The Times of Israel is liveblogging Monday’s events as they unfold.
GOP presidential candidate Tim Scott drops out of 2024 race
Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott announces that he’s dropping out of the 2024 race, about two months before the start of voting in Iowa’s leadoff caucuses.
The South Carolina senator makes the surprise announcement on “Sunday Night in America” with Trey Gowdy.
His campaign spokesperson Nathan Brand confirms the news to The Associated Press.
Over 800 foreign nationals said to leave Gaza on Sunday
An Egyptian border official tells CNN that at least 826 foreign nationals left the Gaza Strip on Sunday through the Rafah crossing, the most to leave the enclave in a single day amid the Israel-Hamas war.
The American cable news network also quotes an Egyptian government official saying that nine wounded Palestinians crossed through Rafah.
Calls to end US military aid to Israel at protest against global trade summit in San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO — Activists protesting corporate profits, environmental abuses, poor working conditions and the Israel-Hamas war march in downtown San Francisco, united in their opposition to a global trade summit that will draw US President Joe Biden and leaders from nearly two dozen countries.
Protests are expected throughout this week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ conference, which could draw more than 20,000 attendees, including hundreds of international journalists. The No to APEC coalition, made up of more than 100 grassroots groups, says trade deals struck at summits such as APEC exploit workers and their families.
It’s unlikely world leaders will even glimpse the protests given the strict security zones accessible only to attendees at the Moscone Center conference hall and other summit sites. But Suzanne Ali, an organizer for the Palestinian Youth Movement, says the US government needs to be held to account for supplying weapons to Israel in its war against Hamas.
“Even if they cannot see us, as we’re mobilizing and marching together, they will know that we’re out there,” she says.
Top Biden aide says US concerned about civilian casualties in fight for Shifa hospital
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says the Biden administration has shared concerns with Israel about potential civilian casualties in a military operation to take Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, where Hamas allegedly has a key command center.
“The United States does not want to see firefights in hospitals where innocent people, patients receiving medical care, are caught in the crossfire. And we’ve had active consultations with the Israel Defense Forces on this,” Sullivan tells the CBS News program “Face the Nation.”
Sullivan notes the IDF has said it’s working to ensure the safety of patients “while they also try to figure out a way to try to deal with the fact that Hamas is operating in a way that is outside the bounds of any civilized concept of how you would think about using a hospital, using human shields.”
“It’s an active conversation, but the bottom line is that we do not want to see firefights in hospitals,” he adds.
Sullivan also appears to back Israeli allegations about Hamas’s use of Al-Shifa.
“Without getting into intelligence information, we can just look at the open source reporting that Hamas is using hospitals as it uses many facilities for command-and-control, for weapons storage, to house its fighters, and this is a violation of the laws of war,” he says.