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A Look at the Protests about the War in Gaza that Have Emerged on US College Campuses

FILE - Police in Riot gear stand guard as demonstrators chant slogans outside the Columbia University campus, Thursday, April 18, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
FILE - Police in Riot gear stand guard as demonstrators chant slogans outside the Columbia University campus, Thursday, April 18, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
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A Look at the Protests about the War in Gaza that Have Emerged on US College Campuses

FILE - Police in Riot gear stand guard as demonstrators chant slogans outside the Columbia University campus, Thursday, April 18, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
FILE - Police in Riot gear stand guard as demonstrators chant slogans outside the Columbia University campus, Thursday, April 18, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

Student protests over the Israel-Hamas war have popped up on an increasing number of college campuses following last week's arrest of more than 100 demonstrators at Columbia University.
The students are calling for universities to separate themselves from any companies that are advancing Israel’s military efforts in Gaza — and in some cases from Israel itself, The Associated Press said.
Protests on many campuses have been orchestrated by coalitions of student groups. The groups largely act independently, though students say they’re inspired by peers at other universities.
A look at protests on campuses in recent days:
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY Pro-Palestinian student protesters set up a tent encampment at the Ivy League university in New York last week. Police first tried to clear the encampment on April 18, when they arrested more than 100 protesters. But the move backfired, inspiring students across the country and motivating protesters at Columbia to regroup.
Earlier this week, the Ivy League school, where Monday is set to be the last day of classes, switched to hybrid learning. Commencement is set for May 15.
Students said Friday afternoon that they had reached an impasse with administrators and intended to continue their encampment until their demands are met. Columbia officials had earlier said that negotiations were showing progress. Despite dozens of journalists on campus and scores of police officers outside the gates, an unassuming spring day unfolded Friday with students sitting on the library's steps or grabbing a quick bite while soon-to-be-graduates posed for photos in their powder-blue gowns.
Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, faced a significant, but largely symbolic, rebuke from faculty Friday but retains the support of trustees, who have the power to hire or fire the president. A report by the university senate’s executive committee, which represents faculty, found Shafik and her administration took “many actions and decisions that have harmed Columbia University," including calling in police. Following the report, the senate passed a resolution that included a task force to monitor how the administration would make changes going forward.
Hundreds of counterprotesters gathered on the streets outside Columbia on Friday morning, many holding Israeli flags and chanting for the hostages being held by Hamas and other militants to be released.
The university said in a statement Saturday night that students and administrators had engaged in negotiations.
“Dialogue between university officials and student organizers is ongoing. We want to be clear: There is no truth to claims of an impending lockdown or evictions on campus,” the Columbia administration’s statement said.
NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY Police in riot gear cleared an encampment on the campus of Northeastern University on Saturday. Massachusetts State Police said about 102 protesters were arrested and will be charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct. Protesters said they were given about 15 minutes to disperse before being arrested.
As workers pulled down tents and bagged up the debris from the encampment, several dozen people across from the encampment chanted, “Let the Kids Go,” and slogans against the war in Gaza. They also booed as police cars passed and taunted the officers who stood guard.
Northeastern said in a statement that the demonstration, which began two days ago, had become “infiltrated by professional organizers” with no affiliation to the university and antisemitic slurs, including “kill the Jews,” had been used.
“We cannot tolerate this kind of hate on our campus,” the statement posted on social media said.
The Huskies for a Free Palestine student group disputed the university’s account, saying in a statement that counterprotesters were to blame for the slurs and no student protesters “repeated the disgusting hate speech.”
Students at the protest said a counterprotester attempted to instigate hate speech but insisted their event was peaceful and, like many across the country, was aimed at drawing attention to what they described as the “genocide” in Gaza and their university’s complicity in the war.
About 100 people were detained and students who produced a valid ID were released. They will face “disciplinary action" but not legal action, while people who refused to disclose their affiliation were arrested, the university said.
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA The University of Southern California said on Saturday it had temporarily closed its University Park Campus to nonresidents, without providing details of the closure or possible enforcement measures.
Joel Curran, senior vice president of communications, said in a statement that USC property was vandalized by members of a group “that has continued to illegally camp on our campus,” as well as disrupting operations and harassing students and others.
Students declined numerous attempts by university President Carol Folt to meet, and the administration hopes for “a more reasonable response Sunday before we are forced to take further action,” Curran said.
“While the university fully supports freedom of expression, these acts of vandalism and harassment are absolutely unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” Curran said.
The university canceled its main stage graduation ceremony set for May 10 after its campus was roiled by protests. The university already canceled a commencement speech by the school’s pro-Palestinian valedictorian, citing safety concerns.
The Los Angeles Police Department said more than 90 people were arrested Wednesday night on charges of trespassing during a protest at the university. One person was arrested on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. There were no reports of injuries.
The university said Wednesday that it had closed campus and police would arrest people who did not leave.
In her first public statement in nearly two weeks, President Carol Folt in a statement late Friday — the last day of classes — condemned the protests while imploring the campus community to find common ground and ways to support each other.
THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY Police clashed with protesters at Ohio State University in Columbus, just hours after they gathered Thursday evening. Those who refused to leave after warnings were arrested and charged with criminal trespass, said university spokesperson Benjamin Johnson, citing rules barring overnight events. Of 36 people arrested, Johnson said Friday that 16 were students and 20 were not affiliated with the university. The school's commencement is set for May 5.
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY About 50 students at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., set up a tent encampment on the school’s University Yard on Thursday. Later in the day, a group of Georgetown University students and professors staged their own protest walkout and marched to the George Washington campus to join them. The protesters are demanding that the university divest from Israel and lift a suspension against a prominent pro-Palestinian student group.
The university's last day of classes before final exams is set for Monday and commencement is scheduled for May 19. Because of the noise generated by the protests, the university said it would move law school finals to another building from the one where they had originally been scheduled.
The university said the protesters must remove tents and disperse by 7 p.m.
CALIFORNIA STATE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY, HUMBOLDT University officials extended the closure of the campus until May 10 — the end of the semester — saying instruction would continue to be remote, after protesters at the university in northern California used furniture, tents, chains and zip ties to block entrances to an academic and administrative building on Monday. Commencement is scheduled for May 11.
Officials said in a statement Tuesday that students had occupied a second building and three students had been arrested. On Wednesday, officials said some unidentified people who were not students were also inside one of the occupied buildings. On Thursday, the university said protesters continued to occupy the two buildings.
A dean at the school, Jeff Crane, suggested during the meeting that the university form a committee that would include students to do a deep dive into the school’s investments. Crane also suggested faculty and students continue meeting every 24 hours to keep an open line of communication. The sides have yet to announce an agreement.
The school’s senate of faculty and staff demanded the university’s president resign in a no-confidence vote Thursday, citing the decision to call police in to remove the barricaded students Monday.
On Friday, the university released a statement responding to questions from those occupying the buildings. The statement said there will be consequences for actions that violate policy or law, but officials would take into account actions by any students who choose to evacuate the occupied buildings and support efforts to clear them. It did not say the charges faced by those arrested would be dropped.
The administration also offered protesters a 5 p.m. deadline to leave and “not be immediately arrested.” But that deadline passed and local media reported that protesters remained on campus Saturday morning.
Officials on Saturday afternoon said a “hard closure” would be enforced going forward. “Individuals are prohibited from entering or being on campus without permission,” the university said in a statement.
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY An encampment set up by students at NYU swelled to hundreds of protesters earlier this week. Police on Wednesday said that 133 protesters had been taken into custody. They said all were released with summonses to appear in court on disorderly conduct charges. Commencement is set for May 15.
EMORY UNIVERSITY At Emory University in Atlanta, where Atlanta police and Georgia state troopers had dismantled a camp on the school's quadrangle, the school president on Friday said in an email that some of the videos of a clash between police and people on the campus “are shocking” and that he is “horrified that members of our community had to experience and witness such interactions.”
School officials said 20 of the 28 people arrested were “Emory community members."
Video circulated widely on social media shows two women who identified themselves as professors being detained, with one of them slammed to the ground by one officer as a second officer then pushes her chest and face onto a concrete sidewalk. In a separate incident Thursday evening, some protesters pinned police officers against the glass doors of the Candler School of Theology on the campus and threw objects at the officers, Emory’s president said.
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY Northwestern University changed its student code of conduct Thursday morning to bar tents on its suburban Chicago campus as student activists set up an encampment.
University President Michael Schill issued an email saying the university had enacted an “interim addendum” to its student code to bar tents, among other things, and warned of disciplinary actions including suspension, expulsion and criminal charges.
“The goal of this addendum is to balance the right to peacefully demonstrate with our goal to protect our community, to avoid disruptions to instruction and to ensure university operations can continue unabated,” Schilling said.
The university’s commencement is scheduled for June 9.
FASHION INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY A few dozen protesters set up tents and occupied a building Thursday at the Fashion Institute of Technology, part of the public State University of New York system. Protesters sat on the floor or milled around, many wearing face masks and kaffiyehs. Other protesters outside the building held signs and Palestinian flags. They refused to speak to a reporter. Around a dozen protesters spent the night in tents and sleeping bags inside a campus building. The institute’s museum, which is located in the building where the demonstrators set up camp, was closed Friday.
The school's commencement was still scheduled for May 22 and May 23.
INDIANA UNIVERSITY BLOOMINGTON After an encampment was set up at Indiana University Bloomington, police with shields and batons shoved into a line of protesters linked arm-in-arm Thursday afternoon. Videos posted to social media appear to show the protest continuing after law enforcement stopped making arrests.
In an update Friday, the university police said 34 people were arrested. Public information officer Hannah Skibba said charges include trespassing, resisting law enforcement and battery on a public safety official. One officer sustained “minor injuries." Protests continued Friday, one day before the last day of classes. The university’s commencement is scheduled for May 4.
Jeffrey Kehr, chief deputy prosecutor for Monroe County, said in an email that those arrested were released on their own recognizance and the office will “examine all the reports we receive and any relevant footage to determine what, if any, charges are appropriate.”
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA The University of Pennsylvania interim President J. Larry Jameson called late Friday for an encampment of protesters on the west Philadelphia campus to be disbanded, saying it violated the university’s facilities policies.
The “harassing and intimidating comments and actions” by some protesters violate the school’s open expression guidelines as well as state and federal law, Jameson said, and vandalism of a statue with antisemitic graffiti was “especially reprehensible and will be investigated as a hate crime.”
“I am deeply saddened and troubled that our many efforts to respectfully engage in discourse, support open expression, and create a community that is free of hate and inclusive for everyone have been ignored by those who choose to disrupt and intimidate,” he said.
Failure to disband the encampment immediately and to adhere to Penn’s policies will result in sanctions consistent with our due process procedures as they apply to students, faculty, and staff, Jameson said.
The university’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors responded by urging the administration not to “escalate the situation” or “violate the rights of students and faculty.”
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA In Gainesville, Florida, home to the University of Florida, protesters were warned Friday that students could face suspension and banishment for three years, and employees could be fired, if they violated rules including camping, using bullhorns, protesting inside buildings or possessing weapons. Around 50 people have been protesting on campus since Wednesday.
Earlier this year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis directed the state’s universities to make it easier for out-of-state students facing antisemitism and other religious harassment in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war to transfer to Florida campuses.
The Republican governor’s administration last fall also ordered state universities to ban a pro-Palestinian student organization, Students for Justice in Palestine, from campuses, saying it illegally backs Hamas militants who attacked Israel. The group has challenged that decision in federal court.
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY Arizona State University said 69 people were arrested early Saturday on suspicion of criminal trespassing for setting up an unauthorized encampment on a lawn on its Tempe campus. The protesters were given chances to leave and those who refused were arrested.
“While the university will continue to be an environment that embraces freedom of speech, ASU’s first priority is to create a safe and secure environment that supports teaching and learning,” the university said in a statement.
Protesters pitched tents, including some that police dismantled, and at least three people were arrested Friday. A television news report put the number of protesters in the dozens and video showed people waving flags and holding signs reading “Free Palestine."
University and Tempe city police representatives did not immediately answer emails asking about arrests, injuries or the size of the crowd.
A university spokesperson, Elena Bras, issued a statement that said “unapproved encampments” were prohibited on campus, and failure to comply would be grounds for arrest for trespassing.

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Gazans Strive to Study as War Shatters Education System

A boy looks on as Palestinians prepare to flee Rafah after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of the southern Gaza city, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 12, 2024. (Reuters)
A boy looks on as Palestinians prepare to flee Rafah after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of the southern Gaza city, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 12, 2024. (Reuters)
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Gazans Strive to Study as War Shatters Education System

A boy looks on as Palestinians prepare to flee Rafah after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of the southern Gaza city, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 12, 2024. (Reuters)
A boy looks on as Palestinians prepare to flee Rafah after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of the southern Gaza city, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 12, 2024. (Reuters)

Pupils sitting cross-legged on the sand take classes in a tent near Khan Younis in Gaza. Two sisters connect online to a West Bank school from Cairo. A professor in Germany helps Palestinian students link up with European universities.
After watching their schools and universities be closed, damaged or destroyed in more than seven months of war, Gazans sheltering inside and outside the territory are doing what they can to restart some learning, Reuters said.
"We are receiving students, and we have a very large number of them still waiting," said Asmaa al-Astal, a volunteer teacher at the tent school near the coast in al-Mawasi, which opened in late April.
Instead of letting children lose a whole year of schooling as they cower from Israeli bombardment, "we will be with them, we will bring them here, and we will teach them," she said.
Gazans fear the conflict between Israel and Hamas has inflicted damage to their education system, a rare source of hope and pride in the enclave that will outlast the fighting.
Gaza and the occupied West Bank have internationally high literacy levels, but Israel's blockade of the coastal Palestinian enclave and repeated rounds of conflict left education fragile and under-resourced.
Since the war began on Oct. 7, schools have been bombed or turned into shelters for displaced people, leaving Gaza's estimated 625,000 school-aged children unable to attend classes.
All 12 of Gaza's higher education institutions have been destroyed or damaged, leaving nearly 90,000 students stranded, and more than 350 teachers and academics have been killed, according to Palestinian official data.
"We lost friends, we lost doctors, we lost teaching assistants, we lost professors, we lost so many things in this war," said Israa Azoum, a fourth-year medical student at Gaza City's Al Azhar University.
Azoum is volunteering at Al Aqsa hospital in the town of Deir al-Balah to help stretched staff deal with waves of patients, but also because she doesn't want to "lose the connection with science".
"I never feel tired because this is what I love doing. I love medicine, I love working as a doctor, and I don't want to forget what I have learnt," she said.
Fahid Al-Hadad, head of Al Aqsa's emergency department and a lecturer at the faculty of medicine at the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG), said he hoped to start teaching again, though he had lost books and papers accumulated over more than a decade when his home in Gaza City was destroyed.
Online instruction will be complicated by weak internet, but could at least allow students to complete their degrees, he said. The buildings of IUG and Al Azhar stand badly damaged and abandoned on neighboring sites in Gaza City.
"We are ready to give in any way, but much better inside Gaza than outside. Because don't forget that we are doctors and we are working," Hadad said.
'LIFESAVING ACT'
Tens of thousands of Gazans who crossed to Egypt also face challenges. Though living in relative safety, they lack the papers to enroll their children in schools, so some have signed up for remote learning offered from the West Bank, where Palestinians have limited self-rule under Israeli military occupation.
The Palestinian embassy in Cairo is planning to supervise end-of-year exams for 800 high school students.
Kamal al-Batrawi, a 46-year-old businessman, said his two school-aged daughters began online schooling after the family arrived in the Egyptian capital five months ago.
"They take classes every day, from 8 a.m. until 1:30 p.m., as if they were in a regular school. This is a lifesaving act," he said.
In southern Gaza, where more than a million people were displaced, UN children's agency UNICEF has been organizing recreational activities like singing and dancing with some basic learning. It is planning to create 50 tents where 6,000 children will be able to take classes in three daily shifts.
"It's important to do it, but it remains a drop in the ocean," said Jonathan Crickx, head of communications for UNICEF Palestine.
Wesam Amer, Dean of the Faculty of Communication and Languages at Gaza University, said although online teaching could be an interim solution, it could not provide the physical or practical learning required for subjects like medicine and engineering.
After leaving Gaza for Germany in November, he is advising students on how to match up their courses with options at universities in the West Bank or Europe.
"The challenges of the day after the war aren't only about the infrastructure, university buildings. It is about the dozens of academics who have been killed in the war and the tough task of trying to make up for them or replace them," he said.
Those killed include IUG president Sufyan Tayeh, who died with his wife and all his five children in a strike on his sister's house in December.
Tayeh, an award-winning professor of theoretical physics and applied mathematics, had a "great passion" for science, his brother Nabil told Reuters.
"Even in the middle of the war, he (Tayeh) was still working on his own research," he said.
The UN estimates that 72.5% of schools in Gaza will need full reconstruction or major rehabilitation.
Mental health and psychosocial support will also be needed for children to "feel safe in going back to a school that might have been bombed", Crickx said.

Features

Campus Gaza Rallies May Subside, but Experts See Possible ‘Hot Summer of Protest’

Protesters stand and link arms during a demonstration in support of Palestinians, at the Auraria Campus in Denver, Colorado, US May 7, 2024. (Reuters)
Protesters stand and link arms during a demonstration in support of Palestinians, at the Auraria Campus in Denver, Colorado, US May 7, 2024. (Reuters)
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Campus Gaza Rallies May Subside, but Experts See Possible ‘Hot Summer of Protest’

Protesters stand and link arms during a demonstration in support of Palestinians, at the Auraria Campus in Denver, Colorado, US May 7, 2024. (Reuters)
Protesters stand and link arms during a demonstration in support of Palestinians, at the Auraria Campus in Denver, Colorado, US May 7, 2024. (Reuters)

About a dozen students arrested by police clearing a sit-in at a Denver college campus emerged from detainment to cheers from fellow pro-Palestinian protesters, several waving yellow court summons like tiny victory flags and imploring fellow demonstrators not to let their energy fade.

Just how much staying power the student demonstrations over the war in Gaza that have sprung up in Denver and at dozens of universities across the United States will have is a key question for protesters, school administrators and police, with graduation ceremonies being held, summer break coming and high-profile encampments dismantled.

The student protesters passionately say they will continue until administrators meet demands that include permanent ceasefire in Gaza, university divestment from arms suppliers and other companies profiting from the war, and amnesty for students and faculty members who have been disciplined or fired for protesting.

Academics who study protest movements and the history of civil disobedience say it's difficult to maintain the people-power energy on campus if most of the people are gone. But they also point out that university demonstrations are just one tactic in the wider pro-Palestinian movement that has existed for decades, and that this summer will provide many opportunities for the energy that started on campuses to migrate to the streets.

Signs spelling the word "Divest" hang among white flags symbolizing each child killed in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza, at a protest encampment at the Auraria Campus in Denver, Colorado, US, May 10, 2024. (Reuters)

EVOLVE OR FADE AWAY

Dana Fisher is a professor at American University in Washington, DC, and author of several books on activism and grassroots movements who has seen some of her own students among protesters on her campus.

She noted the college movement spread organically across the country as a response to police called onto campus at Columbia University on April 18, when more than 100 people were arrested. Since those arrests, at least 2,600 demonstrators have been detained at more than 100 protests in 39 states and Washington, DC, according to The Appeal, a nonprofit news organization.

"I don't see enough organizational infrastructure to sustain a bunch of young people who are involved in a movement when they are not on campus," Fisher said. "Either the movement has to evolve substantially or it can't continue."

Following the initial arrests at Columbia, students there occupied a classroom building, an escalation of the protest that led to even more arrests. Similarly in Denver, police on April 26 arrested 45 people at an encampment protest at the Auraria campus – which serves the University of Colorado-Denver, Metropolitan State University and the Community College of Denver.

Then on May 8, Auraria protesters staged a short-lived sit-in inside the Aerospace and Engineering Sciences building, developed in part with a $1 million gift from arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

Students in Denver say the movement's spread from the coasts to the heartland and to smaller universities shows it has staying power. Student protests also have flared outside the US.

"We're keeping our protests up and our encampment going until our demands are met, however long that takes," said Steph, a 21-year-old student on the Auraria campus who declined to give their full name for fear of reprisals. "We'll be here through summer break and into next fall if needed."

Fisher, the academic, said the police response to protests has helped ignite a sense of activism in a new generation of students. She thinks the current campus demonstrations foreshadow a "long, hot summer of protest" about many issues, and that the Republican national convention in July and the Democratic national convention in August will be ripe targets for massive protest.

"The stakes have gotten much higher, and that's very much due to the way that police have responded in a much more aggressive and repressive way than they did even back in the 1960s," Fisher said, referring to student-led protests against the Vietnam War.

"And then you just plop right down in the middle of all that the presidential election?" she said. "It's a crazy recipe for one hell of a fall."

Tents are set up at an encampment in support of Palestinians in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, at the Auraria Campus in Denver, Colorado, US, May 10, 2024. (Reuters)

AFTER GRADUATION, A GHOST TOWN

Michael Heaney, an American lecturer in politics at the University of Glasgow in Scotland whose research and books have focused on US protest movements said the campus demonstrations are just one tactic in the wider movement to support Palestinians, an ongoing effort that goes back decades.

Heaney said that the geographical diffusion of the university encampments to places like Denver is an opportunity to bring the message of the wider movement to places where it may not have been before.

Heaney added that "protests for any movement are episodic" and pointed to the various manifestations of the African-American Civil Rights movement in the US, going back 200 years. Just because one moment of protest ends does not foretell its overall demise.

He said pro-Palestinian protests in American cities this summer could grow if Israel's offensive in Gaza continues, and that such demonstrations would have been stoked by the widespread university activism.

On Denver's Auraria campus, while students were cleared from the classroom building, about 75 tents remain on a grassy quad, where protesters say they serve 200 meals each day in a mess hall tent. One of the student protest organizers, Jacob, 22, said he's convinced the facts on the ground in Gaza are what will sustain the encampment.

"After graduation it may be a ghost town on this campus - but we'll still be here," he said. "We're not going anywhere."

Features

Wary of Wars in Gaza and Ukraine, Old Foes Türkiye and Greece Test a Friendship Initiative

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (L) and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis leave after speaking to the press following their meeting in Athens during Erdogan's official visit to Greece, Dec. 7, 2023. (AFP Photo)
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (L) and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis leave after speaking to the press following their meeting in Athens during Erdogan's official visit to Greece, Dec. 7, 2023. (AFP Photo)
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Wary of Wars in Gaza and Ukraine, Old Foes Türkiye and Greece Test a Friendship Initiative

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (L) and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis leave after speaking to the press following their meeting in Athens during Erdogan's official visit to Greece, Dec. 7, 2023. (AFP Photo)
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (L) and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis leave after speaking to the press following their meeting in Athens during Erdogan's official visit to Greece, Dec. 7, 2023. (AFP Photo)

Old foes Türkiye and Greece will test a five-month-old friendship initiative Monday when Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visits Ankara.
The two NATO members, which share decades of mutual animosity, a tense border and disputed waters, agreed to sideline disputes last December. Instead, they’re focusing on trade and energy, repairing cultural ties and a long list of other items placed on the so-called positive agenda, The Associated Press said.
Here’s a look at what the two sides hope to achieve and the disputes that have plagued ties in the past:
FOCUSING ON A POSITIVE AGENDA Mitsotakis is to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Monday as part of efforts to improve ties following the solidarity Athens showed Ankara after a devastating earthquake hit southern Türkiye last year.
The two leaders have sharp differences over the Israeli-Hamas war, but are keen to hold back further instability in the eastern Mediterranean as conflict also continues to rage in Ukraine.
“We always approach our discussions with Türkiye with confidence and with no illusions that Turkish positions will not change from one moment to the next,” Mitsotakis said last week, commenting on the visit. “Nevertheless, I think it’s imperative that when we disagree, the channels of communication should always be open."
“We should disagree without tension and without this always causing an escalation on the ground," he added.
Ioannis Grigoriadis, a professor of political science at Ankara’s Bilkent University, said the two leaders would look for ways “to expand the positive agenda and look for topics where the two sides can seek win-win solutions,” such as in trade, tourism and migration.
EASY VISAS FOR TURKISH TOURISTS Erdogan visited Athens in early December, and the two countries have since maintained regular high-level contacts to promote a variety of fence-mending initiatives, including educational exchanges and tourism.
Turkish citizens this summer are able to visit 10 Greek islands using on-the-spot visas, skipping a more cumbersome procedure needed to enter Europe’s common travel area zone, known as the Schengen area.
“This generates a great opportunity for improving the economic relations between the two sides, but also to bring the two stable societies closer — for Greeks and Turks to realize that they have more things in common than they think,” Grigoriadis said.
A HISTORY OF DISPUTES Disagreements have brought Athens and Ankara close to war on several occasions over the past five decades, mostly over maritime borders and the rights to explore for resources in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean seas.
The two countries are also locked in a dispute over Cyprus, which was divided in 1974 when Türkiye invaded following a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Only Türkiye recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence in the island’s northern third.
The dispute over the exploration of energy resources resulted in a naval standoff in 2020 and a vow by Erdogan to halt talks with the Mitsotakis government. But the two men met three times last year following a thaw in relations and a broader effort by Erdogan to re-engage with Western countries.
The foreign ministers of the two countries, Hakan Fidan of Türkiye and George Gerapetritis of Greece, are set to join the talks Monday and hold a separate meeting.
RECENT DISAGREEMENTS Just weeks before Mitsotakis’ visit, Erdogan announced the opening of a former Byzantine-era church in Istanbul as a mosque, drawing criticism from Greece and the Greek Orthodox church. Like Istanbul’s landmark Hagia Sophia, the Chora had operated as a museum for decades before it was converted into a mosque.
Türkiye, meanwhile, has criticized recently announced plans by Greece to declare areas in the Ionian and Aegean seas as “marine parks” to conserve aquatic life. Türkiye objects to the one-sided declaration in the Aegean, where some areas remain under dispute, and has labeled the move as “a step that sabotages the normalization process.”
Grigoriadis said Türkiye and Greece could focus on restoring derelict Ottoman monuments in Greece and Greek Orthodox monuments in Türkiye. “That would be an opportunity” for improved ties, he said.

Features

Cocaine Trade ... A Threat to West Africa

In this photo released by The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, shows officials burning seized drugs in Niamey, Niger, Monday, June 26, 2023. (UNODC via AP)
In this photo released by The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, shows officials burning seized drugs in Niamey, Niger, Monday, June 26, 2023. (UNODC via AP)
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Cocaine Trade ... A Threat to West Africa

In this photo released by The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, shows officials burning seized drugs in Niamey, Niger, Monday, June 26, 2023. (UNODC via AP)
In this photo released by The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, shows officials burning seized drugs in Niamey, Niger, Monday, June 26, 2023. (UNODC via AP)

The volume of drugs transiting through West African countries, from Latin America to European markets, has significantly increased in the last decade, a recent UN report revealed.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said authorities in West African countries seized an average of 13 kg per year in the period 2015–2020. The quantity increased to more than 100 times in 2022 with 1,466 kg of seized cocaine.

More worrying, however, is the relationship between drug trafficking networks and terrorist groups in the Sahel region of Africa and the way cocaine trade has become the largest source of funding for terrorism. It has even replaced kidnapping western nationals for ransom.

UNODC’s report raises the alarm about the dangers of drug trafficking in West Africa. It says the conflict-ridden Sahel and sub-Saharan region is becoming an influential route for drug trafficking to European countries.

Network of Routes

While cocaine trafficking routes across African countries are varied and fragmented, reports suggest that the majority is being transported by sea via the coasts of Guinea, Mauritania and Senegal, then trafficked overland from Mali and the Niger then onwards to North African countries as Algeria, Libya and Morocco. The cocaine is then transported across the Mediterranean to Europe.

Also, as drug trafficking networks developed and grew, they began using cargo planes to transport cocaine from countries in South America to the Sahara, and then to the Sahara.

One of the most notorious mega-smuggling operations was uncovered in 2009 when a Boeing 727 aircraft took off from Venezuela allegedly carrying between seven and 11 tons of cocaine.

Smuggling Continues

While chaos engulfs the Sahel and West African countries, drug trafficking networks continue to grow and expand.

In mid-April, Senegal's customs authorities have intercepted a record-breaking haul of cocaine. Over a ton of the illicit drug was confiscated from a truck near the border with Mali.

It was concealed in packets and stashed in bags, and was found in a lorry in a small town of Kidira.

Valued at $146 million, this haul marks the largest inland seizure of cocaine in Senegal.

Also, the Senegalese Customs in 2022 reported seizing 300 kg of cocaine, valued at almost €37 million, from a refrigerated truck in Kidira, Senegal, on the border with Mali.

But the largest shipment was seized in November 2023, when the Senegalese navy has confiscated nearly three tons of cocaine from a ship off the coast of Senegal, marking one of the country’s biggest drug hauls.

In Mauritania, security authorities seized last July a ship carrying 1.2 tons of cocaine, marking the largest seizure of cocaine in the country’s history.

On 18 June 2023, Mauritania seized 2.3 tons of cocaine hidden in a ship intercepted off the country’s coast. Several Mauritanians and people of other nationalities were arrested.

According to UNODC, from an average of 13 kg per year in the period 2015–2020, the quantity of cocaine seized in the Sahel countries increased to 41 kg in 2021 and 1,466 kg in 2022 with the bulk reported by Burkina Faso, Mali and the Niger.

The report said drug seizures have become very common in the Sahel and West Africa, where cocaine is the most commonly seized drug.

It noted that the region has become a “focal point” for smuggling networks to transport drugs to European and Asian markets.

Also, the UN report points to other risks facing the Sahel region, saying it is not just a transit area, but has become a consumer market as well.

Local Market!

In its report, UNODC also revealed that the Sahel region has transitioned from a transit route for illegal drugs headed to Europe from South America to a booming illegal drug market with a troubling rise in domestic users.

Francois Patuel, Head of the Research Unit at UNODC, said the production of cocaine is becoming more and more local in the Sahel region. He said in 2020, law enforcement in the Niger reported the dismantlement of two clandestine drug laboratories producing crack cocaine destined for the local market.

“We've had reports of rising crack cocaine consumption in Agadez, Niger driven by payment in kind,” said Lucia Bird, director of the West Africa Observatory of illicit economies at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. “Smaller traffickers get paid in drugs and offload it onto local markets because they don't have the contacts in more lucrative consumption destinations.”

Spread of Drug Addiction

Fatou Sow Sarr, ECOWAS commissioner of human development and social affairs, said in a policy brief that “the heaviest burden of drug use is shouldered by the age group 10 to 29, thus investing more in mental health among young people is essential to protecting our children and youths against the use of illicit drugs.”

A report said cannabis is the leading cause of treatment for substance use disorder and dominates the list of drug seizures in the region. The amount of cannabis seized increased from 139 tons in 2020 to 631 tons in 2021 to 892 tons in 2022.

According to N’guessan Badou Roger, a treatment, research and epidemiological officer from Côte d’Ivoire, “cannabis dominates West Africa statistics because it grows easily in the climatic condition, has a mode of consumption that is not restrictive smoking, and is more accessible and less expensive than other drugs.”

In Senegal, the most abused drug in 2021 was cocaine, which accounted for more than 60% of the people seeking treatment. In Côte d’Ivoire, nearly 80% of people seeking drug treatment were addicted to cocaine or crack, while more than 46% of the people in treatment in Nigeria used cocaine.

Drugs: Source for Financing Terrorism through Sahel Region

The UNODC report said terrorist groups are now more involved in the drug trafficking market to finance their activities.

It noted that both al-Qaeda and ISIS are involved in transporting shipments of drugs, including cocaine and cannabis gum.

“Drug trafficking in the Sahel undermines stability and development in the region. Armed groups are directly involved in trafficking,” Patuel said.

“They use drug money to sustain their operations and to buy weapons while competing over trafficking routes. Finally drug trafficking fuels corruption and money laundering which undermines the rule of law and the development of resilient economies,” he added.

Features

Biden’s Israel Weapons Pause Won’t Dent Gaza Protests, Organizers Say

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest as they take part in the "Biden: stop supporting genocide!" rally in New York City, US, January 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest as they take part in the "Biden: stop supporting genocide!" rally in New York City, US, January 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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Biden’s Israel Weapons Pause Won’t Dent Gaza Protests, Organizers Say

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest as they take part in the "Biden: stop supporting genocide!" rally in New York City, US, January 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest as they take part in the "Biden: stop supporting genocide!" rally in New York City, US, January 20, 2024. (Reuters)

US President Joe Biden's decision to pause shipments of thousands of bombs to Israel over the US ally's attacks on Rafah won praise from some critical Democrats, but won't stop protests about Gaza that have dogged his reelection effort, strategists and organizers say.

Biden's decision last week marks the first time he has withheld US military aid from Israel since the country began attacking Gaza seven months ago, pursuing Hamas gunmen. Republicans and some Democrats have accused Biden of putting the security of the US's closest ally in the region at risk.

It is also too little, too late, to satisfy the left-leaning coalition of young voters and people of color who have led the protests against Israel's attacks, many say.

Pro-Palestinian protests have swept college campuses across the country, followed Biden at private events and pushed Democrats in key battleground states to vote "uncommitted" to signal their unhappiness as deaths in Israeli-occupied Gaza climbed to 35,000.

"We welcome Biden's words and this gesture toward taking responsibility for US complicity in these crimes," said Stephanie Fox, executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, a group whose members are involved with protests around the country, including on college campuses.

"If his words are to mean anything, rather than a one-off pause, this needs to be the start of a sea change in US policy," Fox said.

Protesters are seeking suspension of military aid to Israel, a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and for universities to divest from companies that support Israel's actions in Gaza. Israel is retaliating for Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200.

"I think Biden's comments yesterday moves the needle... but what we don't know is if it's a PR move to try to placate some of his opponents on this issue or if it's real because he has also said his support for Israel is ironclad," said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK, another group whose members have been participating in protests all over the country.

"We will continue protesting," Benjamin said.

Biden has called for a temporary ceasefire and said he supports an eventual two-state solution. While he has been increasingly critical of the Israeli government, billions more in weapons shipments remain in the pipeline.

On Friday, Israeli troops took their ground war with Palestinian fighters into city of Rafah, as the United Nations warned that aid for the devastated Gaza Strip could grind to a halt in days.

ISRAEL IS A TOP ISSUE FOR SMALL GROUP Stanley Greenberg, a veteran pollster who has worked for top US Democrats and Israelis, held a focus group on Wednesday with voters under 45 years old, and Gaza was one of the top issues raised after rising prices.

"It was top of mind for them," he said about Gaza. Asked whether "the US has gone too far in support of Israel, a plurality say yes."

Some pollsters and the Biden reelection campaign believe the issue only resonates for a small group of people. "It's very important to some people, but they're in the minority in the electorate," said Patrick Murray, director of the Polling Institute at Monmouth University.

The campaign’s message is that Biden is experienced in diplomatic matters and going to make tough and necessary decisions regardless of the polls, according to a person familiar with their thinking.

Americans' support for military aid to Israel has dropped in recent months, as has young voter support for Biden, polls show. He has struggled with tepid approval for most of his term in a sharply divided country.

Biden's margin of victory in some key battleground states was slim, and it would not take much of a slip in support from many such voters who backed him in 2020 to throw his reelection bid into question, analysts say.

Waleed Shahid, a Democratic adviser to the national "uncommitted" movement asking voters to pick another candidate in state primaries, called Biden's comment a "small step forward" and said it shows the US has leverage in its dealings with Israel.

Shahid, however, said "until actions are taken to stop the arms sales for [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's war, a lot of Biden's base, a lot of the Democratic Party is going to continue to be fractured on this issue."

Other groups urged Biden to act more decisively in confronting Israel instead of looking for a middle ground if he wants to put the Democratic coalition back together.

Features

The Biden-Netanyahu Relationship is Strained Like Never Before. Can the Two Leaders Move Forward?

Then-Vice President Joe Biden (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands while giving joint statements at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, March 9, 2016. (Debbie Hill/AFP via Getty Images via JTA)
Then-Vice President Joe Biden (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands while giving joint statements at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, March 9, 2016. (Debbie Hill/AFP via Getty Images via JTA)
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The Biden-Netanyahu Relationship is Strained Like Never Before. Can the Two Leaders Move Forward?

Then-Vice President Joe Biden (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands while giving joint statements at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, March 9, 2016. (Debbie Hill/AFP via Getty Images via JTA)
Then-Vice President Joe Biden (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands while giving joint statements at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, March 9, 2016. (Debbie Hill/AFP via Getty Images via JTA)

President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have long managed a complicated relationship, but they're running out of space to maneuver as their views on the Gaza war diverge and their political futures hang in the balance.
Their ties have hit a low point as Biden holds up the delivery of heavy bombs to Israel — and warns that the provision of artillery and other weaponry also could be suspended if Netanyahu moves forward with a widescale operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, The Associated Press said.
Netanyahu, for his part, is brushing off Biden’s warnings and vowing to press ahead, saying, “If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone.”
“If we need to, we will fight with our fingernails. But we have much more than fingernails,” he said.
Biden has long prided himself on being able to manage Netanyahu more with carrots than sticks. But the escalation of friction over the past seven months suggests that his approach may be long past its best-by date.
With both men balancing an explosive Mideast situation against their own domestic political problems, Netanyahu has grown increasingly resistant to Biden’s public charm offensives and private pleading, prompting the president's more assertive pushback in the past several weeks.
“If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, that deal with that problem," Biden said in a CNN interview Wednesday, laying bare his growing differences with Netanyahu.
Biden aides nonetheless insist the president is unwilling to allow the US-Israel relationship to truly rupture on his watch. They cite not only the political imperative — a majority of Americans support Israel — but also Biden’s personal history with the country and his belief in its right to defend itself.
The president's aides, watching how pro-Palestinian protests have roiled his party and the college campuses that have been breeding grounds for Democratic voters, have mused for months that Biden could be the last classically pro-Israel Democrat in the White House.
Their optimism about their ability to contain Netanyahu may be falling into the same trap that has vexed a long line of American presidents who have clashed with the Israeli leader over the decades.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Thursday declined to say whether Biden informed Netanyahu of his decision to suspend shipment of 3,500 bombs when the leaders spoke earlier this week. But he said Biden has been “direct and forthright” with Netanyahu about his concerns.
Biden and Netanyahu have known each other since Biden was a young senator and Netanyahu was a senior official in Israel's embassy in Washington.
They've hit rough patches before.
There were differences over Israel building settlements in the West Bank during Barack Obama's administration when Biden was vice president. Later, Netanyahu vehemently opposed Biden's push to resurrect the Iran nuclear deal sealed by Obama and scrapped by Donald Trump. Netanyahu chafed at Biden prodding him to de-escalate tensions during Israel's bloody 11-day war with Hamas in 2021.
The leaders went more than a month earlier this year without talking as Biden's frustration with Netanyahu grew over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The relationship remained workable despite such differences between the center-left Democrat and the leader of the most far-right coalition government in Israel's history.
But with the Biden-Netanyahu relationship now coming under greater strain than ever before, it is unclear how the leaders will move forward.
Netanyahu is caught between public pressure for a hostage deal and hard-liners in his coalition who want him to expand the Rafah invasion, despite global alarm about the harm it could do to some 1.3 million Palestinians sheltering there. He's made clear that he will push forward with a Rafah operation with or without a deal for hostages.
The Israeli leader vowed to destroy Hamas after its Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and some 250 were captured and taken hostage. But his public standing has cratered since then, as he faces pressure to find a pathway to a truce that would bring home the remaining hostages and the remains of Israelis who have died in captivity.
He's resisted an investigation into what led to the intelligence and military failures leading up to the Hamas attack. All the while, he's still facing legal problems, including a long-running corruption trial in which he is charged with fraud and accepting bribes.
Netanyahu’s political survival may depend on the Rafah offensive. If he reaches a hostage deal that stops short of conquering Rafah, hardliners in his coalition have threatened to topple the government and trigger new elections at a time when opinion polls forecast he would lose.
“To keep his partners on board and prevent them from pre-empting an election, in which Likud will be decimated and he will be turned out of office, he needs to keep the ‘total victory’ myth alive – and that is only possible by avoiding a deal with Hamas,” wrote Anshel Pfeffer, a columnist and author of a Netanyahu biography, in the Haaretz daily.
Aviv Bushinsky, a former spokesman and chief of staff for Netanyahu, said the Israeli leader remains focused on the war’s primary goal – defeating Hamas – because of concerns about his image and legacy.
He said Netanyahu has spent his career branding himself as the “tough guy on terror.”
“He thinks this is how he will be remembered. He’s been promising for a decade to cream Hamas," Bushinsky said. “If he doesn’t, in his mind he’ll be remembered as the worst prime minister of all time.”
Biden, meanwhile, faces mounting protests from young Americans, a segment of the electorate critical to his reelection. And he's faced backlash from Muslim Americans, a key voting bloc in the battleground state of Michigan. Some have threatened to withhold their votes in November to protest his administration's handling of the war.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Biden ally who has been frustrated by the administration’s handling of the war, said Thursday Biden should go further and suspend delivery of all offensive weaponry to Israel.
“The United States does and should stand by its allies, but our allies must also stand by the values and the laws of the United States of America,” Sanders said. “We must use all of our leverage to prevent the catastrophe in Gaza from becoming even worse.”
At the same time, Biden is facing bruising criticism from Republicans, including presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee Trump, who say that his decision to hold back weapons is a betrayal of an essential Mideast ally.
“What Biden is doing with respect to Israel is disgraceful. If any Jewish person voted for Joe Biden, they should be ashamed of themselves. He’s totally abandoned Israel,” Trump told reporters on Thursday.
Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Biden's move is “simply a nod to the left flank” that is handing “a great victory to Hamas.”
Friction between the US and Israeli leaders is not without precedent.
President George H.W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s relationship was strained as the Republican administration threatened to withhold $10 billion in loan guarantees to thwart new settlement activity in the West Bank. Obama and Netanyahu's relationship was marked by mutual distrust over the Democrat's effort to reignite the Middle East peace process and forge the Iran nuclear deal.
“There were always workarounds if the heads of government really don’t get along. We may get to that,” said Elliot Abrams, a senior national security official in the George W. Bush administration. “But of course, this may be a sort of problem that solves itself in that one or both of them may be gone from office" in a matter of months.

Features

A West Bank Village Feels Helpless after Israeli Settlers Attack with Fire and Bullets

Charred homes and cars dotting this hilltop village surrounded by olive groves are a searing reminder of Palestinians’ vulnerability to rising violence from Israeli settlers. (AP video/Imad Isseid)
Charred homes and cars dotting this hilltop village surrounded by olive groves are a searing reminder of Palestinians’ vulnerability to rising violence from Israeli settlers. (AP video/Imad Isseid)
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A West Bank Village Feels Helpless after Israeli Settlers Attack with Fire and Bullets

Charred homes and cars dotting this hilltop village surrounded by olive groves are a searing reminder of Palestinians’ vulnerability to rising violence from Israeli settlers. (AP video/Imad Isseid)
Charred homes and cars dotting this hilltop village surrounded by olive groves are a searing reminder of Palestinians’ vulnerability to rising violence from Israeli settlers. (AP video/Imad Isseid)

Charred homes and cars dotting this hilltop village surrounded by olive groves are a searing reminder of Palestinians' vulnerability to rising violence from Israeli settlers.
The trail of wreckage along Duma's main road is the aftermath of a three-hour attack in mid-April that left 15 homes damaged by arson and six residents injured by bullets, the head of its village council said. It was one of nearly 800 settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since Hamas attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, according to the UN.
The burnt remains in Duma also highlight the village's limited resources to clean up and rebuild, let alone defend itself from future incursions, which seem inevitable as gun-toting settlers patrol the area roughly 20 miles (30 kilometers) north of Jerusalem, The Associated Press said.
“We as the village of Duma ... do not have the power to defend ourselves,” said Suleiman Dawabsha, chairman of the village council for this community of more than 2,000 people. He estimated the attack caused five million shekels ($1.3 million) in damage.
The rampage on April 13 echoed a similar event that took place almost a decade ago. In 2015, three Palestinians from Duma were killed, including an 18 month-old baby, after settlers fire-bombed a home there. An Israeli man was later convicted for murder.
The latest attack against Duma was part of a wave of settler violence touched off by the death of a 14-year-old Israeli who went missing on the morning of April 12. Authorities found his body the next day and they have arrested a man from Duma who they say was connected to the boy's alleged murder.
On April 15, two days after the attack in Duma, two Palestinians were shot dead by settlers near the town of Aqraba, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. And in a related spurt of violence, a man was killed by Israeli fire on April 12 in nearby al-Mughayyir, though it remains unclear whether the fatal bullet was fired by a soldier or settler.
There have been 794 settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank since Oct. 7 — from stones thrown at passing cars to bullets fired at residents, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. At least 10 Palestinians have been killed by settlers in these attacks, it said.
Attacks by settlers aren't the only form of violence on the rise in the West Bank.
Since the war in Gaza began, nearly 500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the territory, according to the Health Ministry based in Ramallah, which says the overwhelming majority have been shot dead by soldiers. Palestinians in the West Bank have killed nine Israelis, including five soldiers, since Oct. 7, according to UN data.
The war has undoubtedly heightened tensions between settlers and Palestinians. But Israeli human rights groups blame the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for fueling settler violence by promoting an ideology of total Israeli supremacy in the West Bank.
These groups say the Israeli army doesn't do enough to stop the violence, and even facilitates it in some cases by offering the settlers protection. The Israeli army said in a statement it tries to protect everyone living in the West Bank and that complaints about soldiers are investigated.
No one was killed in the attack on Duma, but residents described narrow escapes.
Ibrahim Dawabsha, a truck driver and father of four, said most of his family hid in the kitchen as settlers launched firebombs and set part of their home ablaze.
“My daughter was at her uncle’s house, there was no one there,” he said. “What they (might) do to her I don’t know.”
The heads of Duma and al-Mughayyir said Israeli troops arrived shortly after the attacks on their communities began but did little to intervene. Instead, they fired at Palestinians attempting to confront the settlers, these officials said.
A prominent Israeli human rights group, Yesh Din, described it as an “umbrella of security” — a collaboration it says has become increasingly common since Israel's right-wing coalition government came to power in late 2022.
“As soon as the Palestinians try to protect themselves, they’re the ones who the army attacks,” said Ziv Stahl, Yesh Din’s director.
The United States has increased pressure on Israel to curb settler attacks in the West Bank, sanctioning some leaders, including a close ally of Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Dawabsha, the chief of Duma, does not believe the pressure campaign will be effective. “I am not pinning my hopes on the American government,” he said.
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war, territories Palestinians want as part of a future state. Settlers claim the West Bank, home to some 3 million Palestinians, is their biblical birthright.
Around 500,000 Israeli settlers live across hundreds of settlements and outposts in the West Bank. These segregated and tightly guarded communities vary in size and nature. Larger settlements are akin to Jerusalem’s sprawling suburbs, while smaller unauthorized outposts can consist of just a few caravans parked on a hilltop.
Outposts often receive tacit government support and sometimes they gain formal recognition — and receive funding — from the Israeli government.
Duma's geography makes it uniquely vulnerable to attack.
Overlooking Jordan and Israeli settlements to the east, the village is surrounded more closely by at least three outposts that the head of its council says have expanded gradually over the past decade. Duma is in a section of the West Bank known as Area B: Its civil affairs are governed by the Palestinian Authority, but the Israeli military is in charge of its security.
Palestinians largely consider the PA to be ineffective and corrupt, and it rarely opposes Israel's military operations in the territory.
Over the past year, settlers have cut off Duma's access to four vital springs and wells that surround the village by sabotaging roads and other infrastructure, according to residents.
In the days following Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, more than 100 Bedouin Arabs that were living a nomadic lifestyle in the pastures south of Duma relocated to its fringes in search of greater safety and resources.
One of them, Ali Zawahiri, said his extended family relocated after settlers had begun burning their tents and stealing their livestock in apparent revenge attacks. The Bedouin Arabs living near Duma are one of 16 such communities in the West Bank that have relocated because of settler violence or threats since the start of 2023, according to Yesh Din.
"He is armed with a gun and I am just a person with nothing,” Zawahiri said.
An armed unit run by the Palestinian Authority that formerly patrolled the perimeter of West Bank towns at night halted operations shortly after the Gaza war broke out, when members of the force were kidnapped by settlers.
When asked how they might better defend themselves in the future, residents of Duma struggled to answer.
“What preparations?" said Ibrahim Dawabsha, whose truck — his main source of income — was burnt to ashes. "There are no preparations.”

Features

Fighting Closes in amid 'Constant Terror' in Key Darfur City

Sudanese refugees gather to fill cans with water from a water point in the Farchana refugee camp, on April 8, 2024. (Photo by Joris Bolomey / AFP)
Sudanese refugees gather to fill cans with water from a water point in the Farchana refugee camp, on April 8, 2024. (Photo by Joris Bolomey / AFP)
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Fighting Closes in amid 'Constant Terror' in Key Darfur City

Sudanese refugees gather to fill cans with water from a water point in the Farchana refugee camp, on April 8, 2024. (Photo by Joris Bolomey / AFP)
Sudanese refugees gather to fill cans with water from a water point in the Farchana refugee camp, on April 8, 2024. (Photo by Joris Bolomey / AFP)

Sudanese shop owner Ishaq Mohammed has been trapped in his home for a month, sheltering from violence in El-Fasher, the last major city in the country's vast Darfur region not under the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

For more than a year, Sudan has suffered a war between the army, headed by the country's de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

Experts have warned the northeast African country is at risk of breaking apart, Agence France Presse reported.

According to the United Nations, Sudan "is experiencing a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions", with famine threatening and more than 8.7 million people uprooted -- more than anywhere else in the world.

Among the war's many horrors, Darfur has already seen some of the worst. Now, experts and residents are bracing for more.

"We're living in constant terror," Mohammed told AFP by telephone, as the UN, world leaders and aid groups voice fears of carnage in the North Darfur state capital of 1.5 million people.

"We can't move for the bombardments," Mohammed said.

The RSF has seized four out of five state capitals in Darfur, a region about the size of France and home to around one quarter of Sudan's 48 million people.

"We're under a total siege," another resident, Ahmed Adam, told AFP in a text message that got through despite a near-total communications blackout in Darfur.

"There's no way in or out of the city that's not controlled by the RSF," he said.

For months, El-Fasher was protected by a fragile peace.

But unrest has soared since last month when the city's two most powerful armed groups -- which had helped to keep the peace there -- pledged to fight alongside the army.

Since then, El-Fasher and the surrounding countryside have seen "systematic burning of entire villages in rural areas, escalating air bombardments... and a tightening siege", according to Toby Harward, the UN's deputy humanitarian coordinator for Sudan.

- 'Large-scale massacre' warning -

At least 23 communities in North Darfur have been burned in apparent arson, Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab found in a report last week.

The war's overall death toll, however, remains unclear, a factor "that captures just how invisible and horrific this war is", Tom Perriello, US special envoy for Sudan, told a congressional committee on May 1.

While figures of 15,000-30,000 have been mentioned, "some think it's at 150,000", Perriello said.

UN experts reported up to 15,000 people killed in the West Darfur capital El-Geneina alone.

Members of the non-Arab Massalit ethnic group in El-Geneina last year were targeted for killing and other abuses by the RSF and allied groups, forcing an exodus to neighboring Chad, which the UN says is hosting more than 745,000 people from Sudan.

The International Criminal Court, currently investigating ethnic-based killings primarily by the RSF in Darfur, says it has "grounds to believe" both sides are committing atrocities in the war.

As El-Fasher is home to both Arab and African communities, an all-out battle for control of the city causing massive civilian bloodshed "would lead to revenge attacks across the five Darfur states and beyond Darfur's borders", said Harward.

In late April, United States ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield warned that El-Fasher "is on the precipice of a large-scale massacre".

Eyewitnesses report fighting "is now inside" the nearby Abu Shouk camp, established 20 years ago for people displaced by ethnic violence committed by the Janjaweed militia, which led to ICC war crimes charges.

The Janjaweed later evolved into the RSF.

"Everyone who hasn't managed to leave is trapped at home," camp resident Issa Abdelrahman told AFP.

"People are running out of food, and no one can get to them."

- Eating grass -

According to UN experts, the RSF has repeatedly besieged and set fire to villages and displacement camps in Darfur.

Their siege of El-Fasher has halted aid convoys and commercial trade, Harward said.

Shortages have also hit the El-Fasher Southern Hospital -- the city's only remaining medical facility, where personnel are "completely exhausted", a medical source told AFP.

Requesting anonymity for fear of both sides' well-documented targeting of medics, the source said "some doctors haven't left the hospital in over a month", tirelessly treating gunshot wounds, bombardment injuries and child malnutrition.

The Darfur region was already facing widespread hunger, but now "people are resorting to consuming grass and peanut shells", according to Michael Dunford, the World Food Programme's regional director for Eastern Africa.

Yet it is difficult for them to flee.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said encirclement of El-Fasher by armed groups and restrictions on movement along key roads "are limiting families from leaving".

Early this year the RSF declared victories across Sudan, but the army has since mounted defenses in key locations.

The RSF has for months threatened an attack on El-Fasher but has held off, in large part due to the locally brokered truce.

They also seem to have been deterred by "heightened international demands and warnings," according to Amjad Farid, a Sudanese political analyst and former aide to ex-civilian prime minister Abdalla Hamdok.

But these warnings are "falling on deaf ears", Harward says.

With the US having announced an imminent resumption of peace talks in Saudi Arabia, Farid said the RSF has focused anew on El-Fasher.

These are negotiations the RSF cannot enter from a position of weakness, Farid told AFP.

Features

Why the US is Stopping Some Bomb Shipments to Israel

A Palestinian woman walks down the stairs of a house hit in an Israeli strike, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 9, 2024. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
A Palestinian woman walks down the stairs of a house hit in an Israeli strike, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 9, 2024. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
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Why the US is Stopping Some Bomb Shipments to Israel

A Palestinian woman walks down the stairs of a house hit in an Israeli strike, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 9, 2024. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
A Palestinian woman walks down the stairs of a house hit in an Israeli strike, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 9, 2024. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

The United States has suspended a shipment of weapons to Israel, including heavy bombs the US ally used in its campaign against Hamas in Gaza which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians.

The suspension comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues a military assault on the Palestinian city of Rafah, over the objections of US President Joe Biden. Here's what we know so far:

WHAT BOMBS WERE BLOCKED?

Washington paused one shipment consisting of 1,800 2,000-pound (907-kg) bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs, Reuters quoted US officials as saying.
Four sources said the shipments, which have been delayed for at least two weeks, involved Boeing-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions, which convert dumb bombs into precision-guided ones, as well as Small Diameter Bombs (SDB-1). The SDB-1 is a precision guided glide bomb that packs 250 pounds of explosive. They were part of an earlier approved shipment to Israel, not the recent $95 billion supplemental aid package the US Congress passed in April.

WHY IS THE US BLOCKING THESE BOMBS?

The US is reviewing "near term security assistance," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a Senate hearing on Wednesday "in the context of unfolding events in Rafah."
"We've been very clear...from the very beginning that Israel shouldn't launch a major attack into Rafah without accounting for and protecting the civilians that are in that battlespace," Austin said.

More than one million Palestinian civilians have sought shelter in Rafah, many previously displaced from other parts of Gaza following Israel's orders to evacuate from there.

The US decision was taken due to concerns about the "end-use of the 2,000-pound bombs and the impact they could have in dense urban settings as we have seen in other parts of Gaza," said a US official speaking on condition of anonymity. The US had carefully reviewed the delivery of weapons that might be used in Rafah, the official said.

WHEN WAS THE DECISION MADE? WAS BIDEN INVOLVED?
The decision was made last week, US officials said. Biden was directly involved. Biden confirmed the pause personally in a CNN interview Wednesday.

"Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers," he said when asked about 2,000-pound bombs sent to Israel.

WHAT KIND OF DAMAGE CAN 2,000-POUND BOMBS CAUSE?

Large bombs like 2,000-pound bombs have an impact over a wide area. According to the United Nations, "The pressure from the explosion can rupture lungs, burst sinus cavities and tear off limbs hundreds of meters from the blast site."

The International Commission for the Red Cross in reports the use of wide area explosives in a densely populated area "is very likely to have indiscriminate effects or violate the principle of proportionality."

WHAT WAS ISRAEL'S RESPONSE?

Israel denies targeting Palestinian civilians, saying its sole interest is to annihilate Hamas and that it takes all precautions to avoid unnecessary death.
After the news broke Tuesday in Washington, a senior Israeli official declined to confirm the report. "If we have to fight with our fingernails, then we'll do what we have to do," the source said. A military spokesperson said any disagreements were resolved in private.

WERE THESE BOMBS LEGAL FOR ISRAEL TO USE IN GAZA?
That is a matter of heated debate.
International humanitarian law does not explicitly ban aerial bombing in densely populated areas, however civilians cannot be targets and a specific military aim must be proportionate to possible civilian casualties or damage.

WHAT DOES THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT SAY?

The statute of the International Criminal Court, which is investigating the Israel-Gaza war, lists as a war crime intentionally launching an attack when it is known that civilian death or damage will be "clearly excessive" compared to any direct military advantage.

HAS THE US WITHHELD MILITARY AID FROM ISRAEL BEFORE?
Yes, in 1982. President Ronald Reagan imposed a six-year ban on cluster weapons sales to Israel after a Congressional investigation found that Israel had used them in populated areas during its 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
Israel's use of US-made cluster bombs was reviewed under President George W. Bush, over concerns they were used during a 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Features

‘A Blessing’: Rains Refill Iraq’s Drought-Hit Reservoirs

A picture taken on May 5, 2024 shows the Darbandikhan Dam in northeastern Iraq. Iraq has suffered four consecutive years of drought, with irregular rainfall badly affecting water resources, forcing many farmers to abandon their land. (AFP)
A picture taken on May 5, 2024 shows the Darbandikhan Dam in northeastern Iraq. Iraq has suffered four consecutive years of drought, with irregular rainfall badly affecting water resources, forcing many farmers to abandon their land. (AFP)
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‘A Blessing’: Rains Refill Iraq’s Drought-Hit Reservoirs

A picture taken on May 5, 2024 shows the Darbandikhan Dam in northeastern Iraq. Iraq has suffered four consecutive years of drought, with irregular rainfall badly affecting water resources, forcing many farmers to abandon their land. (AFP)
A picture taken on May 5, 2024 shows the Darbandikhan Dam in northeastern Iraq. Iraq has suffered four consecutive years of drought, with irregular rainfall badly affecting water resources, forcing many farmers to abandon their land. (AFP)

The reservoir behind the massive Darbandikhan dam, tucked between the rolling mountains of northeastern Iraq, is almost full again after four successive years of drought and severe water shortages.

Iraqi officials say recent rainfall has refilled some of the water-scarce country's main reservoirs, taking levels to a record since 2019.

"The dam's storage capacity is three million cubic meters (106 million cubic feet). Today, with the available reserves, the dam is only missing 25 centimeters (10 inches) of water to be considered full," Saman Ismail, director of the Darbandikhan facility, told AFP on Sunday.

Built on the River Sirwan, the dam is located south of the city of Sulaimaniyah in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.

"In the coming days, we will be able to say that it's full," said Ismail, with the water just a few meters below the road running along the edge of the basin.

The last time Darbandikhan was full was in 2019, and since then "we've only had years of drought and shortages," said Ismail.

He cited "climate change in the region" as a reason, "but also dam construction beyond Kurdistan's borders".

The central government in Baghdad says upstream dams built in neighboring Iran and Turkiye have heavily reduced water flow in Iraq's rivers, on top of rising temperatures and irregular rainfall.

This winter, however, bountiful rains have helped to ease shortages in Iraq, considered by the United Nations to be one of the five countries most vulnerable to some impacts of climate change.

In Iraq, rich in oil but where infrastructure is often run-down, torrential rains have also flooded the streets of Kurdistan's regional capital Erbil.

Four hikers died last week in floods in Kurdistan, and in Diyala, a rural province in central Iraq, houses were destroyed.

- 'Positive effects' -

Ali Radi Thamer, director of the dam authority at Iraq's water resources ministry, said that most of the country's six biggest dams have experienced a rise in water levels.

At the Mosul dam, the largest reservoir with a capacity of about 11 billion cubic meters, "the storage level is very good, we have benefitted from the rains and the floods," said Thamer.

Last summer, he added, Iraq's "water reserves... reached a historic low".

"The reserves available today will have positive effects for all sectors", Thamer said, including agriculture and treatment plants that produce potable water, as well as watering southern Iraq's fabled marshes that have dried up in recent years.

He cautioned that while 2019 saw "a sharp increase in water reserves", it was followed by "four successive dry seasons".

Water has been a major issue in Iraq, a country of 43 million people that faces a serious environmental crisis from worsening climate change, with temperatures frequently hitting 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in summer.

"Sure, today we have rain and floods, water reserves that have relatively improved, but this does not mean the end of drought," Thamer said.

About five kilometers (three miles) south of Darbandikhan, terraces near a small riverside tourist establishment are submerged in water.

But owner Aland Salah prefers to see the glass half full.

"The water of the Sirwan river is a blessing," he told AFP.

"When the flow increases, the area grows in beauty.

"We have some damage, but we will keep working."