The Times of Israel is liveblogging Tuesday’s events as they unfold.
Israeli envoy says US must cut United Nations funding if Palestinian statehood endorsed
Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan says a draft General Assembly resolution recognizing the Palestinians as qualified to become a full UN member goes against the founding UN Charter, and would give the Palestinians the de facto status and rights of a state.
“If it is approved, I expect the United States to completely stop funding the UN and its institutions, in accordance with American law,” Erdan says, noting that adoption by the General Assembly would not change anything on the ground.
Under US law, Washington cannot fund any UN organization that grants full membership to any group that does not have the “internationally recognized attributes” of statehood. The US halted funding in 2011 for the UN cultural agency UNESCO after the Palestinians became a full member.
“It remains the US view that the path toward statehood for the Palestinian people is through direct negotiations,” says Nate Evans, a spokesperson for the US mission to the UN.
“We are aware of the resolution and reiterate our concerns with any effort to extend certain benefits to entities when there are unresolved questions as to whether the Palestinians currently meet the criteria under the Charter,” he says.
The US is thought to provide approximately one-third of the UN’s budget.
Portland pro-Palestinian group claims it torched 17 cop cars
Law enforcement in Portland, Oregon, is investigating a statement posted online in which an activist group named for slain pro-Palestinian activist Rachel Corrie claims responsibility for torching 17 police vehicles last week.
In a post on the Rose City Counter-Info website signed by a group calling itself Rachel Corrie’s Ghost Brigade, the group says it broke into a police training facility and set 10 fires in a pre-emptive action against the Portland Police Bureau. It says the move was carried out ahead of an eventual operation to shut down a pro-Palestinian protest at Portland State University’s Millar Library.
Hamas' branch in Portland, the Brigade of the Martyr Rahil Corrie, accepts responsibility for destroying fifteen vehicles belonging to the occupation.
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) May 7, 2024
Police say in an email they are “aware of the online post claiming responsibility and that is part of the investigation,” Oregonlive.com reports.
Protesters had occupied the library for three days before the university asked police to intervene. Four students were among the 12 people arrested Friday, according to Oregonlive.com.
Corrie, from Olympia, Washington, was killed in 2003 when she attempted to block an Israel Defense Forces bulldozer from razing a Palestinian home in Gaza.
MIT protesters break through police barricade into encampment, chant for ‘intifada’
Pro-Palestinian protesters that had been blocked by police from accessing an encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have broken through fencing, linked arms and encircled tents that remained there.
Protesters say they will remain in Kresge Oval overnight, though tensions that flared with police and pro-Israel counter-protesters appear to have eased, student newspaper the Tech reports.
Police had taken up positions near both the Oval demonstration and a sit-in in the middle of Massachusetts Avenue, blocking the street during rush hour in the Boston area. Officers brandished zipties in case of mass arrests, but ultimately did not detain any students, who dispersed from the sit-in on their own, the Tech reports.
Sam Ihns, a graduate student at MIT studying mechanical engineering and a member of MIT Jews for a Ceasefire, says the group has been at the encampment for the past two weeks calling for an end to the killing of thousands of people in Gaza.
“Specifically, our encampment is protesting MIT’s direct research ties to the Israeli Ministry of Defense,” he says.
A video from the school shows protesters clapping and chanting along as an activist on a megaphone calls out “long live the intifada” and “we are the intifada,” statements that have been condemned as antisemitic.
Protestors at MIT today chant “globalize the intifada” and “there is only one solution, intifada revolution.” pic.twitter.com/vtUbFRyh8d
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) May 6, 2024
For Israelis, the Arabic word “intifada,” literally “uprising,” conjures traumatic memories of mass waves of deadly terror attacks in 1987-1993 and again in the early 2000s.
Prospect of ground invasion in Rafah ‘intolerable,’ UN chief warns
A ground invasion of Rafah would be “intolerable,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says, calling on Israel and Hamas “to go an extra mile” to reach a ceasefire deal.
“This is an opportunity that cannot be missed, and a ground invasion in Rafah would be intolerable because of its devastating humanitarian consequences, and because of its destabilizing impact in the region,” Guterres says alongside Italian President Sergio Mattarella.
Protesters at Latrun interchange block road to stop Gaza aid trucks
Right-wing protesters are scuffling with police near the Latrun interchange on Route 1 as they seek to block trucks carrying aid for Gaza from reaching the Palestinian enclave, according to Hebrew media reports.
Footage shared by the Kan broadcaster shows about a dozen activists from the Tzav 9 activist group being removed from the road by police, with some others moving away voluntarily.
כביש 1 חסום כבר למעלה משעה סמוך למחלף לטרון בשל מחאה של פעילי תנועת "צו 9" שחוסמים משאיות סיוע לרצועת עזה. כמה מפגינים נעצרו@HGoldich
(צילום: זאבי וידבסקי – 360 News) pic.twitter.com/2RxCUeLnLT— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) May 6, 2024
A convoy of over a dozen trucks is seen stuck on the road.
According to the Ynet news site, some activists grabbed food and other goods out of the trucks and spilled them out into the road.
חברי צו 9 חוסמים במשך 3 שעות את כביש 1 ומונעים סיוע הומניטרי מבני השטן. איזה גברים! pic.twitter.com/pZu08xq8cI
— מנחם קולדצקי (@nbjovsr88) May 6, 2024
The action by Tzav 9 is the latest of several attempts to block the trucks Monday night and early Tuesday as they make their way from Jordan to Gaza via Jerusalem.
The group says in a statement it will continue to attempt to block the trucks all the way to Gaza, demanding that Hamas release all Israeli hostages if it wants relief to reach the Strip.
The Latrun interchange, near the city of Modiin, is some 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) west of Jerusalem.
Israeli troops said fighting near Rafah crossing with Egypt
Reports indicate that Israeli troops and tanks are nearing the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Palestinian enclave after fighting along the so-called Philadelphi Corridor on the Egypt-Gaza border.
In footage from the crossing broadcast by Egypt’s al-Qahera TV, heavy gunfire and explosions can be heard as well as the drone of military aircraft. No people can be seen at the crossing.
Footage from the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing where gunfire can be clearly heard in the background. pic.twitter.com/RsvPJO4vSj
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) May 6, 2024
An Egyptian official says the operation appears to be limited in scope. He and Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV say Israeli officials informed the Egyptians that the troops would withdraw after completing a targeted operation.
On Sunday, Hamas fighters near the Rafah crossing fired mortars into southern Israel, killing four Israeli soldiers.
A Palestinian security official and an Egyptian official confirm that Israeli tanks have entered the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
Elsewhere in Rafah, the Palestinian al-Quds news network claims five fatalities were brought to a local hospital after a home was bombed in the west of the city.
A live feed from a Rafah intersection provided by Reuters shows little activity beyond the movement of ambulances and journalists.
Qatar sending negotiators back to Cairo for talks on Israel Hamas deal
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry says Doha will dispatch a delegation to Cairo Tuesday to resume indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
Spokesman Majed Al-Ansari says Hamas sent mediators a response to a truce proposal that could be described as positive.
Qatar, which alongside Egypt and the United States has played a mediation role in the talks, says it hopes the negotiations will culminate in an agreement for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Jordanian king asks Biden to prevent Rafah ‘massacre’
Jordan says King Abdullah II asked President Joe Biden in talks Monday to intervene to stop a “new massacre” in Rafah, the southern Gaza city where Israel has threatened an assault.
“His Majesty warned that the Israeli attack on Rafah, where 1.4 million Palestinians are internally displaced as a result of the war on Gaza, threatens to lead to a new massacre,” a Jordanian statement says after the two leaders meet in Washington.
Abdullah also warned that an offensive on Rafah could lead to the expansion of the Gaza conflict to other parts of the Middle East, and called for international backing for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the statement said.