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IDF says ‘mission is not over’ until hostages are returned: ‘We will not rest’

IDF says ‘mission is not over’ until hostages are returned: ‘We will not rest’

The Israel Defense Forces said that the war in Gaza is not over following the killing of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ top leader and the mastermind of the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 attack, and will continue until the hostages taken amid that day’s massacre are returned. IDF Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari released declassified footage showing Sinwar hours before the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, as well as his movements in Gaza as he fled over the past year. Hagari said 101 hostages remain held in Gaza after a year in captivity under “ruthless conditions.”  “Killing Sinwar is the result of a year of operational and intelligence efforts to bring him and other Hamas leaders to justice. Sinwar has been eliminated. But our mission is not over,” Hagari said in a video statement on Saturday. “We will not rest until we bring all our hostages home by any means possible. And we will continue to defend the people of Israel from all threats on all of our borders.”  NETANYAHU PROMISES RETALIATION FOLLOWING ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT BY HEZBOLLAH Hours before the Oct. 7 attacks, during which Hamas terrorists murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis and took hundreds more as hostages into Gaza, Sinwar was captured on video alone hiding his family and equipment, including beds, pillows, food, water and a TV in an underground tunnel network, Hagari said.  NETANYAHU’S DEFIANCE OF BIDEN-HARRIS RAFAH INVASION THREATS LED TO ELIMINATION OF SINWAR, EXPERTS SAY While Sinwar’s location was kept classified while he ordered the attacks from the underground tunnels, “this was a luxury that the people of Gaza did not have as Sinwar always prioritized himself, his money and the Hamas terrorists over the people of Gaza,” Hagari said. “Each step was planned to maximize harm to Israeli and Gazan civilians and to minimize harm to himself and other terrorists.” “Throughout the war that Sinwar started, he continued to hide underneath the people of Gaza,” Hagari said. In February, Hagari said Israeli troops found Sinwar’s underground hideout in Khan Yunis that included money, food, beds, documents, a shower and a kitchen. IDF operations in Khan Yunis forced Sinwar to flee to Rafah last month, Hagari said.  Sinwar’s DNA was recovered on a piece of tissue “a few hundred meters” from a tunnel where six Israeli hostages were executed in Rafah before Sinwar fled again, Hagari said.  “When Sinwar was running for his life and went above the ground, this was the first and last time that he encountered Israeli soldiers in combat,” Hagari said. “Sinwar was eliminated by the IDF in Rafah last Wednesday. I want to emphasize it again: This was the first and last time he encountered Israeli soldiers, and he was eliminated. There were no hostages with Sinwar when he was eliminated.” 

Balance of power: Helene could shift political winds toward Trump, North Carolina lawmakers say

Balance of power: Helene could shift political winds toward Trump, North Carolina lawmakers say

With early voting kicking off in North Carolina just weeks after Hurricane Helene hit, lawmakers there are optimistic that the storm will have little impact on Americans’ access to the ballot box. Not only that – a pair of Tar Heel Republican officials told Fox News Digital they believe former President Donald Trump will ultimately win the state. “I think we’re actually going to see a shocking turnout here,” Rep. Jake Johnson, a member of the state assembly, said on Thursday. “People are really going above and beyond to make sure during this time – especially if they’re frustrated about the way the federal government has handled things.” Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., whose congressional district was hit hard by Helene, said, “Although we’re very busy right now recovering from the storm, we remember what all our lives were like the day before Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina.” SPEAKER JOHNSON RIPS ‘LACK OF LEADERSHIP’ IN BIDEN ADMIN’S HELENE RESPONSE: ‘ALARMED AND DISAPPOINTED’ “Families were struggling. Gas prices were climbing. We saw an open border that seemed to go unnoticed or ignored by the Harris and Biden administration. We saw a record amount of fentanyl coming into our country,” Edwards said.  Helene ravaged the Southeastern U.S. roughly three weeks ago, killing dozens of people across multiple states.  Northwestern North Carolina was hit particularly hard by the storm and the mudslides it caused, with whole communities believed to have been washed away. Concerns about voter access after the storm were compounded by North Carolina’s status as a swing state. Trump won there by less than 2% in 2020, and both his and Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaigns are pouring enormous political resources into the state this year. In a rare show of bipartisanship, however, the Republican-led state legislature worked with Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to pass a sweeping elections package to make it easier for people in affected counties to reach a ballot box ahead of Nov. 5. HURRICANE HELENE: NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENTS FIGHT FOR THEIR SURVIVAL AS BASIC GOODS BECOME SCARCE Edwards, who just last week told Fox News Digital that he was concerned about residents not being able to vote, said he now believes “we’re going to see record turnout at the polls.” The congressman went to an early voting facility himself earlier on Thursday. He spoke with voters he said were “enthused” and “optimistic.” “I was really excited to see the turnout. We had two lanes of traffic down, two different highways with folks coming in to vote,” Edwards said. “There was a lot of energy.” He suggested that the enthusiasm would bode well for Trump, after speaking with voters unhappy with the current state of the country beyond the storm. NORTH CAROLINA COMMUNITY ‘HUNTING’ FOR MISSING TEACHERS IN ‘DEVASTATING’ AFTERMATH OF HURRICANE HELENE Meanwhile, Johnson said it was the storm recovery itself that would push more people to vote for Trump. He said the “lack of response” some rural areas of North Carolina saw immediately after the storm could spur people in those areas to vote Republican. “If you talk to the average person out there, you know, I think they would agree a lot of this was kind of botched from the top-down as far as the federal response,” Johnson said. “I think we’re actually going to be shocked at the level of turnout, how good it’ll be in western North Carolina.” He and Edwards both also credited the state government’s elections legislation for making it easier for those motivated voters to turn out. Notably, the White House’s response to the storm has been praised by other Republican officials, like the governors of Virginia, South Carolina and Tennessee.  Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., a conservative, also had rare praise for President Biden’s handling of the situation. North Carolina residents shattered the state’s first-day early voting record on Thursday, fueling optimism among officials that the storm will ultimately have little impact on likely voters. The State Board of Elections said that 353,166 people voted in-person, breaking the same record set in 2020 by roughly 4,500 votes, according to the Charlotte News & Observer. A recent Quinnipiac University poll shows Harris with a slight two-point lead over Trump in North Carolina. The former president led Harris by the same margin last month.