Live Updates
Middle East Eye, Apr 22 2024
Evening recap
Here are today’s main developments:
- Gaza’s health ministry said that 54 people have been killed by Israel in Gaza in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 34,151 since Oct 7. Additionally, 77,084 people have been wounded since the start of the war.
- At least 8,425 Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank since 7 October, according to Palestinian prisoner groups.
- Three people were lightly wounded following a car-ramming and attempted shooting attack in Jerusalem, Israeli police say.
- The World Food Programme said it was able to deliver fuel ad wheat flour to bakeries in northern Gaza “so they can begin production again after 170 days of being inoperable.”.
- Opposition leader Yair Lapid called on Netanyahu to follow Israeli army intelligence chief Aharon Haliva’s footsteps and resign over the failures of Oct 7.
- As many as 50 people have been arrested on the campus of Yale University in the US for “aggravated trespassing” over their participation in a protest camp against the Gaza war.
- Gaza’s civil defence agency said that within the past three days, health workers had recovered about 200 bodies at a hospital in Khan Younis who had been killed and buried there by Israeli forces.
- Blinken said that the US is investigating allegations of human rights abuses by Israel during its operations against Hamas in Gaza.
- Google fired over two dozen employees who protested last week against the company’s cloud computing contract with the Israeli government.
Columbia University deactivates pro-Israel professor’s swipe card
Columbia University has deactivated the swipe card of a pro-Israel professor accused of harassing pro-Palestinian students amid rising tensions between the two camps on campus. Israel-born Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at Columbia Business School, yelled to supporters gathered outside the campus gates on Monday:
Everybody, my card has been deactivated! They are not letting me on main campus! I am a professor here! I have a right to be everywhere on campus!
Davidai, who teaches, “decision-making & negotiations, leadership & organizational behavior,” according to his biography on Columbia Business School’s website, has been accused of harassing pro-Palestinian students. An online petition demanding Columbia fire Davidai, which has garnered almost 11k signatures, alleges:
Since a video of Columbia Business School Assistant Professor Shai Davidai delivering a speech accusing Columbia students of being “pro-terror” went viral on Oct 18 2023, he has been using his newfound social media platform to bully pro-Palestine students of color with complete impunity, despite being untenured. Under the guise of fighting antisemitism, he uses his Twitter and Instagram accounts to incite harassment and violence against these students. Shai’s usage of his social media platform to harass students is a clear violation of university policy and an abuse of power from a faculty member. Shai has claimed that any opposition towards him is “antisemitism.” The issue is not with Shai’s individual political beliefs, the issue is how he uses personal social media accounts to target, harass, and bully students, including Palestinian students who have lost family members in Gaza.
Read more: Pro-Israel Columbia professor accused of harassment prevented from accessing main campus.
Hamas shifts demands in hostage negotiations, US says
Hamas has “moved the goalposts” and changed its demands in the hostage negotiations with Israel mediated by Egypt and Qatar, State Dept spox Matthew Miller said on Monday. During a daily press briefing, Miller said that the US remains committed to advocating for a resolution that secures the release of hostages taken on Oct 7 and facilitates a cessation of hostilities in Gaza. The State Dept did not say how Hamas has shifted its negotiating position. Miller added that the US had received a report from former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna regarding UNRWA, and is currently reviewing its contents.
Google fires 28 US employees over protests against Israeli cloud deal
Google fired over two dozen employees who protested last week against the company’s cloud computing contract with the Israeli government. The employees were fired following an investigation that revealed they had staged protests within Google’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California. According to No Tech For Apartheid, Google and Amazon have a $1.2b contract named Project Nimbus to supply cloud computing services to the Israeli government and military. The group strongly condemned the dismissals, CNN reported. A Google spokesperson told CNN Thursday:
The protests were part of a long-standing campaign by a group of organizations and people who largely don’t work here. A small number of employee protesters entered and disrupted a few of our locations. Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behavior. After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety. We have so far concluded individual investigations that resulted in the termination of employment for 28 employees, and will continue to investigate and take action as needed.
US to investigate Israel for human rights abuses in Gaza
Blinken said on Monday that the US is investigating allegations of human rights abuses by Israel during its operations against Hamas in Gaza. Revealing the State Dept’s yearly human rights report, Blinken dismissed accusations of the US maintaining a double standard regarding Israel and human rights. Blinken told reporters:
Do we have a double standard? The answer is no.
Gaza civil defence uncovers 200 bodies in Khan Younis hospital
On Monday, Gaza’s civil defence agency said that health workers had recovered about 200 bodies within the past three days. These individuals were said to have been killed and buried by Israeli forces at a hospital in Khan Younis. Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence, told AFP:
Our civil defence crews are still recovering bodies from inside Nasser medical complex, and since Saturday bodies of nearly 200 martyrs have been retrieved.
The Israeli military did not offer an immediate comment.
Macron told Netanyahu he would prevent Iran destabilising the Middle East
Macron told Netanyahu in a phone call on Monday that he would stand up to what he said was Iran’s efforts to destabilise the region. He added that he also wanted an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza and to prevent further regional escalation, particularly on the northern border with Lebanon.
Dozens arrested at Yale University over pro-Palestine protest camp
As many as 50 people have been arrested on the campus of Yale University in the US for “aggravated trespassing” over their participation in a protest camp against the Gaza war. According to the Yale Daily newspaper, the arrests took place on the third day of protests calling for divesting from weapons manufacturers. A spox for the university told the newspaper:
The university made the decision to arrest those individuals who would not leave the Plaza with the safety and security of the entire Yale community in mind and to allow access to university facilities by all members of our community.
One of the protesters told the newspaper that personal belongings had been misplaced during the arrests. Student Chisato Kimura told the News:
They dumped them into bags, now it seems like the cops and administration lost them because they have no idea where the belongings are. And that means medication is missing, people can’t reach out to parents, their families. The cops and administration had no plan. It’s so clear that they had no plans, they currently have no plans. It’s abysmal. I think it shows a complete lack of coordination and complete lack of care for students.
More than 8.4k arrested in West Bank since Oct 7, say prisoners’ groups
At least 8,425 Palestinians have been arrested by IOF in the occupied West Bank since Oct 7, according to Palestinian prisoner groups. The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, and the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association said in a joint statement on Monday that the number included about 540 children and 66 journalists.
UN secretary-general urges support for UNRWA as he accepts Colonna report recommendations
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged international backing for UNRWA as he said he would accept the recommendations of the Colonna report. UN spox Stephane Dujarric said in a statement:
He has agreed with Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini that UNRWA, with the secretary-general’s support, will establish an action plan to implement the recommendation. Moving forward, the secretary-general appeals to all stakeholders to actively support UNRWA, as it is a lifeline for Palestine refugees in the region.
The Colonna report was commissioned by the UN to look at UNRWA’s operations and policies in the wake of Israel’s allegations that its staff were involved in the Oct 7 attack. The report, which will be released on Monday, found that the Israeli government “has not informed UNRWA of any concrete concerns relating to UNRWA staff since 2011.”
Israel has failed to provide evidence of UNRWA staff terrorist links: report
An independent review led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said that Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence that staff at UNRWA are members of terrorist organisations such as Hamas. The Guardian says:
The report found that UNRWA had had regularly supplies Israel with lists of its employees for vetting, and that the Israeli government has not informed UNRWA of any concerns relating to any UNRWA staff based on these staff lists since 2011.
Israel’s accusations against UNRWA have led to many major donor states suspending their funding of the agency at a time when Palestinians in Gaza are in dire need of aid. Most of the major donors resumed funding in recent weeks, with the UK saying it would wait for the findings of the Colonna-led report to make a decision. US financial support for UNRWA, on the other hand, has been permanently banned by Congress.
Israeli Opposition leader calls on PM to follow intelligence chief’s lead and resign
Israeli Opposition leader Yair Lapid called on Netanyahu to follow Israeli army intelligence chief Aharon Haliva’s footsteps and resign over the failures of Oct 7. Lapid tweeted:
Prime Minister Netanyahu should have done the same.
Israel originally planned major strikes on Iranian bases near Tehran: report
Citing three unnamed Israeli officials, the NYT reports that Israel had planned a much larger strike on Iran following the latter’s retaliatory drone and missile attack on Israel on Apr 13. The original plan was to hit several targets across Iran, including near Tehran. The report says western pressure and fears of a widening conflict led to Israel opting for a smaller response. Israeli and western officials told the NYT that Israel ended up firing a small number of missiles from aircraft positioned several hundreds of miles west of Iran on Friday, while also sending attack drones to confuse Iranian air defences. The NYT said, citing the officials:
One missile on Friday hit a battery in a strategically important part of central Iran, while another exploded in the air. One Israeli official said that the Israeli Air Force intentionally destroyed the second missile once it became clear that the first had reached its target, to avoid causing too much damage. One western official said it was possible the missile had simply malfunctioned.
The attack was apparently originally planned for Monday Apr 15, but was postponed out of fears that Hezbollah in Lebanon might significantly increase attacks on northern Israel.
Gaza death toll rises to 34,151
Gaza’s health ministry said that 54 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on the enclave in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 34,151 since Oct 7. Additionally, 77,084 people have been wounded since the start of the war.
Reported drone attack on base hosting US forces in Iraq
A drone attack has been reported on a base hosting American forces in al-Anbar, Iraq. This is the second attack on US forces in the Middle East in 24 hours, the first one targeting a base in northern Syria. Earlier today, Iraq’s Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah denied announcing that attacks on US positions in the region have resumed, and Iraqi security forces reportedly told AFP that “outlaw elements” were behind the attack in Syria.
Israeli police say they caught attackers behind Jerusalem car-ramming incident
Israeli police forces said they caught the two attackers behind the car-ramming and attempted shooting attack in Jerusalem, which lightly injured three people.
Israeli army intelligence chief resigns resigns over Oct 7 ‘failure’
Aharon Haliva, an Israeli Major General who currently commands the Israeli army’s Military Intelligence Directorate, resigned following his role in the Oct 7 intelligence “failure.” He is the first senior figure to resign over the Israeli army’s failure to prevent the Hamas-led attack on Israel.
Car-ramming attack injures three people in Jerusalem
Three people were lightly wounded following a car-ramming and attempted shooting attack in Jerusalem, Israeli police say. Police forces say the two attackers tried to open fire with a makeshift “Carlo” submachine gun, but it was apparently jammed. Security forces are treating this incident as a terrorist attack as they search for the attackers.
Bakeries resume production in northern Gaza after aid deliveries
The World Food Programme said it was able to deliver fuel and wheat flour to bakeries in northern Gaza “so they can begin production again after 170 days of being inoperable.” The WFP said that four bakeries are now “up and running” as they work to deliver more supplies to the north, which faces severe risks of famine.
Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah deny announcing resumption of attacks on US forces
Iraq’s Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah denied reports of the group saying Iraqi armed groups decided to resume their attacks on US forces in the Middle East. The group said on their Telegram channel that these reports are “fake news” and that they have not announced anything in the last 48 hours. Earlier reports claimed that Kataib Hezbollah said the Iran-backed groups had decided to resume their attacks on US bases, claiming the latest reported attack on a base in Syria was “the beginning.”
Morning update
Here are the latest updates:
- Pre-dawn Israeli strikes on central and southern Gaza kill and injure several Palestinians, WAFA reports
- Israeli raids on West Bank cities, towns and refugee camps continue as tensions increased over the weekend.
- Two Palestinians were arrested in Hebron and clashed with Palestinian youth north of the city.
- Palestinians were also injured in raids near Jerusalem
- An Israeli settler attack on Burqa, east of Ramallah, injured six Palestinians
- Biden condemned what he called a surge in “blatant antisemitism,” including on college campuses
- Students at MIT, Emerson and Tufts set up their own protest camps, demanding their institutions cut ties with Israel.
Niqnaq 