Middle East updates: UN agency warns of 'full-blown famine'

UN's World Food Program (WFP) Director Cindy McCain warned of the threat of "full-blown famine" in Gaza in an interview set to air on Sunday.

"Whenever you have conflicts like this, and emotions rage high, and things happen in a war, famine happens. And so, what I can explain to you is [that] there is full-blown famine in the north, and it's moving its way south," McCain told the US broadcaster NBC. 

McCain said her assessment was based on talks with WFP staff on the ground in Gaza.

She voiced hope that a cease-fire could soon be negotiated, allowing the delivery of desperately needed food, water and medicine to the enclave.

McCain implored leaders not to allow Gaza residents to starve, noting that there is more than enough food available to help those caught up in the war between Israel and Hamas.

In March, experts from the multi-partner international Initiative for the Analysis of Food Crises IPC warned that famine in Gaza was imminent, saying they expect this to occur before May.   

Students in the Irish capital joined the wave of university protests against the war in Gaza that have been met with a police crackdown at several US campuses.

Protesters at the prestigious Trinity College in Dublin blocked the entrance to the library that hosts the Book of Kells — a ninth-century manuscript popular among tourists to the city.

Dozens of students also set up tents in the university's main square.

Student union president Laszlo Molnarfi told Irish public broadcaster RTE that the aim of the protest was to get the university to cut any ties with Israel.

"The Book of Kells is now closed" for an indefinite period, Molnarfi posted on X, formerly Twitter.

"No business as usual during a genocide," he added, in reference to the claims that Israel's offensive in Gaza amounts to a genocide of Palestinians. Israel denies the claims, insisting that its military operation is directed against Hamas.

The university confirmed that there was an "unauthorized" encampment on the campus.

"While Trinity supports students' right to protest, protests must be conducted within the rules of the university," it added.

DW spoke with Middle East expert Daniel Gerlach about the ongoing negotiations to reach a deal between Israel and Hamas.

He called the talks "probably the last chance that with this constellation, with the involvement of Egypt, Qatar and the United States, a hostage deal can be negotiated."

He said "everyone is very serious about the proposal," pointing to the increased pressure on Israel from the US, the presence of a Hamas delegation in Cairo and the visit by the head of the Egyptian national intelligence agency, Abbas Kamel, to Israel.

"There are great expectations, but also a high degree of frustration," he said, adding that — according to Qatari mediators — both Israel and Hamas have "sabotaged" earlier attempts to reach a cease-fire. 

Some Arab countries are discussing evacuating "parts of the Hamas leadership to another Arab country," with Algeria being put forward as a suggestion.

"However, I think the Israelis need some sort of a symbolic victory image that proves they have won the war," he added, suggesting that this could be the capture or killing of Yehya Sinwar, the head of the Hamas leadership in Gaza.

Gerlach also said Hamas' leadership is divided between members of its political wing based in Doha, Qatar — who have been "threatened to be kicked out of Doha if the deal fails" — and the military wing led by Sinwar, who are fearing for their lives.

"They know that even if they get expatriated, the Israelis will hunt them down," Gerlach said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israeli forces will enter Rafah regardless of any deal but has also shown willingness to allow shared management of Gaza.

"But everyone knows in Israel, in the region, and the most in the United States, that Benjamin Netanyahu changes his mind and has a very tactical relationship to truth and his commitments," Gerlach told DW.

If the negotiations fail again, "many people in Israel will come to the conclusion that the release of the hostages is not the priority on the government side," while "Arab negotiators will realize Hamas is actually not willing to release the hostages."

"I think it will break down the entire negotiation mechanism that we have now," he added.

Long-running protests on US university campuses against the Israeli offensive in Gaza appear to be on the decline following a massive police clampdown.

More than 2,000 arrests have been made in the past two weeks across the country, with police sometimes accused of using disproportionate force to disperse protesters.

In several cases, university administrators have made deals with protesters so that year-end exams and graduation ceremonies can proceed without disruption.

Some rallies, notably at the University of Chicago and the University of California, Los Angeles, saw violent clashes when protesters' encampments were attacked by counterprotesters. 

President Joe Biden on Thursday said that while the US allowed dissent, this should be expressed within certain bounds. 

"We're a civil society, and order must prevail," he said.

Similar protest camps have popped up in countries around the world, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany and Mexico.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reiterated his warnings against a planned major Israeli offensive on the crowded city of Rafah in Gaza .

Blinken told a high-level political forum in Arizona that Israel had not yet presented "a credible plan to genuinely protect the civilians who are in harm's way." 

"Absent such a plan, we can't support a major military operation going into Rafah because the damage it would do is beyond what's acceptable," Blinken said.

Blinken was speaking two days after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top leaders on his latest visit to the Middle East.

Ahead of the talks with Blinken, Netanyahu vowed to push ahead with an assault on Rafah, which he says aims to root out the Islamist militant group Hamas in the region.

Hamas carried out a raid on southern Israel on October 7 in which 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, were killed, and some 250 taken hostage. Israel, the United States, Germany and other nations classify Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,654 people in Gaza, according to figures released on Saturday by the territory's Hamas-run Health Ministry.

A delegation from the Islamist militant group Hamas will head to Cairo on Saturday to continue talks on a cease-fire proposal, the group said on Friday.

"While we emphasize the positive spirit with which the movement's leadership responded when it studied the cease-fire proposal that it recently received, we are going to Cairo in the same spirit to reach an agreement," a Hamas statement said.

A Hamas source told the German dpa news agency some points still required discussion and that when these had been clarified, the group would announce its final decision.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that Hamas was "the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a cease-fire."

Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been mediating between Israel and Hamas for months to obtain an end to fighting in the Gaza Strip, so far without success.

tj/sms (AP, AFP, DPA, Reuters)