Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
BREAKING NEWS: Gaza truce might be declared ‘today or tomorrow’ as ceasefire talks progress
US and Qatari mediators have made significant progress overnight toward brokering a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza and a captive exchange agreement, with a deal possibly being reached by the end of Monday, sources have said.
Reports indicate that Qatar has handed Israel and Hamas a “final” draft of the deal that will allegedly lead to a lasting peace, although some officials have urged caution with other touted deals falling at the final hurdle.
A Hamas source confirmed to Sally Ibrahim, The New Arab’s Gaza correspondent, that the ceasefire would be announced “as soon as today or tomorrow at the latest”. The source also said that the US had delivered the guarantees of the ceasefire deal to Hamas.
At least 28 Palestinians were killed in relentless Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Sunday.
Among the dead were two Palestinians killed in an Israeli air attack that targeted people as they collected firewood in Mukhabarat, northwest of Gaza City.
Over a million Gaza children face mental health crisis, UN says
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says nearly all of Gaza’s 1.1 million children need mental health and psychosocial support amid the ongoing Israeli bombardment, displacement and dire living conditions.
Children suffer from nightmares, anxiety and paralysing fears due to air strikes and the loss of family members. Many become aggressive, withdrawn, or stop speaking, the UN agency said.
The UN estimates that at least 19,000 Palestinian children have been orphaned since the war on Gaza began.
Mental health experts caution that the scars inflicted on these young minds could persist for generations.
Palestinians in northern Gaza have been living for 100 days without food, water and medicine
There are some people still left in the north of the Gaza Strip, and for 100 days, they have been struggling to survive the Israeli air attacks and the lack of food, water, aid, and medicine.
After Kamal Adwan Hospital went out of service, there have been no hospitals or surgeries [performed] in those areas.
There have been a lot of attempts from the UN and other NGOs to reach those areas to deliver food, but all of those requests were denied by the Israeli authorities.
No civil defense or rescue teams are able to operate, so if someone has been injured or killed, they can’t even be taken to hospital.
If you’re injured, there is no medicine to treat your wounds.
Another Imprisoned Palestinian Tortured to Death in Israeli Prison
A Palestinian man, Moataz Abu Zneid (35 years old) from Dura, south of Hebron, who has been held in Israeli detention without charges for over a year, was declared dead in the Israeli Soroka Hospital on Sunday after Israeli torture and medical neglect.
The Palestinian Prisoners Commission said Abu Zneid was detained since 6/27/2023. He was married and had one child, and according to his family, he did not suffer from any health problems before his arrest.
The statement added that according to a preliminary statement obtained from one of the prisoners recently released from Rimon Prison, where he was being held, the health of detainee Abu Zneid suddenly and seriously deteriorated.
The prison administration deliberately delayed his transfer to the hospital, committing a systematic medical crime against him, until he fell into a coma and was transferred to Soroka Hospital on January 6. His martyrdom was announced Sunday night.
Abu Zneid was arrested five times, most of them under administrative detention, during which he went on hunger strikes in protest of the practice, in which a prisoner is held without charge or trial.
Thousands of prisoners and detainees continue to be held in the occupation prisons, and are exposed to systematic crimes, most notably torture, starvation, assaults in all their forms, medical crimes, sexual assaults, and the deliberate imposition of conditions that lead to their contracting serious and contagious diseases, in addition to the policies of theft and deprivation – unprecedented in their level.
Tens of millions of tons of rubble left in Gaza as homes have been flattened, report reveals
From Arrests to Invasions, Israel Targets West Bank Universities
Israel’s long-standing assault on Palestine’s education sector is so severe that it has earned a label: scholasticide. In Gaza, the devastation has been catastrophic: Israel destroyed 80 percent of schools in the Strip and bombed all 12 universities. Among the victims killed are approximately 130 professors, academics, scientists and university presidents (along with members of their families), as well as more than 12,000 students, highlighting the targeting of Palestine’s intellectual and academic community.
Amid its genocide in Gaza, Israel has intensified its assaults on education in the West Bank, revealing additional layers of systematic repression. This has included the arrest and detention of Palestinian students, depriving them of their fundamental rights to education. The Right to Education campaign at Birzeit University in the West Bank, which documents attacks on education and provides legal support to arrested students, has documented over 110 cases of students being arrested during the 2023-2024 academic year alone.
Israel deliberately targets education because it serves as a powerful tool of resistance for Palestinians. Education enables Palestinians to counter the colonial narrative, safeguard their heritage and identity and equip future generations with knowledge and agency. This targeting is embedded within a wider colonial agenda that seeks to dismantle the physical structures of education and to suppress the intellectual development of the entire Palestinian community (continue reading here).
Israel: Minister calls for 1 million Jews to settle in West Bank
Israeli Minister of Construction and Housing Yitzhak Goldknopf on Sunday called for attracting one million Jews to settle in the occupied West Bank.
His call was made during a tour of the northern West Bank, according to the Israeli website Behadrei Haredim, which specialises in Haredi news.
The minister urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to: “Bring one million Jews to Judea and Samaria (the Zionist name for the West Bank)”.
Goldknopf also pushed him to: “Seize the current opportunity (the situation in Palestine and the Middle East) to expand settlement construction in the West Bank.”
The Israeli minister’s statements come despite Palestinian, Arab and international warnings against Tel Aviv expanding its settlement activity in the West Bank and its efforts to annex the area to its territories.
NOTE: Israel has illegally built around 280 settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are home to more than 700,000 illegal settlers. Israeli settlements and settlers on Palestinian land are a violation of international law, and considered by many Palestinians to be the main barrier to any lasting peace agreement.
Some settler groups, moreover, have a history of violence against Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces.
In a landmark advisory opinion on July 19, 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
More than 150 immigrants arriving in Israel to join army: Report
More than 150 immigrants will arrive in Israel in the coming days to enlist in the army, the Maariv newspaper reports.
The report said the immigrants are from the US, Russia, Canada, France, the UK, Costa Rica, Denmark, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain and other countries.
Earlier, Israeli political commentator Ori Goldberg told Al Jazeera that Israeli soldiers are dying in “unprecedented numbers”.
Four Israeli soldiers were killed in Beit Hanoon on Saturday, taking the death toll to 10 in the past week, The Times of Israel reported.
VP-elect Vance says Trump will enable Israel to ‘eliminate’ Hamas
US Vice President-elect JD Vance and Trump’s pick for National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, have reiterated the president-elect’s pledge that there will be “hell to pay” if a ceasefire-captive deal is not reached before the inauguration on January 20.
Speaking on ABC’s “This Week”, Waltz said he wanted to see captives “walking across the tarmac, or at a minimum, some type of agreement before inauguration because President Trump is serious”.
Speaking on Fox News, Vance said Trump’s repeated threats mean he would “enable the Israelis to eliminate the last remnant of Hamas and its leadership” if a deal is not reached. He also said they would include “imposing tough sanctions on those who support terrorist organizations in the Middle East”.
The US has already provided billions in military support to Israel amid the war. Just last week, outgoing President Biden notified Congress of plans for another $8bn in arms sales to Israel.
Netanyahu thanks Biden for ‘lifelong support of Israel’: White House
The White House has released its account of President Joe Biden’s call with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, likely the last one of his presidency.
Among other things, the White House said in a statement, the president “stressed the immediate need for a ceasefire in Gaza and return of the hostages with a surge in humanitarian aid enabled by a stoppage in the fighting under the deal.”
During the call, Netanyahu thanked Biden for “his lifelong support of Israel and for the extraordinary support from the United States for Israel’s security and national defense”, the White House said.
Biden, a self-declared “Zionist,” has remained staunchly pro-Israel, though he has had a sometimes thorny relationship with Netanyahu, despite continuing to surge military aid amid the war in Gaza.
RECOMMENDED READING:
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Biden administration is manufacturing doubt about Gaza’s famine
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Israel Gives Biden His Marching Orders
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The Case Against Joe Biden for Complicity in Genocide
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Biden’s war on Gaza is now a war on truth and the right to protest
Activists back US professor ‘forced’ from Columbia over Palestine advocacy
Academics, lawyers and activists have voiced support for a US law professor who says she was pressured to leave Columbia University for her advocacy for pro-Palestinian students.
“Effective today, I have reached an agreement with Columbia University that relieves me of my obligations to teach or participate in faculty governance after serving on the Columbia law faculty for 25 years,” Katherine Franke, a tenured law professor at the Ivy League university in the United States, said in a statement last week.
“I have come to the view that the Columbia University administration has created such a toxic and hostile environment for legitimate debate around the war in Israel and Palestine that I can no longer teach or conduct research,” Franke said.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, said Franke has become “another victim of the pro-Israelism that is turning universities, and other spaces of public life, into places of obscurantism, discrimination and oppression” (read the full article here).
RELATED:
“The more they try to silence us, the louder we will be!” — That was the message that protesters at the Modern Language Association Delegate Assembly in New Orleans wanted to send Saturday after the executive council of the MLA—the preeminent U.S. professional group for scholars of language and literature—blocked them from holding a member vote on a resolution endorsing the international Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights.
Like the resolution recently passed by the American Historical Association, the declaration issued by MLA Members for Justice in Palestine accuses Israel of committing scholasticide in Gaza, where—in addition to killing over 46,000 Palestinians, wounding nearly 110,000 others, and displacing around 2 million more—15 months of relentless Israeli onslaught has obliterated the embattled enclave’s education infrastructure.
Karim Mattar, an associate professor of English at the University of Colorado, Boulder, took part in Saturday’s demonstration, during which supporters of the resolution staged a die-in and walkout, chanted slogans, and held a banner that read, “MLA Is Complicit in Genocide” (continue reading here).
MORE NEWS:
IMEMC Daily Reports
Mondoweiss: ‘Rain doesn’t last forever, habibi’: A long winter night in a tent in Gaza
Electronic Intifada: Palestinian Authority kills its own people, proves loyalty to Israel
Middle East Monitor: Palestinian Authority bans political analysts from appearing on Al Jazeera
Lawyers for Justice reports that journalist Jarrah Khalaf is being tortured in the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s prisons due to his coverage of the ongoing PA crackdown on the Jenin refugee camp. pic.twitter.com/VeGr5mLBgk
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 12, 2025
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – JANUARY 12, 2025:
Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 12, 2025: at least 47,429* – 46,584 in Gaza; in the West Bank, Israeli soldiers and/or settlers have killed at least 845 Palestinians (~175 of them children).
(The ministry of health added 499 deaths to its death toll on Saturday, specifying they have now completed the data and confirmed identities on files whose information was incomplete.)
Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 11,000 more are still buried under rubble.
According to a report in the Lancet, by multiplying the reported deaths by five, it is possible to reach a conservative estimate of total deaths (including indirect causes like starvation and lack of medicine). Using the latest figure from AFP (46,584), it is reasonable to estimate at least 232,920 total deaths in Gaza since October 7th, 2023.
According to a recent report by the UN Human Rights Office of identified fatalities in Gaza, about 44% were children. It is reasonable to estimate that 20,497 of known direct deaths and 102,485 of the total deaths are children.
Palestinian injuries from October 7, 2023 – January 12, 2025: at least 116,660 (including at least 109,731 in Gaza and 7,000 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 12, 2025: ~1,616 (or 1,585) (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 431*** (or 400) military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza (updated: Jan. 11, 2025); 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.
NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.
ADDITIONAL STATISTICS: Since October 7th, 2023:
- At least 54 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (at least 35 of them from Gaza).
- At least 43 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition (at least 37 of them children)**.
- About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
- About 345,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
*The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.
Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.
**Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.
***The figure does not include the reportedly 59 Israeli soldiers – nearly 17% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents.
† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.
Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
- Dr Abu Safiya symbolized humanity in Gaza, as it is destroyed
- Gaza death toll may be 41% higher than official figures: study
- NYTimes rejects Quaker ad for calling Israel’s actions “genocide”
- Blinken Declares Genocide in Sudan But Refuses to Acknowledge Genocide in Gaza
- Blood Splattered Madness
- Knesset members urge IDF to destroy Gaza’s food, water and power
- ‘No Civilians’: IDF Soldiers Reveal Killings, Lawlessness in Gaza
- Israel’s Judaization Policy Replaces Arab Towns with Synagogues
- Gaza is Now ‘Hell on Earth’—Exactly as Intended
- Trump shared video criticizing Netanyahu’s ‘obsessive’ push for US-Iran conflict
- Last Christmas in Gaza?
- WATCH: The Israel Lobby Pays, The U.S. Congress Obeys
- Israel still can’t find any 7 October rape victims, prosecutor admits
- Biden administration is manufacturing doubt about Gaza’s famine
- Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s life in danger due to torture: Immediate international intervention needed for his release
- 60 Minutes program on Lebanon pager attack was Israeli propaganda
- Systemic Rape Allegations Against Israel Meet A Deafening Silence
- The Myth of Israel as ‘US Aircraft Carrier’ in Middle East
- The Failure of the Two-State Solution – Refugees
- Born in the heat of war, dead from the cold: Gaza’s children are freezing to death
- ‘Decades to rebuild’: Israel grabs land and wipes out Syria’s arsenal
- WATCH: The Israeli Hit List – Iran Remains
