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Israel orders the evacuation of a Gaza hospital where thousands are taking refuge. New warning signs emerge in the background of the Maine gunman. Plus, the “Friends” cast share their devastation over the death of Matthew Perry.
Here’s what to know today.
Trapped Palestinians refuse Israeli orders to evacuate from Gaza hospital
Some 14,000 people are effectively trapped inside Al-Quds hospital in northern Gaza, seeking shelter and safety from Israel’s war against Hamas, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society. At least twice in recent days, aid workers said, the Israeli military ordered hospital administrators to immediately evacuate the facility.
Hardly any of the people calling the hospital’s corridors home are leaving, a U.N. humanitarian coordinator told NBC News. Most have nowhere to go and no vehicle or fuel even if they wanted to leave.
“Evacuating patients, including those in intensive care, on life support and babies in incubators, is close to, if not impossible in the current situation,” the International Federation of Red Cross said. “Our teams also report violent attacks and shelling very close to the hospital, further endangering people.”
The Israel Defense Forces did not respond to requests from NBC News about whether it was targeting the area around the Al-Quds Hospital in order to get people to leave, but in a later statement, an IDF spokesperson said: “We can say that we’ve been asking everyone in the north to evacuate south now for three weeks.”
The orders to evacuate Al-Quds Hospital come in the middle of a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where most residents have been living without power and access to fresh water and with little food.
“Every day the situation worsens,” Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s regional Middle East director, said in a statement. “Children are experiencing severe trauma from the constant bombardment. Their drinking water is polluted or rationed, and soon families may not be able to feed them too. How much more are the Gazans expected to endure?”
Read the full story for more about the mounting toll of the war and deteriorating conditions in Gaza.
Follow our live blog for the latest updates as the IDF says it is engaging in ”fierce battles” with Hamas deep inside Gaza.
More warning signs emerge in Maine gunman’s past
Former co-workers of the man who killed 18 people and wounded 13 others in Maine’s worst mass shooting last week say there were warning signs his declining mental health and apparent obsession with guns could prove deadly.
One person who worked with Robert Card at Maine Recycling Corp. says they saw a “total mood change” from him earlier this year before Card left the job in June. “I knew it was going to come eventually. I said, ‘One day, he’s probably going to shoot someone up,’” the co-worker said. “He was bringing up guns heavily and aggressively.”
Another colleague said a supervisor was warned that Card supposedly had made threats of workplace gun violence, but nothing was done and it felt like “it was swept under the rug.”
Maine Recycling said that supervisors were not aware of any conversations in which he may have threatened workplace violence and that it takes such threats seriously.
Erik Ortiz and Melissa Chan detail the warning signs of Card’s potential to commit a mass shooting and attempts by family members and his Army Reserve unit commanders to get him help.
Matthew Perry’s ‘Friends’ co-stars react as ‘a family’
Matthew Perry’s “Friends” castmates spoke out for the first time late yesterday, saying that they are “utterly devastated” over the sudden death of their beloved co-star.
“We were more than just cast mates. We are a family,” Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer said in a joint statement.
A scary cold Halloween
No trick. Snow showers and frigid temperatures are forecast for Halloween from the Upper Midwest through the Great Lakes. “Waves of snow” are forecast for the morning commute in Chicago, and, for the Mid-Atlantic region, the next couple nights will be the coldest of this fall.
Plus, around 64 million people from southeastern Arizona to parts of New York state were under freeze warnings, expecting bone-chilling temperatures, according to the National Weather Service.
Heavily armed man found dead in apparent suicide at Colorado amusement park
Law enforcement officials revealed that a 20-year-old man with an AR-style rifle, a handgun, body armor and a helmet and fake explosives was found dead of an apparent suicide at a Colorado amusement park early Saturday.
Maintenance staff members found the man dead in the women’s restroom at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park before it opened for the day. “There’s much more we do not know right now than we do know,” the local sheriff said at a news conference.
Investigators don’t know what the man, whose identity was not released, intended, and said that family and friends had expressed no apparent reason for concern.
Politics in Brief
Foreign aid: Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will make the case for $105 billion in spending on aid to Ukraine and Israel, efforts to contain China and tougher border security in the U.S.
House speaker: In his first act, Speaker Mike Johnson is picking a fight with President Joe Biden, seeking to pay for aid to Israel by slashing $14.3 billion from IRS funds in the Democratic president’s signature law.
Supreme Court ethics: Senate Democrats plan to subpoena influential Republicans to learn more about their gifts to Supreme Court justices, part of a push to overhaul ethics rules for the high court.
Election tea leaves: Views on abortion and President Joe Biden’s job performance will compete next week to shape races in Virginia, and could prove an early test of the forces shaping the 2024 presidential election.
Staff Pick: By repeatedly rejecting claims, Medicare Advantage plans threaten rural hospitals, CEOs say
I remember way back when Congress enacted a private-sector alternative to Medicare. Fast forward 20 years, and more than half of people on Medicare are enrolled in one of the plans offered by large insurance companies. But Gretchen Morgenson reports that serious problems have emerged with the Medicare Advantage plans.
— Richie Duchon, deputy director of platforms
In Case You Missed It
The Massachusetts Witch-Hunt Justice Project is hoping to clear the names of all those accused, arrested or indicted for witchcraftin the state, whether or not the accusations ended in hanging.
The United Auto Workers strike is set to end as the union and General Motors announced a tentative agreement on a new contract Monday.
Attorney Ben Crump is calling for the DOJ to investigate why police didn’t inform a Mississippi mother her adult son was run over by an off-duty police officer and later buried in a pauper’s grave.
The Food and Drug Administration expanded its warning not to buy or use eyedrops sold by several major retailers.
Sam Bankman-Fried had to answer to his own words as prosecutors questioned the former crypto billionaire at his criminal fraud trial.
A popular drug used to regrow hair in both men and women has become difficult to find in some pharmacies.
Select: Online Shopping, Simplified
It’s almost the season for counting down the days. Classic Advent calendars have chocolate, caramels or other sweet treats hidden behind little doors each day until Christmas. But there are now options available for any holiday you celebrate, and you can buy Advent calendars filled with coffee, wine, socks, Legos, beauty products and more. NBC Select rounded up some of the best Advent calendars to gift this season.
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Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
