Israel has ordered 100,000 Palestinians living in eastern Rafah to evacuate ahead of an Israeli offensive on the southern Gaza city, where more than 1.4 million displaced Palestinians have sought refuge. The U.N. aid agency UNRWA warned Israel’s attack on Rafah would have devastating consequences and lead to more civilian suffering and deaths. Overnight Israeli bombardments killed at least 26 people in Rafah, including 11 children.

Nisreen Rajeh: “We fled death and destruction, and we came to Rafah only to find destruction here. Do they want to kill us here? We came seeking safety in Rafah. Where do they want to send us? Where are we to go? The situation is so difficult. We’re unable to describe the destruction that we are living in here. Someone, feel for us and the tragedy we are living through.”

The order to evacuate Rafah came a day after Hamas fighters fired rockets at the Karem Abu Salem crossing, killing four Israeli soldiers. This all comes as ceasefire talks appear to have stalled.
On the humanitarian front, Cindy McCain, the head of the World Food Programme, told NBC that northern Gaza is in “full-blown famine.”

Cindy McCain: “What I can explain to you is, is that there is famine, full-blown famine, in the north, and it’s moving its way south.”

We will speak to a doctor who just left Gaza later in the program.

Protests continue on college campuses across the United States as students call on schools to divest from Israel. At the University of Michigan, students holding Palestinian flags briefly disrupted graduation ceremonies on Saturday as a plane flew overhead holding a banner that read “Divest from Israel now! Free Palestine!” At Indiana University some students walked out of Saturday’s commencement ceremony and booed the school’s president. Planes also circled above the ceremony carrying a banner with a Palestinian flag and the words “Let Gaza Live.” At the University of Virginia, police arrested 25 protesters who had set up a Gaza solitary encampment. In Chicago, 68 people were arrested at an encampment outside the Art Institute of Chicago. New York police made 56 arrests early Friday after raiding student encampments at The New School and NYU. Riot police have also cleared a student encampment at USC, the University of Southern California. According to the Associated Press, police have now arrested more than 2,500 students at pro-Palestine protests. That includes 133 arrests on Thursday at SUNY New Paltz when police violently raided a student encampment. At the University of Mississippi, officials have opened a probe after video went viral showing a group of white counterprotesters harassing a Black protester. One white student was seen imitating a monkey as he mocked her while others screamed “Lock her up.”

School officials at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, have reached an agreement with student protesters and have vowed to work toward divesting from “companies that profit from gross human rights violations and/or the occupation of Palestinian territories.” Evergreen College is the alma mater of Rachel Corrie, the American peace activist killed by Israeli troops in Gaza.

In Gaza, Palestinians have voiced support for the student protests.

Nawar Diab: “My message for the American students is that we are extremely proud, and their protests and their solidarity with Palestine and with Gaza gave us a glimpse of hope. And they didn’t leave us left alone. They didn’t leave us feeling helpless.”

In Britain, solidarity encampments have also been set up on the same day at Cambridge and Oxford.

In other education news, Columbia University is now under a federal investigation for anti-Palestinian discrimination. The Department of Education opened the probe after the group Palestine Legal accused the school of “extreme anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic harassment.”

Israeli authorities have taken Al Jazeera off the air inside Israel. On Sunday, police officers raided the network’s Jerusalem bureau and seized broadcasting equipment. Israel’s Foreign Press Association called it a “dark day for democracy.” The move came just two days after World Press Freedom Day. Over the past eight months Al Jazeera has been one of the only international outlets with reporters on the ground inside Gaza. We will have more on this story after headlines.

Tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets Saturday in nationwide rallies calling for a deal to free the hostages and to hold early elections in Israel. Danny Elgart, whose brother is being held in Gaza, addressed the protest in Tel Aviv.

Danny Elgart: “Bibi, we call you to reach a ceasefire deal which secures the release of all hostages, ceasefire that secures the release of hostages. The war actually didn’t end, Bibi, but know that the war ended. You can’t lie to us. You are taking more time so you and Ben-Gvir can stay in power. You are taking more time so you will stay in power. You don’t care about the 133 or 132 hostages. An operation in Rafah will cause the death of the hostages. You don’t have a mandate to kill 132 citizens of Israel.”

In Panama, José Raúl Mulino, a last-minute stand-in candidate, was declared the winner of Sunday’s presidential election. Mulino, Panama’s former public security minister, was originally a vice-presidential candidate and was only officially announced as a presidential candidate two days before voting, after his running mate, former President Ricardo Martinelli, was disqualified due to a money laundering conviction. Martinelli, whose presidency ended a decade ago, has been taking refuge in the Nicaraguan Embassy since February due to his legal issues. He remains popular and has vowed to revive Panama’s economy, take on drug cartels and crack down on migration through Panama, including shutting down the treacherous Darién Gap.

In southern Brazil, at least 78 people have died from major flooding after days of torrential downpours. Over 100 are still missing and tens of thousands have been displaced in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, where a hydroelectric dam collapsed and a lake broke its bank. This is a flood survivor who works at a local health center.

Flood victim: “Everything is lost. There is nothing complete. I have been working here in this health unit for 23 years.”

Here in the U.S., much of the Houston area remains submerged after a week of heavy rains. One 5-year-old child was killed when the vehicle he was riding in was swept away by fast-moving water.

In other news from Texas, Democratic Congressmember Henry Cuellar and his wife were indicted on federal bribery and conspiracy charges. They are accused of accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani oil and gas company and a bank in Mexico.

Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial is entering its third week of testimony. On Friday, Trump’s former top aide Hope Hicks described efforts to do damage control in the weeks prior to the 2016 election following the release of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape where Trump openly bragged about assaulting women. On Thursday, prosecutors played jurors a secret audio tape of Trump and his then-fixer Michael Cohen discussing a plan to pay off former Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep silent about her affair with Trump.

Police in Canada have arrested three Indian men suspected of assassinating Canadian Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia last year. Nijjar was a prominent leader in a movement to form an independent Sikh homeland in India. Last week, The Washington Post revealed senior members of India’s spy agency were directly involved in a foiled plot to kill a prominent Sikh activist who lives in New York City.

The acclaimed British Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah was denied entry to France on Saturday despite an invitation to speak to members of the French Senate about his time volunteering with Doctors Without Borders in Gaza. This comes weeks after Germany barred Abu-Sittah from attending a Palestinian conference in Berlin. Germany has reportedly placed a one-year ban on Abu-Sittah from entering any country in Europe’s border-free zone.