Israel's Gaza invasion - Day 202

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.”

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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.

More than 430 Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, Al Jazeera reports.

A video verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking unit shows settlers walking through Al-Aqsa. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports the settlers were under “heavy protection” from Israeli forces.

The settlers performed rituals of the week-long Jewish holiday known as Passover. Under a longstanding status-quo agreement, prayer at Al-Aqsa is reserved for Muslims.

A Greek military vessel serving in the European Union’s naval mission in the Red Sea intercepted two drones launched by Yemen’s Houthi militants towards a commercial ship, officials at the Greek Defence Ministry have said, Reuters reports.

“On Thursday morning Greek frigate Hydra, while it was escorting a merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden, fired at two drones,” an official told Reuters.

“It destroyed one while the second moved away,” he added. Another defence official confirmed the details of the incident.

Greece has supplied a frigate to the EU’s mission, dubbed Aspides, that launched in February to help protect the key maritime trade route from drone and missile attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi militia, who say they are targeting commercial ships in retaliation for Israel’s war on Gaza.

Israeli police have evacuated extremist minister Itamar Ben-Gvir from a building in West Jerusalem that was surrounded by protesters, including families of captives in besieged Gaza, TRT World reports.

Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported that hundreds of protesters gathered in the area near the building where far-right Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu and extremist rabbi Bentzi Gopstein accompanied Ben-Gvir.

The police evacuated the notorious minister from the scene after its officers secured him.

They prevented the protesters from reaching Ben-Gvir after they surrounded his car, chanting slogans of disapproval against him, including “Shame on you.”

The police used crowd dispersal means, including wastewater, according to the daily.

The Israeli military has released the latest video footage of its now daily attacks on southern Lebanon, reporting that jet fighters carried out overnight raids on targets in the vicinity of Maroun el-Ras and Markaba villages, Al Jazeera reports.

Grainy footage accompanying a post on social media showed buildings and other structures being destroyed in huge blasts following apparent missile attacks from the air.

Israeli artillery also shelled “several areas” in Lebanon to “remove a threat”, Israel’s military said, describing the targets as “terrorist infrastructures” of the Hezbollah movement.

Jody Armour, a law professor at the University of Southern California, says anti-Semitism should not be weaponised to silence “valid protests” against what “may plausibly be genocide”, Al Jazeera reports.

“We have lots of Jewish and Muslim and Palestinian and Catholic, like I am, Protestants, too, intergenerational, coming together,” Armour said.

“Everybody should hate anti-Semitism and fight anti-Semitism, but being opposed to Israel’s slaughter in Gaza that the UN has said may plausibly be genocide, does not mean that you’re anti-Semitic,” he said.

“We need to stop allowing people to weaponise anti-Semitism against real, valid protests.”

Columbia University students heckled House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday as he visited the flashpoint of nationwide student demonstrations over the Israeli onslaught in Gaza, even as the New York school agreed to 48 more hours of negotiations to end a protest encampment, Reuters reports.

Johnson’s visit, which he said was meant to support Jewish students intimidated by some anti-Israeli demonstrators, took place shortly after the university extended a deadline from Wednesday morning to Friday morning to reach an agreement to remove an encampment that has come to symbolize the campus protest movement.

Some of the campus protests taking place coast to coast were met with shows of force from law enforcement.

In Texas Wednesday, state highway patrol troopers in riot gear and police on horseback broke up a protest at the University of Texas in Austin and arrested 20 people, and campus police tore down tents at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Other demonstrations took place at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and California State Polytechnic in Humboldt.

Protesting students have demanded universities divest assets from Israel and seek to pressure the US government to rein in Israeli strikes on Palestinian civilians.

Palestinian Civil Defence teams have recovered 324 dead bodies at Nasser Hospital as of Wednesday, the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, has said in its latest daily update, Al Jazeera reports.

OCHA cited Palestinian Civil Defence as saying women, elderly persons and patients were among the people found buried at the hospital, and noted, “only few were identified”.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk on Tuesday called for “independent, effective and transparent investigations” into the deaths.

“Hospitals are entitled to very special protection under international humanitarian law, and the intentional killing of civilians, detainees and others who are hors de combat is a war crime,” Turk said.

US-led coalition forces off the coast of Yemen shot down four drones and an anti-ship missile launched by Huthi rebels Wednesday, American authorities said, as the Iran-backed group’s attacks on Red Sea shipping continued, AFP reports.

US Central Command (Centcom) said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, that just before noon Sanaa time (0900 GMT) a coalition vessel “successfully engaged one anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM)” launched from Houthi controlled areas of Yemen.

The missile was likely targeting the MV Yorktown, a US-flagged shipping vessel, Centcom said, adding there were no injuries or damage.

The Houthis, who control much of Yemen’s Red Sea coast, have launched dozens of missile and drone strikes targeting shipping since November, actions they say are in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Centcom also said it had engaged and destroyed four drones launched by the Houthis shortly after the missile launch.

“It was determined that the ASBM and UAVs (drones) presented an imminent threat to US, coalition, and merchant vessels in the region,” Centcom said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned pro-Palestinian student protests in US universities as “horrific”, saying the demonstrations “have to be stopped”, AFP reports.

“What’s happening in America’s college campuses is horrific,” Netanyahu said in a statement, echoing concerns voiced primarily by supporters of Israel over the safety of Israeli or Jewish students and faculty as the protests intensify.

“Anti-Semitic mobs have taken over leading universities,” claimed Netanyahu.

“They call for the annihilation of Israel. They attack Jewish students […] They attack Jewish faculty,” he said.

“It’s unconscionable. It has to be stopped,” he said.

He argued the “response of several university presidents was shameful” and said more needed to be done.

“What is important now is for all of us, all of us who […] cherish our values and our civilisation, to stand up together and to say, ‘enough is enough’,” Netanyahu said.

A lecturer at Columbia University Professor Bassam Khawaja has said that several faculty members are “really furious” over the arrest of more than 100 pro-Palestine protesters who gathered at the school’s campus in New York City. Al Jazeera reports.

Khawaja said that when the university president decided to call the police onto campus, despite the university senate’s objection, many faculty members were “furious”.

“One hundred of us came to and stood on the steps to protest this decision, [and] 54 members of the law school’s permanent faculty wrote to the president objecting to it,” he told Al Jazeera.

“So, there’s quite a bit of anger among the faculty,” he said.

“Anti-Semitism has no place on our campus […] we need to be clear that advocating for Palestinian rights is not itself anti-Semitic,” he added.

Israel has said it is “moving ahead” with its planned operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, despite international outcry over fears for the 1.5 million Palestinians sheltering there, AFP reports.

“Israel is moving ahead with our operation to target Hamas in Rafah,” government spokesman David Mencer told a press briefing.

“The four battalions which remain in Rafah cannot be shielded from Israel. They will be attacked.”

Mencer added that “two reserve brigades” had been mobilised “for defensive and tactical missions in Gaza” against the Palestinian movement.

Since Israel’s ground invasion began in Gaza on October 27, “at least 18 or 19 of Hamas’s 24 battalions” have been destroyed, he said.

Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai has faced a backlash after the premier of a Broadway musical she co-produced with former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, AFP reports.

The musical, titled “Suffs” and playing in New York since last week, depicts the American women’s suffrage campaign for the right to vote in the 20th century.

However, Yousafzai, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, has been condemned by some for partnering with Clinton, an outspoken supporter of Israel’s military offensive against Hamas that has killed over 34,000 Palestinians.

Pakistan has seen many pro-Palestinian protests since the fighting in Gaza began last October.

Whilst Clinton has backed a military campaign to remove Hamas and rejected demands for a ceasefire, she has also explicitly called for protections for Palestinian civilians.

Yousafzai has publically condemned the civilian casualties and called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The New York Times reported the 26-year-old wore a red-and-black pin to the “Suffs” premier last Thursday, signifying her support for a ceasefire.

But author and academic Nida Kirmani said on X that Yousafzai’s decision to partner with Clinton was “maddening and heartbreaking at the same time. What an utter disappointment.”

Lahore-based academic and activist Dr Ammar Ali Jan said Yousufzai’s decision to associate with Clinton was an “endorsement” of a “grotesque history of imperial violence” due to the latter’s past.

Journalist Zarrar Khuhro termed her as a “tool of empire”.

President Joe Biden has demanded that new humanitarian aid be allowed to immediately reach Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as key US ally Israel fights Hamas there, AFP reports.

“We’re going to immediately secure that aid and surge it […] including food, medical supplies, clean water,” Biden said after signing a massive military aid bill for Israel and Ukraine, which also included $1 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza.

“Israel must make sure all this aid reaches the Palestinians in Gaza without delay,” he said.

“This bill significantly — significantly — increases humanitarian assistance we’re sending to the innocent people of Gaza who are suffering badly,” Biden said.

“They’re suffering the consequences of this war that Hamas started, and we’ve been working intently for months to get as much aid to Gaza as possible,” he added.

Turkiye has accused the United States of having a policy of double standards on human rights, saying Washington’s annual rights report failed to reflect Israel’s assaults in Gaza.

According to Al Jazeera, Turkey’s foreign ministry said in a statement it was deeply concerned that the US report did not “duly reflect the ongoing inhumane attacks in Gaza”.

The report was prepared with “political motives, far from impartiality and objectivity”, it said, calling on Washington to cease its “double-standard policy on human rights”.

In its report, the US State Department said Israel’s war against Hamas had a “significant negative impact” on the human rights situation in Israel.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkiye will continue working for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the entrance of humanitarian aid into the besieged territory, Al Jazeera reports.

“The efforts of the Israeli administration to hide its atrocities and massacres committed in Gaza should not be allowed,” the Turkish president said during a joint conference with his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is on an official visit to Ankara.

He added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is putting the security of not only his own citizens but the entire region at risk just to prolong his political career.

A special rapporteur on human rights defenders for the United Nations Mary Lawlor has said that the protesters who were detained by Egyptian authorities in solidarity with the women of Gaza and Sudan should be released, Al Jazeera reports.

Human rights lawyer Mai El-Sadany said in a post on X that at least 16 are being questioned by Egyptian security services.

The Jamaican government has recognised the State of Palestine, Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smith announced in a post on X.

“Jamaica continues to advocate for a two-state solution as the only viable option to resolve the longstanding conflict, guarantee the security of Israel and uphold the dignity and rights of Palestinians,” Johnson Smith said.

“By recognising the State of Palestine, Jamaica strengthens its advocacy towards a peaceful solution.”

Israel’s military has conducted all necessary preparations to take Rafah, which it deems the last Hamas bastion in the Gaza Strip, and can launch an operation the moment it gets government approval, a senior defence official told Reuters.

Israel has continued to pound Gaza with air strikes and artillery fire in its offensive against Hamas after the US Congress approved $13 billion in military aid, AFP reports.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the Senate’s approval of the aid package already passed by the House of Representatives sent a “strong message to all our enemies” in a post on social media platform X.

Fears are rising that Israel will soon launch an assault on Rafah, which it says is the “last” major Hamas stronghold, but aid groups warn any invasion would create an “apocalyptic situation”. Netanyahu, however, has insisted the assault on Rafah will go ahead.

Earlier today, hospital and security sources in Gaza reported Israeli air strikes in Rafah, as well as the central Nuseirat refugee camp.

An AFP correspondent and witnesses also reported heavy bombardment of several areas of northern Gaza during the night, while the Israeli military said its aircraft “struck over 50 targets” over the previous 24 hours.

The Israeli army has said it struck 40 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon as near-daily exchanges of fire rage on the border between the two countries, AFP reports.

“A short while ago, IDF (army) fighter jets and artillery struck approximately 40 Hezbollah terror targets” around Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon, including storage facilities and weaponry, the army said in a statement.

A World Food Programme (WFP) official has said the Gaza Strip could surpass famine thresholds of food insecurity, malnutrition and mortality in six weeks, Reuters reports.

“We are getting closer by the day to a famine situation,” said Gian Caro Cirri, Geneva director of the WFP.

“There is reasonable evidence that all three famine thresholds — food insecurity, malnutrition and mortality — will be passed in the next six weeks.”

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