Kat Lonsdorf
Appearances
Consider This from NPR
Trump says the U.S. will 'own' Gaza — what that could mean for the Middle East
Hey, Ari.
Consider This from NPR
Trump says the U.S. will 'own' Gaza — what that could mean for the Middle East
Yeah, like you said, King Abdullah was reticent on TV and careful not to make any kind of commitment. Both Jordan and Egypt have outright rejected Trump's plan, but Trump has made threats of cuts in U.S. aid and military spending to both. Both Egypt and Jordan depend heavily on U.S. support. Abdullah is in a tough place here, which is why he was so cautious.
Consider This from NPR
Trump says the U.S. will 'own' Gaza — what that could mean for the Middle East
He said he had to discuss the idea with other regional leaders. But there are no Arab leaders in the region who support this plan. It's possible that Abdullah and others are hoping Saudi Arabia, which is richer and more powerful, will talk Trump out of it. The Saudis were the first in the region to reject it, and very swiftly.
Consider This from NPR
Trump says the U.S. will 'own' Gaza — what that could mean for the Middle East
So Trump's proposal for Gaza hasn't directly come up in the current back and forth between Israel and Hamas, but it's certainly in the background. The U.S. taking over Gaza and relocating all of the Palestinians from there is not part of the ceasefire agreement. The ceasefire agreement took months to hammer out, and the U.S., including members of Trump's own administration, helped broker it.
Consider This from NPR
Trump says the U.S. will 'own' Gaza — what that could mean for the Middle East
So there's a lot of confusion on how this ceasefire agreement can actually proceed if Trump keeps pushing this controversial plan.
Consider This from NPR
Trump says the U.S. will 'own' Gaza — what that could mean for the Middle East
Yeah, for the most part, Palestinians we've heard from there say they want to stay in Gaza, despite the destruction and difficult living conditions they're faced with right now. Many feel like they've struggled throughout this entire war for Gaza to stay there, and they're not about to be forced off the land now. Here's 29-year-old Bassam Mohamed Abdelroof.
Consider This from NPR
Trump says the U.S. will 'own' Gaza — what that could mean for the Middle East
He talked to NPR's producer in Gaza, Anas Baba, while standing amidst the ruins of the main square in Gaza City. Even if there was a place that was a million times better, I would still live among the rubble and the tents, he says. It's hard to describe my love for Gaza, he says. Another person Anas Baba talked to in Gaza City was Nahed Ghonim. He's a surgeon at one of the hospitals there.
Consider This from NPR
Trump says the U.S. will 'own' Gaza — what that could mean for the Middle East
This is my homeland, he says, and I have no intention to leave, even if Trump provides me with the best of everything somewhere else. He went on to point out that the graves of his family killed during the war are in Gaza, and he won't leave them, and that his children were also killed and remain buried under the rubble in Gaza.
Consider This from NPR
Trump says the U.S. will 'own' Gaza — what that could mean for the Middle East
Yeah, we have. You know, like you said, Gaza is largely destroyed and life there is really difficult right now. Here's 30-year-old Yahya Barakat. He said he would leave if given the chance. My home is gone. My life is gone. My future is gone, he says. If I can find a country that embraces me, provides me with safety, I will go.
Consider This from NPR
Trump says the U.S. will 'own' Gaza — what that could mean for the Middle East
You know, it's important to note that as of right now, Palestinians can't leave Gaza and haven't been able to for much of the war. It's an area surrounded by walls and fences and then the sea on one side. And Israel controls who gets in or out. So the idea that anyone could just leave isn't realistic and hasn't been for quite a while.
Consider This from NPR
Trump says the U.S. will 'own' Gaza — what that could mean for the Middle East
The idea of being relocated is a very emotional and unsettling one for Palestinians. Historically, Palestinians have been displaced or forcibly moved from their land and then never been allowed to return, including most Palestinians living in Gaza right now. They're refugees from what was once Palestinian land and is now Israel.
Consider This from NPR
Trump says the U.S. will 'own' Gaza — what that could mean for the Middle East
So adding to that controversy in Trump's plan is whether or not Palestinians would be allowed to return to Gaza if they did leave. Trump administration officials have been calling it a temporary move for now, but then in a Fox News interview with Brett Baier that aired Monday, Trump said this.
Consider This from NPR
Trump says the U.S. will 'own' Gaza — what that could mean for the Middle East
No, they wouldn't have the right to return, he said, which really put Palestinians and others watching this on high alert.
Consider This from NPR
Trump says the U.S. will 'own' Gaza — what that could mean for the Middle East
Netanyahu's far-right allies are praising Trump's plan. Pushing Palestinians out of Gaza is something that they've been proposing for a while. But the average Israeli is much more focused on keeping the ceasefire deal going and getting the rest of the Israeli hostages out of Gaza. A large majority of Israelis support the ceasefire continuing.
Consider This from NPR
Trump says the U.S. will 'own' Gaza — what that could mean for the Middle East
And there's a feeling among a lot of them that this sudden proposal for the U.S. to take over Gaza and all of the confusion and emotions that come with it is distracting from that goal.
Consider This from NPR
Trump says the U.S. will 'own' Gaza — what that could mean for the Middle East
Thank you, Ari.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-25-2025 8PM EST
Empire's Kat Lonsdorf has more. The detainees are being sent to different places, depending on where they're from and the severity of their crimes, according to Israel. Around half were released to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Association. But anyone serving a life sentence for murder or other serious crimes is being exiled to Arab countries.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-25-2025 8PM EST
Among those deported was 70-year-old Mohamed Al-Tous, the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner, sentenced to life in 1985 for carrying out attacks against Israel. NPR spoke to his son Thayer by phone. I cannot describe my happiness that he is free, he said. But there is also sadness that he can't be with us. Fa'ir said it was unclear to which country his father would be sent.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-25-2025 8PM EST
Kat Lonsdorf, NPR News, Tel Aviv. And you're listening to NPR News from Washington.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 34: The Passover Instituted (2025)
Good morning, Michelle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 34: The Passover Instituted (2025)
Yeah, Trump and Netanyahu have a lot to discuss, some of which is left over from Trump's first term. Things like the Abraham Accords and the normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia. Also, how to deal with Iran. That's Israel's big enemy, but also a country that Trump has focused on a lot, too. But more immediately, there's Gaza.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 34: The Passover Instituted (2025)
Just in the last week or so, Trump has been adamant about the very controversial idea of relocating Palestinians in Gaza out to neighboring Egypt or Jordan, he says, in order to allow for rebuilding. Both Egypt and Jordan have rejected that idea. Palestinians in Gaza also don't want that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 34: The Passover Instituted (2025)
And then there's the ceasefire deal, which is now in the middle of the first six-week phase, but talks of the next phase are supposed to start today. So they will most certainly be discussing that as well. What can you tell us about this next phase of the deal? What do we know? Yeah, details are still being hammered out. That's what the talks starting today are for.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 34: The Passover Instituted (2025)
The talks will look a lot like they have in the past with the U.S., Qatar and Egypt acting as mediators between Hamas and Israel. We know that the second phase is crucial to ending the war. President Biden, who helped create the framework for this deal, did outline some of it in the second phase. Male Israeli soldiers who are being held hostage in Gaza will be released.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 34: The Passover Instituted (2025)
We haven't seen that so far. In exchange, more Palestinian prisoners and detainees are expected to be released. And the remaining Israeli forces in Gaza will withdraw, which will lead to a permanent ceasefire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 34: The Passover Instituted (2025)
Yeah, Netanyahu is meeting with U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff today in Washington. Witkoff has been instrumental in getting this agreement implemented, and he and Netanyahu are expected to talk about phase two. Witkoff's been talking with other countries ahead of today's talks. He spoke with Egyptian negotiators yesterday, for example.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 34: The Passover Instituted (2025)
What we don't know is what demands each side might make that could derail the deal. For example, Netanyahu has a lot of pressure from key far-right members in his government to demand the elimination of Hamas in Gaza. Hamas still appears to control Gaza very much so, even after more than a year of intense fighting with Israel attempting to eliminate the militant group.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 34: The Passover Instituted (2025)
Netanyahu is in a really tricky political situation here, where those far right members have threatened to leave his government and collapse his coalition if he doesn't secure this as part of the deal. On the other hand, President Trump has been fairly clear about wanting the deal to go forward and continuing the ceasefire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 34: The Passover Instituted (2025)
So there are some areas of potential disagreement, and it's something we're going to be keeping a close eye on. That is NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Tel Aviv. Kat, thank you. Thank you.
Up First from NPR
New ICE Policies, Hegseth Claims, West Bank Attacks
Yeah, so this is a place where Palestinians have lived for many generations. It's not tents like you might think of when you hear refugee camp. It's basically a city where lots of Palestinian families and kids live with houses and schools. You know, Janine has also long been a militant stronghold. Attacks that have killed Israelis have been launched from there.
Up First from NPR
New ICE Policies, Hegseth Claims, West Bank Attacks
Right now, it's hard to get information on what's happening on the ground there because it's essentially become a closed military zone in the past few days. We do know that an airstrike, an Israeli airstrike there killed at least 10 Palestinians and wounded many more, according to Palestinian health officials.
Up First from NPR
New ICE Policies, Hegseth Claims, West Bank Attacks
Israel says this is a counterterrorism operation aimed at strengthening security in the West Bank. Palestinian forces have also clashed with these fighters. And there also have been Israeli military operations there in the past. I went into the Janine refugee camp after the last major one in the fall, and that operation lasted weeks and was very, very destructive.
Up First from NPR
New ICE Policies, Hegseth Claims, West Bank Attacks
Yeah, so President Biden put those sanctions in place to try to de-escalate violent Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank. Those attacks have increased dramatically since the war in Gaza began. There have been some attacks on Israeli settlers, too. Even just this weekend, there were Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian villages. They burnt cars and other property.
Up First from NPR
New ICE Policies, Hegseth Claims, West Bank Attacks
Settler groups said that this was timed to coincide with the release of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in accordance with the Gaza ceasefire deal. President Trump now canceling those sanctions on Israeli settlers, you know, certainly coming after what happened this weekend, really doesn't discourage that kind of violence.
Up First from NPR
New ICE Policies, Hegseth Claims, West Bank Attacks
It's made life throughout the West Bank difficult, even in the areas not directly affected. The West Bank consists of a series of checkpoints and designated roads for Palestinians, and most of those have been closed by the Israeli military, making travel throughout the area really hard.
Up First from NPR
New ICE Policies, Hegseth Claims, West Bank Attacks
And on top of that, many Palestinians in the West Bank worry that Israelis' military focus is shifting over to them now that there's a ceasefire in Gaza. I talked to 53-year-old Walid Amira in Ramallah about this the day the ceasefire in Gaza went into effect. He told me, of course the war is coming here.
Up First from NPR
New ICE Policies, Hegseth Claims, West Bank Attacks
The Israeli government wants to prove something to their people, and the West Bank will become the place where they can prove it, he said.
Up First from NPR
New ICE Policies, Hegseth Claims, West Bank Attacks
Yeah, I mean, several of President Trump's appointees, you know, are very pro-Israel. Mike Huckabee, who will be the next U.S. ambassador in Jerusalem, has visited Israel several times and argued that the West Bank belongs to Israel. Elise Stefanik, who is set to be the next U.N. ambassador, said in her confirmation hearing yesterday that Israel has a right to the West Bank as well.
Up First from NPR
New ICE Policies, Hegseth Claims, West Bank Attacks
So if Israel does make moves to annex the West Bank, it seems likely the U.S. administration will give them the green light to do so.
Up First from NPR
Fed Rates Pause, USIP Loses Case, Israel Restarts Gaza Ground Invasion
So Israel is calling this a, quote, targeted ground operation into central and southern Gaza. But we've heard that language from the Israeli military before. It was used a lot in Gaza before the ceasefire. And that invasion caused widespread devastation and destruction and killed more than 49,000 Palestinians, according to health officials there.
Up First from NPR
Fed Rates Pause, USIP Loses Case, Israel Restarts Gaza Ground Invasion
The Israeli military said its aim with this ground invasion is to expand what it calls the, quote, security perimeter that separates Gaza from southern Israel. Israel has also sent troops back into areas that they had retreated from during the ceasefire, like the Netzerim Corridor. That's a large strip of land that divides Gaza's north and south.
Up First from NPR
Fed Rates Pause, USIP Loses Case, Israel Restarts Gaza Ground Invasion
Early on in the war, Israel created that corridor and then closed passage for Palestinians between the north and south for more than a year. Just this morning, it partially closed passage again.
Up First from NPR
Fed Rates Pause, USIP Loses Case, Israel Restarts Gaza Ground Invasion
Yeah, I mean, people are worried and scared. Many had just started trying to pick up what they could of their lives during that eight weeks of relative calm. And they're now shocked to be back in the war with airstrikes and evacuation orders again.
Up First from NPR
Fed Rates Pause, USIP Loses Case, Israel Restarts Gaza Ground Invasion
You know, it's important to remember that Israel has been blocking all aid, including electricity, into Gaza for more than two weeks now, trying to pressure Hamas into accepting a new ceasefire deal on different terms than were agreed to back in January. And there are still ongoing Israeli airstrikes.
Up First from NPR
Fed Rates Pause, USIP Loses Case, Israel Restarts Gaza Ground Invasion
At least 70 people were killed yesterday, according to Gaza's civil defense, and more were reported overnight. Our producer in Gaza, Anas Baba, spoke to one woman in Gaza City. She's a grandma named Umm Saifah Horda. She says her son and his whole family were killed earlier in the war, and now the building she was staying in with three of her grandchildren was damaged in these strikes.
Up First from NPR
Fed Rates Pause, USIP Loses Case, Israel Restarts Gaza Ground Invasion
You can hear the pain and anger in her voice there. She said, this is a calamity. We can't take it anymore.
Up First from NPR
Fed Rates Pause, USIP Loses Case, Israel Restarts Gaza Ground Invasion
Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz put out a video statement yesterday addressing it to Gaza residents. He spoke in Hebrew with Arabic subtitles. And he told them that this is their, quote, final warning, saying that all the hostages must be released and Hamas must be removed from power. He said, what comes next will be much harsher and you will bear the full consequences.
Up First from NPR
Fed Rates Pause, USIP Loses Case, Israel Restarts Gaza Ground Invasion
He went on to say that Israel will act, quote, with force beyond anything you have ever seen.
Up First from NPR
Fed Rates Pause, USIP Loses Case, Israel Restarts Gaza Ground Invasion
Well, Hamas has not yet responded militarily. In a statement on the militant group's telegram last night, it says it holds Israel, quote, fully responsible for the repercussions of this ground invasion. And it reiterated its commitment to the ceasefire agreement, making it clear that Palestinians will not leave Gaza voluntarily or otherwise.
Up First from NPR
Fed Rates Pause, USIP Loses Case, Israel Restarts Gaza Ground Invasion
Thanks so much.
Up First from NPR
Trump and Zelenskyy Feud, DOGE Savings Claims, Hamas Releases Four Hostage Bodies
Yeah.
Up First from NPR
Trump and Zelenskyy Feud, DOGE Savings Claims, Hamas Releases Four Hostage Bodies
So Hamas says that they are the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kafir, as well as the body of 84-year-old Oded Lifshitz. All four of them were taken hostage in the October 7th, 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel. Shiri's husband, Yarden, was also taken hostage with the rest of the family on that day.
Up First from NPR
Trump and Zelenskyy Feud, DOGE Savings Claims, Hamas Releases Four Hostage Bodies
The Bipis family had become a symbol here in Israel of the plight of the hostages in Gaza. The two children, ages four and nine months when they were captured. were the youngest hostages taken. So Bibas had become this household name here. Posters of their faces were plastered on sidewalks and commemorations had been held in the children's birthdays.
Up First from NPR
Trump and Zelenskyy Feud, DOGE Savings Claims, Hamas Releases Four Hostage Bodies
Then the dad was released alive earlier this month. Oded Lifshitz, the other body released today, was a retired journalist and peace activist. His wife had also been taken hostage but was released earlier in the war.
Up First from NPR
Trump and Zelenskyy Feud, DOGE Savings Claims, Hamas Releases Four Hostage Bodies
Well, Hamas says all four were killed by Israeli strikes during their time in captivity in Gaza. Israel says it will take the bodies to an Israeli forensic institute here in Tel Aviv, which will examine them and provide official identification and also seek to determine the cause of death.
Up First from NPR
Trump and Zelenskyy Feud, DOGE Savings Claims, Hamas Releases Four Hostage Bodies
Yeah, it was definitely more somber and much less celebratory on both sides. In Gaza, large crowds gathered in Khan Yunis in the south. Masked Hamas gunmen presided over a ceremony on a stage with four coffins draped in black. There were large posters on both sides of the stage in Hebrew and English. One depicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a fanged vampire.
Up First from NPR
Trump and Zelenskyy Feud, DOGE Savings Claims, Hamas Releases Four Hostage Bodies
Another said that if Israel resumed the war, more hostages would come home in coffins. In Israel, unlike previous releases, the Hamas ceremony was not broadcast on Israeli TV and Israeli media outlets did not publish images from it out of respect for the families.
Up First from NPR
Trump and Zelenskyy Feud, DOGE Savings Claims, Hamas Releases Four Hostage Bodies
Once the caskets were in Israeli custody, they were then draped with Israeli flags and then they were driven from Gaza to Tel Aviv and large crowds gathered along the route to show solidarity and respect.
Up First from NPR
Trump and Zelenskyy Feud, DOGE Savings Claims, Hamas Releases Four Hostage Bodies
Yeah, so Saturday is going to be a big day. The remaining six live hostages that Hamas has committed to releasing in this first phase will be released, including two have been held for around a decade. And they'll be released in exchange for more than 600 Palestinians released from Israeli jails. This first phase of the deal ends on March 2nd.
Up First from NPR
Trump and Zelenskyy Feud, DOGE Savings Claims, Hamas Releases Four Hostage Bodies
And so far, talks for the next phase haven't started yet. They were supposed to start weeks ago. So we're really just waiting to see what happens with that. Meanwhile, there still will be dozens of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Around half of them are believed to be alive. That is NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Tel Aviv.
Up First from NPR
Deadline For Federal Workers, Reaction To Trump's Gaza Plan, Future Of US Foreign Aid
Yeah, so a lot of people, when I asked them about Trump's comments, started kind of smirking and basically saying, you know, I'll believe it when I see it. But a few people I talked to did admit that Gaza is in ruins. People there don't have proper living conditions and that something needs to be done. Here's Ahmed Habib. He's a pharmacist in Ramallah, but he's originally from Gaza.
Up First from NPR
Deadline For Federal Workers, Reaction To Trump's Gaza Plan, Future Of US Foreign Aid
He still has a lot of family there.
Up First from NPR
Deadline For Federal Workers, Reaction To Trump's Gaza Plan, Future Of US Foreign Aid
He told me all I care about is if people there have food, have milk, he says. People in Gaza deserve to live. I don't care where Trump wants to put us if they can just have a good life. But other Palestinians out here I talk to point out that Gaza is Palestinian land and that even if they think Trump's plan is not realistic, talk of moving people from that land is very emotional and unsettling.
Up First from NPR
Deadline For Federal Workers, Reaction To Trump's Gaza Plan, Future Of US Foreign Aid
Yeah, I mean, you have to remember that the backdrop to all of this right now is that the Israeli military is still conducting a very big operation through many of the cities in the northern part of the West Bank. Israel launched this operation just two days after the ceasefire in Gaza went into effect. And they've said that this one is different from past operations.
Up First from NPR
Deadline For Federal Workers, Reaction To Trump's Gaza Plan, Future Of US Foreign Aid
For example, Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that Israeli troops are going to remain in the Jenin refugee camp. That's the epicenter of the fighting. This hasn't happened before. It'd be a big shift in Israeli policy.
Up First from NPR
Deadline For Federal Workers, Reaction To Trump's Gaza Plan, Future Of US Foreign Aid
For months, Palestinians in the West Bank that I've been talking to here have told me that they've been worried that Israel's military focus might soon be moving from Gaza to them and ultimately that Israel might try to take more land here.
Up First from NPR
Deadline For Federal Workers, Reaction To Trump's Gaza Plan, Future Of US Foreign Aid
Yeah, last night I met Adil Abu Majd. He's a chef in Ramallah. He's originally from Jenin, where the Israeli military is focused right now. He left a couple months ago. And he told me he's paying close attention to what Trump is saying.
Up First from NPR
Deadline For Federal Workers, Reaction To Trump's Gaza Plan, Future Of US Foreign Aid
He said what Trump said about Gaza empowers Israel to do whatever they want, to take the land that they want. And he thinks annexation could be a real possibility here in the West Bank. After Trump was elected last November, several far right Israeli ministers commented that this might now be the time for Israel to move on West Bank annexation.
Up First from NPR
Deadline For Federal Workers, Reaction To Trump's Gaza Plan, Future Of US Foreign Aid
You know, I should point out that all of this would be illegal under international law. But Trump also appointed key people in his administration who have said that they would support Israeli annexation. So given Trump's Gaza statements and his planned announcement about the West Bank in the future, all of this has people here pretty nervous.
Up First from NPR
Deadline For Federal Workers, Reaction To Trump's Gaza Plan, Future Of US Foreign Aid
Thank you.
Up First from NPR
Pentagon Upheaval, Hamas Releases More Hostages, NY State Prisons
Hey, good morning.
Up First from NPR
Pentagon Upheaval, Hamas Releases More Hostages, NY State Prisons
So the hostages released today are four men who had been captured in the October 7th, 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel and held captive throughout the war. And then also two hostages that had been held in Gaza for around a decade. One is an Ethiopian Israeli man and the other is a Bedouin Arab citizen of Israel.
Up First from NPR
Pentagon Upheaval, Hamas Releases More Hostages, NY State Prisons
Both of them had been taken captive after they had crossed into Gaza on their own years ago in separate incidents.
Up First from NPR
Pentagon Upheaval, Hamas Releases More Hostages, NY State Prisons
So in Gaza, it was a bit more complicated than other releases in the past. The six were released in three different locations throughout the Gaza Strip. But generally, the scene was similar to others that we've seen in this past month.
Up First from NPR
Pentagon Upheaval, Hamas Releases More Hostages, NY State Prisons
The hostages were brought on a stage by a masked Hamas gunman with a huge crowd of Palestinian onlookers before being released to the International Committee of the Red Cross and then driven to meet Israeli forces.
Up First from NPR
Pentagon Upheaval, Hamas Releases More Hostages, NY State Prisons
So this is the largest release of Palestinian prisoners and detainees at one time during this ceasefire. Among them are prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis, but also many who have been held in administrative detention without charge or sentences, including women and minors.
Up First from NPR
Pentagon Upheaval, Hamas Releases More Hostages, NY State Prisons
More than 400 of them are Palestinians who had been detained in Gaza during the war, and they're going to be released back to Gaza. Others are being deported to Egypt.
Up First from NPR
Pentagon Upheaval, Hamas Releases More Hostages, NY State Prisons
Yeah, so this was the body of Shiri Bibas, who had been captured with her husband and two young sons on October 7th, 2023. And together, the family had become a symbol in Israel of the hostage struggle. Hamas says Shiri and her two children were killed in an Israeli airstrike early in the war.
Up First from NPR
Pentagon Upheaval, Hamas Releases More Hostages, NY State Prisons
Hamas supposedly released their bodies on Thursday, like you said, but when they were taken to a forensic lab here in Israel, it was found that the woman's body was not Shiri. It was an unidentified woman. Hamas then gave a different body back to Israel late last night. That body was then positively identified as Shiri.
Up First from NPR
Pentagon Upheaval, Hamas Releases More Hostages, NY State Prisons
The forensic examiner here in Israel found that all three, Shiri and her two young sons, had been, quote, murdered, but did not provide further details or evidence as to how.
Up First from NPR
Pentagon Upheaval, Hamas Releases More Hostages, NY State Prisons
So there are four more bodies set to be released next week in this first phase. But there are still dozens of hostages in Gaza. Talks for the next phase of the deal, they were supposed to start weeks ago and they haven't started yet. Hamas has said it's ready to, quote, engage immediately in negotiations. The situation here in Israel is really complicated.
Up First from NPR
Pentagon Upheaval, Hamas Releases More Hostages, NY State Prisons
Several far-right members in Israel's government want the war to resume. Meanwhile, most of the Israeli public want the ceasefire to continue and the rest of the hostages to be released. Here's 43-year-old Liat Ellert. She talked to NPR producer Itay Stern this morning, and a crowd of people gathered in Tel Aviv in support of the hostages.
Up First from NPR
Pentagon Upheaval, Hamas Releases More Hostages, NY State Prisons
You know, many of the Israelis we talked to today had a similar sentiment. They want this war to be over and they want the rest of the hostages released.
Up First from NPR
Zelenskyy in London, Gaza Ceasefire Status, Judicial Accountability
So Israel announced this plan yesterday, calling it the Witkoff plan and saying that President Trump's Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, came up with it. It's unclear when Witkoff would have presented it. Israel says they've already agreed to it. The plan would extend the first phase of this ceasefire agreement by 50 days.
Up First from NPR
Zelenskyy in London, Gaza Ceasefire Status, Judicial Accountability
On the first day of that extension, Israel wants Hamas to release half the remaining living hostages and half of the bodies of those who have been killed. And then by the end of the extension, if an agreement to end the war permanently is reached, the remaining live and dead hostages would be released then.
Up First from NPR
Zelenskyy in London, Gaza Ceasefire Status, Judicial Accountability
Israel reiterated that it has the right to go back to war if those negotiations are ineffective.
Up First from NPR
Zelenskyy in London, Gaza Ceasefire Status, Judicial Accountability
No. Hamas has essentially rebuffed the plan. In a statement, the militant group said that Israel is trying to evade the original ceasefire agreement. Just to be clear, this new plan is not the deal that both sides agreed to originally. I'll remind you of what that plan was. It had three phases. The second phase was supposed to be negotiated during the first phase, which didn't happen.
Up First from NPR
Zelenskyy in London, Gaza Ceasefire Status, Judicial Accountability
Under the second phase, all living hostages are to be released and Israeli forces withdraw from Gaza. And then phase three would see all hostage bodies returned and the start of reconstruction of Gaza, which is expected to take years. Now Israel has introduced this whole new plan, the Wyckoff Plan. It's important to note that Hamas has not outright rejected it, but it isn't embracing it either.
Up First from NPR
Zelenskyy in London, Gaza Ceasefire Status, Judicial Accountability
still figure out exactly what it means. But basically, Israel has stopped the flow of much needed aid, you know, like food and medical supplies into the enclave. Israel controls what gets in and out of Gaza. And it had allowed a big uptake of aid into Gaza in the past six weeks of the ceasefire. But aid and food are still desperately needed there.
Up First from NPR
Zelenskyy in London, Gaza Ceasefire Status, Judicial Accountability
Aid groups have warned that this blocking of aid violates international law. Other Arab countries have condemned it. The block comes as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan just started over the weekend. Hamas called the decision to stop a, quote, cheap blackmail in an attempt to get the group to agree to this new plan.
Up First from NPR
Zelenskyy in London, Gaza Ceasefire Status, Judicial Accountability
For now, it still appears to be holding. You know, it's fragile and talks are continuing. An official familiar with the details but not authorized to speak publicly told NPR that Israel is, quote, giving it a few days to see where negotiations lead and that Israel is not rushing to return to fighting in Gaza. Wyckoff is expected in the region in the coming days.
Up First from NPR
Zelenskyy in London, Gaza Ceasefire Status, Judicial Accountability
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech last night in English where he thanked President Trump several times. In that speech, he said that Israel will, quote, take further steps if Hamas continues to hold the hostages. He ended saying that he knows America and President Trump have Israel's back to do so. That's NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Tel Aviv.