LIVE MIDDLE EAST. 18 countries want Hamas to release hostages for “immediate and long-term” arms truce – Belgian agency employee and 7-year-old son killed in bombardment in Gaza | Israel-Palestine conflict

Palestinians are fleeing the city of Rafah en masse due to a threatened Israeli offensive in the south of the Gaza Strip. About 150,000 to 200,000 citizens are said to have left in recent weeksIsraeli media reported.

Since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas had at times approximately 1.5 million civilians have sought shelter in Rafah against the continued Israeli attacks on the rest of the Gaza Strip.

The latest wave of refugees started after the Israeli army withdrew troops from Khan Younis, also in the south of the Gaza Strip, on April 7.

The Israeli Defense Forces hope that more civilians to the new tent camps shall go set up in the south and center of the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli media. After the ‘evacuation’, the army could then start its offensive against the Hamas resistance pockets in Rafah.

The United States and 17 other countries are calling for the release of hostages by Hamas and say a deal is on the table that would offer a long-term ceasefire in return.

In the letter they write: “The fate of the hostages and the civilian population in Gaza, who are protected by international law, is of international concern. We emphasize that the agreement on the table to release the hostages would lead to an immediate and long-term ceasefire in Gaza.”

In addition to the US, the call was signed by Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, France, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Thailand and the United Kingdom.

Since October 7, the start of the war between Israel and the extremist Palestinian organization Hamas, 80,000 to 100,000 Palestinians have reached Egyptian territory. Diab Allouh, the Palestinian ambassador to Egypt, announced this on Thursday.

The Rafah crossing, on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, is in theory the only exit from Gaza that is not under direct Israeli control.

In practice, Israel also controls in Rafah which goods and people enter and leave the Palestinian territory. Humanitarian aid for the residents of the Gaza Strip is also being admitted gradually through this border crossing.

Belgium remains part of the club EU countries working for the recognition of the Palestinian state. Prime Minister Alexander De Croo stated this in Parliament on Thursday.

De Croo had to speak during question time to correct an slip by Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib earlier this week. The MR minister had stated in the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Relations that De Croo had decided during the last European Council to withdraw Belgium from a group of EU countries, including Spain, Ireland and Slovenia. That club, led by Madrid, wants to recognize Palestine and is pushing for a broader European initiative. Lahbib’s communication was later refined, but among other things majority parties Groen and CD&V had already reacted indignantly.

The prime minister emphasized on Thursday that our country will remain part of the club around Spnaje. But at the same time, as EU president, Belgium must be able to gather as many countries as possible around a common position, he also said. It is “the position of very many countries” that the recognition of Palestine should be part of a broader peace process with political reforms. “We have been calling for a sustainable two-state solution from day one. Hamas, which is a terrorist organization, cannot be part of that solution. To achieve this, there must be reasonable and responsible people on both sides of the table.” Within the United Nations General Assembly, our country wants to cooperate on a resolution that makes such a solution possible, De Croo added.

An employee of the Belgian agency Enabel and his son were killed in an Israeli bombardment of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. Minister of Development Cooperation Caroline Gennez (Vooruit) reports this on X.

“It is with great sadness that I learned that one of our Enabel employees was killed last night by an Israeli bombardment. Abdallah Nabhan and his 7-year-old son Jamal were killed in an attack on Rafah,” Minister Gennez said. She said the man was one of the employees on a list of people eligible to leave Gaza. “This list was provided to the Israeli authorities months ago. Yet he was not given the opportunity to save himself and his family,” Gennez said.

She points to the “crushing” responsibility of the Israeli government. “The bombing of civilian infrastructure and innocent civilians violates all international, humanitarian and war laws,” it said.

In Boston, more than a hundred students have been arrested during a pro-Palestinian protest at Emerson College. Four officers were injured.

French police have intervened in a pro-Palestinian protest by university students in Paris. The demonstrators had gathered at the prestigious university Sciences Po.

About sixty students gathered at the university. They demand that the educational institution breaks with “universities and companies complicit in the genocide in Gaza“say witnesses.

Most demonstrators are said to have left after consultation with the university. However, a small group of students refused and the police were called in. He says too regret that the situation escalated to such an extent.

It is not only French universities that have caused unrest about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The authorities also had to intervene at American universities. In Los Angeles alone at a demonstration on the campus of the USC university 93 people arrested.

It growing protest at American universities against Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip expanded to more educational institutions on Wednesday. Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson wants the National Guard to intervene, he said on Wednesday during a visit to Columbia University in New York.

Demonstrations took place on campuses in Ohio and California, among others. On the USC campus in Los Angeles became a tent camp set up by demonstrators from pro-Palestinian groups and the Jewish Jewish Voice for Peace. After the tents were broken up by security, demonstrators continued to walk around the campus with them. The demonstration attracted students and people from outside the university, after which the USC board decided to close the campus gates. In the evening (local time) it was still certain fifty students arrested on campus.

In the Texas city of Austin a tense confrontation took place between students and riot police. More than twenty people were arrested, including a journalist. Demonstrations took place at dozens of other large and smaller educational institutions, reports ‘The Washington Post’ newspaper. Students from Harvard University in Boston set up a tent camp, following the example of students at Columbia in New York and UC Berkeley near San Francisco.

The demonstrators condemn the rising death toll in the Gaza Strip. In addition, students demand from their universities that they sever financial ties with Israel and openly support the call for a ceasefire scissors.

According to critics, including Republican Mike Johnson, pro-Hamas and anti-Semitic slogans are used at some demonstrationswhich is experienced as threatening by some Jewish students and university employees.

The wave of protests began at Columbia University, where more than a hundred demonstrators were arrested last week and a tent camp was cleared after university authorities called in police. On Wednesday, demonstrators were given 48 hours to break up a tent camp. Johnson wants principal Nemat Shafik to resign.

The Israeli forces have made all necessary preparations for an raid on Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. This is what a senior defense official told the Reuters news agency. According to the source, the raid can begin as soon as the Israeli government gives permission.

Israel sees Rafah as the last stronghold of the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip. A major military invasion is very sensitive internationally, because there are many Palestinian refugees in the city. The US, Israel’s main ally, has expressed clear concerns about the humanitarian consequences of such a move.

An Israeli government spokesman confirmed on Wednesday that a ground operation is planned, but did not provide details on when it would take place. The Reuters source said that 40,000 tents have already been purchased to accommodate Palestinians from Rafah. Each tent can accommodate ten to twelve people.

Images circulating online allegedly show tents being set up in Khan Younis, a town a few kilometers from Rafah. Satellite images also show new tent camps in places that were empty a few weeks ago. Rafah is home to more than a million refugees from other parts of the Gaza Strip.

An Israeli government source said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet is likely to meet in the next two weeks to decide on the evacuation of Palestinian civilians. That evacuation can then take about a month.