An Australian-Lebanese professor who was sacked by the Max Planck Society in Germany over his pro-Palestinian comments has slammed the research body for accusing him of racism.

In their statement on Wednesday, the organisation said that they had severed their relationship with “highly acclaimed” academic Ghassan Hage over a set of social media posts which they said were “incompatible” with the society’s values.

The statement add that “racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, discrimination, hatred, and agitation have no place in the Max Planck Society.”

In response, Hage - who is well-known for his work on anthropology - said that he could not accept being characterised as racist over his views.

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This is the current state of Beit Hanoun Hospital in northern Gaza, which ceased operations after the fourth day of the Israeli war on the enclave due to direct Israeli strikes targeting its vicinity. Before its complete destruction, the hospital served as a critical healthcare provider for 50,000 to 60,000 residents of Beit Hanoun.

Israel’s Channel 11’s military correspondent, Roy Sharon, says that Netanyahu’s announcement of a ground operation in Rafah “won’t work physically” while 1.2 displaced Palestinians remain there.

He also mentions the complexities of working with the Egyptians and that no ground operations in Rafah can happen until they “give the green light”.

A newly released footage shows an Israeli air strike hitting an ambulance convoy on a crowded street near al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. This footage dates back to the 3rd of November 2023.

An Israeli soldier records a video of himself joyfully singing while watching a house burn in Gaza. Following their occupation, Israeli forces have either completely demolished or burned down thousands of residential homes in the Gaza Strip.

Channel 14 interviews one of Israel’s four settlers, David Hai Hasda, who has been sanctioned by the US government under President Biden for violent attacks against Palestinians, which he considered “inappropriate” and “highly problematic.”

Hasda talks about Biden’s claims that “have nothing to do with reality”, along with his bank account being suspended. He mentions that his friends and family are helping him bypass the sanctions, which goes against the warrant issued by the Biden administration.

Israeli reporter Nir Dvori describes the new plan for humanitarian aid entry into Gaza, where aid supervised by American forces will arrive in Cyprus and be sent to Gaza by ship.

South African Minister of Foreign Affairs, Naledi Pandor, has accused Israeli intelligence of trying to intimidate her and her family after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) recently ruled that it was “plausible” that Israel’s actions could amount to genocidal acts and ordered it to prevent such harm to Palestinians in Gaza.

Pandor said she had spoken to the police about increasing her security detail after she received threatening messages.

“[W]hat I’m more concerned about is my family, because in some of the social media messages my children are mentioned and so on, but this is par for the course. The Israeli agents, the intelligence services, [this] is how they behave, and they seek to intimidate you, so we must not be intimidated. There is a cause that is under way,” said Pandor on Thursday.

Pandor said the government was determined to see the ICJ case through, much like the people of Palestine had been in fighting South Africa’s apartheid system.

📽️ A video shared on X, formerly Twitter, by Israeli journalist Yinon Magal showed Argentinian President Javier Milei dancing and singing together with Israeli settlers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Thursday.

President Javier Milei arrived in Israel on Tuesday with his rabbi for a three-day visit. He also announced plans to move the South American country’s embassy to Jerusalem.

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Hamas will eventually have to be a partner for peace despite being currently regarded as a terrorist organisation by many, the First Minister of Northern Ireland Michelle O’Neill has said.

In an LBC radio interview, O’Neill said only dialogue will bring an end to the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, in the same way it did in the struggle between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the UK government.

“A long time ago, the IRA was seen as a terrorist organisation that the British government and everybody else could not ever talk to, and yet we know what followed from that. Do you think that Hamas, although regarded as a terrorist organisation by many people around the world, are going to eventually be a partner for peace?” O’Neill was asked.

She responded: “Yes – I think you only have to look to our own example to know how important dialogue is... what we need to see in the Middle East, in particular in relation to Palestine, is that we need to see a ceasefire now."

📽️ In footage aired by AJA Palestine, on Thursday, a nurse at Al Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis is seen after being shot in the chest by an Israeli sniper while working inside the operating room.

Dr Nahed Abu Taaema, chief surgeon at Al Nasser Hospital, stated that the bullet went in and out of the victim’s chest.

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Israel’s attempt to create a “buffer zone” with Gaza could constitute a war crime, the UN high commissioner for human rights says.

“Extensive destruction of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly, amounts to a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and a war crime,” said Volker Turk.
The destruction “appears to be aimed at or has the effect of rendering the return of civilians to these areas impossible”.

“Israel has not provided cogent reasons for such extensive destruction of civilian infrastructure,” Turk added.

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📽️ Israel’s Channel 12 reported on Wednesday that discussions are currently taking place between the leadership of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority on the possibility of forming a unity government.

Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, is planning a series of meetings in Qatar to engage with Hamas’s leadership, as indicated by Palestinian sources.

Israeli journalist Ohad Hemo highlighted during the interview that Mahmoud Abbas perceives the Palestinian Authority as the “legitimate control of Gaza” and is determined to regain control.

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📽️ On Tuesday, Israelis who were guarded by Israeli forces were seen singing and marching through the Old City of Jerusalem as Palestinians who were looking to commemorate al-Isra and al-Mi’raj on the same day were barred from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The mosque plays a key part in the Prophet Muhammad’s miraculous night journey to the heavens, known in Arabic as al-Isra wa al-Mi’raj.

Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad met the 124,000 prophets who preceded him and led them in prayer at the al-Aqsa mosque.

Certain Muslim countries mark the event as a national holiday and some Muslim families commemorate the event by gathering in prayer and recitation of the Quran.

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📰 Israel has not even come close to defeating Hamas through its military offensive on the Gaza Strip, US intelligence officials have said.

According to the New York Times, the officials told members of Congress earlier this week that while Israel had managed to degrade Hamas’s fighting capabilities, they were still very far from crushing the organisation itself.

Officials also said that given the nature of Hamas' military wing as a fundamentally "guerilla" force, defeating the group might not even be possible and that simply weakening their combat strength might be a more realistic goal.

Their comments come despite repeated insistence from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the defeat of the Palestinian group was the ultimate goal of his country's ongoing attack on Gaza.

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📽️ “My enemies, if you don’t run away now, you will run away from our children.”

Lebanese journalist Ali Mortada, who works for Al-Mayadeen, taunted Israeli forces and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu in a video message he shared on Thursday and revealed that he used an unexploded Israeli artillery shell that landed near him to propose to his partner.

In recent months Mortada has been reporting on the various Israeli attacks on Lebanon’s south since 7 October, which have claimed the lives of at least 25 civilians.

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Israeli forces have killed 340 health personnel and arrested 99 since 7 October, said Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesperson for Gaza’s health ministry, on Friday.

He added that at least 123 ambulances had been destroyed in the same period.

Over the course of the conflict, doctors and medical workers have been killed, arrested by Israeli forces or forced from their homes.

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📽️ “For far too long has Israel been allowed to act with impunity.”

Mary Lou McDonald, President of Sinn Fein, told Sky News presenter Kay Burley on Thursday that she stands by her call to expel the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland and refer Israel to the International Criminal Court, emphasising that Palestinians have endured a “generational injustice”.

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🎥 “They wished me to die, they wished my children to die, they threatened to rape my daughter"

Meir Baruchin, a 62-year-old Israeli history teacher and anti-war activist, revealed how he was arrested in October and imprisoned in solitary confinement as a “high-risk detainee” in November for “intent to commit an act of treason” and “intent to disrupt public order” after he posted a photo of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army on 7 October in opposition to the war on Gaza.

He had also faced harassment and threats from other Israelis online over the post. When he was released from prison and returned to his school to teach, he was met with a “violent demonstration” from his own students and was forced to barricade himself in the teacher’s room

🎥 Alana Hadid (@lanzybear), whose Palestinian father and grandparents were forcibly expelled from their home in 1948, tells @mohhashem why the war on Gaza has given her ‘a greater understanding of the Nakba’.

Watch the full Real Talk interview on MEE’s YouTube channel

🎥 During an interview on Thursday with LBC’s Andrew Marr, Northern Ireland’s first minister, Michelle O’Neill said she believed that Hamas would eventually be “a partner for peace”.

O’Neill also highlighted Northern Ireland’s efforts at pushing for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and called on the global community to “stay firm” in the court of international law