Israel's Gaza invasion - Day 205

Yair Lapid has pledged to support the Israeli government in approving a possible deal with Hamas that would bring back captives, amid reports that far-right ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich were threatening to pull out of the ruling coalition if the offensive on Rafah is called off for such an agreement, Al Jazeera reports.

“Netanyahu, you have a majority among the people for a deal. And you have a majority in the Knesset for a deal. If you need to get rid of Ben Gvir and Smotrich, I will give you 24 votes in the government,” Lapid wrote on X, referring to the number of seats his Yesh Atid party controls.

“We must bring them home,” he added.

Israeli forces have launched pre-dawns raids across the occupied West Bank, triggering clashes in the village of Beit Sera, west of Ramallah, Al Jazeera reports citing the Wafa news agency.

The soldiers fired stun grenades and tear gas during the confrontations, the agency reported.

Israeli forces also raided the towns of Illar, north of Tulkarem, and Hizma, northeast of Jerusalem. A 22-year-old Palestinian man was arrested in Hizma, Wafa reported.

The US president has spoken at the annual White House Correspondents’ dinner, offering a toast to “press freedom and democracy” but making no mention of Israel’s incursion in Gaza that has killed at least 97 journalists, Al Jazeera reports.

That’s despite demonstrations outside the hotel which is hosting the dinner, denouncing the Biden administration’s handling of the war and urging guests to boycott the event.

Biden spent most of his speech poking fun at his predecessor and rival, former President Donald Trump, but he also paid tribute to journalists “who literally risked their lives” in their line of work.

“Many have suffered grievous injuries, others have lost their freedom. Journalism is clearly not a crime. Not here, not there, not anywhere in the world,” he said, without specifying where “there” was in reference to.

Israel’s incursion in Gaza is expected to get top billing at a Saudi Arabian-hosted special meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), which begins today, Al Jazeera reports.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Palestinian leaders and high-ranking officials from other countries trying to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas are on the guest list for the summit in Riyadh, the capital of the world’s biggest crude oil exporter.

“The world is today walking a tightrope… trying to balance security and prosperity,” Saudi Planning Minister Faisal al-Ibrahim told a news conference previewing the event.

Borge Brende, the WEF president, also said that there was “some new momentum now in the talks around the hostages, and also for… a possible way out of the impasse we are faced with in Gaza”.

However, there will be no Israeli participation at the summit and Brende noted that formal mediation involving Qatar and Egypt was unfolding elsewhere.

The St Louis Post Dispatch is reporting dozens of arrests at the Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, as students protesting Israel’s war on Gaza tried to set up an encampment, Al Jazeera reports.

The website said the exact number of people arrested was not immediately clear but included the Green Party’s presidential candidate, Jill Stein.

The Missouri chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Missouri) condemned the “heavy-handed response to a peaceful protest”, saying students “must be allowed to exercise their First Amendment rights and to oppose Israel’s genocide, ethnic cleansing and forced starvation in Gaza”.

Momodou Taal, a PhD student at Cornell University in the state of New York, said students protesting Israel’s incursion in Gaza have received threats and been subjected to doxing, but received no protection from their school, Al Jazeera reports.

“We’ve had death threats. We’ve had — while we were praying Salat al-Jum’ah — we’ve had police videoing and take pictures of us… other students take pictures of us, dox[ing] us,” he told Al Jazeera. “We no longer have faith in the administration to be a place safe for Muslim students, for Arab students, for Palestinian students and by and large those students of colour and pro-Palestinian students.”

Taal was among four students Cornell “temporarily suspended” for setting up an encampment on the university’s campus. He said some of the consequences of that move is that he “might have to repeat a semester… and graduate later than expected”. That’s “quite a serious thing”, he added.

France’s foreign minister will push proposals to prevent further escalation and a potential war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah during a visit to Lebanon as Paris seeks to refine a roadmap that both sides could accept to ease tensions, Reuters reports.

France has historical ties with Lebanon and earlier this year Stephane Sejourne delivered an initiative that proposed Hezbollah’s elite unit pull back 10 km (6 miles) from the Israeli border, while Israel would halt strikes in southern Lebanon.

France’s proposal, which has been discussed with partners, notably the United States, has not moved forward, but Paris wants to keep momentum in talks and underscore to Lebanese officials that Israeli threats of a military operation in southern Lebanon should be taken seriously.

Some senior US officials have advised Secretary of State Antony Blinken that they do not find “credible or reliable” Israel’s assurances that it is using US-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law, according to an internal State Department memo reviewed by Reuters.

Other officials upheld support for Israel’s representation.

Under a National Security Memorandum (NSM) issued by President Joe Biden in February, Blinken must report to Congress by May 8 whether he finds credible Israel’s assurances that its use of US weapons does not violate US or international law.

By March 24, at least seven State Department bureaus had sent in their contributions to an initial “options memo” to Blinken. Parts of the memo, which has not been previously reported, were classified.

Read more here.

The signs of fresh Gaza truce talks come after the United Nations warned that “famine thresholds in Gaza will be breached within the next six weeks” unless massive food assistance arrives, AFP reports.

Aid groups say Gaza’s already catastrophic humanitarian conditions would be worsened by Israel’s vow to attack Hamas fighters still in Rafah city in southernmost Gaza.

“We live in constant terror and fear of repeated displacement and invasion,” Nidaa Safi, 30, who fled Israeli strikes in the north and came to Rafah with her husband and children, told AFP.

The area comes under regular bombardment. Hospital officials said strikes in Rafah and elsewhere killed more than a dozen people overnight.

Among the dead were an entire family, their relative Mohammed Yussef said. “Nobody left: the father, the mother, a girl and two boys” were killed when their house was targeted, he said.

Hamas has said it was studying Israel’s latest counterproposal for a Gaza ceasefire, a day after media reports said a delegation from mediator Egypt was in Israel trying to jump-start stalled negotiations, AFP reports.

The armed wing of Hamas also released video footage of two men held hostage in Gaza, identified by Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum as Keith Siegel and Omri Miran.

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

In a statement, Hayya said Hamas “will study this proposal” before responding. The movement has previously insisted on a permanent ceasefire, which Israel rejects.

Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been unsuccessfully trying to seal a new Gaza truce deal ever since a one-week halt to the fighting in November saw 80 Israeli hostages exchanged for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Al-Qahera News, which is linked to Egyptian intelligence services, reported “noticeable progress in bringing the views of the Egyptian and Israeli delegations closer”.

In early April, Hamas had said it was studying a proposal, after talks in Cairo, and Al-Qahera reported progress. Days later Israel and Hamas accused each other of undermining negotiations.

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.”

Israel’s foreign minister has said that a planned incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah could be suspended should there be a deal to secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, Reuters reports.

“The release of the hostages is the top priority for us,” said Foreign Minister Israel Katz during an interview with local Channel 12 television.

Asked if that included putting off a planned operation to eliminate Hamas battalions in the city of Rafah, Katz answered, “Yes.”

He went on to say: “If there will be a deal, we will suspend the operation.”

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.

Read more here.

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.