Israel rescues four Nova music festival hostages from central Gaza, military says - The Independent

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Four Israeli hostages taken by Hamas from the Nova music festival have been rescued alive from the central Gaza strip, the Israeli military said.

Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andri Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, were all recovered on Saturday as part of a “complex” daytime operation.

They are in good medical condition and have been transferred to the ‘Sheba’ Tel-HaShomer Medical Center for further medical examinations, the Israeli military said.

Israel says more than 130 hostages remain, with about a quarter of those believed dead, and divisions are deepening in the country over how to bring them home.

The rescue comes as international pressure mounts on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in its war in Gaza, which reached its eighth month on Friday.

Noa Argamani, a rescued hostage, stands with her father Yakov and a family friend Nir Givon, in Ramat Gan (via REUTERS)

Seeking a breakthrough in the apparently stalled ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, US secretary of state Antony Blinken will return to the Middle East next week.

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza‘s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its figures.

Saturday’s operation is the largest recovery of living hostages since the war erupted, bringing the total of rescued captives to seven.

Two men were rescued in February when troops stormed a heavily guarded apartment in a densely packed town, and a woman was rescued in the aftermath of October’s attack.

Israeli troops have so far recovered at least 16 bodies of hostages from Gaza, according to the government.

Andrey Kozlov, a released hostage reacts, after the military said that Israeli forces have rescued four hostages alive from the central Gaza Strip on Saturday, in Ramat Gan, Israel June 8, 2024 (REUTERS)

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing growing pressure to end the fighting in Gaza, with many Israelis urging him to embrace a deal announced last month by US President Joe Biden, but far-right allies are threatening to collapse his government if he does.

Ms Argamani, has been one of the most widely recognised hostages since she was abducted from a music festival.

The video of her abduction was among the first to surface, with images of her horrified face widely shared as she was held between two men on a motorcycle.

Her mother Liora has stage four brain cancer and in April released a video pleading to see her daughter before she dies.

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2024-06-08 12:40:31Z
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Israeli army says four captives rescued amid heavy strikes on Gaza - Al Jazeera English

Army says four captives rescued in central Gaza raid are in ‘good condition’ as Palestinian officials report dozens of casualties in Israeli attack in same area.

The Israeli military says its forces have rescued four captives from the central Gaza Strip as it escalated its assault across the besieged and bombarded territory.

The announcement about the raid in Nuseirat on Saturday came as Palestinian health officials said dozens of people were killed and wounded in Israeli attacks on central Gaza. Local residents said Nuseirat had come under heavy Israeli drone and air raids, with children and women among those killed.

The army said the four captives – Noa Argamani, 25; Almog Meir Jan, 21; Andrey Kozlov, 27; and Shlomi Ziv; 40 – had been taken from a music festival during the attack Palestinian group Hamas led in southern Israel on October 7.

They were in “good medical condition” and were taken to hospital for medical checks following a “complex daytime operation” in Gaza’s Nuseirat. They were rescued in two separate locations in the heart of Nuseirat, it said.

Saturday’s operation was the largest recovery of alive captives since October 7, bringing the total of rescued captives to seven.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said during a news conference that special forces trained for “weeks” and underwent “intensive training” to carry out the operation, during which a member of the Israeli armed forces was critically wounded.

Israeli forces were “under fire inside the buildings and on the way out from Gaza”, according to Hagari, who said Israel “will not stop fighting” to get back all remaining captives. Last week, the Israeli military had said that 120 captives remained in Gaza, including 41 that the army believed were dead.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has spoken with one of the rescued captives, telling him officials never forgot about them during 246 days of war.

None of the Israeli officials mentioned the dozens of Palestinians who were killed as part of the operation, said Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from Jordan’s Amman because the Israeli government has banned Al Jazeera from reporting from Israel.

“The Israelis are simply not talking about the cost of this operation and they will not talk about it because they want to spin this as a success. Netanyahu was under tremendous amount of pressure, and the Hostages Families’ Forum is very clear that the ceasefire is the best and most sensible option to get all the captives that are still in Gaza back.”

The Ministry of Health in Gaza released images of bloodied patients, including children, lying in the corridors of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah after the Israeli military claimed targeting “terrorist” infrastructure in what appeared to be part of the rescue operation.

In a statement, Gaza’s Government Media Office said the Israeli army had launched “an unprecedented brutal attack” on the Nuseirat refugee camp, “leaving dozens of martyrs and wounded in the streets” and continuing “its aggression against all areas of the Central Governorate [Deir el-Balah]”.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters news agency after the Israeli army’s announcement that “regaining four captives after nine months of fighting is a sign of failure not an achievement”.

Israeli attacks on Gaza since the start of the war have killed at least 36,801 people and wounded 83,680, with thousands more missing under the rubble and presumed dead. Israel launched its assault after the Hamas-led attack during which about 1,140 people were killed and some 240 taken captive.

Hamas released almost half the captives in return for the release by Israel of dozens of Palestinians held in Israeli jails, in a deal brokered by Qatar and the United States that allowed for a brief truce in November.

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2024-06-08 11:35:49Z
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Danish PM suffers whiplash after assault in Copenhagen - The Guardian

Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has suffered a light whiplash injury after she was assaulted by a man in central Copenhagen, her office has said.

A 39-year-old man is due to appear for questioning in front of a judge in connection with the attack.

Frederiksen, a social democrat who has been prime minister since 2019 and has been tipped as a contender for a top EU post, had been taken to hospital for a check-up and her official events for Saturday have been cancelled, the prime minister’s office said.

The assault on Friday came two days before Danish voters go to the polls in the European elections, and after several incidents of violence against politicians in Europe.

In May, Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, was shot and seriously injured. A member of the European parliament from Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) was hit while putting up posters in Dresden. A German senator was briefly sent to hospital after being struck over the head.

And on Tuesday, a candidate for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party was stabbed in the south-west German city of Mannheim.

European leaders condemned the assault in Denmark. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, called the attack “unacceptable”.

The Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas, said she was “deeply shocked,” while Romania’s president, Klaus Iohannis, said he was “appalled by the cowardly assault”.

The EU Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, also condemned what she called a “despicable act which goes against everything we believe and fight for in Europe”, in a statement on social media.

Frederiksen became Denmark’s youngest prime minister in 2019 and kept the post after emerging victorious in the 2022 general election.

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2024-06-08 10:49:00Z
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Danish PM Mette Frederiksen assaulted by man in Copenhagen square - Al Jazeera English

Police arrest one man and open investigation into incident in Kultorvet square that left prime minister ‘shocked’.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was “hit” by a man in central Copenhagen, her office has said.

The 46-year-old was “shocked by the incident” on Friday evening in the capital’s Kultorvet square, the office said in a statement, without providing further details.

“Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was hit by a man Friday evening on Kultorvet in Copenhagen. The man was subsequently arrested,” the statement added, according to AFP news agency.

Copenhagen police also said on X that one person had been arrested and they were investigating the incident, but did not give details on the suspect’s identity or a potential motive.

It was unclear in what context the assault happened, but it came two days before Danes head to the polls to vote in European Union parliamentary elections, which conclude across the bloc on Sunday. Frederiksen has been campaigning with the Social Democrats’ EU lead candidate, Christel Schaldemose. Media reports said the attack was not linked to a campaign event.

‘Strong push’

Two witnesses, Marie Adrian and Anna Ravn, told newspaper BT that they had seen Frederiksen arrive at the square while they were sitting by a nearby fountain just before 6pm (16:00 GMT).

“A man came by in the opposite direction and gave her a hard shove on the shoulder, causing her to fall to the side,” the newspaper quoted the women as saying.

They added that while it was a “strong push”, Frederiksen did not hit the ground.

According to the witnesses, the prime minister then sat down at a nearby cafe. They described the man as tall and slim, and said he had tried to hurry away but had not gotten far before being grabbed and pushed to the ground by men in suits.

Another witness, Kasper Jorgensen, told newspaper Ekstra Bladet that he had seen the man after he was tackled to the ground, saying that one of what he presumed to be part of the security service had put a knee on the man’s back.

“They had pacified him, and as he lay there, he looked confused and a little dazed,” Jorgensen told the newspaper.

A resident told Reuters news agency Frederiksen was escorted away by security following the assault.

“She seemed a little stressed,” Soren Kjergaard, who works as a barista on the square, said.

‘Despicable act’

News of the assault was received with shock and condemnation by politicians across the political spectrum inside Denmark and abroad.

European Council President Charles Michel said he was “outraged by the assault” while European Parliament President Roberta Metsola urged Frederiksen to “keep strong” while adding in a post on X that “violence has no place in politics”.

EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen also condemned what she called a “despicable act which goes against everything we believe and fight for in Europe”, in a statement to social media.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that “an attack on a democratically elected leader is also an attack on our democracy”.

In 2019, Frederiksen became Denmark’s youngest prime minister and kept the post after emerging victorious in the 2022 general election.

“I must say that it shakes all of us who are close to her,” Danish Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke said on social media. “Something like this must not happen in our beautiful, safe and free country.”

Violence against politicians has become a theme in the run-up to the EU elections. In May, a candidate from Germany’s Social Democrats was beaten and seriously injured while campaigning for a seat in the European Parliament.

In Slovakia, the election campaign was overshadowed by an attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Robert Fico on May 15, sending shockwaves through the country and Europe.

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2024-06-08 06:08:47Z
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Trial date set for woman 'who zipped boyfriend in suitcase and left him to die' - The Independent

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday

Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US

A Florida woman charged with leaving her boyfriend to die after he was zipped into a suitcase in their home will go on trial in October following a hearing on Friday.

A 7 October trial date was set during a court hearing for Sarah Boone in state court in Orlando, almost four years after her arrest.

Ms Boone, 46, has pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder charge.

Ms Boone initially told detectives with the Orange County Sheriff's Office that she and her boyfriend, Jorge Torres, had been playing hide and seek in the residence they shared in Winter Park, Florida, when they thought it would be funny for Torres to get into the suitcase.

They had been drinking, and she decided to go to sleep, thinking that Torres could get out of the suitcase on his own, she told detectives, according to an arrest report.

When she woke up the next morning, she didn't find Torres but then remembered he was in the suitcase. She unzipped the suitcase, and found him unresponsive, the arrest report said.

However, detectives charged Boone with murder after they found videos on her cell phone showing Torres yelling that he couldn't breathe in the suitcase and calling out Boone's name, according to the arrest report.

“Yeah, that's what you do when you choke me,” Ms Boone responded in one of the videos, according to the report. “Oh, that's what I feel like when you cheat on me.”

An autopsy report said that Torres had scratches on his back and neck and contusions to his shoulder, skull and forehead from blunt force trauma, as well as a cut near his busted lip.

Since her arrest, Ms Boone has gone through several attorneys, contributing to the delay in her trial.

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2024-06-08 06:10:07Z
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William Anders, Apollo 8 astronaut known for Earthrise photo, dies in plane crash - The Guardian

Retired Maj Gen William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the famous Earthrise photo showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble from space in 1968, was killed Friday when the plane he was piloting alone plummeted into the waters off the San Juan Islands in Washington state. He was 90.

“The family is devastated,” said his son, retired air force Lt Col Greg Anders, who confirmed the death to the Associated Press. “He was a great pilot and we will miss him terribly.”

The former astronaut had said the photo was his most significant contribution to the space program, given the ecological philosophical impact it had, along with making sure the Apollo 8 command module and service module worked.

A report came in around 11.40am that an older-model plane had crashed into the water and sunk near the north end of Jones Island, the San Juan county sheriff Eric Peter said.

Only the pilot was on board the Beech A45 airplane at the time, according to the Federal Aviation Association.

Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, who is also a retired Nasa astronaut, wrote on the social platform X: “Bill Anders forever changed our perspective of our planet and ourselves with his famous Earthrise photo on Apollo 8. He inspired me and generations of astronauts and explorers. My thoughts are with his family and friends.”

William Anders said in a 1997 Nasa oral-history interview that he hadn’t thought the Apollo 8 mission was risk-free but that there were important national, patriotic and exploration reasons for going ahead. He had estimated there was about a one-in-three chance that the crew wouldn’t make it back, the same chance the mission would be a success and the same chance the mission wouldn’t start. He said he suspected Christopher Columbus had sailed with worse odds.

Anders had once recounted the experience as part of a BBC documentary on the mission. He recalled how Earth had looked fragile and seemingly physically insignificant, yet was home.

After two or three orbits around the moon, he and the crew began shooting photographs.

“We’d been going backwards and upside down, didn’t really see the Earth or the sun, and when we rolled around and came around and saw the first Earthrise,” he said. “That certainly was, by far, the most impressive thing. To see this very delicate, colorful orb, which to me looked like a Christmas tree ornament coming up over this very stark, ugly lunar landscape really contrasted.”

“I don’t know who said it, maybe all of us said: ‘Oh my God. Look at that!’” Anders said.

“And up came the Earth. We had had no discussion on the ground, no briefing, no instructions on what to do. I jokingly said, ‘Well, it’s not on the flight plan,’ and the other two guys were yelling at me to give them cameras. I had the only color camera with a long lens. So I floated a black-and-white over to Borman. I can’t remember what Lovell got. They were all yelling for cameras and we started snapping away.”

The photo of the thrilling swirl of life that is Earth on a backdrop of black space and a foreground of dull, lifeless moonscape became an icon of space travel and the defining image of our living world and its fragility.

The National Transportation Safety Board and FAA are investigating the crash.

Anders and his wife, Valerie, founded the Heritage Flight Museum in Washington state in 1996. It is now based at a regional airport in Burlington and features 15 aircraft, several antique military vehicles, a library and many artifacts donated by veterans, according to the museum’s website. Two of their sons helped them run it.

The couple moved to Orcas Island, in the San Juan archipelago, in 1993, and kept a second home in their hometown of San Diego, according to a biography on the museum’s website. They had six children and 13 grandchildren.

Associated Press contributed reporting

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2024-06-08 01:03:00Z
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The right could win big in Europe – thanks to young people - BBC

Sofia Bettiza

BBC News

Reporting from

Brussels

4 hours ago

As Europeans head to the polls in four days of voting across 27 countries to elect a new European Parliament, millions of young people will be casting their ballot for the first time.

In some countries, the voting age has been lowered to 16 – so minors in Belgium, Germany, Austria, Greece and Malta will be able to cast their vote in these elections.

“It’s a very big opportunity for us, because it gives us a voice we never had before,” says Mare Verlinde, a 17-year-old student from Belgium.

“I think Europe needs to step up and be stronger – we can’t always rely on Nato,” her friend Auguste Duchene says, earnestly.

For this group of friends – and for many of their peers – these European elections are hugely significant when it comes to security. They grew up being told Europe was safe – but in the last two years, that conviction has disappeared.

17-year-old Lore Sleeckx is worried about war in Europe.

“My history teachers are saying they wouldn’t be surprised if a world war happened in the future,” she says – and all her friends nod in agreement. “That really scares me.”

In the 2019 European elections, young people turned out in record numbers - their votes going overwhelmingly to green parties that championed strong climate policies. At the time, it was heralded as a “Green wave.”

But five years is a long time in politics.

If the polls are right, an unprecedented number of young voters are considering casting their votes for parties on the right and far right, many of which are broadly Eurosceptic.

“We want to do away with the status quo, and that’s why many of my friends are voting for the right,” Bence Szabó tells me, while attending an anti-EU farmers protest in Brussels. The rumbling sound of the tractors blends with the voices on stage as they denounce Europe’s elites.

“Everything coming from the right is being demonised,” says the 25-year-old from Hungary, “but we can actually solve the issues that the left tried to solve - and failed.”

The issues that young Europeans care about, of course, vary. But this is a generation that grew up during the Covid pandemic, and now feels worried on multiple fronts: war in Europe, climate change, an uncertain job market and a lack of affordable housing.

“We are not extremists. We are just angry,” explains Lazar Potrebic, a 25-year-old from a Hungarian minority in Serbia who is entitled to vote.

He - and many of his peers - are worried about the future, and feel that the more traditional parties are not listening to their concerns.

“We feel like our needs are not being met. People our age are taking really important life steps. We're getting our first jobs, thinking about starting a family…but if you look around Europe, rent prices are going through the roof - and it’s hard to get work.”

Of course the feeling of not being listened to when you’re young, of not being part of the equation, is nothing new. But many of the parties on the far right are actively courting the young vote, says Dave Sinardet, a professor of political science at the Free University of Brussels.

“The radical right channels anti-establishment feelings,” he told the BBC. “They have a bit of a rebellious vibe - especially when it comes to their anti-woke agenda - and that appeals to young people.”

For the leader of Spain’s Vox party, Santiago Abascal, the hot-button issues are transgender rights and abortion.

Migration is another question driving young voters to the right. Last year saw some 380,000 people illegally crossing the EU's borders - the highest number since 2016.

“The EU’s stance on migration has been too lenient,” believes Giorgio, a 28-year-old Italian. He will be voting for Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy - arguably the far right’s biggest success story in Europe.

He thinks the EU should have a migration policy more similar to that of Hungary, Slovakia and Poland, which have all challenged the EU’s new migration pact which gives dissenting countries the right to pay rather than receive new arrivals.

TikTok

“They were mercilessly criticised when they built fences; but the reality is that what the EU is doing is not working," says Giorgio. "We have no idea who is coming in: people are falling through the cracks, and they could have a criminal record - meaning that Europe is less secure.”

Far-right politicians are also doing a better job at grabbing the youth’s attention online: their social media strategy is unmatched.

The perfect example is French politician Jordan Bardella - the charismatic 28-year-old leader of the National Rally who heads its list for the European elections. With 1.2m followers on TikTok, he is making his party appealing to France’s youth - one selfie video at a time. According to one survey, 36% of French people under 24 back him.

“TikTok and Instagram lend themselves to the type of messages that the radical right wants to spread,” says Dave Sinardet. “Simplistic, unnuanced videos on issues like migration, security and gender.”

In Italy, Matteo Salvini of the far-right League is campaigning on Instagram with the slogan “Less Europe, more Italy”. He posts AI-generated images suggesting that “more Europe” means being forced to eat insects, men with Jesus-like beards giving birth, and the unforgivable sin of eating pineapple on pizza.

“These messages ignite an emotional response, and that’s why they are boosted by the algorithm, especially on TikTok,” says Prof Sinardet. “The far right invested on social media very early on - and now, they are reaping the rewards.”

More than six in ten young EU citizens say they are going to vote in the upcoming European elections. Instead of a “green wave”, this time around they could be pivotal in delivering the most significant push to right since the EU was founded.

That could fundamentally reshape Europe’s agenda on issues ranging from climate, to migration, to support for Ukraine.

Bence Szabó from Hungary has no doubt this will translate into an EU legislature more in tune with the young generation.

At least, that’s their promise on TikTok.

Related Topics

• Europe
• European elections 2024
• European Union
• Migration

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2024-06-07 04:14:12Z
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