ЦІКАВЕ

It began as a familiar old story.

In the early 2000s, multinational mining giant Rio Tinto came to the wilds of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to dig a nickel mine.

Environmentalists feared pollution. The company promised jobs.

The usual battle lines were drawn. The usual legal fights ensued.

But this time, something different happened.

The mining company invited a respected local environmental group to be an independent watchdog, conducting pollution testing that goes above and beyond what regulators require.

More than a decade has passed, and no major pollution problems have arisen. Community opposition has softened.

“I was fiercely opposed to the mine, and I changed,” said Maura Davenport, board chair of the Superior Watershed Partnership, the environmental group doing the testing.

The agreement between the mining company and the environmentalists is working at a time when demand for nickel and other metals used in green technologies is on the rise, but the mining activity that supplies those metals faces fierce local resistance around the world.

Historic mines, polluting history

The shift to cleaner energy needs copper to wire electrical grids, rare earth elements for wind turbine magnets, lithium for electric vehicle batteries, nickel to make those batteries run longer, and more. Meeting the goals of the 2015 U.N. Paris climate agreement would mean a fourfold increase in demand for metals overall by 2040 and a 19-fold increase in nickel, according to the International Energy Agency.

That means more mines. But mines rarely open anywhere in the world without controversy. Two nearby copper-nickel mine proposals hit major roadblocks this year over environmental concerns.

For the third year running, mining companies listed environmental, social and governance issues as the leading risk facing their businesses in a survey by consulting firm EY.

Mining is not new to the Upper Peninsula, the northern tip of the state of Michigan that is mostly surrounded by the Great Lakes. The region was the nation’s leading copper and iron producer until the late 1800s. An open-pit iron mine still operates about 20 kilometers (12 miles) southwest of the college town of Marquette.

Most of the historic copper mines closed in the 1930s. But the waste they left behind is still polluting today.

Residue left over from pulverizing copper ore, known as stamp sands, continues to drift into Lake Superior, leaching toxic levels of copper into the water.

“The whole history of mining is so bad, and we feared … for our precious land,” Davenport said.

The ore Rio Tinto sought is in a form known as nickel sulfide. When those rocks are exposed to air and water, they produce sulfuric acid. Acid mine drainage pollutes thousands of kilometers of water bodies across the United States. At its worst, it can render a stream nearly lifeless.

When Rio Tinto proposed building the Eagle Mine about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Marquette, “it divided our community,” Davenport said.

“The Marquette community was against the mine,” she said, but the “iron ore miners, they were all about it.”

Mining dilemma

It’s the same story the world over, according to Simon Nish, who worked for Rio Tinto at the time.

“Communities are faced with this dilemma,” Nish said. “We want jobs, we want economic benefit. We don’t want long-term environmental consequences. We don’t really trust the regulator. We don’t trust the company. We don’t trust the activists. … In the absence of trusted information, we’re probably going to say no.”

Nish came from Australia, where a legal reckoning had taken place in the 1990s over the land rights of the country’s indigenous peoples. Early in his career, he worked as a mediator for the National Native Title Tribunal, which brokered agreements between Aboriginal peoples and resource companies who wanted to use their land.

It was a formative experience.

“On the resource company side, you can crash through and get a short-term deal, but that’s actually not benefiting anybody,” he said. “If you want to get a long-term outcome, you’ve actually really got to understand the interests of both sides.”

“Absolutely skeptical”

When Nish arrived in Michigan in 2011, Rio Tinto’s Eagle Mine was under construction but faced multiple lawsuits from community opponents.

In order to quell the controversy, Nish knew that Rio Tinto needed a partner that the community could trust. So he approached the Superior Watershed Partnership with an unusual offer. The group was already running programs testing local waterways for pollution. Would they be willing to discuss running a program to monitor the mine?

“We were surprised. We were skeptical. Absolutely skeptical,” Davenport said. But they agreed to discuss it.

SWP insisted on full, unfettered access to monitor “anything, any time, anywhere,” Nish said.

SWP’s position toward Rio Tinto was “very, very clear,” he recalled: “‘We’ve spent a long time building our reputation, our credibility here. We aren’t going to burn it for you guys.'”

Over the course of several months — “remarkably fast,” as these things go, Nish said — the environmental group and the mining company managed to work out an agreement.

SWP would monitor the rivers, streams and groundwater for pollution from the mine and the ore-processing mill 30 kilometers (19 miles) south. It would test food and medicinal plants important for the local Native American tribe. And it would post the results of these and other tests online for the public to see.

And Rio Tinto would pay for the work. A respected local community foundation would handle the funds. Rio Tinto’s funding would be at arm’s length from SWP.

“We didn’t want to be on their payroll,” said Richard Anderson, who chaired the SWP board at the time. “That could not be part of the structure.”

Not over yet

The agreement launching the Community Environmental Monitoring Program was signed in 2012. More than a decade later, no major pollution problems have turned up.

But other local environmentalists are cautious.

“I do think [Eagle Mine is] really trying to do a good job environmentally,” said Rochelle Dale, head of the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve, another local environmental group that has opposed the mine.

“On the other hand, a lot of the sulfide mines in the past haven’t really had a problem until after closure.

“It’s something that our grandchildren are going to inherit,” she said.

As demand for metals heats up, opposition to new mines is not cooling off. Experts say mining companies are wising up to the need for community buy-in. Eagle Mine’s Community Environmental Monitoring Program points to one option, but also its limitations.

So far, so good. But the story’s not over yet.
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Among California’s farmers and ranchers, the recent return of the long-absent gray wolf also means a return of fears of livestock losses. From Tulare County, California, VOA’s Robin Guess reports. VOA footage by Matt Dibble.
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Democratic Party candidates who favor the right to an abortion recently secured big electoral wins in several conservative states. But to what extent could the issue of reproductive rights influence how Americans vote in the 2024 presidential election? VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias consulted with the experts.
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U.S. lawmakers are urging President Joe Biden to prioritize the release of U.S. citizens deemed wrongfully detained by China when he meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday in San Francisco. 

The U.S. State Department says Texas businessman Mark Swidan, Chinese American businessman Kai Li from Long Island, New York, and California pastor David Lin are wrongfully detained by China.

Republican Representative Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has repeatedly spoken out for Mark Swidan. McCaul urged Biden to put the release of Americans wrongfully detained by China high on the agenda for his meeting with Xi.

McCaul said in a statement sent to VOA Mandarin, “The Biden administration must stop making any concessions based on false promises and hold the [Chinese Communist Party] accountable for its gross human rights violations.”

In a letter to the White House on Nov. 8, Republican Representative Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, along with 12 Republican members of the committee, asked that Biden raise 10 issues with Xi, one of which is to release all American citizens the U.S. government has determined to be wrongfully detained in China.

Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also wrote to Biden, according to Reuters. 

“With the holiday season approaching, and the opportunity to start the New Year on a more positive note in bilateral U.S.-China relationships, I implore you to secure commitments from President Xi to release these Americans immediately,” Cardin wrote.

According to Reuters, a State Department spokesperson has noted that it continually raises wrongfully detained U.S. nationals during engagements with senior Chinese officials.

China says such cases are handled according to law.

Swidan, a Texas businessman, was arrested on drug-related charges in Guangdong Province in 2012 on his first trip to China.

In 2013, the Jiangmen Intermediate People’s Court in southern Guangdong convicted him of manufacturing and trafficking drugs.

In 2019, it handed down a death sentence with a two-year suspension. Under Chinese law, this means the sentence can be commuted to life imprisonment after two years, depending on the convict’s behavior.

This year, his appeal was denied, and the original sentence was upheld. 

The U.S. Embassy in China said in a statement, “We are disappointed by this decision and will continue to press for his immediate release and return to the United States.”

The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the United Nations Human Rights Council also characterized Swidan’s detention as illegal and called on Chinese authorities to immediately release him and provide compensation.

“It is 11 years this month since Mark was detained,” Swidan’s mother, Katherine Flint Swidan, 73, told VOA Mandarin. She said Biden must bring up those wrongfully detained in China when he meets Xi because “they are pawns.”

She told VOA Mandarin that the Chinese government has denied visitation requests from the U.S. consulate since September, and Beijing was transferring her son to Dongguan Prison, near the border with Hong Kong. 

She last heard her son’s voice during a call in 2018 and since then has communicated by letter.

In one, Swidan described dislocated knees, fluid accumulation in his legs and constant bleeding in his mouth.

She said Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to China, told her in August after visiting Swidan that he was in poor health and had suicidal tendencies.

Katherine Swidan lives in a small apartment in Luling, Texas, about 76 kilometers south of Austin. She needs a walker and relies on Social Security benefits to make ends meet.

She worries she may never see her son again and that he may never leave China safely.

 

Katherine Swidan said she spoke to Burns over the weekend, according to Reuters. She described the conversation as “disappointing” because the ambassador would not say whether Biden would raise her son’s name with Xi.

The U.S. Embassy in China has not provided updated information to VOA’s inquiries.

Kai Li’s son, Harrison Li, sent a letter to Biden last week, saying, “I’m following up now on my letters to you dated April 8, 2022, and June 15, 2022, to urge you to earn my father’s release in advance of your anticipated meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco later this month.”

Harrison Li told VOA Mandarin, “The detainee issue is the type of small but important thorn in the bilateral relationship that can and should actually be resolved through dialogue. Our government has an obligation to take advantage of the current apparent warming in U.S.-China relations to move progress forward on these longstanding detainee cases.”

Chinese authorities arrested Kai Li at the Shanghai airport in 2016. Two years later, he was convicted of espionage charges, which he denies, and sentenced to 10 years in Shanghai’s Qingpu Prison, where many foreigners are incarcerated.

A former fellow prisoner, released from the institution housing Kai Li, told VOA Mandarin in September that Kai Li was sometimes called on by prison staff to help them communicate with foreign prisoners who spoke English.

The former prisoner asked not to be identified because he is afraid of retaliation by Chinese authorities.

He said Kai Li translated when prisoners were taken to the hospital and also managed the prison library. He added that Kai Li also often spoke of his son Harrison and was proud of Harrison for constantly speaking up about his case.

David Lin, a pastor from Orange County, California, was arrested in 2006, then convicted and sentenced to life on what the U.S. government says were bogus charges of contract fraud. A year ago, before the Biden-Xi meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, Chinese authorities reduced Lin’s sentence to 24 years, meaning he will be 75 when freed in 2030.   

According to ChinaAid, Lin was detained in 2006 for helping a house church to build a church building, something that is illegal in China.

“Subsequently, authorities restricted him from leaving the country. He was arrested in 2009 on suspicion of ‘contract fraud.'”

Lin was sentenced to life in prison on the charge later that year.

Peter Humphrey, a British journalist turned consultant, was detained with his wife in 2013. They were found guilty of illegally obtaining information on Chinese citizens. Humphrey was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

His wife was sentenced to two years. Both were released early in June 2015 for health reasons.

He now helps foreigners imprisoned by the Chinese government and campaigns for their release.

He believes there are more than three Americans wrongfully incarcerated by China.

Humphrey told VOA Mandarin, “The ordeals of the many Americans held in Xi’s jails should be high on the agenda for Biden’s meeting with Xi if Biden cares at all about wrongfully incarcerated American citizens. That means all American prisoners and not just a tiny select handful.”

“Not a single one of them has had a fair and transparent trial in front of an impartial judge because the Chinese legal and judicial system does not provide any such thing,” he said.

He suggested Biden hand over a list of all American citizens incarcerated in China, demand a mass prison transfer swap agreement to bring them home to an American facility, and then review their cases, none of which “would survive the scrutiny of an American court.”

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.

 
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Hundreds of people gathered Tuesday in Washington to urge the Biden administration to extend labor protections to undocumented immigrants in the United States.

The Here to Work Day of Action march, organized by a coalition of dozens of migrant advocacy groups, called on U.S. President Joe Biden to allow immigrants living in the U.S. for years to apply for work permits. 

Lydia Walther-Rodríguez, one of the march organizers, told VOA that more than 3,000 people attended the event. They visited members of Congress to ask them for support and to press Biden to give work permits to the estimated 11 million people who are here undocumented. 

Walther-Rodríguez, who is a member of CASA, an immigration advocacy group, said allowing people to work and giving them temporary protection would also prevent family separation. 

“We are talking about security, but a security that gives the migrant movement the peace of mind to continue on a path to citizenship,” she said. 

Since February 2023, the Here to Work Coalition has brought together more than 300 businesses, Republican and Democratic governors, and members of Congress to urge the Biden administration to expand work permits for immigrants who have been paying taxes in the U.S. for years. 

According to immigrant advocates, the president can take this action by expanding humanitarian parole, Temporary Protected Status, and Deferred Enforced Departure. All three policies allow individuals who meet specific requirements to stay in the country and work temporarily.  

U.S. Congressman Jesus “Chuy” García, a Democrat from Illinois, addressed the protesters and supported their appeals, saying Biden must deliver for immigrants and that “We must all be heard.”

In a written statement after the march, Garcia added: “Whether you arrived days ago or decades ago, immigrants deserve dignity. Many of my constituents have worked and paid taxes for years, but still live without the protection and stability that comes from a work permit.” 

US labor shortage

In an October report, Stephanie Ferguson, director of Global Employment Policy and Special Initiatives at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, wrote that the country is facing “unprecedented challenges” trying to find enough workers to fill open jobs. 

“Right now, the latest data shows that we have 9.6 million job openings in the U.S., but only 6.4 million unemployed workers. We have a lot of jobs, but not enough workers to fill them. If every unemployed person in the country found a job, we would still have around 3 million open jobs,” Ferguson wrote.

According to data from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, there are 68 workers for every 100 open jobs.

Decades in the U.S.

Catalina Bueno, a Mexican immigrant who has lived in the United States for more than 30 years, traveled from Chicago to Washington. She hopes a work permit and Temporary Protected Status could help her immigration status.  

“We’ve made our lives here, and I think it is fair that they take us into account, which is fair to us because we have a life here … My whole life is here and returning to Mexico is difficult for me … We must all be heard, and the president, more than anything, must be fair to everyone,” she said.

Temporary protection 

The Biden administration recently announced an extension and redesignation of the program that gives temporary protection from deportation for nationals of Sudan and Ukraine. Nationals of El Salvador, Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua also have had their protection extended. 

Advocates also called for new TPS designations. Immigrant rights groups have ongoing campaigns for Mauritania and Democratic Republic of Congo.

TPS allows migrants whose home countries are considered unsafe to live and work in the United States for a period of time if they meet certain requirements established by the U.S. government.  

Other forms of relief include deferred action, deferred enforced departure, or parole. Each has distinguished requirements while offering temporary relief from deportation and work authorization.

Some Republican lawmakers have pushed for legislation that would make U.S. immigration law more restrictive. 

Senate Republicans released a proposal on Nov. 6 that could prohibit or limit Biden officials’ use of temporary protection for migrants coming to the U.S.-Mexico border and those already in the United States.

The one-page plan narrows the scope of the parole statute to clarify that it is to be used rarely and limits granting parole to one year, with up to one one-year extension or less. 

Renata Castro, an immigration lawyer based in Florida, told VOA that Congress needs to act and that immigration is about economic growth.

“We need an innovative economy and the only way we will be able to do that is if we have meaningful immigration reform that deals with the needs and the problems of the United States of today, not of 30 or 40 years ago,” Castro said. 

The immigration attorney said other countries are taking note of the immigration challenges in the United States, and they are working hard to attract the best and the brightest.

“I, as a practicing immigration attorney, think that United States employers, particularly small businesses in the service industries, construction and hospitality, are really struggling because they cannot find individuals who are ready, willing and available to work. … Meaningful immigration reform could solve all of that,” she added.

Humanitarian parole or temporary status or protection, such as TPS or DED, is not a pathway to permanent residency. 
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Tens of thousands of Jewish Americans rallied on Tuesday in Washington in support of Israel, to call for the release of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas and to reject antisemitism. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias covered the “March for Israel” and gathered many of the diverse points of view that were expressed.
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Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered Tuesday on the National Mall in Washington in a show of solidarity as Jews across the United States and the world face a resurgence of antisemitism that activists at the protest compared with the hatred that culminated in the Holocaust.

The rally, called Americans March for Israel, was organized by various Jewish organizations and featured speeches by politicians, intellectuals, musicians and relatives of hostages abducted by Hamas.

Signs reading, “Free the hostages” and “Never again is now” bobbed up and down in the audience as speakers, including Israeli President Isaac Herzog and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, took their turns.

“We will continue fighting for the release of all hostages until they return to safety,” Schumer said, affirming U.S. support for Israel.

Herzog delivered his address from Israel.

“Jews came out of Auschwitz and vowed, ‘Never again,'” he said in remarks shown on large TV screens. “As the blue and white flag was hoisted over our ancient homeland, we vowed, ‘Never again.'”

Herzog went on to describe Hamas’ terror attack last month, which left 1,200 Israelis dead, and asked the crowd to “cry out together, ‘Never again!'”

Representative Mike Johnson, the newly appointed speaker of the U.S. House, also spoke to the crowd.

“There are few issues in Washington that could so easily bring together leaders of both parties and both chambers,” he said. “But the survival of the state of Israel and her people unites us together — and it unites all Americans.”

The march comes just over a week after pro-Palestinian demonstrators held a similarly large gathering on the National Mall, and two days after 180,000 people took to the streets in France to rally against antisemitism.

Sam Markstein, 30, of Washington participated in Tuesday’s march. He serves as the political director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, which co-sponsored last week’s Republican presidential debate in Miami.

“The message is, the Republican Party and Jews from across the country stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel, and we’re going to keep doing that until Hamas is defeated and obliterated,” Markstein told VOA.

Avi Light, 21, of Rockland Community College in Suffern, New York, said he hopes for a future beyond the bloodshed.

“I just want peace,” Light said, walking hastily alongside the Mall with his Jewish classmates. “I just want people to stop dying. I really want the whole war to just end.”

“I have friends in the [Israel Defense Forces] that I went to school with,” Light continued. “I just want to be able to go to sleep at night and know they’re safe.”

A few dozen anti-Zionist, ultra-Orthodox Jews led by Rabbi Dovid Feldman, 52, of Monsey, New York, stood behind banners outside the protest — including one with a red slash over the Israeli flag — drawing scorn from several Jewish passersby.

Feldman and others chanted, “Judaism, yes! Zionism, no!” One pro-Israel demonstrator came within inches of the counterprotesters, screaming profanities.

Dorit Voda, a British Israeli living in Rockville, Maryland, also confronted Feldman. Voda said she found Feldman’s statements to be deeply offensive, saying that Israel was established “legally and rightfully” in the aftermath of the Holocaust in large part to protect survivors.

After several heated exchanges, U.S. Park Police spread out in a line to shield Feldman’s group.

Feldman told VOA that the March for Israel “does not represent the Jewish people” and blamed Hamas’ brutal October 7 assault entirely on Israel, a claim that most prominent Jewish groups denounce as antisemitic.

Feldman expressed outrage at the massive loss of life in the Gaza Strip, where more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military operations since fighting broke out last month, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health authority.

Feldman repeatedly clarified that he does not condone violence against civilians.

Parked in his van outside VOA headquarters, which is just meters from where the protest took place, Rabbi Yehuda Pevzner, 30, of Brooklyn, New York, struck a less provocative tone.

Pevzner was part of a group of Hasidic Jews who drove what they call a “synagogue on wheels” to Washington to help Jews carry out mitzvot, or good deeds, such as doing tefillin, an ancient Jewish prayer ritual.

Pevzner said that Jews have an obligation “to help people in danger,” both in Israel and beyond. He also said, citing the Torah, that Israel is the Jewish homeland, and that Jews must look after one another, particularly in light of recent incidents of antisemitism across the globe.
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The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote Tuesday on a plan to avert a partial government shutdown on Saturday but at the same time push off contentious debates over spending priorities until early 2024.

Current funding for all government agencies expires at midnight on Friday, forcing Congress and the White House to reach a short-term deal to keep the government running.

The House is voting on a proposal by new Speaker Mike Johnson, leader of the narrow Republican majority in the chamber, that extends funding for some government agencies through mid-January and others until early February.

By those two dates, Congress will have to debate and decide on spending levels throughout the government through next September, or again approve another short-term deal.

If the House passes Johnson’s proposal, the Senate is likely to also approve it and send it to President Joe Biden for his signature.

Johnson has drawn the ire of a right-wing faction of his Republican colleagues because his budget plan does not include the spending cuts or policy changes they seek. Several of the archconservatives have said they will vote against Johnson’s plan, forcing him to look for opposition Democratic votes to assure its passage.

It was just such a scenario in late September when then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy angered the right-wing bloc by winning Democratic votes to push through a seven-week spending plan that expires Friday at midnight. Days after that political fight, eight right-wing Republicans joined the unanimous Democratic caucus in ousting McCarthy from his speakership, a first in U.S. history.

There is no sign that Johnson faces a similar fate, since he is a stalwart conservative himself, and his like-minded colleagues appear, for the moment, to be giving him leeway in reaching a deal to keep the government open.

Johnson said his “laddered” funding expiration dates in early 2024 are intended to avoid a Washington tradition: passage of a massive spending measure just before the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, appropriations bills that are so lengthy that few lawmakers have had time to read and digest them as Congress rushes to adjourn for its end-of-year recess.

In the latest dispute, the hard-right Republican faction in the House has demanded spending cuts that more moderate Republican lawmakers and the virtually unanimous caucus of House Democrats, along with the Democratic-controlled Senate and Biden, have rejected.

Instead, Johnson’s plan would keep spending levels at the same level as in the fiscal year that ended September 30. Johnson also rejected attempts to include divisive cultural issues favored by some hard-right conservatives but also did not include billions of dollars in new financial assistance Biden sought for Ukraine and Israel as they fight their respective wars against Russia and Hamas militants.

Congress is expected to consider more funding for Ukraine and Israel in separate legislation in the coming weeks.

Without broad new funding for government agencies by midnight Friday, governmental operations that are deemed nonessential, such as camping at national parks, advice to taxpayers and some scientific research, would be halted.

In recent days, credit rating agencies have downgraded the government’s rating because of the continuing budget uncertainty, a move that could lead to higher borrowing costs for the United States, where the national debt is now approaching $34 trillion. 
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Latest developments:

U.S. President Joe Biden says he believes Hamas hostages will be released but gives no timetable. The U.S. leader says hospitals in Gaza “must be protected” amid Israeli military advances.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members operate a command-and-control node from Al Shifa and use tunnels underneath to support their military operations and hold hostages.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement Tuesday that he is “deeply disturbed by the horrible situation and dramatic loss of life in several hospitals in Gaza."
WHO’s director-general says Gaza’s largest hospital is not functioning anymore.
Palestinian health officials say 32 patients at Al Shifa Hospital have died, including three infants, as fuel supplies run out.
Israel says 1,200 people were killed in Israel during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. More than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed, overwhelmingly women and children, in Gaza, according authorities in Gaza.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday he believes hostages being held by Hamas militants in Gaza are going to be released, but he gave no timetable.

“I have been talking to people involved every single day,” Biden told reporters at the White House. “I believe it is going happen, but I don’t want to get into details.”

He sent a message to the estimated 240 hostages being held by U.S.-designated terror group Hamas: “Hang in there. We are coming.”

U.S. officials have said in recent days they have been working with Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian officials to secure release of the hostages, only four of whom Hamas has freed since capturing them during its shock October 7 attack on the Jewish state.

The United States says that among the hostages are nine Americans and a foreign national with U.S. employment rights.

Meanwhile, Biden said hospitals in Gaza “must be protected” as Israeli forces continue to target health care facilities in the Palestinian enclave over claims Hamas is using them as cover to hide its command centers and weaponry.

The president was responding to reports of the worsening crisis at Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza City’s main medical center, which has been surrounded and under siege by Israeli forces for several days.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members operate a command-and-control node from Al Shifa and use tunnels underneath to support their military operations and hold hostages. He said the militants have stored weapons there and are prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility.

“Now to be clear, we’re not supporting striking a hospital from the air, and we do not want to see a firefight in the hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people are simply trying to get the medical care that they deserve not to be caught in a crossfire,” said Kirby on Tuesday, adding Hamas actions “do not lessen Israel’s responsibilities to protect civilians in Gaza.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement Tuesday that he is “deeply disturbed by the horrible situation and dramatic loss of life in several hospitals in Gaza.”

“In the name of humanity, the secretary-general calls for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire,” his spokesman said.

Doctors Without Borders said bullets were fired Tuesday into one of three of its premises near the Al Shifa facility, where more than 100 of its staff and family members have been staying. The group, which includes 65 children, said it ran out of food late Monday and has been asking the Israeli army and Hamas for safe passage away from the fighting.

Services at Al Shifa have been shut down due to a lack of fuel, food and water. Thousands of desperate patients fled the hospital over the weekend, leaving just 650 patients along with thousands of displaced Palestinians seeking shelter from the fighting.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Monday that 32 patients at Al Shifa, including three infants, have died since the siege began due to the lack of electricity.

Doctors running low on supplies are reported to be performing surgery without anesthesia on war-wounded patients, including children. One medic shared a photo showing nine premature babies sharing a crib.

The Israeli military said Tuesday it will transfer incubators, which are used to keep premature newborn infants warm, from Israel to Al Shifa Hospital.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the medical center “is not functioning as a hospital anymore,” and the situation at Gaza’s largest hospital is “dire and perilous.”

Al Quds, another Gaza hospital, shut down Sunday because it ran out of fuel.

Israel says Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, is shielding itself among civilians at Al Shifa Hospital and has a command center in and beneath the medical compound.

Israel has not provided photos or videos to back up its claims about Hamas militants at Al-Shifa, although it has shared footage of militants operating in residential neighborhoods and positioning rockets and weapons near schools and mosques.

Both Hamas and the hospital staff deny the Israeli allegations.

“It is my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action relative to the hospitals,” Biden told reporters during an event in the Oval Office.

Palestinian authorities in Gaza say more than 11,000 people — about 40% of them children — have been killed since Israel launched a major air and ground offensive in response to the attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel on October 7 that left 1,200 people dead. About 240 people were kidnapped and are currently being held hostage by Hamas.

The United Nations humanitarian office said Tuesday that more than two-thirds of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have fled their homes since the war began.

The Israeli military on Tuesday confirmed the death of a 19-year-old soldier who was captured in the October 7 attacks.

The military wing of Hamas issued a video Monday of a woman who identified herself as Noa Marciano. She said she had been held in Gaza for four days and urged Israel to end the bombing campaign. The video then showed still images of the woman’s lifeless, bloodstained body lying on a sheet. Hamas said she had been killed by Israeli airstrikes last Thursday.

Israel’s military confirmed the video was that of Marciano, who was attached to a unit deployed at the Israel-Gaza border.

The army said Marciano died at the hands of a terrorist organization but did not comment on the circumstances of her death.

The Israeli military said it has seized several government facilities in Gaza City, including the territory’s legislature building, the Hamas police headquarters and a compound housing Hamas’ military intelligence headquarters.

“In every location, the enemy forces were eliminated, the location was demolished,” an Israeli commander said.

But as its military incursion advances, Israel has rejected growing and intense international pressure to impose a cease-fire to allow for the delivery of critically needed humanitarian aid to Gaza. But it has agreed to four-hour daily humanitarian pauses to allow the opening of two corridors to let Palestinians evacuate northern Gaza. National Security Council spokesman Kirby said Tuesday that in the last 24 hours around 115 more trucks carrying humanitarian aid were able to enter Gaza, bringing the total to 1100.

United Nations correspondent Margaret Besheer and White House Bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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The United States and Britain on Tuesday imposed a third round of sanctions targeting the Palestinian militant group Hamas, trying to curb Iranian funding of the group and one of its allies, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, following their shock attack last month on Israel.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement the two countries are trying “to deny Hamas the ability to raise and use funds to carry out its atrocities.”

“Hamas’s actions have caused immense suffering and shown that terrorism does not occur in isolation,” Yellen said. “Together with our partners we are decisively moving to degrade Hamas’s financial infrastructure, cut them off from outside funding, and block the new funding channels they seek to finance their heinous acts.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the sanctions are aimed at protecting the international financial system “from abuse by Hamas and its enablers.”

“Iran’s support, primarily through its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, enables Hamas and [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] terrorist activities, including through the transfer of funds and the provision of both weapons and operational training,” Blinken said. “Iran has trained PIJ fighters to produce and develop missiles in Gaza while also funding groups that provide financial support to PIJ-affiliated fighters.”

Israel says that Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people inside the Jewish state in the attack last month and captured about 240 hostages, only four of whom it has released. Israel has responded with air attacks that Hamas medical authorities say have killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, including thousands of women and children.

Hamas is designated a terrorist group by Israel, the United States, the European Union, Britain and others.

Mahmoud Khaled Zahhar, a senior member and co-founder of Hamas; PIJ’s representative to Iran and the Damascus-based deputy secretary-general of PIJ and leader of its militant wing were among those sanctioned by Washington and London.

Nabil Chouman & Co., a Lebanon-based money exchange group, was also targeted, along with its owner and founder. Treasury accused the company of serving as a conduit for transferring funds to Hamas and said it transferred tens of millions of dollars to the militants.

The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets held by the Hamas officials and bars Americans from conducting any business with them.
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