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    More Than 170 Protesters Arrested at Northeastern and Arizona State University

    The police made arrests at Northeastern University, Arizona State and Indiana University on Saturday, as more schools move in on encampments protesting the war in Gaza.Nearly 200 protesters were arrested on Saturday at Northeastern University, Arizona State University and Indiana University, according to officials, as colleges across the country struggle to quell growing pro-Palestinian demonstrations and encampments on campus.More than 700 protesters have been arrested on U.S. campuses since April 18, when Columbia University had the New York Police Department clear a protest encampment there. In several cases, most of those who were arrested have been released. More

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    Blinken to Meet With Arab Officials in Saudi Arabia About Israel-Gaza War

    The U.S. secretary of state plans to raise the issues of hostages held by Hamas, a potential cease-fire, humanitarian aid and a long-term political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will travel to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday to speak with top Arab officials and try to figure out possible solutions for the thorniest issues of the Israel-Gaza war, including humanitarian aid, reconstruction and hostages, the State Department said on Saturday.One of Mr. Blinken’s priorities on Monday and Tuesday will be discussing “ongoing efforts to achieve a cease-fire in Gaza that secures the release of hostages,” a department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said in a statement. He added that Mr. Blinken would underscore his belief that it is Hamas that stands in the way of a cease-fire for the Palestinian people, since the group is not budging on the hostage negotiations.Saudi Arabia is hosting a three-day meeting of the World Economic Forum, and top Arab officials, including Mr. Blinken’s diplomatic counterparts, are attending. They include senior ministers from Qatar and Egypt, which have been the two Arab mediators in multiple rounds of talks over a potential hostage agreement between Israel and Hamas.The forum’s website says Mr. Blinken will be in a half-hour public “conversation” starting at 12:45 p.m. on Monday, the final day of the conference.American officials are pushing for Hamas to release about 40 of the 100 or more hostages it is holding in exchange for the liberation of many more Palestinian prisoners and a six-week cease-fire. U.S. officials say that would be the first step in securing a permanent cease-fire, and Israel supports the proposal. However, Hamas has insisted on a commitment to a permanent cease-fire, and many Arab officials, including in Saudi Arabia, have been calling for the same; those officials say that such a cease-fire should take place immediately.Posters of hostages who were taken on Oct. 7 are displayed in Tel Aviv. American officials are pushing for Hamas to release about 40 of the 100 or more people it is still holding. Sergey Ponomarev for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Aid Flows to Gaza Are Rising, U.N. says, but More Is Needed

    Israel says the number of trucks entering the enclave has doubled to an average of 400 a day. The U.N. disputes that, but agrees that the pace of deliveries has quickened.Under intense international scrutiny, Israel has expedited the flow of aid into Gaza this month, but humanitarian groups say that more is needed as severe hunger grips the enclave, particularly in the devastated north.Israel’s efforts — which include opening new aid routes — have been acknowledged in the last week by the Biden administration and international aid officials. More aid trucks appear to be reaching Gaza, especially the north, where experts have warned for weeks that famine is imminent.The increased levels of aid are a good sign, but it is too early to say that looming famine is no longer a risk, said Arif Husain, the chief economist at the United Nations World Food Program.“This cannot just happen for a day or a week — it has to happen every single day for the foreseeable future,” Mr. Husain said, adding that the main need was for more food, water and medicine. “If we can do this, then we can ease the pain, we can avert famine.”The aid groups have long complained that only a trickle of aid is entering the enclave, blaming harsh war conditions, strict inspections and limits on the number of crossing points. Israel has maintained that the restrictions are necessary to ensure that neither weapons nor supplies fall into the hands of Hamas.Trucks lined up on the Egyptian side of the border near the Kerem Shalom crossing. Israel says an average of 400 trucks are crossing into Gaza each day, but the United Nations counts less than half that.Atef Safadi/EPA, via ShutterstockWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Why Does the U.S. Arm Ukraine With Fanfare and Israel in Secret?

    President Biden flanked by Javelin antitank systems in 2022 as he discussed arming Ukraine. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters When the Biden administration ships arms to Ukraine, it pulls out the megaphones. It announces its shipments and hails its own efforts “to support the brave Ukrainian people as they defend their country,” as Secretary of State Antony Blinken […] More

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    Hamas Says It Is Reviewing an Israeli Proposal on a Cease-Fire Deal

    Hamas said on Saturday that it was reviewing a new Israeli proposal for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, a move that comes amid efforts to break a deadlock in the talks between the armed group and Israel.The statement came as anticipation was growing of an Israeli invasion of Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where more than a million people have been displaced. Humanitarian groups have warned that such an offensive would have catastrophic consequences for civilians.In a statement, Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, said the group had received an Israeli response to a proposal it delivered to Egyptian and Qatari mediators two weeks ago. Mr. al-Hayya did not provide any details included in the Israeli proposal, but he said Hamas would respond to it after the group finished studying it.On Friday, a delegation of Egyptian officials visited Israel in an attempt to advance the negotiations between Israel and Hamas, according to an Israeli official familiar with the visit, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to communicate with the media.In recent weeks, the negotiations aimed at achieving a cease-fire and the release of hostages held in Gaza have stalled amid disputes about an Israeli withdrawal of forces and the length of a halt in the fighting. Hamas has demanded a permanent cease-fire, whereas Israel has expressed openness to a temporary pause.Another key sticking point is whether Israel will allow displaced Palestinians to return to the north. Hamas officials have said Palestinians should be able to go back en masse, while Israeli officials have said Israel wants to put limits on who can return, where and how.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Heat Wave in Gaza Challenges Pharmacists Ability to Store Medicine

    A heat wave in the Gaza Strip this week, with temperatures soaring above 100 degrees Fahrenheit the past few days, has not only made life intolerable for the hundreds of thousands of displaced people trying to rebuild their lives in tent cities but has made it hard for some businesses to operate.By Saturday, the heat had significantly eased and the forecast was for more moderate temperatures in coming days. But the recent highs offered a vision of what the summer likely holds.“This hot weather is a challenge for us,” said Mohammed Fayyad, a displaced pharmacist who started selling medications from a tent he built out of wooden slabs, curtains and metal scraps at a camp for displaced people in Al-Mawasi.With no electricity or alternative sources of power, Mr. Fayyad, 32, said that he could not keep the medicines — which he buys from pharmacies that have had to shut down — stored at cool enough temperatures to keep them from being damaged.“Fifty percent of the medicines for chronic diseases are not available because we do not have any source of power to keep them cool,” said Mr. Fayyad, speaking from his makeshift pharmacy that he named after his 3-year-old daughter Julia.Mr. Fayyad is trying to find ways to generate power for a refrigerator to store medication.“I hope I can find those solar panels, which are very expensive, to make the options wider for the displaced people,” he said.Mr. Fayyad was displaced with his wife and only daughter from Khan Younis, where they lived and owned a pharmacy. They have been in Al-Mawasi for more than two months. When they recently went back to Khan Younis after the Israeli military withdrew from the area, he found his pharmacy had been burned and looted.Nearly two million Palestinians in Gaza were forced to flee their homes under Israeli bombardment and military evacuation orders. Many had to live in tents that provided little protection from the cold and rainy months earlier in the war and that offer them no protection against the scalding heat and humid weather now.Parents across the Gaza Strip are relying on water to keep their children cool when it is already not easy to get. The hot weather is also bringing insects that help spread disease.“My children were stung by insects and mosquitoes because there is no sanitation around, and sewage is leaking almost everywhere,” said Mohammed Abu Hatab, a father of four, including a 7-month-old. His family has been spending their days outside, under the shade of nylon tents, which trap heat and make the tents more unbearable.“I had to undress my children to their underwear only,” said Mr. Abu Hatab, 33. He added: “The tent, the heat wave, and the horror of this war are all a nightmare. How can my children live healthily and safely?” More

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    Barnard Ends Suspensions for Most Student Protesters Who Were Arrested

    The students had been among more than 100 who were suspended for participating in an encampment at Columbia University.Barnard College will allow most of the 53 students who were arrested and suspended after participating in a pro-Palestinian protest encampment at Columbia University to return to its campus, administrators said in a statement on Friday.The college said that it had “reached resolution with nearly all students” who were arrested last week when Columbia asked the police to clear the encampment, a move that set off dozens of solidarity protests at campuses across the country and dozens of additional arrests at schools including Yale University, the University of Southern California and Emerson College.Of the arrested students at Columbia’s original encampment, about half were from Barnard, a women’s college affiliated with the university that is across the street in Upper Manhattan.Barnard said suspended students who reached agreements with the college on Friday would have their access to residence halls, dining facilities and classrooms immediately restored. Barnard was still working on agreements with some other students, it said.“Barnard is committed to educating and supporting students with wide-ranging backgrounds and diverse perspectives,” the statement read. “We continue to work closely with faculty, staff and students to ensure the college remains a safe and inclusive place for our community.”Tensions on college campuses have been high since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, and Columbia and Barnard have both been the site of ongoing antiwar protests, along with efforts to clamp down on protest chants and other forms of speech that many Jewish students, faculty and others view as antisemitic.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    A Dispatch From Inside Columbia’s Student-Led Protest for Gaza

    On Wednesday morning, on a corner across the street from Columbia University, a man dressed in black, a huge gold cross around his neck, brandished a sign that featured a bloodstained Israeli flag and the word “genocide” in capital letters. He was also shouting at the top of his lungs.“The Jews control the world! Jews are murderers!”I watched as a pro-Palestine protester approached the man. “That is horribly antisemitic,” she said. “You are hurting the movement and you are not a part of us. Go away.”The man shouted vile, unprintable epithets back at her, but the woman, who told me she had come to New York from her home in Baltimore to support the protesting students, walked away.Hours later, a well-known congressional reporter covering House Speaker Mike Johnson’s visit to Columbia’s campus posted a photograph of the same man. “One sign here at the Columbia protest,” the reporter, Jake Sherman, wrote. “This man is ranting about Jews controlling the universe.”The man wasn’t “at the Columbia protest.” The university’s campus has been closed to outsiders for over a week — even as a journalist and an alumnus, I had trouble getting in. He was, several people on social media told Sherman, a well-known antisemitic crank completely unconnected from what was unfolding on campus. Indeed, last week I had seen a man wearing an identical cross carrying a similarly lettered sign that read, “Google it! Jews vs. TikTok” protesting outside Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Lower Manhattan. He was, for the record, standing on the pro-Trump side of the protest area.But the incident is emblematic of how difficult it has become to make sense of what is actually happening on college campuses right now. As the protests have spread to dozens of campuses and counting, competing viral clips on social media paint vastly different versions of what’s happening inside these pro-Palestine camps. Are they violent conflict zones, filled with militant protesters who hurl antisemitic abuse and threaten Jewish students, requiring, as some political leaders have suggested, deployment of the National Guard? Or is it a giant love-fest of students braiding daisy chains and singing “Kumbaya”?We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More