Read Newsday&#39;s complete coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas.

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John Asbury

It’s been five weeks, 42 days to be exact, since more than 240 hostages were taken from their homes in Israel by Hamas militants&nbsp;during the Oct. 7 attacks. 
For Omer Neutra’s family in Plainview, that’s been five weeks without&nbsp;hearing from their son who was abducted on the Gaza border after he had gone to live in Israel after high school to connect to his family’s roots. 
“Omer grew up like any other kid on Long Island,” said a family friend, North Hempstead Councilwoman Veronica Lurvey. “Since then five Shabbat dinners have passed. Five weeks without a call or FaceTime, five weeks of uncertainty. For five weeks, Omer Neutra is being held somewhere in Gaza, along with approximately 240 other hostages … all held with little to no information.” 
Lurvey&nbsp;spoke at a program attended by nearly 1,000 supporters Friday,&nbsp;surrounding&nbsp;empty dinner tables in Blumenfeld Family Park in Port Washington, each with a place setting and a chair marked with posters of the missing. 
Neutra is one of 10 Americans believed held hostage by Hamas, among more than 240 hostages taken. A small number have been released and negotiations are&nbsp;underway for the release of others. Since the war began, 1,200 Israelis have been killed according to the Israeli government. In Gaza, 11,000 have died, many of them civilians, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.&nbsp; 
The missing were&nbsp;remembered on Long Island Friday with empty Shabbat tables and other displays, part of a worldwide trend to remember&nbsp;those abducted. 
At Temple Beth&nbsp;Am in Merrick after sunset, posters of hostages were arranged in the shape of a Star of David on the front lawn off Merrick Avenue, each accompanied by an empty pair of shoes and a tea light. 
“When I finally saw it, my heart almost stopped,” said the temple’s co-president Nicole Miller. “No matter where you stand on this war, I think we can all agree these hostages need to come home.” 
Ilona Posner, 44, of Merrick came to see the display with her husband and son as they surveyed the missing posters of children and teenagers. 
“It is very beautiful and solemn and it’s important to keep people thinking of kidnapped individuals,” she said. “ It’s horrific, and real, and it’s happening now in 2023.” 
<a class="p-smartembed" data-attr-caption="Jesse Feiner, 9, placing candle on table at Blumenfeld Family Park in Port Washington Friday to commemorate the Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas." data-attr-credit="" data-attr-has-caption="true" data-attr-has-credit="true" data-attr-q="0.3" data-attr-w="400" data-onecms-id="contentid/1ddf0dc7-bb0e-45f4-b508-1e21c8a9e2e2" data-onecms-type="image" href="javascript:window.parent.actionEventData({$contentId:'contentid/1ddf0dc7-bb0e-45f4-b508-1e21c8a9e2e2', $action:'view', $target:'work'})" polopoly:contentid="contentid/1ddf0dc7-bb0e-45f4-b508-1e21c8a9e2e2"><img src="/image-service/alias/contentid/1ddf0dc7-bb0e-45f4-b508-1e21c8a9e2e2/HES_3963.jpg?w=400&amp;q=0.3" />Jesse Feiner, 9, placing candle on table at Blumenfeld Family Park in Port Washington Friday to commemorate the Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas.</a> 
Another empty Shabbat table was set up&nbsp;on the lawn of the H. Lee Dennison county government building in Hauppauge Friday, and will remain there through Saturday, with evening prayers scheduled. 
In Port Washington, the installation, created by four Port Washington women,&nbsp;will remain in the park through the weekend, protected by police and security. The empty tables included booster seats, sippy cups and toys on the table next to untouched loaves of bread and grape juice, to represent the children kidnapped. 
“This was done in our own artistic and emotional way to set the Shabbat table to represent in a very human way what does 240 human being look like after they have been kidnapped,” said Aimee Elan, one of the organizers. “I think it becomes very real when it comes close to home and we have Omer who’s held hostage and the son of a family.”

Long Island

LIHOSTAGES231118

Empty tables, empty shoes mark absence of Hamas hostages at Long Island Shabbat services

Hamas hostages remembered in displays across Long Island 

liHOSTAGES231118_photos

Bart Jones

Interfaith work between Jews and Muslims 40&nbsp;years in the making at one mosque in Nassau County has nearly broken down. It's the same story at another interfaith group in Suffolk County. 
 The violence in Israel and Gaza is shattering relationships between Muslims and Jews who have been friends for years or decades. Many are struggling to hold onto those ties, though they acknowledge they have opposite viewpoints on the Middle East conflict. Others are resigning themselves to lost or frayed friendships and alliances. 
 “At this time, both of the communities don’t know how to address or how to talk, how to bring this topic up because there is grief, there is hurt, there is anger, there is frustration,&quot; said Isma Chaudhry, a longtime leader of interfaith work at the Islamic Center of Long Island, one of the oldest mosques on Long Island. &quot;And a narrative on both sides which is very different from the other’s narrative, which makes it even more complicated. 
 “Everybody is walking on eggshells at this time as much as we have built friendships, which are extremely valuable,” she added. 
 Amid the tensions, there are some&nbsp;signs of hope: a 41-year-old Muslim in Nassau County, for instance, said&nbsp;he went trick-or-treating with some Jewish friends and their children. 
 But there does not seem to be any easy fix as the violence continues, community leaders said. 
 Interfaith work at the Westbury mosque dates to the&nbsp;1980s, but has&nbsp;been nearly&nbsp;brought to a standstill, if not broken down completely, Chaudhry and other leaders said. Rabbis and Muslim leaders who were building bridges between the two faiths now have found it difficult at times to even talk. 
 “We are in different universes” regarding the situation in Israel and Gaza, said Rabbi Michael White, a longtime collaborator at the mosque who heads&nbsp;Temple Sinai synagogue in Roslyn. 
 Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people and taking about 240 hostages, according to Israeli officials.&nbsp;That has been followed by a counteroffensive by Israel that has left more than 10,000 Palestinians dead in Hamas-run Gaza, according to the Ministry of Health. The White House on Thursday&nbsp;said that Israel had agreed to four-hour humanitarian pauses to facilitate civilian evacuations. 
 “The Muslim-Jewish relationship that was built on interfaith and mutual respect, and tried our best within our faith constraints to be each other’s keepers, have really taken a tremendous hit with the current situation,” Chaudhry said. “Both sides are hurting. Both sides have lost dear family members.” 
 After a few weeks of little communication, the interfaith committee met recently. It did not go seamlessly. 
 Muslims immediately asked Jews to support a statement calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, White said. 
 “I explained to them why that was a nonstarter,” he said. “Hamas butchered, massacred our people, and their leadership, both political and military, have stated that they will not stop until they have eliminated Israel. 
 “So there’s no possibility of a cease-fire until Hamas is completely disarmed and has no more power,” he said. 
 For their part, Muslims thought the cease-fire was reasonable, since thousands of civilians, including children, are being killed by the Israeli bombings, Chaudhry said. 
 Amin Khwaja, president of the mosque, said he was “shocked but not surprised” the Jewish leaders would not agree to the cease-fire statement, since “the sentiments are so high right now … The faith should be advocating for peace, and there should be a protection for all civilians.” 
<h2> Focusing on local issues </h2> 
 In the end, the group agreed to focus on local concerns: antisemitic and anti-Muslim attacks against children in schools on Long Island. 
 “No child should be held accountable for geopolitical world crises that they had nothing to do with,” White said. “So we agreed to keep talking about local issues because we live in this community and we have work to do here. So that is a change, and a good one. We want to remain in relationships with each other. 
 “In spite of the differences, which are profound, I think there was a sense of relief that we can be in the same room together and we can talk things through, that our relationships are strong enough to be able to do that,” he added. 
 Another interfaith group, Abraham's Table, is undergoing similar struggles with members “caught between conflicting viewpoints and loyalties” and is striving to move forward, said its chairperson, Richard Koubek, a Catholic layperson. 
 The group since 2015 has tried to bring the three Abrahamic faiths — Judaism, Islam and Christianity — together to celebrate their common roots and build understanding and peace. 
 During the war, communication has become difficult, leaders said. The group has postponed one event, a panel discussion on how the three Abrahamic faiths view the concept of mercy.&nbsp; 
 “We don’t talk as much,” said Sadri Altinok, a Muslim who is vice chair of the group and is also president&nbsp;of the Turkish Cultural Center in Ronkonkoma. He added that his Jewish colleagues in the group “are understandably highly emotional” and not ready to converse. 
 The group is “not really ready to talk heart to heart,” he said. “We understand. They lost their friends and family.” 
 Koubek added that the mercy program was postponed “because the current situation in Israel and Gaza made it very difficult and painful for them to define what mercy means.” 
 The group issued a statement to Newsday signed by its Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders stating that it “has struggled with the war in Israel and Gaza. Despite the fact that members of the Abraham’s Table Steering Committee have had differences about the progress of the war, Abraham’s Table is uniformly concerned about the rise in hatred that the war generated.” 
 To that end, it plans to continue organizing efforts in neighborhoods to fight a rise in antisemitic, anti-Muslim and other acts of hate. 
<h2> Still, there are hopeful signs </h2> 
 Despite the tensions, some Long Islanders see signs of hope. They say they have not let the conflict affect or destroy their ties with people of the other faith, and that they are trying to keep events in the Middle East separate from their lives here. 
 Toufique Harun,&nbsp;a Muslim who lives in Albertson, said he has many Jewish friends, and went trick-or-treating with some of them and their children on Halloween, along with his own children. 
 “Everyone is definitely on edge. Maybe they are approaching each other with a certain degree of cautiousness,” he said. 
 But “all of us are a lot more similar than we are different. I have a whole bunch of Jewish friends, and some of them were the first ones to reach out to us” when the Israeli bombing of Gaza began, he said. 
 “If you want to think about Muslims and Jews that live together in peace with equal rights for all and have a great life — I live on Long Island, it happens here every day,” he said. 
 Other houses of worship say they have kept pushing forward with interfaith outreach. 
 Rabbi Howard Buechler of the Dix Hills Jewish Center said his synagogue still hopes to hold interfaith events for holiday seasons, including seder dinners that both Jews and Muslims can attend. 
 “What the terrorists try to do is have people look upon each other differently with fear and trepidation,” he said. “We can never give the terrorists victory in having us look with suspicion upon any neighbor. Our faiths are stronger and the bonds of faith cannot be hijacked by the Hamas terrorists.” 
 Some Long Island residents have encountered tensions within their own faith group. 
 Emily Kaufman, a clinical psychologist in Huntington who is Jewish, said she has “unlearned” some of what&nbsp;she was taught about Israel and Palestine, and tried to present&nbsp;some of the Palestinian perspective on the current conflict&nbsp;to relatives and close Jewish friends. 
 For instance, she had never learned that in 1948 when Israel was formed, 700,000&nbsp;Palestinians fled or were forcibly removed from their lands in what Palestinians still refer to as the Nakba —&nbsp;or &quot;catastrophe.&quot; 
 When she brings up such points with other Jews,&nbsp;it doesn’t always go smoothly. 
 “It can get very heated and very emotional. They are really hard conversations,” she said. Sometimes, “I’m breaking out into tears … It can become yelling matches.” 
 Harun said he has hope for younger generations of Long Islanders and Americans who grew up in a&nbsp;multicultural environment. Besides growing up with Jewish friends, he also had Jewish classmates at the University of Pennsylvania. 
 He was their designated “elevator man” during Sabbath each week when his Orthodox Jewish classmates were not allowed to use electricity. He pushed the buttons for them. 
 His friends in both religions agree “that no one should be killed, harmed, or anything like that, whether they are Israeli or Palestinian, whether they are Jewish or Muslim,” he said. 
 “A lot of the reasons these conflicts exist is that people can’t see the humanity of each other, and they talk past each other, and not talk with each other,” he said.

Religion

LIINTERFAITH231112

How Israel-Hamas war is impacting Jewish and Muslim relationships on Long Island

Israel-Hamas war tests interfaith bonds on LI

liINTERFAITH231112_photos

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Health officials and people trapped inside Gaza's largest hospital rejected Israel's claims that it was helping babies and others evacuate Sunday, saying fighting continued just outside the facility where incubators lay idle with no electricity and critical supplies were running out.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed urgent calls for a cease-fire unless it includes the release of all the nearly 240 hostages captured by Hamas in the Oct. 7 rampage that triggered the war.
A day after Netanyahu said Israel was bringing its “full force” with the aim of ending Hamas’ 16-year rule in Gaza, residents reported heavy airstrikes and shelling, including around Shifa Hospital. Israel, without providing evidence, has accused Hamas of concealing a command post inside and under the compound, allegations denied by Hamas and hospital staff.
“They are outside, not far from the gates,&quot; said Ahmed al-Boursh, a resident sheltering there.
The hospital's last generator ran out of fuel Saturday, leading to the deaths of three premature babies and four other patients, according to the Health Ministry. It said another 36 babies are at risk of dying.
Israel’s military asserted it placed 300 liters (79 gallons) of fuel near Shifa overnight for an emergency generator powering incubators for premature babies and coordinated the delivery with hospital officials. But the military said Hamas prevented the hospital from receiving the fuel.
A Health Ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qidra, disputed the account and also told Al Jazeera the fuel would not be enough to operate the generator an hour. “This is a mockery towards the patients and children,” Al-Qidra said.
Speaking to CNN, Netanyahu asserted that “100 or so” people had been evacuated from Shifa and that Israel had created safe corridors.
But Health Ministry Undersecretary Munir al-Boursh said Israeli snipers have deployed around Shifa, firing at any movement.
“There are wounded in the house, and we can’t reach them,&quot; he told Al Jazeera. “We can’t stick our heads out of the window.”
The military said troops would assist in moving babies on Sunday. But Medical Aid for Palestinians, a U.K.-based charity that has supported Shifa's neonatal intensive care unit, said transferring critically ill infants is complex. “With ambulances unable to reach the hospital ... and no hospital with capacity to receive them, there is no indication of how this can be done safely,&quot; CEO Melanie Ward said. 
The only option is for Israel to stop its assault and allow fuel into the hospital, Ward said.
The Health Ministry said there are 1,500 patients at Shifa, along with 1,500 medical personnel and between 15,000 and 20,000 people seeking shelter.
The president of Doctors Without Borders International, Christos Christou, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” it would take weeks to evacuate the patients.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on the social media platform X that Shifa has been without water for three days and “is not functioning as a hospital anymore.” Several humanitarian groups told The Associated Press they weren’t able to reach the hospital Sunday.
The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said another Gaza City hospital, Al-Quds, is “no longer operational” because it was out of fuel with 6,000 people trapped there. Gaza's sole power plant shut down a month ago, and Israel has barred fuel imports to prevent Hamas from using them.
One woman fleeing northern Gaza, Fedaa Shangan, said she'd had a cesarean section at Al-Quds: “The wound is still fresh.” She said the Israeli army near the hospital &quot;did not care about the presence of patients, children, women and the elderly. They did not care about anyone.”
Alarm was growing. “We do not want to see a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, people seeking medical care are caught in the crossfire,” President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told ABC’s “This Week.”
“Decisive international action is needed now to secure an immediate humanitarian cease-fire&quot; amid attacks on health care, the U.N. regional directors of the World Health Organization and others said in a statement, adding that more than half of Gaza’s hospitals are closed.
Muhammed Zaqout, director of hospitals in Gaza, said the Health Ministry has been unable to update the death toll since Friday as medics are unable to reach areas hit by Israeli bombardment. 
About 2.3 million Palestinians remain in the besieged territory.
Netanyahu has said the responsibility for any harm to civilians lies with Hamas. Israel has long accused the group, which operates in dense residential neighborhoods, of using civilians as human shields.
EVACUATION WINDOWS, BUT NO PAUSES
The U.S. has pushed for temporary pauses that would allow for wider distribution of badly needed aid to civilians in the territory, where conditions are increasingly dire. 
But Israel has only agreed to brief daily periods during which civilians can flee ground combat in northern Gaza and head south on foot along two main roads. Israel continues to strike what it says are militant targets across southern Gaza, often killing women and children.
Hospital officials said at least 13 were killed after an Israeli airstrike in the southern town of Khan Younis.
The war has displaced over two-thirds of Gaza's population. 
Wael Abu Omar, spokesperson for Gaza’s border crossings, said 846 people left Gaza to Egypt through the Rafah crossing Sunday. Nearly all were foreigners while a few were patients from Gaza’s hospitals and their caretakers.
He said 76 aid trucks entered Gaza. The U.N. and partners have said much more were needed daily.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on X that he asked European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to apply the same “legal, moral grounds” for EU support of Ukraine to “define its stand on Israel’s war crimes.”
More than 11,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. About 2,700 people have been reported missing.
At least 1,200 people have been killed on the Israeli side, mostly civilians killed in the initial Hamas attack. The Israeli military said two more of its soldiers were killed in Gaza, bringing the total to 48 since the ground offensive began.
About 250,000 Israelis have evacuated from communities near Gaza, where Palestinian militants are still firing barrages of rockets, and along the northern border with Lebanon.
NETANYAHU REJECTS U.S. POSTWAR VISION
Netanyahu has begun to outline Israel’s postwar plans for Gaza, which contrast sharply with the vision of the United States.
He said Gaza would be demilitarized and Israel would retain the ability to enter Gaza freely to hunt down militants. He rejected the idea that the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, would at some stage control Gaza. 
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the U.S. opposes an Israeli reoccupation of Gaza and envisions a unified Palestinian government in Gaza and the West Bank as a step toward a Palestinian state, long opposed by Netanyahu’s government.
The war threatens to trigger a wider conflict, with Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon trading fire along the border. Attacks by Hezbollah on Sunday wounded seven Israeli troops and 10 others, Israel’s military and rescue services said.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Amy Teibel in Jerusalem and Kareem Chehayeb and Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.

Nation/World

AP-ML-Israel-Palestinians, 22nd Ld-Writethru

Heavy fighting rages near main Gaza hospital and people trapped inside say they cannot flee

Israel Palestinians

PARIS — More than 180,000 people across France, including 100,000 in Paris, marched peacefully on Sunday to protest against rising antisemitism in the wake of Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, representatives of several parties on the left, conservatives and centrists of President Emmanuel Macron's party as well as far-right leader Marine Le Pen attended Sunday’s march in the French capital amid tight security. Macron did not attend, but expressed his support for the protest and called on citizens to rise up against “the unbearable resurgence of unbridled antisemitism.” 
However, the leader of the far-left France Unbowed party, Jean-Luc Melenchon, stayed away from the march, saying last week on X, formerly Twitter, that the march would be a meeting of “friends of unconditional support for the massacre” in Gaza.
The interior ministry said at least 182,000 people marched in several in French cities in response to the call launched by the leaders of the parliament's upper and lower houses. No major incident has been reported, it said. 
Paris authorities deployed 3,000 police troops along the route of the protest called by the leaders of the Senate and parliament’s lower house, the National Assembly, amid an alarming increase in anti-Jewish acts in France since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas after its Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel.
France has the largest Jewish population in Europe, but given its own World War II collaboration with the Nazis, antisemitic acts today open old scars. 
Holding a French flag, Robert Fiel said marching against antisemitism is “more than a duty.”
“It's a march against violence, against antisemitism, against all (political extremes) that are infiltrating the society, to show that the silent majority does exist,” the 67-year-old said. 
Family members of some of the 40 French citizens killed in the initial Hamas attack, and of those missing or held hostage, also took part in the march, which Paris police said drew 105,000 participants. 
Patrick Klugman, a lawyer and a member of “Freethem” committee working to obtain the release of people held by Hamas and other groups in Gaza, said the large participation in the march is meaningful and symbolic in reassuring Jewish communities in France.
“I am very proud of my country because of this mobilization,” Klugman said. “I feel less alone than in the past weeks and days.” 
Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France known as CRIF said he was encouraged Sunday's show of support, but the question remains, he told French broadcaster BFM at the march, “what will be done (against antisemitism) tomorrow?” 
Tomer Sisley, an Israeli and French actor insisted the massive show of solidarity proves that majority of French citizens are against violence and hate against any religious and ethnic group. 
“We’re not Jews, we’re not Muslims, we’re not Christians,” Sisley said. &quot;We are French and we are here to show that we are all together.” 
French authorities have registered more than 1,000 acts against Jews around the country in the month since the conflict in the Middle East began. 
Former French president Francois Hollande said “there are many French flags in the protest but what unites us is not just a flag, it’s what it represents, it’s the value of freedom and the value of human dignity.&quot;
In a letter addressed to the French on Sunday, Macron vowed that perpetrators will be prosecuted and punished. 
“A France where our Jewish fellow citizens are afraid is not France,” Macron said in the letter, published in Le Parisien newspaper. He called on the country to remain “united behind its values ... and work for peace and security for all in the Middle East.”
Macron said he will attend “in my heart and in spirit,” but not in person. “My role is to build unity of the country and to be firm on values,” Macron said Saturday on the sidelines of Armistice Day commemorations to mark the end of World War I. 
 French far-right leader Marine Le Pen attended Sunday's march amid fierce criticism that her once-pariah National Rally party has failed to shake off its antisemitic heritage despite growing political legitimacy. 
After arriving to the march with the president of the party, Jordan Bardella, Le Pen dismissed critics and said that she and the party members are “exactly where we need to be.” She called on other politicians “to take a break from fomenting political controversies” during the march.
Le Pen and other far-right officials showed up at the end of the march, hundreds of meters away from government members and other officials who led the demonstration.
Borne, who is the daughter of a Jewish Holocaust survivor, tweeted “the presence of the National Rally is not fooling anyone.”
The president of the Paris region council, Val&eacute;rie P&eacute;cresse, a former conservative presidential candidate, denounced “hypocrisy,” saying that National Rally officials ran against her in past elections “who were clearly antisemitic people and Marine Le Pen never sanctioned them.”
As of Saturday, officials counted 1,247 antisemitic acts since Oct. 7, nearly three times as many as in the whole of 2022, according to the Interior Ministry. 
Sunday's march in Paris appears as the biggest gathering to denounce antisemitism in France since a 1990 demonstration against the desecration of a Jewish cemetery.
France has banned a number of pro-Palestinian demonstrations, although supporters have marched in several French cities in the past weeks, including thousands demanding a cease-fire in Gaza in a protest in Paris last Sunday. 
————
Surk contributed from Nice, France. Video journalist Nicholas Garriga in Paris contributed reporting.

AP-EU-France-March-Against-Antisemitism, 9th Ld-Writethru

More than 180,000 people across France march against soaring antisemitism amid the Israel-Hamas war

France March Against Antisemitism

Lorena Mongelli

Six people were detained by police&nbsp;but only two were arrested&nbsp;during a pro-Palestinian protest at Grand Central Terminal on Friday night,&nbsp;according to the NYPD. 
 Police said a 28-year old man was charged with obstructing governmental administration and harassment and a 34-year-old man was charged with assault and resisting arrest. Three people also&nbsp;received summonses for disorderly conduct, police said in an email.&nbsp; 
 A 17-year old, who was among the six people taken into custody, received a juvenile report for climbing a light pole and removing and damaging several flags on the pole, according to the&nbsp;NYPD. 
 Demonstrators&nbsp;first convened at Columbus Circle and later&nbsp;marched&nbsp;to Grand Central Terminal where roughly 1,200 participants gathered.&nbsp;Access to the terminal was limited as a result and the Long Island Rail Road&nbsp;advised riders to travel to and from Penn Station instead.&nbsp; 
 Access to Grand Central was restored about 11:45 p.m. Friday. 
 The NYPD confirmed the protesters were affiliated with the group Within Our Lifetime, which according to social media is a Palestinian community-led organization. The group&nbsp;promoted Friday's rally on several social media platforms,&nbsp;stating, &quot;Flood Manhattan for Gaza.&quot;&nbsp; 
 Friday's&nbsp;rally was the latest in a series of demonstrations that have taken place across New York City&nbsp;since&nbsp;the Israel-Hamas war broke out last month. 
 With Michael O'Keeffe

New York

nyGRAND231111

1,200 pro-Palestinian protesters block access to Grand Central Terminal; 2 arrested

Grand Central Terminal access blocked by 1,200 pro-Palestinian protesters

nyGRAND231111_photos

Robert Brodsky

Jewish people&nbsp;on Long Island are applying for pistol licenses and receiving training to obtain concealed carry permits in increasing&nbsp;numbers since Hamas’ deadly attack on Israeli citizens — a sign that many fear a growing wave of antisemitism could turn violent, according to local firearms instructors and law enforcement agencies. 
 More than 1,400&nbsp;Israelis, primarily civilians, were killed in the surprise Oct. 7 attack, including at least 31 American citizens, while about 240 others&nbsp;were taken hostage. More than 340 Israeli soldiers have died in the weeks since the&nbsp;attacks, according to Israeli officials, while the Ministry of Health in Hamas-run&nbsp;Gaza has reported that more than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed.&nbsp; 
 The Oct. 7 assaults, including on <a href="https://www.newsday.com/entertainment/music/hamas-attack-at-music-festival-led-to-chaos-and-frantic-attempts-to-escape-or-hide-ne9bumsa">children and the elderly</a>, have been followed by a<a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/education/racial-bias-incidents-antisemitism-school-districts-rcx94dah"> steep rise in antisemitic incidents</a> in the region and beyond and have&nbsp;left some Long Island Jews, many of whom were traditionally averse to firearms, shaken and seeking protection for their families, firearms experts and community members said.&nbsp; 
 Lisa Ludwig, who is Jewish, a certified pistol instructor and president of She Trains You in West Babylon, said she’s been inundated with requests from Jews in Nassau and Suffolk counties&nbsp;seeking concealed carry permits. 
 “They’re all petrified,” Ludwig said. “ … They’re coming to me and saying, ‘Enough is enough. I really would like to arm and train&nbsp;myself.’ They feel like they’re behind the eight-ball and have to be their own heroes. They’re finally waking up to what’s going on and are aware that this can happen here. Which it could.” 
 Data from local police departments in the weeks since Oct. 7 shows a significant&nbsp;increase in pistol license applications, although it's unclear precisely how many are coming from Jewish Long Islanders. 
 In a landmark decision last year, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down New York’s century-old&nbsp;law that required a judge to determine that an applicant had a legitimate need to carry a concealed pistol or revolver outside the home. 
 Concealed carry permits now require 16 hours of in-person classroom instruction and two hours of supervised “live fire” training at a shooting range. 
 From Oct. 7 through Oct. 21, the Suffolk County Police Department received 169 pistol license applications, compared to 81 in the two weeks prior, according to data shared with Newsday. 
 The uptick was just as stark in Nassau. 
 Nassau police received 114 pistol applications between Oct. 9 and 20, compared to 57 applications from Sept. 25 to Oct. 6, department officials said. 
 The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, which processes just a handful of firearms applications each week in the five eastern towns, said it has seen a minor uptick in submitted applications, but Victoria DiStefano, a spokeswoman&nbsp;for the department, added that it often takes several weeks for individuals to fill out the 12-page questionnaire, which also includes four notarized character references. 
 Long Island firearms&nbsp;experts said it often can take more than a year for local police departments to process firearm&nbsp;applications. 
 By most estimates calculated by Jewish advocacy groups, there are more than 300,000 Jews living on Long Island, including about 19% of Nassau's population and roughly 8% of Suffolk's population. 
 Antisemitic incidents had been on the rise before the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and have increased significantly in the weeks since Oct. 7. 
 Preliminary data from the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism indicates that reported incidents of harassment, vandalism and assaults against Jews nationwide increased 388% since the Hamas attack&nbsp;compared to the same period last year. 
 According to<a href="https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/explorer/crime/hate-crime"> federal data</a>, there were&nbsp;351 antisemitic hate crimes in&nbsp;the state last year, the most among any racial or religious group. 
 Across Long Island, hate crimes jumped nearly 40% in the past year, the data shows,&nbsp;fueled by 30 bias crimes last year against Jews in Nassau and another five across Suffolk County. 
 For example,&nbsp;In Port Washington, a photo of three high school students doing the <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/education/port-washington-racist-antisemitic-remarks-ot4ull7p">Nazi salute</a>&nbsp;circulated on&nbsp;social media, authorities and school officials said. Meanwhile,&nbsp;East Hampton police are<a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/montauk-graffiti-swastikas-rcaz92s2"> investigating</a> the discovery of large swastikas and antisemitic graffiti&nbsp;at Ditch Plains Beach and in the downtown business district in Montauk while&nbsp;Nassau police are <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/crime/antisemitic-swastikas-east-meadow-tn50g9ir">investigating</a> two&nbsp;swastikas that were found in a classroom in East Meadow High School. 
<h2> Firearms instructor: They&nbsp;want to 'live in peace' </h2> 
 Matt Seifer, founder of Guardian Security Investigation &amp; Training in Deer Park, is a firearms dealer who trains Long Islanders in gun safety and helps them apply for both pistol and concealed carry permits. 
 In the two weeks immediately after the attack, Seifer said he assisted at least 30 members of the Jewish community applying for a pistol permit for the first time. 
 Many others, Seifer said, including rabbis and synagogue congregants, are seeking to obtain the mandatory 47 hours of firearms certification training needed to become registered as an armed guard and to&nbsp;be legally allowed to carry a firearm into a temple.&nbsp;One rabbi, Seifer said, plans to carry a pistol during his weekend temple services. 
 “Just like anybody else, they want basic human rights and to live in peace,” said Seifer, who is also Jewish. “But yet they also want to be able to respond to a dynamic emergency situation. It’s our job,&nbsp;my job to teach them the right, responsible, lawful way to do it.” 
 Local firearms instructors interviewed by Newsday said&nbsp;they've also seen an uptick in pistol applications and firearms training in recent weeks from members of the Muslim-American population but that those numbers pale in comparison to outreach from the Jewish community. 
 Joseph Barkan, 53, of Merrick, who is Jewish, said&nbsp;the attacks overseas&nbsp;and the subsequent spike in antisemitic incidents, have left him feeling uneasy. They prompted him to apply for a pistol permit earlier this month. 
 Several years ago, Barkan purchased a shotgun and a rifle, neither of which&nbsp;require a permit in New York State, but he had been resistant until recently to take the next step and get a handgun for home protection. 
 &quot;It's starting to feel very much like we're under siege,&quot; said Barkan, a software engineer and married father of three children, ages 12, 18, and 21. &quot;God forbid I ever have to use it, but I feel like it's an insurance policy.&quot; 
 Long Island firearms&nbsp;instructors said the spike&nbsp;among Jews seeking pistol permits and firearms&nbsp;training well exceeds the immediate aftermath of the 2018&nbsp;terror attack at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh&nbsp;that left 11 dead and six wounded. 
<h2> Pistol application not an easy decision </h2> 
 There is limited data, both federally and locally, on the percentage of Jews who have registered firearms as pistol applications do not require individuals to state their religion. 
 But a&nbsp;2020 Cooperative Election Study by Harvard University found that just 11% of Jews nationwide own a firearm, before only Muslims and Hindus. 
 Frank Melloni, owner of Renaissance Firearms Instruction in Uniondale, said a quarter of all of the men and women in his shooting courses in recent weeks have told him they sought out the training because of the Hamas attack. 
 “We’ve been seeing a very large response in the Jewish community,” said Melloni, who is also working with several area synagogues on firearms instructions. “ … I can tell you it is substantial.” 
 Barkan, meanwhile, said it was not an easy decision to apply for a pistol license. But he felt there was no other way to adequately protect his family. 
 &quot;I don't consider myself paranoid at all. I consider myself very pragmatic,&quot; he said. &quot;But part of being a parent is you look out for your kids, even though two of mine are almost adults … I have to look out for them. So I wish I didn't have to do this. But I feel like I'd be negligent if I weren't doing it.&quot;

LIGUNS231105

As antisemitism surges, Jewish people on Long Island apply for pistol licenses in growing numbers

Why Jewish people are applying for pistol licenses in increasing numbers

LIGUNS231105_photos

Darwin Yanes

Hundreds gathered in Great Neck on Sunday evening in a display of support for Israel, more than a week after Hamas militants attacked multiple locations in Israel, resulting in a <a href="https://www.newsday.com/news/world/israel-and-hamas-war-tv37raq5">war</a>&nbsp;with a rising death toll in the Middle East. 
 &quot;After what happened to our people in Israel a week ago, this is really to show that U.S. will fight this with Israel side by side,&quot; said Nassau County Legis.&nbsp;Mazi Melesa Pilip (R-Great Neck), who still has family in Israel. 
 Through songs, prayers and speeches, people came together to express their support for Israel, while others waved Israeli flags in Village Green Park in Great Neck. The fire department at 7 p.m. blew its horn in honor of the lives lost in the Oct. 7 attack and the war. 
<a class="p-smartembed" data-onecms-id="contentid/ODIwNTgwNzMtOWY0Zi00" data-onecms-type="storywidget" href="javascript:window.parent.actionEventData({$contentId:'contentid/ODIwNTgwNzMtOWY0Zi00', $action:'view', $target:'work'})" polopoly:contentid="contentid/ODIwNTgwNzMtOWY0Zi00">STORYWIDGET: Israel-Hamas war </a> 
 Elana Aminoff, 43, of Great Neck, showed her support for Israel by selling signs that said &quot;We stand with Israel&quot; at the rally. All proceeds, she said, will go toward&nbsp;charities for victims of the war. 
<a class="p-smartembed" data-attr-f="3x2" data-attr-q="0.3" data-attr-w="400" data-onecms-id="contentid/OTY0ODFiYjMtNjRjNi00" data-onecms-type="image" href="javascript:window.parent.actionEventData({$contentId:'contentid/OTY0ODFiYjMtNjRjNi00', $action:'view', $target:'work'})" polopoly:contentid="contentid/OTY0ODFiYjMtNjRjNi00"><img src="/image-service/alias/contentid/OTY0ODFiYjMtNjRjNi00/Z62_9477.jpg?f=3x2&amp;w=400&amp;q=0.3" /></a> 
 &quot;We feel like we need to do something, and this was something I can do,&quot; Aminoff said. 
 Aminoff also has family members in Israel and said it was &quot;unbelievable&quot; to hear about the initial attack. 
 &quot;It's hard to think about now. It's hard to watch the news. It's hard to hear everything,&quot; she said. 
 This&nbsp;war brings back memories for Saddle Rock Mayor Dan Levy, who served in the Israeli army against Egyptian and Syrian forces in the Yom Kippur War in 1973. 
 &quot;We were caught by surprise then, but it was nothing like today,&quot; he said at the rally. 
 Levy said his 90-year-old mother is still living in Israel and must seek shelter. 
 &quot;It's not easy,&quot; he said. &quot;She lives in the central part of Israel. The missiles are coming and she hears them explode. She is fearful and I'm fearful for her.&quot; 
 Thomas Major, 74, of Great Neck said he also had many family members in the Israeli army.&nbsp; 
 &quot;I have five family members that are in the Israeli army,&quot; he said. &quot;Even if I didn't have relatives, the brutality&nbsp;of what happened there I think any country needs support to show that it can't happen again.&quot;

Nassau

LIRALLY231016

Hundreds rally in Great Neck to support Israel in war with Hamas

MINNEAPOLIS — President Joe Biden said he thought there should be a humanitarian “pause” in the Israel-Hamas war, after his campaign speech Wednesday evening was interrupted by a protester calling for a cease-fire. 
“I think we need a pause,” Biden said. 
The call was a subtle departure for Biden and top White House aides, who throughout the Mideast crisis have been steadfast in stating they will not dictate how the Israelis carry out their military operations in response to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.
But the president has faced intensifying pressure from human rights groups, fellow world leaders and even liberal members of his own Democratic Party, who say that the Israeli bombardment of Gaza is collective punishment and that it is time for a cease-fire.
In his comments, Biden was exerting pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give Palestinians at least a brief reprieve from the relentless military operation that’s left thousands dead and mired the 141-square-mile strip in a roiling humanitarian crisis. 
The White House has refused to call for a cease-fire but has signaled that the Israelis should consider humanitarian pauses to allow civilians to receive aid and for foreign nationals trapped on the strip to leave Gaza. 
Israeli ground troops have advanced near Gaza City in heavy fighting with militants, the military said on Wednesday. Meanwhile, hundreds of foreign nationals and dozens of seriously injured Palestinians were allowed to leave Gaza after more than three weeks under siege.
The first people to leave Gaza — other than four hostages released by Hamas and another rescued by Israeli forces — crossed into Egypt, escaping even as bombings drive hundreds of thousands from their homes, and food, water and fuel run low.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said earlier on Wednesday that Biden’s newly confirmed ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, would soon be dispatched to the Middle East and would be tasked in part with “supporting U.S. efforts to create the conditions for a humanitarian pause to address the worsening humanitarian conditions facing Palestinian civilians.”
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog told “The Hill” on NewsNation Wednesday “we don’t need urging” in response to calls for more aid for Gaza. 
“We are ramping up humanitarian supplies into Gaza in those areas which are away from Hamas in the southern part of Gaza. The number of truckloads doubles and is going to pick up more and more,&quot; he said. “We provide water. We provide other types of supplies.”
He said to NewsNation they were happy to see foreigners leave Gaza. &quot;So we don’t need urging, urging in that sense. Our Cabinet discussed this week this issue and decided there are no limitations as long as we can make sure that Hamas does not put its hands on humanitarian supplies and uses them to feed its war machine. That will not happen. Short of that, everything is open.”
On Wednesday evening, Biden was speaking to a crowd of supporters in Minneapolis about his reasons for running for president in 2020 when a woman got up and yelled: “Mr. President, if you care about Jewish people, as a rabbi, I need you to call for a cease-fire.&quot;
His presence in the city drew more than 1,000 demonstrators not far from where the fundraiser was held, and they carried Palestinian flags and signs that said “Stop Bombing Children,” &quot;Free Palestine” and “Ceasefire now.&quot; 
Biden said he understood the emotions motivating the demonstrator, who was quickly shouted down by others in the room and removed. He said, when asked, that a pause &quot;means give time to get the prisoners out.” White House officials later clarified he meant hostages and humanitarian aid. 
“This is incredibly complicated for the Israelis,&quot; Biden went on. &quot;It’s incredibly complicated for the Muslim world as well. ... I supported a two-state solution, I have from the very beginning.”
“The fact of the matter is that Hamas is a terrorist organization. A flat-out terrorist organization,&quot; he said.
But Biden noted that he's been working on humanitarian aid, saying he was the one who convinced both Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi to allow aid into Gaza. 
“I'm the guy,” he said.

AP-US-Biden-Israel-Palestinians, 2nd Ld-Writethru

Biden calls for humanitarian 'pause' in Israel-Hamas war

Biden

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — In a story published Nov. 2, 2023, about the Israel-Hamas war, The Associated Press reported an incorrect Palestinian injury toll, based on a statement from the Health Ministry in Gaza. At the time, it was more than 23,000, not over 32,000. The ministry later confirmed to the AP that the figure was erroneous, and that the correct figure was published the following day.

BC-ML--Israel-Palestinians, CORRECTIVE

Correction: Israel-Palestinians story

APTOPIX Israel Palestinians

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Dozens of Palestinians with foreign passports crossed through the war-torn Gaza Strip's only exit for the second straight day Thursday, escaping Israel's suffocating siege into the empty Egyptian desert. But the evacuation rush left families divided by citizenship status in painful limbo.
Nizar, a 41-year-old aid worker from Gaza City, gently shook his children awake at dawn and drove to Gaza’s southern Rafah crossing with his wife, 8-month-old son and 6-year-old daughter, Zainab — a dangerous road trip even from where they'd sought refuge in central Gaza.
The bombardment didn't stop and they didn't know what awaited them at the border. All they knew was that the quirk of history that led to Zainab's birth in San Francisco gave her American citizenship and the family its only ticket out of a war that has ravaged Gaza, killed thousands of Palestinians and given his once bubbly daughter panic attacks and nightmares.
Nizar, who declined to give his last name for fear that it could hurt his chances of getting out, jumped up when he heard Hamas authorities call Zainab's name from the loudspeaker at the crowded Rafah terminal. But border officials quickly told him that U.S. citizens were the only ones allowed to evacuate and that the rest of his family couldn't cross into Egypt. Many families, they said, had been separated for this reason.
“It's just total confusion, nobody understands what is happening,” Nizar said. “There are just tons of families who are very confused and unable to join their relatives and leave.”
Even as the weeks of heated negotiations between Israel, Hamas and Egypt over the evacuation of foreign nationals at the crossing bore fruit Wednesday for the first time since the war started, the continuing chaos and heavy military restrictions reflected the difficulty of diplomacy over Rafah — now the only way in or out of Gaza for civilians.
The U.S. embassy in Israel didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the issue of families being separated at the border. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to visit Israel on Friday to discuss the conflict.
The United States has publicly blamed Hamas for the delay in reopening Rafah, while neighboring Egypt, wary of receiving an influx of Palestinian refugees, has blamed Israel for repeatedly bombing the crossing and imposing tight controls. On Thursday, an Israeli bomb landed near the Rafah terminal, killing and wounding several people.
“A bomb came down and almost exploded everything,” Jammal Qaoud, an American citizen, said from the border. “I have a heart condition and I could collapse at any time.”
&quot;I’m just trying to get to the other side and be safe,” he added. Qaoud, who didn't face the divided family citizenship issue, eventually made it into Egypt, one of several hundred people to pass through the crossing Thursday.
The list of those who would be allowed to leave that was distributed to dual nationals trapped in Gaza on Thursday included scores of Americans, as well as citizens from a handful of other countries ranging from Switzerland to Sri Lanka.
How the names landed on that list and in that order remained a mystery. Palestinians struggled to get answers.
Jason Shawa, a Seattle-born translator whose wife and daughters don't have American passports and weren't on the list, said the entire process was bewildering. When he finally reached a U.S. State Department employee by phone Thursday for answers, the man on the line couldn't fathom that Shawa was even calling from Gaza.
“He was so shocked he didn't even know what to say,” Shawa said. “It's like we take a back seat because we're not Americans — (because) we're brown Americans.”
More wounded Palestinians were also expected to cross Rafah for treatment in Egypt on Thursday after nearly 80 sick and seriously injured patients were evacuated to hospitals the day before. Foreign staff from international aid organizations also were evacuated Wednesday.
As the day wore on and heat baked the expanse of sand and concrete, the crowd grew, even as many, including Nizar, Zainab and their family, headed back into the war zone.
Ward Abu Shaaban, a pregnant 28-year-old American citizen who spent years in Houston, kept waiting at the gate Thursday even though border officers told her that her husband, who doesn't have a foreign passport, would not be able to join her and their 3-year-old daughter into Egypt.
“I don't care that I'm on the list, I cannot go without my husband, I will not leave my husband,” Abu Shaaban said, the panic rising in her voice as she watched authorities call out name after name.
Then, later Thursday afternoon, she heard her own.
Palestinians at the crossing with the family said that after hours of discussions, Abu Shaaban and her husband made the wrenching decision to separate.
Abu Shaaban and her toddler daughter handed over their travel documents and strode across the border, into whatever awaited them in self-exile. Her husband, a 31-year-old electrician from Gaza City, walked the other way alone.

AP-ML-Israel-Palestinians-Leaving-Gaza, 1st Ld-Writethru

As more Palestinians with foreign citizenship leave Gaza, some families are left in the lurch

BANGKOK — When Hamas militants stormed into Israeli villages and towns along the border of the blockaded Gaza Strip last month, many Thai migrant agricultural workers shared the fate of hundreds of Israelis who were killed, kidnapped or forced to run for their lives. 
Since that day nearly a month ago, more than 7,000 of some 30,000 Thais working in Israel have returned home on government evacuation flights. But many others have decided to stay, choosing to take the risk for the opportunity to earn wages far higher than at home.
Thailand reports that at least 23 Thais are believed to have been abducted by Hamas, which rules Gaza. It's the largest single group of foreigners held by the militant group. Many more may be missing and 32 have been reported killed. 
In a visceral illustration of the fate met by some, Israel's U.N. envoy drew a rebuke from Thailand's Foreign Ministry after showing the General Assembly a video last week of what he said was a Hamas fighter decapitating a Thai agricultural worker with a garden hoe as he lay on the ground.
“Such horrific brutality has stirred a sense of outrage not only among Thais, but undoubtedly people throughout the world,” the ministry said, criticizing the decision to show it as disrespectful to the victim and his family. 
‘PLEASE HELP MY SON STAY SAFE’
Like many other Thai agricultural laborers in Israel, Natthaporn Onkeaw had been his family’s main breadwinner, sending money home regularly after going to Israel to work on a kibbutz in 2021. 
The 26-year-old was among those abducted by Hamas, said his mother, 47-year-old Thongkun Onkeaw, who lives in a poor rural area in northeastern Thailand near the border with Laos.
He was one of the few Thai captives pictured in a photo released by Hamas whose names were later confirmed by the Thai Labor Ministry. His mother said she had not heard from him since he was taken, and no officials have given her or her husband any updates. 
“I can only pray: Please help my son stay safe,” she told The Associated Press. 
Thai media has followed developments in the conflict closely, with regular reports on the plights of the workers who have fled or chosen to stay, as well as what little is known about the hostages.
A video of one man, who was purported to be a Thai migrant worker being dragged away in a chokehold by a militant, has been widely circulated on social media. Identified as 26-year-old Kong Saleo by his wife, Suntree Saelee, he was allegedly taken from an avocado orchard when Hamas militants raided the worker's camp.
“When I saw the picture and the clip, I knew it was him,” Suntree was quoted as saying in the Bangkok Post. “I am concerned for his safety. Please help him.”
THAI WORKERS LOOKING FOR HIGHER WAGES
Farm laborers from Thailand and elsewhere in Southeast Asia seek work in more developed countries where there is a shortage of semi-skilled labor — at wages considerably higher than what they earn at home.
Israel started bringing in migrant workers in earnest after the first Intifada, the 1987-93 Palestinian revolt, after employers began to lose trust in Palestinian workers.
Most came from Thailand, and they remain the largest group of foreign agricultural laborers in Israel today. The countries implemented a bilateral agreement a decade ago specifically easing the way for Thai agricultural workers. Many Palestinian workers had since returned, and before the Hamas attack about half of Israel's workforce was made up of foreign and Palestinian laborers. 
In recent years, Israel has come under criticism over the conditions in which the Thai farm laborers work. Human Rights Watch, in a 2015 report, said they often were housed in makeshift and inadequate accommodations and “were paid salaries significantly below the legal minimum wage, forced to work long hours in excess of the legal maximum, subjected to unsafe working conditions, and denied their right to change employers.” A watchdog group found more recently that most were still paid below the legal minimum wage. 
To attract foreign workers back to evacuated areas, Israel's Agriculture Ministry has said it will extend their work visas and give them bonuses of about $500 a month. The offer is tempting, compared to the approximately $1,800 lump sum Thailand's government has made available to aid Thais fleeing Israel. 
Beyond the official offers, Thailand's government has warned that scammers have been messaging family members claiming to be looking to pay back wages or benefits, only to collect personal information and trick them into transferring money. 
When the Israeli chicken farm where Sompong Jandai had been working since July was rocked with explosions in the early days of the Israel-Hamas war — sparked by Hamas' deadly Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel — the 31-year-old first thought about going home. 
But two things changed his mind: the salary he makes — more than eight times what he'd earn in Thailand — and knowing he can send the bulk of it home to support his wife and four children and pay off loans he took to finance the move to Israel.
“At first I thought about leaving,&quot; he said. After being initially evacuated to a safer area, he came back to work at the farm. 
THAILAND'S EFFORTS TO GET HELP
Thailand's Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a telephone conversation Wednesday for help with Thais hostages.
Srettha has also been urging workers to come home, and wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday that the conflict is likely to expand.
“I would like to emphasize that the safety of our people is the most important thing,” he wrote. “Please return to our home.”
A Thai parliamentary delegation last week traveled to Iran, a Hamas ally, to meet with a Hamas representative and approach the issue from the other side.
Areepen Uttarasin, a Thai official who led the delegation, told reporters that the Hamas representative said the group would “try every possible way for all Thais held captive to return safely.&quot; He did not identify the Hamas representative but said that he was told any releases had had been complicated by ongoing fighting.
In Israel, Yahel Kurlander, a volunteer who has been helping Thai workers in the aftermath of the attack, said she knows of at least 54 missing or kidnapped Thais. She said many bodies haven't been identified yet. 
Hours after the Hamas attack, Kurlander, a sociologist with Israel's Tel-Hai College who specializes in agricultural labor migration with a focus on Thai workers, said she and other scholars and members of nongovernmental organizations started talking about what they could do to help.
“We just came to this realization,&quot; she said. &quot;If we won't gather together and reach a hand to the Thai workers, nobody will.” 
The first priority was to evacuate “highly traumatized” workers and provide food and other aid, she said. Now they're reaching out to families of the missing, trying to gather details about tattoos or other identifying marks, and also help those who fled the Hamas rampage to return home or find new work. It's important, she said, to give the workers “the freedom of choice.&quot;
For Siroj Pongbut, that choice was to return home — at least until the fighting ends — even though he doesn't make enough farming in Thailand to feed his wife and three children. The 27-year-old had been working as a farmhand in Israel for less than a month after more than a year of bureaucracy and borrowing money for the trip.
From that Saturday morning when Hamas attacked, he said he could hear sirens and explosions from the tomato farm where he worked. He made up his mind it wasn't worth the risk to stay; about 150 of his coworkers at the farm stayed in Israel.
“I don't know how it is going to be in the future,” he said by telephone while awaiting an evacuation flight from Tel Aviv last week. “I'm worried that it will become more serious.”

AP-AS-Israel-Palestinians-Thailand, 3rd Ld-Writethru

Stay in Israel, or flee? Thai workers caught up in Hamas attack and war are faced with a dilemma

Israel Palestinians Thailand

Grant Parpan

Beneath overcast skies Sunday, a group of more than a dozen Jewish Long Islanders visited&nbsp;an often-overlooked 16-acre site on Eastview Avenue in Central Islip to pray together. 
 The property is the final resting place for&nbsp;more than 5,500 patients of the shuttered&nbsp;Central Islip Psychiatric Center&nbsp;—&nbsp;a potter’s field for forgotten residents of the hospital and a cemetery that itself was nearly lost to time. 
 “It’s a place where individuals who had no one to care for them, no one who thought about them, no one to fund their burials, were buried without much thought, without much care,” said Samuel Levine, a professor of law at neighboring Touro University and director of the Jewish Law Center there. 
 Levine,&nbsp;a rabbi, helped lead prayers inside a section of the cemetery where an estimated 500 Jewish residents of the state-run facility were buried. About 100 of them rest at marked sites, thanks to the efforts of Rabbi Melvyn Lerer, who as Jewish chaplain at the hospital,&nbsp;lobbied for personalized burial sites for the deceased during the final two decades before the facility closed in 1996. About 5,000 more former patients are buried in the larger nondenominational portion of the cemetery under stone markers featuring only a number. A handful of headstones have been placed at&nbsp;the site under unknown circumstances. 
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 Most attendees of Sunday’s service were members of the North Shore Jewish Center&nbsp;of Port Jefferson Station's men's club, which since 1991&nbsp;has visited annually&nbsp;to recite kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead. 
 Despite the efforts of the club and Lerer to remember the patients, the property fell&nbsp;into disrepair by the early 2000s. 
 “I never knew this was here,” Levine recalled of his first months at Touro in 2010. “It didn't really look like a cemetery. It didn't look like anything.” 
 After exploring the overgrown property and discovering the cemetery, Levine reached out to the state’s Office of Mental Health, which ran the hospital and has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/central-islip-psychiatric-center-cemetery-touro-institute-p47854">funded the site’s cleanup</a>&nbsp;in recent years. 
 Early restoration included the removal of discarded liquor bottles and graffiti. More recent work included removing brush to make the cemetery visible from Eastview Drive and from the campus, along with the installation last spring of a plaque and a standalone marker. 
 The site was <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/central-islip-psychiatric-center-cemetery-c9dsfrlr">rededicated in June</a>&nbsp;and is now behind a locked gate protecting it from further vandalism. Levine said a future goal is to remove the locks and reclaim it as a public place of reflection. 
 This year’s service also took on a deeper meaning three weeks into the Israel-Hamas war, noted Robert Benson, president of the North Shore Jewish Center, adding that it’s a time for people of all Jewish practices to come together. 
 “It’s a chance for us to come across the aisle, so to speak, of Judaism,” Benson said. “… We should all feel like we’re brothers and sisters here.” 
 Newsday has reported that the Central Islip hospital housed, at its peak in the early 1960s, as many as 12,000 patients.

Suffolk

LICEME231030

Jewish prayers for the buried at Central Islip Psychiatric Center

liCEME231030_photos

Honoring forgotten Central Islip psychiatric patients. NewsdayTV&#39;s Steve Langford reports.

liCEME231030_video

Prayers for the dead to remember forgotten psychiatric patients

Central Islip

Newsday

'It's terrible how people were treated'

onecms_dca1a5f6-812c-49a8-81cb-c5151a5f1f93_a642f303-e2c5-4da8-8290-dc438df9e3fc.jpeg

The Shabbat tables extend&nbsp;from one end of the parking lot of Young Israel of Woodmere to the other — accompanied by empty seats that won't be filled and plates that won't be used for dining. 
 Hanging&nbsp;across each of the nearly 230 chairs outside of the nation's largest Orthodox synagogue are photos of the men, women and children taken hostage by Hamas militants&nbsp;on Oct. 7.&nbsp; 
 On Friday evening, a team of synagogue&nbsp;members worked feverishly to set a ceremonial table in honor of the 229 hostages missing in Israel and believed held by Hamas. 
 &quot;We should not lose sight from the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters in Israel cannot participate at the Sabbath table because of the fact that they're being held captive,&quot; said Rabbi Shalom Axelrod.&quot; And this solidifies that message for all of us that these people will be missing from their table.&quot; 
 In Jewish tradition, a Sabbath table, set for dinner on Friday evening, is more than just a place to&nbsp;eat dinner. Rather, it&nbsp;represents the shared history of the Jewish people, through both triumphs and the tragedy. 
 But Young Israel's table — adorned with fine china, glasses, flowers, grape juice and Challah bread —&nbsp;symbolizes much more,&nbsp;temple officials said. 
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 Attached to each chair are &quot;kidnapped&quot; posters of the individuals taken by Hamas:&nbsp;heartbreaking images of children frolicking on a playground,&nbsp;infants rolling on the floor and entire families celebrating together. 
 Dr. Aaron Glatt, an associate rabbi at the synagogue and chairman of Mount Sinai South Nassau Hospital's Department of Medicine,&nbsp;said the tables are a reminder to the world not to ignore the atrocities committed by Hamas, including&nbsp;the killing&nbsp;of 1,400 people, a majority of them civilians, in the initial surprise attack on Israel. 
 &quot;All of these tables represent a real person or real family, including babies that have been orphaned and are now sitting in a Gaza dungeon,&quot; Glatt said.&nbsp;&quot;This is just horrific.&quot; 
 For Long Islanders, the hostage crisis hits close to home. 
 Among the hostages is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/omer-neutra-abducted-hamas-plainview-long-island-k2q9frlx">Omer Neutra</a>, 21, a&nbsp;Plainview native who joined the Israeli army after graduating from The Schechter School of Long Island. 
 The hostages, Israeli officials said, hail from more than two dozen countries and include 30 children under the age of 16.&nbsp;Hamas has released four hostages since the terror massacre. 
 Young Israel Rabbi Shay Schachter met with the families of some of the hostages this week during a meeting at the United Nations. 
 He said the pain felt by the families — and the uncertainty of not knowing if their loved ones were alive&nbsp;— prompted the synagogue to send a bold message. 
 &quot;It's important that our community&nbsp;not just shows solidarity,&nbsp;not just prays, but … that we do a very bold initiative to make people understand the severity of the crisis,&quot; he said.

LITABLE231028

Woodmere synagogue sets Shabbat table in honor of 229 Israeli hostages of Hamas

229 empty chairs at Shabbat table in Woodmere pays tribute to Israeli hostages of Hamas

LITABLE231028_photos

At Temple Beth Torah in Melville, the first Friday night service since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by militant group Hamas drew five times the normal crowd. 
 Synagogue leaders said they had not seen such a jump in attendance since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. 
 People are “feeling like they need to be part of the Jewish community right now in a formal way,” said Rabbi Susie Moskowitz, who heads the temple. 
 The attacks inside Israel killed&nbsp;1,400 people, including some Americans, and injured many others. Afterward, the rabbi said, &quot;People I don’t usually see on a Friday night joined us.” 
 At the Islamic Center of Long Island in Westbury, larger-than-normal crowds also are attending the main prayers of the week on Friday afternoons. They, too, worry&nbsp;about the bloodshed in the Middle East, including more than 5,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli bombings in Gaza as part of a counteroffensive.&nbsp; 
 “Our parking lots are full,” said Dr. Isma Chaudhry, co-chair of the board of&nbsp;trustees at the Islamic Center of Long Island. “This is the time people want to pray. They find comfort and a sense of community when they come to the mosque to pray in congregation form.” 
<h2> Sanctuaries during a time of war </h2> 
 The Melville synagogue and the Westbury mosque are not outliers. 
 Leaders of synagogues and mosques across Long Island have reported more people attending services since Hamas attacked and Israel responded with&nbsp;a&nbsp;declaration of war and a sustained bombing of Gaza. From Westbury to Selden, from New Hyde Park to Dix Hills, the houses of worship are serving as sanctuaries for members to pray for peace — and their own safety — and&nbsp;find strength through others over a conflict half a world away&nbsp;but personal to so many. 
 At the Chabad of Mid-Suffolk in Commack, attendance is up by 10% to 20%, according to&nbsp;Rabbi Mendel Teldon, who heads the Orthodox synagogue. 
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 “People want to connect,” he said. “People find comfort and safety and security in finding other members of the Jewish community that they can talk with and find encouragement and faith and trust that the future is brighter.” 
 One regular worshipper, David Gresen, 57, said he has noticed the uptick. 
 Attending services “is basically a direct line to God and to ask him for a quick resolution of this horrible war,” he said. “No more loss of life. Hopefully we can wipe out the evil over there and live peacefully among other human beings.” 
 Renee Pardo, 54, of Huntington, said she had fallen away from regular attendance of services at the Melville synagogue as work got busy and her children became adults, but has reengaged after the attacks. 
 “When something like this happens it's&nbsp;very hard sometimes&nbsp;to connect with people who aren’t in your community,&quot; she said. &quot;They don’t feel it necessarily the same way that you do. 
 “So I think it becomes really important just to process what happened, to get information, to be there for each other,&quot; she added. &nbsp;&quot;And there’s nowhere else to do that than among people who are feeling the same way.” 
 At the Hillside Islamic Center in New Hyde Park, Rohet Chowdhury, 22, said he has started trying to attend prayer services nearly every day instead of only on Fridays, Islam's main prayer day.&nbsp; 
 “I believe it has become more important for Islam to be more heard and for more brothers to come to the masjid and pray,&quot; he said.&nbsp;“It is something that has opened up our eyes, now what we are seeing with Palestine and Gaza. 
 “When I come to pray I only see peace,&quot; he added. &quot;I see brothers that are here that want to help each other. We are all regular people. The media is presenting Muslims to be radicalists or terrorists. So I think it is important for people to start seeing that Islam is a religion of peace and forgiveness.” 
 At the mosque in Westbury, Faraz Kayani, 34, said recent sermons have underscored similar themes to the growing number of faithful,&nbsp;including emphasizing&nbsp;that Judaism, Islam and Christianity share the same roots dating to Abraham. 
 &quot;We are brothers, we are cousins” among all the religions, Kayani&nbsp;said. “You kind of find hope that there is going to be a light at the end of the tunnel.” 
<h2> Fears of anti-Muslim bias </h2> 
 Mosques also are serving a critical purpose by providing services, including counseling and support groups,&nbsp;Kayani said. For many Muslim&nbsp;Long Islanders, he added, the Hamas attacks have rekindled memories of rampant Islamophobia and fears it will return. 
 “It’s almost like reliving life right after 9/11,&quot; he said. 
 Both Muslims and Jews said&nbsp;they've been&nbsp;concerned about the potential for violent attacks against their Long Island mosques and synagogues, but have faith that&nbsp;a higher power, and the police, will keep them safe. 
 But it's hard to ignore what already has happened, said&nbsp;Nayyar Imam, a leader of the Islamic Association of Long Island mosque in Selden. He cited the recent&nbsp;fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old boy in Illinois, allegedly by a 71-year-old man who targeted the child&nbsp;because of his religion,&nbsp;and as a response to the&nbsp;war. 
 “Everyone is sitting on edge,” Imam said. “Because anything can happen any day now. I hope and pray not.” 
 At the Hillside Islamic Center in New Hyde Park, leaders are cutting daily prayers from the typical 15 minutes to 10 minutes.&nbsp;They want to minimize the amount of time crowds are in the mosque, said Abdul Aziz Bhuiyan, chair of the board of trustees of the center. 
 Still, more worshippers than normal are coming, Bhuiyan&nbsp;said. 
 &nbsp;“This is the only thing right now left for Muslims to do, to turn to God,&quot; he said, adding that many who attend feel as if&nbsp;&quot;everybody else turned against them.&quot;&nbsp; 
<h2> Fighting fear, isolation&nbsp;through&nbsp;services </h2> 
 &quot;They're isolated,&quot; Bhuiyan added.&nbsp;&quot;They’re very much in fear because of what is happening.” 
 Moskowitz said she has been encouraged&nbsp;by the larger crowds at her&nbsp;synagogue “even when one instinct would be to stay away from Jewish organizations because they were scared.” 
 Rabbi Howard Buechler of the Dix Hills Jewish Center said it's not just one thing sparking more Jewish people to attend services.&nbsp;They want to show solidarity with Israel, the rabbi said. They want to express the deep emotions the attack provoked. And — like many Muslim Long Islanders — they want to combat a sense of isolation they've felt since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.&nbsp; 
 “There is a lot of feeling of loneliness, a lot of feeling of angst in the community,” Buechler said. “By gathering in the synagogue, we are able to channel those emotions into what we can do together through prayer, song and camaraderie.” 
 Coming together also helps share&nbsp;the pain of seeing “horrific” images of some of the bloodshed they have viewed online, he said. 
 “One way to counter images,&quot;&nbsp;Buechler said, &quot;is to be together within a community and feel support and unconditional love for one another and not feel in any way alone advocating our support for the people in the land of Israel.&quot; 
 Gresen, who lives in Commack, said the attack “is waking up a lot of feelings inside the everyday Jew that they may not have had before. What was done is just horrible, and it’s an attack not only on Judaism but innocent lives. It strikes a chord with everybody.”&nbsp; 
 Kayani, who lives in Hicksville and counts Jews among his longtime&nbsp;friends, said going to his mosque gives him hope. 
 “The mosque is doing a great job in reminding you that at the end of the day we all share this county, this state, this nation, regardless of what is happening in the Middle East,” he said. 
 “We don’t want to welcome any sense of hatred on any side or either side for our country here,” he said. “What we have is beautiful.”

LISERVICES231029

More Long Islanders seeking comfort, community at mosques, synagogues, during Israel-Hamas war

War worries filling LI mosques, synagogues

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Each decision Natalie Sanandaji&nbsp;made on the morning of Oct. 7 was fraught with peril. 
 The Great Neck woman had attended an Israeli music festival — one that would end&nbsp;abruptly when Hamas attacked, and ultimately left&nbsp;260 attendees&nbsp;dead. Her survival that morning, she recalled,&nbsp;depended on what she would do in the minutes after the attack begun.&nbsp; 
 Hide in a ditch or run? Get in the car or leave the festival by foot? Accept help from the good Samaritan who ultimately saved her life or reject a ride from the anonymous stranger? 
 &quot;Every decision you made in that moment — every split-second decision — either saved your life or got you killed,&quot;&nbsp;Sanandaji said Monday in Mineola, where was recognized for her bravery by Nassau County officials. &quot;And you had no idea of knowing which decision was the right decision.&quot; 
 Sanandaji, who was in Israel for a wedding, had joined several friends at the Supernova music festival. Shortly after dawn, she recalled, rockets from Gaza began thundering overhead. Most of&nbsp;Sanandaji's friends were unconcerned, all too familiar with the sounds of rockets fired between the Israeli Defense Force and Hamas. 
 But this time was different. 
 By the time nearly two dozens rockets were fired, security was urging attendees to evacuate to their cars.&nbsp;Even then, Sanandaji&nbsp;had no way of knowing that terrorists were on foot with guns. 
 &quot;I went to the bathroom&nbsp;and I came back to the car. It didn't occur to me until a few days ago how much my life was at risk in that moment,&quot; she said. &quot;A few days ago, I saw a video that had surfaced of the Hamas terrorists coming to those exact bathrooms moments after I was there and just shooting at every stall trying to kill anyone who might be hiding inside.&quot; 
 Sanandaji and her friends jumped into a car and began exiting the festival&nbsp;but security urged them to pull over to the side of the road and to start running. 
 And that's when she heard the first gunshots. 
 Passengers in vehicles were an easy target so&nbsp;Sanandaji and her friends began running for their lives. 
 At one point, she said, they considered hiding in a ditch but realized that would leave them without anywhere to hide.&nbsp;She later learned that the concertgoers hiding in the ditch were all murdered. 
 After&nbsp;four hours of running, the group stopped for shade under a tree when a man in a pickup truck drove toward them. Their first thought: the terrorists had found them and they were seconds from certain death. 
 &quot;We kind of all just looked at each other and sat back down and accepted our fate,&quot; Sanandaji said, adding that she never got the driver's name or had the chance to thank him.&nbsp;&quot;Luckily for us, it wasn't a terrorist. It was a man from the neighboring town … who left the security of his town and drove toward all of this chaos to save innocent lives.&quot; 
 Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said&nbsp;the &quot;savagery&quot; of Hamas' attack is shocking. 
 &quot;The fact that kids were going to a rock concert —&nbsp;a peace concert of all things — is just unimaginable,&quot; Blakeman said.&nbsp;&quot;It's unimaginable that people would intentionally shoot teenagers and 20-year-olds.&quot; 
 With Israel now on the precipice of a potential ground invasion of Gaza, Sanandaji said the fight should remain with Hamas and not with the Palestinian people. 
 &quot;Killing innocent Israelis is not going to free Palestine,&quot; she said.&nbsp;&quot;And killing other innocent people is not going to help any other person.&quot;

LIESCAPE231024

Great Neck woman recounts how she escaped Hamas attack on Israeli music festival

Great Neck woman recalls escaping Hamas attack that killed 260

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Natalie Sanandaji of Great Neck&nbsp;is one of the survivors of the Oct. 7&nbsp;Israeli&nbsp;music festival terrorist attack by Hamas. She shared her story Monday at a news&nbsp;conference.

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Great Neck woman's narrow escape from Hamas

'The rockets kept coming'

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Hundreds gathered in Hauppauge Sunday for a pro-Palestinian rally, calling for an end to bloodshed in Gaza and for elected officials to publicly support the local Muslim population. 
 The event, held on the front lawn of Suffolk County's H. Lee Dennison Building, took place just over two weeks after the militant group Hamas invaded Israel and killed at least 1,400 people in the worst one-day loss since Israel’s founding. Israel responded by declaring war on Hamas and launching sustained attacks into Gaza. 
 In Hauppauge on Sunday, some in attendance chanted in support of the Palestinian cause&nbsp;while others urged a peaceful resolution.&nbsp;The Palestinian Health Ministry said Sunday that the death toll in Gaza had reached at least 4,651 people, with another 14,254 people wounded. 
 “The people here are very sensitive because they have families … and friends overseas that are dead, injured, or displaced,” said event organizer Mehdad Islam, imam at the Islamic Center of Mastic-Shirley. “People here on Long Island, they're very peaceful people, successful people, American citizens who do not condone violence.” 
 Islam said more than 1,200 Suffolk residents preregistered to attend the two-hour rally, which featured nearly two dozen speeches as well as&nbsp;prayers&nbsp;from Islamic leaders. The event was organized by the newly created Muslim Council of Suffolk County, which has joined 19 mosques from Southampton to Babylon towns. Islam, one of the group’s co-founders, said its purpose is to unite all Suffolk mosques in worship and political activism. 
 Dozens of demonstrators in Hauppauge&nbsp;lined police stanchions along Veterans Highway, signs raised above their heads, in support of&nbsp;Palestinian rights. 
 “Occupation is a crime; free, free Palestine,” was among the recurring chants. 
 Two oversized tarps were set up as prayer mats to give guests a chance to worship during the event. 
 The occasional passing motorist honked in support and the event was held without incident. 
 Speakers at Sunday’s rally were more concerned with current elected leaders — calling out President Joe Biden, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Gov. Kathy Hochul by name from the podium —&nbsp;saying those seeking votes from the tens of thousands of registered Muslim voters in Suffolk County will not be welcome in area mosques until they show support for Palestine. 
 “It's sad to see that we've given them so much support over the years, and we didn't get any support from them when we needed it most,” said Raza Dastgir of Muslims of Long Island, an organizer of the rally. 
 Noura Farouk, founder of Mothers for Justice, said the rally was about “peace and humanity” and those in attendance stand in opposition to the “loss of human life.” 
 “What we’re talking about condemning is something that is condemned universally in our world,” Farouk said. “It’s the bombing of civilians who are hiding in shelters, churches and hospitals.”

LIPALESTINE231023

Pro-Palestinian rally in Hauppauge urges peace, support for local Muslims

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Michelle Herman is a professional therapist, but she has found herself nearly at a loss over how to handle her emotions after the militant group Hamas killed 1,300 people in Israel in a surprise attack this month. 
 “As a Jew, I just feel powerless on many levels,” said Herman, who lives in Melville. 
 When a former Hamas leader called for a “day of rage” last week in support of Palestinians, she was so concerned that she had her two children stay home from school. 
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 Across the Jewish community on Long Island, a sense of fear, trauma, shock and paralysis has taken hold following the worst single-day massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust. Some compare it to what many New Yorkers and Americans felt after the 9/11 attacks. 
 “We all had this sense of safeness,” said Rabbi Tuvia Teldon, leader of the Orthodox Chabad movement on Long Island. But after the Hamas attack, “The world has changed and we’re not going back to those times. There is a lot of trauma … People are feeling very insecure, and it reaches very deep.” 
<h2> Emotions running high on both sides </h2> 
 Those&nbsp;same intense feelings are emerging in Long Island’s Muslim community, as Israel responds to the Hamas attack with a counteroffensive, and hundreds of civilians die in the Gaza strip. 
 Laurice Abdelhalim, an optician who lives in Brentwood and is of Palestinian descent, has found herself randomly bursting into tears at her job. She mourns for the Israeli dead but also for Palestinians now perishing under the Israeli assault and amid&nbsp;the blockade&nbsp;that has&nbsp;kept&nbsp;basic staples out of the territory. 
 She has viewed videos of the carnage. 
 “All you see is little kids all over the ground wherever you walk,” she said. “How are you supposed to feel when you see that?” 
 The people in Gaza “have no water. They have no food. They have no electricity. They have nothing.” 
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 For Jewish people, there is almost a symbolic umbilical cord between New York and Israel, their homeland established in 1948. Israel's population of about 9&nbsp;million is so small that seemingly every Jewish Long Islander has a direct connection to someone over there, leaders said. 
 “Whenever any part of our family experiences a trauma and atrocities, all of us feel it,” said Rabbi Howard Buechler of the Dix Hills Jewish Center.&nbsp;“The families in Israel and all of us on Long Island have been affected.” 
 The feelings of anger and pain are so strong on both sides that decades of interfaith work aimed at building bridges between the Jewish and Muslim communities on Long Island have come to a standstill, according to leaders on both sides. 
 The Islamic Center of Long Island in Westbury, one of the oldest mosques in the region, has been a leader in this effort, partly through its Interfaith Institute of Long Island. But the war in the Middle East has set it back in a major way, with dialogue nearly vanishing overnight, leaders said. 
 “Even with these 40 years of relationships, we have not been able to come together,” said Mufti Mohammad Farhan, executive director of the mosque and one of its spiritual leaders. “The situation is such that it is just very difficult.” 
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 Isma Chaudhry, another leader of the mosque, said: “Both sides have lost so much innocent life. Both the Muslim community, the Palestinian community, the Jewish community, is in a state of shock and mourning.” 
 People appear to need time to heal from the raw wounds of the conflict before they can start talking again, she said. 
 “More than anything else, there is anger, there is frustration, there is a feeling of being destroyed. And that needs healing,” Chaudhry said. “A lot of bridge builders — we don’t know what is the right thing to say. Not because our hearts are not there. It’s just that whatever is being said, might not be enough to heal.” 
 Both sides are dealing with a frenzy of raw emotions — fueling tensions&nbsp;in a way that makes constructive dialogue extremely difficult. The Jewish community, galvanized by the Hamas attack,&nbsp;appears unified in its belief that Israel must respond forcefully to Hamas, and eliminate it, leaders said, even if that&nbsp;means civilian casualties. “The unity in the Jewish world now is absolutely unprecedented, left, right, Orthodox, totally secular,” Teldon said. 
 Many Muslims, while condemning Hamas’&nbsp;violence, also point to what they call decades of human rights abuses and killings by the Israeli military against Palestinians. They don’t feel the historical context of their story gets equal billing on the world stage, adding to long-standing feelings of isolation and anger. 
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<h2> Counseling offered for war-related trauma </h2> 
 The pain and the pressures are leading more people in each camp to seek psychological and spiritual help. Rick Lewis, CEO of Mid Island Y JCC and Suffolk Y JCC in Commack, said his organizations will be ramping up counseling services, including &quot;community circles&quot; where people will gather to share their thoughts and feelings. 
 “People’s stress and their fear is just mounting like crazy,” he said.&nbsp;“There is no doubt people are going through a traumatic experience and at the same time looking for what they can do to be hopeful.” 
 The mosque in Westbury also is bringing in more counseling professionals to help people cope, Farhan said. He added that some Muslim parents have told him they are afraid to send their children out in public in traditional Islamic clothing. 
 Buechler is telling his flock not to watch horrific online videos of the killings, which will only increase their trauma. 
 “We are working with every age of our community to not let the terrorists terrorize us,” he said. “We are telling people, instead of being paralyzed by fear, to stand strong with Israel.” 
 One way to do that is to fundraise to help the Israelis, he said. Another synagogue, Temple Sinai of Roslyn, raised $250,000 in five days, Rabbi Michael White said. 
 “This is family. Our family was attacked, brutally,” White said, referring to Israelis. 
 Jewish teenagers and children on Long Island, decades removed from the Holocaust, appear especially stunned by the violence, he added. 
 “They have not experienced this level of Jew hatred before, and it’s very scary for them,” White said.

LITRAUMA231022

Israel-Hamas war stirs up raw emotions in Long Islanders on both sides

Trauma from brutality of Israel-Hamas war runs deep across the world, and on LI

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Cold Spring Harbor High School junior Sam Davis was horrified when he learned Hamas had launched an unprovoked&nbsp;attack against Israeli civilians and law enforcement. 
 The 16-year-old from Lloyd Harbor said he felt compelled to help in any way he could. 
 Last Wednesday, he started an online fundraiser&nbsp;for the families of the estimated 30 Israeli police officers killed in the surprise attack — an effort that to date has generated nearly $40,000. 
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 &quot;Obviously there's a lot of people in need of help right now and I'm glad we can do something to help them,&quot; Davis said on Monday during a news conference at the Mineola office of the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association, which donated $5,000 for the teen's fundraiser.&nbsp;Other local law enforcement groups, including the MTA Police Benevolent Association, have also contributed, records show. 
 The goal, he said, is to raise $100,000 that&nbsp;will be distributed to Israeli police by <a href="https://leoweekend.com/">Law Enforcement Officers Weekend</a>, an Island Park-based nonprofit that supports the families of police officers. 
 For the Davis family, the Oct. 7 terror attack was deeply personal.&nbsp; 
 The Jewish family visited Israel last year and has friends there. Meanwhile, Sam's father is a PBA attorney while his grandfather was a police officer. 
 &quot;This is the cause that's near and dear to us,&quot; said Carrie Davis, the teen's mother.&nbsp;&quot;It is devastating that anybody would be put in this position of losing family members killed by terrorists.&quot; 
 Nassau PBA president Thomas Shevlin said whether on Long Island or in Israel, we &quot;take an oath to have each other's back and the back of our fellow police officers'&nbsp;families. Their families will never be forgotten and we will always be here to help out when we can.&quot; 
 The Nassau police department had two members in Israel&nbsp;for training exercises at the time of the attacks, including Chief of Detectives Christopher Ferro, said&nbsp;County Executive Bruce Blakeman. 
 &quot;We were fortunate enough to have a plan to get them home,&quot; Blakeman said. &quot; … They had to be extracted and luckily he and the other police officer are safe and they're back here in the United States.&quot; 
 Numerous other Long Island organizations are also raising money&nbsp;for the Israeli people, including the &nbsp;UJA-Federation of New York, which has an office&nbsp;in Syosset. 
 The group organized an Israel Emergency Fund through online donations,&nbsp;allocated $10 million in emergency funding from its endowment and provided $22 million in grants&nbsp;to more than 60 Israeli nonprofits. 
 &quot;These grants cover the most pressing needs across affected communities including procuring new hospital equipment, mobilizing mental health counselors, providing cash grants for victims of terror, aiding thousands of displaced residents from southern Israel, and helping so many cope with displacement and grief,&quot; said Eric Goldstein, chief executive of the UJA-Federation of New York.&nbsp; 
 Jewish National Fund-USA, which has offices in Rockville Centre, is&nbsp;working&nbsp;to raise $10 million by early November as part of the organization’s Israel Resilience Campaign. 
 The campaign supports emergency evacuation transportation, temporary accommodation for displaced Israelis, clothing, fire and rescue apparatus, protective security equipment and activities for school children, said&nbsp;Stefan Oberman, a spokesman for the group. 
 And the&nbsp;American Jewish Committee, which has offices on Long Island, recently launched a campaign to support Israeli relief organizations. 
 The&nbsp;effort has&nbsp;raised more than $2.5 million for Israeli hospitals, medical organizations, trauma relief organizations, emergency food donations and money to support the Israeli Defense Forces, said Eric Post, regional director of AJC Long Island. 
 There are at least six verified GoFundMe fundraisers benefiting Israelis run by Long Islanders, according to a company spokeswoman.

LIISRAEL231017

Attack spurs Lloyd Harbor teen to help families of fallen Israeli cops

Attack spurs teen to help families of fallen Israeli cops

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A Lloyd Harbor teen started an online fundraiser for families of police officers in Israel, dozens of whom were killed by Hamas. NewsdayTV&rsquo;s Steve Langford reports.

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LI teen's helping hand for Israeli families

Mineola

Cold Spring Harbor HS student starts fundraiser for Israeli families 

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JERUSALEM — Backed by a barrage of rockets, Hamas militants stormed from the blockaded Gaza Strip into nearby Israeli towns, killing dozens and abducting others in an unprecedented surprise attack during a major Jewish holiday Saturday. A stunned Israel launched airstrikes in Gaza, with its prime minister saying the country is now at war with Hamas and vowing to inflict an “unprecedented price.” 
In an assault of startling breadth, Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations outside the Gaza Strip, including towns and other communities as far as 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the Gaza border. In some places they gunned down civilians and soldiers as Israel’s military scrambled to muster a response. 
Gunbattles continued well after nightfall, and militants held hostages in standoffs in two towns. Militants occupied a police station in a third town, where Israeli forces struggled until Sunday morning to finally reclaim the building.
Before daybreak Sunday, militants fired more rockets from Gaza, hitting a hospital in the Israeli coastal town of Ashkelon. The hospital sustained damage, said senior hospital official Tal Bergman. Video provided by Barzilai Medical Center showed a large hole punched into a wall and chunks of debris scattered on the ground of what appeared to an empty rooms and a hallway. There was no report of casualties.
Israeli media, citing rescue service officials, said at least 250 people were killed and 1,500 wounded in Saturday's attack, making it the deadliest in Israel in decades. At least 232 people in the Gaza Strip were killed and 1,700 wounded in Israeli strikes, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Hamas fighters took an unknown number of civilians and soldiers captive into Gaza.
The conflict threatened to escalate with Israel’s vows of retaliation. Previous conflicts between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers brought widespread death and destruction in Gaza and days of rocket fire on Israeli towns. The situation is potentially more volatile now, with Israel’s far-right government stung by the security breach and with Palestinians in despair over a never-ending occupation in the West Bank and suffocating blockade of Gaza. 
In a televised address Saturday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who earlier declared Israel to be at war, said the military will use all of its strength to destroy Hamas’ capabilities. But he warned, “This war will take time. It will be difficult.&quot;
“All the places that Hamas hides in, operates from, we will turn them into ruins,&quot; he added. “Get out of there now,&quot; he told Gaza residents, who have no way to leave the tiny, overcrowded Mediterranean territory of 2.3 million people. 
Early Sunday, the Israeli military issued warnings in Arabic to residents of communities near the border with Israel to leave their homes and move to areas deeper inside the tiny enclave. In previous Israel-Hamas fighting on Gaza soil, the Gaza communities near the border were hit particularly hard, both by artillery fire and at times by ground incursions.
Gaza’s residents have endured a border blockade, enforced to varying degrees by Israel and Egypt, since Hamas militants seized control in 2007. Civilians are trapped and particularly vulnerable during wars and bouts of fighting.
Israeli airstrikes in Gaza intensified after nightfall, flattening residential buildings in giant explosions, including a 14-story tower that held dozens of apartments as well as Hamas offices in central Gaza City. Israeli forces fired a warning just before.
Around 3 a.m., a loudspeaker atop a mosque in Gaza City blared a stark warning to residents of nearby apartment buildings: Evacuate immediately. Just minutes later, an Israeli airstrike reduced one nearby five-story building to ashes. 
After one Israeli strike, a Hamas rocket barrage hit four cities, including Tel Aviv and a nearby suburb. Throughout the day, Hamas fired more than 3,500 rockets, the Israeli military said.
The strength, sophistication and timing of the Saturday morning attack shocked Israelis. Hamas fighters used explosives to break through the border fence enclosing Gaza, then crossed with motorcycles, pickup trucks, paragliders and speed boats on the coast. 
In some towns, civilians’ bodies lay where they had encountered advancing gunmen. At least nine people gunned down at a bus shelter in the town of Sderot were laid out on stretchers on the street, their bags still on the curb nearby. One woman, screaming, embraced the body of a family member sprawled under a sheet next to a toppled motorcycle.
In amateur video, hundreds of terrified young people who had been dancing at a rave fled for their lives after Hamas militants entered the area and began firing at them. Israeli media said dozens of people were killed. 
Among the dead was Col. Jonathan Steinberg, a senior officer who commanded the Israeli military's Nahal Brigade, a prominent infantry unit.
The shadowy leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, said the assault was in response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza, Israeli raids inside West Bank cities over the past year, violence at Al Aqsa — the disputed Jerusalem holy site sacred to Jews as the Temple Mount — increasing attacks by settlers on Palestinians and the growth of settlements.
“Enough is enough,” Deif, who does not appear in public, said in the recorded message. He said the attack was only the start of what he called “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” and called on Palestinians from east Jerusalem to northern Israel to join the fight. 
The Hamas incursion on Simchat Torah, a normally joyous day when Jews complete the annual cycle of reading the Torah scroll, revived painful memories of the 1973 Mideast war practically 50 years to the day, in which Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, aiming to take back Israeli-occupied territories. 
Comparisons to one of the most traumatic moments in Israeli history sharpened criticism of Netanyahu and his far-right allies, who had campaigned on more aggressive action against threats from Gaza. Political commentators lambasted the government and military over its failure to anticipate what appeared to be a Hamas attack unseen in its level of planning and coordination.
Asked by reporters how Hamas had managed to catch the army off guard, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli army spokesman, replied, “That’s a good question.” 
The abduction of Israeli civilians and soldiers also raised a particularly thorny issue for Israel, which has a history of making heavily lopsided exchanges to bring captive Israelis home. Israel is holding thousands of Palestinians in its prisons. Hecht confirmed that “substantial” number of Israelis were abducted Saturday. 
Associated Press photos showed an elderly Israeli woman being brought into Gaza on a golf cart by Hamas gunmen and another woman squeezed between two fighters on a motorcycle. AP journalists saw four people taken from the kibbutz of Kfar Azza, including two women. 
In Gaza, a black jeep pulled to a stop and, when the rear door opened, a young Israeli woman stumbled out, bleeding from the head and with her hands tied behind her back. A man waving a gun in the air grabbed her by the hair and pushed her into the vehicle’s back seat. Israeli TV reported that workers from Thailand and the Philippines were also among the captives.
Netanyahu vowed that Hamas “will pay an unprecedented price.” A major question now was whether Israel will launch a ground assault into Gaza, a move that in the past has brought intensified casualties. 
Israel’s military was bringing four divisions of troops as well as tanks to the Gaza border, joining 31 battalions already in the area, the spokesman Hagari said. 
In Gaza, much of the population was thrown into darkness after nightfall as electrical supplies from Israel — which supplies almost all the territories’ power — were cut off. Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that Israel would stop supplying electricity, fuel and goods to Gaza.
Hamas said it had planned for a potentially long fight. “We are prepared for all options, including all-out war,” the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, Saleh al-Arouri, told Al-Jazeera TV. “We are ready to do whatever is necessary for the dignity and freedom of our people.”
U.S. President Joe Biden said from the White House that he had spoken with Netanyahu to say the United States “stands with the people of Israel in the face of these terrorist assaults. Israel has the right to defend itself and its people, full stop.&quot; 
Saudi Arabia, which has been in talks with the U.S. about normalizing relations with Israel, called on both sides to exercise restraint. The kingdom said it had repeatedly warned about the danger of “the situation exploding as a result of the continued occupation (and) the Palestinian people being deprived of their legitimate rights.”
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group congratulated Hamas, praising the attack as a response to “Israeli crimes.” The group said its command in Lebanon was in contact with Hamas about the operation. 
The attack comes at a time of historic division within Israel over Netanyahu’s proposal to overhaul the judiciary. Mass protests over the plan have sent hundreds of thousands of Israeli demonstrators into the streets and prompted hundreds of military reservists to avoid volunteer duty — turmoil that has raised fears over the military’s battlefield readiness.
It also comes at a time of mounting tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, with the peace process effectively dead for years. Over the past year, Israel’s far-right government has ramped up settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settler violence has displaced hundreds of Palestinians there and tensions have flared around a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site. 
Palestinians demonstrated in towns and cities around the West Bank on Saturday night. Palestinian health officials said Israeli fire killed five there, but gave few details.

AP-ML-Israel-Palestinians, 55th Ld-Writethru

Hamas surprise attack out of Gaza stuns Israel and leaves hundreds dead in fighting, retaliation

WASHINGTON — From its first months in office, the Biden administration made a distinctive decision on its Middle East policy: It would deprioritize a half-century of high-profile efforts by past U.S. presidents, particularly Democratic ones, to broker a broad and lasting peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. 
Since Richard Nixon, successive U.S. administrations have tried their hands at Camp David summits, shuttle diplomacy and other big-picture tries at coaxing Israeli and Palestinian leaders into talks to settle the disputes that underlie 75 years of Middle East tensions. More than other recent presidents, Joe Biden notably has not.
Instead, administration officials early on sketched out what they called Biden's policy of quiet diplomacy. They advocated for more modest improvements in Palestinian freedoms and living conditions under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hardline government, which has encouraged settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and includes coalition partners that oppose the U.S.-backed two-state solution. The less ambitious approach fit with Biden's determination to pivot his foreign-policy focus from Middle East hotspots to China. 
But the long-term risks of sidelining the Israeli-Palestinian conflict exploded back into view with the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel's heavy bombardment of Gaza in response. The United States’ angry Arab partners are pointing to America's failure to actively engage as Israeli-Palestinian violence roars back to center stage. 
Hamas militants' bloody breakout from Gaza and Israel's military escalating response have killed thousands of civilians in Israel and Gaza, prompted Biden to deploy carrier strike groups to the region, and at present threatens to spill conflict and flows of Palestinian refugees across borders. 
In Cairo this weekend, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi was one of a succession of Arab leaders to warn Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is scrambling through Middle East capitals to try to contain the conflict, that the Israel-Gaza war threatens the stability of the entire Middle East. 
Biden is likely to hear the same as he meets with leaders of Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority in Jordan on Wednesday after he travels to Israel.
El-Sissi, who fears the Israeli military offensive will push Gaza's 2.3 million people across the border into Egypt, cast blame on the near-disappearance of any international pressure on Netanyahu's government and Palestinians to return to negotiations.
El-Sissi cited “a buildup of outrage and hatred for more than 40 years” and the lack of any “horizon to solve the Palestinian cause; one that gives hope to the Palestinians” for a state with a capital in East Jerusalem.
Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, pointed to Saudis' “repeated warnings of the danger of the explosion.&quot;
Arab leaders “are very aware this is going to keep blowing up. And they might ride it out this time, they might ride it out next time, as they have in the past,” said Yezid Sayigh, a senior fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, Lebanon. 
“But it’s not actually a comfortable position for them to be endlessly living in,&quot; with endless cycles of Israeli and Palestinian wars that threaten the region's peace and economies, said Sayigh, who accused the U.S. of encouraging Netanyahu to think there was no need to address Palestinian concerns.
Underscoring his administration's diminished emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Biden's call to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas this past weekend amid the building Gaza war was the American leader's first since taking office. 
In 1973, Arab nations’ surprise attack on Israel, and Arabs' devastating oil embargo on the U.S. and other countries for their support of Israel in that fight, convinced U.S. leaders that a lasting resolution to Palestinian demands for statehood was in America's strategic interest.
But after some early successes, recurring violence, the disappointments of past failed mediation efforts, and the scale of the disputes helped derail the U.S. push. By the time Biden, a strong supporter of the state of Israel, took office, any support for major negotiations among Israelis was faint. 
Blinken and other U.S. officials have pointed to steps taken by the administration they say were aimed at improving conditions before making any push for a return to talks on a political solution to the long-lasting conflict. That includes restoring U.S. aid to the Palestinians after then-President Donald Trump cut almost all of it, and Blinken's January trip to the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, where he said Biden remains committed to the goal of Palestinian statehood.
There's little to suggest that more ambitious engagement by Biden on Israeli-Palestinian issues would have made immediate progress, or done anything to discourage the attack by Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel.
Even after a 2021 burst of fighting between Hamas and Israel, administration figures argued that a big push on peace efforts would undermine more easily won goals, like cease-fires with Hamas.
Instead, Biden has enthusiastically followed the new path that Trump had laid out on Middle East peacemaking: lobbying for so-called normalization deals with Arab countries, absent any Israeli-Palestinian accord.
Under Trump, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco all signed normalization deals establishing diplomatic relations with Israel. 
Up until Oct. 7, Biden appeared to be fast closing in on brokering a normalization deal with the biggest prize of all, regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia.
Then, Hamas' breakout from Gaza shattered what National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan had hailed as a period of Middle East calm. The violence has been the deadliest of five wars between Hamas and Israel, killing more than 1,400 people in Israel and at least 2,778 in Gaza, not including hundreds reported killed in an explosion at a Gaza City hospital Tuesday.
It's not clear what happens to Biden's normalization push now. Despite their angry comments and varying degrees of popular support among their public for the Palestinian cause, America's Arab partners are pragmatists, and like the U.S. and Israel, adversaries of Hamas and other Iran-backed groups. 
Additionally, the Biden administration's immediate and all-in rallying to Israel's mounting defense after Hamas's Oct. 7 massacres may only heighten Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's desire to lock in that kind of security alliance with the U.S. for the kingdom, many analysts are arguing.
“I think Gulf partners are looking at the quick, decisive response that the U.S. has provided Israel, and are incredibly jealous,” said Jonathan Lord, director of the Middle East security program at the Center for a New American Security think tank.
Brokering those alliances would stabilize the Middle East in themselves, no Israeli-Palestinian peace accord needed, supporters have argued.
The nightmare unfolding now for Israeli and Palestinian civilians argues differently, when it comes to Biden's approach, critics say.
“As long as the core issues stay unresolved, ignoring them does not make them go away,” said Yousef Munayyer, who heads the Palestine-Israel program at the Arab Center, a Washington think tank. “And I think that's a lesson for everybody.”

AP-US-Israel-Palestinians-Biden's-Gamble, 3rd Ld-Writethru

Biden didn't make Israeli-Palestinian talks a priority. Arab leaders say region now paying the price

Israel Palestinians Biden's Gamble

JERUSALEM — Palestinians fled in a mass exodus Friday from northern Gaza after Israel’s military told some 1 million people to evacuate to the southern part of the besieged territory ahead of an expected ground invasion in retaliation for the surprise attack by the ruling Hamas militant group.
The U.N. warned that evacuating almost half of crowded Gaza's population would be calamitous, and it urged Israel to reverse the unprecedented directive. As airstrikes hammered the territory throughout the day, families in cars, trucks and donkey carts packed with possessions streamed down a main road out of Gaza City.
Hamas’ media office said warplanes struck cars fleeing south, killing more than 70 people. The Israeli military said its troops conducted temporary raids into Gaza to battle militants and hunted for traces of some 150 people abducted in Hamas's assault on Israel nearly a week ago.
In urging the evacuation, Israel’s military said it planned to target underground Hamas hideouts around Gaza City. But Palestinians and some Egyptian officials fear that Israel ultimately hopes to push Gaza’s people out through the southern border with Egypt.
Hamas told people to ignore the evacuation order, and families in Gaza faced what they saw as a no-win decision to leave or stay, with no safe ground anywhere. Hospital staff said they couldn’t abandon patients.
Unrelenting Israeli strikes over the past week have leveled large swaths of neighborhoods, magnifying the suffering of Gaza, which has also been sealed off from food, water and medical supplies, and under a virtual total power blackout.
“Forget about food, forget about electricity, forget about fuel. The only concern now is just if you’ll make it, if you’re going to live,” said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza City, as she broke into heaving sobs.
In the nearly week-old war, the Gaza Health Ministry said Friday that roughly 1,900 people have been killed in the territory — more than half of them under the age of 18, or women. The Hamas assault last Saturday killed more than 1,300 Israelis, most of whom were civilians, and roughly 1,500 Hamas militants were killed during the fighting, the Israeli government said.
ISRAELI TROOPS MAKE FORAY INTO GAZA
Israel's raid was the first word of troops entering Gaza since Israel launched its round-the-clock bombardment in retaliation for Hamas’ massacre of hundreds of civilians in southern Israel. 
A military spokesman said Israeli ground troops left after conducting the raids. The troop movements did not appear to be the beginning of an expected ground invasion.
The evacuation order was taken as a further signal of an expected Israeli ground offensive, although no such decision has been announced. Israel has been massing troops along the Gaza border.
 An assault into densely populated and impoverished Gaza would likely bring even higher casualties on both sides in brutal house-to-house fighting.
“We will destroy Hamas,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Friday night in a speech, adding, “This is only the beginning.”
Hamas said Israel’s airstrikes killed 13 of the hostages in the past day. It said the dead included foreigners but did not give their nationalities. Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari denied the claim.
In Israel, the public remained in shock over the Hamas rampage and frightened by continual rocket fire out of Gaza. The public is overwhelmingly in favor of the military offensive, and Israeli TV stations have set up special broadcasts with slogans like “together we will win” and “strong together.” Their reports focus heavily on the aftermath of the Hamas attack and stories of heroism and national unity, and they make scant mention of the unfolding crisis in Gaza.
In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported 16 Palestinians killed Friday, bringing the total of Palestinians killed there since Hamas' rampage to 51. The U.N. says attacks by Israeli settlers have surged there since the Hamas assault.
ISRAEL URGES MASS EVACUATION OF GAZA CIVILIANS
The U.N. said the Israeli military's call for civilians to move south affects 1.1 million people. If carried out, that would mean the territory’s entire population would have to cram into the southern half of the 40-kilometer (25-mile) strip.
An Israeli spokesperson, Jonathan Conricus, said the military would take “extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians” and that residents would be allowed to return when the war is over.
Israel has long accused Hamas of using Palestinians as human shields. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel wanted to separate Hamas militants from the civilian population.
“So those who want to save their life, please go south,” he said at a news conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. 
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said it would be impossible to stage such an evacuation without “devastating humanitarian consequences.” He called on Israel to rescind any such orders.
PALESTINIANS IN GAZA GRAPPLE WITH WHERE TO GO
Hamas’ media office said airstrikes hit cars in three locations as they headed south from Gaza City, killing 70 people. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strike.
Two witnesses reported a strike on fleeing cars near the town of Deir el-Balah, south of the evacuation zone and in the area Israel told people to flee to. Fayza Hamoudi said she and her family were driving from their home in the north when the strike hit some distance ahead on the road and two vehicles burst into flames. A witness from another car on the road gave a similar account.
“Why should we trust that they’re trying to keep us safe?” Hamoudi said, her voice choking. “They are sick.”
The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment on the strike. 
Hamas called the evacuation order “psychological warfare” aimed at breaking Palestinian solidarity and urged people to stay. But there was no sign of it preventing the flight.
Gaza City resident Khaled Abu Sultan at first didn’t believe the evacuation order was real, and now isn’t sure whether to move his family to the south. “We don’t know if there are safe areas there,” he said. “We don’t know anything.”
Many feared they would not be able to return or would be gradually displaced to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
More than half of the Palestinians in Gaza are the descendants of refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, when hundreds of thousands fled or were expelled from what is now Israel. For many, the mass evacuation order dredged up fears of a second expulsion. Already, at least 423,000 people — nearly 1 in 5 Gazans — have been forced from their homes by Israeli airstrikes, the U.N. said Thursday. 
“Where is the sense of security in Gaza? Is this what Hamas is offering us?” said one resident, Tarek Mraish, standing by an avenue as vehicles flowed by. “What has Hamas done to us? It brought us catastrophe,” he said, using the same Arabic word “nakba” used for the 1948 displacement.
The U.N. estimated that tens of thousands had fled homes in the north by Friday night.
HOSPITALS STRUGGLE WITH PATIENTS 
Gaza’s Health Ministry said it was impossible to safely transport the many wounded from hospitals, which are already struggling with high numbers of dead and injured. “We cannot evacuate hospitals and leave the wounded and sick to die,” spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said.
Farsakh, of the Palestinian Red Crescent, said some medics refused to abandon patients and instead called colleagues to say goodbye.
“We have wounded, we have elderly, we have children who are in hospitals,” she said.
Al Awda Hospital was struggling to evacuate dozens of patients and staff after the military contacted it and told it to do so by Friday night, said the aid group Doctors Without Borders, known as MSF, which supports the facility. The military extended the deadline to Saturday morning, it said.
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said it would not evacuate its schools, where hundreds of thousands have taken shelter. But it relocated its headquarters to southern Gaza, according to spokesperson Juliette Touma.
“The scale and speed of the unfolding humanitarian crisis is bone-chilling. Gaza is fast becoming a hellhole and is on the brink of collapse,” said Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner general.
Pressed by reporters on whether the army would protect hospitals, U.N. shelters and other civilian locations, Hagari, the Israeli military spokesperson, said the military would keep civilians safe “as much as we can.” But he warned: “It’s a war zone.”

AP-ML-Israel-Palestinians, 35th Ld-Writethru

Palestinians flee northern Gaza after Israel orders 1 million to evacuate as ground attack looms

NEW YORK — A lack of clean water in the Gaza Strip is raising major concerns for human health.
“Gaza is running out of water, and Gaza is running out of life,” said Philippe Lazzarini, chief of the U.N. agency for Palestinians.
Gaza normally gets its water supplies from a combination of sources, including a pipeline from Israel, desalination plants on the Mediterranean Sea and wells. Those supplies were slashed when Israel cut off water, along with the fuel and electricity that power water and sewage plants, in the wake of the Hamas attacks.
The United Nations recognizes access to water as a human right, and on a basic level, the human body needs a constant supply of water to survive. “Next to air,” water is “really the most important thing for maintenance of your health,” said Dr. Tsion Firew, an emergency physician at Columbia University who has worked on water access in humanitarian settings. 
A report from the U.S. National Academies of Science and Medicine says men need to drink about 3.7 liters (125 ounces) and women need about 2.7 liters (91 ounces) per day to be adequately hydrated. Most of that comes from drinking water or beverages, and about 20% from food, including fruits.
Many people can’t survive more than a few days without water, Firew said — especially vulnerable groups like children, the elderly and those with health conditions. Dehydration can cause dizziness, fatigue and confusion and in severe cases lead to organ failure and death.
Water access is also crucial for sanitation, and a lack of clean water can lead to the spread of infections like cholera and dysentery. Diarrheal diseases that can be spread by unclean water are the leading cause of death for children under 5 across the world, Firew said.
Health care settings are a particular concern as they rely on clean water to care for patients who are sick and injured.
As hospitals across the Gaza Strip struggle to care for thousands of patients, the World Health Organization said the lack of water is putting lives in danger.
“Water is needed to ensure sanitary conditions on inpatient wards, in operation rooms, and emergency departments. It is essential for the prevention of hospital associated infections and for the prevention of outbreaks in hospitals,” the WHO said in a statement.

AP-Israel-Palestinians-Water-Health-Explainer

Gaza's limited water supply raises concerns for human health

At least 1,500 people gathered in Mineola on Sunday for a pro-Palestinian rally, waving flags and placards and calling for an end to Israeli attacks against the Gaza Strip. 
 The protest took place a week after the militant group Hamas invaded Israel and killed at least 1,400 people in the worst one-day loss of life in Israel since its founding in 1948. 
 Many of the speakers and rallygoers condemned the violence by Hamas, but others framed it as part of a “resistance” to Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank and what they described as decades of human rights abuses. 
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 Some protesters draped Palestinian flags around their shoulders, while others waved signs declaring “Free Palestine,” “End the Occupation. End the Genocide,” and “No Water. No Food. No Humanity” — a reference to Israel cutting off supplies to Gaza following the attack in apparent preparation for a major counteroffensive. 
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 Israel has argued that its moves against Gaza are justified after hundreds of civilians including babies and concertgoers were murdered. 
 The protest in front of the Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building on Franklin Avenue drew a heavy police presence, but there were no reported incidents. 
 Abdul Aziz Bhuiyan, one of the main organizers of the event, told the boisterous crowd, “We mourn and pray for the innocent lives lost, children and elderly, injured and displaced people in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.” 
 He noted that nearly 2,700 Palestinians have now been killed by the Israeli bombings. 
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 Bhuiyan, a leader of the&nbsp;Hillside Islamic Center mosque in New Hyde Park, called on President Joe Biden and the United States&nbsp;to intervene to stop the bombing “and protect the lives of innocent civilians in Gaza.” The bombings, the displacement of civilians and the ongoing Israeli blockade of Gaza have turned it “into an open-air prison,” he said. 
 “We stand in solidarity with the Palestinians in their quest for freedom, dignity and human rights,” he said. “We stand against any form of hatred, antisemitism, or Islamophobia.” 
 Dr. Isma Chaudry, a leader of the Westbury-based Islamic Center of Long Island mosque, said she condemned the violence by Hamas but noted that the Palestinians have suffered decades of oppression by Israel. 
 “The loss of one human life is a shame of all humanity,” she said. But “at this time the U.S. position is very one-sided,” in focusing on the suffering of Israel but not the Palestinians. 
 While she criticized Hamas’ violence, others seemed to suggest it was an open question. One speaker led a chant, “Resistance is justified when people are occupied.” 
 Laurice Abdelhalim, 46, a resident of Brentwood who said she is of Palestinian descent, said she came to the rally to support to the Palestinian cause and call for an end to the violence. 
 “It’s really sad what is going on and I hope it ends,” she said. “We want to end the occupation. We just want our country back.” 
 The rally also attracted non-Muslims who said they wanted to support the Palestinians. 
 Nia Adams, a community activist, condemned Hamas’ violence but also said she saw parallels between Blacks in the United States&nbsp;and Palestinians, whom she believes are living in a type of “apartheid.” 
 “I feel a deep sorrow for the atrocities that are happening to thousands of innocent people … within occupied Palestine,” she said. “And I feel that the liberation of Palestinians and that of Black people are intricately connected and I cannot be complicit and stand by as innocent people are murdered.” 
 “What I see is oppressed people experiencing apartheid ... and being motivated by that,” she said.

LIPROTEST231016

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators rally in Mineola week after Hamas invasion of Israel

1,500 pro-Palestinian demonstrators rally in Mineola

LIPROTEST231016_photos

The parents of Omer Neutra,&nbsp;an Israeli soldier believed to have been kidnapped by terrorist group Hamas, were surrounded by supporters Sunday, as hundreds rallied at&nbsp;Plainview-Old Bethpage Community Park.&nbsp; 
 Chants of &quot;bring them home&quot; rang through the park as local officials demanded the return of dozens of hostages who were taken during the Oct. 7 attack in Israel that led to a&nbsp;war, which has left over 9,700&nbsp;Palestinians dead, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, and more than 1,400 people in Israel&nbsp;dead, according to Israeli authorities. Both totals include many civilians. 
 Shirley Rodkin, 70, of Plainview, said&nbsp;some of her family lives in Israel and she was at the event&nbsp;to show support. 
 &quot;It's important to show the world that Israel is not alone,&quot; she said. &quot;I want peace for everybody.&quot; 
 Throughout the event, people passionately&nbsp;chanted&nbsp;&quot;Bring Omer home,&quot; to&nbsp;support&nbsp;his parents on the stage. His&nbsp;mother,&nbsp;Orna Neutra, wore a shirt with the Plainview native's face.&nbsp; 
 In the early portion of the rally, a&nbsp;choir of local students performed Israel's national anthem, which was echoed passionately&nbsp;by hundreds of people in the crowd.&nbsp; 
 Some on the chilly fall night wore Israeli flags around their shoulders, while others waved them over the crowd. The rally also served as a candlelight vigil for the victims of the ongoing war.&nbsp; 
 Rabbi Joel Levinson&nbsp;of the Midway Jewish Center&nbsp;in Syosset spoke about unity, the need to release the hostages and a desire for peace. 
 &quot;Tonight we say no to terror and yes to peace,&quot; he said onstage. &quot;We feel the urgency. We need to bring Omer home.&quot; 
 About 240&nbsp;hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by Hamas. 
 Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor Joseph Saladino led the rally and expressed his desire to&nbsp;end hatred. 
 &quot;A big part of our mission here tonight is to educate our neighbors, friends, children, their friends,&quot; he said. &quot;As we see our hatred, we know that we must work together to end all hatred.&quot;&nbsp; 
 Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly also spoke at the event and touched on the growing&nbsp;number of antisemitic incidents on Long Island. 
 &quot;Crimes like that have no place in Nassau County,&quot; she said. &quot;I will bring all people who violate such laws to justice.&quot;

LIRALLY231106

Hundreds gather in Plainview park to demand return of hostages taken by Hamas in Israel

Hundreds gather in LI park to demand return of hostages taken by Hamas

liRALLY231106_photos

TEL AVIV, Israel — Women, children and older adults hiding in safe rooms gunned down mercilessly. Homes set ablaze with terrified residents still inside them. Children, some bound, forced into a room and slaughtered. Jews, helpless.
For many Israelis and Jews around the world, the horrors committed by Hamas militants during their stunning onslaught on southern Israeli communities is triggering painful memories of a calamity of a far greater scale: the Holocaust. 
Long seen as a catastrophe so horrific nothing else should be compared to it, Israelis are now drawing direct parallels between the murder of 6 million Jews in Europe eight decades ago and their most recent tragedy, underscoring how traumatic the attack has been for a country that rose from the ashes of World War II and was created as a safe haven for Jews.
“I have been strict about not using the word ‘Shoah’ in any context other than the Holocaust,” political commentator Ben Caspit wrote in the daily Maariv, referring to the Holocaust by its Hebrew name. “When Jewish children hide in a protected room and their anguished parents pray that they won’t cry, so that the marauders won’t come in and set the house on fire, it’s a Shoah.”
Israel’s retaliation against Hamas in Gaza has also drawn comparisons to the Palestinians’ greatest national tragedy, the Nakba, when hundreds of thousands fled or were forced to flee following the 1948 war that led to Israel's creation. Many Palestinians fear a repeat of that mass exodus after Israel ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza.
Just a few years ago, comparisons to the Holocaust would have been promptly denounced as cheapening its memory and diminishing the horror of the Nazi crimes.
 That has begun to erode in recent years — with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alluding to the Nazis when talking about Iran and its nuclear program and protesters on rival sides of the political aisle calling each other “Nazis.” Still, such incidents remain rare and often draw criticism. 
But the horrors of the Oct. 7 Hamas assault, which killed at least 1,300 Israelis, have tapped into Israel's deepest fears and revived memories of the Jews' greatest trauma.
Hundreds of militants stormed across the border, catching the country and its vaunted military off guard on a major Jewish holiday. They attacked sleepy farming villages, slaughtering terrified residents.
The militants killed at least 260 revelers at a music festival, with survivors telling harrowing stories of methodical massacres.
 Dozens were dragged away as hostages on motorcycles and golf carts. Some of the dead and captured were Holocaust survivors.
“This is a massacre. This is a pogrom,” said Maj. Gen. Itai Veruv, leader of forces that cleared one of the besieged villages, referring to historic massacres of European Jews.
In the Holocaust, Nazis led a campaign of genocide, rounding up and murdering many of Europe's Jews, while sending others on trains to death or labor camps.
Israel made protecting Jews from similar atrocities part of its raison d’etre. Many Israelis see their country as a refuge, a nation with a strong army that could protect Jews despite regional threats. Many Jews in the diaspora share that feeling, seeing Israel as a safe haven should Jews be persecuted again. 
While the Hamas attack did not nearly approach the Holocaust's scale, it marked the deadliest day for Jews since then and its well-planned slaughter reopened a wound that remains fresh for many in Israel.
Netanyahu compared the festival killings to the Babi Yar massacre, one of the most infamous mass slaughters of World War II in which more than 33,000 Jews were killed. He has declared that Israel will “never forget,” a clear reflection of Israel’s vow to never let the Holocaust disappear from the world's collective memory. Dany Cushmaro, an Israeli newscaster, began referring to the Hamas militants as “those Nazis.” 
Israel's allies abroad also have made the connection. 
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken referred to his late father-in-law, a Holocaust survivor, during a visit to Israel and said the attacks had “harrowing echoes” of Nazi massacres. A reel posted to Instagram by the pro-Israel group Stand With Us shows a candle and the number 6 million slowly ticking up to include the 1,300 slain Israelis.
The memory of the mass murder of Jews looms large over Israel. It holds a memorial day, where Israelis stand still during a one-minute siren to remember the dead. The Holocaust is taught in depth in schools. Youth groups and soldiers visit the death camps in Europe. And visiting dignitaries are taken to the country's Holocaust memorial.
Israeli historian Tom Segev said it was natural for Israelis to make the connection between the Hamas attack and the nation's deeply embedded trauma. “This is the ultimate evil that the person in Israel recognizes,” he said.
But he said Israeli leaders across the political spectrum have for decades tried to exploit the memory of the Holocaust for political gain.
Israelis have, in some cases, become furious when comparisons are made. 
In a 2016 speech marking Israel’s Holocaust memorial day, Yair Golan, then deputy military chief, said he was witnessing “nauseating processes” in Israeli society that reminded him of the fascism of Nazi-era Germany. The speech drew angry reactions from Israeli leaders and is widely believed to be the reason Golan was passed over for the army's top job.
Prominent activists on rival sides of Israel's recent judicial overhaul controversy sparked uproars over Holocaust-related comments.
Some critics of Israel, meanwhile, compare Israeli actions against the Palestinians to the Nazis, which Israel condemns as antisemitism.
Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the Holocaust is being used by Israel and its allies to build legitimacy for its strikes against Hamas, which have killed at least 2,200 Palestinians, and to appeal to Jews in the diaspora.
She said the comparisons could also have dangerous consequences for the way the war plays out.
“When you invoke the Holocaust, it’s the worst of the worst,” Zonszein said, adding that Israel's response could be severe.

BC-ML--Israel-Palestinians-Holocaust Echoes, 1st Ld-Writethru

In Hamas' horrific killings, Israeli trauma over the Holocaust resurfaces

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Truckloads of aid idled at Egypt’s border with Gaza as residents and humanitarian groups pleaded Monday for water, food and fuel for dying generators, saying the tiny Palestinian territory sealed off by Israel after last week’s rampage by Hamas was near total collapse.
U.S. President Joe Biden planned to travel to Israel on Wednesday to signal White House support for the country and to Jordan to meet with Arab leaders. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the trip early Tuesday in Tel Aviv during his second visit to Israel in less than a week after a six-country tour through Arab nations and amid fears of a broader conflict.
In Gaza, hospitals were on the verge of losing electricity, threatening the lives of thousands of patients, and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced from their homes searched for bread. Israel maintained punishing airstrikes across Gaza as a ground invasion loomed, while Hamas militants kept up a barrage of rocket attacks, and tensions mounted near the Israel-Lebanon border.
More than a week after Israel cut off entry of any supplies, all eyes were on the Rafah crossing, Gaza's only connection to Egypt. Mediators were trying to reach a cease-fire that would let in aid and let out trapped foreigners. Israeli airstrikes forced the crossing to shut down last week, but it remained unclear Monday which of the regional actors was keeping the crossing closed.
Blinken said the U.S. and Israel had agreed to develop a plan to enable humanitarian aid to reach civilians in Gaza. There were few details, but the plan would include “the possibility of creating areas to help keep civilians out of harm’s way.”
“We share Israel’s concern that Hamas may seize or destroy aid entering Gaza or otherwise prevent it from reaching the people who need it,” Blinken said.
Israel evacuated towns near its northern border with Lebanon, where the military has exchanged fire repeatedly with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group.
Speaking to the Israeli Knesset, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran and Hezbollah, “Don’t test us in the north. Don’t make the mistake of the past. Today, the price you will pay will be far heavier,” referring to Israel’s 2006 war with Hezbollah, which operates out of Lebanon.
Soon after he spoke, the Knesset floor was evacuated as rockets headed toward Jerusalem. Sirens in Tel Aviv prompted U.S. and Israeli officials to take shelter in a bunker, officials said.
Iran’s foreign minister, meanwhile, warned that “preemptive action is possible” if Israel moves closer to a ground offensive. Hossein Amirabdollahian's threat followed a pattern of escalating rhetoric from Iran, which supports Hamas and Hezbollah.
This has become the deadliest of the five Gaza wars for both sides. At least 2,778 people have been killed and 9,700 wounded in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry there. More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, the vast majority civilians massacred in Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault.
The Israeli military said Monday that at least 199 hostages were taken into Gaza, more than previously estimated. Hamas said it was holding 200 to 250 hostages, including foreigners whom it said it would free when it was feasible.
Also Monday, Hamas’ military wing released a hostage video showing a dazed woman having her arm wrapped with bandages. The woman, who identified herself in the video as Mia Schem, 21, rocked slightly as she spoke, the sound of explosions reverberating in the background. In her statement, Schem said she was taken from Sderot, a small Israeli city near the Gaza border where she had attended a party. Hamas said she had undergone a three-hour operation.
The Israeli military said Schem's family was told of her abduction last week, and officials dismissed the video as propaganda.
The plight of the hostages has dominated the Israeli media since the attack, with interviews of their relatives playing almost constantly. Israeli officials have vowed to maintain the siege of Gaza until the hostages are released.
The head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service, in charge of monitoring militant groups, took responsibility for failing to avert Hamas' surprise attack. As agency head, “the responsibility for that is on me,” Ronen Bar said.
“There will be time for investigation — now is a time for war,” he wrote in a letter to Shin Bet workers and their families.
The combination of airstrikes, dwindling supplies and Israel’s mass evacuation order for the north of the Gaza Strip has thrown the tiny territory’s 2.3 million people into upheaval and increasing desperation. More than 1 million have fled their homes, and 60% are now in the approximately 14-kilometer-long (8 mile) area south of the evacuation zone, according to the U.N.
The Israeli military says it is trying to clear civilians for their safety ahead of a major campaign against Hamas in Gaza's north, where it says the militants have extensive networks of tunnels and rocket launchers. Much of Hamas’ military infrastructure is in residential areas.
Those fleeing northern Gaza still faced airstrikes in the south. Before dawn Monday, a strike in the town of Rafah collapsed a building sheltering three families who had evacuated from Gaza City. At least 12 people were killed and nine others remained buried under rubble, survivors said. The strike reduced the house to a vast crater blanketed with wreckage.
 Hospitals are expected to run out of generator fuel in the next 24 hours, meaning life-saving equipment like incubators and ventilators will stop functioning and putting thousands of lives at risk, the U.N. said. 
People grew increasingly desperate in their search for food and water. With taps dry, many have resorted to drinking dirty or sewage-filled water, risking the spread of disease.
More than 400,000 displaced people in the south crowded into schools and other facilities of the U.N. agency for Palestinians, UNRWA. But the agency can't provide them supplies. UNRWA said it has only 1 liter of water a day for each of its staff members trapped in the territory.
“Gaza is running out of water, and Gaza is running out of life,” said UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, calling for a lifting of the siege. “We need this now.”
The few operating bakeries had long snaking lines of people. Ahmad Salah in the city of Deir al-Balah said he waited 10 hours to get a kilo (2 pounds) of bread to feed 20-30 family members.
In northern Gaza, unknown numbers remained, either unwilling or unable to leave.
UNRWA said 170,000 people were sheltering at its schools in the north when the order to leave came. But it couldn't evacuate them and doesn’t know if they remained. More than 40,000 have crowded in and around Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, hoping it will be safe from bombardment.
Hamas urged people to ignore the evacuation order. The Israeli military on Sunday released photos it said showed a Hamas roadblock preventing traffic from moving south.
Doctors and many hospital staff have refused to evacuate, saying it would mean death for critically ill patients and newborns on ventilators. The aid group Doctors Without Borders said many of its personnel decided to stay to treat wounded. They ran out of painkillers, and staff reported “wounded screaming in pain,&quot; it said.
On the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing, crowds of Palestinians with dual citizenship waited anxiously, sitting on suitcases or crouched on the floor, some comforting crying infants.
“They are supposed to be a developed country, talking about human rights all the time,” Shurouq Alkhazendar, whose two children are American citizens, said of the United States. “You should protect your citizens first, not leave them all alone suffering.”
After increasing cross-border exchanges with Hezbollah in the north, the Israeli military ordered residents to evacuate 28 communities within 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) of the Lebanese border.
“Israel is ready to operate on two fronts, and even more,” said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a military spokesman.
Hezbollah released video showing snipers shooting out cameras on several Israeli army posts along the border, apparently to prevent Israel from monitoring movements on the Lebanese side.
The U.S. government began evacuating some 2,500 American citizens by ship from the Israeli port city of Haifa to Cyprus. Commercial airlines have largely stopped flying into Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport.

AP-ML-Israel-Palestinians, 29th Ld-Writethru

With humanitarian aid blocked at Egyptian border, Gaza draws closer to total collapse

Long Island, state and New York City authorities are increasing security and patrols in communities and houses of worship following a call by a former Hamas chief for protests across the Muslim world Friday in support of Palestinians and against Israel. 
 While law enforcement has reported no credible threats, the call for a global day of jihad by former Hamas Chief Khaled Meshall has prompted police on Long Island to deploy additional special forces, including SWAT teams, drones and bomb-sniffing K-9s in Jewish communities, near schools, businesses, synagogues and yeshivas through Saturday and until the threat has been mitigated, officials said. 
 Several Long Island school districts sent letters to parents Thursday saying they were on heightened alert, with messages from Nassau and Suffolk police warning parents to be alert and to report suspicious activity. 
 Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams reassured New Yorkers Thursday evening that there were no credible threats throughout the state. Hochul said she is working with the Department of Homeland Security and the White House to protect New Yorkers and assess threats. 
 “There is no call to violence that will shake our conviction and no evil we’re unwilling to confront,” Hochul said. “I want to reiterate there is no reason to be afraid. No one should feel the need to alter their normal lives or routine. If we change our normal behavior without a serious threat, we’re letting the terrorists win.” 
 Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder and County Executive Bruce Blakeman said in news conferences there were “no direct, credible threats” in Nassau County. But Blakeman added “... Although it is a general threat against all those Jewish people in the world, we are taking actions here to make sure that our community is safe.” 
 Afterward, Ryder and Blakeman met with about 50 rabbis and Jewish leaders for a security briefing Thursday at the Nassau police David S. Mack Center for Training and Intelligence in Garden City. 
 Ryder told the gathering about efforts to heighten security in Nassau County, urging the rabbis to report any suspicious activities or threats. Officials said they would leave it up to the religious leaders, yeshivas and Jewish business owners to decide if they should close Friday. 
 Rabbi Shalom Axelrod of Young Israel of Woodmere said prior to the security briefing that no one from his congregation of more than 1,200 families had asked him to cancel services. 
 “That is what terrorism strives for. What Hamas wants to see is some guy in some hole, wants us to cower, and we’re not going to,” Axelrod said. “We’re going to be open, we’re going to have our services and if anything I encourage our Jewish population to come out strong. Let everyone know just because Hamas tries to eradicate [Jews] from this world, it’s not going to happen.” 
 Blakeman said several mosques had also asked for additional security following the Hamas call for protests. 
 Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison said in a letter to parents, included in notices by some school districts, that Suffolk police would increase patrols and surveillance around synagogues. He said detectives were monitoring threats online, but noted, “There are no credible threats in Suffolk County.” 
 In New York City, officers of every rank were ordered to show up for work in uniform on Friday in case violence erupted —&nbsp;an order that applies to every officer, from beat cops to high-ranked chiefs. The NYPD also notified its “Shield” consortium, security composed of private industries and businesses around the city, alerting them about possible demonstrations in support of Hamas. 
 Adams said all yeshivas and schools in the city planned to remain open. 
 Nassau County police already added an additional 20 patrol cars following the attacks Saturday morning, Blakeman said. 
 Police would not disclose how many officers would be deployed, but said it would include helicopter patrols, mounted officers on horseback and the marine bureau. 
 Nassau County police and Blakeman told rabbis and community members during a news conference not to be alarmed by drone surveillance or additional police presence in their neighborhoods. 
 Police also have a drone detection unit, which monitors every drone flying over Nassau County and the New York City area. Police said only FAA-licensed operators would be allowed to fly and officers would order any unauthorized drones to be taken down. 
 With Anthony M. DeStefano

LIRABBIS231013

Long Island, region prepare for possible anti-Israel protests Friday, boosting security at schools, houses of worship

Law enforcement ramps up security after call for protests Friday in support of Hamas, against Israel

LIRABBIS231013_photos

The largest&nbsp;mobilization of Israeli military reservists in 50 years, summoned from across the globe to join the fight against Hamas, includes an estimated 800 Americans, many with ties to New York and Long Island. 
 In response to Saturday's unprovoked surprise attack by Hamas against Israeli citizens, the Israeli Defense Force summoned some 300,000 reservists, the bulk of whom are men and women still living in Israel who have completed their compulsory years of military service after turning 18.&nbsp; 
 An additional 60,000 reservists&nbsp;volunteered to return to service even though they were not called,&nbsp;according to Rabbi Steven Weil of New Jersey, chief executive of&nbsp;Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, a nonprofit that provides support and is raising funds for soldiers and their families, both in country and abroad. 
 Members of the IDF Reserves remain subject to active duty during times of national emergencies,&nbsp;typically until their 40s, depending on their role and circumstances, officials said. 
 An estimated 3,300&nbsp;reservists live overseas in 68 nations,&nbsp;including roughly 800 Americans, many residing in New York and parts of Long Island, Weil said in an interview Wednesday. 
 &quot;Nassau County has one of the largest concentrations of Lone Soldiers,&quot; Weil said, referring to&nbsp;members of the IDF&nbsp;who have no immediate family in Israel. &quot; … They're&nbsp;dropping everything. In some cases it's a&nbsp;young family they're leaving behind. In some cases, it&nbsp;means they have to leave their jobs behind. In other cases, it could be their parents that they're leaving behind. All because they feel that this is an existential threat in the history of Israel.&quot; 
 Among the reservists called to duty in recent days is Lucas&nbsp;Siminovsky, whose mother,&nbsp;Robin Siminovsky, is a teacher in the Hebrew school at the East Meadow Beth-El Jewish Center. 
 Lucas, she said, grew up in Queens and moved to Israel when he turned 18 and voluntarily joined the IDF.&nbsp;He's now married with two children. 
 Siminovsky&nbsp;said she speaks to her son daily and knows that he is stationed somewhere in northern Israel, considered among the safer regions of the war-torn nation.&nbsp; 
 &quot;It's always in the back of your mind that 'Oh my God, my son is in Israel. And he's a reservist and if there's a war he's going.' But this is different because of the brutality that went on here,&quot; Robin Siminovsky said. &quot;I fear because it can't go back to status quo … This is really much more personal. They didn't go after military people. They went after innocent people.&quot; 
 Bari Nirenberg, who grew up in Dix Hills and moved to Israel in 1988, said her two sons, ages 30 and 26, have been drafted to active duty as well. 
 One son, she said, is in the north near the Lebanese border and the other in the West Bank. 
 &quot;I was concerned when my sons went into the&nbsp;Army, and now I'm even more concerned,&quot; Nirenberg, who lives about 18 miles from the Gaza border, said Wednesday. &quot; … You never know from minute to minute what could happen. It's very scary because this is a threat that we've never actually faced before.&quot; 
 Nassau Legis. Josh Lafazan has three cousins, originally from Rockland County who later relocated to Israel, who also have been drafted as IDF reservists. 
 &quot;'I'm so in awe of their bravery and their heroism, joining their neighbors and fighting for the survival of the state of Israel,&quot; said Lafazan (D-Woodbury). &quot; …&nbsp;To see my cousins, who I grew up with, serving their nation in uniform, gives me such pride.&quot; 
 Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman emeritus of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, in a news conference Wednesday with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) in New York City, described his tour of Israel in the past few days, which&nbsp;proved both inspirational and horrific.&nbsp; 
 During a recent visit to a hospital, he met recovering soldiers, including two from New York.&nbsp; 
 “And they only wanted to get better to be able to rejoin their fellow soldiers. Because what they're fighting for, it's not just for Israel, and not just for Jews,” he said. “It's for America. It's for democracy. It's western values. This is a war of extinction.”&nbsp; 
 But he also spoke of seeing soldiers visiting a kibbutz that Hamas attacked. 
 “These young soldiers, their faces ashen because they had to go in. After these bodies were there for two or three days. The stench of death permeated every inch of the place,” he said.&nbsp; 
 With Tom Brune

LIISRAEL231012

Israelis answer the call to rejoin military service in war with Hamas

Israeli military reservists coming home from around the globe to serve in war against Hamas

liISRAEL231012_photos

Matthew Chayes and Bart Jones

Mustafa Elqumsan, 41, arrived in August to&nbsp;Long Island from the Gaza Strip to conduct&nbsp;research at Stony Brook University. 
 In recent days, after a surprise&nbsp;invasion by Hamas that had&nbsp;left at least&nbsp;1,200 dead as of Wednesday, with an estimated 150 people&nbsp;taken hostage,&nbsp;Israel cut power to Gaza — as well as the entry&nbsp;of&nbsp;food, water, medicine and fuel. Elqumsan has lost communication with his family — his mother and three brothers, two sisters, aunts, uncles and others, all of whom are still in Gaza. 
 With a bombing campaign by Israel underway in retaliation and aimed at dismantling&nbsp;Hamas, Elqumsan can’t reach his family. 
 “There isn’t electricity now. How can I call them?” said Elqumsan, who holds a doctorate in bioinformatics. Nor is there working internet, and since the families’ cellphones haven't been charged since&nbsp;the&nbsp;power was cut, Elqumsan has no way to find out&nbsp;if they’re OK. 
<h2> Hamas in charge </h2> 
 Hamas is in charge in Gaza, which has a population of about 2 million.&nbsp;Israel has declared war in response to the killings and kidnappings of Israelis in the rampage Saturday.&nbsp;Dancing Israeli concertgoers were slain in the desert; the elderly, babies and other civilians, as well as soldiers, were kidnapped, shot or otherwise killed.&nbsp;Hamas attackers&nbsp;recorded or livestreamed much&nbsp;of the violence. 
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 Israeli Prime Minister&nbsp;Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to “crush and destroy” Hamas. Airstrikes continued Wednesday in Gaza and flattened city blocks; unknown numbers of bodies are underneath the debris. A ground invasion is looking increasingly likely. So far, more than&nbsp;1,100 people in Gaza have been killed.&nbsp;Netanyahu, in a televised&nbsp;address Wednesday, said that during Hamas' attacks,&nbsp;Israeli soldiers were beheaded, women raped, boys and girls shot in the head and people burned alive.&nbsp; 
<h2> On Long Island </h2> 
 This week, several&nbsp;Palestinians on Long Island told Newsday they don’t condone violence against civilians on both sides. 
 Stephan Shatarah is a 33-year-old newlywed in Levittown and financial adviser in Westbury. A first-generation son of parents who emigrated from the West Bank — his father&nbsp;was born in Ramallah, his mother&nbsp;in Birzeit — Shatarah considers himself living the American dream. 
 And while he’s proud of his ancestry, he's&nbsp;disappointed how news coverage has cast Palestinians in an unfavorable light, said Shatarah, president of the Ramallah Club of New York. 
 “Right now, saying that you’re Palestinian is not the most positive thing that people view at this point in time,” said Shatarah, a Palestinian Christian. “They look at Palestinians as being terrorists and what have you.” 
 Hamas formed in 1987 and won legislative elections&nbsp;in 2006. Israel says Hamas has about 30,000 fighters and an arsenal of weapons. 
 There are 819 Long Islanders reporting Palestinian ancestry: 462 in Nassau and 357 in Suffolk, according to recent figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. A total of 5,532 Long Islanders report Israeli ancestry: &nbsp;4,564 in Nassau and 968 in Suffolk, the Census figures show. 
 With tensions high across Israel, Shatarah said he’s concerned about his cousins who live in Ramallah in the West Bank, which is occupied by Israel. 
 And in clashes since Saturday, Israeli security forces have killed at least 27 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to Reuters. The Israeli military has said it’s preparing for an escalation by residents of the West Bank, and that Israeli forces are on high alert, carrying out arrests and thwarting possible attacks. The Palestinian Authority, a Hamas rival, exercises limited governance in the West Bank and has expressed solidarity with Gaza. 
 Shatarah said: “Under occupation, which is really what’s happening, no one is safe over there, really.” 
 Shatarah said he’s seen videos and photos on Instagram of what happened in&nbsp;the Hamas attacks and Israeli response in Gaza. 
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 “I think it’s devastating for all sides. Any civilian that lives over there, it’s devastating, and my heart goes out to the Palestinians in the area. My heart goes out to the Israelis in the area. No one should feel unsafe in their home, no matter what side of the fence you’re on,” he said. 
 Shatarah said he prays for a solution. 
 He said that while Palestinians have long-standing and legitimate grievances against Israel, he doesn’t agree with the violence carried out by Hamas against Israeli civilians.&nbsp; 
<h2> 'Like a big prison' </h2> 
 Elqumsan said he has friends both in Gaza and in Israel, including some Jewish scientists with whom he collaborates. In his view, the recent violence, while deplorable, is partly the result of oppressive conditions in the Palestinian regions. 
 “Life is not good,” he said of Gaza.&nbsp; 
 “We need to live in peace together,” he said. 
 He called Gaza — over which Israel has maintained a blockade, it says, to thwart&nbsp;attacks from within Gaza, such as the one Saturday — “like a big prison,” with high unemployment, widespread poverty and constant shortages of basics such as food and water. 
 Movement in and out of the territories is highly restricted — Elqumsan&nbsp;said he had to wait two months to travel to Israel to get a visa to&nbsp;come to the United States. There is no U.S. consulate or embassy in Gaza. 
 Nayyar Imam, who emigrated to the United States from Pakistan and is a leader of the Selden-based Islamic Association of Long Island mosque, said he condemns Hamas’ violent rampage. 
 But Imam, a former chaplain for the Suffolk County Police Department, said he also believes Americans have heard only one side of the story regarding the Middle East conflict, and that over the decades violence has taken place on both sides. 
 Of Hamas’ attacks, &nbsp;he said: “Whatever they did is not right.” 
 With AP

LIPALESTINIAN231012

For Palestinian Long Islanders, war in Israel stokes fears for family

War stokes fear for Palestinian families

liPALESTINIAN231012_photos

Matthew Chayes and Lisa L. Colangelo

West Hempstead native and Israeli army reservist Jo Metz is eager to get called up to her adopted country’s fight against Hamas. 
 Metz,&nbsp;22, who moved to Israel in 2019 after high school to join the&nbsp;army, has been checking her phone, waiting. A call. A text message. Instructions for deployment back to duty for the Israel Defense Forces, for which she was a combat medic. She was released a year-and-a-half ago. 
 “If I can patch up Israeli soldiers and even armed civilians that are meeting these terrorists face to face, if I can send them back to their mothers and their families, then that’s the least I can do. That’s literally what I was trained to do, and that’s literally the least I can do for my country,” said Metz, who is now with friends in Herzliya, an Israeli city on the Mediterranean coast north of Tel Aviv, and is one of the 2,481 people who moved to Israel in 2019 from the U.S., according to Israel's&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/publications/doclib/2020/2.shnatonpopulation/st02_55.pdf">Central Bureau of Statistics</a>. 
 As of Sunday evening, there were&nbsp;at least 700 people killed in Israel and what the Israeli military called a &quot;significant&quot; number of captives&nbsp;taken during surprise attacks, which began on&nbsp;Saturday morning&nbsp;by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. More than 400 had been killed in Gaza in Israel's response targeting the organization.&nbsp; 
 There is at least one Long Islander who might have been captured by Hamas, according to Matthew Capp, a spokesman for Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-Island Park). 
 A day after the attacks, Long Island&nbsp;supporters of Israel — those who live here, those who have moved there, and those who&nbsp;were&nbsp;visiting&nbsp;— were still in shock. 
 When the rocket sirens began to sound farther inland, around 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, former Long Islander Yoel Moskowitz, 59, was in bed. Moskowitz, who lived in Lawrence for 25 years and moved with his wife, Shira, to Jerusalem in 2020, checked his phone. He then took refuge in a long, windowless hallway in his apartment in the Baka neighborhood of Jerusalem, which abuts the mixed Arab and Jewish neighborhood of Abu Tor. He's been staying indoors for the most part, except for a quick trip to start his car Sunday afternoon. His wife is in Los Angeles visiting her mom. 
 Even as the initial astonishment has abated, Moskowitz said, he’s concerned about <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/hamass-gaza-commander-deif-urges-israeli-arabs-neighboring-states-to-join-attack/">calls to arms, such as one issued</a>&nbsp;by Hamas' military commander urging Arabs in Israel to “set the earth on fire under the feet of the occupiers.” 
 “What’s going through my mind now is not so much that I’m going to get kidnapped or be the victim of a terror attack a la the ones that happened yesterday,&quot; he said on Sunday.&nbsp;&quot;I’m more concerned right now about lone-wolf attacks from Palestinian Israeli Arabs that will take literally the call to action from Hamas and Iran to take whatever weapons they have at home and go out and kill Jews.” 
 As of Monday morning in Israel, there were no known reports of lone-wolf attacks. 
 Elsewhere in Jerusalem, Saturday’s attacks also made for a harrowing experience for tourists like&nbsp;Neil Mordowitz of Woodmere, who was on a trip with his extended family to the city. 
 Last year, there were 810,400 American tourist&nbsp;arrivals&nbsp;in Israel, according to the country's Ministry of Tourism. 
 On this trip,&nbsp;Mordowitz and other guests were moved to the lowest level of their hotel, considered a safe room. 
 “There were many, many air raid sirens and many explosions in the sky as well,” Mordowitz, 45, a computer programmer, told Newsday by phone as he waited on line at Ben Gurion Airport to get a flight back to the United States. 
 He added: “No one knew what was going on. No one knew if we could even leave the building.” 
 Mordowitz was with his wife and four children, who range in age from 12 to 20, as well as with&nbsp;his parents and in-laws. The family&nbsp;already had tickets for a return flight to New York. 
 The couple's 18-year-old son, who is studying for a year in Israel, is&nbsp;staying there for now. 
 &quot;People are really scared and they don’t know what to do,&quot;&nbsp;Mordowitz said. 
 Capp and Kristen Cianci, a spokeswoman&nbsp;for Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport), said both congressmen had constituents trying to return to the United States. 
 On Sunday in New York City, dueling rallies mustered in parts of midtown Manhattan, sometimes with shouting and tense&nbsp;confrontations.&nbsp; 
 &quot;BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY,&quot; read one sign held skyward by Palestinian supporters. &quot;DECOLONIZATION IS NOT A METAPHOR,&quot; read another. 
 At a nearby rally in favor of the Jewish state, there were Israeli flags&nbsp;and signs&nbsp;too:&nbsp;&quot;ISRAEL UNDER ATTACK,&quot; said one&nbsp;written on cardboard. 
 Later, about 200 people gathered for a pro-Israel rally at the MakomNY congregation in&nbsp;Bethpage. 
 &quot;In 75 years, Israel has never experienced the terror, the horror, she's experiencing now,&quot; said Rabbi Deborah Bravo, the congregation's leader. 
 And over 5,500 miles away,&nbsp;Metz, the Israeli reservist from Long Island, said&nbsp;she doesn’t want to have to wait to go back into the military.&nbsp; 
 “I’ve been trying myself to reach out. I called my old commander. He says that he’ll call me if he needs me. I reached out to an officer that I know: I asked her if she can put me somewhere. There are actually group chats of people looking for medics, so I asked if I could go,” said Metz, who still has family in Nassau County. “But it’s very disorganized right now. So information is so scattered. I just have to wait for an answer.” 
 With AP

LIISRAEL231009

Israel at war: Long Islanders with ties to country react to Hamas attacks

'People are really scared': LIers with ties to Israel react to Hamas attacks

John Asbury and Robert Brodsky

By the thousands they packed Eisenhower Park Tuesday evening —&nbsp;scores of Long Islanders and others&nbsp;— showing support for&nbsp;Israel and its people,&nbsp;condemning &quot;the face of evil&quot; as the nation&nbsp;battles Hamas militants, and donating&nbsp;needed supplies for the suddenly war-ravaged U.S. ally. 
 The rally, the largest&nbsp;on Long Island since the conflict broke out Saturday on Israel's border with Gaza, attracted residents of all ages, many waving&nbsp;miniature Israeli flags and&nbsp;wearing&nbsp;caps, distributed by organizers,&nbsp;that read:&nbsp;&quot;Never Again.&quot; 
 All the while, a&nbsp;phalanx of Nassau County police patrolled&nbsp;the area, keeping watch on the parking lot and park perimeter. 
 Marybeth Savia, 58, of Massapequa, held a sign with&nbsp;both the American and Israeli flags. 
 &quot;I'm sick to my stomach&nbsp;what's going on,&quot; Savia said. &quot;It's horrible and&nbsp;I'm tired of what they're doing to the Jewish people … Israelites are peaceful people. Israel is the homeland of the Jews. I'm tired and fed up the way they've been abused.&quot; 
 County officials estimated that roughly 6,000 people attended the rally at the&nbsp;Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre in East Meadow. 
 Among the items collected were hygiene products, gloves and knee pads, batteries, headlamps and sleeping bags. 
 Rabbi Anchelle Perl of Chabad of Mineola said the size of the rally showed&nbsp;how Long Islanders can stand in solidarity through action.&nbsp; 
 “We are rallying behind our brothers and, no matter our religious affiliation, no matter our political persuasions, we come together in our desire to support the people of Israel,” Perl said. “It is clear to all this is a war against evil.&nbsp;We're all called upon to participate in the spiritual battle against evil by increasing&nbsp;acts of goodness and kindness.” 
 Saturday’s attack “was one of the most horrific, brutal terror acts in modern human history,” said Yuval Donio-Gideon, the Consul for Public Diplomacy at the Consulate General of Israel in Manhattan. 
 In total, more than 1,000 Israelis were killed in the attacks, including at least 14 Americans, while hundreds more were injured or abducted by the militants, according to Israeli and administration officials. 
 “They didn't spare anyone,&quot; Donio-Gideon said. &quot;They murdered. They burned.&nbsp;They raped. No mercy. And when you look at the terrible videos that came out of this massacre, you cannot but come to a conclusion. This is the face of evil. This is how pure evil looks and when you encounter evil, you really have no choice, you must confront it.&quot; 
 Donio-Gideon said Israel is not in a war of choice or due to any vindictive reactions.&nbsp; 
 “It is simply because the state of Israel like any decent state cannot allow such a thing to happen again,” he said.&nbsp;“ … We will win this war because light is stronger than darkness. We will win this war because we are confident in the righteousness of our way and we will win this war thanks to the love and support of Israel’s friends around the world.&quot; 
 Bishop Phillip Elliott of Antioch Baptist Church in Hempstead called on&nbsp;supporters to fight against injustice and terrorism. 
 “Israel was fired upon but we’re here through faith to make the bold assertion it will backfire,” Elliott said. “It’s a misfire and we will fire back with the weapons of our warfare.” 
 Sarah Yastrab, 53, of Woodmere, said she and her daughter&nbsp;Gila, 15, came to support the people of Israel because &quot;their&nbsp;lives are being disrupted. We're standing together. They need to not feel alone and people need to know America stands with them.&quot;&nbsp; 
 The attack &quot;was Israel's Pearl Harbor, a sneak attack.&nbsp;But instead of targeting a military institution, it targeted children,”&nbsp;said Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. “We do not want to hear about restraining Israel. We do not want to hear&nbsp;about de-escalation. We don't want to hear about a measured response. The only thing we want to hear is victory over Hamas.”

LIVIGIL231011

Long Islanders rally to support Israel in war with 'the face of evil'

Thousands pack Eisenhower Park to rally for Israel

liVIGIL231011_photos

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Tuesday confirmed that U.S. citizens are among the hostages captured by Hamas as he condemned the militant group for the “sheer evil” of its shocking weekend assault on Israel. 
 “Our hearts may be broken but our resolve is clear,” said Biden, who compared the brutality of the Hamas militants to that of the Islamic State terrorist group. He added: “Let there be no doubt. The United States has Israel’s back. We’ll make sure the Jewish and democratic state of Israel can defend itself today, tomorrow as we always have.” 
 The president coupled his unflinching defense for Israel with only a glancing reference to the suffering that innocent Palestinians are enduring from Israel's barrage of retaliatory fire on the Gaza Strip, where the Hamas attack was launched. That hardline approach could prove more difficult to sustain going forward if, as expected, the humanitarian crisis for the Palestinians worsens as Israel expands its military operation to root out Hamas. 
 Biden took note of the impact on Americans as well. He said the number of U.S. citizens confirmed to have been killed in the fighting has reached 14, up from 11 reported previously. U.S. officials said that death toll could increase further as some 20 Americans remain unaccounted for. 
 &quot;There’s no justification for terrorism. There’s no excuse,&quot; Biden said. “Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination. Their stated purpose is the annihilation of the state of Israel and the murder of Jewish people. They use Palestinian civilians as human shields.” 
 Hamas responded to Biden's remarks with a statement defending its actions, saying they were fighting against an occupation and defending Palestinians’ right to self-determination. Hamas called on Biden to “move away from the policy of double standards” when it comes to Israel. 
 Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke by phone earlier Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the unfolding situation. Biden outlined the actions he and other allies have taken to support Israel in the aftermath of the attack and expressed his horror about “sickening” reports of torture inflicted by militants on civilians. 
 Biden, in his public remarks and statements since Hamas launched its attacks, has repeatedly emphasized his shock over the breadth and brutality of the Hamas assault — a blitz by land, sea and air that surprised Israeli and U.S. intelligence and that has killed hundreds Israelis and left even more wounded. 
 Retaliatory strikes by Israel on the Gaza Strip have also left hundreds of dead and wounded Palestinians in the blockaded 141-square-mile area, one the poorest places in the world. The death toll was expected to grow as Israel pummeled Gaza with airstrikes and sent tens of thousands of Palestinians fleeing into U.N. shelters. 
 Biden said he has directed his team to share intelligence and military experts to consult and advise Israelis. 
 He renewed his warnings to adversaries who might want to exploit the turmoil. “Let me say again to any country, any organization, anyone thinking of taking advantage of the situation,” Biden said. “I have one word: Don’t.” 
 White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. does not know the precise number of Americans taken hostage. He said that the U.S., at the moment, has no plans of putting U.S. troops on the ground. 
 “As president I have no higher priority than the safety of Americans being held hostage around the world,” Biden said. 
 Biden is also dispatching his top diplomat to Israel to show U.S. support after the attacks, the State Department said Tuesday. 
 State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Secretary of State Antony Blinken would travel in the coming days to deliver a message of solidarity and support. He said Blinken will also “talk about what additional resources we can give them.” 
 Blinken will leave Wednesday and is expected to arrive Thursday. 
 The White House on Monday confirmed that it has already begun delivering critically needed munitions and military equipment to Israel, and the Pentagon was reviewing its inventories to see what else can be sent quickly to boost its ally in the war against Hamas. 
 The Ford carrier strike group has arrived in the far Eastern Mediterranean, within range to provide a host of air support or long-range strike options for Israel if requested, but also to surge U.S. military presence there to prevent the war from spilling over into a more dangerous regional conflict, officials said. 
 The Pentagon has said that the U.S. warplanes, destroyers and cruisers that sailed with the Ford will conduct maritime and air operations which could include intelligence collection, interdictions and long-range strikes. 
 Along with the Ford, the U.S. is sending the cruiser USS Normandy and destroyers USS Thomas Hudner, USS Ramage, USS Carney and USS Roosevelt, and the U.S. is augmenting Air Force F-35, F-15, F-16, and A-10 fighter aircraft squadrons in the region. 
 Sullivan said the U.S. has already replenishing munitions for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system from U.S. stock that was already staged in country. The U.S. was in the process of sending additional interceptors and the administration was looking at additional ways it can help augment Israel air defense capabilities, Sullivan said. 
 Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters traveling with him Tuesday to a Ukraine contact group meeting in Brussels that a small group of U.S. special operations forces is also working with the Israelis to help with planning and intelligence. 
 Americans have had a gloomy outlook on Biden’s performance on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Six in 10 Americans (61%) disapproved of how Biden was handling the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, according to an August poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. About one-third (35%) of U.S. adults approved, which was slightly lower than Biden’s overall approval rating of 42% in the same poll. 
 Four in 10 Americans (44%) said the U.S. gives about the right amount of support to Israel in the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Republicans were more likely than Democrats to say the U.S. should offer more support to Israel. Four in 10 Americans (42%) said the correct amount of support is given to the Palestinians. Democrats and Independents were more likely than Republicans to say the Palestinians should receive more support. 
 The current crisis seems certain to further test public sentiment about Biden’s Mideast foreign policy approach. 
 The Biden White House has pointed to its handling of the last conflict between Israel and Gaza in 2021 as playing a crucial part in limiting the length and loss of life in a war that stretched over 11 days and killed at least 250 people in Gaza and 13 in Israel. 
 During the 2021 conflict, Biden limited his public commentary while pressing Netanyahu in private to end it. His behind-the-scenes effort played out even as some of the president’s fellow Democrats pressured him to speak out against the Israelis as the death toll climbed in Gaza and as tens of thousands of Palestinians were displaced by the aerial bombardment, White House officials said at the time. 
 But this conflict is unlikely to end so quickly. Domestic and international pressure could quickly mount on Biden to pressure Netanyahu to wind down operations to prevent the suffering of innocent Gazans. 
 Netanyahu said Saturday that civilians in Gaza should leave areas near where Hamas is operating as the Israeli military planned to take defining action against the the militant group. 
 Sullivan said U.S. government officials have discussed details with Israel and Egyptian officials about where people in Gaza should go. 
 But Biden seemed to make clear that he's not asking Netanyahu to show restraint. 
 &quot;Like every nation in the world, Israel has the right to respond, indeed has a duty to respond to these vicious attacks.” Biden said.

USISRAEL231011

Biden confirms Americans among hostages captured in Israel, condemns 'sheer evil' of Hamas militants

Biden Israel Palestinians World Reaction

Orly Someck of Great Neck hasn't heard from her 25-year-old cousin,&nbsp;Leah Turjman,&nbsp;since she left for a popular all-night music festival&nbsp;in rural southern Israel on Saturday. 
 And she fears the worst&nbsp;after Hamas militants opened fire at the festival, killing at least 260 and taking at least 100 others hostage — part of a weekend siege targeting Israeli citizens. 
 &quot;It's a very scary time,&quot; said Someck, who has dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship. &quot;I reach out [to my family] daily and&nbsp;unfortunately there has been&nbsp;no contact and no information. I know that they're busy recovering many bodies and we don't know if she's one of the hostages either.&quot; 
 President Joe Biden confirmed Tuesday that at least 14 Americans were among the hundreds of civilians killed in the attack. That death toll could rise, with about 20 unaccounted-for Americans, according to U.S. officials. 
 Newsday has confirmed that at least three individuals with connections to Long Island are among those kidnapped or presumed missing in Israel, including&nbsp;Turjman. 
 Among those also kidnapped or presumed missing, with Long Island&nbsp;ties, is a&nbsp;recent graduate of the Solomon Schechter School of Long Island in Williston Park&nbsp;who serves in the Israeli Army, Rabbi Josh Dorsch of the Merrick Jewish Center told his congregation on Monday night. Their family wishes them to remain unidentified for safety reasons.&nbsp; 
 Also waiting desperately for news is&nbsp;Ruby Chen, whose son, Itay Chen, a U.S.-Israeli dual citizen, was serving in the Israeli Defense Force on the Gaza border and has not been seen or heard from since Hamas launched its terror attack. Ruby Chen was raised in Brooklyn and has siblings who still live on Long Island. 
 &quot;The last time that we heard from him was Saturday morning, where he said that they were under attack,&quot; Ruby Chen&nbsp;said Tuesday morning at a news conference in Tel Aviv with the families of three other Israelis&nbsp;who are still missing.&nbsp;&quot; … The formal indication that we received from the IDF is that he is defined as missing in action.&quot; 
 Chen, who&nbsp;lives in Netanya, Israel, pleaded with Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to &quot;do what they can to make this end for us as soon as possible to make our family whole again.&quot; 
 Meanwhile,&nbsp;Nassau Legis. Mazi Melesa Pilip, who served in the&nbsp;Israel Defense Force's&nbsp;Paratroopers Brigade, said she's worried for her entire family, including her parents and siblings, who still live in Israel. Pilip's&nbsp;cousins serve in the Israeli Army while her sister is a police officer. 
 &quot;I don't know how safe they are, to be honest. I'm afraid it's going to get even worse,&quot; said Pilip, a Great Neck Republican. &quot;… My entire family is just trying to survive really but there is so much that is unknown. They don't know what to expect. What will happen in another hour or what's going to happen in another two minutes? The not knowing is killing them.&quot; 
 With AP

LIISRAEL231011

Long Islanders wait for word on missing loved ones in Israel

'A very scary time': Long Islanders wait for word on loved ones in Israel

Israel Palestinians US

Newsday Staff

Days after Hamas launched attacks on towns throughout southern Israel, shaken Long Islanders turned out in at rallies Monday to express solidarity with the Jewish nation and mourn the hundreds killed — even as the fighting raged on. 
“Hamas terrorists perpetrated the largest mass murder in Jewish history since the Holocaust,” said Rabbi Howard Buechler of the Dix Hills Jewish Center at an afternoon rally of more than 500 people at the Suffolk Y JCC in Commack. The people of Israel are “heartbroken, with tears flowing in shock.” 
By Monday afternoon, The Associated Press reported that close to 1,600 Israelis and Palestinians had been killed. 
“Israel did not start this fight,” Rick Lewis, CEO of the Suffolk Y JCC, told the crowd. “This was not Israel’s fault.” 
One attendee said she was still trying to fathom the events. 
“It’s horrific,” said Joan Kulchinsky, a Dix Hills resident. “How old do we have to be to finally learn how to live together?” 
Earlier, at the Sid Jacobson Jewish Community Center in Greenvale, Dagen Cohen, director of the JCC’s Center for Israel, told the crowd his cousin — a father of two serving in the Israeli Defense Forces — had been killed Saturday. 
“It feels like a never-ending horror movie,” he said. “We start every day with crying.” <a class="p-smartembed" data-attr-f="3x2" data-attr-q="0.3" data-attr-w="400" data-attr-align="" data-onecms-id="contentid/ZjYwZjc2MzEtZjM3Mi00" data-onecms-type="image" href="javascript:window.parent.actionEventData({$contentId:'contentid/ZjYwZjc2MzEtZjM3Mi00', $action:'view', $target:'work'})" polopoly:contentid="contentid/ZjYwZjc2MzEtZjM3Mi00"><img src="/image-service/alias/contentid/ZjYwZjc2MzEtZjM3Mi00/DMC_6711-2.jpg?f=3x2&amp;w=400&amp;q=0.3" /></a>
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman likened the coordinated attacks, which killed hundreds of Israeli civilians and soldiers in border communities and a music festival, to “Pearl Harbor for Israel,” and said retaliatory strikes by the IDF targeting sites in Hamas-controlled Gaza were justified. 
“This is not about revenge, it’s about survival,” he said. 
He drew cheers from the crowd of hundreds in the facility’s auditorium, where attendees waved Israeli flags and many, in a show of hands, said they too knew people who had been killed or kidnapped in the weekend attacks. In the hall outside, a woman screamed in grief. Nassau County police officers stood outside in black tactical gear with automatic rifles. 
Israeli airstrikes pounded the Gaza Strip and defense forces cut off food, fuel and other supplies to the territory, the AP reported Monday. Hamas pledged to kill captured Israelis if attacks targeted civilians without warnings. Hamas and other militants in Gaza say they are holding more than 130 soldiers and civilians snatched from inside Israel. Hamas, which governs Gaza, has called for Israel’s destruction and has been labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. 
President Joe Biden said Monday afternoon that 11 Americans had been confirmed dead and “we believe it is likely that American citizens may be among those being held by Hamas.” 
Around 900 people, including 73 soldiers, already have been killed in Israel, according to media. In Gaza, more than 680 people have been killed, according to authorities there; Israel says hundreds of Hamas fighters are among them. Thousands have been wounded on both sides. 
At least one Long Islander serving in IDF appears to be among those who were kidnapped, according to Matt Capp, a spokesman for Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-Island Park), and Eric Post, Long Island director of the centrist nonprofit American Jewish Committee. 
In Syosset, North Shore Synagogue’s rabbi led a prayer vigil Monday night for Israel with nine other congregations, including Faith Lutheran Church. 
Rabbi Jaimee Shalhevet said, “it takes people to make peace … When we are under attack, we are not whole.” 
“Israel is all of us and we know it we are not alone in this vigil. We pray our mere presence can make a difference. ,” she said. “We pray our unifying here tonight is one small step toward making the world a better place and let them know Israel is not alone. ” 
The vigil included 17 clergy leaders who offered solidarity and support for the Jewish people with the singing of songs, psalms and prayers for Israel including a moment of silence to pray for peace. 
“All of us are distressed about what’s going on in Israel and particularly for the innocent citizens killed (and) held captive,” said Beth Bucheister of Oyster Bay, a past president of the synagogue. “In a community far away from our other community of Israel, we need to come together.” 
Michelle Almaliah of Woodbury said she was born in Israel and while her immediate family is in New York, her extended family still lives in Israel. “ My cousins have been called back into the reserves and could be sent into combat,” she said. “ I want to be able to be present for them and show we stand with them and if nothing else send my strength and my love.”<a class="p-smartembed" data-attr-f="3x2" data-attr-q="0.3" data-attr-w="400" data-attr-align="" data-onecms-id="contentid/ZGM2MWU1YzktMDAwYy00" data-onecms-type="image" href="javascript:window.parent.actionEventData({$contentId:'contentid/ZGM2MWU1YzktMDAwYy00', $action:'view', $target:'work'})" polopoly:contentid="contentid/ZGM2MWU1YzktMDAwYy00"><img src="/image-service/alias/contentid/ZGM2MWU1YzktMDAwYy00/Z50_015262294.jpg?f=3x2&amp;w=400&amp;q=0.3" /></a>
Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport), D’Esposito and George Santos (R-Nassau/Queens) said they had been in contact with constituents seeking to leave Israel. . 
Nassau County is home to about 192,000 Jews, a significant portion of the Jewish diaspora in the United States. 
Law enforcement sought to assure residents. Nassau police have added 20 cars to street patrols and put units like SWAT and Emergency Services on alert, Blakeman said. Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison said police have detected no credible threats to synagogues, schools or other institutions, but nonetheless will be boosting surveillance.. 
In Greenvale, Nassau 10th District Legis. Mazi Melesa Pilip, a former Israeli paratrooper, said she screamed when she learned of the attacks. She has family still in Israel and when she called one of her sisters, the sister spoke in a whisper: “I’m afraid,” Pilip recalled her saying. “Maybe they’re still around us.” Pilip said she’d lost whatever hope she’d once had for peaceful coexistence. 
In a phone interview, Post said the Monday rallies reflected “extremely strong” local ties to Israel. “Every synagogue, every youth group and many institutions are directly connected to Israel,” with ties deepened by groups like the Jewish Agency For Israel, which sends young Israeli emissaries into local communities. “Many of us have family and friends there.” 
In an interview outside the JCC after the event, one attendee, Philip Ross, a lawyer from Great Neck, said “the attack on Israel is antisemitic, and what we witnessed is a pogrom,” using a word often associated with massacres of Jews in Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. 
Marcia Kalt, a homemaker from Manhasset, said the attacks had confirmed a long-standing belief for her: “Israel will never, never be at peace with the countries around them, they will always have to be on guard.” 
Philip and Jackie Becker, an SAT tutor and teacher from Port Washington, said they had family in Israel. “If you ask me, this is the beginning of World War III,” she said, rattling off a list of potentially entangled countries: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia. 
Jordan Resnick, a recent college graduate from Roslyn, said the event had unsettled her. “There’s so much anger, and we’re not going to be able to solve problems if we’re coming at this from a place of fear.”

LIISRAEL231010

'Heartbroken' Long Islanders rally in support of Israel, shaken over death toll 

'A never-ending war': Long Islanders turn out in rallies to express solidarity with Israel

liISRAEL231010_photos

Days after Hamas launched attacks on towns throughout southern Israel, shaken Long Islanders&nbsp;turned out in a rally&nbsp;Monday at the Sid Jacobson Jewish Community Center to express solidarity with the Jewish nation&nbsp;and mourn the hundreds&nbsp;killed. NewsdayTV&#39;s Steve Langford reports.

liISRAEL231010_video

'A never-ending war:' LIers rally for Israel

Greenvale

Long Islanders gather to show support of Israel

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Most of Rabbi Osher Kravitsky’s family was supposed to come back to Long Island from Israel on Sunday, a day after attending a ceremony inducting one of their sons into the Israeli military. 
 But Saturday morning, Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip launched the biggest offensive against Israel in 50 years.&nbsp;The induction was canceled and Kravitsky's&nbsp;18-year-old son&nbsp;immediately deployed with the Israeli Defense Forces. 
 The rabbi's wife and&nbsp;two youngest children, ages 4&nbsp;and 9, are now intending to stay&nbsp;in Israel temporarily — like the daughter of another Long Island rabbi initially trapped but staying put, and resolute&nbsp;— a show of support for the embattled country. 
 Another of Kravitsky's sons, 22, who previously served in the Israeli military, is torn between staying in Israel to protect his mother and two siblings, or rejoining his old unit, which contacted him to say he is needed. As of Monday, he was staying at the home of another&nbsp;brother,&nbsp;24, who lives with his wife and two young daughters in a one-bedroom apartment in northern Israel. That is also where the rabbi’s wife and their two youngest&nbsp;children are hunkered down. 
 Kravitsky, who heads the Chabad of Great Neck, part of an Orthodox movement, was supposed to be on&nbsp;the trip&nbsp;but he had to cancel his participation at the last minute. 
 So he waits and worries in Great Neck about the fate of his entire family. 
 They have decided&nbsp;to remain in Israel, the rabbi said, and even if they could immediately return to New York, they wouldn't. Kravitsky said it's more&nbsp;important that they stay and&nbsp;support the Israeli people during one of the nation’s worst crises since it was established in 1948. 
 “These are our brothers and sisters,” Kravitsky said. “We can’t just abandon them because it’s not convenient for us.” 
 He added: “It’s a very difficult decision but this is our land, this is our people, and we have to stand in solidarity.” 
 Chabad of Commack Rabbi Mendel Teldon and&nbsp;his daughter Chanchie&nbsp;share&nbsp;that view.&nbsp;The 18-year-old arrived in Jerusalem in August for a post-high school year of study. She's been dashing to bomb shelters as air raid sirens go off repeatedly, warning of incoming missiles, but she has no plans to return to Long Island immediately —&nbsp;and her father is OK with that. 
 “I feel simultaneously concerned and confident,” she will be safe, Teldon said. The Israeli military is “quite capable,” and is now on the offensive. “The tide has changed.” 
 Still, he said, just about everything around his daughter&nbsp;has shut down. 
 “She says the town is empty,” Teldon&nbsp;said. “There is no one walking the streets.” 
 Kravitsky said his relatives have spent some of their time since the offensive at local construction sites looking for large stones to try to build a fortress around their apartment in case an attack comes. 
 They have heard what they believe to be mortar shots, Kravitsky said. Most of the fighting so far is in southern Israel. 
 His 22-year-old son, Meir, a former soldier trained as a machine-gunner, for now is staying with his mom and siblings to protect them. 
 “He’s trained for combat. She’s not,” Kravitsky said. “They are basically just sheltering in place. He doesn’t want to abandon his mom yet.” 
 The rabbi's 18-year-old son, Menachem, decided to serve in the Israeli military just like his older brother, Kravitsky said. As U.S. citizens who grew up here, they are not required to do so, but wanted to out of a sense of solidarity. 
 He said the family does not know where Menachem is deployed. 
 Kravitsky was still processing the massive surprise weekend attack Monday. 
 “This is unbelievable,&quot;&nbsp;he said.&nbsp;&quot;This is taking everybody by complete shock.&quot; 
 He is praying for a quick resolution of the conflict, and sending out messages of peace. 
 When darkness comes, “the first thing we have to respond with is light, with kindness and words of kindness and acts of kindness,” Kravitsky said. “Because what the terrorists want is to bring darkness into the world and to subjugate the world in their darkness with fear.” 
 A fast conclusion to the combat will “spare Jewish and Muslim lives as well,” he said. “We are all God’s creatures.”

LIRABBI231010

On Long Island, rabbis wait, worry for family members in Israel

Rabbis wait, worry for family members in Israel

liCAMP220629_photos

Olivia Winslow and John Valenti

Blaring air raid sirens early Saturday jolted&nbsp;Mitchell Silber from his sleep in an&nbsp;Ashdod, Israel hotel room. 
 Silber,&nbsp;executive director&nbsp;of the Manhattan-based Community Security Initiative, had been in Israel to lead a Sunday seminar&nbsp;on combating antisemitism when Hamas militants launched a weekend attack. 
 The onslaught on Israel's&nbsp;border with the Gaza Strip would eventually force cancellation of the seminar and related events, which were to feature two dozen law enforcement officials from Long Island&nbsp;and other parts of the metropolitan&nbsp;area. 
 But about 6:30 a.m. Saturday,&nbsp;Silber and others in the New York contingent were more focused on survival inside the hotel in&nbsp;Ashdod,&nbsp;a city about 20 miles south of Tel Aviv and about 15 miles from Gaza. 
 &quot;We all had to run for shelter in our hotel,&quot; Silber said.&nbsp; 
 This being Israel, accustomed to threats from enemies, a place to hide wasn't hard to find inside the West Hotel Ashdod. 
 &quot;The hotel had plenty of bomb shelters,&quot; he said.&nbsp;&quot;We had 20 more bomb shelter air raid warnings that forced us into the shelters over the course of three hours.&quot; 
 Word came that all seminar-related events had been canceled. 
 &quot;We were told we would have to stay in the hotel for the rest of the day,&quot; Silber said, adding that at some points,&nbsp;&quot;we were seeing Israel's Iron Dome intercept system shoot rocket interceptors into the sky.&quot; 
 Both the Nassau and Suffolk police departments had representatives at the conference, which was to include visits to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, starting Sunday and continuing through Friday. 
 &quot;Two Suffolk County Police Department supervisors joined other metropolitan area law enforcement officers at a counterterrorism and antisemitism conference in Israel this weekend,&quot; the department said in a statement. &quot;The supervisors, who are in the Criminal Intelligence Section and the Hate Crimes Unit, are safe and on their way home.&quot; 
 In a later statement, the department confirmed the officers were home. 
 Nassau police spokesman Det. Lt. Richard LeBrun said the department had two detectives from its Bias Crimes Unit at the conference.&nbsp; 
 Silber said the seminar was to focus on antisemitism: &quot;What it is, where it comes from, how it works, how to combat it,&quot; along with counterterrorism strategies and an exchange between the New York metropolitan area law enforcement officials and those from Israel. Two dozen law enforcement officials from New York City, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and Rockland counties were invited, Silber said. The other co-sponsor of the seminar was the Community Security Service,&nbsp; an organization that promotes Jewish security volunteerism. 
 &quot;From all the information we were getting from the government and the NYPD liaison, it becomes clear...this program is not going to happen.&quot; 
 According to Silber, all 32 people at the conference had arrived safely back to Kennedy&nbsp;Airport by Monday morning. 
 The group had to get a plane&nbsp;from Israel's Ben Gurion Airport on Arkia Airlines to Dubai after several American and international airlines canceled flights, Silber said. Sunday afternoon, Silber said, the group left, had a three- to four-hour layover in Dubai. &quot;and landed at JFK at 9 a.m. [Monday]. No man or woman was left behind. We got everybody.&quot; 
 Silber said he left the country with&nbsp;mixed emotions. 
 &quot;No one signed up to go to a war zone ... Everyone was very courageous and brave. When the moment was right to leave, we did with a heavy heart,&quot; he said. &quot;We were leaving the Israelis to the fight.&quot; 
 Silber likened the situation to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 in the United States. 
 Being in Israel over the weekend&nbsp;was &quot;as if you landed in New York on Sept. 10, 2001 at JFK, took a taxi to New York and checked into your Manhattan hotel and [the next day] it was Sept. 11. We flew into Israel's Sept. 11, and we were there for it.&quot;

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