Students in Gaza return to school amid destruction, as fragile ceasefire holds

The 2024-2025 academic year in Gaza has begun amid severe challenges, with the majority of schools in the besieged enclave destroyed by Israeli air raids since October 2023.

Many young students have also lost their homes, families, and even parents during the ongoing conflict.

Despite this, more than 300 children were in attendance at one school in Gaza City – repeatedly targeted by Israeli forces over the past 15 months – as it reopened amid the ceasefire.




What might Germany’s election mean for Gaza?

Provisional results show Germany’s opposition conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party has won Sunday’s national election.

The CDU’s leader, Friedrich Merz, has been a strong and vocal supporter of Israel, criticising Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition’s restrictions on arms exports and promising to remove them if his party returns to government.

“In the future, whatever Israel needs to exercise its right to self-defence will be given to Israel,” he said in a speech at the Koerber Foundation in Berlin in January.

“Israel’s security is part of Germany’s reason of state, and this will again be measured by actions, not just words,” he added.

In the same speech, Merz also criticised the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Prime Minister Netanyahu, saying: “I think it is inconceivable that a prime minister from Israel can no longer visit Germany … because he is in danger of being arrested”.

German military equipment and weapons exports to Israel rose sharply to 326.5 million euros ($353.7m) in 2023 but reportedly dropped off in 2024, following accusations Germany was complicit in genocide in Gaza.

Germany, which is home to some 100,000 people of Palestinian descent, has seen significant repression of pro-Palestinian protests.

Germany learned all the wrong lessons from WWII 

Trump envoy declines to say whether Palestinians would be allowed to return to Gaza

We have been reporting on comments by US President Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, to CNN on Sunday, in which he said he will travel to the region this week to try and secure “an extension of phase one” of the ceasefire deal.

In separate comments to CBS on Sunday, Witkoff has also refused to comment on whether Palestinians would be allowed to return to Gaza under President Trump’s proposed reconstruction plan.

“Nobody can really live there [in Gaza] in a safe environment for probably 15 … 20 years,” he said.

Witkoff argued last week that Trump’s proposal to permanently remove Gaza’s population – decried as “ethnic cleansing” by critics – is “not an eviction plan”.

‘Toughest negotiations’ yet surrounding Gaza captive exchange

Sami Al-Arian, a public affairs professor at Istanbul Zaim University, has told Al Jazeera that ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas are reaching a critical juncture and these will be the toughest negotiations yet.

“Netanyahu… wants to continue the war. He wants to resume the war. He wants to get as many of the hostages back without paying the price for it,” he said.

Israeli settlers attack Palestinian farmland in the West Bank

Footage published by the Palestinian Information Center shows a Star of David and Hebrew graffiti scrawled on a wall in the Abu Shaban area, east of Yatta in the Hebron governorate, as a fire burns in a farmhouse.

The attack comes as the Israeli military substantially increased its presence in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, including deploying tanks for the first time since 2005.

West Bank town left in ruins as Israeli forces destroy intersection

Mustafa Barghouti says Israel pushing towards ‘full-scale war’ in Gaza, West Bank

The secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative says Israeli escalation in both the occupied West Bank and Gaza is “threatening to drive the situation into a full-scale war”.

Mustafa Barghouti said the presence of Israeli tanks alongside its largest military presence since 2002 means that “practically, Israel is reinvading the West Bank and re-establishing full military occupation, completely marginalising the Palestinian Authority and its presence”.

Barghouti also said that by refusing to release more than 600 Palestinians in an exchange deal on Saturday, Israel has also committed a “very grave violation of the ceasefire agreement”.

“It could mean that Israel is preparing to go back to full-scale war in Gaza … which has been subjected already to genocide, collective punishment, and ethnic cleansing,” he said.

“If Netanyahu is allowed to continue with the invasions in the West Bank and blocking the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, that could mean the end of the two-state solution forever,” he added.

Tanks flying Israeli flags roll into West Bank’s Jenin

Some Palestinians threw stones as Israeli tanks were seen in the occupied West Bank for the first time in more than two decades.

Israeli forces ‘systematically shut down Gaza’s internet’: Rights group

A new report on global internet shutdowns from Access Now has found that Israel restricted internet access in Gaza six times in 2024, the most of any country in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

“Despite international condemnation, Israeli forces systematically shut down Gaza’s internet while destroying internet and telecommunications infrastructure,” the report said.

The restrictions coincided “with numerous documented atrocities and war crimes, including mass displacement, military targeting of shelters and hospitals, cutting off humanitarian aid, and constant bombardments of civilians”, the report added.


_{A Palestinian woman talks on her phone as she sits in the rubble of her home in the wake of an Israeli air and ground offensive in Jabalia, northern Gaza, on May 31, 2024}

UN experts appeal for Israel to repeal laws banning UNRWA

Ben Saul, UN special rapporteur on the promotion of human rights and counterterrorism, has called on Israel to repeal two laws preventing the UN agency for Palestinian refugees from “fulfilling its international mandate to provide humanitarian relief and essential services”.

In October last year, Israel’s parliament passed two widely condemned bills, effectively banning UNRWA operations in Israel.

In a report published on February 19, Saul and 24 other independent UN experts said “certain provisions in these laws” – which came into effect at the end of last month – may violate international law.

The report also warned that “dismantling UNRWA outside a political process that includes an orderly conclusion of the Agency’s mandate” could risk “undermining the ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas.

HRW says EU officials should condemn ‘crimes against humanity’ at Israel meeting

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says European Union representatives meeting Israeli officials at the EU-Israel Association Council meeting in Brussels on Monday should use the opportunity to condemn Israel’s atrocity crimes.

“There can be no business as usual with a government responsible for crimes against humanity, including apartheid, and acts of genocide, and whose sitting prime minister is wanted for atrocity crimes by the International Criminal Court,” said Claudio Francavilla, associate EU director at HRW.

“The only purpose of this Association Council meeting should be to call out those crimes and to announce long-overdue measures in response,” Francavilla added.

UN calls for probe into ‘grave violations of international law’ in Israel, occupied territory

We have some remarks delivered by Volker Turk during the 58th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“In Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, where the suffering has been unbearable, I repeat my call for an independent investigation into grave violations of international law, committed by Israel in the course of its attacks across Gaza, and by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups,” the UN rights chief said.

“Any sustainable solution must be based on accountability, justice, the right to self-determination, and the human rights and dignity of both Israelis and Palestinians,” he added.

Referring to US President Donald Trump’s plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza, Turk said: “Any suggestion of forcing people from their land is completely unacceptable.”

UN chief says resumption of Gaza fighting must be avoided ‘at all costs’

Antonio Guterres has told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that the “precarious” ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza must be kept intact. “We must avoid at all costs a resumption of hostilities. The people in Gaza have already suffered too much,” he said.

The UN secretary-general also voiced alarm at rising Israeli attacks in the occupied West Bank. “I am gravely concerned by the rising violence in the occupied West Bank by Israeli settlers and other violations, as well as calls for annexation,” Guterres said.

Hamas in contact with mediators about Israel’s ‘repeated violations’

Abdul Latif al-Qanou, a spokesman for Hamas, says Israel’s failure to implement all the provisions of the first phase of the ceasefire “does not serve to move forward towards completing the release of the remaining Israeli captives”.

“The resistance will not engage in any new negotiations unless the occupation adheres to the agreement and implements the requirements of the first phase,” he said in a statement on Telegram.

“The failure to implement the humanitarian protocol and the postponement of the release of the seventh batch of prisoners show the occupation’s intentions to disrupt the agreement.”

Al-Qanou added that the movement is in contact with the mediators about Israel’s “repeated violations”.

His statement comes as questions grow over the future of the ceasefire after Israel failed to release the 620 Palestinian prisoners who were due to be freed under the agreement on Saturday.

The Palestinian group released six Israeli captives in line with the agreement hours before Israel announced its decision. Israel also prevents temporary shelters and heavy machinery from entering Gaza – another clause of the ceasefire deal with Hamas.

‘All options on the table’ about future of ceasefire: Naim

Asked about the immediate future of the ceasefire and whether the Palestinian group would release the bodies of four Israeli captives as scheduled this week, he responded that “all options are on the table”.

“Before going to the next step, we have to be sure that the past step, which was releasing 620 prisoners, are already released,” the member of Hamas’s political bureau told Al Jazeera.

“Because Netanyahu is clearly sending strong messages that he is intentionally sabotaging the deal, he is preparing the atmosphere for returning back to the war. Therefore, what are the guarantees that he might take the other four bodies and again not release the agreed-upon number of Palestinians plus the 620 Palestinians?”

Naim reiterated: “All options are on the table, not only what should happen on Thursday but even the other elements of the deal.”

Hamas ready to hand over Gaza gov’t to any Palestinian body representing all Palestinians: Official

In his interview with Al Jazeera, Naim has also expressed Hamas’s condemnation of the Israeli offensive in the northern West Bank and “unfortunately the silence of the international community towards what’s happening there”, referring to “the continuous killing and the destruction against our refugees in the different refugee camps in the north”.

Asked about what role Hamas wants to play in terms of the running of Gaza in the future, Naim replied that even before the October 7, 2023, attacks, the group had stated many times it was “ready to give up” governing the territory.

“We are ready to hand over the government in the Gaza Strip to any Palestinian body representing all Palestinians, a unity government, a technocratic government, a special body formed only to run the Gaza Strip in cooperation or in coordination or as a reference with the government in Ramallah – we are ready to do it,” he said.

“Unfortunately, all these proposals are rejected from the PA leadership in Ramallah, and we have said they can come and they can have all the facilitation to run everything inside the Gaza Strip.”

Search continues for remains of Palestinians in Gaza rubble

People across the enclave are searching for the bodies of their loved ones, buried under the rubble of destroyed homes.

Israel’s 15-month war has left much of the Strip unrecognisable with an estimated 10,000 people still missing and presumed dead.

Northern Gaza struggles with water crisis as Palestinians return home

Amid towering piles of rubble and destruction, mother of five Faten Abu Haloub, her family and in-laws have set up adjacent tents on the ruins of what used to be their extended family home.

Her husband Karam’s parents – 60-year-old Dalal and 65-year-old Nasser – have eight children: three sons and five daughters, of whom two still live at home.

Home is now the little tent next to Karam and Faten’s with a firepit in front and makeshift “zones”. There’s the kitchen – no more than a few wooden planks to rest cooking utensils and their meagre food supplies on – near the fire.

Off to the side is the toilet, a stone-lined hole dug in the sand that serves as a latrine with more stones marking out a tiny bathing area, the whole section shielded by blankets draped over sticks stuck upright in the ground.

‘Netanyahu plans to resume war on Gaza despite public opinion backing ceasefire’

The Israeli prime minister intends to resume the war on Gaza but is likely to face strong opposition from the Israeli public, according to Meron Rapoport, editor at the Israeli news outlet Local Call.

“The expectation from the families of the hostages [who remain in Gaza] is that all the hostages should be released,” he told Al Jazeera.

However, having adopted Trump’s idea of forcibly transferring Palestinians out of Gaza, “anything short of that will be a failure, according to his supporters,” Rapoport added.

“This won’t be easy to achieve and will create huge problems with neighbours Jordan and Egypt as well as with the international community.”

‘New low’: Iran condemns Israeli flyover at Nasrallah funeral

The spokesman of Iran’s Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned Israel’s “vicious act of terrorism against civilians” after its fighter jets flew over an area in Lebanon’s capital, where the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his heir apparent Hashem Safieddine was being held on Sunday.

“The Israeli regime hit a new low today when its jet fighters flew over the funeral ceremony at extremely low altitude, trying wickedly, though futilely, to intimidate hundreds of thousands of brave Lebanese and others who had gathered to pay tribute to their Martyred heroes,” Esmail Baghaei wrote on X.

He said the flyover was a serious violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and called on the UN Security Council to condemn it.

“[It was a] pitiful attempt to terrify people who gathered only to mourn. If that is not an act of terror, then what is?” he wrote on X.

Merz to invite Netanyahu to Germany: Israeli PM’s office

Friedrich Merz, who is likely to become Germany’s next chancellor following yesterday’s election, has had a phone conversation with Israel’s prime minister, according to Netanyahu’s office.

The leader of the Christian Democrats said he would invite Netanyahu to Germany, the prime minister’s office said.

This apparently suggests Germany under Merz intends not to enforce the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against Netanyahu. Last November, the ICC issued arrest warrants for him and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

Merz says he will find a way for Netanyahu to visit Germany despite arrest warrant

Germany’s likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz has confirmed inviting Benjamin Netanyahu for a visit, despite an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against the Israeli PM for alleged war crimes.

“I think it is a completely absurd idea that an Israeli prime minister cannot visit the Federal Republic of Germany,” Merz said at a news conference a day after his conservatives won the largest share of the vote in a national election.

He said he had told Netanyahu by phone “that we would find ways and means for him to visit Germany and leave again without being arrested”.

EU countries including Germany are signatories of the founding treaty of the court, which requires members to arrest its suspects on their territory.

Calls for EU to ban trade with Israeli settlements in occupied West Bank

Amnesty International and 162 other civil society organisations and trade unions have signed a joint letter calling on the EU to ban trade and business with Israel’s settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.

“Despite EU consensus about the settlements’ illegality and their link to serious abuses, the EU continues to trade and allow business with them,” the letter said.

This contributes to “the serious and systemic human rights and other international law abuses underpinning the settlement enterprise”, it added.

The International Court of Justice in July issued a landmark advisory opinion affirming that states must not recognise, aid or assist the unlawful situation arising from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.

Palestinian Foreign Ministry says Israeli tanks ‘grave escalation’ in West Bank

In a statement shared on X, the ministry said deploying tanks in the occupied West Bank is a continuation of Israel’s “genocide, displacement and annexation”.

It said the tanks, alongside the forcible displacement of 40,000 Palestinians and Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz saying that Palestinians would not be able to return to their homes, represented a “grave escalation”.

“The Ministry renews its urgent calls on the international community to intervene immediately to curb Israel’s unchecked aggression,” the statement added.

Hamas condemns Israel’s operations in occupied West Bank

The Palestinian group says Israel’s decision to expand its operations in Jenin governorate and other parts of the northern occupied West Bank reveals its “dangerous intention to persist [in] the war of extermination”.

Hamas also called for a “unified front” against “Israel’s forced displacement campaigns” that have affected more than 40,000 residents from the Jenin, Tulkarem, Nur Shams and Far’a refugee camps.

The group also dismissed a statement by Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz – who said the Israeli army will stay in the West Bank’s refugee camps for the next year – as “an illusion that will not come true”.

Brazil urges Israel to stop military raids on occupied West Bank

The Foreign Ministry of Brazil has expressed “deep concern” over the “intensification, in recent weeks, of Israeli military operations in the refugee camps” of Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams in the northern occupied West Bank.

In a statement, it condemned “the recent use of tanks and military occupation” and denounced “the forced displacement of approximately 40,000 residents from these camps, in violation of international law and international humanitarian law”.

The ministry stressed the need for uninterrupted humanitarian aid in the region, urging Israel to allow UNRWA to continue its mission “for the benefit of the refugee population”.

Referencing a 2024 advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice, which deemed Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful, it also demanded an end to military operations.

“Brazil urges Israel to fully suspend its military operations in the West Bank,” the statement said.

Footage shows more destruction in West Bank town of Burqin

As we reported earlier, the Israeli military destroyed a main intersection in the occupied West Bank town of Burqin, west of Jenin, overnight. New footage emerging from the town, published by the Quds News Network, shows puddles forming after Israeli forces tore up roads with heavy machinery.

Israel arrests two Palestinians in central West Bank: Report

Two men have been arrested at dawn during Israeli army raids in the Ramallah and el-Bireh governorate, according to the Wafa news agency.

Local sources told Wafa that a 19-year-old was taken by Israeli forces when they stormed his home in the town of Silwad, northeast of Ramallah city. A 48-year-old Palestinian man was also arrested in the town of Kobar, located in the northwest of the governorate, the agency added.

_{Palestinian children and journalists disperse as Israeli tanks enter the Jenin camp for Palestinian refugees on Sunday}


Al-Quds Brigades reports fighting with Israeli forces in Jenin

The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad says in a statement on Telegram that an explosive device placed in advance targeted Israeli soldiers in the Silat al-Harithiya neighbourhood. It added that fighters engaged in gun battles with Israeli forces in the same area of Jenin, claiming that several Israeli soldiers were wounded.

The fighting comes as the Israeli army continues its massive military operation in the northern West Bank, using tanks and other heavy military vehicles.

Israeli forces storm occupied West Bank towns in expanded offensive

Destruction in Jenin and Tulkarem – a snapshot

Nearly 1,200 new illegal Israeli settlement units expected to be approved: NGO

Israeli authorities will discuss the approval of the construction of 1,170 housing units in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, according to an Israeli anti-settlement group.

Peace Now said Israel’s Higher Planning Council (HPC) is expected to approve the units across four illegal settlements – Gvaot, Itamar, Shaarei Tikva and Givat Zeev. “Of these, 756 units are planned for Gvaot, a settlement adjacent to the Palestinian village of Nahalin, where approximately 50 families currently reside,” the group said.

It also reminded that the council approved the deposit of 250 housing units in Gvaot in July 2024, adding: “With the expected approval on February 26, 2025, the settlement is set to expand twentyfold.”

Israel has continuously expanded its settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territory. Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law.

At least 365 Palestinians arrested in Jenin and Tulkarem: NGO

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society has said the detentions were carried out during the latest Israeli offensive targeting the two governorates and their refugee camps.

The statement said about 200 of the detainees were taken in Jenin, while the rest were arrested in Tulkarem. It added that the data included those who were arrested and kept by Israel as well as others who were later released.

The NGO stressed that detainees included children.

No place for displaced to go as Israel expands West Bank offensive

The Palestinians who have been forced from their homes in the occupied West Bank are going wherever they can – community centres, shelters, family and friends in nearby towns and villages, which are now also being under attack.

For example Qabatiya, which is in the suburbs of Jenin, is now under attack. There’s really no place for them to go to as the entire occupied West Bank is under assault.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government is promising to deepen and expand its military offensive using tanks now, not just against Tulkaram and Jenin, but against the refugee camps across the territory – there are 19 of them, home to about a million Palestinian refugees.

And while they are under attack, Israel is banning UNRWA from operating.

In fact, the Israeli minister of defence has said that as part of their accomplishment in Tulkarem, for example, they’ve not just dispossessed Palestinians from their camps and changed the geography of the place by demolishing more than 100 homes, they are also not allowing that United Nations agency to operate.

So it’s not just those who have lost their homes, but everybody else looking on and wondering when it will be their turn.