These college graduates in Gaza finished training just one week before the war began.
We reached out to everyone in the class WhatsApp group to see how they were doing.
It’s difficult to reach anybody in Gaza. Blackouts are common, and internet access is sporadic. But 34 responded.
They were among Gaza’s most ambitious students.
The dentistry program at Al-Azhar University was very selective, and very demanding, and they had big plans. “We dream a lot — more than a brain can imagine,” one said.
But instead of starting new jobs, they found themselves plunged into endless days of burying the dead and fearing for the living.
The students had hired a videographer to capture their celebrations on the final day of exams, about a year before they finished their internships, in 2022. “The most wonderful day in our lives,” one said. That was before the Israeli assault in the Gaza Strip began.
We reached members of the class of 117 students through Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. They wrote or talked to us from tents and balconies. Some even climbed on water tanks or walked long distances to grab a phone signal.
All told us they had lost loved ones. Two of their classmates were dead. And many feared they would be next.
Most of their homes lay in ruins. Many described being hungry, and losing drastic amounts of weight.
The survivors described how their loved ones were killed. The New York Times was not able to verify every attack or the circumstances of every death.
This is not the first time war has come to Gaza. Israel and the Hamas militants who made the territory their stronghold have fought repeatedly over the years, but Gaza has never seen this degree of destruction and death. Israel says that it is doing what is needed to defeat Hamas, and that it takes great efforts to protect civilians, but even its allies have begun to characterize the bombing as indiscriminate.
The graduates spoke with anger, desperation and bewilderment about how much Israel’s bombardment, now in its seventh month, has taken from them.
“We had a lot of wars before, but this one is just different,” one said. “Usually it would affect people, but not people that you know. This war took everyone.”
Loss came early for Madeha Alshayyah. She had fled her home in Gaza City, but her grandmother, uncles and cousins stayed behind, despite the bombs.
“They all died and are still under the rubble,” Madeha said.
Now, her sister is missing. She went to the market one day and never came back, she said.
Salem Shurrab had known his best friend, Mouayad Alrayyes, since they were children. They used to meet every night at a cafe at the same table.
Mouayad’s home was bombed while he was out, and his family was killed. He wrote to Salem that he wished he had died, too, “so I don’t feel the pain.”
“Your pain is mine,” Salem replied.
Hours later, Salem said, Mouayad was killed by a rocket when he went to retrieve the bodies.
Mirna Ismail’s home was destroyed, but that did not even come up in her WhatsApp groups.
Now, they discuss “only the urgent things, only who has been killed,” she said. “If someone lost his house, it is not an urgent thing now.”
Mirna lost two friends and a cousin. “We all know someone who has been killed,” she said. “And we can’t understand why they are killing them.”
The class WhatsApp group was how most of the graduates learned that two of their classmates were dead.
On Dec. 2, Aseel Taya was at home with her family, including her father, Sofyan Taya, a prominent researcher in physics and applied mathematics, when Israeli warplanes struck, the Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education said. They were all killed.
Officially dentists 👩⚕️
Messages have been translated.
“Why Aseel? What did she do to deserve that?” Mirna recalled feeling. “At that time it’s not easy to cry,” she said. “You only think that this is a lie and I will see her again.”
Aseel Taya (via Rasha H. Zendah)
In February came word of another classmate’s death.
Officially dentists 👩⚕️
Messages have been translated.
Noor Yaghi was sheltering with her family in central Gaza when Israeli airstrikes hit their home. She was “like a flower,” said Asmaa Dwaima, who described her “laughing and making fun of herself and us in the labs.” The Feb. 22 strikes killed at least 40 people, according to local media.
Noor’s remains were never found, said her cousin Asil Yaghi. “Her body seems to have become small pieces,” she said. “My heart is squeezing and my tears don’t stop.”
Noor Yaghi (left) and her twin sister, Aya (via Asil Yaghi)
For many of the students, the talk is of bodies and body parts.
Muhammad Abdel Jawad was visiting an injured cousin at the hospital when he heard that the residential tower where he lived with his family had been hit. He returned home to find his sisters with “burns all over their bodies,” he said.
His father was missing.
Two days later, Muhammad went back to the remains of his home. “I found my father’s body in front of me,” he said. “I tried everything I could to get him out.” His 16-year-old sister was also killed, he said.
Ola Salama said her uncle’s body was found with no head and no feet after his house was bombed.
“The scenes I saw were more horrific than horror movies,” she said. “But they are all real.”
“The missile cut her body into pieces,” Alaa Jihad Hussain said of her 22-year-old cousin, who was killed alongside her husband and daughter. With communications often down, some of the graduates feared their loved ones might be dead without their knowing.
Only by chance did some learn about a relative’s death. When Mahmoud Naser ran into an acquaintance at a shelter in Rafah, he learned his uncle had been shot, apparently by an Israeli sniper.
“I am afraid of dying these days, and that my friends won’t find my name among the names of martyrs because there are too many,” said Asmaa Dwaima, who, already, can count three friends and four cousins among the dead.
“I’m also afraid they won’t find an internet connection to log in and publish a silly story to commemorate me.”
Mohammed Al-Baradei (right) grew up with Ahmad Al-Hourani, attending university and spending afternoons in the gym together.
But when the house next door was bombed, a wall fell on Ahmad as he slept, Mohammed said.
“All my life was with him,” he said. “All of it ended in a moment.”
Alaa AlAbadla (right) last saw his friend Basel Farwana in the seaside area where they were sheltering. Basel was killed when he went home to get a nylon sheet and some blankets for his family’s tent, Alaa said.
But Alaa has little time to mourn. He is busy looking for clean water to survive. “We don’t have time to be sad,” he said. When Israeli forces invaded Gaza from the north, most of the graduates fled south. Mazen Alwahidi was one of the few exceptions.
Food shortages are most severe in the north, and Mazen said he had lost 46 pounds and has resorted to eating donkey feed. “It was like garbage,” he said. “But we have no other choices.”
He said his aunt, a cancer patient, died without access to treatment. They buried her on a street, near a destroyed graveyard.
Noor Shehada also remains in the north. Her family was relying on wild herbs to survive, she said.
“We are starving. We are living in the 18th century.”
Before the war, her uncle traveled to Israel for chemotherapy. Without access to treatment, he died, she said.
Najat Shurrab said her cousin’s 2-year-old twins, Muhammad and Hamada, had been killed. “They were defenseless civilians,” she said.
Ms. Shurrab has a 7-month-old daughter, Masa, and they have been living in a tent in Rafah.
Every day is a struggle to find diapers and food for her baby, she said, and she fears what the future holds for the child.
Areej al-Astal was pregnant when she evacuated first to a tent in Rafah and then to an overcrowded house with her husband’s family. She slept on the floor for two months.
With food scarce, she said, she gained no weight during her whole pregnancy. Eventually, she escaped to Egypt and gave birth to a son. “The word ‘dreams’ has ended,” she said. “It no longer exists in our imagination at all.”
More than 100 members of Areej’s extended family have been killed in the Israeli assault, according to a Gazan health ministry spokesman. “I can’t count them,” Areej said.
After being displaced five times, Rabeha Nabeel and her family decided to return home, though it was missing walls.
“Even if it’s destroyed, it’s our house,” she said.
Rabeha said 27 members of her extended family were killed in the first week of the war. “I lost five of my close friends, my house, my job, my university, my happy memories and my city,” said Mohammed Zebdah.
Mohammed was supposed to pick up his certificate on Oct. 8, but then the bombs started falling.
Many of the graduates told The Times they had just gotten jobs at clinics that are now in ruins. One said he had recently begun working as a volunteer in Khan Younis, treating as many as 60 refugees a day. A few others managed to leave the country.
Months after the joyous celebrations of the graduates, the buildings of Al-Azhar University where they had their dentistry classes bear the scars of war.
“On Oct. 7, all hopes and dreams went with the wind,” Mohammed said.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada judge sentenced “Dances With Wolves” actor Nathan Chasing Horse on Monday to life in prison for sexually assaulting Indigenous women and girls.
A jury had previously convicted him of 13 charges, mostly related to sexual assault of three women.
Accusers and their families told Judge Jessica Peterson they continue to suffer from the trauma caused by Chasing Horse, 49, and struggle with their faith after he exploited his position as a spiritual leader.
“There is no way to get back the youth, the childhood loss, my first time, my first kiss, the graduation I never got to have,” said Corena Leone-LaCroix, who was 14 when Chasing Horse assaulted her. “The life that little girl could have lived has been taken from me forever.”
The Associated Press typically does not use the name of alleged sexual assault victims unless they come forward publicly, as Leone-LaCroix has.
Chasing Horse, wearing his navy blue Clark County Detention Center uniform, stared straight ahead as victims read their statements and remained quiet as he was escorted out of the courtroom. He’ll be eligible for parole after serving for 37 years, and has continued to deny the charges against him.
“This is a miscarriage of justice,” he told the judge on Monday.
Peterson said she was struck by his continued denial of the charges despite the evidence shown in trial.
“You preyed on these women’s trusts and their spirituality, and you manipulated them for your own personal gratification,” she said before she announced his sentence. When the hearing adjourned, more than a dozen people in the courtroom clapped.
The sentencing wraps a yearslong effort to prosecute the former actor after he was first arrested and indicted in 2023. That initial arrest reverberated around Indian Country, with law enforcement in other states and Canada following up with more criminal charges. Those charges are still pending.
The British Columbia Prosecution Service said Chasing Horse was charged with sexual assault in February 2023, though the date of the alleged offense took place in September 2018 near Keremeos, a village about four hours east of Vancouver. In November 2023, the case paused due to Chasing Horse’s charges in the United States, but resumed the following year.
After all of Chasing Horse’s appeals have been exhausted, British Columbia prosecutors will assess next steps, Damienne Darby, communications counsel for the British Columbia Prosecution Service, said in an email.
A warrant against Chasing Horse remains outstanding in Alberta, the Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service in Alberta said in a statement following Chasing Horse’s conviction in January. The Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service said that it is in contact with the Alberta Crown Prosecutors Office regarding the warrant.
Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, which is home to the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota nation. Following his appearance as the young Sioux tribe member Smiles a Lot in Kevin Costner’s Oscar-winning film “Dances With Wolves,” Chasing Horse traveled across Indian Country to attend powwows and perform healing ceremonies.
During his trial, Nevada prosecutors said Chasing Horse used his reputation as a Lakota medicine man to prey on Indigenous women and girls.
Deputy District Attorney Bianca Pucci told the jury that for almost 20 years, Chasing Horse “spun a web of abuse” that ensnared many women.
Jurors heard from three women who said Chasing Horse sexually assaulted them. The jury returned guilty verdicts on some charges. He was acquitted on others.
Multiple victims described how they participated in his ceremonies or went to Chasing Horse for medical help.
Chasing Horse allegedly told Leone-LaCroix when she was 14 that the spirits wanted her to give up her virginity to save her mother, who was diagnosed with cancer. He then sexually assaulted her and told her that if she told anyone, her mother would die, according to Pucci. The sexual assaults continued for years, Pucci said.
Chasing Horse denied the allegations and his attorney questioned the main accuser’s credibility, calling her a “scorned woman.” His attorney had filed a motion for a new trial, arguing that a witness was not qualified to talk about grooming and that the statute of limitations had expired. That motion was denied.
Victims and their family members testified that they struggle with their faith as a result of Chasing Horse’s actions. The mothers of the victims said Chasing Horse betrayed their trust and abused sacred traditions.
“Even to this day I struggle to regain my faith and spirituality,” said Lynnette Adams, the mother of Siera Begaye, one of the other victims.
The AP typically does not use the name of alleged sexual assault victims unless they come forward publicly or approved the use of their names, as Begaye has.
Begaye said she still faces complications after suffering an ectopic pregnancy as a result of the assault and being forced to undergo surgery.
“I am choosing to see this moment as a fresh start,” Begaye said. “I will rebuild my life, reclaim my voice and continue fighting for the future I deserve.”
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The shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner has exposed a serious security vulnerability surrounding President Donald Trump and other senior U.S. officials, a former Defense Department intelligence officer has warned.
And with tensions between Washington and Tehran rising and ceasefire talks stalled, Andrew Badger told Fox News Digital the April 25 breach could further increase Iran’s “motivation” to target Trump and others in the administration.
“This could show that there is a vulnerability in terms of potentially accessing President Trump or senior officials,” Badger said before warning of “significant vulnerabilities.”
TRUMP PRAISED FOR ‘STRENGTH’ IN MOMENTS AFTER SHOTS RANG OUT AS EYEWITNESS DESCRIBES ‘TERRIBLE’ SCENE
A split image showing the alleged White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner shooter, Cole Allen, and President Donald Trump. (Getty Images)
“When you’re looking at your adversary, and you’re seeing weakness, it also fuels motivation,” he said before claiming that “Iran has the motive to strike at senior Trump officials, including President Trump.”
“Iran, which has a demonstrated history of using criminals and proxy individuals, could certainly look at this as an opportunity.”
Chaos broke out at the Washington Hilton Hotel when a suspected gunman, identified as 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen of Torrance, California, stormed a security checkpoint and opened fire.
Trump and other administration officials were rushed out of the ballroom as law enforcement responded. Allen is currently in custody and made an initial court appearance on Monday.
AMERICANS MUST HAVE ‘HIGHER DEGREE OF VIGILANCE’ AMID IRAN TERROR THREAT, HOUSE INTEL CHAIR WARNS
President Donald Trump is escorted out during the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington, D.C., on April 25, 2026. (Bo Erickson /Reuters)
The gathering included Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, journalists and senior administration officials — a concentration of leadership that Badger said presented significant risk.
“The top three of the line of succession were at this single event,” Badger noted.
He added that “eight of the nine line-of-succession officials were at this single event,” warning of a worst-case scenario: “If this individual would have somehow worn a suicide vest, you could have eliminated all three of those individuals.”
HOSPITALS IN SANCTUARY CITIES COULD BE MOST VULNERABLE TO IRAN TERROR ATTACKS, WARNS EXPERT
IRGC Cmdr. Qassem Soleimani shakes hands with Mojtaba Khamenei. (Mehdi Ghasemi/West Asia News Agency via Reuters)
“Imagine if there were multiple people. Imagine if he was wearing suicide vests. Imagine if he used some type of drone,” Badger said, emphasizing the scale of potential exposure at a nonsecure venue.
The incident, he said, unfolds against the backdrop of ongoing tensions with Iran, which have escalated amid U.S. and Israeli targeting of Iranian officials and leadership.
Badger pointed to longstanding Iranian hostility tied to the 2020 killing of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad International Airport ordered by Trump.
TRUMP FACES UNPRECEDENTED THIRD ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
IRGC Commander Qassem Soleimani meets with officers and Supreme Leader staff in 2016. (Press Office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei/Getty Images)
“There has been a driving animus, a driving motivation in the Iranian regime — which they’ve stated publicly — to get revenge for that killing of Soleimani,” said Badger, who served on the front lines of human intelligence operations, including a 2014 deployment to Afghanistan.
After Soleimani was killed, Ayatollah Khamenei warned that those responsible for the attack would face “severe revenge,” adding that the death would strengthen and intensify resistance against the United States and Israel.
Badger warned that Iran and other adversaries have increasingly relied on unconventional tactics. “Iran and other state actors such as Russia have increasingly reverted to contracting criminals, or gangsters, to conduct hybrid warfare,” he said.
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Following the incident, Trump underscored the need for more secure venues, advocating for a dedicated White House ballroom.
“It’s got every single bell and whistle you can possibly have for security and safety… It’s really what you need,” Trump said on Fox News’ “The Sunday Briefing.”
Head of Indonesia’s national rescue agency says efforts continue to remove people trapped in wreckage after crash.
Published On 28 Apr 2026
At least five people have been killed and dozens injured in a collision involving two trains near the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, with reports of passengers being trapped in the wreckage, as rescue efforts continue.
The crash late on Monday night occurred at Bekasi city’s rail station, adjoining Jakarta, between a commuter line train and a long-distance train, the spokesperson for the commuter line operator, Karina Amanda, told the Reuters news agency.
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Emergency workers were still actively working at the scene in the early hours of Tuesday morning, with one official telling the AFP news agency that at least four people remained trapped alive in the wreckage of the crash.
“Currently, there are five victims. And, of course, the evacuation process will continue, so the exact number of victims has not been determined yet,” Mohammad Syafii, the head of Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS), said early on Tuesday, according to Indonesian news outlet Kompas.com.
Syafii said efforts to rescue those still trapped in the wreckage were complicated by the limited space in which rescuers were working and the severe damage to the train carriages.
Emergency workers are working “slowly” to cut away wreckage and free those trapped inside the mangled carriages, Syafii said, according to Kompas.com.
Rescuers were seen using angle grinders to cut through the metal framework of train compartments to free passengers, according to reports at the scene of the accident.
Anne Purba, the spokeswoman for the state-owned railway operator KAI, also said that five people had been killed, and that 79 people were “still at hospitals for observation”, according to AFP.
Franoto Wibowo, a spokesman for KAI, said a taxi appears to have clipped the commuter train on a level crossing, causing it to come to a standstill on the tracks, where it was then hit by the long-distance train.
Kompas.com identified the trains involved as the Jakarta to Cikarang commuter train and the Argo Bromo Anggrek long-distance train, which is described as Indonesia’s premier high-speed train service between Jakarta and Surabaya.
Train accidents are not uncommon on Indonesia’s rail network.
In 2010, a train from Jakarta ploughed into the rear of a train that was sitting at a station in Central Java province, killing 36, and in 2015, a passenger train hit a minibus at an unguarded crossing in West Java, killing 18 people.
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