Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Hamas studies proposal in ‘positive spirit’

Thank you for joining us for updates on everything related to Israel’s war on Gaza.

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Here’s a quick look at the main developments:

• Hamas said it is studying Israeli proposals in a “positive spirit” and a delegation will head to Egypt, as Israel reiterates it will attack Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah regardless.
• Turkey said it halted all trade with Israel until it ends attacks and allows sufficient aid to Gaza, prompting outrage from the Israeli foreign minister.
• Hundreds of demonstrators were arrested at some of the largest universities across the United States – taking the total number to more than 2,000 – as President Biden condemns “violent protests” by pro-Palestinian students.
• Adnan al-Barash, a prominent Palestinian doctor, was allegedly tortured and killed while being held in an Israeli prison, prompting condemnation and calls for an investigation.
• Bipartisan US senators met with International Criminal Court officials as the global body eyes arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials.

The UN is highlighting how temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in Gaza and the accumulation of waste and sewage among tents where displaced Palestinians have to live are only adding to the many challenges faced by the residents of the enclave.

“Sewer pollution has led to the emergence of diseases such as hepatitis A and other viral diseases,” said Abdul Rahman Abu Amra, a nurse in a clinic run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, adding that food contamination and lack of water are other challenges.

Salama Abdel-al, a displaced Palestinian, said the rising temperatures are turning tents into “the burning fire of God”.

“It’s like we’re sitting among heaters,” he said.

A group of both Democratic and Republican US senators reportedly held a virtual meeting with senior officials from the International Criminal Court (ICC) over potential arrest warrants being considered for top Israeli officials.

The meeting took place on Wednesday shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to multiple senators, reports the US news site Axios, citing three unnamed sources.

Republican lawmakers have reportedly threatened to pass legislation against the ICC if it moves forward with the warrants.

Axios earlier reported that Biden administration officials have also privately warned the ICC against the move after a warning by Israel that it could cut off tax funds it collects for the Palestinian Authority, which could cause it to collapse.

Students at the University of Toronto set up an encampment in a fenced-off grassy space at the school’s downtown campus where some 100 protesters gathered with dozens of tents.

According to a statement from organisers, the encampment will stay until the university discloses its investments, divests from any that “sustain Israeli apartheid, occupation and illegal settlement of Palestine”, and ends partnerships with some Israeli academic institutions.

“If public disruption is the only way to get our voice heard, then we are willing to do that,” said University of Toronto graduate student and encampment spokesperson, Sara Rasikh.

Students also set up encampments at McGill University in Montreal, the University of British Columbia and the University of Ottawa.

The Israeli military released aerial footage it says shows Hezbollah operatives entering buildings in Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon. The building is then seen being struck by Israeli fighter jets.

The Israeli army also said during the day, four rocket launches were detected coming from Lebanese territory, which inflicted no casualties. It said it “attacked the source of the launches”.

Hezbollah, which claimed two attacks earlier, said in its end-of-day report it also launched a third strike shortly before midnight, targeting an Israeli military barracks with missiles and achieving a direct hit.

The Lebanese group also released a video from an attack on Sunday, showing one of its fighters launching an antitank guided missile that struck what it said was a military building used by Israeli soldiers in the Shtula settlement.

Turkey stopped all exports and imports to and from Israel because of the “worsening humanitarian tragedy” in the war-battered Gaza Strip.

“Export and import transactions related to Israel have been stopped, covering all products,” Turkey’s Ministry of Trade said in a statement. “Turkey will strictly and decisively implement these new measures until the Israeli government allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.”

The two countries had a trade volume of $6.8bn in 2023. Turkey last month imposed trade restrictions on Israel over what it said was Israel’s refusal to allow Ankara to take part in air-dropped aid operations for Gaza.

Earlier, we reported that Portland, Oregon, police had begun clearing a library building occupied by pro-Palestine protesters on the campus of Portland State University in the US.

A Portland police spokesperson says that 12 people were arrested during the evacuation of the building, adding that four of the arrested were students.

Protesters occupied the building on Monday.

Abdel-Malik al-Houthi, the leader of the Houthis in Yemen, says the group has launched 606 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones in its attacks since October 7, which the group says are carried out in opposition to the deadly war on Gaza.

He said in a speech that 111 of the projectiles were directly launched at Israel, with the rest targeting warships belonging to Israel’s allies in the region, along with other vessels traversing the waters near Yemen.

Al-Houthi claimed that the group has so far targeted 107 ships linked with Israel and the US, and that it launched 33 missiles and drones in eight attacks in the past week in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea and Israel.

“There is considerable annoyance and concern among the enemies due to operations extending to the Indian Ocean,” he said.

The Palestinian territories’ gross domestic product (GDP) is 25 percent lower today than a prewar six-month projection predicted, according to a new report from UNDP, entitled War in Gaza: Expected Socioeconomic Impacts on the State of Palestine.

Abdallah Al Dardari, director of the Regional Bureau for Arab States at the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and Mounir Tabet, deputy executive secretary for the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UNESCWA) briefed media on the report.

Here are a few more key figures that show the dire situation of Gaza’s economy:

• The GDP losses in all Palestinian territories are projected to hit 29 percent, should fighting continue for nine months.
• The poverty rate has increased from 38 to more than 60 percent in the first six months of the war in all Palestinian territories.
• The unemployment rate in all Palestinian territories has risen from 25 percent to 46 percent.
• The war has wiped out 40 years’ worth of investments made in human development in Gaza.
• Seventy-two percent of housing in Gaza has been destroyed.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) blasted President Joe Biden for failing to denounce Israel’s attack on Gaza while supporting a crackdown on student protests in the US.

“If President Biden is concerned about unrest on college campuses, he should start specifically condemning attacks on peaceful protesters and stop funding the genocide that has triggered student protests. Until then, he’s part of the problem,” CAIR’s National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said in a statement.

Earlier, Biden said at the White House: “Dissent is essential for democracy, but dissent must never lead to disorder.”

The president also said the protests have not caused him to reconsider his approach to Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 people, mostly children and women. Biden has occasionally criticised Israel’s conduct, but continues to supply it with weapons.

As pro-Palestinian sentiment rises across the globe and Israel is increasingly criticised for its killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians, the Israeli prime minister is staying defiant.

“If we need to stand alone – we will stand alone,” Benjamin Netanyahu’s office quoted him as saying in a meeting with Holocaust survivors.

“If it is possible to recruit the nations of the world – much better. But if we do not defend ourselves – nobody will defend us. The strength at our disposal is the strength that I have heard here, we have no other.”

Netanyahu earlier reiterated his promise to launch a ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza regardless of an agreement with Hamas or opposition by its allies, including the United States.

The UN rapporteur for occupied Palestinian territories says she’s “extremely alarmed” by reports of the killing of Dr Adnan al-Barash in an Israeli prison.

“While I acquire more information, I urge the diplomatic community to intervene with concrete measures to protect Palestinians,” Francesca Albanese wrote in a post on X.

“No Palestinian is safe under Israel’s occupation today.”

US Senator Bernie Sanders says President Joe Biden is right to condemn bigotry, but cautioned it’s important to understand why thousands of students are protesting at universities.

“They are out there not because they are ‘pro-Hamas’, they are out there because they are outraged by what the Israeli government is now doing in Gaza,” he said during an interview with US broadcaster CNN.

“They do not want to see a situation continue where 110,000 Palestinians, or about 5 percent of the population, have been killed or wounded.”

President Joe Biden says “order must prevail” on university campuses in the United States, just hours after police raided and dismantled another protest encampment in support of Palestinians.

Hasan Pyarali — the Muslim Caucus chairperson for College Democrats of America, the university arm of the Democratic Party — told Al Jazeera he was disappointed by Biden’s comments on Thursday.

“In our point of view, it’s not just good policy to oppose the genocide, it’s good politics. He has done neither, and we’re really disappointed to see that,” said Pyarali, a senior at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.

Read the full story here.

Qatar condemned in “the strongest terms” Israeli threats to storm Gaza’s Rafah and its “categorical rejection of any military operation” in the area with an estimated 1.5 million people. Such an attack would be “a humanitarian catastrophe”.

The country’s representative to the UN, Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani, delivered the remarks to the General Assembly in New York City in a meeting to discuss the US veto of full Palestinian membership in the UN.

The Qatari envoy said this marks “a setback for efforts to bring peace to the region”.

“Her Excellency stressed Qatar’s firm position regarding the legitimacy and fairness of the Palestinians request for a full UN membership, especially since the Palestinian request meets the conditions and standards contained in Article 4 of the UN Charter.”

Hamas says in a statement that the killing of Dr Adnan al-Barash in an Israeli prison is another episode of the “horrific war crimes” committed against Palestinians.

The group said many, including children, are regularly detained by Israeli forces from schools and hospitals and taken to detention centres where they lack the most basic rights.

“Among them are doctors whose crime was performing their humanitarian duty towards their wounded and sick people,” Hamas said.

Its statement called on the international community to condemn the arbitrary arrest and subsequent deaths in detention of Palestinians, and force Israel to reveal the fate of thousands of prisoners and return them to their families.

Standoffs between police and Palestine solidarity demonstrators on US college campuses are intensifying.

Violent confrontations are giving rise to fears of outside interference. Politicians are taking sides.

How will the protests affect US President Joe Biden’s bid for a second term?

As the Pulitzer Prize board gathers to announce this year’s winners on May 6, it has released a statement to recognise the efforts of student journalists covering pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the face of what it called “great personal and academic risk”.

“We would also like to acknowledge the extraordinary real-time reporting of student journalists at Columbia University, where the Pulitzer Prizes are housed, as the New York Police Department was called onto campus on Tuesday night,” it said.

“In the spirit of press freedom, these students worked to document a major national news event under difficult and dangerous circumstances and at risk of arrest.”