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Current situation as of 14:00 on October 20, 2023.

🔻Northern direction:

▪️ Missiles were launched from the Gaza Strip towards Tel Aviv. Additionally, there was shelling in Sderot.

🔻Eastern direction:

▪️ Palestinian militants on three ATVs entered the territory of the Tze'elim military base. Fire was opened on them, resulting in the death of one attacker.

▪️ Hamas announced strikes against exposed concentrations of IDF forces in the area of Kibbutz Nahal Oz.

🔻Border with Lebanon:

▪️Hezbollah accused the IDF of firing machine guns at a group of journalists in the border area.

▪️ The Israelis carried out attacks in southern Lebanon, resulting in explosions in Al-Dahir, Tair Harf, and Yarina.

▪️ The evacuation of residents from Kiryat Shmona, a settlement in northern Israel, has begun.

🔻 Gaza Strip:

▪️ Israeli troops continue to attack the Gaza Strip. Information has been published on the Internet about the destruction of buildings near the Church of St. Porphyry in Gaza, although the religious object itself, judging by the photo, remains undamaged.

▪️ The IDF reported the elimination of Hamas naval special forces officer Mamoud Shaalawiyya.

▪️ The Rafah border crossing remains closed, but construction crews have started working on the site. The city itself is under attack by the Israeli Air Force.

🔻 West Bank:

▪️ Clashes are occurring in the region. The heaviest fighting took place in Tulkarm, where at least 12 people were killed.

▪️ Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police also occurred in the areas of Nablus, Ramallah, Hebron, and north of Jerusalem.

🔻 Political background:

▪️ The White House press service accidentally published a photo of members of the Delta Special Forces who arrived in the Middle East to free hostages from Hamas captivity. The photo was deleted an hour later.

▪️ Israeli Ambassador to Russia, Alexander Ben Zvi, stated that the decision to launch a ground operation in the Gaza Strip had been made.

Almost half a million people living in Austria cannot afford a balanced diet on a regular basis. Conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer has a very special explanation for the widespread poverty, which also affects children: He blames the parents. In a video published in September from a wine bar in Hallein, he claims in front of party officials that everyone in Austria can afford one hot meal a day; after all, the cheapest meal is "a hamburger at McDonald's." To date, Nehammer has not apologized for this statement - on the contrary, he defends his stance on social networks.

The data says otherwise: according to Statistik Austria, 447,000 people in Austria last year did not have the financial means to eat meat, fish or corresponding vegetarian meals every other day, the Austrian Volkshilfe said in a statement. That is about five percent of the total population. Since 2021, the number of people affected by poverty in Austria has almost doubled, 78,000 of whom are children and young people alone, 18,000 less than six years old. In response to this, Volkshilfe Wien organizes a food distribution every Tuesday in the third district of the municipality; around 250 food packages are distributed to Viennese people affected by poverty.

In Austria, inflation is higher than in almost any other continental European country. As recently as August, the rate of inflation rose again, and this has an impact above all on everyday life: "Food prices in particular are rising and rising," Volkshilfe wrote in one of its mailings. To draw attention to this problem, it organizes a food collection every year on "Poverty Day" on October 17." In one of the richest countries in the world, there should not be such poverty," says the federal director of Volkshilfe Austria, Erich Fenninger. As a result of inflation, the situation is increasingly tense and the number of needy people is rising in tandem with the decline in donations, Michael Häupl, the long-time Social Democratic mayor and now president of Volkshilfe Vienna, tells jW: "The problem is that many of our long-time donors come from classes at risk of poverty.Today, they have to take advantage of our offers themselves."Häupl added: "I know people who were sitting with me at [the winery] three years ago, and now they're standing in line with us because they can't afford food anymore."

In addition to the 78,000 children whose parents can no longer afford many foods, there are 350,000 adolescents at risk of poverty in Austria. However, the effectiveness of organizations that want to fight poverty is limited - Häupl also knows this: "In my student days, I would have said that we are the doctor at the bedside of capitalism."

[...]

At this year's Volkshilfe campaign in Vienna-Erdberg, 100 volunteers collected 5.7 tons of food - almost 2 tons more than the year before. Tanja Wehsely, managing director of Volkshilfe Wien, is pleased about this, but warns: "The wave of inflation has long since become a wave of poverty." Without further political measures, there will be no long-term reduction in poverty. In the jW interview, she therefore calls for concrete measures, especially against rising housing costs: "Housing is the biggest price driver.Housing must no longer be an object of speculation by the market," says Wehsely.Without a clear political signal, Volkshilfe cannot fight poverty, but only alleviate hardship.A committed doctor can cure the symptoms of an incurable disease, but cannot prevent its outbreak. For the latter, capitalism would have to be eliminated from the world.