35m ago / 12:00 PM UTC
University leaders clarify positions on genocide after White House criticism
Two elite university leaders have attempted to clarify their positions after they appeared to sidestep the question of whether calling for the killing of Jews was against their students’ codes of conduct at a congressional hearing earlier this week.
Referring to the hearing on Wednesday, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement that it was “unbelievable that this needs to be said: calls for genocide are monstrous and antithetical to everything we represent as a country.”
In a video posted to Facebook yesterday, Elizabeth Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania, said she should have been focused on “the irrefutable fact that a call for genocide of Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate.”
“It’s evil, plain and simple,” she added.
In a seperate statement posted to X, Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard University, said: “Let me be clear: Calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile, they have no place at Harvard, and those who threaten our Jewish students will be held to account.”
55m ago / 11:40 AM UTC
Israel approves ‘minimal’ increase of fuel to Gaza
The Israeli Security Cabinet approved a “minimal” increase in supplies of much-needed fuel to southern Gaza. The move was taken to “prevent a humanitarian collapse and the outbreak of epidemics,” the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a post on X.
1h ago / 11:12 AM UTC
UNRWA says required conditions to deliver aid ‘do not exist’
The main U.N. agency for Palestinians said today that the conditions required to provide aid to the Gaza Strip “do not exist.”
Heavy bombardment and the resumption of military operations have made the situation “desperate,” said the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, citing a lack of aid and overcrowding in shelters.
“UNRWA operations are being strangled,” it added in a statement on X.
2h ago / 10:49 AM UTC
Exclusive: Jewish organization staffers call for White House to back Gaza cease-fire
While most major American Jewish organizations staunchly support Israel in its war against Hamas, dissent has quietly been growing among their often younger employees, some of whom are now speaking out to “demonstrate broad support within the Jewish community for a ceasefire.”
More than 500 staffers at over 140 Jewish organizations across the country signed on to an open letter to President Joe Biden, shared first with NBC News, calling for a cease-fire, the return of all hostages and a lasting peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.
2h ago / 10:16 AM UTC
Saudi Arabia urges U.S. restraint as Houthis attack ships in Red Sea
Saudi Arabia has asked the United States to show restraint in responding to attacks by Yemen’s Houthis against ships in the Red Sea, two sources familiar with Saudi thinking said, as Riyadh seeks to contain spillover from the Hamas-Israel war.
The Iran-aligned Houthis have waded into the conflict that has spread around the Middle East since war erupted on Oct. 7, attacking vessels in vital shipping lanes and firing drones and missiles at Israel itself. The Houthis are one of several groups in the Iran-aligned “Axis of Resistance” which have been attacking Israeli and U.S. targets since the start of the conflict.
With the Houthis stepping up attacks on shipping over the past weeks, two sources familiar with Saudi thinking said Riyadh’s message of restraint to Washington aimed to avoid further escalation. Riyadh was so far pleased with the way the United States was handling the situation, the sources added.
3h ago / 9:58 AM UTC
Overnight strike in Rafah displaces Palestinians
Palestinians gather near a building destroyed by an Israeli bombardment overnight in Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip this morning.
4h ago / 9:01 AM UTC
Palestinian student paralyzed in Vermont shooting is released from hospital to applause
Hisham Awartani, who was paralyzed from the chest down after he and two other Palestinian college students were shot over Thanksgiving weekend in Vermont, was released from a hospital today to rousing applause.
In a video shared by his family, Awartani, 20, was strapped to a medical stretcher and covered by a red blanket as he waved waving to onlookers standing in a hallway at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington.
4h ago / 9:01 AM UTC
IDF troops on the ground in Khan Younis
This picture released by the Israeli army shows troops on the ground in the heart of southern Gaza’s main city of Khan Younis this morning, where the suspected mastermind of the Hamas attacks is believed to be hiding.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
