Israel's Gaza invasion - Day 207

The United Nations’ top court will rule on charges by Nicaragua that Germany is breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention by supplying arms to Israel for the Gaza onslaught, AFP reports.

Nicaragua has hauled Germany before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to demand that judges impose emergency measures to stop Berlin from providing Israel with weapons and other assistance.

More than 34,000 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since the conflict broke out in October following a cross-border attack by Hamas that left around 1,170 Israelis dead.

The ICJ in The Hague is scheduled to issue an order at 3pm (1pm GMT). Nicaragua targeted Germany rather than Israel’s main ally, the United States, because Washington did not recognise the ICJ’s jurisdiction in the case, Managua’s lawyers have said.

They say Israel is in breach of the 1948 Genocide Convention.

Hamas was studying Israel’s offer of a 40-day truce in the conflict in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of scores of hostages held since Hamas’ October 7 attacks, AFP reports.

Returning to Qatar after the latest talks in Cairo, the Hamas delegation said it would “discuss the ideas and the proposal… we are keen to respond as quickly as possible,” a Hamas source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Egyptian sources told Al-Qahera News, a site linked to Egyptian intelligence services, that the Hamas delegation would “return with a written response”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the truce terms as “extraordinarily generous”, while the White House asked fellow mediators

Egypt and Qatar to increase pressure on Hamas to accept the latest push to halt the nearly seven-month-old offensive.

According to Monday night call readouts, US President Joe Biden urged the Egyptian and Qatari leaders “to exert all efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas”, calling this “the only obstacle” to securing relief for civilians in the besieged strip.

For months, Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to secure a new agreement between the combatants. A one-week truce in November saw 80 Israeli hostages exchanged for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

KFC Malaysia has temporarily closed outlets in the country, citing challenging economic conditions, after local media reported that the closings were because of boycotts over the fast food chain’s perceived links to Israel, Reuters reports.

Malaysia, a majority-Muslim country, is a staunch supporter of the Palestinians, and some Western fast-food brands in the country, as in some other Muslim nations, have been targeted by boycott campaigns over Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.

QSR Brands (M) Holdings Bhd, which operates KFC and Pizza Hut franchises in Malaysia, said it temporarily closed KFC outlets “in response to challenging economic conditions”.

“QSR Brands and KFC Malaysia has taken proactive measures to temporarily close outlets as means to manage increasing business costs and focus on high engagement trade zones,” it said in a statement late on Monday. The statement did not address the media reports.

It did not specify how many stores were affected, but local media reported over 100 outlets were temporarily closed.

Employees from the affected stores were offered the opportunity to relocate to outlets in areas with higher customer engagement, QSR Brands said.

Columbia University on Monday began suspending pro-Palestinian student activists who refused to dismantle a protest camp on the New York City campus after the Ivy League school declared a stalemate in talks seeking to end the polarising demonstration, Reuters reports.

University President Nemat Minouche Shafik said in a statement that days of negotiations between student organisers and academic leaders had failed to persuade demonstrators to remove the dozens of tents set up to express opposition to Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

The crackdown at Columbia, at the centre of Gaza-related protests roiling university campuses across the US in recent weeks, occurred as police at the University of Texas at Austin arrested dozens of students whom they doused with pepper spray at a pro-Palestinian rally.

“We have begun suspending students as part of this next phase of our efforts to ensure safety on our campus,” said Ben Chang, a university spokesperson, at a briefing on Monday evening.

“The encampment has created an unwelcoming environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty and a noisy distraction that interferes with the teaching, learning and preparing for final exams,” Chang said.

Earlier, Shafik said Columbia would not divest from finances in Israel, a key demand of the protesters. Instead, she offered to invest in health and education in Gaza and make Columbia’s direct investment holdings more transparent.

European and Arab foreign ministers have met in the Saudi capital to discuss how to join forces on advancing a two-state solution to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, AFP reports.

“If we want to move this two-state solution forward it will not happen from the parties. I do not believe that Israel is ready to negotiate at this point, and I do not think that the US is ready to take the necessary leadership,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, one of the organisers of the meeting, told reporters after it concluded.

“So I think an Arab-European leadership is the best we can hope for,” Espen Barth Eide said.

“The continued rejection of the two-state solution will inevitably undermine the security and stability of the region,” Prince Faisal said at the start of the European-Arab meeting, which was also attended by Turkey’s foreign minister.

The US State Department has said it found five units of the Israeli military responsible for gross violations of human rights in incidents that took place outside of Gaza before fighting broke out between Israel and Hamas in October, Reuters reports.

Four of the units have effectively remediated the violations, while Israel has submitted additional information regarding the fifth unit and the US is continuing conversations with the government, State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, a US official has told Reuters.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said permanent peace in Gaza is imperative for peace in the world, APP reports.

He was speaking at the plenary meeting of the special session of the World Economic Forum on the theme of “Rejuvenating Growth”.

He said, “The world will not be in peace unless there is a permanent peace in Gaza.” As he talked about Gaza, the audience in the hall responded with resounding applause.

The Pentagon has said the temporary pier being constructed by the US military to boost aid deliveries to Gaza will cost Washington at least $320 million, AFP reports.

“That’s about our rough estimate right now, approximately $320m,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told journalists, adding: “That’s an initial cost for the temporary pier.”

Columbia University’s president has said that talks with pro-Palestinian protesters over the dismantling of an encampment on the Ivy League campus have failed and urged them to voluntarily disperse or face suspension from school, Reuters reports.

Protesters have vowed to keep their encampment on the Manhattan campus until Columbia meets three demands: divestment, transparency in Columbia finances and amnesty for students and faculty disciplined for their part in the protests.

Protesters shared online a copy of a warning letter sent to them by the university. The letter, which the university sent in addition to the public statement, said students who did not vacate the encampment by 2pm ET (1800 GMT) and sign a form acknowledging their participation would face suspension and become ineligible to complete the semester in good standing.

Even students who signed the form and left the area today will still go on “disciplinary probation” until June 2025 or their graduation, whichever came first, according to the letter, which a Columbia spokesperson confirmed was authentic.

Columbia University’s president has said that talks with pro-Palestinian protesters who began camping on the Ivy League campus two weeks ago have failed and urged them to voluntarily disperse, without saying what would happen if they did not, Reuters reports.

President Nemat Minouche Shafik said in a statement that organisers and academic leaders could not reach an agreement that would break a stalemate over the encampment, which the administration says violates university rules.

She said Columbia would not divest assets that support Israel’s military — a key demand of the protesters — but the school has offered to invest in health and education in Gaza and to improve the transparency of Columbia’s direct investment holdings, according to Shafik’s statement.

Police have moved in to clear dozens of protesters who had camped out in a courtyard at Sorbonne University in Paris to protest against the Israeli military offensive in Gaza, Reuters reports quoting a student.

“We have every reason, like in Yale, in Columbia, in Sciences Po … to condemn what we can see is happening,” the student, who only gave his name as Leonard, said at another rally outside the gates of the Sorbonne.

The university, one of the world’s oldest, closed its buildings for the day during the peaceful protests. Students chanted ‘Free Palestine’ and urged the institution to condemn Israel.

Several French politicians, including Mathilde Panot who heads the hard-left LFI group of lawmakers in the National Assembly, urged supporters on social media to join the Sorbonne protests.

Hamas has been offered a 40-day ceasefire and the release of “potentially thousands” of Palestinian prisoners in return for freeing Israeli hostages, AFP reports British Foreign Secretary David Cameron as having said.

The Palestinian group has been given “a very generous offer of [a] sustained 40 days ceasefire, the release of potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners, in return for the release of these hostages”, Cameron told a World Economic Forum meeting in Riyadh.

Israel is voicing concern that the International Criminal Court (ICC) could be preparing to issue arrest warrants for government officials on charges related to the conduct of its military operation against Hamas, Reuters reports.

The ICC — which can charge individuals with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide — is investigating Hamas’ October 7 attack and Israel’s devastating military assault on Gaza, now in its seventh month.

In response to Israeli media reports that the ICC might soon issue arrest warrants for senior Israeli government and military officials, Foreign Minister Israel Katz warned Israeli embassies to bolster their security because of the risk of a “wave of severe antisemitism”.

“We expect the court (ICC) to refrain from issuing arrest warrants against senior Israeli political and security officials,” Katz said. “We will not bow our heads or be deterred and will continue to fight.”

The World Central Kitchen nonprofit, which supplied meals in Gaza until seven of its aid workers were killed by an Israeli strike nearly a month ago, is to resume operations, AFP reports quoting the organisation’s CEO.

The US-based charity, founded by celebrity Spanish-American chef Jose Andres, provides food to communities facing humanitarian crises and disasters.

“We continue to grieve and mourn the loss of seven of our friends and colleagues who were killed in an IDF attack in Gaza,” the nonprofit’s CEO Erin Gore said in a statement.

She added that the World Central Kitchen was, nonetheless, “resuming operations in Gaza”.

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called for tighter defence integration among Gulf Arab states in response to Iran, part of efforts to encourage moderation by Israel by dangling the prospect of better ties with the region, AFP reports.

It is Blinken’s first trip to the region since the long shadow war between Israel and Iran broke out into the open, with tit-for-tat exchanges between the countries earlier this month.

“This attack highlights the acute and growing threat from Iran but also the imperative that we work together on integrated defence,” Blinken told Gulf Cooperation Council ministers meeting in Riyadh.

Blinken said the United States would hold talks in the coming weeks with the six-nation bloc on integrating air and missile defence and boosting maritime security.

The diplomat said that the region had a choice on its future, including “one ridden with divisions and destruction and violence and permanent instability”. Gulf Arab states, through their meeting with the United States, were choosing “greater integration” and “greater peace”, he said.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has said his country was hopeful about a proposal for a truce and hostage release in the Gaza Strip but that it was waiting for a response on the proposal from Israel and Hamas, AFP reports.

“There is a proposal on the table (and it’s) up to the two sides to consider and accept,” Sameh Shoukry said in Riyadh at the World Economic Forum.

“We are hopeful,” he added, explaining that “the proposal has taken into account the positions of both sides and has tried to extract moderation”.

“We are waiting to have a final decision. There are factors that will have an impact on both side’s decisions, but I hope that all will rise to the occasion.”

Shoukry was speaking on a panel in Riyadh with Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who said the conflict in Gaza had turned “Israel into a pariah state”.

A Malta-flagged container ship was reportedly targeted with three missiles while en route from Djibouti to the Saudi city of Jeddah, British maritime security firm Ambrey has said.

According to Reuters, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said it was informed by the Company Security Officer of an explosion in close proximity to a merchant vessel.

UKMTO added that the vessel and its crew were safe and authorities are investigating the incident.

Ambrey assessed that the vessel was targeted due to its listed operator’s ongoing trade with Israel, it said in an advisory note. Ambrey and UKMTO received a report of the incident 54 nautical miles northwest of Yemen’s Mokha.

Far-right allies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are raising pressure on the embattled leader to reject a new Gaza ceasefire, jeopardising his government’s stability if he backs away from an assault on Hamas in Rafah, Reuters reports.

If a ceasefire is agreed, the attack plans will be shelved in favour of a “period of sustained calm”, according to a source briefed on the talks, during which a few dozen hostages of Hamas will be released in return for Palestinian prisoners.

On Sunday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urged Netanyahu not to back away from a ground offensive against Hamas in Rafah, saying if it fails to stamp out Hamas, “a government headed by you will have no right to exist”.

Smotrich was swiftly followed by police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who reposted on X a Jan 30 remark: “Reminder: An irresponsible deal = the government’s dissolution.”

Netanyahu’s office and his conservative Likud party have not issued a response to the ministers’ statements. His spokespeople were not immediately available for comment on Monday, which marked the Jewish holiday of Passover.

But Benny Gantz, a centrist former defence minister who joined Netanyahu’s emergency war cabinet in October, offered his own rebuke, saying that freeing hostages took precedence over an assault on Rafah. The rejection of a responsible deal that would secure a hostage release, Gantz said in a statement, would strip the government of any legitimacy — given its Oct 7 security failure and the clamour in Israel for the return of hostages.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that diplomacy has halted regional escalation since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict, including after unprecedented open clashes between Iran and Israel earlier this month.

“We did come very close to an escalation or spread of the conflict, and I think because of very focused, very determined efforts, we’ve been able to avoid it,” Blinken told a World Economic Forum meeting in Riyadh.

Iran has criticised a police crackdown in the United States against university students protesting the rising death toll from Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip, AFP reports.

“The American government has practically ignored its human rights obligations and respect for the principles of democracy that they profess,” foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said.

Tehran “does not at all accept the violent police and military behaviour aimed at the academic atmosphere and student demands”, he added.

“What we have seen in American universities in recent days is an awakening of the world community and world public opinion towards the Palestinian issue,” Kanani said.

“It is not possible to silence the loud voices of protesters against this crime and genocide through police action and violent policies. “

The United States is close to finishing a security pact with Saudi Arabia that would be offered if it makes peace with Israel, AFP quotes Secretary of State Antony Blinken as saying.

“The work that Saudi Arabia, the United States have been doing together in terms of our own agreements, I think, is potentially very close to completion,” Blinken said in Riyadh.