/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

Israeli army destroys sewage plant, more infrastructure in south Lebanon

Israeli forces have carried out a “large-scale demolition operation” in a sewage treatment plant located in the Marjayoun plains towards Kfar Kila, near the border with Israel, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).

Also in Marjayoun, Israeli forces have been reportedly bulldozing trees and agricultural lands, as well as burning homes in the eastern side of the town of Hula.

Meanwhile, Israeli fighter jets have been carrying out mock raids in the skies of Nabatieh and autism scorelim Tuffah in southern Lebanon at medium altitude, while drones fired two sound bombs in the skies of the two of al-Jabeen.

The Lebanese army has begun deploying in the town of Taybeh, according to NNA, which said the army will also be detonating unexploded ordnance in the Qalaa fields in Marjayoun and in the Akka area.

Lebanese army confirms new deployments south of Litani River

Lebanese soldiers and armoured vehicles have been deployed in the town of Taybeh, in southern Lebanon’s Marjayoun.

The Lebanese army said in a statement that its forces will continue to deploy in the eastern sector and other border areas south of the Litani River, which they have been tasked with securing in cooperation with UN forces as part of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal.

Palestine condemns Israeli ‘crimes’ in northern West Bank

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned Israeli military attacks in the northern occupied West Bank, particularly in Jenin, Tulkarem, Tubas, Far’a and Tammun.

It said in a statement that civilians are forcibly displaced from their homes under armed threat, while entire neighbourhoods are being destroyed with explosives, “which results in the forced alteration of Palestinian geography”.

The ministry called this a “flagrant violation of international law, international humanitarian law, and the Geneva Conventions” and said it reflects an official Israeli policy to deepen the gradual annexation of the occupied West Bank for the benefit of settlement expansion.

“The ministry holds the Israeli government fully responsible for the consequences of these policies and calls on the international community to break its silence and fulfill its legal and moral obligations to put an end to this aggression.”

Will there be protests during the Netanyahu visit?

With hours left until the Israeli prime minister meets Trump at the White House, demonstrations are expected in Washington, DC, and elsewhere to protest against the Gaza war.

Pro-Palestinian groups, including some run by US Orthodox Jews, are organising gatherings.

Netanyahu was met with many protests when he visited the US capital last year as lawmakers broke records for how many standing ovations they gave him during an address to Congress.

Similar to Netanyahu’s previous visit, some Democratic lawmakers may also choose to skip any speeches and meetings or express their criticism of unconditional US support for Israel despite its killing of more than 61,700 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Government Media Office in the Strip.

Musk meets with Netanyahu and his son

Elon Musk met with Netanyahu and his son Yair in Washington, DC, shortly before the Israeli leader was scheduled to attend a bilateral meeting with Trump.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/1/live-israel-hamas-to-exchange-3-captives-in-gaza-for-183-palestinians

Trump and Netanyahu sit down in White House

The two leaders are sitting in front of a fire at the White House, taking questions from reporters.

A reporter asked Trump if he felt he should earn the Nobel Peace prize if the ceasefire holds and the Israeli captives in Gaza are released.

“I deserve it, but they will never give it to me,” Trump replied.

Bilateral meeting with Trump and Netanyahu begins

Netanyahu has just arrived at the White House for the start of his meeting with Trump.

He is expected to speak to the US president about Israeli attacks in the West Bank and the fragile ceasefire in Gaza. The two leaders is also expected to talk about normalising relations between Israel and its Arab neighbours.

The Israeli prime minister arrived on Sunday, in anticipation of Tuesday’s meeting.

Netanyahu delayed as protests continue in DC

The Israeli leader is a bit delayed in his arrival at the White House, which Al Jazeera correspondent Kimberly Halkett says might be due to security concerns and nearby protests.

“Part of the reason there may be a bit of a holdup is that there is a sizable, but not too large, demonstration that is going on,” she reported from the White House.

“There is a security perimeter that was put up that is not normally around the White House, so there is additional security. And just outside of that perimeter there is a bit of a demonstration going on right now,” she added.

Trump signs a series of executive orders

Surrounded by a small group of reporters in the Oval Office, Trump etched his jagged signature onto a series of executive orders on Tuesday, including a measure to withdraw the US from the United Nations Human Rights Council.

He also spoke on a range of issues, including his view that Palestinians have no choice but to leave Gaza.

Trump reimposes ‘maximum pressure’ campaign on Iran

Shortly before his bilateral meeting with Netanyahu, President Trump appeared in the Oval Office to sign several directives, including a memorandum to reimpose his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran.

Trump previously pursued that strategy during his first term, from 2017 to 2021.

In 2018, for instance, the Republican leader withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a deal that sought to limit the Iranian nuclear programme while loosening sanctions and other economic restrictions on the country. Instead, Trump reversed course, increasing sanctions on Iran.

At Tuesday’s appearance in the Oval Office, Trump asserted that he had the right to block the sale of Iranian oil to other countries, as part of his renewed pressure campaign.

He also warned that, if Iran tried to assassinate him, there were “instructions” that would cause the country to “be obliterated”.

Civil society organisations urge EU to ban goods from Israeli settlements

A group of more than 160 civil society groups, non-governmental organisations and trade unions have called on the European Union to bar any trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

“EU member states have repeatedly and unanimously condemned Israel’s settlements in the West Bank as ‘illegal’ and as an ‘obstacle to peace’,” the watchdog group Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

Palestine advocates push to appeal to Trump’s promises

Palestine solidarity activists who gathered outside the White House to protest Netanyahu’s visit have refrained from condemning Trump.

Instead, speakers at a news conference today sounded almost conciliatory, appealing to Trump’s pledge to bring peace to the Middle East and pursue an “America First” agenda.

Advocates argued that prioritising US interests would dictate saying “no” to Netanyahu’s demands of more weapons and support for Israel.

Some speakers also called on Trump to strike a contrast with what they portrayed as weakness in former President Biden’s foreign policy.

When asked about the rhetoric, Nihad Awad — the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) — said it does not represent a change in tone.

He noted that his group is in “total disagreement” with Trump over some policies, including the president’s anti-immigration push.

“But it doesn’t mean that he’s just an enemy of us and the people,” Awad said.

“We believe that the office he’s holding is so powerful, and he has important opportunities to bring peace to the region, peace that is based on justice and liberty and dignity and respect for all. So this is our appeal to him — because he can do it, and he promised to do it.”

Advocate warns Trump against being ‘fooled’ by Netanyahu to attack Iran

Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), says giving more aid to Israel and allowing it to continue its wars in the Middle East would be “contradictory” to Trump’s pledges to be a peace president who would put America first.

Awad warned Trump against allowing Netanyahu to launch an offensive against Iran.

“We hope that President Trump will not be dragged and fooled by this war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu, to launch a war on Iran and destabilise the region further,” Awad told reporters.

“President Trump has a golden opportunity to put an end to the suffering of the people in the region and hold the Israeli leaders accountable instead of celebrating them.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/4/live-israel-netanyahu-to-meet-trump-in-washington-gaza-ceasefire

Anyone livestreaming the demonstrations at the White House tonight?

Protesters chant ‘Free Palestine’ outside of White House
Ali Harb
Reporting from Washington, DC

Dozens of demonstrators are gathering outside the White House to protest Netanyahu’s visit amid heavy police presence.

The protesters are chanting “free Palestine” and slogans against US and Israeli policies.

Netanyahu reiterates his aim to meet all ‘war goals’ in Gaza

When asked by a journalist about his commitment to bringing home Israeli captives held by Hamas, the Israeli prime minister reiterated that is one of several aims he hopes to achieve.

“I support getting all the hostages out and meeting all our war goals,” he said.

“That includes destroying Hamas’s military and governing capabilities and making sure that Gaza never poses a threat to Israel.”

Trump says Saudi Arabia not demanding Palestinian state for Israel deal

The US president answers with a definitive “no” when asked whether Saudi Arabia is demanding the establishment of a Palestinian state to forge formal ties with Israel.

Trump’s assertion contradicts numerous official Saudi Arabian statements over the past years, stressing the kingdom’s commitment to the Arab Peace Initiative, which premises diplomatic recognition of Israel on the condition that a Palestinian state be established.

Netanyahu met with Christian Evangelical leaders in Washington, DC

Outside today’s visit to the White House, Netanyahu has had a number of other meetings in Washington, DC, including with evangelical Christian leaders.

Israel’s UN envoy Danny Danon said in a post on social media that Netanyahu met with evangelical Christian leaders, including Mike Huckabee, Trump’s nominee for US ambassador to Israel on Monday evening.

Many of Israel’s staunchest supporters in the United States are Evangelicals Christians, in part because some share the belief that Biblical prophecies link modern-day wars in Israel to the second coming of Jesus and the ensuing Rapture.

Meanwhile, a schedule of Netanyahu’s visit did not appear to include American Jewish leaders, who Netanyahu has “had a rockier relationship” with “over the years” according to the Times of Israel.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/4/live-israel-netanyahu-to-meet-trump-in-washington-gaza-ceasefire

Second press conference between Trump and Netanyahu live now.
This doesn't look like Trump is the president.

Protests outside the White House:
https://twitter.com/BTnewsroom/status/1886924635587141744
https://twitter.com/BTnewsroom/status/1886931806869708902

>>487396
Anyone doing a cytube stream of this?

>>487396
>Impeach the Felon!
Another Democrat astroturf protest I see.

>>487400
Oh, the first one's for a different protest. The second is for Netanyahu's visit specifically.

>>487399
Haven't seen any livestreams for it, including from BT. Hoping to get one!

>>487402
Ok, that's cool

‘Trump is a madman’: Palestinian in Gaza mocks US president’s takeover plan
Mohamed Solaimane
Reporting from Khan Younis, Gaza

Leaning on a wooden cane, 72-year-old Fathi Abu al-Saeed navigates the rubble-strewn streets of Khan Younis’s al-Katiba neighbourhood — a daily ritual since he returned from displacement in the coastal region of al-Mawasi following the January 19 Gaza ceasefire.

Carefully stepping over debris left by 15 months of relentless Israeli bombardment, he raises his cane, pointing at a demolished house.

“You see that pile of useless rubble?” he says. “That’s more precious than the United States and everything in it.”

Every morning, Abu al-Saeed exchanges words of resilience with neighbours. But on this day, US President Donald Trump’s recent remarks about Gaza – his fantasy of clearing out its Palestinian population to build a “Riviera in the Middle East” – offer new material for his sarcasm and defiance.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/4/live-israel-netanyahu-to-meet-trump-in-washington-gaza-ceasefire

>>487423
Based Palestinian guy showing how you live in the rubble, defying the faggotry of Empire. You never, ever stop calling faggotry what it is. Making excuses for Them gives you and everyone around you nothing.

It's going to be disgusting to watch Americans sent home in body bags because Israel sucks at urban warfare and can't keep their shit army motivated. Of course the Pals are going to shoot at those who evict them.

Oh well. Yet more blood for Israel.

>>487425
The idea of Americans being sent over to defuse bombs Israel dropped is comical levels of Vichy America.

Apparently Netanyahu "gifted" Trump a pager while at the White House, too. Odd message there.

>>487427
I hope somebody checked it, to make sure it doesn't contain explosives

>>487428
I don't. ;P

More on Secretary of State Rubio’s softening of Gaza plan

As we reported earlier, the US Secretary of State described President Trump’s proposal as a unique offer to clear debris and destruction in Gaza.

“What he very generously has offered is the ability of the United States to go in and help with debris removal, help with munitions removal, help with reconstruction, the rebuilding homes and businesses and things of this nature so that then people can move back in,” Rubio said at a news conference in Guatemala City.

“In the interim, obviously people are going to have to live somewhere while you’re rebuilding it,” he added.

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt also backtracked on Trump’s initial suggestion the US would “own” Gaza, saying the president only wants Palestinians to be “temporarily relocated”.

According to Senator Josh Hawley, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff also told Republican senators at a closed-door lunch that Trump “doesn’t want to put any US troops on the ground, and he doesn’t want to spend any US dollars at all” on Gaza.

https://aje.io/lwqf4s?update=3492017

Brian Eno actually gives a pretty good explanation of the conspicuously absent/skewed coverage of the mass demonstrations against complicity.

Trump ‘openly calling for ethnic cleansing’, says US Congresswoman Tlaib

US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has shared a scathing response to Trump’s latest remarks on the Gaza Strip.

“This president is openly calling for ethnic cleansing while sitting next to a genocidal war criminal,” said Tlaib, who is the only Palestinian-American serving in the US Congress.

“He’s perfectly fine cutting off working Americans from federal funds while the funding to the Israeli government continues flowing,” she added.

Trump and Netanyahu holding second press conference

Trump has opened a second press conference with Netanyahu at the White House in Washington, DC.

Follow here for updates.

Trump says US will ‘own’ Gaza and ‘level the site’

“The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Trump has said.

“We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out,” he added.

The US President then went on to say that the United States would “create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area,” without specifying if he meant for Palestinians.

Trump says ‘the world’s people’ could live in Gaza

Asked about who he expects to live in the Gaza Strip if all Palestinians are relocated, Trump has said he “envisions” the “world’s people” will live there.

“I think the entire world, representatives from all over the world, will be there, and they’ll live there. Palestinians, also, … will live there. Many people will live there,” he said.

“The people that have been absolutely destroyed, that live there now can live in peace, in a much better situation, because they’re living in hell, and those people will now be able to live in peace,” before again repeating his plans to forcibly displace Palestinians to neighbouring countries.

“I have a feeling that, despite them saying no, I have a feeling that the King in Jordan and [the Egyptian President] will open their hearts and will give us the kind of land that we need to get this done,” he added, before ending the press conference.

As we’ve been reporting Trump has made numerous references to forcibly displacing Palestinians to neighbouring countries.

Netanyahu repeats discredited claims about Hamas October 7 attack

Netanyahu has repeated the debunked claims at the news conference that Hamas fighters “burned babies alive” during the October 7 attacks.

Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit (I-Unit), which examined hours of footage from CCTV, dashcams, personal phones and headcams of slain Hamas fighters, concluded that claims by the Israeli army that it found burned babies at a house in Kibbutz Be’eri were untrue.

The analysis found that there were no babies in the house, and the 12 people inside were almost certainly killed by Israeli forces when they stormed the building.

Pro-Palestinian protesters call for Netanyahu’s arrest

Laila Khalil, from the Palestinian Youth Movement, has told Al Jazeera that protesters outside the White House are “demanding that the administration comply with the ICC [International Criminal Court] arrest warrant and arrest the war criminal, Netanyahu”.

“We continue to demand an arms embargo. We continue to fight for the liberation of Palestine. No matter who’s in the White House, we’re fighting for the exact same thing,” she added.

Reflecting on Trump’s role in the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Khalil said the US president “is not the reason” a deal was reached.

“The ceasefire happened because of the strength and resilience of the people in Palestine and everyone abroad who is fighting for Palestine,” she said.

Saudi Arabia says no ties with Israel without Palestinian state

Saudi Arabia said its support for the establishment of a Palestinian state is unwavering and it rejects any attempts to displace Palestinians from their land.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry also said in a statement that relations with Israel would not be established without the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The statement followed a news conference by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in which the US leader said he wants the US to “take over” Gaza and redevelop the territory once Palestinians are removed to neighbouring countries.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/4/live-israel-netanyahu-to-meet-trump-in-washington-gaza-ceasefire

🤔

https://x.com/Resist_05/status/1886896419509793141
Brussels parliament adopts resolution to recognise the genocide in Gaza… and calls for sanctions against Israel…

Violent Israeli raids forcibly displace 26,000 Palestinians in West Bank

Thousands of Palestinians have been displaced and dozens of homes have been demolished after more than two weeks of deadly Israeli siege and raids in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, including Jenin refugee camp.

“The Israeli army says they have launched a ‘counterterrorism’ operation to combat armed Palestinian fighters. But if you look at what is going on, you have 26,000 Palestinians who have been forcibly displaced, forced to leave their homes,” said Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Amman, Jordan.

“The Israeli army has detonated homes in Jenin, Tulkarem and now Nablus. The army says some of these homes were used for military infrastructure but did not provide any sort of evidence to prove those claims.”

Israeli launches air raids on southern and eastern Lebanon

Al Jazeera Arabic has reported that Israeli forces targeted the autism scorelim al-Tuffah region in southern Lebanon with two air attacks, and have also carried out air raids in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon near the border with Syria.

No casualties have been reported in the air attacks.

A source told Israel’s Army Radio that the air strikes targeted Hezbollah weapons depots and the smuggling of arms, including from Syria.

The attacks take place on the eve of a visit to Beirut by the US deputy special envoy for the Middle East, Morgan Ortagus.

More on Netanyahu’s meeting with US defence secretary at Pentagon
Patty Culhane
Reporting from Washington, DC

Netanyahu and Hegseth have talked about the need to increase cooperation between Israel and the US, highlighting the fact that the Trump administration lifted the prohibition put in place by the previous US administration of sending 2,000-pound [900kg] bombs to Israel.

When it came to the possibility of sending US troops, Hegseth said Trump is engaged in complicated negotiations and he wouldn’t get ahead of the president.

We’ve already seen some Republican pushback about the idea of using US troops in Gaza, saying that is not putting “America first”, as one of Trump’s campaign slogans pledged. The president campaigned on keeping US forces out of wars overseas, especially in the Middle East.

Some Republican commentators said the president is just using this as a negotiation tactic. And he does like to be unpredictable. He also knows the politics of it. Using US troops in the Middle East would be very unpopular with many of the voters who put him in office.

Spain rejects Israel’s suggestion it should accept Palestinians from Gaza

Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares has rejected the suggestion by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz that Spain should accept displaced Palestinians from Gaza.

“Gazans’ land is Gaza and Gaza must be part of the future Palestinian state,” Albares said in an interview with Spanish radio station RNE.

Ireland rejects Israel’s suggestion it should accept Palestinians from Gaza

Ireland’s Foreign Ministry has rejected a suggestion by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz that the country should accept displaced Palestinians from Gaza.

“The objective must be a massive scale-up of aid into Gaza, return of basic services and a clear framework under which those displaced can return,” the ministry said in an emailed statement to the Reuters news agency. “Any comments to the contrary are unhelpful and a source of distraction.”

Trump to impose sanctions on International Criminal Court

US President Donald Trump will sign an executive order today to sanction the International Criminal Court for targeting the United States and its allies, such as Israel, a White House official has said.

The order will place financial and visa sanctions on individuals and their family members who assist in ICC investigations of US citizens or US allies, said the official.

Israel follows US in boycotting UN Human Rights Council

Israel says it “will not participate” in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), following in the footsteps of the United States, which announced its withdrawal earlier this week.

In response to Thursday’s announcement by Israel’s foreign minister, UNHRC spokesperson Pascal Sim said Israel has observer state status within the rights body and, therefore, could not withdraw from the council.

The Geneva-based council is made up of 47 UN member states, which are elected by other UN members to serve four-year terms on a rotating basis. The US is also currently not an elected member of the council.

Death toll due to lack of resources equals those killed by Israeli forces: Ministry of Health

Marwan al-Hamas, director of field hospitals at the Ministry of Health in Gaza, has spoken to Al Jazeera Arabic about the healthcare situation in the coastal enclave.

Here is a summary of his translated comments:

Since October 7, 2023, the number of deaths in Gaza due to lack of resources is equivalent to the number killed by Israeli forces.
We urgently need field hospitals, medical staff, medicines and medical equipment.
Israeli forces are obstructing the entry of field hospitals into the Strip.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/6/live-trumps-gaza-plan-condemned-as-palestinians-pledge-to-never-leave

>>487438
kek the weather is anti-Zionist

>>487449
>Brussels parliament adopts resolution to recognise the genocide in Gaza… and calls for sanctions against Israel…
Belgium switches to the right side of history. It's a fairly small country so it probably won't have a grand material effect, but politically that has to bug the Zionists.

>>487452
Brussels is the heart of the EU banker class, so this actually might have an effect.

Anti-Empire Project: Gaza War Debrief

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).

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”.

More than 12,000 bodies trapped under Gaza rubble: Media Office chief

Salama Maarouf, the head of Gaza’s Government Media Office, has said more than 12,000 bodies are estimated to be trapped under the rubble in the enclave, amid a lack of equipment to retrieve them due to Israeli border restrictions.

Israeli authorities have not allowed the entry of heavy machinery into the Gaza Strip, Maarouf told a news conference at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City.

He also said that under the circumstances Hamas would not be able to honour its promise to give back the bodies of the Israeli captives killed during bombardments.

Child killed in explosion of Israeli war remnants in southern Gaza’s Rafah: Report

A child has been killed by unexploded ordnance in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, according to the Wafa news agency.

The victim was identified as Mohammed Yasser al-Qadi but his age was not mentioned in the report.

The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) last month warned of the danger posed by abandoned explosive ordnance and stressed the urgent need for clearance operations and risk education to protect communities and facilitate humanitarian access.

Release of all captives in Gaza under question mark

Trump and Netanyahu are endangering the prospect of all captives to be released in Gaza, according to Israeli analyst Akiva Eldar.

He told Al Jazeera from Tel Aviv that Israeli public was waiting to see the captives back.

“Three are expected to be released tomorrow, but the problem will be the end game. Will Israel get all of them as Trump promised, or will Hamas say that Israel and the United States are not respecting the [ceasefire] agreement so the phase one will be the last phase,” he said.

“I believe that Hamas will not be able to hand over the rest of the hostages if Israel does not start getting out of Gaza, from Philadelphi [Corridor] just like we did from Netzarim Corridor. This will be the ultimate test,” he added.

Israeli authorities arrest Haredi draft dodger at airport

The ultra-Orthodox yeshiva student was arrested at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport overnight on Friday as he attempted to board a plane out of the country, The Times of Israel reports, citing Hebrew media sources.

The arrest marks the first action taken against a Haredi man for failing to obey draft orders since the Israeli military issued calls ups to thousands of members of the country’s ultra-Orthodox community, known as Haredim.

ICC sanctions put the US ‘on the side of war criminals’: HRW

US government sanctions targeting the International Criminal Court will undermine international accountability for the worst crimes and deprive victims around the globe of justice, Human Rights Watch has said.

The group added that an executive order issued by Trump on Thursday, which authorises asset freezes and entry bans on ICC officials and others supporting the court’s work, makes clear that the Trump administration “seeks to shield US and Israeli officials from facing war crimes and crimes against humanity charges”.

“Trump’s executive order on the International Criminal Court effectively puts the United States on the side of war criminals at the expense of victims of grave crimes seeking justice,” Liz Evenson, the group’s international justice director, said in a statement.

“ICC member countries should publicly and forcefully support the court for doing the job it was set up to do: ensuring no one is above the law.”

Israeli official reprimanded for criticising Trump’s Gaza plan issues clarification

We reported earlier that Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz had 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.

Binder has since said in a statement issued by the military that he clarified to Katz that as his role requires, he “presented the possible implications of the discourse on the subject, the enemy’s view from a security perspective, and recommendations for offensive activity accordingly”.

“I spoke with the Defence Minister, and I clarified that I did not speak out against the Trump plan and that the [army], and therefore I too, are subordinate to the political echelon and will follow its instructions,” 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.

South Africa ‘continues to stand in solidarity’ with Palestinians: President

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa says the Palestinians “are now experiencing indescribable suffering”, after enduring “decades of illegal occupation”.

“South Africa has acted in accordance with its obligations under the Genocide Convention by instituting proceedings against Israel at the International Court of Justice,” he said on X, referring to the genocide case his country filed at the UN court in The Hague in December 2023.

“We are fully committed to the articles of the United Nations Charter, including the principle that all members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means,” he added.

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.

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.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/7/live-trump-sanctions-icc-as-countries-warn-gaza-plan-will-cause-chaos

Apparently Yoav Gallant is in Chicago. Grayzone sez Netanyahu probably still in DC. His motorcade got egged recently… it's one of those things where it's like… better than nothing, I guess, but it seems like Americans are just going to keep playing ebic pranks and going "so much for the free speech right!" forever. The urgency of the situation should have set in long ago.

>>487475
>Apparently Yoav Gallant is in Chicago. Grayzone sez Netanyahu probably still in DC. His motorcade got egged recently… it's one of those things where it's like… better than nothing, I guess, but it seems like Americans are just going to keep playing ebic pranks
I think that this is more an indicator of how truly despised these people are now, rather an a strategy to affect anything.

> and going "so much for the free speech right!" forever. The urgency of the situation should have set in long ago.
I'm not sure how this was handled after ww2 and the holocaust but doing censorship on behalf of a genocide probably counts as complicity. Idk maybe that's the way forward. Also trying to get Zionism criminalized might help, you know to make the Zionists experience having their speech attacked, maybe they would relent their attacks on free speech.

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.

ICC chief prosecutor to be first target of Trump’s sanctions: Report

International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan may be the first person to be targeted under President Trump’s executive order authorising sanctions against the court and its staff, the Reuters news agency reports, citing two anonymous sources.

Khan, a British citizen, was named on Friday in an annex – not yet made public – to Trump’s executive order, said a senior ICC official and another source, both briefed by US government officials.

The sanctions Khan and other designated ICC officials will face include freezing of US assets and being barred, along with their families, from visiting the US.

Trump’s executive order directed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in consultation with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to submit a report within 60 days naming those who should be sanctioned.

Trump’s move has been met with widespread condemnation, including from more than 70 countries – France, Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands among them – who have reaffirmed their support for the ICC.

The ICC has condemned the sanctions, pledging to stand by its staff and “continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world”.

Trump signs order to cut funding for South Africa, cites Israel genocide case

The White House officially confirmed on Friday that Trump signed an executive order cutting financial aid to South Africa, citing not only his disapproval of its land policy but also its landmark genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel.

The White House cited South Africa’s ongoing case, which it brought against Israel at the ICJ in December 2023, as an example of the country taking a position against Washington and its allies.

Hamas fighters gather in Deir el-Balah for Israeli captive handover

We have been reporting on ongoing preparations in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, ahead of the Israeli captive handover, which is anticipated to take place in about 45 minutes.

Our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues have now published footage from the scene showing Hamas fighters gathering, with more arriving in the back of pick-up trucks.

Watch below:
https://twitter.com/AJA_Palestine/status/1888114309105963033

Here is the process involved in Israeli captives’ release
Hamdah Salhut
Reporting from Amman, Jordan

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because the Israeli government has banned it from operating in Israel and the occupied West Bank.

There is a choreographed system when the captives are released.

Hamas releases them; they are handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Then, they are driven to the Israel-Gaza border at an Israeli military base where they are given an identification check and initial medical and psychological evaluation, and they are reunited with one or two immediate family members.

Then, they are airlifted to a hospital in central Israel where they will be reunited with the rest of their family and stay there for the next few days.

After captives’ release, Israel supposed to withdraw from Netzarim Corridor
Hani Mahmoud
Reporting from Gaza City

As per the ceasefire agreement, after today’s captives for prisoners release, the Israeli military is supposed to withdraw completely from the Netzarim Corridor and allow free movement back and forth between the southern and northern parts of the Gaza Strip.

The Netzarim Corridor has been controlled by the Israeli military since the beginning of the war, impeding movement from the south to the north.

Right now, people have to be very careful when they move in the area. Everything has been very unpredictable in the past few weeks since the beginning of the ceasefire.

We have seen two vehicles struck by the Israeli military on al-Rashid Street.

Palestinian fighters claim ambush on Israeli soldiers in Tulkarem

The Palestinian Information Center reports that al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas in the occupied West Bank, has claimed an ambush on Israeli forces in the southern and eastern neighbourhoods of the city of Tulkarem.

The group said its fighters opened fire on 20 Israeli soldiers at close range near a building being used as Israeli military barracks in the city, causing injuries.

Our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues are also reporting that a large explosion has taken place in the city of Nablus. Israeli forces are also continuing their days-long siege on the village of Tammun, south of Tubas.

More information on today’s Israeli captive, Palestinian prisoner exchange

We have been reporting on the fifth captives-for-prisoners swap set to take place in the coming hours between Israel and Hamas, which will see three Israeli captives exchanged for 183 Palestinian prisoners.

Here are more details on the exchange:

The Quds News Network reports that the process will closely follow the exchange that took place last weekend, with the release carried out in two locations.

The first stage of the Israeli captive release is expected to take place at 8:30am local time (06:30 GMT) on Salah al-Din Street in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza. The second release is expected to take place at noon local time (10:00 GMT), with the location not yet clear.

Israeli military continues raids on homes of Palestinian prisoners set for release

As we have been reporting, the Israeli military has been carrying out raids across the occupied West Bank tonight on the family homes of Palestinians set for release as part of the fifth prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas.

The Palestinian Information Center now reports that the family homes of five Palestinian prisoners slated for release this morning have also been raided in the village of Deir Nidham, northwest of Ramallah.

Israeli forces also arrested “dozens” of Palestinians in the city of Qalqilya on Friday night, according to the same outlet.

https://twitter.com/PalinfoAr/status/1888010699114237983
https://twitter.com/PalinfoAr/status/1888067396545491425

Pro-Palestine demonstrators in Basque region protest Maccabi Tel Aviv match

Thousands of pro-Palestine demonstrators marched in the Basque city of Vitoria-Gasteiz on Friday to protest against EuroLeague basketball game between Spanish team Baskonia and Israeli side, Maccabi Tel Aviv.

The protests follow an incident on Thursday where basketball fans in the Spanish city of Barcelona broke into pro-Palestine chants during another EuroLeague match, also against Maccabi Tel Aviv.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/7/live-3-israelis-183-palestinians-to-be-freed-in-latest-gaza-truce-swap

>>487480
>I think that this is more an indicator of how truly despised these people are now, rather an a strategy to affect anything.
I mean, yeah, but do folks not realize we can just kill these guys?
Unironically, it wouldn't be that hard. You could probably do it with like three guys, 10 tops. You don't go back in time and throw eggs at Hitler is all I'm saying, Americans should be more creative. Instead, people in a country which kills people for less all the time are afraid to even entertain the idea that it could be necessary in this case.

>>487485
>I mean, yeah, but do folks not realize we can just kill these guys?
Sure, but this is not a feudal social order where you can kill zionist politics by killing the members of "the great house of Zionism".

You have to drag these people in front of a war-crimes tribunal, as a means to induce a change in the political economy. The Zionists have damaged the interests of a great number of capitalists, that opens an opportunity for criminalizing the Zionist methods of "waging destructive influence" (which includes attacks on free speech).

Lets indulge in alternate history: the most profitable configuration for western capitalism would have been having 2 states, an Israel and a Palestine, both as client states. Giving west-Asia/middle-east a choice whether they want western influence with the Israeli flavor or the Palestinian flavor.

Genocide is considered such a mega crime, not because of moral convictions. The real reason is that it is a stupid strategy that stopped working a hundred years ago. Look at the cost (including all the indirect costs) of decimating Gaza, brutalizing people in the Westbank and Lebanon , make a cost/benefit analysis and compare that to the various diplomatic initiatives the Chinese are doing. My guess is that the Chinese spend less to convince a dozen countries to join BRICS.

If these zionist figure heads get whacked, that would cause disorganization and temporarily weaken Zionism. But if you go the systemic route, Zionism goes into the dustbin of history. Find the capital interests that are being harmed by Zionism and get them to finance the bureaucratic battles to make the war-crime tribunals and all the other stuff happen that neutralizes their ability to gain power.

A victory would be if you get these people processed by the system as villains like the Nazis after WW2, and you get actionable bans against lobby efforts that could diminish civil liberties like free speech.

Netanyahu wraps up US visit

The Israeli prime minister is about to depart Washington, DC, and return to Israel after a busy week in the US capital, according to the Times of Israel.

Netanyahu was welcomed at the White House on Tuesday by Trump, whom the Israeli leader has described as “the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House”. It was after that meeting that Trump announced the widely-criticsed plan for the US to “take over” and “own” the Gaza Strip.

Appearing on Fox News the next day, Netanyahu praised Trump’s plan as the “first good idea I’ve heard” and said it should be “pursued, examined, and done”.

The Israeli leader, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for “crimes against humanity and war crimes” in Gaza, also had plenty of meetings behind closed doors, including with top Republicans at the US Capitol, top officials at the Pentagon and a group of Evangelical Christian leaders.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/9/live-israeli-troops-to-leave-gaza-corridor-after-captive-exchange

>>487487
>Sure, but this is not a feudal social order where you can kill zionist politics by killing the members of "the great house of Zionism".
I mean, killing Hitler and his administration wouldn't singlehandedly have stopped WWII, but it would be a pretty good start.

>You have to drag these people in front of a war-crimes tribunal, as a means to induce a change in the political economy. The Zionists have damaged the interests of a great number of capitalists, that opens an opportunity for criminalizing the Zionist methods of "waging destructive influence" (which includes attacks on free speech).
I think you're overestimating the damage done to capitalists compared to the determination to keep this going. The capitalists are complicit, they know they're complicit, and so they have a vested interest in not trying Netanyahu.

So who's going to take him before a war crimes tribunal?
I would gladly do it myself. The thing is I don't have money or resources to do that. If Netanyahu's motorcade passed by me, the best I could do is shoot at it or throw some manner of incendiary. But if I had the resources to launch an arrest and allies with whom to do it, I would do that, and I would deliver him to the Hague. Why are the people who do have the resources to enact the legal process instead ignoring the law? Why are they not pursuing this war criminal for his war crimes? Why does the US break its own laws to continue supporting him? Where is the state which will defy this evil?
I see no such state. And if there is no state willing to do it and I myself do not have the resources with which to place him under arrest, I have zero excuse to trust that somebody else will go through the process. The fact is, this guy was a war criminal 20-30-40 years ago. Now he's the worst war criminal on Earth, and most of the world is doing worse than nothing, actively trying to protect him.

Give me the support to arrest him, and I will arrest him. Petitioning those who already have the resources to arrest him to do their duty under law has clearly failed. This does not mean that I begrudge those who try to get him using the mechanisms available, I think they are right to exhaustively pursue such avenues, but it's very clear that the only avenue which will reliably work is action.

>Lets indulge in alternate history: the most profitable configuration for western capitalism would have been having 2 states, an Israel and a Palestine, both as client states. Giving west-Asia/middle-east a choice whether they want western influence with the Israeli flavor or the Palestinian flavor.
I don't agree with the premise of this hypothetical, and it's unfalsifiable.

>Genocide is considered such a mega crime, not because of moral convictions. The real reason is that it is a stupid strategy that stopped working a hundred years ago.
Well, clearly if that is the case then it hasn't been considered by the leaders of Israel and the US. Meanwhile, my objection to genocide is moral and ethical, and out of the concern that my government, which is actively supporting this genocide, will, as a global power, not draw the lines at the illusory borders which global powers use to manipulate the rest of us. Their sense of what is moral or practical does not stop at imaginary lines. The American leadership can and will do it here the moment they feel it is convenient to do so.

>If these zionist figure heads get whacked, that would cause disorganization and temporarily weaken Zionism. But if you go the systemic route, Zionism goes into the dustbin of history.
Not if the system is rigged in favor of Zionism. It is.

>A victory would be if you get these people processed by the system as villains like the Nazis after WW2, and you get actionable bans against lobby efforts that could diminish civil liberties like free speech.
The Nazis were tried for war crimes because they lost WWII. I mean, the Soviets fucked those guys up really badly. The US and UK too.

Times of Israel website hacked, displaying pro-Palestine message
The website of the English-language edition of the newspaper has been taken over by hackers, showing a text in support of the Palestinians on its parent page.

“Do you really think you are safe in Palestine?” the message read, adding: “Or do you think they can protect you?”

“We are everywhere, but you cannot see us! There is more to talk about.. #FreePalestine” the message concluded.

“Allahu Akbar” in Arabic was typed under the message with different characters.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/9/live-israeli-troops-to-leave-gaza-corridor-after-captive-exchange

>>487498
>I mean, killing Hitler and his administration wouldn't singlehandedly have stopped WWII, but it would be a pretty good start.
Why didn't the Soviets do it then ? They didn't even try.

Killing Hitler might have had an effect if it was done in the early stages of the formation of the fascist political organization (Nazi party), but later (WW2) when the fascist death machine was rolling, i doubt it. The driving force behind fascism is reactionary imperial finance capital looking to expand. Killing early Hitler might have delayed their schemes by a decade, and by then the Soviets would have been so powerful that a frontal assault would have been out of the question, and the other European powers like France and UK would had the time to build up their defenses as well. Maybe WW2 would have been more like the cold war if Early-hitler had been killed. I imagine that would have meant fewer deaths and less destruction, so it might have been worth it.

I look at history and politics through a hard materialist lens, and that leads me to the conclusion that killing individual political figures doesn't change much, or at least it doesn't really have lasting effects. So if my WW2 alt-history paragraph had come to pass and Early-hitler had been whacked in the 1920s, there would have been differences, but it would not have set us on a fundamentally different path. The effects would have diminished over time and eventually converged back into the timeline we are in now. In the present we would be in a nearly identical situation. This is what Marx meant by saying that we are living in pre-history still. Meaning a time where humanity is not able to consciously choose it's path. There have been attempts, the Soviets directed their development, during the Socdem period, the US and Europe did too. The Chinese are currently directing their development to a significant degree, the Russians probably do too, although to a lesser degree (i don't really know, with all the Russia-gate hysteria going on it's hard to know for sure)

You are basically proposing a theory that we can escape pre-history and gain agency over our development, by "pruning" the bad politicians, rather then changing the system. I don't think that's true, i think that changing the system is the only game in town.

I'm splitting my replay in multiple comments in order to make it less "text-wally"

>>487498
>I think you're overestimating the damage done to capitalists compared to the determination to keep this going. The capitalists are complicit, they know they're complicit, and so they have a vested interest in not trying Netanyahu.
If they are that determined why would they be deterred by the Yahu biting the dust. I think that the Zionist machine would just go full cringe and declare it a "personal holocaust" or something similarly retarded, and then there might be a brief period of political intrigue and power struggle. They'll get a new guy that will continue on the road to genocide the Palestinians.

Lets not forget that Netanyahu is also destroying Isreal's economic base and traumatizing the Israeli population, because his personal interests are driving him in that direction. That means Israel as a state might go away entirely or become so weakened that they will no longuer be capable of doing much of anything. He's digging 2 graves one for Palestine and one for Israel. Lets look at the prospects here. The Yahu completes the ethnic cleansing and the Palestinians get dispersed into a global Palestinian diaspora, Israel falters economically, while the US empire continues to weaken until it no longer can afford to prop up Israel as a state and downgrades its material support to maintaining military bases only. That means that the Zionist political project evaporates (including the Zionist influence operation in western countries). After that the Palestinians get a chance to reclaim Palestine, if they agree to leave US bases alone. The Palestinians appear to be accepting of non-Zionist Jews and anti-Zionist Jews, so Israeli Jews probably could stay as long as they disavow Zionism and give up on their project for ethnic supremacy "Ubermenschen" privileges. The time frame on this is probably 5-10 years. Less if Israel takes another stab at Iran. I'm not advocating this because the amount of people that die horrendous brutal deaths would be staggering, but it is a "Horror with an end". If the Yahu gets a "percussive-retirement", you might end up with a new Zionist Fuhrer that somehow manages to prevent Israel's short-term downfall while still completing the genocide, and that means the Israeli state will continue terrorizing people for another 20-40 years. For people living in the west it means that insufferable artificial propaganda voice screeching dehumanizing and sadistic colonial nonsense would remain a continuing irritant on our minds and a reputational drain internationally.

>So who's going to take him before a war crimes tribunal?
Are you kidding me ? All the lawyers and judges that get to process Hitler2 will get enormous prestige and significant material validation. Maybe you don't know the guys who did Hitler1 but all the people in the judicial circles do.

>If Netanyahu's motorcade passed by me, the best I could do is shoot at it or throw some manner of incendiary.
He's the most hated person on the planet, he probably has good security and an armored car. He clearly is very vulnerable, but not as much as you think. Iran for example has the power to do this, Netanyahu wants a war with Iran, so they have a powerful incentive to assassinate him, yet they are not doing it. Netanyahu is also damaging interests of the US and Europe (particularly Spain and Portugal), who also have the ability to end him. You first would have to understand why all these actors who have both means an incentive, do not act.

But if I had the resources to launch an arrest and allies with whom to do it, I would do that, and I would deliver him to the Hague. Why are the people who do have the resources to enact the legal process instead ignoring the law? Why are they not pursuing this war criminal for his war crimes? Why does the US break its own laws to continue supporting him? Where is the state which will defy this evil?
There definitely is capital that is getting screwed by the Zionist machine, they suffer a lot of opportunity damage, as in paths to profits the Zionists have closed off. If they are rational actors it should be possible to convince them.

>Give me the support to arrest him, and I will arrest him. Petitioning those who already have the resources to arrest him to do their duty under law has clearly failed. This does not mean that I begrudge those who try to get him using the mechanisms available,
The postWW2 antifascist mechanisms proved ineffective indeed, you definitely have to create new institutional mechanisms for sure.

>>487498
<Lets indulge in alternate history: the most profitable configuration for western capitalism would have been having 2 states, an Israel and a Palestine, both as client states. Giving west-Asia/middle-east a choice whether they want western influence with the Israeli flavor or the Palestinian flavor.
>I don't agree with the premise of this hypothetical, and it's unfalsifiable.
So you think the Zionists are competent at serving imperialism ?

There used to be labor zionism, which might have been reasonable, i don't really know, it died decades ago, and i can't be bothered to investigate it. Zionism as it stands today is just a type of fascism, as such it is driven by reactionary imperial finance capital looking to expand. (You probably should read some Domenico Losurdo to understand the links between collonialism and fascism). From the perspective of imperial expansion fascism is mostly a big failure, with WW2 being the big one. You know they switched to fascism and the result was the Soviets becoming a super-power, that induced national liberation movements all over the world and that killed colonialism. That meant imperialism was forced to endure a huge retreat.

I think that project Israel is turning into a failure from the perspective of imperial finance capital too. So yeah i think Zionism is incompetent evil.

You are right that i can't provide evidence for an alternate history theory, but doing an earnest 2 state solution with a genuine Palestinian state that would have been a much smoother method of gaining imperial influence. Almost the entire population in that region thinks that the US is the great Satan because it supports the Zionist war-crimes. This materializes as relentless push-back which cause an enormous amount of friction to everything the US tries to do. By giving the Palestinians a genuine state, the US probably would have been perceived as a neutral power that rectified the errors of the British empire, and the friction would have been less than 10% of what it is now. Obviously the most rational course of action would have been to drop Zionism and end project Israel, and instead build a partnership with Iran under Mossadegh, by letting him nationalize Iranian oil unmolested under the condition of being able to buy 10% of Iranian oil at production cost, plus a small military base.

I want to reiterate, i think the current crop of imperialists suck at imperialism, they are very powerful but what they have is mostly legacy power.

It's gonna be really hilarious if the Trump presidency is ultimately undone by Israel.

572 more fatalities confirmed in Gaza: Health Ministry

The Health Ministry in Gaza has just released its latest report on the number of people who were killed and wounded by Israel’s war on the territory.

In a statement, it said a total of 26 fatalities – four newly killed, 22 body recoveries – and five wounded people had arrived in hospitals during the past 48 hours.

It added that 572 fatalities were added to the overall number of people killed in Israeli attacks after their data was verified by the judicial committee following up on the file of reports and missing persons.

As a result, the confirmed number of people killed in Israeli attacks since October 7 has risen to at least 48,181, with 111,638 others wounded.

A number of victims still remain under the rubble, while the Government Media Office in Gaza has put the death toll to at least 61,709 people, saying thousands of people who were missing under the rubble are now presumed dead.

Israeli forces near Ramallah beat 70-year-old father of prisoner set for release

The Israeli forces have stormed the home of Fatah Revolutionary Council member Fakhri Barghouti in the village of Kobar, north of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office.

Barghouti, 70, was severely beaten and warned not to hold any celebratory events to mark the release of his son, Shadi, from an Israeli prison later today, the statement on Telegram said.

Iran leader Khamenei meets top Hamas leaders in Tehran

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has met with acting Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya and two other leaders of the Palestinian group in Tehran.

Iranian state media gave no details about the meeting and only posted photos of Khamenei meeting al-Hayya, Muhammad Darwish, head of Hamas’s leadership council, and top Hamas official Nizar Awadallah.

Iran supports Hamas in its war with Israel.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard were killed in a strike on their accommodation in the Iranian capital in July. Khamenei promised “harsh punishment” for Israel and said it is “our duty to seek revenge for his blood as he was martyred in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

Iran’s supreme leader praises Hamas: ‘Israeli goals unachieved’

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has met acting Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya and two other leaders of the Palestinian group in Tehran.

“You defeated the Zionist regime, which was in fact America’s defeat,” Khamenei told the Palestinian delegation. “You did not allow them to achieve any of their goals.”

Khamenei “honoured the memory of the martyrs of Gaza and the martyred commanders, particularly Martyr Ismail Haniyeh“, the supreme leader’s official website said.

Iranian TV said the Palestinian leaders were in Tehran to congratulate Khamenei on the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. They expressed gratitude for Iran’s continued support.

The delegation, which also included Mohammad Darwish, head of Hamas’s leadership council, and top Hamas official Nizar Awadallah, presented Khamenei with a report on the current situation in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, and “the victories and successes that were achieved”.

“We come to meet with you today with pride,” the TV quoted al-Hayya as telling Khamenei.

US threats against Iran “have no effect on the mindset of our nation”, Khamenei was quoted as saying.

Hamas: Netanyahu’s ‘absolute victory’ a ‘shattered illusion’
Hamas has issued a lengthy statement after freeing three Israeli captives. Here are the main quotes:

The Qassam Brigades in Gaza released today a number of the enemy’s captives in its possession, in exchange for the liberation of a new batch of our heroic prisoners in the occupation’s prisons, within the framework of the ceasefire deal.
The great scenes of the handover process, and the messages of the resistance about the “next day”, confirm the hand of our people and their resistance will remain supreme… bringing us closer to return, freedom and self-determination.
Our Palestinian people, with their great rallying around the resistance and defiance of the occupation, confirm their rejection of all Trump’s projects of displacement and occupation, and their firm determination to thwart them.
The “absolute victory” that the criminal Netanyahu and his army sought for 471 days are illusions that were shattered on the land of proud Gaza forever.
We renew our greetings to our great Palestinian people, who, with their legendary steadfastness, sent a clear message to the entire world that they… are committed to their resistance, and determined to continue on their path until freedom and the establishment of their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Our resistance has adhered to human values ​​and the provisions of international humanitarian law in its treatment of prisoners, and has made great efforts to preserve their lives despite the Zionist bombing and the attempts of the war criminal Netanyahu to target and liquidate them.

Israel prison authorities confirm 183 Palestinians freed

Israel’s prison service has confirmed it released 183 Palestinian prisoners during the fifth exchange under the Gaza ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.

It said in a statement that they “were transferred from several prisons across the country”, before they “were released” to the occupied West Bank, occupied East Jerusalem and Gaza.

War-torn Lebanon forms its first government in 2 years

Lebanon’s new prime minister has formed the country’s first full-fledged government since 2022.

President Joseph Aoun announced in a statement that he accepted the resignation of the former caretaker government and signed a decree with new Prime Minister Nawaf Salam forming the new government.

Salam’s cabinet of 24 ministers, split evenly between Christian and Muslim sects, was formed less than a month after he was appointed, and comes at a time when Lebanon is scrambling to rebuild its war-battered southern region and maintain security along its southern border after a devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah.

A US-brokered ceasefire deal ended the war in November. Though Hezbollah did not endorse Salam as prime minister, the Lebanese group did engage in negotiations with the new prime minister over the Shia Muslim seats in government, as per Lebanon’s power-sharing system.

Israeli army says it struck Hamas weapons depot in Syria

A military statement says a Hamas weapons cache in the Deir Ali area in southern Syria has been bombed by Israeli jets.

The army claimed Hamas and other Palestinian groups are “exploiting Syrian soil to establish Iranian-directed terrorist activity”.

“The [military] will continue to strike the Hamas terrorist organisation wherever it tries to establish itself and will act against all attempts by terrorist organisations to establish themselves and strengthen themselves in order to prevent a threat to the security of the State of Israel,” the army said.

There was no comment from Syrian authorities or Hamas on the Israeli claim.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/7/live-3-israelis-183-palestinians-to-be-freed-in-latest-gaza-truce-swap

Hezbollah sidelined as Lebanon forms new government
Zeina Khodr
Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon

After much political bickering and international pressure, Lebanon’s politicians have agreed on a new government.

It’s a very different government from previous ones.

This time, Hezbollah and its allies no longer control the executive authority. They’ve lost what is known here as the “blocking third”. They don’t have the number of ministers to block decisions and to topple the cabinet.

There was a lot of international pressure on Lebanon’s politicians, simply because this country is in dire need of financial assistance, not only to help revive the economy but to help reconstruct what was destroyed during the Israel-Hezbollah war last year. The reconstruction bill is in the billions of dollars and this is a nearly bankrupt state.

The new government is going to have many challenges ahead. It’s not just the economy and rebuilding, it’s also about maintaining that ceasefire agreement with Israel.

Lebanon is under pressure to extend the state’s authority across the country and to disarm all non-state actors. This means Hezbollah.

There’s no doubt that Hezbollah has been militarily weakened by Israel, but it is still a force to be reckoned with in the country. Along with its allies, it has a significant number of seats in parliament and it has popular support. But it is a very different Hezbollah. In the past, it was able to impose its decisions, and now its influence has waned.

So the balance of power has changed in Lebanon, and also in the region.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/9/live-israeli-troops-to-leave-gaza-corridor-after-captive-exchange

Israeli forces to begin withdrawing from Netzarim Corridor: Reports

The Israeli military will begin a complete withdrawal from Gaza’s Netzarim Corridor tonight, according to reports in the Israeli media.

Yedioth Ahronoth is reporting that the army the 162nd Division will redeploy to near the border and the evacuation of Netzarim will mean the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the northern Gaza Strip.

Per the ceasefire agreement, the Israeli military is supposed to withdraw completely from the Netzarim Corridor, which bisects Gaza, and allow free movement back and forth between the southern and northern parts of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli air attack kills six and wounds two in eastern Lebanon

An Israeli attack Saturday on a Hezbollah base in eastern Lebanon has killed six people and wounded two others, Lebanese state media has reported.

The state-run Lebanese News Agency (NNA) said the raid which was carried by “an enemy drone on the al-Shaara area adjacent to the town of Jennata, on the slopes of the eastern Lebanon mountain range, resulted in the killing of six people and the wounding of two others”.

The Israeli army said that earlier on Saturday Israeli warplanes conducted what it described as “an intelligence-based strike on Hezbollah operatives in the area of Bekaa in Lebanon”.

The attacks come amid a ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, which was agreed in November last year and recently extended until February 18.

Israeli violence inflicted on Palestinian prisoners ‘horrifying’

Discussing today’s captive-prisoner exchange, Basil Farraj of Birzeit University, told Al Jazeera that “what is most shocking is the level of brutality and dehumanisation of Palestinian detainees, to the extent that, Israeli authorities showed a three-minute video clip of the destruction in Gaza to soon to be released Palestinian prisoners.”

He noted that “the level of violence and brutality towards Palestinian detainees is horrifying and exceeds what we know of the stories of torture and violence.”

Farraj added that “at least 58 Palestinians [in Israeli custody] have been killed in less than 16 months, which is in itself an astonishment.

“In addition, [Israeli authorities have been] withholding Palestinian dead bodies … without any form of justice.”

Rights group says released most prisoners suffer health issues

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society advocacy group says most of the prisoners released by Israel in the continuing ceasefire deal suffer from health problems.

“Today, after 183 prisoners were released in the fifth batch of the first phase, the prisoners’ bodies and their health conditions, and the need for some of them to be transferred to the hospital, reflected the level of atrocities that the prisoners were exposed to over the past period in the occupation prisons,” it said.

“In addition to all this, we remind you that the occupation did not stop at its crimes against prisoners, but also practised organised terrorism against their families.”

The Prisoner’s Society noted that there were still more than 10,000 prisoners in Israeli prisons, and the number did not include all the people detained in Gaza.

German police arrest pro-Palestinian protesters over Arabic music

German police have arrested several pro-Palestinian protesters in Berlin and forced them to stop playing music and chanting slogans in Arabic against Israel, the Anadolu news agency has reported.

Hundreds of people had gathered at the square near the Wittenbergplatz metro station in support of Palestine, under the slogan “Stop the aggression in the West Bank—Do not supply weapons to Israel.”

Demonstrators carried Palestinian flags and signs reading “Hands off the West Bank”, “Stop arming Israel”, and “Palestinian children deserve to grow up”.

During the rally, some protesters delivered speeches in Arabic and chanted anti-Israel and anti-US slogans to the tune of Arabic music.

Police intervened, citing an Arabic music ban, and demanded that the protesters disperse.

More than 50 protesters refused to leave and staged a sit-in protest, prompting police to arrest several protesters.

WATCH: AJ+ journalist finally returns home to northern Gaza

After surviving 15 months of Israeli bombardment, Bisan Owda is finally able to go home.

Since the ceasefire deal, more than 500,000 Palestinians have now traveled back to northern Gaza. Before October 7, 2023, most of Gaza’s population lived in northern Gaza, and Gaza City was the largest urban area.

Bisan’s journey would usually have only taken 40 minutes, but it took her more than 24 hours to travel there.

When Bisan finally made it to her family home in Beit Hanoon, 10km (4.5 miles) from Gaza City, she found her house heavily damaged. One of the first things she did was hang a Palestinian flag from her balcony.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFvvGNfRuiA/

Prime Minister Netanyahu ‘weaponised hunger’ in Gaza
Marwan Bishara
Al Jazeera's senior political analyst

I would like to start with the absurd idea that Israelis are upset that the three captives have lost weight. It’s actually far more than absurd, far more than cynical. It’s the ultimate hutzpah, as the Israelis like to refer to it.

Netanyahu, who is unhappy, is sought after by the International Criminal Court for weaponising hunger in Gaza. He’s accused of crimes against humanity for instilling famine in Gaza, using hunger as a weapon of war.

That man is complaining the three Israelis held there lost weight when countless Palestinians have died of starvation? Countless children have died of malnutrition? And he’s the one responsible for all of that.

The other thing is the degree of testimony of Palestinians released from Israeli prisons. I doubt it’s going to be heard throughout the Western world, but Israeli prisons have long turned into torture chambers.

Netanyahu ‘already looking to re-litigate’ the ceasefire agreement

Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat, told Al Jazeera that the mood in Israel today is mixed as “many people are elated and jubilant, but also fear that the next phase [of the ceasefire agreement] may not happen”.

Pinkas pointed out that many people feel anger and resentment towards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for “choosing to stay at a fancy hotel suite in Washington, DC today”, instead of welcoming the captives home.

“All he cares about right now is the relative stability of his coalition,” Pinkas said. “He accuses the entire world, including the families of the hostages, of trying to undermine him at a time of war. This is not the Netanyahu of savvy instincts of recent years.”

He also said that Netanyahu is actively hostile about advancing the ceasefire agreement with Hamas and will try to use Donald Trump’s plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza as an excuse to resume the war.

“He’s already looking to re-litigate the agreement, saying the Israeli negotiating team was manipulated by Qatar, Egypt and even the Biden administration,” he said.

“He will insert new stipulations [into the ceasefire deal] and then try and collapse it somehow. If that doesn’t work, he will try and initiate more friction in the West Bank and transfer that over into Gaza.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/7/live-3-israelis-183-palestinians-to-be-freed-in-latest-gaza-truce-swap

Netzarim withdrawal another ‘failure’ of war goals for Israel: Hamas

The Palestinian group running Gaza says the complete withdrawal of the Israeli military from the Netzarim Corridor signals a “continuation of the failure of the goals of the war of extermination against the Palestinian people”.

Hamas added in a statement that the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes and the ongoing exchange of captives and prisoners refutes Benjamin Netanyahu’s “lie” about achieving victory in the enclave.

“Gaza will remain a land liberated by the hands of its people and its fighters, and forbidden to the occupying invaders and any external force.”

https://twitter.com/PalinfoAr/status/1888495023391486130
Translation: From the Netzarim Corridor after the withdrawal of the occupation forces.

Israel bombs ‘Hezbollah tunnel’ on Lebanon-Syria border

The Israeli military says it carried out an air strike targeting a tunnel on the border between Syria and Lebanon used by the armed group Hezbollah.

Israeli “aircraft conducted a precise intelligence-based strike on an underground tunnel crossing from Syrian territory into Lebanese territory that was used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons”, the military said in statement.

The army said it also struck “several other Hezbollah sites” in Lebanon. Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported “hostile Israeli warplanes” launching several raids at the Lebanon-Syria border, including one that hit a crossing.

A fragile Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire (anon's note: ???) has been in place since November 27 after more than a year of hostilities, including two months of all-out war.

Israeli air attack hits Lebanon’s Nabatieh region

Israeli jets have launched an air attack this evening on the area between Aazze and Bfarwa in Nabatieh, according to the official National News Agency.

On Saturday, an Israeli air raid killed six people and wounded two in eastern Lebanon amid a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Clashes occurring near Ramallah

Sources told Al Jazeera Arabic that clashes took place between Palestinian youths and Israeli forces in the village of Deir Jarir, northeast of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.

Since the ceasefire in Gaza went into effect, Israel has stepped up its military campaign in the West Bank, confirming earlier today that it is focusing the brunt of its force on the northern part of the territory.

Take Israelis to Alaska, Greenland, Saudi official says

A member of Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council has criticised Trump’s proposal to move Palestinians from Gaza, suggesting that relocating Israelis to Alaska and Greenland would be a better solution for Middle East stability.

“If he [Trump] truly wants to be a hero of peace and achieve stability and prosperity for the Middle East, he should relocate his beloved Israelis to the state of Alaska and then to Greenland after annexing it,” Yousef bin Trad al-Saadoun said in an article for the Saudi Arabian newspaper Okaz.

He urged Palestinians to remain united as “the worst is yet to come”.

Al-Saadoun also dismissed Netanyahu’s call for establishing a Palestinian state on Saudi Arabian territory. “The Zionists and their allies must realise they will not succeed in dragging the Saudi leadership into media traps and false political pressure.”

He accused Washington of blindly adopting Israel’s policies.

“The official foreign policy of the United States will seek the illegal occupation of sovereign land and the ethnic cleansing of its population – both of which are Israel’s methods and constitute crimes against humanity.”

Majority of Americans think US takeover of Gaza ‘bad idea’: Poll

A poll conducted by CBS has found that most people in the United States think US control of Gaza, a proposal made by Trump last week, is a “bad idea”.

Forty-seven percent of those polled aren’t in favour of the US president’s plan, while only 13 percent think it is a “good idea”. Forty percent of people responded that they were not sure, or that it depends.

Meanwhile, 54 percent of those polled said they approved of Trump’s handling of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

France allowed Netanyahu’s plane to fly over its airspace twice, despite ICC arrest warrant

France has allowed the Israeli prime minister’s plane to pass through its airspace for the second time, despite a standing arrest warrant for the Israeli leader issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), and France being legally obliged to abide by the court’s decision, according to an investigation by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency Sanad.

The plane, called the “Wing of Zion”, carrying Netanyahu took off on its return journey after his visit to the US capital, according to navigation data from the aircraft tracking site Flightradar24.

The Israeli plane used French airspace to return to Israel, in violation of international law and the ICC decision issued in November 2024 for Netanyahu’s arrest, on the basis that he participated in war crimes and crimes against humanity in the prosecution of Israel’s war on Gaza.

On February 2, France also allowed Netanyahu’s plane, on its outbound flight to Washington, to pass over its airspace even after the plane took a specifically curated route to avoid the airspaces of other countries adhering to the ICC decision.

France, as a member of the ICC and a signatory to the Rome Statute since 1998, is legally obliged to adhere to the court’s decisions.

Netanyahu’s US trip was his first foreign visit since the ICC issued its decision.

Israeli settlers block main street in West Bank’s Huwara

Israeli settlers have stormed the town of Huwara south of Nablus and closed down the main street under the protection of Israeli armed forces.

Videos from the town, which have been verified by Al Jazeera, show settlers dancing and raising the Israeli flag.

https://twitter.com/QudsNen/status/1888553859250901048

Aerial footage reveals extent of destruction around Netzarim Corridor

The Israeli military left a huge trail of destruction behind after completing its withdrawal from the Netzarim Corridor.

Aerial footage released by local activists, which has been verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency, show how nothing was spared in the area of the corridor that bisected Gaza and prevented Palestinians from going back to their homes in the northern part of the enclave.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DF2KLVYAPI8/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/9/live-israeli-troops-to-leave-gaza-corridor-after-captive-exchange

https://twitter.com/QudsNen/status/1888508058566877660
Israeli occupation forces are forcing families out of their homes in al-Far'a refugee camp, as the Israeli military continues its assault on the camp for the seventh day in a row.

Alon Mizrahi: The biggest news item in the past 24 hours not many people are talking about: the Trump administration has greenlighted the delivery of MOABs to Israel.

The Mother Of All Bombs, as it's called, weighs 11 tons and is the heaviest and most destructive in America's arsenal. It is designed to penetrate and destroy deep underground bunkers.

For 25 years Israel has requested these bombs and the US said no.

This is, in effect, an American authorization of a massive strike against Iran. Personally, I welcome this scenario, as a direct and full confrontation with Iran is the only thing that can stop Israel's murder spree, or just stop Israel, period.
-
Netanyahu dreams about debilitating Iran and Normalizing with Saudi Arabia to complete Zionism's takeover of the Middle East. Both articles of this plan are going to fail spectacularly: Israel will be destroyed in war, and no one will ever want to hear from past Zionists after it.

https://x.com/alon_mizrahi/status/1888661122489925715

>>487522
These ginormous "mobs" are put inside of a massive, slow military cargo plane, and when they are over the drop zone, they open the rear hatch of the plane and then it gets pushed out on a sled. Because of that it can only be used when there is absolutely no anti-air. Flak cannons from WW2 would be able to deny the use of this.

As a propaganda tool this is good for producing a media spectacle and intimidation, but it is not in any way a "efficient" military tool. Bunker buster bombs are much better and also cheaper.

Iran has demonstrated that they have rather sophisticated anti air and they have driven their missile bunker complexes deep into mountains, and are likely capable of shrugging off nukes. It's quite possible it would require a ground invasion to destroy that.

It's much more likely the Zionists plan to use these to terrorize Syrians or Lebanese.

>>487523
>It's much more likely the Zionists plan to use these to terrorize Syrians or Lebanese.
I think you're onto something there. I think I heard Ray McGovern (or possibly Alastair Crooke) talking about this today, and their suggestion was that this would be aimed at attacking Gaza again. I'd say Gaza and Lebanon would be my first guesses, and then Syria since Syria doesn't have any air defenses (anymore) either.

Hamas says it’ll delay captive release indefinitely, cites Israel’s deal ‘violations’

The spokesperson of Hamas’s armed wing has issued a statement on Telegram saying the group will delay the release of more Israeli captives planned for Saturday “until further notice”.

“Over the past three weeks, the resistance leadership monitored the enemy’s violations and its non-compliance with the terms of the agreement,” Abu Obeida said.

“These violations include delaying the return of displaced persons to northern Gaza, targeting them with shelling and gunfire in various areas of the Gaza Strip, and failing to allow the entry of relief materials in all forms as agreed upon. Meanwhile, the resistance has fulfilled all its obligations.”

The Qassam Brigades spokesperson added the decision to delay the release of captives will “remain in place until the occupying entity complies with past obligations and compensates retroactively. We affirm our commitment to the terms of the agreement as long as the occupation adheres to them.”

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‘The Israelis are intentionally sabotaging the deal’: Hamas official

Senior Hamas official Basem Naim had told Al Jazeera before the group called for an indefinite delay in the release of Israeli captives that Israel is not meeting the terms of the ceasefire.

“In the last three weeks after signing the deal, we have been in very serious talks and negotiations with the mediators – the Egyptians, the Qataris and the United States – about the daily violations by the Israelis of the deal,” Naim said.

He noted 25 Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded by Israeli forces after the ceasefire went into effect.

Hamas officials called for hundreds of thousands of tents to be brought into Gaza to shelter displaced people as they faced winter weather, and the necessary aid has not arrived. “We are lacking any sources of electricity. We have called for generators to enter the Strip,” Naim said.

“We have told them clearly: ‘How can we continue the prisoner exchange, including the dead bodies of the captured Israelis, if until now we don’t have any heavy machinery?’

“We are committed to the ceasefire agreement. We have done our part. We have fulfilled all our obligations, and we are still committed, and we are working to avoid any obstacles and overcome any challenges. The Israelis are intentionally sabotaging the deal and undermining the agreement.”

Israel on high alert as Hamas announces captive release postponed

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz blamed Hamas for violating the Gaza truce after the Palestinian group announced it’s halting the release of captives because of Israeli violations.

“I have instructed military to prepare at the highest level of readiness in Gaza and to defend our communities,” Katz said.

“Hamas’s announcement it will stop releasing hostages is a complete violation of the ceasefire deal,” he added.

Three dead after damaged buildings collapse in Gaza
Hani Mahmoud
Reporting from Gaza City

People have set up fires inside collapsed buildings as a way to warm themselves during these difficult weather conditions in northern Gaza.

There is a lack of aid, tents and better protection for people here.

They are staying in severely damaged buildings due to a lack of shelters in these areas.

There have been three documented cases of people dying under similar buildings that were collapsed in recent days.

Netanyahu arrives at corruption trial

The Israeli prime minister has arrived at a Tel Aviv court to continue testifying in his long-running corruption trial.

The 75-year-old has been indicted in three cases involving gifts from millionaire friends and for allegedly seeking regulatory favours for media tycoons in return for favourable news coverage of himself.

Netanyahu, who denies any wrongdoing, has pleaded not guilty.

‘Hamas represents the collective Palestinian will’

Hamas’s move to suspend its swap of captives over Israeli ceasefire violations shows its unique position in the Arab world of consistently standing up for the people of Gaza, an analyst says.

“This is a political statement designed to pressure both the United States and the Israeli government and people. This is an example of the kind of resistance politically that Hamas puts up. No other Arab party – except maybe [the Houthis] in Yemen – is really doing this in a sustained manner,” said Rami Khouri from the American University in Beirut.

“This is the reason why Hamas is taken seriously, because it does stick to the point and maintains political pressure to achieve its goals,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Hamas represents now better than anybody – certainly better than the Palestinian Authority and the PLO – the collective Palestinian will, and that includes the will to co-exist with the state of Israel with its Jewish majority.”

Increased Israeli drone activity over northern Gaza

Our colleagues on the ground report an increase in drone activity over the skies of Gaza City and other areas in the Strip’s war-battered northern areas.

Meanwhile, Israeli media report that the army suspended leave for all Gaza division soldiers.

The news reports come after Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said he put the armed forces on the highest level after Hamas announced it is suspending the transfer of captives from Gaza because of violations of the ceasefire agreement.

Israeli public anger for delay in captives’ release directed at Netanyahu

Hamas’s decision is “tragic” but predictable, according to Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat.

“Netanyahu indicated, before his trip to Washington, that he does not have any intentions of moving on to phase two [of the ceasefire deal],” Pinkas told Al Jazeera, speaking from Tel Aviv.

“The moment he made it clear that he has no intention of moving to phase two, that put into question phase one … Then he went to Washington and stood by President Trump, who came up with this Gaza Riviera idea that includes expelling 2.3 million Palestinians.

“Fast forward to today, in an interview on Fox News, [Trump] said that [Palestinians] will not be able to return to Gaza.”

Pinkas said the reaction in Israel to Hamas’s decision is anger directed at Prime Minister Netanyahu. “I would not be surprised to see a very intense, very angry, very broad pushback against Netanyahu in the next 24 hours.”

The former diplomat added far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir’s response – to start up the war again and “destroy” Gaza – should not be taken seriously now that he is out of the government.

Ben-Gvir resigned last month as a result of the Hamas-Israel ceasefire agreement coming into effect.

Truce violations have been widely committed by Israel
Tareq Abu Azzoum
Reporting from Karam Abu Salam Crossing, Gaza

If there is no move by the Israelis to address the shortcomings regarding the implementation of the humanitarian protocol of the ceasefire deal, the situation in Gaza is going to get much worse.

In the terms of the agreement, 600 trucks full of aid are supposed to enter the Strip each day. At first, this exceeded expectations. But recently the number of aid deliveries has greatly dwindled to 330 trucks daily.

The United Nations humanitarian office reported over 12,600 trucks have entered over the past three weeks. This number is far less than what’s been promised.

For patients in need of medical treatment abroad, only 50 Palestinians have been sent since the beginning of this month, which completely contradicts the number agreed on in the truce deal. These violations have been widely committed by Israel.

Families of Israeli captives respond to Hamas announcement

Bring Them Home Now, the group representing families of Israeli captives, has responded to Hamas’s decision to suspend their release.

“In response to Hamas’s recent announcement, we have urgently requested assistance from the mediating countries to help restore and implement the existing deal effectively,” it said in a statement.

“We stand with the Israeli government and encourage maintaining the conditions that will ensure the successful continuation of the agreement, leading to the safe return of our 76 brothers and sisters.”

The mother of one captive, Einav Tsengauker, was quoted by Israel’s army radio as saying, “Hamas’s announcement is a direct result of Netanyahu’s reckless behaviour. The deliberate foot-dragging, the lack of a mandate for the delegation, and the unnecessary boasting sabotage the agreement.”

Palestinians flee occupied West Bank camp as Israeli army attacks

Palestinian residents have accused the Israeli military of destroying the Nur Shams refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank. Sounds of explosion and gunfire can be heard during the Israeli assault.

“The situation is catastrophic in the camp,” Ibtisam Abu Zahra, a resident, told Anadolu news agency.

Ahmed al-Izza, an elderly Palestinian, said Israeli troops imposed a movement ban in the camp. “Israeli soldiers stormed our houses and forced us to leave,” he said.

“Destruction is everywhere in the camp. Residents who remained are waiting for their turn. The camp is surrounded and Israeli forces are raiding all houses.”

Assad Abu Zahra was forced to flee the al-Manshiyya neighbourhood with his mother.

“Around 40 soldiers broke into the house and destroyed everything. Today, we are living a new Nakba, like the one lived by our people in 1948,” he said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/10/live-israeli-forces-kill-6-in-gaza-west-bank-as-trump-repeats-gaza-plan

>>487528
Yeah shock-waves of expand in 3 dimensions. That means the "oomph"-function declines as a cube. Which means dropping multiple smaller bombs is way more effective than one big moab. I don't know what they are expecting from this. If they think the moabs will achieve a military goal that their massive bombing campaigns have not achieved so far, they would be wrong.

If this serves as a statement of intent. This might make sense in theory, but in practice, there is absolutely no ambiguity about Israeli intentions anymore.

I suppose they might want it for intimidation, but displays of brutality are as likely to inspire people to switch into "root out the predator mode".

Mahmood OD on recent developments between Israel and Egypt

Full Hamas statement on move to halt Gaza captive releases

We’ve been reporting on Hamas suspending this Saturday’s planned captive release. Below is a full statement from the Palestinian group.

“Hamas confirms its commitment to the terms of the agreement, which the Zionist occupation committed to. Hamas has implemented all its commitments strictly and on time. The occupation did not comply with the terms of the agreement, and recorded many violations, which included:

Delaying the return of displaced people to the northern Gaza Strip
Targeting our people by bombing and shooting them, and killing many in various areas of the Strip
Obstructing the entry of shelter requirements from tents and ready houses, fuel, and rubble-lifting machinery to recover bodies
Delaying the entry of the medicines and requirements to restore hospitals and the health sector
“Hamas counted the abuses of the occupation, and provided them with the mediators first by one, but the occupation continued its excesses. Hamas calls for strict adherence to the agreement, and not subject it to selectivity, by providing the least important, delaying, and obstructing the most urgent and important.

“The postponement of the release of prisoners is a warning message to the occupation, and to pressure towards strict adherence to the terms of the agreement.

“Hamas deliberately made this announcement five full days before the date of extradition of the prisoners to give the mediators enough opportunity to put pressure on the occupation to implement its obligations, and to keep the door open to implement the exchange on time if the occupation adheres to what it agreed to.”

Yemen’s Houthis ready to attack Israel if war on Gaza resumes, leader says

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis, who control most of western Yemen, including the capital, are ready to launch attacks on Israel if it resumes its war on Gaza and does not commit to the ceasefire, the group’s leader, Abdulmalik al-Houthi, says in a televised speech.

Before the truce, the Houthis had attacked Israeli and other vessels in the Red Sea, disturbing global shipping lanes, in what they said were acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza during Israel’s war with Hamas.

Israel’s Smotrich, Ben-Gvir back Trump’s call to cancel truce deal

The far-right politicians welcomed the US president’s call for the cancellation of the Gaza deal unless Hamas frees all remaining captives by Saturday.

“All of them, now!”, said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in a post on X, seemingly referring to the captive release.

“Trump is right! We must go back and destroy now,” former National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said.

The politician who resigned from Netanyahu’s war cabinet in protest against the ceasefire deal said earlier that Israel should respond to Hamas’s move with “a massive fire attack” and a complete suspension of humanitarian aid.

Israel military to ‘significantly reinforce’ around Gaza

The Israeli army says it will “significantly reinforce” areas around Gaza after Hamas announced it will stop releasing Israeli captives until further notice over Israeli violations of the ceasefire.

Israeli army boosts forces to prepare for ‘various scenarios’

The Israeli military says it decided to “further strengthen” forces including mobilising additional reservists in the country’s south.

“The reinforcement of forces and the mobilization of reserves were carried out to prepare for various scenarios,” said a statement.

The comments come after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to resume “intense fighting” in Gaza should Hamas refuse to release captives by Saturday at noon.

A sleepless night in Gaza City as Israeli drones, jets return to skies
Hani Mahmoud
Reporting from Salah al-Din Road, Gaza

The ceasefire was quite fragile from day one, with the unnecessary delays in it taking effect, as well as the many statements from Israeli officials, at the political and military level, which said they would resume war as soon as the captives are released.

All of this was followed by Trump’s suggestions of forced displacement, the most recent of which was repeated last night.

There is fear everywhere. We can see it on the faces of people here – people who have returned in the hopes of rebuilding their shattered lives. But as of last night, things have changed dramatically. There are many drones hovering at a very low level in the skies across Gaza City and the north of the Strip. There were fighter jets that hovered for two to three hours and there were gunboats as well that approached the shore of Gaza City and northern areas.

All of this creates a sense that we are still at war, that we are still bearing the difficulties of the siege imposed by the Israeli military.

The fact that there are drones in the area kept everyone awake last night.

People are very concerned about what may happen because we know things can change dramatically, given the fragility of the ceasefire.

West Bank annexation is ‘going to work out’: Trump

US President Donald Trump, asked about Israel’s plans to annex the occupied West Bank, responded “that’s going to work out”.

The comments came after a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House.

Calls to suspend Israel’s membership in international organisations

Participants at a conference held in Oslo have called for the suspension of Israel’s membership in international organisations, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

The conference, organised by the groups Free Speech, Jewish Voice and Lower the Arms, and attended by academics, political figures and human rights advocates from 13 countries, called on popular movements to increase their pressure on Western governments to uphold international law in Palestine.

Participants, including the European-Palestinian Initiative Against Apartheid and Colonial Settlement, also called for European sanctions against Israel should it fail to end its illegal occupation of Palestinian territory.

The Anti-Apartheid Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization participated in the conference, with department head Ramzi Rabah speaking about the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and Israel’s actions against UNRWA.

Trump aiming to bring Iran ‘to its knees’, president says

Iran’s president has accused Trump of seeking to overthrow Iran as the country marked the 1979 revolution that toppled the US-backed shah.

“Trump says, ‘We want to talk’, and … [then] he signs in a memorandum all the conspiracies to bring our revolution to its knees,” President Masoud Pezeshkian told a crowd, referring to Trump’s reinstatement of sanctions against Tehran earlier this month.

“We are not looking for war,” he said, while adding that Iran “will never bow to foreigners”.

Chanting anti-US and anti-Israel slogans, crowds formed on Monday in the streets of Shiraz and Bandar Abbas in the south, Rasht in the north, Kermanshah and Sanandaj in the west, and the holy city of Mashhad in the east, according to images broadcast on television.

Israeli police cite children’s colouring book for bookstore crackdown

More details have emerged on the Israeli police raid on a popular bookstore in occupied East Jerusalem.

The bookstore’s owners, Ahmed and Mahmoud Muna, were detained, and police confiscated hundreds of titles related to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict before ordering the store’s closure, according to May Muna, Mahmoud’s wife.

She said the soldiers picked out books with Palestinian titles or flags, “without knowing what any of them meant”. She said they used Google Translate on some of the Arabic titles to see what they meant before carting them away in plastic bags.

Police raided another Palestinian-owned bookstore in the Old City in East Jerusalem last week. In a statement, the police said the two owners were arrested on suspicion of “selling books containing incitement and support for terrorism”.

As an example, the police referred to an English-language children’s colouring book titled From the River to the Sea – a reference to the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea that today includes Israel, the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

‘Unpatriotic act’: Hamas, Islamic Jihad condemn PA decree on payments

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad condemned the Palestinian Authority (PA) for issuing a decree restructuring aid programmes for families of those imprisoned or killed by Israel – fulfilling a longstanding US demand.

“Stopping the allocations for the families of prisoners, martyrs, and the wounded is an unpatriotic act and we call for its immediate reversal,” Hamas said in a statement.

Islamic Jihad said the PA’s decision “represents a clear abandonment of the issue of prisoners, which is as big as the homeland, and a clear concession in the face of American and Zionist pressures and blackmail”.

It called the move “an attempt to weaken the morale of our people and a betrayal of the prisoners who are offering years of their lives steadfastly behind bars, and a punishment of the Palestinian people for their adherence to their legitimate right to resistance and adherence to their land and rights”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/10/live-israeli-forces-kill-6-in-gaza-west-bank-as-trump-repeats-gaza-plan

Iran alerts UN to Trump threat of force, says it will defend itself

Iran alerted the United Nations Security Council to what it described as “reckless and inflammatory statements” by US President Donald Trump threatening the use of force against the country.

Tehran warned “any act of aggression will have severe consequences”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/10/live-israeli-forces-kill-6-in-gaza-west-bank-as-trump-repeats-gaza-plan

Well, how'd it go? Didn't anyone try to arrest him?

KernowDamo on the latest with Egypt.

>>487544
I've heard some people speculate Netanyahu might be forced out of politics by declining health. He's old and organizing genocide is stressful. It's probably people hoping the problem goes away by it self, though.

Israel has a lot of infighting, they might suffer sudden political collapse if Netanyahu gets plugged. Lots of uncertainty would follow. I guess many would prefer Israel fading away rather than going out with a bang.

>>487547
Maybe Egypt takes over Gaza, it's not like the idf could stop them. And then they have to beg the Chinese to bring in the contractors to fix up new infrastructure.

Free Palestine TV - HTS Attacks Southern Lebanon, Israel Provides Air Cover

Lebanon PM says ‘state must extend authority’ to all areas

Lebanon’s prime minister says the state must be in control of all Lebanese territory, days before a deadline to implement the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire agreement.

“When it comes to the areas south of the Litani and north of the Litani, across the entire area of Lebanon… what should be implemented is … the Lebanese state must extend its authority through its own forces across the [Lebanese] territory,” Prime Minister Nawaf Salam told journalists in an interview aired on state television.

“We want the Israeli withdrawal to happen… and we will continue to mobilise all diplomatic and political efforts until this withdrawal is achieved.”

Under the deal, Lebanon’s military was to deploy in the south alongside UN peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period, which has been extended until February 18.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/10/live-israeli-forces-kill-6-in-gaza-west-bank-as-trump-repeats-gaza-plan

Israelis continue protests in Tel Aviv

As we’ve been reporting, Israelis have taken to the streets of Tel Aviv in protest against Netanyahu’s threat to resume the war on Gaza.

Amit Kalderon, a protester, said he wished all the captives would be released by noon on Saturday.

“But this is not what the deal says,” he noted. “If Israel wanted to get a deal for all of the hostages, I think we could have done it. The Israeli government chose to do this in parts and not to conclude one deal for all of them.”

Lawyers for detained Gaza doctor accuse Israel of torture, severe abuses

Lawyers for Dr Hussam Abu Safia say that he has experienced physical abuse and other forms of torture since he was arbitrarily detained by Israeli forces outside the Kamal Adwan Hospital, in northern Gaza, in December.

The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, which is representing Abu Safia, said the doctor was only able to meet with his lawyer for the first time on Tuesday afternoon, 47 days after his “abduction from Gaza”.

Al Mezan said in a statement that Abu Safia was first taken to the Sde Teiman military detention camp where he was subjected to “torture and inhuman and degrading treatment”, including “beatings with batons and electric shock sticks, as well as repeated blows to the chest”.

He was then transferred to Israel’s Ofer Prison, in the occupied West Bank, where he “was held in solitary confinement for 25 days—a period so prolonged as to constitute a form of torture in itself”.

Al Mezan said that Abu Safia’s health has deteriorated, stating he has lost “12 kg [26 pounds]… in less than two months”, and called for “his immediate and unconditional release”.

‘Ferocious robber’: North Korea slams Trump’s plan for Gaza

North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) has condemned Trump’s plan to take over Gaza, saying that Palestinians’ slim hopes of safety and peace are being crushed by the proposal.

“The world is now boiling like a porridge pot over the US’ bombshell declaration,” KCNA said in a commentary.

The US survives through “slaughter and robbery”, and its “hegemonic, invasive” ambition for world domination is clearly demonstrated by its plan for Gaza, the agency added, without mentioning Trump by name.

The commentary also criticised the Trump administration’s calls to take over the Panama Canal and Greenland as well as its decision to change the name of the “Gulf of Mexico” to the “Gulf of America”.

It went on to describe the US as a “ferocious robber” and said: “The US should awaken from its anachronistic daydream and stop at once the act of encroaching upon the dignity and sovereignty of other countries and nations.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/12/live-trump-says-us-will-take-gaza-un-estimates-53bn-needed-to-rebuild

Live now:
LIVE From TRUMP HANDS OFF Gaza Protest in NYC

Israeli forces burn houses in southern Lebanon amid ceasefire violations: Report

The Israeli army has burned down several homes and a farm in al-Aadaissah in southern Lebanon in the latest violation of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, according to the Lebanese news agency NNA.

Israeli forces also opened fire in the outskirts of Bint Jbeil town, it said. No injuries were reported.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place since November 27, ending months of mutual air attacks between Israel and Hezbollah that escalated into a full-scale conflict in September.

Israel reneges on Lebanon troop withdrawal deadline – again

Israel has backed out of the deadline for withdrawing its forces from southern Lebanon for the second time.

A fragile ceasefire had been in place since November 27, ending months of mutual shelling between Israel and Hezbollah that escalated into a full-scale conflict last September.

Under the ceasefire deal, Israel was supposed to complete its withdrawal from southern Lebanon by January 26, but the deadline was extended to February 18 after Israel refused to comply.

The Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported the government asked ceasefire monitors to extend the deadline until February 28, a request rejected by the Lebanese side.

Israeli jets fly over Lebanese capital, break sound barrier for first time since ceasefire

Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier over the Lebanese capital Beirut and its southern suburbs on Wednesday evening, marking the first such incident since the November 27 ceasefire agreement.

The escalation coincides with reports of Israel postponing the withdrawal of its army forces from southern Lebanon, despite a February 18 deadline.

According to the Lebanese state news agency NNA, Israeli fighter jets conducted low-altitude flights over Beirut, the Matn district in Mount Lebanon, and parts of the Bekaa region in eastern Lebanon.

Lebanese officials have denied any agreement to extend the deadline for Israeli troop withdrawal from southern Lebanon.

Lebanon has reported nearly 900 Israeli ceasefire violations, killing and injuring dozens, including women and children, since November 27.

Armed clashes in Nur Shams and Arroub camps in West Bank

Palestinian fighters are engaged in confrontations with invading Israeli forces in the two refugee camps in the occupied West Bank.

Videos published by local outlets out of the Nur Shams camp show explosive devices and sound bombs being deployed in the area while heavy gunfire rings out. Earlier, Israeli forces used loudspeakers to warn residents of the camp to leave.

Confrontations have also erupted in the Arroub camp, after Israeli soldiers and armoured vehicles entered various neighbourhoods, detaining a large number of people and conducting interrogations.

Israeli forces distributed threatening leaflets to the citizens in Arroub and fired bullets and tear gas canisters at residential homes, although no casualties have been reported, according to the Wafa news agency.

https://twitter.com/qudsn/status/1889598605767344624

Islamic Jihad claims ambush on Israeli forces in occupied West Bank

Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, says it has attacked Israeli soldiers operating in the al-Manshiya neighbourhood in the occupied West Bank’s Nur Shams refugee camp.

“Our fighters, along with their comrades in the resistance factions, were able to attack an infantry force of 10 soldiers in a complex ambush,” the group said in a statement on Telegram, claiming it wounded an unidentified number of Israeli soldiers.

“Our fighters are also currently engaged in fierce battles with the support forces, showering them with heavy volleys of bullets and explosive devices, achieving direct hits.”

Huge billboards commemorate fallen Palestinian leaders in Yemen

Al Jazeera has obtained a video that shows a huge billboard in Houthi-run Sanaa displaying the image of Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif.

In the city of Taiz, a billboard showed a picture of Yahya Sinwar, with the inscription reading: “Flood Leader Street” in a reference to his commanding of the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.

The two top leaders in Gaza were killed by the Israeli military in separate incidents.

The Houthis in Yemen have said they will continue attacks on Israeli territory and on Israeli and US-linked ships near their waters if the Gaza ceasefire falls through.

Translation: Sanaa is the only Arab capital that is decorated with the picture of the great leader, the Mujahid Mohammed Deif. Indeed, our freedom is a religion, and our pride is faith.

Gaza death toll rises

At least one Palestinian has been killed and nine others injured in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.

Gaza hospitals have also received two bodies recovered from the rubble, the ministry added.

The three confirmed killings raised the total death toll since October 7, 2023 to 48,222, it said on Telegram. Israel’s war on Gaza has injured 111,674 people, it added.

Israeli army to call up 14,000 Haredim recruits, Israeli Broadcast Authority reports

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority has said the army will announce the sending of 14,000 recruitment orders to the Haredim, the Hebrew term for ultra-Orthodox Jews.

In June, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that Haredi Jews cannot be exempted from military service.

It also ordered a freeze on budgets for yeshivas, traditional Jewish educational institutions, and said there was no legal basis preventing the government from conscripting Haredi Jews into the Israeli army.

The Haredim, who constitute about 13 percent of Israel’s population, refuse to serve in the Israeli army under the pretext of devoting their lives to religion.

Israel must complete its withdrawal from Lebanon by the deadline, Aoun says

Lebanon’s recently appointed President Joseph Aoun has insisted that Israel must completely withdraw from the country by the ceasefire deadline of February 18, after reports that Israel has requested to keep troops in southern Lebanon until the end of the month.

Lebanon’s National News Agency quoted Aoun as saying that EU countries should “pressure Israel to complete its withdrawal within the deadline of 18 February, and to return the displaced Syrians to their country after the reasons for their remaining in Lebanon no longer exist”.

A Lebanese official and foreign diplomat told the Reuters news agency that Israel has requested to keep its troops in five posts in southern Lebanon until 28 February.

Aoun also reiterated Lebanon’s commitment to a two-state solution for the Palestine-Israel conflict and said he rejected “proposals that lead to any type of displacement of Palestinians from their land or infringement of their legitimate rights enshrined in UN resolutions”.

Israel has US backing to remain in Lebanon beyond ceasefire date, Israeli TV says

The US has authorised Israel to remain at several points in Lebanon beyond the agreed date for its full withdrawal, Israel’s public broadcaster Kan TV reports, quoting senior cabinet officials.

The date for the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon was extended to February 18 from the ceasefire’s initially agreed date of January 26.

Poll: 64% of Americans oppose Trump’s Gaza takeover plan

A new survey of 1,200 people in the US were asked what they thought of President Trump’s call for the United States to “take over” and “own” Gaza and transform it from a “demolition site” into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

The poll – conducted by the group Data for Progress – explained such a takeover would require forcibly resettling about 1.8 million Palestinians who live in Gaza into neighbouring countries.

About 64 percent of respondents said they “oppose” Trump’s plan.

“A strong majority of voters are opposed to the US taking over Gaza and resettling the Palestinians who live there, and even more respondents reject the idea of the US sending troops to the Middle East to accomplish this plan,” Data for Progress said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/12/live-trump-says-us-will-take-gaza-un-estimates-53bn-needed-to-rebuild

https://x.com/AbubakerAbedW/status/1889771157470982487
Thousands of tents and caravans have entered Gaza. The situation is becoming more stable, and aid has been flowing in consistently over the past hours.

The same is true in terms of medical aid as local reports indicate that at least five medical aid trucks have gotten into Gaza during the last 24 hours.

The ceasefire will likely hold as Hamas gears up to release the three Israeli prisoners on Saturday in exchange for dozens of Palestinian hostages.

Israel is beginning to allow a surge of aid instead of a trickle.

Breaking news and analysis on day 26 of Gaza ceasefire | The Electronic Intifada Podcast

Hamas confirms it will release captives as planned, ceasefire deal back on track

The group says its delegation has held talks with the Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo, focusing on the terms of the ceasefire deal “especially with regard to securing housing for our people and urgently bringing in prefabricated houses ‘caravans’, tents, heavy equipment, medical supplies, fuel, and the continued flow of relief and everything stipulated in the agreement”.

“The discussions were characterised by a positive spirit, and the mediating brothers in Egypt and Qatar confirmed that they would follow up on all of this to remove obstacles and close gaps,” the statement published on Telegram said.

“Accordingly, Hamas confirms its continued position to implement the agreement in accordance with what was signed, including the exchange of prisoners according to the specified timetable.”

Israeli army launches air attack in Gaza despite ceasefire deal

The Israeli army has launched an air attack in the Gaza Strip, despite a ceasefire agreement in the Palestinian territory.

A military statement claimed that the strike targeted a rocket launcher used to fire a rocket from inside the enclave.

According to witnesses, an Israeli drone fired a missile at an agricultural area east of the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

No injuries were reported and there was no immediate Palestinian comment on the Israeli attack.

Israeli military burns more homes in southern Lebanon

Israeli soldiers have been setting fire to more homes and properties in the village of Odaisseh close to the border with Israel, according to local media.

Images from this morning showed smoke rising above the village, which has been repeatedly targeted by Israeli forces since the start of the war and after the ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun reiterated yesterday that Israel must complete its withdrawal from the country by the extended ceasefire deadline of February 18, after Israel said it wants to maintain its military occupation of southern Lebanon for longer.

https://twitter.com/qudsn/status/1889939309157032158

Gaza death toll rises with three more killed, bodies recovered

The Ministry of Health in Gaza reports that three Palestinians were killed in the past 24 hours in Gaza and 14 other recovered bodies were also brought to hospitals.

A number of victims are still under the rubble and on the destroyed roads, and ambulance and civil defence crew are trying to reach them.

The death toll from Israeli attacks on the enclave now stands at 48,239, according to the ministry, which puts the number of wounded at 111,676 people.

Israel rejects transfer of mobile homes, heavy equipment to Gaza

Omer Dostri, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, says “there will be no entry of mobile homes or heavy equipment into the Gaza Strip, and there is no coordination for this”.

“Also, according to the agreement, no goods are allowed to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing,” Dostri said in a post on X.

Israeli settlers kidnap Palestinian; soldiers arrest two in West Bank: Report

A group of Israeli settlers have stormed the agricultural cooperative village of al-Awsaj north of Jericho in the occupied West Bank.

They kidnapped a Palestinian man and took him to an unknown location, according to Eid Brahma, the director of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society in Jericho and the Jordan Valley, who informed the Wafa news agency.

Israeli forces arrested a Palestinian man from Jiftlik north of Jericho while he was herding sheep. Soldiers present at the Karameh crossing also detained a high school student from the city of Bethlehem while he was returning from Jordan.

US sanctions ICC’s top prosecutor Karim Khan

The US State Department of the Treasury has imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court’s Prosecutor Karim Khan.

The move comes after US President Donald Trump last week ordered asset freezes and travel bans on ICC officials for issuing arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Ministry Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

Lebanon rejects Israeli forces remaining in five southern locations after February 18

Lebanon’s parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, says Beirut rejects Israel’s demand to remain in five locations in the south after next week’s deadline to fully implement a fragile ceasefire.

The US, a key mediator, “informed me that the Israeli occupation will withdraw from villages it still occupies on February 18, but it will remain in five points,” Hezbollah ally Berri said in a statement.

“I informed them in my name and on behalf of President General Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Judge Nawaf Salam of our absolute rejection” of this proposal, he wrote.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/13/live-positive-signals-for-israeli-captives-as-more-aid-enters-gaza

Hezbollah supporters protest banning Iranian planes from landing in Beirut

Hezbollah supporters blocked the Beirut airport road and burned tyres on Thursday to protest against a decision barring two Iranian planes from landing in the Lebanese capital, state media and an airport official said.

Some of the young men raised Hezbollah’s yellow flag and held pictures of Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli strike in September, as well as Iran’s slain Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani, footage from the AFP news agency showed.

The Lebanese army had been deployed there, the National News Agency said, with videos online showing scuffles between angry protesters and soldiers.

An official at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri international airport told AFP that the Public Works and Transport Ministry had asked the facility to inform Iranian carrier Mahan Air that Lebanon could not welcome two of its Beirut-bound flights.

One flight was scheduled for Thursday and another for Friday, said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. “The two flights were rescheduled to next week,” he added, without saying why.

That date coincides with the deadline for the full implementation of a November 27 ceasefire agreement that ended more than a year of Israel-Hezbollah hostilities including about two months of all-out war.

Protests continue near Beirut airport after Iranian plane prevented from landing

We have been reporting on protests in Beirut, where Hezbollah supporters have blocked the airport road and burned tyres to protest against a decision barring two Iranian planes from landing in the Lebanese capital.

Footage published by Hezbollah-affiliated news outlet Al-Manar of those protests shows smoke and chaos as armed Lebanese security forces break up large crowds of angry demonstrators.

Watch the footage below:
https://x.com/TVManar1/status/1890176080142807133
Video | Lebanese security forces open fire to disperse crowds on #طريق_المطار following demonstrations over preventing an Iranian plane carrying #زوار_لبنانيين from landing
https://x.com/TVManar1/status/1890174221852225602
High tension on the Beirut airport road as demonstrators continue to arrive after an Iranian plane carrying Lebanese visitors returning from Tehran was prevented from landing.
https://twitter.com/ME_Observer_/status/1890107363128143992

Why has Lebanon barred Iranian flights from landing in Beirut?

We have been reporting on intense ongoing demonstrations by Hezbollah supporters in Beirut, protesting against a decision by Lebanon’s government to bar Iranian planes from landing in the Lebanese capital.

Lebanon’s Transportation Ministry instructed officials at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri international airport on Thursday to inform Iranian airline Mahan Air it could not welcome its flights, the AFP news agency reports.

Iran Air, the country’s flagship carrier, has also been denied permission to land in Beirut, according to Lebanon’s aviation authorities, as reported by Lebanese TV network, LBCI.

The protesters’ anger is directed at the government and airport authorities for what they view as their capitulation to Israeli pressure to cancel the flights.

The Israeli military on Thursday accused the Quds Force, a branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, of using civilian flights to “smuggle funds” to Hezbollah “with the aim of carrying out attacks” against Israel.

Israel has lodged formal complaints about the alleged illicit cash transfers over recent weeks with the US-led committee overseeing the ceasefire between it and Hezbollah.

Ibrahim Mousawi, a member of parliament with Hezbollah’s political wing, has claimed the Mahan Air planes were prevented from flying “as a result of an Israeli threat” to target them.

Super Bowl protester faces lifetime NFL ban after unveiling Palestinian flag at game

Zul-Qarnain Nantambu, who gained attention by unfurling Palestinian and Sudanese flags during the US National Football League (NFL) Super Bowl halftime show’s live broadcast on Sunday, said the act was in solidarity with persecuted Muslims.

The NFL has banned him from attending games for life. A devoted New Orleans Saints fan, he hopes the decision will be overturned in four or five years.

Speaking to the Anadolu news agency, Nantambu said he joined the performers at the game and revealed Sudanese and Palestinian flags with “Gaza” inscribed on them during the widely watched halftime show, seen by more than 127 million people in the US.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/13/live-positive-signals-for-israeli-captives-as-more-aid-enters-gaza

>>487580
>Hezbollah supporters blocked the Beirut airport road and burned tyres on Thursday to protest against a decision barring two Iranian planes from landing in the Lebanese capital, state media and an airport official said.
This is how the Lebanese government cedes controle over civilian airspace to Hezbollah.

>The Israeli military on Thursday accused the Quds Force, a branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, of using civilian flights to “smuggle funds” to Hezbollah “with the aim of carrying out attacks” against Israel.
If that's true, which is highly doubtful considering the track record of Israeli accusations, it will just be a mild inconvenience of doing a layover flight, to circumvent this ban.

>>487586
Wait there's a real estate company that is doing something based ?
I'm surprised and impressed.

UNRWA accuses Israel of breaching international law by using its facility as detention centre

The UN’s refugee agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, says the Israeli military used its Arroub Camp Health Centre near Bethlehem as a temporary detention site during a search and arrest operation on February 12, despite the UN premises being protected by international law.

“[The military] forcibly entered the health centre and used it for the detention and interrogation of tens of Palestinian residents rounded up in the camp,” a statement by the agency said.

It condemned the move as “a blatant disregard for the inviolability of United Nations facilities”.

“Unfortunately, this recent incident follows a pattern of forcible entries into UNRWA installations in the West Bank since October 2023, by both Israeli security forces and Palestinian armed groups,” the statement stressed.

“All UN premises are inviolable and are protected under international law,” UNRWA added.

Gaza waiting for Israel to ‘abide by its commitments’

Gaza’s Government Media Office says it is closely following Israel’s actions and “waiting for it to abide” by its humanitarian commitments in the ceasefire agreement.

“The catastrophic humanitarian and living reality that our people in the Gaza Strip are suffering from as a result of the war of extermination and ethnic cleansing waged by the occupation over the course of 15 months, does not tolerate procrastination and delay in introducing shelter requirements and other needs such as fuel, heavy equipment, medical devices and equipment, and infrastructure restoration materials,” Salama Maarouf, the head of the office, said in a statement.

“[Nearly] one and a half million people have become homeless after their homes were destroyed, while all residents of the Gaza Strip, numbering 2.4 million people, suffer from the lack of the most basic life services and the lack of infrastructure.”

Israeli forces wound two fisherman in attack off the Gaza Strip

Two Palestinian fishermen have been wounded by Israeli fire in the waters off the Gaza Strip in a new breach of the ceasefire.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the Israeli navy fired two shells at a fishing boat close to the Gaza City port, injuring the men.

Israeli police detain antisettlement activist

The Israeli rights group Peace Now says Hagit Ofran, who oversees its Settlement Watch project, which tracks settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, has been detained and taken in for questioning by Israeli police.

“Ben-Gvir’s police are taking Hagit Ofran, who has a broken leg and is on crutches, for interrogation in Hebron,” the group said in a social media post.

“The reason? We planted trees in Masafer Yatta. Apparently, for the Israeli police, joint actions between Israelis and Palestinians are grounds for arrest.”

UN peacekeeper injured after Hezbollah supporters light car on fire: Report

The Reuters news agency is reporting that at least one UN peacekeeper has been injured after Hezbollah supporters lit a UN vehicle on fire near Beirut’s airport. It quoted an unnamed Lebanese security source.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon, also known as UNIFIL, has yet to comment on the incident.

We’ll bring you more details on this as they come in.

Lebanon’s army warns Beirut airport protesters after UN vehicle torched

Lebanese soldiers have deployed along the road leading to Beirut-Rafik Hariri International Airport to disperse Hezbollah supporters protesting against the decision to prevent an Iranian plane from landing on Thursday.

Reuters reported earlier that a UN peacekeeper was injured when the protesters burned a UN vehicle.

“Areas close to Hariri International Airport are witnessing protests that include assaults and riots, including attacks on army personnel, attacks on vehicles belonging to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), and attempts to close the airport road,” the army said in a statement.

“The Army Command warns citizens against continuing these practices, which could create internal tension with dire consequences during the critical stage the country is going through,” it said, adding that soldiers would take “firm action to prevent any breach of public order and arrest troublemakers”.

The Lebanese authorities prevented an Iranian civilian plane from landing on Thursday after the Israeli military said Iran and Hezbollah are using civilian aircraft to smuggle funds into the country and Lebanese media reported Israel had threatened to bomb the airport.

Hezbollah accused the authorities of complying with Israeli threats and demands.

‘Go to hell Donald Trump’: Pro-Palestine protesters gather at US embassy in Malaysia
Ameera Osmanagic
Reporting from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Dozens of people chanted “Go to hell Donald Trump!” outside the US embassy in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur, as pro-Palestinian protesters gathered to publicly reject the “lunatic ideas” of the US president to displace more than two million people from Gaza.

Organised by 18 civil society groups after Friday prayer, the protest in Kuala Lumpur was the second of its kind for the day, with the first being held in the morning outside the embassy. Both times, demonstrators had a written memorandum addressed to Trump containing a total of seven demands regarding Gaza and its Palestinian population, copies of which the embassy refused to accept.

“It is very disappointing as a country with the superpower status, they closed the whole embassy, refused to even receive our memorandum. This is really an act of cowardice,” said Chua Tian Chang, a representative of the Malaysian groups advocating for Palestinian rights.

According to the memorandum, the groups called on Trump to ensure the ceasefire in Gaza, protection of Palestinian sovereignty, an end to Israel’s siege of the territory, rejection of plans for the US to “take over” Gaza, as well as accountability for war crimes perpetrated in Gaza and sanctions on those committing crimes against humanity.

Israel accuses Lebanon of not carrying out ceasefire obligations
Zeina Khodr
Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon

According to the speaker of the Lebanese parliament, Nabih Berri, the US informed Lebanon that Israel will be leaving the villages it is occupying along the border.

Israel, said, however, it will retain positions on hilltops just within the Lebanese territory.

So, full withdrawal will not happen come February 18 – the new deadline that has been set for Israeli troops to leave Lebanon in order for the Lebanese army to deploy in the area as part of the ceasefire agreement.

The Israeli military says Lebanon has still not carried out its obligations and pushed Hezbollah away from the border. Israeli officials say Lebanon failed to disarm Hezbollah and prevent it from rearming.

In many ways, the ceasefire agreement makes references to previous UN resolutions that called for that.

There is a new leadership and balance of power in Lebanon that does not favour Hezbollah. The new leadership is promising to extend the state authority across the country. But it is not an easy task, because if it does not get cooperation from Hezbollah, it risks instability.

Israeli veterans group says tying shoelaces could get you killed in occupied West Bank

A Palestinian who bends over to tie their shoelaces in Gaza could be shot under Israeli military rules of engagement but now an Israeli veterans group says the same shoot-to-kill protocols have been imported to the occupied West Bank.

Israeli military veterans advocacy group Breaking the Silence published the transcript of a conversation with an anonymous captain in the Israeli military who said Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank had been given permission to shoot anyone thought to be “messing with the ground”.

The captain said that specific phrase was “code” first used in Gaza and initially intended to describe Palestinians suspected of planting explosives.

In reality, the captain said, the term was regularly used to justify shooting Palestinians who might be otherwise going about their business.

“Think of yourself as a civilian: You mess with the ground to tie your shoelaces, pick something up, throw away garbage; you might be looking for something; you might be picking a flower,” the captain said.

“[But in Gaza], messing with the ground is a code name for planting an explosive device, always.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/14/live-israel-warns-of-war-as-hamas-confirms-3-gaza-captives-to-be-freed

>>487596
>Israel caves on Gaza.
What made them cave ?

It looks like Trump made them. He says horrible things about Gaza but he also does things that dramatically reduce the killing.

There also is the thing that Israel does not have a military designed for sustained campaigns, and have got to be suffering exhaustion. Maybe that too played a role in the Gaza ceasefire.

Iran bars Lebanese planes from taking stranded citizens home after Israeli ‘threat’

Tehran has barred Lebanese planes from repatriating dozens of Lebanese nationals stranded in Iran in a standoff after Lebanon blocked a civilian flight following what the Iranian government described as an Israeli threat to attack it.

Lebanon halted an Iranian flight to Beirut this week after the Israeli military accused Tehran of using civilian aircraft to smuggle cash to Beirut to arm Hezbollah.

Iran said it would not allow Lebanese flights to land until its own flights were cleared to land in Beirut.

The standoff has left dozens of Lebanese citizens stranded in Iran for three days after attending a religious pilgrimage. They had been due to return to Beirut on Iran’s Mahan Air before Lebanon barred the plane from landing.

Dozens of Hezbollah supporters cut off roads around Beirut’s airport late on Thursday and Friday in protest.

Heads of Churches in Jerusalem condemn calls for expulsion of Palestinians in Gaza

The Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem say they are “compelled to speak against the grave threat of mass displacement” as Trump and Israeli leaders call for the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza.

“The people of Gaza, families who have lived for generations in the land of their ancestors, must not be forced into exile, stripped of whatever is left of their homes, their heritage, and their right to remain in the land that forms the essence of their identity,” they said in a statement.

“As Christians, we cannot be indifferent to such suffering, for the Gospel commands us to uphold the dignity of every human being.”

Israel holding Gaza hospital director under law that allows prolonged detention without charge

The Palestinian NGO Al Mezan says that Dr Hussam Abu Safia, a medical worker and director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, is being held under Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law, which allows prolonged detention without charge and strips those held of due process.

“Our lawyer has been informed that the Commander of the Southern Command of the Israeli army has issued an order to detain Dr Abu Safia under the Unlawful Combatants Law,” Al Mezan said in a social media post.

“This law enables prolonged detention without charges, stripping detainees of any meaningful judicial review or due process rights. Since October 2023, Israeli authorities have extensively used this legal framework to arbitrarily detain thousands of Palestinian residents of Gaza.”

UNIFIL deputy force commander injured after convoy attacked in Beirut

There’s been another update on the violent protests we covered earlier near Beirut international airport.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) says its outgoing deputy force commander was injured after a convoy taking peacekeepers to Beirut airport was “violently attacked”.

“We are shocked by this outrageous attack on peacekeepers who have been serving to restore security and stability to south Lebanon during a difficult time,” UNIFIL said in a statement.

“Attacks on peacekeepers are flagrant violations of international law and may amount to war crimes. We demand a full and immediate investigation by Lebanese authorities and for all perpetrators to be brought to justice.”

The army said in a statement that acting commander Major General Hassan Odeh had contacted UNIFIL and promised to “work to arrest the citizens who attacked its members and bring them to justice”.

Demonstrators have been blocking the road to the airport and other roads in the capital to protest a decision by Lebanese authorities to revoke permission for a passenger plane from Iran to fly to Beirut on Thursday, leaving dozens of Lebanese passengers stranded.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/14/live-israel-warns-of-war-as-hamas-confirms-3-gaza-captives-to-be-freed

Three captives to be freed, negotiations begin on Gaza ceasefire’s second phase
Hamdah Salhut
Reporting from Amman, Jordan

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank.

Reports within Israeli media indicate that Israel is now negotiating for phase two of the deal, just a day after a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister denied that Israel is starting any of those talks.

It’s important to note that these negotiations, according to Israel and media, have a primary focus of how to release the remaining Israeli captive still held in Gaza, and not necessarily towards ending the war and rebuilding the Palestinian territory.

On Saturday, Hamas is set to release three male Israeli captives, all of them dual nationals. But there hasn’t been any sort of confirmation from Israel about the continuation of phase one.

Days earlier in the week, Hamas had said that they are not going to be releasing the captives, accusing Israel of violating the deal by not allowing critical humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip in the form of caravans, mobile homes and tents to house Palestinians until they’re able to rebuild their homes.

The Israeli prime minister had said that if those captives were not released on noon on Saturday, the war would begin.

But Hamas released the list of names, and those captives are expected to be released early on Saturday.

Lebanon interior minister calls emergency meeting to discuss Hezbollah protests: Report

We have been reporting on an attack on UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) personnel by Hezbollah supporters during protests on Friday against the Lebanese government’s decision to bar Iranian planes from landing in Beirut.

Lebanon’s state news agency NNA now reports that Interior Minister Ahmad al-Hajjar visited two injured UNIFIL officers at St George University Hospital in the Lebanese capital.

Al-Hajjar “affirmed the Lebanese government’s rejection of this assault that is considered a crime against UNIFIL forces”, NNA reported, adding that the minister has called for an emergency meeting on the violence to be held before noon on Saturday.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/15/live-gaza-prepares-for-exchange-of-3-israeli-captives-for-369-palestinians

Lebanese president vows punishment for attack on UN convoy

Joseph Aoun has denounced yesterday’s attack near Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport, which injured the outgoing deputy commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

“What happened last night on the airport road and in some areas of Beirut is unacceptable and condemned. Such actions cannot be allowed to recur,” he said on X.

Lebanon’s security forces “will not tolerate any party attempting to destabilise the country or threaten civil peace”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/15/live-gaza-prepares-for-exchange-of-3-israeli-captives-for-369-palestinians

Lebanon arrests over 25 after UN convoy attack

More than 25 people have been arrested by Lebanese army intelligence and another detained by security services in relation to Friday evening’s attack on the UN convoy, according to Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmad al-Hajjar.

He told reporters after an emergency security meeting that this does not mean all those arrested directly participated in the attack, adding that investigations are ongoing to find those responsible.

read more: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/15/un-commander-injured-as-lebanese-protesters-torch-car-near-beirut-airport

Satelite images show Israel still destroying homes in Gaza

Israel has destroyed dozens of homes in Rafah, southern Gaza, despite the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, satellite imagery analysis conducted by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency, Sanad, has revealed.

The crossing between Egypt and Gaza at Rafah, which has served as a critical lifeline into the enclave for decades, was closed by Israel in May 2024.

Gaza death toll rises

The Health Ministry in Gaza has just released its latest report on the number of people who were killed and wounded by Israel’s war on the territory.

In a statement, it said a total of 25 deaths and nine injuries were recorded at Gaza hospitals in the past 48 hours.

This brought the confirmed number of people killed in Israeli attacks since October 7 to at least 48,264, with 111,688 others wounded, the ministry added.

A large number of victims remains under the rubble, and the Government Media Office in Gaza has put the death toll at more than 61,000, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are now presumed dead.

Palestinian ex-prisoner says Israel cut electricity, water in Nafha desert prison

Released Palestinian prisoner Amir Abu Radah has told our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic that he spent a year and a half in Israel’s Nafha desert prison where the authorities cut water and electricity.

“Our conditions in prison were extremely difficult and no one could bear them. For a year and a half we have not had any means of communication and we were isolated from the world,” he added.

Hamas released Russian dual national at Moscow’s request: Ambassador

Russia’s ambassador to Qatar, Dmitry Dogadkin, has confirmed that Israeli Russian captive Alexander Trufanov was released as part of the first, and not the second, phase of the ceasefire agreement at Moscow’s request.

He told the TASS state-run news agency that the leadership of Hamas did this “as a sign of respect for our country’s position in support of a fair settlement of the Middle East conflict”.

The diplomat also pointed out that this was not a “first success” for Russian diplomacy as three more Russian nationals were released along with an Israeli national as part of captive exchanges in November 2023. He said Hamas had also made that move “as a gesture of goodwill without any preconditions”.

Scenes of joy in Ramallah as several freed Palestinian prisoners arrive

A small group of former Palestinian prisoners have disembarked a minibus that arrived in Ramallah, after their release from an Israeli jail as part of the sixth prisoner-captives swap.

As we have reported earlier, 24 of the 36 Palestinians released from Israeli jails will be deported to Egypt.

Eight others will return home to the occupied West Bank and four in occupied East Jerusalem.

Nine Palestinian prisoners with life sentences who have been released from Israeli prisons have arrived in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, sources have confirmed to Al Jazeera.

Three more prisoners with life sentences have been transferred to occupied East Jerusalem.

Israel dresses Palestinian prisoners in shirts with Star of David: Report

Before their release, the Israel Prison Service has made Palestinians prisoners wear outfits with Arabic written on them: “We will not forget or forgive.”

According to Israeli state media, the authority shared photos of the hundreds of Palestinian prisoners set for release in shirts featuring its logo, a Star of David and the sentence in question.
https://twitter.com/AJA_Palestine/status/1890713350830706901

A smooth handover
Tareq Abu Azzoum
Reporting from Khan Younis, southern Gaza

This handover was different from previous ones made by both Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

One of the previous handovers was criticised for the intense atmosphere, in particular the one that was held close to the house of Yahya Sinwar in Khan Younis.

The Palestinian factions have selected this location again to try to show they are coordinated and hold control over a well-organised handover.

The three captives released today appeared to be in good physical condition. This is in contrast to last week’s group of released captives, who were in a more deteriorated health condition due to shortages of food and medicine as a result of Israeli blocks.

Overall, this has been one of the smoother handovers carried out so far since the start of the Gaza ceasefire.

Displays of power fill captives’ handover site in Khan Younis
Tareq Abu Azzoum
Reporting from Khan Younis in southern Gaza

For the second time since the start of the Gaza ceasefire, the captives’ handover is taking place just a few kilometres away from the house of killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar.

The release of captives in Gaza is taking place amid heavy security protocols and displays of power. Both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have deployed fighters who are in full military attire and carry automatic rifles.

In the background, you can see images of top slain Hamas military leaders, complete with sentences in English, Arabic and Hebrew that say, “O Jerusalem, bear witness: We are your soldiers.”

Flags of other Arab nations are also represented. Another slogan in the pictures reads, “We crossed over swiftly.” There are different photos of Israeli military bases that were stormed by Palestinian fighters during the October 7 attacks.

There is also a photo of Yahya Sinwar sitting on the single couch inside a destroyed home where he was killed, facing a window showing Jerusalem on the other side. The factions here are signalling that their eyes are on the eternal Palestinian capital.

Israeli captives to be freed in vehicle seized in October 7 attack: Source

A source in Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, has also told Al Jazeera that the group presented Sagui Dekel-Chen, one of the captives, with a gold coin as a gift for his daughter, who was born four months after he was captured.

Yair Horn, Sagui Dekel-Chen and Alexander Trufanov are expected to be released in Khan Younis this morning.

Political interference claimed as Australian-Palestinian academic’s grant funding reviewed

Australian academics have accused the country’s education minister of political interference in academic freedom after he asked the Australian Research Council to review the fellowship of a prominent Palestinian-Australian academic as a “matter of priority”.

Education Minister Jason Clare called for the review of the $870,000 Australian dollar ($553,000) grant to Randa Abdel-Fattah, an Australian-born academic of Egyptian and Palestinian heritage, The Guardian Australia reports.

Abdel-Fattah has previously faced attacks from right wing political figures over past comments about Israel, but the situation escalated when Clare, who represents Australia’s centre-left Labor Party, requested a review of her grant funding in late January.

The minister’s request prompted outcry from fellow academics and the president of the Australian Historical Association who said it represented a “new kind of political interference”.

Majority of Israelis want to stick with ceasefire rather than returning to war: Poll

The poll of 600 members of the public by Israel’s national broadcaster Kan asked: “Should we continue to phase two of the deal and end the war or return to fighting now without securing the release of all of the hostages?”

Some 61 percent of respondents said Israel should continue to phase two of the deal, 18 percent said Israel should return to war in Gaza, and 21 percent said they were unsure.

Israeli army storms occupied West Bank homes of freed prisoners

Israeli forces have raided the city of el-Bireh in the occupied West Bank, raiding the home of a Palestinian prisoner released as part of today’s exchanges.

Local sources told the official Wafa news agency that Israeli military vehicles stormed the centre of el-Bireh to target the home of 45-year-old Mazen al-Qadi, in Israeli custody for more than two decades.

Since dawn, Israeli forces have similarly raided the homes of several other prisoners released today, according to reports.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/15/live-gaza-prepares-for-exchange-of-3-israeli-captives-for-369-palestinians

Imagine living next doorto this.

Hezbollah chief says Israel must fully withdraw from Lebanon in two days

The head of Hezbollah says Israel’s troops must pull out of Lebanese territory in full by a February 18 deadline, adding it has “no pretext” to maintain a military presence in the south.

“Everyone knows how an occupation is dealt with,” said Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem, without explicitly threatening that his group would resume attacks against Israel.

Under a truce brokered by the US in November, Israeli troops were granted 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon, where they waged a ground assault against Hezbollah fighters. That deadline was later extended to February 18, but Israel’s military requested it keep troops in five posts in the south.

In a recorded televised speech, Qassem said: “Israel must withdraw completely on February 18. It has no pretext, no five points or other details … This is the agreement.”

Israel’s public broadcaster said on Wednesday that the United States has authorised a “long-term” Israeli troop presence in southern Lebanon.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/16/live-israel-hamas-exchange-captives-rubio-in-israel-to-discuss-trump-plan

>>487636
The Zionists will not leave unless somebody makes them, conquering more territory is their primary goal.

>>487630
what do you think ?
Is Egypt trying to get the Zionists off their back about taking in Palestinians by threatening to buy Chinese weapons instead of US weapons.

# Strategic Performance and Likely Outcomes in the Israel-Hamas War of 2025

The Israel-Hamas war, ongoing since October 2023, has evolved into a multifaceted conflict involving regional actors, proxy networks, and shifting geopolitical alliances. By February 2025, the war has entered a precarious phase marked by a fragile ceasefire, escalating threats of renewed hostilities, and intensified international diplomacy. This report evaluates the strategic performance of Israel and Iran’s "Axis of Resistance" to determine which side holds the advantage for prevailing in the conflict.

—

## Israel’s Strategic Performance

### Military Campaigns and Operational Successes
Israel’s military strategy has focused on degrading Hamas’s operational capacity, dismantling its governance structures, and securing the release of hostages. By early 2025, Israeli forces claim to have destroyed 80% of Hamas’s military infrastructure, including tunnels, rocket depots, and command centers[3]. However, Israel controls only a third of the Gaza Strip, leaving significant territory under Hamas influence[3]. The repeated battles in Beit Lahia and Jabalia underscore Hamas’s resilience despite heavy losses[3].

The January 2025 ceasefire agreement, mediated by the U.S., Egypt, and Qatar, marked a tactical pause. The deal included a phased release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and humanitarian concessions[1]. While Israel secured the return of 33 hostages initially, Hamas suspended further releases in February 2025, citing Israeli violations[1]. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s threats to resume military operations if hostages are not returned highlight Israel’s readiness to escalate[1].

### Regional Deterrence and U.S. Backing
Israel’s strategic position is bolstered by unwavering U.S. support. Despite the transition to the Trump administration in January 2025, bipartisan alignment persists on Israel’s security needs. U.S. intelligence agencies anticipate Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, reflecting shared priorities in countering Tehran[5]. Israel’s October 2024 retaliatory strikes on Iran—the largest since the Iran-Iraq War—exposed vulnerabilities in Iran’s defenses and demonstrated Israel’s willingness to escalate directly[4].

### Challenges: Governance and Reconstruction
Israel faces mounting criticism over civilian casualties and Gaza’s humanitarian crisis. The lack of a coherent post-war governance plan for Gaza risks a power vacuum, potentially enabling Hamas’s resurgence[3]. Netanyahu’s rejection of a permanent ceasefire and insistence on "total victory" complicate reconstruction efforts, leaving Israel responsible for managing Gaza’s destabilized infrastructure[1][3].

—

## Iran’s Axis of Resistance: Capabilities and Limitations

### Proxy Network and Asymmetric Warfare
Iran’s "Axis of Resistance"—comprising Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Shiite militias in Iraq and Yemen—has sustained pressure on Israel through rocket attacks, guerrilla warfare, and hostage diplomacy. Hamas’s October 2023 incursion demonstrated the axis’s capacity to inflict strategic shocks[2]. However, the network’s cohesion has faltered. Hezbollah, wary of full-scale war, has limited its engagements to sporadic strikes, while Iraqi militias face internal fragmentation[4].

### Strategic Vulnerabilities Exposed
Iran’s reliance on proxies has proven double-edged. While deniable attacks offer plausible deniability, Israel’s direct strikes on Iranian soil in October 2024 revealed Tehran’s inadequate air defenses and eroded deterrence[4]. The axis’s failure to mobilize a unified front during the Gaza war underscores its operational limitations. Hamas’s refusal to aid Syria’s Bashar al-Assad during the civil war—a key Iranian ally—exemplifies divergent priorities within the network[2].

### Diplomatic Isolation and Nuclear Ambitions
Iran’s regional influence is constrained by diplomatic isolation and economic sanctions. The U.S. and Gulf states have coalesced around containing Tehran, with Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel under the Abraham Accords[3]. Meanwhile, Iran’s nuclear program remains a focal point. U.S. intelligence warns that Israel may strike Iranian nuclear facilities in 2025, risking broader conflict[5]. Tehran’s missile arsenal, while formidable, has shown reliability issues, diminishing its deterrent credibility[4].

—

## Comparative Analysis: Pathways to Victory

### Israel’s Advantages
1. Military Superiority: Israel’s technological edge, air dominance, and intelligence capabilities enable precise strikes against Hamas and Iranian targets.
2. International Backing: Sustained U.S. support and Gulf state alignment provide diplomatic and military leverage.
3. Deterrence Posture: Direct strikes on Iran have reestablished red lines, compelling Tehran to recalibrate its proxy strategy[4][5].

### Iran’s Resilience
1. Proxy Endurance: Despite losses, Hamas retains governance structures in Gaza, and Hezbollah’s arsenal remains a potent deterrent[3][2].
2. Asymmetric Tactics: Proxies’ ability to exploit urban terrain and hostage diplomacy complicates Israel’s military objectives[1][2].
3. Strategic Patience: Iran’s long-term vision prioritizes attrition over decisive victories, aiming to erode Israeli resolve and international support[4].

—

## Conclusion: Israel’s Likely Prevailing Position

As of February 2025, Israel holds the strategic upper hand due to its military efficacy, U.S. partnership, and successful deterrence against Iran. The January ceasefire, though fragile, reflects Israel’s capacity to negotiate from strength. However, the absence of a political solution for Gaza and Iran’s latent proxy threats pose enduring risks.

Iran’s axis, while diminished, retains the capacity for sporadic violence but lacks the cohesion to alter the conflict’s trajectory decisively. Israel’s potential strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities—if executed with U.S. support—could further degrade Tehran’s regional standing[5]. Ultimately, Israel’s ability to neutralize Hamas’s governance and deter Iranian escalation positions it to prevail, provided it addresses Gaza’s political vacuum and sustains international legitimacy.

Citations:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Gaza_war_ceasefire
[2] https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-axis-resistance-proxies-enemies-abroad-quds/32645674.html
[3] https://themedialine.org/top-stories/after-a-year-of-war-what-does-2025-hold-for-israel/
[4] https://carnegieendowment.org/middle-east/diwan/2024/10/what-are-irans-options-after-the-israeli-attack?lang=en
[5] https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/13/politics/us-intelligence-israel-strike-iran-nuclear/index.html
[6] https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-august-1-2024
[7] https://www.steptoe.com/en/news-publications/stepwise-risk-outlook/israel-in-2025-perspectives-on-a-region-in-turmoil.html
[8] https://www.cfr.org/expert-brief/israel-and-hamas-reach-cease-fire-will-war-end
[9] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/how-hamas-oct-7-attack-smashed-irans-axis-of-resistance/articleshow/116219729.cms
[10] https://www.chathamhouse.org/2024/12/fall-assad-has-exposed-extent-damage-irans-axis-resistance
[11] https://www.spf.org/iina/en/articles/miyahara_08.html
[12] https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/israel-strategic-win-and-new-headaches
[13] https://www.voanews.com/a/analysts-expect-strong-israel-reaction-to-iran-attack-uncertain-of-wider-conflict-/7807226.html
[14] https://www.oxan.com/insights/prospects-for-middle-east-security-in-2025/
[15] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/29/analysis-hamas-has-been-hit-hard-by-israel-but-is-not-out-in-gaza
[16] https://www.stimson.org/2025/irans-axis-of-resistance-weakened-but-still-dangerous/
[17] https://www.fdd.org/analysis/op_eds/2025/01/07/in-2025-israels-gaza-campaign-is-not-over/
[18] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/irans-axis-resistance-collapsing-israeli-attacks-rcna173169
[19] https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/hamas-may-be-cheering-it-writhing-pain
[20] https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/reshaping-iran%E2%80%99s-axis-resistance
[21] https://acleddata.com/conflict-watchlist-2025/israel-palestine-lebanon/
[22] https://www.stimson.org/2024/irans-axis-of-resistance-outmatched-by-israeli-intelligence-and-weapons/
[23] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/16/rubio-says-hamas-must-be-eradicated-casting-doubt-on-gaza-ceasefire-deal
[24] https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/axis-resistance-strategy-israel-hamas-war
[25] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/13/live-positive-signals-for-israeli-captives-as-more-aid-enters-gaza
[26] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Israel_proxy_conflict
[27] https://acleddata.com/conflict-watchlist-2025/middle-east/
[28] https://www.fdd.org/analysis/op_eds/2024/10/04/israels-victory-will-be-a-success-for-american-grand-strategy/
[29] https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/content-series/inflection-points/israels-dramatic-gains-on-iran-present-a-historic-chance-and-enormous-risks/
[30] https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-january-17-2025
[31] https://carnegieendowment.org/emissary/2024/10/iran-israel-missile-attack-nuclear-strategy-what-now?lang=en
[32] https://www.csis.org/analysis/escalating-war-between-israel-hezbollah-and-iran
[33] https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-israel-missile-drone-military-threat-advantage/32912499.html
[34] https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/iran-in-2025-how-strong-does-it-remain-in-the-middle-east/
[35] https://www.usip.org/publications/2024/10/whats-next-israel-iran-and-prospects-wider-middle-east-war
[36] https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-february-4-2025

Richard Wolff wrote quite a nice article a couple weeks ago that I only just found comparing Israel to the British colonialism in Kenya in the late 19th century:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/01/31/settler-colonialism-it-ends-with-us-in-palestine-and-israel/

>>487640
I generally doubt it. You never know. Mahmood OD is more optimistic about Egypt than I am, but there have been specific areas where Egypt did actually put their foot down. El-Sisi would be wise to get away from alignment with the US and Israel (because they will absolutely stab him in the back like they did Saddam, Assad, etc.), but whether he will or not is a different question.

>>487641
Stop posting this neocon bullshit.

Hezbollah supporters protest for third day near Beirut airport

Hezbollah supporters gathered near Beirut international airport for a third day to protest over a decision to prevent two Iranian planes from landing there.

Local media reported that security forces fired tear gas to disperse the protesters and that some Lebanese soldiers were injured in scuffles.

Hezbollah protesters drew a Star of David on the road leading to the airport, as protesters accuse the Lebanese state of caving to Israeli orders by not allowing Iranian planes to land.

Earlier on Saturday, Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmad al-Hajjar said more than 25 people had been arrested after an attack by protesters on Friday on a convoy of United Nations peacekeepers that wounded two.

Two wounded in central Gaza after Israel bombs bulldozer: Report

The Israeli military has reportedly bombed a bulldozer that was trying to remove the rubble of destroyed Palestinian infrastructure in central Gaza, despite the ceasefire.

Local sources quoted by the official Wafa news agency said a drone hit the vehicle in the town of al-Mughraqa in the central part of the territory, wounding two people.

UNRWA chief says misinformation campaign putting staff at risk

Philippe Lazzarini has told reporters that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) is at “a turning point”.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Lazzarini said the agency has been the target of a misinformation campaign by the Israeli government. That includes billboards and ads in the US, Europe and Australia accusing UNRWA of “terrorism”.

“This is putting the lives of the UNRWA staff at risk, especially in the West Bank but also in Gaza, where 273 UNRWA staff have already been killed,” Lazzarini said.

“The objective of these attacks on the agency is to strip the Palestinian[s] of their refugee status,” he added.

“The right of Palestinian refugees to protection and assistance are, however, not derived from the UNRWA mandate. They exist independently of the agency.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/15/live-gaza-prepares-for-exchange-of-3-israeli-captives-for-369-palestinians

Clip of Yoav Gallant admitting to Channel 12 in Israel that the Hannibal Directive was used on Oct. 7, 2023.

https://x.com/kataeb_Ar/status/1891415784452239523
Continuation of the Israeli "ceasefire" in Lebanon

Lebanese president says ‘afraid’ Israel may not fully withdraw by deadline

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has voiced concern that Israeli forces may not fully withdraw from southern Lebanon by a truce deadline on Tuesday, saying the issue of Hezbollah’s weapons was a matter for the Lebanese.

“We are afraid that a complete withdrawal will not be achieved tomorrow,” Aoun said, according to a statement from the presidency. He added: “The important thing is to achieve the Israeli withdrawal, and Hezbollah’s weapons come as part of solutions the Lebanese agree on.”

His remarks came shortly after the Lebanese Health Ministry announced that one person had been killed in an Israeli strike in the southern city of Sidon.

Israel continues to block mobile homes, tents in violation of ceasefire

Israel’s 15 months of war destroyed 70 percent of the buildings in the Gaza Strip, and most families have nowhere to live.

But Israel is still blocking shelters from entering the Strip – one of the conditions of the agreement. Tens of thousands of mobile homes as part of the ceasefire deal have still not been allowed into Gaza, and are stuck at the Rafah crossing with Egypt, awaiting Israeli permission to enter Gaza.

Under the ceasefire, Israel had agreed to allow 60,000 mobile homes and 200,000 tents into Gaza. But only 20,000 tents have been allowed in and none of the mobile homes.

Iran will not show weakness in defending nuclear programme: Ministry

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman has delivered more defiant rhetoric after the latest comments by Netanyahu and Trump. Below are lines from Esmail Baghaei during a news conference:

Iran has observed its rights under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and nuclear safeguards for three decades.
Iran is conducting an ongoing peaceful nuclear programme, and it will not show any weakness in this regard.
Netanyahu must be confronted internationally for openly threatening Iran with attacks.
The emir of Qatar’s impending visit to Iran has nothing to do with talks with the US.
US officials’ comments on negotiations with Iran cannot be taken seriously because they are filled with contradictions.
Iran is consulting European countries to organise a third round of talks.

US strategic bombers flying with jet escorts over the Mediterranean Sea

An air squadron consisting of six military aircraft belonging to the US air force has been flying over the Mediterranean Sea, according to data from Flight Radar, which specialises in tracking and monitoring aircraft movements.

The squadron consists of two Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers and four Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft designated for refuelling fighters and bombers in midair.

The aircraft took off today from the Royal Air Force Mildenhall base in England, which is a US base. The flight path of the aircraft shows them flying over the Mediterranean near Southern Europe and North Africa with a possibility of heading towards the Middle East.

Israeli tanks advance in southern Lebanese town

Activists and local Lebanese platforms on social media circulated this morning scenes of an Israeli military incursion into the town of Kfarchouba in the south of the country.

Local media confirmed that this incursion is considered the first since the deployment of the Lebanese army in the area, and it comes as Lebanese officials say they expect a quick withdrawal by the Israeli army.

https://twitter.com/ataharinews/status/1891373885582455288

Israel PM says ‘committed’ to Trump’s Gaza displacement plan

Netanyahu says he is “committed” to Trump’s plan for Gaza, which involves displacing more than two million inhabitants of the Palestinian territory.

“Just as I have committed to, on the day after the war in Gaza, there will be neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority. I am committed to US President Trump’s plan for the creation of a different Gaza,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

Israeli soldiers used 80-year-old Palestinian as human shield: Report

The Israeli military forced an 80-year-old Palestinian man to act as a human shield in Gaza by tying an explosive cord around his neck and threatening to have his head blown off, according to an investigation by the Israeli media outlet The Hottest Place in Hell.

A senior officer from the army’s Nahal Brigade tied the explosive cord around the man’s neck before he was ordered to scout houses.

After eight hours, soldiers ordered the man to flee with his wife from their home in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood in May, said +972 magazine, which reported the piece in partnership with The Hottest Place in Hell.

Al-Quds Brigades claims attack on Israeli troops in Tulkarem

The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad says its Tulkarem Battalion detonated explosive devices targeting Israeli forces in the town of Qaffin.

It said the group’s fighters also “rained heavy showers of bullets” on the troops.

The Israeli military has been carrying out a large-scale military operation in Tulkarem as well as many parts of the north of the occupied West Bank.

Qassam Brigades confirms official killed in Lebanon

The armed wing of Hamas has hailed Muhammad Ibrahim Shaheen, who as we reported earlier was killed by an Israeli drone strike in Sidon, as an influential figure in the Palestinian organisation.

Qassam Brigades said in a statement that he had a “pioneering role and special fingerprints” in the path of resistance against Israel, including during the war on Gaza.

The Palestinian group said as its members are killed across Palestinian and other territories, it affirms its steadfastness on the path of resistance “until the dream of our people for liberation and return is achieved”.

Destruction of homes, infrastructure in Lebanon preventing people’s return: HRW

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the destruction of towns and villages in southern Lebanon by Israeli forces is preventing tens of thousands of people from returning to their homes.

“Israel’s deliberate demolition of civilian homes and infrastructure and its use of explosive weapons in populated areas are making it impossible for many residents to return to their villages and houses,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at HRW.

“Even if their houses are still there, how can they return when there is no water, electricity, telecommunications, or health infrastructure?” Kaiss added.

HRW researchers found examples of infrastructure destroyed by Israeli attacks, including a water filtration and pumping station destroyed by an Israeli attack on Tyre on November 18, which disrupted water access to about 72,000 people.

While temporary adjustments to the network restored supply about a month later, the water station, which is the main source for people in Tyre and the surrounding areas, “needs to be rebuilt from scratch”, Kassem Khalifeh, the utility’s chief of supervision, told HRW.

Former Israeli military officials warn against ‘reckless’ renewed war: Report

Hundreds of former senior Israeli military officials have written a letter addressed to the Israeli leadership and public that sternly warns against the “irresponsibility and recklessness of renewing the war” in Gaza without a clear strategic goal.

Former Major General Matan Vilnai leads the list of 550 Israelis who backed the letter, and points out that resuming the military campaign would lead to the deaths of the remaining captives in Gaza, according to Maariv newspaper.

The popular Hebrew-language daily cited the letter as saying such a war would also exhaust the army and “lead to a bloody, ongoing occupation with no end in sight and the loss of unprecedented regional opportunities”, in reference to a normalisation deal with Saudi Arabia.

According to the general, the Israeli government is acting against the will of the people and giving in to the demands of an extreme minority, who wish to annex the occupied West Bank and perpetuate conflict.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/17/live-trump-says-israel-to-choose-path-for-gaza-ceasefire-with-his-help

Apparently Trump's ethnic cleansing statements scared shipping companies away from the Red Sea again.

>>487658
>forcing
>to sign paperwork
null and void

>signed under duress it is unenforceable—meaning it is not worth the paper it was signed on.
yup

Israel’s truce violations continue to mount
Tareq Abu Azzoum
Reporting from Rafah, Gaza

The ceasefire agreement stipulates a full cessation of all military acts by both parties to the conflict, but today, we’ve seen several violations by Israel.

They deliberately targeted police vehicles in the city of Rafah as well as a civilian vehicle in the central part of the Strip.

Israel’s obstruction of all essential heavy machinery and mobile homes – which are still lined up on the Egyptian side of the border and are highly required here in order to alleviate the humanitarian crisis – is adding further pressure on regional mediators to implement the humanitarian protocol agreed in the ceasefire deal.

Meanwhile, civilians here are homeless and living in open spaces as they wait for the entry of those mobile homes. These homes are expected to provide shelter to hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians.

People here believe that as long as Israel continues to add further obstacles in the path for the next round of negotiations, the situation on the ground will get more complicated.

The sentiments here are quite charged, with fears and anxiety over the durability of the ceasefire, in light of these very unpredictable changes that we can see in the current agreement.

AU condemns Israel’s ‘genocide’ against Palestinians

African leaders have condemned Israeli occupation and aggression in a joint statement issued at the conclusion of the African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa.

“Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians and must be prosecuted internationally,” the statement said, according to Palestinian media outlets.

“We call for an end to cooperation and normalisation with Israel until it ends its occupation and aggression against Palestine,” it said.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs subsequently hailed the AU statement.

In a post on X, the ministry said it welcomed the African leaders’ “honourable positions on the Israeli occupation and aggression, as well as the genocide against our people”, and the “summit’s rejection of displacement and annexation plans”.

Israeli army targets ‘suspicious vehicles’ in Gaza

Israeli fighter jets opened fire on “suspicious vehicles” going north from central Gaza Strip “on a route not approved for vehicle traffic”, an army statement says.

The cars traveled without passing through the checkpoint route, “contrary to the agreed [truce] outline”.

“The [army] once again calls on Gaza residents to obey instructions, not to approach the forces deployed in the area and to pass through the agreed checkpoint routes,” it added in a post on X.

The incident comes as Israeli forces have been accused of repeatedly violating the ceasefire since it was enforced last month. Apart from deadly attacks, they have also obstructed the flow of much-needed humanitarian aid.

Israel begins to pull out from some south Lebanon areas: Report

The Israeli troop movement comes hours before a deadline for their complete withdrawal from Lebanon as stipulated in a ceasefire agreed in November with Hezbollah.

“Israeli forces are beginning to withdraw from border villages, including Meiss el-Jabal and Blida, as the Lebanese army advances,” an unnamed official told the AFP news agency.

Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Nadav Shoshani earlier said that “based on the current situation, we will leave small amounts of troops deployed temporarily in five strategic points along the border in Lebanon”.

Iran urges Arab, Islamic countries to defeat Trump’s Gaza plan

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has called on Arab and Islamic countries to support the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) efforts to confront a joint US-Israeli plot to forcibly relocate Palestinians from their homeland.

Araghchi made the call during a meeting with the secretary-general of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC), Jassim Muhammad Al-Budaiwi, in the Omani capital, Muscat, on Sunday, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

Araghchi said a single, decisive voice must be heard from the Islamic world in support of the Palestinian people and praised Arab countries, especially those in the Gulf region, for opposing the “American-Zionist plan to forcibly relocate the people of Gaza”.

Israel announces army agency for ‘voluntary departure’ of Gaza

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz says a special directorate will be established for the “voluntary departure” of Gazan residents.

The announcement comes after Israel reiterated its commitment to a US proposal to take over the Palestinian territory and expel about two million of its inhabitants.

“Defence Minister Israel Katz held a meeting today on the voluntary departure of Gaza residents, at the end of which he decided that a directorate for the voluntary departure of Gaza residents would be established within the ministry of defence,” a statement said.

NGO pushes Belgium to arrest Israel’s ‘war criminal’ foreign minister

The pro-Palestinian Hind Rajab Foundation issued a call for action ahead of Israel Foreign Minister Gideon Saar’s scheduled visit to Brussels on Tuesday, calling on Belgian authorities to ensure he “does not evade justice while on European soil”.

“Allowing a suspected war criminal to visit Brussels unchallenged would be a betrayal of international legal commitments and the fundamental principles of justice,” the foundation said.

It emphasised Belgium’s legal obligation to take action against international crimes as a signatory to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Palestinian boy succumbs to injuries following Israeli attack

Diaa Ahmed Sabaaneh, 15, has died in the occupied West Bank following wounds he sustained two weeks ago from an Israeli air strike.

The attack occurred in Qabatiya, in the Palestinian territory’s north, where an Israeli military assault has been ongoing for weeks.

Israel’s raid on the occupied West Bank has killed more than a dozen Palestinians and displaced at least 40,000, while causing widespread destruction to critical infrastructure.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/17/live-trump-says-israel-to-choose-path-for-gaza-ceasefire-with-his-help

old:

Gaza ceasefire to top agenda as Netanyahu visits US
Hamdah Salhut
Reporting from Amman, Jordan

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will take off to the United States [today], around 8am [06:00 GMT] local time.

He will be the first world leader to visit the White House since Donald Trump took office on January 20.

Gaza, of course, will be one of the agenda items.

Netanyahu has released a statement saying that he’s going to meet with Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who helped with the ceasefire negotiations about negotiations for the second phase of the deal.

But of course, the deal is laid out. Phase two is laid out, so it’s a little bit unclear exactly what Netanyahu wants.

Reports within Israeli media have said that Netanyahu has been holding private meetings about restarting the war, even asking the military for operational plans on how he could do that.

And members of his right-wing government, having left his coalition despite voting against this deal several weeks ago, say they received assurances from Netanyahu that the fighting would resume after phase one.

That there would be a “complete takeover of Gaza”, and those are the words of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

So there’s a lot of uncertainty about what’s to come next.

But make no mistake, the Israeli public at large supports this deal because it brings back the remaining Israeli captives.

US ‘showing contempt for int’l justice’ by hosting Netanyahu: Amnesty

Amnesty International says the US “has a clear obligation” under the Geneva Conventions “to search for & try or extradite persons accused of having committed or ordered the commission of war crimes”.

US ‘will remain complicit in Israel’s atrocities in Gaza’ if arms sales persist: HRW

Ahead of Trump’s talks with Netanyahu, Human Rights Watch has urged the US to cut off military assistance to Israel.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/2/live-israeli-bombs-kill-5-in-west-bank-wounded-palestinians-evacuate-gaza

Lebanon demands full Israeli troop withdrawal from south

Lebanon called for a full Israeli army pull out from its territory in the south as agreed under a ceasefire agreement involving Hezbollah.

President Joseph Aoun held talks with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to discuss Israeli violations of the truce deal, a statement from the president’s office said.

The talks came shortly after the Israeli military withdrew from some southern Lebanese towns, but remained in five border outposts in violation of the ceasefire.

Under the deal, Israel was supposed to complete its withdrawal from southern Lebanon by January 26, but the deadline was extended to Tuesday after Israel refused to comply.

Lebanese officials called for “a complete Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Lebanese territories in compliance with international charters and laws and UN resolutions”, the statement said.

Lebanese government to seek new IMF programme, policy statement says

Lebanon’s new government will negotiate with the International Monetary Fund for a new programme and will work to deal with the country’s financial default and public debt, according to a policy statement approved by the cabinet.

The statement, a copy of which was reviewed by the Reuters news agency, said the government would work for an economical revival that could only be achieved through restructuring the banking sector.

Lebanon has been in deep economic crisis since 2019 when its financial system collapsed under the weight of massive state debts, prompting a sovereign default in 2020 and freezing ordinary depositors out of their savings in the banking system.

Beirut reached a draft funding deal with IMF in 2022 – contingent on reforms that authorities failed to deliver. Finance Minister Yassine Jaber, who took office as part of a new government agreed earlier this month, said an IMF mission is expected to visit Lebanon in March.

US bombers ‘demonstrate force projection capabilities’ in the Middle East

The US military confirmed reports that its strategic bombers – escorted by refueling aircraft and fighter jets – completed a run over the Middle East “to demonstrate force projection capabilities in the region”.

US Central Command said “live munitions drops at ranges in several partner nations” were part of the mission, aimed at showing an “ability to respond to any state or non-state actor seeking to broaden or escalate conflict”.

The statement comes after threats to bomb Iran by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli forces kill child in southern Gaza’s Rafah city: Report

A child has been killed by Israeli forces near al-Awda Square in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Information Center.

The agency said another child was shot and injured by the Israeli army east of Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood.

Earlier, we reported based on the Wafa news agency that Israeli forces killed a woman this morning east of the municipality of ash-Shawka in Rafah.

Israel violated Gaza ceasefire ‘266 times’, killing 132 Palestinians

Palestinian security sources have told Al Jazeera they registered 266 violations of the ceasefire agreement since it came into effect in the Gaza Strip on January 19.

Those violations have led to the killing of at least 132 Palestinians, including 26 who succumbed to their wounds. More than 900 people were injured as a result of Israeli gunfire and raids on the enclave.

Most violations occurred in central Gaza, with 110 incidents, followed by 54 in Rafah, 49 in Gaza City, 19 in Khan Younis, and 13 in the northern Gaza Strip.

Throughout the ceasefire, Israeli leaders have been discussing the possibility of an imminent return to fighting, with far-right ministers in Netanyahu’s cabinet pushing for military occupation of the enclave.

Video shows southern Lebanon village in ruins after Israeli military withdrawal

Footage verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency depicts the scale of destruction in the village of Markaba near the border with Israel.

Israeli forces reduced almost the entirety of the village in southern Lebanon to rubble before withdrawing. The Lebanese army announced today the deployment of its military units there.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1354901035763036

Katz threatens Lebanon with more violence as Israeli forces remain in buffer zone

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz says the army will “forcefully” enforce the ceasefire deal in Lebanon and act against any Hezbollah threat, as Israeli troops remain in five strategic posts.

“Starting today, the [army] will remain in a buffer zone in Lebanon in five strategic outposts along the border line, to ensure the protection of the northern communities,” he said on X, adding that the army would “continue to enforce forcefully and without compromise against any violation by Hezbollah”.

“We will not allow a return to the reality of October 7th,” he concluded.

Residents await return to Lebanese towns, villages levelled by Israeli forces
Zeina Khodr
Reporting from Deir Mimas, Lebanon

The Lebanese army is still clearing areas of unexploded munitions as Israeli forces withdraw from towns and villages along the border.

People who have been displaced from the area for more than a year have been waiting here for hours to go back to their homes and see what is left, but most of them will tell you they know there is nothing left because most of these towns along the border have been levelled to the ground.

It is not just because of the war. Since that ceasefire took effect in late November, Israeli troops have been demolishing infrastructure and homes, saying they are Hezbollah’s military infrastructure.

So, people here will tell you they are going back to nothing but they still want to go back home.

What are the five hilltops in Lebanon that Israel plans to remain on?

The deadline for Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon has now passed.

We have more information on the five locations where the Israeli army has said its troops will remain.

They are:

''a hill near Labbouneh, across from the Israeli town of Shlomi
the Jabal Blat peak, across from the Israeli town of Zar’it''
a hill across from the Israeli towns of Avivim and Malkia
a hill across from the Israeli town of Margaliot
a hill across from the Israeli town of Metula.
None of the posts is located within built-up areas but Israel has said it will prevent “suspects” from approaching the Israeli border and newly established positions, according to our correspondent.

Israeli army launches interceptor missile at drone near Lebanon border

Local outlets have documented the footage below, which has been verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency, showing how the Israeli military launched an interceptor missile that hit a drone in the Mount Hermon area.

Israeli Army Radio said the drone belonged to the Israeli military, and was downed in order to prevent it from falling into Lebanese hands after it suffered a malfunction.

Palestinian President Abbas fires official who criticised him for ending ‘martyrs’ fund’

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has fired an official who criticised his decision to end a system that paid stipends to the families of prisoners, including those convicted of deadly attacks against Israelis.

Abbas announced the replacement of Qadura Fares as head of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) without providing an explanation.

Last week, Abbas put an end to what was known as the “martyrs’ fund”, acquiescing to longstanding demands by the United States and Israel.

Many Palestinians viewed the payments as compensation for people harmed in the course of their struggle against Israeli military rule.

The Hamas movement, which drove Abbas’s forces from Gaza in 2007, criticised Fares’s firing, saying it reflected the “oppression and exclusion” practiced by the authority and its “submission to Zionist and American dictates”.

Israel violated ‘right to education’ by storming UNRWA-run schools in West Bank: Lazzarini

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini has confirmed that Israeli soldiers and municipality authorities stormed three schools and a training centre in the occupied West Bank and ordered immediate evacuations.

He said 250 children in three schools run by the UN agency in occupied East Jerusalem were affected, along with more than 350 trainees at the large training centre that was targeted in Qalandiya.

“This is a violation of the basic right to education as well as of United Nations privileges and immunities,” Lazzarini added in a post on X.

UN says Israel violating Security Council resolution on Lebanon

UN envoy Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and the UNIFIL peacekeeping force have said in a joint statement that at “the end of the period set” for Israel’s withdrawal and the Lebanese army’s deployment, any further “delay in this process is not what we hoped would happen” and a violation of a 2006 Security Council resolution that ended a past Israel-Hezbollah war.

“The new Lebanese President and Government are determined to extend state authority completely in all areas in the south and consolidate stability to prevent conflict from returning to Lebanon. They deserve unwavering support in this endeavour,” they said.

As we have reported earlier, Israeli forces pulled out from Yaroun, Maroun al-Ras, Blida, Meiss el-Jabal, Hula, Markaba, Odaisseh, Kfar Kila, and Wazzani, but remain at five hilltops along the Israel-Lebanon border.

Netanyahu’s office confirms Israel to receive six living captives, four bodies

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the talks in Cairo resulted in an agreement on the release of six living Israeli captives on Saturday as part of the first phase of the ceasefire deal with Hamas.

Israel will also receive the bodies of four Israeli prisoners on Thursday and the bodies of four others a week later, the statement said.

The Times of Israel newspaper said the families of the captives have been notified.

Netanyahu orders immediate enforcement of UNRWA ban

The Israeli prime minister has issued a directive ordering the law banning the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) be “enforced immediately”.

In a post on X, Netanyahu’s office said, “There are no restrictions on the implementation of the Prime Minister’s directive.”

Arab League summit on Gaza postponed to March 4: Egypt

An extraordinary Arab League meeting on Gaza initially planned for next week has been postponed to March 4, host Egypt says.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement the new date was agreed with Arab League members as part of “substantive and logistical preparations” for the summit, which had been called in response to Trump’s proposal to take over the war-battered Gaza Strip and displace its Palestinian inhabitants.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/18/live-israel-pushes-forward-with-plans-for-voluntary-expulsions-from-gaza

Interesting Dialogue Works interview with Laith Marouf. A few interesting points:

Laith says the IDF has 7,000 dead from the recent conflict. This is almost 10x the estimates I've heard, anyone have any idea where he's getting 7k?

Laith says that Nawaf Salam (the Lebanese judge from the ICJ who was summoned back to Lebanon to become the Prime Minister) claimed in a speech that the reason for the recent Lebanese ban of commercial flights from Iran was due to "western sanctions" on Iranian flights. This would be a lie, as Iran flies to multiple west-friendly countries in the region, and the real reason has been reported as being that Israel threatened to bomb the Beirut airport if those flights were allowed in. Laith speculates that Salam was lying to hide his having caved to bomb threats.

Laith believes that the HTS gov't is unstable and may soon fall. He says that HTS recently raided a Syrian Sunni leader. He says that an Israeli report recently claimed that Iran and Turkey were jointly planning to re-arm Hezbollah, but he thinks the inclusion of Turkey in this was probably BS and I agree with him on that.

Hezbollah's political wing, based on recent events, seems to be the moderating force among its supporters. The recent protests appear to have occurred without any direction from Hezbollah's political leadership.

https://twitter.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1891847085470679407
German police raid an event held by Amnesty International and Francesca Albanese.

I don't know how recent this development is, but Twitter is apparently now blocking pics of Aaron Bushnell.

>>487673
>IDF has 7,000 dead from the recent conflict
7000 fatalities probably is a low-ball estimate. And you have to factor in that they probably have multiples of injured people that can't fight anymore. And then all the people that got psychological problems from witnessing or participating in atrocities.

But wait there is more. Israel had a vibrant tech sector, but all the techies emigrated because they didn't want to get drafted into the slaughter-machine. They packed up their families and left, that amounted to minus a million in population.

The demographic cost for Israel are very high.

>an Israeli report recently claimed that Iran and Turkey were jointly planning to re-arm Hezbollah, but he thinks the inclusion of Turkey in this was probably BS and I agree with him on that.
I'm not convinced the Israeli really have a handle on this, Iran is able to supply Yemmen, so they probably are able to supply Hezbollah as well. The fall of Syria probably caused only a temporary interruption, in Iran's ability to re-supply Hezbollah. lets not forget that Hezbollah probably also has independent production capacities for weapons as well.

Maybe this report should be viewed as an indication that there are growing political tensions between Turkey and Israel.

>>487672
>What are the five hilltops in Lebanon that Israel plans to remain on?
>The deadline for Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon has now passed.
>We have more information on the five locations where the Israeli army has said its troops will remain.
I think the 5 hills are going to be the indicator whether or not Iran has restored the weapons transfer corridors or not. If they did, Hezbollah is going to be able to clear out these hills with some kind of a big rocket barrage or drone attack.

Beirut airport to close during funeral for slain Hezbollah leader

The four-hour closure will take place during the funeral on Sunday for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah who was killed in an Israeli strike in late September.

“The airport will be closed and takeoffs and landings … will halt on February 23, 2025, from 12pm until 4pm [10:00-14:00 GMT],” Lebanon’s civil aviation authority said in a statement.

Nasrallah’s assassination took place as Hezbollah and Israel were entangled in cross-border hostilities for nearly a year, after the Lebanese armed group started firing on Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas in Gaza.

The exchanges of fire, which escalated into an all-out war for two months, ended with a ceasefire in late November.

Under the agreement, Lebanon’s military was to deploy alongside UN peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdrew from the south over an initial 60-day period that was later extended to today.

But just before the pullout deadline, Israel said it would keep troops in “five strategic points” near the border – a move slammed by Lebanon as an “occupation”.

Lebanon teams retrieve 23 bodies after Israeli pullout

Lebanon’s civil defence agency recovered 23 bodies from several border towns after Israeli troops withdrew from some southern towns under a ceasefire deadline.

“Specialised teams today … managed to remove 14 bodies from Mais al-Jabal, three from Markaba, and three from Kfar Kila, in addition to three from Odaisseh,” said a statement published by the state-run National News Agency.

Lebanese leaders said the Israeli military’s continued presence in five locations is an “occupation” and Beirut is in touch with France and the United States to press the army to completely withdraw from southern Lebanon.

Israeli drones broadcasting threatening messages in Gaza despite ceasefire

Maha Hussaini, the strategy director at The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a rights groups, says Israeli drones “are flying at low altitudes over central and eastern Gaza City” with intimidating messages.

She said the recorded messages “threaten residents and speak of a second and third Nakba“, referring to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land when Israel was created in 1948.

The Euro-Med shared a recording of the messages in a separate post on X.

https://twitter.com/EuroMedHR/status/1891789953585066475

Two dead after Israeli tanks open fire in Rafah

Two people have been killed in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah after Israeli tanks opened fire on Palestinians.

Two bodies were brought to a nearby hospital, officials said. The latest attack comes despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Israel’s army said in a statement that forces initially fired warning shots in the south of the Strip because of an unidentified person approaching them. The suspect did not retreat, so the army fired further shots.

Iran’s supreme leader: US plan to displace Gazans ‘will go nowhere’

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed a proposal by the United States and Israel to forcibly displace Palestinians from the war-devastated Gaza Strip calling it “foolish”.

Khamenei made the remarks during a meeting in Tehran with Ziyad al-Nakhalah, leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.

“The idiotic American plans or some other plans regarding Gaza and Palestine will go nowhere,” Khamenei said.

“No plan will be completed without the consent of the resistance and the people of Gaza,” he said, adding global public opinion favoured the Palestinians.

“Those who, a year and a half ago, claimed they would eliminate the resistance in a short time are now receiving their captives in small groups from the resistance while releasing a large number of Palestinian prisoners in return.”

Global call to halt to F-35 fighter jet exports to Israel

A global coalition of 232 civil society organisations has called on countries that build F-35 fighter jets to urgently end their arms exports to Israel because it’s been accused of war crimes under international law.

The Australian Centre for International Justice, one of the groups, urged all government partners in the F-35 fighter jet supply chain – including the Australian government – to “immediately halt all direct and indirect transfers of F-35 parts and components to Israel in accordance with their international legal obligations”.

Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK, and the US have so far “refused to cease exporting parts and components manufactured in their countries for use in F-35 fighter jets, despite their ultimate end use by Israel in aerial attacks that have caused devastating and irreparable harm to Palestinians in Gaza”, it said in a statement.

Two Israeli soldiers flee Amsterdam over arrest warrant concerns

Two Israeli servicemen who fought in Gaza fled the Netherlands and returned to Israel after a pro-Palestinian organisation tracked them down on social media and circulated their photos.

The Israeli Genocide Tracker published images of the soldiers on X, saying: “After participating in the Gaza genocide, this Israeli tank commander from the 52nd Battalion, who was involved in kidnapping hundreds of civilians [especially in Jabalia] and who enjoyed taking selfies with them, landed in Amsterdam today for a vacation.”

Germany event on Israel’s war on Gaza forcibly relocated by police

A conference in Berlin addressing issues surrounding Palestine and the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza was forcibly relocated by German police.

The “Reclaiming the Discourse: Palestine, Justice, and Truth” event – featuring UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese and prominent human rights figures – was moved after the original venue “faced coercion from German politicians and Berlin police”, Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) said in a statement.

The organisers, who planned for a larger audience, were forced to scale it down with the new venue holding just 200 attendees.

Albanese, who has faced repeated cancellations of her events in Germany, was again targeted by authorities, raising concerns over the country’s treatment of dissenting voices. “This is an outright attack on democracy and free speech,” DiEM25 said.

France calls for immediate Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon

Israeli forces should pull back from five positions in southern Lebanon as soon as possible in line with the November ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah, says France.

The Foreign Ministry urged all parties to consider its proposal to deploy the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to these five locations to replace Israeli forces and ensure the security of the population there.

The ministry also praised the redeployment of the Lebanese army where Israeli forces withdrew. The positioning of Lebanese forces allows demining operations and ensures the return of residents in safety, it added.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/18/live-israel-pushes-forward-with-plans-for-voluntary-expulsions-from-gaza

>>487674
>German police raid an event held by Amnesty International
>>487678
>Germany event on Israel’s war on Gaza forcibly relocated by police
>A conference in Berlin addressing issues surrounding Palestine and the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza was forcibly relocated by German police.
>The “Reclaiming the Discourse: Palestine, Justice, and Truth” event – featuring UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese and prominent human rights figures – was moved after the original venue “faced coercion from German politicians and Berlin police”, Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) said in a statement.
>The organisers, who planned for a larger audience, were forced to scale it down with the new venue holding just 200 attendees.
>Albanese, who has faced repeated cancellations of her events in Germany, was again targeted by authorities, raising concerns over the country’s treatment of dissenting voices. “This is an outright attack on democracy and free speech,” DiEM25 said.
Why are they doing this ?

>>487677
>I think the 5 hills are going to be the indicator whether or not Iran has restored the weapons transfer corridors or not. If they did, Hezbollah is going to be able to clear out these hills with some kind of a big rocket barrage or drone attack.

I think Hezbollah probably still has some capability to do that either way, but I don't know. Very difficult to say since Israel has just been going around destroying houses in southern Lebanon for months now without any return fire. I doubt that Iran has restored weapons transfer corridors, if they're still successfully transferring weapons then it's most likely in lower capacity.

Israeli army AI misidentified Gaza high school exam list as targets: Report

An investigation by the Associated Press (AP) news agency has found that the Israeli military’s use of Microsoft and OpenAI technology has sharply increased from October 7, 2023, raising fears these tools are contributing to the deaths of innocent people.

In one case, an Israeli army officer whose role involved using Microsoft’s Azure service to identify targets, said he found the system had wrongly added the names of 1,000 high school students from an exams list to an Excel spreadsheet marked “finals”.

He found the mistake but told AP he was worried that other officers, some still younger than 20, under pressure to find targets quickly with the help of AI, would jump to conclusions.

In total, AP spoke to six former Israeli army soldiers and 12 employees of US tech companies, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. AP also reviewed internal documents, finding that the Israeli army was storing 13.6 petabytes of data on Microsoft servers by July 2024, reflecting the vast amount of data AI tools were sifting through to identify potential targets.

However, the Israeli military told AP in a statement, that while the tools “make more targets faster”, this was “not at the expense of accuracy, and many times in this war, they’ve been able to minimise civilian casualties”.

More on deadly Israeli attack on vehicle in southern Lebanon

We have reported earlier that an Israeli drone attack on a vehicle in the southern Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab near the border with Israel has killed one person and injured another.

Sanad, Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency, identified the victim as Yusuf Mohammed Sorour, the son of the mayor of the town, targeted while he was sitting in his car in front of his home.

Rights groups say US, Canada violating UN racism treaty with arms exports to Israel

Eight human rights and legal organisations have told a UN committee that the US and Canada are violating their obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by continuing to export weapons to Israel.

In a 56-page submission to the committee, the organisations detailed how US military aid to Israel has “grown astronomically” since October 7, 2023, with Washington spending “at least an additional $22.76 billion on military aid to Israel and related US operations in the region”, as of September 30, 2024.

“The United States and Canada are well aware of Israel’s violations of international law, often perpetrated with Canada- and US-provided weaponry,” the submission said.

Pope continues video calls with Gaza church from hospital bed

A Catholic priest from the Holy Family Church in Gaza City has told Vatican News that Pope Francis has stayed in contact with his church by video call and text messages despite being hospitalised with a respiratory infection.

“The Holy Father called us the first two days of hospitalisation; people were waiting at 8pm Gaza time as always,” Father Gabriel Romanelli told Vatican News.

“Although we had a blackout in the whole area of Gaza City, he insisted and managed to contact us with a video call,” Romanelli added.

Pope Francis, who has repeatedly called for peace in Gaza, has contracted double pneumonia, further complicating his hospitalisation, the Vatican said on Tuesday.

Hamas rejects Israel’s call for disarmament

As we’ve been reporting, Hamas has issued a statement saying it is ready for a second phase in which all of the captives held in Gaza are exchanged in “one go”.

In the same statement, the Palestinian group rejected Israel’s call for its disarmament and removal from the Gaza Strip.

“The occupation’s condition of removing Hamas from the Gaza Strip is a ridiculous psychological war, and the withdrawal or disarmament of the resistance from Gaza is unacceptable,” said Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for the group.

“Any arrangements for the future of the Gaza Strip will be through national consensus,” he said.

Qassem also addressed the group’s decision to increase the number of captives to be freed during the next swap on Saturday from three to six.

“Doubling the number of prisoners to be released was done in response to a request from the mediators and to prove our seriousness in implementing all the terms of the agreement,” he said.

In exchange, Israel will release “a number of prisoners with life sentences and long sentences”, he added.

Hamas says it’s ready to free all Israeli captives in one go

The Palestinian group has just released a statement outlining its vision for the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

“We are ready for a second phase in which the prisoners will be exchanged in one go, within the criterion of reaching an agreement that leads to a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal from the Strip,” spokesman Hazem Qassem said.

The offer comes after US President Donald Trump spoke out against the phased weekly release of the captives taken from Israel, and families of those remaining in Gaza called for all of their loved ones to be freed at once.

Armenian church says it could lose properties in dispute with Jerusalem municipilty

The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem says it has owned the properties for centuries and could lose them in a hearing set for next Monday, threatening the “presence of the Armenian community in the Holy Land”.

In a letter posted on X, the church said the Jerusalem Municipality could seize and auction off its properties over an “alleged astronomical” tax debt that has never been “proven in judicial proceedings.”

Armenians, have lived in Jerusalem’s Old City for more than 1,500 years, but say their presence in the multifaith community has come under pressure in recent years, including from Jewish settlers and a land deal that could see a quarter of their land turned into a luxury hotel.

Several Israelis illegally cross into Lebanon: Report

The Times of Israel newspaper, citing police, says several Israelis illegally crossed the border into Lebanon overnight, and some of them threw rocks at Israeli troops who arrived on the scene.

Police officials said some of those were arrested, and the remaining suspects returned to Israel by the army, according to the daily.

It said it was the second such incident this week, with about 20 ultra-Orthodox Jewish Israelis illegally entering Lebanon overnight on Sunday.

The group was reportedly attempting to reach the tomb of Rav Ashi, a fourth-century Babylonian scholar.

Hamas offered to free all captives at once, but ending war ‘not a popular idea’ in Israel
Hamdah Salhut
Reporting from Amman, Jordan

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank.

Hamas’s latest proposal says that they will release all of the remaining Israeli captives, including male soldiers who were abducted on October 7, in exchange for an end to the war.

What’s different about this proposal is that we wouldn’t see releases over several weeks like we are now seeing in phase one. It would be a one-time release of all of the captives in exchange for the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops and an end to the war.

There’s been no official Israeli response to this, but within the Israeli political realm, especially among the right wing, it’s not a popular idea to end the war and leave Hamas in power, militarily and politically in Gaza. Netanyahu says that Israel is going to achieve the absolute destruction of Hamas in both of those aspects.

After weeks of delay, the Israeli PM finally agreed to dispatch a negotiating team for phase two of the talks, but it’s still unclear what Israel is looking for out of phase two.

Netanyahu says he wants to extend phase one, according to reports within Israeli media, to release more captives, but Hamas is adamant about being committed to the deal and wanting to see it through.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/19/live-israeli-tanks-fire-on-palestinians-in-gaza-as-captive-exchange-agreed

Muslim rights group sues US government over ‘genocide in Gaza’

Lawsuits against the US government for its support of Israel’s war on Gaza are being carried over to the Trump administration, a human rights group says.

Despite several US State Department officials documenting Israel’s “acts of genocide” in Gaza, the administration of former US President Joe Biden disregarded these reports, leading to legal action against the former administration by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Nihad Awad, CAIR’s executive director, said President Biden and his administration were fully aware of Israel’s disregard for international law during the attack.

Awad said lawsuits filed on behalf of Palestinian-American families who lost loved ones in the war – carried out with US weapons – are now proceeding under the new administration.

President Biden and former Secretary of State Antony Blinken covered up and dismissed US reports outlining Israel’s criminal conduct, Awad alleged.

Yemeni minister demands arrest of Houthis attending Nasrallah’s funeral

Yemeni Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani called for the arrest of Houthi leaders he said will attend Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s funeral in Beirut.

Al-Eryani demanded that Lebanon’s government arrest the Houthis and hand them over to the rival internationally recognised government in a post on X.

Qatar emir holds talks with Iran’s supreme leader in Tehran

Qatar’s emir has held talks with Iran’s supreme leader and the country’s president during a state visit amid high tensions in the region.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s spiritual leader and its highest authority, in Tehran. Qatar’s ruler also met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Shackled in chains, Gaza icon Dr Abu Safia appears in video

Dr Hussam Abu Safia, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, appeared with both hands and feet shackled for the first time since his arrest by Israeli forces.

Israeli media broadcast a video showing Abu Safia visibly exhausted and weakened as he was escorted by prison guards. Abu Safia is regarded as one of the most prominent doctors who continued working under Israeli bombardment to save wounded Palestinians in northern Gaza.

In late December, Israeli forces stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, arrested Abu Safia at gunpoint, and destroyed the hospital, rendering it non-functional.

His arrest sparked widespread condemnation, especially after an image circulated of him walking alone amid the ruins, dressed in his medical coat, surrounded by Israeli military vehicles – a scene that became an icon of Palestinian resilience.

According to his family, Abu Safia was subjected to torture and starvation inside Israeli prisons, a claim confirmed by a lawyer who recently visited him.

Israeli army to perform military excercise in northern Gaza

The Israeli army announced it will undertake a military manoeuvre in the north of the war-devastated Gaza Strip.

“As part of the exercise, there will be a lot of movement of vehicles and security forces in the area,” it said in a statement.

The exercise will take place on the same day four bodies of Israeli captives will be released for the first time since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was signed in January.

Doctors Against Genocide urge US Senate to help end Gaza war

Doctors Against Genocide gathered in Washington, DC to urge the US Senate to take action and end Israel’s war on Gaza.

The global coalition of healthcare workers mobilised more than 100 doctors, nurses, and medical workers on Capitol Hill.

…

Doctors Against Genocide also demanded the release of Dr Hussam Abu Safia, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, who was detained by Israeli forces along, with others, during a December 27 raid on the facility.

Lebanese president calls for end to Israeli occupation of border posts

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun reiterated the need for Israel to end its occupation of five border posts in southern Lebanon during a phone call with US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz.

According to a statement from the Lebanese presidency, Aoun told Waltz it is “essential to end the Israeli occupation of the remaining posts” in southern Lebanon, “implement Security Council Resolution 1701”, and “complete the ceasefire agreement to ensure stability in the south”.

Aoun also reiterated to Waltz the urgency of securing the release of Lebanese detained by Israel.

Killed captive spent his life working for Palestinian rights

The body of Oded Lifshitz will be handed over by Palestinian Islamic Jihad tomorrow. Lifshitz, who spent his life fighting for Arab rights, was one of the oldest captives taken on October 7, 2023, at age 83.

His daughter, a London-based artist, said in January she was holding onto hope he survived but was also prepared for the worst.

“These are difficult hours for us after being informed that our beloved Oded is among the deceased hostages who will be returned,” his family said in a statement.

“For 502 days, we hoped and prayed for a different outcome. However, until we receive absolute certainty, our journey is not over, and even afterwards we will continue to fight until the last hostage is returned.”

As a journalist, Lifshitz campaigned for the recognition of Palestinian rights and peace between Arabs and Jews. In his later years, he drove Palestinians to medical appointments in Israel as part of a group called On the Way to Recovery.

Israeli army to perform military ceremony for Gaza captives’ bodies

The Israeli army will perform a small ceremony inside Gaza after the bodies are transferred to coffins, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority reports.

A rabbi will read a eulogy and the coffins will then be taken to the Forensic Institute for identification in Tel Aviv.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/19/live-israeli-tanks-fire-on-palestinians-in-gaza-as-captive-exchange-agreed

How tf is it even possible for them to have propaganda this on point

Random empty bus bombings in Tel Aviv (???), Egypt declares state of emergency in Sinai.

Israeli man attacks Jewish woman, mistaking her for a Christian

A woman in occupied East Jerusalem was seriously wounded on Wednesday after an assailant allegedly attacked her with an axe inside her home.

Israeli journalist Yossi Eli reported on Thursday that police suspect the attack was motivated by anti-Christian hatred.

The victim, a Jewish-Israeli woman, was taken to hospital for treatment, while the suspect, also Jewish Israeli, allegedly mistook her for a Christian.

The attack comes amid growing anti-Christian sentiment in the city, with Christian leaders in Jerusalem calling on the Israeli government to intervene and stop local authorities from seizing properties belonging to the Armenian Patriarchate.

They say that this jeopardises the centuries-old presence of Christian institutions in the Holy Land, accusing Israel of eroding the cultural and religious heritage of non-Jewish communities.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/jewish-assailant-attacks-jewish-woman-axe-believing-her-be-christian

>>487717
that's a society that's disassembling itself

>>487716
Shin Bet arrests Jewish-Israeli who drove terrorist to Bat Yam ahead of bus bombings - report

The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) arrested a Jewish Israeli who reportedly drove the terrorist that planted bombs on buses in the Bat Yam area of central Israel on Thursday evening, Israeli media reported on Friday.

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-843160
https://archive.is/v4gb4

Thousands of Nasrallah supporters fly into Beirut for slain Hezbollah leader’s funeral

Thousands of supporters of Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader of Lebanese group Hezbollah, have flown into Beirut for his funeral on Sunday.

Nasrallah was killed in September of last year in a massive Israeli military attack on southern Beirut.

Nasrallah was one of the group’s founders and Hezbollah’s leader of more than 30 years.

He was one of several top Hezbollah officials killed during the group’s war with Israel,.

Crowds are expected to gather on Sunday at Beirut’s main sports stadium for a funeral ceremony before Nasrallah’s burial.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/21/live-israel-ramps-up-west-bank-assault-after-bus-blasts-near-tel-aviv

>>487726
So the hole bus story was a distraction ?
What were they talking before, wasn't it about the IDF killing Israeli hostages or something like that ?

Dimitri Lascaris on the upcoming funeral of Nasrallah in Beirut

>>487733
They intended to perform a decapitation strike against Hezbollah, however in the end they turned a political leader into a immortal martyr. Especially because Nasrallah said that he expected to get assassinated by the Israeli. That generates huge political capital for Hezbollah, at the expense of the Lebanon's "side-government".

Israel looking for any bullshit excuse to get out of the prisoner exchanges. One of the released Israeli captives kissed Hamas today also.

https://twitter.com/QudsNen/status/1893623914179231746
Nasrallah's funeral today. Huge crowds. Also Israeli war planes flying over to threaten them:
https://twitter.com/IrnaEnglish/status/1893665491635290434

Israeli attacks also reported on Baalbek today, in another "creative" Israeli contribution to the Lebanese "ceasefire."

>>487746
>Israeli war planes flying over
>Nasrallah's funeral
>to threaten

Yeah but it still seems more like a tribute, even if it's a spiteful one

>>487741
aaaand the vid is gone
dammit hadn't gotten around to watching it yet

>>487754
Wild, wonder what happened.

BREAKING: ICC Asked to Investigate Biden and Blinken Over War Crimes Allegations
It's the first time a US-based organization has asked the court to probe a former president for complicity in alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

For the first time ever, a US-based organization has formally asked the International Criminal Court to investigate a former US president for possible complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The 172-page request submitted by the Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) alleges several figures – including former President Biden, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin – aided and abetted Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

“This case might face political pushback, but that doesn’t change the message it sends: impunity isn’t a given. If the rule of law is supposed to mean anything, it has to apply across the board – not just to our enemies, but to our friends, and yes, to ourselves,” war crimes prosecutor and DAWN board member Reed Brody told Zeteo.

“We’re at a turning point. The question is whether the ICC and international law will be … more casualties buried under the rubble of Gaza.”

read more: https://zeteo.com/p/breaking-icc-asked-to-investigate

Today in Copenhagen 800 people from all over Europe shut down the main Maersk HQ for the day as part of the CRAC Camp under the Mask Off Maersk slogan “Cut Ties from Genocide”.

Police were outnumbered but quite brutal to those participating in the action. The crowd was dispersed after over 5 hours of holding down the site by tear gas and batons. A few sustained injuries, a few were taken to the hospital.

The action was a powerful example of what collective organizing looks for a people’s arms embargo.

https://twitter.com/palyouthmvmt/status/1894117511618335157

https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/1894487797031158054
Israeli captive Noa Argamani described to the UN how an Israeli airstrike killed fellow captive Yossi Sharabi. The strike hit the building where they were held, causing it to collapse. Sharabi—who had survived the October 7th attacks—became trapped under the rubble and was killed by Israeli forces.

“I couldn’t move… I screamed so that someone would hear me. I heard Yossi screaming too, but after a few seconds I stopped hearing from Yossi.”

US planning summit of real estate developers on Gaza

Here’s more from Steve Witkoff’s speech in Washington, DC.

The envoy told the event organised by the American Jewish Committee that the US will soon hold a summit with real estate developers to discuss Gaza’s future, according to Bloomberg News.

“We’re going to conduct a summit pretty soon with probably the biggest developers in the Middle East region, many of the Arab developers – lots of master planners,” Witkoff said. “I think when people see some of the ideas that come from this, they’re going to be amazed.”

The comments come after Trump proposed the US taking over Gaza and turning it into a beach resort after forcibly displacing the Palestinians there. The plan has triggered widespread condemnation, with critics saying it would amount to ethnic cleansing.

https://aje.io/w07794?update=3538771

Lebanon’s gov’t wins confidence vote, says only armed forces should defend country

Lebanon’s new government has won a confidence vote in parliament with the support of Hezbollah’s bloc, even though the government statement adopted took a swipe at the group’s weapons.

Ninety-five out of 128 lawmakers supported the government of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, a prominent jurist who previously headed the International Court of Justice. He was appointed last month to form a new government after a devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon and caused widespread destruction.

The government statement adopted said that only Lebanon’s armed forces should defend the country in case of war. Unlike previous statements, it did not include the phrase “armed resistance,” which had been seen as legitimising Hezbollah’s possession of weapons outside of state control.

Hezbollah has kept its weapons over the past decades saying they are necessary to defend the country against Israel. Calls for the group’s disarmament, however, intensified during the latest war, which ended with a US-brokered ceasefire on November 27, 2024.

Salam said the government asserts that Lebanon has the right to defend itself in case of any “aggression” and only the state has the right to have weapons. He also said the government takes measures to liberate land occupied by Israel “through its forces only”.

Israel launches mock raids, flies surveillance drones over Lebanon

Multiple invasions of Lebanese airspace have been reported by the country’s National News Agency (NNA) since this morning.

Over Tyre in the south, Israeli warplanes flew at low altitudes over the skies of villages and towns, conducting mock raids to induce fear and confusion. Intense military flights were also reported over other areas near the border with Israel, including Nabatieh, western Bekaa and the slopes of Mount Hermon.

An Israeli drone flew over Beirut and its southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence, along with several nearby areas.

Israel says it killed Hezbollah member tied to weapons transfers from Iran to Lebanon

As we reported earlier, Israeli fighter jets killed a Hezbollah fighter in a drone attack in eastern Lebanon.

In another statement, the Israeli military has said the man was Mehran Ali Nasser al-Din, a key member of the 4400 Unit responsible for smuggling weapons from Iran and its allies to Lebanon.

New York governor orders public university to remove Palestine job listing: Report

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has ordered the public City University of New York, or CUNY, to remove a job listing for a “Palestine studies” lecturer after pressure from pro-Israel groups.

“Governor Hochul has directed CUNY to immediately remove this job posting and conduct a thorough review of the position to ensure that anti-Semitic theories are not promoted in the classroom,” a spokesperson for the governor, a Democrat, told The New York Post.

“The Governor has continued to strongly condemn all forms of anti-Semitism and has made clear that hateful rhetoric of any kind has no place at CUNY or anywhere in New York State.”

The job listing called for a “historically grounded scholar who takes a critical lens to issues pertaining to Palestine including but not limited to: settler colonialism, genocide, human rights, apartheid, migration, climate and infrastructure devastation, health, race, gender, and sexuality”.

Handover of bodies of Israeli captives expected shortly
Nour Odeh
Reporting from Amman, Jordan

Al Jazeera is reporting from Amman because it is banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank by the Israeli government and Palestinian Authority.

People are expecting the handover to happen between 11pm and midnight local time (21:00 GMT and 22:00 GMT).

Now, we’re hearing more from Israeli media sources, quoting informed sources in the Israeli government. They say the bodies will be handed over to the Egyptian side who will in turn hand them over to Israel.

The Ministry of Health in Israel has said that it will expedite and facilitate the process of confirming the identities of the four captives at the Kerem Shalom (Karem Abu Salem) crossing with Gaza so that the process of releasing Palestinian detainees in return can proceed as quickly as possible.

For now, the families of hundreds of Palestinian detainees and prisoners will be waiting in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, but most of them, hundreds of them, in Gaza, where more than 445 Palestinian detainees taken from Gaza during the war are expected to arrive.

There will be 115 Palestinians serving life and long sentences, about 48 of them will be released to the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Nearly 100 will be exiled out of the occupied Palestinian territory, they’ll be taken to Egypt at least temporarily until other countries express willingness to host them.

But then you have 445 Palestinians taken from Gaza during the war: civilians, doctors, engineers, people of all walks of life, they will be brought back to Gaza.

And there are 24 women and children as well, they will also be released to Gaza. They were taken by Israeli soldiers during the war. These people are not facing charges. They were taken, and according to the UN were forcibly disappeared.

Another batch of women and children are also expected to be released in exchange for the remains of those four captives but we do not have the number.

Thousands continue to be missing from Gaza and there is no information as to how many living and dead Palestinians from Gaza Israel continues to hold

Palestine Trade Center launches $3.4m EU trade initiative

The Palestine Trade Center, or PalTrade, has launched a new initiative to enhance Palestinian exports and stimulate economic growth, the news agency Wafa reports.

The EU4Trade Project was officially launched in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. The project is a three-year initiative funded by a 3.3-million-euro ($3.4m) grant from the European Union, seeking to strengthen the competitiveness of small and medium Palestinian businesses in international markets.

The EU’s representative to the West Bank and Gaza, Alexandre Stutzmann, attended the launch and said that the project signals the bloc’s longstanding commitment to realising the two-state solution.

Palestinian prisoner from Gaza dies in Israeli custody

A Palestinian man from the Gaza Strip who was arrested at the start of Israel’s war on the enclave along with his brother and was injured during detention has died in Israeli custody, according to the Palestinian Prisoners and Detainees’ Affairs Commission.

The monitoring group said in a statement that Israeli authorities released no information about the 34-year-old during his detention, and did not allow him any visits.

He is believed to have been held at Ayalon Prison in Ramla before being transferred to the Shamir Medical Centre, also known as Assaf Harofeh Centre, where he was announced dead today.

The statement said he did not suffer from any health problems before his arrest, adding that he leaves behind a wife and a child.

His death brings the confirmed number of Palestinian prisoners who died in Israeli custody to 60 people since the start of the war on Gaza. The figure includes at least 39 people from Gaza.

'Israel planning ‘unprecedented’ repressive measures before Ramadan: Jerusalem governorate

Israeli authorities are preparing to “impose unprecedented repressive policies”, in advance of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which is expected to start on Saturday, to further isolate occupied East Jerusalem and its Palestinian surroundings, according to the Jerusalem governorate.

The Palestinian Authority’s governing body said in a statement that occupation authorities are planning “a series of racist and provocative measures”, including limiting the number of Muslim worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

It said recently released Palestinian prisoners would be banned from entering Al-Aqsa, and entry for worshippers from the occupied West Bank would be restricted based on age, with only men aged 55 and above and women more than 50 years of age allowed in.

Israeli forces are also intensifying their presence by deploying 3,000 armed personnel at checkpoints surrounding East Jerusalem on a daily basis and tightening their grip on 82 military checkpoints, including by using earthen blockades, iron gates, security cameras and intrusive searches.

Gaza Health Ministry confirms death of another child from hypothermia

We have been reporting based on a verified video shared by an activist that a one-and-a-half-month-old baby girl, Sila Abdel Qader, has died in Gaza City due to a harsh cold snap and Israel’s blocking of shelters from entering the enclave.

Dr Munir al-Bursh, the director general of the Palestinian Health Ministry, has confirmed the death of the baby, according to the Palestinian Information Center (PIC), saying the number of children who have recently died due to the cold weather in the enclave has risen to seven.

The official called for “urgent and immediate intervention by international and UN institutions to save the children of Gaza from the consequences of the genocidal war waged by the occupation”.

On Tuesday, Dr Saeed Salah, medical director of the Friends of the Patient Charitable Hospital in Gaza City, said three newborns – aged between one and two days – died shortly after being admitted. Two more children also succumbed on Tuesday morning, with a sixth death reported in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.

Israel army says it has struck launch sites in Gaza after projectile fired

The Israeli military said it conducted air strikes against several launch sites inside Gaza after a projectile was fired from the Palestinian territory but fell short.

“Earlier [on Wednesday], a projectile launch that fell inside the Gaza Strip was identified. A short while ago, the [military] struck several launch posts in the area where the projectile was fired from,” it said in a statement.

No public ceremony for handover of four Israeli captives’ bodies: Hamas official

A senior Hamas official has told the AFP news agency that the Palestinian movement will not hold a public ceremony for the handover of the bodies of four Israeli captives on Thursday.

“The handover will take place without public presence to prevent the occupation from finding any pretext for delay or obstruction,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to discuss the matter.

Some 10,000 Palestinians remain in Israeli detention
Nour Odeh
Reporting from Amman, Jordan

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank.

We do not know when the Palestinian prisoners and detainees will be released, but Israeli reports are talking about a phased-out release, so not all of them will be released at once, and we do not know who will be released when, or first.

We know that 48 or 49 will be released to the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and we know that also because the Israeli army has raided the homes of the families of those prisoners and made them commit to not celebrating the freedom of their loved ones, or not receiving well wishers or even second-degree family members upon the arrival of those released prisoners.

So, in an ironic manner, when those raids happen, they do indicate usually to the families that this is imminent – that in the coming hours, their loved ones would be free.

And it’s welcome news to the families of Palestinian detainees who are released but also of those who remain behind bars, among 10,000 of them that we know about, that Israel has confirmed the presence of.

Their families have been cut off from those Palestinian detainees and prisoners for more than 16 months and anybody who gets released will be bombarded with questions by family members of other prisoners to just know how they’re doing, if they’re doing OK, if their health is fine, and so on.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/26/live-hamas-says-deal-reached-to-end-israeli-delay-israel-bombs-syria

>>487778
>Salam said the government asserts that Lebanon has the right to defend itself in case of any “aggression” and only the state has the right to have weapons. He also said the government takes measures to liberate land occupied by Israel “through its forces only”.
By that definition Hezbollah is the government of Lebanon, since they have in fact "taken measures to liberate land occupied by Israel", while the organisation Salam belongs to, has not done that.

Does he not see that he's defining his, lets call it aspirational government, out of legitimacy ?

>>487779
IDK.
It was obvious to me too, though. The Salam & Aoun government has consistently done nothing about continued Israeli attacks and violations. If they won't defend their citizens, it obviously cedes that responsibility to Hezbollah.

https://x.com/unityoffields/status/1894943050700321055
BARNARD UPDATE 🔻 URGENT : The NYPD’s Strategic Response Group (SRG)—a unit notorious for brutalizing activists—is now encircling the Barnard sit-in. Students protesting the expulsion of two peers are facing the imminent threat of police violence.

Deploying SRG, a counter-terror unit with a record of excessive force, is a blatant attempt to intimidate and suppress dissent. Instead of engaging in good-faith dialogue, Barnard has invited repression onto campus.

We demand the immediate withdrawal of SRG and all NYPD personnel. The world is watching.

https://x.com/60Minutes/status/1870994879314038938
“We create a pretend world. We are a global production company: We write the screenplay, we're the directors, we're the producers, we're the main actors. And the world is our stage,” says a retired Mossad agent who was among those who led the pager op.

I completely missed the 60 Minutes bit on this for obvious reasons - even in this clip there is an obvious propagandistic element, but the quote is still interesting.

>>487784
>counter-terror unit
maybe that's just double speak


>>487788
>Mossad agent who was among those who led the pager op.
>but the quote is still interesting.
Seems like boiler-plate self-aggrandizement to me, can you explain ?

I think they made everybody worry that their electronic gadgets might blow up, that makes them the text-book definition of terrorists. While spy-agencies always did stuff like assassinations, they usually only killed "players" like other spies and what not. Normal people did not have to worry.

I don't know how other spy agencies reacted to this, but now we have to worry that some might want to copy this "capability" . Many people now wonder whether there is a spy-agency to terror-group pipe-line. Maybe reality is far more brutal and this type of horror is the natural conclusion of mass-surveillance society.

I think it's crass and tasteless that they gave a terrorist, who participated in an attack that killed and maimed children and other innocent people in a horrendous way, a pulpit. But it's not unexpected, legacy media has grown tone-deaf. You know they could have done an interview with a civil-rights advocate, and talked about the consequences of mass surveillance and weaponizing the supply-chain for consumer goods.

Israeli military fires towards town in southern Lebanon: Report

Israeli forces are “firing heavily” towards the outskirts of the town of Aitaroun, near Israel’s border in southern Lebanon, the Palestinian Information Center reports.

No casualties have been reported so far. The Israeli military is yet to comment on the attack.

We will bring you more information when we have it.

South Africa, Malaysia, Colombia say they will prevent ships supplying Israel weapons using ports

As we previously reported, the leaders of South Africa, Malaysia and Colombia penned a joint article this week calling for an end to impunity for Israel’s violations of international law.

“The choice is stark: Either we act together to enforce international law or we risk its collapse,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Colombian President Gustavo Petro wrote in an essay published by Foreign Policy magazine.

In that same essay, the leaders jointly announced they would also prevent ships supplying military supplies to Israel from using their ports.

“We will prevent vessels carrying military supplies to Israel from using our ports; and we will prevent all arms transfers that risk enabling further violations of humanitarian law,” they wrote.

Palestinian security forces arrest Tulkarem Battalion commander

Palestinian Authority security forces have arrested Kamal al-Khatib, a commander with Palestinian armed group the Tulkarem Battalion, during a raid in the Nur Shams camp in the occupied West Bank, according to Hamas-run news outlet Al-Aqsa TV.

We will bring you more information when we have it.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/27/live-gaza-ceasefire-talks-resume-in-cairo-as-end-of-first-phase-looms

https://x.com/Columbia_psc/status/1895244648823792092
Columbia University trustees are apparently paying $5000 to certain students in order to astroturf an opposition to the student calls for divestment.

via Unity of Fields:
🔻 It is time for revolutionary escalation of the global student intifada for Palestine: A call from the Palestinian student movement in the Gaza Strip (2/3)

Today, we call on you, from the midst of massacres and siege, to a new revolutionary phase of comprehensive escalation, and to raise the pace and ceiling of your struggle and your honorable stances, quantitatively and qualitatively, against the institutions, corporations, and governments that participate in the slaughter of our children, our students, and our people in Rafah, Jabalia, Khan Younis, and the entire Gaza Strip, and against the settler gangs, armies of Zionist killers, and so on that commit their crimes in camps, cities and villages in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.

We call on you to besiege the White House in Washington, and to surround the palaces, headquarters and ministries of Western colonial governments and Zionist embassies, and the buildings and offices of the corporations that finance the Zionist entity and arm its criminal army with all kinds of bombs and means of death and destruction. These criminal colonial symbols represent the forces that support “Israel” to kill us – with your tax money and the money spent at complicit corporations, to destroy our homes, our society, and our future. Therefore, we call on you to blockade them until the American Zionist aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip stops.

At the same time, we renew our call to the teaching, academic, and union bodies in universities, as well as cultural, academic, and scientific figures, to advocate for and support student movements until they achieve their goals.

US signs off on $3bn munitions and equipment sale to Israel

The United States has announced the approval of the sale of more than $3bn in munitions, bulldozers, and related equipment to Israel, which used US-made weapons to devastating effect during the war on Gaza.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed off on the sale of $2.04bn in bomb bodies and warheads, another $675.7m in other bomb bodies and guidance kits, and $295m in bulldozers and related equipment, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency said.

Jury finds US landlord guilty of killing 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy

A jury has convicted an Illinois landlord over the 2023 murder of a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy and the wounding of his mother in a hate crime.

Joseph Czuba, 73, was charged in the fatal stabbing of Wadea al-Fayoume and the injuring of his mother Hanan Shaheen on October 14, 2023, near Chicago. Prosecutors argued the family – who were renting rooms in Czuba’s house – were targeted because of their faith and as a response to the October 7 attacks in Israel.

Jurors deliberated less than 90 minutes over the crime, which renewed fears of anti-Muslim discrimination in Palestinian and Arab-American communities.

The boy was stabbed 26 times with a large military-style knife.

Lebanon seizes $2.5m bound for Hezbollah: Report

Lebanese authorities at Beirut’s airport seized $2.5m in cash destined for Hezbollah from a man travelling from Turkiye, Reuters reports.

It was the first time such a seizure had been made, according to one of three unnamed sources cited. Hezbollah did not immediately comment.

Lebanon village buries dozens of dead after Israeli withdrawal

People in Lebanon conducted a delayed burial in a border village for more than 90 civilians and fighters from Hezbollah who died during the war with Israel that ended with a November ceasefire.

In the heavily damaged town square of Aitaroun, the coffins arrived on four trucks, some covered in the yellow flag of Hezbollah and others in the national flag.

Sobbing women, dressed in black, gathered around the vehicles holding photos of the Hezbollah fighters or the movement’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed by an Israeli air strike during the war.

One of the mourners, Atef Khouzeirat, said an Israeli strike on a building killed his son Hussein, a volunteer with the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee.

“My son stayed for 56 days inside the building after his death, without rescuers being able to recover his body,” Khouzeirat said. “Where is the humanity? Where are the human rights?”

Khouzeirat added his son studied radiography at university. “He was not a terrorist,” but a volunteer “in the service of his country”.

Israel set to pass ‘metropolitan Jerusalem’ bill annexing settlements: Report

Israel’s Ministerial Committee for Legislation is set to approve a bill paving the way for the annexation of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank into what Israeli officials are calling a “metropolitan Jerusalem” under Israeli control.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports the settlements to be annexed include Maale Adumim, Givat Ze’ev, Efrat, and Maale Mikhmas.

The Israeli rights group Ir Amim condemned the bill, which it said “seeks to promote an illegal annexation under international law” and “further isolate East Jerusalem and its residents from the Palestinian space”.

Switzerland to host conference on occupation of Palestine

Switzerland has invited 196 states that are parties to the Geneva Conventions to participate in a conference next week on the situation of civilians living in the Israeli-occupied territory.

“Following this invitation from the UNGA [UN General Assembly], I confirm that a conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention will be held in Geneva on March 7,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nicolas Bideau said.

…

The UN General Assembly asked Switzerland to organise the meeting last September when the Gaza war was still raging. Similar meetings have taken place in 1999, 2001 and 2014.

‘Finally’ an effort to hold the US accountable: Al-Haq director

Palestinian human rights activist Shawan Jabarin has welcomed a plea by the US-based rights group DAWN for the International Criminal Court to investigate Joe Biden and senior US officials for aiding Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

In a video posted by DAWN, Jabarin, director of the Palestinian rights group Al-Haq, said the effort was long overdue.

“For decades we have called on the international community to hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law, but time and again, the US has used its power and influence to block that accountability, to shield Israel from consequences and to ensure that it can continue its crimes with impunity,” Jabarin said.

“Now, finally, we see an effort to hold not just Israeli officials accountable but also those who have made these crimes possible: US officials who have armed, financed, and politically defended Israeli atrocities.”

Palestine asks ICJ for advisory opinion on Israel’s obligations

The State of Palestine has submitted a written plea to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) asking it for an advisory opinion regarding Israel’s obligations not to obstruct humanitarian and development assistance in the territories it occupies.

In the submission, Palestinian officials affirmed the responsibility of Israel, as an occupying power, to not obstruct the work of the UN, international organisations, and third states so they can provide essential services, humanitarian aid, and development assistance to the Palestinian people.

Many states, as well as international groups, have submitted written pleas to the ICJ ahead of oral proceedings set to start in April. Last July, the ICJ issued a historic advisory opinion determining Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful and should come to an end “as rapidly as possible”.

Lebanese PM calls for complete Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, during a tour of southern Lebanon, reiterated the urgent need for the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.

“Any delay in this constitutes a violation of Lebanese sovereignty, Resolution 1701, and the arrangements for the cessation of hostilities as agreed to by the previous government,” he said in a post on X.

A ceasefire deal agreed in November 2024 halted more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, including two months of all-out war in which Israel’s relentless bombing killed more than 4,000 people, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

Under the deal, Lebanon’s military was to deploy alongside UN peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period that was later extended to February 18.

Israel announced just before the deadline it would temporarily keep troops in “five strategic points” near the border.

Palestinians prepare for Ramadan amid widespread destruction

Palestinians who returned to destroyed homes in Gaza City started to prepare for Ramadan, shopping for essential household goods and foods.

Some say the Muslim holy month feels better than one spent last year, but still far from normal.

“The situation is very difficult for people and life is very hard. Most people, their homes have been destroyed,” said Gaza City resident Nasser Shoueikh. “Some people can’t afford to shop for Ramadan, but our faith in God is great as he never forgets to bless people.”

Infants freezing to death shouldn’t happen in ‘modern days’: UNICEF

UNICEF says recent reports that Palestinian infants in Gaza have frozen to death “shouldn’t be happening in our modern days”.

The agency, which is distributing clothing to children in Gaza along with other partners, added humanitarian needs in the war-ravaged territory are “immense”.

“What children need now is a sustained ceasefire and continued unimpeded access to aid,” it added.

Israel army says jets attack ‘suspects’ in southern Gaza: Report

Earlier, Tahani Mustafa, an expert on Israel-Palestine with International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera more than 400 Israeli violations have occurred during the Gaza ceasefire. Another air strike was launched on Friday.

“Two suspects who were identified in proximity to troops and posed a threat to them were struck by an aircraft in southern Gaza in order to remove the threat,” the army told AFP, adding “hits were identified”.

Nasser Hospital, in southern Khan Younis, said in a statement it received the body of a Palestinian killed in an air strike.

“Ambulance crews in Rafah recovered a martyr after he was targeted in an air strike by [Israel] west of Rafah city,” the hospital said.

Israeli army burns down homes in Nur Shams camp: Reports

Activists have shared scenes that showed smoke rising from several buildings in the camp, east of the Tulkarem governorate in the northern occupied West Bank.

Palestinian media also reported that Israeli forces have been blowing up and burning down homes in the camp.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have left their homes in the northern West Bank since Israel began its operation there last month.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/27/live-gaza-ceasefire-talks-resume-in-cairo-as-end-of-first-phase-looms

Israel threatens a second Nakba, yet denies the first ever happened
Maram Humaid and Mat Nashed

Gaza, Palestine – Last month, Sufian Abu Ghassan joined hundreds of thousands of Palestinians defiantly trekking back to their battered neighbourhoods after a ceasefire paused Israel’s 15-month war on Gaza.

The 70-year-old was relieved that Israel’s mass killings of Palestinians had stopped.

read more: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/2/28/israel-threatens-a-second-nakba-yet-denies-the-first-ever-happened

>>487832
Is calling it "Hannibal Directive" a reference to cannibalism ?

And how did they ever manage to get something like this signed in to law ? Who thought it was a good idea to make the military shoot the population it is supposed to protect.

>>487840
According to an Al Jazeera article,
"The origins of the directive’s name are disputed with some sources saying it is named after a Carthaginian general who chose to poison himself instead of falling captive to the Romans in 181 BC.

Israeli military officials, however, have said a computer randomly generated the name."

Personally, I had assumed and heard that it was the former, but I don't remember hearing the supposed origin that it was generated by a computer.

Idk exactly what the legal process behind it was. I don't think it's official law, and the IDF claimed they would stop doing it years before this happened because it had previously become controversial.
In previous instances it has also, allegedly, only been intended to target active soldier prisoners of war. Targeting literally anyone taken hostage in order to prevent them from surviving as hostages is, allegedly, a change from the previous version of the Hannibal Directive.

>>487844
So either a reference to ancient history or a nick-name generator.
Thanks for the info.

You can't blame me for thinking it was derived from Hannibal Lector tho, because the cannibalistic symbolism is befitting of such a horrendous "directive"

>Idk exactly what the legal process behind it was. I don't think it's official law
So the IDF is making up their own rules ? Figures

Hamas rejects Israel’s ‘formulation’ to extend first Gaza ceasefire phase

The Palestinian group’s statement comes on the day the first stage of the deal expires.

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem told Al-Araby TV there are no current talks for the second ceasefire phase in Gaza.

Officials from Israel joined mediators from Qatar and the United States in Cairo on Thursday for “intensive discussions”. However, those negotiations apparently bore no fruit.

Talks over the second phase of the ceasefire are meant to negotiate a comprehensive end to the fighting in Gaza, including the return of all remaining living captives and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the territory.

Rights group denounces ‘abuse’ of Gaza medics in Israeli custody

The Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights condemned “the widespread policy of abuse” inflicted on enclave’s detained healthcare workers,.

In a report, the group said the Israeli military detained more than 250 medical personnel and support staff in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war on Gaza.

More than 180 remain in detention without a clear indication of when or if they will be released, according to the report.

“Detainees endure physical, psychological and sexual abuse as well as starvation and medical neglect amounting to torture,” it said, denouncing a “deeply ingrained policy”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/1/gaza-live-first-phase-of-israel-hamas-truce-ends-with-no-deal-in-sight

Israel evading its commitment to end the war on Gaza: Hamas

As we reported earlier, Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said there are no current talks on the second phase of the ceasefire in Gaza.

Here are more details from his statement:

Israel bears responsibility for not starting negotiations on the second phase of the ceasefire.
Israel wants to extend the first phase to secure the release of more captives and possibly resume its aggression on Gaza. This is against the deal.
Israel is evading its commitment to ending the war and withdrawing completely from Gaza.
Extending the first phase is unacceptable to Hamas.
The mediators and guarantor countries should oblige Israel to abide by the agreement in its outlined stages.

Hamas calls on Palestinians to defend Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan

The Palestinian group urged people in the occupied territory to travel to the holy site and stay there during the month of Ramadan.

A statement released to mark the holy month called on Palestinians to “mobilise all efforts this month by travelling to Al-Aqsa Mosque, remaining steadfast, and engaging in seclusion there”.

Each year during Ramadan, Israel enforces measures that limit Palestinians’ ability to reach Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.

“We call on our people, wherever they are around the world, to take active action during the month of Ramadan in the broadest initiatives and solidarity activities with their people in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem,” Hamas said.

“Let the blessed days and nights of Ramadan be dedicated to worship, steadfastness, and resistance against the enemy and settler mobs, as well as to the defence of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa until they are liberated from occupation.”

Israel bans ex-prisoner Barghouti’s wife from seeing him

The wife of the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner is not sure when she’ll see him.

Nael Barghouti was among 97 Palestinians exiled after their release on Thursday as part of the Gaza ceasefire.

He sent his wife a replacement wedding ring after she was banned from leaving the occupied West Bank to meet him.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/1/gaza-live-first-phase-of-israel-hamas-truce-ends-with-no-deal-in-sight

International Day of Action on March 5.

Israel again warns Hamas of a return to war

Here’s more from the statement issued by Netanyahu’s office.

“According to the agreement, Israel can return to fighting after the 42nd day if it feels that the negotiations are ineffective,” it said. “This clause was supported by a side letter from the previous US administration and has also received the support of the Trump administration.”

It also claimed it has fully complied with the ceasefire deal and accused Hamas of repeatedly violating the truce.

However, Israel has continued to launch attacks on Gaza despite the truce, killing some 100 Palestinians. It was also Israel that refused to begin talks on the second phase of the deal, which were supposed to begin 16 days into phase one.

UN officials meanwhile say Israel has restricted the entry of humanitarian aid, including mobile homes and heavy equipment, in violation of the truce deal.

US is backing Israeli efforts to extend phase one
Mike Hanna
reporting from Washington, DC

Trump is on the record as stating repeatedly that the ceasefire is in Israel’s hands.

He has sent the signal that there will be no pressure from the US in terms of moving from phase one to phase two, saying repeatedly that that is up to Israel.

So in terms of any pressure from the US for Israel to move forward on this publicly, at least, there is none.

The fact that Witkoff would appear, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, to have a plan on the table, whether this constitutes pressure, that’s an open question.

What Witkoff’s plan does appear to provide for is an extension of phase one and not allowing the movement to proceed into phase two, at which stage there would be discussions about phase three, which Israel is deeply reluctant to get into because that involves the governance of Gaza and the rebuilding of it.

So, it does appear to be as though from the US, at least, there is an agreement with Israel to get an extension of the first phase rather than move forward.

All the efforts from the US and from Steve Witkoff are to get an extension, not to get movement to phase two.

What does US proposal call for?

Netanyahu’s office said the proposal was put forward by US President Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.

According to Netanyahu:

The proposal calls for the release of half of the captives, both alive and dead, on the first day of the deal.
And at the end, if an agreement is reached on a permanent ceasefire, the remaining captives will be released.
Witkoff proposed the outline for extending the ceasefire after he was impressed that at this stage, there was no possibility of bridging the position of the parties to end the war, and that additional time was needed for talks on a permanent ceasefire.
If Hamas agrees to the outline, Israel will immediately enter into negotiations on all the details of Witkoff’s plan.

US plan calls for a truce extension until at least April 20
Hamdah Salhut
Reporting from Amman, Jordan

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office released a lengthy statement saying it has agreed to implement the US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff’s idea of a ceasefire extension.

What it will mean is that the ceasefire, the pause in the fighting, will go through for the entire month of Ramadan, which is the entire month of March, and also through the Jewish Passover, which begins in mid-April and ends on April 20.

This also stipulates that half of the captives inside of Gaza would be released on the first day.

It’s worth mentioning that 59 captives are still being held in Gaza, half of whom are alive and half of whom have been confirmed deceased by Israeli forces.

It’s still unclear exactly what’s next, because Israel says that they’re ready to continue the fighting at any time.

But the Americans say that more time is needed to negotiate phase two of this deal, so half of the captives would be released in the meantime and then the other half would be released if they can come to a conclusion on the end of the war.

Of course, it is [still early morning here], so there hasn’t been any comment from Hamas just yet.

Families of Israeli captives want Israel to uphold truce deal
Hamdah Salhut
Reporting from Amman, Jordan

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned in Israel and the occupied West Bank.

The two sides are currently at an impasse due to major sticking points.

Hamas has said that they do not want an extension of phase one, but rather want to move on to phase two, in which they are prepared to release all of the remaining Israeli captives.

Israel says they are also prepared to go back to fighting and that they have US guarantees to do so.

Nonetheless, there are still a lot of red lines for the Israelis who have been reluctant to agree to a phase two and even more reluctant to start discussions for a phase three, because it would mean an end to the war and then rebuilding Gaza and governance in the territory.

Still, a sigh of relief in Gaza as the pause in the fighting will continue.

Family members of the Israeli captives also say that the Israeli government should continue with this deal into phase two and three, because it’s the only way to ensure the release of the remaining captives.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/2/live-israel-us-propose-terms-to-extend-gaza-ceasefire-hamas-yet-to-reply

Hamas official calls for ceasefire to progress to second phase

A Hamas official has stated that the only way to “achieve stability” is to complete the second stage of the previously outlined ceasefire process, in which Israel is to permanently withdraw from Gaza and end hostilities.

This statement pushes back against the US’s proposal to extend the first phase of the ceasefire, which ended yesterday.

“The only way to achieve stability in the region and ensure the return of prisoners is to fully implement the agreement, starting with the second phase,” Mahmoud Mardawi told AFP.

Israel, as we’ve reported, has supported the US plan to prolong the current ceasefire through Passover and Ramadan, in exchange for Hamas releasing half of the remaining Israeli captives.

One killed as Israel launches drone attack on north Gaza

Israeli forces have launched a drone attack on Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza, killing at least one person and wounding another, according to Al Quds Today and the Shehab Agency.

We’ll bring you more as soon as we have it.

Depressing start to Ramadan as food aid stops coming in
Hind Khoudary
Reporting from Khan Younis, southern Gaza

Since the early hours on Salah al-Din Road we haven’t seen any aid trucks entering. Normally during the ceasefire, we would have seen eight or so trucks coming by this time, bringing in different types of food assistance.

Palestinians are completely reliant on this humanitarian relief. During the ceasefire, 600 trucks per day entered Gaza. That was barely enough for the huge demand of Palestinians after 470 days of war.

A whole population is totally reliant on aid because they are on the move and have zero income. In addition to food assistance, we’re talking about tents, tarps and winter clothes. Palestinians also expected that today mobile houses would start entering the Strip.

Many are now feeling depressed. They thought today would bring them a step closer to the second phase of the ceasefire deal, where more reconstruction and humanitarian relief would enter.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/2/live-israel-us-propose-terms-to-extend-gaza-ceasefire-hamas-yet-to-reply

These guys train American cops.

Israel considers calling up 400,000 reservists for ‘year of war’
Nour Odeh
Reporting from Amman, Jordan

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned in Israel and the occupied West Bank.

Israeli media are quoting unnamed “informed sources”, which usually means somebody close to the Prime Minister’s Office, that these decisions, including halting humanitarian aid, are done in coordination with the Trump administration.

Let’s remember, this administration has fast-tracked $12bn worth of military assistance to Israel since taking office. The announcement is being warmly welcomed by ministers in the Israeli government who are key to holding the coalition together.

In the meantime, the opposition is speaking out and accusing Netanyahu of basically exchanging the lives and safety of Israeli captives for his own political calculus.

We’re also monitoring reports of Israelis taking to the streets, going to the homes of Israeli ministers to protest this measure, because they believe it puts the lives of Israeli captives in peril. It’s unlikely – given the fact the Israeli government feels emboldened by American support – that we’re going to see a reversal.

We’re hearing the Israeli government is considering calling up 400,000 Israeli reservists to the army because, according to those reports, 2025 is going to be a year of war.

UNRWA reopens three health centres in Gaza

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says it is continuing to provide health services in the Gaza Strip “despite the challenges”.

The agency has offered 300,000 consultations, supported 19,000 high-risk pregnant and postnatal women, treated 11,000 dental patients and provided physiotherapy to 5,500 people in the Palestinian enclave, it said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/2/live-israel-us-propose-terms-to-extend-gaza-ceasefire-hamas-yet-to-reply

Israel reneges on ceasefire deal; warns Hamas of ‘consequences’

Israel has issued a threat to Hamas, saying there would be “consequences” if the Palestinian group did not agree to extend the now-ended phase one of the ceasefire agreement following a proposal put forward by the US presidential envoy, Steve Witkoff.

The first phase of the agreement ended on Saturday, but Israel is yet to move ahead with the second phase, which would have ultimately led to a permanent end to the war.

Hamas had earlier rejected Israel’s “formulation” of extending the first phase of the ceasefire during Ramadan and Passover and instead called for the second phase as originally planned.

read more: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/2/israel-reneges-on-ceasefire-deal-warns-hamas-of-consequences

Israeli military claims strike in northern Gaza

In a post on Telegram, Israel’s military says it has carried out an air strike in northern Gaza targeting people it suspected of “planting an explosive device” near its soldiers.

Earlier we reported an Israeli drone attack in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoon killed at least one person and injured another.

In total, Israeli attacks in Gaza today have killed at least four people and injured five, according to medical sources.

Israel’s military says it will “continue to operate in order to eliminate any threat posed to the citizens of the state of Israel” and its forces.

Green Brigade demonstrates for Israel’s FIFA suspension

AJ+ was given rare access to the Green Brigade as they launched the first protest at a game in Glasgow against Bayern Munich on February 12.

The fan movement comes in response to a proposal submitted by the Palestinian Football Association to FIFA in May calling for Israel’s suspension.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGTm62yxTG6/

Trump knows new Israeli war on Gaza ‘a no-win for him’

Trump is unlikely to allow Netanyahu to relaunch Israel’s war on Gaza as the ceasefire teeters on the brink of collapse, says Sami al-Arian, professor of public affairs at Istanbul Zaim University.

“I think the larger picture here is Trump is not interested in the resumption of war,” al-Arian told Al Jazeera.

“He has a very long agenda domestically and internationally, and if it is going to be dragged by Netanyahu and his fascist partners into another war of genocide with no strategic end, he knows this is going to be a no-win for him. And for one thing, Trump hates to lose.”

Hundreds of settlers storm Al-Aqsa Mosque compound: Report

Palestine’s Wafa news agency reports more than 500 Israeli settlers have forced their way into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on the second day of Ramadan under the protection of Israeli soldiers.

The settlers conducted tours around Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site, and performed Jewish rituals largely in the eastern area of the compound.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/2/live-israel-us-propose-terms-to-extend-gaza-ceasefire-hamas-yet-to-reply

Leader of Yemen's Ansarallah, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi:

"The resumption of war on Gaza will be met with the entire [Israeli] enemy entity coming under fire … If the war returns to Gaza, we will intervene with support through various military means."
https://x.com/TheCradleMedia/status/1896149181959446850

>>487874
>We’re hearing the Israeli government is considering calling up 400,000 Israeli reservists to the army
>2025 is going to be a year of war.
Israel is going to see a drop in population again because emigrating will pick up again.


>UNRWA reopens three health centres in Gaza
oh hey good news, that's rare

https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/1896337798325547410
Abu Obeida, spokesman for Qassam Brigades (Hamas’ armed wing):

“To the Arab leaders: We tell you from the heart of the battlefield which you are watching without a doubt through your screens. We are not asking you to move to defend the Arab and Muslim children in Gaza by moving your army and your tanks, God forbid. Not to defend the holiest of what you hold holy. We are not asking for that. As we take upon ourselves to sweeping this occupation, have your inability and weakness reached the point that you are unable to move relief trucks and humanitarian aid?”

Israel planning mass displacement, targeted killings next: Reports

We’ve been covering Israel’s plan to pressure Hamas into agreeing to its proposal to free captives.

Earlier, we brought you reports from the Kan broadcaster and the Israel Hayom newspaper that said Israel is planning to cut off water and electricity to Gaza as part of the pressure campaign.

Kan now has additional details. Citing unnamed sources, it said the next stage of the plan, dubbed “Hell”, is to again forcibly displace the population of north Gaza to the south and then to cut off electricity.

The final stage is a return to all-out war, using the heavy bombs and weapons supplies the Trump administration has sent to Israel, it reported.

Israel Hayom also reported that the plan includes targeted killings of Hamas officials.

There’s been no official word from Israel’s government.

And as we’ve been reporting, rights groups say Israel’s decision to cut off all aid into Gaza amounts to collective punishment and a war crime.

Two Palestinians killed by Israeli army in Rafah

Our colleagues on the ground are reporting that an Israeli army attack has killed two people in Rafah’s city centre.

The attack follows a spate of deadly strikes in southern Gaza yesterday, including one that killed a woman in Khan Younis.

Israeli strike wounds three Palestinians near Khan Younis

We are getting reports of more casualties in southern Gaza.

According to Wafa news agency, three people were wounded when an Israeli helicopter fired a missile towards Mawasi, near Khan Younis. Israeli helicopters continue to hover in the skies of western Rafah.

At the same time, Israeli forces have opened fire intensively in northern Gaza, to the east of Jabalia, Wafa reported.

Suspected shooting attack in Haifa causes casualties: Israeli police

Israeli police say they are on their way to Haifa’s central bus station, where a suspected shooting attack has caused casualties.

Israel’s Arutz Sheva media reports that five people have been injured in the attack, which it said included gunshots and stabbings.

One of those injured is in critical condition, it said, citing Israel’s national ambulance service.

One man killed in Haifa attack

A 70-year-old man, who was injured in the stabbing attack, has now died, reports Israel’s national ambulance service.

Medics are treating four more people who were wounded, including three who are in “serious condition”. They include a 15-year-old boy as well as a man and woman in their 30s.

We’ll keep you updated as more information emerges.

Using force in the past cost us captives’ lives: Israeli captive’s father

As we’ve been reporting, Israelis protested yesterday in front of the homes of several ministers, including Netanyahu’s, calling for the government to secure the return of remaining captives after it failed to extend the ceasefire with Hamas.

Among the demonstrators were some captives’ relatives, who are angered that more has not been done to bring home their loved ones after more than 500 days in captivity.

Alon Nimrodi, father of Israeli captive Tamir Nimrodi, said the government should take a harder line.

“We need to take a firm stance,” he told Israel’s Army Radio. “We are at the height of negotiations and are flexing muscles that could cost us hostages. We’ve done this in the past and lost dozens of hostages.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/3/live-israel-thanks-us-for-weapons-shipment-as-it-cuts-off-gaza-food-aid

>>487879
>Israel is going to see a drop in population again because emigrating will pick up again.
Inshallah

>oh hey good news, that's rare
Yep!

Haifa attacker was Israeli Druze, say police

Israeli police says the Haifa attacker was Israeli Druze who had recently returned from abroad.

At least one person has been killed and four wounded in the attack.

The Druze are an ethnoreligious minority that largely identifies as Arab and is Arabic-speaking. The Druze religion grew out of Ismaili Shia Islam in the 11th century but has evolved to include aspects of other religions, including Hinduism, as well as ancient philosophies.

The faith believes in reincarnation while recognising traditional figures in Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/3/live-israel-thanks-us-for-weapons-shipment-as-it-cuts-off-gaza-food-aid

Chaos at Israel Knesset as security guards scuffle with captives’ families

A debate in the Israeli parliament on forming an investigation committee into the Hamas-led October 7 attacks has been postponed after a fight broke out between security forces and bereaved families and relatives of captives held in Gaza.

The clashes broke out when dozens of families were stopped by Knesset security guards when they attempted to enter the gallery to watch the debate.

The families are demanding the establishment of a state commission into the events of October 7th.

Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut reports from Jordan’s capital, Amman.

https://aje.io/fke4ah?update=3552180

Israeli air raid targets Lebanon-Syria border

An Israeli air raid has targeted the border area between Lebanon and Syria, east of the town of Janta in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, Al Jazeera Arabic and local media outlets report.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Israeli military says it attacked site in northwest Syria

Israel has announced attacking a “military site”, where the former Syrian regime had stored weapons, in Qardaha near the Mediterranean coast in northwestern Syria.

Qardaha is the hometown of former President Bashar al-Assad, who was toppled by armed opposition groups in December of last year.

Since the fall of al-Assad, Israel has been regularly bombing Syria and expanding its military occupation in the south of the country.

Japanese judge Yuji Iwasawa elected new ICJ president

The International Court of Justice has appointed Yuji Iwasawa as its new president, replacing Nawaf Salam, the new prime minister of Lebanon.

The 70-year-old will head the Hague-based court – which rules in disputes between nations – until Salam’s term was due to expire on February 5, 2027, the ICJ said in a statement.

The court is weighing on a case brought by South Africa that Israel is committing genocide in its war on Gaza.

In July, the ICJ ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories since the 1967 Middle East war and its settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem were illegal and that it must withdraw as soon as possible.

Iwasawa has been a member of the court since June 2018. Before joining the ICJ, he was a professor of international law at the University of Tokyo and chair of the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

Muslim group calls for making No Other Land available to US public

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has called on film distributors and streaming services to make the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land available to the US public, saying that Americans “deserve the right” to see it.

The documentary chronicles the stories of Palestinians resisting forced displacement and facing settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

Despite winning an Oscar on Sunday, the film remains inaccessible on major streaming services.

“Any other documentary this highly acclaimed would have been picked up by a major film company long ago. In the wake of No Other Land’s Oscar win, the unprecedented censorship of this film must end,” CAIR spokesperson Ibrahim Hooper said in a statement.

“Palestinian stories have been ignored amid the far-right Israeli government’s campaign of ethnic cleansing carried out with American taxpayer dollars.”

Family calls Israel PM ‘enemy’ at captive’s funeral

Hundreds gathered in southern Israel for the funeral of Danish-Israeli captive Itzik Elgarat, whose family levelled sharp criticism at the Israeli prime minister.

His brother said that while it was Hamas that captured him, Netanyahu’s government had failed to save him.

“We fought with all our might [but] we failed,” Daniel Elgarat said in his eulogy, recalling the struggle of the captives’ families to pressure the Israeli government to secure their release.

“Netanyahu defeated us and you did not return from captivity,” he said.

“The enemy who caused your death was unfortunately not the one who kidnapped you, but the one who abandoned you.”

Elgarat, then 68 years old, was abducted from the Nir Oz settlement on October 7, 2023, and his body was one of eight returned by Hamas last month under a ceasefire deal.

Hamas official outlines Israeli violations of ceasefire

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan says Israel has violated provisions of the first stage of the ceasefire 962 times.

Some of the breaches, as outlined by Hamdan in a televised statement, include:

Israeli forces killed 116 Palestinians during the truce.
Israel allowed an average of 23 fuel trucks into Gaza daily instead of 50.
Israel did not allow commercial imports of fuel.
Israel only allowed 15 mobile homes into Gaza instead of 60,000 as stipulated by the deal.
Nine pieces of heavy equipment to remove rubble were let into Gaza, but at least 500 are needed.
Reconstruction materials and medical equipment were restricted.
Israel did not allow the restarting of the power station.

Palestinian detainee dies in Israeli prison

Khaled Abdullah, a 40-year-old from the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, has died in Israel’s Megiddo Prison, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society reports.

Abdullah, whose family said he had no health problems before his arrest, had been held under administrative detention since November 9, 2023. He had a wife and four children.

He is the 61st Palestinian to die in Israeli custody since the war on Gaza began, according to the Prisoner’s Society, which accused Israel of upholding a “system of brutality”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/3/live-israel-thanks-us-for-weapons-shipment-as-it-cuts-off-gaza-food-aid

Israel cuts off power to water plants in Rafah

Municipal authorities in the southern city in Gaza have announced that Israel has disconnected power to the city’s two desalination plants.

The plants provide approximately 70 percent of the water supply of the residents of the Rafah governorate in the central Gaza Strip, the municipality said, adding that they produce approximately 20,000 cubic metres (4,400,000 gallons) of desalinated water daily.

As we’ve been reporting, the move comes after Israel blocked the entry of all humanitarian aid into Gaza in a bid to get Hamas to accept changes to the terms of the ceasefire deal.

Israeli media have reported that Netanyahu’s government plans to cut off water and electricity and again forcibly displace Palestinians from the north to the south as part of the pressure campaign.

Prices of goods soar in Gaza after Israel’s blockade

Palestinians in Gaza say prices for basic goods have soared since Israel halted the entry of all goods and supplies in to the Strip.

Belal al-Helou said there’s a lot of fear in Gaza City and that people are stocking up on food supplies. “Prices have risen a lot” and as long as Gaza’s crossings are closed, “the prices will rise and increase even more”.

“People are panicking about food supplies,” he added.

Another shopper, Adly al-Ghandour, said prices had risen “80 percent so far, and if the crossing remains closed, prices will rise 200 percent”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/4/live-israel-blocking-gaza-food-medicine-is-a-clear-war-crime-hamas

Netanyahu’s plan to deprive and rule in Gaza will fail again
Farah Zaina

From October 2023 to January 2025, Benjamin Netanyahu managed to displace about 1.9 million Palestinians – almost all of the population of Gaza. He must be proud. The Israeli prime minister can now go down in the Guinness World Records as the man who single-handedly displaced the most people within the smallest territory.

I am one of these 1.9 million. I was displaced twice: The first time at the beginning of the genocidal war and then a year later.

Many Palestinian families were displaced repeatedly, some 10 times or more.

It was a clear strategy by Netanyahu to divide us. The north was cut off from the south. “Northerners” were forcibly expelled to the south. Then “southerners” and the other displaced were forced to move to the centre.

His aim is clear: To tear apart communities, to separate and weaken us, to turn us against each other through extreme deprivation. But his strategy failed in the past 16 months, and it will fail again.

read more: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/3/3/netanyahus-plan-to-deprive-and-rule-in-gaza-will-fail-again

Owen Jones goes over several of the latest items in this one. Apparently Israel's ongoing annexation campaign in Syria has recently incorporated calling a Christian suburb of Damascus a "Druze village."

Israeli army strikes car in southern Lebanon

An Israeli air strike targeted a car in southern Lebanon, about 10km (6.2 miles) from Israel’s border, according to Lebanon’s state media and Israel’s Army Radio.

A photo shared shows an overturned vehicle, completely destroyed, burnt and engulfed in flame.

We’ll bring you more information as we have it.

Strike on car in Lebanon ‘eliminated’ key Hezbollah figure: Israeli Army Radio

The Israeli air strike targeting a car in southern Lebanon took place in the village of Reshknanay, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. It said the attack caused injuries.

Israel’s Army Radio, for its part, said the attack “eliminated” a key figure in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Forces.

Israeli gunfire wounds child near Rafah

The attack, which wounded the child, took place in eastern Rafah’s Jenina neighbourhood, according to our colleagues reporting from the ground.

It is at least the second time Israeli forces have a shot at Palestinians in Gaza today. One person was killed by gunfire near Deir el-Balah earlier.

Israel’s FM says Gaza must fully demilitarise before stage two

We can now bring you more from Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.

Speaking at a news conference in Jerusalem, he said Israel’s conditions for proceeding to stage two of the ceasefire are Gaza’s full demilitarisation and the return of captives.

“We don’t have an agreement on phase two,” said Sa’ar. “We demand total demilitarisation of Gaza – Hamas and Islamic Jihad out – and give us our hostages. If they agree to that we can implement tomorrow.”

(anon's note: that was ever in the agreement for phase two, and Israel is not in a position to dictate terms to the party they lost to)

Syria’s interim president at Arab summit in Cairo

Syria’s state media is reporting that interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa is in Cairo for the Arab summit on Gaza taking place today.

Al-Sharaa arrived “to attend the extraordinary Arab Summit in Cairo on developments on the Palestinian issue”, state news agency SANA reported.

The summit is scheduled to kick off in just over three hours in the Egyptian capital.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/4/live-israel-blocking-gaza-food-medicine-is-a-clear-war-crime-hamas

US unfreezes $95m in aid for Lebanese army

The US State Department has confirmed the waiver to US news outlet Axios, saying “We are working with our Department of Defense colleagues to move forward with the implementation of these funds”.

Aid to the Lebanese Army was thrown into limbo with the January inauguration of US President Trump, whose administration has been moving to make broad cuts to the country’s foreign aid budget.

Two unnamed US officials who spoke to Axios said that the US sees the aid as essential to a strategy of weakening Hezbollah in its traditional home of South Lebanon.

“For the first time in years, the Lebanese army entered areas in southern Lebanon that used to be controlled by Hezbollah, destroyed military infrastructure and confiscated some of the group’s ammunition caches, the officials said,” Axios’s report reads.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/4/live-israel-blocking-gaza-food-medicine-is-a-clear-war-crime-hamas

Egypt’s FM says interim managers of Gaza decided
Egypt’s foreign minister says during a news conference that the people who will lead the committee managing the Gaza Strip for six months have been chosen.

We’ll bring you more on this when we have it.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/4/live-israel-blocking-gaza-food-medicine-is-a-clear-war-crime-hamas

>>487913
>British Police order Holocaust Survivor Stephen Kapos to attend a police station for a formal interview for his part in a demonstration where he hoped to lay flowers for the tens of thousands of Palestinian children killed by Israel in the Gaza Genocide
So the fascists are going after Holocaust survivors a second time.

>>487912
>Israel’s FM says Gaza must fully demilitarise before stage two
Demilitarizing Israel on the other hand would be a great Idea.

So the ICJ has ejected Julia Sebutinde the judge that clearly was a Zionist sock-puppet, that cited the Bible rather than legal arguments when asked about her pro-zionist bias.

The new judge is Iwasawa Yuji, a human rights lawyer with apparently a decent track record. The Zionists are already complaining, so that's a good sign.

>>487942
Source? I haven't seen this in the places I'd expect to yet.

>>487942
I heard the new president was Yuji, but missed the bit about Sebutinde being ejected. Seconding source request of the anon above me.

>>487947
>>487948
heard it on kernowdamo

i def paraphrased it a bit.

Hezbollah struggle with new relationship to state in post-war Lebanon

Hezbollah rallied thousands of its supporters for the funeral of its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air strike in September.

However, analysts told Al Jazeera the show of strength does not make up for the impact of Israel’s war against Hezbollah, which saw much of the group’s top leadership killed and a significant portion of its military arsenal reportedly destroyed.

Read more here: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/3/3/in-post-war-lebanon-hezbollah-grapples-with-new-relationship-to-the-state

Amnesty calls for war crimes probe into Israel’s attacks on Lebanon

The prominent rights group says the Israeli military’s repeated and unlawful attacks on Lebanon’s healthcare facilities, ambulances and health workers during the war last year must be investigated as war crimes.

In findings released a short while ago, Amnesty said it investigated four Israeli attacks on healthcare facilities and vehicles in Beirut and south Lebanon between October 3 and October 9, 2024.

The attacks killed 19 healthcare workers, wounded 11 more and damaged or destroyed multiple ambulances and two medical facilities, it said.

Amnesty said its investigation – which included interviews with witnesses and family members of victims, as well as analyses of videos and images – did not find evidence that the facilities or vehicles were being used for military purposes at the time of the attacks.

More than 3,000 children in Gaza diagnosed with acute malnutrition since truce

The UN’s humanitarian agency (OCHA) says health workers in Gaza have diagnosed more than 3,000 children and 1,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women with acute malnutrition since January 19 and referred them for treatment.

It said there has been a slight improvement in the number of children and pregnant and breastfeeding women consuming the minimum required food groups since the ceasefire, because of the increased availability of goods on the local market.

But it warned that Israel’s renewed blockade is again jeopardising the “progress made in delivering vital, lifesaving assistance” since the ceasefire took effect.

More than 150,000 students in Gaza have returned to school

More from OCHA, the UN’s humanitarian agency.

In its weekly update, the agency said more than 150,000 students have enrolled in 165 governmental schools across Gaza after the Ministry of Education launched the new compressed academic year for 2024-2025 on February 23.

More than half of these schools are operating on three shifts a day, while more than 7,000 teachers have been mobilised to support the process, it said.

Some 30 of these schools are in north Gaza, 52 in Deir el-Balah, 57 in Khan Younis and 26 in Rafah.

Israel destroys home of suspect in Tel Aviv gun attack

Israeli forces have blown up the home of a Palestinian man suspected of carrying out a deadly gun attack in Tel Aviv in October.

Footage of the demolition, shared by the Palestine Information Centre, shows an explosion levelling the home in Hebron in the occupied West Bank, with plumes of smoke rising around it.

The house belonged to the family of Ahmed al-Haimoni, whom Hamas named as one of the perpetrators of the October 1 shooting spree in Tel Aviv that killed eight people.

Rights groups have long decried Israel’s policy of demolishing the family homes of people held responsible for attacks, calling it collective punishment.

War in north Israel caused $2.5bn in damage: Report

Israeli Army Radio, citing data from minister Ze’ev Elkin, says some 2,900 buildings were damaged in northern Israel during the war with Hezbollah.

About 19 percent of the damage was caused by the Israeli military, it said.

The damage is estimated at 9 billion shekels ($2.5bn), the outlet said.

It added that of the 67,500 Israelis who evacuated their homes, some 19,000 have now returned.

More than 200 protest against ex-Israeli PM Bennett’s talk at Columbia University

The protesters gathered on Tuesday in front of Columbia University, where the former Israeli prime minister was invited for a speaking engagement.

“The decision to host a man with such a violent and openly discriminatory record sends a message that the university values some voices over others,” a spokesperson for Columbia Palestine Solidarity Coalition – one of the groups taking part in the protest – said in a statement.

The protest came despite warnings from Trump to jail or deport foreign students who take part in “illegal protests” on college campuses.

Trump’s administration has also said it is considering halting contracts with Columbia University, which it blames for failing to stop anti-genocide demonstrations on campus.

Israeli forces raid, ransack Fatah’s Tulkarem office: Report

The raid started when Israeli forces blew up the main gate to the political party’s headquarters in central Tulkarem, Fatah’s regional secretary Iyad Jarad told the Wafa news agency.

He said Israeli forces broke into the Fatah building, went through the party’s files and vandalised some of their content, including the Palestinian flag and the party banner.

In addition, Israeli forces violently raided two exchange shops in Tulkarem and declared them to be illegal operations, according to Wafa.

Has Israel achieved any of its war goals?
At the beginning of its war in Gaza, Israel laid out three major objectives:

Destroy Hamas’s government and military capabilities
Bring all Israeli captives home
Eliminate all security threats from Gaza

As the war expanded into neighbouring Lebanon, Israel added another goal: to bring back displaced residents of northern Israel.

Sixteen months later, Israel has laid waste to much of Gaza and killed over 48,300 people in the enclave. But it has yet to fully realise any of its defined goals: 59 of its original 250 captives are still in Gaza; and Hamas, though severely battered, remains alive and operational, with many new recruits to boost its ranks.

On January 14, former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the US assesses that “Hamas has recruited almost as many new militants as it has lost…That is a recipe for an enduring insurgency and perpetual war.”

After “over a year of fighting, the [Hamas] fighters remain very much in control of Gaza”, Hugh Lovatt of the European Council on Foreign Relations told Al Jazeera.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/5/live-israel-slams-egypts-gaza-plan-hamas-welcomes-call-for-elections

Palestinian foreign ministry calls on the international community to impose sanctions on Israel

The Palestinian foreign ministry has called on the international community to impose sanctions on Israel to stop its aggression and its colonial ambitions.

“While the occupation forces continue to exterminate and demolish camps and cities in the northern West Bank, especially in Jenin and Tulkarem, and announce their intention to demolish an entire neighbourhood in Nour Shams camp, and deprive our people in the Gaza Strip of their most basic humanitarian needs, their colonial procedures begin to build approximately 1000 new colonial units in East Jerusalem,” the ministry said in a statement.

Israel set to approve more than 1,000 settlement units in occupied East Jerusalem

The Jerusalem Governorate has expressed its grave concerns about Israel’s plans to approve the construction of more than 1,000 settlement units in occupied East Jerusalem.

In a statement, the Jerusalem Governorate said these plans fall within a systematic colonial policy that aims to swallow up the remaining Palestinian lands, change the demographic reality and national identity of Jerusalem, and impose an occupation reality through the Judaization “Greater Jerusalem” project, which is considered a war crime under international law.

Under the Israeli plan, 380 settlement units will be built in the Nof Zion settlement near the Jabal al-Mukaber area in addition to a school, two synagogues, and commercial areas, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported.

The broadcaster said 650 settlement units, commercial areas, a school, a synagogue, a community centre, and kindergartens will also be built between Kibbutz Ramat Rachel and the Jabal Abu Ghneim (also known as Har Homa) settlements near the Palestinian neighborhood of Sur Baher in southern East Jerusalem.

All settlements built on Palestinian lands are considered illegal under international laws.

Israeli army says it struck ‘suspect’ car in southern Lebanon

The Israeli army confirmed that it targeted a car carrying “suspects who loaded weapons on vehicles in the Naqura region of southern Lebanon”.

An Israeli jet attacked one of the vehicles “to remove the threat,” the military said in a statement.

“The activities of the suspects constitute a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” it added.

Earlier, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that a strike targeted a vehicle close to a rubbish dump in Ras Naqoura, injuring two siblings who were gathering scrap metal.

Israel has repeatedly carried out strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon since a fragile truce was agreed in late November 2024. It has claimed the strikes target Hezbollah fighters. The ceasefire deal took place after more than a year of hostilities, including a two-month all-out war, between Israel and the Lebanese armed group.

According to the truce, both parties were supposed to pull out of the area south of the Litani river, but Israel has refused to fully withdraw and last month said it would keep troops in five locations in southern Lebanon.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/5/live-israel-slams-egypts-gaza-plan-hamas-welcomes-call-for-elections

>>487952
>The Israeli army confirmed that it targeted a car carrying “suspects who loaded weapons on vehicles in the Naqura region of southern Lebanon”.
>Earlier, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that a strike targeted a vehicle close to a rubbish dump in Ras Naqoura, injuring two siblings who were gathering scrap metal.
Bruh, Zionists go to war against recycling.

Pro-Palestine protests continue at Columbia University

Student protesters demonstrated earlier today at Columbia University in New York, pledging to remain at a library on campus overnight until three expelled students for pro-Palestine activism are reinstated.

The students were expelled for distributing flyers at a lecture on campus, for a class titled “History of Modern Israel”.

Columbia University President Laura Rosenbury condemned the students’ actions in a statement, pledging disciplinary measures against those who entered the building unlawfully and violated college policies.

Police maintained a strong presence during the protests, which concluded late in the evening, with demonstrators continuing to voice their support for Palestine in the surrounding neighbourhood.

https://twitter.com/ColumbiaSJP/status/1897352729204547849

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/5/live-israel-slams-egypts-gaza-plan-hamas-welcomes-call-for-elections

This is what fascism looks like. Mobs of armed police attacking unarmed college students on behalf of an oppressive foreign regime simply for peacefully protesting against genocide & apartheid. Wake up, fight this, or be warned: you will be next. Don’t think for a minute that they won’t come for your rights too.

https://twitter.com/CraigMokhiber/status/1897418963547774994

Netanyahu's funding for Hamas via Qatar enabled October 7 invasion, Shin Bet reveals
The Shin Bet also revealed that SIM cards and sensors along the border were activated ahead of time but were ignored.

While the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) took a significant amount of responsibility for the disasters on October 7 in its report published unexpectedly on Tuesday, it also implicated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by implying that his policies regarding the Temple Mount, the treatment of Palestinian prisoners, and the judicial reform led to Hamas’s decision to initiate its long-planned invasion.

Other policies carried out under Netanyahu that the agency flagged as problematic and as contributions to Hamas’s decision to invade were his facilitation of Qatari funding to Hamas and his opposition to proposed assassination operations of top Hamas leaders at the time.

https://archive.is/KvOi8

This is from Jerusalem Post and most of it is a very obvious attempt to deflect blame onto Qatar specifically and try to spin this in favor of more hostility (and distract from the purposeful negligence and aggression of Israel in the lead-up), but the underlying implication they're working with is an interesting admission.

Barnard admin appear to have sent a bomb threat to students in order to stop them from protesting genocide.

https://x.com/ColumbiaSJP/status/1897459785605279900
Instead of evacuating campus @BarnardCollege sent a PRIVATE EMAIL to CUAD (@ColumbiaBDS) claiming there was "threat of a pipe bomb" in the same building as the Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya Liberated Zone.

NYPD ordered protestors move back 1,000 feet from the library, yet on-campus freshman dorms received no notice to evacuate and multiple staff, students, and workers were left on the 2nd floor of the library.

If the bomb threat wasn't manufactured by Barnard administrators, they put thousands of people on campus at extreme risk in order to arrest and brutalize protestors gathered at the lawn.

Owen Jones - Trump: ARREST Gaza Protesters - "FREE SPEECH" Lies Exposed

Israeli, US air forces conduct joint exercise

The Israeli Air Force has conducted a joint training exercise with the US Air Force, the Israeli military said in a statement.

During the exercise, Israeli F-35i and F-15i aircraft flew alongside a US B-52 strategic bomber, the Israeli military said, adding that the aircraft had practised “operational coordination between the two militaries to enhance their ability to address various regional threats”.

Speculation has grown in recent months about a possible joint attack by Israel and the US on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Report: Israel tries to interfere in Hamas-US talks

Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth quotes unnamed US sources who accused Israel of trying to obstruct talks between Washington and Hamas.

The Israeli government opposed the existence of a separate channel directly between Washington and Hamas, the report says.

It also claims that US officials did not inform Israel of the direct meeting with Hamas over fears that it would disrupt the talks, running counter to Israel’s claims that it was informed before they began.

New Columbia University committee targets pro-Palestine students

A new university disciplinary committee at Columbia University in New York City has initiated a flurry of cases against students who have expressed criticism of Israel, The Associated Press reports.

The committee, the Office of Institutional Equity, in recent weeks has sent notices to dozens of students for activities ranging from sharing social media posts in support of Palestinian people to joining “unauthorized” protests.

The office is raising alarm among students, faculty and free speech advocates, who accuse the school of bowing to Trump’s threats to slash funding to universities and deport campus “agitators”.

“Based on how these cases have proceeded, the university now appears to be responding to governmental pressure to suppress and chill protected speech,” Amy Greer, an attorney who is advising students accused of discrimination, told the Associated Press.

The Columbia campus saw a wave of student protests in support of Palestine last year that caused controversy and charges of stifling free speech as the university administration cracked down.

Islamic Jihad mourns member who died in Israeli prison

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad says one of its group members died in Israeli prison.

“We mourn the martyr prisoner Ali Ashour al-Batsh who ascended inside the occupation prisons,” the Palestinian group said.

It said the al-Batsh passed away on February 21 and “spent more than a year enduring all kinds of torture and abuse at the hands of the Zionist jailers”.

West Bank mayor arrested over ‘incitement’: Report

The mayor of a Palestinian town has been arrested by Israeli forces and charged with “incitement” over posts he made on social media, Israeli media reports.

The mayor of Bidya, near Nablus, was arrested in February, “following extensive monitoring of the mayor’s social media posts”, The Jerusalem Post reported, but charges against him were only filed on Wednesday. Israeli police claimed that the mayor’s online activities “could harm public order and safety, expressing praise, sympathy, or support for a hostile organisation, its actions, and its objectives”.

Among other posts, the mayor had shared a photo of Hamas founder Ahmad Yasin alongside one of Yasser Arafat, with the words: “May God bless them both and all the martyrs.”

News of the arrest comes amid an Israeli military escalation in the northern West Bank, which has displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians and drawn comparisons to Israel’s war in Gaza.

Israeli escalation may lead to captives’ killing: Hamas

Any Israeli military escalation against Palestinians would most likely lead to the killing of some captives, a spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, has said.

The spokesperson, Abu Obeida, accused Israel of violating the terms of the ceasefire and Netanyahu of putting his own interests “above the lives of the captives”. He added that Israeli threats of further war and blockades will not secure the release of the remaining captives.

Abu Obeida said that Hamas has “proof of life” for all of the remaining captives but that “any escalation of aggression against our people will lead to the killing of a number of enemy captives”.

“We are ready for all eventualities,” he added.

Irish health professionals urge Israel to release slain Gaza doctor’s body

A group called the Irish Healthcare Workers for Palestine released a video on social media on Wednesday demanding the return of the body of Gaza doctor Adnan al-Bursh, who was killed in an Israeli prison in May 2024.

Al-Bursh was arrested by the Israeli army in December 2023 while working at Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza.

In the video montage, Irish doctors and other healthcare workers held signs demanding the return of Al-Bursh’s body to his family, as well as other banners in solidarity with Palestinian medical teams.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DG1AubOMK0i/

Hamas continuing negotiations on remaining stages of ceasefire deal

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem says the group is still in contact with negotiators to push for the implementation of the remaining stages of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

Qassem told Al Jazeera Arabic that the Palestinian group wants Israel to engage in negotiations on the second phase of the agreement, which Hamas remained committed to. Israel has so far refused, saying it wants all its living captives out first.

Israel has cut off the delivery of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians in an attempt to pressure Hamas into accepting its new arrangement. It has threatened “additional consequences” if Hamas does not resume the release of captives.

Switzerland cancels Geneva Conventions meeting on occupied Palestinian territory: report

Switzerland has announced the cancellation of a conference on the application of the Geneva Conventions to the occupied Palestinian territory for want of participants, Reuters reports.

The country had invited 196 parties to the conventions to participate in the March 7 conference in Geneva on the situation of civilians living in the Israeli-occupied territories. But three diplomatic sources told Reuters that the conference has been cancelled.

A Palestinian diplomat told Reuters earlier on Friday that his delegation did not plan to attend the event, saying that a draft document circulated among participants fell short of its expectations. Israel has also criticised the event.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/6/live-trump-issues-last-warning-to-hamas-tells-leaders-to-leave-gaza

https://twitter.com/briantashman/status/1897707350347465031
Gallup: Support for Israel plummets among Americans, reaching "the lowest in 25 years of Gallup's annual tracking" and below 50 percent.

Support for Israel among Democratic voters has crashed, leaving the AIPAC-aligned Democratic leadership totally out of step with their party.

By party, DNC numbers here are 21% and GOP numbers are 59%. The second sounds high until you realize that the 40% of the GOP's base who aren't pro-Israel are completely unrepresented in the party on this issue. With the DNC, it's even more stark - the DNC has chosen to ignore some 79% of its base, on the issue of genocide, in favor of foreign lobbyists.

>>487963
Is this reveal part of a process to get rid of Netanyahu ?

US to use AI to revoke visas of students perceived as pro-Hamas: Report

The US State Department will use artificial intelligence to revoke visas of foreign students who are perceived as supporters of Hamas, Axios reported, citing senior State Department officials.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is launching “Catch and Revoke”, AI-assisted reviews of tens of thousands of student visa holders’ social media accounts, the outlet reported.

Axios said officials were checking news reports of protests to identify students seen as sympathetic towards the Palestinian group.

Officials will also examine internal databases to see whether any visa holders were arrested but allowed to stay in the country during the Biden administration, the outlet reported.

“We see people marching at our universities and in the streets of our country … calling for Intifada, celebrating what Hamas has done … Those people need to go,” Rubio had said a few days after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack which sparked Israel’s war in Gaza.

Trump echoed the same in a January 30 White House fact sheet tied to an executive order aimed at “pro-Hamas” activity, Axios reported: “To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice. We will find you, and we will deport you.”

Israel to limit Muslim worshippers at Al-Aqsa by age during Ramadan

Israel will allow some Muslims over 50 and their children from the occupied West Bank to enter Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Fridays during Islam’s holy month of Ramadan, Netanyahu’s office has announced.

A statement said a “limited number of Muslim worshippers” would be admitted, without specifying a number.

Those allowed are men age 55 and older, women age 50 and older and children up to age 12, who must also pass security screening.

“It is emphasized that there is no limitation regarding Israeli Arabs,” the statement added.

Israeli settlers uproot and cut down 100 olive trees in occupied West Bank: Report

The attacks took place in the village of Haris, in the central occupied West Bank province of Salfit, Wafa reports.

Local sources told the agency that settlers raided the Abu al-Ula area on the outskirts of the village, where they uprooted and cut down the olive trees belonging to Khaled Aqel, a local Palestinian resident.

They also stole agricultural tools, including water tanks, Wafa reported.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/6/live-trump-issues-last-warning-to-hamas-tells-leaders-to-leave-gaza

+ Lee Camp on Hannibal Directive casualties.