Silverseren

Harvard Medical School canceled a planned Jan. 21 lecture on wartime healthcare and a subsequent panel with patients from Gaza receiving care in Boston in response to objections that students would hear from Gazans impacted by the war and not also Israelis.

Course instructors and students were notified Tuesday morning that the events — scheduled for that evening — would not be held.

Students had organized the moderated discussion with patients and their families as a follow-up to Levy’s lecture, which was not focused specifically on Gaza.

Jones said that Arabic-speaking Medical School students who had served as interpreters for patients from Gaza in Boston asked course staff to arrange the session with Levy and patients’ families.

“Students often find that the presence of a patient who is interviewed and discusses their experiences is often far more engaging, powerful, and moving than hearing a professor carry on about the pathophysiology of disease,” Jones said.

The optional session was part of the course’s original spring semester curriculum and was approved by HMS administrators, according to Jones.

Israeli security forces have launched an operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, a day after bands of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians, smashing cars and burning property and the new US president, Donald Trump, announced he was lifting sanctions on violent settlers.

At least eight Palestinians were killed and 35 people were injured, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Twin sisters set to attend University of Waterloo to complete their PhDs have died in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.

Dalia Ghazi Ibaid and Sally Ghazi Ibaid were planning to come to Waterloo to do their PhDs in System Design Engineering. They were both recipients of UWaterloo’s Student Relief Fellowship.

“Dalia and Sally were selected based on their outstanding academic achievement and demonstrated research potential,” read UWaterloo’s statement.

They were both killed in an airstrike on Dec. 5.

Israeli forces shot and killed Dr. Saeed Joudeh, the sole surviving orthopedic specialist in Northern Gaza, when they attacked an ambulance he was traveling in to transfer medical supplies to Al-Awda Hospital in Jabaliya.

The hospital has been under siege for 70 days, according to Cradle, resulting in the death of 1,057 Palestinian healthcare workers since Oct. 7, 2023.

Dr. Joudeh was injured by shrapnel last month during an Israeli drone strike at Kamal Adwan Hospital, and held a press conference begging for international forces to intervene and stop the incessant killing in Gaza.

Last week, Dr. Joudeh's 24-year-old son was killed while rescuing family members trapped under the rubble from an Israeli strike on a shelter, and in November, Israeli forces killed his nephew.

The Palestinian village of Faqqu’a, situated at the northern tip of the occupied West Bank, is encircled by Israel’s separation barrier from three sides. As such, for the past two decades since the barrier was built, residents of the village have been required to obtain approval from the Israeli military before they can access over 4,000 dunams of their agricultural land (nearly 1,000 acres).

Hussam Abu Salama owns seven dunams (1.7 acres) of olive-planted land in this area. Each year, when the harvest season comes around, he waits for the army to give them the go-ahead. This year, the village council got the green light to begin the harvest on Oct. 16. “I wish we hadn’t received permission,” Abu Salama told +972.

The inhabitants of Nu'man, in southeast Jerusalem, are residents of the territories and as such are not allowed to enter the capital. Other residents of the territories are banned from visiting the village, which pays municipal taxes but receives nothing in return – except demolished homes

Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church has said that there is no need to stir up fear around nuclear weapons, as Christians are not afraid of the end of the world.

Kirill added that this "does not mean that we should sit by idly".

"On the contrary, our earthly mission is to be the Lord's soldiers ... to resist evil and defend high moral ideals. This is the goal setting in Russia," he said.

In its explanatory notes, the bill states that the presence of "supporters of terrorism, armed struggle, and racism against the State of Israel in local authorities, who through their actions express support and encouragement for the murder of Jews and Israelis, as well as acts of violence and hatred."

The proposal claims to align the legal framework for municipal elections with that of Knesset elections.

The bill mirrors another measure passed in a preliminary reading last month, which expanded the grounds for disqualifying candidates from Knesset elections. That bill is expected to disproportionately affect Arab candidates, effectively curbing their ability to run for office.

Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham has offered President-elect Donald Trump the use of a 1,402-acre ranch in Starr County, on the U.S.-Mexico border, for the construction of deportation facilities.

Buckingham, a Republican, made the offer in a letter sent to Trump on Tuesday in which she pledged to support what she described as "the largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation's history."

Journalists from Skhemy (Schemes), the investigative arm of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian Service, have gained access to a leak of exclusive documents from Russian occupation administrations. The materials were provided by the Ukrainian hacker group KibOrg.

These documents reveal how Russia’s “Yunarmiya” (lit. “Young Army”) integrates militaristic ideology into occupied areas of Ukraine through schools, summer camps, and “patriotic” events, resulting in young Ukrainians becoming part of Russia's military apparatus and, in some cases, joining the Russian army.

Arrests. Classified documents. And suspected leaks that may have harmed efforts to free hostages held by Hamas in order, critics say, to give Benjamin Netanyahu public cover for failing to agree to a cease-fire deal. The Israeli prime minister was engulfed in scandal Monday over a case involving one of his aides that has sent shockwaves across the country.

The firestorm — brought into public view when an Israeli court loosened a gag order Sunday night — has enraged Netanyahu's political opponents and hostage families. Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing and distanced himself from the case, but critics have alleged that the Israeli leader put hostages' lives and national security at risk to buttress his hardline position in stalled cease-fire talks by leaking Gaza documents to friendly media outlets.

Israel has tightened its siege of northern Gaza in the face of warnings from the UN and other aid agencies that hundreds of thousands of Palestinian lives at are risk, raising questions over whether the Netanyahu government’s ultimate war aims include territorial expansion.

The IDF says it is hunting Hamas militants but suspicions are growing that Israel is putting into practice a blueprint it had officially distanced itself from, known as the “generals’ plan”.

The plan, named after the retired senior officers promoting it, was intended to depopulate northern Gaza by giving the Palestinians trapped there an opportunity to evacuate and then treating those that stayed as combatants, laying total siege.