Israel has cut off what little electricity Gaza had left – Gaza in limbo Day 9

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

Five more Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Sunday despite an ongoing ceasefire deal, the Health Ministry said on Sunday.

NOTE: The 42-day ceasefire (“Phase One”) between Israel and Gaza ended on Saturday night, March 1, but Phase Two has not begun. Phase Two, which all parties agreed to in January, would include a permanent end to the war, the return of all remaining living Israeli hostages and a number of Palestinian prisoners, and the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza.

Israel to establish ‘migration administration’ to facilitate ethnic cleansing of Gaza

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on 9 March that the government would establish a “migration administration” to facilitate the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and lands in the Gaza Strip.

“We are establishing a migration administration, we are preparing for this under the leadership of the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and Defense Minister [Israel Katz],” Smotrich said at a Land of Israel Caucus at the Knesset.

“The budget will not be an obstacle,” he added.

Smotrich claimed that “sources in the American government” agreed “that it’s impossible for two million people with hatred towards Israel to remain at a stone’s throw from the border.”

“If we remove 5,000 a day, it will take a year,” he said. “This is a huge logistical operation – not just the bus that takes them, we need to know who is going, to which country, what ages, vocational training, a huge operation, we are preparing.”

“This has the potential to create a historic change in the Middle East and for the state of Israel,” explained Smotrich, who has repeatedly backed resuming the war rather than reaching a ceasefire to win the return of Israeli captives still held by Hamas in Gaza.

Columbia University student ‘abducted and detained’ after pro-Palestine activism

A leading Palestinian activist and negotiator at the Gaza solidarity encampment at Columbia University has been “abducted and detained” by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to a US-based pro-Palestinian group.

Mahmoud Khalil, an Algerian citizen of Palestinian heritage and a US green card holder, was detained by DHS agents on Saturday evening following a targeted campaign by pro-Israel activists at the university, said Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG).

In a statement released on Sunday, WAWOG said DHS agents initially refused to identify themselves and threatened Khalil’s eight-month-pregnant wife with detention if she stayed with her husband.

When the agents claimed that Khalil’s student visa had been revoked, his wife presented them with his green card. Despite this, one of the agents was overheard on the phone confirming Khalil’s green card status but later claimed that the State Department had “revoked that too”.

During the incident, Khalil’s wife contacted his attorney, who asked the agents to provide a copy of the warrant. The agents reportedly hung up without presenting one.

Khalil is currently being held in detention with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and set to appear before an immigration judge.

“A Palestinian student and member of the community has been abducted and detained without the physical demonstration of a warrant or officially filed charges,” WAWOG said in a statement.

“Like many other Arab and Muslim students, Khalil has been the target of various Zionist harassment campaigns, fueled by doxxing websites like Canary Mission. This racist targeting serves to instil fear in pro-Palestine activists as well as a warning to others,” the group added.

The arrest follows Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s recent announcement that foreign nationals who express support for Hamas or other groups the administration designates “terrorist organizations”* will face visa denial and deportation.

*NOTE: The use of the word “terrorist” to describe a 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. Hamas has clearly and openly stated that its enemy is not the Jewish people, but the supremacist ideology of Zionism – the ideology under which Israel dispossessed 750,000 Palestinian people and exiled them to Gaza and other locations. 

FOR MORE ON THIS STORY: DHS Detains Lead Negotiator of Columbia Gaza Solidarity Encampment, Claiming “Activities Aligned to Hamas”

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IMEMC Daily Reports

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – MARCH 9, 2025 (ongoing count):

• At least 49,378 Palestinians killed, 119,755 injured – including:
• at least 48,446 killed in Gaza (~14,550 children)
• at least 932 killed in the West Bank (~186 children)
• at least 111,852 injured in Gaza
• at least 7,903 injured in the West Bank

WAR STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 (Hamas attack) – JANUARY 22, 2025 (Ceasefire):

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 19, 2025: at least 48,143 – including at least 47,283 in Gaza (~20,600 children), and 916 in the West Bank (~183 children). Palestinian injuries: at least 118,472 – including at least 111,629 in Gaza, and 7,000 in the West Bank.

Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 11,000 more are still buried under rubble.

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 19, 2025: ~1,616 (or 1,590) – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 436 (or 405) military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.