Gaza live: Biden moves ahead with military aid for Israel as it launches ground assaults on Rafah

Adnan Al-Bursh, a Palestinian surgeon and professor of orthopedic medicine, has been killed as a result of being tortured while in Israeli detention.

Bush was arrested late last year while working at Al-Awda Hospital, and was one of the most prominent doctors who stayed in Gaza to serve patients facing Israel’s assault.

His death occurred on 19 April, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club.

Bloomberg News has reported that Turkey stopped all exports and imports to and from Israel as of Thursday.

The news outlet cited two Turkish officials familiar with the matter. Turkey has not formally announced the move.

Saudi Arabia has reportedly launched a crackdown on citizens who express views critical of Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza online. 

The claims in a Bloomberg report on Wednesday come as US officials suggested talks are under way over a Saudi-Israel normalisation deal.

According to the report, citing unnamed diplomatic sources, the detentions include an executive who works for a company involved in Vision 2030, the flagship economic project spearheaded by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that the person was arrested in connection with expressing “incendiary” views on the current Israel-Gaza conflict. 

A second detainee is a media personality whom Bloomberg reports saying “Israel should never be forgiven”, and another is someone who called for a boycott of US fast food restaurants in the kingdom. 

Read more: Saudi Arabia 'detains people' for anti-Israel social media posts

Josh Paul, the former US official who resigned over the Gaza war, has cancelled a talk at Dartmouth College after 90 anti-war protesters were arrested on Wednesday at an encampment erected on campus.

The demonstration, organised in solidarity with protests at other US universities where more than a thousand people have been arrested in the past two weeks, was reportedly set to be the first large-scale encampment on a New Hampshire college to protest against Israel's assault on Gaza.

About two hours into the protest, the college paper reported that New Hampshire state troopers, state police, including riot police, and local police were present as arrests began and tents were removed.

Paul, who was scheduled to participate in a panel discussion on Thursday, said he watched "a peaceful group of students, faced off by a line of riot police", from his hotel across the road.

"I have seen a police snatch squad break into the encampment and grab students and faculty one-by-one, and haul them off, as the riot police close the line behind them," he wrote.

Read more: Former US official cancels talk at Dartmouth College after protesters arrested

The Israeli government has told US President Joe Biden’s administration that if the International Criminal Court (ICC) issues arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, it will "punish" the Palestinian Authority, two Israeli and US officials have told Axios. 

The ICC has been investigating possible war crimes committed by both Israeli and Palestinian fighters since 2021, with the probe taking in events going back to the 2014 Gaza war.

Recently, there have been reports that the court, which is based in the Dutch city of The Hague, is poised to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior political and military figures in Israel.

Two US officials told Axios that the Biden administration has told ICC officials in private that "arrest warrants against Israeli leaders would be a mistake and that the US doesn't support the action".

“We are quietly encouraging the ICC not to do it. It will blow up everything. Israel will retaliate against the Palestinian Authority,” a US official said.

Read more: Israel will 'punish' Palestinian Authority if ICC issues arrest warrants

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that US authorities were displaying "cruelty" in cracking down on pro-Palestinian students and academics.

Police have forcefully cracked down on several protests and encampments at US universities, including by carrying out mass arrests.

"Conscientious students and academics including anti-Zionist Jews at some prestigious American universities are protesting the massacre [in Gaza]," Erdogan said in Ankara on Thursday.

"These people are being subjected to violence, cruelty, suffering, and even torture for saying the massacre has to stop," he said, adding that university staff were being "sacked and lynched" for supporting Palestinians.

"The limits of western democracy are drawn by Israel's interests," Erdogan said. "Whatever infringes on Israel's interests is anti-democratic, antisemitic for them."

In a column for Middle East Eye, analyst Ahmed Abdeen examines the challenges faced by Egypt in preventing an influx of Palestinian refugees into the Sinai region. 

He writes: "With its options seemingly exhausted, Cairo’s only remaining course of action to prevent the Rafah operation has been to push for a prisoner exchange deal, aiming to prevent or delay the invasion for as long as possible, while hoping the balance of power may shift in Tel Aviv or Washington.

At the same time, Cairo is preparing for the possibility that Israel will move ahead with the Rafah invasion - and for the consequent mass displacement of Palestinians. Contingency plans are being drawn up, such as providing camps that can be controlled and monitored, intensifying the local security presence and ensuring full control over the entrances and exits into northern Sinai.

In short, Cairo sees the Rafah invasion as a nightmare for its security and future stability."

You can read the full column below. 

Opinion: Can Egypt stop Israel from invading Rafah?

A Hamas delegation is set to visit Egypt soon for further truce talks, according to a statement from the Palestinian group on Thursday.

The statement said that Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh affirmed the group's "positive spirit in studying the ceasefire proposal".

Over the weekend, Hamas said it had received Israel's latest position and would study it before submitting a reply.

Students at the University of Toronto in Canada havae launched an encampment in solidarity with Palestinians on Thursday, according to campaign group Toronto4Palestine. 

Sciences Po university in the French capital has rejected demands by protesters to set up a working group to review its relations with Israeli universities, according to interim director Jean Basseres.

Basseres spoke to reporters following a townhall with students and staff.

"I'm calling on all to show a sense of responsibility," he said, urging protesters to allow exams to go on, and stating that the university would figure out how best to organise internal debates on major topics.

"The last ties that should be severed are the ones between universities," said Arancha Gonzalez, head of Science Po's School of International Affairs, adding that the university had existing rules on reviewing partnerships.

Students at several French universities, including Sciences Po Paris, Sciences Po Lille and Lille's journalism school, have held protests or encampments in solidarity with Palestinians. 

On Monday, French police forcefully cleared a protest encampment at the Sorbonne University in Paris.

Rebuilding homes in the Gaza Strip could drag into the next century if the pace follows that of previous conflicts, according to a report by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) released on Thursday.

The UNDP says Gaza needs "approximately 80 years to restore all the fully destroyed housing units".

However, a best case scenario in which construction materials are delivered five times faster, as they were following the conflict in 2021, could have reconstruction complete by 2040.

"Unprecedented levels of human losses, capital destruction, and the steep rise in poverty in such a short period of time will precipitate a serious development crisis that jeopardises the future of generations to come," UNDP administrator Achim Steiner said in a statement.

The report says that should the war last for nine months, poverty in Gaza is set to increase from 38.8% to 60.7% of the enclave's population.

Hundreds of riot police descended on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) late on Wednesday in preparation to clear out a pro-Palestine encampment that was attacked the night before by Israel supporters.

Police began forming lines near the encampment and warned protesters over loudspeakers that anyone who refused to leave could face arrest.

The Daily Bruin reported that officers in tactical gear had entered the Palestine solidarity encampment at Dickson Plaza "with batons out".

Some protesters were seen donning hard hats, goggles and respirator masks in anticipation of the raid a day after the university declared the encampment unlawful.

READ MORE: Riot police descend on pro-Palestine encampment after students refuse to disperse

Yemen's Sanaa University said it has opened its door to students and academics who have been expelled from American and European universities due to their participation in on-campus pro-Palestine protests.

The University Council also saluted the position taken by pro-Palestine protesters in universities across the world.