Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
Israeli occupation forces assassinated a 25-year-old Palestinian man on Thursday in Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus, and detained his body, according to security sources.
A Palestinian prisoner, a 34-year-old man, died under the harsh conditions of Israeli detention on Thursday. Before his detention he did not suffer from health problems; he leaves behind a wife and a child.
The number of killed among the prisoners and detainees in the occupation prisons since the beginning of the war has now reached 60 (this includes only those whose identities are known), including at least 39 from Gaza.
Two people were killed Thursday in a new Israeli airstrike in northwestern Lebanon despite a ceasefire agreement in place, said media reports.
Hundreds of Palestinians freed from Israeli jails after weeklong hold up
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners were let out from Israel’s prisons early on 27 February in exchange for the handover of the bodies of four Israeli captives who were held in Gaza, as part of the seventh and final round of exchanges for phase one of the ceasefire.
The bodies of the four Israeli captives were handed over silently and not covered by the media, as Tel Aviv had demanded that Hamas refrain from holding its customary captive release ceremony.
The seventh batch of Palestinians released, according to the Prisoners Club and the Commission of Prisoners and Freed Prisoners Affairs, includes 641 detainees, 151 of whom were serving life sentences and long sentences, 42 of whom were released to the West Bank, including Jerusalem, 97 of whom were deported outside the country, 12 from the Gaza Strip who were arrested before October 7, 2023, and 445 from Gaza who were arrested after October 7, 2023, in addition to 45 women and children from Gaza.
The world’s longest-serving political prisoner, Nael al-Barghouti, referred to as the “dean” of Palestinian detainees, was among those released and exiled to Egypt.
He spent 45 years in Israeli custody, including 34 consecutive years. He was released in 2011 as part of the Gilad Shalit deal that saw 1,000 prisoners, including late Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, get released. However, he was rearrested in 2014 and slapped with a renewed life sentence.
RELATED: West treats Palestinian men as guilty
Israel stomps on Gaza ceasefire deal, refuses withdrawal from Philadelphi corridor
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on 27 February that Tel Aviv will not withdraw its army from the Philadelphi corridor on the southern Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt, marking a stark violation of the ceasefire agreement signed last month.
“We also have information that Hamas is planning to attack soldiers and towns during the ceasefire,” Katz claimed during a meeting.
“The Philadelphia axis will remain a buffer zone, just as is the case in Lebanon and Syria,” the defense minister added, openly confirming that Israeli forces will not withdraw from the area. “I have seen with my own eyes a fair number of tunnels that penetrate Philadelphia, some of which were closed and others open,” Katz went on to say.
During the meeting with settlement council leaders, Katz said phase one of the ceasefire agreement is “complete.” He also said that Israel only agreed to a deal to return its captives, and that it is ready to return to war.
The Israeli Army Radio also reported on the same day that Tel Aviv “has backed down from its commitment to withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor at the end of the first phase of the exchange deal.”
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Israeli army’s 7 Oct probe further confirms implementation of Hannibal Directive
A top-level internal probe of the Israeli army’s failures on 7 October 2023 has reaffirmed that the air force was ordered to carry out the Hannibal Directive a few hours after the Palestinian resistance in Gaza launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
The Hannibal Directive is a long-standing Israeli military protocol aimed at preventing the capture of Israeli hostages, even at the risk of their lives.
According to the report, at around 10:30am, the air force began firing on “anything that moved” near the Gaza border. At the same time, Israeli pilots were tasked with carrying out the previously undisclosed “Sword of Damocles” operation, which focused “on striking Hamas targets inside Gaza.”
By the end of the day, the air force carried out 945 attacks on the Gaza envelope, with helicopters firing 11,000 shells on both Hamas fighters and Israeli settlers and soldiers (continue reading here).
RELATED: ‘Anything That Moved’: Israel Admits Air Force Applied Hannibal Directive on Oct 7
Gaza reconstruction must be part of Palestinian-led decolonization, not a capitalist American show: Pappe
Israeli historian Ilan Pappe has long been one of the strongest voices in favor of Palestinian decolonization.
Now, since US President Donald Trump first proposed depopulating the Gaza Strip to rebuild it after over 15 months of Israeli attacks, Pappe has also been a vocal opponent of the plan.
“We have to make sure that this (reconstruction of Gaza) is not an American show. It’s not a capitalist show. It’s part of a Palestinian-led project of decolonization,” Pappe said in an interview with Anadolu.
“America and its multinational corporations and so on want to be part of it because they want to make money out of it, unfortunately. It’s not just a humanitarian wish to help to rebuild Gaza.”
According to Pappe, the absence of a unified Palestinian national movement means “the Palestinians have to be very careful that this whole project of reconstruction is not done in a way that is meant to benefit the reconstructors, rather than the victims of the genocide.”
While acknowledging the importance of humanitarian relief, he stresses that reconstruction must go beyond mere rebuilding — it must be political. This means greater unity in the Palestinian cause and more support from the Muslim world and Global South, “most politically, not just economically,” he said (continue reading here).
RELATED: Trump Gaza Video Reflects Shared US and Israeli Histories of Ethnic Cleansing
NOTE: Before the war in Gaza, there were about 625,000 students in Gaza’s schools.
Seized, settled, let: how Airbnb and Booking.com help Israelis make money from stolen Palestinian land
The villa is stunning. The private swimming pool; the lush, landscaped terrace with firepit; the long dining table with its expansive balcony view; the pingpong table; the piano.
But the jewel in the crown, according to the Airbnb listing, is the experience of watching the sun rise over the nearby mountains from the luxury of the generous master bedroom.
The villa with views of the Judean mountains is in a settlement located on land seized from Palestinians and considered illegal under international humanitarian law.
Only a handful of Palestinians are allowed to enter this, and other, Israeli settlements in the West Bank, usually as laborers with special permits.
Exclusive analysis carried out by the Guardian found 760 rooms being advertised in hotels, apartments and other holiday rentals in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, on two of the world’s most popular tourism websites.
Taken together, the listings that appear on either Airbnb or Booking.com could host more than 2,000 people as of August 2024. The villa was just one of them.
“Tekoa is a quiet, respectful and diverse, residential community,” reads the listing. There is no mention of the recent confrontations just outside the town, involving guns, clubs, knives and dogs, which have forced neighbouring Palestinians off their land. In a four-mile radius around Tekoa at least 100 Palestinians have been forced out since 2023. The rate of violence and land grabs in the area has escalated dramatically since the start of the war in Gaza.
Despite the recent violence, Tekoa – an area known for its natural beauty, organic farms, the nearby Israeli-administered Nahal Tekoa nature reserve and Herodion national park – was the settlement in the West Bank with the highest number of listed holiday rentals on Airbnb outside East Jerusalem (continue reading here).
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Electronic Intifada: Israel pounds West Bank children and infrastructure
The Guardian: Pro-Palestinian students stage sit-in at Barnard College to protest expulsions
The Cradle: IMF, World Bank reconstruction funds for Lebanon contingent on ‘normalization’: Report
IMEMC Daily Reports
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – FEBRUARY 27, 2025 (ongoing count):
- At least 49,262 Palestinians killed, 119,455 injured – including:
- at least 48,339 killed in Gaza (~14,550 children)
- at least 923 killed in the West Bank (~186 children)
- at least 111,753 injured in Gaza
- at least 7,702 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.
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
- Remembering Aaron Bushnell
- Campus Police Are Using Israeli Spy Tech to Crack Down on Student Protest
- ‘Battle For The Truth’: Pro-Israel Bias Inside UK Newsrooms Revealed
- Israeli Doctors Must Condemn the Inhumane Treatment of Hospitalized Palestinian Detainees
- Did Israel round up women and children after 7 October as bargaining chips?
- Gaza’s lost embryos: Dreams of parenthood shattered for thousands in the wake of genocide after Israel destroys IVF centers
- BBC slammed for pulling film that ‘humanized Palestinian children’
- How a Well-Connected Israeli Legal Expert Influenced the UN Investigation Into Sexual Violence on October 7
- Poised To Take Over TikTok, Oracle Is Accused Of Clamping Down On Pro-Palestine Dissent
- As Israel uses US-made AI models in war, concerns arise about tech’s role in who lives and who dies
- US TikTok ban linked to pro-Palestine content rather than China threat, insiders reveal
- Interview: ‘Not A Far-Off Goal’ – Salman Abu-Sitta on the Right of Return
- Israeli soldiers used an 80-year-old Gazan as a human shield. Then they killed him.
- Gideon Levy: If Anyone Should ‘Not Forget nor Forgive,’ It’s the Palestinians
- Columbia network pushing to deport and arrest student protesters
- Explosive Remnants in Gaza Cause Dozens of Casualties
- Ex-AIPAC Staffer: ‘I Woke Up to What Israel Was’
- Chas Freeman: Israel Lobby tactics plumb the depths of dishonor & indecency
- The long walk home to northern Gaza
