Israel limits medical evacuation from Gaza

Palestinians set up tents among the debris of their demolished houses following the ceasefire agreement, in Gaza City, Gaza on January 28, 2025 (Hamza Z H Qraiqea/ Anadolu Agency)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

Rescue teams Tuesday announced the removal of the remains of 19 bodies from an informal cemetery on Ath-Thawra Street, west of Gaza City.

According to figures released by the Gaza Health Ministry, some 534 bodies were recovered from the rubble since a ceasefire deal took hold in Gaza on Jan. 19.

(Watch for special coverage of Trump’s Tuesday statements on Gaza – coming soon.)

Thousands of sick, injured Gazans await evacuation at Rafah crossing with only a ‘lucky few’ allowed to travel

Amid Gaza’s unrelenting nightmare, 123 Palestinian patients and wounded civilians crossed the Rafah border since it was reopened on Saturday, clutching onto their last hope for survival.

Many had waited for weeks, even months, in overcrowded hospitals, denied basic care.

Gaza’s hospitals are shattered by Israeli airstrikes, their corridors filled with the anguished cries of the wounded. Whoever is left of doctors work beyond exhaustion; their supplies are nearly depleted because Israel has been blocking aid. Bandages are reused, painkillers rationed, and life-saving surgeries are delayed until it is too late.

Ahmed Zaqout, the health ministry director in Khan Younis in the south of Gaza, remarked to The New Arab, “the number of those who left Gaza in three days is not enough as there are about 12,000 patients and wounded who need to leave Gaza for treatment.”

Based on the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, about 200 patients and wounded people are supposed to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, which is still under Israeli siege.

“Because of the complex bureaucratic procedures, patients’ travel was delayed today as the Israeli authorities have not provided the approved list of names,” Zaqout said.

“Every day, we watch people suffer unbearable pain. We want to help, but our hospitals are collapsing. We don’t have enough doctors, medicine, or beds. More than 3,000 patients urgently need to leave. Each day they wait, their chances of survival fade,” he explained.

Palestinian patients enter Egypt as Rafah crossing opens after nine months (screengrab)

West Bank: Lone resistance fighter storms Israeli army post, shooting several soldiers

A lone resistance fighter infiltrated the Israeli military post near a checkpoint in the village of Tayasir at around 6:00 am on February 4, and began opening fire at troops before being killed.

A view of the Israeli occupation guard tower near the Tayasir military roadblock, after an exchange of fire on Feb. 4, 2025 in the West Bank (IMEMC)

The fighter managed to take control of the upper floor of the Israeli watchtower at the post while continuing to clash with the soldiers, Israel’s Channel 13 reported.

According to an Israeli army probe, the resistance fighter managed to reach the post undetected – surprising two soldiers. He was armed with an M16 machine gun, had two magazines, and was wearing a tactical vest, the probe revealed.

It added that he entered the post and managed to reach the watchtower, but fled when soldiers returned fire. It also said he was killed when a soldier threw a grenade at him, and others opened fire.

The watchtower is located in the occupied West Bank, northeast of the town of Tubas.

The incident comes at a time when the Israeli military continues its siege on the Al-Far’a refugee camp and the town of Tammun, southwest and south of Tubas, for the third consecutive day.

NOTE: Israel has reportedly installed some 900 checkpoints all over the West Bank, which severely restrict Palestinian movement on their own land. The stated purpose for these checkpoints is “security” for Israeli settlers living in the West Bank.

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. Israeli settlements and settlers on Palestinian land are a violation of international law, and considered by many Palestinians to be the main barrier to any lasting peace agreement.

Some settler groups, moreover, have a history of violence against Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces.

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.

A thousand days of Israeli impunity, still no justice for Shireen Abu Akleh

Veteran Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh was killed 1,000 days ago while covering an Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on May 11, 2022.

She was wearing a helmet and a clearly marked press vest when she was killed in what the Al Jazeera Media Network condemned as a “cold-blooded assassination”.

News agencies, rights groups and the United Nations have all conducted investigations into her killing and concluded that Abu Akleh was killed – likely deliberately – by Israeli troops.

A household name in the Arabic-speaking world, Abu Akleh was a Palestinian-American journalist who covered the brutal Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory for 25 years.

On the day she was killed, she was with several colleagues in a safe area away from clashes and crossfire, although there was an Israeli army convoy about 200 metres (660 feet) away.

The shooting was caught on video and showed Abu Akleh falling to the ground, motionless. Her colleagues who tried to come to her aid were shot at (continue reading here).

UNRWA says 30,000 Palestinians displaced in Israel’s Jenin camp raids

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says the displacement comes after Israel destroyed large sections of the refugee camp in the northern West Bank in a series of controlled detonations at the weekend.

UNRWA’s communications director, Juliette Touma, said the detonations destroyed or seriously damaged about 100 buildings. They took place at a time when children were scheduled to return to school.

Touma added that 13 UNRWA-run schools in the camp, which serve about 5,000 children, remain closed.

NOTE: UNRWA, the main U.N. agency that aids Palestinians, stands apart from other agencies in the international body. Its 30,000 employees — mostly Palestinians — operate schools, medical clinics, job-training centers, food banks and even garbage collection for six million Palestinians across Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank.

Israel has long tried to dismantle UNWRA’s humanitarian support of Palestinian refugees. The 6-page dossier Israel issued, allegedly proving the guilt of twelve UNRWA employees out of a staff of 13,000, reportedly offers no compelling evidence – yet powerful countries have halted their financial support for the organization.

Israeli attacks continue at the Jenin Refugee Camp and in the north of Jenin, West Bank on February 04, 2025. (Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency)

US Education Department launches probe over “antisemitism” at 5 universities

In a statement on Monday, the US Department of Education said that following US President Donald Trump’s executive order on combating antisemitism, it has launched investigations into five universities “where widespread antisemitic harassment has been reported.”

These actions come in response “to the explosion of antisemitism” on US campuses after the Oct. 7, 2023 start of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

The institutions being investigated include Columbia University, Northwestern University, Portland State University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, all of which saw Pro-Palestine demonstrations.

NOTE: Pro-Israel organizations consistently work to silence Palestine advocacy on campus – a free speech violation. One strategy they use is to pressure universities to officially adopt the IHRA “definition” of antisemitism, which defines legitimate criticism of Israel as antisemitic. Other strategies include blocking prestigious appointments of and events with supporters of Palestinian rights, threatening to withhold major donations, and more.

Typically, any move that defies the standard pro-Israel position is followed by an apology like the one Sonoma State University’s president Mike Lee issued – an apology that recognizes only the sentiments of pro-Israel students and ignoring the actual issues of free speech and divestment from Israel.

Pro-Palestine demonstrations on college campuses have overall been peaceful and non-confrontational, and have notably included a significant number of Jewish students. When there has been violence, it has come from pro-Israel counter-protesters and police.

The silencing of pro-Palestine campus protest violates students’ and professors’ rights to free speech.

Police intervene and arrest more than 100 students at New York University (NYU) who continue their demonstration on campus in solidarity with the students at Columbia University and to oppose Israel’s attacks on Gaza, in New York, United States on April 22, 2024 ([Fatih Aktaş – Anadolu Agency])

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By welcoming Israeli PM Netanyahu, wanted by the ICC to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the United States is showing contempt for international justice.

— Amnesty MENA (@AmnestyMENA) February 4, 2025

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are meeting on Tuesday.

The US will remain complicit in Israel’s atrocities in Gaza so long as it continues to provide Israel with arms. Read more: https://t.co/QLXnU0i25W pic.twitter.com/O22LN6P2x6

— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) February 4, 2025

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – FEBRUARY 4, 2025 (ongoing count):

At least 62,604 Palestinians killed, 118,592 injured – including:

at least 61,709 killed in Gaza (~20,600 children)
at least 895 killed in the West Bank (~179 children)
at least 111,629 injured in Gaza
at least 7,000 injured in the West Bank

WAR STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 (Hamas attack) – JANUARY 19, 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 860 in the West Bank (~177 children). Palestinian injuries: at least 118,472 – including at least 111,472 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.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

Israel limits medical evacuation from Gaza, as West Bank heats up – Ceasefire Day 16