Israeli forces demolish another Palestinian home

Israeli authorities have demolished a Palestinian house in the city of Rahat, in the Negev region of southern Israel, citing the lack of a building permit.

According to local sources, hundreds of Israeli troops and demolition machinery arrived in the area on Monday morning and surrounded the home of the Sheikh al-Eid family.

Last week also, Israeli forces demolished a home in the village of Saffuriya, northwest of Nazareth, after forcibly evicting the family following physical confrontations. The home was destroyed despite legal action in progress and a court session scheduled for January 27.

Call for sanctions over Israel’s ‘colonial settlement system’ in West Bank

Countries must impose “deterrent international sanctions” against Israel for its “colonial settlement system” in the occupied West Bank, Palestine’s Foreign Ministry says.

The international community has been “consistently warned” about the dangers of “escalating settler attacks against Palestinian citizens”, a statement said.

“While [the Palestinian Authority] holds the Israeli government fully and directly responsible for these attacks, it also holds the international community accountable for its failure to stop them and compel the occupying state and its forces to dismantle these militias and remove their protection,” it added.

The ministry “strongly condemns the policy of imposing collective punishment” on the Palestinian people and hindering the movement of its citizens, as well as allowing Israeli settlers to “consistently violate Palestinian rights”.

 
Securing Palestinian leaders from Israeli jails key to national unity

Mustafa Barghouti, general-secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, says Israeli will be under pressure to free senior Palestinian politicians held in prison if it wants to secure the release of high-ranking military officials captured by Hamas.

“This will have a useful impact because those leaders are some of the ones very much for Palestinian national unity. A person like Marwan Barghouti, who is a friend of mine, would be very conducive to pushing our efforts towards national unity, especially because he’s from Fatah,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The big question is whether they’ll be able to stay in Palestine or be forced to leave. As you can see, Israel is forcing so many people to be deported, which is like adding insult to injury. Not only are they holding and torturing them in prison for a very long time, in addition they deport them out of their country.”

Barghouti said national unity should not be just negotiated between Fatah and Hamas but all Palestinian groups, followed by national democratic elections that haven’t been held in more than 20 years.

Could Gaza genocide continue in the occupied West Bank?

Yara Hawari, a senior analyst with Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network, says while the Gaza ceasefire is a positive step the danger to the occupied West Bank from an Israeli invasion continues to rise.

“It’s brought about a huge amount of relief that the bombardment will stop, but I think crucially the ceasefire does not mean an end to the occupation neither in Gaza or the West Bank,” she told Al Jazeera.

“So people are under no illusion that this means an end to Israeli control over their lives. I think people are pessimistic as to whether the ceasefire will actually hold because they know the Israeli regime is already trying to sabotage it.”

Hawari noted the situation in the occupied West Bank “remains as precarious as ever”.

“We saw a year of genocide in Gaza go unchecked so the big question is could they do the same in the West Bank? I’m afraid without accountability measures the answer is yes.”

Israeli military warns of "significant operations" in the occupied West Bank

The Israeli military chief on Monday warned of the possibility of “significant operations” in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“Alongside the intensified defensive preparations in the Gaza Strip, we must be ready for significant operations in Judea and Samaria in the coming days – to preempt and capture terrorists before they reach our civilians,” Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, chief of the general staff, said in a statement, using the biblical term by which some Israelis refer to the West Bank.

“Those who engage in terror, like in Gaza, will be dealt with as in Gaza,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said during a visit to the West Bank earlier this month.

In the shadow of the war in Gaza, Israeli security forces have been engaged in intense conflict with militants in the West Bank for more than a year, including in the Jenin refugee camp – deploying tactics, such as airstrikes, that were once nearly unheard of there.

More than 500 Palestinian civilians were killed in the West Bank in 2024, according to the UN. Since October 7, 2023, Israeli forces and Jewish settlers have killed at least 169 children in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the UN said.

Meanwhile, 2024 was the third-deadliest year for Israelis in the West Bank since data collection began in 2008, according to the UN, which recorded the deaths of 34 Israelis – 15 soldiers and 19 civilians. Of those civilians, seven were settlers.

Gaza Ceasefire: Palestinian Lawyer Says Women, Children Released by Israel Faced Torture, Starvation



As the ceasefire in Gaza has entered its second day and appears to be holding, we begin our coverage in Ramallah. "We're hoping that it will continue, the Israelis will continue to release prisoners. And, of course, we have no guarantees they will not be rearrested again," says Tala Nasir, a lawyer with the Palestinian prisoner and human rights organization Addameer. She also notes that many of those released are coming home in poor health. "They were starving inside the prisons," Nasir notes.

Displaced Palestinians return to the northern Gaza Strip


_{Displaced Palestinians pass through Gaza City as they return to the Jabalia refugee camp and Beit Lahiya areas on January 20}

Qatar to deliver 12.5 million litres of fuel in initial 10 days of ceasefire

Qatar has announced a land route to the Gaza Strip that will supply 12.5 million litres (3.3 million gallons) of fuel over the first 10 days of the ceasefire with 1.25 million litres (330,000 gallons) coming in daily.

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said 25 trucks loaded with fuel funded by the state of Qatar have already arrived in the enclave through the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom in Hebrew) crossing. The fuel will be used to power hospitals and shelters for displaced Palestinians and provide other essential services.

Qatar reaffirmed its continued support “aimed at alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people” and stressed the need for concerted regional and international efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to war-ravaged civilians.

Palestinian hospitals continuously struggled to maintain partial operations under Israel’s siege and blockade, which led to acute fuel shortages. Civilians have also severely lacked for fuel as they faced the cold of two winters during the war.

Gaza telecoms companies start to restore operations in Rafah, north

Palestinian telecommunications companies have restarted partial operations of their sites in the Rafah and North Gaza governorates, according to the Ministry of Telecommunications and Digital Economy.

The ministry said in a statement that technical teams are working intensively to repair damage done by the Israeli military and ensure restoration of services as soon as possible, the official Wafa news agency reported.

The Israeli military repeatedly targeted internet and other communications infrastructure in Gaza along with other critical resources during its more than 15 months of war on the enclave. Some engineers and repair personnel were killed or maimed while trying to fix communications lines.

Israeli army’s Nahal Brigade departs Gaza

The brigade, which participated in many devastating ground operations in Gaza, left the Beit Hanoon area in northern Gaza as the ceasefire came into effect. The Israeli army said the brigade, under the command of its Division 62, is now “preparing for the next missions” after laying siege to the area for many weeks.

The Nahal Brigade lost 67 soldiers and commanders while invading Gaza, according to the military.

Displaced Palestinians return to destroyed homes in Rafah


_{Displaced Palestinians come home to the rubble of destroyed buildings in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on January 20}

_{Palestinians take pictures of a destroyed Israeli armoured vehicle inside a school in Rafah during the second day of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas}

‘No place like home, except most homes are now reduced to rubble’: UNRWA

UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, has posted a video on X showing displaced Palestinians returning to their homes, which have largely been destroyed, in the northern Gaza Strip.

The ceasefire has put an end to more than three months of heavy bombardments and a military siege by Israeli forces on the north, which left Palestinians living there with no access to their homes, food, water, medical support or safe passage.

The #ceasefire is a glimmer of hope for hundreds of thousands of displaced people hoping to go back to northern #Gaza.

No place like home, except most homes are now reduced to rubble. pic.twitter.com/cBn1xwtxRV

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) January 20, 2025

Palestinian Civil Defence says 137 bodies found in Rafah since start of ceasefire

The Gaza rescue organisation says its crews continue to dig through the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israel’s 15-month war, looking for bodies of those killed. An estimated 10,000 bodies are currently undiscovered under rubble across the Gaza Strip.

Young child killed by Israeli sniper fire: Report

The Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting that Israeli forces have shot and killed a young child in central Rafah in southern Gaza. A video filmed by Palestinian journalist Hassan Aslih and verified by Al Jazeera shows the moments after the child was shot.

A man is seen crawling up to the child to remove the body from the scene but is shot at by Israeli troops, forcing him to retreat from the area.

UN reports more than 900 aid trucks entered Gaza today

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 915 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip today, the second day of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

OCHA cited information received from Israeli authorities and the guarantors for the ceasefire agreement.

Earlier, Secretary-General Guterres told the UN Security Council that 630 aid trucks entered Gaza yesterday, the first day of the ceasefire.

‘Significant uptick’ in aid entering Gaza: International Rescue Committee

Ciaran Donnelly, the senior vice president for crisis response, recovery, and development at the International Rescue Committee, told Al Jazeera that he is “cautiously optimistic” about the amount of aid entering Gaza since the ceasefire began.

“Seeing 600-800 trucks a day” going in “is a significant uptick from where we’ve been for the last 15 months”, he said.

It is important that this rate of aid continues, he said, “given the extent of the destruction, given the numbers of people who are facing acute food insecurity, whose houses have been destroyed, who have huge immediate needs”.

He added that there also needs to be a lifting of bureaucratic and administrative restrictions to allow enough aid to enter the Gaza Strip.

Sense of ‘dissonance’ in Israel after seeing captives released by Hamas: Ex-Israeli negotiator

Daniel Levy, a former Israeli negotiator and president of the US/Middle East Project, tells Al Jazeera the footage of the Israeli captives being released by Hamas fighters who appeared to be in full control of the situation on the ground and were welcomed by the Palestinians in Gaza contradicts what has been presented to the Israel public.

“We were told that even if one fighter with one arm were able to raise two fingers, that would upend Netanyahu’s victory narrative,” he said.

“But here we have it – a Hamas that has stood up to everything and is still very much the strongest force on the ground and a Palestinian public that has been so resilient,” Levy said.

He noted that this had left a sense of dissonance in Israel between what the public has been told about Israeli military successes and “the reality they see with their own eyes”.

The joy in Israel at seeing the captives released in “good condition” is also a problem for Netanyahu because it means it will be more “difficult for him to upend and crash this agreement”, Levy said.

_{The Qassam Brigades hands over three Israeli captives to the Red Cross in Gaza City on January 19}

Far-right parties to offer Netanyahu ‘tranquility’ in return for the ‘ravages of war’: Ex-Israeli negotiator

Daniel Levy, a former Israeli negotiator and president of the US/Middle East Project, tells Al Jazeera that there is an “almost Orwellian and very transparent option – a package deal – that is on the table to Netanyahu from his religious Zionism and Jewish power factions”.

He said these factions are in effect telling the Israeli prime minister, “If you give us the ravages of war, then we will give you the tranquillity of a stable coalition.” It’s an option Levy says is one that Netanyahu, who “does not talk a post-war language”, has always preferred.

He said there is a likelihood that Israel will continue to conduct “provocations”, hoping it can blame Hamas and return to war.

The US, Israel and its Western allies have always been happy, he said, “despite all the evidence to the contrary, to tell us dishonestly the biggest obstacle” to peace was not Netanyahu but Hamas.

Israel’s Lapid refuses to work with Ben-Gvir, wants to ‘get back to life’

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid says the ceasefire must be fully implemented and continued until all captives held in Gaza are returned.

“They must rebuild their lives. We must rebuild our lives too,” he wrote in a post on X. “Contrary to the government’s position, our goal is not to return to war. The goal is to rebuild Israeli deterrence, the Israeli economy, Israeli society. It’s time to get back to life.”

Lapid told reporters before his party’s weekly meeting that he will not work with Itamar Ben-Gvir’s far-right Jewish Power party, which has left the coalition government.

He added that if a bill to dissolve the Knesset is submitted by lawmakers, his party “would vote together to bring down the government” of Netanyahu.

Israeli army must attack ‘terrorists’ participating in Palestinian celebrations: Minister

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has instructed the army to prevent Palestinians in the occupied West Bank from celebrating during upcoming releases of prisoners as part of the Gaza exchange agreement with Hamas.

“All measures must be taken to prevent the recurrence of celebrations and mass Palestinian marches in honour of the release of Palestinian terrorists to Judea and Samaria,” Katz was quoted as saying by Israeli media in a letter to military chief Herzi Halevi. “Judea and Samaria” is the name Israel uses for the West Bank.

Katz said the army must attack any “armed Palestinian terrorist who participates in these marches”.

The next such swap, in which Israeli captives are being exchanged for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, is set to take place on Saturday as part of a ceasefire that began on Sunday and has largely held so far.

As we reported earlier, the Israeli government has emphasised that it intends to keep on fighting in the Gaza Strip and launch a new major military operation in the West Bank despite the ceasefire.


_{People gather around a bus carrying freed Palestinian prisoners outside Israel’s Ofer Prison near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank early on January 20}

Katz congratulates Trump, says US-Israel bond is ‘unbreakable’

Israel’s Minister of Defence Israel Katz has congratulated Donald Trump on becoming the 47th president of the United States.

In a post on X, he said, “I look forward to working with your administration to strengthen this alliance, bring back all the hostages held in Gaza, and prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons”.

Congratulations to the 47th President of the United States @realDonaldTrump.

The bond between Israel and the United States is unbreakable, rooted in shared values and mutual interests. We appreciate the support and commitment of the US for Israel.

I look forward to working with… pic.twitter.com/ZjoPWnlAS1

— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) January 20, 2025

PA’s Abbas ‘ready to work’ with Trump based on two-state solution

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas congratulated Donald Trump on his inauguration in a message, saying, “We stand ready to work with you to achieve peace during your tenure”.

He said this would be “guided by the two-state solution on international legitimacy”, according to the Wafa news agency. “This vision seeks the establishment of the State of Palestine and the State of Israel living side by side in peace and security,” Abbas said.

Trump to lift pause on 2,000lb bomb supply to Israel: Reports

US President Donald Trump is expected to lift the Biden administration’s freeze on the supply of 2,000-pound (907kg) bombs to Israel in his first days in office, Walla News reports, citing an interview with the Israeli envoy to Washington.

US media outlet Axios has also corroborated this report.

Trump is also expected to reverse sanctions the Biden administration imposed against Israeli settlers accused of violent attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Israeli Ambassador to the US Mike Herzog told Walla News.

Negev resident’s home demolished for hiding people from Gaza on October 7: Report

The Israeli Land Authority has reportedly demolished the home of a resident of the Israeli city of Rahat in the Negev for “giving shelter to terrorists”.

The resident was also given a one-year prison sentence, according to Israel’s i24NEWS Channel, which released a video of the home being demolished. The Yoav Unit of the police participated in the demolition process.

The man is accused of hiding four Palestinians who had crossed over from Gaza on October 7, 2023, and sought to spend the night in the city.

UN human rights office “alarmed” by a new wave of violence in occupied West Bank

The United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) in Ramallah said it was “alarmed” by a new wave of violence by Israeli settlers and security forces in the occupied West Bank that erupted following the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release agreement.

Israeli security forces shot and killed a reportedly unarmed 14-year-old Palestinian boy on Sunday, the OHCHR said in a statement on Monday.

The OHCHR said “scores of settlers” stormed several Palestinian towns on Sunday, torching houses and vehicles, blocking roads and throwing stones.

Six Palestinians were injured in Sinjil, northeast of Ramallah, including three children between the ages of 14 and 16, the statement said.

“This has been accompanied by increased restrictions on Palestinians’ freedom of movement across the West Bank, including complete closure of some checkpoints and installation of new gates, effectively confining entire communities,” the statement said.

The OHCHR said Israeli security forces closed several checkpoints in Jericho and implemented “flying checkpoints” in Tulkarm, with thirteen new iron gates reportedly installed at the entrances of towns across the occupied West Bank.

“They additionally shut down all entrances to Hebron, which has effectively cut off thousands of Palestinians from neighboring communities and largely prevented children from attending schools, and residents from reaching work,” the statement said.

CNN has reached out the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for a response to the allegations.

The statement from the OHCHR came after Israel’s military chief warned on Monday of the possibility of “significant operations” in the occupied West Bank in the coming days.

Israeli forces arrest dozens of Palestinians near West Bank’s Qalqilya

A large number of Israeli forces have been deployed in a raid on the town of Azzun, located east of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank. Videos circulating on Palestinian outlets that have been verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency show the Israeli forces rounding up and moving dozens of people.

The Israeli military has said it intends to launch major operations in the West Bank after a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement was reached in Gaza.

#شاهد
مشاهد جديدة.. لحظة اعتقال جنود الاحتلال أكثر من 60 فلسطينياً في بلدة عزون شرق قلقيلية. pic.twitter.com/ndFhSpcwMI

— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) January 20, 2025

Israeli settlers launch more violent arson attacks as soldiers raid West Bank

Videos circulating online are showing a major attack by Israeli settlers on the villages of Funduq and Jinsafut, located east of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian properties could be seen on fire with smoke billowing above, amid a renewed wave of violent attacks on Palestinians in the aftermath of the Gaza ceasefire deal. Dozens of settlers protected by Israeli soldiers are believed to have participated.

The Wafa news agency reported another settler attack in Masafer Yatta in the evening, with local sources saying settlers stormed a Palestinian home.

At the entrance to the town of Dura and the Fawwar camp south of Hebron, settlers caused damage to several vehicles and chanted slogans calling for the killing and displacement of Palestinians.

Near Jaba north of occupied Jerusalem, Israeli forces destroyed a road near a military checkpoint they erected in the area, causing severe traffic jams.

#شاهد | جانب من الحرائق التي أشعلها المستوطنون في قرية الفندق شرق قلقيلية. pic.twitter.com/MXFWo0euMA

— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) January 20, 2025