The Israel-Hamas war

The Israel-Hamas war|The negotiations
Israel willing to let Gazans return north

Israel has eased some of its demands under the latest ceasefire proposal, Israeli government sources told the New York Times.

It is now willing to allow Palestinian internally displaced persons to return to northern Gaza on a large scale, and be allowed to move freely there. It's a sharp turnaround - for weeks Israel has insisted that all Gazans returning north must be guarded and subject to restrictions, to avoid Hamas regaining a foothold.

Hamas has still not announced how it will react to Israel's latest proposal. The United States has repeatedly urged the terror group to accept the deal, and during a visit to Israel on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Antony Blinken said that "if (the ceasefire) is not achieved, only Hamas bears the responsibility," according to the AP.

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Netanyahu's message to the US: Will not accept any deal that ends the war

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not accept a deal with Hamas that would permanently end the war in Gaza. That must have been the message when Netanyahu met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday, says Axios reporter Barak Ravid in a post on X, citing US sources.

"He said that if Hamas does not drop that demand, there will be no deal and Israel will invade Rafah," writes Ravid.

Blinken, for its part, is said to have repeated the US message that the country is not behind an invasion of Rafah, writes AFP.

According to Ravid, Blinken is said to have said that there are better ways to defeat Hamas than to carry out a full-scale offensive.

At the same time, a representative of Hamas says that the group will shortly respond to the ceasefire agreement presented by Israel. However, the group emphasizes that any ceasefire must be permanent.

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The Israel-Hamas war|The demonstrations

Trump: Nice to see police break up the protests

It was "beautiful to see" how the New York police intervened against the protesters at Columbia University. This is what Donald Trump says at a campaign speech, and calls the protesters "lunatics and Hamas sympathizers", according to Reuters.

Trump described it as New York being "under siege" and that occupying a building is a "big deal". He wondered how the justice system will treat the arrested protesters compared to his supporters who were arrested during the storming of the Capitol, AP writes.

- I think I can give you the answer right now, and that is why people have lost faith in our justice system.

Richard Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, says a key difference is that the protesters at the university "are not trying to prevent a peaceful transfer of power after an election, and thus do not threaten American democracy."

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Colombia breaks ties with Israel: "Genocide"

Colombia will cut diplomatic ties to Israel, President Gustavo Petro announced, according to AFP.

- Tomorrow, diplomatic relations with the state of Israel will be severed [...] because their president is responsible for genocide, he says in his first May speech.

Petro has consistently been critical of Israel's actions in Gaza. Just days after the war began, he accused Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of using language about the Gazans "reminiscent of what the Nazis said about the Jews." That prompted Israel to cut off exports to Colombia.