Israel's Gaza invasion - Day 210

Paris’ Sciences Po university was closed for the day after a debate between the institute’s leadership and students on the onslaught in Gaza failed to ease tensions, prompting protesters to occupy it overnight, Reuters reports.

The elite political sciences university this week became the centre of a wave of protests at several schools in France over the war and academic ties with Israel, although not on the same scale as seen in the United States.

A group of around 70 students were occupying Sciences Po’s main buildings in central Paris on Friday morning after having spent the night there, Jack, one of the protesters, told Reuters in a text message, adding: “By the way, the negotiations with leadership are making no progress.”

Sciences Po did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Local newspaper Le Parisien and radio France Inter, citing an internal memo, reported the university was asking staff to work from home as university buildings were closed.

Sciences Po’s director on Thursday rejected demands by protesters to review the schools’ relations with Israeli universities, prompting protesters to continue their movement with at least one person entering a hunger strike, according to a student speaking on behalf of the protesters.

Turkey has halted trade with Israel as it again accused the country of stoking a “humanitarian disaster” in Gaza, marking the latest sign of deepening tensions between the two nations, Financial Times reports.

Ankara’s trade ministry late on Thursday said all export and import transactions related to Israel had been stopped and would not resume until Tel Aviv “allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza”.

Ankara in April sanctioned exports in 54 important categories of goods but this latest move will disrupt bilateral trade worth more than $7bn a year. A Turkish official described the curbs as a temporary measure meant to put pressure on Israel, but said they could also be reversed if Ankara’s conditions were met.

Israel Katz, Israeli foreign minister, said earlier in the day, following a Bloomberg report that Ankara had cut off trade, that he had urgently instructed officials to “create alternatives for trade with Turkiye”.

“This is how a dictator behaves, disregarding the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen, and ignoring international trade agreements,” Katz wrote on X, referring to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

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US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday he did not see any indication Hamas was planning any attack on US troops in Gaza but added adequate measures were being put in place for the safety of military personnel, Reuters reports.

“I don’t discuss intelligence information at the podium. But I don’t see any indications currently that there is an active intent to do that,” Austin said during a press briefing.

“Having said that … this is a combat zone and a number of things can happen, and a number of things will happen.”

A maritime pier constructed by the US military to speed the flow of humanitarian aid in Gaza should be open within a matter of days, despite poor weather hampering preparations, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday.

The United States has called on both Israel and Hamas to ensure that aid bound for civilians in Gaza is not disrupted, after a shipment from Jordan was attacked by Israeli settlers and subsequently diverted by Palestinian fighters.

Gaza’s journalists have been named the winners of the 2024 Unesco/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize for their coverage of Israel’s onslaught on the Palestinian territory, the UN’s cultural agency said in a statement.

Established in 1997, the annual prize “honours an outstanding contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger”, Unesco said.

“In these times of darkness and hopelessness, we wish to share a strong message of solidarity and recognition to those Palestinian journalists who are covering this crisis in such dramatic circumstances,” said Mauricio Weibel, chair of the international jury of media professionals, who recommended the winners of the prize.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said on May 1 that, according to preliminary investigations, at least 97 journalists and media workers are among the more than 35,000 killed since the onslaught on Gaza began on October 7.

The dead included 92 Palestinian, two Israeli, and three Lebanese journalists.

The Israeli military has bombed a house in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, killing six people, the Wafa news agency reports.

Several more people have been wounded in the attack, which struck the city’s al-Zuhur neighbourhood.

Several people have also been injured after an Israeli bomb struck a house in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood, west of Rafah, while nine people were injured in a bombing targeting the Bureij camp in central Gaza.

US President Joe Biden insisted on Thursday that “order must prevail” on college campuses after weeks of turmoil, clashes with police and mass arrests involving student protests against Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, AFP reports.

Biden, who had remained tight-lipped as the student unrest expanded, spoke just hours after hundreds of police moved in to forcibly clear a sprawling encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles, tearing down barriers and detaining more than 200 protestors.

“We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent,” Biden, who has faced criticism from all sides of the political spectrum over the demonstrations, said in a televised statement from the White House.

“But neither are we a lawless country. We’re a civil society, and order must prevail,” he added.

Police forcibly removed scores of defiant pro-Palestinian protesters at several colleges on Thursday, including taking down an encampment at UCLA in a jarring scene that underscored the heightened chaos that has erupted at universities this week, Reuters reports.

In the pre-dawn hours, helmeted police swarmed a tent city set up at the University of California in Los Angeles, using flash bangs and riot gear to push through lines of protesters who linked arms in a futile attempt to halt their advance.

Los Angeles police said on social media that 210 people were arrested at UCLA, and hundreds of arrests were made at other universities overnight and on Thursday.

“I’m a student here,” one UCLA protester told cameras as he was led away, his hands bound. “Please don’t fail us. Don’t fail us.” Hours later, the student, who would only give his first name as Ryan, was back on campus and vowed he would not stop fighting.

“We will be back,” said Ryan, who was cited for unlawful assembly. “We will be disrupting. We will be demanding divestment.” Students have rallied or set up tents at dozens of universities in recent days to protest Israel’s onslaught on Gaza.

Demonstrators have called on President Joe Biden, who has supported Israel’s right to defend itself, to do more to stop the bloodshed in Gaza and demanded schools divest from companies that support Israel’s government.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said the people of Gaza “have been through more than anyone could imagine over the last 6 months”.

“They are very scared of what tomorrow brings. They are very scared if more military action will happen. Scared if they’ll be displaced again. Scared of the nights,” the agency said in a post on X.

“There is no safety in Gaza,” it added.

Palestinian advocacy groups have said that the head of orthopaedics at Gaza’s largest hospital Al-Shifa has died in Israeli custody, alleging he had been tortured during his detention, AFP reports.

Doctor Adnan Ahmed Atiya al-Barsh died at the Israeli-run Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank last month, the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Committee and the Palestinian Prisoners Club said in a joint statement.

Contacted by AFP about the reported death in custody, the Israeli army said: “We are currently not aware of such (an) incident.”

Barsh, 50, had been arrested with a group of other doctors last December at Al-Awda Hospital near the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

He died on April 19, the prisoners groups said, citing Palestinian authorities. “His body is still being held,” they added.

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Saudi Arabia has stepped up the arrest of citizens for social media posts related to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza as the kingdom signals a readiness to agree to diplomatic relations with the Jewish state — if it commits to Palestinian statehood, Bloomberg reports.

Detaining people for online comments — even those more than 10 years old — and restrictions on free speech and political expression are the norm in Saudi Arabia.

Yet the recent spate of arrests are motivated by security concerns specifically linked to the October 7 invasion of Israel by Hamas and its aftermath, according to Riyadh-based diplomats and human rights groups.

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President Joe Biden has broken his virtual silence on the nationwide Gaza campus protests, saying the United States was not authoritarian but insisting “order must prevail”.

In a televised address from the White House, Biden added that there was “no place” for anti-semitism on university campuses, which have been roiled by pro-Palestinian demonstrations amid Israel’s bombardment in Gaza.

The 81-year-old Democrat — whose reelection bid in November faces a challenge from voters opposed to the bombardment — said there had to be a balance between the right to peaceful protest and the need to prevent violence.

“We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent,” Biden said from the podium in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.

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A maritime pier constructed by the US military to speed the flow of humanitarian aid in Gaza should be open within a matter of days, despite poor weather that is hampering preparations, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said according to Reuters.

“We were hoping within days. I think that’s still a hope,” Kirby said at a news briefing.

The Palestinian economy is estimated to shrink by 26.9 per cent after seven months of bombardment, with the poverty rate surging, said a new United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) assessment released.

According to AFP, the estimates, released by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, also found that the Palestinian poverty rate will continue climbing to 58.4pc.

“Every additional day that this war continues is exacting huge and compounding costs to Gazans and all Palestinians,” said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner in a statement.

“These new figures warn that the suffering in Gaza will not end when the war does,” he added.

He warned of a “serious development crisis” stemming from the massive losses over a short period.

Should the bombardment continue for nine months, poverty is expected to more than double from pre-war levels, while the drop in gross domestic product would reach 29pc, the UNDP said.

US President Joe Biden was set to make an unscheduled public statement on the protests over Israel’s bombardment in Gaza that have roiled college campuses nationwide, AFP reports.

The White House remarks come after hundreds of police cleared a sprawling protest encampment overnight at the University of California, Los Angeles, tearing down barriers and arresting students.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh has said the group is studying a proposal for a truce in the nearly seven-month fighting raging in Gaza with a “positive spirit”, AFP reports.

In a call to Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, Haniyeh said he “appreciated the role played by Egypt”, which along with Qatar and the United States is mediating the talks, and “stressed the positive spirit of the movement in studying the ceasefire proposal”, according to a statement on Hamas’s official website.

Haniyeh confirmed that the movement’s delegation would go back to Egypt “as soon as possible to complete the ongoing discussions”.

The aim of those talks, Haniyeh said, would be “reaching an agreement that fulfils the demands of our people and stops the aggression”.

A UN agency has said that rebuilding Gaza will cost an estimated $30 billion to $40bn and require an effort on a scale the world has not seen since World War II, AFP reports.

“The United Nations Development Programme’s initial estimates for the reconstruction of … the Gaza Strip surpasses $30bn and could reach up to $40bn,” said UN assistant secretary-general Abdallah al-Dardari.

“The scale of the destruction is huge and unprecedented […] this is a mission that the global community has not dealt with since World War II.”

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog has slammed US universities for campus unrest over Israel’s bombardment in Gaza, saying these institutions were “contaminated by hatred and anti-Semitism”, AFP reports.

“We see prominent academic institutions, halls of history, culture, and education contaminated by hatred and anti-Semitism fuelled by arrogance and ignorance […] We watch in horror as the atrocities of October 7th against Israel are celebrated and justified,” Herzog said in a statement offering support to Jewish students across these universities.

Rebuilding homes in the Gaza Strip could drag into the next century if the pace follows the trend of previous conflicts, Reuters reports quoting a newly-released UN report.

The assessment, released by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), said Gaza needs “approximately 80 years to restore all the fully destroyed housing units”. However, in a best-case scenario in which construction materials are delivered five times as fast as in the last crisis in 2021, it could be done by 2040, the report said.

“Unprecedented levels of human losses, capital destruction, and the steep rise in poverty in such a short period of time will precipitate a serious development crisis that jeopardises the future of generations to come,” said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner in a statement.

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Dozens of Iraqi university students and professors have taken out rallies at a Baghdad campus in solidarity with Gaza and pro-Palestinian protests at US universities, AFP correspondents have said.

Iraqi Education Minister Naeem al-Aboudi expressed his support for the “free voices in universities” around the world, and called for protests in solidarity with the embattled Gaza Strip. Students at Al-Nahrain University waved Palestinian and Iraqi flags.

“With all that is happening to our people in Gaza… of course I must be among the first to come to raise our voice,” student Aya Kader, 20, said. “It is very positive to see the Palestinian flag being waved at American universities,” she said.

The weeks-long pro-Palestinian protests that have swept campuses across the United States have “encouraged us”, she added.

Students and professors also carried banners calling for a “free Palestine”, with some wearing the keffiyeh scarf that has long been a symbol of the Palestinian cause.

“We are here to tell them to stop the killing and to thank the free voices around the world,” said Professor Jomaa Salman, head of the engineering faculty. “If the storming of Columbia University had happened in another country, especially in a third world country, they would have moved heaven on earth.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have discussed the conflict between Israel and Hamas, including a possible ceasefire, in a telephone call, Reuters reports quoting a statement from the German government.

“They spoke about efforts to release all hostages held by Hamas and about a ceasefire. Further improvements to humanitarian aid for the people in the Gaza Strip were also discussed,” a government spokesperson said.

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters have remained on the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) campus behind barricades despite police orders to leave, The Associated Press reports.

Officers were poised to move in on their fortified encampment that was surrounded by an even larger crowd, including supporters who locked arms and curious onlookers, it added.

Shortly before 2am local time, police briefly made their way into the perimeter of the encampment, only to retreat after being outnumbered by scores of protesters yelling “Shame on you!”

Some in the crowd tossed water bottles and other objects as dozens of officers ran back. Later, the crowd chanted “We’re not leaving. You don’t scare us”.

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Israeli artillery units have targeted agricultural land in the north of Nuseirat refugee camp; at least 10 Palestinians have been reported injured. Those who have been wounded are receiving treatment in al-Awda and al-Aqsa Hospital, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reports from Rafah, southern Gaza.

Ongoing Israeli surveillance drones can be heard that continue to gather more intelligence information about targets that are possibly going to be targeted within the coming hours.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured another reprieve in a long-running Israeli dispute over exemptions of ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service, with the Supreme Court deferring the deadline for a new conscription plan to May 16, Reuters reports.

The court, hearing appeals that described the decades-old waiver as discriminatory, had given March 31 as the original deadline. That was extended to April 30 at the request of the government, which argued it was busy waging the Gaza offensive, and which last week asked for a further deferral.

Netanyahu’s coalition includes two ultra-Orthodox parties that regard the exemptions as key to keeping their constituents in religious seminaries and away from a melting-pot military that might test their conservative values.

The latest extension is shorter than that requested by the government, but may still spare Netanyahu a public reckoning over the combustible issue ahead of Israel’s day of commemoration for fallen soldiers on May 13, and Independence Day on May 14.

Both national holidays are expected to be especially fraught this year, amid an open-ended conflict in Gaza and knock-on fighting on other fronts that have exacted the worst Israeli casualties — mostly among teenaged draftees and reservists — in decades.

Palestinian security officers have killed a gunman in the occupied West Bank in a rare intra-Palestinian clash whose circumstances were disputed and which the fighter’s faction described as an Israeli-style “assassination”, Reuters reports.

Palestinian Authority security services spokesperson Talak Dweikat has said a force sent to patrol Tulkarm overnight came under fire and shot back, hitting the gunman. He died from his wounds in hospital.

Videos circulated online, which Reuters was not immediately able to confirm, showing a car being hit by gunfire.

A local armed group, the Tulkarm and Nour Shams Camp Brigades, claimed the dead man, Ahmed Abu al-Foul, as its member with affiliation to the group Islamic Jihad.

Al-Foul was “treacherously … targeted in his car” without provocation, the brigades said in a statement. “This crime is just like any assassination by Israeli special forces.”