Morning update

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates on Israel's war on Gaza:

• Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed responsibility on Wednesday for an attack on a Dutch cargo ship this week in the busy shipping lane of the Gulf of Aden, saying that it was targeted "because its owner company violated the decision to ban entry to the ports of occupied Palestine."

• The Global Sumud Flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza said on Wednesday that several of its boats were approached by unidentified vessels, some navigating without lights.

• Colombian President Gustavo Petro has shared a post on social media demanding “absolute respect for the lives and integrity” of the hundreds of crew members on board the Gaza Sumud Flotilla.

• U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that his administration was close to a deal with Harvard University that would include a $500 million payment by the Ivy League institution, after months of negotiations over issues including pro-Palestinian protests against Israel's war on Gaza.

• The US Circuit Court of Appeals took up the cases of Rumeysa Ozturk and Mohsen Mahdawi, two graduate students who say they were unlawfully detained by immigration authorities during the Trump administration's crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus protests earlier this year.