Khalil al-Hayya, a member of the Palestinian group’s political bureau, has reiterated that Hamas will not accept a truce without a permanent ceasefire and a complete halt of Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip.

“We are leading serious talks, and among our demands is a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza,” al-Hayya told Al Jazeera Arabic in a televised interview.

Here are other key things he mentioned:

• Hamas is serious about releasing Israeli captives within the framework of an agreement that also ensures the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
• Hamas has not closed the door on negotiations. Rather, the group is open to an exchange of ideas and suggestions to reach the stated objective.
• Among the objectives is also the unhindered return of displaced Palestinians to their homes in all parts of the Strip, reconstructing Gaza and an end to the crippling siege.
• Hamas turned in its response to the latest proposal that included a US amendment on April 13 and is still waiting for a reply from Israel and the mediating parties.
• The sticking point that has stalled negotiations is Israel’s refusal to agree to a permanent ceasefire.
• Hamas has already compromised on several issues but cannot agree to any exchange that does not include a lasting ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

The Israeli military says three rockets were launched from Lebanon into the area of Arab al-Aramshe in northern Israel.

It also said that four rocket launches were detected towards the area of Har Dov, an area in Shebaa Farms.

Shebaa Farms, which is claimed by Lebanon, was captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.

The Israeli military also said that its air force had struck a Hezbollah military structure in the areas of Aalma El Chaeb and Kfarchouba in southern Lebanon.

Since October 8, Hezbollah and the Israeli military have exchanged fire. In recent months, the frequency and severity of the attacks have increased, leading to fears that the tensions could lead to a greater regional conflagration.

A UN spokesperson says a UN team in the Gaza Strip visiting the site for a pier and the staging area for maritime aid operations had to seek shelter in a bunker “for some time” yesterday after the area came under fire.

Two rounds landed about 100 meters (300 feet) away, but there were no injuries and the team was eventually able to continue the tour, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

The pier has been criticised by the UN and aid agencies as a complicated workaround for delivering aid via existing land routes, as calls on Israel to allow sufficient aid into the Gaza Strip through its land borders continue.

Pentagon spokesperson Major General Patrick Ryder told reporters that construction of the pier, announced in March by US President Joe Biden, has started. The pier will receive ships carrying desperately needed aid for the people of Gaza, thousands of whom are facing imminent famine.

“I can confirm that US military vessels, to include the USNS Benavidez, have begun to construct the initial stages of the temporary pier and causeway at sea,” Ryder told reporters.

The UN has warned Gaza faces famine and has complained of “overwhelming obstacles” to getting aid into and distributing it around the enclave.

Ryder said the Pentagon was tracking some type of mortar attack in Gaza that caused minimal damage in the staging area for the pier. The UN stated earlier today that one of its teams, inspecting the staging area, had to take cover for several hours when bombs struck nearby.

Ryder added that US forces had not started moving anything to that area yet and there were no US forces on the ground.

The Israeli military says it has approved collaborative efforts for the Joint Logisitics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS) initiative led by the United States Central Command (CENTCOM). It said it would provide security and logistics support for the JLOTS initiative, which includes a temporary floating pier to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

Another day, another tragedy in Gaza. At the time of writing, rescuers were pulling bodies out of the rubble after an Israeli air strike on a residential building in southern Gaza’s city of Rafah. Meanwhile, a few miles away in Khan Younis, the grisly effort of digging up bodies buried in mass graves on the grounds of the Nasser Hospital continues.

The Palestinian death toll is now more than 34,300, and 1.1 million people in Gaza are experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

The world is also on edge, as many fear a wider regional war after Iran sent a retaliatory barrage of drones and missiles into Israel following Israel’s strike on the Iranian consular building in Damascus.

Since then, Iran’s air defences brought down three suspected Israeli drones over the central city of Isfahan. Ignoring calls for caution from around the world – including from its closest partner and protector, the United States – Israel remains determined to conduct a costly ground operation in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of civilians are sheltering.

Commentators and political figures have declared that Israel is a “liability” and that its leaders have “lost” their way.

US Senator Bernie Sanders has told Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, in a post on X, that it was “not antisemitic or pro-Hamas” to point out that “in a little over six months”, his “extremist government” has killed 34,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 77,000.

In an attached statement, Sanders said his comments were in response to the Israeli prime minister’s remarks yesterday that criticism of the Israeli government’s policies was antisemitic.

“Mr. Netanyahu. Antisemitism is a vile and disgusting form of bigotry that has done unspeakable harm to many millions of people. But, please do not insult the intelligence of the American people by attempting to distract us from the immoral and illegal policies of your extremist and racist government,” Sanders wrote in his closing remarks.

Pro-Palestine activists have demonstrated in Milan and Rome during a celebration of the 79th anniversary of Liberation Day, which commemorates the victory of the Italian resistance movement against Nazi Germany and the Italian Social Republic.

At least eight people have been killed in an Israeli air raid in central Gaza’s Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Israeli forces arrest children in the occupied West Bank

The war on children continues in the USA

USA forces arrest children in the occupied United States' universities

Video footage, verified by Al Jazeera, shows police using pepper spray and Tasers against students at a demonstration in support of Palestine at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Activists on the ground say tear gas was also employed.

It’s a big day here at Columbia. Of course, this is where this protest movement started. It’s been an epicentre of the American student protest movement since the Vietnam War protests back in 1968 when the same thing happened: A bunch of students were cleared out.

But what’s happening now is that these students are negotiating with the management of this private university. They have a midnight deadline tonight, which is about 4am GMT, to clear out of this central space in the school where they camped out, and they put up tents.

The talks continued while they asked for a number of things; they want the university to disclose its investments and then to divest any investments in Israel or in any investments that continue to help the war efforts, such as arms makers, and they want amnesty for all the students who have been protesting.

So they’re protesting against the Gaza war, but they’re also protesting against against their own institutions.

They’re trying to put pressure on the university, but other people are also putting pressure on those universities. Robert Kraft, the owner of the Patriots [American] football team, has decided to stop donating to Columbia University. He’s a billionaire, and that’s putting pressure on the university from another side.

So, the university president here is trying to thread the needle between those two groups and satisfy the students while also satisfying other people who are concerned about what they’re describing as anti-Semitism.

Students from several universities in the Washington Metropolitan Area have joined forces to demand their schools cut ties to Israel and for an end to Israel’s assault on Gaza.

Yasmine, a student leading the protests that have grown into an encampment, says they are calling for their universities to “divest from any companies that sell weapons or technology” to Israel. They are also calling on their universities to drop all charges against students “who spoke up or students who are pro-Palestine”, Yasmine told Al Jazeera.

“Many of us are … facing repression and charges and hearings from our universities for simply protesting,” she said. Many of the protesters, she added, wear masks because of the “heavy targeting and the heavy doxing … against us”.

Students do expect the police to intervene later today in a bid to break up the gathering, according to Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington, DC.

Investigations of mass graves, led by Gaza’s civil defence teams, have uncovered signs of executions and people being buried alive on the grounds of two of the Strip’s main hospitals.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Rafah, said at least 20 of those whose bodies were found around Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis were buried alive, according to the findings of the investigation. Those victims had “been receiving treatment at Nasser Hospital. … The majority of the bodies have been partially or completely decomposed,” Abu Azzoum said.

The investigators also said there are still bodies that have not been recovered.

There is “a great deal of shock and frustration” among those who managed to identify their loved ones, he said. According to Abu Azzoum, there are families who still do not know the fate of their relatives who were taken from Nasser Hospital and from other parts of Khan Younis by Israeli forces during their ground incursion into the southern Gaza city.

“The reality on the ground is that the entire Gaza Strip has turned into a graveyard, especially since there are still hundreds of people under the rubble,” he said.

Israeli army rejects findings of mass graves investigation

The Arabic language spokesperson of the US State Department has resigned, citing her opposition to Washington’s policy related to Israel’s war on Gaza.

Hala Rharrit was also the Dubai Regional Media Hub’s deputy director and joined the State Department almost two decades ago as a political and human rights officer, the department’s website showed.

She wrote on LinkedIn, “I resigned April 2024 after 18 years of distinguished service in opposition to the United States’ Gaza policy.”

Nearly a month earlier, Annelle Sheline of the State Department’s human rights bureau announced her resignation, and State Department official Josh Paul resigned in October.

A senior official in the US Education Department, Tariq Habash, who is Palestinian-American, had stepped down in January.



Why am I not surprised... The Freedom flotilla was announced 2 weeks ago, still hasn't left. I'm not expecting much from the US' aid pier either.
5,000 tons sounds like a lot, however it's about 250 aid trucks. There are between 3,000 and 7,000 aid trucks waiting to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing.

Israel places ‘roadblock’ to delay ‘Gaza Freedom Flotilla’: Aid coalition

How Gaza’s children are preparing for Israel’s invasion of Rafah