Aid workers try to salvage what is left following strike on al-Aqsa hospital (MEE / Eloise Bollack)
Jul 22, 2014
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza - At least five Palestinians were killed and 70 others injured on Monday by several Israeli tank shells fired by at al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza.
The bombing carried on throughout much of the day, and according to hospital sources continued well into the evening.
One patient was killed while patients, visitors and hospital staff were among those injured and some 20 medical workers caught up in the shelling, said Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra, head of public relations at the Health Ministry in Gaza.
The strike has left the hospital unable to receive or treat medical cases, with ambulances forced to try and ferry the wounded to other facilities.
However, two ambulances which tried to move the wounded to Shifa hospital, in Gaza City, were then also hit by tank shells.
According to Qudra, the missile damaged several operating rooms as well as key equipment including an oxygen production unit, which is used in a wide range of operations and procedures.
The third and fourth floors and the reception area as well as the upper floor have all been badly damaged, medical sources told the Middle East Eye.
Subsequent rounds of shelling then proceeded to damage the x-ray facilities and maternity wards.
Israel has repeatedly denied targeting medical facilities, although it does routinely insist that Hamas uses civilian infrastructure including houses, schools and hospitals to hide weapons.
"You are allowed to hit targets where their [Hamas] war machine is using to hide rockets," Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Al Jazeera:
"I have no doubt Hamas uses, has used and continues to use, hospitals ... we do not target civilians. But I am not aware of this specific situation."
Dr. Khalil Khattab was operating on a patient injured in a separate strike when the shells first hit. He quickly ran downstairs and saw many of his colleagues injured. Many had been hit while trying to treat patients, but now patients, doctors and nurses alike lay injured and bleeding.
"The elevator is destroyed and all hospital assets are badly damaged," Khattab told MEE, inspecting the destruction around him.
Aqsa hospital in central Gaza is the only hospital providing services to several refugee camps, including al-Maghazi, al-Nuseirat as well as some towns and villages including Deir el Balah and Juhu al-Dik. Health officials estimate that Aqsa is the main hospital serving over 350,000 residents of Gaza .
Since the start of Operation Protective Edge, more than 550 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed at least 3,350 injured. One Israeli civilian and 25 Israeli soldiers have also been killed in the fighting.
Gaza's medical infrastructure was already hard hit by the conflict, but the hit on Aqsa has further stretched resources.
Seriously injured patients have now been evacuated to the ground floor, leaving the hospital crammed, grossly under-equipped and with both staff and patients in sheer panic.
Dr al-Qidra, another doctor caught up in the Aqsa shelling, was conducting a surgical intervention at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) when the first Israeli tank shell hit the hospital.
Qidra is calling on the World Health Organization and other groups to intervene urgently to stop Israeli attacks on hospitals, patients, medical crews and ambulances.
Human rights groups have also intensified their calls for greater protections.
"Today's attack on the Aqsa hospital is the latest in a series of attacks on and near medical facilities in Gaza, which have been struggling to cope with thousands of injured people since the Israeli offensive began on 8 July," Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International said in a statement.
"There can be no justification for targeting medical facilities at any time. Attacks on medical facilities underline the need for a prompt, impartial international investigation mandated by the UN."
It is unclear whether the hospital will be able to function in the days to come, and there have been serious attempts to evacuate all patients and staff to other locations so that they can receive appropriate care.
"It's not possible for doctors to do surgical operations or procedures while Israeli tank shells are continuously dropping from overhead", says Khattab.
Last week, Israeli air strikes hit al-Wafa Rehabilitation Hospital, despite international peace activists announcing that they would be acting as human shields at the building.
Following the strike, doctors were forced to evacuate 18 people to another hospital, although only minor injuries were reported.
Gaza European hospital has also been hit by Israeli air strikes, which damaged the operating room.
This kind of targeting has made patients and civilians of all stripes feel unsafe in and close to hospitals, which were previously regarded as safe havens protected by international law.
"Are we going to wait for our wounds to be hit again? Israel knows this is a hospital, but still they bombed us," says Abuel Abed, a 44-year old who lives close to Aqsa Hospital.
"This war is between two parties: but why target a hospital that has nothing to do with politics?"
"Such hospitals provided vital public services to victims and families, and there is no valid reason to bomb them - no rockets are fired from nearby," he adds.
Nor is it just patients and civilians who are afraid - even doctors, who are trained to deal with high-intensity situations, are struggling to cope under the pressure of near-constant Israeli bombardment.
Now, Abuel Abed says, "Israel will let our patients die, even without bombing them."
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Mohammed Omer
Mohammed Omer reports for IPS about surviving in the blockaded Gaza Strip. Much of his work arises from his personal experience in the volatile situation of this Palestinian territory. He was the co-winner of the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism 2007.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza - At least five Palestinians were killed and 70 others injured on Monday by several Israeli tank shells fired by at al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza.
The bombing carried on throughout much of the day, and according to hospital sources continued well into the evening.
One patient was killed while patients, visitors and hospital staff were among those injured and some 20 medical workers caught up in the shelling, said Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra, head of public relations at the Health Ministry in Gaza.
The strike has left the hospital unable to receive or treat medical cases, with ambulances forced to try and ferry the wounded to other facilities.
However, two ambulances which tried to move the wounded to Shifa hospital, in Gaza City, were then also hit by tank shells.
According to Qudra, the missile damaged several operating rooms as well as key equipment including an oxygen production unit, which is used in a wide range of operations and procedures.
The third and fourth floors and the reception area as well as the upper floor have all been badly damaged, medical sources told the Middle East Eye.
Subsequent rounds of shelling then proceeded to damage the x-ray facilities and maternity wards.
Israel has repeatedly denied targeting medical facilities, although it does routinely insist that Hamas uses civilian infrastructure including houses, schools and hospitals to hide weapons.
"You are allowed to hit targets where their [Hamas] war machine is using to hide rockets," Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Al Jazeera:
"I have no doubt Hamas uses, has used and continues to use, hospitals ... we do not target civilians. But I am not aware of this specific situation."
Dr. Khalil Khattab was operating on a patient injured in a separate strike when the shells first hit. He quickly ran downstairs and saw many of his colleagues injured. Many had been hit while trying to treat patients, but now patients, doctors and nurses alike lay injured and bleeding.
"The elevator is destroyed and all hospital assets are badly damaged," Khattab told MEE, inspecting the destruction around him.
Aqsa hospital in central Gaza is the only hospital providing services to several refugee camps, including al-Maghazi, al-Nuseirat as well as some towns and villages including Deir el Balah and Juhu al-Dik. Health officials estimate that Aqsa is the main hospital serving over 350,000 residents of Gaza .
Since the start of Operation Protective Edge, more than 550 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed at least 3,350 injured. One Israeli civilian and 25 Israeli soldiers have also been killed in the fighting.
Gaza's medical infrastructure was already hard hit by the conflict, but the hit on Aqsa has further stretched resources.
Seriously injured patients have now been evacuated to the ground floor, leaving the hospital crammed, grossly under-equipped and with both staff and patients in sheer panic.
Dr al-Qidra, another doctor caught up in the Aqsa shelling, was conducting a surgical intervention at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) when the first Israeli tank shell hit the hospital.
Qidra is calling on the World Health Organization and other groups to intervene urgently to stop Israeli attacks on hospitals, patients, medical crews and ambulances.
Human rights groups have also intensified their calls for greater protections.
"Today's attack on the Aqsa hospital is the latest in a series of attacks on and near medical facilities in Gaza, which have been struggling to cope with thousands of injured people since the Israeli offensive began on 8 July," Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International said in a statement.
"There can be no justification for targeting medical facilities at any time. Attacks on medical facilities underline the need for a prompt, impartial international investigation mandated by the UN."
It is unclear whether the hospital will be able to function in the days to come, and there have been serious attempts to evacuate all patients and staff to other locations so that they can receive appropriate care.
"It's not possible for doctors to do surgical operations or procedures while Israeli tank shells are continuously dropping from overhead", says Khattab.
Last week, Israeli air strikes hit al-Wafa Rehabilitation Hospital, despite international peace activists announcing that they would be acting as human shields at the building.
Following the strike, doctors were forced to evacuate 18 people to another hospital, although only minor injuries were reported.
Gaza European hospital has also been hit by Israeli air strikes, which damaged the operating room.
This kind of targeting has made patients and civilians of all stripes feel unsafe in and close to hospitals, which were previously regarded as safe havens protected by international law.
"Are we going to wait for our wounds to be hit again? Israel knows this is a hospital, but still they bombed us," says Abuel Abed, a 44-year old who lives close to Aqsa Hospital.
"This war is between two parties: but why target a hospital that has nothing to do with politics?"
"Such hospitals provided vital public services to victims and families, and there is no valid reason to bomb them - no rockets are fired from nearby," he adds.
Nor is it just patients and civilians who are afraid - even doctors, who are trained to deal with high-intensity situations, are struggling to cope under the pressure of near-constant Israeli bombardment.
Now, Abuel Abed says, "Israel will let our patients die, even without bombing them."
Mohammed Omer
Mohammed Omer reports for IPS about surviving in the blockaded Gaza Strip. Much of his work arises from his personal experience in the volatile situation of this Palestinian territory. He was the co-winner of the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism 2007.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza - At least five Palestinians were killed and 70 others injured on Monday by several Israeli tank shells fired by at al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza.
The bombing carried on throughout much of the day, and according to hospital sources continued well into the evening.
One patient was killed while patients, visitors and hospital staff were among those injured and some 20 medical workers caught up in the shelling, said Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra, head of public relations at the Health Ministry in Gaza.
The strike has left the hospital unable to receive or treat medical cases, with ambulances forced to try and ferry the wounded to other facilities.
However, two ambulances which tried to move the wounded to Shifa hospital, in Gaza City, were then also hit by tank shells.
According to Qudra, the missile damaged several operating rooms as well as key equipment including an oxygen production unit, which is used in a wide range of operations and procedures.
The third and fourth floors and the reception area as well as the upper floor have all been badly damaged, medical sources told the Middle East Eye.
Subsequent rounds of shelling then proceeded to damage the x-ray facilities and maternity wards.
Israel has repeatedly denied targeting medical facilities, although it does routinely insist that Hamas uses civilian infrastructure including houses, schools and hospitals to hide weapons.
"You are allowed to hit targets where their [Hamas] war machine is using to hide rockets," Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Al Jazeera:
"I have no doubt Hamas uses, has used and continues to use, hospitals ... we do not target civilians. But I am not aware of this specific situation."
Dr. Khalil Khattab was operating on a patient injured in a separate strike when the shells first hit. He quickly ran downstairs and saw many of his colleagues injured. Many had been hit while trying to treat patients, but now patients, doctors and nurses alike lay injured and bleeding.
"The elevator is destroyed and all hospital assets are badly damaged," Khattab told MEE, inspecting the destruction around him.
Aqsa hospital in central Gaza is the only hospital providing services to several refugee camps, including al-Maghazi, al-Nuseirat as well as some towns and villages including Deir el Balah and Juhu al-Dik. Health officials estimate that Aqsa is the main hospital serving over 350,000 residents of Gaza .
Since the start of Operation Protective Edge, more than 550 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed at least 3,350 injured. One Israeli civilian and 25 Israeli soldiers have also been killed in the fighting.
Gaza's medical infrastructure was already hard hit by the conflict, but the hit on Aqsa has further stretched resources.
Seriously injured patients have now been evacuated to the ground floor, leaving the hospital crammed, grossly under-equipped and with both staff and patients in sheer panic.
Dr al-Qidra, another doctor caught up in the Aqsa shelling, was conducting a surgical intervention at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) when the first Israeli tank shell hit the hospital.
Qidra is calling on the World Health Organization and other groups to intervene urgently to stop Israeli attacks on hospitals, patients, medical crews and ambulances.
Human rights groups have also intensified their calls for greater protections.
"Today's attack on the Aqsa hospital is the latest in a series of attacks on and near medical facilities in Gaza, which have been struggling to cope with thousands of injured people since the Israeli offensive began on 8 July," Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International said in a statement.
"There can be no justification for targeting medical facilities at any time. Attacks on medical facilities underline the need for a prompt, impartial international investigation mandated by the UN."
It is unclear whether the hospital will be able to function in the days to come, and there have been serious attempts to evacuate all patients and staff to other locations so that they can receive appropriate care.
"It's not possible for doctors to do surgical operations or procedures while Israeli tank shells are continuously dropping from overhead", says Khattab.
Last week, Israeli air strikes hit al-Wafa Rehabilitation Hospital, despite international peace activists announcing that they would be acting as human shields at the building.
Following the strike, doctors were forced to evacuate 18 people to another hospital, although only minor injuries were reported.
Gaza European hospital has also been hit by Israeli air strikes, which damaged the operating room.
This kind of targeting has made patients and civilians of all stripes feel unsafe in and close to hospitals, which were previously regarded as safe havens protected by international law.
"Are we going to wait for our wounds to be hit again? Israel knows this is a hospital, but still they bombed us," says Abuel Abed, a 44-year old who lives close to Aqsa Hospital.
"This war is between two parties: but why target a hospital that has nothing to do with politics?"
"Such hospitals provided vital public services to victims and families, and there is no valid reason to bomb them - no rockets are fired from nearby," he adds.
Nor is it just patients and civilians who are afraid - even doctors, who are trained to deal with high-intensity situations, are struggling to cope under the pressure of near-constant Israeli bombardment.
Now, Abuel Abed says, "Israel will let our patients die, even without bombing them."
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LATEST NEWS
'Endangering Every American's Health': 9 Former CDC Chiefs Sound Alarm on RFK Jr.
Their "astonishing, powerful op-ed," said one professor, "drives home what we are losing and what's already been lost."
Sep 01, 2025
Nearly every living former director or acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from the past half-century took to the pages of The New York Times on Monday to jointly argue that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "is endangering every American's health."
"Collectively, we spent more than 100 years working at the CDC, the world's preeminent public health agency. We served under multiple Republican and Democratic administrations," Drs. William Foege, William Roper, David Satcher, Jeffrey Koplan, Richard Besser, Tom Frieden, Anne Schuchat, Rochelle Walensky, and Mandy Cohen highlighted.
What RFK Jr. "has done to the CDC and to our nation's public health system over the past several months—culminating in his decision to fire Dr. Susan Monarez as CDC director days ago—is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced," the nine former agency leaders wrote.
Known for spreading misinformation about vaccines and a series of scandals, Kennedy was a controversial figure long before President Donald Trump chose him to lead HHS—a decision that Senate Republicans affirmed in February. However, in the wake of Monarez's ouster, fresh calls for him to resign or be fired have mounted.
This is powerful. Nine former CDC leaders just came together to defend SCIENCE.Maybe it’s time we LISTEN TO THEM—not the loud voices spreading MISINFORMATION.Science saves lives. Lies cost themwww.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...
[image or embed]
— Krutika Kuppalli, MD FIDSA (@krutikakuppalli.bsky.social) September 1, 2025 at 10:35 AM
As the ex-directors detailed:
Secretary Kennedy has fired thousands of federal health workers and severely weakened programs designed to protect Americans from cancer, heart attacks, strokes, lead poisoning, injury, violence, and more. Amid the largest measles outbreak in the United States in a generation, he's focused on unproven "treatments" while downplaying vaccines. He canceled investments in promising medical research that will leave us ill-prepared for future health emergencies. He replaced experts on federal health advisory committees with unqualified individuals who share his dangerous and unscientific views. He announced the end of US support for global vaccination programs that protect millions of children and keep Americans safe, citing flawed research and making inaccurate statements. And he championed federal legislation that will cause millions of people with health insurance through Medicaid to lose their coverage. Firing Dr. Monarez—which led to the resignations of top CDC officials—adds considerable fuel to this raging fire.
Monarez was nominated by Trump, and was confirmed by Senate Republicans in late July. As the op-ed authors noted, she was forced out by RFK Jr. just weeks later, after she reportedly refused "to rubber-stamp his dangerous and unfounded vaccine recommendations or heed his demand to fire senior CDC staff members."
"These are not typical requests from a health secretary to a CDC director," they wrote. "Not even close. None of us would have agreed to the secretary's demands, and we applaud Dr. Monarez for standing up for the agency and the health of our communities."
After Monarez's exit, Trump tapped Jim O'Neill, an RFK Jr. aide and biotech investor, as the CDC's interim director. Critics including Robert Steinbrook, director of Public Citizen's health research group, warn that "unlike Susan Monarez, O'Neill is likely to rubber-stamp dangerous vaccine recommendations from HHS Secretary Kennedy's handpicked appointees to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and obey orders to fire CDC public health experts with scientific integrity."
The agency's former directors didn't address O'Neill, but they wrote: "To those on the CDC staff who continue to perform their jobs heroically in the face of the excruciating circumstances, we offer our sincere thanks and appreciation. Their ongoing dedication is a model for all of us. But it's clear that the agency is hurting badly."
"We have a message for the rest of the nation as well: This is a time to rally to protect the health of every American," they continued. The experts called on Congress to "exercise its oversight authority over HHS," and state and local governments to "fill funding gaps where they can." They also urged philanthropy, the private sector, medical groups, and physicians to boost investments, "continue to stand up for science and truth," and support patients "with sound guidance and empathy."
Doctors, researchers, journalists, and others called their "must-read" piece "extraordinary" and "important."
"Just an astonishing, powerful op-ed that drives home what we are losing and what's already been lost," said University of Michigan Law School professor Leah Litman. "We are so incredibly fortunate to live with the advances [of] modern medicine and health science. Destroying and stymying it is just unforgivable."
'Brazenly Anti-Worker': Labor Day Reports Highlight Trump Attacks on Unions
"This is a government that is by, and for, the CEOs and billionaires," said AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler.
Sep 01, 2025
Although US President Donald Trump's administration likes to boast that he puts "American workers first," several news reports published on Monday document the president's attacks on the rights of working people and labor unions.
As longtime labor reporter Steven Greenhouse explained in The Guardian, Trump throughout his second term has "taken dozens of actions that hurt workers, often by cutting their pay or making their jobs more dangerous."
Among other things, Greenhouse cited Trump's decision to halt a regulation intended to protect coal miners from lung disease, as well as his decision to strip a million federal workers of their collective bargaining rights.
Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, told Greenhouse that Trump's actions amount to a "big betrayal" of his promises to look out for US workers during the 2024 presidential campaign.
"His attacks on unions are coming fast and furious," she said. "He talks a good game of being for working people, but he's doing the absolute opposite. This is a government that is by, and for, the CEOs and billionaires."
Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, similarly told Greenhouse that Trump has been "absolutely, brazenly anti-worker," and she cited him ripping away an increase in the minimum wage for federal contractors that had been enacted by former President Joe Biden as a prime example.
"The minimum wage is incredibly popular," she said. "He just took away the minimum wage from hundreds of thousands of workers. That blew my mind."
NPR published its own Labor Day report that zeroed in on how the president is "decimating" federal employee unions by issuing March and August executive orders stripping them of the power to collectively bargain for better working conditions.
So far, nine federal agencies have canceled their union contracts as a result of the orders, which are based on a provision in federal law that gives the president the power to terminate collective bargaining at agencies that are primarily involved with national security.
The Trump administration has embraced a maximalist interpretation of this power and has demanded the end of collective bargaining at departments that aren't primarily known as national security agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Weather Service.
However, Trump's attacks on organized labor haven't completely intimidated government workers from joining unions. As the Los Angeles Times reported, the Trump administration's cuts to the National Park Service earlier this year inspired hundreds of workers at the California-based Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon national parks to unionize.
Although labor organizers had been trying unsuccessfully for years to get park workers to sign on, that changed when the Trump administration took a hatchet to parks' budgets and enacted mass layoffs.
"More than 97% of employees at Yosemite and Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks who cast ballots voted to unionize, with results certified last week," wrote the Los Angeles Times. "More than 600 staffers—including interpretive park rangers, biologists, firefighters, and fee collectors—are now represented by the National Federation of Federal Employees."
Even so, many workers who succeed in forming unions may no longer get their grievances heard given the state of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
As documented by Timothy Noah in The New Republic, the NLRB is now "hanging by a thread" in the wake of a court ruling that declared the board's structure to be unconstitutional because it barred the president from being able to fire NLRB administrative judges at will.
"The ruling doesn't shut down the NLRB entirely because it applies only to cases in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, where the 5th Circuit has jurisdiction," Noah explained. "But Jennifer Abruzzo, who was President Joe Biden's NLRB general counsel, told me that the decision will 'open the floodgates for employers to forum-shop and seek to get injunctions' in those three states."
Noah noted that this lawsuit was brought in part by SpaceX owner and one-time Trump ally Elon Musk, and he accused the Trump NLRB of waging a "half-hearted" fight against Musk's attack on workers' rights.
Thanks to Trump and Musk's actions, Noah concluded, American oligarchs "can toast the NLRB's imminent destruction."
Trump Voter ID Threat Condemned as 'Unconstitutional'
"The Constitution gives this authority to the states and Congress, not you!" said the head of Democracy Defenders Fund, threatening a lawsuit.
Sep 01, 2025
US President Donald Trump continued his "authoritarian takeover of our election system" over the weekend, threatening an executive order requiring every voter to present identification, which experts swiftly denounced as clearly "unconstitutional."
"Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. NO EXCEPTIONS!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform late Saturday. "I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!! Also, No Mail-In Voting, Except For Those That Are Very Ill, And The Far Away Military. USE PAPER BALLOTS ONLY!!!"
Less than two weeks ago, Trump declared on the platform that "I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we're at it, Highly 'Inaccurate,' Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES." He claimed, without evidence, that voting by mail leads to "MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD," and promised to take executive action ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Those posts came as battles over his March executive order (EO), "Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections," are playing out in federal court. The measure was largely blocked by multiple district judges, but the president is appealing.
Trump's voter ID post provoked a new threat of legal action to stop his unconstitutional attacks on the nation's election system.
"Go ahead, make my day Mr. Trump," said Norm Eisen, who co-founded Democracy Defenders Fund and served as White House special counsel for ethics and government reform during the Obama administration.
"We at Democracy Defenders Fund immediately sued you and got an injunction on your first voting EO," he noted. "We will do the same here if you try it again. The Constitution gives this authority to the states and Congress, not you!"
In addition to pointing out that Trump is "an absentee voter himself," Democracy Docket explained Sunday that "the US Constitution gives the states the primary authority to regulate elections, while empowering Congress to 'at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.' The Framers never considered authorizing the president to oversee elections."
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures: "Thirty-six states have laws requesting or requiring voters to show some form of identification at the polls. The remaining 14 states and Washington, DC use other methods to verify the identity of voters."
Those laws already prevent Americans from participating in elections, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.
"Overly burdensome photo ID requirements block millions of eligible American citizens from voting," the center's voter ID webpage says. "As many as 11% of eligible voters do not have the kind of ID that is required by states with strict ID requirements, and that percentage is even higher among seniors, minorities, people with disabilities, low-income voters, and students."
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