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 853rd day.)
At least 12 Palestinians were killed by Israel air strikes on the Gaza Strip Sunday, Palestinian officials said, while the Israeli military said the attacks targeted Hamas for violating the October ceasefire.
Since the “ceasefire” began on October 11, Israel has killed at least 591 Palestinians. Over 1,583 have been injured. Death toll figures are tentative.
Israel has so far violated the 11 October ceasefire deal in Gaza at least 1,620 times (as of Feb. 1, 2026). More statistics below.
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.
‘Rats run over our faces’: Gaza’s displaced forced to live on infested land
The smell hits you before you even see the tents. In the al-Taawun camp, wedged between Yarmouk Stadium and al-Sahaba Street in central Gaza City, the line between human habitation and human waste has been erased.
Forced to flee their homes by Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, 765 families have set up makeshift shelters directly on top of and adjacent to an enormous solid waste dump. Here, amid mountains of rotting garbage, they are fighting a losing battle against disease, pests and the psychological horror of living in filth (continue reading here).
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Why the new Gaza administrators have not been allowed into Gaza*
The High Representative for the Gaza Board of Peace, Nickolay Mladenov, told the Munich Security Conference that a number of conditions need to be met before the Palestinian National Committee for the Administration of Gaza can enter and operate inside the Strip:
- Hamas must “transfer the civilian control of the institutions in Gaza.”
- Violations of the ceasefire must stop. If the Committee enters Gaza while violations continue, he warned, “we’re only embarrassing the committee and ultimately making it ineffective.” He did not name Israel as the party committing the violations, though it has killed ~600 Palestinians in daily bombings and shootings since October 11.
- There must be a “radical increase in the assistance” entering Gaza — including temporary housing, tents, caravans, medicine, food, and other essential supplies.
- There must be an agreed framework for the “decommissioning of weapons in Gaza.”
- There must be a new Palestinian security force on the ground.
*NOTE: It is not clear how the transfer of control could happen in the absence of the Committee; if history is any indication, Israel will never stop violating the ceasefire and will never radically increase assistance into Gaza unless it is forced. These issues alone could drag out the process indefinitely.
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Gaza mother’s grim ordeal: A search for missing son among mutilated bodies
Gaza families seek closure as they search for loved ones among bodies returned by Israel under ‘ceasefire’ deal.
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.)
Israel approves proposal to register West Bank lands as ‘state property’
Israel approves plan to claim West Bank land unless Palestinians prove ownership, sparking ‘annexation’ accusations.
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Palestine warns Israeli plan to register West Bank land as ‘state property’ amounts to ‘de facto annexation’
Palestinian Authority says Israel’s move constitutes ‘termination of signed agreements,’ urges UN Security Council and US to intervene.
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21 Palestinians displaced when Israeli demolishes family home in occupied West Bank
Rights group says 160-square-meter house razed in Jiyus near Qalqilya, leaving children and elderly family members without shelter.
ALL IN A DAY’S WORK: MORE ISRAELI OCCUPATION ACTIONS ON SUNDAY:
Sunday: Israeli Violations in the Occupied West Bank
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.)
Netanyahu: Iran ‘lies and cheats*’
“I will not hide from you that I express my skepticism of any deal with Iran, because, frankly, Iran is reliable on one thing: they lie, and they cheat,” Netanyahu said in a keynote speech to the annual gathering of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem.
*NOTE: This statement is rich, coming from Netanyahu, whose lies are a matter of record, the prime minister of a country whose leaders have perpetrated countless lies to cover for war crimes and aggression (and consistently pass along to Western mainstream media).
Israel has been fighting a war against the truth for decades, especially since October 7th. What Netanyahu calls a “concerted effort to spread vilification and demonization against Israel” is simply the truth (and lies) about Israel’s genocide finally beginning to see the light of day.
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4 killed in Israeli drone strike targeting vehicle along Lebanese-Syrian* border
*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 – the most violated ceasefire deal in recorded history – and killing over 300. Additionally, Israel continues to occupy five Lebanese hilltops seized during the latest war, and other Lebanese areas it has held for decades.
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, killing approximately 30 Syrians. The situation appears to meet the criteria for occupation – and where occupation exists, the occupying power is bound by extensive legal obligations.
NEWS & HEADLINES FROM ISRAELI MEDIA:
(You can learn a lot about a country from its headlines. Get a glimpse inside this country that is rife with turmoil and contradictions that receives $63 million a day from America.)
Ben-Gvir’s Prison Spectacle Shows the Government’s Descent Into Lawless Brutality
PM Netanyahu said pushing to soften wording of bill mandating death penalty for terrorists*
Report says Netanyahu looking to allow judicial discretion on sentencing, remove clause specifying it only applies to those who kill Israelis, fearing international legal pressure.
*NOTE: So much is problematic about the reality that this headline reflects. For starters, The use of the word “terrorist” for an individual or group that resists occupation and oppression is a political, not fact-based choice. In reality, international law supports the efforts of resistance groups against an occupying power, the UN extending that right to the point of armed resistance. Additionally, Israel regularly labels Palestinians they have killed as “terrorists” to rationalize their deaths, whether they did anything threatening or not.
The bill mandating the death penalty be applied only to Palestinians is just one of many examples of Israel’s apartheid framework, which extends in various forms across Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and inside Israel (where 21% of residents are Palestinian). Multiple human rights organizations have documented Israel’s apartheid practices, including: Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem, and Yesh Din, to name just a few.
Netanyahu’s desire to “soften the wording of the bill” may refer to Complementarity, the idea that the International Criminal Court is “the court of last resort” in disputes in which the country of origin is unable or unwilling to carry out genuine proceedings. If Israel has a record of effective self-policing, it can keep the ICC at bay. As it is, the ICC has already issued arrest warrants for PM Netanyahu and others.
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New settlement* to ‘expand Jerusalem’ for first time since 1967
Left-wing group accuses government of ‘backdoor annexation’; West Bank regional council head lauds ‘realization of the settlement vision,’ says more such steps on the way.
*NOTE: Israel has built around 280 settlements and 256 settlement outposts, home to more than 700,000 illegal settlers, on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Some settler groups have a history of violence against Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces – a phenomenon that has grown significantly worse since October 7th, 2023.
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.
Learn more about Israeli settler violence here and here.
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Channel 13’s looming sale ignites fears of political meddling and regulatory evasion
Israeli TV channel’s owner rejects a higher bid in favor of one from media tycoon Drahi, who is seen as close to Prime Minister Netanyahu.
OTHER NEWS & HEADLINES:
UpScrolled* returns to Google Play after temporary removal
Rapidly growing TikTok alternative restored after server issues over surge in users, and amid debates over alleged ‘shadow banning’ of pro-Palestinian content.
*NOTE: Israel and its advocates have been spending enormous sums in the last year or so (ever since Israel’s reputation has dipped due to the genocide it is committing in Gaza). Pro-Israel billionaires have bought social media corporations and TV networks to control their content; Israel has hired influencers to whitewash its image, media creators to manipulate artificial intelligence chatbots, and enlisted organizations to target groups with pro-Israel propaganda.
For more on Tik Tok’s pro-Israel bias, read this and this.
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‘Erasing history’: British Museum criticized for removing references to ‘Palestine’ from exhibits
Museum bows to pressure from pro-Israel group to remove the term ‘Palestine’, a move scholars and activists say is part of a ‘systematic’ attack on Palestinian cultural identity.
ICYMI, A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:
Israel to deploy tear gas drones, extra troops in West Bank ahead of Ramadan
WATCH Ben Gvir: “I want one more thing: to execute them”
Did Francesca Albanese say that Israel is the “common enemy” of humanity?
(Read yesterday’s daily update here.)
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – FEBRUARY 15, 2026*:
- At least 73,161 Palestinians killed, 182,691 injured – including:
- At least 72,049 killed in Gaza (~22,000 children, 33,000 women and girls)
- At least 1,112 killed in the West Bank (~230 children)
- At least 171,691 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 8,000 more are still buried under rubble; 3,000 more are reportedly missing, with no information about their fate.
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.
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.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – February 15, 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)
- Noor’s short life of unimaginable suffering
- Israel Destroyed Gaza’s Hospitals. Now It’s Banning Doctors Without Borders.
- Is Spite of What Zionists Say, It’s a Good Thing to Criticize Governments
- Palestinian mother, daughter recount strip searches, harsh conditions in Israeli detention
- Israel used weapons in Gaza that made thousands of Palestinians evaporate
- ADL’s Stats Twist Israel’s Critics Into Antisemites
- Why Is the World Silent When the Gaza Genocide Is Not Over?
- AZAPAC, the new PAC opposing Israeli domination of U.S policies
- Haim Saban: Billionaire for Israel
- Rafah e-wallet plan highlights Israel’s deepening financial occupation
- Viral post claims Netanyahu sought legal approval, igniting speculation about Israel’s organ harvesting
- AIPAC Has a New Opponent: PAL PAC
- Right-Wing Catholic Off Trump Religion Panel After Israel-Gaza Remarks at Antisemitism Event
- Why Israel persecutes children like my son Shadi
