Smotrich says he spoke with US treasury secretary

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says he spoke with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday.

“In their conversation, Minister Smotrich emphasized the deep and strategic friendship between Israel and the United States, and the two countries’ mutual commitment to promoting shared values ​​and strengthening the economy,” his office said in a statement.

“Minister Smotrich thanked the secretary for the unequivocal support of President Trump and the new administration for Israel. The two agreed to continue discussing the joint economic issues on the agenda soon.”


Netanyahu prepares to fly to meet Trump at White House

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will depart on Sunday for the United States to meet President Donald Trump, his office says.

Netanyahu has been invited to visit Trump at the White House on Tuesday and they will discuss the situation in Gaza, captives held in the Palestinian territory, and dealings with Iran and its regional allies.

Ben-Gvir: ‘We must return to war and destroy our enemies’

Far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir issued a statement celebrating the release of those held captive in Gaza but urged the government to resume the war on Gaza.

“We must not forget for a moment who the cruel enemy we are dealing with is,” he said. “Day by day, the message is clear and unambiguous to everyone: we must return to war and destroy our enemies.”

Ben-Gvir pulled his Jewish Power party out of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition last month after he approved the ceasefire deal with Hamas.


Israeli public being told ceasefire deal unlikely to succeed

Former Israeli Ambassador Alon Pinkas says the Israeli public is being exposed to “a new narrative” in the past 24 hours.

That narrative is “the ceasefire deal will not be completed … because Hamas won’t live up to the ceasefire agreement … and that it is doubtful that there’s going to be a phase two,” Pinkas, former consular general in New York, told Al Jazeera.

“You can put it in context and say [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu is floating a trial balloon of sorts ahead of his meeting with President Donald Trump next week. But there is also the conventional wisdom even if the first 42 days are implemented smoothly, and do occur without major interruption, it’s very doubtful that phase two or stage two will be implemented.”

Pinkas said Trump’s willingness to see through the ceasefire agreement depends on how successful Netanyahu is in convincing him to do otherwise.

“Netanyahu’s meeting with President Trump is so critical, not because of the details of what they’re going to talk about, but how serious Donald Trump is in getting this [ceasefire] done and if he’s going to succumb to Netanyahu’s inevitable manipulations.”

Main events from February 1st

• Three captives were transferred to Israel and 183 Palestinian prisoners were released by Israel as celebratory scenes erupted in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
• The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society says released prisoners showed signs of starvation, illness and physical injuries, indicating they had been beaten.
• Hospitals in Gaza received 27 bodies in the past 24 hours as the death toll from Israel’s 15-month war continues to rise with bodies being pulled out of the vast piles of rubble.
• The Rafah border crossing opened for the first time in nearly nine months to allow dozens of sick and wounded Palestinian patients in Gaza to travel to Egypt for medical treatment.
• Palestinian health authorities say five people were killed by Israeli air strikes in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, including a 14-year-old boy.
• Foreign ministers of five Arab countries rejected the forced displacement of Palestinians from their land as suggested by US President Donald Trump.

37 children make it out of Gaza for treatment in Egypt

The reopening of the Rafah crossing represents a significant breakthrough that bolsters the ceasefire deal Israel and Hamas reached last month.

Egypt’s Al-Qahera television showed several children being brought out on gurneys and transferred to ambulances on the Egyptian side. They were rushed to hospitals in the nearby Egyptian city of El Arish and elsewhere. Footage showed one young girl whose foot had been amputated.

Zaher al-Wahidi, an official with Gaza’s Health Ministry, said 37 of the children had crossed into Egypt by Saturday evening.

Mohammed Zaqout, director of hospitals at Gaza’s Health Ministry, said more than 6,000 patients were ready to be evacuated abroad and more than 12,000 were in urgent need of treatment.

He said the small numbers set to be evacuated would not cover the need, “and we hope the number will increase”.

Minister explains why Namibia joined The Hague Group

We’ve been covering the formation of a new organisation called The Hague Group, which brings together nine countries committed to taking “coordinated state action” to support Palestinian’s right to self-determination.

They are Belize, Bolivia, Cuba, Colombia, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal and South Africa.

We now have more from Namibia’s Justice Minister Yvonne Dausab on why her country joined the group. In a speech delivered at the launch of the group, Dausab said it will be important to tell future generations what “concrete measures” they took to support Palestinians.

“When future generations enquire [about] our contribution to Palestines right to self determination, our response must be, we took concrete measures, or we will be remembered as leaders who watched and did nothing,” she said in a widely shared video.

"When future generations enquire [about] our contribution to Palestines right to self determination, our response must be, we took concrete measures, or we will be remembered as leaders who watched & did nothing.”

— @ydausab, Namibian Minister of Justice pic.twitter.com/fpwj9XxAwC

— Progressive International (@ProgIntl) February 1, 2025

The Palestinian Authority and Israel are allies in silencing the truth

On December 28, 21-year-old journalism student Shatha Al-Sabbagh was assassinated near her home in Jenin. Her family accused snipers from the Palestinian Authority (PA) deployed in the camp of shooting her in the head. Al-Sabbagh had been active on social media, documenting the suffering of Jenin residents during the raids by Israel and the PA.

Just a few days after Al-Sabbagh’s assassination, the authorities in Ramallah banned Al Jazeera from reporting from the occupied West Bank. Three weeks later, PA forces arrested Al Jazeera correspondent Mohamad Atrash.

These developments come as the Israeli occupation has killed more than 200 media workers in Gaza and arrested dozens across the occupied Palestinian territories. It has also banned Al Jazeera and refused to allow foreign journalists to enter Gaza. The fact that the PA’s actions mirror Israel’s reveals a shared agenda to suppress independent journalism and control public opinion.

To Palestinian journalists, that is hardly news. The PA has never been our protector. It has always been a complicit partner in our brutalisation. That is true in the West Bank and it was true in Gaza when the PA was in power there. I witnessed it myself.

Palestinian prisoners ‘endured extreme torture until the very end’

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has called for swift and urgent global action to end Israel’s “systematic and pervasive crimes of murder, torture, and other grave violations against Palestinian prisoners and detainees”.

The call came in a statement outlining the “torture and systematic malnutrition” of Palestinians prisoners who were released from Israeli jails as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

“The majority appeared to be in a serious state of decline, with each of them losing several kilogrammes of weight due to what appears to be intentional starvation,” the group said.

“Following their release, many of the inmates and detainees required immediate hospital transfers for critical medical examinations. One in particular seemed incapable of recognising his future after being denied treatment while in custody,” it said.

One freed prisoner from the town of Haris in the occupied West Bank said Israeli forces forcibly shaved their heads a day before their release.

“The inmates endure extremely harsh living conditions, and the most extreme forms of torture, abuse, and degrading treatment were performed against us until the very end,” he added.

4/4 The forced disappearance of Palestinian detainees from Gaza must end! Israel must disclose their whereabouts, ensure their safety, and allow international access to detention facilities. The world cannot stay silent.

— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) February 1, 2025

Main events on Februari 2nd

• A 51-year-old man died of his wounds after an Israeli sniper shot him in Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian media reports.
• Palestinian fighters say they are engaged in clashes with Israeli troops during a raid on the Far’a refugee camp in Tubas in the occupied territory.
• Israeli settlers reportedly set fire to a mosque in the al-Melihat village in the north of the occupied West Bank’s Jericho.
• Former US president Biden hailed the release of Israeli captives by Hamas, claiming credit for the Israel-Hamas truce agreement.

Al-Quds Brigades reports ‘fierce clashes’ in Tubas

We are receiving updates on the previously reported Israeli raid targeting the Far’a refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank governorate.

Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, says its fighters in the camp have confronted the Israeli forces and engaged in clashes. The fighters’ gunfire on Israeli troops and vehicles caused confirmed causalities, according to the group.

The Wafa news agency earlier reported that Israeli forces launched a raid on the camp and the town of Tammun in Tubas at dawn.

Gaza’s death toll raised to nearly 62,000

Authorities in Gaza have updated the death toll from Israel’s war on the enclave to 61,709, having added thousands who are missing and now presumed dead.

‘No surprise’ Gaza death toll has climbed higher: Amnesty chief

The revised death toll for the Gaza Strip will not surprise anyone who has monitored and investigated what has happened over the last 15 months, according to Agnes Callamard, secretary-general of Amnesty International.

She told Al Jazeera that lower figures were enough to trigger a case at the International Court of Justice and an investigation leading to arrest warrants for Israeli leaders by the International Criminal Court.

“But it should have triggered reactions from governments around the world much earlier. So, I think the revised death toll will add to the urgency and severity of what has been done against Palestinians of Gaza,” she said.

Callamard said in terms of further legal implications, she does not believe the new number indicating almost 62,000 people killed will have an immediate or direct effect.

“Genocide is not predicated on the number of victims, it is based on the act being committed, including creating conditions of life that are meant to decimate a population, and on the intention,” said Callamard, who heads the international agency that found Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.

‘Genocide has been committed, and there must be accountability’

We have some more lines from our interview with the head of Amnesty International, Agnes Callamard, who said a ceasefire in Gaza must not mean that what has happened over the past 15 months is forgotten.

“In fact, if you have any sense of the future, you need a reckoning for the past. Amnesty’s primary message is that genocide has been committed, and accountability must be delivered for it,” the secretary-general of the international organisation told Al Jazeera.

“Regarding the few states that refuse to acknowledge the evidence, it is clearly a position that is political; it is not a legal or empirical position.”

Callamard said Amnesty is also following the events in the occupied West Bank, where the Israeli military has for the past two weeks been conducting deadly raids.

“What we do know and what we have investigated in the past, demonstrate a multiplication of violations, including of the responsibility of Israel as the occupier. Let’s recall that Israel is unlawfully occupying the West Bank, and it has a responsibility under international law as a military occupier and clearly, every one of those responsibilities are being violated right now,” she said.

“Are we looking at war crimes? It will demand a number of analyses that we have not conducted yet. But there is absolutely no doubt that human rights violations are being committed, including the unlawful destruction of Palestinian property, and unlawful detention, and forced displacement. Will that amount to committing genocide? It will take more time to reach that conclusion.”

Israeli army keeps blowing up infrastructure in south Lebanon

The Israeli military has released footage of blowing up more buildings in southern Lebanon, saying the aim was to “clear the area and destroy Hezbollah infrastructure”.

It claimed it destroyed weapons depots containing mortars, missiles, rockets, explosive devices, guns and other military equipment.

This comes as the Israeli military continues to occupy large parts of southern Lebanon, despite the ceasefire agreement that required its withdrawal last week.

Israeli PM in Washington, DC for talks

Benjamin Netanyahu is in the US, where he is set to begin talks on a second phase of the ceasefire with Hamas.

Before boarding his flight in Tel Aviv on Sunday, the Israeli prime minister said he would discuss “victory over Hamas”, countering Iran and freeing all the captives when he meets US President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

It will be Trump’s first meeting with a foreign leader since returning to the White House two weeks ago, a prioritisation Netanyahu described as “telling”. “I think it’s a testimony to the strength of the Israeli-American alliance,” he told reporters.

Netanyahu said Israel’s wartime decisions had reshaped the Middle East and that with Trump’s support, this could go even further. “I believe that working closely with President Trump, we can redraw it even further and for the better.”


Iran rejects Trump’s ‘ethnic cleansing’ plan, Israeli ‘genocide’ expanding

The Iranian Foreign Ministry says Trump’s self-described plan to “clean out” Gaza would amount to “ethnic cleansing” and must not be implemented as Netanyahu pushes for it in Washington.

Spokesman Esmail Baghaei told reporters during a weekly news conference that the international community should help Palestinians “secure their right to self-determination” instead of the plan to forcibly displace them to Jordan and Egypt.

He said Iran will be closely monitoring Netanyahu’s US trip in terms of its impact on issues surrounding the war on Gaza.

“Despite the ceasefire in Gaza, crimes and massacres in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are continuing. As the UN has warned as well, it appears the genocide is slated to continue in the West Bank and the crimes are set to be repeated.”

The comments come two days after Arab foreign ministers also rejected the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza “under any circumstances or justifications”.

Second phase of Gaza ceasefire: What to know

Negotiations are set to begin on the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

UNRWA still operational, but situation ‘highly uncertain’ due to Israeli bans

Spokesperson Jonathan Fowler says the clinics and schools run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees continue to operate in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, but the situation remains “highly uncertain” due to two Israeli laws effectively banning UNRWA.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, he said the first law bans UNRWA’s operations “on what Israel deems to be its sovereign territory – here we’re talking about East Jerusalem which, of course, in the eyes of international law, the International Court of Justice and so on is actually an occupied territory”.

Fowler added that the second law bans all contact between Israeli officials and UNRWA. “This poses immense potential problems,” he warned, citing the Israeli army’s demolition of housing blocks in Jenin as an example.

“Normally, we would know that a military operation is coming and we’d be able to make sure that the schoolchildren are safe but we have no possibility of coordination. “We were not informed in advance so there is always a risk to the population and the population that we cater to – be that patients or be that school children.”

In East Jerusalem, UNRWA provides healthcare for 70,000 people who are among the most vulnerable members of society, Fowler said.

“These are people with no affordable healthcare alternatives.”

More medical evacuations out of Gaza

The current agreement permits the daily evacuation of 50 patients, each accompanied by up to three escorts.

During the past 48 hours, more than 70 Palestinians have been allowed to evacuate outside of Gaza to receive treatment in Egyptian hospitals – far fewer than what was expected based on the terms of the agreement.

Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) has managed to evacuate 39 patients with 55 caregivers.

The WHO estimates that between 12,000 and 14,000 wounded people and patients are in desperate need of urgent medical evacuation.

But given the current rate of 50 evacuations per day, if met, the process would take months to address the needs of the critical cases. These have been desperately waiting for months without proper healthcare and essential medical services in Gaza’s barely functioning hospitals, which have been quite overwhelmed with different sorts of injuries and working under severe humanitarian and medical conditions.

The grim reality is that many patients have succumbed to their wounds and passed away due to the delay in evacuations.

This is the first time the Rafah crossing has opened in nine months, and what has been taking place now on the ground is a glimmer of hope for the families and the wounded and patients to help them start the journey of recovery.

Access to water critical for northern Gaza returnees

We have been seeing people going to their neighbourhoods and finding their houses completely collapsed to the ground.

There are no air attacks but there are endless queues for bread, at community kitchens, and also for water. The biggest struggle for Palestinians in the north now is zero access to water. We have also been seeing UNRWA distributing wheat, flour and food parcels but Palestinians say all they want right now is access to water.

People are trying to fix whatever they can in their houses, with some also reopening their stores. Meanwhile, bulldozers and municipality workers have been trying to open the roads because what the Israeli forces left in Gaza City, and the north as a whole, can only be described as a complete disaster.

There’s huge destruction. Every single aspect of life has been wiped out, there’s zero infrastructure and there’s rubble everywhere. The streets are very dusty and Palestinians do not know from where to start.

We have been seeing people fixing, cleaning, collecting glass and whatever else they can collect from under the rubble.

But we also see Palestinians being very happy to have returned home despite the fact that there’s no home left. Still, they are very happy that they are not displaced in different areas other than their houses across the Gaza Strip.

At least 70 killed in occupied West Bank in 2025: Ministry

The Palestinian Ministry of Health says at least 70 people, including 10 children, have been killed by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank since the start of the year. That includes 38 killed in Jenin; 15 in Tubas; six in Nablus; five in Tulkarem; three in Hebron; two in Bethlehem; and one in occupied East Jerusalem.

In addition to the 10 children, the Israeli military killed one woman and two elderly Palestinians, the ministry said.

Israeli forces use heavy armoured vehicles in West Bank raids

Israeli soldiers have deployed heavy armoured personnel carriers in raids in the occupied West Bank, indicating an intention to ramp up military attacks.

https://x.com/PalinfoAr/status/1886367635350200524

Translation: For the first time since the first Intifada, occupation armoured vehicles participate in the storming of the town of Tammun, Tubas district.

Israeli attacks ‘displace 75% of Palestinians from Tulkarem refugee camp’

Israeli army attacks have forced nearly three-thitds of Palestinian residents from their homes in Tulkarem refugee camp, according to a local official.

“Almost 75 percent of the camp’s 15,000 residents were forcibly displaced to the city of Tulkarem and neighbouring towns,” Faisal Salama, head of the Popular Committee for Services in the camp, told Anadolu, describing the situation in the camp as “extremely difficult.”

Residents of the camp “are living in dire conditions, as Israel is preventing the entry of medicine, food, and essential supplies,” Salama said.

UK's SHOCKING Authoritarian Move to SILENCE Palestine





BBC issues unprecedented on-air apology for calling Israelis ‘prisoners’ | Janta Ka Reporter

Rifat Jawaid lashes out at his former employer after the BBC issued an unprecedented on-air apology for simply calling those released from the Palestinian groups’ captivity as prisoners.

Released Hostages GIVE TESTIMONIES, Snub Netanyahu

Main events from February 3rd

• Thirty-nine people have left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing to get medical treatment.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to begin discussions on the second phase of the ceasefire as he visits Washington, DC for talks with US officials and President Donald Trump.
• Iran has condemned Trump’s proposal to relocate Palestinians from Gaza, warning it would amount to “ethnic cleansing”.
• Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 47,498 Palestinians and wounded 111,592 since October 7, 2023, according to the Health Ministry. The Gaza Government Media Office has given a death toll of at least 61,709 people, saying thousands of people who are missing are now presumed dead. At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks that day and more than 200 were taken captive.
  

_{Children wait in line to buy bread in Gaza City}

Israeli army’s Jenin raids cause shortage of key supplies: Aid group

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, says the blockade caused by Israel’s military operation in Jenin’s refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank is leading to a shortage of key supplies.

“Since the ceasefire was implemented in Gaza, there has been an escalation of extreme violence occurring across the West Bank, particularly in Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas,” it said in a statement.

“This is unacceptable,” it added, noting that the Israeli army on Sunday destroyed 23 buildings by carrying out several simultaneous attacks in the Jenin refugee camp.

MSF said it has been supporting Jenin’s hospital with fuel and water as well as providing hygiene kits, food and mattresses to residents in the Jenin and Tulkarem camps.