Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student activist detained by U.S. authorities for his role in pro-Palestinian protests, can challenge his detention's legality, but the case must be heard in New Jersey rather than New York or Louisiana, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan ruled that New Jersey was the appropriate venue since Khalil was first detained there when his legal team filed the lawsuit.

Anti-Israel Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil has called himself a “political prisoner” — while urging students to respond with even more protests.

“My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner,” Khalil said in a fiery letter written from his Louisiana immigration detention facility.

Israel launched airstrikes across the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, killing at least 326 Palestinians, including women and children, according to hospital officials. The surprise bombardment shattered a ceasefire in place since January and threatened to fully reignite the 17-month-old war.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the strikes after Hamas refused Israeli demands to change the ceasefire agreement. Officials said the operation was open-ended and was expected to expand. The White House said it had been consulted and voiced support for Israel’s actions.

The Israeli military says it is carrying out "extensive strikes" in the Gaza Strip.

A spokesperson for Gaza's Hamas-run Civil Defence agency – the strip's main emergency response service – told the BBC that at least 34 Palestinians have been killed and 70 others injured.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was targeting what it called "terror targets" belonging to Hamas.

This is the largest wave of airstrikes in Gaza since the ceasefire began on 19 January...

Israel ordered all of Gaza's electricity supply to be cut off on Sunday in an effort to pressure Hamas into releasing the remaining Israeli hostages held in the territory.

Energy minister Eli Cohen's announcement came a week after Israel cut off all aid supplies to the territory, which has a population of more than two million people.

In a video statement on Sunday, Cohen said: "We will use all the tools at our disposal to bring back the hostages and ensure that Hamas is no longer in Gaza the day after [the war]."

Israel is cutting off its electricity supply to Gaza as the country’s energy minister vowed to use “all the tools available” to free the last of the hostages held by Hamas.

On March 2, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel would halt the entry of all goods and supplies to Gaza. This decision came after Hamas rejected a framework proposed by U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff intended to continue the hostage-ceasefire talks—a framework Israel had already agreed to.

Israel’s Energy Minister Eli Cohen has ordered an immediate halt to electricity supply to Gaza, threatening the functioning of the enclave’s desalination plants amid an ongoing aid shortage in the holy month of Ramadan.

WASHINGTON — The White House confirmed Wednesday that American officials have engaged in direct talks with Hamas — despite a longtime US policy of not engaging with terrorists.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the contacts at a press briefing — framing it as a way to accomplish American aims in Israel’s 17-month war against the Gaza Strip-based Islamists.

U.S. and Hamas officials have had talks in Qatar about hostages held in the Gaza Strip, according to two Israeli officials, a Western official and a diplomat briefed on the matter, breaking with a longstanding American policy of refusing to directly engage groups that it has designated as terrorists.