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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Saturday, October 21, 2023

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Natalie Raanan, 3rd left, Judith Raanan, right, are seen upon arrival in Israel after being released from Hamas captivity as government hostage envoy Gal Hirsch, center, holds their hands, October 20, 2023. (Courtesy)

Move widely seen in Israel as PR gambit by terror group

Hamas releases two hostages, mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan

By Jacob Magid, Emanuel Fabian, ToI Staff and Agencies

Pair from Chicago were visiting Judith’s mother in Kibbutz Nahal Oz when Hamas invaded; on arrival back in Israel, they were taken to military base ahead of reuniting with relatives

Uri Raanan talks to reporters outside his home after his daughter Natalie and her mother Judith Raanan were released by Hamas, Oct. 20, 2023, in Bannockburn, Illinois. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Dad of released teen Gaza hostage: Reunion with her ‘going to be best day of my life’

By Agencies and ToI Staff

Smoke rises from inside an Israeli army position which was hit by missiles launched by the Hezbollah terror group, as seen from Tair Harfa village, a Lebanese border village with Israel, south Lebanon, October 20, 2023. Inset: Sgt. First Class (res.) Omer Balva, killed in a Hezbollah missile attack. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar; Israel Defense Forces)

Soldier killed by Lebanon missile; Gallant: Hezbollah joined fighting, is paying price

By Emanuel Fabian

Staff Sgt. (res.) Omer Balva, a dual Israeli-American citizen, flew from US to report for duty, was killed Friday night; 3 others hurt; defense minister meets with troops in north

Trucks of Egyptian Red Crecent carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip cross the Rafah border gate, in Rafah, Egypt, October 21, 2023. (Mohammed Asad/AP)

Israeli official accuses Hamas of using hospitals as shelter

1st aid trucks enter Gaza as number of confirmed hostages held in Strip reaches 210

By Emanuel Fabian

Rocket fire on southern, central Israel; IDF says 550 projectiles fired from Gaza fell inside Strip; confirmed hostage tally at 210; official says ‘no humanitarian crisis in Gaza’

The Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, October 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Avi Roccah)

Gaza terrorists launch fresh rocket barrages at south as Israel hits Hamas targets

By Emanuel Fabian and ToI Staff

Khaled Mashaal, member of Hamas's political bureau, speaks to Al Arabiya on October 19, 2023 (Video screenshot)

Mashaal: Hamas ‘well aware of consequences’ of attack, liberation demands ‘sacrifices’

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi speaks to Golani commanders at an undisclosed military base, October 21, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)

Live updates (closed)

Oct. 21: Rocket attacks continue from Gaza, Lebanon as Hamas war enters third week

Army chief tells troops to prep for incursion * Israeli shelling said to intensify * Cairo summit panned over failure to condemn Hamas * IDF hits cell in Lebanon readying attack

11:40 pm

NYT corrects report claiming trucks carrying aid entered Gaza without inspection
10:13 pm

Rocket alerts activated in pair of southern kibbutzim
9:50 pm

Tech summit organizer quits after facing backlash for accusing Israel of war crimes

Demonstrators chant slogans near the Israeli Embassy in Amman on October 20, 2023. (Khalil Mazraawi/AFP)

Israel tells citizens to leave Egypt and Jordan as soon as possible, avoid Morocco

By ToI Staff and AFP

National Security Council says other countries to be avoided include UAE and the Maldives; highlights global jihad rhetoric ‘calling to harm Israelis and Jews around the world’

Protesters burn an effigy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an Israeli flag during an anti-Israel protest in Istanbul, Turkey, October 20, 2023, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Anti-Israel demonstrations held across Muslim world amid Israel-Hamas war

By Agencies and ToI Staff

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends the presentation ceremony of letters of confidence to newly appointed Ambassadors at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, Turkey on September 27, 2023. (Adem Altan/AFP)

Turkey’s Erdogan says Israel’s operations in Gaza ‘amounting to genocide’

By Agencies and ToI Staff

From the blogs

Who will we be when we rise from the ashes?

Novelist David Grossman: Are we capable of understanding that what has occurred here is too immense and too terrible to be viewed through stale paradigms?

'They were celebrating the rape of teenage girls'

Columbia professor slams ‘coward’ university president for allowing ‘pro-terror’ orgs

‘We cannot protect your child,’ Columbia Business School’s Shai Davidai says in message to parents; calls out Minouche Shafik for not banning groups hailing massacre as ‘resistance’

Columbia University Prof. Shai Davidai speaks out against 'pro-terror student organizations' in a video recorded on campus in New York City, October 19, 2023. (YouTube screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Cornell University Prof. Russell Rickford, who praised the Hamas atrocities of October 7, 2023, as 'exhilarating,' speaks at a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel rally on October 15, 2023, at the Ithaca Commons. (Screenshot from The Cornell Daily Sun, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

US university professors retract blaming Israel for Hamas massacre after censure

By Andrew Lapin

Sara Yael Hirschhorn

Something is rotten in the state of academe

The community of scholars has stood aside as ideological vitriol and even actual hate crimes have proliferated on campuses

Zohar Palti and Neomi Neumann

The mission ahead for Israel

The immediate goal must be to destroy the terrorist regime of Hamas. In the long run, there is no viable alternative to a political solution to our overall conflict

Illustrative: Officers stand by a police van after entering the grounds of the courthouse complex in the southwest coastal city of Paphos, Cyprus, Dec. 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Pipe bomb explodes near Israeli embassy in Cyprus, no injuries; 4 Syrians arrested

By Agencies and ToI Staff

Two knives and hammer found inside vehicle of suspects ranging in ages from 17 to 21; they face multiple charges including attempted destruction of property using explosives

Families of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza since the group's murderous infiltration of Israel on October 7, 2023, protest outside the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv. October 14, 2023. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Those We Are Missing

The hostages and victims whose fate is still unknown

Israeli soldiers move a tank at a staging area near the border with Gaza Strip, in southern Israel on October 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Senior official: US, European countries pushing Israel to delay Gaza ground offensive

By Jacob Magid and ToI Staff

Western governments believe invasion may scuttle chances of further hostage releases; Biden publicly draws link between Hamas onslaught and efforts for Saudi-Israel normalization

'It's not a trickle of support, it's a flood'

Jewish giving to Israel spikes as US Jews grieve after Hamas atrocities

Leaders say the level and intensity of incoming cash for Israel since Oct. 7 is highest in 50 years, as close ties between Jews in both countries make themselves seen once again

US President Joe Biden listens as he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participate in an expanded bilateral meeting with Israeli and US government officials, Oct. 18, 2023, in Tel Aviv. (AP/Evan Vucci)

Biden asks Congress to okay $14 billion in aid to Israel, $61 billion for Ukraine

By Agencies and Jacob Magid

But Republican paralysis amid failure to elect speaker could hamper efforts to secure funds for allies

Inside Story

‘Powerful, meaningful’: Biden wins new fans at home, in Israel, for steadfast support

Garnering apologies and backing from long-time Republican critics, Biden is also being hailed by some in Israel who previously attacked him

US President Joe Biden meets with victims' relatives and first responders who were directly affected by the Hamas attacks, October 18, 2023, in Tel Aviv. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Pre-army program participants, from left to right: Barak Kaufman, Ofir Behar, Eden Mimoun and Naama Altman, on October 17, 2023. (Gavriel Fiske/Times of Israel)

'We are living so much here, the emotions are so extreme'

On gap year between high school and IDF service, students find purpose during wartime

By Gavriel Fiske

Now enlisted in a wide range of volunteer activities on the home front, participants in a pre-army program – alongside some from abroad – say it’s a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience

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Youssef Ziyadne, an Arab Bedouin from the Israeli city of Rahat, shows off his minibus in which he reportedly saved 30 attendees of the Nova dance party after it was attacked by Hamas on October 7, 2023. (Courtesy Ziadna via JTA)

'I stared death in the face, but I couldn't give up'

Bedouin bus driver credited with saving 30 Israelis from Hamas’s outdoor party massacre

By Deborah Danan

Youssef Ziadna recalls driving into the line of fire, more than doubling his 14-seater’s capacity with scared and wounded; he also laments his community’s societal neglect

More Headlines

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi speaks to troops in southern Israel on October 15, 2023. (IDF)

Report: Top brass saw ‘telltale signs’ of smaller attack 2 hours before Hamas struck

Protesters wave flags as they attend a pro Palestinian demonstration in London, October 14, 2023, in support of Palestinians caught up in the war between Israel and Hamas. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

London police report 1,353% rise in antisemitic hate crimes since Hamas onslaught

By AFP and ToI Staff

Web Summit's CEO and Founder Paddy Cosgrave gives an interview at the Europe's largest tech conference, the Web Summit, in Lisbon on November 2, 2022. (Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP)

Meta, Google quit tech summit after organizer accuses Israel of committing war crimes

By AFP and ToI Staff

Carl Mintz, a Jewish man in Farmington Hills, Michigan, in an audition tape he made for a stage production about Jesus Christ, uploaded September 17, 2021. Mintz was arrested on October 14, 2023, and charged with threatening to 'hunt Palestinians' amid deadly violence between Israel and Hamas. (Screenshot via YouTube via JTA)

Police arrest Detroit Jewish man who said he wanted to ‘hunt Palestinians’

By Andrew Lapin

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