Live Updates: Hamas officials to visit Egypt for talks as Israel batters Gaza

Friday, May 3, 2024

05:03 GMT — Hamas officials to visit Egypt for talks as Israel batters Gaza

Hamas has said that it was sending a delegation to Egypt for further ceasefire talks, in a new sign of progress in attempts by international mediators to hammer out an agreement between Israel and the resistance group to end Tel Aviv's brutal war in besieged Gaza.

After months of stop-and-start negotiations, the ceasefire efforts appear to have reached a critical stage, with Egyptian and American mediators reporting signs of compromise in recent days.

But chances for the deal remain entangled with the key question of whether Israel will accept an end to the war without reaching its stated goal of destroying Hamas which many experts say is far-fetched.

04:22 GMT — Israel wounds Syrian soldiers in fresh attacks

Syrian regime's Defence Ministry has said Israel wounded eight soldiers in air strikes near Damascus.

"The Israeli enemy launched air strikes from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting a site near Damascus... injuring eight soldiers," the ministry said in a statement.

04:00 GMT — Israel confirms death of captive in Gaza

An Israeli man held in besieged Gaza since October 7 has been confirmed dead, Israel said.

Dror Or, 49, was killed, and his body was held in Gaza since October 7, said the settlement where he had lived.

Israeli officials did not say how they learned of Or's death.

03:46 GMT — France's Po Sciences University closes main site over Gaza protests

France's prestigious Sciences Po University has said it would close its main Paris site due to a fresh occupation of buildings by dozens of protesting pro-Palestine students.

In a message sent to staff, its management said the buildings in central Paris "will remain closed tomorrow, Friday May 3. We ask you to continue to work from home".

A committee of pro-Palestinian students earlier announced a "peaceful sit-in" at Sciences Po and said six students were starting a hunger strike "in solidarity with Palestinian victims" in Gaza.

03:11 GMT — Quebec seeks dismantlement of pro-Palestine encampments

Quebec Premier Francois Legault has said the encampment at Montreal's McGill University should be dismantled as more students erected pro-Palestine camps across some of Canada's largest universities, demanding they divest from groups with ties to Israel.

The Canadian protests come as police have been arresting hundreds on US campuses, and the death toll in Gaza has been mounting.

While McGill had requested police intervention, law enforcement had not stepped in to clear the.

02:25 GMT — Hamas wants Israel held accountable for torturing Palestinians to death

Hamas has called for Israel to be held accountable for the death of two Palestinian prisoners, including Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, due to torture.

"The deaths of our people abducted from Gaza in Israeli jails under torture confirm the atrocious war crimes continuing against our people," the movement said in a statement.

The statement noted: "Israel forcibly took many of our people from schools and hospitals to detention centres…, including doctors, whose crime was their humanitarian duty towards people."

02:17 GMT — Palestinian journalists win World Press Freedom prize

UNESCO has awarded its World Press Freedom prize to all Palestinian journalists covering the Israeli carnage in besieged Gaza.

"In these times of darkness and hopelessness, we wish to share a strong message of solidarity and recognition to those Palestinian journalists who are covering this crisis in such dramatic circumstances," said Mauricio Weibel, chair of the international jury of media professionals.

"As humanity, we have a huge debt to their courage and commitment to freedom of expression."

02:10 GMT — Yemen's Houthis threaten '4th round of escalation'

The Yemeni group Houthi said that it is preparing a "fourth round of escalation" if the Israeli carnage on besieged Gaza continued.

"If Israel and the US persist in aggression against the Palestinian people, there will be a fourth round of escalation against this occupying enemy," group leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said in a recorded speech reported by the Houthi-run Saba News Agency.

02:00 GMT — Israel withholding '500 bodies' of slain Palestinians in jails

The Palestinian National Campaign to Retrieve the Bodies of the Martyrs has accused Israel of withholding the bodies of 500 slain Palestinians who died inside Israeli occupation jails, including the bodies of 58 others since the beginning of 2024, WAFA news agency reported.

"Withholding the bodies in the cemeteries and the occupation's refrigerators constitutes an affront to the human dignity of a person, during his life and after his death, and a collective punishment," the campaign said, urging international organisations to demand the release of the bodies to let the families bury them.

For our live updates from Thursday, May 2, click here.