Israeli forces took control of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the Gaza Strip, pressing on with an offensive in the southern city as cease-fire negotiations with Hamas remain precarious.
The incursion comes after the militant group on Monday said it accepted an Egyptian-Qatari mediated cease-fire proposal. Israel insisted the deal did not meet its core demands. The high-stakes diplomatic moves and military brinkmanship left a glimmer of hope alive — but only barely — for an accord that could bring at least a pause in the 7-month-old war that has devastated the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli 401st Brigade entered the Rafah crossing early Tuesday morning, the Israeli military said, taking “operational control” of the crucial crossing. It’s the main route for aid entering the besieged enclave and exit for those able to flee into Egypt.
More than a million people are huddled in tents and overcrowded apartments in Rafah after fleeing Israel’s military offensive in other parts of the Gaza Strip. Israel says Rafah is Hamas’ last stronghold, but the United States opposes a full-scale invasion of the city bordering Egypt unless Israel provides a “credible” plan for protecting civilians there.
Police cleared a pro-Palestinian tent encampment at the University of Chicago on Tuesday as tension ratcheted up in standoffs with demonstrators at other college campuses across the U.S. — and increasingly, in Europe.
Nearly three weeks into a movement launched by a protest at Columbia University, the Rhode Island School of Design held talks with protesters occupying a building, and MIT dealt with a new encampment on a site that was cleared but immediately retaken by demonstrators.
The confrontations come as campuses try a range of strategies, from appeasement to threats of disciplinary action, to resolve the protests against the Israel-Hamas war and clear the way for commencements.
At the University of Chicago, hundreds of protesters had gathered in an area known as the Quad for at least eight days. Campus administrators warned them Friday to leave the area or face removal.
Police in riot gear blocked access to the Quad early Tuesday as law enforcement dismantled the encampment. Officers later picked up a barricade erected to keep protesters out of the Quad and moved it toward the demonstrators, some of whom chanted, “Up, up with liberation. Down, down with occupation!” Police and protesters pushed back and forth along the barricade as the officers moved to reestablish control.
A Minnesota Senate ethics panel on Tuesday is expected to begin considering what to do with a lawmaker who’s charged with burglary for allegedly breaking into her estranged stepmother’s house.
Democratic Sen. Nicole Mitchell, of Woodbury, told police she broke in last month because her stepmother refused to give her items of sentimental value from her late father, including his ashes, according to the felony complaint. Her attorney has said she deserves due process and won’t resign.
Mitchell’s status has posed a dilemma for her fellow Democrats because they hold a one-seat majority in the Senate, so they need her vote to pass anything that lacks bipartisan support. They have excluded her from caucus meetings and taken her off her committees but have not publicly asked her to quit.
Mitchell resumed voting last week on the Senate floor, even on votes that affect her fate. Senate Republicans forced hours of debate on unsuccessful attempts to remove her, slowing the pace of legislation as the May 20 adjournment deadline nears.
The Senate GOP complaint alleges her actions “betray the public trust and bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.”
Gwynn Vang can be reached at vang5129@stthomas.edu.