URBANA– A majority of Urbana voters backed an advisory referendum asking whether the U.S. should end its military funding for Israel. Residents petitioned to get the measure on the Cunningham Township ballot earlier this year in response to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Based on unofficial results from the Champaign County Clerk’s office, around
By October 21st, 2023, some 6,000 people in the Gaza Strip and Israel had been killed in the expanding Israel- Hamas War. Here on the University of Illinois Campus and around the world, tensions between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli communities were rising. As part of their coverage of the conflict last fall, Illinois journalism students spoke
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli forces in Gaza killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a chief architect of last year’s attack on Israel that sparked the war, the military said Thursday. Troops appeared to have run across him unknowingly in a battle, only to discover afterwards that a body in the rubble was Israel’s most wanted man. Israeli
CHAMPAIGN– Vigils and gatherings were held around the country and in Champaign Monday to mark one year since an attack by Hamas killed about 1,200 people in Israel. Hillel and the Chabad Center came together on the University of Illinois Quad to mourn those lost and those still held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. An
One year ago today, Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 men, women and children and kidnapped more than 200 others after entering Israel from the Gaza Strip. In response to the attack, Israel launched a military offensive that has killed more than 41,000 people in Gaza. More than half of those killed were women and
Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a barrage of rockets into Israel on Monday as mourners marked the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack, without disrupting a nearby ceremony. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said an Israeli strike in the country’s south killed at least 10 firefighters. Hamas also said it attacked Israeli forces in different parts of Gaza.
The Middle East moved closer to a long-feared regional war Wednesday, a day after Iran fired a barrage of missiles at Israel and Israel said it began limited ground incursions into Lebanon targeting the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia. Israel said it intercepted many of the missiles, and officials in Washington said U.S. destroyers assisted in Israel’s defense. Iran said
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Iran fired around 200 ballistic missiles at Israel.
JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli-American family that became an international symbol in the struggle to free hostages from Hamas captivity in Gaza laid their son to rest on Monday after the discovery of his body and those of five others brought a fresh outpouring of grief. Tens of thousands of people thronged a Jerusalem cemetery to pay
CHICAGO — Thousands of activists are expected to converge on Chicago this week for the Democratic National Convention, hoping to call attention to abortion rights, economic injustice and the war in Gaza. While Vice President Kamala Harris has energized crowds of supporters as she prepares to accept the Democratic nomination, progressive activists maintain their mission remains the same.
Biden, in an interview Wednesday with CNN, says the U.S. is still committed to Israel’s defense and will supply Iron Dome rocket interceptors and other defensive arms. But he says that if Israel goes into Rafah, “we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used.”
The legislation would also send $26 billion in wartime assistance to Israel and humanitarian relief to citizens of Gaza, and $8 billion to counter Chinese threats in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific.
Hundreds of people took to the streets of Champaign for the “Hands Off Rafah” protest — a march against the Israeli siege of Gaza and U.S. aid to Israel. The protest, which started at Champaign’s West Side Park, was organized by the Champaign-Urbana branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and was part of
Israeli officials are under growing pressure at home but say the fighting is likely to continue for several more months. Hamas says it will not free more hostages until Israel ends its offensive.
he cease-fire agreement between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers involves the exchange, over four days, of 150 Palestinian minors and women in Israeli prison for 50 Israeli hostages held by Hamas.