The war in Gaza resumes, the fate of George Santos and more to stay up to date.
Almost two months ago, Israel experienced the deadliest day in its 75-year history as a state. On October 7, Hamas attacked the country, resulting in the deaths of around 1,200 people and the taking of around 240 hostages. In response, Israel initiated a campaign of attacks and bombings.
Since then, thousands of people have lost their lives. Authorities in Gaza claim that up to 15,000 Palestinians have died, many of whom were civilians, including children.
In the weeks since that Saturday in October, Israeli intelligence services have been criticized for their lack of preparedness for the attack.
It is now known that a detailed plan detailing the actions of a possible Hamas attack circulated among Israeli authorities a year earlier, a series of events that closely resembled what eventually happened.
Times journalists had access to documents and communications in which senior officials dismissed the reports because they believed the group was not capable of carrying it out. An Israeli colonel who received it said the plan was part of a “totally imaginative” scenario and that patience was required.
“What could have been an intelligence coup turned into one of the worst miscalculations,” wrote Ronen Bergman and Adam Goldman in the report.
For now, the war continues. On Monday, at the close of this newsletter, a Times analysis of satellite images showed that the Israeli invasion of southern Gaza had begun. At the end of November, there were a few days of ceasefire when Israeli authorities and Hamas leaders agreed to a cessation of hostilities in order to exchange hostages for Palestinians detained in Israel.
The New York Times interviewed the relatives of 10 released captives, who described the situation they experienced: displacements through the tunnels, unsanitary conditions, and a lot of fear. “We all have to do everything we can, everything we can to get him and the others out,” said the aunt of one of the released hostages.
To date, over 240 Palestinians who were imprisoned in Israel have been released. A Times analysis found that 107 of them were between 14 and 17 years old and the rest were adults; in most cases, they had not been convicted of any crime. And, as reported by Christina Goldbaum and Hiba Yazbek, each of these releases Post Views: 5