Joe Biden Delivers Remarks on the Deadly Conflict Between Hamas and Israel

source https://time.com/6322298/joe-biden-delivers-remarks-hamas-israel/

How to Help Afghanistan Earthquake Victims

At least 2,400 people were killed and 9,000 more were injured after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck Western Afghanistan on Saturday. The quake hit Zindajan, a rural district some 40km (25 miles) from Herat city, where nearly 2,000 homes have been completely destroyed across 20 villages. Eight aftershocks also hit the country, severely impacting vulnerable communities with poorly constructed homes. Health care facilities are also overwhelmed and under equipped by the number of people needing treatment. 

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Since the Taliban’s takeover in summer 2021, many international aid organizations have greatly reduced their operations in the country, making the population even more vulnerable to natural disasters. Only a handful of countries have publicly offered support in the aftermath of the disaster, including China and Pakistan, because many countries refuse to deal directly with the Taliban.

“There’s not much disaster management capacity and what there is can’t cover people on the ground,” Salma Ben Aissa, the director for the International Rescue Committee’s Afghanistan mission, told the Associated Press over the weekend. “The numbers (of dead) are increasing hour by hour.”

In addition to aid being cut after the Taliban takeover, financial issues plaguing the World Food Program led the organization cutting food distributions for the country last month, and many international aid resources have been diverted to the recent escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

Aid agencies like the International Rescue Committee have warned that if the Taliban lacks proper rescue equipment to deal with such a significant natural disaster, it could lead to more deaths. 

Here are some ways you can help. 

International Committee of the Red Cross

The International Committee of the Red Cross is providing health care, re-establishing health care infrastructure, and working on improving sanitation and energy supply together with the Afghan Red Crescent and other on the ground humanitarian partner organizations. To learn more, you can visit their website here. 

UNICEF

UNICEF is the United Nations agency responsible for providing humanitarian relief to children around the globe. They are currently distributing emergency water and hygiene kits in the country to address the urgent needs of children impacted by the earthquake. To donate, you can click here. 

Islamic Relief Worldwide 

Islamic Relief Worldwide launched an urgent appeal to provide lifesaving humanitarian aid to victims of the earthquake in Afghanistan. The organization has been working in Afghanistan for more than 23 years, and is coordinating closely with the United Nations and other on the ground organizations to figure out how to best help survivors. You can read more about Islamic Relief and their work in Afghanistan here.

International Rescue Committee

The International Rescue Committee has deployed a team of emergency personnel to provide medical care and other essential services to those impacted by the earthquake. The organization has had a presence in Afghanistan since 1988 and works with thousands of villages across the country’s twelve provinces. To learn more, you can visit their website here. 

Doctors Without Borders

Doctors Without Borders is currently providing support at Herat regional hospital and manages the hospital’s pediatric section. They have also sent additional supplies to other parts of the country. To donate, click here. 

CARE International

CARE is one of the leading humanitarian organizations operating in Afghanistan right now and focuses on alleviating poverty and providing medical care. You can donate here.

source https://time.com/6322308/how-to-help-afghanistan-earthquake-victims/

What an Israeli Ground Invasion Would Mean for Gaza

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the U.S. launched major wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now, as Israel reels from a surprise attack by Hamas that the country has come to describe as its own 9/11, it is beginning a new war in Gaza, the Palestinian territory ruled by the militant group. This conflict, which has already seen heavy shelling and could yet involve a ground invasion, stands to have a devastating impact on the densely-populated enclave and the millions of Palestinians who live there.

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To understand what such a war would look like on the ground, one must understand the situation in Gaza itself. The Gaza Strip is a small seaside enclave roughly twice the size of Washington, D.C. that is wedged between Israel and Egypt. It is the smaller of the Palestinian territories (which also include the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem)—and the most besieged. For more than a decade, the Gaza Strip has been described by human-rights groups and United Nations experts as the world’s largest open-air prison. Although not formally occupied like the West Bank (Israel withdrew its soldiers and settlements from Gaza in 2005), its borders are tightly controlled by Israel and Egypt, restricting the movement of its more than 2 million Palestinian inhabitants. The majority of people living there are descended from Palestinian refugees who were violently expelled from their homes and native villages in what is now modern-day Israel, amid the war that resulted in the state’s creation in 1948.

In the wake of the Hamas attack over the weekend, in which militants infiltrated Israeli communities bordering Gaza, killing more than 1,000 Israelis and taking at least 150 hostages, the Israeli government on Monday announced that it would be imposing a “complete siege” on Gaza, where basic necessities such as water and electricity are supplied by Israel. Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, said that there would be “no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed,” in retaliation for Hamas’s deadly attack. Observers and human-rights groups have warned that the siege, paired with the airstrikes that have already killed 830 Palestinians, will have a devastating impact on Gaza’s already-reeling civilian population. Experts tell TIME that the Israeli government’s recent decision to mobilize an unprecedented 300,000 reservists suggests that a wider ground invasion may also be in the cards.

Read More: A Survivor Recounts the Horror of the Hamas Attack on Israel’s Supernova Festival

“I do expect the airstrikes are but a preamble, however devastating they are—and they are—for a massive land operation,” says Nimrod Novik, who was a senior advisor to ex-Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres.

For Palestinians living in Gaza, roughly half of whom are children, the situation “is going from terrible to catastrophic,” Shira Efron, the director of policy research at Washington’s Israel Policy Forum and a former consultant with the U.N. country team advising on Gaza. The 16-year Israeli blockade, which is backed by Egypt, severely restricts the movement of goods and people in and out of the Strip. Efron says that nearly two-thirds of Gazan households receive humanitarian assistance, the vast majority in the form of food assistance and that 65% of the population is moderately or severely food insecure. As Israel cuts off food and fuel from entering Gaza, and as some European capitals announce plans to halt bilateral assistance to the Palestinians pending review of how their aid is being spent, that already grim humanitarian situation is bound to get even worse, Efron says.

Read More: How the World Leaders Have Reacted to Hamas’ Surprise Attack on Israel

And that’s before one takes into account the state of Gaza’s physical infrastructure, which has already come under heavy fire as Israeli airstrikes bombard targets within the crowded enclave, including refugee camps, hospitals, and mosques. While the Israeli government says that it is targeting Hamas, in an area as densely populated and restricted as Gaza, civilians have nowhere else to go. (Indeed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s warning to Palestinians in Gaza to “leave now” raised questions about where civilians could escape to.) The last time Israel launched a ground operation in Gaza—in 2014—more than 2,000 Palestinians were killed, a majority of them civilians.

“I’m in daily contact with all of my friends [in Gaza], and they’re all terrified,” says Diana Buttu, a Haifa-based Palestinian analyst and former legal advisor to the Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian negotiators who lived in Gaza between 2005 and 2006. She notes that the language used by Israeli politicians—from Netanyahu’s vow to turn Hamas hiding places in Gaza into “rubble” to the more euphemistic references to periodic operations in the region as “mowing the grass”—dehumanizes the Palestinians living in the Strip. “They’re talking about committing mass atrocities and they’re talking very openly about it,” she says. “In the past, the Israelis used to say ‘precision strikes,’ but this is all off the table now. Instead, they’re talking about strangling Gaza.”

Read More: Israel’s President: Our Darkest Hour Casts a Shadow on the Entire World

While Israel has not officially announced a ground operation in Gaza, longtime observers believe that it is now inevitable. Novik, a member of the executive committee of Commanders for Israel’s Security—an organization comprised of former senior security officials—and his colleagues have long criticized the Israeli government’s strategy vis-a-vis Gaza, which he describes as “a policy of allowing Hamas to solidify its control over the Gaza Strip while weakening the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.” The West Bank is governed by Hamas’s political rivals Fatah, headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. But none of the observers TIME spoke with expect that Israeli citizens will pressure their government to change course regarding the Palestinians—at least, not right away. “All of that is really over the horizon because the horizon right now is a dark one of a prolonged war,” says Novik. “We are at a point where a massive military show of force is essential and unavoidable.”

source https://time.com/6322173/israel-gaza-invasion-concerns/

These Are the Candidates for House Speaker

House Republicans are yet to nominate a candidate to succeed Rep. Kevin McCarthy as Speaker after he became the first in history to be ousted from his position. Lawmakers are divided over who can best unite the conference, fundraise for Republican candidates, and keep the government funded ahead of next month’s deadline.

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But two candidates have emerged as the likely finalists for the open gavel: Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Steve Scalise of Louisiana, both of whom have put their names forward and are pitching their vision to colleagues.

Scalise, the House Majority Leader, has racked up roughly two dozen GOP endorsements while Jordan, who leads the House Judiciary Committee, is backed by former President Donald Trump and has more than 40 endorsements, though neither currently has enough votes to win the speakership. McCarthy also didn’t rule out the idea of joining the race to win back his job, telling reporters on Monday that he would seek re-election if the conference nominated him—a reversal from his vow last week that he wouldn’t enter the race.

More From TIME

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Republican lawmakers are expected to attend a candidate forum on Tuesday evening and then pick their nominee on Wednesday morning, potentially teeing up a House vote before the end of the week. Until a permanent Speaker is selected, legislative work in the House remains in limbo, meaning Congress can’t make progress on the appropriations bills that must be passed by mid-November to fund the government or send more military aid to Israel following the attacks by militants this weekend.

House Republicans left a nearly three-hour closed door meeting on Monday night still unclear on whether they would be able to rally behind any one candidate in time for the conference vote on Wednesday. “We’re kind of like a scattergram—we’re all over the map in terms of the way forward,” said Rep. Steve Womack, an Arkansas Republican who is backing Scalise. “There’s a lot of free agents in there—a lot of people who are just not going to forfeit their individual voting card, and I understand that.”

Here’s what to know about the candidates for House Speaker.

Jim Jordan 

Jordan, 59, has gained support for his speakership bid from several key figures on the far-right. Known as a conservative agitator and staunch Trump ally, Jordan currently serves as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, where he is leading one of several high-profile investigations into President Joe Biden over his family’s business dealings.

He is also a co-founder of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, which often clashes with GOP leadership and has been a driving force behind pushing the Republican Party further to the right. In a letter to his Republican colleagues asking for their support, Jordan touted his work helping the House pass a strict border-security bill, holding the Biden Administration accountable, and pushing for fiscal discipline. He is against sending aid to Ukraine without clear objectives and spending accountability. “The most pressing issue on Americans’ minds is not Ukraine, it’s the border situation and crime on the streets,” he told reporters on Oct. 4. “So let’s address those.”

Democrats have criticized Jordan’s approach in Congress, viewing him as a hyper-partisan Trump defender who has used his position to shield the former president. Trump on Friday said Jordan had his “complete” and “total” endorsement. “He will be a GREAT Speaker of the House,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “He is STRONG on Crime, Borders, our Military/Vets, & 2nd Amendment.”

Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who led the campaign to oust McCarthy, wrote on the social media platform X, “My mentor Jim Jordan would be great!”

A former wrestling champion, Jordan has been accused of ignoring sexual abuse complaints against a team doctor during his time as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University from 1987 to 1995. Jordan has denied any knowledge of the allegations and any wrongdoing on his part.

Steve Scalise

Scalise, 58, currently serves as the House Majority Leader and is gaining traction among establishment House Republicans to succeed McCarthy. He previously led the Republican Study Committee and is considered more conservative than McCarthy, though not as far to the right as Jordan, potentially making him more of a unifying force within the GOP.

In a letter to his Republican colleagues seeking their support, Scalise outlined his achievements in advancing bills related to American energy production, border security, and parental involvement in education. He joined a minority of House Republicans in voting for sending $300 million in aid to Ukraine and temporarily extending federal funding, even when such measures faced conservative opposition.

Scalise’s political journey began in the Louisiana House of Representatives, where he served from 1996 to 2007. He later won a special election to replace Bobby Jindal in Congress, and has since secured re-elections in his district, eventually rising through the ranks to become GOP whip from 2014 to 2022 and now the House Majority Leader. Throughout his tenure, Scalise has been praised by colleagues for his ability to build relationships with members of different ideological viewpoints. He also has a significant fundraising advantage, having raised over $53 million in the last election cycle, compared to Jordan’s $14 million.

But Scalise’s bid may face some health-related obstacles. He was diagnosed with blood cancer over the summer and is currently undergoing intensive treatment. In 2017, he survived an assassination attempt during a congressional baseball practice, sustaining serious injuries that continue to affect him today, including a limp.

In 2014, it was revealed that he had spoken at a gathering of white nationalists in 2002. He later apologized, asserting that he would not have attended if he had been better informed about the group’s nature. Another story emerged that Scalise had described himself to a political reporter as “like David Duke without the baggage,” referring to the former Klansman and white supremacist who was also a Louisiana politician.

Notable endorsements so far include Reps. Tom Emmer of Minnesota (the Majority Whip), Lisa McClain of Michigan, Ken Calvert of California, and Tony Gonzales of Texas.

Kevin McCarthy

Several moderate Republicans have said that McCarthy remains the only viable Republican who can lead the conference during this time, raising the possibility that the California Republican could get some nominating votes from a key bloc of the party.

McCarthy said he might be open to reclaiming the post from which he was ousted if enough of the Republicans who voted for his removal are open to his reinstatement. Such a scenario appears unlikely, especially after a group of eight Republicans sided with Democrats to vacate the speakership because he relied on Democratic votes to avert a government shutdown—a decision that McCarthy has repeatedly defended.

But speaking to reporters on Monday behind a podium in the Rayburn Room of the Capitol, where the Speaker often holds official ceremonies, McCarthy laid out a plan to defend Israel and rescue American captives. And once again, he lamented how just 4% of his party’s members were able to remove a speaker supported by 96%. “Let’s be honest about our conference,” McCarthy told reporters. “Is our conference just going to elect somebody to throw them out in another 35 days?”

Asked if he wanted to resume serving as Speaker, McCarthy said that the decision was not up to him, and that he would support whatever his fellow Republicans wanted. “I’ll allow the conference to make any decision,” he said.

Some prominent New York Republicans, who are among the most vulnerable in the House and represent a key voting bloc, have already endorsed McCarthy if he were to run again. After his news conference, Republican Rep. Nick LaLota of New York said on X that the former Speaker “is acting with class and confidence and in the best interests of America.” Rep. Mike Lawler, another New York Republican, said he believes McCarthy should be reinstated. “A lot of people believe Kevin McCarthy is the right person to lead us,” he told reporters.

Donald Trump?

Could the former President be the next House Speaker? It’s a question that gained traction last week after Trump inserted himself into the race, telling Fox News that he would consider accepting the House speakership role temporarily if Republicans could not agree on a candidate.

“I have been asked to speak as a unifier because I have so many friends in Congress,” Trump said. “If they don’t get the vote, they have asked me if I would consider taking the speakership until they get somebody longer-term, because I am running for President.”

He went on to endorse Jordan for the post, but Trump’s interest in the position could be reignited if House Republicans fail to rally around a candidate by the end of the week. Some rightwing Republicans, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Troy Nehls of Texas, had previously suggested that Trump be the next Speaker.

Trump is currently the frontrunner in the Republican presidential primary and has been charged in four separate criminal cases, which are expected to play out over the coming months. While the House Speaker is not required to be a sitting member of Congress, GOP House rules currently prohibit anyone under a criminal indictment on felony charges carrying more than a two-year sentence from serving in Republican leadership, though Republicans could change the rules.

“It shouldn’t happen, and we have a lot of talent inside the House,” Rep. Ken Buck, a Colorado Republican, said on ABC’s ‘This Week’ on Oct. 8 of the possibility of Trump becoming Speaker. “We’ll settle this inside the House Republican conference, and we will elect someone who’ll have the unity and the backing of the full conference.”

Other dynamics to watch

At the heart of the battle are the establishment Republicans who find themselves caught between wanting to find a consensus candidate and the power the hardline faction of the party wields.

One of the central demands from moderate Republicans is a commitment to changing the rules to prevent the kind of floor vote that led to McCarthy’s ouster. They want assurances that the government will not shut down in mid-November, and they seek to ensure that no single member will have the power to remove a sitting Speaker unilaterally.

“It’s never an easy job,” Lawler tells TIME. “You’re managing the House, you have 434 other opinions and obviously, you have to manage your own conference. It’s not easy. I don’t think it’s necessarily any more difficult now than it was to begin with. But the question is, can someone build consensus and move us forward?”

The next Speaker will inherit a House that is not only divided but subdivided, with the GOP’s narrow nine-seat majority further diminished by an angry split between establishment Republicans and the far-right populist faction egged on by Trump. Add to that a broken power structure that allows even a handful of dissenting members to wield significant influence, and the new dynamic raises concerns whether anyone can lead the House on critical issues.

“The Republican Party is in real danger,” says Larry Sabato, a political analyst and director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. “They’re not going to get very much done in the coming months.”

source https://time.com/6322160/house-speaker-candidates-jordan-scalise/

Which Israel Will Emerge After the Hamas Attack?

On August 12^th I published an article in TIME, “The Good Israel Will Prevail.” I wrote: “True, many of the pilots, the hard core of the Israeli Air Force, intelligence analysts, cyber experts, members of Israel Defense Force’s elite units, warn that they would not serve a dictatorial regime of Netanyahu and his extremist coalition partners, and some are acting on their warnings. But if Israel is attacked, they will all rush to their units ready to serve in devotion and excellence.”

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On the morning of October 7, Israel was taken by a surprise attack. What I predicted about the officers who joined and, in some cases, led the pro-democracy protests happened. The most notable examples were that three retired major generals—Yair Golan, Noam Tibon and Israel Ziv, armed and in battle uniform, separately drove on their own to the besieged villages on the Gaza border that morning, bravely fought the Hamas terrorists and rescued captured civilians. All the three are prominent participants of the civil anti-government protest. Thus, as I wrote, the “good Israel will prevail.”

This attack by Hamas on Israel was almost certainly directed by Iran. For years, Iran has been arming, equipping, financing, and supporting Hamas, as well as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Both terror organizations are Iran’s proxies. The Iranian regime has recently grown over self-confidant. Its alliance with Russia, its China-mediated rapprochement with Saudi Arabia, the gradual withdrawal of U.S. from the Middle East, it total misinterpretation of the pro-democracy mass demonstrations in Israel, combined to give the Ayatollahs a feeling of strength. They became more daring, all over the region.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is accountable and to be blamed for the unfolding disaster—and not only because the intelligence failure and the swift success of Hamas happened on his shift.

Throughout all his 13 years in power Netanyahu enabled and encouraged the build-up of Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure in Gaza. The idea behind it was to weaken the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah by strengthening its rival the Hamas in Gaza. Qatar was allowed to funnel many millions of dollars to the Hamas government, while more and more financial punitive measures were taken against Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority. No serious military measures were taken to destroy Hamas militarily. Since August 2014 not a single Hamas senior commander has been killed by Israel. Since last Saturday we Israelis are paying the price for the policy of the Netanyahu-led governments that have done everything to avoid seeking a solution to the conflict with the Palestinians.

So what needs to be done now is the total destruction of Hamas’ military force. As a political movement Hamas can’t be erased. But it must be deprived of any military capacity and any chance of its revival must be totally prevented. This should serve as a lesson to the Iranian regime. It operates Hamas-like proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. Tehran should be deterred from using them. The Palestinian people will thereby learn a lesson that the way of Hamas brings misery and destruction, not freedom and redemption. The plan of Hamas to take over the Palestinian society in all territories must be thwarted.

If the Israeli military action is decisive enough, then the road to an economic-political reconstruction plan for Gaza will be open. Cooperation between Egypt, Gulf states, the Palestinian Authority and Israel is essential for the feasibility of such a plan. The 2.2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip deserve lives of peace and dignity. Hamas rule since June 2007 has brought them terrible misery and poverty.

The current government of Israel is not a partner for any constructive plan in the region. It is overwhelmed by ultra-nationalistic and messianic ideas, lack of experience, and inferior intellectual capacity.

As I said previously “the good Israel will prevail” and the Israeli people will have a government they deserve.

source https://time.com/6322046/israel-after-hamas-attack/

Workers at Mack Trucks Go on Strike, Joining Thousands of UAW Picketers

DETROIT — Union workers at Mack Trucks went on strike Monday after voting down a five-year contract agreement that negotiators had reached with the company.

The United Auto Workers said 4,000 unionized workers walked out at 7 a.m., adding to labor turmoil in the industry that has ensnared all three big Detroit automakers.

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With those workers joining picket lines, the total number of UAW members that are on strike now exceeds 30,000 across 22 states, the union said Monday.

Union President Shawn Fain said in a letter to Mack parent company Volvo Trucks that 73% of workers voted against the deal in results counted on Sunday.

The UAW represents Mack workers in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida. Union leaders had reached a tentative agreement on the deal on Oct. 1.

UAW Locals 171, 677, 1247, 2301, and 2420 in UAW Region 8 and Region 9 represent workers at Mack Trucks in Macungie and Middletown, Pennsylvania; Hagerstown and Baltimore, Maryland; and Jacksonville, Florida.

The deal negotiators had reached with Mack just over a week ago included a 19% pay raise over the life of the contract with 10% upon ratification. There also was a $3,500 ratification bonus, no increase in weekly health care contributions, increased annual lump sum payments for retirees and a $1,000 annual 401(k) lump sum to offset health care costs for employees who don’t get health insurance after retirement.

Fain said in his letter to Volvo Trucks’ head of labor relations that employees working early Monday would exit the factories after performing tasks needed to prevent damage to company equipment.

Fain wrote that UAW members and workers across the country are seeking their fair share in wages and benefits.

The company and union are still apart on work schedules, health and safety, pensions, health care, prescription drug coverage, overtime and other issues, he wrote.

The contract may have been sunk by high expectations Fain has set in bargaining with Detroit’s three automakers. In those talks, the UAW has asked for 36% raises over four years, while Ford has offered 23% and the other two firms are at 20%.

“I’m inspired to see UAW members at Mack Trucks holding out for a better deal, and ready to stand up and walk off the job to win it,” Fain said in a prepared statement. “The members have the final say, and it’s their solidarity and organization that will win a fair contract at Mack.”

Mack Trucks President Stephen Roy said in a statement Sunday night that the company is “surprised and disappointed” that the union chose to strike. The union, he wrote, called the tentative agreement a record for the heavy truck industry. “We trust that other stakeholders also appreciate that our market, business and competitive set are very different from those of the passenger car makers,” the statement said.

Mack, he wrote, is part of the only heavy truck manufacturing group that assembles all of its vehicles and engines for North America in the U.S., competing against trucks built in lower-cost countries.

The company is committed to collective bargaining and is confident both sides will reach a deal that delivers competitive wages and benefits while safeguarding the company’s future, the statement said.

The UAW went on strike at selected factories run by automakers General Motors, Ford and Jeep maker Stellantis on Sept. 15. It started with one assembly plant for each company, then spread to 38 GM and Stellantis parts warehouses. Two additional assembly plants at Ford and GM were added later.

On Friday, the union decided not to expand the strikes to any more plants for the time being after GM agreed to bring its electric vehicle battery factories into the UAW’s national contract, assuring that they’ll be unionized. The union also reported progress with all three automakers.

source https://time.com/6322030/mack-trucks-uaw-strike/

‘I Was Saved by a Miracle.’ A Survivor Recounts the Horror of the Hamas Attack on Israel’s Supernova Festival

Arbel Ashkenazy attended the Supernova festival on Friday night, a desert rave that coincided with the start of the week-long Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which celebrates the fall harvest and commemorates the Old Testament story of the Jewish people wandering in the desert for 40 years after escaping slavery in Egypt. The festival featured Brazilian psy trance music and focused on free love, spirit, and environmental preservation.

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But in the early hours of Saturday morning, Hamas militants paraglided into the outdoor festival and began shooting indiscriminately at partygoers. At the same time, Hamas also launched thousands of rockets from Gaza into Israel and sent fighters to other border towns in the south of the country. Hamas says that they have taken over 100 Israeli hostages so far. Over 700 hundred Israelis were killed, with the death toll soaring over 1,200 on both sides on Monday.

The Supernova festival had one of the highest concentrations of casualties. More than 260 bodies have been found from the festival so far.

Below is Arbel’s account of the events that unfolded at the festival.

Read More: Pres. Isaac Herzog: Israel Needs Support

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We arrived at the party Friday night, and at around 6 in the morning on Saturday they stopped the music and sirens started to sound. We heard the sound of rockets over our heads in huge numbers. During this time we weren’t that stressed, we just stayed put at the party and lied down on the floor. Slowly, slowly we started to see many people leave and head to their cars despite the fact that we were supposed to stay.

During this time, I started looking for my friend Eden. Even though we didn’t arrive at the party together, she is my best friend so I immediately started to look for her. Me and my friend found her and we left and started heading for the direction of the cars at around 7 a.m. At this point, we were getting more stressed but we still didn’t totally understand exactly what was happening. There also wasn’t any reporting on it in the news or internet yet. 

We started to leave the party and get into vehicles, but because everyone was leaving at the same time—there were 3,000 people at the party—there was a crazy amount of traffic in the street. We ended up making a left turn and we immediately saw all these cars with shattered windows from the gunshots. We heard a lot of people screaming that they needed an ambulance. We didn’t know what to do so we stayed in our vehicles.

By that time, I had lost contact with my friend Eden, because she was in a different car and hid there when the gunshots started. Then, we heard somebody screaming, “get out of the cars,” so we left the cars, and just started running. There was an area with an empty field since it was a nature party. It was very bare with no trees or anything and we started to run toward it. At that same time, we also started to hear gunshots from every direction and voices shouting Allahu Akbar. While we were running in that open field, we could see in the distance some of the Hamas people. They were wearing all black with black masks and had these huge guns.

For some time, we hid in these bushes before we started to run further east. But as we started running east, we saw other people from the party running toward us and they told us, run to the other side because there are terrorists on this side. They had just circled all around us from every direction. We kept running when suddenly I saw a person—an angel—that had a big white van. He picked up a bunch of people into the van and me and my friend climbed onto the van.

It was a miracle that even though he was driving in this open field, and there were gunshots all over the place, we were able to get to a police station in the city of Netivot at around 10:30 a.m. We stayed there until the evening until things calmed down, if you can even say “calmed down,” because it didn’t really calm down. In our area, they captured some of the perpetrators. 

I heard that my friend Eden, who had hidden in the car during the gunshots, was on the phone the entire time with her mother for four hours straight. At some point she made it to the bushes as well, but then suddenly, four hours into the phone call, they heard her say on the phone, “they caught me.” You can hear for a moment in the recording the voices of the Hamas people and then the phone disconnects. We have been looking for her but have not heard from her since. 

The hardest part is to see all the bodies of young kids our age with blood laid out on the floor. We were in an environment of pure chaos. I was saved by a miracle and was left in peace, but many of my friends including my best friend Eden are still there and I just want everyone to return safely and in peace. I just want this horrible story to end because it doesn’t feel real. It’s not normal, in any country, any place, nobody should have to go through something like this. It didn’t make any sense. We ran like crazy people in the middle of an open field while they were shooting at us, there was no place to run, no place to hide. I’m grateful to be alive but I just want Eden back.

source https://time.com/6321984/escaping-hamas-supernova-festival-diary/