Former International Court of Justice President Joan Donoghue told BBC's HARDtalk on Thursday that there had been a general misunderstanding of the meaning of the ICJ's ruling on the case.

Donoghue served as the ICJ's president from 2021 until 2024 and served on the court from 2010. She presided over South Africa's case against Israel, representing the court.

When she was asked about the court's ruling on the case, she clarified a general misunderstanding of its meaning.

The court decided that "the Palestinians had a plausible right to be protected from genocide" and that "South Africa had a right to present that in the court."

"It did not decide, and this is something where I'm correcting something that's often said in the media. It did not decide that the claim of genocide was plausible." Clarifying further, she said that the order emphasized there was a risk to the Palestinian right to be protected from genocide. "The shorthand that often appears, which is that there's a plausible case of genocide, isn't what the court decided."

IDF says terrorists fired mortar shells at under-construction US-led Gaza aid pier as UN officials toured site

Members of a terror group in the Gaza Strip launched mortars at an under-construction pier for a US-led project to bring aid into the Palestinian enclave yesterday, the military says.

The mortar attack occurred as United Nations officials were touring the site with Israeli troops on the coast of central Gaza, the IDF says in response to a query on the incident.

The IDF says the UN officials were rushed to a shelter by troops amid the attack. UN officials also confirmed the mortar attack to the Associated Press, saying there were no injuries.

“The terrorist organizations continue to systematically harm humanitarian efforts while risking the lives of UN workers, while Israel allows the supply of aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip,” the IDF adds.

President Biden and 17 other world leaders issued a statement Thursday calling on Hamas to release the remaining hostages taken during the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel, arguing that doing so would bring about a prolonged cease-fire in the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

“We call for the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza now for over 200 days. They include our own citizens,” the leaders wrote. “The fate of the hostages and the civilian population in Gaza, who are protected under international law, is of international concern.”

“We emphasize that the deal on the table to release the hostages would bring an immediate and prolonged ceasefire in Gaza, that would facilitate a surge of additional necessary humanitarian assistance to be delivered throughout Gaza, and lead to the credible end of hostilities,” they continued. “Gazans would be able to return to their homes and their lands with preparations beforehand to ensure shelter and humanitarian provisions.”

The statement was signed by Biden, as well as the leaders of Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Columbia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Thailand and the United Kingdom. The countries all have citizens who are being held or are missing in Gaza following Hamas’ terrorist attacks in Israel last October, a senior administration official said.

Hamas is fundamentally responsible for the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza, US Special Envoy David Satterfield told reporters on Tuesday, as he dismissed a question about Hamas's humanitarian policy compared to that of Israel.

"Hamas's humanitarian policy is the opposite of humanitarian. It is to use innocent civilians as shields, as presumed protection for their own facilities, for their own terrorist military forces," he said, as he appeared startled by the comparison.

“The fundamental actor responsible for the suffering here is a terrorist group — Hamas,” explained Satterfield, who is specifically tasked with humanitarian issues relating to Gaza.

“The fighting in Gaza, the suffering of the Palestinian people could end tonight, if Hamas chose to accept the deal for the release of hostages in the establishment of a cease-fire. And that ceasefire could with further releases be sustained.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of standing “shoulder to shoulder with the rapists and murderers of Hamas” for declining to include the terror group in a report published Tuesday on organizations suspected by the UN of committing acts of sexual violence during conflict.

The document, titled “Conflict-related sexual violence,” and published as a “Report of the Secretary-General,” noted there is evidence that sex crimes were committed during the Palestinian terror group Hamas’s devastating October 7 attack on Israel, but did not specifically attribute responsibility to Hamas.

The ministry elaborated in the statement that Guterres ignored “the plethora of testimony and evidence that was collected and then included in the report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten.” Patten’s report after her visit to Israel found that rape likely occurred during the Hamas attacks, and said there was convincing evidence hostages were facing sexual abuse in Gaza. In his report, Guterres referenced Patten’s assessment, but noted that it, “not being investigative in nature and given its limited duration, did not draw conclusions on attribution to specific armed groups or determine prevalence of incidents of conflict-related sexual violence during and after the attacks of 7 October. Such a determination would require a fully-fledged investigation.”

Guterres, fumed Katz, refused to acknowledge Hamas’s responsibility for the grave sexual crimes that appear in the Patten report and to declare it a terrorist organization.

Hamas officials in Gaza claimed on Saturday to discover a mass grave with more than 200 bodies at a hospital in Khan Younis that was recently the target of a military raid. The officials claimed the dead were buried in a mass grave by Israeli forces, but evidence suggested this claim was false, with the bodies having previously been buried at that same location by Palestinians amid the fighting between Israeli forces and terror operatives in the area.

The Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday rejected Hamas’s allegation as “baseless.” It said forces searching for Israeli hostages had examined bodies previously buried by Palestinians near Nasser Hospital and had returned the bodies to where they were buried after they were examined.

It has been documented that Palestinians buried their dead at the hospital grounds both before and while Israeli troops operated in the area. Hamas officials in Gaza claimed on Saturday to discover a mass grave with more than 200 bodies at a hospital in Khan Younis that was recently the target of a military raid.

--snip-

It has been documented that Palestinians buried their dead at the hospital grounds both before and while Israeli troops operated in the area. The location of that burial site was geo-located by experts to the same location where Hamas officials claimed to have discovered the new mass grave.

The Palestinian political faction Fatah charged on air that Hamas had deliberately killed aid workers, stolen aid and manufactured a food crisis in Gaza, according to a Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) investigation published on Sunday.

A Fatah TV anchor reported that Hamas had attacked aid workers, stolen food and water and caused food prices to skyrocket in the Gaza Strip – which PMW said constituted a triple crime.

“Hamas’ persecution of any party who is a source for distributing the [humanitarian] aid or securing it began from the start of the war, as Hamas persecuted well-known figures and teams of volunteers on the ground in mid-October [2023,” the anchor said. ”It attacked them and killed some of them for two reasons: Firstly, preventing any activity by any [other] party in the Gaza Strip; and secondly, ensuring Hamas control over the aid and its storage, which of course leads to these crazy and unreal prices that no one can pay in the shadow of this destruction.

“After the occupation bombed storehouses controlled by Hamas, the accumulation of tons of various food and aid products that Hamas had taken exclusivity over became clear, at a time when the Gaza Strip is suffering from hunger.”

A woman in a Keffiyeh shouted at a pro-Israel activist, "We are Hamas," outside Columbia on Wednesday. "We're all Hamas," she said at the counter-protesters that had rallied outside the university.

Anti-Israel activists threatened Jewish and Israeli students with further October 7 Massacres, claimed membership with Hamas, and expressed support for terrorism during the Columbia University protests that began on Wednesday, according to footage and accounts from local media and organizations.

"Remember the 7th of October!" shouted a man with a red keffiyeh over his face in a video published by Columbia Sundial editor-in-chief Jonas Du on social media on Friday. "That will happen not one more time, not five more times, not 10 more times, not 100 more times, not 1000 more times, but 10,000 times!"

Calling for "October 7 everyday"

"Never forget the 7th of October," said another masked man wearing a Palestinian flag, standing outside the campus gates on Thursday night. "Are you ready? 7th of October is about to be every day. Every day. 7th of October is going to be every day for you."

"Never forget the 7th of October. That will happen not one more time, not five more times, not 10...100…1000…10,000...The 7th of October is going to be every day for you."Protestors screamed this at two Jewish @Columbia students right outside campus gates tonight. pic.twitter.com/VYp0tFudGj
— Jonas Du (@jonasydu) April 19, 2024

The University of Haifa announces that its academic senate has elected Prof. Mouna Maroun, a neuroscientist and expert in post-trauma stress disorder, to be the university’s new rector. Maroun, a Maronite Christian from the Mount Carmel village of Isfiya, is the first Arab to be appointed rector of an Israeli university.

Maroun, 54, has been a faculty member of the university for over 20 years and completed her PhD in psychobiology there. Her research focuses on how the brain regulates emotions and on the effects of environmental and childhood stress on the brain.

She has served the University of Haifa as chairwoman of the Sagol Department of Neurobiology and as a member of the academic senate, among other positions.

“I’m grateful that the University of Haifa entrusted me with this position… I’m committed to continuing to invest all my academic resources to promote the University’s excellent research and do everything in my power to ensure the University continues to be a beacon of excellence in the heart of Israel’s North. Together, we promote a common vision of a shared society where members of all religions and denominations can co-exist in peace,” Maroun says in a statement announcing her appointment.

On Saturday night, dozens of drones launched by Iran toward Israel were intercepted by Jordanian air force jets as they crossed the kingdom’s airspace.

The military assistance provided by Amman to Israel was welcomed enthusiastically in the Jewish state, but also came as a surprise to many Israelis, since the Hashemite Kingdom has been a source of relentless criticism of Israel’s war against Hamas, and has been under intense domestic pressure to break off diplomatic relations with Jerusalem.

To some commentators, however, Amman’s intervention on Saturday night did not come as a surprise. Ghaith al-Omari, a native Jordanian and a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the kingdom’s dramatic show of support proved the strength of the security alliance between Amman and Jerusalem.

“Despite all of the political tensions between Jordan and Israel, the military and intelligence relationship never stopped,” he said. “As a matter of fact, the worse the politics gets, the closer the militaries get, because they both understand the need to maintain this relationship. This is part of both Jordan’s military doctrine and Israeli military doctrine.”

Report: Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, provided intelligence on Iran attack

Several Gulf States, among them Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, passed on intelligence about Iran’s plans to attack Israel, providing vital information that was key to the success of the air defense measures that almost entirely thwarted the massive assault, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday citing Saudi, US, and Egyptian officials.

The cooperation was spearheaded by the US, which has for years been striving to form an informal military partnership to counter threats from Iran, the report said.

Overnight Saturday-Sunday Iran launched hundreds of ballistic and cruise missiles alongside hundreds of drones at Israel. Yet by Sunday morning, the Israel Defense Forces, backed by the US and other allies, were able to confirm that some 99% of the incoming threats were downed, and the handful that made it through caused only minor damage.

While it was already known that Jordan actively participated in the downing of drones heading to Israel through its airspace, the Journal report for the first time revealed the scope of joint activities stretching across the region, and that included countries that have no diplomatic ties with Israel.