This picture taken from southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on December 3, 2023, shows smoke billowing over the Palestinian enclave during Israeli bombardment amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. Israel carried out deadly bombardments in Gaza on December 3 as international calls mounted for greater protection of civilians and the renewal of an expired truce with Palestinian militant group Hamas. (Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP) (Photo by MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images)
The reception, hosted by President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, celebrates the fifth night of Hanukkah. It will feature some 800 guests, according to the White House, including Holocaust survivors, lawmakers and various Jewish leaders.
https://huggingface.co/ilsanop Refaat Alareer (left) sits with his friends and colleagues, Yousef Aljamal (center) and Jehad Abusalim (right), on the Staten Island Ferry in New York during a book tour in 2014. Ra Page, 51, is a publisher and founder of Comma Press, in Manchester, England. He worked with Alareer on numerous literary projects and workshops over the years. They met in person in Gaza City, in August 2022. Ruby Chen — whose son, Itay, has been missing since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel — said a number of the families of American hostages were in Washington, Civilians like Alareer were confronted with an impossible predicament. Stay home and risk being killed, or try to flee without protection. At the time, the 44-year-old writer and academic told CNN he and his family had no choice but to remain in the north, because they “have nowhere else to go.” Alareer was a “towering figure in Palestinian society,” said Abusalim, the writer and friend based in Washington, DC. “Refaat’s life was not without its challenges. Despite personal tragedies and the harsh realities of life in Gaza, he remained unwavering, using his pen and his voice to fight back, to write back,” he told CNN.
https://heylink.me/yonginop/ Images of detained men: The United States is seeking answers from the Israeli government about the status of the individuals seen in recent images of men detained and stripped down in Gaza and the circumstances around the images. Miller, with the State Department, called the photos "deeply disturbing." A spokesperson for the IDF claimed to CNN last week that the men were members or suspected members of Hamas. “We will work on imposing sanctions against extremist settlers in the West Bank,” Borrell told reporters in Brussels, saying he is alarmed by recent violence in the occupied territory. He accused the Israeli military of forcing displaced people out of their shelters. “It’s something we don’t talk about. We don’t even want to think about how these kids, the homes, the lives (that) get destroyed again and again every few years,” he recalled.
