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Israel orders more Gaza evacuations after school shelter attack kills scores

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By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO (Reuters) -Israel expanded evacuation orders in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip overnight, forcing tens of thousands of Palestinian residents and displaced families to leave in the dark as explosions from tank shelling reverberated around them.

The Israeli military said it was attacking militants from the Hamas group – which administered Gaza before the war – who were using those areas to stage attacks and fire rockets.

On Saturday, an Israeli airstrike on a school where displaced Palestinians were sheltering in Gaza City killed at least 90 people, according to the civil defence service, prompting an international outcry. 

The Israeli military said it had struck a Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant command post, an allegation the two groups rejected as a pretext, and killed 19 militants.

In Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip, the evacuation instruction covered districts in the centre, east and west, making it one of the largest such orders in the 10-month-old conflict, two days after tanks returned to the east of the city.

The announcement was posted on X and in text and audio messages to residents’ phones: “For your own safety, you must evacuate immediately to the newly created humanitarian zone. The area you are in is considered a dangerous combat zone.”

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations’ agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, said people in Gaza were trapped and had nowehere to go.

“Some are only able to carry their children with them, some carry their whole lives in one small bag. They are going to overcrowded places where shelters are already overflowing with families. They have lost everything and need everything,” he said.

The Israeli army said it had struck around 30 Hamas military targets in the previous 24 hours, including military structures, anti-tank missile launch posts, and weapons storage facilities.

The Islamic Jihad armed wing said fighters fired mortar bombs against Israeli forces massing in the eastern areas of Khan Younis.

Later on Sunday, an Israeli airstrike near the Khan Younis market at the center of the city killed four Palestinians and wounded several others, medics said.

Lines of smoke rose from areas where Israeli planes carried attacks in the eastern and western parts of the city. Residents said two multi-floor buildings were bombed.

Nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza since the war broke out last October and the toll is rising by the day, the Gaza health ministry says.

Gaza health officials say most of the fatalities have been civilians but Israel says at least a third are fighters. Israel says it has lost 329 soldiers in Gaza.    

Israel began its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

TENS OF THOUSANDS FORCED TO LEAVE OVERNIGHT  

Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced from their homes, according to the United Nations, while their narrow strip of land has largely been reduced to a wasteland of rubble.

Palestinian and United Nations officials say there are no safe areas in the enclave. Areas designated as humanitarian zones, like Al-Mawasi in western Khan Younis where residents were being sent, have been bombed several times by Israeli forces.

Tens of thousands left their homes and shelters in the middle of the night, heading west toward Mawasi and north toward Deir Al-Balah, already overcrowded with hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

© Reuters. Gaza City, August 11, 2024. Reuters TV

“We’re exhausted. This is the 10th time I and my family have had to leave our shelter,” said Zaki Mohammad, 28, who lives in the Hamad housing project in western Khan Younis, where the occupants of two multi-floor buildings were ordered to leave.

“People are carrying their belongings, their children, their hopes and their fears and running towards the unknown, because there is no safe place,” he told Reuters via a chat app. “We are running from death to death.” 

(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Angus MacSwan)

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Dutch police seize scores at pro-Palestinian rally after soccer unrest

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By Anthony Deutsch and Charlotte Van Campenhout

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Dutch police took away more than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters on Sunday who defied a ban on demonstrations in Amsterdam following clashes this week involving Israeli soccer fans.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the capital’s Dam Square, chanting “Free Palestine” and “Amsterdam says no to genocide”, in reference to the Gaza war.

Israel denies allegations of genocide in its more than year-long offensive against Palestinian militant group Hamas.

After a local court ratified the city council’s ban, police moved in, instructing protesters to leave and rounding up more than 100 of them, according to a Reuters journalist.

They were put on buses and dropped off on the outskirts of the city, police spokesperson Ramona van den Ochtend said, without confirming how many had been picked up.

One protester was taken to an ambulance bleeding.

The ban, which authorities extended for another four days until Thursday, has been in place since Friday after attacks on Israeli soccer supporters following a soccer match between visiting Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax Amsterdam.

At least five people were injured in assaults that Dutch authorities and foreign leaders including Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced as antisemitic.

DETENTIONS

Protest organisers said in a message on Instagram that they were outraged by the “framing” of unrest around the match as antisemitic and called the protest ban draconian.

“We refuse to let the charge of antisemitism be weaponized to suppress Palestinian resistance,” they said.

Four people remain detained on suspicion of violent acts, including two minors. Another 40 people have been fined for public disturbance and 10 for offences including vandalism.

As well as suffering attacks by what the mayor called “antisemitic hit-and-run squads”, visiting Israeli fans burned a Palestinian flag and used sticks, pipes and rocks in clashes with opponents, according to a video and police report.

Local police chief Olivier Dutilh told the court on Sunday that the protest ban was still needed as antisemitic incidents were continuing, including people being pushed out of taxis and told to show their passports on Saturday night.

© Reuters. Dutch police help a pro-Palestinian protester during a banned demonstration in Amsterdam, November 10, 2024. REUTERS/Anthony Deutsch

The Netherlands has seen a rise in antisemitic incidents since the Gaza war began in October last year.

More than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed and millions displaced in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza, according to health officials there, launched after Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage in a cross-border attack, according to Israel.

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Bitcoin rises above $80,000 for first time

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(Reuters) -Bitcoin was trading near record $80,000 on Sunday after hitting it earlier in the session, following Donald Trump’s decisive victory in the U.S. presidential election earlier in the week.

© Reuters. Physical representations of the bitcoin cryptocurrency are seen in this illustration taken October 24, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

, the world’s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, is up 65.4% from the year’s low of $38,505 it hit on Jan. 23.

Trump has vowed to make the United States “the crypto capital of the planet”.

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Factbox-Trump 2.0: Who is in the running for top jobs in Trump’s second administration?

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By Gram Slattery

(Reuters) -Donald Trump has begun the process of choosing a cabinet and selecting other high-ranking administration officials following his presidential election victory.

Here are the early picks and top contenders for some of the key posts overseeing defense, intelligence, diplomacy, trade, immigration and economic policymaking. Some are in contention for a range of posts.

SUSIE WILES, chief of staff

Trump on Thursday announced that Wiles, one of his two campaign managers, will be his White House chief of staff.

While the specifics of her political views are somewhat unclear, Wiles is credited with running a successful and efficient campaign. Supporters hope she would instill a sense of order and discipline that was often lacking during Trump’s first term, when he cycled through a number of chiefs of staff.

SCOTT BESSENT, potential treasury secretary

Bessent, a key economic adviser to Trump, is widely seen as a top candidate for treasury secretary. A longtime hedge fund investor who taught at Yale University for several years, Bessent has a warm relationship with the president-elect.

While Bessent has long favored the laissez-faire policies that were popular in the pre-Trump Republican Party, he has also spoken highly of Trump’s use of tariffs as a negotiating tool. He has praised the president-elect’s economic philosophy, which rests on a skepticism of both regulations and international trade.

JOHN PAULSON, potential treasury secretary

Paulson, a billionaire hedge fund manager and major Trump donor, is another top contender for treasury secretary. The longtime financier has told associates he would be interested in the job.

A longtime proponent of tax cuts and deregulation, Paulson’s profile is broadly similar to that of other potential members of Trump’s economic team. He has publicly supported targeted tariffs as a tool to ensure U.S. national security and combat unfair trade practices abroad.

One high-profile fundraiser hosted by Paulson in April raked in over $50 million for the former president.

LARRY KUDLOW, potential treasury secretary

FOX Business Network personality Larry Kudlow, who served as director of the National Economic Council for much of Trump’s first term, has an outside shot at becoming his treasury secretary and would likely have an opportunity to take a separate economics-focused position if he is interested.

While he is privately skeptical of broad tariffs, there is publicly little daylight between the policies Kudlow advocates and those of the president-elect.

ROBERT LIGHTHIZER, potential treasury secretary

A loyalist who served as Trump’s U.S. trade representative for essentially the then-president’s entire term, Lighthizer will almost certainly be invited back. Though Bessent and Paulson likely have a better shot at becoming treasury secretary, Lighthizer has an outside chance, and he might be able to reprise his old role if he’s interested.

Like Trump, Lighthizer is a trade skeptic and a firm believer in tariffs. He was one of the leading figures in Trump’s trade war with China and the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, with Mexico and Canada during Trump’s first term.

HOWARD LUTNICK, potential treasury secretary

The co-chair of Trump’s transition effort and the longtime chief executive of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, Lutnick is in the running for treasury secretary.

A bombastic New Yorker like Trump, Lutnick has uniformly praised the president-elect’s economic policies, including his use of tariffs.

He has at times given elaborate, unvarnished opinions about what policies will be enacted in Trump’s second term. Some Trump allies had privately complained that he too often presented himself as speaking on behalf of the campaign.

LINDA McMAHON, potential commerce secretary

Professional wrestling magnate and former Small Business Administration director Linda McMahon is seen as the frontrunner to lead Trump’s Department of Commerce, three sources briefed on the plans said.

McMahon is a major donor and was an early supporter of the Republican president-elect when he first ran for the White House almost a decade ago. This time, Trump tapped her to co-lead a transition team formed to help vet personnel and draft policy ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

McMahon is the co-founder and former CEO of the professional wrestling franchise WWE. She later served as director of the Small Business Administration, resigning in 2019, and went on to lead a pro-Trump political action committee that supported his 2020 reelection bid.

RICHARD GRENELL, potential secretary of state 

Grenell is among Trump’s closest foreign policy advisers. During the president-elect’s first four-year term, he served as acting director of national intelligence and U.S. ambassador to Germany. When Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in September, Grenell sat in on the private meeting.

Grenell’s private dealings with foreign leaders and often-caustic personality have made him the center of multiple controversies, though significant Republican gains in the Senate mean he could likely be confirmed. He is also considered a top contender for national security adviser, which does not require Senate confirmation.

Among the policies he has advocated for is setting up an autonomous zone in eastern Ukraine to end the war there, a position Kyiv considers unacceptable.

ROBERT O’BRIEN, potential secretary of state

O’Brien, Trump’s fourth and final national security adviser during his first term, maintains a close relationship with Trump, and the two often speak on national security matters.

He is likely in the running for secretary of state or other top foreign policy and national security posts. He has maintained close contacts with foreign leaders since Trump left office, having met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel in May.

His views are somewhat more hawkish than some of Trump’s advisers. He has, for instance, been more supportive of military aid for Ukraine than many of his Republican contemporaries, and he is a proponent of banning TikTok in the United States.

BILL HAGERTY, potential secretary of state

A U.S. senator from Tennessee who worked on Trump’s 2016 transition effort, Hagerty is considered a top contender for secretary of state. He has maintained solid relations with essentially all factions of the Republican Party, and could likely be confirmed with ease in the Senate.

He served as U.S. ambassador to Japan in the first Trump administration at a time when the president touted his warm relationship with then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Hagerty’s policies are broadly in line with those of Trump. Earlier in the year, he voted against a major military aid package for Ukraine.

MARCO RUBIO, potential secretary of state

Rubio, a U.S. senator from Florida and 2016 Republican presidential candidate, is also a top secretary of state contender whose policies hew closely to those of Trump. Like Hagerty, he was a contender to be Trump’s 2024 running mate.

Rubio has long been involved in foreign affairs in the Senate, particularly as it relates to Latin America, and he has solid relationships throughout the party.

MIKE WALTZ, potential defense secretary

A former Army Green Beret who is currently a U.S. congressman from Florida, Waltz has established himself as one of the foremost China hawks in the House of Representatives.

Among the various China-related bills he has co-sponsored are measures designed to lessen U.S. reliance on critical minerals mined in China.

Waltz is on speaking terms with Trump and is widely considered to be a serious contender for secretary of defense.

KEITH KELLOGG, potential candidate for national security adviser

A retired lieutenant general who served as chief of staff to the National Security Council under Trump, Kellogg (NYSE:) has Trump’s ear and is a contender for national security adviser, among other national security posts.

During the campaign, he presented Trump with a plan to end the war in Ukraine, which involved forcing both parties to the negotiating table and ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine for the foreseeable future, among other measures.

TOM HOMAN, potential homeland security secretary

Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for a year and a half during Trump’s first term, is a contender for secretary of homeland security. Trump made cracking down on illegal immigration the central element of his campaign, promising mass deportations.

Trump frequently praised Homan during the campaign, and Homan often hit the trail to rally supporters. During Trump’s first term, Homan was a leading advocate of the administration’s controversial child separation policy, during which children of immigrants who had entered the country illegally were detained separately from their parents.

CHAD WOLF, potential homeland security secretary

Wolf, who served as Trump’s acting secretary of homeland security for roughly 14 months during his first presidency, may have a shot at heading back to DHS.

Wolf loyally carried out Trump’s hardline immigration policies, and he deployed federal agents to Portland, Oregon, to control protests during the riots that followed the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer.

He may have some strikes against him. He resigned on Jan. 11, 2021, just days after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump has expressed misgivings about bringing back those who resigned in the final days of his term. Wolf, however, cited the legal controversy around his appointment as DHS secretary – rather than the Capitol attack – when he stepped down. Multiple judges ruled that his appointment by Trump, which effectively circumvented the Senate, was illegal.

MARK GREEN, potential homeland security secretary

A former Army flight surgeon and the current chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, Green is considered by some Trump allies in Washington as a contender for the top job at DHS. His supporters describe him as a Trump loyalist and immigration hardliner who also has significant legislative experience.

Green was nominated by Trump during his first term to serve as secretary of the Army, but he withdrew his name as past statements, which were widely seen as transphobic and Islamophobic, drew more scrutiny. 

JOHN RATCLIFFE, potential attorney general

A former congressman and prosecutor who served as director of national intelligence during Trump’s last year in office, Ratcliffe is seen as a potential attorney general, though he could also take a separate national security or intelligence position, such as CIA director.

The president-elect’s allies view Ratcliffe as a hardcore Trump loyalist who could likely win Senate confirmation. Still, during his time as director of national intelligence, Ratcliffe often contradicted the assessments of career civil servants, drawing criticism from Democrats who said he politicized the role.

MIKE LEE, potential attorney general

A U.S. senator from Utah, Lee is widely seen as another top candidate for attorney general. Though the former prosecutor declined to vote for Trump during the 2016 election, he later became an unwavering ally, and he has become something of an intellectual hero among some factions of Trumpworld.

Lee was a key figure in attempts by Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, and has spread unfounded conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

KASH PATEL, potential candidate for national security posts

A former Republican House staffer who served in various high-ranking staff roles in the defense and intelligence communities during Trump’s first term, Patel frequently appeared on the campaign trail to rally support for the candidate.

Some Trump allies would like to see Patel, considered the ultimate Trump loyalist, appointed CIA director. Any position requiring Senate confirmation may be a challenge, however. 

© Reuters. Susie Wiles reacts as Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks, following early results from the 2024 U.S. presidential election in Palm Beach County Convention Center, in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., November 6, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Patel has leaned into controversy throughout his career. In an interview with Trump ally Steve Bannon last year, he promised to “come after” politicians and journalists perceived to be enemies of the president-elect.

During Trump’s first term, Patel drew animosity from some more experienced national security officials, who saw him as volatile and too eager to please the then-president.

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