New Hampshire Primary, Israel-Gaza War Update, Oxford Shooter Parents' Trial

choose today.

week?

Twenty-one soldiers were killed near Israel's border with Gaza.

This is the deadliest single incident for the Israeli military since the war began,

and pressure mounts for Israel to bring home hostages held by Hamas.

For me, for a mother, every day is too much time.

Prosecutors accuse them of being negligent by giving their son access to a gun.

Can parents be held responsible for their children's crimes?

Stay with us.

We've got all the news you need to start your day.

The New Hampshire primary takes place today, and it's now essentially a two-person race

on the Republican side.

is hoping to mount a strong enough challenge against former President Trump to keep her

campaign going.

We do have the most partial of partial vote counts imaginable.

The northern New Hampshire town of Dixville-Notch traditionally counts its ballots first, opening

and closing its polls just after midnight, and all six of its votes went to Nikki Haley.

Four registered Republicans and two independents voted.

vote.

Danielle, so aside from that clean sweep in Dixville-Notch, how did Haley make her case

in New Hampshire?

that he's the chaos candidate.

And she's had a kind of new line of attack in recent days, saying that the political

class is lining up behind Trump, essentially saying that given all of the endorsements

he's been getting, he's the establishment candidate.

But her other big line of attack is electability.

She says that she could more easily defeat Biden than Trump.

But really, a fact check here, in recent polls, it's not clear really whether she's ahead

of Biden right now in head-to-heads.

Trump right now also polls about even with Biden, maybe slightly ahead of him.

He's also arguing she's not conservative enough.

And he's using the fact that New Hampshire independent voters can vote in primaries to

make that case.

Here he was in a recent speech in the town of Rochester.

Independents and Republicans can.

So how do Trump supporters there compare to the ones in Iowa?

is to say they're super devoted.

A lot of them have been with him for years.

They just really didn't even consider other candidates this time around.

One other difference is that New Hampshire voters tend to be a bit less socially conservative.

It's just a less religious state than Iowa.

How much are they in play for Nikki Haley?

I mean, Haley is definitely appealing to independents and more moderate leaning voters.

Here's Danielle Brown.

She saw Haley in the town of Hollis last week.

So I'm praying.

She is conservative, but some voters do perceive her as moderate because she simply doesn't

use as harsh of rhetoric as Trump has.

I mean, really, right now, the meaningful divide in the GOP is not moderate conservative.

It's Trump versus anti-Trump.

Biden is not on the ballot, even though he's president.

So there's a write-in campaign.

Remind us why that's happening.

So the Democratic National Committee adopted a primary calendar last year with South Carolina

as the first state.

But New Hampshire wanted to still be the first in the nation.

So they are still holding a primary, but no delegates will be awarded.

The victory will be symbolic.

But if any candidate like Marianne Williamson or Minnesota Representative Dean Phillips

does well, you can bet they'll talk about it.

So yes, we will see who comes out of that, but there is a write-in campaign to get Biden

to win it.

Thanks a lot.

This morning, it confirmed the deaths of 21 soldiers near Israel's border with the Palestinian

enclave.

200 soldiers.

Gaza's Ministry of Health says more than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war

began, both militants and civilians.

This comes at a time when Israeli forces are pushing into a section of Gaza that is crowded

with displaced people who are trying to avoid the fighting.

Jeff, 21 soldiers dead.

What can you tell us about what happened to them?

This all happened quite close to the Israeli border with Gaza, and there appear to have

been two related events.

An Israeli tank was struck by a missile, and then nearby two buildings that Israeli soldiers

had rigged for demolition collapsed.

Now, it's unclear whether the buildings were struck by enemy fire or whether there was

an accident with the explosives.

Either way, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident a disaster and is saying

there'll be an investigation.

Now, all this comes when Israeli forces are conducting a major offensive in Gaza.

How's that going?

Israeli special forces and other troops are pushing into Han Yunis, a city in southern

Gaza that the military describes as home to some of Hamas's toughest fighters.

But Han Yunis is also home to many, many tens of thousands of civilians who fled northern

Gaza when Israel began its ground offensive.

They're living in makeshift tents, which barely protect them from the elements, let alone

gunfire.

Just minutes ago, I heard from John Kaler, a pediatrician in southern Gaza with the group

MedGlobal.

He told me civilians are fleeing again as the Israeli army closes in.

Red Crescent were struck overnight.

But it's difficult to get details because there's a communications blackout.

It's unclear whether the telecom system is being disrupted by Israeli forces or whether

fighting has cut the line.

Either way, it's very difficult to know what's happening right now.

in Han Yunis to intensify as they try and reach their goal of eradicating Hamas and

freeing the hostages taken on October 7th.

But this military campaign is facing increasing pressure from within Israel.

And a lot of that pressure is coming from the hostages' families.

They want another ceasefire that will allow their loved ones to go free.

I spoke to a mother of a hostage.

Her name was Anit Owel.

And she said it's taking too long to get her son home.

For me, for a mother, every day is too much time.

They've set up protest camps outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's homes

in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

And yesterday, they stormed the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, demanding action.

Now, partially in response to this pressure, the Israeli government has reportedly floated

a deal that would see hostages released in exchange for a prolonged ceasefire.

But NPR hasn't been able to confirm that deal is on the table.

And even if it is, it remains to be seen whether Hamas would accept it.

Jeff, thanks.

over whether a parent can be held criminally responsible for the actions of their child.

Here are some numbers that define this incident.

The student was 15 years old.

He killed four fellow students.

He wounded six other students and one teacher.

The teenager was charged, and so were his parents, with four counts each of involuntary

manslaughter.

Quinn, the shooter in this case, pleaded guilty.

He was sentenced recently to life without parole.

So why did prosecutors charge his parents as well?

Jennifer's trial is first.

But they both face, as you mentioned, charges of involuntary manslaughter.

In essence, prosecutors say the Crumblys could have stopped the massacre if they had taken

certain steps a reasonable person would have done.

The prosecution alleges the Crumblys were grossly negligent by ignoring their son's

pleas for mental health counseling and instead buying him a handgun as an early Christmas

present.

The Crumblys also refused to take their son home from Oxford High the day of the murders,

even after school officials said they found drawings he'd made of a person shot by the

same kind of gun they'd gifted him, with phrases like help me and blood everywhere.

The prosecution says the Crumblys did not even mention their son might have access to

a gun, let alone request that the school check to see if he had it with him.

How are they responding?

And the Crumblys had no way of knowing that he planned a mass shooting.

And they say evidence that their son wanted mental help comes from text messages to his

friend, not something that the parents would have seen.

during the shooting, it's all about that.

son could not gain access to it.

But when the son, Ethan Crumbly, pleaded guilty to the killings in 2022, prosecutors specifically

questioned him about that.

in a locked container or a safe?

Crumbly may not make that assertion publicly again.

However, his court-appointed attorneys appealed his life without parole sentence and advised

him not to testify in either of his parents' trials.

precedent.

In what way?

This case, however, involves a mass school shooting and severe charges of involuntary

manslaughter.

We did see another instance of a parent being charged in Illinois, where last year a father

pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges after his son killed people during a 4th of July

parade.

That case revolved around how the son obtained a license for a gun, not the kind of involuntary

manslaughter charges made against the Crumblys.

The Crumbly parents, they're being tried separately.

Why separately?

They had presented a united front until recently, and they waited several days initially before

turning themselves into the authorities.

Now their attorneys argue in court filings that new evidence has come to light that would

pit one parent against the other.

And if either is convicted, they could face a maximum of 15 years in prison.

Quinn, thank you.

I'm A. Martinez.

Today's Up First was edited by Megan Prats, Jerry Holmes, Cheryl Corley, and Olivia Hampton.

It was produced by Ziad Butch, Ben Abrams, and Katie Klein.

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

Join us tomorrow.

in your community.

And you can help keep that network strong by visiting donate.npr.org slash upfirst.