Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
(While a “ceasefire” is ostensibly in place, Israel has continued its assault on Gaza without interruption. If Americans Knew considers the war to be ongoing, and in its 840th day.)
At least 32 Palestinians, including six children, have been killed in multiple Israeli strikes on Gaza City and Khan Younis on Saturday.
Since the “ceasefire” began on October 11, Israel has killed at least 523 Palestinians. At least 1,433 have been injured. Death toll figures are tentative.
At least 25 Palestinians in Gaza have died due to the extreme cold, including 21 children, since the start of Israel’s genocidal war in October 2023. At least 11 Palestinian children have died of extreme cold this winter.
Israel has so far violated the 11 October ceasefire deal in Gaza at least 1,300 times (as of Jan. 15, 2026). More statistics below.
Be sure to check out two new videos (at the bottom of today’s update) from If Americans Knew, featuring Cenk Uygur, co-host of The Young Turks, and Tucker Carlson. They discuss holding our elected officials to account on who they give our tax dollars to.: https://votersagainstbillions.org/
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GAZA NEWS & HEADLINES:
(For some basic info on the Palestine-Israel conflict, go here. For more critical context, skim this, this, and this. To read about a remarkable but underreported, 20-month-long peaceful protest in Gaza against Israel, go here.
32 Palestinians killed on Saturday in Israeli airstrikes across Gaza despite ceasefire
Among the dead were five Palestinians, three children and two women, when an Israeli airstrike hit a residential apartment in the Rimal neighborhood of western Gaza City.
Seven more Palestinians, a man, his three sons, and three of his young grandchildren, were killed in another Israeli airstrike that targeted a tent sheltering displaced people in the Asdaa area northwest of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Thirteen Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike that targeted the Sheikh Radwan police station west of Gaza City, including three members of the women’s police force.
Several others were killed as well.
The Israeli military claimed that the strikes were launched after eight gunmen emerged from a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Rafah on Friday.
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Limited Rafah Opening Raises Fears of New Siege amid Mounting Patient Deaths
According to Israeli outlets, including Channel 15, the Rafah crossing will open on Sunday under a trial phase, with actual passenger movement expected to begin on Monday. Under the reported mechanism, approximately 150 people would be allowed to leave Gaza daily, while around 50 would be permitted to enter; there is “significant ambiguity” surrounding the mechanism governing the Rafah crossing.
A medical spokesperson said Gaza currently has around 20,000 patients and wounded, including approximately 4,500 children in urgent need of treatment abroad. Around 1,280 patients and wounded Palestinians have already died while waiting for permission to leave Gaza for treatment.
Israel has also obstructed political and administrative efforts in Gaza, including moves to enable the national committee tasked with managing the Strip.
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Nearly half of kidney patients dead as closure of Rafah crossing blocks treatment
Dr Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, said that nearly 50 percent of dialysis patients in Gaza died while awaiting treatment abroad or the arrival of essential medical supplies during the two years of war, while enduring the absence of more than 70 percent of required medications.
In response to Israeli reports claiming a surge in Gaza births post genocide, stating over 60,000 births in 2025 compared to 50,000 in 2023, Gaza Health Director Munir Al Bursh dismantled the narrative.
He stated that Israel cites these numbers not in defense of life, but in a… pic.twitter.com/zXPEHXf6OJ
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 29, 2026
IRAN NEWS AND HEADLINES:
For decades, Washington has insisted that its hostility toward Iran is a response to Iranian “aggression,” “terrorism,” or the Islamic Republic’s supposed refusal to “behave like a normal state.” Yet the synchronized threats issued by both Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the aftermath of Gaza’s annihilation reveal a more uncomfortable truth. American policy toward Iran has little to do with Iranian actions and everything to do with preserving an Israeli‑centered regional order at any cost.
To understand this moment, one must begin with an inconvenient historical fact that the United States foreign policy establishment prefers to forget. The United States was not always Iran’s enemy and Iran was not always the problem.
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82 metro stations, 300 parking lots in Tehran designated shelters amid tensions with US
Tensions are running high after Trump announced that a military fleet is on its way to Iran.
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Iranians seal windows and store food and water as they prepare for attack
While the US builds up its military assets in the Gulf, Iranians quietly brace for a new war.
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Iran plans to hold joint naval drills with China, Russia in northern Indian Ocean region: Report
The exercise will involve units from Iran’s regular navy and the naval forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), alongside naval forces from China and Russia, the report added. The mid-February drills will be held in the northern Indian Ocean.
OCCUPIED WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM NEWS & HEADLINES:
(Every day, Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem endure dozens of incidents like the ones below, at the hands of Israeli soldiers and/or settlers. For background on the West Bank, read this and this. For information on the significance of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, read this and this.)
West Bank: Israeli Soldiers, Colonizers Escalate Violations
Saturday: Continued Violations by Soldiers and Colonizers
Ramallah: Israeli Forces Shoot 2 Children, Abduct 2 Others
ISRAEL NEWS & HEADLINES:
(Israel is a tiny country, about the size of New Jersey, with a population smaller than the US state of Georgia – about 10 million (of which about 20 percent are Palestinians), yet it is in the news constantly. As has been demonstrated again and again, however, mainstream media rarely covers Israel accurately. IAK passes along only factual reporting.)
1 killed in Israeli drone strike on southern Lebanon
*NOTE: Although Israel signed a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon in November 2024, Israel has attacked Lebanon almost every day since, committing over 10,000 air and ground violations, and killing over 300.
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Israeli forces raid areas in Quneitra, Daraa countrysides of southern Syria
*NOTE: Although Israel is not at war with Syria, the Israeli army has carried out over 1,000 airstrikes and 400 cross-border raids on Syria since December 2024.
EPSTEIN-ISRAEL NEWS & HEADLINES:
The Jeffrey Epstein saga expands every day with new anecdotes of intrigue, treachery, and depravity – one common, grossly underreported thread is the almost constant presence of Israel, Israeli, and pro-Israel players in Epstein’s orbit. Drop Site News and other alternative outlets have covered this story well; If Americans Knew has shared their work consistently. With every new Epstein-Israel revelation, mainstream media falls farther behind, and truth takes a hit.
Why Israel Matters in the Epstein Story
While Epstein’s relationships with US presidents, billionaires, and royalty have long been documented, the new tranche of documents places renewed emphasis on his unusually close ties to Israel’s political, intelligence, and diplomatic elite, most notably former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
What distinguishes Epstein’s Israel ties from his other elite connections is not merely proximity, but continuity: a decades-long relationship with Israeli political and intelligence figures, repeated references to Mossad in official US documents, and a pattern of extraordinary legal protection.
The disturbing question: Were his access, protection, and longevity tied to intelligence and state power—particularly Israeli networks?
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FBI memo concludes Trump ‘compromised’ by Israel, new Epstein Files show
A declassified FBI memo released on 30 January states that US President Donald Trump was “compromised by Israel,” that Jeffrey Epstein was a Mossad agent, and that a Jewish religious movement, Chabad Lubavitch, had co-opted Trump’s presidency.
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Newly released US Justice Department documents showed that former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and his wife, Nili Priel, stayed multiple times at a New York apartment owned by disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Barak has previously confirmed knowing Epstein but has repeatedly said he neither witnessed nor participated in any illegal or inappropriate activity.
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Epstein email reveals plan to pursue frozen Libyan assets with help from former MI6, Mossad figures
The correspondence argued that identifying and recovering even a small portion of such funds could generate “billions of dollars” in gains.
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Indian PM Modi visited Israel at suggestion of Jeffrey Epstein, released files imply
“The Indian Prime Minister Modi took advice. and danced and sang in Israel for the benefit of the US president. They had met a few weeks ago. IT WORKED,” the email message from Epstein reads.
OTHER NEWS & HEADLINES:
Zohran Mamdani Wants NYC to Divest From Israel — But New Comptroller Pledges to Buy War Bonds
In a letter to state and local officials, the human rights organization DAWN (Democracy for the Arab World Now) warned that any investment in Israeli sovereign debt by New York City would violate local and international law.
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AIPAC Gears Up for Midterm Election Cycle With $95 Million War Chest
The pro-Israel group’s Super PAC has the most cash on hand since its establishment ahead of the 2022 midterms, and has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars ahead of next week’s New Jersey Democratic primary
South Africa kicks out Israeli envoy over repeated ‘diplomatic violations’
Ariel Seidman was declared persona non grata after “a series of unacceptable violations of diplomatic norms” committed by the Israeli embassy, including “insulting attacks against His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa” via social media.
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WATCH: New videos from If Americans Knew, featuring Cenk Uygur, co-host of The Young Turks, and Tucker Carlson.
https://votersagainstbillions.org/
ICYMI, A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:
Israeli army, illegal settlers cut hundreds of trees, steal livestock in occupied West Bank
Settler-only IDF units functioning as ‘vigilante militias’ in West Bank
Trump Again Bypasses U.S. Congress to Push $6 Billion in Weapons Sales to Israel
(Read yesterday’s daily update here.)
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – JANUARY 31, 2026*:
- At least 72,905 Palestinians killed, 182,551 injured – including:
- At least 71,795 killed in Gaza (~22,000 children, 33,000 women and girls)
- At least 1,110 killed in the West Bank (~230 children)
- At least 171,551 injured in Gaza
- About 11,000 injured in the West Bank
*NOTE: Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 10,000 more are still buried under rubble. Additionally, the numbers of injured and starved are very conservative estimates. Only the dead who are brought to hospitals are included in the official fatality count.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 31, 2026: ~1,661 – including ~1,139** on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 471 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, about 52 military and civilians (by one count, there have been 59 victims) in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel.
By one count, Israeli attacks have killed approximately 281 Palestinian journalists and media workers (as of Jan. 21, 2026); Palestinians have killed 4 Israeli journalists (other groups have tallied between 215 and 333 Palestinian journalists killed – depending on the criteria used).
**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)
- NBA Star Stephen Curry’s Ties To Israeli Military Intelligence
- ‘Apocalyptic wasteland’: Biden admin. blocked warning on deteriorating Gaza situation after Oct. 7
- Why Israeli counterterrorism tactics are showing up in Minnesota
- Israel Went to Extremes to Return Ran Gvili’s Body. Why Doesn’t It Accord Dead Palestinians the Same Respect?
- Across the West, speaking for Palestine is now a crime
- A West Bank Bus Trip Through ‘the Best Documented Ethnic Cleansing in History’
- Mike Huckabee’s distorted theology does not speak for Christians worldwide
- CBS Evening News” With Tony Dokoupil Is Ellisons’ & Weiss’s Pro-Israel Show
- A Generation on Hold: Inside Gaza’s Collapsing Education System
- Born Under Siege: A Gaza Family Waited 17 Years—Their Baby Survived Six Months
- “Emperor” Trump’s So-Called Board of Peace Erases Palestinians from Gaza Governance
- Playful Post on Tel Aviv Park Omits That It Was Built on Ruins of Palestinian Neighborhood
- Palestinian developer gains massive user support for app challenging censorship
- Gaza’s ‘Board of Peace’ – A New Phase of Palestinian Dispossession and Genocide
