Live: Lawyers present genocide risk case against Israel at ICJ

More than 100 US universities and colleges, including Ivy League institutions Princeton and Brown, issued a joint letter on Tuesday condemning President Donald Trump's "political interference" in the education system.

The move comes a day after Harvard University sued the Trump administration, which has threatened to cut its funding and impose outside political supervision.

"We speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education," the letter read.

"We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight. However, we must oppose undue government intrusion," it said, adding: "We must reject the coercive use of public research funding."

Trump has sought to bring several prestigious universities to heel over claims they tolerated antisemitism by allowing pro-Palestine campus protests, threatening their budgets, tax-exempt status and the enrolment of foreign students.

The letter said the universities and colleges were committed to serving as centres where "faculty, students, and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation."

Call Gaza what you will: killing fields, an endless loop of blood, pain and death, the world’s largest concentration camp. Or, as the population of Israel appears to be intent on doing, you can ignore it altogether.

The Ashkenazi Jews of Tel Aviv live in a western bubble, sipping their morning cappuccinos and fretting about their yoga teachers just one hour’s drive away from the most appalling scenes the world has witnessed since Srebrenica, or Rwanda.

But there is one thing none of them seem to understand: Hamas won’t surrender.

To think that its leaders in Gaza will take the money and run, as Fatah once did, is to reveal, after 18 months of total warfare and two months of starvation, how little Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu understands his enemy.

Make no mistake, the last Israeli “offer” would have amounted to an act of surrender. It was to surrender all the hostages in exchange for 45 days of food and water, and to seek the disarmament of Hamas. 

Read more: Why Hamas will not surrender Opinion by David Hearst

A senior Hamas official told AFP on Tuesday that a delegation from the Palestinian group had departed for Cairo to discuss "new ideas" aimed at achieving a ceasefire with Israel.

"The delegation will meet with Egyptian officials to discuss new ideas aimed at reaching a ceasefire," the official said.

Israel has blocked all forms of aid from entering the Gaza Strip for 50 days, with the impact on civilians described as "very serious", UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said, according to Wafa news agency.

Speaking at a news conference on Monday evening, Dujarric warned that food stocks had dropped to "dangerously" low levels, while medicine, medical supplies and vaccines were running out.

He said both children and adults were suffering from hunger, and that the health system in Gaza was on the verge of collapse. “Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced,” he said, adding that Israeli attacks on humanitarian and health workers had also increased.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, announced that it will pull medical research funding from universities with diversity and inclusion programmes and any boycotts of Israeli companies.

In a policy note issued on Monday, the NIH said it “reserves the right to terminate financial assistance awards and recover all funds” if grant recipients do not comply with federal guidelines barring diversity and equity research and “prohibited boycotts."

The policy applies "to domestic recipients of new, renewal, supplement, or continuation awards that are issued on or after the date" and universities interested in receiving grants will also be required to eliminate diversity and inclusion programs, the note said.

The directive came after the funding freeze the Trump administration placed on Harvard and Columbia universities.

A federal court judge has ruled that Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk should be moved to Vermont while a lawsuit challenging her "unconstitutional detention" is pending.

The decision made on Friday came in response to Ozturk being detained by plainclothes immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) agents in masks on the street close to her home in Somerville, Massachusetts, on 25 March as she was on her way to break her fast for Ramadan.

She was driven to multiple places in three states - including New Hampshire and Vermont -before being flown thousands of miles to an ICE detention centre in Basile, Louisiana, making it difficult for her to have access to legal help and community.

Her lawyer filed a habeas petition in Massachusetts without knowing that Ozturk was in Vermont at the time. Consequently, a judge in Massachusetts ordered the case to be moved to Vermont. Last Monday, Judge William K. Sessions III heard arguments from the government and Ozturk’s legal counsel.

Ozturk’s legal team argued that moving Ozturk to Louisiana was an attempt to manipulate federal court jurisdiction.

Read more: Judge rules Turkish national Rumeysa Ozturk must be transferred to Vermont

According to the Lebanese Civil Defense, "an Israeli drone targeted a car" near the coastal town of Damour, about 20km south of Beirut in Lebanon, killing at least one.

The Palestinian Civil Defence (PCD) said Israeli air strikes killed at least 25 people across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning, AFP reported.

Nine people were killed and six others reported missing after an Israeli air strike hit a house in central Khan Younis, in the south of the Palestinian territory, according to PCD official Mohammed al-Moughair.

Additional strikes killed five people in al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, and five others - including a woman - in a tent sheltering displaced people, northeast of Jabalia camp in northern Gaza. Another strike killed four people west of Jabalia camp, while two more were killed in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.

An Israeli air strike killed Dr Majed Nasr Ismail in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, earlier this morning, according to Quds News network.

According to the Palestinian health ministry, more than 1,060 healthcare workers have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023.

استشهاد الطبيب ماجد نصر اسماعيل في قصف للاحتلال على دير البلح وسط قطاع غزة pic.twitter.com/CYUB1MfHZX

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) April 22, 2025

The death toll from Israel's attacks on Gaza since dawn has risen to 18, Al Jazeera reported.

The latest air strike targeted Jabalia refugee camp, killing at least three Palestinians.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers, 

Here are some key developments since last night:

• Detained pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil missed the birth of his first child on Monday after US authorities refused a request for temporary release, his wife said.

• Al Jazeera Arabic reported that Israeli forces have killed at least 14 people in attacks on Khan Younis and Gaza City since the early hours of this morning.

• Israel’s former ambassador to Italy, Dror Eydar, has called on the Israeli government not to attend the pontiff’s funeral, accusing the late Pope Francis of antisemitism.

• Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV reported several US air strikes across Yemen in recent hours.

• The Israeli military shot a 16-year-old Palestinian boy in the abdomen during a raid on the town of Idhna and demolished the house of a Palestinian man in Jerusalem involved in a car-ramming attack last July, as it continued raids across the occupied West Bank.

Our live blog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning. 

Here are the day's key developments:

- Ongoing heavy Israeli bombing in parts of southern Gaza has been targeting what remains of the heavy machinery in the enclave, which is used to clear rubble and search for bodies, local reports said. 

- Hamas has reacted to the news of Pope Francis' death, saying he was "a steadfast advocate for the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, particularly in his unwavering stance against the war and acts of genocide" against the people of Gaza.

- Palestinian pastor Munther Isaac mourned the death of Pope Francis, saying Palestinians, and Palestinian Christians in particular, had lost a "dear friend" who was "beloved in Palestine."

- The Trump administration's newly arrived ambassador to Israel said on X on Monday that the World Health Organisation (WHO) contacted him so he could pressure the Israelis to allow aid into Gaza. Mike Huckabee said pressure should be applied on Hamas instead. 

- US President Donald Trump's has appointed a National Security Council staffer who previously worked at Israel’s Ministry of Defense. Merav Ceren will oversee Iran and Israel policy at the White House.

- Israel revoked the entry visas of 27 French lawmakers and officials just two days before their scheduled visit to the state and the occupied West Bank, the delegation has said.

- Yemen's Houthis said US air strikes on Sanaa killed at least 12 people and wounded 30, with a military spokesperson later claiming attacks on US aircraft carriers and Israel.

US air strikes on a market and residential area in the Yemeni capital Sana'a have killed at least 12 people and wounded 30 others, a statement from the Yemeni Ministry of Health said on Monday. 

The nightly bombings, which began on March 15, aim to dislodge the Houthi naval blockade in the Red Sea. 

The Houthis have said only an end to the war on Gaza would end their operations there.

Israeli far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday told a local radio station that bringing home the Israeli captives in Gaza is not the top priority. 

“Bringing the hostages home is important, but it’s not the most important goal,” Smotrich said, according to a report in The Washington Post. “The alternative to surrender is seizing the territory in the Gaza Strip and destroying Hamas.”

He added that Israel should use US President Donald Trump's time in office to retake Gaza and expel all of its residents.