Live updates: Massachusetts reacts to Israel-Hamas war

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Many with Massachusetts ties are feeling the impacts of the war.

A crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators react as pro-Palestine demonstrators drive past their rally on the front steps of Cambridge City Hall. Matthew J. Lee / The Boston Globe

More than a week after fighters with the militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip launched a brutal surprise attack on Israelis, thousands have died on both sides. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared the country at war, calling up more than 300,000 reservists and pummeling Gaza with airstrikes in retaliation.

Israeli troops have continued amassing at the border of the enclave early this week ahead of a widely expected ground invasion. Israel told those in northern Gaza to evacuate, sending more than half a million people streaming into the south. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is growing worse by the day, as fuel, food, and clean water run out. Talks that would open the southern border crossing between Gaza and Egypt have stalled, with people hoping to flee trapped on one side and trucks loaded with supplies stuck on the other.

The war has sent reverberations around the globe, affecting many in Massachusetts. Follow here for live updates.

Have you been impacted by the Israel-Hamas war?

Ayanna Pressley among progressive Democrats who call for Israel-Hamas war ceasefire (Oct. 17)

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a Democrat from Massachusetts, is among the more than a dozen progressive lawmakers in the House who backed a resolution that calls for an immediate ceasefire in Israel and Gaza.

“Let me make it plain: The murder of Israeli civilians by Hamas is horrific and unacceptable. And the murder of Palestinian civilians is a horrific and unacceptable response from Israel,” Pressley posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Monday. “Vengeance should not be a foreign policy doctrine. Our humanity is at stake.”

The resolution also calls for aid to be sent to Gaza, as the humanitarian crisis worsens and Israel continues its “full siege” — which has left Palestinians without electricity, fuel, food, and safe drinking water — in response to Hamas’s deadly attacks last weekend. The Washington Post reports that 1 million people have been displaced.

As of Tuesday, the reported death toll was 2,778 killed in Gaza and at least 1,400 killed in Israel.

Let me make it plain:

The murder of Israeli civilians by Hamas is horrific & unacceptable. And the murder of Palestinian civilians is a horrific & unacceptable response from Israel.

Vengeance should not be a foreign policy doctrine. Our humanity is at stake. #CeasefireNOW pic.twitter.com/jW0z7ofvx5

— Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (@RepPressley) October 17, 2023

Wexner Foundation cuts ties with Harvard over response to Hamas attacks (Oct. 17)

Criticisms over Harvard University leadership’s response to the deadly Hamas attacks and a controversial student group letter that followed continue to mount, after a nonprofit announced it would cut financial ties with the school.

The Wexner Foundation, a group dedicated to developing Jewish leaders, said in a letter to Harvard on Monday it was “formally ending its financial and programmatic relationships with Harvard and the Harvard Kennedy School,” citing the administration’s delayed response as a reason Wexner will no longer financially support the school.

The Boston Globe reports that in fiscal year 2021, Harvard received about $1.8 million for its Kennedy School fellowship program from Wexner and $667,000 to the university.

“Our core values and those of Harvard no longer align,” the foundation wrote in the letter.

Fliers depicting Israelis kidnapped by Hamas spread around Greater Boston (Oct. 17)

More than a week after scores of Israelis were kidnapped by Hamas militants, posters showing the hostages continue to pop up around Boston.

The posters have been attached to trees, utility poles, and more in the city as well as Cambridge, Brookline, and Newton, NBC10 Boston reported. Artists in New York began the initiative and made the digital files of the posters free to download online.

Now, people like Shiri Frydrich-Barniv are helping to spread the word about the people waiting on some form of rescue. She told NBC that doing so could both help the hostages and raise awareness stateside.

“It’s a win-win, because we educate people, but it also gives us purpose. It gives them strength,” Frydrich-Barniv said.

Israeli officials said that 199 people had been kidnapped by Hamas when gunmen rampaged through Israeli villages in a surprise attack. Hamas released the first video of one of the hostages, 21-year-old Mia Schem, Monday.

The video, lasting only a minute, shows Schem receiving medical care for a wound on her arm. A person off-camera wraps it in bandages before Schem speaks directly to the camera in Hebrew, The New York Times reported.

Schem said that she is in Gaza, and that her arm was operated on for three hours. She ends the video by pleading to return home.

“I just ask that I am returned as fast as possible to my family, to my parents, and to my siblings,” she said. “Please get us out of here as quickly as possible.”

Schem was reportedly kidnapped from the music festival in southern Israel, near the border with Gaza. Parts of the video were filmed early last week, according to an analysis of its metadata conducted by the Times.

Jake Donnelly, an activist with the Israeli American Council of New England, told NBC that his friend’s father is another one of the hostages. He expressed frustration at reports that some of the posters were being taken down.

“If you’re taking down a poster of a Holocaust survivor who has been kidnapped, or of a 3-year-old child who has been kidnapped, I’m sorry, but I’ll call them out whenever I see it and whoever does it,” Donnelly said.

Last week, a student group at MIT placed fliers around campus with photos and information about the hostages. Passersby were asked to take photos of the hostages and share them widely.

Mass. family trapped in Gaza faces increasingly desperate situation (Oct. 16)

From left, Wafaa Abuzayda, Yousef Okal, and Abood Okal. – Family photo

A Massachusetts family trapped in southern Gaza is reportedly entering “survival mode” as they struggle to secure clean water and food until the border crossing with Egypt is opened.

Abood Okal; his wife, Wafaa Abuzayda; and their 18-month-old son, Yousef, were visiting family in Gaza when Hamas militants attacked Israel earlier this month, leading to a punishing Israeli response and a worsening humanitarian crisis in the enclave. The situation for the family and hundreds of thousands of others in Gaza has grown increasingly dire following the evacuation of civilians from the north.

The family from Medway was staying in a rural area about 10 miles from the Rafah crossing, which links Gaza and Egypt, as of Sunday, The Boston Globe reported.

Despite being “exhausted and sleep-deprived,” the family is trying to stay strong for their young son.

“The hardest feeling is to hide your fear, and show the opposite, just to keep my son positive,” Abuzayda told NPR. “He doesn’t understand anything. He thinks this [is] fireworks.”

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Sunday after a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi that the Rafah crossing would open, according to The New York Times. But the crossing remained closed Monday, despite a message from the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem to Americans trapped in Gaza that it could open at 9 a.m. local time.

“We anticipate that the situation at the Rafah crossing will remain fluid and unpredictable and it is unclear whether, or for how long, travelers will be permitted to transit the crossing. If you assess it to be safe, you may wish to move closer to the Rafah border crossing – there may be very little notice if the crossing opens and it may only open for a limited time,” officials said.

Egyptian security sources told Reuters that a ceasefire, needed to open the border, had been agreed to Monday. But representatives from both the Israeli government and Hamas denied that.

The family was told that they could cross the border at 9 a.m. Monday by U.S. officials, the Globe reported. They arrived early Monday and waited for hours, but were eventually turned away around 3 p.m. local time.

“My update is that there is no update, and that’s significant,” Sammy Nabulsi, a Boston lawyer and friend of the family, told the Globe Monday. “The U.S. has lost all ability to get its citizens back home.”

Okal, Abuzayda, and their son also traveled to the crossing Saturday in hopes of making it through to Egypt. Before dawn, they received news that the crossing could open for a five-hour window later in the day. But a lack of communication between Palestinian and Egyptian officials stymied efforts to open the crossing, The Washington Post reported.

The family spent several hours waiting at the crossing Saturday with several hundred people, the Post reported. Among them was another American family from New Jersey and people from Canada, Sweden, Spain, and Norway.

Trucks loaded with supplies for those in Gaza have been waiting for days at the Egyptian side of the crossing, as Palestinian hospitals warn that they are on the verge of collapse and those sheltering in U.N. facilities resort to drinking less than 1 liter of water per day, The Associated Press reported.

Israeli officials have cut off the flow of fuel or any other supplies into Gaza, and people there are “trying to be very strategic” about when they use their cars in case of emergency, Okal told the Globe.

Many Massachusetts elected officials are calling for the need to evacuate people safely from the region and get residents back to the states.

“It is gutting that families, including Abood and Wafaa’s family, arrived at the Rafah crossing at the time advised by [the State Department] on Saturday and have not yet been able to cross. They have a one-year-old in their arms. It must be an imperative for President Biden and for all nations involved to safely evacuate Americans and save civilian lives,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley said in a statement to the Globe.

Harvard president says university embraces free speech amid letter backlash (Oct. 16)

Harvard’s president responded once again to the backlash stoked after a letter from student groups blamed Israel for the week of violence that started with a surprise attack from Hamas.

In a video posted to Harvard’s YouTube account, Claudine Gay condemned terrorist attacks and hate of anyone based on their religious views. But she also added that the university doesn’t tolerate the intimidation of students for expressing their beliefs, and said Harvard welcomes free expression — even “outrageous” views.

“We can issue public pronouncements declaring the rightness of our own points of view and vilify those who disagree. Or we can choose to talk and to listen with care and humility, to seek deeper understanding, and to meet one another with compassion,” Gay said in the video.

Those who criticized the letter, penned by the Palestine Solidarity Committee and co-signed by more than 30 student groups, went as far as doxxing the students, and a conservative group drove around trucks with LED screens that featured the students’ pictures and called them anti-Semetic. Some Harvard alumni and CEOs have said they want the students blacklisted, and philanthropist couple Idan and Batia Ofer quit the Harvard Kennedy School executive board over the university’s response to the letter.

Salem church members describe escape from Israel (Oct. 16)

A group of 30 Salem parishioners who were visiting Israel last week scrambled to evacuate after Hamas attacked the country near the Gaza border.

On the day of the attacks, members of the Immaculate Conception Church in Salem arrived in Israel to see landmarks of Jesus’s life, The Boston Globe reports. They heard bombs and gunshots in the distance, but were told by their tour guide that they were safe.

That was until Monday, when the group was in Bethlehem, located in the West Bank.

“We were advised by the tour group: ‘We’re going back to the hotel; you get 30 minutes to pack up and hop back on the bus,’” church member Bill Card told the Globe. “[That] was, I think, really when it hit home for me.”

It took the group days to get out of the war-torn country, and by Wednesday they were crossing the border to Jordan, where they then boarded a plane to Turkey. The parishioners arrived in Boston on Saturday.

Previous live updates can be found here.