A lawyer for a family of American citizens from Medway trapped in Gaza near a crossing with Egypt said they are still desperately awaiting word on whether they can escape the gruesome warzone even as airstrikes pounded buildings Thursday morning near where they were staying.

Attorney Sammy Nabulsi, who represents Abood Okal, Wafaa Abuzayda, and their 1-year-old son, Yousef, said the family is stranded near the Rafah Crossing, a border checkpoint in Southern Gaza with Egypt, and is running out of food and water. The family traveled to Gaza for a two-week trip to visit Abuzayda’s parents, Nabulsi said.

Airstrikes have hit the area in recent days, Nabulsi said, including one Thursday that struck buildings just over 100 yards from where the family is sheltering. In a message sent on WhatsApp, Okal told Nabulsi that “windows shattered and walls cracked.”

“My son was sleeping under a window. (Wafaa) had to snatch him out in fear of glass falling on him,” Okal said in a message sent to Nabulsi just after 7 a.m. Thursday that was shared with the Herald. “We’re ok, kids are crying so trying to calm them down. About 100 meters away. Close enough the walls of the house cracked.”

An image of the airstrike’s aftermath shows a plum of gray smoke rising over a mass of buildings near the City of Rafah, Gaza. Nabulsi said this is the closest the family has been to an airstrike after Okal witnessed one Tuesday while traveling to a nearby town to find milk for his son.

“What’s become clear is even Southern Gaza and the town of Rafah, which is where they are currently located hoping and waiting to cross into Egypt, is also unsafe,” said Nabulsi, a Boston-based lawyer with Rose Law Partners. “I’m particularly worried about airstrikes in the south because that’s presumably where all the other American citizens who wish to exit Gaza into Egypt are currently located.”

United States officials estimate 500 to 600 American citizens are trapped in Gaza without a way to exit as the number of deaths from a war with Israel continues to rage less than two weeks after Hamas militants stormed into Israel and killed civilians in a brutal terrorist attack.

Israeli airstrikes continued Thursday across the entirety of Gaza, including in the south where Israel declared “safe zones.” More than 1 million Palestinians, roughly half of Gaza’s population, have fled homes in the north and Gaza City after Israel told residents to evacuate the north in advance of an expected ground assault.

The death toll is mounting on both sides.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday that nearly 3,800 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,500 were wounded. More than 1,400 people in Israel were dead, most from the initial attack by Hamas, and hundreds were taken hostage.

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday that limited humanitarian aid could flow into Gaza from Egypt following a request from President Joe Biden. But it is unclear if any U.S. citizens will be able to flee Gaza through the Rafah Crossing, where United Nations flags are expected to be raised to protect trucks carrying aid supplies.

Nabulsi said the Medway family received messages Wednesday that the border between Gaza and Egypt would open for Americans to flee.

But only a few hours later, Nabulsi said he heard from U.S. officials that the limited aid deal “does not include any provision for the confirmed and safe departure of any American citizen in Gaza.”

“I asked myself this question like what on earth can I do next? Because I’m just getting to the point where I feel like I’m sitting here banging my head on a table saying like, these people are about to die and no one seems to do anything about it,” Nabulsi said in an interview.

Nabusli said he has been in touch with the U.S. Department of State, White House, and the offices of U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey and U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, Seth Moutlon, and Jim McGovern.

The family is a constituent of McGovern so any case work would fall to his office. A spokesperson for McGovern did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Markey, Warren, and New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen penned a Tuesday letter to the White House and Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging federal officials “to do everything possible to provide assistance to U.S. citizens fleeing the Gaza Strip, including our constituents from New England.”

“We are also concerned that our offices have received requests from multiple families from New England who are seeking assistance. These families are terrified for their lives and growing more frustrated as promises of escape through the opening of the Rafah Crossing remain unfulfilled,” the trio wrote, specifically pointing to the Medway family.

Nabulsi said he also wants to see more involvement from Gov. Maura Healey as the state’s federal delegation continues to push the White House and State Department for help.

“That advocacy needs to include her,” he said. “Everybody at every level of government needs to put their pencils down, and they should be doing nothing other than focusing on bringing all of these American citizens home safely, immediately.”

At an unrelated press conference Thursday, Healey said she was aware of the Medway family’s situation, calling it “heartbreaking.”

“I know that our senators have already been in touch with the State Department. There’s been a considerable amount of advocacy on their behalf, but it is a heartbreaking situation for them, for so many,” Healey told reporters.

Materials from the Associated Press were used in this report.

LOS ANGELES — Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing pressure to help free a Californian imprisoned in China when he travels there next week.

David Lin, a 67-year-old pastor from Orange County, has been behind bars since 2006, when he was arrested and given a life sentence for whatthe U.S. government says are bogus charges of contract fraud. His daughter, Alice Lin, said she hopes Newsom will press Chinese officials to release Lin.

Newsom should “raise my father’s case by name as well as the names of other wrongfully detained Americans,” she said in an exclusive interview. “We do not want my dad to be forgotten.”

So far, the Democratic governor has signaled a near-laser focus on climate change for his weeklong trip, which includes stops in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing as well as a reception with U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns, who met with Lin and two other American detainees earlier this year.

Newsom’s reluctance to raise human rights and the case of a constituent unjustly jailed in a Beijing prison may help smooth his meetings with Chinese officials. But it will likely spark criticism from China hawks on Capitol Hill who are pushing the Biden administration to take a harder line with Beijing for such abuses. It also threatens to overshadow a trip Newsom hopes will bolster California’s reputation as a leader in the global clean energy economy and build his foreign policy experience for a potential White House bid in 2028.

Newsom should “advocate for the American citizens, lawful permanent residents and political prisoners unjustly detained by China,” said Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. “They cannot be forgotten — and every American official who visits China must demand they be freed.”

Newsom officials declined to respond to a query about Lin and referred POLITICO to the State Department. Neither the White House nor the State Department responded to queries about whether they had briefed Newsom’s team on the administration’s China priorities or whether they considered human rights and unjustly jailed U.S. citizens to be strictly federal issues. However, the governor’s team has been in direct communication with the White House and the Biden administration has signed off on the trip.

A Newsom aide signaled this week that issues like Lin’s case weren’t part of the governor’s priorities.

“The trip is predominantly focused on climate,” spokesperson Erin Mellon told reporters Tuesday in response to a question on whether human rights were on Newsom’s trip agenda. “We are obviously a state, so I think we look to our federal partners on federal issues.”

Beijing has no problem with that narrow agenda. The Chinese government hopes Newsom’s trip “will produce good results and bolster California’s exchanges and cooperation with China,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters on Thursday.

Religious freedom organizations including ChinaAid say Chinese authorities targeted Lin because of his efforts to build a place of worship foran unofficial “house church” forbidden under Chinese law. He is scheduled to be released in 2029 following several reductions of his sentence.

Lin’s family said they worry Newsom’s disinterest may condemn Lin — who’ll be 68 next month — to die behind bars due to failing health. His release date “is too far off — I honestly don’t know if he will be able to make it until then,” Alice Lin said.

Alice Lin isn’t the only Californian urging Newsom to speak up for her dad. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), whose district includes Lin’s Orange County home, “supports Governor Newsom doing what he can to bring David home to his family,” a Porter spokesperson, Peter Opitz, said in a statement.

Linis one of three Americans imprisoned in China whom the State Department’s office of the special presidential envoy on hostage affairs (SPEHA) has designated as “wrongful detainees.” The designation authorizes Roger Carstens, the special envoy, to seek their release. SPEHA didn’t respond to a request for comment on the status of the Biden administration’s efforts to free Lin or the other two detainees, Kai Li and Mark Swidan.

A failure by Newsom to raise Lin’s case will likely surprise his hosts, one human-rights advocate said. “Chinese officials I work with expect him to raise cases of arbitrarily detained Americans — to do otherwise would be shameful and disqualifying,” said John Kamm, founder of the Dui Hua Foundation, which advocates for the release of victims of unjust jailing in China.

Newsom also plans to tour several renewable energy facilities, including an electric bus depot, an offshore wind factory and a Tesla vehicle manufacturing plant. Tesla’s China-based operations have been linked to components sourced in the Xinjiang region, where Chinese officials are known to use forced labor from Muslim Uyghurs.

Media coverage of that Tesla tour — and Newsom’s preference for a narrative of win-win China-California climate ties — will sustain criticism from human rights advocates and attacks from political opponents long after he returns to Sacramento.

“That’s the danger of domestic politicians trying to pad their résumés and stepping into trouble before they actually get to the campaign,” said Samuel Chu, president of the nonprofit advocacy group The Campaign for Hong Kong.

“The parties have agreed that for now there should not be a war of legal papers,” New York State Supreme Court Judge Gerald Lebovits said Thursday. “That for now, the solution is to try to settle the matter if possible and to solve any problem that may exist.” 

Courtesy of VOCAL-NY

Dave Giffen, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, with other housing advocates and activists at an Oct. 6 rally in support of New York’s right to shelter.

Mayor Eric Adams’ administration is not proceeding with a formal request to suspend the right to a shelter bed for single adults in New York City—at least for now.

In a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday, following 90 minutes of closed-door discussions, New York State Supreme Court Judge Gerald Lebovits said attorneys for the city, state and homeless advocates will instead continue meeting in private, with an eye toward a possible settlement.

“The parties have agreed that for now there should not be a war of legal papers,” Judge Lebovits said. “That for now, the solution is to try to settle the matter if possible and to solve any problem that may exist.”

The news was welcome to the Legal Aid Society, which has been locked in negotiations for months on behalf of Coalition for the Homeless. Talks started in the late spring, after Mayor Adams first sought relief from the 1981 consent decree in Callahan v. Carey, a lawsuit that established the right to shelter for single men. 

“We are very grateful that the court and the parties agreed that we should continue to discuss how to solve the problem,” said Josh Goldfein of Legal Aid. “No one wants to see people on the streets of New York exposed to the elements.”

New York City is uniquely obligated to provide a shelter bed to anyone in need, at least temporarily—part of a set of rules that grew from the Callahan decree and subsequent court decisions.

But the Adams Administration has argued that an influx of recently-arrived immigrants since early 2022 has pushed New York City’s shelter system beyond capacity. There are now 118,000 people staying in city shelters—over 64,000 of whom are asylum seekers—compared to about 60,500 in January 2022, according to City Hall.

Advocates had condemned Adams’ latest proposal to suspend shelter rights as extreme, arguing that it would result in people being turned out to the streets ahead of the cold winter months.

In an Oct. 11 letter to the court, Legal Aid included graphic images of frostbite sustained by a person who slept outside in freezing temperatures in Massachusetts, that had been submitted previously in the decades-old case.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, meanwhile, endorsed the mayor’s proposal in a court filing, calling it a “measured and appropriate modification.”

The request is distinct from city policies limiting stays to one or two months for recently-arrived immigrants in certain shelters—including, as of recently, for families with children.

While advocates say the time limits are unfairly disruptive, Legal Aid so far has not challenged them in court, saying shelter rights aren’t violated so long as everyone has the option to land a new shelter bed once their time is up.

Neither City Hall, nor Hochul’s office, immediately replied to a request for comment on Thursday’s court developments. Before dismissing the parties, Judge Lebovits previewed private talks starting next week, in the “robing room” adjacent to his bench.

“The proper path forward is to discuss logistics and nuts and bolts confidentially in the robing room and that’s what the court and the parties will be doing a lot of beginning next week,” he said. “The public will not be able to attend.”

Thursday marked Judge Lebovits’ first appearance in Callahan. He stepped into the case after Judge Erika Edwards recused herself in September, citing concerns about perceived impartiality. A state supreme court judge since 2015, Lebovits first took the bench in New York City Housing Court, from 2001 to 2010.

Sateesh Nori, a clinical adjunct professor at NYU Law School, appeared before Judge Lebovits while working as a tenant lawyer at Legal Aid. He also co-authored a law journal article with the judge in 2009 called “Section 8: New York’s Legal Landscape.”

“He will take it very seriously and he’s very knowledgeable about the issues,” Nori said of Judge Lebovits’ new role in the Callahan case. “He’s a scholar of housing law and legal practice.”

Asked what a judge with Lebovits’ background might bring to a case about shelter rights, Goldfein of Legal Aid said housing court judges are used to negotiating resolutions between parties without getting into protracted litigation.

“Any judge comes to the courtroom with their own life experience,” he said. “Certainly housing court is a forum where most cases are resolved and we are grateful that Justice Lebovits wants to use those skills to try to see if this case can also be resolved.”

To reach the editor behind this story, contact jeanmarie@citylimits.org. To reach the reporter, contact emma@citylimits.org.