Gaza Unrest
Live Reporting
37m tonnes of debris in Gaza could take years to clear: UN
A senior official with the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) has said there are some 37 million tonnes of debris to clear away in Gaza once the Israeli offensive is over, AFP reports.
And unexploded ordnance buried in the rubble would complicate that work, said UNMAS’ Pehr Lodhammar, who has run mine programmes in countries such as Iraq.
It was impossible to say how much of the ammunition fired in Gaza remained live, said Lodhammar.
“We know that typically there is a failure rate of at least 10 per cent of land service ammunition,” he told journalists in Geneva.
“What we do know is that we estimated 37m tonnes of debris, which is approximately 300 kilos of debris per square metre,” he added.
Starting from a hypothetical number of 100 trucks, that would take 14 years to clear away, he said.
Team from Gaza mediator Egypt arrives in Israel for truce talks
A delegation from Gaza fighting mediator Egypt has arrived in Israel on Friday for a bid to reignite stalled ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations between Israel and Hamas, AFP reports.
There has been “noticeable progress in bringing the views of the Egyptian and Israeli delegations closer”, said Al-Qahera News, which is linked to Egyptian state intelligence services.
Several Israeli media outlets, citing unnamed officials, said that Israel’s war cabinet discussed a new plan for a truce and hostage release ahead of the Egyptian delegation’s visit.
Netanyahu says ICC decisions will not affect Israel’s actions
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that any rulings issued by the International Criminal Court will not affect Israel’s actions but would “set a dangerous precedent”, Reuters reports.
“Under my leadership, Israel will never accept any attempt by the International Criminal Court in the Hague to undermine its basic right to defend itself,” Netanyahu said in a statement shared on Telegram.
“While decisions made by the court in the Hague will not affect Israel’s actions, they will set a dangerous precedent that threatens soldiers and public figures.”
Berlin police clear pro-Palestinian camp from parliament lawn
Berlin police have begun clearing a pro-Palestinian camp set up in front of the German parliament by activists demanding the government stop arms exports to Israel and end what they say is the criminalisation of the Palestinian solidarity movement, Reuters reports.
Police dismantled tents, forcibly removed protesters and blocked the surrounding area to stop others from arriving.
The Berlin camp ‘Besetzung Gegen Besatzung’ — ‘Occupy Against Occupation’ — coincided with the start of International Court of Justice hearings in Nicaragua’s case against Germany for providing military aid to Israel.
“The idea was to draw attention to that and … to the German complicity and active enabling of the Israeli genocide in Gaza,” the camp organiser, Jara Nassar, told Reuters.
3pc of Gaza’s small Christian community wiped out: priest
Gabriel Romanelli, the sole Catholic parish priest in Gaza, has said 33 Palestinian Christians have died during Israel’s military offensive in the area, Al Jazeera reports.
Twenty were killed by Israeli military attacks and 13 lost their lives due to insufficient medical care and other reasons, the report added.
Their deaths mean Gaza’s small Christian population, believed to number about 1,000 people, has shrunk by more than 3 per cent, the priest told Sky News during a visit to Glasgow.
“Our church will always be an oasis for people. Unfortunately, this oasis has become a shelter, a hospital and a cemetery,” Romanelli said.
PHOTOS: Displaced Palestinians in Gaza’s Rafah struggle for water
Gaza baby saved from dead mother’s womb dies
A baby girl who was delivered from her dying mother’s womb in a Gaza hospital following an Israeli airstrike has herself died after several days, Reuters reports.
The baby had been named Rouh (Soul). Her mother, Sabreen Al-Sakani, was seriously injured when an Israeli strike hit the family home in Rafah, the southernmost city in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Sabreen, who was 30 weeks pregnant, was rushed to the Emirati hospital in Rafah. She succumbed to her wounds but doctors were able to save the baby, delivering her by Caesarean section.
However, the baby suffered respiratory problems and a weak immune system, said Doctor Mohammad Salama, head of the emergency neo-natal unit at Emirati Hospital, who had been caring for Rouh.
Rafah’s crowded, unsanitary conditions a breeding ground for infectious diseases
Overcrowded conditions and battered waste-management facilities have caused more and more waste to spill into the streets of Rafah, creating a fertile environment for infectious diseases to spread, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reports from the southern Gaza district.
Months of Israeli bombardments have laid waste to many of Rafah’s waste management installations, including medical waste disposal centres, making it impossible to collect and dispose of waste properly, Mahmoud said.
As temperatures warm up, this has caused the stench of waste to grow strong in some parts of Rafah, particularly near evacuation centres and hospitals, he added.
As a result of the unsanitary conditions, infectious diseases, such as hepatitis A, are spreading rapidly, particularly among women and children, “the most vulnerable group in this war”, Mahmoud said.
Three people killed near Gaza City: Report
An Israeli air raid has hit another home near Gaza City, this time in the Remal neighbourhood west of the city, reports the Wafa news agency.
The attack killed at least three people, including a woman and a child, according to the report.
Meanwhile, at least one person has been confirmed killed and others injured from an attack we earlier reported on a home on Gaza City’s al-Wehda street.
Three people killed near Gaza City: Report
An Israeli air raid has hit another home near Gaza City, this time in the Remal neighbourhood west of the city, reports the Wafa news agency.
The attack killed at least three people, including a woman and a child, according to the report.
Meanwhile, at least one person has been confirmed killed and others injured from an attack we earlier reported on a home on Gaza City’s al-Wehda street.
Israel, Hezbollah trade fire overnight
An exchange of fire took place overnight between Hezbollah and the Israeli army along the Lebanon-Israeli border, the Israeli army has said.
It added that infrastructure belonging to the Iran-backed group was hit after two antitank launchers were detected coming from Lebanon.
The two sides have been exchanging attacks since the start of the war in Gaza. While these have largely remained confined to border areas, they have increased in intensity and scope. This week Hezbollah said it targeted the town of Acre, marking the deepest drone attack into Israeli territory since October 7.
Pro-Palestinian protests reach Australia
Students have set up tents at the University of Sydney, where they have been chanting slogans similar to those voiced in the US, such as calls for divesting from Israeli-linked companies.
“A couple of 100 turned up in a very sort of peaceful, orderly Australian snapshot of this global pro-Palestinian student movements,” said Al Jazeera’s Alex Thomas.
The students have also been chanting slogans against Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for his policy towards Israel and Gaza, calling on the government to strongly condemn the violence there, Thomas said.
Pro-Palestine protests at US colleges enter second week
Despite violent police crackdowns, suspensions and admonitions from right-wing politicians, student protesters at dozens of US colleges are continuing their campus demonstrations over the Gaza war into a second week.
“Young people have always pushed our government to do better, whether it was through the civil rights movement, whether it was to end the Vietnam war,” said US Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who visited the pro-Palestine protest camp at New York’s Columbia University on Thursday to relay her support.
“I think they are on the right side of history in pushing our country not to stay complicit in the genocide that is taking place in Gaza.”
Female teacher among three Palestinians taken in Israeli military night raids: Reports
Israeli forces have carried out raids and arrests across the occupied West Bank, including arresting a female Palestinian teacher from the Jalazoun refugee camp, north of Ramallah, and two brothers in Hebron.
Israeli soldiers fired live bullets and detonated sound bombs when they raided the home of the brothers in the Talaat al-Takrouri aread of southern Hebron, Palestine’s state news agency Wafa reports.
Israeli forces also stormed the following villages, towns and cities, Wafa reports:
Azzun and Jayyus towns, located east of Qalqilya City.
Communities in the east of Nablus city.
Qabatiaya, south of Jenin.
Ya’bad town and the villages of Tura and al-Taram, located southwest of Jenin.
Dura town, south of Hebron, where local people confronted the raid by Israeli forces who fired fired noxious gas and stun grenades.
Israel’s Netanyahu liken US student antiwar protests to ‘1930s Germany’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the outpouring of US student solidarity with the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza as “horrific” and “reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s”.
Netanyahu said the wave of peaceful pro-Palestinian protests that has swept across US campuses “has to be stopped”.
In a speech shared on social media, Netanyahu also said several university presidents had responded shamefully to the protesters, and he appeared to endorse a crackdown on the student-led rallies that have seen some 550 people arrested in the past week.
“Now, fortunately, state, local, federal officials, many of them have responded differently but there has to be more. More has to be done,” he said.
Ralph Nader calls out Biden’s support for Israel’s Netanyahu despite ‘slaughter’ in Gaza
US author, well-known consumer advocate and one-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader has said Israel is entering a second stage of its “genocidal war” on Gaza, and still, US President Joe Biden “sticks to his master” – Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a series of social media posts, Nader said mass graves have been discovered in Gaza amid “Netanyahu’s slaughter of Palestinian children, women and male civilians”.
“Intelligence agencies report all this in their morning briefings to President Biden. Still, he sticks to his master, Netanyahu,” who is funded by the US taxpayer, Nader said.
“Joe, at least demand that Israel allow US reporters into Gaza and get those obstructed 500 humanitarian aid trucks daily into that tiny enclave containing 2.2 million besieged Palestinians,” he added.
Round up of arrests at pro-Palestinian protests on US campuses
Reuters news agency reports that around 550 arrests have been made in the last week across major US universities as police crackdown on peaceful protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.
Here’s what we know:
Columbia University
Police arrested more than 100 protesters when they tried to clear a Gaza solidarity encampment last week.
University of Southern California
More than 90 people were arrested on Wednesday night for alleged trespassing.
University of Texas at Austin
The campus was calmer on Thursday, a day after police arrested dozens of students.
George Washington University
About 50 students set up a tent encampment on Thursday.
Harvard University
The university locked most gates into its famous Harvard Yard this week but a camp with still set up.
California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt
The university said protesters continue to occupy two buildings on campus.
Emerson College
Boston police said on Thursday that 108 people were arrested at an encampment.
New York University
Police said 133 protesters had been taken into custody on Wednesday.
Emory University
Police dismantled a camp on Thursday morning. The Associated Press news agency counted at least 17 people detained.
Northwestern University
Administrators changed the student code of conduct on Thursday to bar tents on its campus as student activists set up an encampment. No arrests have been reported yet.
Yale University
Protests continued Thursday after Monday’s arrest of 48 people.
Fashion Institute of Technology
Protesters set up tents and occupied a building on Thursday at the institute, part of the State University of New York system.
City College of New York
Police and campus security confronted protesters but failed to clear their encampment on Thursday.
Indiana University Bloomington
Police made a number of arrests on Thursday afternoon.
Michigan State University East Lansing Campus
Nearly 30 tents were set up on Thursday afternoon.
UK slaps fresh sanctions on Iran after Israel attack
LONDON (AFP) – The UK on Thursday joined the United States and Canada in announcing a fresh set of sanctions against Iran's drone and missile industries after its recent attack on Israel.
Tehran launched its first direct military assault on Israeli territory nearly two weeks after an April 1 air strike -- widely blamed on Israel -- that killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Damascus.
Protesters at George Washington University defy deadline to leave campus
It’s been three hours since the university said it wanted to see the college yard cleared of the tents and the protesters.
But there are still a number of people there – more than 200. Numbers have gone down as you would expect, and perhaps the police are playing a waiting game.
But those that are in this square are making provisions to stay the night. They are bringing in more tents. They are bringing in more food. They are making sure that the people there have water as well.
Blocks from the White House, US students stand steadfast with Gaza
Chants of “free Palestine” and cheers erupted as dozens of Georgetown University students joined the pro-Palestine, antiwar protests at the neighbouring George Washington University campus in the heart of the US capital city.
Students, professors and activists from across Washington, DC, have gathered to show solidarity with Palestinians amid the war on Gaza and demand an end to what they say is complicity by their educational institutions in Israel’s human rights abuses.
Student activism around Gaza has spread to universities and colleges across the US, and it is now taking centre stage in the country’s politics.
Trump takes aim at US students protesting against Israel’s war in Gaza
Reuters news agency reports that former US President Donald Trump has criticised student-led protests at US colleges and universities, describing the peaceful rallies calling for an end to Israel’s war in Gaza as “tremendous hate”.
In remarks to the media following testimony in his criminal trial in New York City, Trump referenced the violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 between white nationalists and counterprotesters, which took place during his presidency and resulted in a woman being killed.
Trump claimed the current peaceful antiwar protests were far worse than the white nationalist rally.
“Charlottesville was a little peanut. And it was nothing compared to – and the hate wasn’t the kind of hate that you have here,” Trump said.
Pro-Palestinian student protesters on ‘morally sound’ side of history
Wearing the robes they wore to graduation, a former student of George Washington University told Al Jazeera why the students had a right to protest in support of the people in Gaza.
“I believe that students have always been on the progressive side of history, the morally sound side,” the former student, RK, told at the protest site.
“These students are doing just that. They have every right to free speech. They have every right to be here,” RK said.
“They [the university management] ask us for donations. What are they using our money for? [Student protesters] have the right to question that. So to threaten calling the police on your own students is, in my opinion, very extreme. Instead, they should listen to what the students are saying, which is to stop funding Israel. To stop funding a genocide. And to allow aid in [to Gaza].”
Deadline passes for pro-Palestinian student protesters to clear George Washington University
We are an hour past the deadline that the authorities said they wanted the people to move out of College Square, right here in the heart of Washington, DC, to clear the encampment.
Just in the last hour, we have heard from the university saying that the occupation is illegal, is against university policy, and they are continuing discussions with the metropolitan police – the local police department in Washington, DC – about how best to clear the area and return it back to the way it was 14 hours ago.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi denounced “forced migration” of Palestinians as Israeli military officials say they are “moving ahead” with plans for a ground invasion of Rafah.
Egypt in renewed mediation push for Gaza truce, sources say
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has asked for a follow-up meeting with Israel in renewed efforts to mediate a deal for a ceasefire and the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip, two Egyptian security sources said on Thursday (Apr 25).
Egyptian, Israeli and US officials held in-person and remote meetings on Wednesday that sought concessions to break a deadlock in months-long negotiations for a truce in the war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas that began on Oct 7, the sources said.
Israel intensifies air strikes on Gaza's Rafah before ground operation
CAIRO (AFP) - Israel stepped up air strikes on Rafah overnight after saying it would evacuate civilians from the southern Gazan city and launch an all-out assault despite allies' warnings this could cause mass casualties.
Medics in the besieged Palestinian enclave reported five Israeli air strikes on Rafah early on Thursday (Apr 25) that hit at least three houses, killing at least six people including a local journalist.
