Page 36 - Gaza Conflict

US colleges earlier permissive of protests begin taking tougher stance

Police cleared a pro-Palestinian tent encampment at the University of Chicago on Tuesday after administrators who had initially adopted a permissive approach said the protest had crossed a line and caused growing concerns about safety. University President Paul Alivisatos acknowledged the school's role as a protector of freedom of speech after officers in riot gear blocked access to the school's Quad but also took an enough-is-enough stance. The university remains a place where dissenting voices have many avenues to express themselves, but we cannot enable an environment where the expression of some dominates and disrupts the healthy functioning of the community for the rest, Alivisatos wrote in a message to the university community. Tensions have continued to ratchet up in standoffs with protesters on campuses across the U.S. and increasingly, in Europe nearly three weeks into a movement launched by a protest at Columbia University. Some colleges cracked down immediately on ...

Hamas accepts cease-fire proposal for Gaza, but Israel still uncertain

Hamas announced Monday it has accepted an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal, but there was no immediate word from Israel, leaving it uncertain whether a deal had been sealed to bring a halt to the seven-month-long war in Gaza. It was the first glimmer of hope that a deal might avert further bloodshed. Hours earlier, Israel ordered some 100,000 Palestinians to begin evacuating the southern Gaza town of Rafah, signalling that an attack was imminent. The United States and other key allies of Israel oppose an offensive on Rafah, where around 1.4 million Palestinians, more than half of Gaza's population, are sheltering. An official familiar with Israeli thinking said Israeli officials were examining the proposal, but the plan approved by Hamas was not the framework Israel proposed. An American official also said the US was still waiting to learn more about the Hamas position and whether it reflected an agreement to what had already been signed off on by Israel and international ...

More civilians will be killed in Rafah despite Israel's claims: Borrell

There are no safe zones in Gaza, EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell told journalists

'Not what we agreed to': Why Israel rejected Hamas' Gaza ceasefire proposal

US State Department still believes Israel-Hamas truce agreement is 'absolutely achievable'

Israel carries out airstrikes on Gaza city of Rafah after evacuation order

Seven months into its war against Hamas, Israel has been threatening to launch incursions in Rafah, which it says harbours thousands of Hamas fighters and potentially dozens of hostages

Ashoka University students ask VC to cut ties with Tel Aviv University

Students at Ashoka University have joined the chorus of protests against the ongoing war in Gaza and have urged the vice-chancellor to end all academic and research collaborations with Israel-based Tel Aviv University. Ashoka University student government, an elected student body, said in a letter to the vice chancellor that the university's collaboration with institutions involved in human rights violations undermines its commitment to justice and human rights. "We are deeply concerned about the ongoing genocide in Palestine in which at least 34,596 Palestinians have lost their lives and 77,816 have been injured due to the Israeli war on Gaza. As the Israeli military's brutality persists...students across universities are now actively calling on their institutions to boycott Israeli universities and exchange programmes, to have open dialogue about the war on Gaza. "The spirit and the results of ongoing protests in the universities in the form of encampments -- embarked on by the ..

Netanyahu uses Holocaust ceremony to brush off int'l pressure against Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected international pressure to halt the war in Gaza in a fiery speech marking the country's annual Holocaust memorial day, declaring: If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone. The message, delivered in a setting that typically avoids politics, was aimed at the growing chorus of world leaders who have criticised the heavy toll caused by Israel's military offensive against Hamas militants and have urged the sides to agree to a cease-fire. I say to the leaders of the world: No amount of pressure, no decision by any international forum will stop Israel from defending itself, he said. Never again is now. Yom Hashoah, the day Israel observes as a memorial for the 6 million Jews killed by Nazi Germany and its allies in the Holocaust, is one of the most solemn dates on the country's calendar, and speeches at the ceremony generally avoid politics. Netanyahu also compared the recent wave of protests on American campus

Progress in Gaza truce talks, Israel downplays chance of ending war

A delegation of the Palestinian militant group Hamas was in Cairo on Saturday as Egyptian state media reported noticeable progress in cease-fire talks with Israel, though an Israeli official downplayed the prospects for a full end to the war in Gaza. Pressure has mounted to reach a deal halting the nearly 7-month-long war. A top UN official says there is now a full-blown famine in northern Gaza, while Israel insists it will launch an offensive into Rafah, the territory's southernmost city on the border with Egypt, where more than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering. Egyptian and US mediators have reported signs of compromise in recent days, but chances for a cease-fire deal remain entangled with the key question of whether Israel will accept an end to the war without reaching its stated goal of destroying Hamas. Egypt's state-owned Al-Qahera News TV channel said Saturday that a consensus had been reached over many disputed points but did not elaborate. Hamas has called for a ...

Israel briefs US on evacuation of Palestinian civilians ahead of Rafah ops

Israel this week briefed Biden administration officials on a plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians ahead of a potential operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah aimed at rooting out Hamas militants, according to US officials familiar with the talks. The officials, who were not authorised to comment publicly and requested anonymity to speak about the sensitive exchange, said that the plan detailed by the Israelis did not change the US administration's view that moving forward with an operation in Rafah would put too many innocent Palestinian civilians at risk. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to carry out a military operation in Rafah despite warnings from President Joe Biden and other western officials that doing so would result in more civilian deaths and worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis. The Biden administration has said that there could be consequences for Israel should it move forward with the operation without a credible plan to safeguard ...

US colleges strike deals with pro-palestinian protestors to end protests

Anti-war demonstrations ceased this week at a small number of US universities after school leaders struck deals with pro-Palestinian protesters, fending off possible disruptions of final exams and graduation ceremonies. The agreements at schools including Brown, Northwestern and Rutgers stand out amidst the chaotic scenes and 2,400-plus arrests on 46 campuses nationwide since April 17. Tent encampments and building takeovers have disrupted classes at some schools, including Columbia and UCLA. Deals included commitments by universities to review their investments in Israel or hear calls to stop doing business with the longtime US ally. Many protester demands have zeroed in on links to the Israeli military as the war grinds on in Gaza. The agreements to even discuss divestment mark a major shift on an issue that has been controversial for years, with opponents of a long-running campaign to boycott Israel saying it veers into antisemitism. But while the colleges have made concessions .

Famine in northern Gaza is already 'full-blown', says UN official

A top UN official said Friday that hard-hit northern Gaza was now in full-blown famine" after more than six months of war between Israel and Hamas and severe Israeli restrictions on food deliveries to the Palestinian territory. Cindy McCain, the American director of the UN World Food Programme, became the most prominent international official so far to declare that trapped civilians in the most cut-off part of Gaza had gone over the brink into famine. It's horror," McCain told NBC's Meet the Press in an interview to air Sunday. There is famine full-blown famine in the north, and it's moving its way south." She said a cease-fire and a greatly increased flow of aid through land and sea routes was essential to confronting the growing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, home to 2.3 million people. There was no immediate comment from Israel, which controls entrance into Gaza and says it is beginning to allow in more food and other humanitarian aid through land crossings. The panel that

Bad news for exports: Houthis may strike more ships beyond Red Sea

Attack on MSC Orion could portend new round of threats from Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthis

Turkey confirms it's halting trade with Israel because of war in Gaza

Turkiye's Trade Ministry says the country is halting imports and exports to Israel over its ongoing military actions in Gaza. A ministry statement on Thursday said export and import transactions in relation to Israel have been stopped, covering all products. It described the step as the second phase of measures against Israel, adding that the country would implement other steps against Israel until it allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Last month, Turkiye a staunch critic of Israel announced that it was restricting exports of 54 types of products to Israel with immediate effect. They include aluminum, steel, construction products and chemical fertilisers. Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz sharply criticised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying in a post on X that Turkiye is breaking agreements by blocking ports for Israeli imports and exports.

Destruction of housing in Gaza unprecedented, not seen since WW2: UN

The world hasn't seen anything like the unprecedented destruction of housing in Gaza since World War II, and it would take at least until 2040 to restore the homes devastated in Israel's bombing and ground offensive if the conflict ended today, the United Nations reported Thursday. The UN assessment said the social and economic impact of the war launched after Hamas' surprise attack in southern Israel on October 7 has been increasing in an exponential manner. It called the level of casualties 5 per cent of Gaza's 2.3 million population -- unprecedented in such a short time. By mid-April, it said, over 33,000 Palestinians had been killed and more than 80,000 injured. About 7,000 others remain missing, most believed to be buried under the rubble. Every additional day that this war continues is exacting huge and compounding costs to Gazans and all Palestinians said United Nations Development Program Administrator Achim Steiner. The report by UNDP and the UN Economic Commission for ..

Tension grows on UCLA campus as police order dispersal of protestors

Law enforcement on the UCLA campus donned riot gear on Wednesday evening as they ordered the dispersal of over a thousand people who had gathered in support of a pro-Palestinian student encampment, warning over loudspeakers that anyone who refused to leave could face arrest. A small city sprang up inside the barricaded encampment, full of hundreds of people and tents on the campus quad. Some protesters prayed as the sun set over the campus, while others chanted we're not leaving or passed out goggles and surgical masks. They wore helmets and headscarves, and discussed the best ways to handle pepper spray or tear gas as someone sang over a megaphone. A few constructed homemade shields out of plywood in case they clashed with police forming skirmish lines elsewhere on the campus. Meanwhile, a large crowd of students, alumni and neighbours gathered on campus steps outside the tents, sitting as they listened and applauded various speakers and joined in pro-Palestinian chants. A small ..

UCLA draws flak for failure to act to stop attack on pro-Palestinian camps

Administrators and campus police at UCLA faced intense criticism Wednesday for failing to act quickly to stop an attack on a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus by counter-demonstrators who threw traffic cones and chairs, released pepper spray and tore down barriers. Some pro-Palestinian demonstrators fought back, and skirmishes continued for hours before outside law enforcement agencies were called to intervene. No one was arrested, and at least 15 protesters suffered injuries in the confrontation, part of a recent spate of escalating violence that's occurring on some college campuses nationally over the Israel-Hamas war. The community needs to feel the police are protecting them, not enabling others to harm them, Rebecca Husaini, chief of staff for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said in a news conference on the Los Angeles campus later Wednesday, where some Muslim students detailed the overnight events. The call for more police intervention at UCLA stood in stark contrast to

Hope Palestine application for UN membership will be reconsidered: India

India has voiced hope that Palestine's bid to become a full member of the United Nations, which was blocked by the US last month, will be reconsidered and its endeavour to become a member of the world organisation will get endorsed. The US vetoed a resolution in the UN Security Council on a Palestinian bid to be granted full membership of the United Nations last month. The 15-nation Council had voted on a draft resolution that would have recommended to the 193-member UN General Assembly that the State of Palestine be admitted to membership in the United Nations. The resolution got 12 votes in its favour, with Switzerland and the UK abstaining and the US casting its veto. To be adopted, the draft resolution required at least nine Council members voting in its favour, with no vetoes by any of its five permanent members China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. While we have noted that Palestine's application for membership at the United Nations was not approved

We will break diplomatic ties with Israel over war in Gaza: Colombia Prez

Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Wednesday announced his government will break diplomatic relations with Israel effective Thursday in the latest escalation of tensions between the countries over the Israel-Hamas war. Petro again described Israel's siege of Gaza as genocide. He previously suspended purchases of weapons from Israel and compared that country's actions in Gaza to those of Nazi Germany. Tomorrow, diplomatic relations with the State of Israel will be broken for having a genocidal president, Petro said during an International Workers' Day march in Colombia's capital. If Palestine dies, humanity dies, and we are not going to let it die. Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz quickly rebuked Petro's comments on the platform X. History will remember that Gustavo Petro decided to side with the most despicable monsters known to mankind who burned babies, murdered children, raped women and kidnapped innocent civilians, he said. Weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southe

Columbia University vows to expel protestors as demonstrations rise in US

Columbia University vowed to expel protesters who occupied a building on the New York college's grounds Tuesday as universities nationwide grapple with intensifying campus demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war. More than 1,000 protesters have been arrested on campuses in states including Texas, Utah, Virginia, North Carolina, New Mexico, Connecticut and New Jersey in recent days, some after violent clashes with police in riot gear. The White House condemned the standoffs at Columbia and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, where protesters had occupied two buildings until officers with batons intervened overnight and arrested 25 people. Officials estimated the northern California campus' total damage to be upwards of USD 1 million. President Joe Biden believes students occupying an academic building is absolutely the wrong approach, and not an example of peaceful protest, said National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby. New York City Mayor Eric Adams clai

Student protest against Gaza war: What is happening in colleges across US

Officials are trying to resolve the protests as the academic year winds down, but students have dug in at several high-profile universities