--:-- Shumita Basu: Good morning. It's Monday, October 7th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- [Discussion continues with a warning about graphic descriptions of violence]
--:-- Shumita Basu: Let's start in Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is saying Israel will win as its wars expand in Gaza and now Lebanon. From the beginning of this era of the conflict, Netanyahu promised to make Israel more safe and to bring the hostages home. Some family members of hostages say exactly one year later, neither promise has been kept.
--:-- Bianna Golodriga: Militants that day took around 250 civilians and members of the Israeli Defense Forces. Around 1,200 people were killed. I've been in close touch with a number of the families of hostages captured by Hamas on October 7th.
--:-- Shumita Basu: You told us about 20-year-old Nama Levy. Nama Levy had just begun her military service literally the weekend of October 7th. And video of her abduction sadly went viral.
--:-- Bianna Golodriga: As you see the terrorists pulling her by her hair, her arms tied. You can see that she's wounded barefoot. She is in sweatpants and they are bloodstained.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Since October 7th, 117 hostages have gotten out of Gaza safely, mostly through a prisoner exchange deal last November. Several others were rescued by the IDF or released by Hamas, and dozens of hostages have died.
--:-- Bianna Golodriga: The Israeli military blames Hamas for some of those deaths, but the IDF has also acknowledged there's a high probability that its attacks on Gaza were responsible for killing a number of others.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Today, experts believe there are roughly 100 hostages still in Gaza, and that includes Nama Levy. Her family still hasn't lost hope that she'll come home.
--:-- Bianna Golodriga: On every reporting trip to Israel that I've taken this year, I make a point to stop and see Nama's mom. And I've also gotten to know three other children and how they're all able to somehow balance their lives and focus on their families, trying to find some sense of normalcy, going back to work.
--:-- Shumita Basu: I just get my strength in covering this story from them, if that makes sense. And it's Nama's mom who hangs up the phone with me every time we speak and say, you know, we have to have hope. We have to have hope.
--:-- Bianna Golodriga: Many of the families that I've gotten to know are angry at Prime Minister Netanyahu and believe he's failed to prioritize a deal to release their loved ones.
--:-- Shumita Basu: We asked you what Nama's family and other hostage families, as well as the hostages you've spoken to who've been released, want the world to know as this war enters its second year.
--:-- Bianna Golodriga: What you're hearing from hostage families as we approach this one mark is this feeling that they are being forgotten. And that as the war shifts as new fronts are open, one war has yet to be resolved.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And that's why you've seen so many family members, so many Israelis taking to the streets, especially over the course of the last six, seven months, every single week.
--:-- Bianna Golodriga: And that's why they say every single day, we have to make sure that we're doing all we can to see that these hostages come home, because it's not just that. They're suffering. To quote some in this government, they're dying.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Today in Israel, the families of hostages have arranged a memorial to honor their loved ones as well as victims. Organizers say they'll also highlight failures by Israel's military and intelligence in preventing the attack.
--:-- Bianna Golodriga: Originally, tens of thousands of people were planning to attend the event in Tel Aviv. But the government, citing concerns about potential missile fire from Hezbollah in Lebanon, has limited public gatherings to around 1,000 people.
--:-- Shumita Basu: I understand from a safety and security reason as to why that may be. But it, again, highlights the concern and real fear that so many of these families have, that given how quickly things have developed elsewhere in the region, that their loved ones are forgotten or an afterthought, which, of course, we will never let that be.
--:-- [Discussion continues with a report from Gaza]
--:-- Shumita Basu: Now to Gaza, where ongoing Israeli strikes continue to kill Palestinian people. Israel says it's targeting Hamas militants.
--:-- Yumna al-Sayed: Health officials in Gaza say nearly 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the past year, with women and children making up about half of the dead.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And international human rights groups have condemned Israel's attacks on civilians.
--:-- Yumna al-Sayed: It's been hell on earth in Gaza. It's been an indescribable year. I've watched as 90% of Gaza's population of a little over 2 million people were driven from their homes this year.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And you've witnessed the wide-scale devastation caused by Israeli bombardments firsthand.
--:-- Yumna al-Sayed: Water, power, health, and transportation infrastructures have been largely destroyed. According to the United Nations, it'll take at least 80 years to rebuild all of Gaza's destroyed homes alone.
--:-- Shumita Basu: I look at Gaza and I see a completely unlivable place. I feel that we're just all Palestinians stuck in the nowhere, not knowing how this is going to end, what is waiting for the future of our children, how they're going to go on with their lives.
--:-- Yumna al-Sayed: She told us she is haunted by what she's seen in this year. Children shocked and processing the loss of their family in the aftermath of an Israeli strike. Premature babies dying in hospitals that can give them the care they need.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Survivors of blasts, suffering injuries, and amputations without medication.
--:-- Yumna al-Sayed: I carry a lot of scenes with me. A lot of situations. A lot of stories. A lot of memories that I can't get over. Every time I shut my eyes, even when I try to eat, it doesn't go away.
--:-- Shumita Basu: It's not easy. I can't get over them.
--:-- Yumna al-Sayed: Palestinians feel abandoned by the international community. They desperately want the Israeli attacks to stop and for international pressure to call for an end to Palestinian suffering.
--:-- Shumita Basu: They deserve to take a break from all these ongoing bombardments, from the starvation, from the people screaming in pain in hospitals.
--:-- Yumna al-Sayed: These children that are constantly frightened, hungry, thirsty, displaced, suffering from different contagious and infectious diseases, they don't deserve that. No child deserves that.
--:-- Shumita Basu: They have no views of any future. Even me, when you ask me this question, I don't know. This question has become incredibly difficult to answer.
--:-- Yumna al-Sayed: Gaza has become completely unlivable. I don't know what kind of future awaits the Palestinians.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Let's turn to the United States and how the outcome of this presidential election could impact the way this war evolves.
--:-- Zach Beauchamp: In our latest episode of Apple News in Conversation, I spoke to Zach Beauchamp, a senior correspondent at Vox, about where former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris stand on this issue.
--:-- Shumita Basu: What we can say with confidence is that a Harris and a Trump administration would be quite different from each other.
--:-- Zach Beauchamp: Trump has been vocally supportive of Israel's bombardment of Gaza, and we can expect his administration would give a lot of latitude to the Israeli government and Netanyahu.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Trump has been very clear, especially through the kinds of people that he works with, as he doesn't really sweat the policy details and outsources a lot of stuff to aides when it comes to managing something as complex as what is going on in Israel-Palestine.
--:-- Zach Beauchamp: That it would really be the extreme wing, the extreme anti-Palestinian wing of the pro-Israel movement in the United States that would be staffing the Trump administration and shaping its policy.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And if you think what is happening now is a blank check, it could be considerably, considerably blanker, right?
--:-- Zach Beauchamp: And concomitantly more deadly for Palestinians.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Harris's position appears to be much more closely aligned with President Joe Biden's.
--:-- Zach Beauchamp: Harris has said she supports ceasefire talks that Israel has the right to defend itself and that she is concerned about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and attacks in Lebanon.
--:-- Shumita Basu: On Friday, she reportedly met with a group of Arab leaders at a campaign stop in Michigan, and one of the activists present told CNN they told Harris they are unhappy with the current administration's approach and want to see her push harder than Biden for an end to the war.
--:-- Zach Beauchamp: I don't know if it would be radically different than Biden's position. It's one of those I don't know things, right?
--:-- Shumita Basu: Because while Harris can say whatever she wants, she's never been in a position to lead on this issue. She's never been ultimately calling the shots.
--:-- Zach Beauchamp: So we can't say with certainty.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Zach and I also spoke about the current state of the Israel-Hamas war, how the conflict is changing, and how it might end.
--:-- Zach Beauchamp: If you're listening in the Apple News app, our full conversation will be queued up to play for you next.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories being featured in the Apple News app. Starting in Haiti, where over 6,000 people have fled their homes in the aftermath of an attack by heavily armed gang members that left dozens of people dead last week.
--:-- Zach Beauchamp: Local authorities are calling it one of the deadliest attacks in years in the country.
--:-- Shumita Basu: The incident caused widespread shock, even as gang violence in Haiti has increased in recent years.
--:-- Zach Beauchamp: The prime minister says the gang will be brought to justice.
--:-- Shumita Basu: In the U.S., the Florida Gulf Coast is on guard for Hurricane Milton, a hurricane that's rapidly intensifying as it's crossing the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
--:-- Zach Beauchamp: Milton is expected to make landfall sometime this week, roughly two weeks after Hurricane Helene made landfall, leaving a trail of destruction across several states in the southeast.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Emergency and evacuation orders have been declared in a number of Florida counties.
--:-- Zach Beauchamp: More are expected, and state officials are warning residents to be ready for life-threatening levels of storm surge.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And in other news, the Washington Post reports on a growing crisis for America's national bird.
--:-- Zach Beauchamp: Avian flu is threatening the bald eagle population.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Officials believe over 600 birds have died across 45 states.
--:-- Zach Beauchamp: They say these eagles represent only a fraction of the true number of birds impacted.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And for bald eagle conservationists, the virus threatens to reverse decades of progress.
--:-- Zach Beauchamp: The species was only removed from the endangered species list in 2007.
--:-- Shumita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Zach Beauchamp: And if that's where you're listening right now, a full chat with Zach Beauchamp from Vox is coming up next.
--:-- Shumita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News in Conversation to find that episode.
--:-- Zach Beauchamp: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
--:-- Shumita Basu: I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
