Pro-abortion activists were livid over the weekend after the Texas Supreme Court made a bombshell ruling that blocked a lower court's order.
According to Breitbart, the state's high court blocked a ruling from a lower court that would have allowed a woman who was 20 weeks pregnant to have her unborn baby aborted.
Democrat Travis County District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble had originally issued a temporary restraining order against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and other officials who fought to block the abortion procedure.
Paxton asked the state's high court to intervene, which resulted in blocking the order "without regard to the merits" of the case.
Dallas-based Kate Cox, a mother of two, enlisted the help of the Center for Reproductive Rights to fight to be able to terminate her pregnancy.
Cox took legal action to attempt to obtain an abortion after doctors told her that her unborn child has "Trisomy 18, otherwise known as Edwards syndrome."
In her lawsuit, she argued that "her pregnancy may not survive to birth, and if it does, her baby would be stillborn or survive for only minutes, hours, or days."
The Texas Supreme Court stepped in late Friday to stop a 31-year-old mother from having an abortion after a lower court judge gave the green light. Doctors say her fetus is not viable and carrying it to term could threaten her life. @eschulze reports. https://t.co/8seWc5CM2n pic.twitter.com/CZsxNgsM5U
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) December 10, 2023
Breitbart noted:
The complaint also states that Cox had been to three different emergency rooms within a month due to “severe cramping and unidentifiable fluid leaks.” The lawsuit alleges that her history of having two prior cesarean surgeries means continuing the pregnancy “puts her at high risk for severe complications threatening her life and future fertility, including uterine rupture and hysterectomy.”
Her physician stated that Cox's request for the abortion fell within the medical exemption rules of Texas abortion laws. Doctors can be prosecuted if an abortion is performed that doesn't fall within those standards.
The Texas AG argued that proper procedures were not followed at the hospital in obtaining the proper clearance to perform the abortion under the rules of current state law.
"It appears she has not sought a second opinion from a colleague at your hospital to determine whether they agree with her that Ms. Cox qualifies for the medical exception. Nothing in the TRO (temporary restraining order) compels you to waive your hospital’s long-standing policies for determining whether a patient, including Ms. Cox, qualifies for the medical exception to Texas’ abortion laws," Paxton wrote.
The lawsuit, depending on how it ultimately settles, could set a precedent for similar cases in other states with strict abortion laws.
Other women have filed lawsuits against the state in attempts to obtain abortions.
It doesn't take much for Liz Cheney to lose it, and this week's target was Vivek Ramaswamy.
The former Republican House leader blasted 2024 GOP candidate Ramaswamy for making comments during Wednesday's debate that the January 6, 2021, Capitol breach was an "inside job."
“If what he means by ‘inside job’ is it was a sitting president of the United States who launched a coup against the government, that there were members of the House of Representatives who helped him … that absolutely is true,” she said angrily Thursday on “CBS Mornings.”
Ramaswamy said,
The real enemy is not Donald Trump. It’s not even Joe Biden. It is the deep state that at least Donald Trump attempted to take on. And if you want somebody who’s going to speak truth to power, then vote for somebody who’s going to speak the truth to you. Why am I the only person on the stage at least who can say that Jan. 6 now does look like it was an inside job?
He also claimed that the 2020 election “was indeed stolen by Big Tech” and the 2016 election “was stolen from [Trump] by the national security establishment.”
Cheney said the comments were “Area 51 conspiracy theory garbage” and that Ramaswamy is “the dream of the Chinese Community Party” and “of the Russian government.”
“What he is doing and saying and the extent to which he is just serving as a really destructive force is something that our adversaries I’m sure are pleased about,” she said.
The interview was part of Cheney's weeklong tour to promote her new book, “Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning.”
Of course, she's mostly just bashing Trump and trying to ignore the fact that she was stripped of her leadership status and then lost her congressional seat by 40 points in a primary.
Her delusions of grandeur have even extended to thinking she could get enough support to run for president as a Trump spoiler--she hasn't jumped into the race yet but has said she might.
The Wednesday night debate in Alabama was hosted by NewsNation, a cable channel owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.
The frontrunner in the race, former President Donald Trump, again didn't attend, citing his 30 to 40-point lead in most polls.
In the wake of disgraced former Rep. George Santos' (R-NY) expulsion from Congress, New York Democrats scrambled to pick a replacement to run in a special election to fill out the remainder of the expelled congressman's term in office.
Former Democratic New York State Sen. Anna Kaplan had been a top contender to be her party's choice but suspended her campaign on Thursday when another candidate was selected to be the nominee, The Hill reported.
Kaplan's quitting the race immediately followed an announcement from the New York Democratic Party that former Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY), who previously served three terms as the elected representative of the now-vacant 3rd District, was the nominee to reclaim that congressional seat for the party.
Former State Sen. Kaplan said in a Thursday statement, "We need to start 2024 off right, and that means electing Tom Suozzi to flip this seat and get Democrats closer to the majority."
"I am endorsing Tom because we need Democrats in office who will protect a woman's right to choose, defend Social Security and Medicare, and support Israel," she continued. "Throughout this campaign, I have been proud to put a woman's right to choose front and center, and I was heartened to see that Tom plans to embrace that fully in his campaign."
Kaplan went on to note that she had raised more than $1 million during her brief campaign to replace Santos, thanked her supporters, urged the party and Suozzi to "engage and excite" voters in what will likely be "an extremely competitive election," and revealed that she was "suspending our campaign" while also indicating that she would remain involved in politics in some form.
The Hill reported that Kaplan's campaign suspension and endorsement of Suozzi was remarkable in that, just days earlier, she had stridently warned against the former congressman being the Democratic nominee to replace Santos.
"If Tom Suozzi is nominated by Democratic Party leaders as the candidate for NY-03, it will not only endanger our chances for picking up this seat, it will do irreparable harm to National Democrats in 2024," Kaplan wrote in a thread of tweets last week that attacked Suozzi for not being supportive enough of abortion rights.
Politico reported that former State Sen. Kaplan had been the last remaining rival against former Rep. Suozzi to replace ex-Rep. Santos in the upcoming special election and had already launched a normal campaign earlier in the year to try to be the Democratic nominee to face off against Santos in the 2024 election.
Suozzi, who had served three terms representing the 3rd District and even defeated Santos in his initial failed 2020 run, had decided to not seek re-election in 2022 and instead mounted a failed primary challenge against Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, according to Axios, but had launched a re-election campaign against Santos in October before the dishonest and criminally charged Republican's expulsion.
Politico noted that there were hard feelings that remained between Suozzi and Hochul following the 2022 battle but reported that the pair got together earlier this week to "clear the air and discuss campaign strategy."
New York Republicans have not yet decided on who their nominee will be in the Feb. 13 special election but have until Jan. 4 to make a decision. That, however, hasn't stopped the GOP from launching a preemptive attack against Democratic nominee Suozzi that referenced his questionable stock trading history and primary loss against the governor.
National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Savannah Viar said in a statement, "Tom Suozzi’s attempted comeback tour will be playing all the hits: self-enrichment, defunding the police, and raising taxes (just to name a few). Voters will reject Suozzi just like they did in his failed bid for governor last year."
As for the news that Suozzi and Hochul had patched over their past differences, Viar told Politico, "Given that voters are already fed up with her handling of crime and the migrant crisis, Tom Suozzi prostrating himself for Kathy Hochul is bound to end poorly for him."
Former President Donald Trump, his campaign, and some of his supporters have often called upon Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to drop out of the 2024 Republican primary race due to Trump's substantial lead in virtually all of the national and state-level polls of GOP voters.
DeSantis was asked directly why he hasn't yet acquiesced to those demands during the first question of Wednesday night's Republican debate by co-moderator Megyn Kelly, according to Breitbart.
The Florida governor replied by pointing to past examples of pollsters being wrong, observed that his own re-election last year had surpassed the expectations of pundits, and predicted that he would continue to achieve unanticipated success in the upcoming primary elections next year.
At the very start of Wednesday's GOP debate, co-moderator Kelly said to Gov. DeSantis, "Your campaign and its super PAC had spent the most money, had the most high net worth donors, and had a wave of momentum coming into this race. After your big reelection win in Florida, you were seen by many as the candidate most likely to consolidate the non-Trump field."
"But here we are a month out from the first real votes and you haven’t managed to do it," she continued. "In fact, Nikki Haley is beating you in New Hampshire and South Carolina now and closing in on you in Iowa. Not to mention Trump, who is not only dominating in the early states, but he’s beating you in Florida by over 30 points."
Kelly then asked the governor, "Is it fair to say, as Senator Tim Scott did when he dropped out, that voters are telling you not no, but not now?"
The Daily Caller reported that Gov. DeSantis said in reply to Kelly's prefaced question about dropping out of the race, "So we have a great idea in America that the voters actually make these decisions, not pundits or pollsters."
"I’m sick of hearing about these polls ’cause I remember those polls in November of 2022. They said there was gonna be a big red wave, it was gonna be monumental, and that crashed and burned," he continued. "The one place it didn’t crash and burn was in the state of Florida. They weren’t predicting that I would win the way I did, and I won the greatest Republican victory in the history of the state of Florida."
The governor added, "I’m looking forward to Iowa and New Hampshire, the voters are gonna be able to speak, and we’re gonna earn this nomination."
According to the RealClearPolitics average of GOP primary polls, former President Trump holds a commanding lead over the rest of the Republican field with around 61% support, more than 47 points ahead of Gov. DeSantis in second place with 13.5%, who in turn is followed by former U.N. Ambassador Haley with 10.3% while all other candidates are mired in the single digits.
As for the three early-voting states mentioned by Kelly in her opening question, Haley is indeed leading DeSantis in New Hampshire -- she sits in second with 18.7% while he is in fourth with 7.7% -- and in her home state of South Carolina, where she previously served as governor and currently garners 18.8% support in second place compared to 10.5% for DeSantis in third place.
Kelly was also correct about Iowa, where DeSantis is behind frontrunner Trump with 18.7% but is followed closely by Haley with 15.7% support.
Lest anyone think that Kelly was picking on or had singled DeSantis out specifically for criticism, Axios reported that Kelly had tough opening questions for all of the other three Republican candidates who qualified to appear on the debate stage.
Kelly asked Haley about the rapid increase in her personal wealth over the past few years and apparent close ties to billionaire donors, confronted entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy over his attacks on other candidates while claiming to be a "unifier," and pressed former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie over his deep unpopularity with GOP voters and seemingly obsessed fixation on incessantly smearing Trump after previously endorsing and supporting the former president.
A highly controversial government surveillance program is set to expire at the end of the year and some members of Congress attempted to quietly slip the program's reauthorization as an amendment into a must-pass military spending bill.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said not so fast, however, and reportedly tabled that amendment and excluded it, at least for the time being, from the National Defense Authorization Act for next year, according to Breitbart.
The controversial program in question is known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows for warrantless searches and wiretaps and is ostensibly aimed only at foreigners but was previously revealed to have been broadly abused by federal agents to target American citizens.
Tuesday afternoon, as the House considered various amendments to the military funding bill, Punchbowl News reporter Jake Sherman wrote on social media that Speaker Johnson "has nixed an extension of FISA authority as part of the NDAA."
What Johnson "nixed" was a "clean" reauthorization of FISA Section 702 devoid of any sort of reforms and, in doing so, set the stage for members to consider two competing pieces of legislation that would only partially reauthorize the program for a short period while also imposing a variety of bipartisan-demanded reform measures.
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), who fully supports reforming the FISA program, told Breitbart, "Keeping FISA out of the NDAA is a victory for the American people who demand the end of warrantless government surveillance. I applaud Speaker Johnson’s decision to not cave to the Biden admin, [FBI Director] Christopher Wray, and the entire intel community."
As for the two competing pieces of House legislation to reform and reauthorize FISA Section 702, Politico reported that one has been pushed by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) while the other is backed by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH).
Jordan's bill is arguably the stricter of the two in that it would require federal agents to first obtain a warrant for most searches of the Section 702 database while Turner's bill would only impose a warrant requirement for "crime"-related searches.
Both bills are reportedly otherwise largely in agreement on other reforms, such as imposing new auditing and reporting requirements, penalties for agents who violate the rules to misuse the program, alterations to the secretive FISA court that approves the searches, and even limiting which government agents are permitted to use the program.
Politico noted that Speaker Johnson, having excluded the FISA reauthorization from the NDAA, is now said to be planning to bring both competing House reform bills to the floor for a procedural vote in the near future.
Meanwhile, as House Republicans -- with some Democratic support -- fight over which FISA Section 702 reform bill to run with, Punchbowl News reported that a bipartisan group of both progressive and conservative senators led by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) -- joined by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) -- are hashing out their own legislation to reform and reauthorize the controversial surveillance program.
Details are sparse on exactly what the Senate bill would do, but Wyden said in a statement, "We’re going the distance with reform. Business as usual is not going to be acceptable."
The Oregon senator, long a critic of secretive government surveillance of American citizens, added, "When I started, it was pretty lonely. You could have meetings about 702 reform operations in a couple of phone booths. And I’m looking around now and I’m seeing a lot of allies."
It is unclear when these different pieces of legislation will receive votes or even if they'll pass, but all of the reporting outlets noted that the clock is ticking as the FISA Section 702 program, which does have legitimate uses for keeping an eye on foreign spies and terrorists, will expire at the end of the year unless reauthorized -- with or without the necessary reforms.
A star defensive player for the University of Tennessee's football program is in hot water and facing criminal charges after he was arrested on Monday, according to the Associated Press.
James Pearce Jr., a top defensive end for the Volunteers, was surrounded by police officers, placed in handcuffs, and hit with multiple citations after he was reportedly uncooperative during a traffic stop.
Local ABC affiliate WATE reported that Pearce was pulled over around 9:22 a.m. after a Knoxville Police Department officer reportedly observed a red Jeep Cherokee passing vehicles on the right-hand side and clocked it as speeding at 63 mph in a 35 mph zone.
The officer further noted that the vehicle had expired temporary tags out of North Carolina, that Pearce was unable to provide any form of identification or proof of auto insurance, and that a subsequent check revealed that Pearce was driving on a suspended North Carolina driver's license.
While Pearce may have been able to escape that situation with only a few traffic citations, his reported behavior toward Knoxville Police during the stop ultimately led to his being arrested and the vehicle impounded.
According to ESPN, a Knoxville Police Department incident report revealed that Pearce had to be instructed multiple times by an officer to turn off the ignition and step out of the vehicle before the star football player eventually complied with the order.
As officers began to search the vehicle before it was towed due to the expired tags, Pearce was directed to stand in front of a police cruiser with other officers who had arrived, but he reportedly ignored that order and began to walk back toward his vehicle while officers looked for anything that might be dangerous or illegal.
However, the other officers then swarmed Pearce and placed him under arrest without any further incident, after which the vehicle was impounded and he was transported to the Knox County Detention Facility to be booked.
Pearce now faces multiple charges that include speeding, driving with a suspended license, failure to present proof of insurance, not properly displaying vehicle registration, and having improper tint on the vehicle's windows.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reported that an unnamed spokesperson for the University of Tennessee said of the arrest in a statement, "We are aware of the incident involving James Pearce Jr., and we are awaiting more information."
Per the outlet, Pearce is the third member of the Volunteers' football squad to be arrested or receive citations during a traffic stop this season.
On Nov. 19, Vols cornerback Doneiko Slaughter was cited for reckless driving and improper lane change after he was seen driving over a median divider, while backup running back DeSean Bishop was ticketed for reckless driving in the early morning hours of Oct. 29.
Pearce is scheduled to appear in court to face his charges on Dec. 12, while Slaughter and Bishop have court dates set for Dec. 6 and Jan. 19, respectively.
It is an ignominious end to a stellar season for the sophomore defensive end who was a highly recruited four-star prospect out of North Carolina -- he was voted to be part of the all-SEC first team -- and potentially threatens his ability to participate in the Vols' upcoming appearance in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl game against the Iowa Hawkeyes on Jan. 1.
Members of President Joe Biden's hometown have contradicted the president's recent claim about the economy.
This is according to a new report from Fox News Digital.
Before we get to what the residents of Biden's hometown - Scranton, Pennsylvania - had to say, we will look at Biden's statement - the one that some of the residents have contradicted.
It was one of Biden's latest attempts to convince the American people that, despite what they may be seeing in their day-to-day lives, the U.S. economy is not doing as badly as they might think.
According to the Washington Examiner, Biden first made the statement in November, during a speech that he gave to the United Auto Workers at the Community Building Complex in Illinois.
There, Biden said:
I don’t look at the economy through the eyes of Wall Street and Park Avenue. I look at it through the eyes of the people I grew up with in Scranton, Pennsylvania or Claymont, Delaware
Apparently, Biden - or Biden's handlers - thought that this was a pretty good line because, on Nov. 13, it was posted to Biden's official X account.
"I don’t look at the economy through the eyes of Wall Street and Park Avenue. I look at it through the eyes of the people I grew up with in Scranton, Pennsylvania or Claymont, Delaware," Biden wrote.
I don’t look at the economy through the eyes of Wall Street and Park Avenue.
I look at it through the eyes of the people I grew up with in Scranton, Pennsylvania or Claymont, Delaware.
— President Biden (@POTUS) November 13, 2023
Fox essentially decided to fill in the blank by going to Biden's hometown and asking residents how it is that they view the economy. Suffice it to say that many do not have a positive view of the direction that the economy has taken under Biden's leadership.
Scranton resident Robert Jones told Fox News Digital:
This economy sucks. I mean, everything's going up except paychecks. I just think the economy sucks ever since Biden got in.
Jones went on to refer to Biden as the "worst president we ever had.
Another resident, named Kevin - who described himself as a "registered Democrat" who is "not happy - told the outlet:
I don't think any of them see through the eyes of the people. I think all of them see it through the eyes of Washington. [The economy] has gotten worse."
We, of course, do not know what percentage of Scranton residents take the view of Robert and Kevin. But, it is safe to say that, contrary to what Biden tried to claim, many residents in his hometown do not believe the economy is doing well, which is in line with national polling.
President Joe Biden's impeachment inquiry is about to kick into full gear.
According to The Hill, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) once again signaled strong support for Biden's impeachment inquiry to move forward.
During an interview over the weekend on Fox News, Johnson said Congress "has a duty" to bring the issue to a full House vote.
Reports indicated that such a vote could happen before Congress breaks for the December recess, setting up the potential for a massive fight.
Johnson supports the House committees investigating Biden and his family members, which has led to what many believe is solid evidence proving that they need to be held accountable.
JUST IN: Speaker Mike Johnson says he has the votes required to authorize a Biden impeachment inquiry.
DO YOU SUPPORT THIS? pic.twitter.com/elBonL952e
— Proud Elephant 🇺🇸🦅 (@ProudElephantUS) December 3, 2023
"The evidence is so clear you cannot look away," Johnson said when asked about the impeachment inquiry situation.
He added, "The Constitution requires the House to follow the truth where it leads. We have a duty to do this. We cannot stop the process."
Last month, Johnson said, "At this stage, our impeachment inquiry has already shown the corrupt conduct of the President’s family, and that he and White House officials have repeatedly lied about his knowledge and involvement in his family’s business activities."
“Now, the appropriate step is to place key witnesses under oath and question them under the penalty of perjury, to fill gaps in the record,”
He's made similar remarks in recent weeks, indicating that Republicans are fully set on moving forward with the impeachment inquiry process.
Conservatives across the board are also ready for the impeachment inquiry process to take off. Some expressed criticism whether or not the process would elicit real results, or even happen at all.
"I’ll believe it when I see it but I’m praying it happens," one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "Sure and by the time they are done with the 'inquiry' his term will be over."
"Johnson must make sure. With the recent expulsion of Santos, there is one less vote to save America from the destruction of Biden," another social media user wrote.
Six House Democrats joined Republicans this week to pass a bill blocking the use of federal lands including national parks to house illegal immigrants by a vote of 224 to 203.
The bill was proposed by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) after the federal government under President Joe Biden approved New York Governor Kathy Hokul (D) and New York City Mayor Eric Adams's (D) request to use Floyd Bennett Field to house thousands of illegal immigrants.
“Turning our federal parks into encampments for unvetted migrants from all over the world is unfair to surrounding communities and the taxpayers who are being forced to foot the bill while our Mayor bankrupts our city and slashes services from our citizens,” Malliotakis said in a statement.
The six Democrats who voted with Republicans on the bill were Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Don Davis (D-NC), Jared Golden (D-ME), Vicente Gonzalez Jr. (D-TX), Mary Peltola (D-AK), and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA).
Illegal immigration is at record-high levels, with more than 8 million migrants being let into the country according to some estimates.
Border states are being overrun, and to alleviate this problem, both the Federal government and some state officials have been busing migrants to other parts of the country like New York City.
President Joe Biden had tried to get Democrats to vote against the bill citing the limiting effect it would have on the power of federal agencies like the Department of Agriculture.
But Republicans saw the need to limit that power precisely to prevent our national parks and other public lands from becoming little more than migrant camps to pack in even more illegal immigrants.
Unfortunately, Republicans don't have the power in the Senate to pass similar legislation, and neither body has a veto-proof majority.
Officials began moving migrants onto the historic airfield on Monday.
An initial 500 migrants are expected to reach 2,000 before it's all said and done, making Floyd Bennett Field the largest migrant camp in the U.S.
The airfield was used by residents of New York City for biking, fishing, camping, and hiking, but it won't be safe for that with thousands of unvetted migrants wandering around, not to mention the mess such an encampment would make.
The best Congress could do now is stop these camps from spreading all over the country in the next year, until Biden can hopefully be voted out of office and sanity can be restored to our border policy.
During the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, the small farming community known as Kibbutz Nir Oz was among the targets for the terror group's horrific wave of murders, kidnappings, and other atrocities.
Among those kidnapped from Nir Oz that day was Aryeh Zalmanovich, 85, a founder of the kibbutz who was also the oldest Israeli hostage and who has now been confirmed to have died while held in captivity by Hamas, according to Breitbart.
The outlet noted that roughly one-fourth of the community's estimated 400 residents were kidnapped or murdered on Oct. 7, and the Nir Oz residents taken captive by Hamas reportedly account for around one-third of all of the terror group's hostages held in Gaza.
Breitbart reported that Nir Oz released a statement that confirmed the initial reports that Zalmanovich had passed away while being held in captivity by Hamas.
"With great sadness Kibbutz Nir Oz announces the murder of Aria (Zalman) Zalmanowicz. Zalman was 85 years old, and was a founder of Kibbutz Nir Oz," the community said. "Zalman was a father of two and grandfather of five grandchildren. He was a man of the land, dedicated to agriculture his entire life. He was an avid reader, with a wide knowledge of history and the country. May his memory be a blessing."
According to The Times of Israel, Zalmanovich, who was born in Haifa before Israel was even a nation and helped found the kibbutz in 1955, was further confirmed by the Israel Defense Force to be one of four Nir Oz residents who had died while being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.
"We are continuing to invest many intelligence and operational efforts, to bring information on the conditions of the hostages," IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters during a press conference, and added that the four deaths had been conclusively declared "based on findings that were collected, and intelligence."
The Messenger reported that questions had previously been raised about the status and well-being of Zalmanovich after Hamas released a video a couple of weeks ago that featured the elderly hostage and appeared to show him in exceptionally poor health, if not already dead.
Hamas claimed that Zalmanovich had died due to a heart attack that he suffered amid an IDF artillery and airstrike bombardment near where he was being held, but that claim was sharply disputed by the elderly man's son, Boaz, and others in the community who insist that the kibbutz founder was murdered by the terrorists.
In a social media post translated from Hebrew to English, Boaz wrote, "Abba Zalman, who was kidnapped on the seventh of October, was murdered with physical and mental torture by the evildoers. My heart is torn to pieces, we will miss you. All the abductees and the elderly and the sick whose time is limited must be returned."
The Times reported that Hamas killed at least 1,200 mostly Israeli civilians on Oct. 7 and kidnapped at least 240 people, the overwhelming majority of whom were Israelis.
During the temporary ceasefire that recently ended when Hamas launched rockets into Israel and conducted a shooting attack in Jerusalem, which prompted the IDF to resume its ground operations and bombardment of Gaza, a total of 105 civilian hostages were released by Hamas, which included 81 Israeli citizens, 23 citizens of Thailand, and one citizen from the Philippines.
In exchange for the release of those hostages, Israel released 210 convicted Palestinian criminals and terrorists held in Israeli prisons and also allowed a substantial amount of humanitarian aid and supplies to be trucked into Gaza -- even as it was well known that Hamas would appropriate much of it for their own purposes.
The Times noted that, per government officials, it is believed that Hamas still holds 136 hostages, of which 125 are Israeli while the remaining 11 are foreign nationals, mostly from Thailand. Of those remaining hostages, two are young children, 20 are adult women, 114 are adult men, and 10 are older than 75.