Scores more Palestinians killed as Israel continues its military escalation in Gaza
Israel has launched a fresh wave of airstrikes across Gaza, killing dozens of Palestinians since Tuesday, and more than 300 since the new offensive began.
Targets included homes, shelters, and alleged Hamas command centres, with women and children among the dead.
Israel has agreed, under international pressure, to allow limited humanitarian aid into Gaza.
While about a hundred trucks have been approved for entry, the UN says few have been allowed in, and none of the aid has reached civilians.
Guest: Yossi Beilin, a former Israeli justice minister and Deputy Foreign Minister - and a key architect of the 1993 Oslo peace Accords
Producer: Anne Barker
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ABC News
8 hours ago
- ABC News
All universities in Gaza have been destroyed. What does this mean for Palestinians?
The Islamic University of Gaza was once a buzzing campus, filled with ambitious students studying everything from medicine to literature. Now, displaced families huddle in its ruined classrooms, burning school books for kindling. Israeli bombardment during the Israel-Gaza war destroyed its main auditorium; its rows of seats are now charred and crumpled. Tents are pitched next to piles of rubble, in buildings that once housed esteemed scholars. Among their alumni are award-winning poets, journalists, professors and — far more controversially — Hamas leaders. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the last remaining university in the Gaza region was destroyed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 2024. Wesam Amer is the dean of the faculty of communication and languages at another institution, Gaza University, and began his tenure there in 2020. "We already have a generation lost in Gaza; a generation of students, a generation of academics," he tells ABC Radio National's Late Night Live. He says the initial ground invasion in Gaza prevented students from attending campuses at the beginning of the war. All levels of in-person teaching stopped in early November, 2023. Dr Amer says he suspects Israel wants to eliminate the ability of Palestinian people to gain an education, "because education in Palestine, and for Palestinians, is existence". "And existence is resistance as well," he says. Dr Amer was forced to flee Gaza shortly after the war began and has been teaching online from the UK since May 2024. On October 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants undertook a surprise attack in southern Israel, killing more than 1,200 Israeli civilians and soldiers, and taking around 240 hostage. Israel's response has been an extensive bombing campaign and a ground invasion of Gaza which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says aims to "eliminate" Hamas. Gaza's health ministry says more than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed. Even before the current war, universities were functioning under extreme conditions, says Mona Jebril, a Palestinian academic and research associate at the Centre for Business Research at Cambridge University. Dr Jebril taught at University of Palestine and later Al-Azhar University between 2006 and 2012. Like any professor, her days were spent preparing lessons, marking assignments and ensuring her students showed up on time. However, Dr Jebril says she frequently experienced power outages in Gaza lasting between six to 12 hours. They would happen so suddenly that she began to change her sleep schedule so she could prepare her lessons during times when the electricity came back on. "And then I go to the university, and there is no electricity, so in the end I [couldn't] use it." Her students also faced limitations from these power outages and would often question the relevance of subjects like philosophy to their reality. "I remember one student once asked me, 'What is the relevance of Plato to Gaza? How would learning Plato improve our lives here?'," she says. Many were more concerned with finding jobs than doing school work. Data from the Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Studies shows youth unemployment is at 70 per cent in Gaza. "Many know that they won't actually get a job because they have seen other graduates who are not able to find employment," says Dr Jebril. Dr Jebril left Gaza in 2012 to study a PhD at Cambridge University in the UK and has not been able to return home. She doesn't know which of her relatives, colleagues and students are still alive after the war. "I constantly think about them … I don't know who's still alive or who actually has been killed," she says. For many academics in the region, choosing to leave is a difficult decision. Dr Amer says he was ultimately forced to leave Gaza because of the war. "It was not … like a personal decision," he says. He attempted to leave Gaza four times before he finally made it out. Dr Amer studied in Germany so he reached out to the German embassy, which agreed to help he and his family leave. In November 2023, Dr Amer had to transport his wife, who was in her last month of pregnancy, and his two daughters to the Rafah crossing. "We were the only people on the street, actually, and driving from Khan Yunis to Rafah, you can imagine the risks and the dangers we went through until we reached the Rafah crossing," he says. Now Dr Amer is working as a visiting researcher at Cambridge University, and living with his family in the UK. In a press release last year, UN experts expressed grave concern over the attacks on educational facilities in the Gaza Strip, including universities. The IDF claims campuses, such as the Islamic University of Gaza, are used by Hamas. "The [Islamic University of Gaza] was being used as a Hamas training camp for military intelligence operatives, as well as for the development and production of weapons," an IDF statement from October 2023 says. Images of various weapons, explosives and other technological devices were also released by the IDF, which they claim were found at Al-Azhar University. However, there has also been some criticism from within Israel of the attacks on Gaza, including their educational system. In May 2025, more than 1000 academics released an open letter addressed to the leading Israeli academic institutions calling for an end to the conflict. The letter criticises the "complete elimination of the educational system" in Gaza and highlights the role of higher education and academics in the war. Based on their experience at the universities past and present, Dr Amer and Dr Jebril reject claims Hamas is affiliated with the insitutions. "But this [Hamas affiliation] is not true because I've been working in Gaza since 2020, and I've been teaching, mainly at Gaza University and also at other universities. We have much independence in our universities," Dr Amer says. He adds that focusing on quality research and educating students is the objective of these universities. He believes the attacks are an attempt by Israel to suppress the intellectual expression of the Palestinian community and impede their recovery after the war. "Israel tries its best to undermine Palestinian identity … [and prevents] restoring essential political and socio-economic conditions, because education is seen as a source of economic stability for many Palestinian families," he says. The destruction of these universities also has significant implications for the preservation and transmission of Palestinian culture, Dr Jebril says. She says that before the founding of the Islamic University of Gaza in 1978, Palestinians would have to go to neighbouring countries to study, where they would not learn about their cultural history. She says the history of the Palestinian struggle for education is represented in the building of the universities. "There is a history linked to the resistance of Palestinians that is connected to these spaces," Dr Jebril says. "So destroying the university … is actually a destruction of the memory of the resistance of the past." Despite the conflict, Dr Amer continues to teach and mentor his students, with many in Gaza depending on solar panels to power the few electronics they have at their disposal. Three of the largest public universities in Gaza, Al-Aqsa University, Al-Azhar University and the Islamic University of Gaza, have formed an 'Emergency Committee' to ensure teaching continues and those in the region stay connected with the international academic community. "Academics and students [are] really clinging to these opportunities to feel alive, to convey their voice, to represent their community, but also to keep their hopes," Dr Jebril says. Methods of support include offering students virtual opportunities to continue learning. Oxford University has granted students from Gaza and the West Bank access to the Bodleian Libraries. "Which is really important because … all libraries and other resources are destroyed," Dr Jebril says. Despite the destruction, Dr Amer hopes universities in Gaza will be able to rebuild. "To move forward, we need coordinated efforts to rehabilitate infrastructure, provide mobile learning units, create digital academic libraries, and strengthen international academic solidarity," he says. However, Dr Amer says supporting education in Gaza goes beyond restoring buildings and providing reading materials — it relies on the resilience of students in the face of significant psychological trauma.
News.com.au
8 hours ago
- News.com.au
Israel warns of more Lebanon strikes if Hezbollah not disarmed
Israel warned Friday that it would keep striking Lebanon until militant group Hezbollah has been disarmed, after hitting south Beirut in what Lebanese leaders called a major violation of a November ceasefire. Thursday's attacks on what the Israeli military said were underground Hezbollah drone factories came after an Israeli evacuation call on the eve of Eid al-Adha, a key Muslim religious festival, and sent huge numbers of residents of Beirut's southern suburbs fleeing. It was the fourth and heaviest Israeli bombardment of the heavily populated area, known as a bastion of support for Hezbollah, in the six months since a ceasefire deal aimed at ending hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. The last attack was in late April. "There will be no calm in Beirut, and no order or stability in Lebanon, without security for the State of Israel," Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. "Agreements must be honoured and if you do not do what is required, we will continue to act, and with great force." The state-run National News Agency reported around a dozen strikes, while Health Minister Rakan Nassereldine said several people were wounded by flying glass. AFP photographers on Friday saw huge destruction as residents, some wearing masks, inspected the debris and damage to their homes. - 'Blatant act' - A Hezbollah statement said a preliminary assessment showed nine buildings were completely destroyed and dozens of others damaged. A woman in her 40s who lives near one of the strike sites said she fled on foot with her young children including a three-month-old baby. "Thank God" the building was not destroyed, she told AFP after returning Friday morning to find the windows of her flat shattered. South Beirut resident Fatima, 40, said "life goes on", adding that she and her two children were following the usual Eid traditions after fleeing the previous night. Hezbollah sparked months of deadly hostilities by launching cross-border attacks on northern Israel in stated solidarity with Palestinian ally Hamas following its October 7, 2023 attack. France, part of a committee overseeing the ceasefire, condemned the strikes and urged all parties to respect the truce, noting that the monitoring mechanism "is there to help the parties deal with threats and prevent any escalation". Lebanese President Joseph Aoun late on Thursday voiced "firm condemnation of the Israeli aggression" and "flagrant violation of an international accord... on the eve of a sacred religious festival". Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned the strikes as a violation of Lebanese sovereignty. Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Ammar on Friday urged "all Lebanese political forces... to translate their statements of condemnation into concrete action", including diplomatic pressure. Hezbollah backer Iran called the strikes "a blatant act of aggression against Lebanon's territorial integrity and sovereignty", foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said. The war left Hezbollah massively weakened, with top commanders including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah killed and weapons caches incinerated. - 'Refusal to cooperate' - Under the ceasefire, Lebanon should disarm Hezbollah, once reputed to be more heavily armed than the state. A Lebanese military official told AFP the committee received no warning before the Israeli evacuation order. The Lebanese army "attempted to go to one of the sites... but Israeli warning shots prevented it from carrying out its mission", the official said, requesting anonymity. Lebanon's army, which has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure under the truce, said the Israeli military's ongoing violations and "refusal to cooperate" with the ceasefire monitoring mechanism "could prompt the (Lebanese) military to freeze cooperation" on site inspections. The French foreign ministry statement noted that "dismantling unauthorised military sites... falls as a priority to the Lebanese" army with the support of United Nations peacekeepers. The Israeli military had said Hezbollah was "operating to increase production of UAVs (drones) for the next war" in "blatant violation" of the truce understandings. Under the ceasefire, Hezbollah fighters were to withdraw north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border. Israel was to withdraw troops from Lebanon but has kept them in five areas it deems "strategic" and still launches regular strikes on south Lebanon. Israel's military also issued an evacuation warning for the southern village of Ain Qana. It then struck a building there that it alleged was a Hezbollah base, according to the NNA.
News.com.au
13 hours ago
- News.com.au
France opens 'complicity in genocide' probes over blocked Gaza aid
French anti-terror prosecutors have opened probes into "complicity in genocide" and "incitement to genocide" after French-Israelis allegedly blocked aid intended for war-torn Gaza last year, they said on Friday. The two investigations, opened after legal complaints, were also to look into possible "complicity in crimes against humanity" between January and May 2024, the anti-terror prosecutor's office (PNAT) said. They are the first known probes in France to be looking into alleged violations of international law in Gaza, several sources with knowledge of the cases told AFP. In a separate case made public on the same day, the grandmother of two children with French nationality who were killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza has filed a legal complaint in Paris, accusing Israel of "genocide" and "murder", her lawyer said. The French judiciary has jurisdiction when French citizens are involved in such cases. Rights groups, lawyers and some Israeli historians have described the Gaza war as "genocide". Israel, created in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust of Jews during World War II, vehemently rejects the accusation. The French probes were opened after two separate legal complaints. In the first, the Jewish French Union for Peace (UFJP) and a French-Palestinian victim filed a complaint in November targeting alleged French members of hardline pro-Israel groups "Israel is forever" and "Tzav-9". It accused them of "physically" preventing the passage of trucks at border checkpoints controlled by the Israeli army. Lawyers for the plaintiffs, Damia Taharraoui and Marion Lafouge, told AFP they were happy a probe had been launched into the events in January 2024 -- "a time when no-one wanted to hear anything about genocide". A source close to the case said prosecutors last month urged the investigation in relation to events at the Nitzana crossing point between Egypt and Israel, and the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel into Gaza. Around that time, hardline Israeli protesters -- including friends and relatives of hostages held in Gaza -- blocked aid lorries from entering the occupied Palestinian territory and forced them to turn back at Kerem Shalom. A second complaint from a group called the Lawyers for Justice in the Middle East (CAPJO) accused members of "Israel is forever" of having blocked aid trucks. It used photos, videos and public statements to back up its complaint. - 'Genocide' complaint - No court has so far concluded that the ongoing conflict is a genocide. But in rulings in January, March and May 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations' highest judicial organ, told Israel to do everything possible to "prevent" acts of genocide during its military operations in Gaza, including through allowing in urgently needed aid. In the separate case, Jacqueline Rivault, the grandmother of six- and nine-year-old children killed in an Israeli strike, filed her complaint accusing Israel of "genocide" and "murder" with the crimes against humanity section of the Court of Paris, lawyer Arie Alimi said. Though formally against unnamed parties, the complaint explicitly targets Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli government and the military. The complaint states that an Israeli missile strike killed Janna, six, and Abderrahim Abudaher, nine, in northern Gaza on October 24, 2023. "We believe these children are dead as part of a deliberate organised policy targeting the whole of Gaza's population with a possible genocidal intent," Alimi said. The children's brother Omar, now five, was severely wounded but still lives in Gaza with their mother, identified as Yasmine Z., the complaint said. A French court in 2019 convicted Yasmine Z. in absentia of having funded a "terrorist" group over giving money in Gaza to members of Palestinian militant groups Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. - Famine warnings - Israel said last month it was easing the complete blockade of Gaza it imposed on March 2 but on May 30 the United Nations said the territory's entire population of more than two million people remained at risk of famine. A US-backed aid group last week began distributions but reports that the Israeli military shot dead dozens of Palestinians trying to collect food has sparked widespread condemnation. The UN and major aid organisations have refused to cooperate with the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund, citing concerns that it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives. Hamas fighters launched an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. A total of 1,218 people died, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. The militants abducted 251 hostages, 55 of whom remain in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military says are dead. Israel's retaliatory war on Hamas-run Gaza has killed 54,677 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry there, figures the United Nations deems reliable. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. It also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif over similar allegations linked to the October 7 attack but the case against him was dropped in February after confirmation Israel had killed him.
