Hamas said Sunday (January 11, 2026) it will dissolve its existing government in Gaza once a Palestinian technocratic leadership committee takes over the territory, as mandated under the U.S.-brokered peace plan. But the group gave no specifics on when the change will occur.

Hamas and the rival Palestinian Authority, the Palestinians’ internationally recognized representative, have not announced the names of the technocrats, who are not supposed to be politically affiliated, and it remains unclear if they will be cleared by Israel and the U.S.

The “Board of Peace,” an international body led by Mr. Trump, is supposed to oversee the government and other aspects of the ceasefire that took effect on October 10, including disarming Hamas and deploying an international security force. The board’s members have not been announced.

Meanwhile, the post-ceasefire death toll continued to rise in Gaza, with Israeli gunfire killing three Palestinians, according to Palestinian hospital officials.

The ceasefire began with a halt in fighting and the release of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for thousands of Palestinians held by Israel. The deal is still in its first phase as efforts continue to recover the remains of the final hostage left in Gaza.

An Egyptian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door information, said Hamas was sending a delegation to talks with Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish officials about moving to the second phase.

In comments posted on his Telegram channel Sunday (January 11, 2026), Hazem Kassem, a Hamas spokesperson, called for speeding up the establishment of the technocratic committee.

The Egyptian official said Hamas will meet with other Palestinian factions this week to finalise the committee’s formation. The Hamas delegation will be chaired by top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, the official said.

Mr. Trump has said the “Board of Peace” will monitor the committee and handle the disarmament of Hamas, the deployment of an international security force, additional pullbacks of Israeli troops and Gaza’s reconstruction. The U.S. has reported little progress on any of these fronts, though the members of the board are expected to be announced this week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday (January 8, 2026) that Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov has been selected as the board’s director-general. Mladenov is a former Bulgarian defense and Foreign Minister who served as U.N. envoy to Iraq before being appointed as the U.N. Mideast peace envoy from 2015 to 2020. During that time, he had good working relations with Israel and frequently worked to ease Israel-Hamas tensions.

Also Sunday (January 11, 2026), Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar met in Jerusalem with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi. Mr. Saar said Israel was committed to enforcing Mr. Trump’s plan, while Mr. Motegi expressed Japan’s willingness to play an active role in the ceasefire.

According to Japan’s Foreign Ministry, Mr. Motegi visited the Civil-Military Coordination Center, where the ceasefire is being monitored. He was also set to meet Mr. Netanyahu and Palestinian officials in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

In Gaza, two men were shot dead in the southern town of Bani Suhaila, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. Earlier Sunday (January 11, 2026), a man was killed by Israeli gunfire in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, according to Al-Ahly hospital, which received the body.

In response to questions about the Tuffah incident, Israel’s military said it had fired at and hit a “terrorist” in northern Gaza who had approached troops. In a later statement, the military said it had killed a “terrorist” in southern Gaza who approached troops.

Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the ceasefire. Continued Israeli strikes in Gaza have killed more than 400 Palestinians, according to local health officials.

The Israeli military says any actions since the ceasefire began have been in response to violations of the agreement.

Israeli police said Sunday (January 11, 2026) they were questioning a top official from Mr. Netanyahu’s office over possible obstruction of an investigation into last year’s leak of classified military information to a German tabloid.

Israeli media identified the official as Tzachi Braverman, Netanyahu’s chief of staff, who is expected to start as the next ambassador to the United Kingdom in the coming months.

He’s the latest official to be caught up in the scandal, in which Mr. Netanyahu’s inner circle is accused of leaking confidential information to German tabloid Bild to improve public perception of the prime minister following the killing of six hostages in Gaza in 2024.

It comes after an explosive interview by Kan News with former Mr. Netanyahu spokesperson Eli Feldstein, who described a clandestine meeting with Braverman in an underground parking lot in the middle of the night in connection with the leak. Mr. Feldstein, who has been indicted, said Mr. Braverman offered to “shut down” the probe into the leaked information.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid immediately called for the suspension of Braverman as ambassador. “It is unacceptable that a person suspected of involvement in obstructing a serious security investigation should be the face of Israel in one of Europe’s most important countries,” Mr. Lapid wrote on X.

In response, Mr. Saar defended Braverman’s appointment and said he would not be removed from it until formally charged or tried.

Published – January 12, 2026 06:43 am IST

Facebook has been accused of severely restricting Palestinian news outlets’ ability to reach their audience during the Israel-Gaza war. A BBC analysis of Facebook data revealed a steep drop in audience engagement for newsrooms in the Palestinian territories, including Gaza and the West Bank, since October 2023.

This decline in engagement is surprising, given that social media has become a vital source of updates for those wanting to hear more voices from inside Gaza. Facebook pages for news outlets like Palestine TV, Wafa news agency, and Palestinian Al-Watan News have been crucial in providing updates to millions of followers worldwide.

Since the war began, outside reporters have been allowed to enter Gaza if escorted by the Israeli army.

Although during wars, audience engagement is expected to rise, the data analysis showed a 77% decline in engagement for Palestinian-based news organisations, while Israeli news organisations saw a 37% increase in engagement during the same period.

Meta, Facebook’s owner, denies deliberately suppressing particular voices, stating that any such implication is “unequivocally false”.

Palestine TV has 5.8 million followers on Facebook and journalists working there showed a 60% drop in the number of people seeing their posts.

“Interaction was completely restricted, and our posts stopped reaching people,” says Tariq Ziad, a journalist at the channel.

Shadow-ban is when a social media platform bans a user’s content without notifying the user, and Palestinian journalists fear the same has happened with their online content.

BBC ran a data analysis on 20 Israeli news channels such as Yediot Ahronot, Israel Hayom and Channel 13, which also posted war-related content but their audience engagement increased by 37%.

However, leaked documents and internal messages suggest that Instagram, another Meta-owned platform, increased its moderation of Palestinian user comments after October 2023. This change was made to respond to a “spike in hateful content” coming out of the Palestinian territories, according to Meta.

The impact of these policies on individual Palestinian users is a concern. Five former and current Meta employees spoke to the BBC about the effects of these policies, with one person sharing leaked internal documents about the change to Instagram’s algorithm.

According to the documents, the moderation of Palestinians commenting on Instagram posts toughened. “Within a week of the Hamas attack, the code was changed essentially making it more aggressive towards Palestinian people,” he said.

In response to these findings, Meta pointed out that it had made no secret of its “temporary product and policy measures” taken in October 2023. The company stated that it had faced a challenge balancing the right to freedom of speech with the fact that Hamas is both US-sanctioned and designated as a dangerous organisation under Meta’s own policies.
 

Balata, West Bank:

Newly freed from an Israeli prison, Wael Masha rode atop friends’ shoulders through the streets of his West Bank refugee camp before bursting into his home to kiss his mother’s feet.

Less than a year later, those friends carried the 18-year-old’s body through the same streets after Israeli forces killed him in an air strike, describing him as an armed militant who posed a threat to Israeli forces.

His journey was not unique: Masha is one of at least three Palestinians born in the Israeli-occupied West Bank who were arrested as teenagers, released during a brief truce in the Gaza war last November, then killed in intensifying Israeli military operations in the territory.

Israel says its raids and air strikes in the West Bank, which it has occupied since 1967, reflect the scope of the security threat it faces from Palestinian combatants.

His family and others like them say Israel is fuelling the problem it claims to be fighting, arresting young men — Masha was 17 when he was taken into custody — then abusing them in custody, ultimately driving them to seek revenge.

What is not in dispute is that Masha embraced “jihad” after his release, and knew where it would lead.

In his will, he instructed his mother: “When you hear the news of my martyrdom, God willing, do not cry, but ululate.”

While some memorial posters show Masha brandishing an automatic weapon, his mother remembers him differently.

“He loved studying and repairing computers and mobile phones,” Hanadi Masha told AFP in the family home in Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus, surrounded by pictures of her smiling son.

Perhaps this interest could have turned into a career, she added.

But “after he got out of prison, he had a grudge because of everything he saw inside”.

‘SHOCK’ BEHIND BARS

The fallout from the nearly year-old war in Gaza has reverberated across the West Bank, where the health ministry says at least 680 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers since Hamas’s October 7 attack.

Israeli officials say 24 Israelis, including troops, have been killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period.

Even before the war, Israeli round-ups of Palestinian men were common, including the one in November 2022 in which Masha was detained.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group says there are at least 250 Palestinians under the age of 18 currently in Israeli custody.

“The occupation does not hesitate to arrest children under 18 years old… The widespread arrests have nothing to do with any armed action,” said Hilmi al-Araj of the Palestinian civil society group Hurryyat.

Israeli authorities took Masha to Megiddo prison in northern Israel and sentenced him to two and a half years on charges they never disclosed to his family.

His surprise release came during a weeklong truce in Gaza in November 2023, the only one of the war so far, during which Palestinian militants released 105 hostages seized on October 7, the Israelis among them in exchange for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

Once out, Masha recounted a host of abuses: being instructed to kiss the Israeli flag, being burned with cigarette butts.

His father Bilal said the experience was “a huge shock” that “changed things completely” for him.

“My son entered as a cub and came out as a lion,” he said.

‘PRIME OF LIFE’

Israel has not explained the precise circumstances of Masha’s death, and his parents say they do not know what he was doing when an Israeli strike killed him on August 15.

They only know that the day before the strike Masha said he received a threatening phone call from an Israeli officer warning: “It’s your turn.”

The details are clearer for Tariq Daoud, a second Palestinian teenager who was detained with Masha and released on the same day of the November truce.

Like Masha, Daoud said he was beaten at Megiddo prison, his brother Khaled told AFP at the family home in Qalqilyah, where children wear necklaces featuring his face.

Khaled said the abuse produced false confessions from Tariq — aged 16 when he was arrested — on charges including possessing an illegal firearm and attempting to build explosives.

Incarceration “shattered all his ambitions”, which had included potentially becoming an engineer or a doctor, Khaled said.

Instead he joined Hamas’s armed wing.

In the same week that Masha was killed, Tariq opened fire on an Israeli settler in Azzun, east of Qalqilyah, and Israeli troops shot him dead at the scene, both Khaled and the Israeli military said.

Israeli officials have not yet released his body, but Khaled still visits his plot at the Qalqilyah cemetery every day to water the flowers.

“I go because I feel that there is something of his presence,” Khaled said.

Back in the Balata camp, Masha’s mother Hanadi has found her own ways to honour her son, talking about him with his four younger siblings and stroking pictures of his beard — just like she playfully greeted him when he was alive.

Shortly after Masha’s death, the institute where he had been taking classes told her he had been awarded certificates in mobile phone repair and cybersecurity.

His mother attended the graduation ceremony on his behalf.

“He was a young man in the prime of life,” she told AFP through tears.

His time behind bars “planted the idea of resistance in his head.”
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

U.S. and Arab mediators say they are closing in on a deal to halt the war in Gaza and free hostages captured by Hamas in its October 7 attack, but the talks have dragged on for months, with several moments of false hope.

The negotiations gained new urgency when Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah vowed to avenge the targeted killing of two top militants, attributed to Israel, raising fears of a far wider and more devastating war.

U.S. and Israeli officials expressed cautious optimism after two days of talks in Qatar last week, in which the mediators put forth a bridging proposal. But Hamas has been less upbeat, saying the latest proposal departs from previous iterations that it had largely accepted.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is back in the region and set to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday (August 19, 2024). Israel sent a delegation to Cairo on Sunday (August 18, 2024), and the mediators are expected to hold another round of high-level talks with Israel in Egypt later this week.

Here’s where things stand:

A cease-fire would halt the deadliest war ever fought between Israelis and Palestinians, a conflict that has destabilized the Middle East and sparked worldwide protests.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health officials, who do not say how many were militants. The vast majority of the population has been displaced, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands of people are packed into squalid tent camps, the health sector has largely collapsed and entire neighborhoods have been obliterated.

The Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7 killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw militants abduct around 250 hostages. Some 110 hostages are still in Gaza, with Israeli authorities saying around a third are dead. Over 100 hostages were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah has launched drones and rockets into Israel on a near-daily basis since the start of the war, and Israel has responded with airstrikes and artillery. The violence has escalated, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes on both sides of the border.

Hezbollah has vowed an even more severe attack — without saying when or how — in response to the killing last month of Fouad Shukur, one of its top commanders, in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut.

Other Iran-backed groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen have attacked Israeli, U.S. and international targets in solidarity with the Palestinians. Iran and Israel traded fire directly in April, and many fear a repeat if Iran makes good on its threat to avenge the killing of top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in an explosion in Tehran that was blamed on Israel.

Hezbollah has said it would halt its operations along the border if there is calm in Gaza. A cease-fire deal might also persuade both Hezbollah and Iran to refrain from retaliatory strikes on Israel — if only temporarily — to avoid being seen as spoilers.

The two sides have been working off an evolving proposal for a three-phase process in which Hamas would free all the hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners, an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a lasting cease-fire.

President Joe Biden came out in favor of the proposal in a May 31 speech and the U.N. Security Council approved it shortly thereafter. But since then, Hamas has proposed “amendments” and Israel has asked for “clarifications,” with each side accusing the other of making new demands it cannot accept.

Hamas wants assurances that Israel will not resume the war after the first batch of hostages — around 30 of the most vulnerable — are released. Israel wants to ensure negotiations do not drag on indefinitely over the second phase, in which the remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, are to be freed.

Netanyahu has also demanded in recent weeks that Israel maintain a military presence along the Gaza-Egypt border to prevent arms smuggling and along a line bisecting the territory so it can search Palestinians returning to their homes in the north and make sure militants don’t slip in.

Israel denies the demands are new, but there was no reference to either in Biden’s speech or the U.N. resolution, which spoke of a full withdrawal. Other lingering issues include which Palestinian prisoners will be released and whether they will be sent into exile.

Any deal would have to be accepted by Mr. Netanyahu and Yahya Sinwar, who helped mastermind the October 7 attack and became Hamas’ overall leader after Haniyeh was killed.

Mr. Netanyahu faces intense pressure from families of the hostages and much of the Israeli public to make a deal to bring them home. But far-right leaders in his coalition have threatened to bring down the government if he concedes too much, forcing early elections that could drive him from power.

Mr. Sinwar, meanwhile, is hiding in Gaza, likely deep inside Hamas’ vast network of tunnels, and has stuck to a hard line throughout the talks. He also tops Israel’s most-wanted list, raising questions about what happens if he is killed.

In the past it has taken several days for Hamas’ negotiators to send proposals to Sinwar and receive his feedback. That means that even when the work of hammering out the latest proposal is completed, it would likely take a week or more for Hamas to formally respond to it.

Palestinians in Gaza say they are exhausted and desperate for a cease-fire. When Hamas accepted an earlier proposal in May, spontaneous celebrations erupted — but those hopes were soon dashed.

Aid groups have called for a cease-fire since the start of the war, saying it’s the only way to ensure desperately needed food and humanitarian aid reaches Gaza. Experts have warned of famine and the outbreak of diseases like polio if the war drags on. Even if the fighting ends tomorrow, the U.N. has said it would take more than a decade and tens of billions of dollars to rebuild Gaza.

In Israel, where many are still deeply traumatized by the October 7 attack, there is widespread support for the war and little sympathy for the Palestinians.

But the plight of the hostages has galvanized mass protests calling for a deal to bring them home and for the end of Netanyahu’s government, which many blame for the security and intelligence failures that allowed the attack to happen.

Pople react during a farewell for Palestinian Ahmed Khalil killed in an Israeli airstrike, at his home, in the Balata refugee camp, in Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, August 15, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Gaza’s civil defence agency said an Israeli air strike in the early hours of Saturday(August 17, 2024) killed 15 people from a Palestinian family, including nine children and three women.

The strike hit the home of the Ajlah family in Al-Zawaida neighbourhood of central Gaza, said civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal. The Israeli military did not offer an immediate comment.

“The toll from the Israeli strike on the Ajlah family home and their warehouse in Al-Zawaida is 15 dead,” Mr. Bassal said.

Mr. Bassal gave a list of those killed, including nine children and three women.

A witness said the strike took place shortly after midnight.

“Three rockets hit the house directly,” Ahmed Abu al-Ghoul said as rescuers pulled bodies from the rubble of the flattened house.

“There were a lot of children and women inside… What have they done to deserve this?”

AFPTV footage of the aftermath, captured after dawn, showed rescuers searching for bodies under piles of collapsed concrete blocks.

More than 10 months of war between Israel and Hamas has left vast swathes of Gaza in ruins.

The war broke out after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also seized 251 people during the attack, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,005 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide details of civilian and militant deaths.

Jerusalem:

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has announced that Aiman Zaarab, a senior commander of the Islamic Jihad Rafah Brigade, was killed in an airstrike on the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah.

ELIMINATED: Aiman Zaarab

Zaarab was one of the Islamic Jihad Rafah Brigade commanders, responsible for the Islamic Jihad Nukhba force’s attack on Kibbutz Sufa and the Sufa military post during the October 7 massacre.

Along with Zaarab, two additional Islamic Jihad terrorists… pic.twitter.com/Kh5l2Nk7rI

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 4, 2024

Zaarab directed the Islamic Jihad’s elite forces during the October 7 onslaught on Kibbutz Sufa and the Sufa military post bordering the Gaza Strip, the IDF was quoted as saying on Saturday by Xinhua news agency.

Zaarab had “commanded and directed” several attacks, and over the past few days, he led the Islamic Jihads’ preparations for combat in the southern Gaza Strip against the Israeli military, according to the IDF statement.

Along with Zaarab, two other Islamic Jihad operatives were killed during the strike, the IDF added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A brawl erupted at University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) after a pro-Palestinian encampment was “forcefully attacked,” the school’s chancellor said on May 1, while activists at the University of Wisconsin in Madison clashed with police officers who destroyed their tents, in a day of escalating violence on some college campuses over the war in Gaza.

Fifteen people were injured during the UCLA confrontation, including one person who was hospitalized, according to the president of the University of California system. The chaotic scenes unfolded on Wednesday after police burst into a building occupied by anti-war protesters at Columbia University on Tuesday night, breaking up a demonstration that had paralyzed the school.

Chancellor Gene Block at UCLA said in a statement that “a group of instigators” came on campus Tuesday to “forcefully attack” the pro-Palestinian encampment, prompting the school to ask for assistance from outside law enforcement.

After a couple of hours of scuffles between dueling demonstrators at the University of California, Los Angeles, police wearing helmets and face shields separated the groups and restored calm. Later Wednesday, pro-Palestinian protesters rebuilt a barricade around their encampment. There were no counter-protesters in sight, and law enforcement officers were deployed throughout the campus.

Also read | Demonstrations roil U.S. campuses ahead of graduations as protesters spar over the war in Gaza

In Madison on Wednesday, police with shields removed all but one tent and shoved protesters, resulting in a scrum. Four officers were injured, including a state trooper who was hit in the head with a skateboard, according to University of Wisconsin police spokesperson Marc Lovicott.

Within hours, protesters had erected more tents at the UW campus.

More than 30 people were arrested, most of them released without charges, but four were charged with battering law enforcement, police said.

Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies that support the war in Gaza have spread across campuses nationwide in a student movement unlike any other this century. The ensuing police crackdowns echoed actions decades ago against a much larger protest movement protesting the Vietnam War.

This is all playing out in an election year in the U.S., raising questions about whether young voters — who are critical for Democrats — will back President Joe Biden’s reelection effort, given his staunch support of Israel.

There have been confrontations with law enforcement and more than 1,300 arrests. In rare instances, university officials and protest leaders struck agreements to restrict the disruption to campus life and upcoming commencement ceremonies.

The clashes at UCLA erupted when the pro-Palestinian protesters tried to expand their encampment late Tuesday night. Counter-protesters then tried to pull down the parade barricades, plywood and wooden pallets surrounding the encampment. In the chaos, firecrackers exploded.

Police left the scene around 11.30 p.m., and police in riot gear showed up at 1.45 a.m. to establish a perimeter. Pro-Israel protesters threw traffic cones and chairs, released pepper spray, and tore down barriers around the encampment. Some from the pro-Palestinian camp hopped over the barriers and scuffled with the counter-protesters.

No one was arrested. Officials have not clarified whether the demonstrators were all students.

Chancellor Block offered his sympathy to those who were injured and anyone who feels unsafe on campus, and promised the university will conduct a thorough investigation that he said may lead to arrests, expulsions and dismissals. In addition, Mr. Block said the administration is examining its own security response.

“However one feels about the encampment, this attack on our students, faculty and community members was utterly unacceptable,” Mr. Block said. “It has shaken our campus to its core and — adding to other abhorrent incidents that we have witnessed and that have circulated on social media over the past several days — further damaged our community’s sense of security.”

Also read | More than 100 arrested at U.S. university pro-Palestinian protests

UCLA senior Edgar Gomez, who ventured outside his dorm to watch the ruckus unfold, said he saw counter-protesters tearing up Palestinian flags, and pepper spray hung in the air as the two sides fought.

“I’ve never seen this happen before,” said Mr. Gomez, adding that he isn’t with either group. “I’ve never seen people get so heated.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass both called for accountability of those involved in the melee. A spokesperson for the governor said outside law enforcement was sent to the campus after “unacceptable” delays in the university’s police force response to the clashes.

The nationwide campus demonstrations began at Columbia to protest Israel’s offensive in Gaza after Hamas launched a deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7. Militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages. Vowing to stamp out Hamas, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there.

Late Tuesday, New York City police officers entered Columbia’s campus and cleared a tent encampment, along with Hamilton Hall where a stream of officers used a ladder to climb through a second-floor window, and police said protesters inside presented no substantial resistance. They had seized the Ivy League school building about 20 hours earlier.

Protesters first set up a tent encampment at Columbia almost two weeks ago. The school sent in police to clear the tents the following day, arresting more than 100 people. But the protesters returned.

Negotiations between the protesters and the college ground to a halt in recent days, and the school set a Monday deadline for the activists to abandon the tent encampment or be suspended.

Instead, protesters took over Hamilton Hall early Tuesday, carrying in furniture and metal barricades.

In a letter to senior police officials, Columbia President Nemat Shafik, who uses the first name Minouche, said the administration asked officers to remove protesters from the occupied building and a tent encampment “with the utmost regret.”

Columbia on Wednesday called Hamilton Hall “an active crime scene” under NYPD investigation and limited campus access to people with Columbia identification and essential personnel, barring the media.

“After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized, and blockaded, we were left with no choice,” the school said in a statement.

Fabien Lugo, a first-year accounting student who said he was not involved in the protests, said he opposed the university’s decision to call in police.

“This is too intense,” he said. “It feels like more of an escalation than a de-escalation.”

Blocks away from Columbia, at The City College of New York, demonstrators were in a standoff with police outside the public college’s main gate. Video posted on social media by reporters late Tuesday showed officers forcing some people to the ground and shoving others as they cleared the street and sidewalks.

Close to 300 protesters were arrested in the crackdowns at Columbia and City College, officials said.

Brown University, another Ivy League school, reached an agreement Tuesday with protesters on its Rhode Island campus. Demonstrators closed their encampment after administrators agreed to consider a vote to divest from Israel in October — apparently the first U.S. college to agree to such a demand.

Meanwhile, protest encampments were cleared or closed up voluntarily at schools from Flagstaff, Arizona, to New Orleans.

At Portland State in Oregon, school officials said some 50 protesters left a library on campus that had been occupied since Monday after administrators offered not to seek criminal charges or other discipline. An unknown number of people remained in the library Wednesday.

Israel and its supporters have branded the university protests antisemitic, while Israel’s critics say it uses those allegations to silence opposition. Although some protesters have been caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, organizers of the protests, some of whom are Jewish, say it is a peaceful movement aimed at defending Palestinian rights and protesting the war.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley vetos an Egyptian-drafted resolution regarding recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem, during the United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including Palestine, at U.N. Headquarters in New York City, New York, U.S., December 18, 2017.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The U.S. has vetoed a resolution in the U.N. Security Council on the latest Palestinian bid to be granted full membership of the United Nations, an outcome lauded by Israel but criticised by Palestine as “unfair, immoral, and unjustified”.

The 15-nation Council voted on a draft resolution on April 18 that would have recommended to the 193-member U.N. General Assembly “that the State of Palestine be admitted to membership in the United Nations.” The resolution got 12 votes in its favour, with Switzerland and the U.K. abstaining and the U.S. casting its veto.

To be adopted, the draft resolution required at least nine Council members voting in its favour, with no vetoes by any of its five permanent members – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

U.N. Security Council refers Palestinian application to become full U.N. member to committee

Palestinian attempts for recognition as a full member state began in 2011. Palestine is currently a non-member observer state, a status that was granted in November 2012 by the U.N. General Assembly.

This status allows Palestine to participate in proceedings of the world body but it cannot vote on resolutions. The only other non-member Observer State at the U.N. is the Holy See, representing the Vatican.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz praised the U.S. for vetoing what he called a “shameful proposal.” “The proposal to recognise a Palestinian state, more than 6 months after the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and after the sexual crimes and other atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists was a reward for terrorism”, Katz wrote on X, after the US veto.

U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood, Alternative Representative for Special Political Affairs, said in the explanation of the vote at the Security Council meeting on Palestinian membership that Washington continues to strongly support a two-state solution.

“It remains the U.S. view that the most expeditious path toward statehood for the Palestinian people is through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority with the support of the United States and other partners,” he said.

“This vote does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood, but instead is an acknowledgement that it will only come from direct negotiations between the parties.” Wood said there are “unresolved questions” as to whether Palestine meets the criteria to be considered a State.

“We have long called on the Palestinian Authority to undertake necessary reforms to help establish the attributes of readiness for statehood and note that Hamas – a terrorist organisation – is currently exerting power and influence in Gaza, an integral part of the state envisioned in this resolution,” he said, adding that “For these reasons, the United States voted “no” on this Security Council resolution.” Wood noted that since the October 7 attacks last year against Israel by Hamas, US President Joe Biden has been clear that sustainable peace in the region can only be achieved through a two-state solution, with Israel’s security guaranteed.

“There is no other path that guarantees Israel’s security and future as a democratic Jewish state. There is no other path that guarantees Palestinians can live in peace and with dignity in a state of their own. And there is no other path that leads to regional integration between Israel and all its Arab neighbours, including Saudi Arabia,” he said.

The Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, sharply criticised the US veto, saying that it was “unfair, immoral, and unjustified, and defies the will of the international community, which strongly supports the State of Palestine obtaining full membership in the United Nations.” Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine, said that “our right to self-determination has never once been subject to bargaining or negotiation.

“Our right to self-determination is a natural right, a historic right, a legal right. A right to live in our homeland Palestine as an independent state that is free and that is sovereign. Our right to self-determination is inalienable…,” he said.

Getting emotional and choking up as he made the remarks, Mansour said that a majority of the Council members “have risen to the level of this historic moment” and have stood “on the side of justice, freedom and hope.” He asserted that Palestine’s admission as a full member of the UN is an “investment in peace.” On April 2, 2024, Palestine again sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres requesting that its application for full UN membership be considered again.

For a State to be granted full U.N. membership, its application must be approved both by the Security Council and the General Assembly, where a two-thirds majority of the members present and voting is required for the State to be admitted as a full member.

Earlier in the day, Guterres, in his remarks to a Council meeting on the Middle East, warned that the region is on a “knife edge”.

“Recent escalations make it even more important to support good-faith efforts to find lasting peace between Israel and a fully independent, viable and sovereign Palestinian state,” Guterres said.

“Failure to make progress towards a two-state solution will only increase volatility and risk for hundreds of millions of people across the region, who will continue to live under the constant threat of violence,” he said.

The UN, citing the Ministry of Health in Gaza, said that between October 7 last year and April 17, at least 33,899 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and 76,664 Palestinians injured. Over 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, including 33 children, have been killed in Israel, the vast majority on October 7.

As of April 17, Israeli authorities estimate that 133 Israelis and foreign nationals remain captive in Gaza, including fatalities whose bodies are withheld.

We are committed to supporting a two-state solution: India on Israel-Palestine conflict

U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood votes against resolution during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, on April 18, 2024
| Photo Credit: AP

Palestinian militant group Hamas condemned on April 19 the U.S. veto that ended a long-shot Palestinian bid for full United Nations membership.

“Hamas condemns the American veto at the Security Council of the draft resolution granting Palestine full membership in the United Nations,” the Gaza Strip rulers said in a statement, which comes amid growing international concern over the toll inflicted by the war in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Iran-Israel Crisis updates April 19, 2024

The veto by Israel’s main ally and military backer had been expected ahead of the vote, which took place more than six months into Israel’s offensive in Gaza, in retaliation for the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas militants.

Twelve countries voted in favour of the draft resolution, which was introduced by Algeria and “recommends to the General Assembly that the State of Palestine be admitted to membership of the United Nations”. Britain and Switzerland abstained.

As Israel’s deadline for Palestinians to evacuate the Gaza strip is approaching, thousands of Gazans are fleeing their homes fearing the deadliest ground offensive they have ever witnessed in their lives. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel’s week-long retaliation against Hamas’ “surprise” attack last week was “just the beginning”. Over a million Gazans face a 24 hours deadline on Friday to flee to the south even as many chose to stay back as Hamas has vowed to dug its heels in and fight “to the last drop of blood”. Ahead of the deadline ending, Israeli forces made “localised” raids in Gaza in the last 24 hours “to cleanse the area of terrorists” and try to find “missing persons”.
 

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Israel-Hamas War Day 8: At UN, Russia Calls For “Humanitarian Cease-Fire” In Gaza Strip

Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations called for a “humanitarian cease-fire” in the Gaza Strip and Israel on Friday, while blaming the United States for the ongoing conflict. The Russian draft resolution, presented to the Security Council, calls for an “immediate” ceasefire and the secure release of all hostages, and “strongly condemns all violence and hostilities directed against civilians and all acts of terrorism.”