US demands ‘answers’ from Israel after mass graves found near hospitals

Columbia University president Minouche Shafik is no stranger to navigating complex international issues, having worked at some of the world’s most prominent global financial institutions.

At the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, for example, she tackled both the European debt crisis and the Arab Spring.

It remains to be seen, however, if her experience with world conflicts has sufficiently equipped her to navigate the thorny challenges she faces amid ongoing student protests over the Israel-Hamas war.

House speaker Mike Johnson visited Columbia University amid ongoing pro-Palestine protests to call for the university’s president to resign and to address Jewish students.

He called the protests “disgusting” and “unnecessary” ahead of his visit. The day before his visit, the UN issued a report that it had found “mass graves” in Gaza, where Palestinians — including women, the elderly, and the wounded — had been found dead. Some of the remains allegedly had their hands bound.

Nearly 282 million people in 59 countries suffered from acute hunger in 2023, with war-torn Gaza as the territory with the largest number of people facing famine, according to the Global Report on Food Crises released today.

The UN report said 24 million more people faced an acute lack of food than in 2022, due to the sharp deterioration in food security, especially in the Gaza Strip and Sudan. The number of nations with food crises that are monitored has also been expanded.

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Hamas released a hostage video showing a well-known Israeli-American man who was among scores of people abducted by the militants in the attack that ignited the war in Gaza.

The video was the first sign of life of Hersh Goldberg-Polin since Hamas’ 7 October attack on southern Israel, and its release ignited new protests in Jerusalem calling on the government to do more to secure the captives’ release.

Britain has still not seen a plan for Israel’s expected ground offensive in Rafah and the operation would “not work” without one, foreign secretary Lord David Cameron has said.

Lord Cameron, who met with Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu last week, echoed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as he insisted “we need to see a plan” to protect civilian life, as the Israeli military seemingly prepares for a long-expected offensive on the southern city, where hundreds of thousands of people have taken refuge during the war.

Asked about his talks with Mr Netanyahu last week, Lord Cameron told the PA news agency: “He has made a series of commitments in terms of flooding Gaza with aid. My main message was that we want to work with you to make sure all of these things really happen.

“That we get to 500 trucks a day, open Ashdod port, we open a new crossing near Erez, we have proper deconfliction inside Gaza so aid can move around, we switch back on the water, we make the Jordan corridor work properly.

“These are all things that we discussed and I said how important it was that we really progress them, and that was really the heart of the conversation we had.

“It doesn’t work unless there’s a proper plan to safeguard people in Rafah. That’s the most important thing … as the Americans would say, we haven’t yet seen a plan. We need to see a plan.”

Student protests over Israel’s war with Hamas have popped up at 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.

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:

President Joe Biden met with Abigail Edan, the 4-year-old American girl who was held hostage in Gaza for several weeks at the start of the war.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the White House meeting with Abigail and her family was “a reminder of the work still to do” to win the release of dozens of people who were taken captive by Hamas in a 7 October attack on Israel and are still believed to be in captivity in Gaza.

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The European Union has joined the UN in calling for an independent investigation of mass graves discovered at two Gaza hospitals destroyed in Israeli operations.

“This is something that forces us to call for an independent investigation of all the suspicions and all the circumstances because indeed it creates the impression that there might have been violations of international human rights committed,” EU spokesperson Peter Stano said yesterday.

Earlier, Palestinian authorities said 300 bodies were discovered at two different burial sites outside the Nasser and al-Shifa hospitals.

The Israeli military said the claim was “baseless and unfounded”.