Israel's Gaza invasion - Day 204

Hamas has released video of two men held hostage in Gaza and seen alive in the footage, AFP reports.

Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum identified the two in a statement as Keith Siegel and Omri Miran who were abducted during the Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7.

“The proof of life from Keith Siegel and Omri Miran is the clearest evidence that the Israeli government must do everything to approve a deal for the return of all the hostages before Independence Day [on May 14],” the forum said.

“The living should return for rehabilitation, and the murdered should receive a dignified burial.”

The hostages appeared to speak under duress.

“I have been here in Hamas captivity for 202 days. The situation here is unpleasant, difficult and there are many bombs,” Miran is heard saying in the footage, indicating that the footage was taken earlier this week.

“It’s time to reach a deal that will get us out of here safe and healthy … Keep protesting, so that there will be a deal now.”

A UK defence source said a British ship to house hundreds of US troops building a jetty to boost aid deliveries to Gaza has set sail from Cyprus, AFP reports.

Royal Navy support ship Cardigan Bay will assist the international effort to construct the temporary floating pier, which is set to be completed early next month, the Pentagon said.

Cyprus said that a ship loaded with food for Gaza is heading back towards the battered territory.

Cypriot state broadcaster CyBC said the Jennifer left the island on Friday night, loaded with aid from the United Arab Emirates.

By today afternoon, maritime traffic monitoring sites showed the ship was more than halfway to Gaza.

A “Freedom Flotilla” aimed at delivering aid to Gaza has been blocked in Turkiye after being denied use of two of its ships, which organisers blame on Israeli pressure, AFP reports.

The coalition of NGOs and other associations said it was unable to set sail after the West African country of Guinea-Bissau withdrew its flagged vessels.

“Sadly, Guinea-Bissau has allowed itself to become complicit in Israel’s deliberate starvation, illegal siege and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza,” the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said.

“The Guinea-Bissau International Ships Registry (GBISR), in a blatantly political move, informed the Freedom Flotilla Coalition that it had withdrawn the Guinea Bissau flag from two of the Freedom Flotilla’s ships, one of which is our cargo ship, already loaded with over 5,000 tonnes of life-saving aid,” their statement said.

The group said the Guinea-Bissau authorities made several “extraordinary” requests for information, including destinations, potential additional port calls, cargo manifest and estimated arrival dates and times.

“Normally, national flagging authorities concern themselves only with safety and related standards on vessels bearing their flag,” it said, equating it to being asked about destinations when registering a car.

Police have detained about 100 people as they moved in to clear a pro-Palestinian protest camp at Northeastern University in Boston over antisemitic slurs, AFP reports.

The action was taken after protesters resorting to “virulent antisemitic slurs, including ‘Kill the Jews,’ crossed the line”, the school said in a statement on social media platform X.

Pro-Palestinian students at Columbia University have released their five demands from the university, including the institution to divest from companies that aid the Israeli government, sever ties to Israeli universities and stop the policing of “Palestinian students and allies on and off campus”, Al Jazeera reports.

They also call on the university to release a public statement calling for an “immediate, permanent ceasefire” in Gaza.

Google has been accused of throwing a “tantrum” after sacking more than 50 workers in response to a protest over the company’s military ties to the Israeli government — firings that have shone a light on a controversial project and long-simmering tensions between staff and management, The Guardian reports.

Emaan Haseem, a software engineer at Google and organiser with No Tech for Apartheid, was one of the fired workers. “Many of us had just recently gotten promoted. I was the fastest promoted person underneath my manager,” she said.

This was a peaceful protest, she said.

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Lebanon has moved towards accepting the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) jurisdiction to prosecute violations on Lebanese territory since October, in what Human Rights Watch has said is a “landmark step” towards justice for war crimes, Reuters reports.

Lebanon’s caretaker cabinet voted on Friday to instruct the foreign affairs ministry to file a declaration with the ICC accepting the court’s jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute crimes committed on Lebanese territory since October 7.

The decree also instructed the foreign ministry to include in its complaints about Israel to the United Nations a report prepared by the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, an independent research institute.

The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will join more than a dozen global leaders and top diplomats for the summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF) tomorrow, which will centre on the bombardment in Gaza, according to WEF president Borge Brende.

According to Al Jazeera, Brende said talks would take place on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and ongoing ceasefire talks, which has seen “some new momentum on”.

A pro-Palestine protester interrupted and chanted slogans during the German ambassador’s speech on civil rights at a conference in Lahore.

Just moments after Germany’s Ambassador to Pakistan Alfred Grannas began his speech, the protester can be heard saying, “Excuse me, Mr Ambassador. I am shocked by the audacity that you are here to talk about civil rights while your country is brutally abusing the people speaking for the rights of the Palestinians.”

His comments drew applause and cheer from the crowd, while chants of “Free, Free Palestine” and “From the River to the Sea” could be heard.

Grannas immediately acknowledged his comments, saying: “If you want to shout, go out, there you can shout. Because shouting is not a discussion.”

The Progressive Students Collective (PSC) said its members had “exposed the hypocrisy of German ambassador” by questioning him on the role of Germany in the deaths in Gaza. It also lashed out at the conference organisers, saying they had “forcefully silenced the voices of students while platforming the facilitators of Pal[estinian] gen[ocide]”.

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Gaza’s health ministry has said that at least 34,388 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory during more than six months of fighting between Israel and Hamas, AFP reports.

The tally includes at least 32 deaths in the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 77,437 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since October 7.

British troops might be deployed in Gaza to assist in a new sea-borne aid operation, according to the BBC. The initiative, set to launch next month, would not include American forces landing, as they prefer a third party to manage aid distribution onshore via a floating causeway.

While the UK contemplates assigning this task to British soldiers, Whitehall sources indicate that no firm decision has reached the Prime Minister’s office yet. Both the Ministry of Defence and the Israeli army have withheld comments on the matter.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps highlighted Britain’s proactive role in the planning of this operation, working in conjunction with the US and other allies. The mission, dubbed by military planners as “wet boots,” would involve British forces driving aid trucks from landing crafts to a temporary causeway, ensuring the aid reaches a secured onshore area.

Despite comprehensive security measures for allied forces both at sea and on land, the troops may face increased risks from attacks by Hamas and other armed factions. A recent incident saw a UN team dodging mortars near the intended aid distribution site.

US defense officials have confirmed the commencement of construction on a substantial floating pier in the eastern Mediterranean by an American army ship. The operation, known as the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS), aims to facilitate the transfer of aid from Cyprus via large vessels, then onto trucks and smaller landing crafts. The floating causeway, anchored into the sand and extending several hundred meters, is expected to support the delivery of up to 150 trucks of aid daily.

Students protesting the Israel-Hamas war at at universities across US, some of whom have clashed with police in riot gear, dug in on Saturday and vowed to keep their demonstrations going, the Associated Press reports.

As Columbia University continues negotiations with those at a pro-Palestinian student encampment on the New York school’s campus, the university’s senate passed a resolution Friday that created a task force to examine the administration’s leadership, which last week called in police in an attempt to clear the protest, resulting in scuffles and more than 100 arrests.

Students representing the Columbia encampment, which inspired the wave of protests across the country, said that they reached an impasse with administrators and intend to continue their protest.

After meetings Thursday and Friday, student negotiators said the university had not met their primary demand for divestment, although there was progress on a push for more transparent financial disclosures. “We will not rest until Columbia divests,” said Jonathan Ben-Menachem, a fourth-year doctoral student.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for the “complete destruction” of the Gaza Strip as he hit out against truce talks between the government and Hamas, Middle East Eye reports.

Writing on X, Smotrich said negotiating with Hamas was irresponsible and members of the group should be killed instead.

“The time has come for the Mossad to return to doing what it was trained to do – to eliminate the heads of Hamas all over the world and not in negotiations that are conducted irresponsibly and harm Israel’s security,” he said.

“With Hamas from now on we should only talk with shells and bombs.”

He said Israel needed to attack Rafah “as fast and as strongly as possible, and then continue with the strip until its complete destruction”.

The Israeli military targeted Hamas weapons depots, launch sites, and bases throughout the Strip, while killing numerous fighters, the military said, Al Jazeera reports.

Many of the operations took place in central Gaza, where Israeli air strikes, directed by troops on the ground, targeted a Hamas cell as well as a vehicle carrying eight of the group’s fighters, the Israeli military said.

Israel’s latest air strikes in Gaza also caused civilian casualties, killing 15 people, including women and children, in Nuseirat refugee camp, Khan Younis and Rafah.

Israeli military attacks have wrecked 70 perc ent of the water wells and 50 percent of the sewage pumps in northern Gaza, according to Beit Lahiya mayor Alaa al-Attar, worsening sanitary conditions.

At the same time, Israeli attacks have destroyed “all agricultural crops in the town [Beit Lahiya] which is considered the primary food basket for the Strip,” said al-Attar in comments carried by the Anadolu news agency.

Aid groups say the lack of clean water, nutrition, sanitation and reliable healthcare throughout Gaza is causing infectious diseases, including hepatitis A, to spread in the enclave.

About six to eight Palestinian athletes are expected to compete at the Paris Olympics, with some set to be invited by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) even if they do not qualify for the Games, its head, Thomas Bach, told AFP .

The Games will open on July 26.

Al Jazeera Arabic shares footage showing the moment the car of Israel’s ultra-nationalist minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, overturned in a road accident after running a red light.

Israeli media said the crash happened as the country’s hardline national security minister was visiting the Israeli city of Ramle where a woman was reportedly stabbed earlier in the day.

Ben-Gvir was treated overnight in hospital for minor injuries, according to local media, which claimed he “regularly orders his driver to commit traffic infractions”.

One of Ben-Gvir’s daughters was also in the car and was injured along with a driver and a bodyguard, according to reports.

The Palestinian resistance group Hamas has said it has received and was studying the latest Israeli counter-proposal regarding a potential ceasefire in besieged Gaza and the release of captives, TRT World reports.

“Today, the Hamas movement received the official Zionist occupation response to the movement’s position, which was delivered to the Egyptian and Qatari mediators on April 13,” Khalil al Hayya, deputy head of Hamas’s political arm in Gaza, said in a brief statement.

“The movement will study this proposal, and upon completion of its study, it will submit its response.”

Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has cancelled a planned panel discussion on the Gaza conflict at his official residence in Berlin amid criticism that no Palestinian voice had been invited to participate, Al Jazeera reports.

The German news agency DPA reports that the event, titled “How do we talk about the war in the Middle East?” was originally scheduled at Bellevue Palace for next Thursday, where Steinmeier had intended to give a speech and discuss the topic with three guests, Meron Mendel, director of the Anne Frank Educational Centre, journalist Tilo Jung and Melody Sucharewicz, an expert on German-Israeli relations.

Critics called out the lack of a Palestinian voice on the panel in recent days, according to media reports.

In a statement obtained by DPA, the presidential office justified its decision to cancel the event, saying it had “come to the conclusion that the round table planned for May 2 does not serve the goal of strengthening social peace in the current tense situation. The event will therefore not take place at this time.”

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that 65 per cent of schools housing thousands of Palestinians displaced by Israel’s offensive on Gaza have been “directly hit or damaged” in attacks, Al Jazeera reports.

OCHA also reports that an infant girl has died in Rafah, reportedly from extreme heat, as concerns mount over a “sanitation crisis” amid rising temperatures in the Palestinian territory where so many are without adequate shelter or access to food and healthcare.

The latest OCHA situation report on Gaza also notes that between Wednesday and Friday afternoon, a further 94 people were killed and 139 injured in Israeli attacks, according to Health Ministry data.

The deadliest attacks included the bombing of the house of a Palestinian poet and writer, who was killed along with her two children, in the Shati (Beach) refugee camp, located west of Gaza City.

Two young men were killed after Israeli forces opened fire near the Salem military checkpoint, west of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera reports, citing Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Wafa identified the two fatalities as 22-year-old Mustafa Sultan Abed and 21-year-old Ahmed Muhammad. The news agency also cited sources as saying that Israeli forces prevented ambulances from reaching the bodies of the two victims.

Two other young men sustained non-life-threatening injuries in the incident. Both were transported by the Red Crescent to a hospital in Jenin.

Columbia University’s embattled president came under renewed pressure on Friday as a campus oversight panel sharply criticized her administration for clamping down on a pro-Palestinian protest at the Ivy League school, Reuters reports.

After a two-hour meeting, the Columbia University Senate approved a resolution that President Nemat Minouche Shafik’s administration had undermined academic freedom and disregarded the privacy and due process rights of students and faculty members by calling in the police and shutting down the protest.

“The decision … has raised serious concerns about the administration’s respect for shared governance and transparency in the university decision-making process,” it said.

The senate, composed mostly of faculty members and other staff plus a few students, did not name Shafik in its resolution and avoided the harsher language of a censure.

There was no immediate response to the resolution from Shafik, who is a member of the senate but did not attend Friday’s meeting.

Columbia spokesperson Ben Chang said the administration shared the same goal as the Senate — to restore calm to the campus — and was committed to “an ongoing dialogue.”

A delegation from Gaza fighting mediator Egypt has arrived in Israel on Friday for a bid to reignite stalled ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations between Israel and Hamas, AFP reports.

There has been “noticeable progress in bringing the views of the Egyptian and Israeli delegations closer”, said Al-Qahera News, which is linked to Egyptian state intelligence services.

Several Israeli media outlets, citing unnamed officials, said that Israel’s war cabinet discussed a new plan for a truce and hostage release ahead of the Egyptian delegation’s visit.

A senior official with the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) has said there are some 37 million tonnes of debris to clear away in Gaza once the Israeli offensive is over, AFP reports.

And unexploded ordnance buried in the rubble would complicate that work, said UNMAS’ Pehr Lodhammar, who has run mine programmes in countries such as Iraq.

It was impossible to say how much of the ammunition fired in Gaza remained live, said Lodhammar.

“We know that typically there is a failure rate of at least 10 per cent of land service ammunition,” he told journalists in Geneva.

“What we do know is that we estimated 37m tonnes of debris, which is approximately 300 kilos of debris per square metre,” he added.

Starting from a hypothetical number of 100 trucks, that would take 14 years to clear away, he said.