Episode 100 is here! We talk with Jonnie from On Tap Sports Net & Sox on 35th to recap the Twins series, talk breaking unwritten rules, and all things White Sox! A fourth of the season is in the books and the Sox are in first place in the Central. Hopefully, this is just the start. Go Sox!
Aerial view of land in the 300 block of West Oak Street that JDL Development intends to buy from the Moody Bible Institute for development. | Brian Ernst/Sun-Times file
The panel praised changes the developer made based on two years of engagement with community groups.
City planners Thursday endorsed a developer’s multiyear plan to build on Near North Side property owned by Moody Bible Institute, praising the overall design and the collaborative process with community groups that produced it.
The proposal by JDL Development, with an estimated value of $1.3 billion, calls for up to 2,680 residential units and 30,000 square feet of commercial space. It also would provide 2.5 acres of publicly accessible parks, a widely praised feature that JDL enlarged after community meetings.
“This is one of the most optimistic developments I have seen in my time here,” said the city’s planning commissioner, Maurice Cox. Highlighting design changes the developer made to integrate the buildings with the dense neighborhood around it, Cox said, “It’s reassuring to see someone work successfully with the city grid that they’ve been handed.”
The Chicago Plan Commission, which includes Cox, unanimously endorsed the project. The vote by the panel that includes mayoral appointees sends the matter to the full City Council for a final zoning decision.
The proposal calls for a mix of housing types on about 8 acres. The rough boundaries are the CTA’s Brown Line, Oak, Chestnut and Wells streets, although the two tallest buildings in JDL’s plan would be just north of Oak on what’s now Moody’s soccer field. They would come in the project’s final phase.
JDL CEO James Letchinger said he hopes to start on the site’s southeast end late this year. New construction and the renovation of four existing buildings will take years and be subject to market cycles, but Letchinger said he is confident about Chicago’s rebound from the pandemic and the Near North Side’s continued residential appeal.
“We’re still incredibly invested in Chicago, and we’re not going anywhere,” Letchinger said. His firm is completing the One Chicago development of two high-rises on Chicago Avenue across from Holy Name Cathedral.
The Moody Bible project goes under the name North Union, a term Letchinger used for his aim to enliven blocks between River North, the Gold Coast and the former Cabrini-Green public housing site. Moody Bible has decided the area is excess property and has agreed to sell to Letchinger, but it continues its Christian education at its main campus, 820 N. La Salle St.
A separate part of the same zoning proposal would apply to Moody’s continuing campus and would allow 1,372 units of future housing on the property, but there are no current plans for that.
Letchinger said that at full buildout, the mostly tax-exempt property could generate $20 million a year in property taxes. The development requires no help from tax increment financing, and Letchinger has agreed to an affordable housing requirement that exceeds city ordinance.
He would build 236 units with rent limitations to meet affordability requirements. In addition, he’s promised another 118 affordable units either on- or off-site, although he said the number could change if the city wants a higher proportion of three-bedroom units.
Ald. Walter Burnett Jr’s 27th Ward includes most of the development. He said it has “100% support” from him and from leading community groups. Burnett also said he hopes the project will spur interest from the CTA in adding an L stop at Division Street.
The design is the result of “a robust process, an expansive process that included a lot of voices,” said Teresa Cordova, an urban planning professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and chair of the Plan Commission.
Letchinger said his firm, working with Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture, worked through a two-year schedule of meetings with the city and local groups. “I have never had a community meeting that didn’t result in an improved product,” he said.
The design keeps curb cuts off Wells Street. The proposed architecture mostly calls for buildings that are tapered on higher floors.
Such innovations are a positive sign for viewers of a network that has been caught in the crosshairs of a changing media landscape.
Before Marquee Sports Network arrived on the scene, NBC Sports Chicago hadn’t had a competing regional sports network since Fox Sports Net Chicago shut down in 2006. It wasn’t much of a competition, though. In 2004, FSN Chicago lost the Blackhawks, Bulls, Cubs and White Sox to Comcast SportsNet Chicago (the precursor to NBCSCH) and aired programming of little interest to Chicago fans.
But the Cubs are now on Marquee, which has been bent on bringing innovations to its broadcasts, such as camera technology and wind tracking. You might think that NBCSCH would be paying close attention to its RSN competitor, particularly during baseball season, but that’s not the network’s tack.
“I’ll watch it occasionally,” said Kevin Cross, NBCSCH’s senior vice president and general manager. “This is really no knock on anyone else. I believe very strongly that if you take care of the things that are important to you internally, the outcome of your competition will take care of itself.”
Cross always is looking to innovate for his viewers, and he and Greg Bowman, executive producer of live events, devised a pitch-tracking graphic that’s the first of its kind on baseball broadcasts and incorporated it into Sox home games about a month ago.
The graphic displays the pitch type in real time on the virtual overlay of the strike zone, in addition to location and speed. The latter two elements already had been shown on broadcasts, but combined with the type, viewers get a better picture of each pitch.
“We want to focus a lot of our attention on that duel between the pitcher and the batter,” Cross said. “We want to make sure that the viewer has everything they need to understand that moment. One of the things that has always been important to me is the pitch type.”
Cross and Bowman discussed the concept in one of their daily morning calls, and Bowman designed a mockup. They presented their idea to MLB, which provides broadcasts with its Pitchcast system, a network of cameras in every ballpark that tracks the speed, angle and spin rate of every pitch.
“MLB said, ‘Well, no one’s asked us that,’ ” Cross said. “So they came back with a couple of mockups, and then we went with it. MLB can offer it to anyone. It’s not like we put a trademark or patent on it. MLB created it on our behalf, but we want to make it available to anyone across broadcasting.”
The graphic is clear and unobtrusive. On-screen pitch tracking has come a long way from its previous iteration, which was on the side of the screen and didn’t provide the type. And it works for younger viewers who are accustomed to similar graphics in baseball video games.
NBCSCH can’t replicate the graphic for road games because it’s at the mercy of the world feed delivered by the home team’s broadcast. For those games, NBCSCH worked with MLB to create a drop-down box in the scorebug for the pitch type.
Such innovations are a positive sign for viewers of a network that has been caught in the crosshairs of a changing media landscape. Despite parent company NBCUniversal’s belt-tightening, consolidating and restructuring companywide, NBCSCH is plugging along as best it can with fewer resources.
But the question remains if the network will resume producing original TV programming outside of its game coverage, such as canceled shows “SportsTalk Live” and “Baseball Night in Chicago.” Cross said the network has emphasized podcasting and creating content for its digital platforms, though he acknowledged linear TV is still king.
“We’re exploring it, but I’ve always said, ‘Let’s make sure we don’t do pure vanity projects,’ ” Cross said. “We have to make sure that we’re doing it because it’s a demand by our viewers. Based upon everything we’ve seen, the viewer wants to be reached on multiple platforms.
“What they typically want is when the game is on, they want to stream it if they’re out and about, and they want to watch the pre- and postgame and the game if they’re in front of their TV at home.”
NBCSCH is well-positioned as sports media expands into streaming. It’s available on AT&T TV, fuboTV, Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV. (Marquee isn’t available on the latter two.) But Cross, who will add the titles of president and general manager of NBC 5 and Telemundo Chicago on June 1, keeps his focus on his audience.
“The best thing for me is to focus the most on what does the fan want,” he said. “The industry is fluid. We’re in this interesting moment where technology and people’s interests are all coming together. But at the end, there will always be sports fans, and they’ll always want to know where can I find my local game. So we’ll always be there for them in that regard.”
REMOTE PATROL
The Cubs-Cardinals game at 6 p.m. Saturday is part of Fox’ season debut of “Baseball Night in America.” The network’s top crew of Joe Buck, John Smoltz and Ken Rosenthal will have the call. The series finale will air on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” at 6 p.m. Cubs TV voice Jon Sciambi will call the game for ESPN Radio, but that broadcast won’t air on ESPN 1000.
The White Sox will have a national audience Monday, when ESPN airs their home game against the Cardinals at 7 p.m. Karl Ravech, Eduardo Perez and Tim Kurkjian will have the call. The broadcast will be available in the Chicago market. NBC Sports Chicago also will air the game.
Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said his hope was “waning” that the Cubs would reach the 85% vaccination threshold that would ease coronavirus restrictions by MLB. | Matt York/AP Photos
The Cubs president said the team is at a competitive disadvantage by not being able to take advantage of relaxed restrictions for teams that reach have 85% of their players and coaches vaccinated. “We are not a player away from 85%,” he said.
Cubs president Jed Hoyer sharply expressed his disappointment Thursday that his players have not reached the 85% coronavirus vaccination threshold that has relaxed restrictions for other major league teams — saying it is putting the team at a competitive disadvantage.
“It’s disappointing to not be at 85 percent as a team,” Hoyer said in a press conference prior to Thursday’s game against the Nationals at Wrigley Field. “We’ve worked hard to get as many people vaccinated as possible. We’ve worked hard to try to convince or educate the people that have been reluctant. I think we’re at a place right now where I’m not going to give up hope that we can get there, but my level of optimism is waning, candidly.”
Players and coaches on teams that reach the 85% threshold can return to a greater level of normalcy with regard to day-to-day activities. They no longer have to wear masks in the dugout or bullpen and can dine at indoor and outdoor restaurants while on the road. But more importantly, vaccinated players who are asymptomatic do not have to be quarantined if they are determined to be a close contact of a person who has the coronavirus.
“It is disappointing, because there are conveniences that come with getting to 85% as a group,” Hoyer said, “just mask-wearing and dining and things like that that we would all like to have.
“But I also feel like there’s a real competitive advantage that we’re gonna miss. The contact-tracing thing is a big deal. And when you have a positive case, but the people around you have been vaccinated, that takes away that contact-tracing element to guys being out and by not getting the 85% we’re missing that. So it’s disappointing. I can’t say it any other way.”
Hoyer said he would not move players who did not comply, adding that “We are not a player away from being 85%,” he said.
Hoyer pointed to the Cubs series against the Brewers in Milwaukee in April as an indication of the impact. After coaches Chris Young and Craig Driver tested positive for the coronavirus, four players were put on the COVID-19 list — relievers Brandon Workman, Jason Adam and Dan Winkler and infielder Matt Duffy. And pitcher Kyle Hendricks was scratched from a start as a precaution after Hendricks came under the weather.
“Scratching Kyle before his start because he was congested and going through, when [bullpen coach] Chris Young and Driver had it and going through all of that — that’s a pretty horrible feeling. A pretty helpless feeling,” Hoyer said. “The fact that we aren’t able to eliminate that is disappointing. Injuries can be avoidable but sometimes they’re not and your season can get derailed when you have injuries and that’s part of this job. But I feel like this is one that can be avoided. And we’re not able to avoid it, in some ways.
“And I just want to be clear — there’s a lot of players that have gotten vaccinated. I commend them for it. This is not a blanket statement. But as an organization we have not been able to get the 85% and that does take away the ability to eliminate that as an anxiety.”
Cubs starter Jake Arrieta said last week he didn’t think the eased restrictions from hitting the 85% threshold are a big deal. “I don’t necessarily see that as a competitive advantage or disadvantage,” Arrieta said. “I know we do have a lot of guys vaccinated. We have not had any cases in the past month. So we’re doing OK as a group. And we’re being careful about where we go and who we’re around.”
Hoyer, while not wanting to get into a public debate with his pitcher, re-iterated his point in response.
“It’s irrefutable that … the more players are vaccinated … you can eliminate the contact tracing element of it — by definition that eliminates risk,” Hoyer said. “Eliminating risk is a competitive advantage.”
Director Iris Sowlat uses social isolation as a framework for the lovers; plus PARA.MAR Dance Theatre offers live classes and performances with THAWEN.
In the end, it wasn’t their dueling families that led to Romeo and Juliet’s death—it was a pandemic. In act five, scene two of Romeo and Juliet, we discover that Friar John’s mission to carry a letter from Verona to the banished Romeo in Mantua, letting him know that the reports of Juliet’s death were part of a ruse devised by Friar Laurence to get her out of marrying Paris, has been thwarted by fear of “the infectious pestilence” that has shut down Mantua to outsiders.…Read More
A man inspects the rubble of destroyed residential building which was hit by Israeli airstrikes, in Gaza City, Thursday, May 20, 2021. | AP
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed back against calls from the U.S. to wind down the Gaza offensive, appearing determined to inflict maximum damage on Hamas in a war that could help save his political career.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip —Israel unleashed a new wave of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Thursday and Hamas fired more rockets into Israel, despite growing signs that the sides were close to a cease-fire that would end 11 days of heavy fighting.
In an apparent sign of progress, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened an emergency meeting of his Security Cabinet, where the issue of a cease-fire was expected to be debated.
An Egyptian official said Israel has informed his government, which is mediating a truce, that it intends to end its military operations in Gaza. Speaking on condition of anonymity because he was discussing behind-the-scenes diplomacy, he said an announcement was expected following the Security Cabinet meeting.
The official spoke shortly after Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi talked by phone with President Joe Biden. The two leaders discussed ways to stop violence in the Palestinian Territories, el-Sissi’s office said.
In Washington, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said reports of a move toward a ceasefire were “clearly encouraging.” She said the U.S. was trying “to do everything we can to bring an end to the conflict.”
With U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urging an immediate cease-fire, a U.N. Mideast envoy was in the Gulf state of Qatar to help with efforts to restore calm, a diplomatic official said. Energy-rich Qatar often helps mediate between Israel and Hamas and has donated hundreds of millions of dollars for development and humanitarian projects in Gaza in recent years. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.
Osama Hamdan, a top Hamas official based in Lebanon, also said he expected a cease-fire within the coming day.
Biden on Wednesday publicly pressed Netanyahu to wind down the operation. The Israeli leader initially pushed back, appearing determined to inflict maximum damage on Hamas in a war that could help save his political career. But by Thursday evening, Israeli media were reporting that a cease-fire agreement was expected to take effect by early Friday, perhaps sooner.
Despite the signs of progress, fighting continued into the evening, with Israeli airstrikes on targets in Gaza and Palestinian militants firing rockets toward Israeli cities. In past rounds of violence, fighting has picked up in the final hours, with each side trying to eke out a final achievement before a cease-fire went into effect.
Earlier Thursday, explosions shook Gaza City and orange flares lit up the pre-dawn sky, with bombing raids also reported in the central town of Deir al-Balah and the southern town of Khan Younis. As the sun rose, residents surveyed the rubble from at least five family homes destroyed in Khan Younis. Heavy airstrikes also hit a commercial thoroughfare in Gaza City.
The Israeli military said it struck at least three homes of Hamas commanders in Khan Younis and another in Rafah, targeting “military infrastructure,” as well as a weapons storage unit at a home in Gaza City.
On Wednesday, Biden told Israel on Wednesday that he expected “a significant de-escalation today on the path to a cease-fire” — but Netanyahu pushed back, saying he was “determined to continue this operation until its aim is met.” It marked the first public rift between the two close allies since the fighting began and posed a difficult test of the U.S.-Israel relationship early in Biden’s presidency.
Visiting the region, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Israel has “the right to defend itself against such unacceptable attacks.” But he also expressed concern about the rising number of civilian victims and voiced support for truce efforts.
Even as the diplomatic efforts appeared to gather strength, an Israeli airstrike smashed into the Khawaldi family’s two-story house in Khan Younis, destroying it. The 11 residents, who were sleeping outside the home out of fear, were all hospitalized, said Shaker al-Khozondar, a neighbor.
Shrapnel also hit his own home, killing his aunt and wounding her daughter and two other relatives, he said. Al-Khozondar spoke from the bedroom where his aunt Hoda died. The windows were shattered and the bed pillows and rubble stained with blood.
Weam Fares, a spokesman for a nearby hospital, confirmed the death and said at least 10 people were wounded in strikes overnight.
Heavy airstrikes also pummeled a street in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, destroying ramshackle homes with corrugated metal roofs nearby. The military said it struck two underground launchers in the camp used to fire rockets at Tel Aviv.
The current round of fighting between Israel and Hamas began May 10, when the militant group fired long-range rockets toward Jerusalem after days of clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a flashpoint site sacred to Jews and Muslims. Heavy-handed police tactics at the compound and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers had inflamed tensions.
Since then, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes that it says have targeted Hamas’ infrastructure, including a vast tunnel network. Hamas and other militant groups embedded in residential areas have fired over 4,000 rockets at Israeli cities, with hundreds falling short and most of the rest intercepted.
At least 230 Palestinians have been killed, including 65 children and 39 women, with 1,710 people wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not break the numbers down into fighters and civilians. Hamas and militant group Islamic Jihad say at least 20 of their fighters have been killed, while Israel says the number is at least 130. Some 58,000 Palestinians have fled their homes.
Twelve people in Israel, including a 5-year-old boy, a 16-year-old girl and a soldier, have been killed. The military said an anti-tank missile fired from Gaza hit an empty bus near the frontier on Thursday, lightly wounding an Israeli soldier.
Since the fighting began, Gaza’s infrastructure, already weakened by a 14-year blockade, has rapidly deteriorated. Medical supplies, water and fuel for electricity are running low in the territory, on which Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade after Hamas seized power in 2007.
Israeli bombing has damaged over 50 schools across the territory, according to advocacy group Save the Children, completely destroying at least six. While repairs are done, education will be disrupted for nearly 42,000 children.
Israeli attacks have also damaged at least 18 hospitals and clinics and destroyed one health facility, the World Health Organization said. Nearly half of all essential drugs have run out.
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Krauss reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Isabel DeBre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Samy Magdy in Cairo and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
“Black memory is not limited to traumatic resonances of the past,” writes Badia Ahad-Legardy. “Nor are they constituted only through or in relation to histories of violence.”
The Black experience is more than slavery or Laquan McDonald police killings. The past is harmful, but it can also be blissful.
One of the most joyful experiences of 2021 for me was tuning into a Verzuz battle between R&B groups Earth, Wind & Fire and the Isley Brothers.
For the uninitiated, Verzuz is a pandemic webcast pastime that matches groups or musical artists against each other. Think the internet version of what the late legendary DJ Herb Kent did weekly on the radio with his “Battle of the Best.”
For more than three hours on the night of Easter Sunday, we listened to classic discs from the two groups while the audience kept score. Earth, Wind & Fire jams conjured backyard barbeques. The Isley Brothers’ quiet storm melodies inspired romance. The delight of hearing decades-old songs that my parents had exposed me to, such as “Can’t Hide Love” and “Footsteps in the Dark,” warmed me and brought back childhood and teenage memories.
I thought of Verzuz while reading my friend Badia Ahad-Legardy’s new book “Afro-Nostalgia: Feeling Good in Contemporary Black Culture,” a rumination on how today’s Black artists go beyond trauma and racism to evoke positive emotions. Recollection and joy are paramount to the collective narrative about Blackness.
Ahad-Legardy, a professor and vice provost at Loyola University, writes that in the 18th century white people believed that people of African descent could not experience nostalgia. It was thought that they lacked the capacity for the feelings and sensations. The white American view of Africa was so bleak that it was hard to imagine anyone longing for that place as home.
“Black memory is not limited to traumatic resonances of the past, nor are they constituted only through or in relation to histories of violence,” Ahad-Legardy writes. “I consider afro-nostalgia a lens through which we can conceptualize the desires of the African-descended to discern and devise romantic recollections of the past in the service of complicating the traumatic as a singular black historical through line.”
In other words, the Black experience is more than slavery or Laquan McDonald police killings. The past is harmful, but it can also be blissful. Neither perspective is the singular one.
Ahad-Legardy argues that it isn’t elitist or erasure to use the emotion of nostalgia in contemporary Black imagination. Black people deserve a break from experiencing or consuming images of trauma. Let’s face it — living, driving or breathing while Black can be fraught in this country.
“Afro-Nostalgia” focuses on current examples in literature, music, visual and culinary arts that make us feel good — with ample Chicago cultural practitioners featured. Tricia Hersey’s “The Nap Ministry” is an interactive art installation and uses afro-nostalgia to implore Black folks to rest as an act of resistance and reparations for our ancestors’ labor. Kerry James Marshall’s paintings feature dark figures frolicking in the grass as birds fly above. Krista Franklin mines through rituals and history for her beautiful and complex collages. Rhonda Wheatley employs vintage devices such as rotary phones and record players in her art installations.
For me, nostalgia emanates through joy and memory. Remembering Saturday morning chores while the television blared “Soul Train” in the background. Rummaging through my high school senior book and finding pictures of me and my girls rocking asymmetrical haircuts. Listening to Raekwon vs. Ghostface on Verzuz.
The 1990s, which is when I came of age, is a constant source of elation. Even in sadness, remembrance is a tonic. Two friends of mine died earlier this year and I’m wistful as I think of how Damani embodied Black boy joy and Rudy regaled his loved ones with a vocabulary word of the day and succulent brisket.
I tie smell to nostalgia. One day I cooked collard greens and polished my wood floors as buttermilk pies caramelized in the oven. I stepped out on my back porch for a bit, and when I returned inside, all the aromas had fused together instantly reminded me of my grandmother.
Nostalgia is subjective. The political climate in the U.S. has some people longing for the good ole days of June Cleaver and Jim Crow. That’s not the sentimentality Ahad-Legardy writes about, nor one that I would embrace. Nostalgia is the past, but we also get hints of it in the present.
Ten years from now I’ll smile at the joy I currently feel when I hear the beads clink on my 5-year-old daughter’s braids.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan speaks during a rally organized by Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group to express solidarity with the Palestinian people, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, May 17, 2021. Hamdan says he expects a cease-fire between the group’s Gaza branch and Israel within 24 hours, on Thursday, May 20. He tells The Associated Press that Egypt and Qatar are mediating and that progress is being made. | AP
Osama Hamdan also told The AP that Mohammed Deif, an elusive Hamas commander who has been hunted by Israel for decades, is alive and remains in charge of Gaza military operations.
BEIRUT — A senior Hamas official said in an interview Thursday that he expects a cease-fire between the group’s Gaza branch and Israel within a day, but warned that Hamas has “no shortage of missiles.”
Osama Hamdan also told The Associated Press that Mohammed Deif, an elusive Hamas commander who has been hunted by Israel for decades, is alive and remains in charge of Gaza military operations.
Deif, also known as Abu Khaled, is by far Israel’s most wanted target in Gaza. He has survived multiple Israeli assassination attempts, and is rarely seen in public. Israeli media have said there were two more failed attempts during the current Israel-Hamas war, the fourth in just over a decade.
Hamdan told the AP that Deif is “still heading the operation and directing the joint operations” of Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, and other factions. He provided no evidence for that statement.
Since the conflict began, Israel has leveled a number of Gaza City’s tallest office and residential buildings, alleging they house elements of the Hamas military infrastructure.
On Saturday, an Israeli strike destroyed the 12-story al-Jalaa Building, an office and residential tower where the offices of the AP and the TV network Al-Jazeera were located. The military gave a warning ahead of the strike and occupants evacuated safely.
The AP has called for an independent investigation. AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt has said in statement that the AP had no indication of a Hamas presence in the building. “This is something we actively check to the best of our ability,” he said.
Hamdan denied there was any military presence belonging to Hamas or any other armed group in the building.
In the interview, Hamdan said his group could continue bombarding Israel for months if it chose to do so.
“I can assure that what we saw during the first days in terms of bombarding Tel Aviv and some areas in Jerusalem, can continue not only for days or weeks but for months,” said Hamdan. But he added that he believed a cease-fire announcement is near.
Hamdan, who is based in Beirut, is a member of Hamas’ powerful decision-making political bureau.
Hamas is a militant off-shoot of the pan-Arab Muslim Brotherhood and has sworn to pursue Israel’s destruction. It has been branded a terrorist group by Israel, the U.S., the European Union and other Western allies.
Founded in 1987, Hamas consists of a secretive military wing and an above-ground political organization. Its leader, Ismail Haniyeh, runs Hamas from exile in Qatar. The group’s power center remains Gaza, the small territory it seized from internationally-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ forces in 2007.
Also Thursday, Haniyeh in a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei asked for a wide “mobilization of Arab, Islamic and international support” to stop Israeli airstrikes, the official IRNA news agency reported. It said this was Haniyeh’s second note to Khamenei since the latest war between Israel and Hamas erupted.
The war broke out on May 10, after Hamas fired long-range rockets at Jerusalem following weeks of clashes in the holy city between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police. The protests were focused on the heavy-handed policing of a flashpoint sacred site during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers.
Since then, the Israeli military has launched hundreds of airstrikes that it says are targeting Hamas’ militant infrastructure. Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired more than 4,000 rockets toward Israeli cities and towns.
At least 230 Palestinians have been killed, including 65 children and 39 women, with 1,710 people wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Twelve people in Israel, including a 5-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl, have been killed.
Hamdan said Egypt and Qatar have been involved in cease-fire negotiations and suggested that progress was being made. “This is the tentative vision that I believe that within 24 hours will lead to an understanding or an agreement,” he added.
Hamdan said that as part of the talks, Hamas and a smaller militant group, Islamic Jihad, demand that Israeli police agree not to enter Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site. During the Jerusalem tensions that preceded the current war, Israeli riot police firing tear guns, stun grenades and rubber bullets clashed with Palestinian stone throwers in the compound. Israel is bound to reject any Hamas demands linked to Jerusalem.
During the current fighting, Hamas missiles have been hitting deeper inside Israel and with greater accuracy than ever before, including several barrages on Tel Aviv.
Hamdan said the arsenal was far from being depleted. “There is no shortage of missiles,” he said, without elaborating.
On Thursday, Hamas received verbal support from ally Iran, which has armed militant groups through the region.
Gen. Esmail Ghaani, who heads Iran’s expeditionary Quds Force, sent letters to Deif and a commander of the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, praising “their resistance” against Israel, according to state media in Tehran.
“We will stand by you,” Ghaani said in the letters to the Palestinian commanders.
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Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
