Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
The UN on Wednesday reported nearly 430,000 people moving from the southern Gaza Strip to the north, including unaccompanied children, pregnant women, older people, chronically ill and people with disabilities, and those in need of continuous medical care.
At least two Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza Wednesday; two others have succumbed to their injuries; and 59 bodies have been recovered from the rubble, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
BREAKING: Hamas has released eight hostages; Israel announces the release of 110 Palestinian prisoners has been delayed “until further notice” (this is a developing story)
Israel orders the UN Relief and Works Agency, the backbone of Palestinian humanitarian aid, to cease operations by Thursday. Read about the significance of this order here.
RELATED: Fox News’ Trey Yingst misinforms Fox viewers about Palestinian prisoners
2 Palestinian prisoners from Gaza die in Israeli prisons: Rights groups
Two Palestinian detainees from Gaza died in Israeli prisons, prisoners’ rights groups unveiled on Wednesday.
The Israeli army confirmed the death of Mohammed Al-Asali, 35, on May 17, 2024 and Ibrahim Ashour, 25, on June 23, 2024.
Asali was arrested by Israeli forces from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in March, while Ashour was taken into custody from Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis on Feb. 14.
“The death of the two detainees adds a new crime in the record of the Israeli brutality system,” the rights groups said, adding, “the Israeli occupation not only kills detainees but also deliberately manipulates responses regarding their fate.”
According to Palestinian figures, at least 58 detainees have died in Israeli prisons since Oct. 7, 2023, including 37 prisoners from Gaza.
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West Bank: Israeli Military Executes Ten Palestinians Near Tubas, Another in Jenin
Israeli forces assassinated ten Palestinian men, on Wednesday, after occupation warplanes bombed a site in center of the town of Tammun, south of Tubas in the northeastern part of the occupied West Bank.
This escalation is an extension of the ongoing Israeli hostility targeting the northern West Bank city of Jenin and the Jenin refugee camp, and the city of Tulkarem and the Nur Shams and Tulkarem refugee camps, in the northwestern part of the West Bank.
Palestinian teen bled out after being shot by Israeli soldier in watchtower
Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP) says that 16-year-old Adam Majdi Ahmad Sub Laban was shot and killed by an Israeli soldier north of Jerusalem in the central occupied West Bank on Sunday.
Sub Laban was left to bleed out after the sniper from the Israeli Border Guard Brigade shot him in the back of the thigh from a military watchtower from approximately 100 meters (328 feet) away, DCIP said, in a statement.
He was walking with two other children at the time, and “no clashes or tensions were present”, DCIP added.
“After more than two decades of collecting documentation of Palestinian children killed by Israeli soldiers, it is clear that soldiers kill these children simply because they want to,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP.
“They know that they will face no consequences from their superior officers, government officials, or anyone in the international community for killing a Palestinian child” (read the full report from DCIP here).
NOTE: Since October 7th, 2024, Israel forces and settlers have killed at least 886 Palestinians in the West Bank (~178 children).
Israel arrests 12 Palestinians for ‘expressions of joy’ following release of prisoners
Israeli forces have arrested 12 Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem who celebrated the release of prisoners last weekend under the ceasefire deal.
Israel’s internal Shin Bet security service and the police said they arrested the men after videos emerged showing them celebrating by waving Hamas flags and firing guns into the air.
They alleged that the men violated a ban on “expressions of joy” and “identification with Hamas” that has been imposed since the Gaza ceasefire took hold.
Ali Abunimah reveals how he was ambushed by Swiss police
In a special livestream on Tuesday, The Electronic Intifada’s executive director Ali Abunimah talked about his ordeal in Switzerland this past weekend.
You can watch the whole stream in the video here.
Defying international outrage, Abunimah was detained without charge on Saturday at the behest of Mario Fehr, a government official in charge of policing in the canton of Zurich. Fehr is an ardent Zionist who attends pro-Israel demonstrations.
In the special livestream, Abunimah recounted what was effectively a kidnapping at the hands of undercover Swiss police, as well as his three days in an immigration jail (continue reading here).
Israel never can say “goodbye”
In Phase One of Israel’s ceasefire agreement with Hamas, Israel’s military forces are expected to gradually withdraw to the Gaza border; in Phase Two, the Israeli army should fully withdraw from Gaza.
But Israel’s leaders are apparently reluctant to remove troops once they deploy in regions outside Israel. Some recent headlines:
- Israeli war chief confirms army will ‘indefinitely’ occupy southern Syria
- ‘We will not withdraw until we see fit’: Israel digs heels in south Lebanon
- IDF to remain in Jenin even after operation
One wonders whether Israeli forces will actually leave Gaza when the time comes.
Trump administration to cancel student visas of pro-Palestinian protesters
US President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Wednesday to combat anti-Semitism and pledge to deport non-citizen college students and other “resident aliens” who took part in pro-Palestinian protests, a White House official said.
A fact sheet on the order said Trump would order the Justice Department to “aggressively prosecute terroristic threats, arson, vandalism and violence against American Jews”.
“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” Trump said in the fact sheet. “I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”
“The revocation of student visas should not be used to punish and filter out ideas disfavored by the federal government,” said Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) Senior Scholar for Global Expression Sarah McLaughlin. “The strength of our nation’s system of higher education derives from the exchange of the widest range of views, even unpopular or dissenting ones.”
“We stand with the student protestors who so bravely put their bodies and academic careers on the line to save lives and demand an end to the Israeli military’s destruction of Gaza. As Jews we refuse to be pawns in the far-Right’s authoritarian takeover,” said Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Executive Director Stefanie Fox.
RECOMMENDED READING: Detailed study finds 99% of pro-Palestine protests at US universities are peaceful
Trump’s claim that US spent millions of dollars to send condoms to Gaza ‘not true’
US President Donald Trump has said his administration temporarily halted foreign spending to “look at the scams, dishonesty, waste and abuse that’s taking place in our government for too long”.
That included $50m “sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas”, the president said, repeating a claim made earlier by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“You know what’s happened to them? They’ve used them as a method of making bombs,” Trump said in televised remarks.
Dave Harden, a former USAID official, told Al Jazeera that the Trump administration’s claim that the United States has spent $50m sending condoms to Gaza is “nonsensical” and “not true”.
“It’s ludicrous, and it’s designed to make USAID and the support of the Palestinians seem absurd,” he said.
“I was the deputy mission director for the West Bank and Gaza for many … years. We didn’t even do reproductive health because it was so political and politicized,” he said.
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MORE NEWS:
IMEMC Daily Reports
Anadolu Agency: New Nakba?: Experts warn Trump ‘extremely serious’ on Gaza displacement plan
Looking for a way to help get the word out about Palestine? Go here.
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – JANUARY 29, 2025 (ongoing count):
At least 48,292 Palestinians killed, 118,571 injured – including:
- at least 47,417 killed in Gaza (~20,600 children)
- at least 886 killed in the West Bank (~178 children)
- at least 111,571 injured in Gaza
- at least 7,000 injured in the West Bank
WAR STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 (Hamas attack) – JANUARY 19, 2025 (Ceasefire):
Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 19, 2025: at least 48,143 – including at least 47,283 in Gaza (~20,600 children), and 860 in the West Bank (~177 children). Palestinian injuries: at least 118,472 – including at least 111,472 in Gaza, and 7,000 in the West Bank.
Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 11,000 more are still buried under rubble.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 19, 2025: ~1,616 (or 1,590) – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 436 (or 405) military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel.
NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
- Fox News’ Trey Yingst misinforms Fox viewers about Palestinian prisoners
- Craig Murray: Israeli Atrocities Continue in Lebanon
- The Guardian’s excellent video about Israel’s attack on Gaza’s hospitals has one fatal flaw
- Trump’s bellicose rhetoric to ‘clean out’ Gaza tied to deep pockets of Zionist lobby
- MAGA Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s Sons Allegedly Committed War Crimes in Gaza. Trump May Be Able to Protect Them.
- Trump Must Act Quickly on the West Bank
- Ali Abunimah arrested in Switzerland
- Israel Is Blocking 11 American Doctors & Nurses From Leaving Gaza
- The Israeli Military Is One of Microsoft’s Top AI Customers, Leaked Documents Reveal
- Jewish Viewers Find a Refuge in Fox News
- Pro-Israel megadonor Miriam Adelson takes center stage at Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration
- Contrasting reality: Treatment of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners
- Federalism, New Hampshire, and the USS Liberty
- WATCH: Hamas will uphold agreement — interviewed senior official
- In This Story, the Killing of Two Innocent Palestinians by Israeli Troops Was Just the Beginning
- The Palestinians killed while waiting for the Gaza ceasefire to come into effect (video)
- Palestinians’ humanitarian conditions caused bitter infighting in Biden administration
- Detention without charge of Palestinian children hits record level
- Biden worked ‘tirelessly around the clock’ – to prevent a ceasefire
