The Times of Israel is liveblogging Tuesday’s events as they unfold.
US lawmakers said threatening ICC over Israel arrest warrants; speaker: Move would be ‘lawless’
US Congress members from both parties have warned the International Criminal Court that Washington will retaliate against the court if it issues arrest warrants against top Israeli officials, Axios reports.
The report says legislation on the matter is already being worked on, citing House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, as expecting a bill to sanction ICC officials but adding: “We hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Meanwhile, US House Speaker Mike Johnson slams the reported intention to issue arrest warrants over the Gaza war.
“It is disgraceful that the International Criminal Court is reportedly planning to issue baseless and illegitimate arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials,” Johnson says in a statement.
“Such a lawless action by the ICC would directly undermine US national security interests. If unchallenged by the Biden administration, the ICC could create and assume unprecedented power to issue arrest warrants against American political leaders, American diplomats, and American military personnel, thereby endangering our country’s sovereign authority,” Johnson adds.
Columbia starts suspending students who defied deadline to leave anti-Israel encampment
Student demonstrators at Columbia University, the epicenter of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests that have erupted at US colleges, have begun to be suspended after defying an ultimatum to disperse.
Authorities at the prestigious university in New York demanded that the protest encampment be cleared by 2:00 p.m. local time, or students would face disciplinary action.
“These repulsive scare tactics mean nothing compared to the deaths of over 34,000 Palestinians,” said a statement, read out by a student — who would not give his name — at a press conference after the deadline, quoting an unverified Hamas-issued toll. “We will not move until Columbia meets our demands or… are moved by force.”
A few hours later, Columbia vice president of communications Ben Chang says the university has “begun suspending students as part of this next phase of our efforts to ensure safety on our campus.”
He says the students have been warned they will be “placed on suspension, ineligible to complete the semester or graduate, and will be restricted from all academic, residential and recreational spaces.”
Biden: US, Egypt, Qatar to ‘work to ensure full implementation’ of any Israel-Hamas deal
US President Joe Biden holds phone calls with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, confirming that the three countries would “work to ensure the full implementation” of the terms of a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza, if one is reached between Israel and Hamas.
In near-identical readouts from the two calls, the White House says Biden told both leaders that the issue of the hostages still held by the terror group “is now the only obstacle to an immediate ceasefire and relief for civilians in Gaza.”
The leaders discussed the hostage deal currently being negotiated, as well as efforts to increase aid to the Strip, the White House adds.
Yemen’s Houthis say they attacked two vessels, two US destroyers
Yemen’s Houthis have targeted two US destroyers and the vessel CYCLADES in the Red Sea as well as the MSC Orion in the Indian Ocean, the Iran-aligned group’s military spokesman Yahya Saree says in a televised speech.
Houthi forces have staged attacks on shipping lanes for months in solidarity with Palestinian terror group Hamas fighting Israel in the Gaza war.