Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
Israeli forces killed at least 82 Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday – at least 30 of them after the ceasefire deal was announced.
Also among the dead are three more journalists – Ahmed Al-Sayah was killed after Israel targeted a food distribution in Al-Mawasi. Aqel Saleh was killed in an Israeli air attack that targeted a group of people in the Shati refugee camp. Journalist Ahmed Abu Alrous and three others were killed in Nuseirat in central Gaza when an Israeli air attack hit his vehicle.
Israel has killed at least 205 journalists in Gaza since October 7th, 2023.
“This was the first real pressure on Israel”: diplomat
(Washington Post) A diplomat briefed on the ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas credited progress in the talks in part to the influence of Trump, saying it was “the first time there has been real pressure on the Israeli side to accept a deal.”
Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas were deadlocked for months. The contours of the current deal suggest that Israeli negotiators offered concessions on issues that had previously impeded a breakthrough, according to the diplomat, who spoke in an interview Wednesday on the condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door discussions.
The negotiations also have been aided by Hamas’s diminished position, the diplomat said, noting that “Hamas doesn’t have the capacity to say no to anything.”*
*NOTE: Secretary of State Antony Blinken himself said this week, “Hamas has recruited almost as many new militants as it has lost.” It is difficult to square Blinken’s words with those of the anonymous diplomat. In fact, Blinken’s statement is an admission that Israel is agreeing to stop the fighting without coming anywhere near achieving its war goal of eradicating Hamas.
Netanyahu: Israel Cabinet will not ratify Gaza ceasefire deal
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of backtracking on some details of a Gaza ceasefire deal today, adding that he has put on hold an Israeli Cabinet meeting due to approve the deal, Reuters reports.
“Hamas reneges on parts of the agreement reached with the mediators and Israel in an effort to extort last minute concessions,” a statement from Netanyahu said. “The Israeli cabinet will not convene until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement.”
A senior Hamas official said the group is committed to the ceasefire agreement announced by the mediators.
What you need to know about the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal
The implementation of the agreement will be guaranteed by Qatar, Egypt and the US. Read the full text here.
First phase
- In stage one, lasting six weeks, Hamas will release 33 Israeli captives, including children, female soldiers, civilians, and men over 50 years of age.
- In return, Israel will free 50 Palestinian prisoners for each female soldier and 30 for each civilian captive.
- Then, Israel will release all the women and children under 19 it has detained from the Gaza Strip, since October 7, 2023.
- Israel will also gradually allow unarmed Palestinians to return to the north of the Strip, and allow a surge of aid into the enclave of up to 600 trucks per day.
Second phase
- If determined that the conditions have been met for a second phase, Hamas will release all remaining living captives, mostly male soldiers, in return for the freeing of more Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
- Israel would initiate its “complete withdrawal” from Gaza, including from the Philadelphi corridor, the border area between Egypt and the Palestinian enclave.
Third phase
- Should the conditions of the second stage be met, the bodies of the remaining captives will be handed over in return for a three- to five-year reconstruction plan to be conducted under international supervision. (Find more detail here.)
Key Palestinian figures express deep misgivings about ceasefire deal
As President Joe Biden announced the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas from the White House on Wednesday, he repeated a key detail throughout his address: that the deal accepted today was the same deal he helped put on the table in May.
Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel Program at the Arab Center Washington D.C. and former executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, stated, “Tens of thousands have been killed in the Gaza Strip, and so many more affected in ways that they’ll continue to feel for the rest of their lives, whether illness, injury, loss of their homes or family members. I’m thankful it’s finally here, but it absolutely should not have taken this long — it absolutely was possible much earlier than this.”
The deal is nearly identical to an agreement that Biden announced in May that was drafted by Egypt and Qatar, which had been hosting negotiations with Hamas. Hamas had accepted the deal, which also drew the support of the United Nations Security Council.
“Why is it that it took eight months after that for there actually to be an agreement? The reason is that on the Israeli side, they were not prepared yet to accept this reality and they wanted to continue doing more destruction,” Muyanner said. “And the Americans were unwilling to press them as necessary.”
Khaled Elgindy, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University who helped negotiate deals between Palestinian leadership and Israel in the past, worries that fighting may resume. He pointed to previous deals brokered between Israel and Palestinian officials that were supposed to deliver lasting peace between the nations, such as the third phase of the Oslo Accords which were supposed to take place in 1998, the Wye River Memorandum, the Roadmap to Peace in Palestine in 2003, the 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access, or from the same year, the Israeli “disengagement” from the Gaza Strip. None of the deals ever came to fruition as intended.
“There are many failures of U.S. diplomacy in the Israel and Palestine arena, but one of the big ones is always implementation — history is littered with agreements that have never been implemented,” Elgindy said. “Especially with Netanyahu still talking in his blustery terms that ‘We’re going to continue to fight until we destroy Hamas.’ That’s just not encouraging and Biden didn’t push back on that, and it’s not clear Trump will either.”
US Campaign for Palestinian Rights Action (USCPR Action) says the “era of Israel’s impunity must now come to a swift end” after a ceasefire is reached in Gaza.
“Every perpetrator must be held accountable at the Hague, including the Biden administration officials who funded and enabled acts of genocide,” Ahmad Abuznaid, the group’s executive director, said in a statement.
“Every displaced Palestinian must be ensured the right to return to their home and land. Rebuilding and humanitarian aid must proceed with the greatest urgency amid genocidal conditions. That will require ending Israel’s illegal siege on Gaza and military occupation of Palestine.”
RELATED: FACTBOX – War-ravaged Gaza faces multi-billion dollar reconstruction challenge
Cindy McCain of World Food Program: ‘Ceasefire is the start – not the end’
The World Food Program calls for resources, access and protection to allow its teams to scale up aid to Gaza.
“We welcome the long awaited ceasefire in Gaza. But a ceasefire is the start – not the end,” WFP chief Cindy McCain said in a statement.
“We have food lined up at the borders to Gaza – and need to be able to bring it in at scale. For this: We need all border crossings open and [to] be able to move food safely from the crossing points to the people in need across Gaza.
“We need security for team members and our partners, including during aid convoys. Humanitarians MUST be protected. We need more humanitarian staff allowed into Gaza. And we need urgent funding to reach everyone in need quickly.”
Committee to Protect Journalists urges ‘unconditional access’ to Gaza to investigate crimes against media
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged Egyptian, Palestinian and Israeli authorities to allow foreign journalists into Gaza.
It also urged the international community “to independently investigate the deliberate targeting of journalists that has been widely documented” since the war began in October 2023.
“Journalists have been paying the highest price – with their lives – to provide the world some insight into the horrors that have been taking place in Gaza during this prolonged war, which has decimated a generation of Palestinian reporters and newsrooms,” the group’s CEO Jodie Ginsberg said in a statement.
According to a CPJ tally, at least 165 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began.
UNICEF: Israel has killed over 120 children in 2025
The UN children’s fund’s (UNICEF’s) branch for the Middle East and North Africa has released a statement noting that more than 120 children have already reportedly been killed in Gaza this year, with risks to children escalating over the last three days.
The war in numbers
Palestinians killed in Gaza: 46,707
Children confirmed killed in Gaza: 13,319
Palestinians reported buried under rubble in Gaza: 11,000
Palestinians injured in Gaza: 110,265
Palestinians displaced in Gaza: 1.9 million (90% of the population)
Attacks on healthcare facilities during the war: 654
Health workers killed: 1,060
Schools damaged or destroyed: 534 (95% of schools)
Children out of formal education: 660,000 (all school-age children)
Homes damaged or destroyed: 436,000 (92% of total)
People killed inside Israel on 7 October 2023: about 1,200
People abducted to Gaza from Israel on 7 October 2023: 251
Hostages still in Gaza in January 2025: 101 (37 believed dead)
Israel worried about “manifestations of celebration” when Palestinian prisoners are released
Israel’s prison authorities are preparing to release hundreds of Palestinians from its jails under an anticipated Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal with Hamas, Israeli media said on Wednesday.
Public broadcaster KAN said prison authorities are worried about two major challenges: possible mass unrest inside prisons and celebrations by the freed prisoners.
The prison service “will use buses equipped with tinted windows to prevent the prisoners from being seen from outside the buses, to reduce the manifestations of celebration,” KAN added.
Israel currently holds more than 11,000 Palestinian prisoners, while it is estimated that 98 Israelis are detained in Gaza. Hamas said that many Israeli captives have been killed in indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes.
Israeli Army Kills Six More Palestinians in Jenin
On Wednesday evening, the Israeli army launched a missile strike at the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, killing six Palestinians and causing multiple injuries.
The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the deaths of Mohammad Younis Ar’arawi, 33, Ahmad Yassin Ar’arawi, 37, Mahmoud Ahmad Fayyad, 22, Osama Abdul-Karim Abu Droubi, 26, Mustafa Mohammad Fayyad, 26, and Awad Sobhi Abu Zeid, 27.
It is worth noting that the Israeli army has killed twelve Palestinians in Jenin over the past 24 hours.
On Tuesday, the army conducted a drone strike targeting a group of citizens in the Jenin refugee camp, killing six Palestinians, including a child.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed 858 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including 176 children, 16 women, 13 elders, one journalist, and two medics.
Israel advises soldiers to cover their faces, not stop their war crimes
Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has criticized Israel for instructing its soldiers to “cover or blur their faces before posting videos,” calling the directive a tacit acceptance of potential war crimes.
“Instead of advising its soldiers not to commit crimes, what (Israel) is saying is ‘cover your faces or blur your face before posting videos or try to get lawyers,'” Albanese told Anadolu, describing the Israeli army’s approach as “shocking.”
“This is first of all an admission that crimes might be committed by Israeli soldiers,” she added.
Israeli army blows up homes in southern Lebanon amid cease-fire violations
Lebanese media reported home demolitions by the Israeli army in southern Lebanon on Wednesday in violation of the November 27 ceasefire agreement between the two countries.
Lebanese authorities have reported more than 520 Israeli violations of the ceasefire, including the death of 37 people and injury of 45 others.
Kamala Harris Paid the Price for Not Breaking With Biden on Gaza, New Poll Shows
From 2020 to 2024, Democrats saw a staggering dropoff in support at the presidential level, with some 19 million people who voted for Joe Biden staying home (or not mailing in their ballots) in 2024.
Now, a new survey conducted by YouGov suggests Biden’s support for Israel’s unrelenting assault on Gaza played a surprisingly large role in the choice of those previous Biden supporters not to vote. (Read the full poll here.)
The top reason those non-voters cited, above the economy at 24 percent and immigration at 11 percent, was Gaza: a full 29 percent cited the ongoing onslaught as the top reason they didn’t cast a vote in 2024.
Looking narrowly at states that swung from Biden in 2020 to Trump in 2024, the number is smaller. But in those states, 20 percent still cited Gaza as the reason they didn’t vote again.
The poll was paid for by the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project, which has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s assault on Gaza (continue reading here).
MORE NEWS:
IMEMC Daily Reports
Informed Comment: The Fatal Effort to Dismantle the UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees
BBC: Gaza ‘humanitarian zone’ struck almost 100 times since May, BBC Verify finds
The Cradle: Italy reassures Israel it will not enforce ICC arrest warrant against Netanyahu
Jewish Telegraphic Agency: Jared Kushner set to double stake in leading Israeli financial firm
The New Arab: Many in Gaza are asking about loved ones who were forcibly disappeared by Israel
Well well well pic.twitter.com/FxW8hj240P
— barbarism critic 🙂↔️🇵🇸✨ (@SxarletRed) January 15, 2025
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STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – JANUARY 15, 2025:
Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 15, 2025: at least 47,646* – 46,788 in Gaza; in the West Bank, Israeli soldiers and/or settlers have killed at least 858 Palestinians (~176 of them children).
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 (46,788), it is reasonable to estimate at least 233,940 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 20,587 of known direct deaths and 102,934 of the total deaths are children.
(Gaza’s health ministry has used the estimate of 18,000 of the known deaths to be children since at least September 2024; total deaths since then have risen by about 5,000, which would add about 2,200 to the children’s death estimate. This indicates that the estimate of 20,587 is fairly accurate.)
Palestinian injuries from October 7, 2023 – January 15, 2025: at least 117,265 (including at least 110,453 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 15, 2025: ~1,616 (or 1,590) (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 431*** (or 405) 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)
- WATCH: 60 Minutes Report on Gaza (Jan 13, 2025)
- Trump’s Mideast Envoy Forced Netanyahu to Accept a Gaza Plan He Repeatedly Rejected
- WATCH: How Pro-Israel Neocons Pushed for War in Iraq (Alison Weir)
- Scorched-Earth: Making Gaza Uninhabitable for Generations to Come
- Meta’s staunch support for Israel shines amidst genocide in Gaza
- From Gaza to California: the flames that connect us all
- Israel must be added to UN’s sexual violence blacklist
- 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
