Israel's West Bank Raid, Ukraine's Offensive, Highland Park's Memories
2023-07-04 00:13:59
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A hospital director in the West Bank says his medical teams have been working 36 hours
straight.
Israel is seeking militants in a refugee camp.
We need peace for all Palestinian and Israeli people.
I'm Steve Inskeep with Rob Schmitz, and this is Up First from NPR News.
As Ukraine presses its counteroffensive, we get reports this morning of another attack
inside Russia.
Russian officials say they repelled an attempted drone attack on a big Moscow airport.
Also, a suburb of Chicago remembers a mass shooting.
The adults were like, how could this ever happen in Highland Park?
But the kids said, we expected this to happen.
A community honors the victims of last year's gunfire at a Fourth of July parade.
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Residents of a refugee camp are spending this week in the midst of a military operation.
Israel sent troops and drones into the camp at Jenin.
It's in the occupied West Bank.
And for decades, that camp has been home to Palestinians displaced from Israel during
its war of independence.
Israel says the camp is also a base for militants, which is why Israeli troops opened fire in
an operation that has so far left 10 Palestinians dead.
You see?
You can hear, I think, yes?
NPR's Daniel Estrin recorded that call and joins us now from Tel Aviv.
Daniel, that was a chilling tape there that we heard.
Who are you speaking to there?
That's a nurse in the Jenin government hospital.
He gave me his first name, now Ross, and he says that everyone in the hospital has been
hearing a lot of that lately, Israeli army shooting, because the hospital is close to
the camp where troops are operating.
I spoke to the hospital director who says medical teams have not gone home for about
36 hours straight.
People of all ages, mostly with tear gas inhalation wounds, but a lot of those with
critical injuries are mostly young men, 15 to 25 years old, he said.
They have come in with head, neck, chest wounds from bullets and also from Israel's drone
airstrikes.
And Israel has also destroyed many roads in the area.
This is what the hospital director told me, Dr. Wissam Bakr.
One road is open, but the difficulty in entrance to the camp for the ambulances, because the
roads all destroyed.
The Israeli army does acknowledge that only one road is usable now for ambulances.
The army says it destroyed many roads because they had intelligence that the roads were
booby trapped, but we are hearing that medics are actually walking by foot into the camp
to help.
Besides the hospital, what about life inside the Jenin refugee camp?
Because about 10,000 to 15,000 people live there, right?
Yeah, and the estimates are even more than that.
I mean, we are hearing from the UN that up to 6,000 Palestinians fled the camp, which
is less than a quarter of the camp's population.
We are hearing about hotels receiving people fleeing, even a nearby church opening its
doors.
The army operation has left a lot of infrastructure damaged.
Most of the camp does not have water or electricity, and so residents were describing just really
unbearable heat, no AC at home, no water to flush toilets.
Now the Palestinian Authority is angry at the U.S. because they're saying that the U.S.
is not trying to stop Israel's incursion.
The State Department put out a statement calling for civilian lives to be protected, but basically
saying the U.S. supports Israel protecting its people against terrorist groups.
And Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even attended the U.S. Embassy's 4th of July
party and on stage praised the operation.
That's a stark contrast between him at a 4th of July party and what's happening at the
refugee camp.
What's Israel's endgame here?
Well, the army told me that the troops may need about one to three more days to go after
explosive factories.
And they do think that many militants fled the camp, which means that if they are still
at large, they may carry out reprisal attacks after all this is over.
That could draw more calls from far-right Israeli officials to hit back even harder.
This has been already a very violent year.
At least 130 Palestinians have been killed, about 24 people killed on the Israeli side.
And you know what?
Many Israeli military experts are looking at this and saying this operation cannot solve
the deeper problems.
There's a lot of similar violence against Palestinians.
Young Palestinians turning increasingly to weapons.
No horizon for a better life for Palestinians under occupation.
That's NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv.
Daniel, thanks for your reporting.
You're welcome.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine keeps coming home to Russia.
When the invasion started last year, it seemed that Russian territory was secure.
It was protected by nuclear weapons, and Ukraine had no obvious way to strike back.
But in recent months, armed groups have conducted operations on Russian soil.
Russia's own mercenaries briefly raced toward Moscow.
Drones attacked the Kremlin.
And this morning, Russia says drones tried to attack a Moscow airport.
For the latest, NPR's Greg Myre joins us from the capital, Kyiv.
Welcome, Greg.
Hi, Rob.
What do we know about what happened today?
So Russia says the Vnukovo airport, just to the south of Moscow, came under an attempted
drone attack early this morning.
The defense ministry says that near the airport and surrounding areas, four drones were shot
down.
A fifth was intercepted and fell harmlessly.
Incoming flights were temporarily diverted, but operations are back to normal.
This is one of three big civilian airports that serve Moscow.
Russia is blaming Ukraine, calling it an act of terrorism.
Ukraine isn't commenting.
However, Ukrainian officials have spoken about how they're extending the range of their drones
to reach Moscow, which is about 300 miles from Ukraine's border.
So sticking with Russia here, are there signs of potential fallout from this recent internal
rebellion by a mercenary leader there?
Well, CIA Director William Byrne certainly thinks so.
He gave a rare public speech in Britain over the weekend and said Russians are increasingly
and he believes the CIA can capitalize on this.
Let's have a listen.
That disaffection creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity for us at CIA.
At our core, a human intelligence service.
We're not letting it go to waste.
So this is not something you hear often from a spy chief.
He's openly saying that he thinks the Russians, some Russians in key positions, may be ready
and willing to turn on the Russian government and work for the U.S. as spies.
In fact, the CIA has put out a video on the Telegram app telling Russians how they can
contact the CIA securely.
It's also the latest example of the U.S. intelligence community openly talking about what it's thinking
and doing when it comes to Russia.
Byrne's called it a, quote, novel and effective strategy that has limited Russia's ability
to create false narratives.
That's fascinating.
Let's turn to Ukraine's offensive.
What's the latest on that front?
Yeah, a top Ukrainian official said this morning that the past few days of the offensive have
been, quote, particularly fruitful.
This comes in a tweet from the head of the National Security and Defense Council, Alexei
Danilov, and it's really the most upbeat assessment by a Ukrainian official we've heard in a while.
Now, he didn't announce the capture of any additional territory, but he said Ukraine
was achieving, quote, the maximum destruction of manpower, equipment, fuel depots, military
vehicles and command posts.
We can't independently verify it, not hearing it from other Ukrainian officials, but it
would be in keeping with Ukraine's effort to weaken Russian forces before making a big
push with the bulk of its forces.
That's NPR's Greg Byrne in Kiev.
Greg, thank you.
Sure thing, Rob.
Today, Highland Park, Illinois, remembers the people who were killed and injured a year
ago in a mass shooting.
A gunman climbed onto a rooftop in that Chicago suburb and fired on a Fourth of July parade.
Alex Degman of member station WBEZ joins us.
Hello, Alex.
Hi, Rob.
So Highland Park has held a July 4th parade for years, but last year, residents saw something
they never thought they would see.
Remind us what occurred.
Right.
A man with an assault weapon fired more than 80 rounds into the crowd and it was chaos.
Elected officials, first responders and their families, they were all there at this parade
and they were scrambling to make sure that their families were safe first and then immediately
they had to shift their attention to the parade goers and the people marching in the parade.
Mayor Nancy Roedering, who was at the parade, says she's talked to a lot of adults since
then who never thought a shooting would occur in their town, but children had a totally
different response.
Every single one of them said, we expected this to happen in Highland Park.
The adults were like, how could this ever happen in Highland Park?
But the kids said, we expected this to happen and we expected it to happen in school.
And instead it happened on a parade route.
When the shooting stopped, seven people had been killed, 48 people were injured.
A hunt for the gunman lasted several hours and ended with police taking him into custody
after a car chase.
Oftentimes, children know far more than adults in these situations.
Highland Park said there would be no parade this year.
What is happening today?
Well, it's actually a day full of events, but officials plan the day to day knowing
that people are still healing.
They're starting by commemorating the seven people who lost their lives and the many more
who were injured.
And there's also going to be what they're calling a community walk.
It's going to be a walk along the parade route that was marred last year.
There won't be floats or politicians or bands.
There's also a community picnic.
There's some live music at the high school.
And instead of fireworks, there's going to be a 10 to 15 minute drone show called We
Are Highland Park.
How are people feeling about security?
Well, the people I've talked to are feeling pretty good.
There are restrictions set up at some events.
Some metal detectors are going to be at entrances to things like the remembrance ceremony and
the community walk.
And they've asked people not to line up as spectators for the walk.
And there's also going to be more police.
They'll be using helicopters.
There's going to be drones and you'll probably see more of them perched on rooftops and they're
going to be officers from other nearby towns.
And it's interesting to note Highland Park already had an assault weapons ban in place
last year.
But the Illinois state legislature after the shooting enacted a statewide ban and another
piece of legislation that they passed will allow for local police to use drones to patrol
large events like this parade and festivals.
So what is the latest with the alleged shooter?
And I understand it's not just him facing charges here.
Yeah, the accused gunman is Robert Cremo III.
At the time, he faces 117 charges and that includes 21 for first degree murder.
He's got a hearing in September and we could see a trial date set then.
His father, Robert Cremo Jr., faces seven counts of reckless conduct and that's over
the sponsorship of his son's firearm owner's ID card.
Now that's needed to own a gun here, but anybody under 21 has to have a sponsor to get a card
and the suspect was 19 when he got his.
And a lot of people are angry because police were called to the Cremo house multiple times.
In one instance, a family member said that Cremo was threatening to kill everyone there
and authorities confiscated knives, but said that there wasn't any sign of any guns there.
And the Lake County state's attorney is alleging that the elder Cremo knew that his son might
be troubled, but signed off on the FOIA card anyway.
Now I should mention that those court dates are a ways off, but today is about remembering
the victims of the shooting and just bringing the community back together.
He's Alex Degman.
Thank you, Alex.
You're welcome.
And that's Up First for July 4th.
I'm Rob Schmitz.
And I'm Steve Inskeep with the Independence Day Reading of the Names.
Everyone at attention now.
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Some of the names of America.
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