- The Israeli military has killed seven people, including four children, after bombing a house in Gaza’s Rafah.
- Rebuilding war-ravaged Gaza will cost as much as $40bn and require an effort on a scale the world has not seen since World War II amid “unprecedented levels of human losses, capital destruction”, the United Nations says.
- Hamas sends a delegation to Egypt for further ceasefire talks in a new sign of progress amid attempts by international mediators to hammer out an agreement.
- President Joe Biden defends the right to protest but insists “order must prevail” as college campuses across the country face unrest over the war in Gaza.
- At least 34,596 Palestinians have been killed and 77,816 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from Hamas’s October 7 attacks stands at 1,139 with dozens of people still held captive.
- 155,000 pregnant, breastfeeding women in Gaza lack proper access to waterThe UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, has released stark figures showing the extensive toll that Israel’s war on Gaza has taken on Palestinian women.Since October 7, more than 10,000 women have been killed in the besieged and bombarded territory, while 19,000 others have been wounded. Many of the victims are mothers, meaning that an average of 37 children are losing their mothers every day, according to UNRWA.The desperate humanitarian conditions in Gaza are also stopping pregnant or breastfeeding women from getting the nutrition or sanitation supplies they need. Currently, 155,000 of these women have “severely limited access” to water and sanitation, the agency said.
- More about the police operation at Sciences PoAs we reported earlier, police have entered Sciences Po university to remove dozens of students staging a peaceful sit-in to protest against Israel’s war on Gaza and demand the education institution review its relations with Israeli universities.Bastien, 22, told AFP he and other protesters had been peacefully brought out in groups of 10 by officers. Another, Lucas, studying for a master’s degree, said “some students were dragged and others gripped by the head or shoulders”.Protesters occupied the entrance hall following a debate with administrators on Thursday morning. But the university’s interim administrator, Jean Basseres, refused student demands to “investigate” Science Po’s ties with Israeli institutions, an outcome that the university’s Palestine Committee dubbed “disappointing”.Students from the Palestine Committee had earlier told reporters they faced a “disproportionate” response from police, who had blocked access to the site before moving in. They also complained of a lack of “medical assistance” for seven students who had started a hunger strike “in solidarity with Palestinian victims”.On Friday, administrators closed Sciences Po’s main buildings in response to the sit-in and called for remote classes instead. They said “around 70 to 80 people” were occupying the foyer of the central Paris building.French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s office said such protests would be dealt with using “total rigour”, adding that 23 university sites had been “evacuated” on Thursday.
- Protesters flash the sign of victory as they are escorted away by French gendarmes [Miguel Medina/AFP]
- Death toll from overnight Rafah attack rises to 7 including 4 childrenThe death toll from an overnight air strike on a home in northern Rafah has now risen to seven, with four of the victims being children, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum has reported from the southern Gaza district.Elsewhere in Rafah, especially to the east, there has been a “surge in air strikes and artillery bombardment,” said Abu AzzoumIsraeli military attacks have also intensified in parts of northern Gaza, such as Sheikh Ijlin neighbourhood, as well as in central Gaza, where witnesses say there is “constant intensive artillery bombardment”, according to Abu Azzoum.“A number of casualties have been transferred to Al-Aqsa Hospital,” he said.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/3/israels-war-on-gaza-live-unprecedented-levels-of-death-and-destruction
