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Tag: israel gaza

  • Who are the hostages Israel believes are still alive?

    TEL AVIV, Israel — Their faces stare down from every street corner in Israel on posters now sun-faded and ripped. Their stories, told by anguished family members, are almost as well-known as celebrities. They are civilians and soldiers, fathers and sons. Some were at the Nova music festival, where almost 400 people were killed and dozens kidnapped.

    The latest ceasefire, which began Friday, marks a key step toward ending a ruinous two-year war that was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, when some 1,200 people were killed and 251 kidnapped.

    The fighting has killed 67,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half the deaths were women and children, and displaced around 90% of the Gaza population of some 2 million. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, and the United Nations and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties in Gaza.

    There are currently 48 hostages being held in Gaza, including the body of one soldier from a previous war. Israel has determined that at least 25 of the hostages were killed on Oct. 7, 2023, or died while in captivity. It is unclear how many of the remaining around 20 hostages are still alive and will return to Israel. There is only one remaining female hostage, who Israel believes was killed in captivity.

    This combo of images provided by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, shows Israeli hostages.

    Hostages and Missing Families Forum via AP, File

    With the start of the ceasefire on Friday, the remaining hostages are expected to be released within 72 hours. Israel is set to release around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange.

    Here is a look at 22 hostages Israel believes are still alive.

    Matan Angrest, 22

    Matan Angrest, an Israeli soldier, was kidnapped from his military tank in southern Israel. He is the oldest of four children from Kiryat Bialik, outside of Haifa. His family has been among the most vocal protesters and very critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Tuesday’s two-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack, his mother, Anat Angrest, addressed her son at a rally. “I know you’re in pain, and I can’t hug you. I hear you whisper, ‘Come for me, Mom,’ and I can’t protect you,” she said.

    Gali Berman & Ziv Berman, 28

    The fraternal twins were taken from their homes in kibbutz Kfar Aza, on the border with Gaza, during the Oct. 7 attack. Seventeen others were also abducted from Kfar Aza, but the Berman twins are the only hostages from the kibbutz who remain in captivity. The family has heard from hostages who returned in a previous deal that, as of February, the brothers were alive but being held separately. Liran Berman, their older brother, said it’s the longest the two have ever spent apart. In Kfar Aza, the twins lived in apartments across from each other. Gali is more outgoing, while Ziv is more reserved and shy with a sharp sense of humor, their brother said.

    Elkana Bohbot, 36

    Elkana Bohbot was kidnapped from the Nova music festival. In the past year, Hamas has published multiple videos of Bohbot, filmed under duress, including one where he has a fake telephone conversation with his wife, Rivka; their son, Reem; his mother and his brother – pleading with them to help him get out of Gaza. His son made binoculars in kindergarten which he often uses to go out and “look for his father,” according to Bohbot’s mother, Ruhama.

    Rom Braslavski, 21

    Braslavski was working as a security guard at the Nova festival. He attempted to help festival goers evacuate and was wounded in both hands before being kidnapped, witnesses said. In August, the Islamic Jihad militant group released a video of a skeletal Braslavski sobbing and pleading for his life, adding that injuries to his foot prevent him from standing. The videos of Braslavski and Evyatar David digging his own grave horrified Israelis, sparking some of the largest attendance in months at weekly protests. His father, Ofir, said Rom is usually a strong, happy-go-lucky kid, and that video is the first time he’s seen his son cry.

    Nimrod Cohen, 21

    Nimrod Cohen was kidnapped from a tank where he was stationed as a soldier in southern Israel. Cohen is obsessed with Rubik’s cubes, his family said, and a burned Rubik’s cube was found in the tank he was abducted from. This year, his mother, Viki Cohen, illustrated a Passover haggadah, the text laying out the rituals and story recited during the Passover holiday, in honor of hostages, partly because her family has stopped celebrating holidays since the attack. “We don’t gather as a family, because it reminds us how much he is missing,” Cohen said. The only time the extended family gathers is at protests, she said.

    Ariel Cunio, 28

    The youngest of four Cunio brothers, Ariel was kidnapped from the Nir Oz kibbutz with his girlfriend, Arbel Yehoud, and her brother, Dolev, a married father of four who was later killed in captivity. According to news reports, Cunio and Yehoud had returned from an extended trip to South America weeks before the attack and had just adopted a puppy. Yehoud was released during the ceasefire in January.

    David Cunio, 35

    David Cunio, brother of Ariel Cunio, was kidnapped with his wife, Sharon, and their 3-year-old twins from the Nir Oz kibbutz. Sharon’s sister Danielle and her 5-year-old daughter, who were visiting, also were kidnapped. All were released in November, except for David Cunio. In July, Sharon shared a photo of the twins marking their fifth birthday, their second without their father, writing on Facebook that the girls have changed so much while he’s been in captivity that “they’re not the same little girls he knew.”

    Evyatar David, 24

    Evyatar David was taken hostage at the Nova music festival along with his childhood friend, Guy Gilboa-Dalal. In August, Hamas released a video of David, gaunt and pale, who said he was digging his own grave. The condition of the hostages in the videos horrified Israelis and led tens of thousands of protesters to take to the streets and demand a ceasefire deal, in one of the largest turnouts for the weekly hostage protests in months.

    Guy Gilboa-Dalal, 24

    Guy Gilboa-Dalal was among those abducted from the Nova music festival, while his brother managed to escape. In the past year, he’s appeared in two videos released by Hamas. In one, he appears alongside his childhood friend, David, with militants filming them pleading for their freedom in a vehicle while they watch three other hostages on stage being released to the Red Cross.

    Maksym Harkin, 37

    Maksym Harkin was abducted from Nova, which was the first festival he had ever attended, according to his family. Harkin was born in Ukraine and moved to Israel with his family, where he lived in Tirat HaCarmel in the north. He has a 3-year-old daughter and was the primary provider for his mother and 11-year-old brother. Just before he was taken, his mother said he sent a final text message that said, “I love you.” In July, Hamas released a video of him filmed under duress several months prior.

    Eitan Horn, 38

    Eitan Horn, originally from Kfar Saba, was visiting his brother Iair at the Nir Oz kibbutz on Oct. 7. Both were kidnapped. For most of the war, the two were held with three other hostages in a filthy cell underground. In early February, militants filmed the emotional interaction between the brothers as they were told that Iair would be released and Eitan would stay in Gaza. Since his release, Iair Horn has campaigned for his brother and the other hostages, flying frequently to the United States and meeting with politicians.

    Bipin Joshi, 24

    Bipin Joshi arrived in Israel from his native Nepal a month before the attack. He is the only non-Israeli hostage believed to be alive in Gaza. He came to Israel on a student exchange to work and study agriculture at kibbutz Alumim on the Gaza border. Ten of the 17 Nepali students in the program were killed during the attack. Joshi, who was able to throw a number of live grenades out of the bomb shelter where they were hiding, was injured and kidnapped. Joshi’s sister, 17-year-old Pushpa Joshi, regularly travels eight hours each direction on buses to Kathmandu from her home in western Nepal to lobby officials to secure her brother’s release. In August, his family traveled to Israel to meet with President Isaac Herzog and join families demonstrating in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square.

    Segev Kalfon, 27

    Segev Kalfon was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, where he was last seen attempting to flee militants along the highway. Before the attack, he worked at his family’s bakery in Dimona, in southern Israeli. The middle child of three, Kalfon had recently been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, a condition his family has highlighted in urging his release. Kalfon’s family received a sign of life from him after the last ceasefire, when some of the hostages said they were held with him for months. Kalfon’s family has focused on religious rituals in their fight for his release, including traveling to the grave of prominent rabbis and dedicating a Torah scroll in his honor.

    Bar Kupershtein, 23

    Bar Kupershtein was working at the Nova festival as a security guard when he was abducted. Witnesses said Kupershtein stayed at the festival to try to provide first aid to people who had been shot and injured. Kupershtein was the main financial support for his family after his father was severely injured in an accident several years ago, his aunt, Ora Rubinstein, told reporters. She said that his father worked with a physical therapist to regain the ability to speak, so he could meet with politicians to advocate for his son’s release. He has told the family that he will walk again when his son comes home, she said.

    Omri Miran, 48

    Omri Miran was kidnapped from the Nahal Oz kibbutz. During the attack, militants held his family, including his two daughters, ages 2 and 6 months, hostage in the kitchen of a neighbor’s house and then broadcast it on Facebook Live. Miran and the father of the other family, Tsachi Idan, were kidnapped. Idan’s body was released during the last hostage exchange after he was killed in captivity. Lishay Miran Lavi, Miran’s wife, said their younger daughter knows “daddy Omri” only through photos and videos, and doesn’t really understand what a father is.

    Eitan Mor, 25

    Eitan Mor was working as a security guard at the Nova music festival, where he helped evacuate people injured in the attack. Mor’s parents helped found the Tikva Forum, a loosely organized group of hostage families. They advocated for military pressure, not an immediate ceasefire or hostage release deal, as the best chance for bringing the hostages home. That stance has put Mor’s father at odds with many of the other families of hostages.

    Tamir Nimrodi, 20

    Tamir Nimrodi was kidnapped from Erez, a crossing on the northern border of Gaza that had been the main route for people entering and leaving the territory. He had been serving with the Israeli defense body overseeing humanitarian aid in Gaza. Nimrodi was kidnapped with two other soldiers by militants who walked them to the Gaza gate and forced them to cross. Israel confirmed the deaths of the two soldiers who were kidnapped with Nimrodi. There has been no sign of life from Nimrodi in the two years since he was seen in footage walking into Gaza in shorts and a T-shirt without his glasses. Herut Nimrodi, his mother, has said she doesn’t know what is worse: to think he has been killed in captivity, or that he’s alive but being held in terrible conditions. “I’m scared to even imagine,” she said.

    Yosef-Chaim Ohana, 25

    Yosef-Chaim Ohana was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, where he was working as a bartender. Witnesses saw him attempting to help others escape before he was kidnapped. He is the oldest of three brothers, one of whom previously died from an illness.

    Alon Ohel, 24

    Alon Ohel, who also has German and Serbian citizenship, was kidnapped at the Nova music festival from a mobile bomb shelter along with Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American-Israeli who was killed in captivity in August 2024. A talented pianist, his family has placed pianos across Israel and several sites around the world to raise awareness of his plight. Three other hostages who had been held with Ohel for more than a year were released during the previous ceasefire, including Eli Sharabi, who said Ohel was like his adopted son. Sharabi said they were kept chained for the entire period of their captivity and subsisted on a moldy pita per day. Ohel has shrapnel in his eye from the attack on the bomb shelter and his family is worried he may be partially blind.

    Avinatan Or, 32

    Avinatan Or was kidnapped from the Nova music festival along with his girlfriend, Noa Argamani, who was rescued by Israeli forces in June 2024. On Oct. 7, Hamas released a video of the pair that has become one of the most well-known videos from that day. It showed Argamani on an all-terrain vehicle crying, “Don’t kill me!” and reaching out her arms to Or, who is being marched away from her by militants. Or worked in hi-tech in Tel Aviv before his abduction.

    Matan Zangauker, 25

    Matan Zangauker was kidnapped from kibbutz Nir Oz along with his girlfriend, Ilana Gritzewsky. The two met while working on a medical cannabis farm there. Gritzewsky was released after 55 days and has since advocated tirelessly for his release, wearing a hat of Zangauker’s she rescued from their burned home. His mother, Einav, has been a constant presence at protests, giving impassioned speeches and even being hoisted in a cage above the crowd to draw attention to the hostages’ plight. Zangauker, who said she was previously a Netanyahu supporter, has emerged as one of his harshest critics. ___

    Associated Press writer Sam Metz contributed from Jerusalem.

    Copyright © 2025 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

    AP

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  • Rubio arrives in Israel as Israeli strikes intensify in northern Gaza

    JERUSALEM — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Israel on Sunday, as Israel intensified its attacks against northern Gaza, flattening another high-rise building and killing at least 12 Palestinians.

    Rubio said ahead of the trip that he will be seeking answers from Israeli officials about how they see the way forward in Gaza following Israel’s attack on Hamas operatives in Qatar last week that upended efforts to broker an end to the conflict.

    His two-day visit is also a show of support for the increasingly isolated Israel as the United Nations holds what is expected to be a contentious debate on commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly opposes the recognition of a Palestinian state.

    Attack on Qatar

    Rubio’s visit went ahead despite President Donald Trump’s anger at Netanyahu over the Israeli strike against Hamas leaders in Doha, which he said the United States was not notified of beforehand.

    On Friday, Rubio and Trump met with Qatar’s prime minister to discuss the fallout from the Israeli operation. The dual, back-to-back meetings with Israel and Qatar illustrate how Trump administration is trying to balance relations between key Middle East allies despite the attack’s widespread international condemnation.

    The Doha attack also appears to have ended attempts to secure an Israel-Hamas ceasefire and the release of hostages ahead of the upcoming U.N. General Assembly session, at which the Gaza war is expected to be a primary focus.

    Deadly airstrikes mount

    On Sunday, at least 13 Palestinians were killed and dozens were wounded in multiple Israeli strikes across Gaza, according to local hospitals.

    Local hospitals said Israeli strikes targeted a vehicle near Shifa hospital and a roundabout in Gaza City, and a tent in the city of Deir al-Balah that killed at least six members of the same family.

    Two parents, their three children and the children’s aunt were killed in that strike, according to the Al-Aqsa hospital. The family was from the northern town of Beit Hanoun, and arrived in Deir al-Balah last week after fleeing their shelter in Gaza City

    The Israeli military did not have immediate comment on the strikes.

    As part of its expanding operation in Gaza City, the Israeli military destroyed a high-rise residential building on Sunday morning, less than an hour after an evacuation order posted online by the military spokesman Avichay Adraee.

    Residents said said the Kauther tower in the Rimal neighborhood was flattened to the ground. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

    “This is part of the genocidal measures the (Israeli) occupation is carrying out in Gaza City,” said Abed Ismail, a Gaza City resident. “They want to turn the whole city into rubble, and force the transfer and another Nakba.”

    The word Nakba is Arabic for catastrophe and refers to when some 700,000 Palestinians were expelled by Israeli forces or fled their homes in what is now Israel, before and during the 1948 war that surrounded its creation.

    Israeli strongly denies accusations of genocide in Gaza.

    Starvation in Gaza

    Separately, two Palestinian adults died of causes related to malnutrition and starvation in the Gaza Strip over the last 24 hours, the territory’s health ministry reported Sunday.

    That has brought the death toll from malnutrition-related causes to 277 since late June, when the ministry started to count fatalities among this age category, while another 145 children died of malnutrition-related causes since the start of the war in October 2023, the ministry said.

    The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, abducting 251 people and killing some 1,200, mostly civilians. There are still 48 hostages remaining in Gaza, of whom 20 Israel believes are still alive.

    Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,803 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. It says around half of those killed were women and children. Large parts of major cities have been completely destroyed and around 90% of some 2 million Palestinians have been displaced. ___

    Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

    Copyright © 2025 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

    AP

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  • Some Universities Are Holding Back Pro-Palestine Student Protestors’ Diplomas

    Some Universities Are Holding Back Pro-Palestine Student Protestors’ Diplomas

    Several universities across the country are withholding, or threatening to withhold, the diplomas of seniors who engaged in pro-Palestine demonstrations on their campuses amid a national student mobilization in recent months.

    After Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military launched a massive offensive in Gaza, which has so far has killed more than 35,000 and sparked a famine in the region. In response, students formed encampments and held demonstrations to demand that their colleges publicly denounce Israel’s attacks on Gaza as a genocide, increase transparency about their Israeli ties and divest from companies in business with Israel.

    Many pro-Palestine demonstrations have been peaceful. But hundreds of students at universities across the country have been arrested for their involvement, and some are facing hearings for alleged disciplinary violations.

    Now, multiple colleges are saying that diplomas will be held until these investigations are completed.

    On Friday, administrators at the University of California, Los Angeles threatened to discipline and withhold the diplomas of at least 55 students who were involved in pro-Palestine demonstrations.

    In letters sent on Friday, administrators accused the students of violating the student code of conduct, alleging that they failed to respond to police’s orders to disperse at the May 2 encampment and engaged in “disorderly behavior,” “disturbing the peace” and “failure to comply,” according to the Guardian and UCLA’s student newspaper, The Daily Bruin.

    The letters say students must attend hearings to discuss the their protest involvement and will not be allowed to receive their degrees until they’ve done so, the Guardian reported. Students who don’t schedule their meeting or who miss it will not be able to register for classes next semester or, if they’re seniors, graduate.

    UCLA did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request to comment on the pro-Palestine student hearings.

    Similar actions against students involved in pro-Palestine demonstrations are happening at Ivy League schools like Princeton University.

    Princeton has held the degrees of at least two seniors who were involved in a pro-Palestine walkout held during an annual event last week, according to the college’s student newspaper, The Daily Princetonian.

    At the annual alumni address on May 25, about 25 students raised their hands, which were covered in red paint, dropped two banners and placed speakers under seats at the front of the auditorium, according to the Daily Princetonian. The demonstration lasted for six minutes, after which the group staged a walkout and continued protesting outside of the auditorium.

    “The University continues to enforce viewpoint-neutral time, place, and manner rules during end-of-year events. A wide range of protest activity is permitted, including walking out of an event. Significantly disrupting University operations and events is not permitted,” Jennifer Morrill, director of media relations at Princeton University, told HuffPost.

    In a post on social media on May 27, the student group Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest claimed that the students “were not given any disciplinary warnings” throughout the protest.

    One of the seniors whose degree is being held told HuffPost that he and the other student had walked out of the event after seeing the protest happen, but did not participate in the demonstration itself. (The student requested anonymity out of fear of retribution from the university.)

    “We left because we were uncomfortable and thought they cut the event short given the protest. But even if we were protesting, given the University spokesperson’s comment, we did nothing wrong,” he said, noting how students in 2015 led a walkout during the president’s speech and faced no investigations or disciplinary action.

    “Even at commencement, people turned their back on him and walked out — also no punishment. To my knowledge, this is the first time that anyone is facing any punishment for walking out of a University event of any kind.”

    The student said he believes that he and the other senior were targeted by the school because of their previous efforts to de-escalate tensions on campus and hold the school accountable, especially amid the pro-Palestine demonstrations.

    The two students were still allowed to attend the commencement ceremony on Tuesday, but were told that they couldn’t pick up their diplomas due an ongoing disciplinary investigation.

    “It is standard University practice that when seniors are involved in alleged disciplinary violations soon before Commencement, their degrees are held pending the conclusion of a disciplinary investigation. Temporarily holding a degree while an investigation is pending is not a disciplinary sanction,” Morrill said.

    Youssef Hasweh, a senior at the University of Chicago, received an email from the associate dean of students on May 24 saying that he was identified as someone who’d potentially been involved in “disruptive conduct” at the encampment earlier this month.

    Three other students also received the email. None of the four have been given any specifics about their alleged misconduct, according to Chicago Sun Times.

    In an email, which was viewed by HuffPost, the dean told the students that they would be allowed to walk at the commencement ceremony on Saturday, but that their degrees would not be conferred until the matter is resolved through disciplinary hearings. The disciplinary process has no set timeline.

    UChicago’s director of public affairs, Gerald McSwiggan, did not respond to specific questions about the four students whose diplomas are being withheld. McSwiggan directed HuffPost to a May 26 statement from the school outlining its disciplinary process.

    Hasweh told HuffPost that he is unsure why the school is sanctioning him and the three other targeted students, when thousands participated in the school’s encampment. He noted that he and the three other students had been previously arrested during a pro-Palestine sit-in in the fall and were also set to face a disciplinary hearing for that.

    On the same day Hasweh and the others received the email from the dean about the second hearing, he said, they were told that their first hearing was concluded and the school would give them an official warning as a result.

    “UChicago is essentially on a two-strike system,” Hasweh said. “So with the warning from the sit-in, they’re going to hit us really hard with the encampment.”

    Several U.S. schools, including the ones that are holding student protesters diplomas, have statements on their websites expressing that free speech and expression is valued on their campuses, so long as it isn’t disruptive and doesn’t violate school policies.

    Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber took a moment during the alumni event last week to remind students of the college’s policy, after one protestor yelled, “We are complicit in genocide,” during his speech.

    “We do believe in free speech, but we don’t believe in free speech that interrupts, so we’re gonna put a stop to this,” Eisgruber said as the protester continued shouting, the Daily Princetonian reported.

    But the student HuffPost spoke to said he disagrees with the way the college is handling the situation and said it didn’t warrant disciplinary action.

    “The University absolutely touts free speech— it’s very well-documented. However, I’m not too sure that their handling of this situation reflects their value of that,” he said.

    Quinn O’Connor, an alum of UCLA who graduated in 2022, said that she feels “incredibly disappointed” by the college’s threat to hold the degrees of some students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, especially considering how much it touts its tolerance of free speech as a public university.

    In 2022, O’Connor and several other students held a 16-day sit-in at the chancellor’s building to protest the college’s return to in-person learning and demand hybrid learning options, which disabled and immunocompromised students had benefited from.

    O’Connor said that they felt that their rights to free speech had been respected to an extent, noting that the students who participated in the 2022 sit-in were primarily people of color and faced regular threats of being forced out of the building from administration and the police.

    But they believe the college’s response to the pro-Palestine demonstrations has been different.

    “I participated in an occupation of a building on that same campus no more than two years ago, where we were never forcibly removed,” O’Connor told HuffPost.

    UCLA administrators had initially tolerated the largely peaceful pro-Palestine encampment on campus. But after counter-protestors attacked the camp overnight, college officials issued a statement warning students to disband.

    “UCLA supports peaceful protest, but not activism that harms our ability to carry out our academic mission and makes people in our community feel bullied, threatened and afraid,” UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said in a statement on April 30.

    Police raided and destroyed the encampment on May 2. More than 200 students and faculty were arrested, and UC President Michael Drake said that 15 people were injured, though protestors say the number was actually higher.

    O’Connor argued that the 2022 sit-in was “more disruptive” than UCLA’s pro-Palestine demonstrations were. The pro-Palestine encampment stretched primarily across a lawn, while in 2022, O’Connor’s group had actively blocked administrators’ office doors, including Block’s office.

    The encampment on UChicago’s campus was established April 29 and went on for days, even after the university warned students to leave or face removal. One group of protestors temporarily took over a building on campus. On May 7, police disbanded the encampment, according to the Associated Press.

    “Safety concerns have mounted over the last few days, and the risks were increasing too rapidly for the status quo to hold,” UChicago president Paul Alivisatos said in a statement earlier this month.

    But more than a dozen members of Chicago’s City Council believe that the college’s decision to withhold degrees from students who participated is a repression of free speech that contradicts the university’s own policy, and they penned a letter on Friday to push back on its actions.

    The council members worried that “this repression forms part of a pattern of universities targeting students for making their voices heard,” according to the Chicago Sun Times.

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  • Inside UCLA’s Palestinian Solidarity Encampment — Before Police Tore It Apart

    Inside UCLA’s Palestinian Solidarity Encampment — Before Police Tore It Apart

    More than 200 UCLA students, faculty and staff were arrested early Thursday morning after police destroyed the campus’ Palestinian solidarity encampment, wielding batons and less-lethal munitions to break up the crowd and disassemble the barriers to the tent community that was erected one week ago.

    The encampment, which stretched across the lawn by Royce Hall, was established last Thursday by hundreds of students calling for the University of California, Los Angeles, to divest from all companies with ties to Israel and disclose the finances of the school’s foundation.

    UCLA’s encampment is just one of dozens of similar campus protests across the country since Israel’s military assault on Gaza, which was launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that left about 1,200 people dead and about 240 taken hostage. Since then, Israel Defense Forces have killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza, according to local health officials.

    Since April 18, when students at Columbia University in New York City began protesting Israel’s offensive in Gaza, more than 1,600 people have been arrested at 30 college campuses nationwide.

    By Thursday evening, hours before the UCLA encampment was destroyed, it hosted a vibrant community of students, faculty members and volunteers, and was equipped with donations of extra clothing, blankets, food, personal protective equipment, first-aid supplies, hygiene products, a space to pray and legal observers.

    “We have a program here. We have workshops, teach-ins, self-defense classes,” said Ismael, a 22-year-old UCLA student who requested to be identified only by his first name. Ismael came to the encampment on Sunday straight from the airport after a camping trip, he said. Asked why he chose to participate in the protests, he said, “I’m against genocide.”

    “Honestly, it was the most beautiful thing that’s happened on campus throughout my eight years at UCLA,” Can Açiksöz, a professor in UCLA’s anthropology department, said. “It was multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-faith … it was very beautiful to witness that the students could build these bridges.”

    ‘The Playbook Of Authoritarianism’

    After initially tolerating the protests, university officials declared the encampment illegal on Tuesday, warning of consequences if protesters did not disband.

    “UCLA supports peaceful protest, but not activism that harms our ability to carry out our academic mission and makes people in our community feel bullied, threatened and afraid,” university Chancellor Gene Block said. “These incidents have put many on our campus, especially our Jewish students, in a state of anxiety and fear.”

    A large group of counter-protesters — some of whom held Israeli flags — descended on the campus late Tuesday night, attempting to tear down the barricades that surrounded the lawn.

    Students, faculty and university staff told HuffPost that counter-protesters threw sticks, metal rods, traffic cones, chairs and electric scooters at the encampment, and sprayed chemical irritants that left lingering rashes. Some protesters said they were pulled into the crowd of counter-protesters and beaten.

    Protesters reported that Los Angeles Police Department officers stood by and watched the violence unfold for hours without intervening.

    “Why aren’t you helping?” Ismael recalled asking police officers. “Despite everything, we maintained our stance on peaceful protest,” he said, still wearing his bracelet from the emergency room, where he sought treatment for what he believes was pepper spray and tear gas.

    Aidan Doyle, a 21-year-old junior at UCLA, said he was repeatedly pulled into the crowd of counter-protesters, who whipped him with sticks, threw a battery at his eye and sprayed him with chemical irritants. At one point, he said, he found himself looking at the nozzle of what he believed was a pepper spray gun. “It was the most painful experience of my life,” Doyle said of the attack, his shirt still bloodied and his hands still covered in red rashes.

    UCLA junior Aidan Doyle, 21, described being attacked by counter-protesters as “the most painful experience” of his life.

    Jessica Schulberg/HuffPost

    Several protesters said the counter-protesters appeared too old to be college students and that they shouted racist, homophobic slurs and threats of rape. One protester’s mother, who was at the encampment Wednesday, said counter-protesters called her son shahid, an Arabic word for martyr, and threatened to physically hurt him.

    “The students were great at de-escalating” and “did not respond in kind,” Açiksöz said on Wednesday. “It speaks volumes about their composure and commitment to nonviolence, even in the face of absolute violence.”

    “What is happening at UCLA right now is a strategy that I recognize from Turkey,” Açiksöz tweeted at the time of the counter-protesters’ attack. “The police outsourcing violence to fascist mobs.”

    “I compared it to Turkey because this was something that I experienced, personally, many times during my years of student activism,” Açiksöz said in an interview on Thursday. “You have groups of ultra-nationalists or classical fascists attacking students while the police is present and doing nothing. And then the police come and sweeps up and arrest the students who are attacked, rather than arresting the attackers themselves.”

    “This is the playbook of authoritarianism everywhere, from Egypt to Israel to Turkey to India.”

    The LAPD reportedly intervened after nearly three hours. The police department made no arrests and used no force, it said on X, formerly known as Twitter. UC President Michael Drake reported that 15 people were injured, although protesters say the actual number was higher.

    On Wednesday, 398 UCLA faculty members, as well as 680 faculty and staff members from other University of California campuses, issued a letter to Block demanding that there be no police or disciplinary action against students participating in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. The California Federation of Teachers and some faculty at UCLA have called for Block to immediately resign for his “failure of leadership.” Block is set to retire in July and is one of three university leaders summoned to testify before Congress this month about antisemitism on college campuses.

    Before the counter-protesters violently clashed with people in the encampment on Tuesday, the group had installed a large video screen facing the encampment that played loud footage from the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks all day and night.

    The jumbo screen was part of a pricey counter-protest from an organization called The Bear Jews of Truth. According to two separate GoFundMe pages, the organization raised more than $133,000 in donations to erect the video display at UCLA and bring similar screens to other universities across the country. One of the pages says the group plans to bring a large screen to George Washington University in the District of Columbia in May.

    An archived version of one of the fundraising pages shows plans to bring “something very big for the ucla encampment.”

    “We are working to bring a huge screen and big loud speakers right next to them and just play nonstop clips and interviews from Oct. 7,” the page said.

    The pro-Israel counter-protest has been supported by celebrities including comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his wife, Jessica Seinfeld, a cookbook author, as well as billionaire hedge-fund investor Bill Ackman, according to the Daily Beast.

    Students within the encampment told HuffPost the video screen was a “form of torture” and reported a number of other tactics leveraged by the counter-protesters on Tuesday night, including launching fireworks, creating louds noises that sounded like gunshots and incessant cellphone alarms.

    An encampment of people protesting Israel's attacks on Gaza is set up on the UCLA campus by Royce Hall.
    An encampment of people protesting Israel’s attacks on Gaza is set up on the UCLA campus by Royce Hall.

    ‘We’re Just Kids’

    The UCLA administration canceled classes on Wednesday, and protesters spent the morning cleaning up the encampment and repairing the barriers around the site. A volunteer medic provided treatment for protesters injured the previous night. Participants also passed out goggles, helmets, ear plugs and gloves as rumors circulated that police intervention was imminent.

    Nurse practitioner Kristine Bustos, 38, volunteered as a medic, providing care to injured students.
    Nurse practitioner Kristine Bustos, 38, volunteered as a medic, providing care to injured students.

    Jessica Schulberg/HuffPost

    By Wednesday evening, a heavy police presence surrounded the perimeter of the encampment. Protesters barricaded the doors to Royce Hall, from which they anticipated police officers might enter. A group of faculty members lined up in front of the doors to form a human barrier to protect the students.

    Encampment participants were organized into red, yellow and green categories, based on their willingness to risk arrest. Organizers made sure that participants who could not risk arrest were positioned close to exits and that those who planned to stay until removed had protective equipment.

    Pro-Palestinian protesters blocked the doors to Royce Hall on Wednesday night in anticipation of police intervention. Graffiti was painted on the building.
    Pro-Palestinian protesters blocked the doors to Royce Hall on Wednesday night in anticipation of police intervention. Graffiti was painted on the building.

    Jessica Schulberg/HuffPost

    The standoff lasted for hours, with periodic dispersal orders blaring over a loudspeaker. Some protesters, many of whom had barely slept the previous night, suspected that police were waiting until the middle of the night to enter the encampment, hoping people would get tired and leave.

    In the early hours of Thursday morning, police launched a multi-front operation into the encampment, using flash-bang devices and so-called “less-lethal” bullets against students who were armed with makeshift shields and umbrellas. Although protesters pushed back initial incursions from officers, the camp was fully cleared by morning.

    UCLA students erect barricades and fly the flag of Palestine on the campus.
    UCLA students erect barricades and fly the flag of Palestine on the campus.

    “The police attacked not only the encampment but students all over the campus,” Açiksöz said. “There were groups of students, maybe 1,000 students or so, surrounding the encampments in different directions, and everywhere that I went, I saw students being chased by stun grenades and batons.”

    By Thursday morning, hundreds of students and faculty had been arrested and were being released from detention at the Inmate Reception Center and the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. The released protesters were greeted by public defense attorneys and family members, and by jail support volunteers who passed out bagels and coffee.

    Los Angeles Public Defender Ricardo García said in a statement that his office was providing “on-the-ground support to arrestees” but that it was not yet clear what charges, if any, would be presented.

    LAPD and the California Highway Patrol referred questions to the UCLA Campus Police, which did not respond to a request for comment.

    Block, the UCLA chancellor, released a statement to the UCLA community Thursday afternoon about the decision to direct campus police and outside law enforcement to help clear the encampment after the administration failed to reach an agreement with encampment leaders.

    “In the end, the encampment on Royce Quad was both unlawful and a breach of policy. It led to unsafe conditions on our campus and it damaged our ability to carry out our mission,” Block wrote. “It needed to come to an end.”

    Later Thursday, in an alumni town hall, Block acknowledged the protesters’ demands but did not signal any willingness to meet them. He also said that UCLA’s commencement ceremonies will go forward, though he expects some disruptions.

    Outside the Inmate Detention Center on Thursday morning, students walked outside red-eyed from lack of sleep and tear gas that still stung their eyes. One 21-year-old psychology major who was released Thursday said that the last two days on campus were like a “war zone” and that she witnessed police removing people’s hijabs and masks, and forcing students to walk by the video screen put up by pro-Israel counter-protesters on their way to arrest.

    “They did this on purpose,” she said. “They told us, ‘Let’s do a media walk.’ It was a kind of a threat meant for public humiliation.”

    She was one of a few hundred students, faculty and staff remaining at the encampment at 5:50 Thursday morning, eager to keep the police out of the encampment. She recalled how officers kettled her classmates, pushing through their makeshift barriers with batons and shields.

    “We’re just kids,” she said. “We didn’t have much to go off of.”

    Later Thursday, the encampment had been cleared by the university, and dozens of tent-shaped patches of grass marked what had been the makeshift solidarity encampment.

    Some protesters talked about rebuilding the community, and others expressed caution.

    “I think it’ll come back,” said a senior bioengineering major who was arrested Thursday morning. He received a concussion after being struck on the head twice Tuesday and pepper-sprayed in the eye.

    “We just want our demands to be met. We want the university to step up and acknowledge that and be open about how they’re spending their money.”

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  • Israeli Warplanes Strike Gaza Refugee Camps As Israel Rejects U.S. Push For Pause In Fighting

    Israeli Warplanes Strike Gaza Refugee Camps As Israel Rejects U.S. Push For Pause In Fighting

    DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Gaza fell under its third total communications outage since the start of the war on Sunday night, with Palestinian communications company Paltel saying all of its communication and internet services were down. Internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org reported a “new collapse in connectivity” across the besieged enclave.

    “We have lost communication with the vast majority of the UNRWA team members,” U.N. Palestinian refugee agency spokesperson Juliette Touma told The Associated Press. The first Gaza outage lasted 36 hours and the second one for a few hours.

    Israeli warplanes struck two refugee camps in the Gaza Strip earlier Sunday, killing at least 53 people and wounding dozens, health officials said. The strikes came as Israel said it would press on with its offensive to crush the territory’s Hamas rulers, despite U.S. appeals for a pause to get aid to desperate civilians.

    Israel has rejected the idea of halting its offensive, even for brief humanitarian pauses proposed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his current tour of the region. Gaza’s Health Ministry said more than 9,700 Palestinians have been killed in the territory in nearly a month of war, a number that is likely to rise as Israeli troops advance into dense, urban neighborhoods.

    Airstrikes hit the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza overnight, killing at least 40 people and wounding 34 others, the Health Ministry said.

    Palestinians look for survivors of the Israeli bombardment in the Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

    An Associated Press reporter at a nearby hospital saw eight dead children, including a baby, who were brought in after the strike. A surviving child was led down the corridor, her clothes caked in dust, an expression of shock on her face.

    Arafat Abu Mashaia, who lives in the camp, said the Israeli airstrike flattened several multi-story homes where people forced out of other parts of Gaza were sheltering.

    “It was a true massacre,” he said while standing on the wreckage. “All here are peaceful people. I challenge anyone who says there were resistance (fighters) here.”

    There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. The camp, a built-up residential area, is located in the evacuation zone where Israel’s military had urged Palestinian civilians to seek refuge as it focuses its military offensive on the north.

    Another airstrike hit a house near a school at the Bureji refugee camp in central Gaza on Sunday, and staff at Al-Aqsa Hospital told the AP at least 13 people were killed. The camp is home to an estimated 46,000 people and was struck on Thursday as well.

    Despite appeals and overseas demonstrations, Israel has continued its bombardment across Gaza, saying it is targeting Hamas and accusing it of using civilians as human shields. Critics say Israel’s strikes are often disproportionate, considering the large number of civilians killed.

    Palestinians inspect a damaged house that was raided by the Israeli army in the West Bank town of Abu Dis, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. The military said that the house was home to a militant who had orchestrated attacks against Israeli forces, the 22-year-old Palestinian was shot and killed during the raid. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
    Palestinians inspect a damaged house that was raided by the Israeli army in the West Bank town of Abu Dis, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. The military said that the house was home to a militant who had orchestrated attacks against Israeli forces, the 22-year-old Palestinian was shot and killed during the raid. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

    Blinken met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, a day after talks with Arab foreign ministers in neighboring Jordan.

    Abbas, who has had no authority in Gaza since Hamas took over in 2007, said the Palestinian Authority would only assume control of Gaza as part of a “comprehensive political solution” establishing an independent state that would also take in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, lands Israel seized in the 1967 war.

    His remarks seemed to further narrow the already slim options for who would govern Gaza if Israel succeeds in toppling Hamas. The last peace talks with Israel broke down more than a decade ago, and Israel’s government is dominated by opponents of Palestinian statehood.

    Earlier in his tour, Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Sunday reiterated while visiting an air force base that “there will be no ceasefire without the return of our abductees.” He added: “We will just continue until we beat them, we have no alternative.”

    Arab leaders have called for an immediate cease-fire. But Blinken said that “would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on Oct. 7,” when the group launched a wide-ranging attack from Gaza into southern Israel, triggering the war.

    Blinken said humanitarian pauses could be critical in protecting civilians, getting aid in and getting foreign nationals out, “while still enabling Israel to achieve its objective, the defeat of Hamas.”

    Swaths of residential neighborhoods in northern Gaza have been leveled in airstrikes. The U.N. office for humanitarian affairs says more than half the remaining residents, estimated at around 300,000, are sheltering in U.N.-run facilities. Deadly Israeli strikes have repeatedly hit and damaged those shelters.

    Palestinians flee the southern Gaza Strip on Salah al-Din street in Bureij on Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)
    Palestinians flee the southern Gaza Strip on Salah al-Din street in Bureij on Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

    Israeli planes once again dropped leaflets urging people to head south during a four-hour window on Sunday. Crowds of people could be seen walking down Gaza’s main north-south highway carrying baggage, even pets, or pushing wheelchairs. Others led donkey carts.

    One man said they had to walk 500 meters (yards) with their hands raised while passing Israeli troops. Another described seeing bodies in damaged cars along the road. “The children saw tanks for the first time. Oh world, have mercy on us,” said one Palestinian who declined to give his name.

    Another Israeli airstrike overnight struck a water well in Tal al-Zatar in northern Gaza, cutting off water for tens of thousands of people, the Hamas-run municipality in the town of Beit Lahia said in a statement.

    The U.N. said about 1.5 million people in Gaza, or 70% of the population, have fled their homes. Food, water and the fuel needed for generators that power hospitals and other facilities is running out.

    The war has stoked tensions across the region, with Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group repeatedly trading fire along the border.

    In the occupied West Bank, at least two Palestinians were shot dead during an Israeli arrest raid in Abu Dis, just outside of Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The military said a militant who had set up an armed cell and fired at Israeli forces was killed during the raid.

    At least 150 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the war, mainly during violent protests and gun battles during arrest raids.

    Thousands of Israelis protested outside Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem on Saturday, urging him to resign and calling for the return of roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas. Some families are traveling abroad to try to make sure the hostages aren’t forgotten.

    Netanyahu has refused to take responsibility for the Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that killed more than 1,400 people. Ongoing Palestinian rocket fire has forced tens of thousands of people in Israel to leave their homes.

    In another reflection of widespread anger in Israel, a junior government minister, Amihai Eliyahu, suggested in a radio interview Sunday that Israel could drop an atomic bomb on Gaza. He later walked back the remarks, saying they were “metaphorical.” Netanyahu issued a statement saying the minister’s comments were “not based in reality.”

    Netanyahu suspended Eliyahu from cabinet meetings, a move that has no practical effect.

    Among the Palestinians killed in Gaza are more than 4,800 children, the Gaza Health Ministry said, without providing a breakdown of civilians and fighters.

    The Israeli military said 29 of its soldiers have died during the ground operation.

    Jobain reported from Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, and Chehayeb from Beirut. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Ramallah, West Bank; Samy Magdy in Cairo; Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Cara Anna in New York contributed to this report.

    Full AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

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