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Israeli airstrikes kill at least 13 people in Gaza refugee camp as cease-fire talks grind on
At least 13 people were killed in three Israeli airstrikes that hit refugee camps in central Gaza overnight into Saturday, according to Palestinian health officials, as cease-fire talks in Cairo appeared to make progress.
Among the dead in Nuseirat Refugee Camp and Bureij Refugee Camp were three children and one woman, according to Palestinian ambulance teams that transported the bodies to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital. The 13 corpses were counted by AP journalists at the hospital.
Earlier, a medical team delivered a baby from a Palestinian woman killed in an airstrike that hit her home in Nuseirat late Thursday evening.
Ola al-Kurd, 25, was killed along with six others in the blast, but was quickly rushed by emergency workers to Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza in the hope of saving the child. Hours later, doctors told The Associated Press that a baby boy had been delivered.
The still-unnamed newborn is stable but has suffered from a shortage of oxygen and has been placed in an incubator, said Dr. Khalil Dajran on Friday.
Ola’s “husband and a relative survived yesterday’s strike, while everyone else died,” Majid al-Kurd, the deceased woman’s cousin, told the AP on Saturday.
“The baby is in good health based on what doctors said,” he added.
The war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, has killed more than 38,900 people, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war has created a humanitarian catastrophe in the coastal Palestinian territory, displaced most of its 2.3 million residents and triggered widespread hunger.
Hamas’ October attack killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and militants took about 250 hostage. About 120 remain in captivity, with about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.
The Israel-Hamas war has left thousands of women and children dead, according to health officials in the Gaza Strip.
In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said a 20-year-old man, Ibrahim Zaqeq, was shot dead by Israeli forces late Friday. Commenting on the shooting, the Israeli army said its forces opened fire on a group of Palestinians hurling rocks at Israeli troops in the town of Beit Ummar.
An eyewitness said Zaqeq was not directly involved in the clashes and was standing nearby.
Zaqeq “just looked at them, they shot him in the head. I picked him up from here and took him to the clinic,” said Thare Abu Hashem.
On Saturday, Hamas identified Zaqeq as one of its members. The militant group’s green flag was wrapped around his corpse during the funeral.
Violence has surged in the territory since the Gaza war began. At least 577 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli fire since then according to the Ramallah-based Health Ministry which tracks Palestinian deaths.
In Cairo, international mediators, including the United States, are continuing to push Israel and Hamas toward a phased deal that would halt the fighting and free about 120 hostages in Gaza.
On Friday, the U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said a cease-fire deal between Hamas and Israel that will release Israeli hostages captive by the group in Gaza is “inside the 10-yard line,” but added “we know that anything in the last 10 yards are the hardest.”
Fruitless stop-and-start negotiations between the warring sides have been underway since November’s one-week cease-fire, with both Hamas and Israel repeatedly accusing each other of scuppering the effort to reach a deal.
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Decision on Trump sentencing date in “hush money” case coming Friday, prosecutors say
A New York judge is expected to say Friday when former President Donald Trump will be sentenced for falsifying business records to cover up a “hush money” payment to an adult film star.
Trump has twice sought to delay sentencing after his conviction in May by a unanimous jury on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
He was originally scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, but Justice Juan Merchan pushed back that date to Sept. 18 after Trump motioned for the judge to set aside his conviction. Trump cited a Supreme Court ruling that former presidents have immunity for “official acts,” and evidence related to presidential work cannot be included in criminal trials.
Merchan has said he’ll rule on Trump’s request to set aside the jury’s verdict just two days before the currently scheduled sentencing, on Sept. 16.
In August, Trump asked that the sentencing date be pushed back further — until after the presidential election. Trump’s lawyers said another postponement would give his team time to appeal if Merchan rejects their request to set aside the conviction.
While waiting for Merchan’s decision, Trump also pursued another path to delaying sentencing. He asked a federal judge to take over the case, claiming it belongs in federal court. The federal judge rejected that request Wednesday, and Trump appealed.
On Thursday, a lawyer for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg informed the appeals court that Merchan will issue his decision on sentencing tomorrow.
“The judge has now informed the parties that the decision will be rendered tomorrow,” Bragg’s lawyer wrote.
Prosecutors said Trump signed off on a scheme to hide reimbursements to a lawyer who wired a $130,000 “hush money” payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election. Trump denied the encounter and pleaded not guilty.
Merchan has wide leeway in determining Trump’s sentence. The charges carry a maximum sentence of up to four years in jail, but this is Trump’s first conviction, so Merchan may also hand down a sentence that involves a variety of alternatives to incarceration, including probation.
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Trump election interference case moves forward
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Sandy Hook shooting survivor discusses what teachers face
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