Live updates (closed)
The Times of Israel liveblogged Wednesday’s events as they unfolded.
Austin and Gallant discuss Gaza aid, Rafah, hostages in latest call
File: US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (L) and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant give a joint press conference in Tel Aviv on December 18, 2023. (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP)
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant just held another phone call with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the Pentagon says.
The pair “discuss[ed] the ongoing hostage negotiations, humanitarian assistance efforts and Rafah,” according to the US readout.
“Austin reaffirmed his commitment to the unconditional return of all hostages and conveyed the importance of increasing the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza to flood the zone, while ensuring the safety of civilians and aid workers.”
“He also stressed the need for any potential Israeli military operation in Rafah to include a credible plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians and maintain the flow of humanitarian aid.”
“Austin reiterated the United States’ commitment to supporting Israel’s defense,” adds the US readout, which is entirely made up of long-held talking points regarding the war.
At least 17 arrested as police take down anti-Israel encampment at UT Dallas; similar protest at Fordham U
Far-left, anti-Israel protesters demonstrate at the University of Texas at Dallas, Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Richardson, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
At least 17 far-left protesters were arrested and charged with trespassing after police were called to the University of Texas at Dallas to take down an anti-Israel encampment that was established on campus in violation of the school’s code of conduct.
“Individuals may peacefully assemble in the common outdoor areas of campus to exercise their right to free speech, but they may not construct an encampment or block pathways,” university spokeswoman Kim Horner says.
At Fordham University in New York City, custodial workers are currently taking down a similar encampment as police in riot gear and several hundred screaming far-left protesters look on.
NOW: Fordham University students hold up the letters they just received informing them they are now suspended
Protesters wrote “free Palestine” on the letters pic.twitter.com/jksCtZ2bjD
— katie smith (@probablyreadit) May 1, 2024
HAPPENING NOW: Officers in riot gear are taking down parts of the encampment set up at UT Dallas. Some people are being taken away by police. https://t.co/jpJU7IWP8m pic.twitter.com/ZTCczuPIRm
— FOX 4 NEWS (@FOX4) May 1, 2024
After the dispersal of the UT Dallas pro-Palestinian liberated zone, the crowd has regrouped outside the student center. pic.twitter.com/CcfmxkXTnC
— steven monacelli (@stevanzetti) May 1, 2024
PA security forces reportedly shoot dead PIJ fighter in West Bank clash
Palestinian security forces operating in the central West Bank city of Tulkarem reportedly shot dead a Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighter earlier tonight.
A spokesperson for the PA security forces says officers responded after coming under fire.
The PIJ military wing identified Ahmad Abu Foul as the suspect struck and killed but claimed he had not opened fire on the PA security forces. Abu Foul was reportedly wanted by Israel for terror-related offenses.
This is the second time in roughly one month that PA security forces have killed a PIJ fighter.
الله يرحمك ويتقبلك يا سيد الزلام
ابن عمتي المطارد من قوات الاحتلال احد قادة كتيبة نور شمس احمد ابو الفول (كريس) شهيداً برصاص السلطة "الفلسطينية"
لا حول ولا قوة الا بالله pic.twitter.com/obhg0x7tdO
— أحمَدْ (@Qassam127) May 1, 2024
Trump says police raid on Columbia anti-Israel protesters ‘beautiful to watch’
Former US president Donald Trump speaks upon arriving at Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool)
Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump says it “was a beautiful thing to watch” New York police officers raiding a Columbia University building occupied by anti-Israel students, calling the protesters “raging lunatics and Hamas sympathizers.”
“New York was under siege last night,” Trump tells supporters at a campaign rally in Wisconsin. He praises the police officers for arresting about 300 protesters.
“Your towns and villages will now be accepting people from Gaza and various other places,” Trump says, referring to media reports of plans by the administration of US President Joe Biden to accept some Gaza refugees. The crowd boos in response.
CBS News said it had obtained internal government documents showing that US officials have been discussing different options to resettle Palestinians who have been displaced by the fighting in Gaza after they pass a battery of screening tests.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier today that the Biden administration was looking into a plan to relocate some Palestinian refugees who are related to Americans.
57 House Democrats urge Biden to prevent Israeli offensive in Rafah
Light illuminates the minarets of al-Taiba mosque at sunset before the tents of displaced Palestinians at a camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 30, 2024. (AFP)
US President Joe Biden’s administration is facing renewed pressure from his fellow Democrats to influence Israel not to launch a full-scale invasion of Rafah, the city where almost half of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people have taken refuge.
Fifty-seven of the 212 Democrats in the House of Representatives signed a letter calling on the administration to take every possible measure to dissuade Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government from an all-out assault on the city near the Egyptian border.
“We urge you to invoke existing law and policy to immediately withhold certain offensive military aid to the Israeli government, including aid sourced from legislation already signed into law, in order to preempt a full-scale assault on Rafah,” says the letter.
The White House has not immediately responded to a request for comment on the letter, which was led by Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Madeleine Dean.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier today that he had still not seen a plan for Israel’s promised offensive on Rafah that would protect civilians, repeating that Washington could not support such an assault without such a plan.
Hamas official expresses opposition to latest hostage deal offer, but terror group says talks continue
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan speaks during a rally organized by Lebanon's Hezbollah terror group to express solidarity with the Palestinian people, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, May 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official based in Lebanon, tells the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV, “Our position on the current negotiating paper is negative.”
Hamas’s press office subsequently clarifies, “The negative position does not mean negotiations have stopped. There is a back-and-forth issue.”
The terror group is reportedly slated to submit an amended response to the latest proposal in the coming hours.
Hamdan warns that Hamas will walk away from the negotiations if Israel launches its pledged invasion to dismantle the terror group’s remaining battalions in Rafah.
Blinken pans ‘unacceptable’ attacks on Gaza aid convoys by far-right protesters, notes their arrest by Israel
An Israeli protester damages a Jordanian convoy of flour earmarked for Gaza on May 1, 2024. (Screen capture/X)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemns the “unacceptable” attack on a Jordanian aid convoy by Israeli protesters trying to prevent its transfer to Gaza earlier today.
“My understanding is that the people who attacked this convoy were arrested today by the Israeli authorities. That sends a very strong message,” he notes during an NBC Nightly News interview.
The Israeli government must “continue to send a strong message that this aid cannot be, must not be interfered with as it goes through Israel… Israel is better than this,” he adds, while noting that the atrocities committed against Israel on October 7 and Hamas’s continued holding of hostages since.
The people who so desperately need this aid and who are now getting more of it because of the important steps that [Israel has] taken in recent weeks — including right here at Ashdod port — have nothing to do with October 7, nothing to do with the hostages.”
“They’ve been caught in this crossfire of Hamas’s making, and it’s imperative that they get the food that they need, the water they need, the medical supplies they need, access to the hospitals, to health care — all of that.”
Why are right-wing extremists destroying flour shipments headed into the Gaza Strip & being allowed to do so by the @IDF near the borders? This is sick and shameful behavior that's wasteful, wrong & undermines claims of unhindered international humanitarian aid being allowed in. pic.twitter.com/Gt4LVvkvFd
— Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib (@afalkhatib) May 1, 2024
Biden administration weighing measures to help Palestinians bring family from region
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during a briefing at the White House, Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The Biden administration is weighing measures to help Palestinians living in the United States who want to bring family from the war-torn region.
“We are constantly evaluating policy proposals to further support Palestinians who are family members of American citizens and may want to come to the United States,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre says during a press briefing.
Jean-Pierre says discussions are underway but has no further details on how procedures might work. The new measures would help those who are legal permanent residents or US citizens and who have family in the region.
If the US were to move forward with some sort of measure to help the families of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, it would likely require coordination with Egypt. Early in the war, hundreds of Americans — as well as other foreign nationals trapped in Gaza — were able to escape via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, which opened the crossing with some trepidation.
Egypt as well as other Arab nations worry that an Israeli offensive could lead to a displacement of Palestinians into Sinai, a scenario it views as unacceptable.
For Palestinians already in the US, the Biden administration has already agreed to what’s known as “deferred enforced departure,” an authority used at a president’s discretion.
The directive signed by Biden last month effectively allows Palestinian immigrants who would otherwise have to leave the United States to stay without the threat of deportation for at least 18 months.
US House okays bill codifying controversial antisemitism definition amid campus tumult
Pro-Palestinian protesters camp out in tents at Columbia University on Saturday, April 27, 2024 in New York. (AP Photo)
The US House has passed legislation that would codify a controversial definition of antisemitism for use by the Education Department in adjudicating discrimination cases at American schools.
The proposal, which passed 320-91 with some bipartisan support, would codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a federal anti-discrimination law that bars discrimination based on shared ancestry, ethnic characteristics or national origin. It now goes to the Senate for a vote.
187 Republicans voted in favor of the legislation, compared to 133 Democrats. Twenty-one Republicans voted against, compared to 70 Democrats.
Action on the bill was just the latest reverberation in Congress from the protest movement that has swept university campuses. Republicans in Congress have denounced the protests and demanded action to stop them, thrusting university officials into the center of the charged political debate over Israel’s conduct in the war against Hamas in Gaza.
Here's who voted NO on the Antisemitism Awareness Act (21 Republicans and 70 Democrats) https://t.co/l8m37SN1ly pic.twitter.com/KkHK8832cD
— Marc Rod (@marcrod97) May 1, 2024
If passed by the Senate and signed into law, the bill would broaden the legal definition of antisemitism to include the “targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity.” Critics say the move would have a chilling effect on free speech throughout college campuses.
“Speech that is critical of Israel alone does not constitute unlawful discrimination,” Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler said during a hearing on Tuesday. “By encompassing purely political speech about Israel into Title VI’s ambit, the bill sweeps too broadly.”
Advocates of the proposal say it would provide a much-needed, consistent framework for the Education Department to police and investigate the rising cases of discrimination and harassment targeted toward Jewish students.
“It is long past time that Congress act to protect Jewish Americans from the scourge of antisemitism on campuses around the country,” GOP Rep. Russell Fry said Tuesday.
Report: Sinwar views latest hostage deal as trap, exiled Hamas leaders don’t represent terror group
Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar speaks during a rally marking Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day, in Gaza City, April 14, 2023. (Mohammed Abed / AFP)
Israel’s Channel 12 quotes a source close to Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar as saying that he views the latest hostage exchange and ceasefire proposal as a trap.
“The proposal on the table to free the hostages is not an Egyptian proposal, but an Israeli one in an American disguise that contains several booby-trapped clauses,” the report quotes the unnamed source as saying.
The source tells Channel 12 that the Lebanese Hezbollah is pressuring Hamas to accept the deal, but Sinwar is reluctant as it does not guarantee an end to the war.
The Sinwar confidant also says that recent comments in favor of the deal from Hamas leaders in exile are meaningless as they do not speak for the terror group.
US defends veto of Palestinian membership in UN Security Council vote
The United States defends its veto of a strongly supported UN resolution that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for Palestine. The US stresses that while it supports a two-state solution, statehood must be the result of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood tells the UN General Assembly that there are “unresolved questions” as to whether Palestine meets the UN criteria for membership, and premature actions at the UN “even with the best intentions will not achieve statehood for the Palestinian people.”
He says the United States is committed to intensifying its engagement with the Palestinians and the rest of the Mideast not only on the Gaza crisis “but to advance a political settlement that will create a path to Palestinian statehood and membership in the United Nations.”
Wood reiterates what he said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told regional partners during talks earlier this week — that the US will oppose any unilateral measures that undermine the prospect of a two-state solution.
He cites the three principles Blinken reaffirmed: “that Gaza cannot be a platform for terrorism, that there should be no Israeli re-occupation of Gaza, and that the size of Gaza’s territory should not be reduced.”
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, insists that Palestine meets the qualifications for membership and said the General Assembly, where there are no vetoes, will vote May 10 on a resolution asking the Security Council to reconsider “favorably” Palestine’s bid for full membership.
Responding to the United States, he tells the assembly: “You cannot say that you support the two-state solution and stand idly by while Israel is openly trying to destroy the Palestinian state, as openly confessed to by the Israeli prime minister.”
Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan counters that granting full UN membership to Palestine would have “two destructive results.” It will “further incentivize terrorists,” he says, and “it is a clear message to the Palestinians that they never, ever have to sit at the negotiating table, let alone make any compromises.”
US Congress to vote on expanded definition of antisemitism amid growing campus protests
A person prepares a sign at a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Washington campus, Monday, April 29, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
The US Congress is voting today on legislation that would establish a broader definition of antisemitism for the Department of Education to enforce anti-discrimination laws, the latest response from lawmakers to a nationwide student protest movement over the Israel-Hamas war.
The bill — co-sponsored by nearly 50 Republicans and more than a dozen Democrats — would codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a federal anti-discrimination law that bars discrimination based on shared ancestry, ethnic characteristics or national origin.
Action on the bill was just the latest reverberation in Congress from the protest movement that has swept university campuses. Republicans in Congress have denounced the protests and demanded action to stop them, thrusting university officials into the center of the charged political debate over Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza. More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war was launched in October, after Hamas staged a deadly terrorist attack against Israeli civilians.
If signed into law, the bill would broaden the legal definition of antisemitism to include the “targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity.” Critics say the move would have a chilling effect on free speech throughout college campuses.
“Speech that is critical of Israel alone does not constitute unlawful discrimination,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said during a hearing yesterday. “By encompassing purely political speech about Israel into Title VI’s ambit, the bill sweeps too broadly.”
Advocates of the proposal say it would provide a much-needed, consistent framework for the Department of Education to police and investigate the rising cases of discrimination and harassment targeted toward Jewish students.
“It is long past time that Congress act to protect Jewish Americans from the scourge of antisemitism on campuses around the country,” Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., says.
Polish police arrest suspect in arson attack on Warsaw synagogue
Fire damage is visible on the façade of the Nożyk Synagogue in Warsaw, Poland, on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. The synagogue was attacked with firebombs in the night by an unknown perpetrator (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
Polish police say they had arrested a teenager suspected of being involved in an arson attack on a Warsaw synagogue that was condemned by authorities.
In a statement published on X, Polish police said they had “arrested a 16-year-old man, Polish citizen, involved in the incident” that happened overnight Tuesday-Wednesday.
Poland’s Deputy Interior Minister Czeslaw Mroczek added that the teenager was “suspected of having tried to torch the synagogue”.
Californian governor calls to hold accountable those behind UCLA campus violence
Demonstrators restore a protective barrier at an encampment on the UCLA campus, the morning after clashes between Pro-Palestinian and counterprotest groups, in Los Angeles, May 1, 2024. (Jae C. Hong/AP)
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said anyone who engaged in illegal behavior on the University of California, Los Angeles, campus should be held accountable, “including through criminal prosecution, suspension or expulsion.”
“The law is clear: The right to free speech does not extend to inciting violence, vandalism, or lawlessness on campus,” said the Democratic governor.
His spokesman Izzy Gardon said the California Highway Patrol was deployed to the Los Angeles campus after “unacceptable” delays and limited response from campus police to clashes between dueling groups of protesters.
No one was arrested, and it’s not clear if all the demonstrators were students. The California Highway Patrol has not responded to further questions.
Israeli jets hit Hezbollah targets after anti-tank missiles fired into northern Israel
Israeli fighter jets struck two buildings used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon’s Ayta ash-Shab and Marwahin a short while ago, the military says.
Earlier, another site belonging to the terror group in Tayr Harfa was hit, the IDF adds.
The strikes come after two anti-tank guided missiles were launched by Hezbollah at the northern community of Shtula, causing damage.
The IDF says no injuries were caused in the attack, and troops shelled the launch sites with artillery.
Police detain 2 hostage relatives, bar them from attending protests without permission
Natalie Zangauker, center, joins demonstrators calling for the release of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip outside Hakirya Base in Tel Aviv, May 1, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Two relatives of hostages held by terrorists in the Gaza Strip are questioned under caution by police, then released on condition that they do not attend unauthorized demonstrations, a move that excludes them from the large anti-government protests held weekly in various locations around the country.
Natalie Zangauker, sister of Matan Zangauker, 24, and Shahar Mor Zahiro, nephew of Avraham Munder, 78, were summoned to the central Tel Aviv police station.
Zangauker and Zahiro are questioned over incidents at a rally earlier this week that descended into chaotic clashes with police and during which five people were arrested.
It marks the first time that relatives of hostages have been formally questioned by police, though in the past family of hostages have been briefly detained at demonstrations on behalf of the captives or against the government, and then released.
Some families, frustrated that after nearly seven months of war their loved ones are still in captivity, have turned against the government, speaking out publicly against the country’s leaders.
More than 50% of Gaza pier constructed – Pentagon
A maritime pier being built by the US military off the coast of the Gaza Strip, in an image released on April 29, 2024. (CENTCOM)
The United States military has so far constructed over 50% of a maritime pier that will eventually be placed off the coast of Gaza to speed the flow of humanitarian aid into the enclave, the Pentagon says.
“As of today, we are over 50% complete on setting up the pier,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh tells reporters.
Singh says that pier had several different components.
“The floating pier has been completely constructed and setup. The causeway is in progress,” she adds.
Katz slams Colombian president after decision to sever ties: ‘Antisemitic and full of hatred’
Foreign Minister Israel Katz in Jerusalem, February 19, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)
After Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro announces at a May Day rally that his country will sever diplomatic ties with Israel on Thursday, Foreign Minister Israel Katz fires back, saying the leftist leader is “antisemitic and full of hatred.”
“History will remember that Gustavo Petro decided to stand alongside the most vile monsters that history has ever known,“ Katz writes on X, “who burned babies, murdered children, raped women and kidnapped innocent civilians.”
“The relations between Colombia and Israel were always warm,” Katz continues, “and no antisemitic president full of hatred will change that.”
Harvey Weinstein will be retried in New York after rape conviction overturned
Harvey Weinstein appears at Manhattan criminal court for a preliminary hearing on Wednesday, May 1, 2024 in New York. (David Dee Delgado/Pool Photo via AP)
Harvey Weinstein will be retried in New York, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office says in court, a week after the state’s highest court threw out his 2020 rape conviction.
Weinstein appeared in court before Judge Curtis Farber, more than four years after his conviction was hailed as a milestone for the #MeToo movement, in which women accused hundreds of men in entertainment, media, politics and other fields of sexual misconduct.
“There was nothing consensual about this conduct,” prosecutor Nicole Blumberg says. “We believe in this case and will be retrying this case.”
Weinstein, 72, who appeared in a wheelchair, had been serving a 23-year sentence in a prison in upstate Rome, New York. He then was transferred to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan following last week’s order, according to his spokesperson, Juda Engelmayer.
Police searching for two missing people in Dead Sea
Police say they are carrying out searches after receiving reports that two people went missing from the Naveh Midbar beach in the Dead Sea.
Search and rescue teams are at the scene and a police helicopter was assisting in the searches.
Hebrew media says the two were apparently swept out to sea.
פצצת תאורה מעל ים המלח pic.twitter.com/1m2Klf8ve1
— חדשות המוקד (@hamoked_il) May 1, 2024
White House: Biden to address rising antisemitism in May 7 speech
US President Joe Biden speaks at the North American Building Trades Unions 2024 Legislative Conference in Washington, DC, on April 24, 2024. (Jim Watson/AFP)
US President Joe Biden will discuss rising levels of antisemitism in a May 7 speech at a museum dedicated to remembering Holocaust victims, the White House says.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tells reporters Biden will address “the rising scourge of antisemitism” in his speech. It comes as college campuses face growing protests over US support for Israel in its conflict with Hamas.
Hamas says answer on hostage deal proposal likely by tomorrow
Families and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza hold banners and flags during a protest calling for their return, outside a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and families of hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Hamas leaders say they are studying a ceasefire and hostage release proposal put forward by Egyptian mediators and hope to respond by tomorrow, according to a statement the terror group sent to The Associated Press.
The current round of truce talks between Israel and Hamas appears to be serious, but the sides remain far apart on one key issue — whether the war should end as part of an emerging deal.
“Most probably tomorrow, Thursday, God willing the mediators will be given a response,” the Hamas statement says.
Report: Many IDF posts on Gaza border failed inspections in days before Oct. 7
An old observation towers stand near a fence as smoke rises after an explosion in the Gaza Strip, seen from Kibbutz Nahal Oz, Feb. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Nearly all of the army’s posts along the border with the Gaza Strip failed a routine inspection carried out just three days before Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, Channel 12 news reports.
The report says the snap inspection was carried out at 6:30 a.m. on October 4, exactly 72 hours before the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, during which some 3,000 Palestinian terrorists stormed the border and killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped 253.
The IDF struggled to mount a response on October 7, with bases closest to the border overrun and the chain of command seemingly broken amid the chaos.
According to the report, only one base managed to get passing marks on the inspection.
Channel 12 details the results of the inspection at the Nahal Oz base, which is among those that failed.
In the inspection, troops had failed to prevent unauthorized people from entering the base on foot or by car without permission; unauthorized people from entering the base’s war rooms; weaponry from being taken from the ammunition room; sensitive material being stolen; and the keys to the armory being stolen.
Nahal Oz was overrun by Hamas terrorists three days later, with dozens of the troops stationed there being killed and kidnapped to Gaza.
The IDF in response to the report says the inspection was “routine” and was aimed at improving the base’s defenses, and was not “examining a scenario simulating a sudden attack of thousands of terrorists, as had occurred on October 7.”
The IDF is in the midst of carrying out internal probes into the failures in the lead-up to Hamas’s October 7 massacre.
Colombia President Petro says country will break diplomatic relations with Israel
Colombian President Gustavo Petro greets supporters as he attends the International Workers' Day march in Bogota, Colombia, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Colombian President Gustavo Petro says he will break diplomatic relations with Israel over its actions in Gaza.
Petro, the country’s first left-wing president, has already heavily criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and requested to join South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice.
“Here in front of you, the government of change, of the president of the republic announces that tomorrow we will break diplomatic relations with the state of Israel…for having a government, for having a president who is genocidal,” Petro tells cheering crowds in Bogota, who marched to mark International Worker’s Day and back Petro’s social and economic reforms.
He appears to confuse Netanyahu’s title with that of President Isaac Herzog.
Countries cannot be passive in the face of events in Gaza, he adds.
IDF chief tours Lebanese border, says military preparing for an offensive
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi meets with officers and soldiers near the Lebanon border, May 1, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi met with troops on the Lebanon border earlier today, the military says.
The IDF says Halevi held an assessment with the head of the Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, the commander of the 146th Division, Brig. Gen. Yisrael Shomer and other officers.
“The offensive operation in Gaza will continue with strength; its objectives are both to restore security to the communities near the Gaza Strip and to bring the hostages back home securely,” he says to reservists of the Eztioni Brigade.
“You are doing an excellent job of operational defense in the north, and we are preparing for an offensive in the north,” Halevi adds.
The visit comes amid repeated Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel amid the war in Gaza.
Blinken tells Israel ‘better ways’ to deal with Hamas than Rafah assault
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to the media at the port of Ashdod, May 1, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that he made clear to Israeli leaders US opposition to a major attack on the Gaza city of Rafah and said he suggested “better ways” to address Hamas.
“Our position is clear. It hasn’t changed, it won’t change,” Blinken tells reporters.
“We cannot and will not support a major military operation in Rafah absent an effective plan to make sure that civilians are not harmed, and we’ve not seen such a plan.”
“At the same time, there are other ways — and in our judgement, better ways — of dealing with the real ongoing challenge of Hamas that does not require a major military operation” in Rafah, Blinken says.
“We’ve been talking to the Israelis about that and we’ll continue those conversations,” he said of Rafah.
Pro-Palestinian encampments cleared at two Arizona campuses, more than 20 arrested
A food delivery robot cruises down the sidewalk as students gather Tuesday, April 30, 2024, at a protest organized by a student group that advocates for justice the Palestinian territories, at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. Police arrested some 20 people for trespassing. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca)
Police at two campuses in Arizona have cleared out encampments and arrested pro-Palestinian protesters.
Several people were arrested by police in riot gear early today at the University of Arizona in Tucson after President Robert Robbins directed school officials to “immediately enforce campus use policies.”
And about 20 people were arrested at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff on Tuesday night on trespassing charges. Police dismantled a small fence made of chicken wire as well as nearly two dozen tents.
Columbia president says she called in police after ‘drastic escalation’ by pro-Palestinian protesters
Police officers stand outside a gate of the Columbia University campus, Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
Columbia University’s president releases a statement this morning to members of the college community outlining why she called in police the night before.
Nemat Shafik says protesters taking over an administration building on campus early Tuesday was a “drastic escalation” of the encampment at the college, which “pushed the University to the brink, creating a disruptive environment for everyone and raising safety risks to an intolerable level.”
Shafik, who goes by Minouche, acknowledged the school has a “long and proud” history of activism on campus, but argued those occupying the building committed “acts of destruction, not political speech.”
“I know I speak for many members of our community in saying that this turn of events has filled me with deep sadness. I am sorry we reached this point,” she wrote.
UCLA cancels classes after clashes with pro-Palestinian activists
A demonstrator stands in front of barricades set up to protect an encampment on the UCLA campus Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eugene Garcia)
Classes have been canceled at the University of California, Los Angeles.
UCLA announced the class cancelation on the social media site X, stating: “Due to the distress caused by the violence that took place on Royce Quad late last night and early this morning, all classes are canceled today. Please avoid the Royce Quad area.”
The clashes at UCLA took place around a tent encampment built by pro-Palestinian protesters. Counter-protesters tried to pull down a line of parade barricades, plywood and wooden pallets at the edge of the camp.
Blinken hails ‘real, meaningful’ progress in getting aid into Gaza
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, center, walks with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, center left, and UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, 2nd right, at the Kerem Shalom border crossing in Kerem Shalom, May 1, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that progress on improving humanitarian access to Gaza is “real and meaningful” but, given the immense need in the Palestinian enclave, it needs to be accelerated.
Blinken, who earlier met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, tells reporters that Israel has made important compromises over a proposal for a deal that would see hostages released in exchange for a ceasefire, but it was up to Hamas to take that deal.
Blinken hailed the opening of the Erez crossing today as an important step to get aid directly to northern Gaza, saying it was “real, important progress.”
He says the improvement will be also judged on whether aid going in actually reaches those in need.
Blinken’s comments came after he toured the Kerem Shalom crossing and got his first up-close view of the Strip six months into the war.
Sacks of canned chickpeas, rice, potatoes and toilet paper, some marked with the logo of the UN’s World Food Programme or the World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid group sat on pallets waiting to enter Gaza. Tank fire could be heard in the background.
IDF says 30 aid trucks from Jordan crossed through reopened Erez crossing to Gaza
This aerial image shows the Erez Crossing after the IDF carried out engineering work for it to process trucks entering northern Gaza, May 1, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
The Israeli military says some 30 trucks carrying food and medical supplies from Jordan entered the northern Gaza Strip via the newly reopened Erez crossing today.
The trucks underwent a “careful security inspection” before entering Gaza, the IDF says. The IDF says the reopening of the crossing for humanitarian aid deliveries is “in accordance with the directives of the political echelon.”
The crossing, normally used for foot traffic, had been attacked and severely damaged in Hamas’s October 7 onslaught. The IDF says it carried out engineering work in the area for the pedestrian crossing to be used to process trucks.
It says the engineering forces “constructed inspection and protection infrastructure in the area, as well as paved roads in Israeli territory and in the Strip, enabling the entry of aid to the northern part of the Strip, while strengthening the defenses of the [Gaza border] communities in the area.”
PMO slams comptroller for saying Netanyahu not cooperating in Oct. 7 probe
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office slams State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman after the ombudsman sent a letter complaining the PMO was not cooperating in a probe into the October 7 failures.
“The comptroller’s letter only reached us via the media,” the PMO says in a statement. “Contrary to the accusations, the PMO is cooperating completely.”
“Every request is answered in full, including all questions regarding the Prime Minister, even though all the PMO teams are working around the clock on the issues of the war,” the statement says.
“The fact that the comptroller’s spokesman chose to release a news story, devoid of any basis, instead of contacting the Prime Minister’s Office, is an unnecessary confrontation in a time of war,” the statement says.
Blinken tours Kerem Shalom crossing to Gaza with Gallant, visits Kibbutz Nir Oz
US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, third right, stands between Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, third left, and UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, right, at the Kerem Shalom border crossing in Kerem Shalom, Israel, May 1, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP)
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met earlier today with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Kerem Shalom crossing with the Gaza Strip, saying that Israel is “committed to the return of the hostages, and prepared to carry out any mission in the Rafah area.”
Gallant and Blinken also toured the border community of Kibbutz Nir Oz, which was attacked during the Hamas-led October 7 onslaught, the Defense Ministry says.
According to the ministry, Israeli defense officials briefed Blinken and his team on the IDF’s humanitarian efforts in Gaza, as well as actions taken to prevent mistaken attacks on aid workers, following the incident in which seven members of the World Central Kitchen group were killed.
Gallant and the US secretary of state then toured the Kerem Shalom crossing and observed the inspection procedures, his office says.
In a later meeting — also attended by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi Defense Ministry Director-General Eyal Zamir — Gallant and Blinken discussed the “efforts to return the hostages, and the need for the continuation of the military operation to dismantle Hamas,” the ministry says.
“We are determined to take any action to return our hostages back to their home, it is correct ethically, it is correct morally, and this is a declared war goal,” says Gallant in a video statement after the meeting.
“At the same time, the IDF, subject to the instructions I gave… is prepared to carry out any operational mission in the Rafah area,” he adds.
Columbia protest leader goes viral, is mocked for demanding ‘humanitarian aid’ for barricaded students
Johannah King-Slutsky speaks to reporters outside Columbia University's Hamilton Hall on April 30, 2024. (Screen capture/X)
A pro-Palestinian protester who took over a building at Columbia University’s campus yesterday has gone viral after she demanded that the school ensure access to “humanitarian aid” so that her peers barricaded inside wouldn’t “die of dehydration and starvation.”
The protester has been identified as Johannah King-Slutsky, a PhD student in English and comparative literature at Columbia.
As one of the leaders of the takeover of Hamilton Hall, King-Slutsky held a press conference yesterday in which she read out the anti-Israel group’s demands for vacating the university building. Police moved hours later and cleared the roughly 30 to 40 students inside, taking some of them into custody.
At the earlier press conference, King-Slutsky was asked why the university should be obligated to provide food to students who had violently taken over a building.
Reporter grills Columbia student after she demands the university help feed protestors occupying Hamilton Hall:
"It seems like you're saying, 'we want to be revolutionaries, we want to take over this building, now would you please bring us some food'." pic.twitter.com/vNczSAM4T1
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) April 30, 2024
“Well uh first of all we’re saying that they should be obligated to provide food for students who pay for a meal plan here.” She then appeared to clarify that the protesters were just asking that the university allow food to be brought to them.
“I guess it’s ultimately a question of what kind of community and obligation Columbia feels it has to its students. Do you want students to die of dehydration and starvation or get severely ill even they disagree with you? If the answer is no, then you should allow basic — I mean it’s crazy to say because we are on an Ivy League campus, but this is like basic humanitarian aid we’re asking for. Like, could people please have a glass of water,” she said with a straight face.
“We’re asking them to not violently stop us from bringing in basic humanitarian aid,” she continued while sporting a Palestinian keffiyeh — one also worn by a fellow protester who stood behind her at the press conference wearing a crop-top.
When pressed as to whether the university had even taken such action, King-Slutsky responded that the students were actually just seeking a commitment from the school that it would not do so.
Footage of the exchange was quickly picked up on Twitter with thousands mocking King-Stutsky’s demands and the rhetoric she used to justify them.
“The revolution will be catered,” wrote The Atlantic columnist David Frum.
“How much more of a revolutionary cosplayer do you have to be to forcefully occupy a building, create an artificial ‘blockade’ against yourself, and then demand ‘humanitarian aid’ to be allowed in after a mere 12 hours because you’re concerned about starving and dehydrating ‘to death,” wrote Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a prominent Palestinian American and Atlantic Council fellow.
“The attempt to recreate a Gaza-lite environment on a college campus is demonstrative of the strange revolutionary fetishization of Gaza’s horrendous suffering and the Palestinian issue by some of the protesting students,” he tweeted.
Several Palestinians in Gaza demonstrate in solidarity with US campus protests
A small group of Palestinians demonstrated in central Gaza in solidarity with pro-Palestinian protests taking place across university campuses in the United States.
At a camp for displaced people in the city of Deir al-Balah, signs read: “Thanks for your solidarity! THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY.” Other posters thanked several other American universities where pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been taking place, including Harvard, MIT, Northwestern and George Washington universities.
"Some Gazans Say U.S. Campus Protests Give Them ‘Hope’" by Hiba Yazbek via NYT https://t.co/2OWkPoKcdz pic.twitter.com/NfKuv2jqaz
— Christy Isham (@isham_christy) May 1, 2024
“This protest is to thank American universities and American students for standing with us and conveying our message to the world to stop the war and genocide that is taking place in Gaza,” says Mai Afifi, a Palestinian university student.
“I hope that Arab and Islamic universities will stand with us like American universities and try to stop the genocide, because we are students with dreams and ambitions and we want to complete our university studies,” Afifi adds.
Israel reopens Erez crossing for Gaza aid trucks 7 months after it was destroyed by Hamas
Israeli soldiers gather near a gate at an inspection area for trucks carrying humanitarian aid supplies bound for the Gaza Strip, on the Israeli side of the Erez crossing into Gaza, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Israel reopened the sole crossing on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip for the first time since it was destroyed by Hamas on October 7, allowing aid trucks to pass through the Erez checkpoint following US demands to do more to get aid into the Strip.
Reopening the Erez crossing has been one of the main pleas of international aid agencies for months to alleviate the humanitarian situation, which is believed to be most severe among the hundreds of thousands of civilians in the enclave’s northern sector.
The Israeli government opened the crossing point on the day of a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called for more humanitarian aid deliveries into the territory.
The Erez crossing, primarily used for foot traffic, had remained closed since it was destroyed during the Hamas attacks on October 7 that precipitated the war.
Israel announced it would reopen Erez last month, a few days after its forces mistakenly killed a group of humanitarian workers delivering food aid in Gaza in airstrikes that brought international condemnation. Israel apologized for those airstrikes; Washington, its closest ally, said further support for the war would depend on improving aid access.
An Israeli soldier walks through an inspection area for trucks carrying humanitarian aid supplies bound for the Gaza Strip, on the Palestinian side of the Erez crossing from southern Israel, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Colonel Moshe Tetro, head of Israel’s Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza, says he hoped the crossing would be open every day, and help reach a target of 500 aid trucks entering Gaza daily. That would be in line with pre-war supplies entering the enclave and far more than it has received during the last seven months.
“This is only one step of the measures that we took in the last few weeks,” he tells reporters.
State comptroller probe to begin into Oct. 7 failures; PM’s Office, IDF urged to cooperate
Israeli State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman at the Federation of Local Authorities conference in Tel Aviv, December 7, 2022. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman says his office’s probe into the October 7 failures will now start looking at the Israel Defense Forces and urges the prime minister and the army’s chief of staff to tell their offices to cooperate.
“My public and ethical duty as state comptroller is to carry out a comprehensive investigation of the biggest failure in the history of the state,” Englman says, adding that he is looking at the political, military and civilian responses.
“After the investigation began at the political and civilian level, in the Defense Ministry and the various security bodies — it will now begin in a phased manner in the IDF,” Englman says.
He sends a letters to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF chief Herzi Halevi urging their cooperation, saying that until now he has not received it.
The “prime minister and the chief of staff must order their people to act according to the law and cooperate with the investigation teams, in a way that ensures its execution as required by law,” he says.
Halevi had previously raised objections, saying the state comptroller’s examination was unprecedented and would divert the attention of IDF commanders currently conducting operations in Gaza.
Haniyeh’s sister released to house arrest after being charged with incitement
A court releases the sister of Hamas’s top leader to house arrest after she was indicted for incitement and identification with a terror group, Hebrew media reports.
The sister of Hamas’s supreme leader Ismail Haniyeh, Sabah Haniyeh, 57, was born in Gaza but has Israeli citizenship and lives in southern Israel. She was arrested in early April and indicted on April 21.
Haniyeh was released to house arrest today.
According to the indictment, she sent several messages praising the Oct. 7 attack to WhatsApp groups that seem to include members of the extended Haniyeh family.
Ismail Haniyeh lives in exile in Qatar.
Khamenei slams Saudi normalization efforts: The Palestinians should ‘decide how to deal with the Zionists’
A handout picture provided by the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei shows him speaking during a ceremony in Tehran on May 1, 2024. (KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says efforts underway to forge a normalization of ties between Israel and Arab countries will not resolve the crisis in the Middle East and that the Palestinians should “decide how to deal with the Zionists.”
“Some people think that by forcing neighboring countries to normalize their ties (with Israel) the problem will be solved,” says Khamenei. “They are wrong.”
Khamenei’s remarks came after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday said Washington is nearly ready with a security package to offer Saudi Arabia if it normalizes relations with Israel.
Saudi Arabia had been in talks over a potential normalization with Israel but they were paused when the war with Hamas broke out.
Iran does not recognize Israel and has made support for the Palestinian cause a centerpiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“Palestine should be returned to them (Palestinians),” says Khamenei. “They should form their own regime, their own system, then that system should decide how to deal with the Zionists.”
Police disperse anti-Israel encampment at University of Wisconsin, several detained
Police are removing an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Wisconsin’s Madison campus and have taken away several protesters.
Several police officers arrived at the encampment on the campus’ Library Mall around 7 a.m. and played a recorded message on a loop saying it was a final warning and that protesters were in violation of university code, WISC-TV reports.
About 20 minutes later, nearly 60 police officers, some with riot shields, arrived and began removing tents and other items, the station reports.
Video from WISC-TV shows police with riot shields pushing against protesters and the protesters pushing back while chanting slogans, including “Free Free Palestine.” The station says that at least 10 protesters were taken away by police with their hands zip-tied by officers.
I’m on the UW Madison campus where police in riot gear seem to be preparing to remove the encampment on library mall pic.twitter.com/EN0TzFxn6d
— Laura Schulte (@SchulteLaura) May 1, 2024
Police later removed some tents that had remained at the encampment, but about 30 protesters surrounded another tent to prevent officers from reaching it.
Campus leaders and police warned students last week to comply with state law and university rules, which prohibit unauthorized camping on campus. But on Monday, several hundred protesters gathered on the Mall, located between Memorial Library and the Wisconsin Historical Society, and established an encampment, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.
police are attempting to push protestors out pic.twitter.com/v6I8vrrwvW
— Laura Schulte (@SchulteLaura) May 1, 2024
NYC mayor: Some 300 people detained at Columbia, City College, but many likely not students
New York City police officers take people into custody near the Columbia University campus in New York Tuesday, April 30, 2024, after a building taken over by protesters earlier in the day was cleared, along with a tent encampment. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
New York City police took about 300 people into custody late yesterday at Columbia University and City College of New York at pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel demonstrations, Mayor Eric Adams says, but adds he believes many of them are not students.
Adams says in an appearance on “CBS Mornings” that police had identified organizations and individuals who weren’t university students but rather professional agitators.
“Once I became aware of the outside agitators who were part of this operation, as Columbia mentioned in their letter and their request with the New York City Police Department, it was clear we had to take appropriate actions when our intelligence division identified those who were professionals, well trained,” Adams says.
While people involved in the Columbia demonstrations acknowledge that some people not part of the college community have participated, they forcefully dispute the idea that outsiders were driving or unduly influencing the protests.
Adams points to protesters breaking into Hamilton Hall at Columbia University, saying some of the tactics and methods have been used across the globe.
“And we understood how really dangerous this situation had become,” Adams says, noting they made sure that a minimum amount of force was used to “eradicate the problem” at City University of New York and Columbia.
When there’s an analysis of those arrested, Adams said, a substantial number of them won’t be City University of New York or Columbia students.
Adams said he understands the power of protests, but they cannot turn violent. Breaking into Hamilton Hall was not protesting; “that was committing a crime,” he says.
Saudis said looking at ‘Plan B’ defense pact with US without Israel normalization
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a Joint Ministerial Meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-US Strategic Partnership discussing the humanitarian situation in Gaza, at the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretariat in Riyadh on April 29, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool/AFP)
Saudi Arabia is pushing the US to sign a limited defense pact with Riyadh instead of the wide-ranging deal that includes normalization with Israel that is currently on the table, the UK’s Guardian newspaper reports.
The unsourced report says the Saudis fear that the mega normalization deal that includes Washington giving Riyadh agreements on bilateral defense and security commitments, as well as nuclear cooperation, could be held up indefinitely amid fears that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won’t agree to a pathway to a Palestinian state, a key component of the agreement.
The Saudis also fear that the deal could become impossible to implement so long as Israel’s war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza continues.
The Saudi Plan B would include a bilateral defense pact, US help in the building of a Saudi civil nuclear energy industry, and high-level sharing in the field of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, the Guardian says, adding that Israel ties would be left to a later date.
The article notes that it is not clear if the US, particularly Congress, would support such a deal that excludes normalization with Israel.
Turkey to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at World Court
A pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel demonstrator holds a sign outside the International Court of Justice, rear, in The Hague, Netherlands, February 21, 2024. (AP Photo/ Peter Dejong)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan says that Turkey would join in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
“Upon completion of the legal text of our work, we will submit the declaration of official intervention before the ICJ with the objective of implementing this political decision,” Fidan says in a joint press conference with Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi in Ankara.
“Turkey will continue to support the Palestinian people in all circumstances,” he says.
The ICJ ordered Israel in January to refrain from any acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention and to ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts against Palestinians, after South Africa accused Israel of state-led genocide in Gaza. It did not find Israel was committing genocide.
In January, President Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey was providing documents for the ongoing case at the ICJ, also known as the World Court.
Israel and its Western allies described the allegation as baseless. A final ruling in South Africa’s ICJ case in The Hague could take years.
Bereaved families ask ministers, MKs to refrain from speaking at Memorial Day ceremonies
Supporters of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir scuffle with a bereaved man (C) at the military cemetery in Beersheba on April 25, 2023 amidst commemorations of Memorial Day for fallen soldiers. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)
Hundreds of bereaved family members send a letter to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant asking him to prevent ministers and MKs from speaking at Memorial Day ceremonies to be held next week, the Haaretz daily reports
The call comes on the day that the Knesset published a list of ministers and MKs who will take part in the ceremonies to be held at military cemeteries. This year is particularly sensitive in the wake of the October 7 Hamas onslaught and the ensuing Gaza offensive and with over a hundred hostages still held in Gaza.
“Let us commune with our loved ones without turning cemeteries into a political arena,” Eyal Eshel, whose daughter Roni was killed at her base on the Gaza border on October 7, tells Haaretz.
In the letter to Gallant, the families warn there may be scenarios in which politicians are forced to leave ceremonies and other families stay away.
Gallant has yet to reply.
French-Jewish Socialist chased away from May 1 event near Lyon
A crowd of protesters in France prompt police to extract a Jewish Socialist Party politician from an event celebrating International Workers’ Day.
Officers accompany Raphaël Glucksmann away from the May 1 event in Saint-Étienne, a heavily Muslim suburb of Lyon, the France Bleu radio station reports.
Protesters chanted: “Glucksmann, get lost, France is not yours.” This is an adaptation of “Zionist, get lost, France is not yours,” which many observers believe is an antisemitic slogan disguised as a political message against Zionism.
???????? FLASH | Le candidat socialiste aux élections européennes, Raphaël Glucksmann, a été évacué de la manifestation du 1ᵉʳ mai après avoir été la cible de jets de peinture.
— Cerfia (@CerfiaFR) May 1, 2024
In meeting with Netanyahu, Blinken reiterated US position on Rafah
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller answers questions during a news briefing at the State Department on July 18, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
In his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “reiterated the United States’ clear position on Rafah,” says State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller.
The US readout does not say exactly what that position is, but the Biden administration has been firm in its opposition to Rafah operation without a credible plan to evacuate civilians, even calling a move into the southern Gaza city a “red line.”
Netanyahu insists a Rafah incursion will happen, and told Blinken that he would not accept an end to the war, as Hamas demands.
The US readout says that Blinken “emphasized that it is Hamas that is standing in the way of a ceasefire.”
Blinken seems to be pleased with the recent change in Israel’s position on humanitarian aid, discussing with Netanyahu “the improvement in the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza since the call between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu on April 4.”
NYC mayor blames outside agitators for Columbia building takeover
Anti-Israel protesters gather near a main gate at Columbia University in New York, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, just before New York City police officers cleared the area after a building was taken over by protesters (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
New York City Mayor Eric Adams says on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that police had to move in to Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall “for the safety of those children.”
He blames outside agitators for the building takeover.
“There are people who are harmful and they’re trying to radicalize our children and we cannot ignore this,” Adams says.
The NYPD’s deputy commissioner for public information, Tarik Sheppard, who appeared with the mayor, held up a heavy chain.
“This is not what students bring to school,” Sheppard said. “This is what we encountered on every door inside Hamilton Hall.”
Sheppard said 40 to 50 people were arrested at Hamilton Hall with no injuries. Adams said they will face charges including burglary, trespassing and criminal mischief, while those who were arrested outside the building will be face less serious charges.
Netanyahu tells Blinken Israel won’t accept Hamas demand to end war, Rafah op will go ahead
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Israelis during a protest calling for the release of Israelis held kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, in Tel Aviv on May 1, 2024.(Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that he would not accept an end to the war in Gaza as part of a hostage deal, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.
“He told Blinken that we are interested in reaching a deal, and determined to topple Hamas,” says the official.
Netanyahu also pledged that the invasion of Rafah would happen, the Prime Minister’s Office tells The Times of Israel.
“The Rafah operation does not depend on anything,” says the PMO. “Prime Minister Netanyahu made this clear to Secretary Blinken.”
Jordan slams ‘extremist Israeli settlers’ for dumping Gaza aid truck contents on street
Jordan accuses “extremist Israeli settlers” of attacking two Jordanian aid convoys carrying food to Gaza this morning, one through Kerem Shalom and one through the newly opened crossing into the northern Gaza Strip.
The two convoys, organized by the Jordanian Hashemite Charitable Organization, the UN World Food Program, and British, South African, and American charities, had some of their goods dumped onto the street, according to Jordan.
The Israeli organization Tzav 9, which opposes aid being sent to Gaza while hostages are still being held there, organized a demonstration at the Allenby Crossing between Israel and Jordan overnight to block the convoys. Images on social media showed young women sitting on the road in front of a truck, while other demonstrators held Israeli flags and pictures of the hostages. There were no signs of violence in any of the footage.
The IDF declared the area around the crossing a closed military zone overnight.
Jordan’s Foreign Ministry releases a statement saying that Israel failed in its obligations to allow aid to enter Gaza. The two convoys did reach their intended destinations.
Amman also calls on the international community to punish Israel for the incidents.
The Foreign Ministry tells The Times of Israel that it has received no official communication on the matter from Jordan.
*עדכון צו 9 בצל ביקור בלינקן: משאיות הסיוע לחמאס חסומות כעת בדרכן למעבר כרם שלום*
פעילי תנועת צו 9 חוסמים כעת את משאיות הסיוע לחמאס באיזור צומת ניר יצחק בדרכן למעבר כרם שלום, שם צפוי בלינקן להגיע בשעות הקרובות לסקירת העברת הסיוע. pic.twitter.com/KeVgv5Lxzv
— מה חדש. What's new❓ (@Gloz111) May 1, 2024
Hamas official insists truce must be permanent; PM said to tell Blinken there won’t be a deal if terror group maintains demand
Hamas will respond to an Israeli truce proposal for Gaza “within a very short period,” an official with the terror group says, stressing that any truce needs to be permanent.
Hamas is considering a plan for a 40-day ceasefire and the exchange of scores of hostages for larger numbers of Palestinian prisoners.
Suhail al-Hindi, a senior Hamas official, told AFP the group would “deliver its response clearly within a very short period,” although he would not say precisely when that was expected to happen.
Speaking to AFP by phone from an undisclosed location, he said it was premature to say whether the Hamas envoys, who have returned from talks in Cairo to their base in Qatar, felt any progress was made.
He stressed the aim was “to reach an end to this war.”
But that would seem to be at odds with Israel’s determination to push ahead with its ground offensive in southern Gaza.
Citing US and Israeli officials, the Walla news site reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that if Hamas continues to demand an end to the war, the military will launch an offensive in Rafah and there will be no truce deal.
Lapid tells Blinken PM has no political excuses to shun hostage deal
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid meets with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss a potential hostage deal, according to a tweet by the former prime minister.
He says he told Blinken that “Netanyahu doesn’t have any political excuse not to move to a deal for the release of the hostages. He has a majority in the nation, he has a majority in the Knesset, and if needed, I’ll make sure he has a majority in the government.”
שוחחתי לפני זמן קצר עם מזכיר המדינה אנתוני בלינקן, דנו במאמצים הבינלאומיים לקידום עסקת חטופים. אמרתי לו שאין לנתניהו שום תירוץ פוליטי לא ללכת לעיסקה להחזרת החטופים. יש לו רוב בעם, יש לו רוב בכנסת ואם צריך אדאג שיהיה לו רוב בממשלה. חייבים להחזיר אותם הביתה. כל שעה קריטית. pic.twitter.com/cDY6J5y27e
— יאיר לפיד – Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) May 1, 2024
13 more settler activists detained during evacuation of illegal West Bank outpost Or Meir
At least 13 more settler activists are arrested by Border Police personnel during efforts to evacuate and demolish the illegal West Bank outpost of Or Meir. The activists themselves say that over 20 have now been detained.
Dozens of radical activists have gathered at the site to thwart the demolition of the outpost, the third such effort in five months.
Footage taken by the activists showed them sitting down in front of bulldozers brought in to destroy an illegally built access road to the outpost, and physically resisting evacuation.
The footage also shows Border Police officers forcibly removing the activists from the site and wrestling them to the ground in order to detain them.
The Civil Administration says that Or Meir is built on private Palestinian land.
After meeting with PM ends, Washington says Blinken reiterated US position on Rafah op
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (center left) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center right) hold a meeting with their respective teams in Jerusalem, May 1, 2024. (Omer Meron/GPO)
The expanded meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and their respective aides concludes in Jerusalem, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Video of the one-on-one meeting released by Israel shows a seemingly relaxed and smiling Netanyahu next to a more severe-looking Blinken. But later, a silent video from the larger meeting shows Netanyahu and Blinken swapping light-hearted statements that garner smiles around the table.
Blinken “reiterated the United States’ clear position on Rafah,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, two days after the top diplomat again voiced opposition to an assault over concerns for the safety of civilians sheltering in the southern Gaza city.
Blinken is due to meet Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at the Kerem Shalom crossing next.
Border Police officer hurt in Jerusalem stabbing released from hospital
Israeli security personnel and members of Zaka Rescue and Recovery team carry the body of a man who was fatally shot by Israeli police after he wounded a police officer in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem's Old City, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
A Border Police officer who was wounded in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem’s Old City yesterday is released from Shaare Zedek Medical Center.
The hospital says the officer has been discharged and is in good condition.
According to police, a Turkish tourist rushed at the Border Police cop Tuesday near the Herod’s Gate entrance and stabbed him in the upper body.
Attorney general says government pursuing judicial overhaul by dragging feet on Haredi draft
File: Israelis protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to overhaul the judicial system in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sept. 23, 2023. (AP/Ariel Schalit)
The Attorney General’s Office issues a sharply worded letter to the government, accusing it of seeking to undermine the standing of the attorney general in continuation of the judicial overhaul program, within the framework of its behavior over High Court petitions demanding ultra-Orthodox enlistment.
The government has sought private representation in the High Court instead of the attorney general since the latter opposes its position. The government is seeking to continue funding ultra-Orthodox yeshivas without enforcing military conscription on young Haredi men until it passes a new law allowing for ultra-Orthodox service exemptions.
The High Court barred the government at the end of March from continuing to fund Haredi yeshivas. The legal framework for deferring their military service expired on March 31.
In the letter sent by Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon to Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs, Limon argues that the government’s request for private representation is designed “to give a rubber stamp” to the IDF and other state agencies to act in accordance with the state’s position on yeshiva funding and Haredi enlistment in the period before a new law is legislated.
“This course of action is a continuation of the attempt, which is part of what was called the ‘legal reform,’ to weaken the status of the attorney general, bypass it, and harm its ability to protect the public interest and the rule of law,” Limon tells Fuchs.
Police quell clashes between pro-Palestinian, pro-Israeli protesters at UCLA
LOS ANGELES — After a couple of hours of scuffles between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), police wearing helmets and face shields form lines and slowly separate the groups.
That appears to quell the violence.
The clashes at UCLA took place around the anti-Israel tent encampment built by pro-Palestinian protesters, who erected barricades and plywood for protection — while counter-protesters tried to pull them down. People threw chairs and at one point a group piled on a person who lay on the ground, kicking and beating them with sticks until others pulled them out of the scrum.
It is not clear how many people might have been injured.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass calls the violence “absolutely abhorrent and inexcusable” in a post on social media platform X and says officers from the Los Angeles Police Department are on the scene. Officers from the California Highway Patrol also appear to be there. The university says it had requested help.
UCLA – Both sides are now violently brawling. People are bleeding. When someone goes down, their friends drag him away, & replace him w a fresh fighter.
No police to be found. pic.twitter.com/l3w9ipOLXA
— ????????ProudArmyBrat (@leslibless) May 1, 2024
Blinken conveys ‘cautious optimism’ for hostage deal in meeting with families
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (second left) meets with relatives of hostages held by Hamas, in Tel Aviv, May 1, 2024. (The Hostages Families Forum Headquarters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed guarded hope that Israel will reach a hostage deal with Hamas during a meeting with the Hostages Families Forum, the group says in a statement.
The meeting, between Blinken and the families of American-Israelis held hostage in the Gaza Strip, “was positive, with Blinken conveying cautious optimism about the emerging deal for their release,” the group states.
Among those present is Aviva Siegel, who spent 51 days in Hamas captivity and whose husband Keith is still being held in Gaza.
“We express our sincere gratitude to Secretary Blinken and the Biden Administration for their unwavering support and assistance throughout this agonizing ordeal,” the group says. “We must never forget that there are 133 hostages from over 20 nationalities languishing in captivity under Hamas terrorists. We urgently implore international efforts to secure the freedom of all innocent people unjustly detained.”
Lapid calls on government to draft Haredim ‘immediately’
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid calls on the government to “stop wasting time and draft the ultra-Orthodox immediately,” after it submits a court filing stating that the defense establishment had begun work “to promote the integration of members of the ultra-Orthodox public.”
The filing states the IDF and Defense Ministry are “formulating action plans…to implement ultra-Orthodox recruitment in the immediate future [as well as] actions that will also affect recruitment in the longer term.”
In response, Lapid, a vocal advocate for ending the ultra-Orthodox exemption from military service, demanded “mandatory service for everyone” and urged that those who do not serve “should not receive a penny from the state.”
“You can’t say ‘Together we will win’ if we don’t mobilize together,” he said.
הממשלה צריכה להפסיק למרוח את הזמן ולגייס חרדים באופן מיידי. שירות חובה לכולם, מי שלא מתגייס לא יקבל מהמדינה אגורה. אי אפשר להגיד ביחד ננצח אם לא ביחד נתגייס.
— יאיר לפיד – Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) May 1, 2024
Hamas asks Egypt, Qatar for clarity on truce and hostage deal provisions
CAIRO, Egypt — Hamas has asked Egyptian and Qatari mediators to provide clarity on the terms of the latest truce proposal being discussed as part of negotiations with Israel, an Egyptian official says.
The official, who has close ties to the talks and spoke on condition of anonymity in order to freely discuss the deal, says Hamas wants clear terms for the unconditional return of displaced people to the north of Gaza and to ensure that the second stage of the deal will include discussing the gradual and complete withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the entire Gaza Strip.
The official says the current deal didn’t fully explain who would be allowed to return north and how it would be decided.
It is not clear if Hamas’s demand for clarity would delay progress on the deal that’s emerging. Israel and Hamas have been far apart on the key issue of whether the war eventually ends as part of a later phase of the deal.
The emerging phased deal includes the release of 33 civilian and sick hostages held by terrorists in exchange for a halt to the fighting and the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Government tells High Court it needs more time to complete Haredi draft policy
Ultra-Orthodox men arrive at the IDF Recruitment Center at Tel Hashomer, in Tel Aviv, March 28, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
With the deadline for submission having passed yesterday, the state tells the High Court of Justice that it is still working on formulating a program to draft ultra-Orthodox men into the army but requests several more weeks.
In its submission to the court, the state says its plan will lead to immediate conscription of some members of the ultra-Orthodox population, and will also address recruitment in the longer term.
The submission notes, however, that the program is designed for the “gradual recruitment of members of the ultra-Orthodox public.”
The state asks the court to grant it an extension of several weeks to submit its plan before the next hearing on the petitions, which has been set for June 2 in front of a panel of nine High Court justices.
Legal petitions have demanded the immediate conscription of ultra-Orthodox men of military age. A law allowing for blanket military service exemptions for Haredi yeshiva students expired in June 2023, and a subsequent government resolution instructing the IDF not to enforce conscription on such men expired at the end of March this year.
British policeman charged with terror support for allegedly posting pro-Hamas image
LONDON, United Kingdom — A British police officer has been charged with a terrorism offense for allegedly publishing an image in support of Hamas, a group banned in Britain as a terrorist organization, police say.
Mohammed Adil, 26, from Bradford in northern England, was arrested last November and charged following an investigation by British counter-terrorism officers, Counter Terrorism Policing North East said in a statement.
The police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), says the inquiries had focused on messages shared on WhatsApp which had concluded the case should be referred to prosecutors.
“On Monday, PC Mohammed Adil, 26, was charged with two counts of publishing an image in support of a proscribed organization, specifically Hamas, contrary to section 13 of the Terrorism Act,” the IOPC statement says. “The offenses are alleged to have taken place in October and November 2023.”
Adil, a police constable, has been suspended from his job with West Yorkshire Police and is due to appear before London Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.
Security forces evacuate illegal West Bank outpost Or Meir; 6 settler activists arrested
A Civil Administration soldier and Border Police officers evacuate the illegal West Bank outpost of Or Meir, May 1, 2024. (Courtesy of settler activists)
Border Police and Civil Administration forces evacuate the illegal West Bank outpost of Or Meir, built on private Palestinian land, and demolish several rudimentary structures at the site.
According to settler activists, a residential building and a goat pen are demolished in the operation, while bulldozers were used to destroy an illegally constructed access road to the outpost.
A handful of activists protested the evacuation operation, blocking the bulldozers and even climbing on them to try to stop the demolition of the access road.
Six activists were arrested during the operation for resisting evacuation by the Border Police officers, some of whom assaulted the police personnel, a spokesperson for the Border Police says.
Or Meir is situated close to the Ofra settlement north of Jerusalem and has been rebuilt and demolished on several occasions in the last few months, including on February 29 this year, and before that on December 25, 2023.
Netanyahu, Blinken begin private discussion in Jerusalem
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, May 1, 2024. (Haim Zach/GPO)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken begin their private meeting in Jerusalem.
That meeting will be followed by a broader discussion with their respective staffs. On the Israeli side, Netanyahu will be joined by Strategic Affairs Adviser Ron Dermer, National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, Military Secretary Avi Gil, Political Adviser Ophir Falk, Chief of Staff Tzachi Braverman, and Ambassador to Washington Michael Herzog.
Blinken will be joined by Ambassador Jack Lew, Special Envoy for Middle East Humanitarian Affairs Lisa Grande, and Assistant Secretary of State for the Middle East Barbara Leaf.
Clashes break out between pro-Palestinian, pro-Israel protesters at UCLA
Violent clashes erupted on Wednesday on the University of California campus in Los Angeles between pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protesters and a group of counter-demonstrators, according to live video coverage provided by a US broadcaster.
Bruin, a UCLA student newspaper, says pro-Israel students attempted to tear down the anti-Israel encampment on the campus. Videos posted to social media show fireworks and physical altercations between rival demonstrators.
The LA police department “is responding immediately to (the university Chancellor’s) request for support on campus,” said Zach Seidl, a spokesman for the city mayor, in a post on social media platform X.
NOW at UCLA: Pro-Israel protesters just tore down the metal barricades and began ripping flags off the encampment. They trying to break in the encampment to fight people. pic.twitter.com/C5uVAEZuoh
— Joey Scott (@joeyneverjoe) May 1, 2024
Senior Hamas official says Blinken trying to pressure terror group to take truce deal, absolve Israel
CAIRO, Egypt — Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri says that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s comments blaming the terror group for a failure to reach a truce and hostage deal are an attempt to put pressure on it and acquit Israel.
Abu Zuhri also tells Reuters that the group was still studying the recent ceasefire offer.
IAF jets hit Hamas, PIJ weapons depots, troops battle terrorists in central Gaza
IDF troops operate in the central Gaza corridor, in a handout image published May 1, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
The Israeli Air Force struck numerous sites belonging to terror groups in the Gaza Strip over the past day, the military says, as troops continue to operate in the Netzarim Corridor area.
The ground operations in central Gaza come as the Israeli military has indicated it is fully prepared to immediately launch its planned offensive in southern Gaza’s Rafah, regarded as one of the last Hamas strongholds in the Strip.
The IDF says targets hit by fighter jets in Gaza over the past day included weapon depots, buildings used by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and rocket and mortar launching positions, including those used to target troops operating in Gaza.
Troops of the 99th Division operating in central Gaza also called in several airstrikes on operatives who were launching rockets at the forces, the IDF says.
In one incident, the IDF says, reservists of the division’s Yiftah Brigade identified several operatives moving toward troops in central Gaza and called in an airstrike against them.
Shortly after the strike, another cell was spotted planting a bomb in the area, and it too was struck by an IAF aircraft, the military adds.
IDF troops operate in the central Gaza corridor, in a handout image published May 1, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
The Yiftah Brigade troops also discovered a cache of weapons, military equipment, and documents in a building in their area of operations.
Meanwhile, the IDF is awaiting a decision by the government regarding the offensive in Rafah, where Israel says four Hamas battalions remain intact.
If the order is given, the operation will begin with the military calling on Palestinians to evacuate the Rafah area to designated safe zones.
More than one million Palestinian civilians are estimated to be sheltering in the Rafah area, although some have already begun moving to Khan Younis after the IDF withdrew from there last month.
Ahead of the planned Rafah offensive, the “humanitarian zone” in the al-Mawasi area on the Strip’s coast is being expanded for the population of Rafah to shelter there, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari announced last week.
Israel is still awaiting answers from Hamas on the latest proposal for a hostage deal. Should there be a truce, Israel is expected to postpone the Rafah offensive, but not outright cancel it.
Blinken to hostage families: Hamas needs to say yes; we will get this done
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (R) meets with the families of the hostages held by Hamas, outside of a hotel, in Tel Aviv, on May 1, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein / POOL / AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks with demonstrators calling for a hostage deal in Tel Aviv.
He also meets privately with families of American hostages held in Gaza.
“Bringing your loved ones home is at the heart of everything we’re trying to do, and we will not rest until everyone – man, woman, soldier, civilian, young, old – is back home,” Blinken tells the families.
“There is a very strong proposal on the table right now,” Blinken continues. “Hamas needs to say yes and needs to get this done. That is our determination, and we will not rest, we will not stop until you’re reunited with your loved ones. So please keep strong, keep the faith. We will be with you every single day until we get this done.”
Blinken’s next meeting is with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
Lebanese report details hostage, truce deal, with 33 captives to be released in first stage
Israelis attend a rally calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, April 27, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Lebanese news outlet al-Akhbar publishes what it says is the text of Israel’s truce and hostage deal offer to Hamas, as conveyed by Egyptian mediators, which would see at least 33 captives released in a first phase, and later stages that would establish a sustainable calm.
The first stage of the deal, to last 40 days, involves a staged withdrawal of Israeli troops from parts of the Strip in order to allow the movement of humanitarian aid and the return of civilians to their homes.
The deal provides for 500 trucks, including 50 fuel trucks, to enter the Strip each day, including supplies designed to rehabilitate the Strip.
Israel will cease aerial surveillance of the Strip for eight hours a day, and 10 hours on days hostages are released.
Hamas must release at least 33 living captives — female civilians and soldiers, children under the age of 19, the elderly, the sick, and the wounded.
For every female civilian and child released, Israel will free 20 minors and female Palestinian prisoners. For every elderly, sick and injured hostage released, Israel will free 20 prisoners over 50 who are also sick and injured, as long as they are not serving a sentence of over 10 years.
For every female soldier released, Israel will free 20 prisoners serving a life sentence, and another 20 serving 10 years at most, who may be released to Gaza or abroad.
Hamas will provide a list of prisoners it wants released, containing up to 20 names; Israel will retain a veto on the names provided by Hamas.
From the 16th day of the truce, the sides will begin indirect negotiations on an arrangement to restore sustainable calm to Gaza, the report says.
The second stage of the deal, to last 42 days, will involve completing agreed-upon arrangements for sustainable calm. And it will see the release of remaining Israeli male civilians and soldiers, in exchange for a certain number of Palestinian prisoners and the full withdrawal of IDF troops from Gaza.
The third stage, which will last 42 days, will involve the exchange of dead bodies from both sides and the implementation of a five-year rehabilitation plan for Gaza, including a provision that Hamas must not rebuild its military infrastructure.
Hamas-run health ministry says Gaza death toll at 34,568
At least 34,568 Palestinians have been killed and 77,765 injured in Gaza since the start of the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, the Hamas-run health ministry in the Strip says.
The figures cannot be independently verified and include at least 13,000 Hamas gunmen Israel says it has killed in battle. Israel also says it killed some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
A total of 263 IDF soldiers have been killed in the army’s Gaza ground operation.
Tnuva announces price hikes of up to nearly 10% on range of products
File: Tnuva milk products at the Shufersal Deal Katzrin branch, in the Golan Heights, on May 2, 2023. (Michael Giladi/Flash90)
The Tnuva dairy company announces price increases on several of its products up to nearly 10 percent, set to begin in the coming days and weeks.
The firm says government-regulated milk products will rise 4.48% starting tomorrow, while non-regulated items will rise by an average of 3.5% on May 16.
Tnuva says that its Sunfrost brand frozen vegetable products will rise by an average of 4.5%.
The biggest hikes will be for products under its Mom’s Chicken brand, which will rise by an average of 9.8%, and the Tirat Zvi cold meats brand, which will rise by an average of 9.6%.
United extends cancellation of Tel Aviv-Newark service until May 9
File: United Airlines commercial jets sit at a gate at Terminal C of Newark Liberty International Airport, July 18, 2018, in Newark, New Jersey. (AP /Julio Cortez)
United Airlines extends the cancellation of its daily flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Tel Aviv in Israel up to May 9, saying it is completing a safety assessment.
“We continue to closely monitor the situation and will make decisions on all upcoming flights with a focus on the safety of our customers and crews,” United says in a statement.
United on April 19 canceled its flights to Israel until May 2 due to security concerns after Israel’s apparent strike on Iran that followed an Iranian missile and drone attack on Israel.
United was the first US carrier to resume its daily nonstop service between New York and Tel Aviv on March 2, while Delta Air Lines plans to resume flights to Tel Aviv on June 7.
Blinken blames Hamas for Gazans’ suffering; Herzog pans potential UN court arrest warrants against Israelis
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) meets with President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv, May 1, 2024. (Maayan Toaf / GPO)
Meeting with President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken places the blame squarely on Hamas for a failure to reach a hostage deal, saying the Gaza terror organization is “the only reason that that wouldn’t be achieved.”
“No delays, no excuses,” says Blinken. “The time is now.”
In a change of tune from recent criticism of Israeli policies, Blinken also blames Hamas for the suffering of Gazan civilians: “We also have to be focused on people in Gaza who are suffering in this crossfire of Hamas’s making, and so focused on getting them the assistance they need — the food, medicine, the water, the shelter.”
Herzog blasts the potential issuing of arrest warrants against Israeli leaders by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
“Our enemies and other elements are trying to undermine the entire process by using international legal forums that were established in order to have a world order that pursues peace, and pursues the values and norms that we all believe in in the modern world,” says Herzog. “Especially the efforts done at the International Criminal Court.”
“Israel has a very strong legal system, very strong adjudication and law enforcement system, and it has pursued legal steps from the highest authorities in this land [against] any other citizen,” stresses Herzog.
He says that using the ICC against Israel “is a clear and present danger to democracies and to free peace-loving nations who pursue the norms of international law, and I call upon all our allies and friends to object and reject any such efforts.”
Blinken will next meet families of American hostages held in Gaza, before heading to Jerusalem to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Lapid, Minister Tropper blast far-right minister’s harsh comments on hostage deal
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid hits back at far-right Settlements and National Projects Minister Orit Strock, who railed against a hostage deal earlier.
“A government with 22 or 33 extremist coalition members has no right to exist,” he writes on X, playing on Strock’s comment that the proposed agreement would throw the country’s war aims in the “trash” to release that number of hostages.
In a statement, Minister Chili Tropper of National Unity says that whether one supports the deal or not, “the fundamental Jewish precept ‘Whoever saves a single life, it is as if he saved an entire world’ should spare us obtuse and blunt statements regarding the terrible suffering of the hostages and their families, like the words of Minister Orit Strock.”
“The way of Judaism is more humane and sensitive to human life than those who sometimes seek to speak on its behalf,” he adds.
Minister Strock: ‘Terrible’ hostage deal throws war goals in ‘trash’ to save 22-33 people
Settlements and National Projects Minister Orit Strock attends a Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on March 18, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Settlements and National Projects Minister Orit Strock rails against the “terrible” hostage deal being negotiated in Egypt, saying that it calls into question the government’s right to continue in power.
There are “soldiers who left everything behind and went out to fight for goals that the government defined, and we throw it in the trash to save 22 people or 33 or I don’t know how many,” she tells Army Radio. “Such a government has no right to exist.”
Her rhetoric echoes that of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the leader of her Religious Zionism party, who on Tuesday appeared to threaten to bolt the coalition if it approves an agreement currently being negotiated in Egypt.
This is not the first time that Strock has criticized the conduct of the war against Hamas, having questioned the conduct of Israeli Air Force pilots regarding air support for ground troops in Gaza in December.
Blinken says he wants truce agreement ‘now,’ blames Hamas for delay
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) meets with President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv, May 1, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken renews calls for Hamas to accept a truce and hostage deal as he starts talks with Israel’s leadership.
“Even in these very difficult times we are determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home — and to get it now. And the only reason that that wouldn’t be achieved is because of Hamas,” Blinken says as he meets President Isaac Herzog.
IDF strikes Hezbollah in five different parts of southern Lebanon overnight
Overnight, Israeli fighter jets struck Hezbollah positions in five different areas of southern Lebanon, the military says.
The IDF says observation posts, buildings, and other Hezbollah infrastructure were hit in Khiam, Kafr Kila, Blida, Odaisseh, and Mays al-Jabal.
It publishes footage of the strikes.
במהלך הלילה מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר תקפו מטרות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחבים אל-חיאם וכפר כילא שבדרום לבנון, בניהן עמדות תצפית ותשתיות טרור >> pic.twitter.com/IAXJehwTVS
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) May 1, 2024
Lapid to head to Abu Dhabi for ‘short political visit’
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid leads Yesh Atid faction meeting at the Knesset on April 15, 2024. (Chaim Goldbergl/Flash90)
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid is set to leave for a “short political visit” to the United Arab Emirates’ capital of Abu Dhabi, a spokesman says.
His full schedule and list of meetings has yet to be announced.
Rocket sirens blare in town of Netua near Lebanese border
Rocket alert sirens are sounding in the northern community of Netua, close to the Lebanon border.
There are no immediate reports of impacts or interceptions.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.
Officials part of hostage deal talks deny report Israeli delegation visited Cairo
Preparing for Mimouna, a Moroccan festival at the end of Passover, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, April 29, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/FLASH90)
Officials involved in hostage deal and truce talks with Hamas deny a report that an Israeli delegation briefly visited Cairo Tuesday, in comments to Hebrew media outlets.
The report by the London-based New Arab claimed a delegation visited briefly on Tuesday to receive answers from Hamas on a proposal for a deal.
Report: Israeli delegation briefly visited Cairo Tuesday to hear Hamas response on truce, hostage deal proposal
An Israeli delegation visited Cairo Tuesday for three hours to receive Hamas’s response to an outline of a truce and hostage deal, the London-based New Arab outlet reports.
Citing Egyptian sources familiar with the mediation efforts, the report says Hamas will give a final answer to the deal at the end of the week after Israel responds to the latest developments.
The latest offer for a hostage deal being negotiated in Cairo reportedly includes a 40-day pause in fighting and the release of almost 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for between 20 and 33 hostages. The numbers relate to hostages in a so-called humanitarian category — women, children, men over 50 and those who are sick.
Jewish-American writer Paul Auster dies from lung cancer at 77
File: US writer Paul Auster looks on in Lyon, France, on January 16, 2018. (JEFF PACHOUD / AFP)
NEW YORK — Paul Auster, the prolific Jewish-American author whose works included “The New York Trilogy,” has died of complications from lung cancer, The New York Times reports. He was 77.
Auster died at his home in Brooklyn, the newspaper says, citing a friend of the novelist, Jacki Lyden.
Police clear anti-Israel protesters from Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall
Members of the New York Police Department strategic response team load arrested protesters from Columbia University onto a bus, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York (AP Photo/Julius Motal)
Police cleared 30 to 40 people from inside Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall overnight after protesters against Israel occupied the administration building in New York earlier in the day.
Hundreds of NYPD officers acted after the school’s president said there was no other way to ensure safety and restore order on campus and sought help from the department. The occupied building had expanded the demonstrators’ reach from an encampment elsewhere on the Ivy League school’s grounds.
The scene unfolded shortly after 9 p.m. as police, wearing helmets and carrying zip ties and riot shields, massed at the college’s entrance. Scores of officers climbed through a window to enter the occupied building, streaming in over a ramp raised from the top of a police vehicle to get inside. Multiple protesters were taken into custody and taken away from campus on buses.
The confrontation occurred more than 12 hours after the demonstrators took over Hamilton Hall shortly after midnight Tuesday, spreading their reach from an encampment elsewhere on the grounds that’s been there for nearly two weeks to protest the Israel-Hamas war. The police action happened on the 56th anniversary of a similar police action to quash an occupation of Hamilton Hall by students protesting racism and the Vietnam War.
“After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized, and blockaded, we were left with no choice,” the school says, adding that school public safety personnel were forced out of the building and one facilities worker was “threatened.”
Pro-Israel protester in LA says she was shoved to ground, hit her head and was kicked
Pro-Israel protester Elinor Hess is carried after being injured during a rally in Loas Angeles, April 30, 2024 (Channel 12 video screenshot; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Speaking to Channel 12 yesterday evening, Elinor Hess recounted being injured during clashes at a pro-Israel protest in Los Angeles.
“My sister’s flag fell on the floor… I was going in to try and get it, and when I was down getting her flag I was shoved down to the ground and I fell back hitting my head,” she said.
“And when I was down I was kicked a few times and my hair was pulled by feet, dragged across the ground, and then my head started bleeding. I lost consciousness and it was just super traumatic.”
Elinor said she’d filed a police complaint over the incident.
Her mother Ruth added that she was “in shock” as it happened, and “trying to find someone to help my girl.
“I just saw her head hit the ground. It was one of the most frightening things I’ve ever seen.”
Columbia president asks police to remain on campus until May 17
Columbia University’s president has asked New York police to remain on the prestigious institution’s campus until May 17, after weeks of controversial protests by pro-Palestinian students, a letter shows.
The letter signed by Minouche Shafik requests police “help to clear” the protest sites on campus, and “retain a presence on campus through at least May 17, 2024 to maintain order and ensure encampments are not reestablished.”
UN official: Evacuating civilians from Rafah would take at least 10 days
Displaced Palestinians celebrate during a wedding ceremony at school housing displaced Gazans in the city of Rafah on April 19, 2024. (AFP)
A UN official tells The Wall Street Journal that clearing civilians out of Rafah ahead of an Israeli offensive there would take at least 10 days.
The senior unnamed official adds that things could move quicker if civilians are taken to Egypt — though Cairo has opposed any such move.
Israel has said it prepared plans to protect and evacuate civilians ahead of any operation.
Previously analysts have assessed an evacuation could require weeks.
Israeli delegation in Cairo to get latest Hamas response to truce proposal — report
An Israeli delegation arrived in Cairo tonight for a brief urgent visit the get word of latest discussions conducted between Egyptian mediators and Hamas regarding a possible hostage deal, according to London-based Arab paper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
The report says the Israelis were provided a paper with Hamas’s “amendments” to Israel’s latest truce proposal, which the US and UK have described as “extraordinarily generous.”
Man killed, another injured in 2 separate road accidents
A man has been killed in a car crash near Acre. Paramedics arrived at the scene to find a car had crashed into a cement barrier and caught fire.
The man’s death was declared at the scene.
Separately, a motorcycle rider was seriously injured near Hadera, in a crash that did not involve anyone else. He was taken to a local hospital.
Florida abortion ban starts in heat of US election battle
Florida is bracing for one of the strictest abortion bans in the United States to take effect today.
The ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy has turned Republican-led Florida into a crucial battleground for a divisive topic that President Joe Biden and his Democratic Party hope to capitalize on in November.
Florida is one of several states that have introduced bans since a conservative US Supreme Court — featuring three justices appointed by Trump while he was president — revoked the nationwide right to abortion in 2022.
Nine states in the South have banned abortion, with Florida joining Georgia and South Carolina with a six-week ban. The Florida ban is the brainchild of Republican governor and former presidential contender Ron DeSantis, who signed into law in April 2023 a bill to lower the limit from 15 weeks to six weeks.
Police enter Columbia campus, reach building barricaded by students
New York police enter Columbia University’s campus and are in front of a building barricaded by anti-Israel student protesters.
Dozens of people are around Hamilton Hall, on the Columbia campus in the middle of New York City, as police arrive and begin pushing protesters outside.
There are reports of officers arresting activists at the scene.
???? BREAKING: NYPD declares protest at Columbia University a riot and start to move onto campus
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 1, 2024
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