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 846th day.)
Israeli forces killed two Palestinians on Friday in the Gaza Strip, despite the so‑called ceasefire that Israel has violated daily since October.
Since the “ceasefire” began on October 11, Israel has killed at least 576 Palestinians (288 children, women, and elderly). At least 1,543 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 1,520 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.
Leading doctor reports alleged Israeli abuses against Gaza victims’ bodies
Dr Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza, reported on bodies and “boxes of remains” that were recently handed over by Israel, with evidence of organ theft and severe mutilation, including amputated limbs.
He said Israel handed over 66 boxes, which were later found to contain only skulls, describing this as a sign of the brutal treatment of the bodies. Many of the bodies were so mutilated that it would be impossible for family members to identify them (continue reading here).
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Israel’s war on Gaza’s healthcare continues in full force under ‘ceasefire’
Missiles and gunfire continue to target Gaza’s medics while tens of thousands of patients remain trapped without treatment as the world looks away.
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US Amb. Huckabee says Rafah is opening slowly to not ‘bring terrorists* in, or take them out’
People entering and leaving Gaza through the Rafah border crossing have to be properly vetted to avoid terrorists entering or leaving Gaza, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said.
*NOTE: 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.
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Israel secretly backs armed militias* in Gaza: Report
*NOTE: Israel’s support for Palestinian militias has been reported for months (see here and here for example), but today’s report adds detail, and comments on the unpopularity and skepticism surrounding the strategy.
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WATCH: Israeli army hits 3-story building in Gaza despite ceasefire:
NOTABLE QUOTE: “AIPAC* is a right-wing org that undermines democracy”
Alexandria Ocassio-Cortez, on Israel lobbying org AIPAC (American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and its outsized influence over Congress:
I hope Dems begin to see that moderate or progressive, AIPAC is not our friend…if you so much as suggest the US uphold its own Leahy laws, no matter your record, they will work against you. They are a right-wing organization that undermines democracy.
They have zero tolerance for any diversity of thought from their line, and pressure elected officials to increasingly place themselves at odds with our responsibility to represent the electorate and the views of the majority of Americans, who find the genocide in Gaza an appalling affront to American values and do not want to see US taxpayer funded weapons used to perpetuate it.
AIPAC also knows this. That’s why none of their political ads discuss their actual issue at all and why they use vaguely named Super PACs so people don’t connect them with their own stated political mission and intent.
*NOTE: AIPAC, which by law should be registered as a foreign agent, is on a mission to keep Congress filled with the best pro-Israel legislators that money can buy. The group “babysits” each Congress member that has accepted AIPAC donations, to make sure they vote for any bill that helps Israel. AIPAC is often deeply involved in political campaigns, giving money to candidates on both sides of the aisle.
Public opinion in the U.S. is shifting away from support for Israel but few politicians seem to notice, choosing to obey their babysitter, instead of their constituents.
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 forces detain journalists, foreign activists in southern West Bank following settler* attacks
Osama Makhamera, a Palestinian activist involved in resisting settlement expansion, said that after illegal settlers attacked residents of the Masafer Yatta region, south of Hebron, Israeli forces stormed the area and detained two foreign solidarity activists and a Palestinian anti-settlement activist. The activists were documenting attacks carried out by illegal settlers.
*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.
(*NOTE: Learn about Israeli settler violence here and here.)
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ALL IN A DAY’S WORK: MORE ISRAELI OCCUPATION ACTIONS ON FRIDAY:
Colonizers Poison Fields, Soldiers Abduct 3 Palestinians In Hebron
Ongoing Israeli Colonizer Attacks in West Bank
Invasions And Abductions In West Bank
Jerusalem Man Forced to Demolish His Home in Silwan
Friday Update: West Bank Violations, Serious Injury And Abductions
Occupation Forces Critically Injure a Child Near Jerusalem
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.)
Widespread anger after racist attack on Palestinian schoolchildren in Israel
Israeli settler students attacked Palestinian children who were citizens of Israel near Beit She’an, leading to outrage amid inaction by Israeli authorities.
Netanyahu again dodges responsibility for Oct. 7 failures, blames army, past gov’ts
Israeli premier submits responses to state comptroller rejecting personal accountability.
OTHER NEWS & HEADLINES:
Pentagon Makes Largest Known Arms Purchase from Israel — For Banned Cluster Weapons
The Department of Defense has quietly signed a $210 million deal to buy advanced cluster shells from one of Israel’s state-owned arms companies, marking unusually large new commitments to a class of weapons and an Israeli defense establishment both widely condemned for their indiscriminate killing of civilians.
The deal, signed in September and not previously reported, is the department’s largest contract to purchase weapons from an Israeli company in available records, according to an online federal database that covers the last 18 years.
“They are inherently indiscriminate,” said Brian Castner, an Amnesty International weapons investigator and former U.S. Air Force explosive ordnance disposal officer. “There’s not a way to use them responsibly, in that you can’t control where they land, and with this high dud rate you can’t control the effect on the civilian population afterwards (continue reading here).
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Global Sumud Flotilla to launch ‘largest relief operation in history’ for Gaza
More than 1,000 doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers, along with teachers, engineers, reconstruction teams, and war crimes investigators, will participate.
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US lawmaker calls for halt to weapons transfers to Israel amid Gaza violence
‘There is no ceasefire in Gaza. US-supplied bombs are still being used to murder Palestinians,’ says congresswoman Delia Ramirez.
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Pentagon cuts funding for military training programs at Harvard University
Harvard ‘is one of the red hot centers of Hate America activism,’ says Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth.
Washington imposes ‘terrorist-grade sanctions’ on Francesca Albanese, ICC judges
White House officials have used “terrorist-grade sanctions” to target officials from the International Criminal Court (ICC) and UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, freezing assets and disrupting war crimes investigations. Washington is reportedly seeking to penalize the ICC over investigations into US and Israeli war crimes.
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US plans Board of Peace meeting on Feb. 19 to fundraise for Gaza reconstruction
Diplomats say 26 countries invited to meeting, overlapping with Netanyahu’s Washington visit; doubts persist over Hamas disarmament, Israeli withdrawal and Gaza postwar governance.
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Poland’s foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said Trump’s $1B levy should not be assumed without clear justification. “I want to hear why the Polish taxpayer should rebuild Gaza, which we didn’t destroy.”
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DOJ records show Jeffrey Epstein donated thousands to Israeli army, Jewish National Fund
As more revelations point to the convicted pedophile having deep ties with the Israeli government, western news outlets are pushing the claim that Epstein worked on behalf of Russia.
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Palestine Action-linked remand prisoner Umer Khalid admitted to hospital
After his heart rate slowed and organs failed due to his hunger strike, Umer Khalid, 22, has been hospitalized again.
ICYMI, A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:
Settlers Cross Into Gaza as Hundreds of Far-right Israelis Hold Event Vowing Resettlement
Global Sumud Flotilla announces new Gaza aid mission
(Read yesterday’s daily update here.)
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – FEBRUARY 6, 2026*:
- At least 73,139 Palestinians killed, 182,651 injured – including:
- At least 72,027** killed in Gaza (~22,000 children, 33,000 women and girls)
- At least 1,112 killed in the West Bank (~230 children)
- At least 171,651 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; 5,000 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.
**Note: The number of 174 martyrs was added to the cumulative statistics of the martyrs, of whom their identification and certification was completed by the Committee on Certification of the Shahada 30/01/2026 to 06/02/2026.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – February 6, 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)
- AIPAC Coordinates Donors in Illinois House Primaries
- Geneva Academy warns Gaza death toll could top 200,000
- Media ignore allegations that Israel raped German journalist
- Former Israeli PM: Settlers are Aiding and Abetting Jewish Rioters in the West Bank
- Tucker Carlson sheds light on Christian-Muslim harmony in Palestine, Jordan
- Revealed: Private jet owned by Trump friend used by ICE to deport Palestinians to West Bank
- Bypassing Oversight to Rush Billions in Arms to Israel
- In Honor of My Friend, Mary Hughes Thompson
- The Truth About Gaza’s Death Toll – Part 3: What Do We Actually Know?
- The Truth About Gaza’s Death Toll – Part 2: A Gross Undercount
- The Truth About Gaza’s Dead – Part 1: How We Got Here
- A deadly meningitis outbreak is threatening Gaza’s children
- Trump signs bill ending shutdown, with more than $4 billion for Israel
- How Human Rights Watch Killed a Report Calling Israel’s Denial of Palestinians’ Right of Return a Crime Against Humanity
