Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
An 18-year-old Palestinian was killed Friday in an Israeli drone strike in the central Rafah in southern Gaza Strip.
Extent of systematic torture, atrocities endured by Palestinians in Israeli prisons is shocking – Euro Med Monitor
The physical and mental health conditions of the Palestinian detainees and prisoners released during the seventh round of the ceasefire exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip are shocking.
Israel’s release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, who arrived in the Gaza Strip recently in exceptionally poor health, illustrates its ongoing use of torture to terrorize and persecute prisoners and detainees and break their will until the very end of their detention. The effects of torture were clearly evident, with the emaciated bodies of the released individuals reflecting the severity of systematic crimes and inhumane treatment that exceed all legal and moral bounds.
The repeated release of such visibly unhealthy individuals from Israeli prisons reveals that the heinous torture and willful medical neglect they endure have escalated to appalling levels. Euro-Med Monitor notes that the atrocities occurring in these prisons are among the worst violations recorded by human rights organizations worldwide.
In a blatant violation of the mandatory rules of international law—which forbid torture in all its forms and under all circumstances, without exception, and consider its commission an international crime that does not expire by statute of limitations—hundreds of released prisoners and detainees arrived in the Gaza Strip after midnight in exceptionally poor health. It became evident after their transfer to the Gaza European Hospital in the southern section of the Strip that dozens of them required urgent medical care because their bodies showed signs of torture and inhumane treatment, including deprivation of necessary medical care and treatment.
Along with severe weakness and exhaustion, the Euro-Med Monitor field team documented severe injuries among detainees and prisoners, including limb amputations and severe swelling brought on by torture. Some appeared incapable of walking without the assistance of friends, and others required immediate medical attention because their health was rapidly deteriorating.
Even though the majority of detainees were not charged with any specific crimes, many of them claimed that they were beaten, mistreated, and threatened right up until the very last minute before their release (continue reading here).
Israel proposes Gaza plan that gives it tighter military control than before war
The Israeli military has presented the UN and aid organizations with a plan for running Gaza that involves Israel having tighter control than it did before the war, according to humanitarian officials, casting doubt on whether Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has any intention of carrying out a military withdrawal.
At meetings with UN representatives on Wednesday and with officials from other agencies on Thursday, COGAT, the army unit given the task of delivering aid to the occupied territories, outlined a scheme of distributing supplies through tightly managed logistics hubs to vetted Palestinian recipients.
The blueprint appears to be a version of a scheme tried more than a year ago in Gaza, known as “humanitarian bubbles”, involving aid distributions from small, highly controlled areas that would expand over time. But the experiment was abandoned after a few trials in northern Gaza.
It has been revived by COGAT at a time when Israel is negotiating the potential start of a second phase of the January ceasefire agreement, which is supposed to include the full withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from the Gaza Strip. The COGAT plan instead involves a tightening of Israel’s grip on day-to-day life in the Palestinian territory.
According to aid sources briefed on the plan, the “humanitarian hubs” themselves could be secured by private security contractors, but they would be located in areas “under full IDF control”.
The only entrance to Gaza through which aid would be allowed under the plan would be the Kerem Shalom crossing, controlled by Israel. The Rafah crossing, between Egypt and Gaza, would be permanently closed.
Aid officials familiar with the COGAT briefing said the plan was presented as an established fact, with Israeli officials claiming it already had full US support and would therefore be hard for the UN to resist.
“The bubble approach, which was rejected from the beginning of the war, has all kinds of serious implications since the Israelis will control each single supply coming in,” Amjad Shawa, the director of the Palestinian NGOs Network, said (continue reading here).
Israel pushes for six week ‘extension’ of Gaza ceasefire’s phase one
An Israeli delegation in Cairo is negotiating with mediators a potential extension for the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, according to Egyptian security officials cited by Reuters on 28 February.
“Hamas opposes the extension and insists on proceeding to the second phase of the deal as originally agreed,” the sources said. They added that Tel Aviv seeks to extend the first phase for another 42 days.
Israeli sources had previously told the British news outlet that Tel Aviv sought an extension and the release of three Israeli captives per week in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.
According to a military source cited by Times of Israel, Tel Aviv “still prioritizes dismantling Hamas’s ability as an authority in Gaza.”
In a statement released a on Friday, Hamas said, “We call on the mediators, guarantors, and the international community to pressure the Zionist occupation to fully commit to its role in the agreement and immediately enter the second phase of it without any hesitation or evasion,” it added.
US envoy to the region, Steve Witkoff, is expected to travel to Israel on Sunday to negotiate an extension of the first phase of the ceasefire deal, which ends on 2 March. Tel Aviv has continuously delayed talks for phase two of the agreement.
A recent report by Haaretz says that “as far as [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is concerned, there is no second stage” of the deal.
Israeli army concludes it was defeated by Hamas on 7 October
An internal Israeli army investigation has concluded that Hamas tricked Israel for years and swiftly overran and defeated an entire Israeli military division on 7 October 2023.
Released on Thursday, the probe found that the Israeli military “failed” to protect Israeli civilians and was not prepared for the Hamas-led attack, during which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken as captives.
The command-and-control of the so-called “Gaza Division” of Israel’s Southern Command collapsed within hours of the attack, launched by the Palestinian movement’s armed wing at 6.29am.
Top Israeli officers, including the division’s Southern Brigade commander Asaf Hamami and many company and platoon commanders, were killed by Hamas fighters by 7 AM.
According to reports citing Israeli security sources, only 767 soldiers were stationed at the boundary with Gaza on the day. Around 5,000 Hamas fighters entered the area by land, air and sea in different waves of the attack.
The first series of investigations, conducted by the Southern Command, Operations Division, Israeli Air Force and Israeli Navy, found that the regional unit tasked with guarding the boundary of the Gaza Strip was overpowered in the first hours of the attack.
Israel’s military had missed obvious signs of the impending attack and preparations around it, ignoring some reports and warnings from even the day before (continue reading here).
NOTE: Israel’s army has for years been considered one of the most powerful in the world – thanks in great part to the American taxpayer: the U.S. provides Israel more than $49 million* in military aid per day. (For additional expenditures on behalf of Israel, go here.)
RELATED: War on Gaza: How 7 October forever destroyed the myth of Israeli military invincibility
‘Major Step to Full Sovereignty’: Knesset Bill to Annex West Bank Settlements Near Jerusalem Set to Pass
Israel’s Ministerial Committee for Legislation is expected to approve on Sunday a bill that will enable the annexation of West Bank [illegal] settlements around Jerusalem.
The bill, introduced by Likud MK Dan Illouz, proposes establishing “metropolitan Jerusalem,” which will include several settlements around the capital.
Illouz explained the larger underlying principle of the bill: enacting Israeli sovereignty over the entire West Bank. “Israel has to act according to its interests and without fear. This law is a major step towards full sovereignty [of the West Bank].”
An opinion written by non-governmental organization Ir Amim says that “The bill seeks to promote an illegal annexation under international law and is a gross breach of international law by Israel.” [Ir Amim is an Israeli non-profit founded in 2004 that focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Jerusalem, and seeks to ensure the “dignity and welfare of all its residents.”]
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.
Israelis spit on Christian churches in East Jerusalem amid rising attacks
West Bank: Israeli forces target Red Crescent crew with ‘warning shots’
Israeli forces fired “warning shots” at a Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) crew in the Nur Shams refugee camp east of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank.
In a post on X, PRCS said that Israeli forces fired live bullets at the crew while they were en route to evacuate a family, despite prior coordination.
“The forces blocked their entry, preventing them from carrying out the evacuation,” the organization said.
US approves $3 billion military sales to Israel amid ceasefire talks
The US on Friday approved potential foreign military sales to Israel worth $3 billion, according to the State Department.
The sales include munitions, guidance kits, and Caterpillar D9 bulldozers, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement.
The agency stated that Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined an “emergency exists,” requiring the immediate sales to Israel, waiving the Congressional review requirement.
The largest portion of the deal—valued at $2.04 billion—includes 35,529 MK 84 or BLU-117 general-purpose bomb bodies and 4,000 I-2000 penetrator warheads.
Another $675.7 million package includes MK 83 and BLU-110 bomb bodies and JDAM kits guidance kits, with deliveries estimated to begin in 2028.
Israel will also receive D9R and D9T Caterpillar bulldozers for $295 million, with deliveries in 2027.
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Man convicted by US court of murdering six-year old Palestinian boy in hate crime
A US jury convicted on Friday an Illinois man 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 murder of Wadea al-al-Fayoume and injuring his mother Hanan Shaheen on 14 October, 2023, near Chicago. Prosecutors said the boy and his mother were targeted because they were Palestinian after the 7 October attacks on southern Israel.
RELATED: Palestinian-American child killed in Illinois: this is what media reports left out
