Settler attacks displace Palestinian Bedouins multiple times

Along with the constant military raids, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are also frequently attacked by Israeli settlers.

The village of al-Auja in the occupied West Bank used to be home to 600 Palestinian Bedouins. Almost all of them have dismantled their tents, packed their belongings and scattered searching for shelter after settler attacks.

Ayed Kaabneh, one of those displaced, told Al Jazeera he has been displaced three times in a month. He said the Israeli settlers who attacked his family before are now chasing their new home.

“We woke up the children and moved them to a safer place. We had to because we were scared the settlers would set the tents on fire. That’s happened in many other communities,” he said.

Communities say they do not have help or protection from authorities, either Israeli or Palestinian, and have no option but to leave.

Israel’s far-right minister to push for ‘migration’ of Palestinians from West Bank, Gaza

Israeli media is reporting the far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich as saying that he would pursue a policy of “encouraging the migration” of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

“We will finally, formally, and in practical terms nullify the cursed Oslo Accords and embark on a path toward sovereignty, while encouraging emigration from both Gaza and Judea and Samaria. There is no other long-term solution,” said Smotrich, speaking at an event organised by his Religious Zionism Party late on Tuesday.

Since last week, Israel’s security cabinet has approved a series of measures backed by far-right ministers to tighten control over the West Bank, including in areas administered by the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo Accords, in place since the 1990s.

The Vatican will not take part in Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’

The Vatican will not participate in President Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” initiative, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s top diplomatic official, said.

Parolin added that efforts to handle crisis situations should be managed by the United Nations. The Holy See “will not participate in the Board of Peace because of its particular nature, which is evidently not that of other States”, Parolin said.

“One concern is that at the international level, it should above all be the UN that manages these crisis situations. This is one of the points on which we have insisted.”

Pope Leo, the first US pope and a critic of some of Trump’s policies, was invited to join the board in January.


Board of thieves, pedophiles and war criminals.

The controversial “Board of Peace” first formal meeting will take place tomorrow in Washington, DC, as beleaguered Palestinians in the war-battered territory wait for the second phase of the “ceasefire” agreement to come into force fully.

Since President Trump launched the controversial board at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, at least 19 countries have signed its founding charter.

The board, of which Trump is the chairman, was initially designed to oversee the Gaza “ceasefire” and the territory’s reconstruction, despite the US providing at least $21.7bn in military aid to Israel since its war on the Palestinian enclave began.

But the board’s purpose has since morphed into resolving all sorts of international conflicts, triggering fears that the US president wants to create a rival to the UN. Trump has said the first meeting would allocate $5bn in humanitarian and reconstruction aid for Gaza.

Trump scrambles on rare praise for Iran amidst latest warning from Ayatollah

Donald Trump has faltered after he praised the Iranians by calling them tough and good negotiators. But he had to quickly change his line by calling them bad negotiators. This came hours before Iran said it was close to securing a deal with the US on its nuclear programme. Meanwhile, the Iranian Supreme Leader too has reminded the US what could happen to its ships if Tehran retaliated. Rifat Jawaid analyses the second round of Iran-US talks.

Israel And Trump Ally With ISIS In Gaza

"I sraeli S ecret I ntelligence S ervices"

Trump SPUTTERS NONSENSE At Iran Amid WAR SPIRAL

"Negotiations are just a smoke screen. War has already been decided."

Yeah just looking for the best moment / excuse to attack in the name of self-defense.

Reports Reveal U.S. Posturing For Attack On Iran

The United States has begun the process of preparing for attacks on Iran, according to reports.

Diplomats slam Israel’s Gaza ‘ceasefire’ violations, West Bank push at UNSC

International diplomats have condemned Israel’s push to deepen control over the occupied West Bank and its continued restrictions on supplies of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip during a special United Nations Security Council meeting on Israel-Palestine.

Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar told the UNSC on Wednesday that “intensified diplomatic efforts are under way to consolidate the ceasefire, alleviate the suffering of Palestinians and advance implementation of the comprehensive plan to end the Gaza conflict”.

“On the other hand, Israel’s continued ceasefire violations, annexation attempts and illegal actions across the occupied Palestinian territories continue to undermine these efforts and threaten the prospect for a just and lasting peace,” he said.

Dar added that recent steps taken by the Israeli government to deepen control over large swaths of land in the West Bank were “gravely disturbing”.

His remarks come as dozens of countries, as well as UN experts, have condemned Israel’s West Bank push as a violation of international law and an effort to unlawfully annex the occupied territory.

Wednesday’s session at UN headquarters in New York was rescheduled from Thursday to avoid coinciding with a planned meeting of United States President Donald Trump’s so-called Board of Peace in Washington, DC.

The UNSC changed the timing of its meeting to accommodate diplomats who planned to attend both events, The Associated Press news agency reported.

The overlap is a sign of potential conflicting agendas between the UN’s most powerful body and the board, of which Trump has named himself the indefinite chairman. The US president has said he envisions the board having influence “far beyond Gaza”, fuelling concerns that Trump is trying to sideline the UN and enshrine his own “imperial agenda”.

Annexation fears

Many Arab and Muslim-majority countries had requested that the UNSC address the Gaza “ceasefire” and Israel’s new illegal settlement project, ahead of Trump’s Board of Peace meeting.

Asked what he hoped to see from the back-to-back events, Palestine’s ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said he expected “the international community to stop Israel and end their illegal effort against annexation, whether in Washington or in New York”.

Earlier this week, Mansour was joined by dozens of other UN diplomats as he read out a statement on behalf of 80 countries that called on Israel to reverse its latest actions in the West Bank and outlined their “strong opposition to any form of annexation”.

On February 8, Israel’s security cabinet greenlighted measures making it easier for Israelis to seize Palestinian land and directly buy property in the West Bank, while expanding Israel’s military control in the area, home to roughly 3.4 million Palestinians.

Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said the measures amount to “de facto sovereignty” that will block the establishment of a Palestinian state, while Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich pledged to also “encourage” Palestinian “emigration” out of the territory.

Trump’s Gaza plan

Several diplomats addressed the UNSC on Wednesday, stressing the need for Israel to allow more humanitarian aid to reach Palestinians in Gaza, who continue to face Israeli attacks.

More than 600 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since a US-brokered “ceasefire” came into effect in the enclave in October, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, said during the council meeting that the “ceasefire” has reduced hostilities while “the scope and the scale of humanitarian assistance” is growing daily.

While aspects of the Trump-backed plan for Gaza have moved forward, including Hamas releasing all the Israeli captives it was holding and increased amounts of humanitarian supplies getting into the territory, the UN says the level of aid remains insufficient.

Gaza death toll exceeds 75,000 as independent data verify loss

Peer-reviewed studies reveal official counts represent a ‘floor’ while a huge reconstructive crisis looms over the decimated enclave.



The true human cost of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip has far exceeded previous official estimates, with independent research published in the world’s leading medical journals verifying more than 75,000 “violent deaths” by early 2025.

The findings, emerging from a landmark series of scientific papers, suggest that administrative records from the Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH) represent a conservative “floor” rather than an overcount, and provide a rigorous bedrock to the scale of Palestinian loss.

The Gaza Mortality Survey (GMS), a population-representative household study published in The Lancet Global Health, estimated 75,200 “violent deaths” between October 7, 2023 and January 5, 2025. This figure represents approximately 3.4 percent of Gaza’s pre-conflict 2.2 million population and sits 34.7 percent higher than the 49,090 “violent deaths” reported by the MoH for the same period.

The Gaza Health Ministry estimates that as of February 16, at least 72,063 people have been killed since the start of the war. Of those, 603 people have been killed since the declaration of a “ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip on October 10, 2025.

Israel has consistently questioned the ministry’s figures, but an Israeli army official told journalists in the country in January that the army accepted that about 70,000 people had been killed in Gaza during the war.

Despite the higher figure, researchers noted that the demographic composition of casualties – where women, children, and the elderly comprise 56.2 percent of those killed – remains remarkably consistent with official Palestinian reporting.

Michael Spagat, a professor of economics at Royal Holloway University of London and the study’s lead author, found that while MoH reporting remains reliable, it is inherently conservative due to the collapse of the very infrastructure required to document death.

Notably, this research advances upon findings published in The Lancet in January 2025, which used statistical “capture-recapture” modelling to estimate 64,260 deaths during the war’s first nine months.

While that earlier study relied on probability to flag undercounts, this report shifts from mathematical estimation to empirical verification through direct household interviews. It extends the timeline through January 2025, confirming a violent toll exceeding 75,000 and quantifying, for the first time, the burden of “non-violent excess mortality”.

According to a separate commentary in the same publication, the systematic destruction of hospitals and administrative centres has created a “central paradox” where the more devastating the harm to the health system, the more difficult it becomes to analyse the total death toll.

Verification is further hindered by thousands of bodies still buried under rubble or mutilated beyond recognition. Beyond direct violence, the survey estimated 16,300 “non-violent deaths”, including 8,540 “excess” deaths caused directly by the deterioration of living conditions and the blockade-induced collapse of the medical sector.

A decade of reconstructive backlogs

While the death toll continues to mount, survivors face an unprecedented burden of complex injury that Gaza’s decimated healthcare system is no longer equipped to manage. A predictive, multi-source model published in eClinicalMedicine quantified 116,020 cumulative injuries as of April 30, 2025.

The study, led by researchers from Duke University and Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital, estimated that between 29,000 and 46,000 of these injuries require complex reconstructive surgery. More than 80 percent of these injuries resulted from explosions, primarily air attacks and shelling in densely populated urban zones.

The scale of the backlog is staggering. Ash Patel, a surgeon and co-author of the study, noted that even if surgical capacity were miraculously restored to pre-war levels, it would take approximately another decade to work through the estimated backlog of predicted reconstructive cases. Before the escalation, Gaza had only eight board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeons for a population exceeding 2.2 million people.

‘Torture, threats, rape’: Palestinian journalists detail Israeli jail abuse

Palestinian journalists jailed by Israel have reported widespread abuse in custody, including routine beatings, starvation and sexual assault, according to testimony published by the International Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

In a February 19 report, the media rights group said it interviewed 59 Palestinian journalists imprisoned by Israel after the Hamas-led attacks of October 2023. All but one reported experiencing “torture, abuse or other forms of violence”, it said.

The alleged abuse meted out by Israeli authorities ranged from baton beatings and electroshocks to excruciating stress positions – including under sewage water – as well as sexual violence. Two journalists said they were raped.

Journalist Sami al-Sai said soldiers stripped him and penetrated him with a baton and other items in a small cell in Israel’s Megiddo prison, an ordeal he said left him in a “severe psychological state”.

“Descriptions of sexual violence appeared repeatedly in the testimonies, with journalists describing assaults as intended to humiliate, terrorise and permanently scar them”, said the CPJ report.

‘We will kill your family’

Other accounts detailed psychological abuse, including threats to kill family members, sleep deprivation through loud music and medical neglect, such as being denied treatment for severe bone fractures and eye injuries.

Journalist Amin Baraka said he was repeatedly threatened for his work with Al Jazeera.

“An Israeli soldier told me, word for word in Arabic, ‘Al Jazeera correspondent Wael al-Dahdouh defied us and remained in the Gaza Strip, so we killed his family. We will kill your family, too,’” Baraka told CPJ.

“In every prison they transferred me to, I was subjected to physical abuse. I still suffer from the blows to my stomach … and I need surgery,” he added.

CPJ said the reports of abuse from dozens of journalists expose a “clear pattern”.

“These are not isolated incidents”, said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “They expose a deliberate strategy to intimidate and silence journalists, and destroy their ability to bear witness.”

‘There needs to be accountability’

Many of the jailed journalists were also denied basic legal protections, said CPJ.

Eighty percent of those interviewed were held under Israel’s system of administrative detention, meaning no charges were brought against them. One in four said they were never allowed to speak to a lawyer at any time, according to the watchdog.

At the same time, the vast majority of those interviewed reported experiencing “extreme hunger or malnutrition”, corroborated by photos CPJ reviewed showing detainees’ “gaunt faces, protruding ribs and hollowed cheeks”.

Some journalists said they survived solely on “moldy bread and rotten food”.

The CPJ said the detainees lost an average of 23.5 kilogrammes (54 pounds) while in custody.

“We returned from hell”, journalist Imad Ifranji said.

CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg called for the international community to “take action” against the alleged widespread mistreatment of journalists in Israeli jails.

“Humanitarian law sets unequivocal standards for the treatment of detainees, and there needs to be meaningful accountability for failure to meet these standards,” said Ginsberg.

Israeli authorities have long faced allegations of rampant abuse targeting Palestinian prisoners in their custody, including torture and rape, particularly at the notorious Sde Teiman facility. Last year, leaked footage documented Israeli prison guards gang-raping a Palestinian inmate at Sde Teiman, prompting a scandal in Israel.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir previously celebrated the “abominable conditions” of Palestinian prisoners and pledged to keep food provisions at the “bare minimum” required by law.

Young Palestinian shot, killed by Israeli settlers northeast of Jerusalem

A young Palestinian man was killed and four other people were injured when a group of Israeli settlers, backed by Israeli forces, opened fire on a village in the occupied West Bank.

The death of the young man on Wednesday evening, identified as Nasrallah Abu Siyam, 19, marks the first killing of a Palestinian by Israeli settler gunfire so far this year, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

During the attack on the village of Mukhmas, located northeast of occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli settlers also stole dozens of sheep from local Palestinian residents, Wafa reports.

The attack on Mukhmas and other Palestinian towns and villages constitutes a “dangerous escalation in systematic terrorism and reflects a complete partnership between the settlers and the occupation forces,” Mu’ayyad Sha’ban, head of the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, told Wafa.

Calling for international protection for Palestinian communities, Sha’ban said that settlers have now killed 37 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since October 2023, but the escalating violence would not deter Palestinians from holding onto their land.

Mukhmas and the adjacent Bedouin community of Khallat al-Sidra have faced repeated attacks by Israeli settlers, often occurring with the protection or presence of Israeli forces, according to reports.

The governorate of Jerusalem, one of the 16 administrative districts of Palestine, said in a statement that the killing of the young man by Israeli settlers was a “fully-fledged crime… carried out under the protection and supervision of the Israeli occupation forces.”

Largest Deployment in Decades Suggests War is Near

Today we're looking at the increasing possibility of US military action in Iran. The military buildup in the Middle East, that's still ongoing now, is unlike anything we've seen in decades. Meanwhile, negotiations have stalled and Israeli officials are suggesting something may kick off in the coming days. For a wide look at what's coming, we look today into a number of sources that discuss the rationale for war, what might be holding the US back and risks of regional escalation.

‘Today’s Board of Peace meeting all about the message Trump wants to send to allies, adversaries’

We can expect that this will be mostly symbolic and less strategic in nature, given this is the inaugural meeting. We know the US president will be speaking, but also the board will be hearing from the Middle East envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

We expect there could be up to 40 countries in attendance, but there’s no question that this is about Donald Trump, and about him at the helm.

He is using this as an opportunity to send a message to allies as well as adversaries about how the US has centralised its foreign policy and how the channels of negotiation will move forward.

[European countries] certainly have a lot of concerns about this Gaza Board of Peace, about its mandate and about its structure.

We heard some of those already… We know that some European countries are concerned that this board could be positioning itself as some sort of competition to the United Nations; that is something that Europeans certainly don’t see as being constructive.

They are also concerned about the fact that Gaza is not even mentioned in the board’s charter. They are concerned also about the power that would be in Donald Trump’s hands…

And then they are concerned about the people who are actually on the board, the countries or the members that are being represented – the fact that there are no Palestinians, the fact that the Israeli prime minister is on the board, the fact that an invitation was sent to the Russian President Vladimir Putin.

‘Palestinians want solutions, not another crisis management body’

Many people have approached us and asked about this “Board of Peace” meeting headed by Donald Trump, and asked very legitimate questions about whether decisions about Gaza are made with meaningful Palestinian involvement.

Everything is done far away from Palestinians themselves without any participation from them in their future and in what’s going to work for them.

Past experiences with conferences, with regard to reconstruction, with regard to the peace process, all ended up with large needs for funding that were delayed or [plans] that were not implemented.

Palestinians don’t want to see this again; they don’t want to see the Board of Peace as another international body that falls into the category of crisis management rather than finding a tangible solution to this longstanding problem, the Palestinian problem.

Trump opens Board of Peace meeting by hailing end to ‘eight’ wars

US President Donald Trump has opened the “Board of Peace” meeting by saying that peace is an “easy word to say but a hard world to produce”.

“We have a first year like probably no other ever in our country because we settled eight wars and I think a ninth to come. It’s turned out to be a tougher one,” he said.

“Board of Peace is one of the most important and consequential things I think that I’ll be involved in. We’ve been involved a lot and really I’ve been involved in a lot with the people up here. We work together with ending wars with their country.”


_{US President Donald Trump, US Vice President JD Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner stand with world leaders. Argentina’s President Javier Milei, Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, and Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev are among those present.}

Trump explained that the situation in Gaza is “very complex” and thanks US envoy Steve Witkoff, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance, calling them “the best team ever assembled”.

“So today’s a tremendous honour to welcome you all to the United States Institute of Peace for the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace,” he said.

“I believe it’s the most consequential board, certainly in terms of power and in terms of prestige. There’s never been anything close because these are the greatest world leaders. Almost everybody’s accepted, and the ones that haven’t will be,” Trump added.

“We work together to ensure the brighter future of Gaza, the Middle East and the entire world,” Trump says.

“I think that the Board of Peace, because it’s mostly leaders and unbelievably respected people, but mostly leaders of Middle Eastern countries, countries from all over the world, and they’ve been very generous with money also,” he added.

The president explained that there was “nothing more important than peace” and said that going to war was “a hundred times” more expensive than peace.

While getting ready to attack Iran...

Trump says Witkoff, Kushner have ‘good relationship’ with Iran’s envoys

Trump has singled out Kushner and Witkoff for recognition.

“Iran is a hotspot right now,” the US president said. “They’re meeting, and they have a good relationship with the representatives of Iran, and, you know, good talks are being had.”

“It’s proven over the years not easy to make a meaningful deal with Iran. We have to make a meaningful deal. Otherwise, bad things happen,” Trump continued.

The US military is currently building up its forces and hardware in the Gulf on Trump’s orders to unprecedented levels as the media in Israel and elsewhere insist an attack on Iran is far closer than Trump administration officials are publicly admitting to.

Trump claims ‘war in Gaza is over’ despite continued violations

The US president has been praising the “ceasefire” deal that went into effect in October, claiming the “war in Gaza is over”.

The statement comes amid near-daily Israeli violations, which have killed more than 600 Palestinians since the agreement went into effect. Experts have said ending those violations will be key to any progress the Board of Peace can make.

Trump referred to the ongoing violence as “little flames”. He added he believes Hamas will “give up their weapons”, referring to the disarmament that remains a key sticking point between Hamas and Israel.

“If they don’t, it’ll be, you know, they’ll be harshly met,” Trump said. He added, “You’ve got to give [Hamas] credit” for locating and returning all the bodies of Israeli captives in Gaza.

Palestinian Resistance REJECTS US-Israeli Demands For Gaza Disarmament

Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill highlighted his new exclusive report with colleague Jawa Ahmad, featuring remarks from senior Hamas official Basem Naim, whom they interviewed about the latest U.S. and Israeli demands for disarmament.

Trump and Netanyahu are now demanding full demilitarization, with Netanyahu threatening a return to “full scale war” if even rifles remain.

Naim told Drop Site the resistance’s position is unchanged: no unilateral disarmament, and no demilitarization outside a political process that leads to the establishment of a Palestinian state and a national armed force capable of defending it.

Scahill also detailed the “pervasive lie” espoused by many Western officials and media outlets that Hamas agreed to Trump’s sweeping 20-point plan or to demilitarize. He noted that Hamas and Islamic Jihad only signed a narrow October agreement covering a captive exchange, cessation of fire agreement, limited Israeli withdrawal, and the resumption of life essentials into Gaza.