Independent review finds Israel hasn't provided proof that U.N. refugee agency staffers were terrorists

BERKELEY, Calif. — Dozens of students gathered on the Savio Steps, named for Mario Savio, the leader of the 1960s Free Speech Movement, at the University of California, Berkeley, today to protest the Israel-Hamas war and the UC system’s investments in companies that do business with Israel.

Protesters said they planned to set up an encampment on campus as UC Berkeley became the first West Coast university to join a call for solidarity among colleges across the country to show their opposition to Israel’s military action in Gaza.

The Savio Steps lead to Sproul Hall, which housed the offices of the chancellor and administrators in the 1960s and were occupied by students from the Free Speech Movement. 

The movement is considered the first mass act of civil disobedience on a U.S. campus in the '60s as students demanded the school lift a ban on on-campus political activity and secure their right to free speech and academic freedom.

Baby Sabreen Alrouh Joudeh was born an orphan after she was delivered from her dead mother’s womb following an Israeli airstrike that also killed her father and sister. NBC News captured the emotional moment Sabreen’s grandmother and uncle met her for the first time in the neonatal unit in Rafah’s Emirati Hospital.

Israel's Foreign Affairs Ministry rejected the independent review of the U.N.'s Palestinian refugee agency, which found Israel had not provided evidence of its claims that staff members in Gaza were Hamas operatives.

Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein reiterated in a statement today that Hamas has "infiltrated" the agency, known as UNRWA, and said the review was not "genuine and thorough." He called on donor countries to suspend funding to UNRWA to avoid funding Hamas, but no evidence was provided to support the claims.

Multiple countries, including Canada and Australia, suspended their donations to UNRWA after Israel first made its allegations in January but resumed funding weeks later. Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong admitted in February that Australia had not seen evidence from Israel about the allegations before it paused its financial support.

Janez Lenarčič, the head of humanitarian aid and crisis management at the European Commission, said last month that neither he nor any other European executive had been provided evidence for the allegations. He said he was unaware of any donor country that had been provided proof by Israel, saying in addition that UNRWA reacted to the claims "properly, immediately, effectively."

Israel pulled its ground forces from Khan Younis on April 7 after it carried out what it called a "precise and limited operation" at the Nasser Medical Complex, one of the biggest hospitals in the Palestinian territory.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., praised the solidarity emerging as campuses across the country protest the Israel-Hamas war after faculty members at Columbia University staged a walkout over the administration's crackdown.

"On Thursday, Columbia arrested and suspended its students who were peacefully protesting and have now ignited a nationwide Gaza Solidarity movement," Omar wrote on X. "This is more than the students hoped for and I am glad to see this type of solidarity."

Omar's daughter, Isra Hirsi, was arrested participating in the protests and suspended from Columbia's nearby sister school, Barnard College. Omar said she was "enormously proud" of her daughter.

Hirsi told MSNBC she believed the school targeted for suspension students who were speaking to the media. She denied the protest encampment on campus was threatening, describing it as a "beautiful" community and saying students held Shabbat during that time.

While the physical injuries being inflicted on people in Gaza are clear, the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to health urged people to intentionally think about the "acute mental distress" that will later develop into other mental health issues.

"As a practicing medical doctor, I know the length the long-term trauma that the people of Gaza — its children — will carry with them because of enduring intergenerational physical and mental health impacts of racism, structural discrimination, violence and imperialism," Tlaleng Mofokeng told the media today.

Mofokeng called it a "war on the right to health," because the medical infrastructure in Gaza has been "obliterated." She also noted that the violence puts disability rights at the forefront because of the types of injuries "created as a result of the type of military arsenal used."

"I continue to be unreasonably hopeful that the realization of the rights of everyone to the highest attainable standard can be promoted, fulfilled and respected," Mofokeng said.

Israeli troops fought their way back into an eastern section of Khan Younis in a surprise raid, residents said today, sending people who had returned to abandoned homes in the ruins of the southern Gaza Strip’s main city fleeing once more.

Israel abruptly pulled most of its ground troops out of the southern Gaza Strip this month after some of the most intense fighting of the seven-month-old war. Residents have begun making their way home to previously inaccessible neighborhoods of what had been the enclave’s second-biggest city, finding homes reduced to rubble and the dead still left unrecovered in the streets.

“This morning, many families who had left here in the past two weeks to go back home to Abassan came back. They were too frightened,” Ahmed Rezik, 42, told Reuters from a school where he is sheltering in the western part of Khan Younis, referring to a district in the east.

“They said tanks pushed in the eastern area of the town under heavy fire, and they had to run for lives,” he told Reuters via a chat app.

PEN America, a nonprofit group dedicated to free expression, has canceled its literary award ceremony this year following the withdrawal of several nominees who said the group had not taken action to protect Palestinian writers.

"We greatly respect that writers have followed their consciences, whether they chose to remain as nominees in their respective categories or not," said Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf, PEN's chief literary programming officer. "We regret that this unprecedented situation has taken away the spotlight from the extraordinary work selected by esteemed, insightful and hard-working judges across all categories."

Writers have criticized PEN America for months; 600 of them signed an open letter in February criticizing its response to the war in Gaza. It cited platforming speakers such as actor Mayim Bialik, who has made controversial statements in defense of Israel, while dragging out Palestinian writer Randa Jarrar, who protested Bialik's event.

"We demand PEN find the same zeal and passion that they have for banned books in the US to speak out about actual human beings in Palestine," the letter said.

An independent review of the United Nations' agency for Palestinian refugees found that Israel has not provided evidence of its claims that staff members were Hamas terrorists.

Published today, the report adds that UNRWA has submitted its staff lists to Israel since 2011 and did not receive any complaint or concerns from the country's officials before it leveled its accusations in January. The Israel Foreign Affairs Ministry, according to the report, said those lists failed to provide proper identification numbers.

"During meetings with Israeli officials, it was communicated that Israel does not consider the sharing of the staff list as a screening or vetting process, but as a standard procedure for the registration of UN and diplomatic staff to ensure their privileges and immunities," the report said.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini requested the review into how the agency maintains its obligation of neutrality and its limitations. A different U.N. agency is tasked with investigating Israel's claims that UNRWA staff members were involved in the Oct. 7 attack.