We end our Israel-Gaza policy for today. Scroll down to see what’s happening.
The source of food and other humanitarian aid for Gaza increased in April but is still enough to counter the famine trend, the head of the U. N. firm for Palestinian refugees said.
Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General, said today at a press conference in Geneva: “It is true that there were more materials in the month of April, but it is still far from being enough to counteract the negative trend. “
He said only a handful of countries still have their budget frozen for UNRWA following Israeli accusations that members of his organization were involved in Hamas attacks.
The firm has also raised $115 million in funding, he said.
Israel will carry out an operation against Hamas in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, regardless of whether a ceasefire and a hostage deal are reached, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
“The idea that we will prevent the war before we have achieved all its objectives is out of the question,” Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his office.
To put it in context: Israel and Hamas are negotiating a ceasefire agreement to free hostages and provide some relief to Palestinians in the besieged enclave.
But Netanyahu has promised a “total victory” in the war and his government has announced it will launch an offensive in Rafah, which Israel says is Hamas’ last main stronghold.
Hopes have grown in recent days that the parties can reach an agreement that would prevent an Israeli incursion into Rafah, where more than a fraction of Gaza’s 2. 3 million citizens are hiding.
Reports are circulating in the Israeli media that a policeman was “moderately wounded” in a knife attack in Jerusalem’s Old City.
The suspect is a “Turkish national who arrived in Israel in the last 72 hours,” a police officer told Haaretz.
The assailant, who shot him dead, allegedly ambushed the police officer near a police station.
Update on ceasefire negotiations: Hamas left Cairo after talks with Egypt on a new proposal.
Egyptian media reported that a Hamas delegation would return to Cairo with a written reaction to the ceasefire proposal, without specifying when.
The delegation, led by senior Hamas figure Khalil al-Hayya, held talks with Egypt on Monday, focusing on a proposal drawn up by Egypt to identify a ceasefire in Gaza.
U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to stop in Israel on his latest vacation in the region, which began Monday in Saudi Arabia.
He said Israel needed to do more to allow aid into Gaza, but that the most productive way to alleviate the humanitarian crisis was for both sides to agree to a ceasefire.
Blinken also urged Hamas to accept Israel’s “extraordinarily generous” new proposal.
To put it in context: along with Qatar and the United States, Egypt is playing the role of mediator between Israel and Hamas to secure a truce after just seven months of war.
In recent weeks, Egypt has stepped up its mediation efforts in the hope of averting an attack on Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city on the border with Egypt, where more than part of the enclave’s population is sheltering.
Israeli media said Israel had softened its stance in the negotiations and was now seeking to release 33 hostages (up from 40 in the past) in exchange for the release of some 900 Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas is believed to be holding about 100 Israelis in Gaza and the remnants of at least 30 others.
Protests continued into the night at Columbia University in New York City.
Columbia said it had begun postponing academics who missed a deadline to leave a pro-Palestinian camp set up to protest the war in Gaza.
Dozens of protesters occupied the university’s Hamilton Hall early Tuesday morning, blocking entrances and unfurling a Palestinian flag from a window.
Video footage showed protesters on Columbia’s campus in Manhattan holding arms in front of Hamilton Hall and carrying furniture and steel barricades toward the building.
The building was one of several buildings that occupied a 1968 civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protest on campus.
An NYPD spokesperson said the incident happened “off campus, on the ground. “
Overnight, more footage was released showing the U. S. government building a jetty off the coast of Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid by sea.
U. S. Central Command released the X-shaped images, indicating that the structure of the floating jetty is underway.
Both the U. S. and Israel have said they expect the pier to be operational by early May.
News firm Reuters had reported in the past that the estimated cost of the dock was $320 million (£278 million), double the original figure, according to a user familiar with the matter.
“The charges have not only gone up, they’ve exploded,” Sen. Roger Wicker, the most level-headed Republican on the Democratic-led Senate Armed Services Committee, said when asked about the charges.
“This harmful effort with fringe benefits will now charge U. S. taxpayers at least $320 million to operate the dock for just 90 days. “
First of all, the dock will accommodate 90 trucks per day, but this number could increase to 150 trucks per day when it is totally different from the national one.
World Central Kitchen (WCK) is set to resume its work in Gaza, four weeks after seven members of its team were killed in an Israeli military strike.
Among those affected were three British citizens who were part of the association’s security team.
WCK distributed more than 43 million pieces of food in Gaza and accounted for more than 60% of all non-governmental aid.
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