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 863rd day.)
Three Palestinians were killed and four others were injured on Wednesday in a series of Israeli airstrikes, shelling, and drone attacks across the devastated Gaza Strip.
Since the “ceasefire” began on October 11, Israel has killed at least 618 Palestinians. Over 1,663 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.)
17,000 Unaccompanied Orphans in Gaza, in World’s Biggest Orphan Crisis
Jonathan Crickx, the State of Palestine Chief of Communication for UNICEF, has revealed that his agency estimates that at least 17,000 children in Gaza are unaccompanied or separated – 1% of the overall displaced population of 1.7 million people. An estimated 39,000 children have lost one or both parents to Israeli bombardment, but about half of them have been taken in by relatives or strangers.
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Several Gazans Injured by Israeli Naval Gunfire off Gaza Coast
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday of the search for hostages in recent weeks: “It’s a tough thing to do, going through, bodies all over, passing up 100 bodies, sometimes, for each one that they found,” Trump said during his annual State of the Union address. “They found all 28. Nobody thought that was possible, but we did it,” he added.
RELATED: One excavator, 10,000 bodies, a sea of rubble: inside Gaza’s effort to retrieve and bury its dead
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As cooking gas becomes scarce in Gaza, families rely on black market for Ramadan
In Gaza, the end of the Israeli genocidal war is measured not only by ceasefires but also by the ability of families to light their stoves without worry.
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Gaza does not need new overlords
Gaza’s crisis was never a problem of governance or waiting for the right foreign administrator. It was, and remains, the product of a specific political structure: prolonged military occupation, a seventeen-year siege that strangled every dimension of life, and a settler-colonial project that treats Palestinian existence as an obstacle to be managed or removed. These are the roots. Everything else — the poverty, the misery, the desperation — is a symptom.
The U.S. plan for Gaza is the final stage of Israel’s genocide. Bombs and bulldozers obliterated Gaza’s landscape, and now skyscrapers and data centers aim to dismantle its social fabric and capacity to resist.
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.)
Rights group says Israel forcibly displaced 214 Bedouin families from Area C since start of 2026
A Palestinian human rights organization has reported the forcible displacement of 214 Bedouin and agricultural families from Area C of the occupied West Bank since the beginning of 2026, amid escalating settler attacks and continued Israeli control over land and planning.
*NOTE: Although some 400,000 Israeli settlers live in Area C of the West Bank (vs. about 300,000 Palestinians), Area C is part of Palestine. Area C, which includes over 60% of the West Bank, is under full Israeli administration in what was meant in 1995 to be a temporary arrangement.
To learn more about Areas A, B, and C, go here.
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US ‘normalizes annexation,’ offers passport services in illegal West Bank settlement*
In what Israel calls a “historic decision,” the US Embassy in Israel has begun offering on-site consular services in the occupied West Bank, allowing illegal Israeli settlers to renew or issue passports without having to travel to Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. The move has been described as “normalizing” illegal settlements and Israeli plans to annex the territory.
*NOTE: 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. Israeli settlers are sometimes referred to as “colonizers.”
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ALL IN A DAY’S WORK: MORE WEST BANK HEADLINES, WEDNESDAY:
Wednesday Dawn Invasions, Abductions And Injuries In West Bank
Israeli Colonizers Attack Palestinian Communities in West Bank
Israeli Army Intensifies Invasion of villages of Al‑Lubban ash‑Sharqiya
Soldiers Abduct A Palestinian Near Ramallah
Israeli Soldiers Injure Four Palestinians Near Hebron
*NOTE: Most home demolitions undertaken by Israel are due to Palestinians’ “building without a permit.” Israel admits that its construction permit system is highly discriminatory. Between 2016 and 2020, 99.1 percent of Palestinian requests for building permits were rejected, according to data provided by the IDF’s Civil Administration. According to UN data, at least 13,800 homes have been demolished, displacing over 22,000 Palestinians, since 2009.
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.)
Committee to Protect Journalists report says Israel also to blame for 81% of ‘intentionally targeted’ journalist killings. CPJ said this was the second consecutive record year for press fatalities, driven “primarily due to the actions of one government,” and argued that Israel’s “continued and unprecedented targeting of journalists and media workers” has helped push killings to an all-time high.
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).
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Israeli court acquits officer of journalist assault citing ‘7 October PTSD’
The Jerusalem Magistrate Court overturns an Israeli officer’s conviction despite video evidence of him beating a Palestinian reporter. Said the judge, “While the assault for which he was convicted is serious and crosses the criminal threshold, each case must be judged on its own merits. It would be inappropriate to categorically block the possibility of overturning a conviction, particularly for those in uniform who may have erred.”
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‘Obscene’: Modi’s Israel visit criticized online as ’embrace of fascism’
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s high-profile visit to Israel, framed as a ‘special relationship’, has triggered backlash online. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to Israel this week has people divided over what supporters are calling a strategic reaffirmation of the relationship and critics describing it as a political endorsement of Netanyahu during Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
RELATED: Modi in Israel: Strategic Partnership or Complicity in Genocide? – Analysis
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Israeli army launches new raid into Syria’s* Quneitra in new violation of country’s sovereignty
*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, 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.
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Is Israel imposing a West Bank-style occupation in south Syria?
Israeli troops have carried out several cross-border operations in the south of Syria in recent weeks, invading villages, raiding homes, and detaining civilians. While some detainees were later released, others were taken to undisclosed locations with no information on their fate. Israeli army raids, biometric data collection, and weekly arrests are normalizing a military administration in Syria’s southwest that resembles the West Bank.
Israel Fires on Lebanese* Troops Near Border, Launches Several Raids
Fresh off of Israel threatening to attack civilian infrastructure in Lebanon, Israeli ground troops launched multiple cross-border raids into Lebanon, destroying what they claimed were Hezbollah outposts.
*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. 80,000 residents remain displaced and unable to return home Additionally, Israel continues to occupy five Lebanese hilltops seized during the latest war, and other Lebanese areas it has held for decades.
OTHER NEWS & HEADLINES:
A two-hour State of the Union with zero vision for Gaza or Iran
Buried within the long, maudlin, combative, occasionally moving and never modest verbiage of President Donald Trump’s Tuesday State of the Union address was this uncomfortable truth: Trump has no idea what comes next in the Middle East. He didn’t even mention his pet initiative, the Board of Peace — surprising, given that the body met for the first time just last week.
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There’s No “Progressive Foreign Policy” Without a Reckoning for Dems Who Supported Genocide
Aiding and abetting a genocide makes you a war criminal, and progressive Democrats should, in principle, have no issues explicitly condemning war criminals. Genocide is a central moral transgression that needs to be faced head-on, not just referenced opaquely, or in passing, or as an abstraction we need to avoid in the future.
Its culprits within the Democratic party need to be called out by name and admonished before anyone can move on to a newer, kinder version of the Liberal Rules Based Order.
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BDS* victory: UK’s Newnham College agrees to divest from occupation and genocide
Newnham College, part of Cambridge University, has agreed to divest from companies linked to occupation, genocide and fossil fuels, following months of sustained pressure from students, staff and alumni.
The decision marks a significant breakthrough for campaigners from Newnham for Palestine, who launched their divestment campaign in October 2025. Organizers say the College had indirectly invested at least £20 million in companies they identified as complicit in occupation, human rights abuses and environmental destruction.
*NOTE: BDS, the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions movement, is a is a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity.
Israel is occupying and colonizing Palestinian land, discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel, and denying Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes. Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the BDS call urges action to pressure Israel to comply with international law.
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How the Gaza genocide is transforming Israel’s military relations with Europe
Israel once sold itself as the “most moral” army in the world to promote its arms and expertise to the West. Now, after October 7, the country is embracing its image as a garrison state to rebrand its weapons and worldview — and Europe is buying it.
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Mohsen Mahdawi: Trump administration is trying to imprison me, but I am a Palestinian who is not afraid
ICYMI, A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:
(Read yesterday’s daily update here.)
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – FEBRUARY 25, 2026*:
- At least 73,199 Palestinians killed, 182,761 injured – including:
- At least 72,082 killed in Gaza (~22,000 children, 33,000 women and girls)
- At least 1,117 killed in the West Bank (~230 children)
- At least 171,761 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 (some sources put the number of missing as high as 14,000); 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 25, 2026: ~1,661 – including ~1,139** on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 472 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)
- Are the Jews indigenous to Palestine?
- AIPAC Wants to Kill a Bill that would Ensure Israel Complies with Ceasefire
- Former Israeli PM, in Epstein Files, Dreamed of Israeli Eugenics and Pretty Converts
- Israeli settlers join ‘safari’ tour of Palestinian prisoners
- Fourteen Countries Condemn Huckabee’s Support for Israel Taking Over Most of the Middle East
- Israeli Soldiers Killed Gaza Aid Workers at Point Blank Range in 2025 Massacre: Report
- Israel’s insidious network to propagandize American Christians
- Israel’s Best-Kept Secret: Palestinian Resistance Never Agreed to Disarm
- Trump officials plan to build 5,000-person military base in Gaza, files show
- Are MAGA restrainers pulling their punches this time on Iran?
- The NY Times on the “MAGA” Split Over Israel & USS Liberty
- Footage Shows Israeli Troops Waiting in Ambush, Then Opening Fire on a Palestinian Teen
- The US is on the brink of a major new war that Trump has not even bothered explaining
- Latest Epstein document dump is one more cover-up
