12:27
According to Abbas, only the US can prevent a major attack on Rafah
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says only the United States can prevent Israel from attacking Rafah. According to Abbas, such an attack is expected to happen in the coming days. The US is emphatically against it, but Israel has said it doesn’t care much about it.
Abbas spoke at a meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Saudi capital Riyadh. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also there. Abbas said invading Rafah would be a “crime” and “the greatest disaster in the history of the Palestinian people.”
Rafah is located in the south of the Gaza Strip, near the border with Egypt. It is a crucial city for the delivery of aid, international organizations say. Moreover, huge numbers of refugees have moved there because Rafah is less dangerous than the rest of Gaza. Israel says that operations in Rafah are necessary because there are still Hamas fighters that the country wants to eliminate.
03:53
Hundreds of protesters at Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington call for ceasefire
Hundreds of activists demonstrated in front of the Washington Hilton on Saturday. The annual dinner for White House reporters, the so-called Correspondents’ Dinner, is held in the hotel. The demonstrators chanted slogans about the deaths of reporters in the Gaza Strip and called on journalists present to boycott the event.
US President Joe Biden, one of those present at the dinner, avoided the protests at the front by entering the building from the rear. He was met there by a smaller group of demonstrators calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
During his speech later in the evening, Biden poked fun at his own age and ridiculed rival Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential elections. “Yes, age is an issue. I’m a grown man taking on a 6-year-old,” he joked. “Age is the only thing we have in common. My vice president supports me.”
The president provided advice to the press and ‘sincerely’ called on them not to take sides. “I ask you to understand the seriousness of the moment.” In his view, journalists should not be guided by side issues that have come to dominate politics. “Focus on what’s really at stake.”
Since 2022, the event, which has existed for a hundred years, will be held annually again. Former President Donald Trump kept missing the dinner from 2016 onwards and after that the Correspondents’ Dinner was canceled several times due to corona.
03:11
Hezbollah says it has fired ‘drones and rockets’ into northern Israel
Hezbollah has attacked three military positions in northern Israel from Lebanon, the Iranian-backed militia said. The reason given is ‘retaliation for enemy attacks’.
According to Hezbollah, three people were killed and a dozen others were injured in Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon on Saturday. Two Hezbollah fighters were also injured.
Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets at the Meron military air base in northern Israel, according to a press release sent on Saturday night. Earlier, the militia reported a “complex attack with explosive drones and guided missiles on the headquarters of the al-Manara military command and a troop collection of the 51st battalion of the Golani Brigade.”
Since the war in the Gaza Strip began on October 7 after Hamas invaded Israel unannounced, there has been unrest on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
03:07
More arrests in pro-Palestinian actions at US universities
Nearly two hundred activists were arrested on Saturday during new pro-Palestinian protests at American universities, media in the US report. The arrests were made at Northeastern University in Boston, Arizona State University and Indiana University, The New York Times reports.
Protesters had set up a tent camp on the grounds of the educational institution in Boston. Management asked them to leave, but they refused. On Saturday, police tore down their tents and arrested 102 activists. In Arizona, a college encampment was demolished and 69 people were taken. Police also intervened in Indiana. Erected tents were removed and 23 activists were arrested.
The nationwide wave of protests began at Columbia University in New York, where more than a hundred demonstrators were arrested last week after university authorities called the police. Since then, similar actions have been held at more and more universities in the US and more than seven hundred demonstrators have been arrested.
04:19, Yesterday
Hamas considers Israel’s ceasefire proposal
Hamas has received and will study the latest Israeli counter-proposal on a possible ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages. The militant group announced this on Saturday.
“Today the Hamas movement received the official response from the Zionist occupying forces to our proposal that was presented to the Egyptian and Qatari mediators on April 13,” a Hamas spokesperson said in a short statement. “The movement will study this proposal and then submit its response.”
On April 13, Hamas requested a permanent ceasefire, which Israel is unwilling to accept. A delegation from mediator Egypt arrived in Israel on Friday in an attempt to revive the stalled negotiations.
Israeli officials reportedly told those Egyptian colleagues that they are willing to give negotiations with Hamas on the exchange of hostages and prisoners “one last chance.” If negotiations still fail, the Israelis will continue their invasion of Rafah, in southern Gaza.
During a previous week-long lull in fighting in November, 80 Israeli hostages were exchanged for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
00:21, Yesterday
NBC News: Israel bombs ‘safe’ places in Gaza
Israel regularly bombs areas of the Gaza Strip that it has designated as safe. The American news channel NBC News established this after its own investigation.
NBC News reports that at least seven deadly airstrikes took place between January and April in areas of southern Gaza that the Israeli military had declared safe. It did this, among other things, by distributing handbills in a neighborhood in the southern city of Rafah on December 18. According to relatives, fifteen members of a family were killed in an airstrike on January 9. NBC was on site shortly after the air raid.
About a month later, on February 12, an attack hit the Shaboura refugee camp, which was also designated as a safe zone on an Israeli army leaflet. An NBC News crew filmed dozens of dead bodies, including those of several women and children, in the aftermath of that bombing in Rafah.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said at a press conference in November that Al-Mawasi, a small strip on the Gaza coast in Khan Younis, would not be attacked. Since January, the Israeli army has advised civilians to evacuate there 11 times. Nevertheless, several air strikes took place, says NBC. On January 4, fourteen people, including three children, were killed when their tent was hit.
Israel released an interactive map in December that divides the Gaza Strip into zones that are safe for civilians and others where there is fighting with Hamas. International aid organizations and residents of Gaza call the map confusing and difficult to read. Regular disruptions to the internet connection make it difficult for citizens to consult the map. The Israeli government and armed forces say they are doing everything possible to limit civilian deaths.
10:52, the day before yesterday
Americans start building port for aid to Palestinians
United States military units have begun building a temporary port off the coast of the Gaza Strip so Palestinians can receive more aid. It involves a platform and a pier. The installation is scheduled to be completed in early May, according to the US Department of Defense.
The Pentagon previously reported that construction could take sixty days. About a thousand American troops would be deployed. President Joe Biden wants to provide more humanitarian aid to the suffering Palestinian population. He announced the measure in early March, when Israel blocked overland aid shipments.
The American military will not operate on Gazan soil.
10:25, the day before yesterday
Media: Israel would accept release of fewer hostages
According to various media, Israel is prepared to abandon Hamas’ original demand for the release of forty hostages in exchange for a temporary ceasefire. Israeli media reported on Thursday that Israel is willing to accept the release of 20 hostages as long as they are women, men over 50 and seriously ill.
The War Cabinet has instructed the Israeli team of negotiators to discuss this with an Egyptian delegation arriving in Tel Aviv on Friday, reports said.
The Times of Israel reports that Israel is prepared to do this after Hamas rejected an earlier proposal based on the release of forty hostages. Hamas claimed it does not have that many hostages in those categories still alive.
A senior Israeli official has denied that 20 hostages were involved. According to the official, this concerns 33 people, the number of women, elderly and sick people still being held in Gaza. According to Hamas, that number is closer to twenty The Times of Israel.
10:24, the day before yesterday
Israel says it has attacked forty Hezbollah targets
The Israeli army says it has attacked forty Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon with fighter planes and artillery. These are targets in the region of the village of Ayta al Shaab, which is located one kilometer from the Israeli border.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said earlier that half of Hezbollah’s commanders in southern Lebanon have been killed and the other half are in hiding or moving away.
