Israel's Gaza invasion - Day 202

Donald Trump on Thursday criticized the mostly peaceful protests on US college campuses over Israel’s offenisve in Gaza, describing them as “tremendous hate,” while saying that the violence at a white nationalist rally in Virginia when he was president was by comparison “a little peanut”, Reuters reports.

In remarks to media following the day’s testimony in his criminal trial in New York City, Trump referenced the violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 between white nationalists and counter-protesters, in which one woman was killed, and claimed the current college protests over Israel were far worse.

“Charlottesville was a little peanut. And it was nothing compared to – and the hate wasn’t the kind of hate that you have here,” Trump said, repeating an assertion he made on his social media platform on Wednesday.

The protests by students opposed to Israel’s offensive in Gaza have escalated at universities across the United States in recent days, although they have been largely peaceful, with no known deaths and none of violent clashes between demonstrators seen in Charlottesville.

A pro-Palestinian US group filed a federal civil rights complaint against Columbia University following last week’s mass arrest of anti-war protesters after the school called police to clear demonstrator encampments, the group said on Thursday, Reuters reports.

Palestine Legal, an organization that seeks to protect the rights of people in the US to speak out on behalf of Palestinians, urged the US Education Department to probe the school’s actions, which it alleges were discriminatory against those who are pro-Palestinian.

Columbia University declined to comment.

Last week, the university tried to shut down campus demonstrations by force when Columbia President Minouche Shafik took the unusual move of inviting New York City police to enter the campus, drawing the ire of many human rights groups, students and faculty. More than 100 people were arrested, reminiscent of the demonstrations against the Vietnam War at Columbia more than 50 years ago.

Protests have since continued at Columbia and spread to other US campuses where hundreds have been arrested in the last week.

Advocacy groups note a rise in hate and bias against Jews, Arabs and Palestinians.

Students from several universities in the Washington Metropolitan Area have joined forces to demand their schools cut ties to Israel and for an end to Israel’s assault on Gaza.

Yasmine, a student leading the protests that have grown into an encampment, says they are calling for their universities to “divest from any companies that sell weapons or technology” to Israel.

They are also calling on their universities to drop all charges against students “who spoke up or students who are pro-Palestine”, Yasmine told Al Jazeera.

“Many of us are […] facing repression and charges and hearings from our universities for simply protesting,” she said.

Many of the protesters, she added, wear masks because of the “heavy targeting and the heavy doxing […] against us”.

Students do expect the police to intervene later today in a bid to break up the gathering, according to Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington, DC.

A ceremony for seven aid workers of the World Central Kitchen killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza was held in Washington, AFP reports.

The founder of the US-based charity, Spanish-American chef Jose Andres, attended the interdenominational “celebration of life” at the National Cathedral in the US capital.

“They risked everything to feed people they did not know,” Andres said at the ceremony attended by Doug Emhoff, the husband of US Vice President Kamala Harris.

American cellist Yo-Yo Ma was expected to perform at the ceremony.

In a broken voice, Andres paid tribute to the seven volunteers — three Britons, a US-Canadian dual national, a Pole, an Australian and a Palestinian.

Khalil al-Hayya, a member of the Palestinian group’s political bureau, has reiterated that the group will not accept a truce deal without a permanent ceasefire and a complete halt of Israel’s ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip.

“We are leading serious talks and among our demands is a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza,” al-Hayya told Al Jazeera Arabic in a televised interview.

The Israeli military has said it was ready to go in Rafah whenever the cabinet sets a date, Al Jazeera reports.

It said it would first evacuate all the more than a million Palestinians sheltering in Rafah.

About 150,000 have already left, it said, adding that when they will get the order, the rest will be evacuated — but that will take several weeks.

A senior advisor with Amnesty International Donatella Rovera has said that a lack of resources and continuous airstrikes in Gaza will hinder efforts to investigate human rights abuses.

“The expertise, the skills, the resources — such as the ability to carry out DNA tests — none of that is available [in Gaza], and to make matters worse, there is the constant bombardment,” Rovera told Al Jazeera.

“Where there is evidence of a crime committed yesterday may be destroyed by a bombardment committed today,” she said.

Furthermore, Rovera noted, human rights investigators have not been allowed inside Gaza for years.

“Something can be done immediately that is for the Israeli authority to allow independent investigators immediately, if they have nothing to hide they should have no reason in preventing them in getting into Gaza,” she added.

Palestinian Civil Defence member Mohammed al-Moghier says his team is ready to prepare an evidential report for an independent investigation into the mass graves discovered at Gaza’s Nasser Hospital.

“This can be the foundation for work to be conducted by an international investigation committee — we are ready to help their work in order to push the Israelis to refrain from committing crimes against people in Gaza,” al-Moghier told Al Jazeera.

The Nahal Brigade, one of the Israeli military’s key infantry units, has been withdrawn from Gaza to prepare for a looming Rafah invasion, Al Jazeera reports quoting The Times of Israel.

The brigade, which recently completed five operations in central Gaza, is now being given time to rest, train, and review plans for “future offensives”, reports The Times of Israel.

The leaders of the United States, Britain, France and more than a dozen other countries have called for Hamas to release the scores of hostages it is holding in a joint statement, AFP reports.

“We call for the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza for over 200 days. They include our own citizens,” the leaders said.

“We emphasise that the deal on the table to release the hostages would bring an immediate and prolonged ceasefire in Gaza, that would facilitate a surge of additional necessary humanitarian assistance to be delivered throughout Gaza, and lead to the credible end of hostilities,” they said.

“We strongly support the ongoing mediation efforts in order to bring our people home.”

Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib has summoned Israel’s ambassador after an employee with the Belgian development agency Enabel and his son were killed in an Israeli strike on southern Gaza.

“Bombing civilian areas and populations is contrary to international law. I summon the ambassador of Israel to condemn this unacceptable act and demand an explanation,” Lahbib said on X.

Ten bodies found in Gaza’s mass graves had their hands bound while others still had medical tubes attached to them, indicating they may have been buried alive, Palestinian Civil Defence member Mohammed Mughier said.

“We need forensic examination for approximately 20 bodies for people who we think were buried alive,” Mughier said according to Al Jazeera.

French police have broken up a pro-Palestinian protest by dozens of university students in Paris, AFP reports quoting university officials.

Police intervened as dozens of students gathered on a central Paris campus of the prestigious Sciences Po University, management said.

“After discussions with management, most of them agreed to leave the premises,” university officials said in a statement to AFP, saying the protest was adding to “tensions” at the university.

But “a small group of students” refused to leave and “it was decided that the police would evacuate the site”, the statement added.

Sciences Po said it regretted that “numerous attempts” to have the students leave the premises peacefully had led nowhere.

The protesters demanded that Sciences Po “cut its ties with universities and companies that are complicit in the genocide in Gaza” and “end the repression of pro-Palestinian voices on campus”, according to witnesses.

Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, has warned that the fighting in Gaza has pushed Lebanon to “the brink of imploding”, Al Jazeera reports.

“It simply cannot continue like this,” said Egeland, following a visit to the country.

“People fleeing southern villages in search of a safe place end up in overcrowded shelters. Their livelihoods have been destroyed, but we have insufficient funding to help them.”

The White House says it wants “answers” from Israeli authorities after the discovery of mass graves at Gaza hospitals destroyed in Israeli sieges, Al Jazeera reports.

More than 300 bodies of people — allegedly killed and buried by Israeli forces at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis — have so far been recovered. Other graves at Al-Shifa Hospital in northern were also located.

“We want answers. We want to see this thoroughly and transparently investigated,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters.

Israeli army spokesman Major Nadav Shoshani said the graves at Nasser were “dug by Gazans a few months ago”.

Britain’s maritime agency and the security firm Ambrey have received reports of an incident on Thursday around 15 nautical miles southwest of the Yemeni port of Aden, advisory notes said, Reuters reports.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) advised ships to proceed with caution and report any incident.

Yemeni Houthi militants have been attacking ships in the Red Sea since November in what they say is a campaign of solidarity with Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.

The Houthis said on Wednesday that they had carried out three military operations in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

State media and a Hezbollah source has said one person was wounded in an Israeli drone attack on eastern Lebanon following a flare-up in cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israel, AFP reports.

It came a day after Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israeli forces were carrying out “offensive action” across southern Lebanon, as cross-border fire intensified.

“An Israeli drone attack hit a truck carrying fuel” for Hezbollah in the village of Duris, just southwest of the Bekaa Valley city of Baalbek, a Hezbollah source told AFP.

The strike struck the truck driver, said the source, with the official National News Agency (NNA) confirming the report.

An Israeli army statement early Thursday said targets hit in southern Lebanon were in the area of Maroun el-Ras, Markaba and Alma al-Shaab, and included a Hezbollah observation post.

Two people killed in an overnight strike on a home in Rafah were young children, identified in hospital records as Sham Najjar, six, and Jamal Nabahan, eight, Al Jazeera reports.

They are among more than 14,500 children killed in the enclave since Israel’s onslaught on Gaza began, with thousands more wounded.

At least 34,305 Palestinians have been killed and 77,293 wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since Oct 7, the Gaza health ministry has said in a statement, Reuters reports.

The tally includes at least 43 deaths in the past 24 hours, the statement added.

A memorial at the National Cathedral in Washington will honour the seven World Central Kitchen aid workers killed by Israeli air strikes in Gaza earlier this month, TRT World reports.

José Andrés, the celebrity chef and philanthropist behind the Washington-based World Central Kitchen disaster relief group, is expected to speak at the celebration of life service, and famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma will perform, organizers said.

The Biden administration have said that Douglas Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, and US Assistant Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell would be among senior administration figures attending.

The aid workers were killed April 1 when a succession of Israeli armed drones ripped through vehicles in their convoy as they left one of World Central Kitchen’s warehouses on a food delivery mission.

Those who died were Palestinian Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha; Britons John Chapman, James Kirby and James Henderson; dual U.S.-Canadian citizen Jacob Flickinger; Australian Lalzawmi Frankcom; and Polish citizen Damiam Sobol.

Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai reaffirmed her support for the people of Gaza after days of criticism over her decision to co-produce a Broadway musical with former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

“I wanted to speak today because I want there to be no confusion about my support for the people of Gaza,” she wrote in an Instagram post shared on Wednesday night.

“We have all watched the relentless atrocities against Palestinian people for more than six months now with anger and despair. This week’s news of mass graves discovered at Gaza’s Nasser and al-Shifa hospitals is yet another reminder of the horrors Palestinians bear it is their bones,” Yousafzai wrote.

“We do not need to see more dead bodies, bombed shovels and starving children to understand that a ceasefire is urgent and necessary.”

Read the full story here

The number of pro-Palestine protestors who were arrested during a demonstration at the University of Texas has risen to 34, authorities said, TRT World reports.

“As of 9pm, 34 arrests have been made by law enforcement on the UT Austin campus related to today’s protest,” the Texas Department of Public Safety said in a statement on X.

Among the arrested was a FOX 7 Austin photographer who was filming the demonstration by the students on the UT Austin campus.

Social media footage shows the photographer being slammed to the ground and taken away in handcuffs.

The students staged a walkout to demand the university divest from weapons manufacturing in connection with Israel.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has confirmed the arrests of 94 people participating in demonstrations against Israel’s onslaught on Gaza at the University of Southern California, Al Jazeera reports.

LAPD Captain Kelly Muniz said 93 people were arrested on trespass violations, while one other arrest was for assault with a deadly weapon, though she did not provide details.

Police said there were no reports of injuries during the tense standoff earlier between police and pro-Palestinian and antiwar student protesters at the university’s campus.