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Reflecting on Oct. 7 and 2 years of Gaza war with Israeli hostages set to come home
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Reflecting on Oct. 7 and 2 years of Gaza war with Israeli hostages set to come home – CBS News
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‘It’s hard to see so many kids die.’ How volunteering in Gaza transformed American doctors and nurses
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When Texas neurologist Hamid Kadiwala told his parents he was heading to Gaza to volunteer at a hospital there, they begged him to reconsider.
“Why would you take that risk?” they asked. What about his Fort Worth medical practice? His wife? His four children?
But Kadiwala, 42, had been deeply shaken by images from Gaza of mass death and destruction and felt a responsibility to act. Israel’s siege on the small, densely populated Gaza Strip was “a history-shaking event,” Kadiwala said. “I want my kids to be able to say that their father was one of those who tried to help.”
Kadiwala is one of dozens of American doctors and nurses who have worked in the Gaza Strip since 2023, when Israel began bombing the enclave in retaliation for the deadly Hamas attacks of Oct. 7.
Neurologist Hamid Kadiwala poses for a portrait at Tarrant Neurology Consultants in Fort Worth.
(Desiree Rios / For The Times)
The volunteers — men and women of all ages, agnostics as well as Muslims, Christians and Jews — have labored under the constant threat of violence, amid raging disease and with little access to food and medicine they need to save lives.
Many are hopeful that the new ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that took effect Friday will halt the violence. But even with new aid rolling in, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza remains daunting.
With foreign journalists largely barred from Gaza and more than 200 Palestinian media workers slain by Israeli bombs and bullets, on-the-ground testimony from doctors and nurses has been critical to helping the world understand the horrors unfolding.
But bearing witness comes at a steep personal cost.
As Kadiwala drove into the enclave in a United Nations convoy late last year, he saw an endless expanse of gray rubble. Emaciated young men swarmed his vehicle. The sky buzzed with drones. Bombs sounded like rolling thunder.
Kadiwala compared the landscape with dystopian films such as “Mad Max.” “It’s so hard to understand because our brains have never seen something like that,” he said.
He knew that worse was yet to come.
“You have to get numb,” he told himself as he prepared to enter Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, where he would be living and working for more than a month. “These patients are here for help, not to see me cry.”
Child patients are forced to share beds or lie on makeshift mattresses placed in the corridors due to limited resources and space at Nasser Hospital as the pediatric ward of the hospital is overwhelmed with the waves of displaced families arriving from the north in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Sept. 22.
(Abdallah F.s. Alattar / Anadolu via Getty Images)
Death in Gaza
The explosions began each morning shortly before the call to prayer.
“Within 20 minutes, there would be 150 people sprawled wall-to-wall with serious injuries,” said Mark Perlmutter, an orthopedic surgeon from North Carolina who has been to Gaza twice, and who was working at Nasser in March in the violent days after a ceasefire broke.
Perlmutter, 70, had volunteered on more than 40 humanitarian missions: in Haiti after its devastating earthquake, in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and in New York after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
Nothing prepared him for Gaza.
Hospitals stank of sewage and death. Doctors operated without antibiotics or soap. Never before had he seen so many children among the casualties. The hospital filled with shell-shocked kids who had been wrenched from collapsed buildings and others with bullet wounds in their chests and heads.
“I would step over babies that were dying,” he said. “I would see their blood expanding on the floor, knowing that I had no chance of saving them.”
Palestinians try to put out a fire at the emergency department of the Nasser Hospital after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Khan Yunis on March 23.
(AFP via Getty Images)
In one haunting experience, an injured boy lying on the ground reached for Perlmutter’s leg, too weak to talk. Perlmutter knew it was too late for the boy, but that other patients still had a shot at survival.
“I had to pull my pant leg away to get to one I could save,” he said.
Perlmutter is Jewish and until visiting Gaza was a supporter of Israel. Around his neck he wears as a pendant a mezuzah, which contains a small scroll with verses from the Torah. It was a gift from his late father, a doctor who survived the Holocaust.
But working in Gaza changed him.
After treating so many kids with gunshot wounds, he became convinced that Israelis were deliberately targeting children, which the Israeli military denies.
As he toiled, he and another doctor, California surgeon Feroze Sidhwa, began taking photos of the carnage. Together they would go on to publish essays in U.S. media outlets detailing what they had seen and to send letters to American leaders begging for an arms embargo. Sidhwa would conduct a poll of dozens of American doctors, nurses and medics who said they, too, had treated preteen children who had been shot in the head.
Activism was a new calling for Perlmutter. He knew it might cost him relationships with loved ones who supported Israel and possibly even patients at his medical practice back in North Carolina. He knew it was straining his relationship with his wife. But he plowed ahead.
“It’s hard to see so many kids die in front of you and not make that your life.”
Hospitals under siege
Andee Vaughan, a 43-year-old trauma nurse, has spent much of her life in ambulances, emergency rooms and on backcountry search-and-rescue trips in her home state of Washington. She spent months providing medical care on the front lines of the war in Ukraine.
She prides herself on maintaining her cool, even under trying circumstances. But while volunteering at Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, she often felt tears welling up.
It wasn’t the mayhem of mass casualty events that shook her, nor the sound of shallow breaths as a patient who had been shot in the skull slipped toward death.
It was the seemingly countless victims who under normal circumstances could have been saved.
Like the boy she watched suffocate because the hospital didn’t have enough ventilators. Or patients who perished from treatable infections for lack of antibiotics and proper dressings for wounds.
Andee Vaughan, bottom right, worked day and night for three months at Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City.
(Courtesy of Andee Vaughan)
“I am haunted by the patients on my watch who probably shouldn’t have died,” Vaughan said.
Virtually every person she encountered suffered from diarrhea, skin infections, lung problems and chronic hunger, she said. That included exhausted Palestinian doctors and nurses, many of whom had lost family members, been displaced from their homes and were living in crowded tent cities where hundreds of people shared a single toilet. Many Palestinian medical staffers have been working without pay.
“You have a whole system in survival mode,” said Vaughan, who contracted giardia shortly after arriving in Gaza and who ate just once a day because there was so little food.
Vaughan spent three months in Gaza and volunteered to stay longer. Then her hospital came under attack.
As Israeli forces advanced on Gaza City to confront what they described as the last major Hamas stronghold in the strip, Al-Quds was sprayed by gunfire and rocked by bombs. Most of its windows were blown out. A tank missile hit an oxygen room, destroying everything inside.
Vaughan filmed videos that showed Israeli quadcopters — drones equipped with guns — hitting targets around the hospital.
“They are systematically destroying all of Gaza,” she said. “They’re shooting everything, even the donkeys.”
Andee Vaughan, center, cuts the shirt off a young patient at Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City.
(Courtesy of Andee Vaughan)
Just a third of Gaza’s 176 hospitals and clinics are functional, and nearly 1,700 healthcare workers have been killed since the war began, according to the World Health Organization.
It is not lost on Vaughan that most of the weapons used in those attacks come from the United States, which has provided Israel $21.7 billion in military assistance since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack, according to a study by the Costs of War project at Brown University.
U.S. involvement in the war is what prompted Vaughan to volunteer in Gaza in the first place. “I was there in some ways to make amends for the damage that we have done,” she said.
Vaughan was evacuated from Gaza last month, bidding goodbye to colleagues and patients who were so malnourished their bones jutted from their skin like tent poles.
She was ferried to Jordan, where on her first morning since leaving Gaza she went down to breakfast, saw a buffet overflowing with food, and began to sob.
Coming home
Dr. Bilal Piracha talks to a nurse about a patient’s condition at White Rock Medical Center in Dallas on Oct. 6. Piracha has been to the Gaza Strip three times this year, performing humanitarian work at a local hospital.
(Emil T. Lippe / For The Times)
After three tours in Gaza, Dallas emergency room doctor Bilal Piracha now works with a kaffiyeh draped over his scrubs.
The black-and-white scarf, a symbol of Palestinian liberation, often sparks comments from patients, some of them disapproving. Piracha, 45, welcomes the opportunity to talk about his experience.
“This is what I have seen with my own eyes,” he tells them. “The destruction of hospitals, the destruction of nearly every building, the killing of men, women and children.”
Dr. Bilal Piracha stands inside an emergency operating room at White Rock Medical Center in Dallas on Oct. 6.
(Emil T. Lippe / For The Times)
Like many other U.S. doctors and nurses who have spent time in Gaza, Piracha is racked with survivor’s guilt, unable to forget the patients he couldn’t help, the mass graves he saw filled with bodies, the hunger in the eyes of the local colleagues he left behind.
“Life has lost its meaning,” he said. “Things that once felt important no longer do.”
He now spends most of his free time speaking out against the siege, traveling throughout the U.S. to meet with members of Congress and making frequent appearances on TV and podcasts. He has marched in antiwar protests and dropped massive banners from Texas highways that say: Let Gaza live.
He is in frequent touch with doctors in Gaza, who are hopeful that the new ceasefire will put a stop to the violence, but say massive amounts of medical supplies and other humanitarian aid are needed immediately.
Piracha doesn’t know what to tell them.
“We can give them words of hope and prayers, but that is it,” he said.
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Kate Linthicum
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Anti-Hamas militia leader Hossam al-Astal says he’ll support Tony Blair in ‘Gaza after Hamas’
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Astal has reportedly been able to “liberate an area from Hamas occupation,” managing to establish a “safe city” of almost one square mile in Khan Yunis.
Hossam al-Astal, leader of one of the anti-Hamas militias in Gaza, said in an interview with The Telegraph that he was willing to cooperate with former British prime minister Tony Blair in the establishment of a security force inside Gaza.
Astal has reportedly been able to “liberate an area from Hamas occupation.” “We’re using mainly handguns and AK-47s taken from Hamas,” Astal said, and added, “I can’t say how many fighters we have. Right now, that’s very sensitive – we’re in a war.”
According to the report, which was not confirmed by the IDF, Astal’s men have managed to establish a “safe city” of almost one square mile that works as a refuge for 200 people and is “free of Hamas.”
Astal’s comments also assure that he received logistical cooperation from the IDF, something that the military did not comment on, while also receiving freedom of action, protection from air strikes, and bespoke access to aid.
Palestinians walk past rubble as they return to their neighborhood, following Israeli forces’ withdrawal from the area, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip October 11, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)
The day after Hamas in Gaza
Astal worked until 2007 as a security official in the Palestinian Authority (PA), until Hamas’s coup of 2007 that saw the expulsion of the PA from the strip. He also survived an execution attempt and even managed to escape one of Hama’s prisons during the post-October 7 chaos in Gaza.
“Tony Blair is a decent politician,” he told theTelegraph. “I think his help can be useful, especially if it’s coming with an international agreement or mandate. We are ready to cooperate with anyone who will bring help to our people in Gaza.”
The article points out that this might be “jumping the gun,” taking into account that the current deal only covers a partial retirement of Israeli forces from the strip in exchange for all the remaining hostages.
“We will not stop fighting Hamas,” Astal insisted. “We have martyrs – Hamas has our blood on its hands. Even if Israel signs a treaty and stops the war with Hamas, we will not stop.”
“I am in touch with tens of former PA officers around Gaza, and we are all ready and waiting for zero hour, the moment when we are all going to liberate the Gaza Strip from Hamas,” he also warned.
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British Parliament designates Palestine Action a terrorist organization
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Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters in London marked two years since the War in Gaza. However, the British government has seen enough. Haley Ott reports that police have been given sweeping powers to curb repeated demonstrations.
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Trump’s envoy enters Gaza as Israel-Hamas ceasefire holds
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President Donald Trump’s top Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, visited an Israel Defense Forces base in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, the second day of the ceasefire, Fox News reported, citing an image obtained exclusively by the network.
He was reportedly accompanied by Admiral Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, who said in a social media post his visit was part of efforts to set up a task force to support Gaza’s stabilization. Cooper emphasized that U.S. troops would not be deployed inside the Gaza Strip.
Newsweek could not independently verify Fox News’ report and has contacted CENTCOM for confirmation via email..
Why It Matters
The Israel and Hamas agreement to the first phase of Trump’s peace deal marks a pivotal moment in the two-year war that has devastated Gaza, displacing millions and creating severe shortages of food, water and medical care.
Witkoff’s reported presence in Gaza highlights U.S. engagement in the region, as the deal was a major coup for President Donald Trump who has said he wants his legacy to be that of a “peacemaker and a unifier.”
What To Know
Roughly 200 U.S. troops have arrived in Israel to assist in retrieving hostages and monitoring the ceasefire. They will also help establish a coordination center to facilitate aid and logistics. Witkoff told Israeli officials that Washington will establish a center in Israel to coordinate Gaza-related issues until a new governing structure is formed, according to a meeting readout obtained by The Associated Press.
Thousands of Palestinians began returning to their homes across Gaza on Saturday, The AP reported, as the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas appeared to be holding, .
The conflict began with Hamas’ 2023 assault on Israel that killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 hostages taken. In Israel’s subsequent offensive, more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 170,000 wounded, according to The Associated Press, which cited Gaza’s Health Ministry. The U.N. estimates that over three-quarters of Gaza’s buildings have been destroyed, while a joint EU and World Bank assessment in February put total damages at $49 billion.
Israeli forces pulled back from major urban areas under the first phase of the agreement, which also requires Hamas to release its remaining hostages within 72 hours. According to Reuters, 20 of the 48 remaining hostages are believed to be alive. In return, Israel will free 250 Palestinians serving long sentences and around 1,700 detained during the war.
Despite the truce, questions remain about whether the deal will lead to a lasting peace — and what will become of Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Friday that if the group does not disarm, Israel will act again: “If it’s achieved the easy way, so be it. If not, it will be achieved the hard way.”
Trump said Friday he was confident the ceasefire would hold, telling reporters, “They’re all tired of the fighting,” though he acknowledged that some details still have to be worked out. Under his plan, Israel would maintain an open-ended military presence along Gaza’s border, while an international force—largely made up of troops from Arab and Muslim countries—would take responsibility for security inside the enclave.
What People Are Saying
Admiral Brad Cooper said in a statement: “Just returned from a visit inside Gaza to inform how we are moving forward to establish a CENTCOM-led Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) that will synchronize activities to support post-conflict stabilization. America’s sons and daughters in uniform are answering the call to deliver peace in the Middle East in support of the Commander in Chief’s direction in this historic moment. This great effort will be achieved with no U.S. boots on the ground in Gaza.”
UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram told The Associated Press on Friday: “When people get there, they’re going to find rubble. They’ll find that their homes and their neighborhoods have been reduced to dust.”
“A ceasefire alone is not enough,” Ingram added, and called for a “surge of humanitarian aid that begins to address the tremendous damage that has been done over the past two years.”
What Happens Next
In the coming days, hostages and prisoners are expected to be exchanged if the ceasefire continues to hold.
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The Destruction in Gaza Is What the Future of AI Warfare Looks Like
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In 2021, Israel used “the Gospel” for the first time. That was the codename for an AI tool deployed in the 11-day war against Gaza that the IDF has since deemed the first artificial intelligence war. The conclusion of that war didn’t end the conflict between Israel and Palestine, but it was a sign of things to come.
The Gospel rapidly spews out a mounting list of potential buildings to target in military strikes by reviewing data from surveillance, satellite imagery, and social networks. That was four years ago, and the field of artificial intelligence has since experienced one of the most rapid periods of advancement in the history of technology.
Marking two years on Tuesday, Israel’s latest offensive on Gaza has been called an “AI Human Laboratory” where the weapons of the future are tested on live subjects.
Over the last two years, the conflict has claimed the lives of more than 67,000 Palestinians, upwards of 20,000 of whom were children. As of March 2025, more than 1,200 families were completely wiped out, according to a Reuters examination. Since October 2024, the number of casualties provided by the Palestinian Ministry of Health has only included identified bodies, so the real death toll is likely even higher.
Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to a genocide, a UN Commission concluded last month.
Hamas and Israel agreed to the first phase of a ceasefire deal that was announced on Wednesday, but Israeli strikes on Gaza were still continuing as of Thursday morning, according to Reuters. The agreed-upon plan involves the release of Israeli hostages by Hamas in exchange for 1,950 Palestinians taken by Israel and the long-awaited aid convoys. But it does not involve the creation of a Palestinian state, which Israel strictly opposes. On Friday afternoon, Israel said that the ceasefire agreement is now in effect, and President Trump has said there will be a hostage release next week. There have been at least three ceasefire agreements since October 7, 2023.
Aiding Israel’s destruction in Gaza is an unprecedented reliance on artificial intelligence that is, at least partially, supplied by American tech giants. Israel’s use of AI in surveillance and wartime decisions has been documented and criticized time and again by various media and advocacy organizations over the years.
“AI systems, and generative AI models in particular, are notoriously flawed with high error rates for any application that requires precision, accuracy, and safety-criticality,” Dr. Heidy Khlaaf, chief AI scientist at the AI Now Institute, told Gizmodo. “AI outputs are not facts; they’re predictions. The stakes are higher in the case of military activity, as you’re now dealing with lethal targeting that impacts the life and death of individuals.”
AI that generates kill lists
Although Israel has not disclosed its intelligence software fully and denied some of the AI usage claims, numerous media and non-profit investigations paint a different picture.
Also used in Israel’s 2021 campaign were two other programs called “Alchemist,” which sends real-time alerts for “suspicious movement,” and “Depth of Wisdom” to map out Gaza’s tunnel network. Both are reportedly in use this time around, as well.
On top of the three programs Israel has previously openly owned up to using, the IDF also utilizes Lavender, an AI system that essentially generates a kill list of Palestinians. The AI calculates a percentage score for how likely a Palestinian is to be a member of a militant group. If the score is high, the person becomes the target of missile attacks.
According to a report from Israeli magazine +972, the army “almost completely relied” on the system at least in the early weeks of the war, with full knowledge of the fact that it misidentified civilians as terrorists.
The IDF required officers to approve any of the recommendations made by the AI systems, but according to +972, that approval process just checked whether or not the target was male.
Many other AI systems that are in use by the IDF are still in the shadows. One of the few programs also unveiled is “Where’s Daddy?” which was built to strike targets inside their family homes, according to +972.
“The IDF bombed [Hamas operatives] in homes without hesitation, as a first option. It’s much easier to bomb a family’s home. The system is built to look for them in these situations,” an anonymous Israeli intelligence officer told +972.
AI in surveillance
The Israeli army also uses AI in its mass surveillance efforts. Yossi Sariel, who led the IDF’s surveillance unit until late last year when he resigned, citing failure to prevent the Oct 7. Hamas attack, spent a sabbatical year training at a Pentagon-funded defense institution in Washington, D.C., where he shared radical visions of AI on the battlefield, according to a professor at the institute who spoke to the Washington Post last year.
A Guardian report from August found that Israel was storing and processing mobile phone calls made by Palestinians via Microsoft’s Azure Cloud Platform. After months of protests, Microsoft announced last month that it is cutting off access to some of its services provided to an IDF unit after an internal review found evidence that supported some of the claims in the Guardian article.
Microsoft denies prior knowledge, but the Guardian report paints a different picture. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella met with IDF’s spying operations head Sariel in late 2021 to discuss hosting intelligence material on the Microsoft cloud, the Guardian reported.
“The vast majority of Microsoft’s contract with the Israeli military remains intact,” Hossam Nasr, an organizer with No Azure for Apartheid and a former Microsoft worker, told Gizmodo last month.
When asked for comment, Microsoft directed Gizmodo to a previous statement the tech giant made on the ongoing internal investigation into how its products are used by Israel’s Ministry of Defense.
On top of storing and combing through data, AI was used in translating and transcribing the gathered surveillance. But an internal Israeli audit, according to the Washington Post, found that some of the AI models that the IDF used to translate communications from Arabic had inaccuracies.
An Associated Press investigation from earlier this year found that advanced AI models by OpenAI, purchased via Microsoft’s Azure, were used to transcribe and translate the intercepted communications. The investigation also found that the Israeli military’s use of OpenAI and Microsoft technology skyrocketed after Oct 7, 2023.
AI-driven surveillance efforts don’t just target residents of Gaza and the West Bank, but they have also been used against pro-Palestinian protestors in the United States. An Amnesty International report from August found that AI products by American companies like Palantir were used by the Department of Homeland Security to target non-citizens who speak out for Palestinian rights.
“Palantir has had federal contracts with DHS for fourteen years. DHS’s current engagement with Palantir is through Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where the company provides solutions for investigative case management and enforcement operations,” a DHS spokesperson told Gizmodo. “At the Department level, DHS looks holistically at technology and data solutions that can meet operational and mission demands.”
Palantir has not yet responded to a request for comment.
AI-driven accusations
The proliferation of AI-generated video and images has done more than just flood the internet with slop. It has also caused widespread confusion for social media users over just what’s real and what’s fake. The confusion is understandable, but it has been co-opted to discredit the voices of the oppressed. In this case, too, Gazans have been at the receiving end of the attacks.
The videos and photos coming out of Gaza are referred to in Israel as “Gazawood”, with many claiming that the images are staged or completely AI-generated. Since Israel has not allowed foreign journalists into Gaza and not only discredits but also disproportionately targets the enclave’s journalists in air strikes, the truth becomes harder to validate.
In one instance, Saeed Ismail, a real 22-year-old Gazan who had been raising money online to feed his family, was accused of being AI-generated due to misspelled words on his blanket featured in one video. Gizmodo verified his existence in July.
American big tech is leading the way
While Israeli tech startups find a sizable market in the U.S. and deals with government agencies like ICE, the relationship goes both ways.
It’s tough to precisely map out which American companies have fed the technology used to target and kill Palestinians. But what is available is which Big Tech companies proudly partner with the Israeli army. And the answer to that question is almost all of them.
Microsoft has received much of the recent attention from activists, but Google, Amazon, and Palantir are considered some of the other top American third-party vendors for the IDF.
Google and Amazon employees have been protesting for years over “Project Nimbus,” a $1.2 billion contract signed in 2021 that tasks the American tech giants with providing cloud computing and AI services to the Israeli military.
Amazon suspended an engineer last month for emailing the CEO, Andy Jassy, about the project and speaking out against it in company Slack channels.
Although Google has also clamped down on employee criticism, when the deal was signed in 2021, Google officials themselves raised concerns that the cloud services could be used for human rights violations against Palestinians, according to a 2024 New York Times report.
The Israeli military also requested access to Google’s Gemini as recently as last November, according to a Washington Post report.
Palantir, which offers software like the Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) that analyzes enemy targets and proposes battle plans, agreed to a strategic partnership with the IDF to supply its technology to “the current situation in Israel,” Palantir executive vice president Josh Harris told Bloomberg last year.
Palantir has been under fire globally for its partnership with the Israeli army. Late last year, a major Norwegian investor sold all of its Palantir holdings due to concerns of international human rights law violations. The investing company said that an analysis indicated that Palantir aided an AI-based IDF system that ranked Palestinians based on the likelihood to launch “lone wolf terrorist” attacks, which then led to preemptive arrests.
CEO Alex Karp has stood behind the company’s decision to back Israel in its war against Gazans many times.
The IDF has also inked data center deals with Cisco and Dell, and a cloud computing deal with independent IBM subsidiary Red Hat.
“IBM holds human rights and freedoms in the highest regard, and we are deeply committed to conducting our business with integrity, guided by our robust ethical standards,” IBM told Gizmodo. “As for the UN report, most of its claims are inaccurate and should not be treated as fact.”
Cisco, Dell, Google, Amazon, and OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.
In August, the Washington Post unveiled a 38-page alleged plan for Gaza to become a U.S.-operated tech hub.
Called the Gaza, Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust (or GREAT), the plan involves “temporarily relocating” the remaining two million or so Palestinians to build six to eight AI-powered smart cities, regional data centers to serve Israel, and something called “The Elon Musk Smart Manufacturing Zone.” The plan would convert Gaza into a “trusteeship” administered by the U.S. for at least 10 years.
Future of AI warfare and surveillance
AI companies want in on the battlefield.
There is a huge demand by militaries around the globe for the AI systems provided by tech giants. America is pouring out millions of dollars to integrate AI systems into military decision-making, like identifying strike targets as part of its Thunderforge program. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has also reportedly made military artificial intelligence a top strategic priority.
As the technology is still in its growing phase, the active war zones and the civilians living there become test subjects for AI-powered killing machines. Similar to Gaza, Ukraine has also been described as a real-time testing ground for AI-powered military technology. In that case, though, the Ukrainian government themselves are also on board with it.
Over the summer, the Ukrainian military announced “Test in Ukraine,” a scheme that invites foreign arms companies to test out their latest weapons on the front lines of the Russia-Ukraine war.
On top of its abundant deals with the Israeli army, Palantir is also very popular with the American Department of Defense. The company inked a $10 billion software and data contract with the U.S. Army in August.
One could argue that profit will always override every other incentive, but even Palantir drew a line recently when asked to participate in a controversial UK digital identification program, arguing that the program needed to be “decided at the ballot box,” according to the Times.
We’ve seen tech companies back away from military projects, like Project Maven, in the past when they felt the cultural winds blowing against them. For now, the Trump administration wants Americans leading the way on the AI battlefield. While external criticism and internal pressure from employees still exist at the biggest AI firms, they currently have a plausible argument that this is what the American people voted for. Until that changes, the gold rush for military funds will persist.
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Rhett Jones
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Who are the hostages Israel believes are still alive?
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TEL AVIV, Israel — Their faces stare down from every street corner in Israel on posters now sun-faded and ripped. Their stories, told by anguished family members, are almost as well-known as celebrities. They are civilians and soldiers, fathers and sons. Some were at the Nova music festival, where almost 400 people were killed and dozens kidnapped.
The latest ceasefire, which began Friday, marks a key step toward ending a ruinous two-year war that was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, when some 1,200 people were killed and 251 kidnapped.
The fighting has killed 67,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half the deaths were women and children, and displaced around 90% of the Gaza population of some 2 million. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, and the United Nations and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties in Gaza.
There are currently 48 hostages being held in Gaza, including the body of one soldier from a previous war. Israel has determined that at least 25 of the hostages were killed on Oct. 7, 2023, or died while in captivity. It is unclear how many of the remaining around 20 hostages are still alive and will return to Israel. There is only one remaining female hostage, who Israel believes was killed in captivity.
With the start of the ceasefire on Friday, the remaining hostages are expected to be released within 72 hours. Israel is set to release around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange.
Here is a look at 22 hostages Israel believes are still alive.
Matan Angrest, 22
Matan Angrest, an Israeli soldier, was kidnapped from his military tank in southern Israel. He is the oldest of four children from Kiryat Bialik, outside of Haifa. His family has been among the most vocal protesters and very critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Tuesday’s two-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack, his mother, Anat Angrest, addressed her son at a rally. “I know you’re in pain, and I can’t hug you. I hear you whisper, ‘Come for me, Mom,’ and I can’t protect you,” she said.
Gali Berman & Ziv Berman, 28
The fraternal twins were taken from their homes in kibbutz Kfar Aza, on the border with Gaza, during the Oct. 7 attack. Seventeen others were also abducted from Kfar Aza, but the Berman twins are the only hostages from the kibbutz who remain in captivity. The family has heard from hostages who returned in a previous deal that, as of February, the brothers were alive but being held separately. Liran Berman, their older brother, said it’s the longest the two have ever spent apart. In Kfar Aza, the twins lived in apartments across from each other. Gali is more outgoing, while Ziv is more reserved and shy with a sharp sense of humor, their brother said.
Elkana Bohbot, 36
Elkana Bohbot was kidnapped from the Nova music festival. In the past year, Hamas has published multiple videos of Bohbot, filmed under duress, including one where he has a fake telephone conversation with his wife, Rivka; their son, Reem; his mother and his brother – pleading with them to help him get out of Gaza. His son made binoculars in kindergarten which he often uses to go out and “look for his father,” according to Bohbot’s mother, Ruhama.
Rom Braslavski, 21
Braslavski was working as a security guard at the Nova festival. He attempted to help festival goers evacuate and was wounded in both hands before being kidnapped, witnesses said. In August, the Islamic Jihad militant group released a video of a skeletal Braslavski sobbing and pleading for his life, adding that injuries to his foot prevent him from standing. The videos of Braslavski and Evyatar David digging his own grave horrified Israelis, sparking some of the largest attendance in months at weekly protests. His father, Ofir, said Rom is usually a strong, happy-go-lucky kid, and that video is the first time he’s seen his son cry.
Nimrod Cohen, 21
Nimrod Cohen was kidnapped from a tank where he was stationed as a soldier in southern Israel. Cohen is obsessed with Rubik’s cubes, his family said, and a burned Rubik’s cube was found in the tank he was abducted from. This year, his mother, Viki Cohen, illustrated a Passover haggadah, the text laying out the rituals and story recited during the Passover holiday, in honor of hostages, partly because her family has stopped celebrating holidays since the attack. “We don’t gather as a family, because it reminds us how much he is missing,” Cohen said. The only time the extended family gathers is at protests, she said.
Ariel Cunio, 28
The youngest of four Cunio brothers, Ariel was kidnapped from the Nir Oz kibbutz with his girlfriend, Arbel Yehoud, and her brother, Dolev, a married father of four who was later killed in captivity. According to news reports, Cunio and Yehoud had returned from an extended trip to South America weeks before the attack and had just adopted a puppy. Yehoud was released during the ceasefire in January.
David Cunio, 35
David Cunio, brother of Ariel Cunio, was kidnapped with his wife, Sharon, and their 3-year-old twins from the Nir Oz kibbutz. Sharon’s sister Danielle and her 5-year-old daughter, who were visiting, also were kidnapped. All were released in November, except for David Cunio. In July, Sharon shared a photo of the twins marking their fifth birthday, their second without their father, writing on Facebook that the girls have changed so much while he’s been in captivity that “they’re not the same little girls he knew.”
Evyatar David, 24
Evyatar David was taken hostage at the Nova music festival along with his childhood friend, Guy Gilboa-Dalal. In August, Hamas released a video of David, gaunt and pale, who said he was digging his own grave. The condition of the hostages in the videos horrified Israelis and led tens of thousands of protesters to take to the streets and demand a ceasefire deal, in one of the largest turnouts for the weekly hostage protests in months.
Guy Gilboa-Dalal, 24
Guy Gilboa-Dalal was among those abducted from the Nova music festival, while his brother managed to escape. In the past year, he’s appeared in two videos released by Hamas. In one, he appears alongside his childhood friend, David, with militants filming them pleading for their freedom in a vehicle while they watch three other hostages on stage being released to the Red Cross.
Maksym Harkin, 37
Maksym Harkin was abducted from Nova, which was the first festival he had ever attended, according to his family. Harkin was born in Ukraine and moved to Israel with his family, where he lived in Tirat HaCarmel in the north. He has a 3-year-old daughter and was the primary provider for his mother and 11-year-old brother. Just before he was taken, his mother said he sent a final text message that said, “I love you.” In July, Hamas released a video of him filmed under duress several months prior.
Eitan Horn, 38
Eitan Horn, originally from Kfar Saba, was visiting his brother Iair at the Nir Oz kibbutz on Oct. 7. Both were kidnapped. For most of the war, the two were held with three other hostages in a filthy cell underground. In early February, militants filmed the emotional interaction between the brothers as they were told that Iair would be released and Eitan would stay in Gaza. Since his release, Iair Horn has campaigned for his brother and the other hostages, flying frequently to the United States and meeting with politicians.
Bipin Joshi, 24
Bipin Joshi arrived in Israel from his native Nepal a month before the attack. He is the only non-Israeli hostage believed to be alive in Gaza. He came to Israel on a student exchange to work and study agriculture at kibbutz Alumim on the Gaza border. Ten of the 17 Nepali students in the program were killed during the attack. Joshi, who was able to throw a number of live grenades out of the bomb shelter where they were hiding, was injured and kidnapped. Joshi’s sister, 17-year-old Pushpa Joshi, regularly travels eight hours each direction on buses to Kathmandu from her home in western Nepal to lobby officials to secure her brother’s release. In August, his family traveled to Israel to meet with President Isaac Herzog and join families demonstrating in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square.
Segev Kalfon, 27
Segev Kalfon was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, where he was last seen attempting to flee militants along the highway. Before the attack, he worked at his family’s bakery in Dimona, in southern Israeli. The middle child of three, Kalfon had recently been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, a condition his family has highlighted in urging his release. Kalfon’s family received a sign of life from him after the last ceasefire, when some of the hostages said they were held with him for months. Kalfon’s family has focused on religious rituals in their fight for his release, including traveling to the grave of prominent rabbis and dedicating a Torah scroll in his honor.
Bar Kupershtein, 23
Bar Kupershtein was working at the Nova festival as a security guard when he was abducted. Witnesses said Kupershtein stayed at the festival to try to provide first aid to people who had been shot and injured. Kupershtein was the main financial support for his family after his father was severely injured in an accident several years ago, his aunt, Ora Rubinstein, told reporters. She said that his father worked with a physical therapist to regain the ability to speak, so he could meet with politicians to advocate for his son’s release. He has told the family that he will walk again when his son comes home, she said.
Omri Miran, 48
Omri Miran was kidnapped from the Nahal Oz kibbutz. During the attack, militants held his family, including his two daughters, ages 2 and 6 months, hostage in the kitchen of a neighbor’s house and then broadcast it on Facebook Live. Miran and the father of the other family, Tsachi Idan, were kidnapped. Idan’s body was released during the last hostage exchange after he was killed in captivity. Lishay Miran Lavi, Miran’s wife, said their younger daughter knows “daddy Omri” only through photos and videos, and doesn’t really understand what a father is.
Eitan Mor, 25
Eitan Mor was working as a security guard at the Nova music festival, where he helped evacuate people injured in the attack. Mor’s parents helped found the Tikva Forum, a loosely organized group of hostage families. They advocated for military pressure, not an immediate ceasefire or hostage release deal, as the best chance for bringing the hostages home. That stance has put Mor’s father at odds with many of the other families of hostages.
Tamir Nimrodi, 20
Tamir Nimrodi was kidnapped from Erez, a crossing on the northern border of Gaza that had been the main route for people entering and leaving the territory. He had been serving with the Israeli defense body overseeing humanitarian aid in Gaza. Nimrodi was kidnapped with two other soldiers by militants who walked them to the Gaza gate and forced them to cross. Israel confirmed the deaths of the two soldiers who were kidnapped with Nimrodi. There has been no sign of life from Nimrodi in the two years since he was seen in footage walking into Gaza in shorts and a T-shirt without his glasses. Herut Nimrodi, his mother, has said she doesn’t know what is worse: to think he has been killed in captivity, or that he’s alive but being held in terrible conditions. “I’m scared to even imagine,” she said.
Yosef-Chaim Ohana, 25
Yosef-Chaim Ohana was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, where he was working as a bartender. Witnesses saw him attempting to help others escape before he was kidnapped. He is the oldest of three brothers, one of whom previously died from an illness.
Alon Ohel, 24
Alon Ohel, who also has German and Serbian citizenship, was kidnapped at the Nova music festival from a mobile bomb shelter along with Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American-Israeli who was killed in captivity in August 2024. A talented pianist, his family has placed pianos across Israel and several sites around the world to raise awareness of his plight. Three other hostages who had been held with Ohel for more than a year were released during the previous ceasefire, including Eli Sharabi, who said Ohel was like his adopted son. Sharabi said they were kept chained for the entire period of their captivity and subsisted on a moldy pita per day. Ohel has shrapnel in his eye from the attack on the bomb shelter and his family is worried he may be partially blind.
Avinatan Or, 32
Avinatan Or was kidnapped from the Nova music festival along with his girlfriend, Noa Argamani, who was rescued by Israeli forces in June 2024. On Oct. 7, Hamas released a video of the pair that has become one of the most well-known videos from that day. It showed Argamani on an all-terrain vehicle crying, “Don’t kill me!” and reaching out her arms to Or, who is being marched away from her by militants. Or worked in hi-tech in Tel Aviv before his abduction.
Matan Zangauker, 25
Matan Zangauker was kidnapped from kibbutz Nir Oz along with his girlfriend, Ilana Gritzewsky. The two met while working on a medical cannabis farm there. Gritzewsky was released after 55 days and has since advocated tirelessly for his release, wearing a hat of Zangauker’s she rescued from their burned home. His mother, Einav, has been a constant presence at protests, giving impassioned speeches and even being hoisted in a cage above the crowd to draw attention to the hostages’ plight. Zangauker, who said she was previously a Netanyahu supporter, has emerged as one of his harshest critics. ___
Associated Press writer Sam Metz contributed from Jerusalem.
Copyright © 2025 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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Middle East peace deal opens the door to Donald Trump’s vanity | Opinion
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Maybe praise for our Nobel Prize-worthy peacemaker president can turn his flaws into an addiction to being a legit history-making leader.
USA Today Network file photo
Donald Trump is a vain person who seeks outside validation and is deeply vulnerable to baseless flattery. He thinks putting lots of gold in the Oval Office makes it more awe-inspiring, as if the achievements of the people who put the president there are not enough, as visitors might misjudge American might without coating it in 24-karat leaf.
The fact that Trump spent months brazenly panting after the Nobel Peace Prize is only the most obvious evidence of these character flaws. They may be the best thing about him.
Now that Trump might actually deserve such accolades for a 20-point peace plan that has delivered on the first five points including a Gaza ceasefire and the first phase of an Israeli withdrawal days before the mutual release of hostages and prisoners, it might be smart for Democrats, our allies and those with loud opinionated voices in the media to take advantage of Trump’s vanity.
Let us teach him what praise is like when it is truly deserved. Let us teach him what it is like to be regarded as a world historic figure for positive — and presidential — reasons like making peace in the Middle East, instead of being the vanguard of plodding global authoritarianism.
There’s some signs that those with the loudest trumpets are not getting this tune. Barack Obama’s statement on the matter is a case in point:
“After two years of unimaginable loss and suffering for Israeli families and the people of Gaza, we should all be encouraged and relieved that an end to the conflict is within sight; that those hostages still being held will be reunited with their families; and that vital aid can start reaching those inside Gaza whose lives have been shattered. More than that, though, it now falls on Israelis and Palestinians, with the support of the U.S. and the entire world community, to begin the hard task of rebuilding Gaza — and to commit to a process that, by recognizing the common humanity and basic rights of both peoples, can achieve a lasting peace.”
You know what word is not in there? Trump. It is a fact that this achievement — fragile and preliminary as it is — would be nowhere without massive pressure from Trump. Without Trump’s masterful wielding of both American hard power and soft power in martialing an unprecedented international coalition for peace that was capable of pressuring a reluctant Israel, but more important a fanatical and suicidal Hamas, into getting to yes.
The truly Trumpian touch is how first son-in-law Jared Kushner’s smarmy relationships with petrodollar-rich Arab states and the Donald’s reckless disregard for democratic norms, may have been the keys to building enough trust among a coalition of Israel’s corrupt, authoritarian neighbors to make peace a reality. Turkey’s Erdogan and Egypt’s el-Sisi would fall in line only for one of their own.
If the Democrats, never-Trump Republicans, our neighbors and traditional allies avoid Obama’s partisan error and give Trump enough credit for his triumph, we may be able to do two critical things.
One, we can keep his eye on the ball in the Middle East as he seeks more praise.
The next phase of the 20-point plan is the most painful for Israel and Hamas. Israel must give amnesty to the collection of thugs, terrorists and propagandists who have spent decades plotting Jewish genocide that culminated in the war crimes of Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas must give up its power and arms, and at least some of its members must leave Gaza altogether.
To make that a reality will require more of a miracle than the ceasefire we already have in place.
Second, perhaps we can get Trump addicted to the right kind of attention. Perhaps he can turn his unique mind toward making the smart moves for a successful resolution of the Ukraine war and the longer-term Vladimir Putin problem that threatens NATO. It doesn’t have to take long to turn things around.
Longer-term, perhaps we can induce Trump to focus his unique gift for asymmetrical diplomacy on facing down China in Asia through an unprecedented combination of trade, economic and military moves that could undermine Beijing’s dangerous rise to global power.
Washington’s bipartisan consensus foreign policy has failed so far.
Maybe the prospect of ending his term as the unexpected Nobel laureate president who actually deserved his prize could turn Trump’s attention away from the destructive folly of so many of his domestic policies.
I know, that’s a big maybe, but overestimating the power of Trump’s vanity is the least of the dangers he brings to our republic.
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David Mastio
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Middle East peace deal opens the door to Donald Trump’s vanity | Opinion
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Maybe praise for our Nobel Prize-worthy peacemaker president can turn his flaws into an addiction to being a legit history-making leader.
USA Today Network file photo
Donald Trump is a vain person who seeks outside validation and is deeply vulnerable to baseless flattery. He thinks putting lots of gold in the Oval Office makes it more awe-inspiring, as if the achievements of the people who put the president there are not enough, as visitors might misjudge American might without coating it in 24-karat leaf.
The fact that Trump spent months brazenly panting after the Nobel Peace Prize is only the most obvious evidence of these character flaws. They may be the best thing about him.
Now that Trump might actually deserve such accolades for a 20-point peace plan that has delivered on the first five points including a Gaza ceasefire and the first phase of an Israeli withdrawal days before the mutual release of hostages and prisoners, it might be smart for Democrats, our allies and those with loud opinionated voices in the media to take advantage of Trump’s vanity.
Let us teach him what praise is like when it is truly deserved. Let us teach him what it is like to be regarded as a world historic figure for positive — and presidential — reasons like making peace in the Middle East, instead of being the vanguard of plodding global authoritarianism.
There’s some signs that those with the loudest trumpets are not getting this tune. Barack Obama’s statement on the matter is a case in point:
“After two years of unimaginable loss and suffering for Israeli families and the people of Gaza, we should all be encouraged and relieved that an end to the conflict is within sight; that those hostages still being held will be reunited with their families; and that vital aid can start reaching those inside Gaza whose lives have been shattered. More than that, though, it now falls on Israelis and Palestinians, with the support of the U.S. and the entire world community, to begin the hard task of rebuilding Gaza — and to commit to a process that, by recognizing the common humanity and basic rights of both peoples, can achieve a lasting peace.”
You know what word is not in there? Trump. It is a fact that this achievement — fragile and preliminary as it is — would be nowhere without massive pressure from Trump. Without Trump’s masterful wielding of both American hard power and soft power in martialing an unprecedented international coalition for peace that was capable of pressuring a reluctant Israel, but more important a fanatical and suicidal Hamas, into getting to yes.
The truly Trumpian touch is how first son-in-law Jared Kushner’s smarmy relationships with petrodollar-rich Arab states and the Donald’s reckless disregard for democratic norms, may have been the keys to building enough trust among a coalition of Israel’s corrupt, authoritarian neighbors to make peace a reality. Turkey’s Erdogan and Egypt’s el-Sisi would fall in line only for one of their own.
If the Democrats, never-Trump Republicans, our neighbors and traditional allies avoid Obama’s partisan error and give Trump enough credit for his triumph, we may be able to do two critical things.
One, we can keep his eye on the ball in the Middle East as he seeks more praise.
The next phase of the 20-point plan is the most painful for Israel and Hamas. Israel must give amnesty to the collection of thugs, terrorists and propagandists who have spent decades plotting Jewish genocide that culminated in the war crimes of Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas must give up its power and arms, and at least some of its members must leave Gaza altogether.
To make that a reality will require more of a miracle than the ceasefire we already have in place.
Second, perhaps we can get Trump addicted to the right kind of attention. Perhaps he can turn his unique mind toward making the smart moves for a successful resolution of the Ukraine war and the longer-term Vladimir Putin problem that threatens NATO. It doesn’t have to take long to turn things around.
Longer-term, perhaps we can induce Trump to focus his unique gift for asymmetrical diplomacy on facing down China in Asia through an unprecedented combination of trade, economic and military moves that could undermine Beijing’s dangerous rise to global power.
Washington’s bipartisan consensus foreign policy has failed so far.
Maybe the prospect of ending his term as the unexpected Nobel laureate president who actually deserved his prize could turn Trump’s attention away from the destructive folly of so many of his domestic policies.
I know, that’s a big maybe, but overestimating the power of Trump’s vanity is the least of the dangers he brings to our republic.
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David Mastio
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Opinion | The Peace Deal Proves That Netanyahu’s Critics Were Wrong
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They kept insisting the prime minister was prolonging the war for political reasons.
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Elliot Kaufman
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Israeli military says ceasefire agreement in Gaza has taken effect
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A ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas for the Gaza Strip came into effect at noon local time, the Israeli military said Friday, adding that troops were withdrawing to agreed-upon deployment lines. The announcement came hours after Israel’s Cabinet approved President Donald Trump’s plan for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the release of the remaining hostages and of Palestinian prisoners.Tens of thousands of people who had gathered in Wadi Gaza in central Gaza in the morning started walking north after the military’s announcement at noon local time. Beforehand, Palestinians reported heavy shelling in parts of Gaza throughout Friday morning.The Israeli Cabinet’s approval of Trump’s plan marks a key step toward ending a ruinous two-year war that has destabilized the Middle East.A brief statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office early Friday said the Cabinet approved the “outline” of a deal to release the hostages, without mentioning other aspects of the plan that are more controversial.An Israeli security official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the withdrawal, said the military would control around 50% of Gaza in their new positions.Shelling continues through early hoursAfter the Cabinet approval, Gaza residents reported intensified shelling well into Friday morning.In central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, Mahmoud Sharkawy, one of the many people sheltering there after being displaced from Gaza City, said artillery shelling intensified in the early hours.“The shelling has significantly increased today,” said Sharkawy, adding that low flying military aircraft had been flying over central Gaza.In northern Gaza, two Gaza City residents told The Associated Press that bombing had been ongoing since the early hours, mostly artillery shelling.The managing director of Shifa hospital, Rami Mhanna, said the shelling in southern and northern Gaza City had not stopped following the Israeli Cabinet’s approval of the ceasefire plan.“It is confusing, we have been hearing shelling all night despite the ceasefire news,” said Heba Garoun, who fled her home in eastern Gaza City to another neighborhood in the city after her house was destroyed.Details of the dealA senior Hamas official and lead negotiator made a speech Thursday laying out what he said were the core elements of the ceasefire deal: Israel releasing around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, opening the border crossing with Egypt, allowing aid to flow and Israeli forces withdrawing.Khalil al-Hayya said all women and children held in Israeli jails will also be freed. He did not offer details on the extent of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.Al-Hayya said the Trump administration and mediators had given assurances that the war is over, and that Hamas and other Palestinian factions will now focus on achieving self-determination and establishing a Palestinian state.“We declare today that we have reached an agreement to end the war and the aggression against our people,” Al-Hayya said in a televised speech Thursday evening.To help support and monitor the ceasefire deal, U.S. officials said they would send about 200 troops to Israel as part of a broader, international team. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not authorized for release.
TEL AVIV, Israel —A ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas for the Gaza Strip came into effect at noon local time, the Israeli military said Friday, adding that troops were withdrawing to agreed-upon deployment lines. The announcement came hours after Israel’s Cabinet approved President Donald Trump’s plan for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the release of the remaining hostages and of Palestinian prisoners.
Tens of thousands of people who had gathered in Wadi Gaza in central Gaza in the morning started walking north after the military’s announcement at noon local time. Beforehand, Palestinians reported heavy shelling in parts of Gaza throughout Friday morning.
The Israeli Cabinet’s approval of Trump’s plan marks a key step toward ending a ruinous two-year war that has destabilized the Middle East.
A brief statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office early Friday said the Cabinet approved the “outline” of a deal to release the hostages, without mentioning other aspects of the plan that are more controversial.
An Israeli security official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the withdrawal, said the military would control around 50% of Gaza in their new positions.
Shelling continues through early hours
After the Cabinet approval, Gaza residents reported intensified shelling well into Friday morning.
In central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, Mahmoud Sharkawy, one of the many people sheltering there after being displaced from Gaza City, said artillery shelling intensified in the early hours.
“The shelling has significantly increased today,” said Sharkawy, adding that low flying military aircraft had been flying over central Gaza.
In northern Gaza, two Gaza City residents told The Associated Press that bombing had been ongoing since the early hours, mostly artillery shelling.
The managing director of Shifa hospital, Rami Mhanna, said the shelling in southern and northern Gaza City had not stopped following the Israeli Cabinet’s approval of the ceasefire plan.
“It is confusing, we have been hearing shelling all night despite the ceasefire news,” said Heba Garoun, who fled her home in eastern Gaza City to another neighborhood in the city after her house was destroyed.
Details of the deal
A senior Hamas official and lead negotiator made a speech Thursday laying out what he said were the core elements of the ceasefire deal: Israel releasing around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, opening the border crossing with Egypt, allowing aid to flow and Israeli forces withdrawing.
Khalil al-Hayya said all women and children held in Israeli jails will also be freed. He did not offer details on the extent of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Al-Hayya said the Trump administration and mediators had given assurances that the war is over, and that Hamas and other Palestinian factions will now focus on achieving self-determination and establishing a Palestinian state.
“We declare today that we have reached an agreement to end the war and the aggression against our people,” Al-Hayya said in a televised speech Thursday evening.
To help support and monitor the ceasefire deal, U.S. officials said they would send about 200 troops to Israel as part of a broader, international team. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not authorized for release.
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