Latest news with #GazaOperation
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Uruguay suspends agreement with Hebrew University, citing latest Gaza City occupation plan
The decision comes after just weeks of announcing the agreement between ANII and the university, which would have seen the opening of offices from the Uruguayan agency in Jerusalem. Uruguay suspended the cooperation agreement between the National Research and Innovation Agency (ANII) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, citing the latest Gaza operation and the decision to occupy Gaza City, according to Uruguayan media reports on Friday. 'We lament the decision of 'freezing' the agreement of cooperation between ANII and the Hebrew University,' said a statement by Israel's Embassy in Uruguay. 'Using political disagreements as an excuse to destroy scientific cooperation is always a misfortune." The decision comes just weeks after announcing the agreement between ANII and the university, which would have seen the opening of offices from the Uruguayan agency in Jerusalem. 'The office was never formally used, without any personnel in it until now,' said ANII president Alvaro Brunini to Uruguayan news outlet Telemundo. 'There were plans to start online courses soon, but they hadn't started yet,' he added. According to Brunini, the decision comes as a 'pause' rather than a full-on cancellation of the project. 'We understood that the best was to have a paused, reflective moment before continuing the process,' he stated. Uruguay's new left-wing government and its relationship with Israel The decision also comes as the first main conflict between Uruguay's new left-wing government and Israel, after almost five years of good relationships under the Luis Lacalle Pou right-wing administration. Mario Lubetkin, Uruguay's Foreign Minister, said to the newspaper Ámbito Uruguay that the decision was also made as a formal response to Israel's new operations planned for Gaza City and the whole strip. Uruguay's Foreign Ministry also shared Lubetkin's reasoning, explaining that the current government doesn't desire to share common projects with the Israeli administration in a moment of high geopolitical tensions, reported Ámbito. The decision comes after Uruguay's condemnation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to occupy Gaza City and its support of the UN declaration asking for a peaceful solution to the war in the strip. What was the ANII-Hebrew University agreement? 'The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Uruguay's National Research and Innovation Agency (ANII) are launching Innovacion Uruguay, a new innovation and entrepreneurship office on the Edmond J. Safra Campus,' announced the university during the program's launch. 'The Innovacion Uruguay office will serve as a central hub for fostering innovation, entrepreneurship, and collaboration,' said the official statement. The university also expected that the office would serve as 'a platform to strengthen ties between Uruguay and Jerusalem.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Your job is to ensure Hamas does not lead you astray': Lapid slams Netanyahu for admission
The Israeli opposition criticized Netanyahu's statements during his press conference, where he addressed details of the new IDF Gaza operation and hostage talks. Opposition leader and Yesh Atid chair MK Yair Lapid slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following his admission that Hamas misled Israel in hostage deal negotiations during the second press conference on Sunday. The 'admission that 'Hamas led us astray' is nothing short of astonishing,' he said on X/Twitter, adding, 'That's exactly your job: to ensure Hamas doesn't lead you astray.' "Netanyahu – get over it! There is no such thing as a 'green light from the Americans' to conduct negotiations," the Hostages and Missing Families Forum commented. 'These are Israeli citizens, and the State of Israel must lead the moves, demand, and press itself against the mediators for an end to the war and the return of all the hostages home. The responsibility for their lives lies with the Israeli government, not with any other country," they said in a statement. 'The United States has been working tirelessly to free the hostages, end this war, and give civilians in Gaza a future free of Hamas. To do so, we need to place the responsibility where it lies – with Hamas – and hold it and other Gaza terrorists fully accountable. Today's meeting, like so many other recent actions, undermines those efforts,' the US Mission to the UN had posted following the press conferences. Leader of the Blue and White Party, MK Benny Gantz, who was part of the Israeli security cabinet during some periods of the war, was one of the first to react: 'Too many words, too few actions, too much time.' Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman stated: 'The Prime Minister of October 7 continues to lie with brazen audacity. He sacrifices the hostages on the altar of preserving the coalition, just as he sacrifices the regular and reserve soldiers to appease his natural partners – Shas and United Torah Judaism.' Yair Golan's harsh words over Netanyahu's press conference 'After 22 months of war, after promising that 'we are one step away from total victory,' after 674 days that our hostages are languishing in captivity, Netanyahu declared tonight: 'I have instructed the IDF to defeat Hamas.' Ridiculous,' The Democrats chair MK Yair Golan posted. 'As if until today, IDF soldiers were strolling in Gaza. What we saw tonight is not 'one step from victory' but the most severe security failure in Israel's history,' he said. 'The prime minister of 'Hamas is an asset,' who refuses to defeat the enemy for nearly two years and abandons dozens of Israeli citizens to die in captivity, is a danger to national security. Netanyahu is incapable of winning. He will not release the hostages. He is an utter failure. Israel will only win after he and his government are sent packing,' Golan concluded. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum addressed Netanyahu on Monday, asking him to publicly clarify his remarks at yesterday's press conference in response to a reporter's question, in which he ignored the fallen hostages. "He who abandons fallen ones ends up abandoning lives," the forum's address read. Uri Sela contributed to this report. Solve the daily Crossword
The Guardian
07-08-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Israel's security cabinet expected to meet to sign off plans for expanded Gaza operation – Middle East crisis live
Update: Date: 2025-08-07T06:42:45.000Z Title: Israel's security cabinet expected to meet tonight to sign off plans for expanded Gaza operation Content: Israel's security cabinet is expected to meet on Thursday evening and sign off on plans for an expanded operation despite reported serious misgivings from senior military officers. Yesterday, the Israeli military put parts of Gaza City and Khan Younis under new enforced displacement orders. The move comes amid fears that the country's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is preparing to order the full occupation of the Palestinian territory later this week. Israeli online newspaper, the Times of Israel, citing various Hebrew media reports, added that the cabinet is expected to approve 'a phased plan to conquer vast new areas of the Gaza Strip, potentially over five months, newly displacing around a million Palestinians'. Additionally, it would aim to destroy Hamas and pressure the group to release all remaining hostages, the publication reported. Public broadcaster Kan also reported that mediators Egypt and Qatar were pressuring Israel, via the US, not to implement the plan, while also urging Hamas to resume negotiations. In other developments: The humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to be very severe, an EU official told Reuters after the EU's foreign policy and humanitarian arms updated member countries late on Wednesday on the status of an agreement reached with Israel last month on boosting humanitarian access to Gaza. Israel's destruction of Gaza has left starving Palestinians with access to only 1.5% of cropland that is accessible and suitable for cultivation, according to new figures from the UN. This is down from 4% in April, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), suggesting Israel has continued to target Palestinian farmland since initiating a complete blockade in early March. On Wednesday, Gaza's health ministry reported that five more people had died from starvation in the coastal strip, which has been plunged into a devastating hunger crisis owing to Israel's complete block on aid entering earlier this year. Jordan reported, on Wednesday, that an aid convoy of 30 trucks that had left for Gaza had been attacked by militant Jewish settlers on entering Israel. After the attack, the second in days, Jordan accused Israel of failing to act to prevent repeated assaults. Naomi Klein and Angela Davis are among dozens of international scholars and writers who have signed a letter to the Guardian calling on the UK government to reverse the ban on Palestine Action. Signatories from major academic institutions around the world also say they are 'especially concerned' about the ban's possible impact on universities across Britain and beyond. The UK prime minister Keir Starmer has been urged by Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, to call Donald Trump to encourage him to use his influence to block Israel's plans for a 'full occupation' of Gaza. In a statement, Davey said: '[Israeli PM Benjamin] Netanyahu's latest proposals for the occupation of all of Gaza are utterly horrifying.'
