CBS News
Niece of U.S.-Israeli hostage worries a deal “is arguably not” in Netanyahu’s “political interest”
As reports of Israel’s new cease-fire proposal renew hopes for the release of hostages still being held by Hamas, the niece of an U.S.-Israeli captive said that while she believes a deal can be reached, her family is concerned that finalizing any sort of peace agreement may not serve Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political agenda.
President Biden spoke with Netanyahu on Sunday, the White House confirmed to CBS News.
“I do think a deal can be reached. I mean, we know that. A deal was reached in November … so we know that it’s possible,” Hanna Siegel said Sunday on “Face the Nation.” She told moderator Margaret Brennan that the United States “plays a critical role” in the negotiation process, as it did during the initial cease-fire, but acknowledged that “ultimately, this is a negotiation between Hamas and Prime Minister Netanyahu in Israel.”
“And one of the things that really worries my family, and worries me, is that it’s arguably not in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s political interest to close a deal,” Siegel said.
Her uncle, Keith Siegel, was among those taken hostage by Hamas when the group’s militant wing attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7. Israeli authorities have said 250 people were captured and subsequently hidden away in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu declared war on Hamas, pausing only for a temporary weeklong cease-fire brokered in November, during which more than 100 hostages — primarily women and children — were freed alongside about 240 Palestinians previously detained in Israeli prisons.
Netanyahu has said that freeing the remaining hostages is one of his three main objectives in Gaza. He reiterated those points on “Face the Nation” in February, with the other two being to “destroy Hamas” and to “ensure that Gaza does not pose a threat to Israel in the future.”
“Unless we have total victory, we can’t have peace,” Netanyahu said at the time. As the war has drawn on, some of the hostages’ family members have accused Israeli leaders, including the prime minister and his unprecedented far-right cabinet, of forgoing a deal that could save them for political reasons.
“There is a lot swirling in the political landscape in Israel,” Siegel said Sunday. “We’re at 205 days. There have been deals on the table. And they’ve proven elusive. And I worry that that is because of Prime Minister Netanyahu.
“So, I think that now is the moment. I have faith that we can do a deal now. But I also think that if that isn’t possible, then the Biden administration should think about what they can do directly to bring our American citizens home.”
Keith Siegel’s wife, Aviva Siegel, was one of the hostages that Hamas freed during that cease-fire. There had been no word about him for months, his family said, until he appeared in undated video footage released Saturday by Hamas on the group’s social media channel, which is often used to publish propaganda. Siegel was seen in the video with another hostage, identified as Omri Miran by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, several days after similar footage emerged of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, another Israeli-American being held hostage. Siegel, who is 64, holds American and Israeli citizenship.
As of April 24, there were five people who are American citizens who are unaccounted for and presumed to be held alive s in Gaza, a U.S. official confirmed to CBS News. The remains of three other U.S. citizens are believed to be in the possession of Hamas. A U.S. official told CBS News that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was reviewing the latest proof of life video after its release on Saturday.
Hanna Siegel told Brennan on Sunday that the timing of the propaganda videos’ release could potentially be a sign that Hamas is open to reaching a deal with Israel.
“You know, for us, this is the moment,” she said. “I do think that these two videos are a signal from Hamas that they are ready to make a deal and a reminder that there are American citizens being held, including Keith.”
Despite mounting calls from civilians to prioritize the remaining hostages’ safe return, and pledges from Mr. Biden that his administration “will not rest” until that happens, attempts to reach another cease-fire deal have fallen apart since Israel ended the provisional truce last fall. Hamas has pushed for a prolonged break in fighting and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in exchange for the release of around 100 people still believed to be alive in captivity, and the remains of around 30 others. Israel has repeatedly rejected Hamas’ demands and said it will continue the offensive with the goal of destroying the group.
But senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayva said Saturday that they were evaluating a new cease-fire proposal from Israel and “upon completion of its study, it will submit a response,” the Associated Press reported. The official did not share details about the proposal but said that it came in response to a proposal from Hamas two weeks ago, according to the AP.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is traveling to the region on Sunday to discuss a potential cease-fire and a hostage agreement. Although Hanna Siegel said that she “has faith that we can do a deal now,” she also called on the Biden administration “to think about what they can do directly to bring our American citizens home” if negotiations fail again.
“What I know is that the Biden administration has shown unwavering and relentless commitment to my family and the families of all of the hostages,” she said. “And I know that it is their priority to bring all hostages, including the Americans, home. And so I know that they are doing absolutely everything that they can.”
CBS News
Suspect detained in killing of Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s biological, chemical forces in Moscow blast
Moscow — Russia’s security service said Wednesday that it has detained a suspect in the killing of a senior general in Moscow.
The suspect was described as an Uzbek citizen recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services.
Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, didn’t name the suspect, but said he was born in 1995. According to an FSB statement, the suspect said he was recruited by Ukrainian special services.
Ukrainian security sources had told CBS News Monday that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) killed Kirillov in a special operation. The claim couldn’t be independently verified, but Russian officials quickly vowed to take revenge against Ukraine’s leaders.
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov was killed Tuesday by a bomb hidden in a scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow, a day after Ukraine’s security service leveled criminal charges against him. His assistant also died in the attack. A Ukrainian official said the service carried out the attack.
The FSB said the suspect had been promised a reward of $100,000 and permission to move to a European Union country in exchange for killing Kirillov.
The agency stated that, acting on instructions from Ukraine, the suspect traveled to Moscow, where he picked up a homemade explosive device. He then placed the device on an electric scooter and parked it at the entrance to the residential building where Kirillov lived.
The suspect then rented a car to monitor the location and set up a camera that livestreamed footage from the scene to his handlers in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Once Kirillov was seen leaving the building, the suspect detonated the bomb.
According to the FSB’s statement, the suspect faces “a sentence of up to life imprisonment.”
Kirillov, 54, was the chief of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces and was under sanctions from several countries, including the U.K. and Canada, for his actions in Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine. On Monday, Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU, opened a criminal investigation against him, accusing him of directing the use of banned chemical weapons.
Russia has denied using any chemical weapons in Ukraine and, in turn, has accused Kyiv of using toxic agents in combat.
Kirillov, who took his current job in 2017, was one of the most high-profile figures to level those accusations. He held numerous briefings to accuse the Ukrainian military of using toxic agents and planning to launch attacks with radioactive substances – claims that Ukraine and its Western allies rejected as propaganda.
The bomb used in Tuesday’s attack was triggered remotely, according to Russian news reports. Images from the scene showed shattered windows and scorched brickwork.
Russia’s top state investigative agency said it’s looking into Kirillov’s death as a case of terrorism, and officials in Moscow vowed to punish Ukraine.
CBS News
Indiana conducts first execution in 15 years, puts quadruple killer to death
Michigan City, Indiana — An Indiana man convicted of killing four people including his brother and his sister’s fiancé decades ago was put to death Wednesday, without any independent witness, marking the state’s first execution in 15 years.
Joseph Corcoran, 49, was pronounced dead at 12:44 a.m. CST at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana, the Indiana Department of Correction said in a statement. CBS Indianapolis affiliate WTTV reports that officials said the execution process started just after midnight.
Corcoran was scheduled to be executed with the powerful sedative pentobarbital, but the state agency’s statement did not mention that drug. Corcoran’s execution was the 24th in the U.S. this year.
According to WTTV, the statement said Corcoran told officials his last words were, “Not really. Let’s get this over with.”
He was convicted in the July 1997 shootings of his brother, 30-year-old James Corcoran, his sister’s fiancé, 32-year-old Robert Scott Turner, and two other men, Timothy G. Bricker, 30, and Douglas A. Stillwell, 30.
According to court records, before Corcoran fatally shot the four victims he was under stress because the forthcoming marriage of his sister to Turner would necessitate moving out of the Fort Wayne, Indiana, home he shared with his brother and sister.
While jailed for those killings, Corcoran reportedly bragged about fatally shooting his parents in 1992 in northern Indiana’s Steuben County. He was charged in their killings but acquitted.
Last summer, Gov. Eric Holcomb announced plans to resume state executions following a yearslong hiatus marked by a scarcity of lethal injection drugs nationwide.
The state provided limited details about the execution process, and no media witnesses were permitted under state law.
Indiana and Wyoming are the only two states that do not allow members of the media to witness state executions, according to a recent report by the Death Penalty Information Center.
Corcoran’s attorneys had fought his death penalty sentence for years, arguing he was severely mentally ill, which affected his ability to understand and make decisions. This month, his attorneys asked the Indiana Supreme Court to stop his execution but the request was denied.
Corcoran exhausted his federal appeals in 2016. But his attorneys asked the U.S. District Court of Northern Indiana last week to stop his execution and hold a hearing to decide if it would be unconstitutional because Corcoran has a serious mental illness. The court declined to intervene Friday, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit did the same Tuesday.
Corcoran’s attorneys then asked the U.S. Supreme Court issue an emergency order halting his execution, but the high court denied their request for a stay late Tuesday, ending Corcoran’s options with the courts.
His sole remaining hope then became Holcomb, who could have commuted Corcoran’s death sentence. But that commutation never came and the execution proceeded as scheduled.
WTTV says Holcomb issued a statement saying Corcoran’s case “has been reviewed repeatedly over the last 25 years – including 7 times by the Indiana Supreme Court and 3 times by the U.S. Supreme Court, the most recent of which was tonight. His sentence has never been overturned and was carried out as ordered by the court.”
Indiana’s last state execution was in 2009 when Matthew Wrinkles was put to death for killing his wife, her brother and sister-in-law in 1994.
Since then, 13 executions were carried out in Indiana, but those were initiated and performed by federal officials in 2020 and 2021 at a federal prison in Terre Haute.
State officials have said they couldn’t continue executions because a combination of drugs used in lethal injections had become unavailable.
For years, there has been a shortage across the country because pharmaceutical companies have refused to sell their products for that purpose. That’s pushed states, including Indiana, to turn to compounding pharmacies, which manufacture drugs specifically for a client. Some use more accessible drugs such as the sedatives pentobarbital or midazolam, both of which, critics say, can cause intense pain.
Religious groups, disability rights advocates and others have opposed his execution. About a dozen people, some holding candles, held a vigil late Tuesday to pray outside the prison, which is surrounded by barbed wire fences in a residential area about 60 miles east of Chicago.
“We can build a society without giving governmental authorities the right to execute their own citizens,” said Bishop Robert McClory of the Diocese of Gary, who led the prayers.
Other death penalty opponents also demonstrated outside the prison Tuesday night, some holding signs that read “Execution Is Not The Solution” and “Remember The Victims But Not With More Killing.”
“There is no need and no benefit from this execution. It’s all show,” said Abraham Borowitz, director of Death Penalty Action, his organization that protests every execution in the U.S.
Prison officials said in a brief statement Tuesday evening that Corcoran “requested Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for his last meal.”
Corcoran said farewell late Tuesday to relatives, including his wife, Tahina Corcoran, who told reporters outside the prison that they discussed their faith and their memories, including attending high school together. She reiterated her request for Indiana’s governor to commute her husband’s death sentence.
Tahina Corcoran said her husband is “very mentally ill” and she didn’t think he fully grasped what was happening to him.
“He is in shock. He doesn’t understand,” she said.
CBS News
1 killed, 9 injured in shooting, fiery crash in Baltimore suburb of Towson, police say
BALTIMORE — One person was killed and nine others injured in a shooting and fiery crash in the Baltimore suburb of Towson Tuesday night, authorities said.
Law enforcement responded at around 7:15 p.m. in the 8500 block of Loch Raven Boulevard, Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough said in a news briefing.
“It appears to be a mass shooting incident,” McCullough told reporters. “We have multiple persons who were shot. Right now, we are determining the circumstances and the conditions in this case.”
The first arriving officer found a vehicle on its side in flames near a funeral home, McCullough said, and then several gunshot victims were found in the area.
“There appears to be some type of incident that led to the vehicle crashing and catching on fire,” McCollough said. “Investigators are looking into the circumstances leading up to that.”
The name of the person killed and the manner of death was not released, nor were the conditions of the nine people injured. McCollough did not specify how many of the nine people injured were gunshot victims.
At this time, investigators believe this was an isolated and targeted incident, with no further threat to the community, he added. It’s unclear if any suspects have been arrested. There was no word on a possible motive.
“We will leave no stone unturned and we will dedicate every resource to this,” McCullough said. “We don’t generally see incidents like this in our community in Baltimore County. I assure you as your police chief that we will put all resources toward trying to clear this case.”
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was at the scene assisting police, as was the Baltimore County Fire Department.
“This is an incident that is shocking, particularly for those of us in Baltimore County,” said Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski. “These types of incidents are unheard of here, so it really shocks the conscience. However, we want our residents to know that we are, as always, fully committed to ensuring that both our fire and police departments have the full support and all the resources they need from the Baltimore County government to ensure that they bring this investigation to a conclusion.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Baltimore County Police at 410-887-4636.