Freed hostage's parents describe long-awaited reunion with their son
In October 2023, Edan Alexander was taken hostage along with hundreds of other Israelis by the terror group, Hamas. Edan spent 584 days in captivity and was reunited with his family on May 12. CNN's Anderson Cooper speaks with Alexander's parents about reuniting with Edan and what it has been like since his release.
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Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Israel says it has recovered the bodies of 2 Israeli-American hostages from the Gaza Strip
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel has recovered the bodies of two Israeli-American hostages taken in Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack that ignited the war in the Gaza Strip. Israeli strikes overnight and into Thursday meanwhile killed at least 22 people, including three local journalists who were in the courtyard of a hospital, according to health officials in the territory. The military said it targeted a militant in that strike. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the remains of Judih Weinstein and Gad Haggai were recovered and returned to Israel in a special operation by the army and the Shin Bet internal security agency. 'Together with all the citizens of Israel, my wife and I extend our heartfelt condolences to the dear families. Our hearts ache for the most terrible loss. May their memory be blessed,' he said in a statement. Kibbutz Nir Oz announced the deaths of Weinstein, 70, and Haggai, 72, both of whom had Israeli and U.S. citizenship, in December 2023. Weinstein was also a Canadian citizen. The military said they were killed in the Oct. 7 attack and taken into Gaza by the Mujahideen Brigades, the small armed group that it said had also abducted and killed Shiri Bibas and her two small children. The army said it recovered the remains of Weinstein and Haggai overnight into Thursday from Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis. A teacher who helped children and a chef who played jazz The couple were taking an early morning walk near their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on the morning of Oct. 7 when Hamas militants stormed across the border and rampaged through several army bases and farming communities. In the early hours of the morning, Weinstein was able to call emergency services and let them know that both she and her husband had been shot and send a message to her family. Weinstein was born in New York and taught English to children with special needs at Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small community near the Gaza border. The kibbutz said she also taught meditation techniques to children and teenagers who suffered from anxiety as a result of rocket fire from Gaza. Haggai was a retired chef and jazz musician. 'My beautiful parents have been freed. We have certainty,' their daughter, Iris Haggai Liniado, wrote in a Facebook post. She thanked the Israeli military, the FBI and the Israeli and U.S. governments and called for the release of all the remaining hostages. The couple were survived by two sons, two daughters and seven grandchildren, the kibbutz said. Struggles continue to get aid to Palestinians U.N. efforts to distribute aid suffered a blow Thursday when the Palestinian organization that provides trucks and drivers said it was suspending operations after gunmen attacked a convoy, killing a driver. The Special Transport Association said the convoy of some 60 trucks was heading into Deir al-Balah in central Gaza Wednesday evening when gunmen attacked, killing one driver and wounding three others. The association said it was the latest in attacks on convoys 'clearly aimed at obstructing' aid delivery, though it did not say who it believed was behind the attack. Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid and trying to block it from reaching Palestinians. Aid workers have said attacks on U.N. trucks appear to be by criminal gangs, some operating within sight of Israeli troops. The area where the association described the attack taking place lies on the edges of an Israeli military zone. After blocking all food and aid from entering Gaza for more than two months, Israel began allowing a trickle of supplies to enter for the U.N. several weeks ago. But the U.N says it has been unable to distribute much of the aid because of Israeli military restrictions on movements and because roads that the military designates for its trucks to use are unsafe and vulnerable to looters. The blockade pushed Gaza's population of more than 2 million to the brink of famine. Meanwhile, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a mainly American private contractor, resumed food distribution at two centers near the southern city of Gaza on Thursday. It had halted all distribution the day before, saying it was discussing greater safety measures with the Israeli military. Near daily shootings have erupted in the vicinity of the hubs, with Palestinians reporting Israeli troops opening fire. More than 80 people have been killed and hundreds wounded, according to Gaza hospital officials. The Israeli military has said it fired warning shots or at individuals approaching its troops in some instances. GHF said Thursday it has distributed the equivalent of nearly 8.5 million meals since its centers began operating on May 26 — enough for one meal a day for just over a third of Gaza's population. Strikes around Gaza kill 22 Two Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City on Thursday afternoon killed 9 people, including a child and a woman, according to health officials. Most were killed when the strike hit a busy street where people were gathered to buy bags of flour, said one witness, Abu Farah. 'We want to bring food to our children. We're not asking for anything more. We stopped demanding anything else other than food,' he said. At least 10 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis overnight, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. It was not immediately clear if the strikes were related to the recovery mission. In Gaza City, three local reporters were killed and six people were wounded in a strike on the courtyard of the al-Ahli Hospital, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. It did not immediately identify the journalists or say which outlets they worked for. The Israeli military said it struck an Islamic Jihad militant operating in the courtyard. The army says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it is embedded in populated areas. Over 180 journalists and media workers have been killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, the vast majority of them in Gaza, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Israel has said many of those killed in its strikes were militants posing as reporters. Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and abducted 251 hostages. They are still holding 56 hostages, around a third of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages from Gaza and recovered dozens of bodies. Israel's military campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. The offensive has destroyed large parts of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of roughly 2 million Palestinians. ___ Melzer reported from Nahariya, Israel and Shurafa from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writer Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed. ___ Follow the AP's war coverage at
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
A memorial grows for Jonathon Joss, and quiet descends on a complicated street
A family who moved to a south-side San Antonio neighborhood roughly six years ago said that they were warned right away about an eccentric man who lived across the street. They were told, they said, that Jonathan Joss would play drums on his roof at all hours of the night and would yell obscenities and racial slurs at people outside. They said that, when confronted, Joss would often say that he was rehearsing for a role. He really was an actor, though. He played the role of John Redcorn in the animated show 'King of the Hill' for more than a dozen seasons, including in the show's upcoming revival. Another neighbor, Daniela Ruano, 19, said she lived next door to Joss her entire life. He would yell racist slurs at her family, she said, honk his horn in the middle of the night and threaten to hurt them. The behavior, she said, had accelerated. 'I'd say like the last two years have been the worst with him. He started breaking down my fence from the back,' she said. 'We would call the police on him a lot.' Two years ago, she said, Joss threatened another neighbor's brother with a crossbow. Police reports confirm that officers responded to the incident, but did not find a crossbow on Joss when they arrived at the scene. Earlier this year, Joss' family home was destroyed in a fire. But he still came by, neighbors said. In a video Ruano took of the actor on June 1, he is seen walking around the neighborhood and yelling; he is carrying a makeshift pitchfork. At one point, he said he is 'rehearsing a scene.' That day she took the video, Joss, his husband Tristan Kern de Gonzales and another friend were there to pick up mail. The group had just returned from Austin, de Gonzales said, where Joss had participated in a fan meet-and-greet event. Joss, 59, arrived in the usual manner that his neighbors said that they had grown unhappily accustomed to, makeshift pitchfork included. Then, Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez – the neighbor whose brother said he had been threatened by Joss with the crossbow two years ago – drove up behind Joss who was parked in his driveway. He got out, the two exchanged words, witnesses said, and seconds later, Joss was dead. 'I shot him,' Ceja told police, according to an incident report. Ceja, 56, was arrested and charged with murder. His bond was set at $200,000, which he posted on Monday. He was released from jail with GPS monitoring on Wednesday afternoon and is due to appear in court on August 19, according to the Bexar County Sheriff's Office public information officer. When most people think of an actor's life, they tend to imagine gleaming houses high in the Hollywood Hills. For years, Joss lived in the modest house his father built in the 1950s. This week, a makeshift memorial for Joss began growing at the property's fence. A man pulled up in a truck with a royal blue memorial cross adorned with ribbons and flowers. He tied the cross to the fence above the growing memorial. The man, Adrian Reyes, told CNN he had known Joss since high school; they were both in the class of 1984 at Dillard McCollum High School, which recently held its 40th year reunion. 'We're very, very close with him in that class. We track him everywhere,' said Reyes. 'We helped him financially. We helped him get to his events when he didn't have transportation.' 'It's a shame that people are learning about him now that he's gone rather than when he was alive and how talented he was and what a talent we lost,' Reyes said. 'He was a different kind of guy, but he was the life of the party.' Neighbors said there were years, maybe even decades, of disputes, particularly between Joss and Ceja. San Antonio Police logs show numerous calls to both addresses over the past year. 'Me and Jonathan had all these fun little side projects where we were coming up with these little scripts, most of them just for fun to make ourselves laugh. And we would be acting them out in the yard and I guess to the outside world maybe it looked a little crazy,' de Gonzales told viewers on Instagram Live. He did say that although they would sometimes walk around the neighborhood with things like a stick or pitchfork, they never 'threatened' or 'pointed any weapons at anybody.' Police were called to Joss' residence nearly 50 times since January 2024. In some instances, officers were dispatched multiple times in a single day. Neighbors said Joss' behavior turned more erratic and harassing as the years went on. Some said they saw him throw trash and wine bottles onto a nearby property under construction and damage that neighbor's mailbox. 'He went over there and yanked the mailbox off the top, and it was in a brick casing. So he yanked off the door and beat it up where our neighbor had to go replace it,' said one neighbor, who spoke to CNN but asked that their name not be used due to the attention the killing was bringing to their street. 'Jonathan and I had no weapons. We were not threatening anyone. We were grieving. We were standing side by side. When the man fired, Jonathan pushed me out of the way. He saved my life,' de Gonzales said after the shooting, about their trip back to the burned-down home site. De Gonzalez said that the person who killed Joss yelled 'violent homophobic slurs' before opening fire. 'He was murdered by someone who could not stand the sight of two men loving each other,' de Gonzales said. (CNN has attempted multiple times to contact Ceja and also reached out to his lawyer.) The San Antonio Police Department issued a statement on Monday rebutting this. 'Despite online claims of this being a hate crime, currently the investigation has found no evidence to indicate that Mr. Joss's murder was related to his sexual orientation,' the department posted online. But, on Wednesday, as the police department was sharing a Pride Month community forum event, they also released a new statement saying they were continuing the investigation. 'Although we arrested a suspect, our homicide detectives continue to follow every lead to fully understand what led to this senseless act.' On Thursday, San Antonio police expressed more regret. 'We issued a statement the day after Jonathan Joss's murder that was way, way, way premature,' SAPD Chief William McManus told CNN affiliate KENS on Thursday. 'We shouldn't have done it. It was way too soon before we had any real information and I will own that.' He echoed similar sentiments at a forum hosted by San Antonio Pride and the SAPD on Thursday evening, explaining that a judge can attach a hate crime to charges later on. He said they will gather all of the facts leading up to Jonathan Joss' death and will present the case to the District Attorney's office to make that call. He added that police are also investigating the January fire at Joss' home. Joss had told everyone that he was going through a lot. Online, he said he was fighting an uphill battle with financial difficulties. In November, Joss spoke about the difficult living conditions he and his then-fiancé were facing. He said that their home lacked basic utilities such as gas and electricity and described using a fire pit to heat coffee. Despite the challenges, he expressed hope about 'getting through some rough times.' There was one bright spot: his marriage to de Gonzales. Still, Joss also talked about using a stove to heat up water for a hot shower. On Instagram, he showed the poor condition of his house, revealing several holes in the walls and ceiling. In January, Joss experienced two house fires. The second destroyed the house and his car and killed his three dogs, according to social media posts from Joss and his partner. 'Everything I owned… gone. My memories, my keepsakes, my family, my comfort in this world lost in the flames,' he wrote on Facebook. In the months that followed, Joss frequently took to social media to ask fans for financial support. He regularly shared a GoFundMe link started by a fan, which has now raised over $20,000. He sold autographed photos, personalized video messages, t-shirts and '$1 wisdom sayings.' He also posted about marrying his partner on Valentine's Day. In one post with de Gonzales, Joss wrote: 'We shall endeavor to persevere together.' He frequently tried to secure transportation and financial support on Facebook to be able to make celebrity appearances at conventions. Just two days before he was killed, Joss showed up at a 'King of the Hill' Revival Sneak Peek event at the Paramount Theater in Austin, Texas – although he had already written on Facebook that he was not invited to attend. Attendee Brandon Robinson said Joss walked up to the Q&A mic and started 'ranting.' Robinson originally thought Joss' speech was planned but said he soon realized it wasn't. After making some references to his character in 'King of the Hill,' Joss said: 'My house burned down three months ago because I'm gay.' The panelists then announced Joss as the voice of the show's character John Redcorn, prompting applause from the audience. Joss spoke about feeling ignored at the event in one of his final interviews, which took place on 'Bwaaa! A King of the Hill podcast.' But he also said he'd loved his life as an actor. 'I've just been really lucky to have really decent parts. I mean, I never had a – I've never done a bad thing when it comes to acting,' Joss said. Another family showed up this week to remember Joss at the site of the shooting. Paul Gonzalez and Tiffany Zurita said that they lived nearby, but never knew Joss lived in the area. 'We grew up watching the cartoon, you know, me and my wife when we were kids – so just shocked by it,' Gonzalez said of the killing. They brought a pinwheel to place at the memorial, explaining that it helped their own family when experiencing loss. It was something 'to kind of bring that little life back in,' Zurita said. 'You know, the wind's blowing, you see it blowing in the wind, and it just, you know, kind of reminds you that that person's still here,' she said. 'It's a symbol of peace and serene surroundings.' They both said prayers for everyone involved in the tragic incident – and for the neighbors as well. 'I hope they all find peace in time,' said Gonzalez. CNN's Lisa Respers France, Dianne Gallagher, Devon Sayers, Andy Buck, Jeremy Grisham, and Leah Thomeer contributed to this report.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
A West Virginia prosecutor is warning women that a miscarriage could lead to criminal charges
Amid a constantly changing reproductive landscape, one West Virginia prosecutor is warning people who have miscarriages in his state that they could get in trouble with the law. Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Tom Truman says that although he personally wouldn't prosecute someone for a miscarriage, he made the suggestion out of an abundance of caution after hearing from other prosecutors. Truman even suggests people might want to let local law enforcement know if they've have a miscarriage. Several reproductive law experts say people around the country have, indeed, faced charges related to miscarriages — but they still wouldn't recommend reaching out to law enforcement. Truman says the idea first came up during a chat with other West Virginia prosecutors at a conference several years ago, and it's been been an ongoing conversation since. The initial conversation was theoretical, since at the time, women in the US still had the constitutional right to an abortion under Roe v. Wade. But some of the prosecutors believed they could charge a person using state laws related to the disposal of human remains. 'I thought these guys were just chewing on a Dreamsicle,' Truman said. But, he added, West Virginia's legal statutes include definitions that are 'pretty broad-ranging.' The way some prosecutors may interpret the law means people who miscarry could face criminal charges, including felonies, he said. 'It's a different world now, and there's a lot of discretion that prosecutors have, and some of them have agendas where they would like to make you an example,' Truman told CNN. 'What's changed is, Roe isn't there anymore, and so that may embolden prosecutors in some cases,' he said. 'I'm just trying to say, 'be careful.' ' Early pregnancy loss is common, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, It happens in about 10 of 100 known pregnancies, often because the embryo isn't developing properly. And some reproductive law experts say it's probably not a good idea to call the police when it happens. 'It's always a mistake to invite law enforcement into your reproductive life,' said Kim Mutcherson, a professor of law at Rutgers Law School who specializes in reproductive justice. Calling police could prompt an unwanted investigation, she says. 'If they then decide, 'no, it actually wasn't a miscarriage, this was somebody who took pills,' or whatever sort of thing that they want to conjure up, then all of a sudden it goes from 'here's this poor woman who had a miscarriage' to 'here's a person who we're going to start to prosecute,' ' Mutcherson said. 'I understand the idea that caution is better than being caught up in something that you weren't anticipating, but it is difficult for me to imagine any circumstance in which I would think it was safe for someone who miscarried to call the police,' she added. Abortion is illegal in West Virginia, but there are exceptions in the case of a medical emergency or a nonviable pregnancy, or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. Kulsoom Ijaz, senior policy counsel with Pregnancy Justice, a nonprofit focused on the civil and human rights of pregnant people, said she doesn't believe there is anything in West Virginia law that criminalizes miscarriage. 'I think the law is pretty clear,' she said. 'There's nothing in the law that says someone can be charged with a crime in connection to their pregnancy loss or their conduct during pregnancy, or for how they respond to that pregnancy loss or miscarriage or stillbirth.' The fractured landscape of reproductive rights that came about in the wake of the Dobbs decision, the US Supreme Court ruling that revoked the federal right to an abortion, has increased the risk that a pregnant person can face criminal prosecution for a variety of reasons, not just a miscarriage, according to a report from Ijaz's organization. Between June 2022 – when Dobbs was handed down – and June 2023, there were more than 200 cases in the US in which a pregnant person faced criminal charges for conduct associated with pregnancy, pregnancy loss or birth, according to Pregnancy Justice. The number is most likely an undercount, Ijaz said. In West Virginia, there were at least three cases related to pregnancy prosecutions. In one, the state's Supreme Court found that the state could not levy criminal child abuse charges against someone for their prenatal conduct, which included substance use during pregnancy. Even with the strict abortion ban in place, Ijaz said, 'there are still protections for pregnant people.' In states like Alabama that have fetal personhood laws that give fertilized eggs, embryos and a fetus the 'same rights as you and I,' Ijaz said, it's a little different. 'We've seen people get prosecuted and face decades of incarceration for substance use during pregnancy, because that fetus that they're carrying is seen as a child,' she said. Last year in Ohio, a woman who had a miscarriage at home was charged with a felony on the advice of the Warren City Prosecutor's Office, but a grand jury dismissed the case. Ijaz said that she doesn't think there is an appetite for these kind of cases among the public but that no matter where someone lives, inviting the law into their life right after a miscarriage is ill-advised. The legal landscape for reproductive justice 'seems to almost be changing on a daily basis' – and generally not in favorable ways for pregnant people, said Brittany Fonteno, CEO of the National Abortion Federation, a professional association for abortion providers. 'The laws, the rhetoric, the culture in which we are living in within the US has become so incredibly hostile to people who experience pregnancy,' she said. 'I think that the intersection of health care and criminalization is an incredibly dangerous path,' Fonteno added. 'As a country, we should be supporting people and their ability to access the health care that they need, rather than conducting intrusive and traumatic investigations into their reproductive lives.' Fonteno recommends that people who experience pregnancy loss reach out to a qualified medical professional rather than law enforcement. 'While we are living in a very different country than we were pre-Dobbs, I believe still that this is an individual experience and a health care decision,' she said. 'Most providers believe that as well.' Mutcherson also says that the reproductive justice landscape in the US is 'scary' for people who are pregnant, who want to get pregnant or who have bad pregnancy outcomes. If there's any silver lining to the discussion about criminalizing miscarriage, she said, it's that it's good for people to know that such things can happen. 'Women have been criminalized for their pregnancies for decades, frankly, so to the extent that there is a wider and broader conversation about what it means to treat an embryo or a fetus as a person, and the ways in which that diminishes the personhood of somebody who was pregnant, that is in fact a valuable thing, right?' Mutcherson said. 'Maybe this is actually going to bring us to a better space.'
