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Turkey stopped all exports and imports to and from Israel as of Thursday, the Turkish trade ministry said, citing “worsening humanitarian tragedy” in the Palestinian Territories. The ministry said that trade will be halted until the Israeli government allows humanitarian aid to enter Gaza uninterrupted. Read our blog to see how all the day’s events unfolded.
Summary:
- Turkey stopped all exports and imports to and from Israel as of Thursday, the Turkish trade ministry said, citing “worsening humanitarian tragedy” in the Palestinian territories.
- President Joe Biden broke his virtual silence Thursday on the nationwide Gaza campus protests, saying the United States was not authoritarian but insisting that “order must prevail”.
- In an echo of tense demonstrations rocking many top US universities, students in several French universities have staged a number of protests, with some furious over the Israel-Hamas war and ensuing humanitarian crisis in the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza.
- A Hamas delegation is set to visit Egypt soon for further ceasefire talks, the group said in a statement on Thursday. The statement added that Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh had affirmed the group’s “positive spirit in studying the ceasefire proposal” in a phone call with Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel.
- Colombian President Gustavo Petro said his country will cut diplomatic ties with Israel on Thursday, calling the government’s actions in Gaza “genocidal”.
- Palestinians are seeking approval of a resolution at the General Assembly, asking the UN Security Council to reconsider full membership for Palestine after a previous UN resolution was vetoed by the United States. Palestinian UN ambassador Riyad Mansour said the vote will take place on May 10.
- At least 34,596 Palestinians have been killed and an estimated 77,816 have been wounded in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Some 1,170 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.
France’s Sciences Po uni says closing main Paris site over Gaza protest
France’s prestigious Sciences Po university said it would close its main Paris site on Friday due to a fresh occupation of buildings by protesting pro-Palestinian students.
In a message sent to staff on Thursday evening, its management said the buildings in central Paris “will remain closed tomorrow, Friday May 3. We ask you to continue to work from home”.
Turkey halts all trade with Israel, Turkish trade ministry says
Turkey stopped all exports and imports to and from Israel as of Thursday, the Turkish trade ministry said, citing “worsening humanitarian tragedy” in the Palestinian territories.
“Export and import transactions related to Israel have been stopped, covering all products,” Turkey’s trade ministry said in a statement.
“Turkey will strictly and decisively implement these new measures until the Israeli Government allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
The two countries had a trade volume of $6.8 billion in 2023.
Turkey last month imposed trade restrictions on Israel over what it said was Israel’s refusal to allow Ankara to take part in aid air-drop operations for Gaza and its offensive on the enclave.
Israeli strike hits Syrian security building outside Damascus, security source says
An Israeli strike hit a building operated by Syrian security forces on the outskirts of Damascus late on Thursday, a security source in the alliance backing Syria’s government told Reuters.
There was no immediate report of a strike by Syrian state media.
The security source said the location struck in Syria on Thursday sat just south of the Sayyeda Zeinab shrine, where Hezbollah and Iranian forces are entrenched.
But the source said the site struck was not operated by Iranian units or Hezbollah.
At least 2,000 people arrested at pro-Palestinian protests on US campuses
Police have arrested more than 2,000 people during pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses across the United States in recent weeks, according to an Associated Press tally Thursday.
Demonstrations – and arrests – have occurred in almost every corner of the nation. But in the past 24 hours, they’ve drawn the most attention at the University of California, Los Angeles, where chaotic scenes played out early Thursday when officers in riot gear surged against a crowd of demonstrators.
Hundreds of protesters at UCLA defied orders to leave, some forming human chains as police fired flash-bangs to break up the crowds.
Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies they say support the war in Gaza have spread across campuses nationwide in a student movement unlike any other this century.
US says Israel should prevent attacks on aid convoys
Israel should prevent further attacks on aid convoys bound for Gaza after Israeli settlers attacked a shipment from Jordan, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Thursday. Miller also called Hamas actions to divert aid “unacceptable”.
Prominent Gaza doctor dies in Israeli prison
A senior Palestinian doctor died in an Israeli prison after more than four months of detention, two Palestinian prisoner associations said on Thursday, blaming Israel for his death.
The associations said in a joint statement that Adnan Al-Bursh, head of orthopedics at Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical facility, had been detained by Israeli forces while temporarily working at Al-Awada Hospital in north Gaza.
They called his death an “assassination” and said his body remained in Israeli custody.
An Israeli military spokesperson said that the prison service had declared Bursh dead on April 19, saying that he had been detained for national security reasons in Ofer prison. The spokesperson did not comment on the cause of death.
I am extremely alarmed by information that Dr. Adnan Albursh, a well-known surgeon at #alshifa_hospital, has died while detained by Israeli forces in the Ofer military prison. While I acquire more information, I URGE the diplomatic community to intervene with CONCRETE MEASURES to…
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) May 2, 2024
Netanyahu says Jews will ‘stand alone’ if they must
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Holocaust survivors Thursday that Jews will “stand alone” if they have to, adding that they should welcome but not expect non-Jewish support.
“If we have to stand alone, we stand alone,” he told a delegation who will be torchbearers at a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony next Sunday.
“If it is possible to recruit Gentiles, that’s good. But if we don’t protect ourselves, no one will protect us,” he told the group at his office.
Netanyahu’s words come as Israel faces mounting criticism over the war it is waging in Gaza against Palestinian militant group Hamas, including from its closest ally the United States.
Finding himself increasingly isolated internationally, Netanyahu has said repeatedly that nothing will stop Israeli troops from entering the southernmost Gaza city of Rafah to press home their mission to eliminate Hamas.
Biden says ‘order must prevail’ as police crack down on campus protests
President Joe Biden broke his virtual silence Thursday on the nationwide Gaza campus protests, saying the United States was not authoritarian but insisting “order must prevail”.
In a televised address from the White House, Biden added that there was “no place” for anti-Semitism or other hate speech on university campuses, which have been roiled by pro-Palestinian demonstrations amid Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza.
Gaza truce talks: ‘Hamas demand for permanent ceasefire is the main sticking point’
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said on Thursday the Palestinian militant group was studying a proposal for a truce in the nearly seven-month war raging in Gaza with a “positive spirit”, even as the talks continue to drag on after several days without much sign of an agreement.
Oliver McTernan, director of conflict resolution NGO Forward Thinking, says the most likely sticking point in the negotiations is that Hamas is asking for a permanent ceasefire, rather than just a temporary truce.
“What worries me is that while we’re in limbo and we’re focusing on how these talks are going on, the reality on the ground in Gaza keeps changing, and changing for the worst,” he said. “Because every day more and more people are being added to the death list.”
“There is need now for a combination of moral courage as well as political courage on behalf of the global leadership to say to Israel, as friends of Israel, you just cannot go on like this,” McTernan added. “The consequences will last far beyond the end of this war.”
Gaza aid pier expected to open in days, White House says
A maritime pier constructed by the US military to speed the flow of humanitarian aid in Gaza should be open within a matter of days, despite poor weather that is hampering preparations, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday.
“We were hoping within days. I think that’s still a hope,” Kirby said at a news briefing.
Turkey’s Erdogan criticises US crackdown on college protests
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan waded into the debate over US college campus protests on Thursday, saying authorities were displaying “cruelty” in clamping down on pro-Palestinian students and academics.
Demonstrations have spread on campuses across the United States over Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, prompting police crackdowns and arrests at some venues such as Columbia University in New York.
“Conscientious students and academics including anti-Zionist Jews at some prestigious American universities are protesting the massacre (in Gaza),” Erdogan told an event in Ankara.
“These people are being subjected to violence, cruelty, suffering, and even torture for saying the massacre has to stop,” he said, adding that university staff were being “sacked and lynched” for supporting the Palestinians.
Palestinian Embassy seeks temporary status for Gazans who entered Egypt during war
The Palestinian Embassy in Egypt is seeking temporary residency permits for tens of thousands of people who have arrived from Gaza during the war between Israel and Hamas, which it says would ease conditions for them until the conflict is over.
Diab al-Louh, the Palestinian ambassador in Cairo, said as many as 100,000 Gazans had crossed into Egypt, where they lack the papers to enrol their children in schools, open businesses or bank accounts, travel, or access health insurance – though some have found ways to make a living.
Louh stressed that residency permits would only be for legal and humanitarian purposes, adding that those who arrived since the war began on October 7 had no plans to settle in Egypt.
“We are talking about a category (of people) in an exceptional situation. We asked the state to give them temporary residencies that can be renewed until the crisis in Gaza is over,” Louh told Reuters in an interview.
“We have confidence that our Egyptian brothers will understand this. They have already provided a lot,” he said. “But … this is an issue of sovereignty being discussed at the highest level.”
UN estimates Gaza reconstruction will cost $30 billion to $40 billion
A UN agency said Thursday rebuilding war-wracked Gaza will cost an estimated $30 billion to $40 billion and require an effort on a scale the world has not seen since World War II.
“The United Nations Development Programme’s initial estimates for the reconstruction of … the Gaza Strip surpasses $30 billion and could reach up to $40 billion,” said UN assistant secretary-general Abdallah al-Dardari.
“The scale of the destruction is huge and unprecedented … this is a mission that the global community has not dealt with since World War II.”
Hamas chief says group studying Gaza truce proposal ‘in positive spirit’
A delegation from the Palestinian movement Hamas is set to visit Egypt soon for further ceasefire talks, the group said in a statement on Thursday.
The statement added that Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh had affirmed the group’s “positive spirit in studying the ceasefire proposal” in a phone call with Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel.
Hamas said on Saturday that it had received Israel’s latest position and would study it before submitting a reply.
The Egyptian state-affiliated Al-Qahera News quoted an unidentified high-level Egyptian source as saying that the Hamas delegation would arrive in Cairo in the next two days.
Paris’s Sciences Po school rejects protesters’ demand to review ties with Israel
Paris’s Sciences Po university has rejected demands by protesters to set up a working group to review its relations with Israeli universities, its interim director Jean Basseres told reporters on Thursday, following a townhall with students and staff.
The townhall was one of the conditions last week for students to call off for now their protests over the war in Gaza.
Many were also asking for the university to cut all ties with Israel and Basseres said he was aware that refusing to hold such a working group could anger some protesters.
“I’m calling on all to show a sense of responsibility,” he said, urging all to allow exams to go on.
Students at several French universities have blocked or occupied their institutes in the wake of rallies in campuses across the United States against the conflict.
On Monday, French police moved in to clear dozens of protesters who had set up tents in a courtyard at the Sorbonne University in Paris.
Israel president says US universities ‘contaminated by hatred, anti-Semitism’
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog on Thursday slammed US universities for campus unrest over Israel’s war in Gaza, saying these institutions were “contaminated by hatred and anti-Semitism”.
“We see prominent academic institutions, halls of history, culture, and education contaminated by hatred and anti-Semitism fuelled by arrogance and ignorance … We watch in horror as the atrocities of October 7th against Israel are celebrated and justified,” Herzog said in a statement offering support to Jewish students across these universities.
Police dismantle blockade at Saint-Etienne university in southern France
A handful of students calling for a ceasefire in Gaza blocked access to a university site in Saint-Etienne in southern France on Thursday morning, where the police had already intervened on Tuesday, before being evacuated by the police.
They were evacuated by the police at around 11am, according to the head of Jean Monnet University, who requested the dismantlement.
Around 15 students had piled up garbage cans in front of the entrances of the university in the early hours of Thursday.
Sweden reports sharp rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes
More than 100 anti-Semitic hate crimes were reported in Sweden between October 7 and the end of 2023, five times the number of the same period a year earlier, a report showed Thursday.
A total of 110 complaints were registered by police between October 7 – when Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel – and December 31, according to the report by The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (BRA).
In 2022, the figure was 24.
Around 20 percent of the complaints contain “some form of reference to the Hamas attack… or the following violence in Gaza”, according to BRA.
“These include anti-Semitic placards and statements in connection with demonstrations, but also threats and offences against individuals who, based on their Jewish background, have been blamed for Israel’s actions in Gaza,” Jon Lundgren, an investigator at BRA, said in a statement.
Iraq students rally for Gaza and US campus protests
Dozens of Iraqi university students and professors rallied Thursday at a Baghdad campus in solidarity with Gaza and pro-Palestinian protests at US universities, AFP correspondents said.
Iraqi Education Minister Naeem al-Aboudi earlier this week expressed his support for the “free voices in universities” around the world, and called for protests in solidarity with the embattled Gaza Strip.
California police move in to dismantle pro-Palestinian protest camp at UCLA
Police removed barricades and began dismantling a pro-Palestinian demonstrators’ fortified encampment early Thursday at the UCLA campus after hundreds of protesters defied police orders to leave, about 24 hours after counter-protesters attacked a tent encampment on the campus.
FRANCE 24 correspondent Wassim Cornet on the ground at UCLA brought us this report:
Yesterday’s key developments:
- New York City police raided Columbia University overnight to arrest pro-Palestinian demonstrators, some of whom had seized an academic building, and to remove a protest encampment at the school. Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday that some 300 people were arrested in crackdowns on protests at Columbia and City College.
- Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated US opposition to an Israeli assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah in talks Wednesday with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, a US official said. Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to launch a ground incursion into Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering from the almost seven-month-long war.
- Israel reopened the sole crossing on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, allowing aid trucks to pass through the Erez checkpoint following US demands to do more to address the growing humanitarian crisis.
