Morning Wire XX
[0] Two Americans taken hostage by Hamas have been released, but hundreds more hostages remain in terrorist hands.
[1] The urgent work to free every single American, to free all other hostages, continues, as does our work to secure the safe passage out of Gaza for the Americans who are trapped there.
[2] We discussed the situation on the ground and the next phase in Israel's campaign to wipe out the terror group.
[3] I'm Daily Wire, editor -in -chief John Vickley, with Georgia Howe.
[4] It's Monday, October 23rd.
[5] and this is Morning Wire.
[6] A massive pro -Palestinian anti -Israel protest of 100 ,000 people takes over London while violence erupts in Brooklyn.
[7] And the southern border hits another high water mark for annual entries.
[8] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[9] Stay tuned.
[10] We have the news you need to know.
[11] With the war between Israel and Hamas entering its third week, two American hostages were released over the weekend as Israeli forces prepared for a ground invasion.
[12] of Gaza.
[13] Here with the latest from the Middle East is Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips.
[14] Hey Cabot, so let's start with the release of these two hostages.
[15] What do we know?
[16] Yeah, finally a small sliver of good news amid all the chaos.
[17] Two Americans, Judith Renan and her daughter Natalie were released by Hamas to the Red Cross on Friday and are now safe in Israel.
[18] The two live in Illinois and were in the country for a relative's birthday celebration when they were seized during the terror attacks on the 7th.
[19] The Renans are now expected to undergo medical evaluations and a debriefing session with intelligence officials before being reunited with their families back home.
[20] According to Hamas spokesman, the release was, quote, for humanitarian reasons and to prove to the American people and the world that the claims made by Biden and his fascist administration are false and baseless.
[21] Now, obviously, take that with a massive grain of salt.
[22] This is a terror group, and we've seen the hard evidence of their atrocities.
[23] Over the weekend, we heard from Natalie's father for the first time since his daughter's release.
[24] Listen to his emotional testimony here.
[25] I've been waiting for this moment for a long time for two weeks.
[26] I haven't been sleeping for two weeks.
[27] Tonight I'm going to sleep good.
[28] I'm going to hug her and kiss her.
[29] And it's going to be the best day of my life.
[30] While the world is celebrating their release, Hamas still holds around 200 more hostages, including 11 Americans.
[31] So still hundreds more being held by Hamas.
[32] Yeah, and in unknown conditions.
[33] We talked last week about attempts from President Biden to get aid into Gaza.
[34] What's the latest on that front?
[35] Well, on Saturday, Israel officially opened the border crossing between Egypt and Gaza for the first time, allowing around 20 trucks to bring food, water, and other supplies into the region, which, remember, has been under Israeli siege since the war began.
[36] The aid came as European and Middle Eastern leaders convened for a summit in Cairo, where tensions were high.
[37] Arab officials called for an immediate ceasefire and accused the West of not caring about Palestinian civilians caught in the conflict.
[38] Jordan's King Abdullah II, Second, for example, claimed Western countries were quick to denounce attacks on civilians in Ukraine, but he said showed less concern for those in Gaza.
[39] For their part, European leaders said that they sympathized with the innocent people caught up in the war, but largely took Israel's side, saying they were justified in their response while putting the blame on Hamas for deliberately putting civilians in harm's way.
[40] How many civilians have been killed to this point, do we know?
[41] Yeah, there's no doubt that many innocent Palestinians have lost their lives as Israel tries to wipe out Hamas, but the actual number of victims is just impossible to verify.
[42] Hamas claims over 4 ,000 civilians have been killed, but Israel has been quick to remind the world that the group does have a history of inflating those figures and cannot be trusted to give accurate numbers.
[43] But given the fact that Gaza is home to 2 .1 million people, half of whom are under the age of 18, no matter how targeted those airstrikes might be, the sheer population density of the region just makes it incredibly difficult to avoid civilian casualties.
[44] And the actions of Hamas have made that effort even more difficult.
[45] Remember, despite evacuation warnings from Israel, Hamas leaders have ordered civilians to stay put, really hoping to use them as human shields to deter air strikes.
[46] To that point, the terror group's leader, Khaled Michel, said over the weekend that civilian casualties are a sacrifice he's willing to make in the fight for, quote, liberation.
[47] Now, this all comes as Israel continues to prepare for its ground invasion of Gaza.
[48] Where do we stand on that campaign?
[49] Yeah, at this point, the question is really not if, but when, Israel invades Gaza.
[50] Over the weekend, the country's defense minister told troops stationed along the border, quote, you now see Gaza from afar, soon you will see it from within.
[51] The order will come.
[52] That invasion is expected to be unprecedented in scale and force.
[53] While Israel has already killed an untold number of Hamas terrorists and key leaders, officials say the only way to fulfill their ultimate goal of eliminating the group will be a ground invasion.
[54] And that will mean urban warfare as Israeli troops will be forced to fight street by street to one of the most densely populated regions on earth.
[55] Complicating the potential invasion is a vast tunnel network that Hamas has spent decades and millions of dollars building.
[56] It's dubbed the Gaza Metro by Israeli officials.
[57] The subterranean labyrinth spends hundreds of miles and is equipped with rail systems and electricity.
[58] The tunnels are a crucial aspect of the guerrilla tactics of Hamas and have already allowed the group to evade detection, weighed out airstrikes and move weapons around the country, all in secret.
[59] So all that to say, any ground evasion is expected to be a complicated, bloody, attracted operation.
[60] Yeah, no doubt, rooting out Hamas is going to be a hard -fought effort.
[61] Kevin, thanks for reporting.
[62] Anytime.
[63] 100 ,000 protesters took the streets of London over the weekend to support Palestinians, criticize Israel, and call for an immediate ceasefire.
[64] Here to discuss is Daily Wire contributor, David Marcus.
[65] Hey, Dave.
[66] So 100 ,000 people is a lot of people.
[67] The footage of this march is really striking.
[68] What exactly are they calling for in London?
[69] And does this actually express the views of large numbers of Brits?
[70] Morning, John.
[71] It is a lot of people.
[72] One of the biggest demonstrations that we've seen thus far in a western city.
[73] The UK is about 7 % Muslim as opposed to 1 % in the United States.
[74] So many, though, certainly not all of the protesters were Arab Muslims, who polling show are very critical of Israel and see force used by Hamas, even in the form of October 7's atrocities as justified.
[75] The protest was more or less peaceful with only 10 arrests made, but it made a big statement.
[76] I think it is important to note that the West's commitment to free speech makes these events possible.
[77] And obviously, no such rally in support of Israel could take place in an Iran or Egypt, for example.
[78] Now, here in the U .S., things got a bit more testy in Brooklyn on Saturday, even though the protests there drew far less, about 5 ,000 people.
[79] What happened there in?
[80] Is this something new, or have we seen this kind of thing there before?
[81] Yeah, so the Brooklyn protest took place in a neighborhood called Bay Ridge, where I actually lived for several years.
[82] It has a very large Arab population, including many people who call themselves Palestinians.
[83] Here we did see violent clashes with police that one officer described as, quote, pretty heated.
[84] Small fires were set in the street, which protesters refused to vacate until late into the evening.
[85] And 25 protesters were detained.
[86] This is not particularly new for Bay Ridge.
[87] These events happen fairly regularly.
[88] Suddenly, there's giant trucks with Palestinian flags and speeches being made.
[89] But clearly the intensifying conflict in the Middle East has made the entire situation much more fraud.
[90] Yeah, apparently so.
[91] Do we have any sense of how many of these protesters are actually supporting the Hamas attacks on civilians on October 7th, as opposed to those who are protesting sort of the general situation with the Palestinians in Israel?
[92] That's very hard to know, but we do have polling from last week that shows while 75 % of Americans said the attack was not justified, as opposed to only 25 % who said it was.
[93] Among Muslim Americans, that's flipped, with 58 % showing approval and only 42 % expressing disapproval.
[94] In London, we did see some Al -Qaeda in Hamas flags, which is not subtle, but in general, it's hard to distinguish between the two sentiments, which has fueled some anger among Jews and those who support Jews at the timing of these protests, which does seem to signal some support for the brutality unleashed upon Israel.
[95] This also comes at a time when students at Ivy League schools who were members of groups that blamed Israel for the violence have lost job offers from some top companies over it.
[96] Could we see similar shunning for those involved in these protests?
[97] It seems less likely since, as we just discussed, being at a protest does not identify somebody as supporting the actions of Hamas, while blaming Israel for the attacks clearly does.
[98] That having been said, politicians probably need to be careful.
[99] There were some local Democrat elected officials at the Brooklyn demonstration, and that could come back to haunt them.
[100] This is the only red congressional district in Gotham, and part of why Representative Nicole Malia Takas beat Max Rose to flip the seat in 2020, as you may remember, was that Rose participated in a Black Lives Matter march, and that didn't sit well in a community with a lot of cops and firemen.
[101] So time will tell if there are electoral consequences this time around.
[102] Yeah, we will see.
[103] Dave, thanks for joining us.
[104] Dogs were having me. According to the Department of Homeland Security, illegal immigrant entries into the U .S. topped 2 million for the second straight fiscal year.
[105] The news comes after the Biden administration has spent months saying its more compassionate approach to immigration would curb illegal entries.
[106] Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about the latest numbers from the southern border.
[107] So, Tim, Homeland Security released numbers for the 2022 -2020 fiscal year on Saturday, and they are pretty eye -opening.
[108] Tell us about those numbers.
[109] Sure, the top line number is, again, as John mentioned, just over two million apprehensions of illegal aliens in the past 12 months.
[110] It's the second time apprehensions have busted the record set before President Biden took office.
[111] That was nearly $1 .7 million set in 1986.
[112] When you look at immigration numbers, there are a couple of important figures that the number of apprehensions leaves out.
[113] First, it doesn't account for people who came into the country through a port of entry or one of Biden's expanded parole programs or any other legal pathway.
[114] That accounts for another 1 .1 million immigrants into the United States over the past year, which means authorities arrested or processed immigrants a total of 3 .2 million times since October 2022.
[115] The other big number not accounted for is gotaways or people we know entered the country illegally but got away before Border Patrol could arrest them.
[116] That number is at least in the hundreds of thousands.
[117] Now, these end of the year numbers account for the entire U .S., not just the southern border.
[118] That said, it might as well be the southern border.
[119] 99 % of illegal immigration over the past 12 months came across the U .S.-Mexico border.
[120] Now, what do we know about the demographics of people being arrested there?
[121] Yeah, so of the roughly 2 million arrested, about 620 ,000 of them are a member of a family unit, about 130 ,000 are 18 or younger, what the U .S. calls an unaccompanied minor.
[122] The rest of those apprehended about 1 .3 million are all single adults.
[123] As far as where they're coming from, most are from the Northern Triangle countries, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, and from further south, such as Nicaragua and Venezuela.
[124] But many are also coming from places as far away as Africa and the Middle East and from countries such as China and India.
[125] Now, we've seen some data and reports showing that terror, suspects that the southern border is now a much bigger problem than it used to be.
[126] Do we have any new information about that?
[127] What the data shows and what we've seen reports of already is that the number of suspected terrorists that have tried to enter the country illegally over the southern border has skyrocketed from single digits annually to 169 in fiscal year 2023.
[128] It also shows an increase on the northern border as well, though not as severe.
[129] The United States northern border in recent years has typically been the most active as far as terror suspects go.
[130] But over the past year, 484 suspected terrorists were caught at a port of entry.
[131] Just three were arrested trying to enter the country illegally from the north.
[132] In total, the data show over 700 suspected terrorists were arrested trying to enter the United States.
[133] Now, before you go, there's been a lot of controversy over the migrant busing programs out of Texas.
[134] Is that still going on?
[135] It is.
[136] In fact, we've gotten some recent updates from Abbott, as well as the mayor in El Paso, who's a Democrat, as we've noted before.
[137] The governor announced so far this year he sent 58 ,000 migrants to so -called sanctuary cities.
[138] That's over 12 ,000 to D .C., 20 ,000 to New York, 16 ,000 to Chicago, 4 ,000 to Denver, as well as another 4 ,000 to Philadelphia and L .A. Meanwhile, El Paso's Democrat mayor, Oscar Leaser, has bust out about 7 ,700 immigrants since late September.
[139] That's more than 170 busloads of illegal aliens to New York, Chicago, and Denver in less than a month.
[140] And there's no sign that that's going to be letting up, more likely picking up pace as the surge continues.
[141] Right.
[142] Hard to even wrap your mind around those numbers.
[143] Tim, thanks for reporting.
[144] Thanks for having me. Thanks for waking up with us.
[145] We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.