Relative quiet in Gaza, massive Israeli attack in West Bank: Gaza Ceasefire – Day 3

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said that 897 aid trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says that 72 bodies have arrived at hospitals over the last 24 hours, as civil defense teams search through piles of rubble for previously uncounted victims of Israeli attacks.

On Tuesday, one Palestinian was reportedly killed by Israeli occupation forces west of Rafah. Two citizens in Gaza were injured by the occupation forces’ fire.

UN says ‘no looting’ of Gaza aid trucks since start of ceasefire

The UN said on 21 January there had been no reports of aid convoys being looted in Gaza since a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas came into effect on Sunday.

“These two first days of entry, there have been no records of looting or attacks against aid workers,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, told reporters in Geneva.

Israeli forces have previously facilitated the looting of Gaza aid while shifting the blame on Hamas.

In November, the Washington Post reported that “organized gangs are stealing much of the aid Israel allows into the enclave, operating freely in areas controlled by the Israeli military,” citing aid group officials, humanitarian workers, transport companies, and witnesses.

Israeli forces have also targeted and killed members of the Gaza police force attempting to provide security to aid convoys entering the strip.

Israeli forces destroyed 80 percent of North Gaza: Official

The Undersecretary of Gaza’s Ministry of Public Works, Naji Sarhan, says that Israeli forces have destroyed 80 percent of the buildings in the northern governorate of the Gaza Strip, reportedly leaving 300,000 Palestinians homeless. 

Time was wasted during ceasefire negotiations on ‘some meaningless things’: Qatari PM

Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, about the ceasefire in Gaza.

“When we look at and reflect on what we have achieved in the last few days, we felt really sorry for all the time … wasted in these negotiations,” he said.

“We have seen that the framework that we have agreed on in December is the one that’s been realized a couple of days ago, and … I’m talking about December 2023, this means just a year of negotiating details” Sheikh Mohammed said.

He added that this included “some meaningless things compared to the lives of the people that they have lost”.

“What happened since October 7 was a wake-up call for the region. That also we need to address the issue of the Palestinians … we have seen a momentum built around the world about the two-state solution that’s been absent, unfortunately, for a very long time” he said.

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Startling new stats from Israel’s war on Gaza: Media Office

Gaza’s Government Media Office has published the statistics of the war. Here are the key points:

• Israeli forces killed all members of 2,092 Palestinian families.
• 214 babies were born and killed since October 7, 2023.
• 44 other children died due to malnutrition.
• Eight people, including seven children, died from severe cold weather in their tents.
• 1,155 medical staff, 94 civil defense employees, and 205 journalists were killed by Israel.
• 4,500 people, 18 percent of them children, had amputations.
• 70 percent of the victims killed were children and women.
• 3,500 children are at risk of death due to malnutrition and a lack of food.
• 12,700 wounded people need to travel abroad for treatment.
• 12,500 cancer patients are facing death and need treatment.
• 3,000 patients with various diseases need treatment abroad.
• 2,136,026 cases of infectious diseases have occurred due to displacement.
• There have been 71,338 cases of hepatitis B due to displacement.
• 60,000 pregnant women are at risk due to a lack of healthcare.
• 350,000 chronic patients are at risk due to the Israeli prevention of the entry of medicines.
• 88 percent of Gaza was destroyed.
• Initial direct losses amount to $38bn.

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Israel kills 10 Palestinians in bloody military assault on Jenin camp

At least 10 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank after Israel launched a military operation in Jenin on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Jenin governor Kamal Abu al-Rub told AFP the operation was “an invasion of the (refugee) camp”.

“It came quickly, Apache helicopters in the sky and Israeli military vehicles everywhere”, he added.

Palestinian Authority (PA) forces, who had been conducting an operation against Palestinian factions in the area since early December, left some of their positions around the camp before the arrival of Israeli forces, local sources said.

Reporters on the ground told Middle East Eye that Israeli forces are besieging both al-Amal Hospital and Jenin Governmental Hospital. “The situation is extremely dire, and it seems that this will be the fiercest escalation we’ve seen so far,” a reporter said. 

Asaad Salim, a resident of Jenin, told MEE that the Israeli assault began with special forces infiltrating the Jabriyat neighborhood, located east of the city.

“There are bodies in the streets, and many people are injured, but no one can reach them. Ambulances can’t move due to the intense and sudden assault,” he said.

Israel’s ongoing military raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank has displaced 2,000 families since mid-December and left the camp “nearly uninhabitable”, according to Roland Friedrich, director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

RELATED: Islamic Jihad: Israeli aggression on West Bank reflects ‘Netanyahu’s predicament’

Israeli military veterans warn occupied West Bank’s Jenin is being ‘Gazafied’

Breaking the Silence, an Israeli veterans’ advocacy group, said Israeli settlers have been allowed, over “multiple straight days”, to “torch villages throughout the West Bank” and the military has now launched an “all-out” operation in Jenin.

The group said that Jenin now faces being “Gazafied” by the Israeli military, “complete with airstrikes and destruction of infrastructure”.

In a series of posts on social media, the group also shared a video clip of dozens of masked Israeli settlers arriving at the Palestinian village of Fundup, where they began to torch vehicles while “a clearly visible” Israeli police car stood nearby.

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West Bank: emergency patient dies at blocked Israeli checkpoint

Iman Muhammad Abdul Salam Eid, 45, died Tuesday at the Beit Einun checkpoint, northeast of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, after Israeli forces blocked her access to medical care following a heart attack, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Israel has intensified raids in the occupied West Bank in recent days and installed iron gates at the entrances of towns and villages.

According to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, a Palestinian government body, the number of Israeli military checkpoints and gates in the occupied West Bank has increased to 898.

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In the West Bank, Palestinian unemployment is now Israeli policy

Ever since the beginning of Israel’s assault on Gaza in October 2023, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been suffering from an acute unemployment crisis. In the first six months of the war, the unemployment rate nearly tripled, with over 300,000 workers losing their main source of income. 

Over half of those people were working inside Israel until the authorities revoked their work permits following the Hamas attack of October 7. Palestinian workers have repeatedly demanded that their permits to enter Israel be reissued so they can provide for their children and live a decent life, but their requests have so far been denied (continue reading here).

Israeli forces advance, blow up homes in south Lebanon

The Israeli army continues to advance in southern Lebanon and destroy infrastructure less than a week before the end of a 60-day ceasefire implementation period, which Tel Aviv is continuously violating. 

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported on 21 January that Israel carried out “massive” detonations of homes and buildings. 

Israel has laid waste to tens of thousands of housing units across the south, and stepped up its destruction after the start of the ceasefire period on 27 November in violation of the agreement. 

The deal, based on UN Resolution 1701, is meant to see the Lebanese army dismantle Hezbollah’s presence and infrastructure south of the Litani River, while Israeli forces are required to withdraw from the country. This is supposed to take place within the 60-period that began in late November and is set to end in six days. 

Israel has reportedly violated the agreement more than 1,000 times since it took effect. 

Donald Trump’s nominee for US ambassador to the United Nations has endorsed Israeli claims of biblical rights to the entire West Bank during a Senate confirmation hearing, aligning herself with positions that could complicate diplomatic efforts in the Middle East.

The New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a Republican, was confronted on Tuesday over her backing of a position that aligns her with the Israeli far right, including Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and former national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

“You told me that, yes, you shared that view,” the Democratic Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen said during questioning. “Is that your view today?”

“Yes,” Stefanik said.

 

Stefanik’s confirmation hearing highlighted the rifts between the US and UN over Israel policy – of which the US is the UN’s single largest funder. The US – which houses the secretariat in midtown New York City – pays about $3.6bn, or 22%, of the UN’s regular budget, with China second at 15.25% and Japan roughly at 8%.

And while the position puts Stefanik at odds with longstanding international consensus and multiple UN security council resolutions regarding Israeli settlements in occupied territories, it remains sharply in line with widespread Trump administration posturing (continue reading here).

RELATED:

• What does the Bible really say about modern Israel?

• Trump lifts US sanctions on extremist Israeli settlers as pogroms ravage occupied West Bank

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Senators re-introduce bill to crack down on “antisemitism” on college campuses

A bipartisan pair of senators re-introduced a bill Tuesday that would make it easier for students to file civil rights complaints against their universities “amid rampant antisemitic incidents on college campuses in the aftermath of Hamas’ October 7 massacre in Israel.”

Sens. John Fetterman and Bill Cassidy reintroduced the legislation that they previously brought up in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack by the Palestinian group and Israel’s subsequent indiscriminate campaign against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip. The bill ultimately stalled in the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions after being introduced in January 2024. 

“The threats and attacks against Jewish students since October 7 are despicable. No one should fear for their safety at school because of who they are,” said Cassidy. “This bipartisan bill holds universities accountable to address discrimination and maintain a safe learning environment for all students.”

NOTE: Pro-Israel organizations consistently work to silence Palestine advocacy on campus – a free speech violation. One strategy they use is to pressure universities to officially adopt the IHRA “definition” of antisemitism, which defines legitimate criticism of Israel as antisemitic.

Other strategies include blocking prestigious appointments of and events with supporters of Palestinian rights, threatening to withhold major donations, and more. Typically, any move that defies the standard pro-Israel position is followed by an apology like the one Sonoma State University’s president Mike Lee issued – an apology that recognizes only the sentiments of pro-Israel students and ignoring the actual issues of free speech and divestment from Israel.

Pro-Palestine demonstrations on college campuses have overall been peaceful and non-confrontational, and have notably included a significant number of Jewish students. When there has been violence, it has come from pro-Israel counter-protesters and police.

The silencing of pro-Palestine campus protest violates students’ and professors’ rights to free speech.

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MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports

The Cradle: Israel’s chief of staff, top military officials to resign over ‘7 Oct failure’

The Cradle: Israel builds new occupation outpost in south Syria

Common Dreams: A history of Israel’s violation of ceasefires

Middle East Monitor: ‘Gazans evacuated for medical treatment fear they’ll never be allowed back home’

Looking for a way to help get the word out about Palestine? Go here.

 

 

 

 

 

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STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – JANUARY 21, 2025 (ongoing count):

At least 47,967 Palestinians killed, 118,147 injured– including:

• at least 47,107 killed in Gaza (~20,600 children)
• at least 860 killed in the West Bank (~177 children)
• at least 111,147 injured in Gaza 
• at least 7,000 injured in the West Bank

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 (Hamas attack) – JANUARY 19, 2025 (Ceasefire):

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 19, 2025: at least 47,772 – including at least 46,913 in Gaza (~20,600 children), and 860 in the West Bank (~177 children). Palestinian injuries: at least 117,725 – including at least 110,750 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)
• In This Story, the Killing of Two Innocent Palestinians by Israeli Troops Was Just the Beginning
• The Palestinians killed while waiting for the Gaza ceasefire to come into effect (video)
• Palestinians’ humanitarian conditions caused bitter infighting in Biden administration
• Detention without charge of Palestinian children hits record level
• Biden worked ‘tirelessly around the clock’ – to prevent a ceasefire
• “Why Are You Not in the Hague?”
• How the State Department Let Israel Get Away With Horrors in Gaza
• The Ceasefire Charade
• Israel destroyed Gaza and the world remained silent
• WATCH: 60 Minutes Report on Gaza (Jan 13, 2025)
• Trump’s Mideast Envoy Forced Netanyahu to Accept a Gaza Plan He Repeatedly Rejected
• WATCH: How Pro-Israel Neocons Pushed for War in Iraq (Alison Weir)
• Scorched-Earth: Making Gaza Uninhabitable for Generations to Come
• Meta’s staunch support for Israel shines amidst genocide in Gaza
• From Gaza to California: the flames that connect us all
• Israel must be added to UN’s sexual violence blacklist
• Dr Abu Safiya symbolized humanity in Gaza, as it is destroyed
• Gaza death toll may be 41% higher than official figures: study
• NYTimes rejects Quaker ad for calling Israel’s actions “genocide”
• Blinken Declares Genocide in Sudan But Refuses to Acknowledge Genocide in Gaza
• Blood Splattered Madness