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SvennoJ on 23 February 2025
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Main events on February 23rd

  • Senior Hamas leaders Basem Naim and Mahmoud Mardawi have said the group will not engage in ceasefire discussions until Israel releases 620 Palestinian prisoners who were supposed to be freed on Saturday.
  • Egypt and Qatar are pressing Israel to release the prisoners, The Associated Press reports, as the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society accused Israel of practising “state terrorism against the prisoners and their families”.
  • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered Israeli forces to increase “operational readiness”, saying they are ready to resume fighting “at any moment”, as the Gaza ceasefire hangs by a thread.
  • Israeli tanks rolled into the occupied West Bank for the first time in more than two decades, as the government ordered its forces to prepare for an “extended stay”.
  • Hundreds of thousands of people attended the Beirut funeral of Hezbollah’s former leader, Hassan Nasrallah – killed in an Israeli air strike in September – as his successor, Naim Qassem, pledged that the “resistance” is not over.
  • Israel has warned it will not allow the new Syrian government’s military to operate south of Damascus, as interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa received an invitation to attend the Egypt-led Arab summit on Gaza’s reconstruction on March 4.

 

Palestinian rights group calls for international intervention as Israeli tanks patrol West Bank

Ramallah-based rights organisation, Al-Haq, has said the presence of armoured Israeli tanks shows that Israel’s “brutal military onslaught on the northern West Bank” is escalating.

In a statement appealing for “urgent international intervention”, Al-Haq said 40,000 Palestinians have been forced from their homes in the occupied West Bank since the ceasefire in Gaza came into force.

“Israel’s escalated attacks on the West Bank are part of its settler colonial intentions to annex de jure the territory,” Al-Haq warned.

It added that an advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice in July means “governments have obligations to ensure that Israel brings the illegal occupation to an immediate end”.



Israeli military carries out raids across West Bank amid heightened tensions

As we have been reporting, the Israeli military has sent tanks into the occupied West Bank for the first time in more than two decades, with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government ordering forces to prepare for an “extended stay”.

Amid this escalation, several Israeli military raids have been reported across the Palestinian territory over recent hours, with operations taking place in the following locations:

  • The city of Hebron
  • The Nur Shams camp, east of Tulkarem
  • The Beitunia neighbourhood in the city of Ramallah
  • The towns of Kobar and Silwad, north Ramallah
  • The town of Silat al-Harithiya, west of Jenin, where Palestinian fighters have detonated explosive devices targeting Israeli military vehicles
  • The city of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, where Israeli forces are destroying infrastructure



Palestinian rights group shares report detailing abuse in Israeli prison camp

Addameer has released a report detailing “alarming conditions” for Palestinians being held in Israel’s Ofer camp, located next to Israel’s Ofer prison and military court near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.

The report from the Jerusalem-based prisoner rights group is based on information gathered from lawyers’ visits and interviews with 373 prisoners who recounted experiencing conditions including starvation, low-quality food, poor hygiene, solitary confinement, assaults and beatings.

“The food is not only of poor quality but also insufficient in quantity. We often find spit from the soldiers mixed in, and at times there are boot prints on the cucumbers provided to us, yet we are compelled to eat it,” one unnamed prisoner is quoted as saying in the report.

The report also said, in addition to not being allowed visits from their families, a number of prisoners described being forced to wait in a cage for up to seven hours on the days they were permitted visits from their lawyers.

“The situation is challenging during the visit, as we are required to lie face down the entire time while waiting, with our hands shackled behind us and our eyes covered,” one prisoner said.