wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. ♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz in tel aviv. on the newshour tonight. the war between israel and hamas thousands dead and power, food and medical supplies dwindling in gaza. >> all those who have been displaced don't have anything. all they have is suffering, fear and horror.

geoff: then, here in washington, house members take steps to elect a new speaker. we break down the latest on the republican infighting that's brought the chamber to a standstill. and voting rights again make their way to the u.s. supreme court. at issue, gerrymandering in south carolina that's said to be putting black voters at a disadvantage. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has provided by -- ♪ >> moving our economy for 160

years, bnsf, the engine that connects us. ♪ >> the walton family foundation, working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people and nature can thrive together. supported by the john d and catherine t macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just and peaceful world. more information online. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: welcome to the newshour. a fifth day of heavy fighting

between israel and hamas today, as the death tolls soar. more than 1200 israelis and palestinians are now dead, with 1100 many still missing. there are 22 americans confirmed killed in saturday's terror attacks across israel. and hamas holds an unknown number of hostages in gaza. >> here in israel, the fear of a wider war seemed very real earlier after reports of drones and incursions from lebanon. those turned out to be false alarms. meantime, in gaza, the last power station has run out of fuel. there will soon be no electricity, along with no water or sanitation, and food is starting to become scarce. our colleague leila molana-allen again begins our coverage. >> block by block, gaza is being blasted into dust, as israel's punishing bombardment continues for the fourth day straight with residents breaking up to a landscape of horror.

the streets of this densely populated coastal enclave are in chaos, as people rush to clear the debris after israeli airstrikes pummeled their neighborhoods. israel says it targeted a hamas commander, but civilians say they are bearing the devastating consequences. abu hassan's home was bombed without warning. >> all of the people living in the house are killed inside it, and all of our neighbors. where is the international community? >> the strikes are part of israel's retaliation against hamas for the weekend's bloody terror strikes and today the israel defense forces released video of warplanes striking gaza's islamic university. it says hamas used it for training and producing weapons. and israel is striking critical infrastructure, including gaza's port. the entire gaza strip is under a total blockade, with more than 250,000 people displaced. israel has cut off all supplies of food, water and fuel. to survive, residents help each other however they can. >> i send water to those who've

had their houses demolished. all those who have been displaced don't have anything. all they have is suffering, fear and horror. >> and now gaza will soon sink into darkness. its last operational power plant today stopped working after it ran out of fuel. newshour producer shames ouda spoke to us from near the plant. >> this power station serves all of gaza strip, and now it's turned off. gaza without fuel, without electricity, without internet, without food, gaza is dying. the people will pay the price of this war. >> inside hospitals, it is a race to save the wounded, but supplies are dwindling. >> the quantity of injured people arriving to our hospitals are huge and will mean we will not be able to accept more patients in gaza. >> across the border, hamas' rocket barrage continued to overwhelm israel's iron dome defense system.

one rocket slammed into a medical center for children in the city of ashkelon. all while israelis spent another day burying their dead, and promising retribution, as the army calls up hundreds of thousands of reservists to join the fight. >> and i am saying to everyone, we will wipe this thing called hamas, isis guys off the face of the earth. it will cease to exist. >> the state of emergency has prompted a major shake up in israelis government. prime minister benjamin netanyahu and opposition party leader benny gantz said today they agreed to form a wartime unity government. a move that just a week ago would've seemed impossible, now deemed a necessity and the u.s. has promised support. and a roundtable with jewish committed leaders in the u.s., president biden again condemned the attacks. and at a roundtable with jewish community leaders in the u.s., president biden again addressed the conflict.

>> my commitment to israel's security and the safety of the jewish people is unshakable. it is really important that israel, with all the anger and frustration and just, i don't know how to explain it, that exists, that they operate by the rules of war. >> the violence has now spread north of the gaza strip. israel's promised retribution, was on full show today in occupied east jerusalem. last night young palestinian men , two were shot dead in silwan by israeli border police after throwing fireworks. this morning, 24-year-old ali abbasi's family had gathered here at his house to mourn his death. security forces have just turned up at the home of one of the young men who was killed in silwan last night. they've gone in firing tear gas to disperse the crowds, and into the air to make sure everyone else in the neighbourhood stays inside their houses. >> residents claim security forces stopped medics reaching the men, and they bled to death. the anger is palpable, as is the fear of more killing to come. >> the israelis come, they arrest our young men.

demolish our houses, attack our women. why? we fear for the future of this generation. i wanted my nephew to get married. instead, he became a martyr. >> nearby issawiyah is sometimes called a little gaza for its palestinian-only population, and for its resident's reputation for resisting israeli laws that they believe discriminate against arabs. israel's security forces have taken the name literally. after saturday's horrific terror attacks by hamas around the gaza border, iswiyah was raided in full force on saturday night. >> they were furious. you didn't know what was going on in their minds because they were looking for someone to get revenge from. >> osama issawi has lived in issawiyah all his life. his is the first house after the entrance, and his family bears the full brunt of every raid. since saturday, he says israeli special forces have invaded the village almost daily, shooting tear gas and live fire and

wounding and detaining an unconfirmed number of young men. he says palestinian communities are being punished for someone else's crimes. >> we do feel anger at this, we do feel that there is no justice in what is going on. amna: and leila is here with me now in tel aviv live. good to see you. incredible reporting these last few days. you spent today speaking with the number of other palestinian families in jerusalem and the west bank. what else are they telling you about what life is like at the moment? leila: these tensions from gaza are boiling over. you can see that this has been the most violent year in nearly two decades in the west bank. before this was happening, i was here in july talking about that, and now the violence has shifted to gaza. you saw the retaliation by security forces against young men in jerusalem, but we are

also seen battles between civilians. an arab bus driver in jerusalem was driving his normal bus route for the main israeli bus company and some settlers saw him on the street and attacked the bus, throwing rocks and managed to injure his eye and he lost the vision in one eye. he was too scared to go back to work read he said this happened to a few colleagues, people see an arab driver and attack them. we contacted the company for a comment, and the company said this is a time of war and we have no further comment. about their own employees. that is how difficult this is getting. once you get outside of east jerusalem, you are then in the west bank, which is even more contested because there are settlements being built there and as more and more are built, this is the reason it is an issue because they are deemed internationally illegal. that is where a true statement should not be, so the more there built on the west bank,

the less chance. so we heard of settlers blocking the roads, which is something they do often when they are angry about something and there have been several villages that have been burned by them this week. we started hearing gunfire and started seeing fire, and i went to spoke to the soldiers there and they said, look, take care of yourself. we are expecting serious trouble and there's a very can do for you because we have been told to be here and alert. they have been threatening to do this for several days and they have locked off the entrances to every palestinian town and village in the west bank. you are not allowed to move through unless you have a special permit. inside those towns, they are not protesting and having violent protests, so we eventually moved on and moved away, and we could see it escalating behind us and as we drove down the road, we saw that four palestinians had

been murdered. amna: you are seeing the spreading and escalation of the conflict, but take us back to the south in israel. what is the situation? leila: they are starting to evacuate people. i was down in one of the towns yesterday, where a station was attacked, and they were still fighting. they say the idea is that the secured the gaza border but that is not the case because we heard gun iron and there had been a full gun battle, so there are still hamas fighters energy. they have now evacuated the entire area, although small communities around the area. we saw perfect massacres take place over the weekend. there are still areas just behind where many of them are because they are injured or in hospital and there are rockets coming in every 10 to 15 minutes. in the hospital where i was at

yesterday, they get the majority of the cases. i spoke to a doctor yesterday about what they will do to those they cannot move, today, the children's wing of that hospital was hit by a rocket and destroyed. amna: that was in the south end meanwhile in the north, panic was set off as there were reports of incursions but they were false alarms. what do we know about what happened and why that set off panic? leila: we don't know yet that much more about what happened. the lebanese border is a big concern here. we were constantly covering clashes down on the lebanese-southern border, the israeli-northern border that goes across the area. in the same way, you have people who live in the north of israel who believe that is where they should live but they are at constant threat of the missiles coming across. of course, we saw that horrific war in 2006 that killed so many. so, tensions are really high. after the attack on saturday, hezbollah has been measured and

they are in a difficult position because they are part of the lebanese government and they are trying to prove themselves legitimately as a political party. so they cannot be seen to be starting a war that would jeopardize the lebanese people unless they can prove that it is to defend lebanon. they cannot be the insiders because lebanese people will die. so there were missiles sent into farms, and that is the minimum they could do to support hamas. over the last days, we have seen fire, gunfire, and tank missiles in response to a few hezbollah members being killed yesterday. tensions are very high this morning. tens of thousands of soldiers were deployed up to the northern border, and they now have to protect multiple borders and rockets from syria, so it is all tense. in the other issue is, the reason that we think what happened tonight might have happened, so essentially early

evening, you have reports that there were drones and gliders coming across on the war started. it is because they are on such a trigger there, and it seems that something set them off and people thought for a few minutes that a full war had started. amna: geoff: it's fixed it -- amna: it speaks to how high the tensions are. thank you. ♪ vanessa: i am vanessa rees with newshour west. here are the latest headlines. 8700 united autoworkers at a ford truck plant in kentucky walked off the job this evening, the unions latest walkout and a strike against the three largest automakers. 20,000 union members were joined. the auto companies have laid off

nearly 5000 employees since the strike began. a strong, new earthquake rocked the same parts of western afghanistan that are reeling from saturday's deadly tremor. this latest quake was centered on the outskirts of herat, and shook more villages into rubble. at least one person died and about 120 others were injured. >> we don't have any houses or food left. we're scared that people here will die from hunger and the cold. nothing was left. nothing. we are alone and have nothing. vanessa: the country's ruling talaban has said more than 2000 people died across herat in the previous earthquake. hurricane lidia has largely dissipated after striking mexico's pacific coast overnight, killing two people. the storm made landfall in a sparsely populated area, near the resort of puerta vallarta before heading inland, north of guadalajara. local people took shelter as winds up to 140 miles per hour

and rain drenched the region. it did some light damage, but quickly broke apart as it moved over land. nasa unveiled the first samples from the asteroid bennu today, two weeks after the osiris-rex spacecraft returned them to earth. the samples were harvested nearly 60 million miles away. since then, scientists have been examining the ancient rocks, pebbles and dust in a climate-controlled glove box. they say the material is rich in carbon and show evidence of water. >> carbon and water molecules are exactly the kinds of material that we wanted to find. they are crucial elements in the formation of our own planet, and theyre gonna help us determine the origins of the elements that could have led to life. vanessa: more specimens are inside the main chamber of the capsule that osiris-rex dropped off in a flyby.

it has not been unsealed yet. there's yet more data that students in the nation's high schools are falling behind. the act college admissions test reports scores for the class of 2023 fell to the lowest level in more than 30 years. overall, scores have dropped for six straight years, and the trend accelerated during the pandemic. still to come on the newshour, how misinformation about the war in israel is spreading rampantly on social media and the supreme court considers a racial gerrymandering case in south carolina. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington, and from the walter cronkite school of journalism. geoff: house republicans are one step closer to selecting a new speaker. they've nominated house majority leader steve scalise for the role, but not all members are on board and it is not yet clear if he has the votes to win on the floor of the house.

capitol hill correspondent lisa desjardins reports on the busy day in the capitol. >> for the gop, when decision made. >> first, i want to thank my house republican. >> house majority leader steve scalise is the republican conference's nominee for speaker. his win was narrow. just 14 votes more than his challenger, house judiciary chairman jim jordan. scalise immediately took on the posture of speaker, telling reporters he would act quickly on aid to israel. >> we need to make sure we are sending a message to people throughout the world that the house is open and doing the people's business. >> but he is not speaker yet, and this could get complicated. >> well, leader scalise won and it is not over. i'm still throwing my support behind jim jordan for speaker . i'm not going to change my vote now or anytime soon on the house floor. >> ohio's max miller was among those leaving the vote and refusing to back or unsure about scalise.

that opens the door to a repeat of what happened in january. vote after vote on the house floor where a candidate fell a few votes short of a majority. it is on member's minds. >> we cannot afford this dysfunction in the nation. >> and some jordan backers agreed immediately. like texas' keith self, part of the rebellion against speaker mccarthy, but not this time. >> we need to get back to work, we took the vote, steve scalise is our nominee and i will vote for steve scalise on the floor. >> and this from mccarthy's loudest opponent, matt gaetz of florida. >> long live speaker scalise. >> within hours, jordan told scalise he would support him. but there are still some who refuse, saying gop voters want jordan. it is the latest test frisco lease. -- it is the latest test for scalise, he has been in

leadership for nearly a decade, but is a known survivor, recovery from nearly fatal wounds after a gunman attacked republicans at a baseball practice in 2017. in august, scalise announced he was diagnosed with blood cancer. he is currently undergoing treatment. he campaigned as a unifier - and his allies, and many republicans, want this resolved as soon as possible. >> i am so hopeful we will unite quickly. the world is depending on us our country is depending on us to be able to get back to work. >> as i speak to you now, it is unclear when the house will get back to work. a short time ago, patrick mchenry left the capitol, and he was asked if he was gone the rest of the night and he said cryptic way, "not necessarily." geoff: where do the vote and the potential scalise speakership stand at the moment? >> let's break this down. right now, we are waiting to see if steve scalise can clinch that majority that he needs in the full house. let's talk a little bit and look

at the numbers specifically. to get the majority in the house of representatives now with vacancies, you need between 215 and 217 votes, including absences, which we have a few of. steve scalise got 113 votes in conference today, but here is something important about that. that included the number and votes from three u.s. territories, and they can vote in the republican conference but not on the floor of the house. when you add it up, where you are for mr. steve scalise, he did not get a majority of the members of his comforts you can vote, and he is a far way away from being sure he has the majority of the house itself. i think the more important number is the number we are getting of people who say they will not vote for him on the first ballot. it is getting to be a larger group. we have counted five or six, and others say it is as high as 20.

as we know, mr. steve scalise can only lose four votes were republicans and become speaker. right now, he has more than that who say they will not vote for him. geoff: let's talk more about steve scalise. greatest extent on the issues and what would it mean if you were to be elected -- where does he stand on issues and what would it mean if you were to be elected? >> he would be the first house speaker from louisiana, conservative, known as affable. his style is friendly, and with reporters, he is generally not confrontational but we would like to talk about what he believes on major issues. start with ukraine, a big difference between him and jim jordan. he has supported aid for ukraine, including a vote recently. he is someone who gets high marks from antiabortion groups. he would like more limits, but in recent years since the dobbs decision, he has not been clear on if you would like congress to pass a national ban or not. he says it depends on the votes

that are present. on immigration, he talks a lot about building a border wall and has said in the past that he would like to end birthright citizenship and on the 2020 election, he is someone who was in republican leadership at that time and voted to object to certifying the election. he did that twice. both of those votes after the january 6 riots hit the capital and affected him personally in his hometown. geoff: so the group that objected to kevin mccarthy being house speaker, are they the same group that is now objecting to steve scalise? what there is overlap look like? >> i have been texting with democrats and republicans who are amazed that no, these are some different members, some overlap and they have different reasons for their problem with steve scalise. thomas massie believes he does not have a plan for dealing with the upcoming spending problems. there are others who have issues with different parts of his

past. nancy maces concerned about a speech he made to white nationalist groups, and he has now said he regretted it, but there is a range of problems these folks have. some of them say that the party is in disarray so this leads to the problem of whoever becomes the next speaker, it seems we have a pandora box open wherever there is a test of leadership, there will be a handful of republicans who have an issue, specific or not. geoff: it also seems like we lurched from one government funding deadline to the next one on november 17. what does it mean for the next cliff? >> whether they would like to admit it or not, it is clear we need a temporary funding bill but it is question if the speaker could get one through. with 10-year treasury bond rates going up and interest rates going up, the national debt is going up and that concern is really prominent among house republicans. there is some concern over whether steve scalise could guide them through this coming

up. geoff: another busy day at the u.s. capitol, thank you. ♪ geoff: ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky made an unannounced trip to brussels today, his first time visiting nato headquarters. secretary of defense lloyd austin hosted him and 50 other leaders for a meeting on continuing to arm ukraine as austin and the entire u.s. government also work on how best to arm israel. nick schifrin is in brussels and joins us now. what was ukraine's message to the world? >> the message ukraine wants to hear is that the world will continue to support ukraine, despite the war in israel, a message the usn west right to send today -- u.s. and west tried to send today. volodymyr zelenskyy came asking

for weapons and critical air defense ahead of what is expected to be another russian campaign targeting ukrainian critical in the structure this winter. he also admitted that he asked western leaders whether they could continue to support ukraine, despite the war in israel. he did not seem reassured by the answer. >> my question was that will your support be less than now?" even now during the electio period, you see the challenges there. the partner says no. but who knows how it will be? i think nobody knows. >> secretary austin and the generals did say that the u.s. will continue to support both israel and ukraine. nato allies promised $10 billion worth of assistance, including $200 million from the u.s. even before israel,

administration officials struggled to get their latest aid package for ukraine through the congress. they have got about $1.6 billion left in replenishment stocks. that is replenishing u.s. stocks that are sent to ukraine. that could last as far as a few weeks and that is why the administration would like to see the house of representatives. -- house of representatives passed another aid package. geoff: what is israel asked the u.s. for and does that complicate the weapon strain? >> israel's asks have not been official, but number one on the list, iron dome interceptors that have been discussed widely. the u.s. is accelerating existing contracts for precision guided munitions, specifically small diameter bombs that israel purchased from boeing and those already landed. and the administration is looking at additional guided munitions that the u.s. already has in its inventory.

as for whether there is overlap between ukraine and israeli asks , as for now, the answer is no because of the different systems that israel and ukraine use. but senior officials tell me they are worried that as the war in israel becomes protracted, that could mean the possibility that israeli asks and ukrainian asks could overwhelm. geoff: how concerned is the biden administration about the potential for this war to widen? >> and the words of a senior official, the administration is "deeply concerned that the lebanese hezbollah credential the war." we have seen skirmishes on israel's northern border, including a false alarm about rooms and gliders crossing the border. u.s. officials insist this is why they have set the most visible form of noah terry determines that they have for the aircraft carrier strike group off the coast of israel

but they admit that keeping the were contained between israel and gaza will be increasingly difficult, as there is a protracted campaign in gaza and there are more civilian casualties, and that drawnout campaign has some administration officials worried about their ongoing efforts to normalize relations between israel and saudi arabia, and their moral authority across-the-board. geoff: and you have an update to a tragic story we aired earlier this week. >> this is the story of two that we brought to you monday night. the two had been together for 10 years, she called him her best friend. they waited a long time to have that baby. we learned that, unfortunately, her husband died in the original attack, leaving behind his wife and his baby.

geoff: our hearts go out to her and her daughter. nick, thank you. ♪ geoff: the world is watching much of the violence and the horrors of this war through traditional media and broadcasts. but millions also are getting their information through social media. but many posts are from unverified accounts, including some that are spreading misinformation or outright lies. laura barron-lopez focuses on that part of the story. >> geoff, some of the harshest criticism is being directed at the platform x, formerly known as twitter, and its owner, elon musk. the european union wrote to both x and meta, which owns facebook, urging the companies to take down misleading posts and videos and comply with european law.

some posts can look real. this one, for example, included video supposedly showing footage of a hamas militant taking down an israeli helicopter, but that video is actually from a video game. similarly, this video of an israeli strike in gaza is real , but it happened in may, not this week as it was portrayed. for a closer look, i'm joined by emerson brooking, a senior resident fellow at the atlantic council's digital forensic research lab and co-author of "likewar: the weaponization of social media." thank you for joining. i would like to show one more example of misinformation spreading across platforms like x. this video states that hamas captured israeli generals. it was posted by an encounter with a blue check mark. it has been viewed by nearly 2 million people. it is not actually what it says that it is. it is an older video of authorities in all your buys on -- authorities capturing a

separatist leader, so why is misinformation like this so dangerous? what examples are you seeing across x? >> first, i should say disinformation is endemic in warfare and not specific to a particular platform, but there are things platforms can do to make it better or worse. in the case of x, elon musk has made decisions by deliberately exasperate the problem which makes it hard to distinguish terrorist and war propaganda from reality on the ground. the first big thing he has done is essentially remove the ability to find and verify credible accounts, journalists, or other people who have been vetted and trusted. second, he has introduced a for profit motive, which did not previously exist, which incentivizes accounts under suspicious identities to share

false contents to maximize their own revenue. all of this matters because so many policymakers and journalists, so many people still use the platform to understand what is happening. now it has become a charter. >> you mentioned two changes elon musk made to the platform. he laid off a number of employees that handled content moderation and major accounts followed the rules of the platform. how much do you think elon musk himself is to blame for the spread of misinformation on x? >> i think elon musk dares significant personal responsibility -- bears significant personal responsibility in the time of crisis, and it came from a place of arrogance. he said repeatedly that he does not believe in what he says is so-called mainstream media. he wants to tear down a get

keepers, even when they perform an invaluable public function. >> telegram is a secure messaging app being used to spread misinformation with some 700 million users. it has become an outlet for hamas militants to share their videos. can you explain the significance of telegram and how it contributes? >> of course. whenever you see propaganda footage from conflict today, chances are that it originated on telegram. there are hundreds and thousands of different telegram groups linked to organizations. essentially, almost all primary video, primary evidence of the war, is coming from these telegram groups which are essentially unmoderated because telegram is not a u.s. company. it is not easily subject to international law.

it is extremely unlikely content moderation will ever be taken against telegram itself. so this content is always going to be there, but what effects it has when it spreads to other social media like x, those are still decisions where we have some control. >> and the european union has warned x and let's about this -- -- warned x and meta about this content, saying some of it appears to be illegal content, so what do you make of that and what can we expect if there will be any penalties for these companies? >> so the e.u. has recently put into force their digital services act which is a sweeping piece of legislation that really changes the rules of the road for social media companies. and also, it increases their obligations. it increases the source of material they have to share with european governments, and it institutes quite severe

penalties for companies that fail to meet those standards. it appears that they have essentially ignore the law in the case of x. >> what advice do you give to everyday news consumers, to everyday people who are using these apps on a regular basis and are trying to sift through credible sources and not credible sources and misinformation? >> i spent more than a decade now studying the relationship between social media and war. i helped lead a team focused on war crimes verification, on tracking conflicts in real-time, and my most important piece of advice is to not believe anything you see online, especially now. if you see something in this fast-moving and confusing stage of the conflict, if you see something circulating online, do not believe it until you have scene significant corroboration.

and verified for multiple sources. chances are that it's a fake intended to mislead you. >> thank you for your time. ♪ geoff: with thousands already dead, we are only days into what could be a cauldron of ever increasing violence between israel and hamas. john yang gets perspectives now from observers in israel and the west bank. john: in its 75 years of existence, israel had never seen anything like the brutal attack by hamas on southern israel, israel's 9/11. now, isreal -- israel is poised for exacting a price

that israel's enemies will remember for decades to come. we get two views on these historic events. first, the president of the israel democracy institute, and a former member of the knesset, the israeli legislature. first of all, thank you very much for being here. why did hamas act? what did they try to accomplish and why did they do it now? >> those are two questions. it reminds me of the question, after 9/11, so many americans asked, but why did they do it? why did they do it? the answer is very similar. hamas is a terrorist jihadist organization with isis like tactics and state like capabilities and an ideology, a strong ideology that calls for the annihilation of the state of israel. it is both an ideology and an operational plan. annihilating the jewish state and killing all jews.

in this respect, nothing changed for 30 years. it was building up capacity, building up capability, looking for the right moment, and in fact, in 2014, there was an attempt by hamas to launch the exact thing. just this time, the hamas terrorists tried to infiltrate through tunnels rather than in th way they did it this time and they just failed. the idf intercepted their attempt. this time as a result of an intelligence failure and operational failure, the idf was not able to intercept this operation and we ended up with this catastrophe and as a matter of fact, from their vantage point, it is just the outcome. they had much more ammunition, hand grenades, side bombs, ready to kill way more babies to conduct way more atrocities, to rape way more women and it is

the bravery of those soldiers and civilians that blocked them that saved us from even a greater catastrophe. geoff: you mentioned an intelligence and operational failure. do you think israel was distracted by the domestic politics? do you think they felt that hamas was bottled up in gaza? what do you think happened? >> the fact that israel was deeply immersed in an internal debate around the nature of democracy might have -- again, i don't have intel but i do have impressions and did have some evidence that might have given them the idea that israel is now in a weak spot and it is an opportunity for them to attack, but they don't need an excuse or motivation and this leads us to what should be the outcome of this entire event. hamas, as long as it controls state like capabilities, will

continue to try, strive to destroy and kill all jews, and it is just less than a mile away from our communities, so there is no option. they introduced a choice of a zero-sum game, us or them, and obviously, it will be s. this, the hamas capabilities, -- it will be us. hamas leadership, hamas operatives, all of them need to be of -- obliterated, crushed, dismantled, and of course, it's very hard, very difficult, because they perpetrate double war crimes. they target civilians but they situate their capabilities within the civilian population. they use their population as human shields. you will not be surprised if i will tell you that they situate their capabilities in mosques, in hospitals, in schools, in residential buildings, and therefore, to dismantle hamas

capability, which is not only an israeli interest, as a matter of fact, imperative, but it is in the interest of the entire free world because hamas is an iranian ally, hezbollah ally, they want to dominate the entire region with their murderous ideology, and obviously, to gain control over the region's resources, and that would be a disaster for the entire world, and of course for the free world, so we only -- only one outcome can come out of it, dismantling hamas. it will be long. it will be painful. unfortunately, it will be a dear price in lives, israeli lives, and palestinian lives, not only of hamas operatives, which obviously, i'm not very sad about it, but palestinian civilians as well. unless they manage and work tour is detaching themselves from hamas capabilities, there will be tragic civilian casualties as well and we have to understand it, but ultimately, this is the

only way to save lives and promote freedom. >> the israel democracy institute. thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. >> for another perspective, we are joined by a leader of the palestinian national initiative which advocates nonviolence and offers an alternative to both hamas and the major force in the palestinian authority out of the west bank. he is the head of the palestinian organization that advocates nonviolence. what is your reaction or response to what happened in southern israel? >> you are absolutely right when you say i am an advocate of nonviolence. we were shocked about what happened. i, as a person, always said that i am against any killing of civilian, whether palestinian or israeli. we are sorry for all the people, but unfortunately, everybody keeps avoiding the root cause of the problem, and unfortunately, what we see today is a very

intensive campaign to dehumanize not hamas, but to dehumanize palestinians completely. and the war that israel is conducting today is not at hamas, it is at the palestinian people in gaza. the reality is that we are in this situation mainly because there has been an occupation, israeli occupation of palestinians, palestinian land, for more than 56 years. the longest occupation in modern history. an occupation that has transformed into a system -- as amnesty international described it and human rights watch as well and even the israeli human rights organization -- a system of apartheid. a much worse apartheid than what prevailed in south africa. this is the root cause why there are palestinian's who are to -- turning to violence because all hopes have been lost, and mr. netanyahu, the prime minister of israel,

who came to power in 1996, killed every potential and every possibility for peace talks. i am so surprised and really amazed that a person who is in charge of the democratic institute in israel speaks about a zero-sum game. what does zero-sum game mean? it means either us or them. that is not a way to make peace. mr. netanyahu said all palestinians in gaza must evict their homes. his military spokesperson said all palestinians in gaza, the 2.2 million people, should evict to egypt. that is the meaning of zero-sum game. it is about ethnic cleansing of all the population of gaza. this is something everybody should know. mr. netanyahu erased a map of israel, annexed all the west bank, all of gaza strip, all of the occupied territories. that is what he is saying, and

he said he will change the situation for 50 years to come. so what he meant is ethnic cleansing of gaza and then annexing it. that is not the way to peace. that is what zero-sum game means. >> you talk about the root cause, and there is a generation of palestinians who reject your call for nonviolence, who feel that this is how they have to respond. what do you say to them? >> i say to them and i try to prove to them that nonviolence is a much more effective way of achieving our freedom. that is the best way of doing that. but one should ask the question, why these young people go in that direction? it is simply because they see no hope. 80% of young educated people in gaza are under siege and are unemployed. the property is unbelievable. the gdp per capita in israel is $56,000.

per year. while it is less than $1000 per year, per capita per year in gaza. gazans are obliged to buy products at israeli market price. these people don't see hope, don't see a future. that is why i am calling for a peaceful resolution, why i say now instead of talking about zero-sum game, we should move in the direction of immediate cease-fire, de-escalation, immediate release of all israeli prisoners in gaza in exchange of releasing palestinian prisoners in israeli jails who are 5003 -- who are 5300, including some people who have been in jail for no less than 44 years. in 1260 of those prisoners don't even know why they are arrested. they are not charged, not taken to court, their lawyers do not why they are arrested. they are taken as hostages

basically. release prisoners, exchange prisoners, have cease-fire, stop this madness that is going to happen, and let's open a road for peace and for a peaceful resolution by ending occupation and allowing us and israelis to coexist and live in peace. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, sir. geoff: we will have continuing coverage of the israel-hamas war this entire week including a one hour primetime special on friday. war in the holy land, a pbs newshour special report, starts at 8:30 p.m. eastern. check your pbs station for local listings. ♪ the u.s. supreme court today heard arguments in a key racial gerrymandering case out of south carolina. the state redrew their congressional map moving thousands of black voters out of

a competitive congressional district, shoring it up as reliably republican and diluting the black vote. the outcome here could determine the balance of power in congress. for more on today's court proceedings, we're joined by newshour supreme court analyst marcia coyle. it's good to see you. >> good to see you. geoff: so we know that two lower courts agreed that there was a clear racial gerrymandering in this case, but at least a handful of the conservative justices on the supreme court today appeared to cast doubt on that. tell us more. marcia: let me say that a racial gerrymander is when a district has been drawn with race as the predominant motive or factor. that is unconstitutional under the 14th amendment equal protection guarantee. during the arguments today, the chief justice and justice alito both seemed to be somewhat skeptical that the challengers here, the south carolina conference of the naacp, had carried its burden of what they call disentangling race from

politics. politics was what the state legislature claimed was it's motive when it drew district one in south carolina. the chief justice said, for example, that there was no direct evidence that race was used. there were no bizarrely shaped lines around the district which is often a tip-off. he said that all it is, all they had, was circumstantial evidence, and if the court were to accept that, he said that that could be a huge change or expansion of the court's voting rights jurisprudence. that was really the strongest, comment that was made about the challengers evidence and their arguments today but there was pushback. justices kagan and justice sotomayor felt that the circumstantial evidence was very strong and that was all that was needed under the court's voting rights jurisprudence. they said that the lower court

had found that, you know, what other reason could there be other than race when you see the legislature move 30,000 black voters out of the district into another district in an attempt basically to keep a 17% black voting age population in district one. there was pushback there. and yet, i think what all the justices seemed to agree today on is this is a very difficult case, trying to separate out whether race was the predominant motive or partisanship. as you know, partisan gerrymandering are not unconstitutional. geoff: and the impact here is of course huge. our team spoke with south carolina public radio reporter talisha who explained what this means for local voters in south

carolina. >> some voices will not be heard so for the black residents who are now living in this deluded or cracked first congressional district, issues that matter to them will be hard to hear, hard to get representation for those issues moving forward, and then for those voters who have been packed, issues that matter to them or their larger community, these coastal issues, those voices or issues may have a hard time being heard because they are now lumped in with residents who live almost 100 miles away. geoff: that is the potential impact on folks in south carolina. what are the national implications? marcia: there are a number of redistricting battles going on throughout the country. they are not all racial gerrymandering claims. some of them are under the voting rights act and yet you know that courts and litigators will be watching what the supreme court says today, and what it does say today could very well have an impact on, for example, the u.s. house

elections and control of the u.s. house in 2024. so that is a very significant impact. also, the challenger's claim that if they do not succeed here, that state legislatures will be able to use politics or partisanship as a proxy for race and shield their plans from challengers. on the other side, religion -- -- the legislature claims that if the court rules against them, it's going to draw courts into very difficult battles, trying to find the difference here, whether it is race or politics. geoff: marcia coyle, thanks so much for your time. >> thank you. ♪ geoff: and that is the newshour for tonight. remember, there is more coverage online. amna: join us again tomorrow night when we will have the latest from on the ground here in israel.

geoff: i am geoff bennett. thanks for joining us and have a good evening. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour including jim and nancy and kathy and paul anderson. >> consumer cellular. this is sam. how may i help you? this is a pocket dial. thought i would let you know that with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that is kind of our thing. have a nice day. >> these are people who are trying to change the world. startups have this energy that energizes me. i'm thriving by helping others every day. people who know, know bdo. >> the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change

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>> this is pbs newshour west, from weta studios in washington, and from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪

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