President Biden's age has been a big topic of 2024 coverage. But if former President Trump wins the presidency back, he'd also be the oldest person ever to be inaugurated.

• And his campaign has disclosed far less about his health than the White House has about Biden, Axios' Alex Thompson reports.

Why it matters: Trump, 77, often mocks the 80-year-old Biden as feeble and confused — even as some of Trump's foes are highlighting the former president's own gaffes and relatively light campaign schedule.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, trying to cut into Trump's big polling lead in the GOP presidential race, has been targeting Trump's age.

• Last week, DeSantis' campaign revealed a "Trump accident tracker" to compile the former president's verbal slips on the trail, and asked whether Trump had the "stamina" to be president — using a word Trump often has invoked against his opponents, particularly Hillary Clinton in 2016.
• "This is a different Donald Trump than 2015 and '16 — lost the zip on his fastball," DeSantis told reporters in New Hampshire last week.

Trump's campaign has posted many videos of Biden stumbling, while Biden's campaign has answered with ads with Trump looking heavy and sweaty, often while golfing.

• In recent weeks, Trump has mixed up Jeb Bush with George W. Bush and repeatedly said "Obama" and "Obama administration" while trying to criticize Biden or Hillary Clinton — slip-ups the DeSantis campaign highlighted.

Last week, Trump called Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán "the leader of Turkey."

• Last month, before the Israel-Hamas war broke out, Trump warned a crowd that Biden would lead the U.S. into "World War II" — which ended in 1945.
• Both the Biden and DeSantis campaigns chided Trump after he told a crowd in Sioux City, Iowa, on Saturday that he was happy to be in "Sioux Falls" — which is in South Dakota.

Trump went public in 2020 about taking what he called a "very hard" cognitive test. He's also tried to portray himself as athletic and vigorous, posting videos of himself golfing.

• The Trump campaign didn't comment for this story.

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Israel's military has been secretive about its "expanded" ground operation in Gaza. But parts of its strategy have become clear, Axios' Barak Ravid and Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath report.

• The Israel Defense Forces' attack on Hamas also has become a hostage-rescue mission.

State of play: The IDF won't call its operation in Gaza an invasion. But two Israeli sources tell Axios that at least two armored and infantry divisions — amounting to more than 20,000 Israeli troops — have entered the Gaza Strip since the operation began Friday.

• The IDF also is using intelligence sources on the ground to try to locate and free hostages, the sources say.

Israeli officials were encouraged this weekend when IDF special forces and the Shin Bet intelligence agency rescued an Israeli soldier, Pvt. Uri Magidish, from a remote building where Hamas was holding her hostage.

• Magidish was among dozens of Israeli soldiers who were kidnapped by Hamas in Israel and taken to Gaza on Oct. 7.

Between the lines: Urban warfare is difficult and ugly, but is expected to be especially so in Gaza because of Hamas' vast tunnel system.

• The number of hostages further complicates Israel's operation.
• Israel is also under growing pressure — including by the Biden administration — to protect Palestinian civilians who are facing a worsening humanitarian crisis.

What's next: It's not clear what Israel intends to do if it achieves its goal of destroying Hamas. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant previously said Israel wants to create "a new security regime in the Gaza Strip."

• But Israel hasn't elaborated on what exactly that means — including who would govern the territory.

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The UAW's historic labor agreements with Detroit's Big Three automakers include big pay bumps and benefit increases, Axios' Emily Peck reports.

• Why it matters: The deals end a nearly seven-week strike — and mark a reversal of more than 40 years of waning power for auto unions in the U.S.

🖼️ The big picture: Coming on the heels of similarly hard-fought agreements for UPS workers and Hollywood writers, the UAW agreements will likely inspire further organizing efforts.

• "This is a shot in the arm," said Kate Bronfenbrenner, a professor at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

GM yesterday announced a tentative labor agreement with the UAW, following similar deals with Ford and Stellantis.

• With his clout rising on the national stage after weeks of labor action, UAW president Shawn Fain touted the agreements as a win for the union and workers across the U.S.

🔬 Zoom in: The contracts include an immediate 11% raise, and restoration of the COLA, the cost-of-living adjustment the union bargained away in 2009.

• There are massive pay increases for the lowest-paid workers. Temps hired this year will see a 150% wage increase over the four-a-half years of the contract.
• Crucially, the union won the elimination of a loathed two-tier worker structure — where workers were paid differently for doing the same jobs. UPS workers also got their two-tier deal eliminated in their new contract.

🔮 What's next: The unusually long contract term gives the UAW more time to organize U.S. auto workers outside the Big Three, at Tesla and the Japanese automakers.

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President Biden and first lady Jill Biden hand out candy and books during a Halloween trick-or-treat event on the White House South Lawn last evening.

• Public school students and military kids were among those invited.

This scary costume drew a fright face from POTUS.

With the Israel-Hamas war escalating, the U.S. risks becoming involved in a conflict that could entangle some of the 40,000+ U.S. military personnel based across the region.

• Keep reading.

Former President Trump is calling for the return of "mental institutions" as part of his plan "to get the homeless off our streets" if he wins a second term, Axios' Caitlin Owens reports.

• Why it matters: Large psychiatric facilities lost credibility in part because they ended up simply warehousing people, rather than doing much to treat them.

"When I am back in the White House, we will use every tool, lever, and authority to get the homeless off our streets," Trump said in a video posted on his campaign site in August.

• Trump said his administration would offer treatment for people "just temporarily down on their luck."
• "And for those who are severely mentally ill and deeply disturbed, we will bring them back to mental institutions, where they belong," he said, "with the goal of reintegrating them back into society once they are well enough to manage."

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Soaring review scores show 2023 is one of the best years ever for video game releases, Axios' Stephen Totilo and Kavya Beheraj report.

• Why it matters: Many of the best-reviewed games benefited from long development cycles. Giving game creators more time can be worth it.

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Trey Yingst, a 30-year-old Jerusalem-based foreign correspondent for Fox News, has covered wars and power battles in the Middle East and Europe since 2018. He tells Axios' Sara Fischer that he's seen "the worst of humanity on display" during the Israel-Hamas war.

• Why it matters: The personal toll of the war on journalists is rarely covered on air or in print.

"There are some moments we don't talk about — you get back from these scenes and you smell like death. The smell sticks to your clothes and to your hair," Yingst told Axios by email from the Gaza border.

• "It's those moments that people don't think about in this coverage that are challenging because you are sitting there alone on the floor of the hotel room scrubbing blood of someone else off your boots."

Yingst and his team are currently staying in Ashdod, Israel, just north of Gaza. He is traveling with his producer, videographer, engineer and security.

• He and his crew are working around the clock, leaving to shoot interviews or video at 9:30 a.m. and doing reporting and live shots "until we fall asleep at night."
• Multiple times over the past three weeks, Yingst said he has fallen asleep with his clothes and shoes on.

Fox News has been reporting from southern Israel for weeks. But access to Gaza and the Gaza border is becoming more difficult.

• Reporters trying to cover the conflict should try to keep contact with people inside Gaza, Yingst said: "That part of the story is the most challenging to cover."

Yingst has covered a slew of ground conflicts, including the war in Ukraine. But he said that this month, "I've seen some of the most horrific things that can be done to humans."

• He gave a few examples: watching the bodies of police officers and militants being stacked in the back of a pickup truck in Sderot, Israel, and witnessing authorities at the site of the music festival massacre pick up burned pieces of festivalgoers and put them in bags."

The bottom line: "There is no room for the fog of war among journalists," Yingst said. "We have to get it right."

• Sign up here for Sara Fischer's Axios Media Trends, out later today.