HONG KONG — Families of hostages taken by Hamas asked China to help secure their release today.

At a news briefing with Hong Kong media, Adva Adar said her 85-year-old grandmother Yaffa “was kidnapped from her bed,” adding that her elderly relative had been without her medicines for a month. “We are very worried for her condition. We can’t let her die slowly, painfully,” Adar said.

Eilon Bibas, whose 10-month-old cousin Kfir was kidnapped along with his parents, Shiri and Yarden Bibas, and his sister Ariel, 4, said it was driving them “crazy that one month later, we don’t have any piece of information about them.” He added that they wanted their families back “but we want them alive.”

Both Adar and Bibas appealed directly to the Chinese government for help to secure the release of their family members.

A smoke plume rises from buildings in northern Gaza after an Israeli bombardment, seen from a position across the border in southern Israel today.

LOS ANGELES — Clashes broke out between rival groups outside the screening of a documentary made by the Israeli military based on footage captured during the Oct. 7 attacks.

The LAPD said there were at least two reports of misdemeanor battery outside Los Angeles' Museum of Tolerance yesterday.

Police added that they were aware of video footage appearing to show multiple skirmishes and would be investigating.

Around 2,000 people marched in silence in Cologne, Germany, to mark the 85th anniversary of “Kristallnacht.” The commemoration was intended to show support for the victims of the Hamas attack in Israel in October.

Both Israel and Hamas have been accused of committing war crimes by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Calling for an immediate cease-fire and the release of hostages, Volker Türk said yesterday that Hamas holding people captive was a war crime, as was Israel’s “collective punishment” of Palestinian civilians.

“Even in the context of a 56-year-old occupation, the current situation is the most dangerous in decades, faced by people in Gaza, in Israel, in the West Bank but also regionally,” Türk told reporters on the Egyptian side of Gaza’s Rafah border crossing.

“The international community needs to be part of finding a just and equitable future for the Palestinian and Israeli people,” he added.

A young man looks at black smoke rising from the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank during an Israeli military operation this morning.

LONDON — British Home Secretary Suella Braverman has come under pressure today for describing pro-Palestinian demonstrators as "hate marchers" who support terrorism.

The Conservative Party politician criticized a large march planned in London on Saturday, following similar protests in the British capital since Hamas’ attack Oct. 7 and Israel’s subsequent military campaign in Gaza.

“We have seen with our own eyes that terrorists have been valorized, Israel has been demonized as Nazis and Jews have been threatened with further massacres,” she wrote in The Times of London, adding that the marches were “disturbingly reminiscent” of sectarian groups in Northern Ireland.

Jonathan Reynolds, a senior lawmaker for the opposition Labour Party, told Sky News that Braverman was “out of control” and said Prime Minster Rishi Sunak should fire her if he had not signed off on the article. But a spokesperson for the prime minister later said that Sunak had “full confidence” in Braverman.

JERUSALEM — A walk through Jerusalem's Old City feels like strolling through a city abandoned. Most of the tourist shops around the holy sites are shuttered for lack of tourists. Food stalls and shops selling basic essentials are open but with fewer customers than usual. 

In the Christian quarter, we breeze into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre through an archway where we’re told there would typically be an hourlong wait. The heavy smell of incense fills the air inside, with only the occasional sight of a pair of monks or a solitary nun going about their business. 

From there, we walked to the Muslim quarter and, after some negotiation, Israeli military guards allow us to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque. They demanded we leave cameras outside “because of the war,” although we could keep our mobile phones.  

As night falls,  the emptiness of the compound inside feels unusual. Old Jerusalem feels like it is holding its breath, waiting, like the rest of us, for what comes next.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim advocacy group in the United States, criticized the House of Representatives for censuring Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., over her remarks on the Israel-Hamas war, saying she was targeted for supporting Palestinian human rights.

“The American Muslim community stands against this hypocritical and racist targeting of Representative Tlaib, whose voice is indispensable in representing the concerns of millions of Americans who are horrified by the war crimes our government supports against the Palestinian people,” the group’s national executive director, Nihad Awad, said in a statement yesterday. “She should wear this cowardly censure as a badge of honor.” 

Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, was censured in a 234-188 vote Tuesday for “promoting false narratives” regarding the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and “calling for the destruction of the state of Israel,” based largely on a video she posted on social media. Twenty-two of her fellow Democrats voted for the measure.

Tlaib, who is one of the few lawmakers calling for a cease-fire rather than a “humanitarian pause,” argued before the vote that she was protected by free speech.