Gaza live: Gaza death toll tops 34,600

Good evening MEE readers. This weekend is gearing up to see another round of mediation around a potential ceasefire deal in Cairo, with Hamas announcing it would be sending a delegation to the Egyptian capital on Saturday.

CIA director William Burns is already in the city, according to several news reports.

In the US, the student encampments in solidarity with Gaza have continued, after several universities called on the police to clear the encampments, leading to police in full riot gear using tear and rubber bullets against student demonstrators.

And meanwhile, in Gaza, at least 26 people were killed and 51 wounded in the past 24 hours by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian health ministry. The death toll now stands at 34,622 Palestinians.

In case you missed it, here is what else happened today:

• Two leading pro-Palestine groups in the US, National Students for Justice in Palestine and (NSJP) and American Muslims for Palestine, were accused in a federal lawsuit of spreading propaganda on Hamas's behalf.

• A group of 88 US lawmakers have signed a letter addressed to US President Joe Biden, saying that by impeding aid deliveries into Gaza, Israel is violating Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act. If Israel is found to be in violation of this law, it would require the suspension of weapons sales to the country.

• The US announced that it would be temporarily putting a halt to the construction of the floating pier off Gaza's coast, citing bad sea conditions. US forces moved the partially constructed pier to the Port of Ashdod as they continued the assembly of the dock.

• Universities in the UK and US have begun to engage with their student protesters on their demands in relation to Israel's war on Gaza and occupation of Palestine. Some universities have agreed to discuss the students' main goal, which is divestment from companies linked to Israel.

• At least 120 people have been charged by Egyptian authorities for acts of solidarity with Palestinians since the war in Gaza began, according to an Egyptian rights group.

A group of 88 US lawmakers have signed a letter addressed to US President Joe Biden, saying that by impeding aid deliveries into Gaza, Israel is violating Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act.

If Israel is found to be in violation of this law, it would require the suspension of weapons sales to the country.

"We believe that despite recent advancements, there is sufficient evidence that Israel’s restrictions on the delivery of US-backed humanitarian aid violate Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act, and therefore call into question the assurances Israel provided pursuant to National Security Memorandum 20," the lawmakers said.

Two leading US pro-Palestine groups, National Students for Justice in Palestine and (NSJP) and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), have been accused in a federal lawsuit of spreading propaganda on Hamas's behalf. 

Filed by Greenberg Traurig, the 14th highest-grossing US law firm, the lawsuit, seen by Middle East Eye, accuses the advocacy group AJP Educational Foundation Inc, which sponsors NSJP and AMP, of serving as "Hamas’s propaganda division in the United States".

The plaintiffs are a group of nine American and Israeli individuals including six survivors of the Hamas attack on southern Israel on 7 October, the brother of a victim killed in the attack, and two others displaced from their homes in an Israeli kibbutz. The lawsuit was filed in a US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.

The plaintiffs, the lawsuit alleges, "have been, and continue to be, injured by AMP and NSJP’s intentional, systematic, and substantial assistance to Hamas’s acts of international terrorism. AMP and NSJP are liable for Plaintiffs’ resulting damages", the lawsuit reads. The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified monetary damages from SNJP and AMP. 

Read the full story by clicking below.

7 October survivors file lawsuit targeting pro-Palestine groups

Israel's military said it struck targets belonging to Hezbollah across south Lebanon.

Israel said it dropped bombs on Kfar Kila and Maroun al-Ras, and targeted Bint Jbeil and Aitaroun, claiming to have struck Hezbollah infrastructure.

Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in near-daily cross-border exchanges of fire since the war in Gaza began on 7 October.

The Palestinian movement Hamas said its delegation will visit Cairo on Saturday, a Hamas official told Reuters on Friday.

Earlier, several news outlets reported that CIA director William Burns had arrived in Cairo to discuss Israel's war in Gaza.

As the UK’s Labour Party is widely expected to lose the West Midlands mayoral election to incumbent Andy Street, a senior Labour Party source is blaming the Palestinian movement Hamas for the electoral loss.

"It's the Middle East, not West Midlands, that will have won [Conservative candidate] Andy Street the mayoralty," the senior party source said.

"Once again Hamas are the real villains."

The quote immediately drew fierce criticism both inside and outside of the Labour Party, with another Labour source calling the quote "racist", whilst a Conservative source described it as "vile".

Read the full story by clicking below.

Labour Party source blames Hamas for expected West Midlands mayoral loss

After several months of students protesting against Israel's war in Gaza and the school's investments in Israel, Goldsmiths University of London released a statement saying that it is working to "deliver on these commitments to the best of its ability".

The school said that it would commit to a number of actions, including: dedicating a handful of scholarships to Palestinian students; building an exhibition to memorialise the students' occupation of Professor Stuart Hall Building; "supporting a proposal" to rename a lecture hall after the late Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh; and conducting a review of the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance antisemitism definition the school adopted in 2022.

The school also agreed to revise its ethical investment policy and encouraged students to provide evidence that the school's investments in companies linked to Israel should be removed.

There was no commitment from the school to take out any active investments in companies profiting from Israel's war on Gaza or Israel's occupation of Palestine.

As one Instagram user said: "I am happy to read this, especially about the scholarships, [but] the divestment right now are just promises so I hope that's not a polite no from goldsmith management."

The US Central Command announced that it would be temporarily putting a halt to the construction of the floating pier off Gaza's coast, citing bad sea conditions.

US forces moved the partially constructed pier to the Port of Ashdod, about 40km south of Tel Aviv, as it continues its assembly of the dock.

While the US has pitched the floating pier as a way of accelerating humanitarian aid into Gaza, aid organisations and rights groups say the most effective way of getting aid into Gaza is via the existing land routes into the enclave.

Several news outlets are reporting that CIA Director William Burns is in Cairo for meetings about Israel's war on Gaza.

Reuters reported that Burns had arrived in the city, citing an Egyptian security source and three sources at Cairo airport. Axios also reported the news.

Egypt has been working alongside Qatar to mediate between Israel and Hamas, in order to broker a deal that would see a ceasefire between the two sides and a prisoner exchange.

Anwar El Ghazi, who was fired by German team Mainz last year over a post in solidarity with Palestinians, has announced that he will co-host a charity football match raising funds for children in Gaza. 

The Children of Gaza match will see a team of former and current professional footballers headed up by El-Ghazi take on a team organised by Nujum Sports, a UK-based organisation which assists Muslim athletes. The match will be held in London on 1 June.

"Nujum Sports thanks all our athletes who are currently playing professional football and coming out of retirement to add their ‘boots’ to this amazing endeavour," the organisation's founder, Ebadur Rahman, said on Thursday. 

"A special thank you goes out to Anwar El Ghazi for championing this initiative and for his courage in speaking out against injustice and advocating for all Palestinian children."

El-Ghazi's contract with Mainz was terminated in November, days after the Dutch footballer wrote a social media post which included the popular phrase "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free". 

While some pro-Israeli voices claim the slogan calls for the destruction of Israel, Palestinian activists maintain that it refers to an end to Israeli human rights abuses and occupation. 

At the time, El-Ghazi responded to the termination of his contract by stating: "Stand for what is right, even if it means standing alone.

"The loss of my livelihood is nothing when compared to the hell being unleashed on the innocent and vulnerable in Gaza #stopthekilling."

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said in a statement that Israel's extemist settlers "are undermining security and stability and threatening prospects for peace” in Palestine.

He added that the latest UK sanctions announced by the Foreign Office earlier on Friday target "two groups leading these attacks and four individuals who are directly responsible for egregious violence against Palestinian civilians".

The foreign ministry named the four individuals on the sanctions list as Noam Federman, a “radical settler activist”, and Neria Ben Pazi who is said to be responsible for “illegally constructing three illegal outposts," Eden Levi, and Elisha Yered.

Hilltop Youth and Lehava are the two groups targeted by the sanctions.

Just 15km from Rafah, the war-torn Gaza city packed with desperate and hungry Palestinians, a new city is planned to rise in Egypt. It will be named after Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the Egyptian president who for years has helped impose a blockade on the coastal enclave.

Sisi City was announced by businessman and Sinai militia leader Ibrahim al-Organi on Wednesday, and is scheduled to be built on the site of al-Arjaa, a village in southern Rafah adjacent to the Egypt-Israel border.

Organi has been under scrutiny since the Israeli war on Gaza began, due to the exorbitant fees his companies charge Palestinians fleeing the war to Egypt, and to aid trucks entering the enclave.

One of his firms, Hala, may have earned at least $118m from Palestinian refugees in the past three months, Middle East Eye revealed.

Organi is also the owner of construction company Sons of Sinai, which is the main contractor hired by the Egyptian state for housing projects in the peninsula.

READ MORE: Egyptian militia leader Organi unveils plans for ‘Sisi City’ at Israel border

Hossam Badran, a top Hamas official, said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's repeated threats of sending forces into Rafah were intended to “thwart any possibility of concluding an agreement".

“Netanyahu was the obstructionist in all previous rounds of dialogue and previous negotiations, and it is clear that he still is,” Badran told AFP in a phone interview.

“He is not interested in reaching an agreement, and therefore he says words in the media to thwart these current efforts.”

Hamas is currently engaged in dialogue with its leadership and allies before returning to Cairo to continue negotiations towards a truce.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that food access has improved slightly in Gaza, including in the north, but warned that the risk of famine has not passed.

Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories, said during a video press conference that there is  “definitely… more basic food, more wheat, but also a little bit more diversified food on the market".

But Ahmed Dahir, of the WHO’s Gaza sub-office team, said that despite the improvement, the situation remains precarious, with many unable to afford food sold in markets.

“We cannot say the risk [of famine] has passed,” he said.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, has reported "appalling" conditions faced by Palestinian women in Gaza, with over 10,000 killed and 19,000 wounded since 7 October.

According to the agency, most of these women have children, which means an average of 37 children a day are losing their mothers.

Additionally, Unrwa said that over 155,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women are facing "severely limited access" to water and sanitary items.