Middle East conflict live updates: U.S. cites rights violations in Israel, Gaza; Campus antiwar protests escalate

The U.S. State Department said in a new report that the conflict between Israel and Hamas “continues to raise deeply troubling concerns for human rights,” pointing to alleged violations in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, and citing reports of war crimes committed by Israel, Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups. Antiwar demonstrations at university campuses across the country continue to escalate, with dozens of protesters arrested at Yale University and New York University.

Here’s what to know

• An independent report examining the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, found that Israel has not substantiated claims that significant numbers of the agency’s employees have ties to militant groups.
• U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a news conference that Hamas has “moved the goal posts” on hostage talks. After Iran and Israel exchanged attacks, Miller said the militant group’s leaders appear to have made “the determination that they might get the full-scale regional war they were hoping for, and so have not agreed to a very significant proposal that was on the table.”
• A mass grave with more than 200 bodies was found at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, according to the head of the media office in Gaza. The Washington Post could not independently verify the figure. U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric called reports of the alleged discovery “extremely troubling.”
• At least 34,183 people have been killed and 77,143 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children.
• Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and says 260 soldiers have been killed since its military operation in Gaza began.

5:56 AM: Calif. college students form campus barricade as antiwar protests spread

Students protesting the Israel-Gaza war continued to be confronted by police on Monday night, as a New York University encampment was cleared by the NYPD and students barricaded themselves inside a building at California State Polytechnic University at Humboldt, following dozens of arrests at Yale University.

College campuses across the country have seen an uptick in antiwar demonstrations in recent days, including students in tents encampments. Some of those, including at Columbia on Thursday and NYU on Monday night, were cleared by police called in at the request of the institutions.

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By: Frances Vinall

5:17 AM: Israeli military intelligence head resigns over Oct. 7 Hamas attack

Middle East conflict live updates: U.S. cites rights violations in Israel, Gaza; Campus antiwar protests escalate

JERUSALEM — Israel’s top military intelligence chief said Monday he would step down and retire because of his department’s failure to anticipate Hamas’s Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israeli towns along the Gaza border.

Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva is the highest-ranking leader to resign over the assault, the deadliest one-day attack in Israel’s history. Hamas fighters overwhelmed Israel’s high-tech border defenses and caught military units off guard as they stormed farming communities and killed an estimated 1,200 people, including 300 soldiers. Militants also took 253 hostages back to Gaza.

“The military intelligence directorate under my command did not live up to our mission,” Haliva said in a letter shared by the Israel Defense Forces on Monday. He said he has “been carrying that black day ever since, day and night. I will live with the horrible pain of the war every day.”

Hamas planned for the highly coordinated assault for more than a year, building its battle plans from open source materials and repeatedly drilling its troops, Israeli investigators said in November. Israeli intelligence failed to detect those preparations and didn’t heed warning signs that emerged in the hours before the attack, early reviews found.

The attack stunned Israelis and immediately raised questions about the country’s intelligence and defense capabilities. The Washington Post reported last year that despite information coming to light in August that an attack was imminent, warnings were dismissed, and the communities on the Israeli side of the border were never notified about a threat.

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By: Steve Hendrix and Jennifer Hassan

4:31 AM: What is Israel’s Netzah Yehuda battalion, and why could it face U.S. aid cuts?

Destroyed buildings as Palestinians return to Khan Younis after the Israeli military pulled troops out from the southern Gaza Strip, 22 April 2024.

Israel has lashed out at plans by the United States to impose aid restrictions on an ultra-Orthodox Israeli military unit known as the Netzah Yehuda battalion for alleged human rights abuses in the occupied West Bank.

The Netzah Yehuda battalion, also known as the 97th Battalion of the Kfir Infantry Brigade, is a unit made up of ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, soldiers. It was created in 1999 to allow religious recruits to serve in the military, and it mostly operates in Ramallah and Jenin, although it is now taking part in the Gaza war. The unit has previously been dogged by accusations of abuse toward Palestinians, according to Israeli media reports.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that he had made “determinations” about possible military aid cuts to Israel over alleged human rights violations under legislation known as the Leahy Laws.

The Leahy Laws prohibit the United States from providing military assistance to foreign forces if there is credible information on gross violations of human rights.

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By: Adela Suliman and Niha Masih

1:52 AM: U.S. cites rights violations in Israel, Gaza and West Bank

The Gaza conflict has worsened the human rights situation in Israel, the State Department said in new report released Monday, even as officials declined to say whether they would halt U.S. aid to elements of Israel’s military over alleged abuses.

The State Department’s annual human rights report cited several reported rights violations committed in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza in 2023 by parties including the Israel Defense Forces and Hamas militants before and after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks plunged the Middle East into heightened instability and violence.

The resulting conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip has had a “significant negative impact” on the human rights status in Israel, the report said. It cited credible reports of “unlawful killings” by both Hamas and the Israeli government.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that the State Department was continuing to assess allegations from human rights groups that Israeli forces have violated international law in Gaza but said Israel had shown it would hold its own people and institutions accountable.

“This is what separates democracies from other countries — the ability, the willingness, the determination to look at themselves,” he added.

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By: Missy Ryan and Michael Birnbaum

1:51 AM: Report says Israel has not provided evidence of widespread militancy among UNRWA staff

JERUSALEM — Israel has not provided evidence that significant numbers of workers with the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees are tied to militant groups, but the agency must implement more robust vetting of staff members to ensure neutrality and work to reestablish trust with donors, a highly anticipated report said Monday.

Based on an examination of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s screening procedures, code of ethics, management structure, staff training and other practices, the independent review group concluded that the agency, known as UNRWA, has “established and updated a significant number of policies, mechanisms and procedures” to uphold neutrality in recent years but is in need of critical reforms.

Former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, who led the review group, called the agency “indispensable and irreplaceable” in a news conference Monday. “As we speak, at this critical time, UNRWA has a vital role in the humanitarian response in Gaza,” she added.

The findings released Monday will largely come as a relief to the embattled agency, which was pitched into an existential crisis in January after Israel alleged that a dozen of its 13,000 employees in Gaza participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks and that more than 10 percent had ties to militant groups. Sixteen major donors, including the United States, promptly suspended funding worth about $450 million, nearly half of UNRWA’s budget for the year.

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By: Claire Parker