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Dozens of Palestinians killed in Israeli air raid on Gaza encampment

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Dozens of Palestinians killed in Israeli air raid on Gaza encampment

Israeli air raids in Gaza have killed dozens of people and advancing Israeli army tanks in Gaza City have also forced residents to flee under fire, Palestinian officials said.

On Tuesday, an air raid hit the tents of displaced families outside a school in the town of Abassan east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, killing at least 29 people, most of them women and children, Palestinian medical officials said.

The Israeli military has said it was looking into the report.

Ismail al-Thawabta, director of the Gaza Government Media Office, said dozens of others were killed in other Israeli attacks in central Gaza. At least 60 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on Tuesday, he said.

Residents in the enclave said Israeli tanks that pushed into the Tal al-Hawa, Shujayea and Sabra neighbourhoods of Gaza City shelled roads and buildings, forcing them to flee their homes.

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This was followed by Israeli military orders to evacuate several districts in eastern and western Gaza City posted on social media, which included these neighbourhoods.

“We hold the occupation and the US administration responsible for the horrifying massacres against civilians,” al-Thawabta said in a statement.

In Gaza City, the armed wings of Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad said their fighters battled Israeli forces with machineguns, mortar fire and antitank missiles, killing and wounding Israeli soldiers.

Israel’s military has not commented on casualties, but said its soldiers were engaged in closequarters combat with Hamas fighters.

The intense fighting comes as CIA director William Burns and Israel’s Mossad chief David Barnea prepare to travel to Qatar on Wednesday, after Burns held talks with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo, seeking to push for a ceasefire in Gaza.

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But Israel’s renewed assault has threatened talks at a crucial time and could bring negotiations “back to square one”, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was quoted as saying on Monday.

On Tuesday, videos on social media showed families packed onto donkey carts and in the backs of trucks piled with mattresses and other belongings making their way through Gaza City’s streets to flee areas under Israeli evacuation orders.

“Gaza City is being wiped out. This is what is happening. Israel is forcing us to leave homes under fire,” Um Tamer, a mother of seven, told Reuters via a chat app. She said it was the seventh time her family had fled their house in Gaza City, in the north of the enclave and one of Israel’s first targets at the start of the war in October.

“We can’t take it any more, enough of death and humiliation. End the war now,” she said.

The UN Human Rights Office said it was “appalled” at the way civilians, many of whom have been displaced multiple times, have been ordered to head to areas where “military operations are ongoing and where civilians continue to be killed and injured”.

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The Palestinian Red Crescent said that all of its medical clinics were out of service in Gaza City due to the Israeli evacuation orders that have driven thousands of people westward towards the Mediterranean and to the south.

Jagan Chapagain, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said on the social media platform X that “the closure of these vital medical facilities exacerbates an already dire healthcare system”.

“These clinics and medical points are often the only lifeline for many civilians.”

At least 38,243 people have been killed and 88,243 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since October. The death toll in Israel from the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 is estimated at 1,139, with dozens of people still held captive in Gaza.

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‘Love Is Blind: U.K.’ Reveals Cast and Trailer as Hit Netflix Dating Show Moves Across the Pond

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‘Love Is Blind: U.K.’ Reveals Cast and Trailer as Hit Netflix Dating Show Moves Across the Pond

“Love Is Blind” is moving across the pond.

The U.K. version of the hit Netflix dating show revealed its full cast and trailer on Wednesday, teasing plenty of drama to come when the first episodes launch on Aug. 7.

“Love Is Blind: U.K.” shares the same synopsis as the U.S. version, following 30 singles who “have signed up for a less-conventional approach to modern dating, and will choose someone to marry without ever meeting them.” The singles hail from Dublin, London, Edinburgh and everywhere in between, range in age from 27 to 38 and include a chicken restaurateur, a techno DJ and a baby photographer.

“Over several weeks, the newly engaged couples will move in together, plan their wedding and find out if their physical connection matches their strong emotional bond developed in the Pods,” the synopsis continues. “When their wedding day arrives, will real-world realities and external factors push them apart, or will they marry the person they fell blindly in love with?”

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“Love Is Blind: U.K.” is hosted by Matt and Emma Willis, who have been married since 2008 and share three children. Matt is best known as the singer of pop-punk band Busted, while Emma has presented “Big Brother” as well as the U.K. edition of Netflix competition series “The Circle.”

The 11-episode series premieres on Netflix Aug. 7 with four episodes. The next four will premiere on Aug. 14, and the last two on Aug. 21.

Watch the trailer for “Love Is Blind: U.K.” below and scroll down to meet the cast.

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Families of US citizens held by Hamas pin hopes on Netanyahu’s address to Congress

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Families of US citizens held by Hamas pin hopes on Netanyahu’s address to Congress

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JERUSALEM – With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set to address both houses of Congress on Wednesday, families of U.S. citizens held hostage by the Hamas terror group in Gaza for some 292 days expressed hope that he will use the high-profile platform to finally announce a cease-fire deal that will release them. 

Ahead of his flight to Washington, D.C., Netanyahu’s office released a statement saying that Israel would return to the negotiating table this week in the hopes of securing a deal with the U.S.-designated terror group to release hostages in exchange for a cease-fire of the nine-month-old war that has killed thousands on both sides. 

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Eight U.S. citizens have been held by Hamas since Oct. 7, when hundreds of its elite Nukhba terrorists infiltrated southern Israel, brutally attacking army bases, civilian communities and a massive music festival taking place near the border. Some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were murdered in the attack, with an estimated 250 individuals taken captive by the Palestinian terror group. 

NETANYAHU’S 4 PRINCIPLES ISRAEL AGREES TO FOR HOSTAGE DEAL AS NEGOTIATIONS PICK UP

American hostages being held in Gaza include, from left to right, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Itay Chen, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Edan Alexander, Omer Neutra, Judy Weinstein and her husband, Gad Haggai and Keith Siegel. Judy Weinstein, her husband, Gad Haggai, and 19-year-old Itay Chen – are believed to have been murdered by Hamas, who are still holding onto their bodies. (Photos: Courtesy of the families)

While a weeklong cease-fire last November secured the release of more than 100 of the hostages, around 120 people remain in captivity, including eight U.S. citizens: California-born Hersch Goldberg-Polin, 23, who moved to Israel with his family, was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival. Sagui Dekel Chen, 35, who grew up in New Jersey, and Keith Siegel, 64, from North Carolina, were both taken from their homes in kibbutz communities near the Gaza border. While Eden Alexander, 19, from Tenafly, New Jersey, and Omer Neutra from Long Island, New York – both serving in the Israel Defense Forces – were taken from their military bases. 

In April, Hamas released video recordings of both Goldberg-Polin, who is known to have had his arm blown off during the Oct. 7 attack, and from Keith Siegel, giving hope to their families that they are still alive despite the longevity of their captivity. 

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Three other U.S. citizens – Judy Weinstein and her husband, Gad Haggai, and 19-year-old Itay Chen – are believed to have been murdered in captivity by Hamas, who are still holding onto their bodies. An additional 44 hostages have also been declared dead by the Israeli military. 

Last week, Ronen and Orna Neutra, the parents of Omer Neutra, spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, calling on U.S. and Israeli leaders to strike a deal to release all the hostages. 

“This was not merely an attack on Israel; this was and remains an attack on Americans,” Ronen Neutra said, highlighting that 45 of the 1,200 people murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7 were Americans.

‘I WILL BE HAUNTED FOREVER’: ISRAEL’S HORRIFIC VIDEO OF HAMAS ATROCITIES LEAVES VIEWERS SHOCKED AND SICKENED

On Monday, not long after he touched down in Washington, Netanyahu agreed to meet with representatives of the eight families, according to a readout. The families told the prime minister that their loved ones cannot wait any longer and that he must close the deal now. 

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They also called on him to address the plight of the eight American hostages when he speaks to Congress on Wednesday. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with families of Israeli hostages during his visit to Washington D.C.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with families of Israeli hostages during his visit to Washington D.C. (Israel Government Press Office via Reuters)

“The families told Netanyahu in no uncertain terms that they expect him to announce this week that he has finalized the deal to bring their family members home,” a statement from the meeting read. “Anything less, they said, would constitute an abject failure of his trip to Washington.” 

Also on Monday, the families of U.S. hostages met with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk, who said there is a solid deal on the table and that it would just take “political determination and cooperation from both sides” to secure it.

Netanyahu – who will also meet with President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump during his trip – also expressed hope that a deal could be achieved during a meeting with 13 additional hostage relatives, who traveled with him from Israel. 

Nir Oz bloodied hand

A bloodied handprint stains a wall in a Nir Oz house after Hamas terrorists attacked this kibbutz days earlier near the border of Gaza. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

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In that meeting, he said that he was “determined to return them all” and that “the conditions for returning them are becoming ripe, for the simple reason that we are putting very strong pressure on Hamas.”

Netanyahu also said that his visit to the U.S. and the chance to address lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and in both houses would afford him “the opportunity to bring before the representatives of the American people, and the American people themselves the importance of their support for our efforts, with them, to bring about the release of all of the hostages, the living and the deceased.”

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Von der Leyen faces tough puzzle as conservatives demand big Commission portfolios

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Italy and the Czech Republic governments have already declared that they want their commissioners to be given big portfolios, a sign of their conviction that the conservatives’ gains in the European elections should be reflected in the composition of the new EU executive.

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