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 858th day.)
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said that two Palestinians were killed and four others injured in the past 24 hours as a result of ongoing Israeli attacks.
Since the “ceasefire” began on October 11, Israel has killed at least 611 Palestinians. Over 1,630 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.
As a result of Israeli bombardment, 35,000 children and adults in Gaza have lost their hearing, according to a field survey conducted by the Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children over the past two years.
pic.twitter.com/V1JXimZ1lt— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) February 20, 2026
“BOARD OF PEACE” NEWS AND HEADLINES:
Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ reveals grim future the U.S. and Israel have planned for Gaza
There is a surreal quality to Trump convening a “Board of Peace” as he muscles up for what is increasingly looking like an inevitable, and disastrous, attack on Iran and blithely declaring that he has brought “peace to the Middle East” as Israel continues to slaughter Palestinian civilians in droves.
Israel maintains control of more than half the Strip, is launching daily, deadly attacks, and is doing all it can to prepare the ground for a new wave of full-blown genocide.
Extremist Knesset Member Limor Son Har-Melech recently said, “Gaza will be Jewish, because only in this way will we ensure victory and real security for the people of Israel.”
The Palestinians in Gaza find themselves trapped between the madness of the radical settlers and the expansionist dreams of the Israeli government. Genocide stares them in the face in either case, while the international community plays games to appease Donald Trump, and American weaponry flows into Israel while its warships prepare to decimate Iran.
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Trump announces $10 billion US [taxpayer] contribution to Board of Peace
President Donald Trump announced that the US will contribute $10 billion to the Board of Peace, which is aimed at resolving international conflicts and began with the mission to reconstruct the Gaza Strip. Trump said the amount “is a very small number when you look at that compared to the cost of war” – Senator Chris Murphy called the move “totally illegal.”
Trump failed to specify what the money would be used for or how he intended to raise it, since Congress, not the President, controls the United States’ checkbook.
Speaking to the board’s member countries, Trump went on to say, “Together we can achieve the dream of bringing lasting harmony to a region tortured by centuries of war, suffering and carnage.”
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BREAKING: In an extraordinary and illegal move, Trump says he’s transferring $10 billion from the U.S. government to his “Board of Peace,” which he chairs and can use the funds as he wishes.
Where is Congress??? pic.twitter.com/ZH83WGnN96
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) February 19, 2026
This is extremely sinister! Israel plans to turn Gaza into a “cashless society” where the IDF fully controls who has access to e-money, who one can transact with, how much, & who starves to death
This would be the ultimate tool of blackmail & pacification against journalists,… pic.twitter.com/LZa1pQXiBF
— Muhammad Shehada (@muhammadshehad2) February 20, 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.)
A six-decade agreement governing Muslim and Jewish prayer at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site has “collapsed” under pressure from Jewish extremists backed by the Israeli government, experts have warned.
A series of arrests of Muslim caretaker staff, bans on access for hundreds of Muslims, and escalating incursions by radical Jewish groups culminated this week in the arrest of an imam of al-Aqsa mosque and an Israeli police raid during evening prayers on the first night of Ramadan.
*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 for decades, Israel has formally pledged to allow Muslims to pray at the site, while Jews pray at the Western Wall below. The agreement has been in place since Israel captured the Old City of Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967.
In practice, however, restrictions have steadily eroded. Since 2023, Israeli police have increasingly allowed Jewish visitors to pray inside the compound. Authorities have also permitted audible group prayer, singing and, in 2024, public Torah lessons. Many Palestinians fear this erosion will lead to open conflict.
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Radical Israeli settlers* post list of their attacks on West Bank Palestinians
The radical Israeli settler group Hilltop Youth has published a tally of attacks it says it carried out against Palestinians over the past month in the occupied West Bank.
The tally, titled “Monthly summary of the struggle against the Arab enemy in the Holy Land”, lists 29 vehicles set ablaze, 12 homes torched, “40 Arabs injured”, and hundreds of windows smashed and olive trees cut down across 33 towns and villages.
*NOTE: Israel has built around 280 settlements and 256 settlement outposts, home to more than 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.
Learn more about Israeli settler violence here and here.
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ALL IN A DAY’S WORK: MORE ISRAELI OCCUPATION ACTIONS ON FRIDAY:
Israeli Colonizers Attack Bedouin Community 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.)
US gears up for potential attack on Iran ‘within days,’ Israel ready to carry out ‘massive’ strikes if needed
Plans include an ‘initial’ and ‘limited strike,’ which would be followed by a regime-change attempt if Tehran failed to surrender to US and Israeli demands.
The Israeli army is also reportedly preparing to carry out “massive and unprecedented” strikes against Iran-backed resistance movements in the region should they support the Islamic Republic in any war against Israel. Possible targets include Hezbollah in Lebanon, Ansarallah (Houthis) in Yemen, and resistance factions in Iraq.
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Netanyahu warns Iran of ‘unimaginable’ response if it attacks Israel
At IDF officers graduation ceremony, the PM insists that Gaza will be demilitarized and says Israel is shifting to a preemptive security doctrine.
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How much have Israel and the US spent on the Gaza war?
The Bank of Israel put the overall economic toll of the war at about 352 billion shekels ($112bn).
According to Brown University’s 2025 Costs of War report, since October 7, 2023, the US has provided Israel with some $21.7bn in military aid, plus $9.65 – $12.07 bn in support of Israel in Yemen, Iran and the wider Middle East, meaning a total US investment of $31.35bn – $33.77bn on Israel’s wars since 2023.
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Tucker Carlson accuses Huckabee* of ‘prioritizing Israel’ in combative interview
The conservative commentator accused US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee of ‘working for Israel’ during a recent interview at the Ben-Gurion Airport (for a quick summary of Tucker Carlson’s 2 1/2 hour interview of Mike Huckabee, go here; to watch the full interview, go here).
NOTE: Huckabee’s overtly Christian Zionist rhetoric has been problematic for years. In 2008, Huckabee famously told a rabbi in Massachusetts that “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.” Elsewhere, Huckabee said: “There is no such thing as a West Bank… There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation.”
A Ha’aretz article on the occasion of Huckabee’s first 100 days on the job describes him as “a norm-defying diplomat [who] has largely acted in the interests of the extremist government in the country where he serves, even when that clashes with the broader interests of the country he is meant to represent.”
RELATED:
Mike Huckabee Uses Alleged Christianity To Justify Ethnic Cleansing
Mike Huckabee is interfering with the work and witness of churches in the Holy Land with a goal of silencing Palestinian Christians
In the Israel-Iran War, Huckabee Wants Trump to Follow Scripture Over Strategy
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Israeli attacks kill at least 12 people, injure dozens across Lebanon*
*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. Additionally, Israel continues to occupy five Lebanese hilltops seized during the latest war, and other Lebanese areas it has held for decades.
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OTHER NEWS & HEADLINES:
Robin Kelly, running for Senate in Illinois, says Israel committed ‘genocide*’
The Chicagoland congresswoman, who accepted a donation from AIPAC last year, has adopted harsher stances on Israel since announcing her run for Senate.
*NOTE: Experts in the field of genocide studies have declared that Israel’s actions do in fact constitute genocide. A human rights group called Law for Palestine has compiled a public database with over 500 instances of Israeli incitement to perpetrate genocide.
As early as 6 weeks into the war, the New York Times reported that “Calls for Gaza to be “flattened,” “erased” or “destroyed” had been mentioned about 18,000 times since Oct. 7 in Hebrew posts on X… The cumulative effect, experts say, has been to normalize public talk of “erasing” the people of Gaza, ethnic cleansing, and the nuclear annihilation of the territory…”
It is telling that with all the evidence of intent to commit genocide, and all the expert agreement that it is a genocide, it is rare for a politician to acknowledge it – so rare that it makes headlines. It is a testament to the strength of the Israel lobby, and the fealty of most politicians.
Read more about genocide here.
ICYMI, A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:
Oxfam to Halt Gaza Aid Over Israeli NGO Rules
Trump’s first “Board of Peace” meeting full of promises, hyperbole, historical inaccuracy
Young Palestinian-American* shot, killed by Israeli settlers in West Bank
‘Not genociders’: Macron defends French citizens fighting for Israel in Gaza
(Read yesterday’s daily update here.)
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – FEBRUARY 20, 2026*:
- At least 73,183 Palestinians killed, 182,71 injured – including:
- At least 72,069 killed in Gaza (~22,000 children, 33,000 women and girls)
- At least 1,114 killed in the West Bank (~230 children)
- At least 171,728 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; 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 20, 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)
- ‘Christians Out’: Jerusalem Church Tagged With Hate Graffiti, Police Investigating
- Israeli Settlers Kill American Teen
- ‘We returned from hell’: Palestinian journalists recount torture in Israeli prisons
- Tucker Carlson interrogated in Israel, has passport seized after interviewing US ambassador
- 6,000 Amputees in Gaza Face Impossible Recovery amid Israeli War Ultimatum
- Compliant aid: Who are the Israel-approved NGOs scaling up in Gaza?
- Israel’s Favorite American President
- Israel’s “Yellow Line” Is a Death Trap for Palestinians. We Drove Into It.
- Why Israel’s expanding occupation in Syria presents a critical legal test
- Gaza is not a natural disaster. It is the victim of genocide enabled by global inaction
- Netanyahu’s plan to “end” US aid to Israel is to give even more money under a different name
- Noor’s short life of unimaginable suffering
- Israel Destroyed Gaza’s Hospitals. Now It’s Banning Doctors Without Borders.
- Is Spite of What Zionists Say, It’s a Good Thing to Criticize Governments
