Gaza Blackout, Pakistan strikes back at Iran, and the status of U.S. aid to Ukraine

line.

campaign against Hamas takes more lives.

Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Iran two days after Iran did the same in Pakistan.

Both sides say they're targeting separatist militants, so what's this tit-for-tat all

about?

to changes in U.S. border policy.

but the American people have those same concerns about our own domestic sovereignty and our

safety and our security.

Stay with us.

We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

With WISE, you can send and spend money internationally at the mid-market exchange rate.

Learn more about how WISE could work for you at WISE.com.

rule.

If they gain more power, it could mean fewer rights for you.

I'm Heath Druzin, and on the new season of Extremely American, I'll take you inside

the movement.

Listen to Extremely American from Boise State Public Radio, part of the NPR network.

Northern Michigan has beaches and wineries and big blue lakes, great lakes, you might

say.

Each week on the Up North Low Down podcast, we bring you stories and interesting conversations

from the top of the mitten.

Listen to the Up North Low Down from Interlochen Public Radio, part of the NPR network.

in southern Gaza.

One of only about a third of hospitals still functioning there.

in combat nearby, many of them are evacuating, so 85% of the population is displaced.

And in Israel, tensions between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his war

cabinet are raising questions about the durability of his governing coalition.

Good morning, Becky.

communications have been down for days, but what do you know about what's happening at

the hospital?

So what we do know there is that a few days ago, witnesses say an airstrike hit just about

150 yards from the entrance to the hospital that killed eight people, according to Doctors

Without Borders.

And we've seen videos come out on social media, this limited connectivity that people have

showing civilians evacuating as you can hear gunfire and explosions behind them.

We heard from Leo Kahn, he's the head of mission for Palestine with Doctors Without Borders.

He was at the hospital on Tuesday.

Yesterday, he came out and put out a little video clip that said, you know, the situation

there is catastrophic.

We hear a lot of bombing around, a lot of shooting around.

The military said Tuesday that a Hamas fighter launched some kind of munition from the hospital

grounds at Nassar Hospital.

That's not something NPR can independently verify.

Another thing to note is that there is a hostage who was released back in November, telling

media that she and about 30 others were kept for weeks in this hospital at Nassar Hospital

in Hanounis.

Israeli military and Lebanese Hezbollah are trading fire.

Is a new front in this war starting to look like a real possibility?

As you say, the militant group Hezbollah is based there, and it's important to note that

they are much better armed than Hamas.

And so what we have seen, Leila, is that rockets and other attacks over the border have really

ramped up over the past two weeks.

There has been an American envoy up there this month trying to reach a diplomatic agreement

to try to calm things down.

Reuters is reporting last night that Hezbollah has rejected that so far.

And what we're hearing is that both sides are doing a lot of talk, saying that they're

ready for war.

As an example, last night, the Israeli military chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, he says,

I don't know when the war in the north is, but, quote, I can tell you that the likelihood

of it happening in the coming months is much higher than it was in the past.

Israel has withdrawn troops from northern Gaza.

We know, and this morning, a former Israeli national security adviser said that one reason

for that is to train them and to redeploy them along the northern border in preparation

for this possible war.

So we don't know, but the odds seem maybe increasingly likely.

Hard to say.

How are Israelis feeling about how this is all going?

I mean, there has been a lot of anger here, especially over the hostages.

That has sparked up again just over the last day.

There is debate over what caused the death of two hostages whose bodies were recovered

from Gaza in December.

Hamas says they were killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Yesterday, the Israeli military denied that.

But importantly, they couldn't rule out that maybe the two hostages were killed as the

result of an Israeli military action indirectly.

All this is to say there's this growing skepticism over Israel's argument that military pressure

is needed to bring about a new hostage release.

And so there is, you know, some unity that was there at the start of the war, especially

in Netanyahu's war cabinet, that is kind of starting to fray.

strikes against terrorist hideouts in Tehran.

military has struck Iran.

Iranian media report nine people were killed and it comes after Iran this week struck sites

in Pakistan and Iraq.

She covers South Asia, including Pakistan, from her base in Mumbai.

Hi, Dia.

What happened exactly?

which it accuses of conducting cross-border attacks.

And that came after Iran conducted its own surprise attacks inside Pakistan.

Local media reports that in one of those strikes, a mud hut was hit, killing a child and a baby.

Now, this is all taking place in an area called Balochistan.

It's vast and it straddles Pakistan and Iran.

It's rugged, porous and impoverished.

And it's long been a space where militants, separatists and smugglers have thrived.

And they've used it as a radar to attack both countries.

So even in the past, Iran has conducted small ground incursions into Pakistani Balochistan

in pursuit of militants.

So what's different about what's happening right now?

Zaidi.

He's a columnist and a director of a think tank in Islamabad.

And he spoke to me from a flight, so you can hear some whooshing noise.

The scale of what Iran did was unprecedented and certainly Pakistan's response and the

The prime minister and the Pakistani foreign minister have both cut overseas trips and

they're coming home.

It sounds like it's escalating, at least diplomatically.

And it comes at a time of uncertainty.

The war between Israel and Hamas has now gone on for more than 100 days, as I mentioned.

Are these hostilities related at all?

Is that conflict turning into something bigger?

It's accused of playing a role in the current war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza through

proxy groups that are accused of attacking Israeli and American interests in the region.

And amid that conflict, there was an attack claimed by the Islamic State in Iran that

killed over 90 people earlier this month.

So Iran might feel that it needs to reassert its dominance and authority in the region.

Is there a sense that these tensions between Pakistan and Iran could escalate further?

China, which is an ally of both countries, is offering to help defuse tensions.

Will it work, though?

The mood in Pakistan is of surprise and anger.

And the AP reports Iran's military will also begin today a planned air defense drill from

a seaport near Pakistan.

And that might also add to tensions.

Thank you, Diya.

But lately, he hasn't been able to make that promise.

That's because Republicans in the House of Representatives have not said yes to a request

for more aid.

Here's House Speaker Mike Johnson at the White House last night.

But the American people have those same concerns about our own domestic sovereignty and our

safety and our security.

more money for Ukraine.

she joins us now.

Good morning, Mara.

How did the conversation go?

According to House Republicans, maybe not so much.

Now, you heard Speaker Mike Johnson talking just there.

He didn't say no to Ukraine aid.

He is still willing, in theory, to provide more aid.

But he's continuing to tie this to border policy.

He insists on big changes and that the border policy changes should take priority.

President Biden says he's willing to make concessions on the border in order to get

Ukraine aid, also because he's under pressure from blue state Democratic governors and mayors

who are grappling with increased numbers of migrants.

So it's not just Republicans in border states.

And in the Senate, there is a bipartisan group trying to work out a deal on the border that

would be tied to Ukraine aid.

And so far, they say they are making progress.

There's a bipartisan group working on it.

Is that enough to get a deal?

Yes.

But the House is a question mark.

Yesterday, the speaker of the House listed off a series of policy measures that he thinks

are essential.

They're basically elements of former President Donald Trump's border policy.

They were in a bill passed by the House.

But this bill has no chance of clearing the Senate because no Democrats would vote for

it.

And of course, it needs 60 votes.

The question is, would enough Republicans in the House accept anything less than that?

Many hard right Republicans see bipartisan bills, bills that you pass with Democratic

votes, as failures.

That's one of the reasons Kevin McCarthy lost his job as speaker.

So there's also a school of thought that says some Republicans would rather have the border

as an issue to use against President Biden going into the 2024 election than actually

get a bill.

In the Senate, there are Republicans like Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia who

say, look, this is the best chance of getting any Democratic support for big changes in

the border.

Even if Republicans won the White House in November, we couldn't pass anything like this

because Democrats would never vote for it.

They say this would only happen if the two issues are handled together and in a bipartisan

way.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says he's optimistic.

He put the chances of a deal as a little bit greater than half.

He and Biden have been saying that the stakes here are really high.

This is urgent.

If Russia wins, takes over Ukraine, it will hurt the national security of the United States.

It'll hurt NATO and the world.

Thank you, Mara.

I'm Laila Fadil.

Today's episode of Up First was edited by Mark Kadkov, Miguel Macias, Roberto Rampton,

Reena Advani, and Alice Wolfley.

It was produced by Ziad Butch, Van Abrams, and Nina Kravinsky.

We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott and our technical director, Zach Coleman.

As always, start your day here with us tomorrow.

with Up First Plus.

Learn more at plus.npr.org.

That's P-L-U-S dot N-P-R dot org.

On the TED Radio Hour, MIT psychologist Sherry Turkle, her latest research into the intimate

relationships people are having with chatbots.

That's on the TED Radio Hour from NPR.