Middle East conflict live updates: Hamas says it views talks favorably; Blinken urges group to accept deal

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Hamas to accept the latest cease-fire and hostage-release agreement proposed by Israel. In a statement, Ismail Haniyeh, chairman of the militant group’s political bureau, said Hamas views the Egypt-hosted negotiations in a “positive spirit” and said that a negotiating delegation would travel to Cairo as soon as possible.

Here’s what to know

• In the proposal, Israel has made “very important compromises” that “demonstrate its desire, willingness” to get the deal done, Blinken said after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The proposal “would produce an immediate cease-fire, get the hostages home, alleviate suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza” in the short term, Blinken added before departing Israel.
• In remarks Wednesday in Ashdod, Israel, Blinken cited “meaningful progress” on increasing aid to Gaza and said a maritime corridor for deliveries via a temporary pier under construction by the U.S. military was “probably a week away” from being operational.
• Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant briefed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on the Israeli military’s “ongoing activities and preparation for future operations in Gaza,” Gallant’s adviser Betty Ilovici said Thursday. The briefing comes as fears are mounting of an Israeli ground invasion of the southern Gazan city of Rafah.
• Fifty-seven Democratic lawmakers signed an open letter urging President Biden to withhold sending offensive weaponry and other military support to Israel that could be used in an assault on Rafah. The letter was spearheaded by Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.).
• At least 34,596 people have been killed and 77,816 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 263 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operation in Gaza.

10:21 AM: Some hospitals in Gaza resume partial operations despite ‘dire’ situation, WHO says

Middle East conflict live updates: Hamas says it views talks favorably; Blinken urges group to accept deal

Some hospitals in Gaza have resumed partial operations, providing needed — if incomplete — relief to the population of the besieged enclave. But the health and humanitarian situation remains “dire and extremely worrisome,” World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Tuesday.

Nasser Hospital and al-Amal Hospital, two facilities in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, have resumed operations, the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza told The Washington Post on Thursday. Israeli forces raided Nasser Hospital in February, arresting patients and doctors inside the facility and leaving it inoperative, according to aid groups and Palestinian health authorities. Nasser is the largest hospital in southern Gaza.

Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza has also resumed operations, according to the Health Ministry.

The WHO said that al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza is partially functioning. The surrounding areas in the Deir al-Balah region came under drone attacks and sniper fire in January, prompting hospital workers and displaced people to flee south.

Overall, only 11 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza are partially functioning, the WHO said — six in the south and five in the north. The rest are not functioning, it said.

Even when hospitals resume operations, they can face shortages of fuel, medicines, medical supplies or trained personnel that prevent them from providing the full range of services they did before the war. And the need of the population is great — with at least 77,816 people injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Hospitals in southern Gaza must also contend with the threat of a possible Israeli ground invasion in Rafah, where over 1 million Palestinians are sheltering.

The WHO and its partners “are constantly trying to support whatever services are continuing to function and revitalize others wherever possible,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris wrote in an email. “[T]he very real threat of an incursion into Rafah,” where humanitarian organizations working in Gaza are based, “will make this harder,” she said.

By: Annabelle Timsit and Hazem Balousha

5:30 AM: More than 10,000 missing under rubble in Gaza, local authorities estimate

Destruction in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on April 30. According to the United Nations, it will take years to clear the rubble.

More than 10,000 people are estimated to be missing under the rubble in Gaza, the United Nations humanitarian affairs office says, citing the Palestinian Civil Defense.

Volunteer teams were digging through destroyed buildings to find missing Palestinians. Without equipment such as bulldozers, which have been destroyed during the war, the effort could take years, the Palestinian Civil Defense added.

“Rising temperatures can accelerate the decomposition of bodies and the spread of disease,” the U.N. humanitarian affairs office said, adding that the PCD was appealing to “all relevant stakeholders to urgently intervene to allow the entry of needed equipment, including bulldozers and excavators, to avert a public health catastrophe, facilitate dignified burials, and save the lives of injured people.”

The U.N. Mine Action Program estimates there are 37 million tons of rubble in Gaza.

The estimated 10,000 missing are not included in the Gaza Health Ministry’s official death toll, which has reached about 34,500.

By: Frances Vinall

4:49 AM: Hamas says considering new cease-fire proposal will take time

Hamas officials said Thursday that the militant group was still studying the latest proposal for a hostage release and a cease-fire and asked for patience amid reports it was viewing the offer negatively.

“It’s not about negative or positive. There is movement on some points and some need for negotiation,” Hamas official Basem Naim said.

Suhail al-Hindi, another member of the political bureau, said there was “nothing new yet, and the agreement requires patience.”

In his visit Wednesday to Israel, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pushed Hamas to accept the latest proposal, which includes two phases of releasing hostages and at least several weeks of a pause in fighting as well as increased aid to the Strip, describing it as the best deal the group could get.

U.S. officials have said the proposal is a last chance to avoid more fighting in Gaza and a planned Israeli incursion against Hamas’s remaining forces in Rafah, where more than a million civilians have taken refuge.

Another Hamas official said the deal was complicated and required careful study. “There are many details, and every word is crucial in the agreement. It cannot be certain whether there will be an agreement at this stage. Communication between Gaza and the outside world takes a long time, and there is no specific date for responding to the proposal.”

He spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions and said he put the chances for the proposal’s success at around 30 percent, “but surprises may occur.”

By: Hazem Balousha and Sarah Dadouch

3:21 AM: Colombia is the latest and largest country to sever ties with Israel

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro attends a march as part of a Worker’s Day celebration Wednesday.

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced Wednesday his government will suspend diplomatic relations with Israel, its longtime defense ally, making Colombia the largest country to sever ties amid the war in Gaza.

Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, described Israel’s government and president as “genocidal.”

“If Palestine dies, humanity dies, and we won’t let it die,” Petro said during a Worker’s Day celebration in the packed Plaza de Bolívar in the country’s capital.

Colombia, the third largest country in Latin America and the most important U.S. ally in the region, joins Bolivia and Belize in taking the rare step of severing diplomatic ties with Israel. While many countries, including Colombia, had already withdrawn diplomats from Israel, few nations have gone so far as to suspend diplomatic relations.

Read the full story

By: Samantha Schmidt

1:40 AM: After weeks of U.S. college protests, police responses ramp up

Staffers unfurled a tarp to block protesters from watching police sweeping a pro-Palestinian encampment at Fordham University in New York on Wednesday.

Colleges and universities reckoned Wednesday with the aftermath of major shows of police force across the country that cleared some protest encampments and emptied a Manhattan classroom building in a turning point following two weeks of contagious pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

Even after a fragile calm resettled over campuses that have seen the bulk of the chaos, footage of officers in riot gear extracting students from Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall — the most searing images from 24 hours of tense confrontations between law enforcement and protesters — sparked debates nationwide as Americans struggled to make sense of it all.

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By: Danielle Paquette, Hannah Natanson, Joanna Slater and Emily Wax-Thibodeaux

1:39 AM: Blinken leaves Israel, suggests steps to protect Gazans

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to the press at the port of Ashdod in Israel on Wednesday.

Before departing from Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had left Israeli officials with a list of steps the Biden administration believes should be taken to protect and assist civilians in Gaza, such as improved deconfliction of military and humanitarian operations.

“The progress is real, but given the immense need in Gaza, it needs to be accelerated; it needs to be sustained,” he said.

He reiterated U.S. opposition to a Rafah offensive without seeing an effective plan to evacuate and protect civilians, which he said had not occurred. There are “other ways, and in our judgment, better ways” of dealing with the challenge of Hamas that do not require a military operation in Rafah, he said.

As he did throughout the day, he urged Hamas to accept the most recent cease-fire and hostage-release agreement proposed by Israel. In that proposal, Israel has made “very important compromises” that “demonstrate its desire, willingness” to get the deal done, he said.

“This is something that the whole world is watching,” he said. “If Hamas actually purports to care about the Palestinian people and wants to see an immediate alleviation of their suffering, it will take the deal. If it doesn’t, I think that’s further proof that it doesn’t care a bit.”

Blinken said his focus in talks with Netanyahu and other officials Wednesday was securing a halt to the fighting, releasing hostages and, perhaps, parlaying a pause in hostilities into a more lasting peace.

“There is an agreement that if we’re able to get the deal, get the cease-fire, get the hostages out, we’ll look for ways to build on that and have something sustainable over time,” he said.

By: Missy Ryan