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 864th day.)
Israeli forces killed three Palestinians and wounded several others on Thursday in a series of attacks across the 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.)
Israel’s top court temporarily halts govt move to block intl NGOs providing Gaza aid
Israel’s High Court has granted an interim injunction preventing the deportation from Israel of 37 international aid organizations operating in Gaza and the West Bank. The petition asked the court to issue an interim injunction preventing their deportation from the area at the end of the month.
According to the petition, the groups have invested approximately $500 million to provide emergency aid to residents of the Gaza Strip, including food, water and medical care. The petitioners argued that their deportation would cause the collapse of the entire aid system in Gaza and pose a danger to human life.
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Gazans only ask for their right to live with dignity
“Al-Zeitoun neighborhood is one of the largest in the Gaza Strip but today it’s the most devastated.” Palestinian Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal says that more than 600,000 people once called the area home, but since the start of the genocide, Israeli occupation forces have entered and destroyed it almost entirely. Standing amid the rubble, he says over 90 percent of residents are now without shelter, living in harsh conditions without the basics of life.
He describes a neighborhood stripped of water, electricity, sanitation, education and healthcare, where tens of thousands urgently need humanitarian intervention. Addressing the international community, human rights organisations and mediators, Basal says residents are not asking for the impossible, only for their right to live with dignity. He questions where international institutions are as families endure what he calls the collapse of every essential service.
🚨“Al-Zeitoun neighbourhood is one of the largest in the Gaza Strip but today it’s the most devastated.” Palestinian Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal says that more than 600,000 people once called the area home, but since the start of the genocide, Israeli occupation… pic.twitter.com/ZZjsbpcODD
— Translating Falasteen (Palestine) (@translatingpal) February 25, 2026
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.)
2025 was record year for [illegal] settlements*, NGO finds
An annual review by the Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now found that in 2025, a record number of legal settlements were either approved or retroactively legalized; a record number of illegal settlement outposts were established; a record number of housing units were approved in the planning process; and tenders for the construction of a record number of housing units were published.
Peace Now pointed out that while the government had failed to provide assistance for the thousands of Israelis evacuated during the war, it poured billions into settlement planning and building, “for the benefit of a handful of settlers in the government’s camp.”
*NOTE: Israeli settlements and settlers on Palestinian land are a violation of international law.
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Over 300 Palestinian structures demolished* by Israel in West Bank this year
Israel demolished 312 Palestinian residential and agricultural structures during the first six weeks of 2026, the Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights said Thursday. This is a “notable escalation,” and “these measures constitute grave breaches of international humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the destruction of private property in occupied territory except where absolutely required by military necessity,” the group said.
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.
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Over 65,000 Jewish activists entered Al-Aqsa* compound in 2025: Report
Annual findings show 22% rise in entries to contested holy site alongside increased political visits. New Israeli access measures were also implemented in what are viewed as attempts to alter the longstanding status quo at the holy compound and impose a new reality there.
*NOTE: Anyone can visit the Al Aqsa Mosque grounds, but only Muslims are allowed to pray there, according to an understanding known as the ‘status quo agreement,’ under which, since 1967, Israel has formally pledged to allow Muslims to pray at the site, while Jews pray at the Western Wall below. In practice, however, restrictions have steadily eroded, particularly since 2023 (after extremist Itamar Ben Gvir became Minister of National Security). Many Palestinians fear this erosion will lead to open conflict.
ALL IN A DAY’S WORK: MORE WEST BANK HEADLINES, THURSDAY:
Thursday: Dawn Invasion, Abductions and Violations in the West Bank
Thursday’s Colonizers Violations In West Bank
Israeli Forces Intensify Invasion of al‑Lubban ash‑Sharqiya
Army Issues Demolition Orders of Homes in Bethlehem and Jerusalem
Israeli Forces Shoot 2 Children Near Ramallah, Abduct 1 in Hebron
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.)
Israel transfers withheld* Palestinian Authority funds to Israeli families in compensation cases
Israeli authorities have transferred 258 million shekels (approximately $71.6 million) from withheld Palestinian Authority (PA) funds to Israeli families who claim damages from attacks carried out by Palestinians, according to a report by Israeli broadcaster i24 News.
*NOTE: Israel collects import/export taxes on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, which is supposed to be handed over for the PA’s operating budget. Israel regularly keeps back some of this revenue (an amount now totaling over $4 billion), claiming it is being used illegally for the so-called Pay-For-Slay program (Palestinians often call it the Martyr’s Fund) – a social safety net for the Palestinian families that have lost their breadwinner due to the conflict with Israel.
Many “martyrs” were not killers or attackers, but were themselves killed while walking to school, participating in a peaceful demonstration, or sleeping in their beds – but Israel does not differentiate, claiming the program encourages Palestinians to volunteer for suicide missions.
Notably, Israel has its own compensation program for families of IDF soldiers killed or injured in the line of duty, as does the US. For a deep dive into the topic, read The Legitimacy of Family Compensation for Palestinians Killed, Injured, and Imprisoned.
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Israeli official organizes ‘prison tour’ for Jewish settlers to observe torture of Palestinians
Israeli prison authorities gave a tour of a maximum-security facility to Jewish settlers where they held a “Torah lesson” and observed the abuse of Palestinian prisoners, Israeli media reported recently. Palestinian detainees were handcuffed and forced to lie on the ground to be observed by the visitors, who then ate an “indulgent lunch” in front of the prisoners, who were fasting for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
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Israeli attacks on Lebanon*’s Bekaa Valley kill Syrian** teenager
One killed and 29 others wounded in latest Israeli attack in violation of ceasefire.
*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.
*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.
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.)
All of today’s headlines from Israeli media revolve around one topic: Israel’s global reputation.
- A Gallup poll shows that for the first time, Americans sympathize with Palestinians more than Israelis
- Israeli President Herzog worries that a recent settler attack puts Israel in a bad light, and harms the settler project (a project that violates international law)
- An Israeli author believes Israel’s image is suffering because the world’s younger generation is being “swayed by hostile influencers”
- Some Israeli officials think that if Israel pays compensation for a few “high-profile” Gazan deaths, that will rebuild the state’s legitimacy.
All three of these premises ignore the real reason for Israel’s loss of popularity: its embrace of the policies of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, occupation, rape, and genocide. When the Israeli government and pro-Israel organizations, billionaires, and leaders pour massive effort and huge sums into propaganda; when they assemble media conglomerates and thought leaders to control the narrative, and affix the “antisemite” label to advocates of Palestinian rights – all in an attempt to renovate Israel’s reputation – they are misdirecting their effort.
When Israel dismantles its apartheid and adopts equal rights for all, when it ends its 77-year war against Palestinian existence – then it might expect to enjoy support again.
In First, Israelis No Longer Ahead of Palestinians in U.S. Sympathies, Poll Shows
Gallup, which conducted telephone interviews over the first two weeks of February of 1,001 American adults aged 18 and over, found that 41 percent said that they are more sympathetic toward Palestinians, compared to the 36 percent who are more sympathetic to Israelis. Although this gap is not large, Gallup notes that for the past 25 years, Israelis were consistently ahead of Palestinians by a double-digit lead.
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Herzog says settler attack in West Bank harms Israel’s reputation*, settler project
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the settler attack that left four wounded in the West Bank on Friday harms Israel’s reputation: “This serious incident joins a number of recent harsh and unacceptable events that, first and foremost, harm the settlement enterprise and the good name of the State of Israel in the world.”
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‘Israel’s global image is in the worst state it has been since its inception’
Hen Mazzig, the founder of the Tel Aviv Institute to Combat Antisemitism, activist and author, warns October 7 fallout has fueled unprecedented antisemitism worldwide, says younger generation being swayed by hostile influencers.
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Israeli officials consider paying some Gazan war victims to rebuild global legitimacy
Officials raised a controversial idea to free Israel from the black and white debate of war crimes without admitting criminal fault, starting the painstaking process of rebuilding Israeli legitimacy, by paying compensation in a small number of high-profile cases in which Palestinians were killed during the war.
IRAN NEWS & HEADLINES:
US-Iran talks conclude with claims of progress but few details
Another round of indirect talks between Iranian and United States officials ended with a mediator claiming “significant progress” but still no clear evidence that either side was willing to concede enough on their positions to avoid war.
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Trump advisors want Israel to ‘attack Iran first,’ let US troops get hit to muster public support for war: Report
Senior US officials want Israel to strike Iran before Washington launches a renewed assault on the country, POLITICO reported, to gain more support among US voters for war.
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How Trump’s 2026 Iran ‘war’ script echoes and twists the 2003 Iraq playbook
Analysts say the US administration is recycling the rhetoric of 2003 to justify a new escalation against Iran, but with a fractured team, isolated diplomacy, and a dangerous ‘information chaos’.
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US fears Iran war will ‘deplete’ air defenses stretched thin by Ukraine, Israel
Military officials and lawmakers in Washington have warned that a prolonged war with Iran could stretch US military stockpiles of air defense interceptor missiles “to the brink and make the country more vulnerable,” POLITICO reported on 26 February. Israeli intelligence says the US has enough munitions to sustain only a five-day aerial assault against Iran.
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Iran has already said the “secret words,” over and over
President Trump falsely claimed during his State of the Union address on Tuesday that Iran refuses to say it will never develop a nuclear weapon: “We are in negotiations with them; they want to make a deal but we haven’t heard those secret words: We will never have a nuclear weapon.”
But Iran has been explicitly saying they will never develop a nuclear weapon this entire time, and they literally said it again on the day of Trump’s speech. Whether or not you believe Iran’s claim, it is an indisputable fact that Trump and his speech writers brazenly lied to the American public about Iran refusing to say the words “We will never have a nuclear weapon”.
They say that all the time, and literally said it again today https://t.co/kU8bLvEtXY pic.twitter.com/rkc3aA7gr3
— Dave DeCamp (@DecampDave) February 24, 2026
He did the meme. https://t.co/wc5kMWEwPc pic.twitter.com/ArlQP3PKDS
— Harrison H. Smith ✞ (@HarrisonHSmith) February 26, 2026
OTHER NEWS & HEADLINES:
Activists plan 200-boat flotilla* to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza
The initiative brings together the Freedom Flotilla and the “Caravan of Steadfastness” in what organizers say will be a fleet of 200 boats set to sail on 12 April from Mediterranean ports in Spain, Italy and Tunisia, carrying thousands of participants from roughly 150 countries.
Beyond delivering humanitarian aid, the flotilla also aims to bring medical personnel, teachers, infrastructure specialists, environmental engineers, lawyers and war crimes investigators to Gaza. More than 1,000 doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers are expected to take part.
*NOTE: Read about the Gaza Flotilla 2025 missions here and here, and the deadly 2010 mission here; find out about the global flotilla movement here.
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Biden delivered the Country to Trump, disbelieving Gaza Death Statistics; they were Underestimates
We don’t know what Biden was thinking. He got the daily situation reports on Gaza. Young staffers showed him the pictures of the dead, but he is said to have remained unmoved.
We do know that Biden was gaslighted by the Israelis into doubting the Gaza Ministry of Health statistics on deaths in Gaza. He said publicly, “I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed.”
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Ro Khanna to introduce sweeping resolution condemning Israeli settlements*, settler violence
The resolution would get members of US Congress on the record regarding Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.
*NOTE: Israel has built around 280 settlements and 256 outposts, home to over 700,000 illegal settlers, on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. 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. Israeli settlers are sometimes referred to as “colonizers.”
Learn more about Israeli settler violence here and here.
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Pro-Palestine International Students Have Won in Court. Why Hasn’t Mahmoud Khalil Won His Freedom?
One of Trump’s tricks is to send people to Louisiana where they get harsher treatment. Mahmoud Khalil is pointing out the iniquity of it.
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Family of UN official sanctioned* by US over Israel criticism sues White House
The family of independent UN investigator Francesca Albanese has sued the Trump administration over US sanctions imposed on her last year for her criticism of Israel’s policies during the war with Hamas in Gaza. Albanese’s husband and minor child outlined the serious impact those sanctions have had on the family’s life. The family can not access their home in Washington DC.
According to the lawsuit, Albanese’s first amendment rights were violated when she voiced her opinion about the Gaza war.
*NOTE: The Trump administration (and the Biden administration before it) has thrown its full weight of support on Israel. The result is that the US is punishing one individual for speaking about war crimes, but not another person who is wanted for committing war crimes.
Israel has run an almost decade-long secret “war” against the International Criminal Court, deploying its intelligence agencies to surveil, hack, pressure, smear, and allegedly threaten senior ICC staff in an effort to derail the court’s inquiries into Israeli leaders’ crimes. Read more here.
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Blood tech: UK’s use of Israeli spyware* that helps underpin a genocide
Despite its public objections to Israel’s actions, the UK is buying spyware developed and tested on Palestinians.
*NOTE: Read about Israel’s highly profitable weapons and surveillance industry, thanks to their marketability as “battle-tested” here and here.
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Israeli influence over German defense is growing
German Navy receives BlueWhale submarine, developed by Thyssenkrupp and Israel Aerospace Industries, following Germany’s historic $6.7B procurement of Israeli Arrow 3 missiles.
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The families of dead Australian soldiers whose graves were bulldozed by the Israeli military in Gaza have called for reparations and urged the Australian government to hold Israel accountable.
ICYMI, A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:
(Read yesterday’s daily update here.)
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – FEBRUARY 26, 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 26, 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)
- Democrats Should Release Their 2024 Election Autopsy – and Stop the Gaza Denial
- Israel warns of a Ramadan escalation — while doing everything to provoke one
- 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
