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SvennoJ on 22 January 2025
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Main events from January 21st

  • Israel’s military operation in the occupied West Bank is entering its third day, with at least 10 Palestinians killed and another 40, including children, wounded.
  • UN officials say the ongoing Israeli attacks have rendered the Jenin refugee camp “nearly uninhabitable”, with roads, electricity and water networks destroyed and the Jenin government hospital cut off from the power and water grid.
  • OCHA, the UN’s humanitarian agency, said 808 trucks carrying food, fuel and medical supplies entered Gaza on Wednesday as Palestinians continued efforts to recover bodies from under the ruins of destroyed homes.
  • US President Donald Trump is moving to brand Yemen’s Houthis as a “terrorist” organisation.
  • The newly sworn-in US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and pledged “steadfast support” for Israel, and said he “looks forward to addressing the threats posed by Iran and pursuing opportunities for peace”.
  • Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar says Israel is “committed” to upholding the ceasefire in Lebanon, but Israel’s Channel 13 reports that the Netanyahu government is seeking Trump’s approval to keep five military outposts in the country.

Rights groups says Israel preventing Dr Hussam Abu Safia from meeting with lawyers

The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights says Israeli authorities have extended a ban preventing Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, from meeting with his lawyers until February 6.

“We strongly condemn this unlawful decision and urgently demand immediate access for Al Mezan’s lawyer to assess his condition,” Al Mezan said in a statement shared on X.

The Gaza-based human rights group earlier said that Abu Safia’s detention without charge had been extended until February 13 by the Ashkelon Magistrates Court.

Israeli soldiers detained Abu Safia on December 29 after violently attacking his hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip.




What’s the latest on the relief effort in Gaza?

Jonathan Whittall, the head of OCHA’s office for Palestine, gave this update on day four of the ceasefire in Gaza.

“A surge of supplies has already entered and on the ground, we are scaling up the humanitarian response,” he wrote. “Lives are at stake and there is no time to lose,” he said.

The ceasefire deal stipulates a number of “humanitarian deliverables” in Gaza, Whitall said. They are “aid supplies, medical evacuations, the return of the displaced and repairs of critical infrastructure”.

UN agencies have now increased food distribution in Gaza and will be reopening bakeries soon, the official said.

“Hospitals are being restocked and will be rehabilitated,” he wrote. “Water networks are being repaired and desalination plants are receiving fuel. Solid waste dumping sites are now accessible. We will finally get rubbish out of the streets and start removing rubble. Some roads have already been cleared.”

UN agencies will also distribute new tents and winter clothes, especially to keep children warm, Whitall said.

“We will continue work on reuniting families and in treating the mental health impacts of the atrocities people have witnessed. Especially children,” he added.