Israeli sniper kills young man in Gaza City
A young Palestinian man was killed by Israeli long-range gunfire while inspecting his agricultural land on al-Shaaf Street, east of Gaza City in the northern part of the enclave, according to the Wafa news agency.
The video below, verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking Sanad agency, shows a man being transferred to hospital after being shot by Israeli forces in the Saudi neighbourhood, west of Rafah city in southern Gaza earlier today.
مشاهد لإجلاء مصاب برصاص الاحتلال بالحي السعودي غربي رفح#الجزيرة #فيديو pic.twitter.com/SyaLluI76U
— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) February 23, 2025
Gaza death toll rises
The Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip reports that the bodies of 10 Palestinians have been brought to hospitals during the past 24 hours, bringing the confirmed death toll since October 7, 2023, to 48,339 people.
There were no injuries in the past day with the total number standing at 111,753 people since the start of the war. Many bodies are still believed to be under rubble or on roads and uncounted.
‘Anger, sadness’ in Gaza after Israel postpones detainee release
As we’ve been reporting, more than 400 people among the 620 Palestinian detainees slated for release on Saturday are from Gaza. They include women and children. Some of those families have been responding to Israel’s decision to suspend the releases.
“The families of the POWs [prisoners of war] are in a state of anger, a state of sadness, a state of resentment, and the mediators must do their part as they started to complete it so that the families of the POWs can rejoice at the release of their POWs who were supposed to be released today,” said Bassam al-Khatib.
“You have received your POWs, so why delay the handing over of our Palestinian POWs? This is something that hurts the heart, the lack of commitment and a disregard for all international standards and laws, and a disregard for the countries sponsoring this agreement,” he added.
Libya speaker calls for Islamic-Arab fund for Gaza
Aguila Saleh has called for the establishment of the fund to rebuild the devastated enclave through contributions from countries, organisations, banks and investment companies.
“Today we meet amid the most dangerous attempts to eradicate the Palestinian cause, following the physical annihilation our people in Gaza have endured over the past 15 months, during which the world witnessed firsthand the killing of thousands of defenceless civilians – men, women and children – and the destruction and burning of their property,” Saleh said in a speech at the Arab Parliament Conference held at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo.
“From this platform, I call on Arab governments, with the participation of Islamic countries and international organisations, to establish the Arab-Islamic Fund for the Development and Reconstruction of Gaza, managed by a trustworthy body capable of the highest level of responsibility and competence,” he added.
