The European Union has backed a UN call for an independent investigation as more than 300 bodies have been retrieved from two mass graves at hospitals in Gaza following the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

    Five people have been killed and several wounded in the latest Israeli air strike on a residential building in southern Gaza’s Rafah city, where 1.5 million people are sheltering and in fear of a planned Israeli ground invasion, which military officials say is “moving ahead”.

    US President Joe Biden signs into law a $95bn security package that includes $26bn in military support for Israel and $1bn in humanitarian aid to Gaza.

    Hundreds protest outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence, calling for the release of all captives after Hamas release a video of Israeli-American captive Hersh Goldberg-Polin, currently held in Gaza.

    At least 34,262 Palestinians have been killed and 77,229 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from Hamas’s October 7 attacks stands at 1,139 with dozens still held captive in Gaza.

    ‘Anti-Semitism should not be weaponised’: USC law professor

    Jody Armour, a law professor at the University of Southern California, says anti-Semitism should not be weaponised to silence “valid protests” against what “may plausibly be genocide”.

    “We have lots of Jewish and Muslim and Palestinian and Catholic, like I am, Protestants, too, intergenerational, coming together,” Armour said.

    “Everybody should hate anti-Semitism and fight anti-Semitism, but being opposed to Israel’s slaughter in Gaza that the UN has said may plausibly be genocide, does not mean that you’re anti-Semitic,” he said.

    “We need to stop allowing people to weaponise anti-Semitism against real, valid protests.”

    More Palestinians killed, wounded during Israeli raids in West Bank

    The occupied West Bank witnessed another night of violence as Israeli forces raided Palestinian towns and cities, killing a local youth and injuring another.

    Palestine’s state news agency, Wafa, said Khaled al-Sharqawi died after being shot in the abdomen by Israeli forces who stormed Ramallah city in the occupied West Bank at dawn.

    Israeli forces fired live bullets and lobbed stun grenades at locals attempting to resist the military incursion into their community, Wafa said.

    In the town of Beit Furik, located east of Nablus, a Palestinian man was shot and injured following a raid. A local resident was also arrested during a search of his home by Israeli soldiers, who also raided the nearby town of Beit Dajan.

    Wafa also reported raids and home searches in:

•     Qalqilya city
•     The villages of al-Jalama, Arabbuna, Arrana, Faqqua, and Jalbun, located northeast of Jenin.
•     A Palestinian man was arrested in the village of Nabi Saleh, northwest of Ramallah.
•     Israeli settlers uprooted 70 olive and almond trees, as well as grape vines, belonging to a Palestinian in Qarawat Bani Hassan town, northwest of Salfit city.

    Number of bodies recovered from mass grave at Nasser Hospital rises to 324

    Palestinian Civil Defence teams have recovered 324 dead bodies at Nasser Hospital as of Wednesday, the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, has said in its latest daily update.

    OCHA cited Palestinian Civil Defence as saying women, elderly persons and patients were among the people found buried at the hospital, and noted, “only few were identified”.

    UN human rights chief Volker Turk on Tuesday called for “independent, effective and transparent investigations” into the deaths.

    “Hospitals are entitled to very special protection under international humanitarian law, and the intentional killing of civilians, detainees and others who are hors de combat is a war crime,” Turk said.

    Thousands of students remain at USC protest after arrests

    We told you earlier that there was a group of students here who had committed to being arrested.

    That group has been completely removed now. The last student was just taken away minutes ago.

    The only thing that’s left now is a Palestinian flag crumpled on the ground.

    There are still thousands, perhaps, of other students outside the police perimeter here who have been chanting “Let them go”.

    The protests, of course, centred around Israel’s war on Gaza.

    The students are demanding a ceasefire, demanding an end to US support in terms of weaponry for the Israeli military, and closer to home, demanding that the university itself divest from any ties to Israeli institutions.