does not target civilians and has taken measures to protect them, including its evacuation orders. In addition to leaflets, the military has used phone calls and radio and TV broadcasts to urge people to move from specific areas.
Israel says it targets Hamas operatives and blames civilian casualties on the militants, accusing them of operating in residential neighborhoods. It claims to have killed thousands of militants, without providing evidence. Israel says at least 78 of its soldiers have been killed,
The widening offensive likely will further complicate humanitarian aid to Gaza. Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority, said 100 aid trucks entered Sunday, but U.N. agencies have said 500 trucks per day on average entered before the war.
Read more: Palestinian death toll in Gaza tops 15,200
The renewed hostilities also heightened concerns for the 137 hostages the Israeli military believes are still being held by Hamas. During the recent truce, 105 hostages were freed, and Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners. Most of those released by both sides were women and children.
Elsewhere in the region, Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group said it struck Israeli positions near the tense Lebanon-Israel border. Eight soldiers and three civilians were wounded by Hezbollah fire in the area of Beit Hillel, army radio reported. The military said its artillery struck sources of fire from Lebanon and its fighter jets struck other Hezbollah targets.
Iraqi militants with the Iran-backed umbrella group the Islamic Resistance in Iraq said they struck the Kharab al-Jir U.S. military base in Syria with rockets. A U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said rockets hit Rumalyn Landing Zone in Syria but there were no reports of casualties or damage.
Later Sunday, officials with Iranian-backed militias in Iraq said five militia members were killed in an airstrike blamed on the U.S. near Kirkuk. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a military operation not yet made public said the U.S. had carried out a “self-defense strike” near Kirkuk targeting a drone staging site.
Indian premier Narendra Modi's party set for victory in 3 states ahead of 2024 national vote
India's Hindu nationalist party was headed for a clear win in three out of four states Sunday, according to the election commission's website. The crucial poll has pitted India's opposition against the ruling party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of next year's vital national vote.
Ballot counting showed Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, was poised to wrest control of the states of Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan from the Indian National Congress, India's main opposition party. The BJP was also likely to be re-elected in Madhya Pradesh in for a record fifth term.
Vote count begins in 4 Indian states pitting opposition against premier Modi ahead of 2024 election
The Congress was comfortably leading in Telangana state which is ruled by the strong Telangana Rashtra Samithi, known for opposing BJP in the state.
Final results are expected later Sunday.
Vote counting in a fifth state, Mizoram, is set for Monday where BJP's regional ally, Mizo National Front, is in power.
Elections in the five states were held last month where more than 160 million people, or a sixth of India's electorate were eligible to vote in the polls. Polling in India is generally done in phases owing to the large population.
Modi thanked voters for "their unwavering support" in the states his party was leading.
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"The results in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan indicate that the people of India are firmly with politics of good governance and development, which the @BJP4India stands for," Modi wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Modi and his party remain popular on a national level after nearly a decade in power and surveys suggest he is expected to win a third consecutive term in 2024. But a new alliance of 28 opposition parties, called INDIA, is expected to challenge Modi's party nationally. The acronym, which stands for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, comprises India's previously fractured opposition parties and is led by the Congress party.
Both the Indian premier and the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi flew across the five states to woo voters as they campaigned to support their parties' candidates. The charged-up voting campaigns witnessed both leaders promising voters subsidies, loan waivers and employment guarantees.
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Modi will seek reelection next year at a time when India's global diplomatic reach is rising. But in recent polls, Congress has dented his party's image of invincibility by toppling local BJP governments in state elections in southern Karnataka and northern Himachal Pradesh.
The elections come at a time when India is facing multiple challenges; rising unemployment, attacks by Hindu nationalists against the country's minorities, particularly Muslims, and a shrinking space for dissent and free media.
Vote count begins in 4 Indian states pitting opposition against premier Modi ahead of 2024 election
Vote counting began Sunday in four Indian states in a test of strength for India’s opposition pitted against the ruling party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of next year's crucial national vote. Results are expected later in the day.
Elections in the four states — Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana — took place last month. Polling in India is generally done in phases owing to the large population.
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Vote counting in a fifth state, Mizoram, is expected Monday.
The election results of the five states are expected to give an indication of voter mood ahead of the 2024 national elections in which Modi is eyeing a third consecutive term.
The Indian National Congress, India’s main opposition party, holds power in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, rules Madhya Pradesh, and its regional ally, Mizo National Front, is in power in Mizoram. Telangana is ruled by the strong Telangana Rashtra Samithi, known for opposing BJP in the state.
A live feed on the election commission's website shows BJP leading in three states, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, while the Congress is making headway in Telangana, in early ballot counting.
Modi and his party remain popular on a national level after nearly a decade in power and surveys suggest he is expected to win a third term. But a new alliance of 28 opposition parties, called INDIA, is expected to challenge Modi’s party nationally. The acronym, which stands for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, comprises India’s previously fractured opposition parties and is led by the Congress party.
Read: Rescuers in India resume drilling to evacuate 41 construction workers from collapsed tunnel
Modi flew across the five states and campaigned to support his party’s candidates. The Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also traveled across the states to woo voters. The charged-up voting campaigns witnessed both leaders promising voters subsidies, loan waivers and employment guarantees.
Modi will seek reelection next year at a time when India’s global diplomatic reach is rising. But in recent polls, Congress has dented his party’s image of invincibility by toppling local BJP governments in state elections in southern Karnataka and northern Himachal Pradesh.
The elections come at a time when India is facing multiple challenges; rising unemployment, attacks by Hindu nationalists against the country’s minorities, particularly Muslims, and a shrinking space for dissent and free media.
Militants open fire at a bus in northern Pakistan, killing 9 people and injuring over 20 others
Militants opened fire at a bus in northern Pakistan, killing nine people including two soldiers, and injuring over 20 others, local police said.
The attack happened Saturday night on the Karakoram Highway in northern Gilgit Baltistan region, police officer Azmat Shah said. The highway connects Pakistan with China and also passes through the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which has been a hotbed of terrorism in the past due to the presence of Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups in the area.
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The bus was carrying passengers from Gilgit to the city of Rawalpindi when it was shot at, causing the driver to lose control and crash into a truck, which in turn caught fire. Both drivers were killed on site.
At least 26 people were injured — including a local Islamic cleric, Mufti Sher Zaman — and transferred to local hospitals, as police helped reroute traffic in the area after condoning off the site, officials said.
The home minister of Gilgit Baltistan, Shams Lone, called the incident an “act of terrorism.”
Pakistan’s interim prime Minister, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, in a statement issued by his office, condemned the attack, saying that “anti-state elements would not be allowed to sabotage the peace of Gilgit Baltistan,” and vowed to continue fighting “against terrorists.”
Read: Myanmar's military is losing ground against coordinated nationwide attacks, buoying opposition hopes
A special investigation team was formed to look into the attack and apprehend those behind it, according to the chief minister of Gilgit Baltistan, Gulbar Khan.
No one has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
In a statement Sunday, Muhammad Khorasani, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, denied his group being behind the shooting.
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The TTP is a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country. It has waged an insurgency in Pakistan over the past 15 years.
Trump calls Biden the ‘destroyer’ of democracy
Former President Donald Trump on Saturday attempted to turn the tables on his likely rival in November, President Joe Biden, arguing that the man whose election victory Trump tried to overturn is “the destroyer of American democracy.”
Trump's allegations about Biden, a Democrat, echo the ones that Biden has been making for years against his predecessor. As Trump has dominated the Republican presidential primary and talked about targeting his rivals and the news media if he wins the White House again, Biden has stepped up his own warnings, contending Trump is “ determined to destroy American democracy.”
Read: Ex-officer Derek Chauvin, convicted in George Floyd's killing, stabbed in prison, AP source says
On Saturday, Trump made his most explicit argument to date on why voters should instead see his rival as the bigger democratic threat. Trump repeated his longstanding contention that the four criminal indictments against him show Biden is misusing the federal justice system against his rival.
“He’s been weaponizing government against his political opponents like a Third World political tyrant,” Trump said to a crowd in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “Biden and his radical left allies like to pose as standing up as allies of democracy,” Trump continued, arguing: “Joe Biden is not the defender of American democracy, Joe Biden is the destroyer of American democracy.”
Ammar Moussa, a Biden campaign spokesman, responded: “Donald Trump’s America in 2025 is one where the government is his personal weapon to lock up his political enemies. You don’t have to take our word for it — Trump has admitted it himself."
Trump has long promised to prosecute Biden in retaliation should he return to the White House. On Saturday, though, the former president extended his arguments about Biden's threat to democracy to lawsuits filed by two liberal organizations seeking to rule him ineligible for office under a rarely used Civil War-era constitutional provision that prohibits those who “engaged in insurrection” from returning to office.
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All of the suits to date have failed. Biden has no involvement in them, but Democratic donors who back him also help fund the liberal groups filing the claims. That's led Trump to blame them on the president, whom he contended had “defaced the Constitution” in trying to block him.
And the former president, who has a long history of speaking warmly about authoritarian leaders and sometimes echoing their rhetoric, seemed aware of criticisms against him. “Americans don’t like fascists,” Trump said. He praised Chinese President Xi Jinping and China's criminal justice system for swiftly executing drug dealers, and boasted that North Korean President Kim Jong Un likes him.
But Trump noted he was often attacked for these relationships and tried to defend them. “It’s good to have a good relationship with people who have nuclear weapons,” he said.
Throughout the speech, Trump repeated his arguments the 2020 presidential election that he lost was “stolen” and that U.S. elections in general are “rigged.” There is no evidence that the 2020 election was stolen. Dozens of lawsuits were dismissed by courts and government and independent reviews have not found enough alleged fraud to throw the outcome into question.
Trump supporters would attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to try to stop the certification of Trump's loss to Biden. On Saturday, Trump continued his practice of referring to some of those arrested in connection with the riot as “political prisoners.”
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Earlier in the day, at a rally in Ankeny, Iowa, Trump returned to allegations of Democratic election fraud, one of his favorite themes on the campaign trail. He told the crowd to “guard the vote" in 2024, and focused on diverse cities he has often denigrated as examples of places where fraud would happen.
"You should go into Detroit and you should go into Philadelphia and you should go into some of these places, Atlanta, and you should go into some of these places and we've got to watch those votes when they come in,” Trump told his supporters.
Palestinian death toll in Gaza tops 15,200
A total of 15,207 Palestinians have died as a result of Israeli attacks in the war-torn Gaza Strip since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict on Oct. 7, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said on Saturday.
Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said during a press conference in Khan Younis that the number of injured people in the Palestinian enclave had surpassed 40,000, with 70 percent of them being children and women.
Read: Israeli offensive shifts to crowded southern Gaza, driving up death toll despite evacuation orders
Al-Qidra also said that Israeli attacks had killed 280 medical personnel and targetted 56 ambulances in Gaza, accusing Israel of deliberately destroying the healthcare system in the Strip.
On Oct. 7, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, firing thousands of rockets and infiltrating Israeli territory, while Israel responded with airstrikes, ground operations and punitive measures that included a siege on the Gaza Strip.
Read: Group of swing state Muslims vows to ditch Biden in 2024 over his war stance
More than 1,200 have been killed in Israel, mostly during Hamas's attack on Oct. 7 that triggered the conflict.
Group of swing state Muslims vows to ditch Biden in 2024 over his war stance
Muslim community leaders from several swing states pledged to withdraw support for U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday at a conference in suburban Detroit, citing his refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Democrats in Michigan have warned the White House that Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war could cost him enough support within the Arab American community to sway the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.
Leaders from Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania gathered behind a lectern that read “Abandon Biden, ceasefire now” in Dearborn, Michigan, the city with the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the United States.
More than 13,300 Palestinians — roughly two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza — have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war. Some 1,200 Israelis have been killed, mostly during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war.
Biden’s unwillingness to call for a ceasefire has damaged his relationship with the American Muslim community beyond repair, according to Minneapolis-based Jaylani Hussein, who helped organize the conference.
"Families and children are being wiped out with our tax dollars," Hussein said. “What we are witnessing today is the tragedy upon tragedy.”
Hussein, who is Muslim, told The Associated Press: “The anger in our community is beyond belief. One of the things that made us even more angry is the fact that most of us actually voted for President Biden. I even had one incident where a religious leader asked me, 'How do I get my 2020 ballot so I can destroy it?" he said.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates previously said the Biden administration has pushed for humanitarian pauses in the fighting to get humanitarian aid into Gaza, adding that “fighting against the poison of antisemitism and standing up for Israel’s sovereign right to defend itself have always been core values for President Biden.”
Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania were critical components of the "blue wall" of states that Biden returned to the Democratic column, helping him win the White House in 2020. About 3.45 million Americans identify as Muslim, or 1.1% of the country's population, and the demographic tends to lean Democratic, according to Pew Research Center.
But leaders said Saturday that the community's support for Biden has vanished as more Palestinian men, women and children are killed in Gaza.
“We are not powerless as American Muslims. We are powerful. We don’t only have the money, but we have the actual votes. And we will use that vote to save this nation from itself,” Hussein said at the conference.
The Muslim community leaders' condemnation of Biden does not indicate support for former President Donald Trump, the clear front-runner in the Republican primary, Hussein clarified.
“We don't have two options. We have many options. And we're going to exercise that," he said.
Israeli offensive shifts to crowded southern Gaza, driving up death toll despite evacuation orders
Israel pounded targets in crowded southern Gaza on Saturday and ordered more neighborhoods designated for attack to evacuate, driving up the death toll as the United States and others urged it to do more to protect civilians a day after a truce collapsed.
The prospect of further cease-fires in Gaza appeared bleak, as Israel recalled its negotiators and Hamas’ deputy leader said any further swap of Gaza-held hostages for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel would only happen as part of ending the war.
“We will continue the war until we achieve all its goals, and it’s impossible to achieve those goals without the ground operation,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address Saturday night.
At least 200 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting resumed Friday morning following the weeklong truce with the territory’s ruling militant group Hamas, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. Several multi-story residential buildings were hit on Saturday, engulfing neighborhoods in huge clouds of smoke.
Separately, the ministry said the overall death toll in Gaza since the Oct. 7 start of the war had surpassed 15,200, a sharp jump from the previous count of more than 13,300 on Nov. 20. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but it said 70% of the dead were women and children. It said more than 40,000 people had been wounded since the war began.
“Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering and the images and videos coming from Gaza are devastating,” U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters during the COP28 climate conference in Dubai.
Appeals from the U.S., Israel's closest ally, to protect civilians came after an offensive in the first weeks of the war devastated large areas of northern Gaza. Some 2 million Palestinians, almost Gaza's entire population, are now crammed into the territory's southern half.
Israel’s military said it had hit more than 400 Hamas targets across Gaza over the past day, including more than 50 in Khan Younis city and surrounding areas in the south.
Palestinian Red Crescent spokesman Mahmoud Basal told broadcaster Al-Jazeera that there were more than 300 “martyrs” in Gaza City’s Shujaia neighborhood and that homes were flattened. Israel's military said it killed Hamas’ Shujaia battalion commander but gave no details on the operation. Residents could not be reached.
In northern Gaza, an airstrike flattened a building hosting families in the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya on Gaza City's outskirts. It left dozens dead or wounded, said residents Hamza Obeid and Amal Radwan.
“The building turned into a pile of rubble,” Obeid said. AP video showed smoke rising as men, some in sandals, picked their way over debris. The Israeli military confirmed it was operating in Jabaliya and said it had found and destroyed Hamas tunnels in the surrounding area.
A powerful strike hit a cluster of multi-story buildings in Hamad City, a Qatari-funded housing development on the outskirts of Khan Younis. Smoke engulfed the complex. There was no immediate word on casualties.
“Where is it safe? I swear to God, no one knows, where are we going?” asked Zohair al Raai, who said his family received a recorded message saying their building should evacuate.
Also in the south, at least nine people, including three children, were killed in a strike on a house in Deir al-Balah, according to the hospital where bodies were taken.
Meanwhile, Palestinian militant groups in Gaza said they fired a barrage of rockets on southern Israel. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli army spokesperson, said Hamas had launched more than 250 since the cease-fire ended. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
During a Saturday visit to Israel and the West Bank city of Ramallah, an International Criminal Court prosecutor said his office is serious in moving forward to investigate allegations of war crimes on both sides.
“Every actor should be without doubts that they must comply with the law now,” Karim Khan told broadcaster Palestine TV. “And if you don’t comply with the law now, don’t complain later.”
With the resumption of fighting, the Israeli military published an online map carving up Gaza into hundreds of numbered parcels and asked residents to familiarize themselves with the number of their location ahead of evacuation warnings.
On Saturday, the military listed more than two dozen parcel numbers around Gaza City and east of Khan Younis. Separately, it dropped leaflets with evacuation orders over towns east of Khan Younis.
One Khan Younis resident said a neighbor received a call from the Israeli army warning that houses in the area would be hit. “We told them, ‘We have nothing here, why do you want to strike it?’" said the resident, Hikmat al-Qidra. Al-Qidra said the house was destroyed.
The maps and leaflets generated panic and confusion in the crowded south, where people cannot go to northern Gaza or neighboring Egypt and are left to move around within the 220-square-kilometer (85-square-mile) area.
“There is no place to go,” said Emad Hajar, who fled to Khan Younis a month ago. “They expelled us from the north, and now they are pushing us to leave the south."
Mark Regev, a senior advisor to Netanyahu, said Israel was making “maximum effort" to protect civilians and the military has used leaflets, phone calls, and radio and TV broadcasts to urge Gazans to move from specific areas. He added that Israel is considering creating a security buffer zone that would not allow Gazans direct access to the border fence on foot.
Israel says it targets Hamas operatives and blames civilian casualties on the militants, accusing them of operating in residential neighborhoods. It claims to have killed thousands of militants, without providing evidence. Israel says 77 of its soldiers have been killed in the offensive in northern Gaza.
Also Saturday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said it had received the first convoy of aid trucks through the Rafah crossing with Egypt since fighting resumed. Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority, said 100 trucks entered including three carrying 150,000 liters (nearly 40,000 gallons) of fuel.
Meanwhile, Harris told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in a meeting that “under no circumstances” would the U.S. permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, an ongoing siege of Gaza or the redrawing of its borders, according to a U.S. summary.
The Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and other militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel. Around 240 people were taken captive.
The renewed hostilities have heightened concerns for 137 hostages, who the Israeli military says are still being held after 105 were freed during the truce. A 70-year-old woman held by Hamas was declared dead on Saturday, according to her kibbutz. She is the eighth hostage known to have died.
At a rally of tens of thousands in Tel Aviv, released hostages called for the rest to be freed. In a video address, Yaffa Adar, 85, spoke up specifically for children being held, saying, “I want to see them now — not when I’m in a coffin."
Hamas and Israel differed on who was still being held.
Hamas' deputy leader, Saleh Arouri, told Al-Jazeera that any remaining hostages are men who served in the Israeli military. That contradicted another top Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, who told The Associated Press on Friday the group was willing to trade more hostages but rebuffed an Israeli demand to release 10 female soldiers.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Hamas violated the truce agreement by refusing to return two children and 15 women.
During the truce, Israel freed 240 Palestinians. Most of those released by both sides were women and children.