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Israel expands offensive in northern Gaza with new ground operation, says civilians won’t be allowed back
The Israeli military announced Thursday an expansion of its month-old ground operation in northern Gaza to include part of Beit Lahiya, a town that has been heavily bombed since the earliest days of the war, where Israel says Hamas militants have regrouped.
The military said in a statement that “troops started to operate” in the area of Beit Lahiya after intelligence indicated the presence of militants there. Hamas has repeatedly regrouped in areas where the military already conducted major operations.
The town in the northwestern corner of Gaza was among the first targets of the ground invasion launched over a year ago, after Hamas’ attack into southern Israel. The northern third of the territory has been encircled by Israeli forces since then.
Israel launched another major offensive in nearby Jabaliya, a decades-old urban refugee camp, in early October. It has sharply restricted the amount of aid entering northern Gaza and ordered a full evacuation. Tens of thousands have fled to nearby Gaza City in the latest mass displacement of the war.
The Israel-Hamas war began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people – mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others. Israel’s military response in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. They do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of those killed were women and children.
Palestinian medical sources told the Al Jazeera network that about 20 people were killed Thursday alone in northern Gaza amid the expanding Israeli operations in Beit Lahiya, including five people killed and five others wounded in a raid on a house in the town.
The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday that it was continuing to facilitate “the safe evacuation of Palestinians from combat zones in northern Gaza through organized routes for their safety,” after an IDF commander said the military was working to displace all civilians from the north of the war-torn Palestinian territory indefinitely.
Hamza Z. H. Qraiqea/Anadolu/Getty
Briefing journalists Tuesday night, Brigadier General Itzik Cohen, who commands the IDF’s 162nd Division operating in Gaza, said that since troops had been forced to enter some areas twice, including the Jabaliya camp, “there is no intention of allowing the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return to their homes.”
He said humanitarian aid — which the Biden administration has demanded that Israel increase the flow of into Gaza — would be allowed to enter the south of the enclave “regularly,” but not the north, as there were, he said, “no more civilians left.”
According to a United Nations estimate, however, “between 75,000 and 95,000 people were estimated to remain in North Gaza” as of Monday.
The U.N.’s humanitarian agency OCHA said roughly 100,000 people had been forced to flee the region since Israel launched its offensive in northern Gaza, and “the death toll in the North Gaza governorate over the past month is thought to be in the hundreds, possibly over 1,000.”
The U.N. agency said in July that 1.9 million Gaza residents had been forcibly displaced from their homes.
“In other words, approximately nine out of ten people in Gaza are now estimated to be internally displaced, many multiple times,” the U.N.’s humanitarian agency said.
That number is likely to have risen since, given Israel’s ongoing military operations and routine evacuation orders.
No sign of letup in Israel’s parallel war with Hezbollah
Several large Israeli airstrikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs early Thursday, including one on a site adjacent to Lebanon’s only international airport. The Israeli military had issued an evacuation notice for the site, saying there were Hezbollah facilities there, without giving more details.
Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem said in a speech aired Wednesday that the Lebanese militant group is open for cease-fire negotiations only once “the enemy stops its aggression.” His speech marked the 40-day mourning period since former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated in Beirut.
Hezbollah began firing into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Both groups are considered proxy forces backed by Iran, which insisted Thursday that despite Israel killing many top commanders, its “Axis of Resistance” against Israel remained robust. Since the conflict erupted, more than 3,000 people have been killed and some 13,600 wounded in Lebanon, according to the country’s health ministry.
Lebanon’s state news agency said an Israeli drone strike hit a car at an army checkpoint in the southern port city of Sidon, killing three people and wounding several others, including U.N. peacekeepers based in southern Lebanon. The National News Agency said one of the wounded was taken to the hospital while the peacekeepers were treated for minor injuries at the scene of the attack at the northern entrance of Sidon, Lebanon’s third-largest city. There was no immediate information on the identities of those who died.
The U.N. peacekeeping force in the country, UNIFIL, said in a statement that a convoy “bringing newly-arrived peacekeepers to south Lebanon was passing Saida when a drone strike occurred nearby” lightly wounding five peacekeepers, whom it said were treated by Lebanese Red Cross medics on the spot.
“They will continue to their posts,” UNFIL said of the troops in the convoy, adding: “We remind all actors of their obligation to avoid actions putting peacekeepers or civilians in danger. Differences should be resolved at the negotiating table, not through violence.”
A drone strike earlier Thursday hit a car on a main highway just outside Beirut, killing one woman, according to local media.
Canada announced Wednesday it won’t block access to the popular video-sharing app TikTok but is ordering the dissolution of its Canadian business after a national security review of the Chinese company behind it.
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said it is meant to address risks related to ByteDance Ltd.’s establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc.
“The government is not blocking Canadians’ access to the TikTok application or their ability to create content. The decision to use a social media application or platform is a personal choice,” Champagne said.
Champagne said it is important for Canadians to adopt good cybersecurity practices, including protecting their personal information.
He said the dissolution order was made in accordance with the Investment Canada Act, which allows for the review of foreign investments that may harm Canada’s national security. He said the decision was based on information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government partners.
A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that the shutdown of its Canadian offices will mean the loss of hundreds of local jobs.
“We will challenge this order in court,” the spokesperson said. “The TikTok platform will remain available for creators to find an audience, explore new interests and for businesses to thrive.”
TikTok is wildly popular with young people, but its Chinese ownership has raised fears that Beijing could use it to collect data on Western users or push pro-China narratives and misinformation. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020.
TikTok faces intensifying scrutiny from Europe and America over security and data privacy. It comes as China and the West are locked in a wider tug of war over technology ranging from spy balloons to computer chips.
Canada previously banned TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices. TikTok has two offices in Canada, one in Toronto and one in Vancouver.
Michael Geist, Canada research chair in internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, said in a blog post that “banning the company rather than the app may actually make matters worse since the risks associated with the app will remain but the ability to hold the company accountable will be weakened.”
Canada’s move comes a day after the election in the United States of Donald Trump. In June, Trump joined TikTok, a platform he once tried to ban while in the White House. It has about 170 million users in the U.S.
Trump tried to ban TikTok through an executive order that said “the spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned” by Chinese companies was a national security threat. The courts blocked the action after TikTok sued.
Both the U.S. FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance could share user data such as browsing history, location and biometric identifiers with China’s government. TikTok said it has never done that and would not, if asked.
Trump said earlier this year that he still believes TikTok posed a national security risk, but was opposed to banning it.
U.S. President Joe Biden signed legislation in April that would force ByteDance to sell the app to a U.S. company within a year or face a national ban. It’s not clear whether that law will survive a legal challenge filed by TikTok or that ByteDance would agree to sell.
The Trump administration could be a boon for business for private prison companies in the U.S. if the president-elect delivers on his promise to crack down on illegal immigration.
CoreCivic and Geo Group, the two biggest private prison operators in the U.S., both contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to house detained, undocumented migrants. Their stocks soared Wednesday following Trump’s election win, with investors betting the companies will see increased profits from a tough-on-immigration administration.
CoreCivic, which closed at $13.50 a share on November 5, is trading at $22 a share, while Geo Group, which closed at $15 a share Tuesday, is currently trading at $23.75.
“Obviously, investors believe there is going to be a significant increase in opportunity for both of these firms under the Trump administration,” Noble Capital Markets analyst Joe Gomes told CBS MoneyWatch.
Geo Group executives acknowledged on the company’s third-quarter earnings call Thursday that it expects the incoming administration to enact stricter border security policies and that the company stands “ready to provide additional resources to help ICE meet future needs.”
CoreCivic executives also said they believe the election result will drive demand for its services.
ICE is biggest customer
During Trump’s first term in office, from 2017-2021, immigration detention expanded at record levels, according to an ACLU report. In 2019, ICE detained an average of over 50,000 people each day. At times, that number exceeded 56,000 — about 50% more than peak levels during the Obama administration, according to the report. During his first term in office, Trump expanded the federal government’s use of private prison companies to detain immigrants.
As of January 2020, 81% of people detained in ICE custody across the U.S. were held in facilities owned or managed by private prison corporations, according to the ACLU report.
In his second term, President-elect Trump promises a radical shift in policy at the U.S.-Mexico border from his predecessor. That includes a pledge to oversee the largest deportation operation in American history, which could bring significantly more business to CoreCivic and Geo Group.
For the first nine months of 2024, ICE accounted for 30% of each company’s revenue.
Both Geo Group and CoreCivic said they currently have excess capacity to accommodate a larger population of detainees. CoreCivic executives noted that they’re taking steps to prepare to activate additional capacity to meet ICE’s needs. That could include reconfiguring facilities to accommodate a bigger intake area, they noted.
“There is room for an uptick in occupancy from a capacity standpoint and both companies expect an ask from the Trump administration for more beds. The question is how much, and we just don’t know right now,” Wedbush Securities analyst Brian Violino told CBS MoneyWatch.
Monitoring
Geo Group also provides monitoring services for ICE under its Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP), a monitoring program using wearable technology that serves as an alternative to detention.
“If there is a finite number of beds and a significant number of people are detained, which Trump is discussing in his plans, there could be an increased usage in this alternative to detention,” Violino said.
Geo Group executives said they have the necessary technology and staffing resources to scale up the contract to more than several million participants, if necessary.
Funding from Congress
The degree to which ICE expands its contracts with the two largest private prison companies depends on how big of an increase in funding Congress authorizes. While Republicans won the Senate majority in Tuesday’s election, it remains to be seen which party will obtain control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
“That’s a big part of the story, and if it’s a Republican sweep, it will be easier for Trump to get funding from Congress to support this operation he’s looking to do,” Violino said.
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