Hamas

Police Clear Pro-Gaza Sit-In at Top Paris University

Police entered Paris' Sciences Po university on Friday to remove dozens of students staging a pro-Gaza sit-in in the entrance hall, AFP journalists saw, as protests fire political debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. One student told reporters "around 50 students were still inside the rue Saint-Guillaume site" when police ...

Major Differences Persist in Hostage Release Talks

Ongoing disagreements are preventing the release of hostages, according to i24 News sources. Hamas continues to demand a complete halt to fighting. Despite an offer from Egypt, endorsed by Israel, Hamas seems reluctant to accept the proposed agreement, labeled "extremely generous" by Antony Blinken, said the Israeli media on Friday. Experts ...

Biden Addresses US Campus Protests

US President Joe Biden insisted on Thursday that "order must prevail" on college campuses after weeks of turmoil, clashes with police, and mass arrests involving student protests against Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza. Biden, who until now had remained tight-lipped on the student unrest, spoke just hours after hundreds of police moved in to ...

War Diary: Day 209

From Gaza to Lebanon, This is Beirut brings you a daily recap of the war between Hamas and Israel and its repercussions on the region. Here are the main highlights for May 2nd, 2024.

Gaza Reconstruction Cost Estimated Between $30 Bn and $40 Bn

A UN agency stated on Thursday that rebuilding war-wracked Gaza will cost an estimated $30 billion to $40 billion and require an effort on a scale unseen since World War II. "The United Nations Development Programme's initial estimates for the reconstruction of... the Gaza Strip surpass $30 billion and could reach up to $40 billion," said UN ...

Families of Hostages Keep Pressure on Netanyahu

As a new ceasefire proposal sits on the table and the United States urges Hamas to accept it, pressure from the Israeli public against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains intense. Protesters and relatives of hostages have blocked the main highway in Tel Aviv, chanting, "It's either the hostages or Rafah." Protesters are urging the Israeli ...

Blinken Calls on Hamas to Accept Ceasefire Proposal

US top diplomat Antony Blinken urged Hamas on Wednesday to accept a Gaza truce plan, despite an Israeli warning that the army will keep fighting the Palestinian militant group after any ceasefire. "Hamas needs to say yes and needs to get this done," said Blinken, who was in Israel on his seventh Middle East crisis tour since the war broke out in ...

War Diary: Day 208

From Gaza to Lebanon, This is Beirut brings you a daily recap of the war between Hamas and Israel and its repercussions on the region. Here are the main highlights for May 1, 2024.

More Debris in Gaza Than Ukraine

Gaza is filled with more debris and rubble than Ukraine, the United Nations said Wednesday, with the mammoth task of clearing it made all the more costly and dangerous by the sheer amount of asbestos and unexploded ordnance. Six months into the war between Israel and Hamas, the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) estimated the amount of ...

France, Egypt FMs Push for Gaza Truce From Cairo

Egypt's top diplomat Sameh Shoukry said in a meeting on Wednesday with his French counterpart that parties "must show the necessary flexibility" to achieve a truce in Gaza "that stops the bloodshed of Palestinians." In a "quick visit" by French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné in Cairo, the pair "exchanged assessments on the ongoing truce ...

Blinken Determined to Get Ceasefire Now in Latest Israel Visit

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken renewed calls for Hamas to accept a ceasefire deal Wednesday as he started talks with Israel's leadership. "Even in these very difficult times we are determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home -- and to get it now. And the only reason that it wouldn't be achieved is because of Hamas," Blinken ...

Séjourné in Israel for Gaza and Lebanon Truce Talks

French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné met with his Israeli counterpart Israel Katz on Tuesday, as part of a 24-hour visit to Israel, the final leg of a regional tour that has already taken him to Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. Séjourné's visit to Israel comes at a time when ongoing Qatari, Egyptian, and American mediation brings hope for a ...