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David Knowles
It's been nearly two weeks since police were called in to break up a pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University. Since then, a movement calling for universities to divest financial support for Israel has spread to dozens of campuses across America.
The protests often feature tent cities established in green spaces and common areas, and have been largely peaceful — though not always. Hundreds of arrests have been made and skirmishes have broken out between police and demonstrators as college leaders seek to clear the spaces and quell the outcry. Commencements have been canceled, remote classes instituted and access to campus has been restricted.
In a sign of escalating tensions, police forcefully evicted protesters who had occupied Hamilton Hall on Columbia's Manhattan campus and at City College of New York in Harlem overnight, taking nearly 300 into custody. Meanwhile, at the University of California, Los Angeles, tensions between dueling groups of protesters erupted in violent clashes early Wednesday morning. There have also been signs of reconciliation, with protesters and administrators at Northwestern and Brown reaching agreements.
Despite the pressure, the protests remain active and seemingly grow by the day. Below, get the latest updates on this fast-moving story from Yahoo News:
A video posted by the New York Post showed police arriving at Fordham University at Lincoln Center to break up an encampment that protesters had set up in a campus building.
Police reportedly made as many as 15 arrests.
"I called the teacher, and they explained that they didn't have enough money to get every single kid their own supplies, so they planned on distributing the supplies evenly. The teacher shamed Lilly for it. Now, I don't know what to do."
The bodies of five Israeli hostages retrieved this week from the Gaza Strip had been held in a tunnel deep underground, Israel's military said on Thursday. The retrieval operation was carried out using intelligence gathered and analyzed in recent weeks, said military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. It took place "in the heart" of the city of Khan Younis, where Israeli forces returned to operate this week, he said.
Senior figures in Israel's government have said it is closing in on its war aims of defeating Hamas militarily and the return of hostages seized on Oct. 7. After nine months of pummelling by one of the most powerful militaries in the Middle East, Hamas is much weakened from the force that carried out the cross-border attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Early in the war, Hamas propaganda videos showed well-drilled fighters in body armour and battle fatigues, their torsos wrapped with ammunition belts.
Former President Trump said there should be a one-year jail sentence for anyone who desecrates the American flag in the wake of anti-Israel protests over the war in Gaza outside Union Station in Washington, D.C., that included a group burning an American flag. Trump, who has previously called for criminalizing burning the flag, scoffed at…
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for Israel to "respond substantively" to the top United Nations court's recent advisory opinion that Israel's presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is unlawful and that it should end.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — An explosion ripped through the Russian-controlled Olenivka prison barracks two years ago, killing more than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war and leaving dozens injured.
WASHINGTON/CAIRO (Reuters) -Israel is seeking changes to a plan for a Gaza truce and the release of hostages by Hamas, complicating a final deal to halt nine months of combat that have devastated the enclave, according to a Western official, a Palestinian and two Egyptian sources. Israel says that displaced Palestinians should be screened as they return to the enclave's north when the ceasefire begins, retreating from an agreement to allow civilians who fled south to freely return home, the four sources told Reuters. Israeli negotiators "want a vetting mechanism for civilian populations returning to the north of Gaza, where they fear these populations could support” Hamas fighters who remain entrenched there, said the Western official.
PARIS (AP) — Palestinian Olympic athletes were greeted with a roar of a crowd and gifts of food and roses as they arrived in Paris on Thursday, ready to represent war–torn Gaza and the rest of the territories on a global stage.
Israeli troops battled Palestinian fighters in Khan Younis in southern Gaza and destroyed tunnels and other infrastructure, as they sought to suppress small militant units that have continued to hit troops with mortar fire, the military said on Friday. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said troops had killed around 100 Palestinian fighters since Israeli troops began their latest operation in Khan Younis on Monday, which continued as pressure mounted for a deal to halt the fighting. It said seven small units that had been firing mortars at the troops were hit in an air strike, while further south, in Rafah, four fighters were also killed in air strikes.
Former President Trump on Friday claimed there will be a major war in the Middle East and potentially a “third world war” if he does not win November’s election. Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, one day after Netanyahu met at the White House with President Biden…
The remains of a teacher and four soldiers were found in an operation in Khan Younis on Wednesday.
A group of 45 American doctors and nurses describe bloodshed in Gaza in an open letter to the White House, and demand immediate ceasefire.
After weeks of Israeli bombardment left them with nowhere else to go, hundreds of Palestinians have ended up in a former Gaza prison built to hold murderers and thieves. Yasmeen al-Dardasi said she and her family passed wounded people they were unable to help as they evacuated from a district in the southern city of Khan Younis towards its Central Correction and Rehabilitation Facility. "We are not settled here either," said Dardasi, who like many Palestinians fears she will be uprooted once again.
High-speed trains around France were hit by several “malicious acts”, heavily disrupting traffic on the day of the high-risk opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. The AP's Angela Charlton explains.
Oliver Russell bought a $30,500 private island to realize a dream. He plans to build a cabin himself, but so far, he's been limited to Ikea furniture.
The police have denied opposition accusations that protesters were sexually abused in custody.
The daughter of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has been appointed by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin to serve on the Virginia Board of Education, drawing criticism from some Democrats who called the appointment politically motivated. Meg Bryce, a psychology educator who unsuccessfully ran last year for an at-large seat on the Albemarle County school board, said Thursday at a business meeting that she was thankful that Youngkin chose her for the board, which is responsible for determining statewide curriculum standards, high school graduation requirements and qualifications for teachers. “I have so admired what this board has already done to increase accountability and transparency and excellence in Virginia schools,” Bryce said.
The Israeli Defence Forces announced on Thursday that they had found the bodies of five hostages killed during the October 7 attacks who have been held in Gaza ever since. Corpses of a kindergarten teacher and four soldiers were found during a military operation in Khan Younis, the main city in the southern Gaza Strip, where the IDF have launched new attacks this week. Those found are among the 120 hostages listed as still being held in Gaza. Israeli forces recovered on Wednesday the bodies of f
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and tech billionaire Elon Musk clashed on social media Wednesday over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress after Musk called the Democratic Party “openly and boldly antisemitic.” The back-and-forth began after Musk responded to a post from Ocasio-Cortez on his social platform X about the decision by her and…
Dave Matthews spoke to Al Jazeera while joining thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters in Washington D.C. on July 24 and said he is “disgusted” by support in Congress for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Matthews added that he is “ashamed” that U.S. tax dollars are being used to aid Israel in its “brutalizing of an entire people” …