Israel-Hamas war: Jared Kushner under fire over Gaza property comments
Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has been accused of advocating for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, as the UN accused Israel of starving Palestinians. Follow updates.
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Donald Trump’s son-in-law has come under fire for calling Israel to bulldoze an area of the Negev desert and move Palestinians there, while praising the “very valuable” potential of Gaza’s “waterfront property”.
Jared Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, made the bombshell comments in an interview at Harvard University on March 8.
“Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable … if people would focus on building up livelihoods,” Kushner told his interviewer, Harvard’s Middle East Initiative faculty chair, Prof Tarek Masoud.
“It’s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but from Israel’s perspective I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up.
“But I don’t think that Israel has stated that they don’t want the people to move back there afterwards.”
The former property dealer also said he thinks Israel should move civilians from Gaza to the Negev desert in southern Israel.
“But in addition to that, I would just bulldoze something in the Negev, I would try to move people in there,” he said.
“I think that’s a better option, so you can go in and finish the job.”
“I do think right now opening up the Negev, creating a secure area there, moving the civilians out, and then going in and finishing the job would be the right move.”
Dylan Williams, Center for International Policy in Washington, took aim at Kushner in a post on X.
“Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner openly advocates for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza,” he said.
Despite not having any foreign policy experience, Kushner served as an unofficial presidential envoy to Middle Eastern countries during his father-in-law’s presidency.
He built a close relationship with Saudi Arabia, helped broker the Abraham Accords and was made the point person in the Trump administration for negotiating an end to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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ISRAEL USING STARVATION AS A WEAPON: UN
The UN said that Israel’s severe restrictions on aid into war-ravaged Gaza coupled with its military offensive could amount to using starvation as a “weapon of war”, which would be a “war crime”.
United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk denounced the rampant hunger and looming famine in Gaza.
In a statement slammed by Israel, Turk said that “the situation of hunger, starvation and famine is a result of Israel’s extensive restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid and commercial goods”.
It was also linked to the “displacement of most of the population, as well as the destruction of crucial civilian infrastructure”, he said.
“The extent of Israel’s continued restrictions on the entry of aid into Gaza, together with the manner in which it continues to conduct hostilities, may amount to the use of starvation as a method of war, which is a war crime.”
His spokesman, Jeremy Laurence, told reporters in Geneva that the final determination of whether “starvation is being used as a weapon of war” would be determined by a court.
The health ministry in Gaza said Tuesday that at least 31,819 people have been killed in the territory during more than five months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The latest toll includes at least 93 deaths in the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 73,934 people have been wounded in Gaza since October 7.
200 PEOPLE A DAY WILL DIE OF STARVATION
The comments came after a UN-backed food security assessment determined that the war-torn Palestinian territory is facing imminent famine.
Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, pointed to the difficulty of clearly determining if the strict criteria have been met to declare a famine.
“The famine thresholds may already be the case in northern Gaza,” he told reporters, highlighting that for weeks people had already been reduced to eating bird seed, animal fodder, wild grass and weeds.
“There is literally nothing left,” he said.
Looking ahead, he warned that without more aid, Gaza could soon be looking at “more than 200 people dying from starvation per day”.
Already, health workers are seeing “newborn babies simply dying because their too-low birth weight” and “children that are at the … brink of death through starvation”, World Health Organisation spokeswoman Margaret Harris said.
She noted that malnutrition had been basically “non-existent” in Gaza before the war.
The crisis was “entirely man-made”, she said, denouncing the lack of safe access to bring in the aid needed to meet the towering needs.
ISRAEL SLAMS UN
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said that “the clock is ticking”.
He demanded “an immediate ceasefire, as well as the unconditional release of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza”.
Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva rejected Turk’s statement, insisting that he was seeking “once again to blame Israel for the situation and completely absolve the responsibility of the UN and Hamas”.
“Despite the rockets, the holding of our hostages, the acts of pure evil on October 7, Israel is committed to facilitating humanitarian aid into Gaza,” it said, insisting that “Israel is at war with Hamas, not the Palestinian people”.
The country, it said, was “doing everything it can to flood Gaza with aid, including by land air and sea”.
“The UN must also step up.”
QATAR ‘CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC’ AS TRUCE TALKS INTENSIFY
Negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release are progressing in Doha and a counter-proposal could soon be presented to Hamas, Qatar said on Tuesday.
Israel’s spy chief has left the Qatari capital but technical teams are now discussing details of a potential deal, foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said.
Mossad head David Barnea had flown in for talks with the Qatari premier and Egyptian officials on Monday, the first since mediators failed to secure a truce before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began last week.
“We are at the point now where we are expecting that the counter-proposal would be presented to Hamas, but this is not the final step in the process,” Ansari said.
“I don’t think we are at a moment were we can say we are close to a deal. We are cautiously optimistic because talks have resumed, but it’s too early to announce any successes,” he added.
On Monday, a Hamas official said the Palestinian militants would accept a partial Israeli withdrawal before exchanging prisoners, easing previous demands for a complete pullout from Gaza.
Hamas official Osama Hamdan, speaking to the Al-Manar TV station of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, held out hope of a “complete end of military operations”, saying negotiations could be concluded “within days”.
‘A BETTER WAY’: BIDEN URGES NETANYAHU TO REVISE RAFAH PLANS
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to Joe Biden’s request to send a team of top Israeli security officials to Washington to discuss its Rafah plans, in signs of growing US pressure.
In their first call in more than a month, with Mr Biden increasingly vocal about the war’s impact on civilians, Mr Netanyahu reiterated “Israel’s commitment to achieving all of the war’s objectives.”
US national security advisor Jake Sullivan said the US president stressed that “a major ground operation [in Rafah] would be a mistake,” citing concerns about civilian safety in the landlocked Gaza Strip.
Mr Sullivan said Biden had asked Mr Netanyahu to send a team of military, intelligence and humanitarian officials to Washington to hear US concerns about Israel’s plans for Rafah, and to “lay out an alternative approach that would target key Hamas elements in Rafah and secure the Egypt-Gaza border without a major ground invasion.”
“The prime minister agreed that he would send a team,” Mr Sullivan said.
“Obviously he has his own point of view on a Rafah operation, but he agreed that he would send a team to Washington to have this discussion.
“What the president said today was, ‘I want you to understand, Mr Prime Minister, exactly where I am on this. I am for the defeat of Hamas. I believe that they are an evil terrorist group with not just Israeli, but American blood on their hands.
“At the same time. I believe that to get to that (defeat), you need a strategy that works, and that strategy should not involve a major military operation that puts thousands and thousands of civilian, innocent lives at risk in Rafah.
“There is a better way. Send your team to Washington, and let’s talk about it. We’ll lay out for you what we believe is a better way.”
During the call, Mr Biden, who has been increasingly critical of Israel’s conduct of the war and the toll it has taken on civilians, also expressed alarm that Israeli forces could repeat the pattern of destruction that has played out during major offensives in Gaza City and Khan Yunis.
“More than a million people have taken refuge in Rafah,” Mr Sullivan told reporters.
“They went from Gaza City to Khan Yunis and then to Rafah. They have nowhere else to go. Gaza’s other major cities have largely been destroyed.”
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned Israel’s latest military campaign, saying it has turned Gaza from the world’s “greatest open-air prison” into its biggest “open-air graveyard”, and that Israel was using famine as a “weapon of war”.
US SECRETARY ON MISSION TO SECURE CEASEFIRE
A US State Department spokesperson has said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Saudi Arabia and Egypt this week to discuss efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and increase humanitarian aid.
Mr Blinken will hold talks with Saudi leaders in Jeddah on Wednesday before travelling to Cairo on Thursday for talks with Egyptian authorities, spokesman Matthew Miller said from the Philippines, where Mr Blinken is touring.
This will be Mr Blinken’s sixth trip to the Middle East since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7.
“The Secretary will discuss efforts to reach an immediate ceasefire agreement that secures the release of all remaining hostages, intensified international efforts to increase humanitarian assistance to Gaza, and co-ordination on post-conflict planning for Gaza, including ensuring Hamas can no longer govern or repeat the attacks of October 7,” Mr Miller said in a statement.
Mr Blinken will also discuss “a political path for the Palestinian people with security assurances with Israel, and an architecture for lasting peace and security in the region.”
Mr Miller also advised that Mr Blinken will raise the imperative issue of ending attacks by Yemen’s Huthi rebels on commercial ships, to restore stability and security in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
JOURNALIST FREED AFTER 12 HOUR DETENTION
Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul has spoken about his harrowing detention in Israeli custody after he was arrested along with other media members overnight.
He told Al Jazeera after his release that Israeli forces stormed al-Shifa Hospital at dawn during intense fighting and started by destroying media equipment and arresting journalists gathered in a room used by media teams.
He said the journalists were stripped of their clothes and were arrested and placed in a room inside the medical compound where they were forced to lie on their stomachs as they were blindfolded and their hands tied.
Al-Ghoul said Israeli soldiers would open fire to scare them if there was any movement and after about 12 hours, they were taken for interrogation.
After waiting in line for investigation, an elderly man was released from inside the hospital and he needed help to leave the compound, the journalist said, adding that he volunteered to help the man and was able to accompany him until they both left the compound.
Al-Ghoul later heard that some of his colleagues were released but said he does not have enough information about the whereabouts of the rest of his team to confirm any details.
The United Nations says it “stands against” harassment of journalists after al-Ghoul’s arrest, as rights group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) calls incident “deliberate attempt” to cover up Israeli assault on al-Shifa Hospital.
BATTLE RAGES AROUND GAZA HOSPITAL
Heavy fighting is raging in and around Gaza’s largest hospital complex where the Israeli army said it was battling Hamas militants and told Palestinian civilians to flee the “dangerous combat zone”.
The Israeli army launched an overnight, pre-dawn raid at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, with witnesses reporting air strikes and tanks near the complex reportedly crowded with thousands of Palestinian patients and displaced people.
The health ministry of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said nearby residents had reported dozens of casualties who could not be helped “due to the intensity of gunfire and artillery shelling”.
World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that “we are terribly worried” about the fighting which was “endangering health workers, patients and civilians”.
The Israeli military told Gazans to evacuate the area amid the raid that it said was based on intelligence “indicating the use of the hospital by senior Hamas terrorists”.
The army and Shin Bet security service said forces had “identified terrorist fire toward them from a number of hospital buildings” and that “the forces engaged the terrorists and identified several hits”.
Israel’s military dropped Arabic-language leaflets warning residents that “You are in a dangerous combat zone!” and urging them to flee the area.
The Hamas government media office condemned as a “war crime” the “storming of the Al-Shifa medical complex with tanks, drones and weapons and shooting inside”.
The army previously raided Al-Shifa in November, sparking an international outcry, in an operation in which it said it found weapons in rooms in and below the hospital where it believed hostages had been held.
Israel’s military said Monday that troops had been told to “avoid harm to the patients, civilians, medical staff and medical equipment”, with Arabic speakers deployed.
CHARITY ACCUSES ISRAEL OF BLOCKING AID INTO GAZA
Anti-poverty charity Oxfam on Monday accused Israel of intentionally preventing the delivery of aid into Gaza during its war with Hamas, in violation of international humanitarian law.
The non-governmental organisation said in a report that Israel continued to “systematically and deliberately block and undermine any meaningful international humanitarian response” in the Palestinian territory.
It alleged that Israel was defying an order by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in January to boost aid in Gaza, and was failing its legal responsibility to protect people in land it occupies.
“The ICJ order should have shocked Israeli leaders to change course, but since then conditions in Gaza have actually worsened,” said Oxfam Middle East and North Africa director Sally Abi Khalil.
“Israeli authorities are not only failing to facilitate the international aid effort but are actively hindering it. We believe that Israel is failing to take all measures within its power to prevent genocide.”
Oxfam said that “unjustifiably inefficient” inspection rules were causing aid trucks trying to get into Gaza to be stuck in queues for 20 days on average.
It said that Israeli authorities arbitrarily reject “dual-use” items – civilian goods that also have potential military use such as backup generators and torches.
“The list of rejected items is overwhelming and ever changing,” Oxfam said. It recalled that water bags and water testing kits in an Oxfam shipment were rejected with no reason provided, before later being permitted entry.
US SENATOR SAYS ISRAELI CLAIMS ON UNRWA ‘FLAT OUT LIES’
Democratic US Senator Chris Van Holler says “there is no doubt” that Israeli claims that the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees is a Hamas proxy “are just flat-out lies”.
“If you look at the person who’s in charge of operations on the ground in Gaza for UNRWA, it’s about a 20-year US army veteran, you can be sure he’s not in cahoots with Hamas,” he told US channel CBS News.
“Netanyahu has wanted to get rid of UNRWA since at least 2017, that’s been his goal not just in Gaza, but also in other places.
“Netanyahu’s wanted to get rid of UNRWA because he has seen them as a means to continue the hopes of the Palestinian people for a homeland of their own, and he has been opposed to a two-state solution.”
The senator this week wrote to US President Joe Biden to argue that Israel is violating US legislation that prohibits the sale and transfer of military weapons to any nation that restricts delivery of US aid.
UNICEF CHIEF: GAZA BABIES ‘DON’T EVEN HAVE ENERGY TO CRY’
One in three babies under the age of two in northern Gaza are suffering from acute malnutrition, according to the UNICEF.
Executive director at the UN’s child protection agency Catherine Russell described in an interview with US broadcaster NBC what that means.
“Essentially, the body starts to consume itself as it has nothing else, and it’s a painful, painful death for children. I have been in wards where babies are suffering from malnutrition, the whole ward is absolutely quiet because the babies don’t even have the energy to cry”, she said. “If we can get therapeutic feeding to them they can survive, but often they are stunted for life, and stunted means your cognitive ability is impacted as well, so it is a lifelong challenge for these children – if they survive.”
DEATH OF 33RD HOSTAGE CONFIRMED
The Israeli military said that a soldier believed to have been held hostage in the Gaza Strip died during Hamas’s October 7 attack.
Captain Daniel Perez, 22, was killed in the attack on southern Israel and “his body is in the hands of a terrorist organisation”, a statement said.
He is the 33rd hostage confirmed dead – including eight soldiers – out of about 130 captives still held in the Gaza Strip.
Perez’s family has been notified and he has been posthumously promoted to the rank of lieutenant, Sunday’s military statement said.
Confirmation of his death comes five days after the military announced that another soldier believed to be held in Gaza, 19-year-old Sergeant Itay Hen, also perished on October 7.
At a rally calling for the return of hostages on Saturday night, Perez’s father, Rabbi Daniel Perez, said “all the hostages taken from their cradles, from their beds and those who defended their people must return unconditionally”.
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