Explore Business Standard
Palestine
President Donald Trump warned Monday that the arrest and possible deportation of a Palestinian activist who helped lead protests at Columbia University will be the first of many to come as his administration cracks down on campus demonstrations against Israel and the war in Gaza. Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful U.S. resident who was a graduate student at Columbia until December, was detained Saturday by federal immigration agents in New York and flown to an immigration jail in Louisiana. We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, Trump wrote in a social media post. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country never to return again. But a federal judge in New York City ordered Monday that Khalil not be deported while the court considered a legal challenge brought by his lawyers. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. Khalil's detention dre
When night falls over northern Gaza, much of the cityscape of collapsed buildings and piled wreckage turns pitch black. Living inside the ruins of their home, Rawya Tamboura's young sons get afraid of the dark, so she turns on a flashlight and her phone's light to comfort them, for as long as the batteries last. Displaced for most of the 16-month-long war, Tamboura is back in her house. But it is still a frustrating shell of a life, she says: There is no running water, electricity, heat or services, and no tools to clear the rubble around them. Nearly 600,000 Palestinians flooded back into northern Gaza under the now month-old ceasefire in Gaza, according to the United Nations. After initial relief and joy at being back at their homes even if damaged or destroyed they now face the reality of living in the wreckage for the foreseeable future. Some people wish the war had never ended, feeling it would have been better to be killed, Tamboura said. I don't know what we'll do long-term
Israel says the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners is delayed "until the release of the next hostages has been assured, and without the humiliating ceremonies" at handovers of Israeli captives in Gaza. The statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office came early Sunday as vehicles apparently carrying prisoners left the open gates of Ofer prison, only to turn around and go back in. The release of 620 Palestinian prisoners had been delayed for several hours and was meant to occur just after six Israeli hostages were released on Saturday. It was meant to be the largest one-day prisoner release in the Gaza ceasefire's first phase. Five of the six hostages freed Saturday were escorted by masked, armed militants in front of a crowd a display that the UN and others have criticised as cruel after previous handovers. The Israeli statement cited "ceremonies that demean the dignity of our hostages and the cynical use of the hostages for propaganda purposes". It was likely