Main points on Februari 7th
- Hamas has named three Israeli captives – Eli Sharabi, Ohad Ben Ami and Or Levy – who are set to be released on Saturday in exchange for 183 Palestinian prisoners.
- Gaza’s Government Media Office has said more than 12,000 bodies are estimated to be trapped under the rubble in the enclave, but Israel is preventing the necessary heavy equipment to retrieve them from entering the Strip.
- Egypt has said it has been in contact with Arab partners – including Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – to firm up the region’s rejection of any displacement of Palestinians after President Trump said Gaza’s population should be relocated.
- The US State Department has signed off on the sale to Israel of $6.75bn in bombs, guidance kits and fuses, in addition to $660m in Hellfire missiles, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
- Saddam Rajab, a 10-year-old Palestinian boy, has died in hospital more than a week after an Israeli soldier shot him during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem.
- US Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus has said Hezbollah’s presence in Lebanon’s new government is a red line for Washington.
Palestinians walk past the rubble of bombed-out buildings in Gaza City on February 6
Return to war possible as Israel positions for Gaza ceasefire to fail
Hamas has released a list of three names of Israeli captives it will set free on Saturday. In exchange for that, Israel will release 183 Palestinians, including 111 taken from Gaza during 16 months of war.
The UN accuses Israel of forcibly disappearing thousands of Palestinians. They know from testimony that those forcibly disappeared have been maltreated, including by starvation and sexual abuse.
Those 111 families of the disappeared are now celebrating. Forty-two Palestinians will be released to the occupied West Bank, while seven will be exiled out of the Palestinian territory.
This ceasefire is very fragile. It’s more fragile now than it was even from the onset, because Hamas accuses Israel of not keeping up its end of the bargain. It’s not allowing enough tents or mobile homes or medicine or other assistance needed into Gaza. It’s not even allowing the equipment needed to remove the debris and recover the remains of loved ones, thousands of them killed during the war.
But for now, the exchange will happen on Saturday. Israeli troops are scheduled at least to withdraw on Sunday from the Netzarim Corridor that guts the Gaza Strip and separates north from south.
Yoav Gallant confirms Israel issued Hannibal Directive on October 7
In his first interview on Thursday since being sacked by Prime Minister Netanyahu in November, former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant has confirmed that the so-called Hannibal Directive was issued during the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on Israel.
The controversial doctrine allows the Israeli military to use all necessary force to prevent Israeli soldiers from being captured and taken into enemy territory – up to and including action that will lead to those captives’ deaths.
“I think tactically in some places [the Hannibal Directive] was [authorised], in other places it was not, and that is a problem,” he said, providing the first direct confirmation by a senior Israeli official.
Last year, an investigation by Israeli newspaper Haaretz alleged that the directive was deployed at three military facilities during the October 7 attacks, in which 1,139 people were killed and 251 others taken to Gaza as captives.
However, Israel’s orders failed to distinguish between soldiers being captured and civilians. A UN-backed report put the total number of civilians and soldiers lost to Israeli fire that day at more than a dozen.
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