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 839th day.)
Israeli assaults over the past 24 hours resulted in the killing of six Palestinians in Gaza.
BREAKING: On Saturday morning, Israeli forces killed at least 30 in Gaza, in what Israel called a “response to a truce violation.”
Since the “ceasefire” began on October 11, Israel has killed at least 509 Palestinians. At least 1,405 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.
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.
According to Israeli authorities, multiple countries and institutions will be involved in overseeing the Rafah border crossing, including the Palestinian Authority, a European Union mission, and Egypt – Israel, however, will retain all control of who will be allowed to enter or exit.
The reopening of Rafah, while framed as a humanitarian measure, may also function as a pressure valve that manages, rather than reverses, displacement, and could be used to normalize a slow but enduring demographic shift.
The crossing will be open for foot traffic only; it remains unclear when aid trucks will be allowed to enter through the route.
*NOTE: The Rafah crossing was supposed to be opened over 100 days ago as part of the ceasefire agreement. In fact, Israel has failed to fulfill every obligation of the ceasefire deal. All military operations were supposed to be suspended, but Israel has continued them, killing 492 Palestinians since the ceasefire began; Israel was supposed to restart the full quantity of aid into Gaza (600 trucks a day), along with rehabilitation of infrastructure (water, electricity, sewage), rehabilitation of hospitals and bakeries, and entry of necessary equipment to remove rubble and open roads – none of these commitments have been fulfilled.
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MSF says it will not hand over staff details to Israeli authorities
Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, has said it will not provide Israeli authorities with the personal details of its staff working in Gaza and across the occupied Palestinian territory, citing concerns for staff safety and a lack of assurances over how the information would be used.
The decision on Friday follows criticism of MSF’s statement last week that it was prepared to share the names of its staff under strict conditions – a position that sparked concern among aid workers and rights advocates. Israel’s military has already killed more than 1,700 health workers since the start of its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023, including at least 15 MSF employees (continue reading here).
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Trump declares Hamas ‘will disarm’ as resistance says it never agreed
Hamas official Musa Abu Marzouk said a proposal for surrendering or decommissioning weapons was ‘never even presented to us.’
IRAN NEWS AND HEADLINES:
U.S. Military Tells Key Middle East Ally to Prepare for Attack on Iran
Senior U.S. military officials have informed the leadership of a key U.S. ally in the Middle East that President Donald Trump could authorize a U.S. attack on Iran as early as Sunday, if the U.S. decides to move forward.
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US destroyer docks at Israeli port of Eilat amid regional tensions: Israeli media
Move reflects heightened US-Israeli coordination as concerns grow over possible escalation involving Iran, Israeli broadcaster says.
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Israeli report says Trump is threatening Iran publicly but pursuing negotiations
Iranian statements also suggest difficult negotiations are under way between Tehran and Washington aimed at opening dialogue on key issues
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Former British diplomat Alistair Crooke has claimed that debate inside the Pentagon is divided over Iran’s military capabilities and the potential impact of a direct conflict on Israel, arguing that some assessments suggest Israel may not be able to withstand such a war.
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.)
Israeli army, illegal settlers cut hundreds of trees, steal livestock in occupied West Bank
Between Jan. 22 and 29, Israeli forces and “extremist Jewish settlers” uprooted 884 olive trees and stole 360 head of livestock in the West Bank, directly undermining food security in the territory.
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The court dismissed an emergency injunction request, effectively allowing the continued demolition of parts of the UNRWA’s East Jerusalem headquarters and the ongoing disconnection of essential services.
*NOTE: UNRWA, the United Nations body with a mandate to help Palestinian refugees, has been serving nearly 6 million registered Palestine refugees refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, and elsewhere for decades as they wait for their internationally recognized right of return to be activated. After a years-long campaign to dismantle UNRWA, Israel outlawed the organization following an unsubstantiated accusation that 12 employees (out of a staff of 13,000) were part of the October 2023 attack. Israel’s brief dossier, allegedly proving their guilt, offered no compelling evidence. As of July 2025, Israel has still failed to provide evidence to back up its accusations against UNRWA.
To learn the real reason why UNRWA was banned from Gaza (and the West Bank), read this.
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Settler*-only IDF units functioning as ‘vigilante militias’ in West Bank
The hagmar (regional defense units) system had led to “the establishment of what are effectively settler militias within the IDF’s own ranks”, said Nadav Weiman, the executive director of Breaking the Silence, an advocacy group for former Israeli soldiers. “These soldier-settlers are driven by a violent, zero-sum ideology, and have all the authority of regular IDF soldiers to put that ideology into action.”
There is a long history of close collaboration between settlers and the Israeli military. Units in the West Bank regularly killed and injured civilians, including children, and failed to enforce laws protecting Palestinians from settler violence – but the widespread deployment of settler units marked a profound structural change (continue reading here).
*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. 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.
ALL IN A DAY’S WORK: MORE ISRAELI OCCUPATION ACTIONS ON FRIDAY:
Friday: West Bank Invasions, Abductions, And Violations
Army Abducts Two Siblings in Masafer Yatta as Colonizer Attacks Intensify
Israeli Forces Invade Several West Bank Areas
Two Palestinians injured in colonizer attack on Ma’azi Jaba’
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 airstrike on southern Lebanon
Lebanon’s state media reports fatal drone strike near Tyre; Israeli army claims it targeted Hezbollah operative.
*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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Israel forces target farmland in southern Syria’s* Quneitra countryside
*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.
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.)
Arab [i.e. Palestinian] neighborhoods* in Lod blocked off by Israeli police-placed concrete cubes
Israeli police “have turned these neighborhoods, which are part of the fabric of the city, into a kind of refugee camp in the territories. The checkpoints make it difficult to enter and exit the neighborhood, for emergency vehicles to arrive, and in general, for the families’ daily lives,” according to attorney Taysir Shaaban.
“Placing barriers in the heart of a mixed city, with Arab neighborhoods blocked and Jewish neighborhoods open, sharply exposes the deep discrimination in this policy. This is a move that has no basis in law and must be stopped immediately,” Attorney Abir Joubran of the Association for Civil Rights said (continue reading here).
*NOTE: This 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 and reported that Israel is indeed practicing apartheid, including: Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem, and Yesh Din , the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, the International Court of Justice, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), and Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic.
OTHER NEWS & HEADLINES:
Trump Again Bypasses U.S. Congress to Push $6 Billion in Weapons Sales to Israel
House Democratic Representative Gregory Meeks, the ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, described the move as shameful for “bypassing the Congressional Committee review process,” and as “repudiation by Donald Trump of Congress’ constitutional oversight role.”
“Shamefully, this is now the second time the Trump administration has blatantly ignored long-standing Congressional prerogatives while also refusing to engage Congress on critical questions about the next steps in Gaza and broader U.S. policy,” he wrote (continue reading here).
The approved sale includes 30 Apache helicopters, which Israeli forces have used to attack Palestinians amid the genocide in Gaza.
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Rev. Frederick D. Haynes III, the longtime pastor at the Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas who is running to replace Rep. Jasmine Crockett, said in a sermon the day after October 7th: “Watch in the news a disparity between Palestinians being killed and Israelis being killed,” he continued. “It is totally unfair, but this country is going to stand on the side of apartheid because that’s its track record. It stood by apartheid in South Africa, because it created apartheid in this country” (continue reading here).
*NOTE: Rev. Haynes is correct. See note following the article above on “Arab” neighborhoods in the Israeli city of Lod.
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Israeli Military Found Gaza Health Ministry Death Toll Was Accurate*. Will These Deniers Admit It?
NOTE: Since Israeli media reported that the military had accepted the Gaza health ministry’s estimate, the IDF has now denied those reports.
After more than two years of denying the number of Palestinians it is killing during its campaign in Gaza, the Israeli military decided the death toll estimate kept by the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip was an accurate count of those killed in the besieged territory.
The doubts sewn over the loss of Palestinian life laid the groundwork for persistent genocide denial that has helped to shield Israel from accountability. Continue reading here for a brief accounting of the people and institutions who have denied the Palestinian death tolls in Gaza throughout Israel’s genocide.
*NOTE: Israel’s acceptance of this figure is likely strategic, as much higher numbers are likely to appear soon. In January 2025, a peer-reviewed analysis of deaths in the Gaza war between October 2023 and 30 June 2024 was published in The Lancet. It concluded that the Gaza Health Ministry undercounted trauma-related deaths by 41% in its report, and also noted that its findings “do not account for non-trauma-related deaths resulting from health service disruption, food insecurity, and inadequate water and sanitation.” A comparable figure for January 2026 would put the true trauma-related death toll at 121,469 (37,288 children). Another roughly 10,000 Palestinians are buried under the millions of tons of rubble, and presumed dead.
The Lancet authors also noted that beyond trauma-related deaths, “indirect deaths range from three to 15 times the number of direct deaths.” Given the destroyed health-care infrastructure; severe shortages of food, water, and shelter; the population’s inability to flee to safe places; and the loss of funding to UNRWA,” indirect deaths are likely to be very high, but even applying a conservative ratio of 4:1, Gaza’s total death toll may be over 280,000.
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The U.S. occupation of Gaza has begun
The Board of Peace (BoP) itself has drawn the most attention, but it is not the focal point for Gaza. The BoP is being set up as an international force to challenge the United Nations. It is currently populated entirely by far-right and autocratic figures, and will likely stay that way.
The BoP will be headed by Donald Trump and his role as Board Chair is personal, disconnected from his role as President of the United States. He has full power over the Board’s composition and full veto power over all of its actions. Trump will remain in control of the BoP until he decides to leave or he dies, and he has the sole authority to name his successor. You couldn’t build a clearer autocracy (continue reading here).
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YouTube’s compliance with Israel ban violates press freedoms, Al Jazeera says
‘We strongly denounce YouTube’s submission to the Israeli authorities’ decision to ban the broadcast of our channels on the platform and the blocking of our websites in Israel,’ says Qatar-based broadcaster.
ICYMI, A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:
Israeli army pushes to ‘reduce’ Gaza aid during Phase Two of ceasefire: Report
Trump Claims ‘It Looks Like’ Hamas Will Disarm; That’s News to Hamas
(Read yesterday’s daily update here.)
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – JANUARY 30, 2026*:
- At least 72,777 Palestinians killed, 182,434 injured – including:
- At least 71,769** killed in Gaza (~22,000 children, 33,000 women and girls)
- At least 1,110 killed in the West Bank (~230 children)
- At least 171,483 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.
**Health authorities noted that 85 additional fatalities were recently added to the cumulative death toll after their identities were verified and formally approved by the “Martyrs’ Data Verification Committee” between January 23 and January 30, 2026.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 30, 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
