Israel’s new Rafah border site carries coded annexation message

As the first trickle of humanity passed through the gates of Rafah today, official Israeli military documents gave the new security checkpoint a name that indicates the facility is not being treated as a border crossing but as an operation for population control.

In an official statement published on its website on Sunday, the Israeli army announced the completion of what it called the “Regavim Inspection Nekez”.

While the Israeli military frames this technical language as routine, analysts told Al Jazeera that the choice of the words “regavim” (“clods of earth” in Hebrew) and “nekez” (“drainage point”) indicates Israel’s long-term intentions.

Al Jazeera spoke to Israeli affairs experts who argued that these terms reveal a dual strategy: invoking Zionist nostalgia to claim the land while using engineering terms to dehumanise the Palestinian people.

US contractor sent White House plan granting itself 300 percent profits on Gaza reconstruction: Report

A draft proposal sent to the White House by the US disaster response firm Gothams LLC would guarantee it 300 percent profits and a seven-year monopoly over Gaza’s reconstruction through US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, UK newspaper The Guardian has reported.

The draft plan from Gothams LLC would allow it to collect a fee for every truck moving goods into Gaza and charge for the use of its warehousing and distribution system, according to a copy of the document seen by the newspaper.

The Guardian first reported in December that the US firm was the frontrunner for a deal that would be carried out by the Board of Peace, but the scale of the profit margin hadn’t been revealed.

UAE official denies reports of involvement in Gaza administration

UAE State Minister Reem Al Hashimy has denied reports circulated in Israeli media alleging that Abu Dhabi had agreed to assume the civil administration of the Gaza Strip.

In a statement carried by the Emirates News Agency (WAM), Al Hashimy said the governance and administration of the Strip was “the responsibility of the Palestinian people” and added that the UAE would continue to play a role in facilitating a lasting peace process.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported earlier that trilateral talks between the UAE, Israel and the United States had resulted in Abu Dhabi agreeing to assume full administration of the enclave.

Smotrich claims Hamas to be given ‘two-month ultimatum’ to disarm: Report

Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, says Hamas will be given a “two-month ultimatum” to disarm by Trump’s Board of Peace, which will oversee ending the war in Gaza.

In comments carried by Israeli newspaper Makor Rishon, Smotrich is quoted as saying that there will be no end to the war “before Hamas is destroyed”.

“There will be no Hamas in Gaza, neither militarily, nor [civilly], nor in government. We made a commitment, and that is the main objective of the war,” he said.

The second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement stipulates the disarmament of Hamas and other Palestinian factions, further withdrawal of Israeli forces, and the beginning of reconstruction efforts.

While the Board of Peace was announced as part of Trump’s ceasefire plan in October, its charter does not explicitly refer to the enclave and is instead described as “an international organisation that seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance”.

Israeli PM criticizes Gaza committee’s use of Palestinian Authority logo

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denounced the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza over its decision to update its logo to match the Palestinian Authority (PA) emblem.

The logo “presented to Israel was entirely different from the one published this evening”, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Monday.

“Israel will not accept the use of a Palestinian Authority symbol; the Palestinian Authority will have no part in the administration of Gaza,” it added.

Netanyahu has vehemently objected to any role for the PA in Gaza, although he acknowledged last week that PA representatives will participate in the operational mechanism at the Rafah crossing.

The 15-person committee was established as part of the US-brokered peace effort and consists of 11 Palestinian national figures. It is led by Ali Shaath, a former PA official.



French judges issue arrest warrants for French-Israeli activists over complicity in Gaza genocide

French investigating judges have issued arrest warrants for two French-Israeli women living in Israel, accused of having obstructed the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, French newspaper Le Monde has reported.

The women were identified as Nili Kupfer-Naouri, founder and president of the organisation Israel Is Forever, which states its mission as the “mobilization of French-speaking Zionist forces”, and Rachel T, spokesperson for the collective Tsav 9, which repeatedly blocked trucks headed for Gaza in 2024.

According to the report, they are accused of complicity in genocide and incitement to genocide.

Israeli army drops unknown chemicals on southern Lebanon: UNIFIL

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has issued a statement saying the Israeli army dropped an unknown chemical substance on agricultural lands in southern Lebanon on Sunday.

Peacekeepers could not perform normal operations near the Blue Line, which demarcates the de facto border between Israel, Lebanon and the occupied Golan Heights, for more than nine hours, UNIFIL said.

“This is not the first time that the [Israeli army] has dropped unknown chemical substances from airplanes over Lebanon,” it added. Such activity is “unacceptable and contrary to resolution 1701”, which ended hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.

Additionally, it potentially put the health of UNIFIL troops and that of civilians at risk, the statement added. Israeli forces said they dropped a “non-toxic chemical substance”, but UNIFIL forces supported the Lebanese army in collecting samples that would be tested for toxicity.

Israel’s actions in southern Lebanon since it entered into a de facto state of war with Hezbollah in October 2023 have been described as ecocide, the practice of deliberate environmental damage and destruction.

Israeli forces kill Palestinian in Khan Younis as death toll rises

A Palestinian has been killed by Israeli soldiers south of Khan Younis, medical sources at Nasser Hospital tell Al Jazeera.

Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis says Ahmed Abdel-Al, 19, was shot and killed by Israeli troops on Tuesday morning in an area away from where Israeli military has seized total control in southern Gaza.

Palestinian Authority calls on UN to act on Israeli attacks, restrictions

Riyad Mansour, Palestine’s envoy to the United Nations, has sent letters to senior UN officials urging immediate international action to address the increasingly desperate humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Mansour warned of “catastrophic” scenes in the Strip and Israel’s continued violations of the US-brokered “ceasefire” and international humanitarian law.

Mansour called on the international community to fulfil its legal and moral obligations and to intervene immediately for a permanent ceasefire that will end “the massacres” perpetrated against the Palestinian people, the official Wafa news agency reported.

He highlighted that 43 Palestinians, including three journalists, were killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza between January 14 and 28. At least 31 people were killed and dozens wounded in attacks on Saturday alone.

In his letter, Mansour also underscored deadly attacks by the Israeli army and settlers in the occupied West Bank, and its policies of collective punishment, torture, detention, and confiscation of Palestinian land.

Gaza rescue workers ground vehicles amid lack of fuel

A statement on Telegram by the civil defence agency says body recovery operations in the war-battered enclave have been suspended as rescue vehicles ran out of petrol.

Hazard removal operations around the vast piles of destroyed infrastructure have also been stopped because of a lack of fuel needed to power heavy equipment, it said.

Crews are unable to respond to weather-related distress calls. The agency called on the international community for immediate action to provide crucial fuel supplies needed for humanitarian services throughout the devastated Gaza Strip.

Identification centre set up for returned Palestinian bodies

The facility has been established at the al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City for the bodies of Palestinians returned by Israel.

“This is to verify their identities in preparation for completing the legal procedures and burying them with dignity,” a Health Ministry statement said.

Israel returned the bodies of 15 Palestinians through the International Committee of the Red Cross in exchange for the final Israeli captive, whose remains were recovered by Israeli forces last week.

Rebuilding Gaza’s decimated health system ‘most efficient’ way to treat patients: WHO

Not only does Gaza’s border with Egypt need to fully open but so do all other “pathways for patients”, says Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO).

“We know the most time-efficient and cost-efficient referral pathways are through to the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where there are medical facilities ready to receive patients,” Jasarevic told Al Jazeera.

“We have been calling for the opening of all crossings throughout the war,” he added.

While thousands of patients in Gaza need security clearances from Israeli authorities to leave the enclave for treatment, countries around the world also need to step forward and accept wounded and ill Palestinians after more than two years of devastation, Jasarevic said.

“So far during the war, we evacuated more than 10,000 people, and the majority of these people went to Egypt and after that the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and some European countries. … What we really should be focused on now is to rebuild the health system inside Gaza so we don’t rely so much on evacuations.”

‘Save the patients of Gaza,’ doctor pleads

Dr Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, says Israel must be forced to get rid of the time-wasting restrictions on patients seeking life-saving healthcare outside the besieged Strip.

He noted that on Monday only five patients were permitted by Israeli authorities to pass through the Rafah border crossing. About 22,000 sick and wounded Palestinians in Gaza need urgent evacuation for treatment, Abu Salmiya said.

“Today, 16 patients were discharged, meaning it will take about five years on average for all patients to be discharged. This is crisis management, not a solution to the crisis,” he said.

“Allow us access to medicines, medical supplies and equipment, and we will be able to treat our patients. Denying patients discharge and preventing the entry of medicines is a death sentence for them. Save the patients of Gaza.”

Eight Palestinians left, 12 returned to Gaza on Monday: Interior ministry

The Gaza Interior Ministry says it has monitored operations at the Rafah crossing throughout Monday after its reopening.

Eight people – patients and their companions – departed Gaza during the day, the ministry said in a brief statement on Telegram.

Another 12 Palestinians, nine women and three children, arrived in the Strip late on Monday. “They were provided with immediate assistance and their arrival procedures were completed,” the ministry said.

Critics of Israel’s prohibitive restrictions say the slow-moving process to get wounded and sick Palestinians treatment abroad is a “death sentence” for potentially hundreds of patients in Gaza.

45 Palestinian patients, 90 companions head towards Rafah: Red Crescent

About 45 Palestinian patients, along with 90 companions, are moving in vehicles towards the Rafah crossing to be transferred to Egypt for urgent medical care, the Palestine Red Crescent Society says.

An estimated 22,000 wounded and sick people are also in dire need of treatment abroad, after Israel’s genocidal two-year war devastated Gaza’s healthcare system.

Instead of ‘beautiful reunions’, Rafah crossing process has been a ‘nightmare’

There is no list so far today stating who will be allowed to leave Gaza to receive urgent medical treatment abroad, as discussions are still ongoing between the World Health Organization and the Israeli military.

On the ground, we can see different field preparations being made by the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

Its hospital here is the main gathering point, and in the past few hours, we saw vehicles affiliated with the WHO make their way inside to start preparing patients to leave Gaza for medical care.

The process has also been a nightmare for those returning to Gaza. I spoke to a Palestinian woman who reunited with her family after months of separation. She was blindfolded and interrogated by the Israeli military on her way back to Gaza.

Others told me they were intercepted by Israeli-backed militias near Rafah city in the south. This is a main area where these gangs are actively operating under the cover of the Israeli military. These militias have asked returnees to provide them with information about armed factions in Gaza.

So the Rafah crossing has been a humiliating process instead of a day marking a beautiful reunion with family.

Rafah exemplifies Israel’s ‘absolute control’ over Palestinian lives

For people crossing through Rafah, the trips have been humiliating. There were strip searches and interrogations, but now there are even more extreme elements. We’re hearing about people being blindfolded, having their hands tied, and being interrogated.

The semantics of it sound sterile, but when we talk about security screening, and a person needing urgent medical care, that person is basically being denied medical attention. And that’s really at the heart of it – the absolute control Israel has over everybody’s life.

Meanwhile, the ability for other categories of people to cross is on hold, including students wishing to study abroad who, for the most part, studied during the Gaza genocide. They were trying to survive and finish their schooling at the same time.

They looked for an internet signal during the war. They submitted their exams and projects despite being displaced from one place to another.

And they made it, got accepted into universities and got scholarships. But they’re nowhere near the queue of people wanting to leave Gaza. More than 20,000 people need to leave urgently for medical care to save their lives.

Palestinian officials tell me up to 30,000 Palestinians have requested to return to Gaza – people who left during the war. They’re not getting the clearance to come back in.

Treatment of Palestinians crossing Rafah ‘collective punishment’: Hamas

The “mistreatment, abuse, and deliberate extortion” suffered by Palestinians returning to Gaza through the Rafah crossing “constitutes fascist behaviour and organised terrorism” and amounts to “collective punishment”, says Hamas.

“Painful field testimonies have revealed degrading practices including the abduction of women from among the travellers, blindfolding them, subjecting them to lengthy interrogations with irrelevant questions, threatening some with their children, and attempting to extort one of them into collaborating,” the Palestinian group said.

“This confirms that what is happening is not ‘crossing procedures’ but rather systematic violations aimed at instilling fear and deterring people from returning to their homes.”

Hamas urged international human rights organisations to document the alleged violations.

The long-awaited reopening of the territory’s southern border crossing with Egypt was supposed to alleviate the punishing military siege of Gaza. Instead, Israeli authorities continue with tight security restrictions and a complex bureaucratic process that allows only a small number of people to travel in either direction.

Palestinians say Israel confiscating personal belongings

As thousands of people try to get back to their homes and families in the besieged Gaza Strip, accounts are emerging of Israeli authorities stripping travellers of their possessions.

“They didn’t let us cross with anything,” Rotana al-Regeb said as she returned at midnight to Khan Younis in the south. “They emptied everything before letting us through. We were only allowed to take the clothes on our backs and one bag per person.”

Samira Said described the lengthy return process as “very difficult”. “They searched all of our belongings, especially at Israeli checkpoints. We were searched several times,” she said.

WHO appeals for $1bn for world’s worst health crises including Gaza

The World Health Organization has appealed for $1bn to address health crises this year across the world’s 36 most severe emergencies, including in Gaza, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Haiti.

“A quarter of a billion people are living through humanitarian crises that strip away the most basic protections: safety, shelter and access to healthcare,” WHO health emergencies chief Chikwe Ihekweazu told reporters in Geneva. “Health needs are surging … yet access to care is shrinking.”

The WHO has repeatedly said Gaza’s healthcare system is “on the brink of collapse” with institutions hardly functioning, a blockade on medical supplies and equipment, and Israel-imposed delays in travel for critical cases threatening Palestinian lives.

Palestinian prisoner dies a week after release from Israeli jail

Palestinian prisoner Khaled al-Saifi, 67, has died as a result of medical negligence a week after his release from Israeli jail, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

The monitors said in a statement that al-Saifi, a resident of the Dheisheh refugee camp in the occupied West Bank’s Bethlehem area, had been arrested twice since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023. He spent at least four months in prison in Ramla, where his health deteriorated due to torture, abuse and starvation.

The organisations said he was released and transferred to the Istishari Hospital in the occupied West Bank’s Ramallah city in critical condition and died on Monday. At least 21,000 Palestinians have been arrested in the West Bank since the start of the war.

Israeli rights group says government aiming to annex East Jerusalem by 2029

Israeli non-profit Ir Amim has said the Israeli government adopted a resolution with a mandate to complete land registration on 100 percent of land in the occupied East Jerusalem by the end of 2029.

This process, through which the state “determines and finalizes land ownership rights and officially records them in the State’s land registry”, has become one of its primary tools “for seizing Palestinian land and expanding Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem”, it said on X.

The resolution allocates new budgets, increases government personnel, and stipulates the involvement of the Custodian of Absentee Property under the authority of far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, “indicating a concerted effort to expand and expedite implementation of the process”.

This “raises serious alarm and underscores the government’s intent to accelerate mass land confiscations in East Jerusalem, placing Palestinians at an unprecedented risk of dispossession and displacement”, it added.

‘Where is the Board of Peace?’ Wounded Gaza resident recounts ordeal for medical evacuation

Shadi Soboh, a 37-year-old Palestinian wounded during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, says he has been waiting for a medical evacuation from the enclave for 10 months.

“I lost bones, 12 centimetres [4.7 inches], and the main artery was cut. All the hospitals, Nasser Hospital, al-Shifa Hospital, and all doctors told me I need a bone transplant surgery abroad. I submitted an application and did a transfer to go abroad to do my operation,” he said.

“This is my transfer paper. It was done 10 months ago. Where is the Board of Peace? Where is the world? Are they waiting for my leg to get amputated?”

The next stage of the Gaza genocide has begun

Jamal’s nine-year-old body is paralysed. He experiences constant, uncontrollable, violent spasms. He cannot sleep through them, nor can his mother. To keep the spasms under control, a drug called baclofen is required. It relaxes the muscles and stops the shaking. Suddenly halting the use of baclofen can have serious health consequences.

Jamal’s mother, my cousin Shaima, wrote to me from the family’s tent in the al-Mawasi displacement camp in Gaza a week ago. It was her son’s seventh day without the medicine. The violent, neurological spasms that seize Jamal’s limbs leave him screaming out in pain.

Baclofen is unavailable anywhere in Gaza: not in hospitals, not in clinics, not in Ministry of Health warehouses, and not even through the Red Cross. Shaima has searched all of them. It is one of the many medicines blocked by Israel, along with painkillers and antibiotics.

Jamal now endures dozens of spasms each day. There is no alternative medication or substitute. There is no relief, only pain.

Jamal’s story is not to be told if the likes of former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are to have their way.


_{Cold, wet weather worsens conditions of displaced Palestinians in central Gaza}

Israeli forces shoot Gaza City resident dead, child succumbs to injuries in Khan Younis

A Palestinian person has been shot dead by Israeli forces in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, according to the Wafa news agency.

Also this evening, a Palestinian child, Muhammad Shehadeh Abu Hudaid, succumbed to his injuries sustained several days ago in an Israeli bombing of the al-Mawasi area near the enclave’s southern city of Khan Youni, Wafa reported.

Palestinian women describe ‘journey of horror’ crossing back into Gaza

Palestinian women among the few people let back into Gaza after ‍Israel’s delayed reopening of the Rafah crossing ‍under last year’s “ceasefire” have described being blindfolded, handcuffed and interrogated by Israeli forces as they tried to get home.

Their journey from Egypt on Monday through the frontier post and across the “yellow line” zone controlled by Israel and an allied Palestinian militia group, involved lengthy delays and the confiscation of gifts, including toys, one of the women said.

“It was a journey of horror, humiliation and oppression,” 56-year-old Huda Abu Abed told the Reuters news agency by phone from the tent her family is living in at Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Her account ⁠was supported by that of another woman Reuters interviewed.

In response to a Reuters request for comment, Israel’s military denied its forces had acted ​inappropriately or mistreated Palestinians crossing into Gaza, without addressing the specific allegations made by the two women interviewed.