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      Brazil’s Lula Angers Israel After Comparing War in Gaza to the Holocaust

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      Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, drew the ire of Israeli authorities on Sunday after he compared Israel’s actions in the war against Hamas to the Holocaust, in which Nazis killed six million Jews in a systematic roundup in Europe during World War II.“What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people has no parallel in other historical moments,” Mr. Lula told reporters during the 37th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. But, he then added, “it did exist when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”In the summit’s opening speech on Saturday, he said it was necessary to condemn both the Hamas attacks against Israeli civilians and “Israel’s disproportionate response.” The Gazan Health Ministry says that more than 28,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s invasion of Gaza following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 strike on Israel, which killed more than 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials.Mr. Lula’s statement outraged Israeli officials. The Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, said in a statement on social media in Hebrew that the remarks were “shameful and egregious.” He said that Brazil’s ambassador will be called in to his office on Monday for a “reprimand,” adding that “no one will harm Israel’s right to defend itself.”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel echoed those sentiments in his own social media post. Mr. Netanyahu accused Brazil’s president of “trivializing the Holocaust and trying to harm the Jewish people and Israel’s right to defend itself” and said that “comparing Israel to the Nazi Holocaust and Hitler is crossing a red line.”Mr. Netanyahu added in a separate statement that Mr. Lula “has disgraced the memory of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and demonized the Jewish state like the most virulent anti-Semite.”Hamas, in a statement on social media, welcomed the Brazilian president’s comments and expressed appreciation for the comparison between the Holocaust and the current fighting in Gaza.Brazil’s president initially condemned the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack but has since been critical of Israel’s response. In November, as he welcomed a flight with about 30 people who made it out of Gaza through Egypt with the help of the Brazilian government, he condemned the war’s impact on civilians, saying, “I have never seen such brutal, inhumane violence against innocent people.” More

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      Netanyahu Says He Won’t Bow to Pressure to Call Off Rafah Invasion

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      The Israeli leader has come under international pressure to drop a threatened incursion into the city where more than a million Palestinians are gathered, seeking refuge from the war.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel insisted on Saturday that Israel would not bow to international pressure to call off its plan for a ground invasion of Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza that is now packed with more than a million Palestinians.Many of the people now in Rafah are displaced and living in schools, tents or the homes of friends and relatives, part of a desperate search for any safe refuge from Israel’s military campaign, which has dragged on for more than four months. Their lives are a daily struggle to find enough food and water to survive.“Those who want to prevent us from operating in Rafah are basically telling us: Lose the war,” Mr. Netanyahu said at a news conference in Jerusalem on Saturday evening. “It’s true that there’s a lot of opposition abroad, but this is exactly the moment that we need to say that we won’t be doing a half or a third of the job.”About the same time as Mr. Netanyahu addressed the news conference, thousands of anti-government protesters filled a central thoroughfare in Tel Aviv — the largest protest against the prime minister in months. They filled the same street where mass protests against Mr. Netanyahu’s efforts to weaken the country’s judiciary riled the nation before the start of the Israel-Hamas war.Calls for an immediate election rose above a din of air horns. Protesters lit a red flare in the middle of a drum circle while others wielding flags stared down half a dozen police officers on horseback.“The people need to rise up, and the government needs to go,” said one protester, Yuval Lerner, 57. Mr. Lerner said that even before the war, he lost confidence that the government has the nation’s best interest at heart, but “Oct. 7 proved it,” he said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Gov. Kathy Hochul Apologizes For Israel-Hamas Analogy to Canada

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      In remarks made at a Jewish philanthropy event, Gov. Kathy Hochul said that if Canada attacked the United States as Hamas did Israel, “there would be no Canada the next day.”Gov. Kathy Hochul apologized on Friday night for remarks she made at a Jewish philanthropy event in New York City that implied that Israel would be justified in destroying Gaza because of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.In a speech on Thursday at the event, for the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York, Ms. Hochul began by calling out Hamas for being a terrorist organization that “must be stopped,” saying that Israel could not continue to live with “that threat, that specter over them.” She then attempted to make an analogy to the United States, relating the war to her hometown, Buffalo.“If Canada someday ever attacked Buffalo, I’m sorry, my friends, there would be no Canada the next day,” Ms. Hochul said in a video of the speech posted on social media. “That is a natural reaction. You have a right to defend yourself and to make sure that it never happens again. And that is Israel’s right.”In a statement provided to The New York Times on Friday night, after the speech began circulating on social media, Ms. Hochul said that she regretted her “inappropriate analogy.” She apologized for her “poor choice of words.”“While I have been clear in my support of Israel’s right to self-defense, I have also repeatedly said and continue to believe that Palestinian civilian casualties should be avoided and that more humanitarian aid must go to the people of Gaza,” she said.In a post on X, Assemblyman Zohran Kwame Mamdani said: “Governor Hochul justifying genocide, while laughing. Disgusting.”The backlash to the governor’s comments represented new territory for Ms. Hochul, who has rarely courted controversy during her time in office, in stark contrast to her predecessor, Andrew M. Cuomo.Ms. Hochul had been addressing the annual U.J.A. lawyers division event at the Pierre Hotel. The event was geared toward supporting the foundation’s “critical work in response to mounting needs on the ground in Israel and ongoing needs in New York and around the world,” according to its website.The foundation posted about Ms. Hochul’s remarks later Thursday night on X, thanking her “for always standing with the Jewish community and against antisemitism and hate in New York.”The governor’s speech comes as the war in Gaza is escalating. Israel ramped up its military operations this week along the Gaza-Egypt border, where the vast majority of Gazans have fled during the war. International leaders have warned that the operation could end in catastrophe, with President Emmanuel Macron of France saying that the situation could become an “unprecedented humanitarian disaster.” More

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      Netanyahu Condemns B’nei Re’em Shooting That Killed Two Israelis

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      At least two people were killed and four others wounded when a gunman opened fire at a bustling intersection in central Israel on Friday afternoon, the Israeli authorities said.Avi Bitton, an Israeli police commander, said that the attack took place at a bus stop near the town of B’nei Re’em at around 12:30 p.m. The gunman was shot by an armed civilian on the scene and appeared to have acted alone, the Israeli police said, calling it an act of terrorism.Six victims of the attack were taken to hospitals in central Israel where two of them were pronounced dead, according to the Israeli emergency service Magen David Adom.The Israeli authorities did not formally identify the attacker or comment on his condition. The Israeli news media reported that the gunman was a Palestinian from East Jerusalem.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel condemned the attack and extended his condolences to the victims.“This attack reminds us that the entire country is on the front line,” he said in a statement.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Friday’s shooting.Israel has been on high alert since the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7. In late November, at least three people were killed when Palestinian gunmen who the Israeli authorities said were affiliated with Hamas’s armed wing opened fire at a Jerusalem bus stop.On Friday, Hamas praised the shooting near B’nei Re’em and called it “a natural response” to the war that Israel’s military is waging against the armed group in Gaza.Johnatan Reiss More

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      Palestinians Flee as Israeli Forces Raid Nasser Hospital in Gaza

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      Israel says Hamas routinely operates within — and beneath — places like Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, using them as shields, and has held Israeli hostages there. The group denies the charges.The Israeli military on Thursday raided the largest hospital still functioning in the Gaza Strip, in what it called a search for Hamas fighters and the bodies of hostages. Many people who had sought shelter there were forced to flee from combat once again. Explosions and gunfire rocked the hospital in the city of Khan Younis, the Nasser Medical Complex, before the predawn raid, killing and wounding several people including at least one doctor and a patient, according to a doctor there, as well as the charity Doctors Without Borders, which had staff members at the hospital, and Gaza health authorities. The specific casualty claims, like many assertions in the conflict, could not be immediately confirmed.Videos posted on social media on Thursday and voice messages sent by doctors during the night, both before and after Israeli forces smashed through the perimeter wall and entered the compound, depicted scenes of chaos and fear inside the damaged, smoke-filled hospital, punctuated by automatic gunfire, explosions and shouting.Health care workers shared videos of a chaotic scene at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, as Israeli troops raided the hospital and ordered people to evacuate.Obtained by ReutersOne video, verified by The New York Times, showed damage to the hospital and injured people being rushed through a smoke-filled corridor among debris amid sounds of gunfire. Witnesses said people by the hundreds — possibly thousands — later stood in long lines as Israeli troops screened them, a few at a time, for evacuation.The Israeli military said it had detained dozens of people, but did not say who or why.“We have credible intelligence from a number of sources, including from released hostages, indicating that Hamas held hostages at the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, and that there may be bodies of our hostages in the Nasser hospital facility,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief spokesman for the Israeli military, said in a video statement.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Hundreds Flee One of Gaza’s Last Working Hospitals, Fearing Israeli Attack

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      Hundreds of displaced Palestinians fled one of the Gaza Strip’s last functioning hospitals on Wednesday, after the Israeli military ordered them to leave and threatened further action to stop what it said was Hamas activity there.Thousands of Gazans have sheltered at the Nasser Medical Complex in the southern city of Khan Younis for weeks, and many are terrified that Israeli forces will bombard or storm the complex, said Mohammed Abu Lehya, a doctor there. Previous Israeli warnings to evacuate hospitals, including Al-Shifa, the largest in Gaza, have often preceded military raids.Hanin Abu Tiba, 27, an English teacher sheltering at the hospital, described dire conditions inside, with food running out and aid convoys all but unable to deliver supplies. In text messages overnight, she said that she had seen an Israeli military vehicle outside the hospital gate.“I’m terrified to leave the hospital and get shot,” she said. But inside the complex, she said, “the electricity is cutting out, and the water, and the canned food is almost gone. We don’t know what to do.”Dr. Abu Lehya, in a WhatsApp message on Wednesday, called conditions at the hospital “beyond imagination.”The tensions at the hospital played out as Israel carried out extensive airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday in response to a deadly rocket attack on northern Israel. The rocket attack struck a military base near the city of Safed, killing a soldier and wounding eight people, the Israeli authorities said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion quickly fell on Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia allied with Hamas.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Hezbollah Attack Injures 2 Israelis Amid Fresh Push to Reduce Tensions

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      Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia, fired missiles into northern Israel on Tuesday that injured at least two people, emergency officials said, amid a fresh diplomatic push to end months of clashes along the border.Hezbollah said that it had launched two separate attacks into Israel — one aimed at Israeli soldiers and the other at a police building in the northern town of Kiryat Shmona.A 15-year-old boy and a 47-year-old woman were seriously wounded in Kiryat Shmona, according to Magen David Adom, Israel’s nonprofit emergency medical service. They had gotten out of the car they were traveling in when an anti-tank missile hit nearby, only to be injured when another landed, said Ofir Yehezkeli, Kiryat Shmona’s deputy mayor.Israel and Hezbollah — an ally of Hamas in Gaza — have engaged in near-daily cross-border strikes since the deadly Hamas-led Oct. 7. attacks in Israel. The clashes have displaced more than 150,000 people from their homes on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border.The United States and others have engaged in diplomatic efforts to reduce the tensions. A Western diplomat said on Tuesday that France had presented a proposal to Israel, Lebanon’s government and Hezbollah. The French proposal was first reported by Reuters.The proposal details a 10-day process of de-escalation and calls for Hezbollah to withdraw its fighters to a distance of 10 kilometers (six miles) from Lebanon’s border with Israel, according to the diplomat, who is involved in the talks and who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive deliberations. The diplomat said that France’s foreign minister, Stéphane Séjourné, presented the proposal in writing to Lebanon’s government last week while on a visit to the country.Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that the government had received the proposal. The French Foreign Ministry and Hezbollah did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In recent weeks, Israel has warned that unless a diplomatic solution is reached, it would have to use military force to stop Hezbollah’s attacks in order to allow for tens of thousands of Israelis to return to their homes.Patrick Kingsley More

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      A Tunnel Offers Clues to How Hamas Uses Gaza’s Hospitals

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      Gaza’s hospitals have emerged as a focal point in Israel’s war with Hamas, with each side citing how the other has pulled the facilities into the conflict as proof of the enemy’s disregard for the safety of civilians. In four months of war, Israeli troops have entered several hospitals, including the Qatari Hospital, Kamal Adwan […] More