Gaza death toll nears 40,000 on eve of ceasefire talks

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Columbia University President Minouche Shafik resigned on Wednesday, nearly four months after the Ivy League university's handling of campus protests over Israel's war in Gaza was criticized by pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian sides alike.

"It has also been a period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community," Shafik said in an email to staff and students. "This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community."

Shafik said her departure "at this point would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead." She said she made the announcement so new leadership could be in place before the new term begins.

Columbia was rocked in April and May as protesters occupied parts of the Upper Manhattan campus in opposition to Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza, resulting in hundreds of arrests. The demonstrators denounced Shafik for calling police onto campus to halt the demonstrations, while pro-Israel supporters castigated her for failing to crack down sufficiently.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday and discussed the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, Axios reported, citing two U.S. sources.

One source told Axios Trump's call was intended to encourage Netanyahu to take the deal, but stressed he did not know if this is indeed what the former president told Netanyahu. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Late last month, Netanyahu visited the U.S. and met President Joe Biden, Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Republican former President Trump.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were briefed by their national security team on "developments in the Middle East" on Wednesday, the White House said, as fears of a retaliatory strike by Iran on Israel remain high.

The president and vice president were briefed in the White House Situation Room on "US military efforts to support the defense of Israel" as well as "continued diplomatic efforts to de-escalate regional tension" and reach a hostage and ceasefire deal, according to a White House statement.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan assured visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that Ankara will maintain its support for the Palestinian cause and advocate for increased international pressure on Israel.

The two leaders discussed recent developments and strategies for achieving a lasting ceasefire and peace in Gaza, according to a post from Erdogan’s office on X.

Erdogan condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza, accusing some Western countries of remaining silent while continuing to support Israel.

Abbas is scheduled to address an extraordinary session of Turkey’s parliament tomorrow.

President @RTErdogan met with President Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine, who is in Türkiye to address the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (GNAT), at the Presidential Complex. pic.twitter.com/ky80yWAlaQ

— Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye (@trpresidency) August 14, 2024

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Qatar's prime minister on Wednesday warned all sides not to undermine Gaza ceasefire talks set to open in the Gulf nation, in a veiled warning to Iran, Hamas and Israel.

Blinken and Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani in a telephone call stated that "no party in the region should take actions that would undermine efforts to reach a deal," a US State Department statement said.

The two discussed "efforts to calm tensions in the region and the importance of finalizing a ceasefire in Gaza," it said.

Blinken also spoke Wednesday with the top diplomat of Egypt. In recent days he has also consulted Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, along with Israel.

President Joe Biden last week joined the leaders of Egypt and Qatar in publicly urging the talks to start on Thursday on halting the 10-month conflict.

The initiative came after Biden was frustrated by a presumed Israeli attack in Iran that killed Hamas's political leader, who had been involved in ceasefire negotiations.

The United States has since been urging Iran's clerical state not to carry out a threatened counterstrike on Israel.

The Biden administration has also voiced outrage over actions of far-right Israeli ministers including Itamar Ben Gvir, who defiantly led prayers Tuesday at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem.

Several people have been injured during an Israeli raid in the town of Khader, south of Bethlehem, according to the Wafa news agency, which cited the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

The PRCS reported that one person was shot in the back, another was struck by a tear gas canister, and a girl sustained a hand injury when a sound bomb detonated.

Earlier, it was reported that at least five people were killed by Israeli forces during an attack in the Tubas governorate this morning.

Jewish Voice for Peace, a US-based advocacy group, has created a map using UN satellite data to track the more than 70,000 bombs Israel has dropped on the Gaza Strip since 7 October.

“The Israeli military, with the US as its collaborator, is pursuing the goal of Zionism: the complete and total ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land,” the group states.

They further assert, “The US isn’t just allowing the Israeli government to commit genocide; it’s actively assisting it. It’s well past time for a weapons embargo. We demand a complete end to US funding, arming, and backing of the state of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians."

The Israeli military has bombarded nearly every inch of Gaza with US-made bombs. Israeli forces have dropped over 70,000 bombs on Gaza in the past ten months — making it the deadliest bombing campaign in the 21st century. pic.twitter.com/Cz0MD0aPtu

— Jewish Voice for Peace (@jvplive) August 13, 2024

Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported that an "Israeli enemy" attack on the southern town of Marjayoun resulted in two deaths and four injuries, though the toll is considered provisional.

According to the official National News Agency, an "enemy drone targeted a car" in the town square, a typically busy area with shops.

Iran is not considering sending representatives to the upcoming Gaza ceasefire talks in Qatar.

Iran’s mission to the UN told the AP in a statement:

“We have not engaged in the indirect cease-fire negotiations between Hamas and the regime, facilitated by Egypt, Qatar, and the US, and hold no intention for involvement in such negotiations.”

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns will be in Qatar for talks on a ceasefire in Gaza on Thursday, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Burns would be accompanied by Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East and Africa. The CIA declined to comment on the matter in line with its policy of not disclosing the director's travel. 

Hamas said on Wednesday it would not take part in a new round of Gaza ceasefire talks slated for Thursday in Qatar, but an official briefed on the talks said mediators expected to consult with the Palestinian group afterwards.

The U.S. has said it expects indirect talks to go ahead as planned in Qatar's capital Doha on Thursday, and that a ceasefire agreement was still possible, while warning that progress was needed urgently to avert a wider war.

However Axios reported that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed a trip to the Middle East that had been expected to begin on Tuesday.

Three senior Iranian officials have said that only a ceasefire deal in Gaza would hold Iran back from direct retaliation against Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on its soil last month.

The United Kingdom has denounced Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, according to British Foreign Minister David Lammy.

On X, Lammy stated, "The UK strongly condemns Minister Ben-Gvir’s intentionally provocative visit to Jerusalem’s Holy Sites." He emphasized that such actions jeopardize the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan’s role as the custodian of these sites and threaten the longstanding status quo arrangements.

Lammy added, "The priority for all parties should be to secure an immediate ceasefire, ensure the release of all hostages, and work towards restoring regional stability."

The UK strongly condemns Minister Ben-Gvir’s deliberately provocative visit to Jerusalem's Holy Sites.

Such actions undermine the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan's role as custodian of the sites and the longstanding Status Quo arrangements.

The focus of all parties must be on…

— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) August 14, 2024

The head of Israel's Mossad spy agency, David Barnea, and Shin Bet security service chief Ronen Bar will participate in Gaza truce negotiations in Doha, the prime minister's office said Wednesday.

"The head of the Mossad, the head of the Shin Bet, Nitzan Alon and Ophir Falk" will make up the Israeli delegation for Thursday's meeting in Qatar, Omer Dostri, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu, told AFP.

Alon coordinates issues related to hostages, and Falk is a political adviser to Netanyahu.

Israel is attempting to delay the issuing of arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

According to Haaretz, Israeli officials and legal experts said that the government is exerting diplomatic pressure to delay the process, hoping that the judges would take weeks to issue the warrants, although it could come just days after reviewing the documents.

Dozens of states, organisations, and individuals have written to the ICC offering their legal interventions over whether the court has jurisdiction over the occupied Palestinian territories.

Read more here.

The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists has slammed Israel for making unfounded claims that killed journalists in Gaza are “terrorists or engaging in military activity”.

Some 113 journalists and media workers have been killed since the outbreak of war in October. Two Lebanese journalists were killed by Israeli forces while 109 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza.

“Even before the start of the Israel-Gaza war, CPJ had documented Israel’s pattern of accusing journalists of being terrorists without producing credible evidence to substantiate their claims,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna.

Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul and freelance camera operator Rami Al Refee were killed by an Israeli drone strike on 31 July while working near Gaza City.

Israel attempted to claim that al-Ghoul was an engineer in the Hamas Gaza Brigade. Al Jazeera strongly rejected the accusations against  al-Ghoul and cast doubt on the IDF’s supposed evidence which contained contradictory information.

Read more about Ismail al-Ghoul's life and career here.

Germany on Wednesday condemned a visit by two Israeli ministers to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, known to Jews as Temple Mount, and said it expects the Israeli government to halt deliberate provocations.

"We reject unilateral steps that jeopardise the historical status quo of the holy sites in Jerusalem," the Foreign Ministry in Berlin posted on social media platform X.

The US, UN EU, and several regional countries strongly condemned the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque's compound in occupied East Jerusalem by far-right Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Tuesday, saying the move is a "blatant disregard" to the holy site's status.

(Reuters)

Hamas will not participate in crunch Gaza ceasefire talks set to take place in Doha on Thursday, a senior figure in the movement told The New Arab's Arabic-language service on Wednesday.

In a statement to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, Hamas politburo member Suhail Al-Hindi reiterated his group's insistence on a return to the ceasefire plan backed by US President Joe Biden in May.

Israel is reportedly pushing for new conditions and follows a series of provocations against Hamas such as the assassination of its political leader Ismail Haniyeh and the bombing of a Gaza school on Saturday killing around 100 people.

"The movement demands a clear commitment by the [Israeli] occupation to what was agreed upon on July 2, according to the clarifications conveyed by the mediators, and if that happens, the movement is ready to enter into the mechanisms for implementing the agreement," al-Hindi said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will send a full team of negotiators to attend the latest round of ceasefire talks in Qatar on Thursday, Israeli media reported.

Hebrew-language daily Maariv reported that after pressure from families of hostages in Gaza, Netanyahu decided to send Ronan Bar the head of Israel's internal security agency Shin Bet, and senior army general Nitzan Alon to Doha.

Mediators from Egypt and the US will also meet in the Qatari capital.

The talks have been stalled for months over disagreements between Israel and Hamas. Netanyahu is determined to keep troops along the Egypt-Gaza border, known as the "Philadelphi corridor" by Israel, but this has caused ire among Egypt and the Palestinians.

12 people have been arrested during a protest against the military draft of Israel's ultra-Orthodox community. The demonstration took place outside the Michve Alon military training base and reportedly turned violent with demonstrators throwing objects and police and soldiers guarding the facility. 

Israel has published plans for one of its proposed new settlements in the occupied West Bank, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Wednesday, upping the ante a day before planned new Gaza peace talks seen as vital to preventing a regional war.

The far-right minister said the move was a response to actions by the Palestinian West Bank leadership and countries which have recognised a Palestinian state.

"No anti-Israel or anti-Zionist decision will stop the development of the settlement. We will continue to fight against the dangerous idea of a Palestinian state. This is the mission of my life," said Smotrich.

Most United Nations member states consider settlements built in the West Bank and other territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war to be illegal under international law.

(Reuters)

The head of the United Nations Palestinian Refugee agency, UNRWA, said that more than half a million children in Gaza have lost out on a year of education amid the war.

Israel's invasion has battered dozens of schools, with buildings turned into makeshift refugee camps for the thousands of displaced families.

In a post on X calling for education and learning to restart in the warzone, Philipe Lazzarini said "625,000 children including 300,000 UNRWA students have lost one year of school".  

🛑In #Gaza: 625,000 children including 300,000 UNRWA students have lost one year of school.

🛑 Four in five school buildings in Gaza have been directly hit or damaged. They need to be rebuilt or fixed to be used as schools.

I told @EduCannotWait :
➡️ The longer children stay…

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) August 14, 2024

The Israeli army has been using abducted Palestinian civilians as human shields in Gaza, an investigation by Ha'aretz has said, adding to previous allegations of a similar nature from Palestinian and Israeli sources.

The civilians, who the soldiers refer to as shawish, or 'sergeant' in Arabic, are used by the army to carry out dangerous search operations while dressed in Israeli army uniform, according to soldiers who spoke to the Israeli news outlet.

Soldiers deployed to Gaza who spoke to Haaretz said they were told it was preferable for a Palestinian to be killed by a booby trap bomb rather than an Israeli soldier.

Read more here.

Lebanon's Hezbollah said it launched rockets at the Israeli occupied Shebaa Farms area along the border zone on Wednesday morning.

It said hit targeted the Israeli Zebdine barracks with rockets.

Israeli air force has been striking Lebanese territory overnight with reports of several people injured by an Israeli drone strike in a Jeep vehicle near the city of Tyre.

The region has been on edge awaiting a retaliatory attack from Iran against Israel following a bout of assassinations two weeks ago.

Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas is set to meet with Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday in Ankara, a day after a visit to Moscow.

The visit comes at a tense time during the 10-month Israel-Hamas war, with faltering efforts for a ceasefire and Israel braced for threatened attacks from Iran and its proxies following killings of senior Hamas officials in Iran and Lebanon.

Abbas is due to meet with Erdogan at 1530 GMT at the presidential palace, according to the Turkish leader's itinerary.

US envoy Amos Hochstein said on Wednesday that he believes a war between Israel and Lebanon's powerful militant group Hezbollah can be avoided.

When asked at a news conference after meeting Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a strong Hezbollah ally, whether Israel and Hezbollah could avoid a war, Hochstein replied: "I hope so, I believe so."

(Reuters)

[Image credit: Amos Hochstein and Nabih Berri/file photo (GETTY)]

The health ministry in Gaza said Wednesday that at least 39,965 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants, now in its 11th month.

The toll includes 36 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to ministry figures, which also list 92,294 people as having been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.

Hamas has released a statement following an investigation published by the Israeli Haaretz newspaper on Israeli army's use of Palestinian civilians as "human shields to inspect tunnels and buildings in Gaza".

In a statement, the group said the investigation "confirms once again that the enemy’s army is committing flagrant war crimes that must be condemned by the entire world".

The group urged the International Court of Justice to include these confessions within the file of war crimes it is considering.

Hamas also denounced a decision by the Israeli military prosecution to release “the criminal soldiers involved in the sexual assault against a Palestinian prisoner” and putting them under house arrest.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had postponed his visit to the region due to “the state of ambiguity shrouding the situation”, Axios reported citing two sources.

Blinken was due to leave for a visit to Qatar, Egypt and Israel yesterday before anticipated truce talks between Hamas and Israel, according Israeli media reports.

US Middle East Envoy Brett McGurk was also to arrive on Tuesday in Cairo where he would try to reach an agreement with senior Egyptian and Israeli officials on security arrangements for the Philadelphi Corridor and the reopening of the Rafah border crossing.

Ceasefire talks are set to resume on Thursday in Doha after earlier reports that the location for a meeting had yet to be determined.

US mediator Amos Hochstein is expected to visit Lebanon, where he would meet Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Lebanon's Speaker Nabih Berri - a key Hezbollah ally.

Late on Tuesday, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy held a phone call with Mikati urging “immediate calm”.

Lammy told Mikati that “this is a crucial moment for stability in the Middle East, and there can be no further delay. The fighting must stop now", according to Lebanon24.

"[There is a] need for all parties to de-escalate the situation urgently and immediately", he said.

Lebanon's Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets overnight towards Israel’s western Galilee area,  in response to Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon.

In a statement on Wednesday, Hezbollah announced that it had targeted the Mount Neria base in the Western Galilee with "a barrage of Katyusha rockets". The group said that the base hosted forces from Israel’s Golani Brigade.

It said that the attack came in response to strikes on the town of Baraachit, which had killed a Hezbollah member.

Israel’s Channel 12, as cited by Al Jazeera, said it had "monitored the launch of 25 rockets" towards the Meron area in northern Israel.

Israeli troops killed a Palestinian in a dawn raid in the north of the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, sources on both sides said.

"The army entered Tubas at dawn and shot and killed a young man hiding in his home," the Palestinians' official Wafa news agency reported.

The Israeli army confirmed it had launched a "counterterrorism operation" in the city, during which it "eliminated one terrorist" and "hit others during an exchange of fire".

It said its troops had "arrested wanted suspects and located and confiscated weapons".

The army said it also "carried out air strikes on several armed terrorists" in the town of Tamun, five kilometres (three miles) from Tubas.

[Image credit: Getty]

Israeli military said on Wednesday it was "continuing precise, intelligence-based operational activity" in the Tel al-Sultan neighbourhood in Rafah.

Hundreds of thousands of Gaza’s residents were forced to flee Rafah in May following Israel’s invasion into the southern governorate. The city had become one of a few places of refuge with large swathes of the strip now uninhabitable following heavy bombardment.

In a statement on the army’s Telegram channel it also said the its fighter jets had struck "40 terror infrastructure sites" throughout Gaza, hitting locations where fighters and and where anti-tank missiles have been launched.