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Forums - Politics Discussion - Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

SvennoJ 4 hours ago

UN’s humanitarian chief witnesses misery of Palestinians in northern Gaza

Tom Fletcher, the United Nations chief of humanitarian affairs, who is visiting northern Gaza, recounts “unimaginable destruction” in the enclave.

“Survivors tell me we have to bear witness. And that we must do more: to protect them, to deliver lifesaving aid, to maintain the ceasefire, to help them rebuild,” he said.


At least 120,000 tents urgently needed in Gaza City alone: Official

Hosni Mahna, the Gaza Municipality spokesperson, has told the Anadolu news agency that the ongoing storm hitting the Gaza Strip has caused severe damage to tents housing displaced Palestinian families, exacerbating their suffering.

“Heavy rain and strong winds have swept through shelters and makeshift camps causing dozens of tents to fly away and flooding others,” he said, adding that “the city of Gaza urgently requires 120,000 tents or suitable housing units”.

Mahna explained that the almost non-existent resources make it incredibly difficult to respond to the needs of the displaced.

“What we are witnessing today is a true humanitarian disaster,” Mahna said. “Families who have lost their homes are living in tragic conditions with no real solutions to protect them from the harsh winter cold.”

Mahna called on international and humanitarian organisations to take “immediate action to rescue thousands of families enduring unprecedented hardship”.


Palestinians are trying to survive in makeshift tents in Gaza City, Gaza on February 06


Palestinians in Khan Younis live in tents next to destroyed residential complex

Hamad City, an apartment complex and neighbourhood in northwestern Khan Younis, was once a symbol of hope and an example of urban development in Gaza.

It was sponsored by Qatar to provide affordable housing to thousands of families, but all that’s left is devastation.

The high-rising residential towers are piles of rubble now. People are living in this bombed-out area since they have nowhere else to go. They are living in makeshift tents right by the destroyed homes.

Reconstruction will take years and so will regaining a sense of normalcy.


Palestinians shelter in tents near their destroyed homes in Hamad City



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SvennoJ 4 hours ago

Ireland pledges additional funds to UNRWA amid Israeli ban

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Harris has pledged 20 million euros ($20.8m) in support for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) as it provides assistance to people in Gaza despite an Israeli ban.

“Today’s announcement underscores Ireland’s commitment to ensuring that there is a significant and meaningful surge in humanitarian aid into Gaza at this critical time. There is no replacement for the work of UNRWA and it is vital that it is supported,” he said in a statement.

Harris said he was “gravely concerned” about the Israeli ban on UNRWA which entered into force on January 30.

“I urge Israel to reconsider these measures and encourage other Governments to support UNRWA with funding at this most critical time so that it can deliver for the millions of Palestinian refugees in need,” he added.


Aid entering Gaza far below minimum required under ceasefire terms: Gaza Government

Gaza’s Government Media Office has issued a statement saying Israel is violating the terms of the ceasefire by not allowing the agreed minimum amount of aid to enter the enclave.

The deal allowed for the passage of 600 aid trucks daily, at a minimum, including 50 fuel trucks, as well as 60,000 mobile units and 200,000 tents, electric generators and their spare parts, solar panels and batteries.

“The amount of aid that entered the Gaza Strip is still far from the minimum required,” the statement said, as 8,500 trucks have entered the Strip since the agreement went into effect 20 days ago, instead of the required 12,000. Additionally, 2,916 trucks reached northern Gaza instead of 6,000.

The aid getting in was mostly food, the statement said, while aid for shelter did not reach 10 percent of the agreed amount. Similarly, 15 fuel trucks entered Gaza instead of 50, it added.


Aid entering Gaza ‘insufficient’: Global charity

Humanitarian aid has been entering Gaza since the ceasefire came into effect, but the 600 trucks going through the Rafah crossing on a daily basis are insufficient to respond to the needs of the population, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), a global aid agency.

“Prior to October 7, [2023], 500 trucks were entering Gaza on any working day – and that was when people were working and living in their homes,” Shaina Low, communications adviser at NRC, told Al Jazeera. “Now, we’re having 600 trucks enter each day and we’re in an emergency crisis setting.”

Additionally, aid organisations “faced incredible obstruction in getting aid into Gaza” during the past 15 months. “Now, we’re finally able to scale up our response, but there are still delays in screening certain types of material,” Low said.

Materials labelled as “dual use” by Israel, which include medical supplies, are facing restrictions. Delays are also caused by the limited availability of screening equipment employed by Israeli authorities to check aid trucks, the spokesperson added.


Medical evacuations from Gaza must be stepped up: WHO

The top official for the World Health Organization (WHO) in Gaza has said the number of patients allowed to leave the war-ravaged enclave remains insufficient, as thousands need lifesaving medical treatment.

“There should be more patients going through Rafah into Egypt, but we also want other medical corridors,” Rik Peeperkorn told reporters in a video call from Gaza.

“We really want to see restored is the traditional referral pathway to the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The hospitals are ready in east Jerusalem and West Bank to receive the patients,” he added.

Under the ceasefire agreement, up to 50 Palestinian patients a day and their helpers can be evacuated from Gaza through Rafah.

Peeperkorn said these numbers must be scaled up because 12,000 to 14,000 patients remain in need of evacuation, including at least 5,000 children.


Israel does not abide by humanitarian protocol or commitments: Gaza health official

Marwan al-Hams, the director of Gaza’s field hospitals, has been quoted by the enclave’s Health Ministry on Telegram as saying:

  • The Israeli occupation does not abide by the humanitarian protocol or any other commitments.
  • Only 120 patients have left for treatment outside the Strip.
  • The occupation refuses to allow field hospitals to treat patients and the wounded.
  • Only 76 aid trucks entered the Strip, including [the kind of] medical supplies that are not priorities.
  • There are no blankets and winter clothes in light of the cold weather.
  • We have a list of 35,000 patients in dire need of treatment outside the Strip.
  • Some patients died before their turn for treatment abroad came.
  • 40 percent of kidney patients died due to the lack of necessary treatment.
  • There is no hospital or medical centre in Rafah except for one field hospital.


A field hospital is flooded following heavy rains in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip



SvennoJ 4 hours ago

Israeli military operation in West Bank’s Tulkarem enters 12th day

An Israeli military siege on Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital has continued in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem as the Israeli military has taken hold of the nearby al-Adawiya commercial complex, turning it into a barracks and surveillance post, according to the Wafa news agency.

Raids were carried out on homes in the city’s east, with the Israeli military conducting searches and field interrogations, destroying surveillance cameras, evicting residents from their homes and occupying the buildings for use as military outposts as the siege on the Tulkarem refugee camp continues.

Tulkarem Governor Abdallah Kamil said 85 percent of the camp’s residents have been forcibly displaced during Israel’s ongoing military operation.

Families forced from their homes in Israeli raids across occupied West Bank

The Israeli military has carried out multiple arrests in sweeping raids across the occupied West Bank overnight, according to the Wafa news agency and Palestinian media sources.

Families have been forced from their homes in the Far’a refugee camp, with local sources saying the houses are being converted into military barracks, according to our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues.

The raids come as the Palestinian Information Center reports, quoting local sources, that the number of Palestinians arrested in the town of Tammun has risen to 55 since the Israeli military escalated its operations in the area on Sunday.

The Israeli military has also arrested one person during a raid on the Balata refugee camp and demolished a home during another raid in the area.


Palestinian officials call on the UN to protect West Bank schools from Israeli raids

The Palestinian Ministry of Education has called upon the United Nations to safeguard Palestinian educational institutions, as Israeli forces continue their attacks on schools and educational facilities in the occupied West Bank governorates of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas.

In a statement issued on Friday, the Ministry highlighted the severe impact these assaults have had on schools, including the destruction of several educational facilities and the storming of others.

As a result of Israeli forces’ raids, approximately 100 schools in these regions have experienced disruptions to their academic schedule, the statement noted.

The ministry stressed that these attacks not only violate international law but also target the fundamental right of children to receive education in a safe environment. The destruction of educational infrastructure is severely hampering the learning process, making it difficult for children to safely access education, said the ministry in a statement.

The ministry called upon international organisations, including UNESCO, UNICEF and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to protect the rights of children and the right to education.


Ten-year-old Palestinian dies after being shot by Israeli soldier in Tulkarem

A 10-year-old Palestinian boy has died in hospital more than a week after an Israeli soldier shot him in the occupied West Bank.

Saddam Rajab was wounded on January 28 during a military operation in Tulkarem. Israeli forces detained an ambulance transporting him to a hospital and held his father in custody for an hour. The soldier reportedly boasted about shooting him.

Israel’s military has laid siege to the area for more than two weeks, attacking Palestinians and blowing up homes.



SvennoJ 4 hours ago

Gallant contradicts Netanyahu on pager attacks as rift widens

Former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant has contradicted Prime Minister Netanyahu’s account of Israel’s pager attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon, as a rift between the two plays out in Israeli media.

In an interview with Channel 14, Netanyahu discussed his decision to overrule a push by Gallant to carry out the pager attack in October 2023. Netanyahu said it would have been a “horrible mistake” to detonate them then as there were only around 150 pagers in the hands of Hezbollah members at the time, “as opposed to thousands” accumulated in the months leading up to the September 2024 attacks.

Around 37 people were killed and some 3,000 wounded across Lebanon as Israel remotely detonated booby trapped pagers and then communications devices in two attacks targeting Hezbollah members.

Gallant denied Netanyahu’s account of events, saying the operation had been “prepared years before the war” and that by October 2023, it was “ready for operation”.

“If we had launched the operation on October 11, the explosion of the pagers would have been secondary to the explosion of the radios, which would have eliminated thousands of Hezbollah terrorists,” Gallant said in a post on X.

“Unfortunately, when we were forced to launch the operation, the vast majority of the radios were in warehouses and their explosion caused no damage.”

Both Netanyahu and Gallant are subject to arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court, as they stand accused of carrying out war crimes in Gaza.

 

Israel’s intelligence chief to be reprimanded for criticising Trump’s Gaza plan

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz has ordered Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi to reprimand the head of the military intelligence directorate Shlomi Binder, after he warned that Trump’s plans to take over Gaza would result in an escalation of violence in the occupied West Bank.

“There will be no reality in which [Israeli army] officers will speak out against US President Trump’s important plan regarding Gaza, and against the directives of the political echelon,” Katz said in a statement cited by The Times of Israel newspaper.

“I ordered the [army] to prepare to advance the plan for the voluntary departure of Gaza residents who would be interested in leaving to various places in the world, and that is exactly what the [army] is required to do and will do,” he added.

 

Trump’s Gaza plan may place Egypt-Israel peace deal at risk: Report

We’ve been reporting on Egypt and Jordan’s firm rejection of President Trump’s proposal to displace Gaza’s population, as both countries warn it will wreak havoc in the region and fuel further violence.

The Associated Press news agency, quoting unnamed diplomatic sources, has revealed more details about the backdoor discussions underway in Cairo. It reports that Egyptian officials have told the Trump administration it will resist the plan and it risks jeopardising its peace deal with Israel – which has stood for nearly half a century.

Another anonymous official said this message was conveyed to the Pentagon, the State Department and members of US Congress. A second official said Israel and its allies, Britain, France and Germany, had also been informed.

A unnamed Western diplomat in Cairo said Egypt was very serious about its position and viewed Trump’s proposal as a threat to its national security. They added that the Biden administration had privately approached Egypt with a similar proposal early in the war, which was also rejected.



SvennoJ 4 hours ago

Netanyahu thanks Trump for sanctions on ‘antisemetic’ ICC

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office has welcomed President Trump’s executive order imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its staff.

“Thank you, President Trump, for your bold ICC Executive Order. It will defend America and Israel from the anti-American and antisemetic [sic] corrupt court that has no jurisdiction or basis to engage in lawfare against us,” Netanyahu’s office said in posts on X.

“The ICC waged a ruthless campaign against Israel as a trial run for action against America. President Trump’s Executive Order protects the sovereignty of both countries and its brave soldiers. Thank you, President Trump,” he added.


Israeli foreign minister commends Trump’s move against ‘immoral’ ICC

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has praised Trump for his decision to authorise sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its employees.

“I strongly commend President Trump’s executive order to impose sanctions on the so-called ‘international criminal court’,” he wrote on X. “The ICC’s actions are immoral and have no legal basis.”

Saar insisted the court has no jurisdiction as Israel and the US are not members. This stance has been repeatedly refuted by legal experts, who say the State of Palestine is a member and the court, therefore, has a mandate to investigate war crimes committed there.


US under Trump becoming ‘increasingly complicit’ in Israel’s war crimes

By authorising sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its employees, US President Donald Trump is reminding the world that Israel is above the law, and that any case against it is also a case against the US, says Marc Owen Jones, professor in Middle East Studies.

“The US is complicit in Israel’s war crimes and it is becoming increasingly complicit under Trump,” Owen Jones, who lectures at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, told Al Jazeera.

While former President Joe Biden had supported Israel while refraining from openly advocating in favour of committing war crimes, Trump’s approach is “gloves off”.

“Trump is explicitly advocating for ethnic cleansing in Gaza,” Owen Jones said. “In saying that the state of Gaza is so bad that people cannot possibly live there, he’s also acknowledging that it has been made uninhabitable, which is a war crime.”


Protesters gather outside the Anshe Emet synagogue in Chicago, United States, to demonstrate against a visit by Yoav Gallant, the former Israeli defence minister who is wanted by the ICC for alleged war crimes in Gaza, on February 6


US ‘proactively’ destroying global governance and law institutions: Hague Group

Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, acting chair of the Hague Group, a new organisation of nine nations from the Global South aiming to hold Israel accountable for its actions in Gaza, says US sanctions on the ICC are just the latest in a series of actions by the US government aimed at destroying global institutions working to uphold international law.

“The United States [is] taking a giant sledgehammer and attacking every single institution of international law,” Gandikota-Nellutla told Al Jazeera. “For the last 15 months, the United States has funded, with over $18bn, the genocide that we have seen livestreamed on our phones,” she said.

“It’s not a question of the United States now stepping back and abandoning international law — I wish it was just that. But it really is a matter of them actively, proactively stepping in to destroy institutions of global governance and law.”

What the newly established Hague Group is seeking to do, Gandikota-Nellutla added, is “salvage” these institutions and “save them from these attacks”.

Orban suggests Hungary might leave ICC after Trump’s move

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a staunch ally of Trump, says the sanctions imposed on the court by the US president are part of “the Trump-tornado”.

“It is time for Hungary to review what we’re doing in an international organization that is under US sanctions! New winds are blowing in international politics. We call it the Trump-tornado,” he said on X.



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SvennoJ 4 hours ago

ICC ‘condemns’ US sanctions ‘seeking to harm’ its work

The Hague-based court has hit back after US President Trump slapped sanctions on the institution, promising it would continue to provide “justice and hope” around the world.

“The ICC condemns the issuance by the US of an Executive Order seeking to impose sanctions on its officials and harm its independent and impartial judicial work,” the court said in a statement.

“The Court stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world,” it added.


Countries, rights groups condemn Trump’s ICC sanctions

Caspar Veldkamp, the foreign minister of the Netherlands, has described the International Criminal Court’s work as “essential in the fight against impunity”.

“The Netherlands actively contributes to strengthening the international legal order and multilateral cooperation and will, in good faith, fulfil binding international law and treaty obligations,” he said.

Agnes Callamard, the chief of Amnesty International, a global rights group, has also condemned the decision, describing Trump’s order as “reckless”, “vindictive” and “aggressive”.

She said the US sanctions undermine the court’s “independent pursuit of international justice”.

“Governments around the world and regional organisations must do everything in their power to mitigate and block the effect of President Trump’s sanctions,” Callamard said.

“Through collective and concerted actions, ICC member states can protect the Court and its staff. Urgent action is needed, like never before,” she added.


Indirect implications of Trump’s ICC move ‘can be very serious’: Legal expert

Saul Takahashi, a professor of international human rights law at Osaka Jogakuin University, says the direct impact of the sanctions imposed on the ICC by the US is likely to be very limited.

The court “is not in the United States, it is in The Hague in the Netherlands,” he said, adding that there will be implications for some ICC staff members who have assets in the US.

Takahashi, however, said the indirect implications of Trump’s move “can be very serious”.

“The executive order talks about not only sanctioning actual staff members of the ICC … but also people who cooperate with the ICC in the investigation into Israeli officials,” Takahashi stressed.

He said: “We are talking about human rights activists, victims, etc. Those kind of people may be shut out of the US or face penalties.”



SvennoJ 4 hours ago

US envoy comes to Beirut with ‘very clear message’

US special envoy Morgan Ortagus has come to Lebanon with a very clear message about what the country should look like going forward.

She said Hezbollah should not have any role in this government as the group has been defeated.

There’s no doubt that Israel’s war weakened it. What Ortagus is trying to say here is that there is a new reality in Lebanon and Hezbollah must not be able to benefit from it politically after losing militarily.

Her message is that the US supports leaders who are committed to fighting corruption and disarming Hezbollah.

Lebanon presidency distances itself from US envoy comments

We reported earlier that US Deputy Special Envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus said after a meeting with Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun that the participation of Hezbollah in the incoming Lebanese government is a “red line”.

Now the Lebanese presidency is distancing itself from Ortagus’s remarks.

“Some of what was said by the US deputy special envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus in Baabda [the presidential palace] only represents her own view points, and the presidency is not concerned with it,” Aoun’s office said in a brief statement shared on social media.

Ortagus’s visit to Beirut comes as Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam is scrambling to put together a cabinet that is expected to include most major political parties in Lebanon.

Hezbollah and its top ally the Amal Movement – known as the Shia duo – have dozens of members in the 128-seat Lebanese Parliament.


Hezbollah responds to Trump’s envoy

Mohammad Raad, the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, has rebuked Ortagus for her call to exclude the group from the Lebanese government.

Raad said in a video message that the US deputy Middle East envoy’s remarks “are full of hatred and irresponsibility”.

“They aim to insult a national component of Lebanon that is part of the National Accord and Lebanese political life,” he added. “Her statements are a blatant interference in Lebanon’s sovereignty and a violation to all diplomatic norms and obligations of international relations.”

Ortagus had also congratulated Israel for defeating Hezbollah. But Raad rejected her assertion, saying that the Lebanese people were “victorious”, and they revealed the “ugly image of the aggressor that is carrying out a genocide against civilians"



SvennoJ 4 hours ago

Hamas accuses Israel of delaying aid deliveries

Hamas has accused Israel of delaying aid deliveries agreed under the Gaza ceasefire deal. The group’s spokesperson Abdul Latif al-Qanou said that goods such as tents, rubble removal equipment and fuel were affected.

Hamas has called on mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States to exert pressure on Israel to fulfil its obligations.

According to Israel, the agreed number of 600 aid trucks per day has so far been exceeded.

Since the ceasefire deal came into effect on January 19, more than 12,000 trucks carrying humanitarian aid have entered Gaza, according to the Israeli authority responsible for Palestinian affairs.

The UN said on Thursday that the figure was closer to 10,000 representing some 550 trucks per day.


Israeli army says it’s deploying troops in Gaza Strip under ceasefire

“As part of the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and the return of the kidnapped, forces from Division 162, Division 143, and Division 99 in the Southern Command were deployed to several points in the Gaza Strip,” the Israeli military says in a post on X.

It said this was “to strengthen the layer of defence for residents of the western Negev and the State of Israel”.


Uncertainty plagues the Gaza ceasefire process

From the beginning of the ceasefire deal, everybody understood that the stakes are very high. But that the potential for a breakdown was also quite high.

There have been delays, as we saw today, in the release of the names of the Israeli captives to be freed.

Hamas, however, accuses Israel of implementing only 10 percent of the humanitarian protocol. This pertains to the number of trucks that are allowed in and the tents that are needed for those 1.9 million displaced Palestinians in Gaza.

The number of injured Palestinians, who have been waiting for months for life-saving treatment outside of Gaza, has also not matched the number agreed upon in the ceasefire agreement.

Let’s also remember this is still phase one of the ceasefire agreement. Negotiations on phase two haven’t started yet and have been delayed.


Trump adds a new phase to the ceasefire – ‘ethnic cleansing’

The delayed release of a list of Israeli captives to be freed from Gaza on Saturday was met with relief after the fate of the ceasefire was thrown into question by Trump’s comments about Gaza this week.

“There was a bit of calm that followed the publishing of the list of captives that are going to be released because there is a lot of anxiety surrounding Trump’s declared intention to take over Gaza and to expel all the Palestinians from it,” Michael Omer-Man, director of research for Israel-Palestine at the human rights group DAWN, told Al Jazeera.

“If that’s the case, with that end game so clearly laid out, what is the incentive for Hamas to continue with this deal?”

While he noted that “there’s a bit of relief, all around, that it is moving forward at this stage,” Omer-Man cautioned that the deal remains fragile.

“There’s a lot more uncertainty about the next stages,” he said. “Whereas Trump has said quite consistently that he wants to see everybody released and for this deal to be completed, he’s added a new stage, which is cleansing Gaza of all of its people.” 



SvennoJ 4 hours ago

State Department greenlights $7.4bn arms deal with Israel

The US State Department has signed off on the sale to Israel of $6.75bn in bombs, guidance kits and fuses, in addition to $660m in Hellfire missiles, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA).

“The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defence capability,” the DSCA said.

Over the past 15 months, critics of Israel’s war on Gaza have repeatedly called on the US government to cut off weapons transfers to Israel, alleging they make the US complicit in the destruction of the coastal enclave.

New US arms sale to Israel signals ‘continuity’ with Biden administration

In fact, this particular package of weaponry was first approved by the Biden administration in January, one of the last arm transfers it asked Congress to approve, and it wasn’t approved by the time the Biden administration left.

So this was basically a bit of paperwork for the incoming Trump administration from the defence security corporation of the Pentagon, but the State Department wants to transfer these weapons to Israel. It’s a package of weapons that the Biden administration wanted to put forward but it was put on a hold by members of the Senate and the House foreign affairs committee.

But this is continuity with Biden. It isn’t new, but it’s certainly something that Netanyahu wanted to get reassurance from Trump that he would resubmit this request to Congress.

Having said that, Trump has already also asked for $1bn in weapons to go to Israel. That request went this week. And that includes 4,700 1000-pound bombs, worth more than $700m, and armoured bulldozers by the company Caterpillar, $300m of that.

What we are watching is how determined the opposition may be to try and stand in the way of Trump, because of their general anger at him being in power and some of his other policies, now that it’s him who’s supplying the genocidal government in Israel and not Joe Biden.

Pro-Israel groups provide names of Palestine supporters to US immigration: Report

Pro-Israel groups in the US are compiling lists of pro-Palestine activists to hand to immigration authorities for deportation, according to a new report by The Intercept.

The US outlet investigated groups attempting to assist President Trump’s recent executive order demanding “the removal of resident aliens who violate our laws”.

The order – issued in response to pro-Palestine college campus protests across the US in 2024 – is intended to “quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, and investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities”.

The Intercept report says that Betar US, Mothers Against College Antisemitism, the Chicago Jewish Alliance, and the Shirion Collective have taken steps to compile lists of pro-Palestine supporters to share with immigration authorities, or harass them directly with a “bounty system”.



SvennoJ 55 minutes ago

Main points on Februari 7th

  • Hamas has named three Israeli captives – Eli Sharabi, Ohad Ben Ami and Or Levy – who are set to be released on Saturday in exchange for 183 Palestinian prisoners.
  • Gaza’s Government Media Office has said more than 12,000 bodies are estimated to be trapped under the rubble in the enclave, but Israel is preventing the necessary heavy equipment to retrieve them from entering the Strip.
  • Egypt has said it has been in contact with Arab partners – including Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – to firm up the region’s rejection of any displacement of Palestinians after President Trump said Gaza’s population should be relocated.
  • The US State Department has signed off on the sale to Israel of $6.75bn in bombs, guidance kits and fuses, in addition to $660m in Hellfire missiles, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
  • Saddam Rajab, a 10-year-old Palestinian boy, has died in hospital more than a week after an Israeli soldier shot him during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem.
  • US Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus has said Hezbollah’s presence in Lebanon’s new government is a red line for Washington.


Palestinians walk past the rubble of bombed-out buildings in Gaza City on February 6


Return to war possible as Israel positions for Gaza ceasefire to fail

Hamas has released a list of three names of Israeli captives it will set free on Saturday. In exchange for that, Israel will release 183 Palestinians, including 111 taken from Gaza during 16 months of war.

The UN accuses Israel of forcibly disappearing thousands of Palestinians. They know from testimony that those forcibly disappeared have been maltreated, including by starvation and sexual abuse.

Those 111 families of the disappeared are now celebrating. Forty-two Palestinians will be released to the occupied West Bank, while seven will be exiled out of the Palestinian territory.

This ceasefire is very fragile. It’s more fragile now than it was even from the onset, because Hamas accuses Israel of not keeping up its end of the bargain. It’s not allowing enough tents or mobile homes or medicine or other assistance needed into Gaza. It’s not even allowing the equipment needed to remove the debris and recover the remains of loved ones, thousands of them killed during the war.

But for now, the exchange will happen on Saturday. Israeli troops are scheduled at least to withdraw on Sunday from the Netzarim Corridor that guts the Gaza Strip and separates north from south.

Yoav Gallant confirms Israel issued Hannibal Directive on October 7

In his first interview on Thursday since being sacked by Prime Minister Netanyahu in November, former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant has confirmed that the so-called Hannibal Directive was issued during the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on Israel.

The controversial doctrine allows the Israeli military to use all necessary force to prevent Israeli soldiers from being captured and taken into enemy territory – up to and including action that will lead to those captives’ deaths.

“I think tactically in some places [the Hannibal Directive] was [authorised], in other places it was not, and that is a problem,” he said, providing the first direct confirmation by a senior Israeli official.

Last year, an investigation by Israeli newspaper Haaretz alleged that the directive was deployed at three military facilities during the October 7 attacks, in which 1,139 people were killed and 251 others taken to Gaza as captives.

However, Israel’s orders failed to distinguish between soldiers being captured and civilians. A UN-backed report put the total number of civilians and soldiers lost to Israeli fire that day at more than a dozen.