World War J: Update February 15-29

4:51 pm

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said the deaths of dozens of people waiting for an aid convoy in Gaza was “a nightmare” and called for an end to fighting in the enclave. “When it comes to what happened in Gaza today… I must say I think this is a nightmare,” Joly told reporters in Ottawa. “We need to make sure that international aid is sent into Gaza and that people are protected when they go and get that aid.”

A protest against the war in Gaza took place outside Tel Aviv’s cinematheque on the evening of Feb. 29, drawing a crowd estimated by organizers to number some 300 people. The announcement for the peace rally, titled “Only Peace Will Bring Security” in Hebrew and Arabic, was signed by 19 left-wing organizations, including the Israeli-Palestinian socialist outfit Standing Together, and Women Wage Peace, an Israeli peace movement whose founder, Vivian Silver, was murdered in Kibbutz Be’eri during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.

A 16 year old boy and a 57 year old man were murdered today in shooting attack at a service station near Eli, an Israeli community on the West Bank in Judea and Samaria. The terrorist fled the scene but was shot dead by security forces.

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said at an evening press conference that IDF troops fired warning shots in an attempt to disperse a mob of Palestinians rushing an aid convoy in northern Gaza early this morning, as dozens were killed amid a crowd crush. “This morning, the IDF coordinated a convoy of 38 trucks to provide additional humanitarian assistance to the residents of northern Gaza. This humanitarian aid came from Egypt, went through a security screening at the Kerem Shalom humanitarian crossing in Israel, and then entered Gaza, for distribution by private contractors,” Hagari said. “As these vital humanitarian supplies made their way toward Gazans in need, thousands of Gazans [rushed] the trucks, some began violently pushing and trampling other Gazans to death, looting the humanitarian supplies,” he said. Hagari said “the unfortunate incident resulted in dozens of Gazans killed and injured.”

4:45 pm

Leaders of the University of California, Berkeley,denounced a protest against an event organized by Jewish students that forced police to evacuate attendees and a speaker from Israel for their safety after demonstrators broke through doors. The Feb. 26 incident  “violated not only our rules, but also some of our most fundamental values,” Chancellor Carol Christ and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Benjamin Hermalin said in a statement to the university community.

Five families whose children were murdered at the Nova party on October 7th, filed a lawsuit on Feb. 28 at the Jerusalem District Court against the Reuters and AP news agencies, claiming that "journalists and photographers" on their behalf accompanied the Hamas terrorists and documented the atrocities carried out during the massacre on that day. "Those 'journalists' were sent by these agencies to broadcast live from the massacre on the news websites they own," the lawsuit claims. According to Ynet, "The ten plaintiffs are the parents of the murdered youngsters: May Naim, Abir Lotan, Guy Gabriel Levi, Shalev Madmoni and Shani Louk. The parents, Anat and Ofer Naim, Naomi and Rami Abir, Orit and Nitzan Levi, Ilanit and Peretz Madmoni and Ricarda and Nissim Louk, stated in the lawsuit, filed with lawyers Yossi Ha'Ezrachi, Yehuda Ressler and Amir Rosenkrantz, that some of those "journalists", who broadcast the events, identify with Hamas and took an active part in the massacre on October 7th. It is also claimed that they infiltrated into the territory of the State of Israel from the Gaza Strip, alongside Hamas terrorists, as joint operatives, and were complicit in serious crimes and injustices.

4:30 pm

Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), representing over 2,500 traditional, Orthodox rabbis in matters of American public policy, today called out ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt for “slanderous” attacks after he took on the recent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). In a post on X, Mr. Greenblatt likened “disturbing conspiracy theories & neo-Nazis at CPAC” to antisemitic rants from the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan and “frenzied protesters” targeting Bari Weiss and Jerry Seinfeld in New York City.

A gym in the UK has frozen the membership of a Jewish woman who drew a Star of David on a steamed up glass door in a changing room shower. The gym, run by Nuffield Health, accused the woman of “offending” other members with the Jewish symbol. Sharon, a 47-year-old British-Israeli, has been going to Nuffield Health in Willesden for ten years and was showering after a class when she drew the star in the mist with her finger. ”We take all allegations of potential intimidating behaviour very seriously," said Nuffield Health.

A complaint was filed against Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) on Wednesday alleging that the district “knowingly allowed” a hostile climate against Jewish and Israelis to fester at their schools. It was filed by the Louis Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR). The complaint lists the names of various teachers that have engaged in anti-Israel indoctrination that made Jewish and Israeli students feel “unsafe.” 

3:50 pm

Dozens of Palestinians were killed today in Gaza City as they swarmed aid trucks that entered the city. Hamas blamed the IDF for the deaths. The Israeli military said most of the casualties were caused by a stampede and being run over by the supply vehicles. Gunmen also opened fire in the area as they looted the supplies. The IDF said it did not fire at the crowd rushing the main aid convoy. It acknowledged that troops opened fire on several Gazans who moved toward soldiers and a tank at an IDF checkpoint, endangering soldiers, after they had rushed the last truck in the convoy further south.

Health authorities in Gaza said the IDF fired on people waiting for aid near Gaza City on Thursday had killed 104 Palestinians and wounded 280, with one hospital saying it had received 10 bodies and dozens of injured patients,

President Biden said before leaving the White House to visit the US-Mexico border, that he’s reviewing the reports of Israeli troops shooting people crowding for desperately needed food aid in Gaza – but he already is clear that that the deadly incident will complicate talks on a ceasefire. “I know it will,” the president said on the south lawn at the White House  whether the incident in Gaza City would complicate negotiations. Biden said, "We're checking that out right now. There's two competing versions of what happened. I don't have an answer yet." Biden also said despite saying this week of his confidence that a ceasefire deal could be reached by March 3, that is would now "probably not" happen. 

3:45 pm

Representatives of the Israel Defense Forces told members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Feb. 28 that “there is no such concept as settler violence” in Judea and Samaria. “There is nationalistic crime, but we are talking about a few incidents…We have great respect for the residents of Judea and Samaria. They are our brothers, and it is our job to ensure their safety,” the senior IDF officials told lawmakers during a closed-door meeting.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Feb. 28 that the IDF will continue its mission in Gaza until Hamas is defeated and the hostages returned. Gallant briefed Austin on the military’s achievement in destroying “dozens of kilometers” of Hamas tunnels across the coastal enclave.

3:30 pm

More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to the latest figures by Gaza's Hamas-controlled health ministry today.

More than 100 Palestinians were killed as they gathered to receive humanitarian aid in Gaza City early this morning, Gaza's Hamas-controlled health officials said. At least 112 people were killed and more than 280 wounded in the incident, the Palestinian health ministry said. There were conflicting reports about events leading up to the deaths. Witnesses said Israeli troops fired on a large crowd of Palestinians racing to pull food off an aid convoy, and Gaza’s health ministry described it as a “massacre”. Israel challenged the death toll and said many of the victims were run over by the trucks.

Hamas warned it could end hostage release negotiations after the incident. In a statement, it said: “The negotiations conducted by the movement’s leadership are not an open process at the expense of the blood of our people.”
Joe Biden acknowledged the deadly incident will complicate talks on a ceasefire. The US president told reporters he was reviewing the reports and said “there’s two competing versions of what happened. I don’t have an answer yet.” The US is urgently seeking information on what took place in northern Gaza, a spokesperson for the US state department has said.

Israel’s military published a video of what it claimed were people looting aid trucks in Gaza in the buildup to the incident. Due to forced relocation and the lack of access to aid, agencies have warned that much of the population in Gaza is suffering from food deprivation, with one in six children under the age of two found to be malnourished during screening in January, and reports yesterday that one in five pregnant women seen in a Gaza clinic are also malnourished.

Two Israeli men have been killed in a shooting attack at a gas station in the Israeli-occupied West Bank today, Israel’s army and medics said. The Israeli military said the gunman was “neutralised” by security forces, adding that troops were pursuing other suspects in the area.

The US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, has said more than 25,000 women and children had been killed by Israel since October 7. Austin added that about 21,000 precision-guided munitions had been provided to Israel since the start of its war in Gaza.

Israel is reviewing possible curbs on access to al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem over the upcoming Ramadan fasting month, a government spokesperson said. Far-right interior security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said last week there would be a quota for people wishing to take part in prayers at the al-Aqsa mosque during Ramadan. Israel has been restricting the numbers attending the mosque since 7 October.

Hamas has release a statement warning it could stop taking part in negotiations after the incident today which health authorities in Gaza say has killed at least 104 Palestinians who were seeking humanitarian aid amid the widespread food deprivation in the Gaza Strip. Hamas said: "The negotiations conducted by the movement’s leadership are not an open process at the expense of the blood of our people."

Itay Blumental, who is a military correspondent at Israel public broadcasting corporation, wrote: "About 30 trucks with humanitarian aid entered [under] the operation of international agencies and the Israel Defense Forces after checking from Rafah and Kerem Shalom to the north of the Gaza Strip on the coastal axis. The final destination: humanitarian shelters in Gaza City and the Rimal neighbourhood. Toward 4am thousands of Gazans arrived from the coastline and attacked the trucks – dozens were killed and hundreds were injured from trampling, crowding and overcrowding when crowds boarded the trucks and took everything that came near. In a report received by the security bodies, fire was opened from humanitarian shelters in the north of the Gaza Strip on some of the trucks that started moving north. Later these trucks were also looted. Early in the morning, after the chaos with the trucks, hundreds of Gazans approached the IDF force and a tank … whose mission was to secure one stage of the logistics operation. According to army officials, when the crowd approached the force, they first fired into the air, and when the mob did not stop, it was fired at him live shooting. There are a few casualties in this incident. The exact sequence of events remains unclear, and is likely to be highly disputed. The office of the president of the Palestinian Authority has blamed Israeli forces for what it described as an “ugly massacre”. The IDF has said “the incident is under review.”

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s office said he condemned what it described as “the ugly massacre conducted by the Israeli occupation army this morning”. Health authorities in Gaza say 104 people have been killed and 280 wounded in the incident. The Palestinian presidency said: "The killing of this large number of innocent civilian victims who risked their livelihood is considered an integral part of the genocidal war committed by the occupation government against our people. Israeli and the Israeli occupation authorities bear full responsibility and will be held accountable for it before international courts."

Egypt and Jordan have issued separate statements condeming Israel after the incident this morning which health officials in the Gaza Strip say has killed at least 104 people. Jordan’s foreign ministry said: "We condemn the Israeli occupation forces’ brutal targeting of the gathering of Palestinians who were waiting for aid on the Nabulsi roundabout near Al-Rashid street in Gaza."

Due to forced relocation and the lack of access to aid, agencies have warned that much of the population in Gaza is suffering from food deprivation, with one in six children under the age of two found to be malnourished during screening in January, and reports yesterday that one in five pregnant women seen in a Gaza clinic are also malnourished.

Israel is reviewing possible curbs on access to al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem over the upcoming Ramadan fasting month, a government spokesperson said after media reports that the far-right minister for police might be overruled on the issue. National security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said last week there would be a quota for members of Israel’s 18% Muslim minority who wish to take part in peace prayers at al-Aqsa mosque. But Israel’s Channel 12 TV reported on Wednesday that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu would overrule Ben-Gvir.

10:00 am

Over 100 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more injured in the Gaza Strip today, Hamas-affiliated health officials said – which Israel blamed on a massive stampede among people desperately clamoring for aid. About 104 people were killed while waiting for aid at the al-Nabusi roundabout to the west of Gaza City, the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said, accusing Israeli troops of opening fire. There were so many dead and wounded that medics were overwhelmed and could not cope with the severity of their injuries, he said. A White House spokesman said the Biden administration is investigating.

Israeli government spokesman Avi Hyman said, “we’re not sure of the specifics quite yet” and described the incident during aid distribution near Gaza City, as a “tragedy”. Hyman claimed that initial indications were that deaths were caused by delivery drivers plowing into a surging crowd: “At some point the trucks were overwhelmed and the people driving the trucks, which were Gazan civilian drivers, plowed into the crowds of people, ultimately killing, my understanding is, tens of people. It’s obviously a tragedy but we’re not sure of the specifics quite yet.”

Hamas claims that 30,000 Gazans have died overall since it started the war on Oct. 7. The figure has  not been independently verified.

9:30 am

More than half of Democrats would support a presidential candidate who backs military aid to Israel, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. The three-day poll, which closed on Feb. 28, showed 56% of respondents who identified themselves as Democrats said they were less likely to support a candidate who backs military assistance for Israel, compared to 40% who said they would be more likely to support such a candidate.

In remarks at the Web Summit Qatar in Doha on Feb. 28, Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan downplayed the role of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel as the cause of the current war in Gaza, arguing that this reflects an “incomplete narrative” of the longer-term Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “The fact is, when one side of a conflict has been robbed of the right to tell its story, we’re left with an incomplete narrative,” Abdullah said in her speech. “The current iteration opens like this: ‘The war began on Oct. 7.’ To be sure, the brutal Oct. 7 attack opened a new and devastating chapter in the saga. But the larger story has been unfolding for more than most of our lives — 75 years in which Palestinians have not known a single day of genuine peace.”

UN human rights chief Volker Türk said today war crimes had been committed by all parties in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, calling for them to be investigated and for those responsible to be held accountable. “Clear violations of international human rights and humanitarian laws, including war crimes and possibly other crimes under international law, have been committed by all parties,” Turk told the UN human rights council in Geneva. “It is time – well past time – for peace, investigation and accountability,” he added.

Austria’s foreign minister urged Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group and Israe todayagainst escalating the conflict along the volatile Israel-Lebanon border and expressed hope for a pause in the fighting in Gaza in time for the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in March. The Middle East has witnessed enough devastation and cruelty, said Alexander Schallenberg, speaking after meeting his Lebanese counterpart in Beirut. Schallenberg said he came to Lebanon after visiting Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the Israeli occupied West Bank. “Everybody is asked not to escalate and it always takes two sides,” Schallenberg said.

There is concern among Biden officials that Israel may launch an incursion into Lebanon. According to CNN, Biden administration and intelligence officials as being “concerned that Israel is planning a ground incursion into Lebanon that could be launched in the late spring or early summer if diplomatic efforts fail to push Hezbollah back from the northern border with Israel”. CNN say the sources are “senior administrations officials and officials familiar with the intelligence”. CNN reported: "While a final Israeli decision has yet to be made, the worry is acute enough inside the Biden administration that the prospect of an incursion has made its way into intelligence briefings for senior administration officials, according to one person who received a briefing and was told an operation could happen early summer."

New Zealand designated Hamas as a "terrorist entity", thus becomiing one of the last western countries to do so. It said the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel had shattered the notion its political and military wings are separate. “The organisation as a whole bears responsibility for these horrific terrorist attacks,” said the NZ foreign minister in announcing a move to freeze Hamas assets in New Zealand and ban citizens from providing the group with “material support”. “The terrorist attacks by Hamas in October 2023 were brutal and we have unequivocally condemned them,” New Zealand prime minister Christopher Luxon said in a statement.

The Biden administration is considering airdropping aid from US military planes into Gaza, according to the Reuters news agency. It’s as land deliveries become increasingly difficult, a US official said. Axios cited U.S. officials saying that airdrops will have a limited effect since a military plane can only drop the amount of supplies equivalent to that transported by one or two trucks. 

Canada is working to airdrop humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip as soon as possible, according to Canadian international development minister Ahmed Hussen. He said the provision of airdrops in partnership with like-minded countries in the region, such as Jordan, was on the table. Hussen said last week that the provision of aid is nowhere near what is needed and a tedious inspection process was slowing down the movement of supplies brought in by truck. Hussen said last week that the provision of aid is nowhere near what’s needed and a tedious inspection process was slowing down the movement of supplies brought in by truck.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said on Feb. 28 the group is showing flexibility in negotiations with Israel but at the same time it was ready to continue fighting. Another Hamas official, Basem Naim, told Al Jazeera “The gap is still wide”. The two sides have been negotiating around a draft framework that would reportedly see a six week pause in fighting and the release of hostages held in captivity by Hamas for Palestinians who have been detained by Israel.

Qatar has accused Israel of facilitating “the deliberate starvation of the Palestinian people” and called on the international community to apply more pressure on Israel, saying it was “painful” that the delivery of aid was still an issue. Foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said “There are two and a half million people living in complete absence of health and emergency services. Aid should be freely provided without restrictions.”

Israel’s military has claimed it struck “eight significant terror targets” in Gaza overnight which it said had been responsible for rockets fired towards the Israeli city of Ashkelon. The IDF also announced that two further soldiers had been killed during its ground operation inside Gaza.

Houthi leaders have denied they have targeted critical underwater sea telecommunication cables, as Yemen’s UN recognised government warned of an imminent marine environmental disaster if a cargo ship struck by the rebels last week was not quickly rescued. The stricken Belize-flagged Rubymar, which was en route from the UAE to Europe via the Red Sea when she was hit by a Houthi attack, has been drifting and begun to sink.

A German naval frigate sent to protect commercial ships in the Red Sea nearly shot down a US drone by mistake, German media reported on Feb. 28. The German defence ministry confirmed a drone incident involving an allied nation occurred on Feb. 26 without naming the country. The “Hesse” frigate opened fire after efforts to identify an unknown drone “were unsuccessful”, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said during a visit to the German town of Oberviechtach, adding however that the target was “not hit”.

Families of some of the hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza have started a four-day march to demand their release. The route started at the site of the Nova music festival, scene of some of the worst atrocities during the 7 October attack, and will finish in Jerusalem.

Russian media is reporting that representatives of Hamas and Fatah will meet in Moscow today to discuss the possibility of a united Palestinian government across both Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israeli strikes killed two people in Lebanon’s south on Feb. 28, while Hamas earlier fired a volley of rockets towards northern Israel from Lebanon amid escalating cross-border clashes in recent days. Also, Israel carried out strikes that day near Damascus, Syria’s defence ministry said. There were explosions in Damascus followed by the sirens of ambulances. When asked about the strikes, the Israeli army told AFP: “We do not comment on reports in the foreign media.”

February 29, 2024

 

4:30 pm

In an unprecedented move, the American government has launched an investigation into Finkelstein Metals, a Israeli company that produces critical parts for the Iron Dome missile defense system, over allegations of receiving prohibited government subsidies. The investigation has sparked concerns among Israeli officials, as it could have far-reaching implications for Israeli exporters to the US, including the defense industry. According to US authorities, grants received by Finkelstein Metals allowed the company to sell its products in the US at inflated prices, which is a violation of trade agreements between the two countries. However, Israeli officials argue that the company’s activities in the US are minimal compared to American complainants and that the investigation contradicts the decades-old trade agreement.

The survivor of the Oct. 7 recounted that on the body of one of the Hamas terrorists was found a detailed map that also gave instructions as to who to kill. The dead terrorist had instructions to kill a mother, father, and four sons. Her neighbor, who the instructions identified as a US citizen, was murdered. The father threw himself on a grenade to save his family.

Faculty for Academic Freedom and against Antisemitism has been formed among academics to counteract antisemitic and antizionist movements on U.S. campuses.

Jewish students at UC Berkeley were forced to evacuate a theater on-campus as a mob of anti-Israel protestors violently stormed a pro-Israel event on the evening of Feb. 26. The event, 'Israel at War: Combat the Lies,' featured Ran Bar-Yoshafat, an IDF reservist who served in Gaza during the current war. Several hundred protestors chanted “Intifada! Intifada!” while banging on the doors of the Zellerbach Playhouse. At one point, a glass door was shattered by the protestors.

2:22 pm

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights against the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) for failing to take action to end nonstop bullying and harassment of Jewish students by peers and teachers since Oct. 7. According to the complaint, Berkeley administrators have ignored parent reports and knowingly allowed its K-12 schools to become hostile environments for Jewish and Israeli students.

2:00 pm

The IDF says it carried out airstrikes on Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon this morning and overnight, including a weapons depot and manufacturing plant.

The British government said today that it is stepping up security for lawmakers after politicians reported threats and intimidation connected to the Israel-Hamas war. The Home Office said a 31 million-pound ($40 million) fund will give every lawmaker a “dedicated named police contact” and provide money for those facing threats to pay for private security protection.

Ismail Haniyeh, the Doha-based leader of Hamas’s “political” wing, today urged the Iran-led “Axis of Resistance” t o step up attacks on Israel during Ramadan,calling for a “broad and international movement to break the siege on Al-Aqsa mosque” in Jerusalem.

9:15 am

Israeli tanks and planes pounded northern Gaza again today, months after the army declared Hamas defeated there. Additionally, Palestinian health officials said 18 bodies of people killed on Februar7 27 had been recovered in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, where several residential buildings were said to have been destroyed on Wednesday by Israeli tanks.

The diplomatic row between Israel and Brazil has been reignited, with Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz saying his country “will not forget nor forgive” president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for comments he made which appeared to compare Israel’s military campaign against Gaza with the Holocaust. Katz said: "You said that Israel’s just war against Hamas in Gaza is the same as what Hitler and the Nazis did to the Jews and you have desecrated the memory of the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust. We will not forget nor forgive. Shame on you and apologise!" In an interview with Brazilian RedeTV Brazil’s president insisted “First, I did not say the word Holocaust, that was the interpretation of the prime minister of Israel, it was not mine.” Lula said earlier in Ethiopia, "What’s happening in the Gaza Strip and with the Palestinian people doesn’t exist at any other historical moment. In fact, it existed when Hitler decided to kill the Jews‬.” Israel has banned Lula from visiting the country.

Israel’s military airdrops of aid in Gaza were carried out over the last two days. In the last two days, approximately 160 food packages were airdropped on about 17 different points along the southern coastline of the Gaza Strip using US, Egyptian, UAE, French and Jordanian planes – which included food and medical equipment intended for the residents of the southern Gaza Strip. Food, medical equipment and fuel supplies were airdropped for the benefit of the ongoing activity of the Jordanian Field hospital in Khan Younis.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said today that his terrorist group is showing flexibility in negotiations with Israel but at the same time it was ready to continue fighting. Another Hamas official, Basem Naim, told Al Jazeera “The gap is still wide”. The two sides have been negotiating around a draft framework that would reportedly see a six week pause in fighting and the release of hostages held in captivity by Hamas for Palestinians who have been detained by Israel.
Qatar has accused Israel of facilitating “the deliberate starvation of the Palestinian people” and called on the international community to apply more pressure on Israel, saying it was “painful” that the delivery of aid was still an issue. Foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said “There are two and a half million people living in complete absence of health and emergency services. Aid should be freely provided without restrictions.”
Protests have broken out in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip today over the price of food and scarcity of supplies.

Gaza’s al-Awda hospital has had to suspend all surgical operations after its operating theatres were destroyed. Separately, a humanitarian group operating a clinic in the Gaza Strip says 21% of the pregnant women it has treated in the last three weeks are suffering from malnutrition.

Israel’s military has claimed it struck “eight significant terror targets” in Gaza overnight which it said had been responsible for rockets fired towards the Israeli city of Ashkelon. The IDF also announced that two further soldiers had been killed during its ground operation inside Gaza.

At least 29,954 Palestinians have been killed and 70,325 injured in Israel’s military assault on Gaza since October 7, the Hamas-led health ministry in Gaza said in a statement today. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify casualty figures being issued during the conflict.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society says that since October 7, Israeli security forces have arrested more than 7,300 people in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Houthi leaders have denied they have targeted critical underwater sea telecommunication cables, as Yemen’s UN recognised government warned of an imminent marine environmental disaster if a cargo ship struck by the rebels last week was not quickly rescued. The stricken Belize-flagged Rubymar, which was en route from the UAE to Europe via the Red Sea when she was hit by a Houthi attack, has been drifting and begun to sink. It cargo included fertilizer, which is poisoning the surrounding seas.

Families of some of the hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza have started a four-day march to demand their release. The route started at the site of the Nova music festival, scene of some of the worst atrocities during the 7 October attack, and will finish in Jerusalem.

Russian media is reporting that representatives of Hamas and Fatah will meet in Moscow on February 29 to discuss the possibility of a united Palestinian government across both Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
A group of more than 50 broadcast journalists have sent an open letter to the embassies of Israel and Egypt calling for “free and unfettered access” to Gaza for foreign media.

9:00 am

Iran’s supreme leader urged voters to come out in droves on March 1 to and show that the Islamic Republic has a “strong and fervent” election process for parliament and the key Assembly of Experts. “The enemies of Iran want to see if the people are present” on polling day for the 290-seat legislature and the 88-member Assembly, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said. If citizens fail to cast their ballots in large numbers, the 84-year-old supreme leader warns in an address to first-time voters, Iran’s enemies “will threaten your security in one way or another.” The election comes as Israel is fighting the Tehran-backed terror groups Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

Some 13.2% of Michigan Democrats cast protest vote against Biden’s Israel support. President Joe Biden’s campaign and top Democratic officials vow to double down on efforts to win over voters, after Michigan registered a stronger-than-anticipated protest vote over his support of Israel in its war against the Hamas terror group. About 13.2 percent of Michigan Democrats cast a ballot for “uncommitted” in the primary, following a weeks-long push by activists, an Edison Research tally shows. With about 85% of all votes counted, the uncommitted vote was already over 100,000 votes, far higher than expectations. The Uncommitted movement, also called Listen to Michigan, had set a goal of drawing 10,000 votes — the margin by which Donald Trump won the state in the 2016 presidential election. Turnout for the Democratic primary was also high, at some 900,000 voters overall; about 81% of those votes backed Biden. Biden’s campaign will continue to “make our case in the state – to both uncommitted voters and the entire Michigan constituency,” a senior campaign official says as the results were tallied. “The President will continue to work for peace in the Middle East.” Earlier, Biden said that he expects a ceasefire by March 4. The campaign was initiated by activists from Michigan’s large Arab-American population, which numbers more than 300,000. Since the early days of the Israel-Hamas war, Arab and Muslim Americans have warned that Biden’s staunch support of Israel could cost their votes in November.

The IDF says it carried out an airstrike on a Palestinian gunman during a raid in the West Bank city of Jenin overnight. ccording to the official Palestinian Wafa news agency, one man was moderately wounded in the drone strike. Troops operated in Jenin to arrest a wanted Palestinian and uncovered explosive devices planted under the roads, the IDF said. Elsewhere in the West Bank, another nine terror suspects were detained, the IDF said. Since October 7, the IDF says, troops have arrested some 3,400 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,500 affiliated with Hamas.

The Israeli Energy Ministry announced that gas prices will rise at midnight tomorrow night for the third month in a row. The maximum price for a self-service liter of 95 gasoline will increase by no more than (four US cents approximately $2.08  or $7.78 per gallon.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi expresses hope that there may be a deal reached soon for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is battling the Hamas terror group. “We hope that in the coming days we will reach a ceasefire and that there will be real relief for the people of Gaza,” he said. The comments come amid hopes an agreement could be reached between Israel and Hamas that would see a temporary ceasefire and the release of hostages held by terrorists in Gaza.

Preliminary results from the Jerusalem municipal elections in Israel indicate an unprecedented ultra-Orthodox takeover of the city council, with Haredi parties winning just over half the seats in the 31-seat legislative body. While soldiers’ votes have yet to be counted and could alter the balance of power in the council, as things stand at the moment the ultra-Orthodox parties hold a collective 17 seats, with additional seats held by religious nationalist factions. The Hasidic Agudat Yisrael party has come in at three seats, the non-Hasidic ultra-Orthodox Degel HaTorah party at seven, the Jerusalem Faction-affiliated Bnei Torah at one, and the Sephardic Shas at six. In addition, the anti-LGBT Noam party and ultra-nationalist Deputy Mayor Arieh King’s United party are each expected to hold a single seat on the council. “The major issue here was and is voting patterns and it’s always been known that the Haredim vote en masse and other groups do not,” she said. “This time not only were there the usual differences in turnout but the majority mainstream Israeli population is still suffering and experiencing the war and turned out less than they usually do,” she explains. “For the Haredim it was business and usual and that was far more a determinant than the demographics.” According to the Israeli  Interior Ministry, only 31.5% of eligible voters in Jerusalem cast ballots yesterday.

Gazans are burning tires at a protest in the southern city of Rafah against rising prices. Photo and video evidence has shown that aid sent to Gaza for free distribution is being sold in street markets. “Did they bring us from Gaza [City] to here to provide us with food and drink, or to kill us?” one man said., without clarifying if he is referring to the Hamas terror group, which runs the enclave, or to Israel which called on civilians to evacuate amid the fighting. “I do not see any government official here,” he says. Costs for Gazan civilians are rocketing in the enclave due to a scarcity of supplies and price-gouging. The United Nations has warned that 2.2 million people in Gaza are on the brink of famine.

The IDF says it coordinated the airdrop of food and medical supplies by several nations to the southern Gaza Strip over the past two days. Some 160 packages of humanitarian aid were airdropped to 17 locations along the southern coastline of the Gaza Strip, using American, Egyptian, Emirati, French, and Jordanian planes, the IDF says, Additional packages of food, medical supplies, and fuel were also airdropped to a Jordanian field hospital in Khan Younis, the IDF says. The IDF says that the airdrop is in addition to trucks of humanitarian aid that enter the Strip daily.

February 28, 2024

Just before midnight in advance of Hamas’s October 7 invasion, Israeli intelligence officials identified that dozens of terror operatives in the Gaza Strip had activated Israeli SIM cards in their phones, the Israel Defense Forces acknowledged today. The massacre in southern Israel was launched hours later, at 6:30 a.m., during which some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists burst across the border into Israel from Gaza by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages of all ages — mostly civilians — under the cover of a deluge of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities. Media reports claimed that some 1,000 SIMs were activated simultaneously at midnight.

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell repeats his false claim that Israel helped create Hamas, which it is battling to crush in Gaza. Borrell said, "“I do not say that (Israel) financed it by sending a check, but it has enabled the development of Hamas” as a rival to leading Palestinian party Fatah, he says, in a forum at a business school in Madrid. “It is an unquestionable reality that Israel has bet on dividing the Palestinians, creating a force to oppose Fatah,” he says.

Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar visited Cairo last week to give assurances to Egyptian officials that any military offensive into Rafah will not push Palestinians across the border into Egypt, the Axios news site reports. The two senior Israeli officials met with their Egyptian counterparts to discuss Israel’s planning for the proposed offensive.

Israel says it will move into Rafah to eliminate the last Hamas stronghold. It also believes that some of the hostages and Hamas leaders are in Rafah. There is widespread international opposition to the operation amid fears for the fate of more than 1 million displaced Palestinians who are sheltering in Rafah. Egypt has also repeatedly warned that Israeli moves that force displaced Palestinians into Egypt could undermine the peace treaty between Jerusalem and Cairo.

The IDF says it eliminated a senior Hezbollah commander, Hassan Hussein Salami, in an airstrike in southern Lebanon earlier today. Salami, whose rank is equivalent to a brigade commander, was targeted while driving in the southern Lebanon village of Majadel. Salami was the commander of a regional unit in Hezbollah and oversaw attacks on IDF troops and Israeli communities in northern Israel. Recent attacks that Salami was involved in included anti-tank missile attacks on Kiryat Shmona and the 769th “Hiram” Regional Brigade’s base, according to the IDF.

The UN nuclear watchdog says that Iran’s estimated stockpile of enriched uranium had reached 27 times the limit set out in the 2015 accord between Tehran and world powers. According to two confidential International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports seen by news agencies, Iran’s total enriched uranium stockpile was estimated at 5,525.5 kilograms as of February 10, up by 1,038.7 kilograms from the last quarterly report in November. However, the reports say that Iran’s stock of uranium enriched to near weapons grade has shrunk slightly as it diluted some. Iran diluted, or downblended, 31.8 kg of uranium enriched to up to 60% to produce 97.9 kg of uranium enriched to up to 20%, one of the two quarterly International Atomic Energy Agency reports said. The total stock at 60%, close to the 90% of weapons grade, was estimated to have shrunk by 6.8 kg to 121.5 kg over the quarter. The reports also say that longstanding problems between Iran and UN inspectors are festering

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators heckled comedian Jerry Seinfeld as he left an event in New York City, accusing him of supporting “genocide” over his backing for Israel in its war against Hamas. Video shows Seinfeld smiling and waving, apparently unperturbed as he left the event at the 92 Y community center where former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss was giving the Y’s annual State of the World Jewry address. Demonstrators chanted “genocide supporter” as Seinfeld was escorted out by a heavy police presence. They also called him “Nazi scum.” The New York Police Department says two demonstrators were arrested. Following the Oct. 7 attack,  Seinfeld visited Israel in a show of support, traveling to see the evidence of the massacre in a ravaged kibbutz.

Declaring that “all segments of society” must serve their country, National Unity Ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot present an outline for the draft of Arabs and ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israeli army. Addressing reporters in the Knesset, the two former IDF chiefs of staff argue that it is impossible to extend the terms of current IDF service members without at the same time ensuring that members of currently exempt population groups also contribute to the collective defense. Eisenkot calls the proposed plan “a good basis” for future action based on “clear and evolving recruitment targets.” Gantz said, “All the people of Israel, all parts of society should take part in the right to serve our country.” Gantz’s outline is composed of several principles, the first of which is that an “absolute majority of young people” must serve their country. He calls for the establishment of a “unified recruitment directorate” which will determine where draftees will serve and who merits an exemption, and proposes “dozens” of service tracks, including working for “recognized security, emergency and charity organizations.” According to the proposed outline, these tracks will be “adapted to the cultural needs” of Israel’s diverse populations and offer “progressive compensation with an emphasis on the front lines.”

While Gantz did not propose a specific number of Jewish Haredi recruits, he indicated that the number would increase gradually year-over-year and promised that there would still remain an “elite who will continue to study and many will serve at the same time as studying.” The plan, as presented, is similar to one proposed by Gantz in 2021 while he was serving as defense minister. According to that plan, ultimately all Israelis would be required to perform some form of national service after high school. Each year, 5,000 more people would be required to perform national service, until after six to eight years every eligible person will be conscripted. They say their goal is for the majority of young people to be serving within a decade. The issue of Haredi exemptions from the mandatory draft has received renewed attention in recent weeks after the IDF and government earlier this month proposed changes to the security service and reserve service laws, which would see the amount of time conscripts and reservists serve increased significantly amid manpower shortages caused by the war in Gaza and hostilities on the northern border.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group says it fired a volley of rockets at an Israeli military base in retaliation for deadly Israeli strikes on Lebanon’s east. “In response to the Zionist aggression near the city of Baalbek,” Hezbollah targeted the base in the Golan Heights “with 60 Katyusha rockets,” the group says in a statement. Footage circulating on social media shows several rockets impacting and exploding close to a bus carrying passengers who quickly disembark to take cover. There are no reports of injuries in the barrage.
 

12:58 pm

An active member of the US Air Force has died after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington over the weekend in protest of Israel’s military operations in Gaza. 

Israeli officials headed today to Qatar, where Hamas has its political office, to work on terms of a Gaza truce and hostage release deal. The Israeli working delegation, made up of staff from the military and the Mossad spy agency, was tasked with creating an operational centre to support negotiations.

Israel mounted airstrikes west of the Lebanese city of Baalbek  today, killing at least two Hezbollah members. The Israeli military said it was striking Hezbollah targets deep inside Lebanon but provided no further details. Hezbollah said earlier today it had shot down an Israeli Hermes 450 drone over Lebanese territory using a surface-to-air missile, the second time it has announced a downing of this type of unmanned aerial vehicle.

Israel’s military “presented the war cabinet with a plan for evacuating the population from areas of fighting in the Gaza Strip, and with the upcoming operational plan,” a statement from Benjamin Netayahu’s office said. Israel has threatened to launch a full-blown attack on Rafah, the last city at Gaza’s southern edge, despite international pleas - including from its main ally Washington - for restraint. Netanyahu, who has promised “total victory”, said an operation is necessary to root out four battalions of Hamas fighters based there.

The Israeli government has failed to comply with an order by the UN’s top court to provide urgently needed aid to desperate people in the Gaza Strip, Human Rights Watch said. “The Israeli government is starving Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians, putting them in even more peril than before the World Court’s binding order,” Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said. “The Israeli government has simply ignored the court’s ruling, and in some ways even intensified its repression, including further blocking lifesaving aid.”

At least 29,782 Palestinians have been killed and 70,043 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said. In the past 24 hours, 90 Palestinians were killed and 164 injured in Israeli strikes, the ministry said.

UN secretary general António Guterrescriticized the UN security council for failing to adequately respond to Israel’s war in Gaza and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which he said had “perhaps fatally” undermined its authority. He also said that a full-scale Israeli assault in Rafah would have devastating consequences. “An all-out Israeli offensive on the city would not only be terrifying for more than a million Palestinian civilians sheltering there, it would put the final nail in the coffin of our aid programmes,” the UN chief said in a speech.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, told a press conference that he submitted his resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas. Shtayyeh, an academic economist who took office in 2019, said he was resigning to allow for the formation of a broad consensus among Palestinians about political arrangements following Israel’s war in Gaza.

Israeli forces killed more than 30 Palestinian gunmen in Gaza City’s Zeitoun district, more than 10 in the central Gaza Strip and others in the southern city of Khan Younis, the military said on Monday in a summary of the last 24 hours’ operations.

The UN rights chief has decried disinformation and other attacks that aim to “undermine the legitimacy” and work of the UN and other institutions, describing them as “profoundly destructive”. Speaking at the opening of the UN human rights council’s main annual session, Volker Turk criticized widespread “disinformation that targets UN humanitarian organizations, UN peacekeepers and my office”. Turk said: "The UN has become a lightning rod for manipulative propaganda and a scapegoat for policy failures. This is profoundly destructive of the common good, and it callously betrays the many people whose lives rely on it."

The UN secretary general, António Guterres described Rafah in southern Gaza as the core of the humanitarian aid operation in the Palestinian enclave, and warned that an “all-out” Israeli offensive in the city could put an end to the delivery of vital aid programmes there. At the UN human rights council in Geneva, the UN chief said a full-scale Israeli assault would have devastating consequences. He described Rafah as the core of the humanitarian aid operation in the Palestinian enclave and said: “An all-out Israeli offensive on the city would not only be terrifying for more than a million Palestinian civilians sheltering there; it would put the final nail in the coffin of our aid programmes.”

February 26, 2024

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Feb. 25 that it was not clear yet whether a hostage deal would materialize from ongoing talks, declining to discuss specifics, but said Hamas needed to “come down to a reasonable situation”. “They’re in another planet. But if they come down to a reasonable situation, then yes we’ll have a hostage deal. I hope so,” he told CBS’ Face the Nation.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Netanyahu’s comments cast doubt over Israel’s willingness to secure a deal. “Netanyahu’s comments show he is not concerned about reaching an agreement,” Abu Zuhri told Reuters, accusing the Israeli leader of wanting “to pursue negotiation under bombardment and the bloodshed (of Palestinians)”.

Negotiators from Israel, Qatar, Egypt and the US have agreed the “basic contours” of an arrangement during weekend talks in Paris, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN, but the final details still have to be hammered out. Israeli media reported that the prospective deal would allow for the release of 30 or 40 hostages in exchange for up to 300 Palestinian prisoners, and a ceasefire lasting up to six weeks. Both sides would continue negotiations during the pause for further releases and a permanent ceasefire, an Egyptian official said. The pause in fighting would cover the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts around 10 March this year, and the deal would include an increase in desperately needed aid. After initial talks in Paris, follow-up discussions will be held in Doha and Cairo, Egyptian security sources said. 

US Central Command (Centcom) said that the Houthis fired an anti-ship ballistic missile that likely targeted a US-flagged owned and operated tanker in the Gulf of Aden on Feb. 24 evening. It said the missile missed and landed in the water, therefore not causing any damage or injuries. “Earlier in the evening, at about 9pm (Sanaa time), US Centcom forces shot down two one-way attack unmanned aerial vehicles over the southern Red Sea in self-defence. A third UAV crashed from an assessed in-flight failure,” it added in a post on X.

Israeli forces killed more than 30 Palestinian gunmen in Gaza City’s Zeitoun district, more than 10 in the central Gaza Strip and others in the southern city of Khan Younis, the military said on Monday in a summary of the last 24 hours’ operations.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said that the “looming famine” and the blockage of food aid into parts of Gaza was a “man made disaster”. He said the last time the UNRWA was able to deliver food aid to northern Gaza was on 23 January. “Our calls to send food aid have been denied & have fallen on deaf ears. This is a man made disaster. The world committed to never let famine happen again. Famine can still be avoided, through genuine political will to grant access & protection to meaningful assistance,” Lazzarini wrote on X.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu convened the war cabinet late on Feb. 24  for a briefing with negotiators who had been at ceasefire talks in Paris. This week, it will meet again to discuss preparations for an assault on Rafah. A deal might delay that operation, but would not prevent it, Netanyahu said in an interview with CBS.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN that negotiators from the US, Egypt, Qatar and Israel came to an understanding on the basic contours of a hostage deal during talks in Paris. The deal is still under negotiation, said Sullivan, who added there will have to be indirect discussions by Qatar and Egypt with Hamas.

The death toll in Gaza is likely to pass the grim milestone of 30,000 this week. Israeli strikes have killed 29,692 Palestinians in Gaza since October, two-thirds of them women and children, and injured 69,879, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Iran condemned the latest strikes by the US and the UK on Yemen, saying they were seeking to “escalate tensions and crises” in the region.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has been forced to “stretch every dollar” and juggle its finances in order to continue work in Gaza after 18 donor countries suspended funding over allegations of links to Hamas. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is facing a shortfall of $450 million from a budget of $880 million.

February 24-25, 2024

 

3:30 pm

The Big Ben clock tower, part of the Palace of Westminster in London, was illuminated in an initiative by pro-Palestinian protesters on Feb. 21 who projected slogans on it using lasers, including "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Thousands of people participated in the demonstration calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.

The IDF released footage showing a drone operated by the Maglan commando unit locating a Hamas gunman, before he was killed by the troops in southern Gaza's Khan Younis. The commandos had sent the drone into a building where they had suspected Hamas operatives were hiding. Using the aircraft, the soldiers identified a gunman, who then opened fire at the drone, knocking it down.

The Israeli Navy's missile boats carried out "extensive" exercises over the past week, the IDF says, as the military prepares for potential war in the north. The drills simulated fighting in the northern maritime theater, and some exercises were carried out alongside the Israeli Air Force, including the 193rd Squadron which operates the AS565 Panther helicopters, primarily used for missions at sea.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has presented a “day after” plan for Gaza, his first official proposal for when the war in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory ends. According to the document, presented to members of Israel’s security cabinet on Feb. 22, Israel would maintain security control over all land west of Jordan, including the occupied West Bank and Gaza – territories where the Palestinians want to create an independent state. In the long-term goals listed, Netanayhu rejected the “unilateral recognition” of a Palestinian state, while in the medium term, he outlined demilitarisation and deradicalisation in Gaza as goals.

Netanyahu also called for shutting down the UN Palestinian refugees agency (UNRWA) and replacing it with other international aid groups, in his “day after” plan.

The spokesperson for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeineh,said that Netanyahu’s “day after” proposal was doomed to fail, as were any Israeli plans to change the geographic and demographic realities in Gaza. “If the world is genuinely interested in having security and stability in the region, it must end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and recognise an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,” he said.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) secretary general Chris Lockyear said “there is no health system to speak of left in Gaza” and that “the humanitarian response in Gaza today is an illusion” as he briefed the UN security council on Feb. 22. Lockyear said it was “a convenient illusion that perpetuates a narrative that this war is being waged in line with international laws”. He added: “‘We are scared. Our teams are beyond exhausted.”

UN experts warned today that any transfer of weapons or ammunition to Israel that would be used in Gaza is likely to violate international humanitarian law and must cease immediately. “State officials involved in arms exports may be individually criminally liable for aiding and abetting any war crimes, crimes against humanity or acts of genocide,” the experts said. They also noted that arms transfers to Hamas and other armed groups are also prohibited by international law due to their grave violations of international humanitarian law on 7 October 2023.

Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), warned on Feb. 22 that humanitarian organisation had “reached a breaking point”. In a post on X, he wrote that it was “with profound regret” that he announced the situation and shared a letter to the president of the UN general assembly. Referring to Israeli accusations that 12 staff members of UNRWA were involved in the Hamas 7 October attack, Lazzarini said “to date, no evidence has been shared by Israel with UNRWA”.

Israeli airstrikes targeted homes in the southern Gaza Strip today. More than 100 people were killed over the previous day, said the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. Israeli bombardment obliterated one house and left a gaping hole in the earth east of Rafah, on the border with Egypt. An AFP reporter described heavy airstrikes overnight in the city of Khan Younis several kilometres to the north, as well as in Rafah itself.

An Israeli delegation led by the head of the country’s overseas intelligence agency headed to Paris to “unblock” talks for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Mossad director David Barnea will be joined in the French capital by his counterpart at the domestic Shin Bet security agency, Ronen Bar.

Hamas said today that its political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, had left Egypt after holding talks with Egyptian officials about a possible ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and an exchange of hostages held by the militants for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

Two Egyptian security sources confirmed that Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel would head today to Paris for the talks with the Israelis, after wrapping up talks with Hamas chief Haniyeh on Thursday. Israel has not publicly commented on the Paris talks.

Israel’s army said a Palestinian militant on his way to carry out a shooting attack was killed in a drone strike in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin. Yasser Hanun from the Islamic Jihad group had previously been detained for his involvement in the “terrorist organisation’s military activities,” the army said in a statement. Palestinian news agency Wafa said two people were killed and four others wounded in the strike. AFP footage showed a car severely burned from the hit.

UN experts say they have seen “credible allegations” that Palestinian women and girls have been subjected to sexual assaults, including rape, while in Israeli detention, and are calling for a full investigation. The panel of experts said there was evidence of a least two cases of rape, alongside other cases of sexual humiliation and threats of rape. Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, said the true extent of sexual violence could be significantly higher.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that one of its paramedics, Fayez As’ad Mohammad Muammar, had been killed after his family’s house was bombed in the eastern part of Rafah.
A US intelligence assessment of Israel’s claims that UN aid agency staff members participated in the Hamas attack on October 7 said some of the accusations were credible, though could not be independently verified, while also casting doubt on claims of wider links to militant groups. According to the Wall Street Journal, the intelligence report, released last week, assessed with “low confidence” that a handful of staff had participated in the attack, indicating that it considered the accusations to be credible though it could not independently confirm their veracity.

Israel plans to approve the construction of more than 3,300 new homes in settlements in Judea and Samaria on the West Bank, a senior cabinet minister from the far-right wing of the government announced. Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a statement late on Thursday that the new construction is meant as a response to a fatal Palestinian shooting attack near Jerusalem earlier in the day. He said prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant participated in the discussion leading to the decision.

At least 29,514 Palestinians have been killed and 69,616 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Feb. 22. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.

The paramedics arm of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group says two of its members were killed in an Israeli strike on a southern border village early today. The Islamic Health Society identified the two as Hussein Khalil and Mohammed Ismail, saying they were killed when the group’s office in the village of Blida was directly hit, a day after an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Rumman killed two members of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force.

Hezbollah later said it retaliated the attack on Blida by launching two explosive drones at an Israeli army post in the northern town of Kiryat Shmona, claiming it scored direct hits.

A Danish court has sentenced a 26-year-old man for content he posted on Snapchat to his more than 80,000 followers after finding him guilty of expressing approval of the deadly Hamas attack that killed 250 people in Israel on October 7. In the first case of its kind, the city court of Copenhagen on Thursday sentenced the influencer to four months probation with the condition of 100 hours of community service.

The White House Middle East envoy Brett McGurk held talks with Israeli leaders on Feb. 22. “The initial indications we’re getting from Brett are these discussions are going well,” said White House spokesman John Kirby.

Attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on commercial ships in the Red Sea have sent insurance premiums surging. The Houthis have carried out relentless attacks since November on shipping transiting the Red Sea, a maritime hub through which 12% of global trade usually passes.

The office of British PM Rishi Sunak said that it was “wrong” for a controversial pro-Palestinian message to be projected on to the UK parliament building but stopped short of saying police should have intervened, the Press Association (PA) reports. The phrase “from the river to the sea” was reportedly beamed on to the building on Wednesday as Gaza protesters descended on Westminster.

Israeli counter protesters demonstrated in New York on Feb. 22 as pro-Palestine supporters marched through the streets in opposition to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) involvement in the war prosecuted against Hamas.

The organizers of the Eurovision song contest have said they are “scrutinising” the lyrics of Israel’s entry after it was claimed it makes reference to the Hamas attacks on October 7. The lyrics from Israel’s entry, October Rain, sung by Eden Golan, were leaked to the media. According to the Israel Hayom newspaper, lines in the song include, “There’s no air left to breathe”, and “They were all good children, each one of them”. The song also refers to “flowers”, which the newspaper reported is a military code for war fatalities.

Egypt has built more than two miles of wall in the past week, according to the BBC. It also said there had been “further clearance of a large area next to its [Egypt’s] border with Gaza”. Egypt has denied making any such preparations.

 

9:30 am

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented a “day after” plan for Gaza, his first official proposal for when the war in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory ends. According to his office,Israel would maintain security control over all land west of Jordan, including the occupied West Bank and Gaza – territories where the Palestinians want to create an independent state. Among the goals, Netanyahu rejected the “unilateral recognition” of a Palestinian state. He says a settlement with the Palestinians will only be achieved through direct negotiations between the two sides – but it did not name who the Palestinian party would be.

To replace Hamas rule in Gaza while maintaining public order, Netanyahu suggested working with local representatives “who are not affiliated with terrorist countries or groups and are not financially supported by them”. He also called for shutting down the UN Palestinian refugees agency (UNRWA) and replacing it with other international aid groups. “The prime minister’s document of principles reflects broad public consensus over the goals of the war and for replacing Hamas rule in Gaza with a civilian alternative,” a statement by the prime minister’s office said. The document was distributed to security cabinet members to start a discussion on the issue.

At least 29,514 Palestinians have been killed and 69,616 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry claimed. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, and its figures have not been independently verified.

Israel plans to approve the construction of more than 3,300 new homes in settlements in the West Bank areas of Judea and Samaria. Approval of new construction may elicit condemnation from the US at a time when the relationship between the allies is fraught because of disagreements over the course of Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a statement late on Feb. 22 that the new construction is meant as a response to a fatal Palestinian shooting attack near Jerusalem earlier in the day. He said prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant participated in the discussion leading to the decision. The homes are to be built in the settlements Maale Adumim, Efrat and Kedar, Smotrich said.

A US intelligence assessment of Israel’s claims that UN aid agency staff members participated in the Hamas attack on October 7 said some of the accusations were credible, though could not be independently verified, while also casting doubt on claims of wider links to militant groups. Earlier this year, Israel accused 12 employees of the United Nations Reliefs and Works Agency (UNRWA) of participating in the 7 October attacks alongside Hamas. It also said 10% of all UNRWA workers were affiliated with Hamas. This led to the US and other countries to cut off funding for the agency, which was a crucial vehicle for getting aid to Gaza in what has widely been described as a humanitarian crisis.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the intelligence report, released last week, assessed with “low confidence” that a handful of staff had participated in the attack, indicating that it considered the accusations to be credible though it could not independently confirm their veracity.

Egypt has built more than 3km (1.9 miles) of wall in the past week, seperating the country from Gaza. In addition, tacording to BBC, there has been “further clearance of a large area next to its [Egypt’s] border with Gaza”. This month, Egypt began building an enclosed area ringed with high concrete walls along its border with Gaza that appeared intended to house Palestinians fleeing a threatened Israeli assault on the southern city of Rafah. Egypt, which denied making any such preparations, has repeatedly raised the alarm over the possibility that Israel’s devastating Gaza offensive could displace Palestinians into Sinai – something Cairo says would be completely unacceptable – echoing warnings from Arab states such as Jordan. Decades ago, Palestinians were ejected from Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon after challenging national governments.

The BBC reported that  “the authorities in Egypt’s North Sinai province released a statement saying ‘the armed forces are setting up a logistical area to receive aid for Gaza’ to ease the congestion on the roads near the border”. It added that a local governor said the area was being prepared for “truck waiting areas, secure warehouses, administrative offices, and driver accommodations”. An aid worker for a UK charity, who is part of the humanitarian efforts in Gaza, told the BBC she had “never seen large scale clearing of land” for such a logistical hub and they were unaware of any such plan.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) secretary general Chris Lockyear said “there is no health system to speak of left in Gaza” and that “the humanitarian response in Gaza today is an illusion” as he briefed the UN security council on Feb. 22. ‘We are scared. Our teams are beyond exhausted,’ said Lockyear in a briefing on Gaza to the UN security council on Thursday. Photograph: Haitham Imad. Lockyear said: "There is no health system to speak of left in Gaza. Israel’s military has dismantled hospital after hospital. What remains is so little in the face of such carnage. It is preposterous. The excuse given is that medical facilities have been used for military purposes, yet we have seen zero independently verified evidence of this. In exceptional circumstances where a hospital loses its protected status, any attack must follow the principles of proportionality and precaution. Instead of adherence to international law, we see the systematic disabling of hospitals. This has left the entire medical system inoperable.”

Attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on commercial ships in the Red Sea have sent insurance premiums surging, exacerbating costs already stretched by soaring freight rates and longer alternative trade routes. Houthis have carried out relentless attacks since November on shipping transiting the Red Sea, a maritime hub through which 12% of global trade usually passes. Maritime container transport has sunk by almost one-third so far in 2024 compared with a year earlier, according to IMF data. The Iran-backed Houthis argue the attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas conflict. In at least one attack, the Houthis used an underwater drone, endangering naval and merchant shipping.

Israel’s army said today that a Palestinian terrorist on his way to carry out a shooting attack was killed in a drone strike in the West Bank city of Jenin on Feb. 22. Yasser Hanun from the Islamic Jihad group had previously been detained for his involvement in the “terrorist organisation’s military activities,” the army said in a statement. The resident of Jenin refugee camp “was eliminated while en route to carry out another shooting attack,” the statement said, without giving further details. A witness said weapons in the car exploded after the strike on Feb.22. Hanun was involved in several shooting attacks targeting Israeli communities as well as shooting at soldiers and military posts in the West Bank, the army said.

Hamas says its political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, has left Egypt after holding talks with Egyptian officials about a possible ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. 

During Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, Hamas terrorists killed about 1,200 people and took 250 hostages. Roughly half of the hostages were released during a weeklong ceasefire in November. About 100 hostages remain in captivity, in addition to the bodies of 30 others who were killed on 7 October or died in captivity.

European diplomats have ramped up calls for a ceasefire as alarm grows over the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. International efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza appeared to gain new momentum as the White House said talks were “going well”. On Feb. 22, White House Middle East envoy Brett McGurk held talks with Israeli leaders. “The initial indications we’re getting from Brett are these discussions are going well,” said White House spokesperson John Kirby.

Among the winners of the George Polk Awards is a journalist from The New York Times who is accused of infiltrating into Israel early in the morning of the October 7 massacres.

The journalist Yousef Masoud was awarded the prize along with another freelance Times photojournalist named Samar Abu Elouf. 

5:35 am

Israeli officials  have said they want to use local administrators without links to either Hamas or the Palestinian Authority to run Gaza, and will set up small scale trials of the scheme as soon as “the right people step up to the plate”.

UN experts say they have seen “credible allegations” that Palestinian women and girls have been subjected to sexual assaults, including rape, while in Israeli detention, and are calling for a full investigation.

In a collective appeal, heads of UN humanitarian entities and global NGOs have implored world leaders to help prevent further deterioration of the crisis in Gaza. The principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), the coordinating body of global humanitarian organisations, released a statement on Wednesday in which it said “civilians in Gaza are in extreme peril while the world watches on”. It listed ten requirements “to avoid an even worse catastrophe”.

A UN attempt to deliver 10 convoys of food aid to northern Gaza over seven days was suspended earlier this week after trucks were looted by crowds, a driver was beaten and gunfire reported amid chaotic scenes. “In most cases, when food does get taken directly from convoys, it’s because of utter desperation, with people even eating it on the spot,” said Jonathan Fowler, a spokesperson for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

An Israeli man in his 20s was killed on Feb. 22 at a shooting at a checkpoint on a West Bank highway where Palestinian terrorist gunmen opened fire on cars in the morning rush-hour traffic jam. AP report that five others were injured, including a pregnant woman – some other news agencies have put the number of injured at eight. Security forces killed two of the gunmen and detained the third, police said.

The foreign ministers of 26 European countries called for a pause in fighting leading to a longer ceasefire. They urged Israel not to take military action in Rafah “that would worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation.”

Japan had strong words for Israel in the opening of its oral submission at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which is hearing further argument today in the case “legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the cccupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.” Japan’s legal team said “No country must be allowed to be above the law” and argued that “Israel is acting and has been allowed to act in complete disregard of international law”.

5:30 am

Harvard University condemned what it called a “flagrantly antisemitic cartoon” that an undergraduate group posted on social media over the weekend. It also appeared on the Instagram account of Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine. Copied from a newsletter published by students in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, the image features a Black man and an Arab man with nooses around their necks, held by a hand imprinted with the Star of David that has a dollar sign in the middle of the star.

France confirmed on Feb. 21 that 45 Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza have received urgent medications that entered the enclave over a month ago in a deal brokered by Paris and Doha.

United Airlines says it plans to resume flights to Israel next month, reviving a route that was suspended in October at the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The airline said that it will start flights from Newark, New Jersey, to Tel Aviv with a stop in Munich on March 2 and March 4. United said it hopes to begin daily service on March 6 and to add a second daily flight as soon as May.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a former failed U.S. vice presidential candidate and former Virginia governor, is urging the White House to provide Israel only with “defensive” weapons and not those that could be used on what he called an “offensive” attack on Rafah. “I understand from public reports that your administration plans to submit to Congress a notice for another major transfer of U.S. weapons to Israel for use in the war in Gaza,” the senator wrote to U.S. President Joe Biden. “I appreciate the administration’s intent to follow traditional Congressional notification procedures for this transfer; these provisions should be applied equally to all nations.”

Jewish students hit Columbia University with another lawsuit over claims the prestigious school has allowed “rampant antisemitism” to flourish amid the ongoing Hamas-Israel conflict. The suit — filed by five students and two nonprofits — alleges that Columbia has not substantially intervened as Jewish hate intensified on campus in the months since the Middle Eastern war broke out.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a message to the Hezbollah terrorist organization on Feb. 22 during a visit to troops stationed near the Lebanese border, telling the Iranian terrorist proxy that it “must understand—we will restore security.” Surrounded by the snow-covered terrain of Mount Hermon, Netanyahu sat down with commanders from the 210th Division and the IDF Alpinist Unit.

 

February 23, 2024

9:13 am

The IDF destroyed the former home of Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Known as an archterrorist mastermind, Arafat rejected Israel's offer of creating an Arab state in Gaza in 2000.

Israeli police arrested a 29-y.o. volunteer  who collected ammunition from the combat in Gaza  while he wasthere after the October 7th massacre. He also found a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a magazine, 51 5.56 rounds, and a substance that is suspected to be drugs. The suspect was arrested in an apartment in Beit Aryeh in Samaria by detectives from the Bnei Brak-Ramat Gan police station, together with the Tel Aviv Border Police and a K9 who searched the apartment. The suspect volunteered for a civilian organization and during activity in the Gaza envelope he noticed the weapon in Kibbutz Be'eri were Hamas murdered scores of people and picked it up for self-defense and later kept the gun as a "keepsake." Today, his detention was extended and the prosecution intends on submitting an indictment against him.

9:10 am

San Jose State University placed a faculty member on leave following a heated scuffle involving pro-Palestine student activists during a guest speaker’s presentation on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A SJSU spokesperson confirmed on Feb. 21 that an SJSU employee has been placed on administrative leave but did not name the employee. “That is all we are able to share, as it is a personnel matter,” the spokesperson wrote. According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SFBA), the employee is SJSU professor Jonathan Roth. CAIR said that Roth allegedly assaulted a student protester during an event featuring guest speaker Dr. Jeffrey Blutinger, a professor of Jewish Studies and History at California State University Long Beach. His lecture, titled, “Constructing a Just Solution: Where Israelis and Palestinians Go From Here,” was sponsored by a grant from Jewish Silicon Valley.

Survivors of the October 7 massacre by Hamas terrorists in Israel are suing the Associated Press (AP) for hiring freelance photographers "embedded with Hamas terrorists," the New York Post reported. The plaintiffs, Americans and Israeli-Americans who were present at the Nova music festival near Re'im when Hamas terrorists and Gazan civilians brutally attacked the partygoers, and loved ones of Hamas massacre victims, are accusing AP of "aiding and abetting the terrorist organization." According to the federal complaint filed in the Southern District of Florida on Wednesday night, the plaintiffs are suing AP for damages under the Antiterrorism Act, and are represented by lawyers working with the nonprofit National Jewish Advocacy Center.

9:00 am

Two Palestinian men were indicted on murder and terrorism charges for carrying out a deadly rampage through the city of Ra’anana in January, killing an elderly woman and injuring 17 others, including children and teenagers, several of whom are still hospitalized in serious condition. Ahmed Zidat, 25, and Mahmoud Zidat, 44, from the West Bank town of Bani Naim, had plotted to commit two terror attacks prior to the attack they carried out in Ra’anana on January 15, the indictment notes. The pair  had plotted for Ahmed to murder IDF Arabic-language spokesman Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, having previously spotted him eating in a restaurant in Ra’anana. Ahmed rented an apartment in the city and found work washing cars there, and would go searching for Adraee every night close to that restaurant but never found him, the indictment states.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with soldiers of the IDF’s Alpinist Unit and the 188th Armored Brigade on Mount Hermon earlier today, where he discussed the country’s goals in the north, where Hezbollah activities on the Lebanon border have caused tens of thousands to evacuate. He praised the atroops for on an “outstanding job since the beginning of the war,” saying that Israel is engaged in battle “from Gaza and Rafah to the Hermon.” “In the south, we have one simple goal – total victory,” his office quotes him as saying. “We are on the way to the elimination of Hamas and the release of our hostages. We will not rest until we achieve total victory.” “In the north, we have a simple goal — to return the residents. To bring back the residents, we need to bring back the feeling of security, and to bring back the feeling of security, we need to bring back security, which we will do,” he continued. He said that Israel is ready to restore security to the north through any means necessary, and if it cannot be done through diplomacy or politics, it will be done through the use of military force. “In any case, Hezbollah should understand — we will restore security. I hope that they receive this message,” he added.

Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk said that there may be breakthroughs in hostage negotiations in the near future. Abu Marzouk said in an interview that from Hamas’s standpoint, the main obstacle to a hostage deal is Israel’s refusal to withdraw its ground forces from the Gaza Strip, especially from the north-south Salah al-Din axis and the coastal Rashid street. He reiterates that Hamas’s conditions for a ceasefire are a cessation of hostilities and the return of displaced people to northern Gaza. He adds that the terror group demands the release of 500 Palestinian prisoners for every Israeli hostage, of whom there are 134 still in captivity, and vows that Hamas “will continue its struggle until victory or martyrdom” and will not lay down its weapons. Regarding Gaza's future, he said Hamas does not see it as a goal to govern the enclave, but rather thinks that this should fall upon the Palestinian Authority, adding that Hamas members have met with representatives from Fatah and with Muhammad Dahlan, the Gazan exiled leader of the Democratic Reform Bloc within Fatah.

Israeli protesters blocking the Kerem Shalom Crossing clashed with Israeli security forces who attempted to disperse the crowds. Activists on the scene allege that the soldiers punched or kicked several of them, and that one of the protesters required medical attention after a soldier slammed a rock into the back of his head. The protests at Kerem Shalom aim to block the transfer of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip until all hostages held by Hamas are released from captivity.

Ships that are wholly or partially owned by Israeli individuals or entities and Israel-flagged vessels are banned from the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea, said Yemen’s Houthi group. A statements, sent to shipping insurers and firms from the Houthis’ Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center, also said ships owned by US or British individuals or entities, or sailing under their flags, are also banned. The Houthis fired missles at a ship this week that was carrying donated grain to Yemen.

The IDF says it carried out airstrikes with fighter jets against Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon a short while ago. The targets included a building in Maroun al-Ras and other infrastructure belonging to the terror group in Kafr Kila and Khaim. After missile fire on Kiryat Shmona and Kfar Yuval this morning, the IDF says it shelled the launch sites in southern Lebanon with artillery. The IDF also says a tank shelled an area near Jebbayn.

White House Special Envoy Brett McGurk is in Israel and will be meeting Israeli PM and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi today to discuss potential hostage talks and a looming IDF operation in Rafah. Later, the war cabinet will meet, followed by the full national security cabinet.

The victim of the terror attack on Route 1 near Ma’ale Adumim has been identified as Matan Elmaliah, 26, a resident of the West Bank settlement city. Eleven other people were injured in the shooting, including a pregnant woman who is in serious but stable condition. Hamas issued a statement praising the terror attack near Ma’ale Adumim and calling the deadly shooting “a natural response” to the war in Gaza, Arabic-language media outlets report. “The heroic operation is a natural response to the Occupation’s massacres and crimes in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” the terror group says of the attack, referring to Israel. The statement also refers to the upcoming month of Ramadan and Israel’s efforts to minimize the security risks during the holiday, saying that “the Occupation’s invasion of Jerusalem and its plans to prevent worshipers from reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan will not bring it security.”

Palestinian media outlets report that the president of the student council at Birzeit University was detained by Israeli forces operating in the area today. According to reports, a second student at the university was also detained. Birzeit University is located close to the Palestinian West Bank city of Ramallah and it has 25 Hamas representatives on its student council.

Some 23 US citizens have fallen in Israeli service since the start of the ground operation in Gaza, comprising almost 10% of the IDF death toll. Twenty-one of that number died fighting in Gaza. In addition, at least 32 US citizens were killed by Hamas on October 7, and 11 were taken hostage. Six Americans are still in Hamas captivity in Gaza.

On the fourth day of public hearings at the UN International Court of Justice on Palestinian representatives’ accusation that Israel is creating a permanent and illegal occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, China argues that Palestinians have the right to engage in “armed struggle” against Israel. Taking to the stand ahead of Iran, Ma Xinmin, a Chinese Foreign Ministry legal adviser, argues that “in pursuit of the right to self-determination” the Palestinian people have the right to the “use of force to resist foreign oppression and to complete the establishment of the Palestinian state.” Citing examples of “various people [who] freed themselves from colonial rule” through armed resistance, he argues that acts of violence against Israelis by Palestinians are not terrorism but rather legitimate armed struggle. “Numerous other resolutions recognize the legitimacy of struggle by all available means including armed struggle by people under colonial domination or foreign occupation to realize the right of self-determination,” Ma tells the ICJ.

Two missiles were fired at a vessel in an attack southeast of the Yemeni port city of Aden today, causing a fire onboard, Britain’s maritime agency says. US-led coalition forces are responding to the incident, which took place 70 nautical miles from Aden in the direction of the Red Sea, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency says without elaborating. “It has been reported that a vessel was attacked by two missiles, resulting in a fire on board,” the UKMTO says.

A total of 29,410 Palestinians have been killed and 69,465 have been injured in Gaza since the start of the war between Hamas and Israel, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said. The figures have not been indepdently verified and are believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires. The IDF says it has killed some 12,000 terrorists in Gaza, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.

February 22, 2024

 

 

3:45 pm

The United States said  today that  the United Nations' top court should not issue an advisory opinion that says Israel should “immediately and unconditionally withdraw” from territories sought for a Palestinian state. Acting State Department legal adviser Richard Visek said the 15-judge panel at the International Court of Justice should not seek to resolve the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict “through an advisory opinion addressed to questions focusing on the acts of only one party.”

An Israeli sabotage attack on an Iranian natural gas pipeline last week caused multiple explosions on the line, Iran's oil minister alleged Wednesday, further raising tensions between the regional archenemies against the backdrop of Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The accusations by Iran’s Oil Minister Javad Owji come as Israel has been blamed for a series of attacks targeting Tehran's nuclear program.

The Israel Defense Forces will likely begin maneuvering in Rafah, southern Gaza—the last Hamas stronghold—towards the end of February, and could complete the high-intensity phase of its war against Hamas by early May, a senior former Israeli defense official says.

2:00 pm

Egypt continues to level land near the Rafah crossing into Israel. It has also reinforced its wall separating it from Gaza.

 

1:50 pm

On February 12, 2024, the pro-Islamic State (ISIS) "Bariqah" Telegram channel posted a photo and a video, reporting that a passenger bus received fire in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province, killing the driver, and that the ISIS terrorists left notes for the passengers.The hand-written notes, one in English and the other in Portuguese, state they are from "the government of the Islamic State of Mozambique": "We declare war on all Christians in the world for three things, either to be a Muslim or paying jizyah [a poll tax which the Quran mandates non-Muslims to pay their Muslim rulers]. If you haven't paid jizyah it’s a war until [the end of the] earth. To Muslims we announce peace to all the world. Let’s work together to defend the religion of Allah together. If you refuse [to convert to Islam] then you will pay jizyah and if you refuse to pay jizyah you will be killed."

 

12:00 pm

Lord Andrew Roberts, war historian, journalist, and member of the House of Lords in the UK said that if one takes Hamas’ "wildly inflated numbers as fact," the ratio of civilian death to militant death is less than 2:1.  For reference, he said, the "average ratio for modern urban warfare of this kind is 9:1," where civilians account for 90 percent of casualties. This ratio is “astonishingly low,” he said, especially in a war in which one side, Hamas, routinely uses civilians as human shields.  "While every civilian life lost is a tragedy, it is a testament to the care, professionalism, ethics, and values of the IDF and Israel."

11:38 am

The IDF has uncovered a weapons cache in the compound of an UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency) school in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip. Further evidence of Hamas' exploitation of Gaza's civilians - including children - for its terrorist activities, and of UNRWA’s involvement in this terrorism.

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reacted to a Knesset vote endorsing his stand against a unilaterally declared Palestinian state by saying “The Knesset came together in an overwhelming majority against the attempt to impose on us the establishment of a Palestinian state, which would not only fail to bring peace but would endanger the state of Israel.”

The US told the International Court of Justice in The Hague that the Hamas attack on October 7 demonstrated Israel’s “legitimate security needs” in any solution to conflict in the region. The US urged the court not to “find that Israel is legally obligated to immediately and unconditionally withdraw from occupied territory”, but instead “preserve and promote the established framework” for reaching a two-state solution. Russia and France will make oral submissions to the court later today.

Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 67 Palestinians overnight and into Wednesday, including in areas where civilians have been told to seek refuge. Aid group Doctors Without Borders said that two people were killed when a shelter housing staff in the Gaza Strip was struck during an Israeli operation. The IDF said it recovered “weapons including an RPG and AK-47 rifle” and has located dozens of “terror infrastructures, observation posts, weapon storage facilities, and underground targets” during the last 24 hours. One Israeli soldier was announced as being killed.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has announced it is pausing deliveries of food aid to northern Gaza. This comes after incidents on 18 and 19 February when WFP says convoys were unable to deliver aid as planned, largely due to a breakdown in civil order. It said a truck was looted and the driver beaten.

The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel says it found evidence of “systematic and intentional” rape and sexual abuse during the Hamas attack on October 7, and claimed that Hamas chose to use “sadistic sexual crimes” in order to “harm Israel strategically”. Orit Sulitzeanu, CEO of the organisation, said “The report, submitted to decision-makers at the UN, leaves no room for denial or disregard. Silence is no longer an option. We expect international organisations to take a clear stance”.

At least two people have been killed by what has been described by Syria’s media as an Israeli airstrike on Damascus. A residential building was struck in the Kafr Sousa district of the capital. Israel’s military have not commented on the claim. There are reports that two of the dead were senior officials of the Iranian military.

In London the UK parliament will vote later on an opposition motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The exact wording of the motion has sparked a political row among opposition parties.
Iran’s oil Minister Javad Owji has said Israel was behind last week’s attack on Iranian gas pipelines.

An Israeli airstrike on south Lebanon killed a woman and wounded her daughter today, state media in Lebanon claimed. 

6:00 am

The systematic nature of the “sadistic sex crimes” committed during the Hamas-led invasion of the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7 has been revealed for the first time, in a report published by the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel. The document has been sent to the UN and leave “no room for denial or disregard.” It analyzes public and confidential testimonies about the sexual violence, eyewitness accounts, and interviews with victims and first responders. “The terrorist organization Hamas has chosen to injure the State of Israel with two clear strategies—taking civilians captive, and sadistic sex crimes,” said Orit Soliciano, CEO of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers.

“It is no longer possible to remain silent—we expect the international organizations to take a clear position, it is impossible to stand on the sidelines. Standing on the other side will be remembered as a historic stain on all those who chose to remain silent and deny the sexual crimes committed by Hamas,” Soliciano added. Examples of the sexual crimes committed include violent acts of rape, with weapons pointed at the victims, in some cases aimed at wounded women. Many mass rapes occurred. Often, the rapes were intentionally committed in front of husbands, partners and family members to maximize the pain and helplessness felt and increase the terror. Hamas terrorists hunted down young men and women who attempted to escape the carnage, dragging them by the hair screaming. The sexual violence targeted men, women and girls and included binding their bodies, mutilating genitals and the bodies of both males and females with knives and in some cases inserting weapons inside the genitals. In most cases, the victims were executed either during the rape or after.

Sixty-three percent of Israeli Jews oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state, and most believe terrorism will either stay the same (27.5%) or increase (44%) should one be created, according to the Israel Democracy Institute’s eleventh War in Gaza survey, published today.

5:45 am

Internal divisions among Hamas leaders are preventing the Palestinian terror group from backing a proposed hostage release deal that would include a pause to the fighting in the Gaza Strip, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to the report, the prevailing dynamic within Hamas has flipped, with the terrorist organization’s chief in Gaza Yahya Sinwar backing a temporary truce while its leaders outside of the Strip are pushing for further Israeli concessions. Sources told WSJ that Sinwar wants a six-week halt to the war so Hamas operatives can regroup and more aid can enter Gaza. Politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh, however, is pushing for a permanent ceasefire with international guarantees and a plan for rebuilding the enclave.

US jets struck sites in Iraq and Syria, following a deadly drone attack blamed on an Iran-backed militia group.  The retaliation came dies after three American soldiers were killed at a base in Jordan. According to CENTCOM, US forces including long-range bombers that flew from the United States, hit over 85 targets linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. “The facilities that were struck included command and control operations, centers, intelligence centers, rockets, and missiles, and unmanned aired vehicle storages, and logistics and munition supply chain facilities of militia groups and their IRGC sponsors who facilitated attacks against US and Coalition forces,” the statement said.

The IDF says it struck a truck used to store weapons for Hezbollah in the southern Lebanon village of Kfarchouba earlier today. Fighter jets also struck a Hezbollah site in Blida, the IDF said. The strikes come following attacks on the border today, including projectiles fired from Lebanon at Avivim and Yir’on. There are no injuries in the Hezbollah attacks, the IDF says.

President Joe Biden and Jill Biden went to Dover Air Force Base to join grieving families to honor the three American soldiers killed in a drone attack in Jordan. The service members killed on Feb. 18 were all from Georgia — Sgt. William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Sgt. Kennedy Sanders of Waycross, and Sgt. Breonna Moffett of Savannah. Sanders and Moffett were posthumously promoted to sergeant rank. The deaths were the first US fatalities blamed on Iran-backed militia groups, who for months have been intensifying their attacks on American forces in the region following the onset of the Israel-Hamas war in October. Separately, two Navy SEALs died during a January mission to board an unflagged ship that was carrying illicit Iranian-made weapons to Yemen.

Yemen’s Houthi terrorists say they have carried out a military operation toward Eilat, Israel, with ballistic missiles, the Iran-backed rebel group’s military spokesperson said. The Israel Defense Forces earlier said the Arrow missile defense system successfully intercepted a surface-to-surface missile fired at Israeli territory in the area of the Red Sea.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to the Middle East next week, his fifth regional tour since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war nearly four months ago. The five-day trip starts in Saudi Arabia on  Feb. 25 before proceeding to Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the West Bank. Blinken “will continue diplomatic efforts to reach an agreement that secures the release of all remaining hostages and includes a humanitarian pause that will allow for sustained, increased delivery of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza,” the State Department statement said. “He will continue to work to prevent the spread of the conflict, while reaffirming that the United States will take appropriate steps to defend its personnel and the right to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea,” the State Department statement continues.

Blinken “will also continue discussions with partners on how to establish a more integrated, peaceful region that includes lasting security for Israelis and Palestinians alike,” it adds.

As a UN delegation visits northern Gaza to assess the effects of the war, Israeli officials fear unflattering reports on the vast destruction there could have a detrimental effect on its war effort, according to Israeli media. Channel 12  reporter Nir Dvori mentioned a US team but likely misspoke. Israel approved the UN team’s visit after American pressure. It toured southern Israel in recent days to see the results of Hamas’s deadly attacks on October 7 before entering Gaza to view the conditions there.

The Department of Justice announces terrorism and sanctions-evasion charges and seizures linked to a billion-dollar oil trafficking network that it says finances Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). “The Department of Justice’s actions are critical to stemming the flow of money that Iran uses to engage in activities that threaten people inside the United States, as well as our interests across the world,” a senior Justice Department official tells reporters in a call before the unsealing of the charges in two federal courts. The Justice Department seized more than $108 million that it says China Oil & Petroleum Company Limited, which it calls an IRGC front company, attempted to launder through accounts at US financial institutions. The department says more than 500,000 barrels of Iran’s sanctioned oil were also seized. Seven defendants, including Morteza Rostam Ghasemi, who is the son of an IRGC commander and Iranian oil minister, and an Iranian shipping official are charged in connection with those seizures.

Iran’s crude exports and oil output hit new highs in 2023 despite US sanctions. In January, China’s oil trade with Iran stalled as Tehran withheld shipments and demanded higher prices from its top client, tightening cheap supply for the world’s biggest crude importer. Iranian oil makes up some 10% of China’s crude imports. “The cases that we’re announcing are targeting players on both sides, both the supply and demand side” of sanctioned Iranian oil,” the Justice Department said.
 

February 21, 2024

 

7:15 pm

A U.S. State Department prospectus in February 2022 for one or two grants valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars called for “strengthening human rights and accountability in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza.” One of the aims of the project to possibly include was the “documentation of legal or security sector violations and housing, land and property rights.” The prospectus drew criticism from a State Department official, according to a report by The Washington Free Beacon. The employee’s issue wasn’t that the department’s democracy, human rights and labor (DRL) bureau “funds programs in European countries or other countries we are allied with,” the official wrote. “The issue is that DRL is funding a program to collect evidence of human rights abuses and atrocities in a country that is our ally.” 

Israeli forces are continuing their offensive in the former Hamas stronghold of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, killing dozens of terrorists during “intensive operations” in the western part of the city over the past 24 hours. A Hamas weapons storage site in the city was also destroyed, with secondary explosions suggesting the presence of a large amount of munitions in the facility.

Israeli forces have undertaken an operation in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood since Feb. 19, while the IDF issued an “urgent appeal” on this morning for residents of the district to evacuate.

China has expressed its “strong disappointment” over the United States blocking a draft United Nations Security Council resolution on the Israel-Hamas war calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations Zhang Jun said, "China expresses its strong disappointment at and dissatisfaction with the US veto...The US veto sends a wrong message, pushing the situation in Gaza into a more dangerous one,” Zhang says, adding that objection to a ceasefire in Gaza is “nothing different from giving the green light to the continued slaughter."

Brazil’s foreign minister accused Israeli foreign minister Israel Katza of “lying” as a diplomatic spat escalates over Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s comparison of Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza to the Holocaust. Mauro Vieira, whose country is hosting a G20 foreign ministers meeting this week, says statements by Israel Katz are “unacceptable in their nature and lying in their content” as well as “outrageous.” Israel has reacted furiously after Lula said the conflict in the Gaza Strip “isn’t a war, it’s a genocide,” and compared it to “when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Lula had “crossed a red line,” and Katz declared the Brazilian leader “persona non grata in the state of Israel so long as he doesn’t retract his remarks and apologize.”

The London High Court rejected a petition to suspend British arms exports to Israel, the lawyers for the plaintiffs say. Advocacy groups had asked the High Court to expedite a judicial review of the UK government’s decision to keep selling military parts and arms to Israel. Britain’s strategic licensing criteria state that weapons should not be exported when there is a clear risk they could be used in international humanitarian law violations. Palestinian rights group Al-Haq and the Global Legal Action Network argued that the UK was ignoring its own rules in the Gaza conflict.

The IDF is constructing a new road across central Gaza as part of its plan to maintain security control over the enclave at the end of the war against Hamas. The new gravel road is being expanded upon some five miles from the Israeli border and stretches from east to west, as the army already has control over the Strip’s north-south roads. The road will allow the military to move securely through the strip and its construction as Israel prepares for the day after the war, when the ruling Hamas terror group will no longer be in power and the majority of IDF troops will have withdrawn, the report says.

Should a full-scale war break out between Israel and Hezbollah along the country’s northern borders, Israel’s health system could collapse and extended power outages could become the norm, according to Israeli media. 

Palestinian media outlets report three killed in clashes between gunmen and the IDF in the West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp. According to the reports, at least three others were injured to varying degrees in the clashes. There was no immediate comment from the IDF on the raid.

It is highly unlikely that Israel will launch its major planned military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins around March 10, a senior US official Matthew Miller. While the IDF is still conducting operations in Khan Younis,it has not finalized its plan to ensure that the million-plus Palestinians currently sheltering in the latter city will be protected once the Israeli operation against Hamas’s remaining battalions there begins, Miller said. Evacuating civilians and establishing mechanism to support them will take weeks to implement, Miller said. 

When asked  whether the US draft Security Council resolution calling for a “temporary ceasefire” as opposed to a “humanitarian pause” represents a shift in the Bide administration's posture, Miller said it does not. “We want to see a temporary stop in the fighting. You can call it a ceasefire, you can call it a pause. Ultimately, we want to see the fight and stop so hostages can get out and humanitarian assistance can get it,” he said at a press briefing. “The only kind of temporary ceasefire that is going to achi eve a release of hostages is one that’s negotiated.”

“Just calling for a temporary ceasefire that Hamas has not agreed to is not going to do anything to get the hostages out, which is why we can continue to pursue diplomacy with Israel and with the governments of Egypt and Qatar to try and achieve a temporary ceasefire that would secure the release of the hostages...We think that is by far the most productive way forward. It’s what achieved the release of more than 100 hostages last year, and what we think should be the productive path for moving forward now,” Miller added.

The office of the Israeli prime minister said that Qatar’s statement about the medication for the Israeli hostages held by Hamasa having been received by terrorist group is a “direct result of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s insistence on receiving proof of the arrival of the drugs for our hostages.” His office adds that “Israel will examine the credibility of the report and will continue to work for the peace of our hostages.”

7:00 pm

UN agency Unicef has warned the Gaza Strip is poised to witness an increase in what an official said was “the already unbearable level of child deaths” due to a worsening food crisis. It says more than 90% of children under five in Gaza are in food poverty, with a similar percentage are affected by infectious diseases, and 70% experiencing diarrhea in the last two weeks.

South Africa’s delegation to the UN International Criminal Court in the Netherlands Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is “an even more extreme form of the apartheid” than the one formerly in place in South Africa. The court is holding a second day of hearings asking it to give an advisory opinion on the Israeli occupation. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has accused Israel of impeding hospital rescue missions at the Nasser hospital in southern Gaza. The agency reported its staff said “the destruction around Nasser hospital was ‘indescribable’” and that it was concerned for “an estimated 130 sick and injured patients and at least 15 doctors and nurses” who remain at the medical complex, which has “no electricity or running water”.
The total number of Palestinians detained by Israeli security forces from the occupied West Bank since 7 October has risen to 7,120 according to local sources.

Overnight the IDF confirmed that one of its soldiers who had been wounded during the ground offensive in Khan Younis on 15 february had died, taking Israel’s total losses on the ground inside Gaza to 236.
Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy has condemned a UN report which said there were “credible allegations of egregious human rights violations” of Palestinian women and girls by Israeli security forces including rape and strip-searches as motivated by “hatred of Israel and the Jewish people”.

Israel’s military laimed it continues to “operate in the northern, central, and southern Gaza Strip”, and says it has “eliminated a terrorist cell that attempted to attack the troops”.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has reportedly arrived in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials.

French warships in the Red Sea intercepted and destroyed two drones in overnight attacks coming from Yemen, according to France’s ministry of defence.
In the UK, the opposition Labour party, under considerable political pressure, has called for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza for the first time.
 

6:45 pm

Israel denied a Saudi report that the Israeli defense establishment believes a Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, has fled to Egypt. “We are unaware of the information that was published,” unnamed officials said in the denial sent to Israeli media. The Elaph news site cited a security source as saying that Israel estimates that Sinwar escaped across the border to Egypt.

The heir apparent of the United Kingdom, Prince William, tweeted today: "I remain deeply concerned about the terrible human cost of the conflict in the Middle East since the Hamas terrorist attack on 7 October. Too many have been killed. I, like so many others, want to see an end to the fighting as soon as possible. There is a deperate need for increased humanitarian support to Gaza. It's critical that aid gets in and hostages are released. Sometimes it is only when faced with the sheer scale of human suffering that the importance of permanenent peace is brought home. 
Even in the darkest hour, we must not succumb to the counsel of despair. I continue to cling to the hope that a brigter future can be found and I refuse to give up on that." He did not call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The House of Commons will vote on the issue on Feb. 21. 
 

1:18 pm

In 1982, then-Senator Joe Biden confronted Israeli Prime Minister Menchem Begin with threats to stop U.S. funding to Israel. Begin responded,"Don't threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid."

12:58 pm

Roger Waters, a member of the former Pink Floyd rock music group, went on Al Jazeera to say “Stars of David” are “one of the most disgusting things i have seen in my life.”

"If you think the people of this country are going to allow you and take this beautiful country, city of Cape Town of ours and hand it over to the Zionists, the city of Cape Town would be a bloodbath I can assure you that. We will allow you to make this a Jewish state," said Munzor Shaik Emam, a member of South Africa's parliament as other members listened.

UN agency Unicef has warned the Gaza Strip is poised to witness an increase in what an official said was “the already unbearable level of child deaths” due to a worsening food crisis. It says more than 90% of children under five in Gaza are in food poverty, with a similar percentage are affected by infectious diseases, and 70% experiencing diarrhea in the last two weeks.

South Africa’s delegation to the ICJ in The Hague has said Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is “an even more extreme form of the apartheid” than the one formerly in place in South Africa. The court is holding a second day of hearings asking it to give an advisory opinion on the Israeli occupation.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has accused Israel of impeding hospital rescue missions at the Nasser hospital in southern Gaza. The agency reported its staff said “the destruction around Nasser hospital was ‘indescribable’” and that it was concerned for “an estimated 130 sick and injured patients and at least 15 doctors and nurses” who remain at the medical complex, which has “no electricity or running water”.

The total number of Palestinians detained by Israeli security forces from the occupied West Bank since 7 October has risen to 7,120 according to local sources.

Overnight the IDF confirmed that one of its soldiers who had been wounded during the ground offensive in Khan Younis on February 15 had died, taking Israel’s total losses on the ground inside Gaza to 236.

Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy condemned a UN report which claimed there were “credible allegations of egregious human rights violations” of Palestinian women and girls by Israeli security forces including rape and strip-searches as motivated by “hatred of Israel and the Jewish people”.

In its latest operational update, Israel’s military has claimed it continues to “operate in the northern, central, and southern Gaza Strip”, and says it has “eliminated a terrorist cell that attempted to attack the troops”.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has reportedly arrived in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials.

French warships in the Red Sea intercepted and destroyed two drones in overnight attacks coming from Yemen, according to France’s ministry of defence.

In the UK, the opposition Labour party, under considerable political pressure, has called for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza for the first time.

9:30 am

A rabbi at several British universities who drew hundreds of death threats after flying to Israel to serve as a reserve soldier after Oct. 7 is now in hiding with his wife and two children on the recommendation of police. Both the University of Leeds and British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis have condemned the threats against Rabbi Zecharia Deutsch, his wife Nava, and their two children, which began shortly after Oct. 7 and escalated recently with antisemitic phone calls and an attack on the school’s Hillel House.

A freelance reporter based in Fort Wayne, Indiana is facing up to five years in federal prison after allegedly threatening to “kill every Jew” in the city and "shoot every pro-Israel U.S. government official,” according to a federal affidavit filed in court last week. Jeffrey Stevens, 41, is charged with posting threats using interstate communications, which carries a maximum of five years in federal prison. He was first reported to the FBI after “multiple concerning Facebook posts” following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, according to the affidavit.

8:45 am

About two weeks ago, a British citizen sent off a passport application to the UK Home Office for his six-month-old baby girl. Upon the return of his documents, the infant's birth certificate was returned ripped with the word “Israel” scribbled out. The UK Campagin against Antisemitism stated on X: "We are asking the Home Office to investigate how this happened. The Home Office has responsibility for law enforcement and the security of the Jewish community.  Confidence in the authorities is at painfully low levels and must be restored." Subsequently, British Home Secretary James Cleverley released a statement saying that he had ordered an investigation.

8:21 am

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a statement on social media this morning describing a mission to transfer patients within Gaza, It reported that its staff said “the destruction around Nasser hospital was ‘indescribable’”. It accused Israel of hindering and refusing its attempts to provide medical services to Gaza’s population.

British heir-apparent Prince William said he was deeply concerned about the “terrible human cost of the conflict in the Middle East”. In a statement, he said: "Too many have been killed." He added that he wants to see an end to the fighting and increased humanitarian aid to Gaza.

President Biden's Middle East envoy Brett McGurk will travel to the region for continued talks on securing the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, a senior Biden administration official said today. McGurk, who participated in earlier negotiations, will visit Egypt on Feb. 21 and Israel on Feb.22. The talks between the US, Egypt, Israel and Qatar are billed as seeking a pause in the war and the release of more than 100 hostages held by Hamas after its deadly 7 October attack on Israel.

The Biden administration is proposing a draft UN security council resolution calling for a temporary ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and opposing a major ground offensive by its ally Israel in Rafah, after signaling a US veto on a rival resolution on Tuesday that it said could jeopardise talks. The Biden administration does “not plan to rush” to a vote in order to allow time for negotiations. 

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has paused the deliveries of food aid to northern Gaza until “conditions are in place that allow for safe distributions”, it said in a statement. "The decision to pause deliveries to the north of the Gaza Strip has not been taken lightly, as we know it means the situation there will deteriorate further and more people risk dying of hunger. WFP is deeply committed to urgently reaching desperate people across Gaza but the safety and security to deliver critical food aid – and for the people receiving it – must be ensured. Deliveries to the north resumed on Feb. 18 after a three-week suspension following the strike on an UNRWA truck and due to the absence of a functioning humanitarian notification system. The plan was to send 10 trucks of food for seven straight days, to help stem the tide of hunger and desperation and to begin building trust in communities that there would be enough food for all."  "Gaza is hanging by a thread and WFP must be enabled to reverse the path towards famine for thousands of desperately hungry people," it said.

A statue of  late British singer Amy Winehouse in her former home of Camden, England, has had a pro-Palestinian sticker placed over a star of David necklace, prompting condemnation from many including environment secretary Steve Barclay. Metropolitan police acknowledged the incident would cause “upset to many people”, and said they were “making inquiries with Camden Market to establish the circumstances and what evidence, such as CCTV footage, may be available”.

UN agency Unicef has warned the Gaza Strip is poised to witness an increase in what an official said was “the already unbearable level of child deaths” due to a worsening food crisis. It says more than 90% of children under five in Gaza are in food poverty, with a similar percentage are affected by infectious diseases, and 70% experiencing diarrhea in the last two weeks.

South Africa’s delegation to the ICJ in The Hague has said Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is “an even more extreme form of the apartheid” than the one formerly in place in South Africa. The court is holding a second day of hearings asking it to give an advisory opinion on the Israeli occupation. Saudi Arabia, Algeria, the Netherlands and Bangladesh have also given oral submissions today.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has accused Israel of impeding hospital rescue missions at the Nasser hospital in southern Gaza. The agency reported its staff said “the destruction around Nasser hospital was ‘indescribable’” and that it was concerned for “an estimated 130 sick and injured patients and at least 15 doctors and nurses” who remain at the medical complex, which has “no electricity or running water”.
The total number of Palestinians detained by Israeli security forces from the occupied West Bank since 7 October has risen to 7,120 according to local sources.

Overnight the IDF confirmed that one of its soldiers who had been wounded during the ground offensive in Khan Younis on February 15 had died, taking Israel’s total losses on the ground inside Gaza to 236.

In its latest operational update, Israel’s military has claimed it continues to “operate in the northern, central, and southern Gaza Strip”, and says it has “eliminated a terrorist cell that attempted to attack the troops”.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has reportedly arrived in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials.

In Israel a protest march is heading towards prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence demanding the Israeli government do more to secure the release of the 134 hostages believed to still be held in Gaza by Hamas.

Israel’s military said that “throughout the morning, IDF fighter jets struck a number of Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon”. Anti-tank missiles were reported to have landed inside northern Israel.
Satellite images appear to show the territory cleared on Egypt’s side of the border with Rafah has been made larger than initially reported on February 15.

Occupied West Bank detentions since October 7 now number 7,120 according to local sources. While the International Court of Justice in The Hague is listening to submissions in a case regarding Israel’s policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territories, Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Israel has detained another 30 people in the West Bank. Citing the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, it reports that two of those detained were people released under the hostage swap deal agreed alongside a temporary truce late last year. PPS said the raids took place in diverse locations, including Ramallah, Hebron, Tulkarm, Bethlehem, Nablus and Jenin.

Satellite images appear to show the territory cleared on the Egyptian side of the border with Rafah, Gaza, has been made larger than initially reported on February 15. Egypt is believed to have been preparing contingency plans in case talks to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas fail and Israel proceeds with a planned attack on the southern town, which is now hosting more than 1.5 million people. Heavy equipment was seen leveling the ground at the site, but there was no evidence of the construction of infrastructure such as sewers and water  supply

Israel’s military has said in a statement that “throughout the morning, IDF fighter jets struck a number of Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon.”

Lebanese state media is reporting an increased number of people displaced from the UN-drawn blue line that divides Lebanon and Israel. It reports there has been “significant damage to homes, crops, and infrastructure, especially electricity and water networks” due to Israeli military action inside Lebanon.

8:10 am

Top papal advisor Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna backed a global appeal for a ceasefire in Gaza. In a Feb. 18 television interview in Italy, he said “We must always try to see peace, war is always a terrible defeat.” Zuppi, Pope Francis's mediator in the war between Russia and Ukraine, said, “Every day more is a day of anguish. Peace is something that requires a lot of experiments, many attempts, it must be sought with obstinacy, and we are convinced that it will come,” adding that the international community has a role to play, and “cannot keep itself out.” He also issued a “strong and clear condemnation” of antisemitism and of the Oct. 7, 2023 surprise attack by Hamas that left some 1,200 Israelis dead and over 200 more taken as hostages. He said the attack was “a terrible violence which killed innocents” and an “expression of something that we cannot accept.” He also backed Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, who acknowledged Israel’s right to self-defense, but said  Israel's military response to the Hamas attack has been disproportionate.. Zuppi defended Parolin’s position, saying Parolin simply repeated “what many governments are saying, he said ‘ceasefire,’ because this operation does not justify a huge number of victims.” “We hope that this appeal will be accepted by Israel, and we will begin to look to the future,” he said.

 

February 20, 2024

 

8:00 pm

The Council of the EU launched a defensive maritime security operation to safeguard freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and the Gulf. It said Operation ASPIDES would ensure an EU naval presence in the area where numerous Houthi attacks have targeted international commercial vessels since October 2023. The Belize-flagged cargo ship Rubymar sustained damage overnight after two missiles were fired at the vessel from Yemen, although the crew were able to evacuate.

The US has proposed a UN security council resolution calling for a temporary ceasefire and for Israel not to go ahead with a planned offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza. This is the first time the Biden administration has expliclty backed a ceasefire in Gaza, although it adds that the temporary truce should be begun “as soon as practicable”, leaving some room for manoeuvre by the Israeli military. The text is being offered by the Biden administration as an alternative to an Algerian draft resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire that is due to be debated on Feb. 20. The draft resolution tracks with comments made by President Biden recently. It is seen as a signal that the Biden administration will use the UN to pressurize Israel rather than purely bilateral measures.The draft resolution “determines that under current circumstances a major ground offensive into Rafah would result in further harm to civilians and their further displacement including potentially into neighbouring countries, which would have serious implications for regional peace and security, and therefore underscores that such a major ground offensive should not proceed under current circumstances”.

The foreign minister of the Palestinian Authority has told the International Court of Justice in The Hague that “There is a genocide happening in Gaza” and that occupation of Palestinian territory by Israel should come to “an unconditional end”. Riyad al-Maliki was speaking as a week of hearings in the UN’s top court has opened on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. In its submission on the case, made in July 2023, Israel argueed that any decision or arbitration by the court risks endangering the previously agreed peace process.

Israel has declared Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva “persona non grata” over comments he made accusing Israel of carrying out a genocide and comparing their actions to the Holocaust. Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz said “We will not forget nor forgive. It is a serious antisemitic attack.”

The Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza has said the number of Palestinians killed in the territory by Israeli military action since October 7 has risen to 29,092. In the past 24 hours, 107 Palestinians were killed and 145 injured, the Hamas-led ministry said in its statement. 69,028 are reported injured in total. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify casualty figures being issued during the conflict.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society has reported “multiple bombardments by Israeli forces” near the al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis which it claims have caused “significant damage to the hospital building”.
In its latest operational update, Israel’s military has said it continues operations in Khan Younis, claiming to have located “AK-47s, drones, an RPG, explosive devices, and additional military equipment were located.”

EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell said “everyone is afraid” Israeli PM Netanyahu will give the go ahead to a military offensive in Rafah in southern Gaza in the coming days despite mounting international pressure to resist. Ireland’s foreign minister Micheál Martin has said it would be “unconscionable” if Israel were to go ahead with a bombardment of Rafah.

Majed Al Ansari, a spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry, has criticized Netanyahu over the latter's recent comments calling on Qatar to pressure Hamas to release hostages, saying they are “a new attempt to stall and prolong the war for reasons that have become obvious to everyone.” 

Netanyahu’s office has confirmed Israel will continue to restrict who can worship at the al-Asqa mosque in Jerusalem when Ramadan starts in March. Hamas has described the move as “religious warfare”.
 

2:00 pm

The British Conservative Party expelled the Muslim mayor of an English city from the party following an investigation into his antisemitic comments. Atiqul Hoque, the first-ever Muslim mayor of Salisbury in southwest England, suggested that Jews bear responsibility for the death of Jesus. Hoque’s expulsion from the Conservative Party came swiftly after an unnamed fellow Tory supporter lodged a formal complaint against him.
 

1:45 pm

Lebanese media report Israeli airstrikes in the town of Ghaziyeh, on the southern outskirts of Sidon, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the northern border of Israel. Footage posted to social media shows large fireballs and clouds of smoke from the targeted sites. There is no immediate comment from the IDF.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi says revenues from the Suez Canal have “decreased by 40 to 50 percent” so far this year due to attacks on shipping by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The canal is one of Egypt’s main sources of foreign currency, with Cairo gripped by a severe financial crisis. The Houthi attacks, which the group says are targeted at vessels with links to Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip, have caused many major shipping firms to suspend passage through the Red Sea, which usually carries around 12 percent of global trade.

The IDF releases footage of the airstrikes on what it says are two Hezbollah weapons depots near south Lebanon’s Sidon earlier, in response to a drone attack on northern Israel this morning. The IDF says it is still investigating the attack this morning, during which a drone launched by Hezbollah in Lebanon struck an open area near Arbel. No sirens had sounded. The IDF also says it struck Hezbollah sites near Mays al-Jabal and Odaisseh in the last few hours.

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari in a press conference and revealed that the IDF has discovered videos of the Bibas family in the Gaza Strip, hours after they were abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7. Hagari said, “From the information available to us, we are very concerned about the condition and safety of Shiri and the children and are making every effort to obtain more information about their fate.” The footage showed mother Shiri surrounded by terrorists and forced to wrap herself in a cloth. The clip from surveillance cameras in Khan Younis, Gaza, shows hostages Shiri Bibas and her son Ariel, with her baby Kfir assumed to be under the cloth and strapped to her body as he was seen in video taken during the kidnapping. The videos are from a military post belonging to the Mujahideen Brigades terror group. Hagari said the clips were obtained by the IDF in Khan Younis in recent weeks. The fate of the Bibas family — including father Yarden, who was kidnapped separately — is unknown. Hamas has claimed that Shiri, Ariel and Kfir were killed but the IDF has said that the claim is unverified. 

Hagari said Shira and her two sons “reached Khan Younis alive,” other “scraps of information” obtained by the IDF mean that “we are very concerned for their fate.” If and when there is definitive information “one way or another,” he says, “we will first tell the family and then the public.” Hagari said, "134 hostages are still being held in Hamas captivity in Gaza. The youngest hostage is Kfir Bibas, a baby stolen from his crib during the Hamas massacre of October 7 when he was only 9 months old.” “Baby Kfir was brutally kidnapped together with his 4-year-old brother Ariel, his mother Shiri and father Yarden,” he says.

“The IDF has obtained new information about the Bibas family. The materials I’m sharing have been shown to the relatives of the Bibas family and are being shared with their consent. During our operation against Hamas in Khan Younis over the last few weeks our forces obtained new footage of Shiri Bibas with her children 4-year-old Ariel and 9-month-old Kfir, on the day they were kidnapped into Gaza on October 7,” Hagari continues. “According to the footage and intelligence we gathered, after Shiri Bibas and her two children were kidnapped from their home on October 7 they were taken to eastern Khan Younis to the outpost belonging to the Kata’ib Mujahideen terror group. The footage shows the terrorists wrapping Shiri and her babies in a sheet, trying to hide them. You can see little Ariel’s ginger hair poking through the white cloth,” he says. “They were forced into a car and taken somewhere else. From the information available to us, we are concerned for the well-being of Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir,” Hagari said..

“Seeing this young mother, clutching her babies, surrounded by a group of armed terrorists is horrifying and heart-wrenching, but it is also a call for action, that we must bring the hostages home, fast,” he said. “Those who have the audacity to question our need to operate in Gaza, but don’t have decency, the basic decency and humanity to release the hostages first of all, they all should take a good look at this terrified mother, Shiri, clutching her babies. Until Hamas releases our hostages, we will leave no stone unturned, until our hostages are home,” Hagari adds.

The United States is proposing a rival draft to the United Nations Security Council resolution that would underscore the body’s “support for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza as soon as practicable,” according to the text seen by Reuters today. Washington has been averse to the word “ceasefire” in any UN action on the Israel-Hamas war, but the US draft text echoes language that President Joe Biden said he used last week in conversations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The US draft text also “determines that under current circumstances a major ground offensive into Rafah would result in further harm to civilians and their further displacement including potentially into neighboring countries.” The draft US resolution says such a move “would have serious implications for regional peace and security, and therefore underscores that such a major ground offensive should not proceed under current circumstances.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the new video footage of the Bibas family from October 7 “is heartbreaking.” The clip “reminds us who we are dealing with — cruel kidnappers of babies,” he says in a video statement. Netanyahu added: “We will bring these kidnappers of babies and mothers to justice. They won’t get away with it.” 

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva recalled his ambassador to Israel for consultations, according to a column in newspaper Folha de S. Paulo published today. The Brazilian ambassador was summoned by Israel’s foreign minister for a reprimand, following comments by Lula likening Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza to the Holocaust.

Twenty-six of the 27 EU countries call for “an immediate humanitarian pause that would lead to a sustainable ceasefire” in Gaza, EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said today. Borrell said that the 26 agree to “require an immediate humanitarian pause that would lead to a sustainable ceasefire, to the unconditional release of hostages, and to the provision of humanitarian assistance.” Borrell did not say which EU country did not agree to the statement, but diplomats say Hungary blocked a similar statement a few days ago.

An Israeli man is lightly wounded after an explosive device was allegedly hurled at his vehicle by Palestinians, near the illegal West Bank outpost of Homesh. The Magen David Adom ambulance service says the 25-year-old was slightly hurt by glass shards following the blast, between Homesh and Shavei Shomron.

 

12:30 pm

A man was caught and cuffed after, police said, he attacked a man in Lauderhill, Florida, because of the victim’s religion. Trevor Rodney was charged on Feb. 18 with battery on a person aged 65 or older with evidence of prejudice. The 42 year-old is accused of beating a Jewish man and yelling a racial slur. He was granted $25,000 bond.

The American Jewish Committed called on the mayor of Upper Westville, near New Haven, Connecticut, to "take action" after a city employee harassed a Jewish family, shouting "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" and "I don't condemn Hamas." She had called on people to join her march. When Thabisa Rich passed the home of the Poupko family, who had a pro-Israel sign in their yard, Rich began haranguing them from a bullhorn. She called for the Board of Elders to pass a resolution supporting a ceasefire. Eventually, Rich and husband left. Police came and said that no crime had been committed.

10:45 am

The IDF estimates it has killed some 12,000 Hamas operatives in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war on Oct. 7. Hamas, with some 30,000 fighters, is also believed to have thousands of operatives who are seriously wounded and unable to fight. Earlier, a Hamas official based in Qatar said that the terror group it has lost 6,000 fighters, a rare acknowledgment from the terror group that it has suffered significant losses and apparently the first time that it has differentiated between combatants and civilians in a death toll from the war. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry has said more than 29,000 people in the Strip have been killed in the fighting so far, an unverified figure that does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. The unverified numbers do not include around 1,000 gunmen killed inside Israel on October 7.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s call to restrict Arab Israeli and Palestinian access to the Temple Mount on Ramadan is an inflammatory move that could spark violence, said leaders of the Arab-majority Hadash-Ta’al party. “Ben Gvir is calling on the government to make a decision to prevent Arab citizens from going to the Al Aqsa mosque,” MK Ayman Odeh says at his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, linking the October 7 attack, Second Intifada and 1929 Hebron massacre to Arab sensitivities regarding the disputed holy site. Arab mobs slaughtered 133 Jews during the latter massacre, which took place prior to the establishment of the State of Israel. There is a “need to respect the holy places of all faiths,” Odeh said. “There is no freedom of worship for Muslims. Not even for Christians. Contrary to the false claim in the world,” adds Hadash-Ta’al chairman Ahmad Tibi, calling Ben Gvir a “pyromaniac” being handed fuel by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Muslims have free access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, all year round and especially during the holy month of Ramadan. Any other decision is illegitimate by definition,” Tibi declared.

The Israeli Air Force says it has carried out strikes against more than 31,000 targets amid the ongoing war, mostly in the Gaza Strip, but also in Lebanon and other fronts, racking up over 186,000 flight hours. The IAF has hit 29,000 targets in Gaza belonging to Hamas and other terror groups since October 7. Some 7,000 of the strikes were immediate requests by ground forces amid the offensive against Hamas. The closest strike to troops was some 80 meters away during a clash between the 401st Armored Brigade and Hamas operatives on November 18. In Lebanon, the IAF says, it has struck more than 1,000 Hezbollah sites and positions. In the West Bank, some 30 airstrikes have been carried out against terror operatives, most of them amid counter-terrorism raids. An unspecified number of strikes were also carried out by the IAF in Syria against Iranian activity and Iran’s proxy groups, as well as against the Syrian Army. Of the strikes, 26,000 were carried out by fighter jets, 3,800 by attack helicopters, and 3,800 by drones. The IAF’s helicopters have also carried out some 500 medevacs from the Gaza Strip, taking more than 1,000 wounded troops to hospitals.

Also amid the war, Israel's short-range Iron Dome air defense system has shot down thousands of rockets, the medium-range David’s Sling has downed dozens, and the long-range Arrow has intercepted six projectiles. The IAF is also closing several of its aging US manufactured Patriot batteries, and staff will be trained to operate on the Iron Dome instead. Israel plans to open new Iron Dome batteries, the first within several weeks.

The IDF has uncovered footage of hostages, mother Shiri Bibas and her two young children, Ariel and Kfir, from the early days of the war. The IDF has shown the footage to Bibas family members and is awaiting their approval to publish it widely. Hamas has claimed that Shiri, Ariel and Kfir were killed but the IDF has said that the claim is unverified. A family spokesperson said that “you can see the family arriving in Gaza alive, and Hamas is the one solely responsible for the safety of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir.” All four Bibases were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 along with many other members of the kibbutz, and Shiri’s parents were both murdered that day.

10:10 am

There was an attempted attack on the communications network of an Israeli El Al flight from Phuket, Thailand. Hostile elements tried "to manipulate the crew, the pilots, into changing the trajectory and diverting the flight to what would have been a hostile area,"

Israeli forces caught a driver who hid in his trunk three illegal Palestinians at the Al-Zaim crossing from the West Bank in an attempt to enter Jerusalem.

A vehicle with weapons, including mortar rounds, used by terrorists on Oct 7th found parked by the 'Nasser Hospital'.

IDF troops delivered humanitarian aid to Nasser hospital in Gaza.

Iran is privately urging Hezbollah and other armed groups to exercise restraint against US forces, The Washington Post reported, citing officials in the region. When US forces launched strikes this month on Iran-backed groups in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, Tehran publicly warned that its military was ready to respond to any threat. But in private, senior leaders are urging caution, said Lebanese and Iraqi officials who were briefed on the talks. Despite the Islamic Republic's condemnations of Israel and express support for Hezbollah and Hamas terrorists, public support at pro-Palestine rallies appears to be small.

Israeli PM Netanyahu said Israel won’t submit to international dictates a unilaterally formed Palestinian statehood. "I think it's a smart answer in this case, saying 'don't make a one-sided decision, wait for us'... I think this is the game: there will be a Palestinian state under certain conditions,' says Brig. Gen. (Res.) Relik Shafir. 

The U.N. Security Council is expected to vote on Feb. 20 on an Arab-backed resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, which the United States announced it will veto. 

Egypt's foreign ministry statement warning Israel against Rafah operation in Gaza should be taken with a grain of salt, says Danny Ayalon, who said that Egypti's decision-making is done by "generals and [Egyptian leader] Sisi himself". "I think now it's time for them to return a favor," Ayalon said.  He is a former Israeli ambassador to the US who has been a critic of President Biden's policies regarding Gaza.

Israel expects intense fighting to continue in Gaza for another six to eight weeks, including in Rafah city, before scaling back the war effort, Reuters reported. “Military chiefs believe they can significantly damage Hamas’s remaining capabilities in that time, paving the way for a shift to a lower-intensity phase of targeted airstrikes and special forces operations,” the report stated, citing two Israeli officials and two regional officials familiar with the strategy.

Former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper's Feb. 18 op-ed in the National Post called on Israel’s allies to stop asking it to abandon its war aim of eliminating Hamas, and instead to pressure Hamas to surrender.  Harper wrote that Israel’s position regarding Hamas was the same as the Allies’ regarding Nazi Germany, and that its war against the terror group should end in the same manner as did the war against the Nazis.

Israeli forces operating in the Gaza Strip have found evidence connecting the Islamic Republic of Iran with both the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). During a raid on UNRWA’s headquarters in Gaza City’s upscale Rimal neighborhood over a week ago, Israeli troops found a Hamas data center underneath the building, replete with servers, electricity, a backup power station and living quarters.

9:55 am

Israel's Foreign Ministry issued a statement slamming the Palestinian Authority’s claims during the trial at the ICJ in The Hague over Israeli presence in the West Bank as “creating a fundamentally distorted reality,” and dismissing the hearing as a “media circus” with no value. The PA is “hurling false accusations” in the trial, the ministry says, and “trying to turn a conflict that should be resolved through direct negotiations and without external impositions into a one-sided and improper legal process designed to adopt an extremist and distorted narrative.” The ministry said the October 7 massacre was “shockingly” not mentioned at all in the hearing, and adds that those who call on the IDF to completely withdraw from all areas of the West Bank “without conditions and without negotiations are in fact calling for another massacre of Israeli citizens.”

The PA leadership has for years “rejected direct negotiations to resolve the conflict,” the ministry statement says, “while fostering incitement to terrorism, promoting antisemitism and providing financial incentives to terrorists who murder Jews,” adding that these issues were “hidden from the Court” during questioning

9:35

A 59-year-old Jewish woman in Venice, California, tweeted a video in which he was menaced by apparent marshals of a pro-Palestine rally. 

Hamas claims that 6000 of its combatants have been killed by the IDF.

The Council of the EU launched today a defensive maritime security operation to safeguard freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and the  Persian Gulf. The Council's statement read: "Operation ASPIDES will ensure an EU naval presence in the area where numerous Houthi attacks have targeted international commercial vessels since October 2023. In close cooperation with like-minded international partners, ASPIDES will contribute to safeguard maritime security and ensure freedom of navigation, especially for merchant and commercial vessels. Within its defensive mandate, the operation will provide maritime situational awareness, accompany vessels, and protect them against possible multi-domain attacks at sea. The operation will be active along the main sea lines of communication in the Baab al-Mandab Strait and the strait of Hormuz, as well as international waters in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Oman, and the Persian Gulf."

The UN International Court of Justice has adjourned for the day after publishing documents associated with the case it was hearing today concerning Israel’s policy on the Palestinian territories. This included the submission from the Palestinian Authority, which defies the existence of Israel and its expansion since 1948. The submission runs to 390 pages, including highly detailed maps of where Israel has established settlements, and quotes from Israeli authorities about their intentions on sovereignty, which includes explicitly ruling out, for example, the deoccupation of East Jerusalem. Palestine accused Israel of "apartheid" and "genocide."

Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israeli should unilaterally withdraw from the Oslo accords if a Palestinian state was declared by any means not including negotiation with Israel. Smotrich said, "I call on prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to explicitly announce that unilateral measures will be met with unilateral measures, [and] faced with any unilateral step taken against the state of Israel, Israel will act unilaterally to cancel the Oslo accords, [and] to completely and immediately stop all funds transferred to the Palestinian Authority, and to completely dissolve the Palestinian Authority."

According to Israel, the ICJ intervention over supposed Israeli occupation would be 'harmful' to peace process, and that Palestine's case is a 'clear distortion' of history. Israel argued that any decision or arbitration by the court risks endangering the previously agreed peace process. Submitted in 2023, Israel claims the case represents “a clear distortion of the history and present reality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” arguing the court is being asked to “presume Israeli violations of international law” and that the “prejudicial nature of the questions” disregard “thousands of dead and wounded Israelis who have fallen victim to murderous Palestinian acts of hatred and terrorism”. "Israel, as an interested party, has not given its consent to judicial settlement of its dispute with the Palestinian side”, arguing that “both sides, and the intemational community as a whole, continue to affirm the validity of the terms of reference and established legal framework embodied” in previous agreements, which Israel says “the two sides have agreed to resolve through direct negotiations precisely the subject-matter placed before the court”. It says the case is asking for “an intervention by the Court in a manner manifestly inconsistent with its judicial function and prior pronouncements”, and goes on to say: "Most alarmingly, they risk fundamentally delegitimizing the established legal framework governing the conflict and any future prospect of negotiations between Israelis and the Palestinians, which remains – as the court itself has observed – the only viable path to peace. While the request made to the court seeks to portray it as such, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a cartoon narrative of villain and victim in which there are no Israeli rights and no Palestinian obligations. Entertaining such a falsehood can only push the parties further apart rather than help create conditions to bring them closer together. For all the difficulties and obstacles that exist, Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation will not be served by further undermining the core understanding that this is a tragic conflict in which two sides – not just one – have rights and responsibilities. In these circumstances, to engage with the subject-matter of the request placed before the Court as though this is an appropriate use of the advisory function would not just be unwarranted; it would be harmful. Israel hopes and expects that the court, in safeguarding its judicial integrity as well as the established legal framework governing the IsraeliPalestinian conflict and its negotiated resolution, will respond accordingly.

At the ICJ hearing, Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said that “Israeli leaders no longer feel the need to hide their intensions.” “They defy the law, and the law is barely fighting back,” he said. "What does international law mean for Palestinian children in Gaza today? It has protected neither them nor their childhood, it has not protected their families or communities." Mansour also said: "Palestinians under occupation in Israel, as refugees and in the diaspora, all they ask for are their rights, and to live in freedom and dignity in their ancestral land. For 75 years, the Palestinian people have faced attempts to push them out of geography, and indeed out of history. And it goes on. And it will go on forever, unless and until international law is upheld. Unless and until the unlawful occupation of Palestine ends.

Ireland’s foreign minister Micheál Martin had earlier expressed regret that “unity and unanimity” still hadn’t occurred within the foreign affairs council, adding “Ireland favours sanctions on violent settlers in the West Bank”

Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that today Israeli authorities have issued a demolition order against a sport club and a primary school in the town of Al-Issawiya, north of Jerusalem, bulldozed a 500m strip of Palestinian land for road-building near occupied Bethlehem, and that would-be settlers have fenced off a large tract of Palestinian-owned land in the Batn al-Hawa neighbourhood in the town of Silwan, and damaged about ten Palestinian-owned vehicles in the town of Huwwara in an overnight attack. 

Majed Al Ansari, a spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry, posted on social media that "the Israeli prime minister’s recent statements calling on Qatar to pressure Hamas to release the hostages are nothing but a new attempt to stall and prolong the war for reasons that have become obvious to everyone.” He added that “we categorically reject the empty accusations made by the Israeli Prime Minister regarding Qatari efforts in reconstruction and humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in Gaza.” The spokesperson also said “we affirm that Qatar will continue its mediation efforts and will not be deterred by rhetoric and statements that can only be understood in the context of escaping from the Israeli Prime Minister’s personal political challenges.”

 

9:30 am

Former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper wrote an op-ed in the National Post saying that Israel has the right to self-defense and that a supposed two-state solution is not warranted, nor is it truly desired by Gazans and residents of the West Bank area of Samaria and Judea.

9:15 am

The foreign minister of the Palestinian Authority told the International Court of Justice in The Hague that “There is a genocide happening in Gaza” and that occupation of Palestinian territory by Israel should come to “an unconditional end”. Riyad al-Maliki was speaking as a week of hearings in the UN’s top court has opened on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, with more than 50 states due to address the judges. In her evidence, Dr Namira Negm said “Starting from the Nakba in 1948, Israel has adopted discriminatory legislation measures which has established a deeply entrenched system of racial discrimination against Palestinians.”

The Belize-flagged cargo ship Rubymar sustained damaged after two missiles were fired at the vessel from Yemen, although the crew were able to evacuate, the vessel’s security company has said. “There is nobody on board now,” the spokesperson said. “The owners and mangers are considering options for towage”. Another incident was reported to UKMTO later in the day, with no reports of casualties.

Israel has declared Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a “persona non grata” over comments he made in which he accused Israel of carrying out a genocide in Gaza which he compared to the actions of Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust. Having summoned Brazil’s ambassador for a reprimand, Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz issued a statement saying: “We will not forget nor forgive. It is a serious antisemitic attack. In my name and the name of the citizens of Israel – tell president Lula that he is persona non grata in Israel until he takes it back”. At the weekend, Brazil’s president had said “what is happening in the Gaza Strip and to the Palestinian people hasn’t been seen in any other moment in history. Actually, it did when Hitler decided to kill the Jews."

The Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza has said the number of Palestinians killed in the territory by Israeli military action since October 7 has risen to 29,092. In the past 24 hours, 107 Palestinians were killed and 145 injured, the Hamas-led ministry said in its statement. 69,028 are reported injured in total. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify casualty figures being issued during the conflict.

Fighting, fuel shortages and Israeli raids have put Gaza’s largest still functioning hospital completely out of service, local and UN health officials have said, as Israel continued its threats to invade the southern city of Rafah if remaining Israeli hostages are not freed in the next three weeks. In its latest operational update, Israel’s military has said it continues operations in Khan Younis, claiming to have located “AK-47s, drones, an RPG, explosive devices, and additional military equipment were located.”

EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell said “everyone is afraid” Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu will give the go ahead to a military offensive in Rafah in southern Gaza in the coming days despite mounting international pressure to resist. Ireland’s foreign minister Micheál Martin has said it would be “unconscionable” if Israel were to go ahead with a bombardment of Rafah.

Palestinian news agency Wafa reported today that Iraeli forces “accompanied by military bulldozers” razed ground in the village of Husan, west of Bethlehem, to prepare for road-building. It reports that 500m of “citizens’ lands at the eastern entrance to the village” was destroyed.

Israeli PM Netanyahu’s office confirmed that  he met Democratic Democratic Senators Chris Coons and Richard Blumenthal today.

February 19, 2024

4:00 pm

Israeli swimmer Anastasia Gorbenko reacted calmly to being booed after winning a silver medal at the World Aquatics competition in Doha, Qatar, saying it is not the first time she has been jeered at the event. “I’ve been here a week. I heard all these noises, but I’m with earplugs. I’m in my zone. I’m here to do what I love to do, which is sports,” she tells reporters. “I’m here to represent my country… And I’m doing this with the Israeli flag and I’m proud of that. And whoever doesn’t like it, it’s just not my problem.” Gorbenko says she had no hesitation about mounting the podium, but the booing had impacted her during the week. “There was no way I was going to miss [the podium] just because some little kids are going to do whatever they want to,” she adds. “It does affect me emotionally. It’s been like a long week for me. I expected myself to do better than what I did.”

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz vocally opposed the decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree with a demand by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to limit Arab-Israeli worshipers on the Temple Mount during Ramadan. “The prime minister is circumventing the security establishment and, due to that, we will make mistakes, ” Gallant reportedly tells the meeting, referring to the opposition of the Shin Bet and the IDF to the decision. “This is not unity and not a cabinet. This is not how we work,” Gantz reportedly reacts as well.

Speaking at the Conference of Presidents’ annual mission in Jerusalem, Netanyahu pledged “total victory against these savages,” referring to Hamas. “When we set out to do this, even our best friends said to us it can’t be done,” he says, speaking after US Ambassador Jack Lew. “Our brave soldiers are in the tunnels demolishing the infrastructure of these killers,” he says, lauding the standards of the IDF and the lengths they take to protect civilians. “The Israeli army is going through lengths that no other army has gone through in protecting civilians,” said Netanyahu, decrying the “lies” told about the war. Netanyahu said: “We cannot leave a quarter of Hamas’s fighting battalions intact.” “We will finish the job here with our brave soldiers,” Netanyahu tells the US Jewish leaders. “We will make sure the civilian population” has a way to get to safe zones. Regarding antisemitism, Netanyahu blasted South Africa for taking Israel to The Hague international court, and blasted Brazilian President Lula da Silva for comparing Israel to the Nazis. “He should be ashamed of himself,” he said to applause. Netanyahu praised the American people and governemnt for rejecting the allegations. “None of this will stop us,” promises Netanyahu. “Total victory means the release of the hostages.” He called for pressure on Qatar to in turn press Hamas: “Deal or no deal, we have to finish the job to achieve total victory,” Netanyahu said. 

At the conference, US Ambassador Jack Lew tried to dispel concerns that the Biden administration could recognize a Palestinian state unilaterally. “We have never said there should be a unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state,” said Lew. He called for an “over-the-horizon process that includes a vision for a demilitarized Palestinian state,” something far less than what some reports have indicated is being discussed at the White House. “Now is a moment in time when there is a real possibility that by engaging in normalization and negotiations with Saudi Arabia,” along with reforms in the Palestinian Authority, he says, “that there can be a demilitarized Palestinian state. But Israel will have to make that choice.” “Any solution must ensure the safety and security of Israel,” Lew says, adding that “there can not be a militarized Palestinian state.”

3:45 pm

The Israeli Air Force carried out intensive airstrikes targeting Hezbollah terror infrastructure in Yaroun, southern Lebanon, this morning. Artillery forces also shelled Alma ash-Shab & Dhayra to eliminate numerous threats from terrorists near its border.

President Biden, on vacation again in Delaware, called on “Congress come home and pass the legislation funding NATO.” He appeared to be confused: Ukraine isn’t in NATO — neither are Israel and Taiwan, which would receive approximatley $95 billion in funding if passed by the House of Representatives.

On Feb. 16, Israel  publicized a video showing a United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) social worker abducting the body of a murdered Israeli man during the Hamas-led massacre of Oct. 7. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant identified the UNRWA employee as Faisal Ali Mussalem al-Naami, along with 11 other staff members who participated in the cross-border attack that killed some 1,200 people and wounded thousands more, with 253 kidnapped to Gaza.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul apologized in a statement on the evening of Feb. 16 for an “inappropriate analogy” and “poor choice of words” in making a geographical comparison between Hamas and Canada. “If Canada someday ever attacked Buffalo, I’m sorry, my friends, there would be no Canada the next day,” Hochul said in a speech on Feb. 15 to the UJA-Federation of New York. “That is a natural reaction. You have a right to defend yourself and to make sure that it never happens again. And that is Israel’s right.” The governor apologized not for slandering Canada and comparing it to a terror organization, but instead for, as the  New York Times put it, for implying “that Israel would be justified in destroying Gaza because of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.”

3:30 pm

Almost $278 million in yearly Israeli tax revenue collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) goes towards the latter's so-called “pay for slay” policy, under which it disburses monthly salaries to murderous terrorists and their families, legal documents indicated today.

Hundreds of Hamas terrorists who “lost their fighting spirit” have surrendered to Israel Defense Forces soldiers in Gaza recently, said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant today. “The deepening of military activities in Khan Yunis continues to bear fruit,” Gallant said during a visit to an IDF base in Beersheba, in reference to the southern Gaza Hamas bastion. “Two hundred terrorists have surrendered at Nasser Hospital; dozens have surrendered at the Amal Hospital.” Israel is also preparing for a possible incursion into Lebanon to address Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists who continue to lob rockets and artillery into Israel from the north.

If the remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are not freed before Ramadan, which starts in  three weeks, the IDF campaign against the terroristswill continue, including in Rafah, War Cabinet member Benny Gantz pledged today. “I say this very clearly: Hamas has a choice. They can surrender, release the hostages, and this way, the citizens of Gaza can celebrate the holy holiday of Ramadan,” Gantz told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations at their annual gathering in Jerusalem.

US funding to UNRWA has been stopped permanently over the UN refugee agency's ties to Hamas terrorism, and alternative U.N. agencies are being considered to funnel humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, a top U.S. envoy said on Feb. 16. Israeli intelligence shared with the Biden administration information which showed that dozens of UNRWA employees actively participated in Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, while 10% of the agency’s 13,000 employees in Gaza are Hamas members.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu slammed Brazil's socialist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's claim that “what’s happening in the Gaza Strip isn’t a war, it’s a genocide...What’s happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people hasn’t happened at any other moment in history. Actually, it has happened: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.” Netanyahu responded, saying: "Israel fights for its defense and securing its future until complete victory and it does so while upholding international law,"  Netanyahu said the Brazilian's remarks "crosses a red line", adding: “The words of the president of Brazil are shameful and alarming. This is about trivializing the Holocaust and trying to harm the Jewish people and Israel’s right to defend itself.” The Israeli foreign ministry has summoned the Brazilian ambassador after Da Silva's remarks, which were made on the sidelines of an African Union conference held in Ethiopia. 

1:55 pm

Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, said he would summon Brazil’s ambassador for a reprimand over remarks made by Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has been harshly critical of the conduct of the Gaza war. “The words of the president of Brazil are shameful and serious. No one will harm Israel’s right to defend itself. I have ordered the people of my office to summon the Brazilian ambassador for a reprimand call tomorrow,” he tweeted on X. The post did not specify what Lula remarks Katz was responding to. Today, the Brazilian president said in Ethiopia, where he was attending an African Union summit, “What’s happening in the Gaza Strip isn’t a war, it’s a genocide...“It’s not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It’s a war between a highly prepared army and women and children.”

Israeli forces killed two Palestinians during a raid in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank today, the Hamas-controlled Palestinian health ministry said. Two men, aged 19 and 36, were pronounced dead after the army raid in the Tulkarm refugee camp, in the north of the West Bank, which the UN says houses over 27,000 Palestinian refugees. At least five other people were injured in the Israeli military operation, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

In the UK, Labour member of parliament David Lammy described the death toll in Gaza as “abominable” as he sought to play down a Scottish National party vote next week on a ceasefire, arguing that party political debates in Westminster were not going to achieve peace in the region. Ahead of a move by the party whether or not to back a call for a ceasefire, Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, said the main point was that everyone wanted to see the violence stop. “We all want to see an end to the fighting,” he told the BBC today. He said: “Over 28,000 people have lost their lives, women and children. One of my children is adopted – [there are] 17,000 orphans now in Gaza. It’s just abominable. So of course people want to see a ceasefire. “The question now is how, and to be absolutely clear that when that ceasefire comes, we can’t see the fighting restart.”

1:45 pm

Keir Starmer, the leader of the British Labour party leader, said the “fighting must stop now” in Gaza, warning Israel not to extend its military offensive to the southern city of Rafah.

Israel formalized its opposition to what it called the “unilateral recognition” of Palestinian statehood, and said any such agreement must be reached through direct negotiations. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, brought the “declaratory decision” to a vote in cabinet, which unanimously approved the measure, according to a statement.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the situation in the Israel-occupied West Bank posed a major obstacle to finding a long-term solution for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

A total of 28,985 Palestinian people have been killed and 68,883 others injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since  Oct. 7, the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said in a statement. At least 127 Palestinians have been killed and 205 others injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in Gaza is no longer functioning due to the Israeli army’s “week-long siege followed by the ongoing raid”. The Gaza Strip’s second-largest hospital still sheltered many patients suffering from war wounds and Gaza’s worsening health crisis, but there was no power and not enough staff to treat them all, health officials said. “It’s gone completely out of service,” Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra told Reuters. “There are only four medical teams – 25 staff – currently caring for patients inside the facility,” he said.

The Israeli military said today that it killed dozens of Palestinian militants and seized a large amount of weapons in fighting throughout the Gaza Strip over the past day.

The UN security council is likely to vote on Feb. 20 on a push by the Algerian government to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza, diplomats told Reuters.

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,  condemned the suspension of humanitarian aid to the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), urging an investigation into errors without cutting off funding to help those affected by what he called a “genocide.” The agency is facing a financial strain after a number of donors, including the US, UK, and Japan suspended funding to UNRWA after the Israeli government alleged that as many as 12 of its staff members were involved in the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 Israelis. UNRWA is the only UN agency that is mandated to work in Gaza to distribute aid to the two million people currently trapped and starving in the besieged enclave. With 40,000 staff, including 13,000 in Gaza, it is facing a funding shortfall after the exodus of donors.

In a televised address, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will continue to oppose the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.

7:00 am

US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) urged fellow Democrats and progressives to vote against President Biden in the coming primary race in a state considered crucial to Biden's political fortunes. Muslims and Arabs in Dearborn - a suburb of Detroit dominated by supporters of the Palestinian cause -- have also vowed to against Biden or refrain from voting.

February 18, 2024

An Israeli special forces group found the above weapons in a car driven by an Arab terrorist in East Jerusalem.

8:30 pm

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said the Palestinian death toll in the war in Gaza has reached 28,858. The figures cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires. The IDF says it has killed nearly 11,000 operatives in Gaza, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.

Above are medications belonging to Israeli prisoners held by Hamas at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. The IDF raided the hospital in recent days, where it found evidence hostages had been held there since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.

An exodus of Palestinians into Egypt must be “avoided at all costs”, and could be the “nail in the coffin” of a future peace process, the UN’s high commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi said on Friday. “The position of Egypt has been very clear. People should not go across the border. I think Egypt has very valid reasons,” Filippo Grandi told BBC television from the Munich Security Conference. He also said a spillover of refugees from Gaza into Egypt ‘would be a disaster for the future of peace’. When asked whether Egyptian authorities had contacted the UNHCR about possible contingency plans he said: “The Egyptians said that people should be assisted inside Gaza and we are working on that.”

Egypt is preparing an area at the Gaza border which could accommodate Palestinians in case an Israeli offensive into Rafah prompts an exodus across the frontier, as confirmed by Egypt's foreign ministry. It is billed as a contingency move by  Egypt, which  haddenied making any such preparations, and has repeatedly raised the alarm over the possibility that Israel’s devastating Gaza offensive could displace Palestinians into Sinai – something Cairo says would be completely unacceptable – echoing warnings from Arab states such as Jordan. The Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, an Egyptian non-governmental organisation, also published images that it said showed construction trucks and cranes working in the Egyptian area near the Gaza border. No construction of infrastructure, such as water supply and sewers, was observed.

Egypt is preparing safe areas for Gaza refugees. Today Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry said at a security conference in Munich that while his country would deal with civilians humanely, the displacement of Palestinians remained unacceptable. “It is not our intention to provide any safe areas or facilities, but if this is necessary we will deal with the humanity that is necessary,” he told the annual gathering. Egypt is caught between making contingency plans and not being seen to encourage those in Israel who believe the tens of thousands of refugees trapped on the border with Egypt can be pressed into leaving Gaza.

Israel will coordinate with Egypt on Palestinian refugees and will find a way to not harm Egypt’s interests, Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz said on Feb. 16 at the Munich Security Conference. When asked where refugees in Rafah would go, he suggested Gaza’s second city Khan Younis. EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell has been critical of Israel's plans for military operations in Rafah and has asked where displaced Palestinians should go, "To the moon?"

Western leaders are hoping a round of meetings at the Munich Security Conference will put overwhelming pressure on Israel not to press ahead with a ground offensive in Rafah. Almost all the key figures, save the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, were present in Munich on Friday, including foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan.

Negotiations over a ceasefire in Gaza appear to have stalled, with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushing back hard against the US vision for after the war – particularly its calls for the creation of a Palestinian state. After speaking overnight with president Joe Biden, Netanyahu wrote on X that Israel will not accept “international dictates regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians”, saying that if other countries unilaterally recognised a Palestinian state, it would give a “reward to terrorism”.

President Biden again cautioned Israeli premier Netanyahu against moving forward with a military operation in Rafah before coming up with a “credible and executable plan” to ensure the safety of Palestinian civilians, in a phone call between the leaders on Thursday evening, the White House said.

Five patients in intensive care died after their oxygen cut off when Israeli forces raided Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, health officials said. A witness at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, which was raided by Israeli forces on Thursday, told AFP that the army had shot “at anyone who moved inside the hospital”. Hospital officials also said that two Israeli airstrikes on Rafah overnight killed at least 12 people, including nine members of the same family.

Two people were killed and four were wounded in what Israeli police said was a shooting attack near a junction in southern Israel on Friday. Authorities in the district said the suspected shooter was killed by an armed civilian.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry raised fears over the fate of six other patients in the intensive care unit at Nasser hospital and three children, saying it held Israel “responsible for the lives of patients and staff considering that the complex is now under its full control”. A doctor at the hospital in Khan Younis, told Al Jazeera that the situation there is “catastrophic”. Dr Nahed Abu Taima, who is a director at medical complex, said electric power was cut off from the entire medical complex and that “many patients” in ICUs, those on oxygen supply and also those on dialysis were “left fighting for their lives”.

More than “20 terrorists” suspected to have been involved in the 7 October attack were arrested at Nasser hospital, said the Israeli military on Friday. On Thursday IDF spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari had said there was “credible intelligence” to suggest hostages had been held at the hospital, and that bodies of some of the captives may still be inside, but the military said later it had “not yet found any evidence of this”, although forces had found “weapons, grenades and mortar bombs” at the hospital complex.

The hunger crisis in Gaza has reached “unprecedented levels, as people run out of even animal feed to eat” said development charity ActionAid on Friday. The charity warned that “as grim as the picture is, things will get substantially worse” if Israel proceeds with its plans for a full military operation in Rafah.

The Palestinian ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, said that eight of his relatives who were sheltering in the southern Gaza town of Rafah were killed in an Israeli strike. Zomlot also identified a girl in a distressing photo that has been widely shared online as his wife’s seven-year-old cousin Sidra Hassouna.

French president Emmanuel Macron said on Friday “the recognition of a Palestinian state is not a taboo for France,” at a joint press conference in Paris with King Abdullah II of Jordan. Macron also repeated a warning against Israel attacking the city of Rafah, saying it “could only bring about an unprecedented humanitarian disaster”.

Russia has invited Hamas and other Palestinian factions including Fatah to Moscow for talks on the Israel-Hamas war and other issues in the Middle East from 29 February, the state-run Tass news agency reported, citing deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov.

112 Palestinians have been killed and 157 were injured in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, said the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants. Israeli strikes on targets in south Lebanon killed five fighters from Hezbollah and the allied Amal movement, the groups said on Friday. A strike on one house in Al-Qantara village killed three members of the Amal movement, the group said. Hezbollah separately announced the death of two of its fighters, bringing to 12 the number killed since Wednesday.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said on Friday that Israeli forces had released two of its doctors that were arrested a week ago during a raid on the al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis, however 12 others from its teams remained under arrest, the PRCS said, including seven who were arrested at the same hospital.

Palestinian solidarity groups Palestine Speaks and Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East filed criminal charges against Volker Beck, a former member of parliament and the head of the German-Israeli Society, for suspected incitement of hate and denial of war crimes in Israel’s war in Gaza.

 

4:45 pm

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology suspended a pro-Palestinian student group on Feb. 13 for failing to go through the campus permission process for demonstrations. MIT President Sally Kornbluth, who is Jewish, announced the suspension of MIT Coalition Against Apartheid in a video. The group had held what it called an “emergency action for Rafah” and occupied a campus building without permits in order to condemn Israel’s planned invasion of the southern Gaza city that has alarmed even many allies of Israel, including the United States and Jewish leaders. It was not the first time this group had violated campus rules, Kornbluth said. “Last night, members of the CAA, the Coalition Against Apartheid, once again conducted a demonstration on campus without going through the normal permission processes that apply to every student group at MIT,” she announced in the video. She added, “When students don’t respect the rules, we have to take steps to ensure the safety and smooth functioning of the campus community.”

4:19 pm

Canadian Leah Goldstein once made history as the first woman to win a grueling 3,000-mile bike race across the United States. But in January, the Ottawa International Womens Day event disinvited her, five months before she was scheduled to be the keynote speaker. The cause, the event organizers said, was “a small but growing and extremely vocal group” that took issue with Goldstein’s service three decades ago in the Israeli army. “Our focus at INSPIRE has been and will always be to create safe spaces to honour, share, and celebrate the remarkable stories of women and non-binary individuals,” the women’s empowerment group said in a statement. “In recognition of the current situation and the sensitivity of the conflict in the Middle East, the Board of INSPIRE will be changing our keynote speaker.”

A new survey of nearly 2,000 participants in Jewish youth group BBYO across North America, taken in recent weeks, found that 64% said antisemitism on campus was an important factor in their decision regarding where to attend college. More than 60% said they had experienced antisemitism in person. 

Progressive Jewish Democrats in Michigan, disgruntled with President Biden and Israeli PM Netanyahu, asked their networks not to vote for President Biden in the Feb. 27 primary ballot in Michigan. Their virtual phone bank was unlike any other. Instead of a get-out-the-vote campaign, this crew would be better described as don’t-get-out-the-vote.  Upset with Biden’s stalwart support for Israel in its war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and with the tens of thousands of Palestinian casualties, most of them civilians, these Jews want to use their moment at the ballot box to force the president to change course. 

3:15 pm

The head of Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh blamed Israel for a lack of progress in achieving a ceasefire deal in Gaza in a statement issued today. He added that Hamas “will not accept anything less than a complete cessation of the aggression, withdrawal of the occupation army from Gaza, and lifting of the unjust siege”, reports Reuters.

The Munich Security Conference completed  its second day to discuss the Middle East and the Israel-Hamas conflict, with speeches by King Abdullah II of Jordan and Israel’s president Isaac Herzog as well as panels with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Egypt. 500+ high-level international decision-makers are meeting at the 60th Munich Security Conference in Munich from 16 to 18 February 2024 to discuss global security issues. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, Secretary of StateAntony Blinken and NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg are among the officials who spoke today. Germany is asking asking Israel to abide by international law in the conflict in Gaza, says chancellor German chancellor Olaf Scholz, said Germany was asking Israel to abide by international law in the conflict in Gaza and not to open a second front on its northern border with Lebanon. Scholz also said it should be made impossible for Iran to exploit the conflict to expand its influence and urged the need for humanitarian aid to get to Gaza.

An urgent joint statement warning of the “catastrophic” consequences of an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah has been issued by CEOs of humanitarian agencies and human rights organisations. It includes signatories from Oxfam, Amnesty International, ActionAid, War Child, the Danish Refugee Council and Handicap International. "We are appalled by the harrowing developments in Rafah, Gaza’s most populated area where 1.5 million people are sheltering as their last resort – over half a million of them children. If Israel launches its proposed ground offensive, thousands more civilians will be killed and the current trickle of humanitarian aid risks coming to a complete halt. If this military plan is not stopped immediately, the consequences will be catastrophic.” It also highlights that “many areas in Gaza have been reduced to rubble and are uninhabitable”, as well as the lack of functional hospitals, food, clean water, shelter and sanitation.

Referring to last month’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling, which ordered Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza and to allow humanitarian aid into the territory, the joint statement said “not only has this not happened, the situation on the ground has deteriorated further”. “All of the Israeli supposed safe spaces have been compromised, without exception, further proof that there was never truly anywhere safe in Gaza,” it added. 

Egypt has begun building an enclosed area ringed with high concrete walls along its border with Gaza that appears intended to house Palestinians fleeing a threatened Israeli assault on the southern city of Rafah. Photos and videos released by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR), a monitoring group, show workers using heavy machinery erecting concrete barriers and security towers around a strip of land on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing. The videos gave little indication of authorities installing water or other infrastructure. Satellite imagery released by Planet Labs on the same day shows cleared strips of land adjacent to the Gaza border. Videos showed efforts to “establish an isolated area surrounded by walls on the border with the Gaza Strip, with the aim of receiving refugees in the event of a mass exodus”.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said today that they had fired missiles at oil tanker Pollux, which US officials said the previous day had been hit by a missile. The State Department said on Feb.16 that the Pollux, a Panamanian-flagged tanker carrying crude oil bound for India, was hit by a missile on its port side. “The naval forces of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a targeting operation against a British oil ship [Pollux] in the Red Sea with a large number of appropriate naval missiles, and the strikes were accurate and direct”, the Houthis’ military spokesperson, Yahya Sarea, said in a statement. The Houthis have launched repeated drone and missile attacks against international commercial shipping in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandab strait since mid-November, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians as Israel wages war on Hamas.

President Biden said he doesn’t expect an offensive on the densely populated Rafah region of Gaza, the last refuge of Palestinians fleeing Israeli assaults on the besieged territory. Speaking at a press conference held concernign the death of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, President Biden said a ‘temporary ceasefire’ was necessary to evacuate hostages held in Gaza. Gaza’s largest functioning hospital is under siege from Israeli forces, leaving trapping patients and doctors as warplanes strike Rafah in the south, officials said. 

Israeli troops remained in Nasser hospital in Khan Younis after raiding it early on Feb. 15, with Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry saying five intensive-care patients died that day due to power outages and a lack of oxygen supply caused by the attack. The Israeli army said its troops found medications with the names of Israeli hostages at the hospital during the operation and it detained more than 20 militants involved in th Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. Hamas denies militants were in the hospital. The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said the hospital lost power and remained without electricity on Feb. 16, jeopardising patient care. But the Israeli military said “all vital systems continued to operate”.

G7 foreign ministers said today they were worried by the risk of forcible displacement of Palestinian civilians out of Gaza and the possible consequences of an Israeli military operation in the Rafah region.
At least 120 patients and five medical teams are stuck without water, food and electricity in the Nasser hospital in Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Younis, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
There is an “extraordinary opportunity” in the months ahead for Israel to be integrated into the Middle East as Arab countries are willing to normalise ties with the country, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Saturday. Speaking at a panel at the Munich Security Conference, Blinken also highlighted the “urgent” imperative to proceed with a Palestinian state that would also ensure the security of Israel.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz, said Germany was asking Israel to abide by international law in the conflict in Gaza and not to open a second front on its northern border with Lebanon. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Scholz also said it should be made impossible for Iran to exploit the conflict to expand its influence and urged the need for humanitarian aid to get to Gaza.

President Biden said he doesn’t expect an offensive on the densely populated Rafah region of Gaza. Speaking at a press conference held after the announcement by Moscow of the death of dissident Alexei Navalny, Biden said a ‘temporary ceasefire’ was necessary to evacuate hostages held in Gaza.

The US is preparing to send bombs and other weapons to Israel even as the Biden administration pushes for a ceasefire in the war on Gaza, reports The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Citing current and former US officials, the US news publication said the proposed arms delivery is estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars.

The Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said that “to address the Red Sea issue, the root cause must be resolved, and the root cause is the ongoing fighting in Gaza”. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Yi said: “China’s position is clear on that: first, an immediate ceasefire must be realised. No more fighting.”

Iran unveiled two new air defense systems today, state media reported. The Arman missile system “has a medium range and a high altitude that can identify targets at 180 kilometres and engage and destroy them at 120 kilometres,” defence minister Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani said, while the new Azarakhsh defence system can be mounted on multiple vehicle types and “uses radar, electro-optical system and thermal seekers to detect and track its target”.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) published photographs, which it said showed “the brutality with which the Israeli occupation forces treated two doctors whom they arrested a week ago from al-Amal hospital”, on its X account. The PRCS also published a post on X on Feb. 16 saying that Israel had “deliberately” created “false narratives about the work of the Palestinian Red Crescent by publishing a video of an ambulance and paramedics providing treatment to an injured fighter”.

Israel is waging a concerted campaign aimed at destroying UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said in an interview published today. Calls for his resignation were also part of the Israeli government’s push, he told the Swiss newspaper group Tamedia.

Gaza’s largest functioning hospital was under siege on Feb. 16 in Israel’s war with Hamas, leaving patients and doctors helpless in the chaos as warplanes struck Rafah, officials said. Israeli forces remained in Nasser hospital in the town of Khan Younis after raiding it early on Feb. 15. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said five intensive-care patients died on Friday due to power outages and lack of oxygen supply caused by the attack.

Israel has not presented specific evidence that Hamas is diverting UN aid, said David Satterfield, the Biden administration’s special Middle East envoy for humanitarian issues. He also said Israel’s recent targeted killings of Gaza police commanders safeguarding truck convoys have made it “virtually impossible” to distribute the goods safely. Israel has alleged repeatedly that Hamas is diverting aid, including fuel, after it enters Gaza, a claim denied by UN aid agencies.

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters marched through the streets of Madrid today to demand an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. Six ministers from Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez’s cabinet took part – all five from hard-left party Sumar, his junior coalition partners, as well as transport minister Óscar Puente of the premier’s Socialist party.

At least 28,858 Palestinians have been killed and 68,667 injured in Gaza since the October 7, says the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.

An urgent joint statement warning of the “catastrophic” consequences of an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah has been issued by CEOs of humanitarian agencies and human rights organizations. It includes signatories from Oxfam, Amnesty International, ActionAid, War Child, the Danish Refugee Council and Handicap International. The Israeli military offensive has made it “virtually impossible for our collective agencies to meaningfully and effectively deliver humanitarian work,” they said in a joint statement, which also criticized the “silence” and “material support for Israel’s military operations by powerful nations”, which it says “signals distressing complicity in Gaza’s deepening crisis”.

A climate of fear pervades a hospital in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, where patients and doctors are reeling from last month’s deadly raid by Israeli agents disguised as medics. The Israeli military justified the killing inside a medical facility, which are granted special protection under international law, by saying the trio were “terrorists” who were “hiding” in the hospital, but the The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was “appalled” by the attack. As well as being afraid of a repeat of the special forces raid, the killings have also created suspicion among patients and medics.

Doctors have warned that patients with chronic illnesses in Gaza are failing to get treatment. The chronically ill are the hidden casualties of the war, as access to water, food and medicine is severely restricted, said Guillemette Thomas, the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical coordinator for Palestine.

On Feb. 16, police killed one person as it opened fire after a crowd charged toward an aid truck that had emerged from the Rafah crossing with Egypt, Wael Abu Omar, a spokesperson for the local crossings authority said. Last week, an Israeli airstrike on a car killed three senior police commanders in Rafah, the first entry point for aid deliveries. Two other officers were killed in another strike.

Egypt has begun building an enclosed area ringed with high concrete walls along its border with Gaza that appears intended to house Palestinians fleeing a threatened Israeli assault on the southern city of Rafah. Photos and videos released by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR), a monitoring group, show workers using heavy machinery erecting concrete barriers and security towers around a strip of land on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.

US Central Command (Centcom) said today that four anti-ship ballistic missiles were launched on Feb. 16 from Iranian-backed Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen into the Red Sea. At least three of the missiles were launched towards oil tanker Pollux, a Panamanian-flagged and Denmark-owned vessel, said Centcom. Earlier on Saturday, Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said that they had fired missiles at oil tanker Pollux.
 

Egypt is preparing an enclosed area at the Gaza border which could accommodate Palestinians behind walls in case an Israeli offensive into Rafah prompts an exodus across the frontier. Egypt had denied making any such preparations, has repeatedly raised the alarm over the possibility that Israel’s Gaza offensive could displace Palestinians into Sinai – something Cairo says would be completely unacceptable – echoing warnings from Arab states such as Jordan. The Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, an Egyptian non-governmental organisation, released images showing workers using heavy machinery erecting concrete barriers and security towers around a strip of land on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.

An exodus of Palestinians into Egypt must be “avoided at all costs” and could be the “nail in the coffin” of a future peace process, the UN high commissioner for refugees said. “The position of Egypt has been very clear: people should not go across the border. I think Egypt has very valid reasons,” Filippo Grandi told the BBC from the Munich Security Conference on February 16.

Israel will coordinate with Egypt on Palestinian refugees and find a way not to harm Egypt’s interests, Israel’s foreign minister said. When asked where Rafah refugees would go, Israel Katz suggested Khan Younis, Gaza’s second city.

Western leaders are hoping a round of meetings at the Munich Security Conference will put overwhelming pressure on Israel not to press ahead with a ground offensive in Rafah. Almost all the key figures, save the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, were present in Munich on Friday, including foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan. Negotiations over a ceasefire in Gaza have stalled while Israeli PM Netanyahu pushed back against Biden Administration demands for clarification of post-war Gaza, which calls for the creation of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu spoke to President Biden overnight and said that Israel would not accept “international dictates regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians”, saying that if other countries unilaterally recognized a Palestinian state, it would give a “reward to terrorism”. Biden again cautioned Netanyahu against moving forward with a military operation in Rafah before coming up with a “credible and executable plan” to ensure the safety of Palestinian civilians, the White House said.

Two people were killed and four wounded in what Israeli police said was a shooting attack near a junction in southern Israel on February 16. Authorities in the district said the suspected shooter was killed by an armed civilian.

The Palestinian ambassador to the UK said eight of his relatives who were sheltering in Rafah were killed in an Israeli strike. Husam Zomlot also identified a girl in a distressing photo that has been widely shared online as his wife’s seven-year-old cousin Sidra Hassouna.

Israeli strikes on targets in south Lebanon killed five fighters from Hezbollah and the allied Amal movement, the groups said on Feb. 16. A strike on one house in al-Qantara village killed three members of the Amal movement, the group said. Hezbollah separately announced the death of two of its fighters, bringing to 12 the number killed since Feb. 14.

The hunger crisis in Gaza has reached “unprecedented levels, as people run out of even animal feed to eat”, development charity ActionAid said. ‘Things will get substantially worse” if Israel proceeds with an operation in Rafah, it said.

Russia has invited Hamas and other Palestinian factions including Fatah to Moscow for talks on the Israel-Gaza war and other issues in the Middle East starting on Feb. 29. 

February 17,2024

2:30 pm

The White House readout of Vice President Kamala Harris' meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog reiterated American talking points about the war in Gaza. “The vice president reiterated her steadfast support for Israel and its right to defend itself in the face of threats from Hamas, and she again condemned Hamas as a barbaric terrorist organization that perpetrated a horrific massacre on October 7.” “The vice president and president discussed ongoing efforts to secure the release of all hostages held by Hamas and achieve a prolonged pause in fighting.” “The vice president also emphasized the importance of protecting civilians, increasing humanitarian assistance and ensuring proper deconfliction mechanisms to ensure that aid can reach those in need inside Gaza.” “The vice president reaffirmed the Biden-Harris Administration’s position that a military operation in Rafah should not proceed without a credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety of and support for the more than one million people sheltering there.” “The leaders also discussed ongoing planning for post-conflict Gaza and progress made on that front, and the Vice President reiterated U.S. positions, including that Israel must be secure, there must be no forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, and the Palestinians must enjoy their right to freedom, dignity, security, and self-determination,” the readout concludes

President Joe Biden urged Israel to exercise caution in its military operations in and around Rafah in southern Gaza. Biden said about protections for civilians in Gaza: “I’ve made the case, and I feel very strongly about it, that there has to be a temporary ceasefire to get the hostages out, and that is underway. I’m still hopeful that can be done. “In the meantime, I don’t anticipate, I’m hoping that the Israelis will not make any massive land invasion,” Biden says. “It is my expectation that’s not going to happen.” “There has to be a ceasefire temporarily to get those hostages out. We’re in a situation where there are American hostages… It’s not just Israelis.” “My hope and expectation is that we’ll get this hostage deal, we’ll bring the Americans home. The deal is being negotiated now, and we’re going to see where it takes us,” he adds.

A record 50 countries will present arguments about the legal consequences of Israel’s military control of the West Bank areas of Judea and Samaria at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s highest legal body. The ICJ’s six days of hearings starting on Monday come after the UN General Assembly asked the court in 2022 for an advisory, or non-binding, opinion on the occupation. While Israel has ignored such opinions in the past, it could add political pressure over its ongoing operation in Gaza. It is part of a Palestinian push to get international law institutions such as the ICJ to examine Israel’s conduct, which has become more urgent since the October 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel and Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip. “Politically, this will help in achieving a two-state solution. We are using the platform of the largest judicial body to advance our cause,” said Omar Awadallah, a senior official in the Palestinian Authority foreign ministry. Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in the Six Day War of 1967. It withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but, along with neighboring Egypt, still controls its borders. It is the second time the UN General Assembly has asked the ICJ, also known as the World Court, for an advisory opinion related to the occupied Palestinian territory. In July 2004, the court found that Israel’s separation wall in the West Bank violated international law and should be dismantled, though it still stands to this day.

The advisory opinion proceedings are separate from the genocide case that South Africa filed at the World Court against Israel for its alleged violations in Gaza of the 1948 Genocide Convention. In late January the ICJ in that case ordered Israel to do everything in its power to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza. The outcome of the advisory opinion would not be legally binding but would carry “great legal weight and moral authority,” according to the ICJ. The precise question put to the court is to give an opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s “occupation, settlement and annexation … including measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and from its adoption of related discriminatory legislation and measures.” The general assembly also asked the 15-judge panel of the ICJ to advise on how those policies and practices “affect the legal status of the occupation” and what legal consequences arise for all countries and the United Nations from this status.

The court will hear over 50 states and three international organizations over six days of hearings including the United States, Russia, China and South Africa. While Israel has filed a written statement with the court, it has not asked to participate in the hearings. On Monday proceedings will start with submissions from the Palestinian authorities.

The Fatah movement issued a statement earlier today hailing the deadly terror attack in southern Israel as a “heroic operation in the occupied territories. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas — who also heads the Fatah movement — denounced the statement, with his office saying that it was issued by an irresponsible individual acting on his own volition. “The president is against violence and against terror attacks,” Abbas’s office adds, according to the Ynet news site.

President Biden spoke out about the death of Alexi Navalny, a prominent Russian dissident whose death in prison was announced today by Russian authorities. Biden said that “like millions of people around the world”, he was “literally not surprised and outraged by the reported death of Alexei Navalny.” He said: "Make no mistake. Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death. Putin is responsible. What has happened and evolving is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality. No one should be fooled, not in Russia, not at home, not anywhere in the world. Putin does not only target citizens of other countries, as we’ve seen in what’s going on in Ukraine right now, he also inflicts terrible crimes on his own people." 

Biden said the US was still awaiting formal confirmation of the Russian opposition leader’s death, but had no reason to doubt it. When asked whether it was an assassination, Biden said, "The answer is we don’t know exactly what happened. But there is no doubt that the death of Navalny is a consequence of something Putin and his thugs did."

An exodus of Palestinians into Egypt must be “avoided at all costs”, and could be the “nail in the coffin” of a future peace process, the UN’s high commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi said today. “The position of Egypt has been very clear. People should not go across the border. I think Egypt has very valid reasons,” Filippo Grandi told BBC television from the Munich Security Conference. He also said a spillover of refugees from Gaza into Egypt ‘would be a disaster for the future of peace’. When asked whether Egyptian authorities had contacted the UNHCR about possible contingency plans he said: “The Egyptians said that people should be assisted inside Gaza and we are working on that.”

Egypt is preparing an area at the Gaza border which could accommodate Palestinians in case an Israeli offensive into Rafah prompts an exodus across the frontier. Egypt is also building a barrier between its territory and Gaza. However, Egypt has denied making contigency preparations. It has raised the alarm over the possibility that Israel’s devastating Gaza offensive could displace Palestinians into Sinai – something the Egytian government said would be completely unacceptable – echoing warnings from Muslim states such as Jordan. The Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, an Egyptian non-governmental organization, also published images earlier this week that it said showed construction trucks and cranes working in the Egyptian area near the Gaza border.

Israel will coordinate with Egypt on Palestinian refugees and will find a way to not harm Egypt’s interests, Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz said today at the Munich Security Conference. When asked where refugees in Rafah would go, he suggested Gaza’s second city Khan Younis.

Western leaders are hoping a round of meetings at the Munich Security Conference will put overwhelming pressure on Israel not to press ahead with a ground offensive in Rafah. Almost all the key figures, save the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, were present in Munich today, including foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan.

Negotiations over a ceasefire in Gaza appear to have stalled, with Israeli PM Netanyahu pushing back hard today against the US pressures to define the post-war future for Gaza – particularly its calls for the creation of a Palestinian state. After speaking overnight with president Joe Biden, Netanyahu wrote on X that Israel will not accept “international dictates regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians”, saying that if other countries unilaterally recognised a Palestinian state, it would give a “reward to terrorism”.

President Biden again pressured Netanyahu against moving forward with a military operation in Rafah before coming up with a “credible and executable plan” to ensure the safety of Palestinian civilians, in a phone call between the leaders on  Feb. 15.

Two people were killed and four were wounded in what Israeli police said was a shooting attack near a junction in southern Israel today. Authorities in the district said the shooter was killed by an armed civilian.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry raised fears over the fate of six other patients in the intensive care unit at Nasser hospital and three children, saying it held Israel “responsible for the lives of patients and staff considering that the complex is now under its full control”. A doctor at the hospital in Khan Younis, told Al Jazeera that the situation there is “catastrophic”. Dr. Nahed Abu Taima, who is a director at medical complex, said electric power was cut off from the entire medical complex and that “many patients” in ICUs, those on oxygen supply and also those on dialysis were “left fighting for their lives”.

More than “20 terrorists” suspected to have been involved in the October 7 attack were arrested at Nasser hospital, said the Israeli military today. On Feb. 15, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said there was “credible intelligence” to suggest hostages had been held at the hospital, and that bodies of some of the captives may still be inside, but the military said later it had “not yet found any evidence of this”, although forces had found “weapons, grenades and mortar bombs” at the hospital complex.

The hunger crisis in Gaza has reached “unprecedented levels, as people run out of even animal feed to eat” said development charity ActionAid on Friday. The charity warned that “as grim as the picture is, things will get substantially worse” if Israel proceeds with its plans for a full military operation in Rafah.

French president Emmanuel Macron said today “the recognition of a Palestinian state is not a taboo for France,” at a joint press conference in Paris with King Abdullah II of Jordan. Macron also repeated a warning against Israel attacking the city of Rafah, saying it “could only bring about an unprecedented humanitarian disaster”.

Russia has invited Hamas and other Palestinian factions including Fatah to Moscow for talks on the Israel-Hamas war and other issues in the Middle East on February 29, the state-run Tass news agency reported, citing deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov.

112 Palestinians have been killed and 157 were injured in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, said the Gaza health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants. The figures have not been independently verified.

Israeli strikes on targets in south Lebanon killed five fighters from Hezbollah and the allied Amal movement, the groups said today. A strike on one house in Al-Qantara village killed three members of the Amal terrorist movement. Hezbollah separately announced the death of two of its fighters, bringing to 12 the number killed since Feb. 14.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said today that Israeli forces had released two of its doctors that were arrested a week ago during a raid on the al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis, however 12 others from its teams remained under arrest, the PRCS said, including seven who were arrested at the same hospital.

Palestinian solidarity groups Palestine Speaks and Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East filed criminal charges against Volker Beck, a former member of parliament and the head of the German-Israeli Society, for suspected incitement of hate and denial of war crimes in Israel’s war in Gaza. Pro-Palestinian activists have filed criminal charges against a German politician for suspected incitement of hate and denial of war crimes in Israel’s war in Gaza, they said today. The charges against Beck were brought by Palestinian solidarity groups Palestine Speaks and Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East. “This is the first step in holding public figures who publicly make genocidal statements legally accountable,” the group wrote. The charges cite Beck’s statements on social media, in opinion pieces and media interviews in which he expressed support for Israel’s military operation in Gaza, calling for making humanitarian aid conditional on Hamas freeing Israeli hostages. Beck rejected the claims as “nonsense”. “There is no genocide in Gaza and I do not advocate genocide,” he told Reuters, adding that he had filed complaints against the groups for defamation. “These people have a disturbed relationship with the rule of law if they believe that many complaints lead to more investigations.”

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) last month ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent its troops from committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, in a case brought by South Africa.

8:00 am

Israeli strikes in south Lebanon killed five fighters from Hezbollah and allied Amal movement. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Israeli warplanes hit five villages in southern Lebanon overnight on Feb. 15. A strike on one house in Al-Qantara village killed three members of the Amal movement led by parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, the group said. Hezbollah separately announced the death of two of its fighters, bringing to 12 the number killed since Feb. 14. Hamas ally Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging near-daily fire across the border since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on 7 October.

The UN secretary general’s spokesperson called on Feb. 14 for a halt to dangerous “recent escalation”, which also sparked concern from the US. Feb. 14 was the bloodiest day in more than four months of cross-border exchanges, with 10 civilians and five Hezbollah members including a commander killed. Hezbollah said it retaliated on Thursday by firing dozens of rockets into northern Israel. The Israeli army said it carried out Wednesday’s strikes after rocket fire from Lebanon killed a soldier. The cross-border exchanges have killed at least 268 people on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also 40 civilians, according to an AFP tally. On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to the Israeli army.

Russia has invited Hamas and other Palestinian factions including Fatah to Moscow for talks on the Israel-Hamas war and other issues in the Middle East. Russia has invited around a dozen Palestinian groups to Moscow for “inter-Palestinian” talks from 29 February, the state-run Tass news agency reported, citing deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov. The Putin government, which for years tried to court good relations with all major players in the region, has grown increasingly critical of Israel and its western backers amid the ongoing war in Gaza. “We invited all Palestinian representatives – all political forces that have their positions in different countries, including Syria, Lebanon and other countries in the region,” said Bogdanov, who is Russian president Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for the Middle East. The representatives include Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, alongside representatives of Fatah and the broader Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Putin has called for a ceasefire and Moscow has repeatedly criticised Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip since the October 7 Hamas attack. The public statements, combined with Russia’s partnerships with Iran and Hamas, have soured Russian-Israeli relations since the conflict broke out, say AFP.

The Palestinian ambassador to the UK said eight of his relatives were killed in Israeli strikes in Rafah. Husam Zomlot also identified a girl in a distressing photo that has been widely shared online as his wife’s seven-year-old cousin Sidra Hassouna. Sharing a blurred version of the image, alongside pictures of his other relatives, Zomlot posted on X on Wednesday: “This is seven-year-old Sidra, the cousin of my wife. The impact of the Israeli missile was so powerful it flung her out, leaving her mutilated body dangling from the ruins of the destroyed building in Rafah 48 hours ago.” He said that Sidra’s twin, Suzan, had also been killed, as had their 15-month-old sibling, Malik; their parents, Karam and Amouna; their grandparents, Suzan and Fouzy; and uncle, Muhammad.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said today that Israeli forces had released two of its doctors that were arrested a week ago during a raid on the al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis. In a post to its X account, the PRCS said doctors Jamal Ayad and Nafith Al-Qarm had been released on Friday morning, but 12 others from its teams remained under arrest, including seven who were arrested at al-Amal hospital. The IDF raided the Nasser hospital and found weapons, including artillery rounds, there.

A spillover of refugees from Gaza into Egypt 'would be a disaster for the future of peace', says UN high commissioner Filippo Grandi. “It would be a disaster for the Palestinians … a disaster for Egypt and a disaster for the future of peace,” Filippo Grandi said at the Munich Security Conference. When asked whether Egyptian authorities had contacted the UNHCR about possible contingency plans he said: “The Egyptians said that people should be assisted inside Gaza and we are working on that.”

More than '20 terrorists' suspected to have been involved in 7 October attack arrested at Nasser hospital, says Israeli military, on Feb. 15. On Feb. 15, IDF spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari said there was “credible intelligence” to suggest hostages seized by Hamas in the 7 October attack had been held at the hospital, and that bodies of some of the captives may still be inside. But the military said later it had “not yet found any evidence of this”, although forces had found “weapons, grenades and mortar bombs” at the hospital complex.

The latest figures from the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said 112 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes and 157 were injured in the past 24 hours. According to the statement, at least 28,775 Palestinians have been killed and 68,552 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants. The figures have not been independently verified.
 

 

7:45 am

Israeli president Israel Katz met with the German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin in advance of a multilateral conference in Munich, where foreign ministers of several countries are meeting to discuss the war in Gaza. Katz expressed Israel’s gratitude for the firm support it has received from Germany in the wake of the October 7 Hamas massacres.

The German government has approved the deployment of armed forces in a European Union naval mission in the Red Sea to protect merchant ships from attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia. Many commercial shippers have diverted vessels following attacks by the Houthis, who control much of Yemen and say they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians as Israel and Hamas wage war in Gaza. “The ongoing escalation of violence and the threat to life and limb of the crews of ships, particularly in the southern Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, require a robustly equipped military operation,” the government spokesperson says during a regular press conference in Berlin. Germany’s participation depends on parliamentary approval. A vote on the matter is scheduled for Feb. 23 and is widely expected to go through. Parliamentarians are to receive a motion for a mandate running up till the end of February 2025 with an upper limit of 700 soldiers deployed.

In early February, a German air defense frigate was sent to join the EU mission. France, Greece and Italy are among the countries that will participate in the mission, named Aspides, meaning protector. They will be mandated to protect commercial ships and intercept attacks, but not take part in strikes against the Houthis on land.

An Israeli offensive in Rafah “could only lead to an unprecedented humanitarian disaster and would be a turning point in this conflict,” French President Emmanuel Macron said. “I share the fears of Jordan and Egypt of a forced and massive displacement of the population,” Macron adds, speaking at the Elysee Palace along with Jordan’s King Abdullah II who echoes the comments, saying the “catastrophic consequences” of such an offensive could not be accepted.

Two victims of a terror attack in Israel have died. Four others are wounded, two in serious condition and two in moderate condition. The attacker was shot and killed. Hamas pays the families of terrorists who die during attacks.

Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is dead, according to the prison service of the Yamalo-Nenets region where he had been serving his sentence. The Federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District claimed that Navalny “felt unwell” after a walk, and “almost immediately lost consciousness”. It says that medical staff had been called, but that they were unable to resuscitate Navalny. It said the reason of death was being established.

Satellite imagery shows that Egypt is building a barrier between its territory and Gaza near Rafah, Gaza. Egypt is also leveling land near its border with the Gaza Strip ahead of a planned Israeli offensive targeting Rafah. Egypt hasn’t publicly acknowledged the construction but has warned Israel not to forcibly expel the Palestinians now displaced in Rafah into Egypt. But the images from the Egyptian side of the border in the Sinai Peninsula suggest Cairo is preparing for just that scenario, something that could threaten its 1979 peace deal with Israel. Egypt has claimed that it does not contemplate breaking the peace deal.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is trying to get access to the biggest functioning hospital in Gaza, the Nasser Hospital, after an Israeli raid. “There are still critically injured and sick patients that are inside the hospital,” WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic says. “There is an urgent need to deliver fuel to ensure the continuation of the provision of life-saving services… We are trying to get access because people who are still in Nasser medical complex need assistance.” Israel’s military called the raid on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis “precise and limited” and said it was based on information that Hamas had kept hostages in the facility, with some bodies of captives possibly there. The IDF later said it had arrested more than 20 Hamas terrorists who took part in the October 7 massacres inside the compound and found weapons, including mortar shells and grenades.

Weapons found at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in Gaza (IDF photo)

6:04 am

Syre Elementary School, a highly ranked public school in Shoreline, Wash., near Seattle, taught children as young as 7 years old to chant “Free Palestine” and “From the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea,” and instructed them to hold mock anti-Israel protests. That’s according to the pro-Israel nonprofit StandWithUs, which says that Syre engaged in “indoctrination, promoted hatred and created a hostile classroom environment towards the Israeli and Jewish communities.”

5:58 am

President Biden has issued a fresh warning to Israel over its plans for an offensive in Rafah. The area had formerly been declared a ‘safe zone’ for Palestinians fleeing the fighting and Israeli bombardments in other parts of Gaza. Since then its population has swelled in numbers. Biden told Israeli PM Netanyahu that he should not proceed with military action in Rafah without a credible and executable plan to protect Palestinian civilians, the White House said. It was the second time in less than a week that Biden warned Netanyahu about moving into the southern part of the Gaza Strip without a plan to ensure the safety of about 1 million people sheltering there. Biden is under pressure from the left-wing of his party to pressure Israel into a ceasefire and a permanent two-state solution.

Egypt is preparing an area at the Gaza border which could accommodate Palestinians in case an Israeli offensive into Rafah prompts an exodus across the frontier, four sources told news agency Reuters, in what they described as a contingency move by Cairo. Egypt, which denied making any such preparations, has repeatedly raised the alarm over the possibility that Israel’s devastating Gaza offensive could displace Palestinians into Sinai – something Cairo says would be completely unacceptable – echoing warnings from Arab states such as Jordan.

The Sinai Foundation for Human Rights published images on Feb.12 it said showed construction trucks and cranes working in the Egyptian area near the Gaza border. It also showed images of concrete barriers. Citing an unidentified source, the Sinai Foundation said that the construction work was intended to create a secured area in case of a mass exodus of Palestinians.

Israeli PM Netanyahu pushed back on US calls for the creation of a Palestinian state, saying it would give a "reward to terrorism." Negotiations over a ceasefire in Gaza appear to have stalled, with Netanyahu on Feb 16 pushing back hard against the US vision for after the war – particularly its calls for the creation of a Palestinian state. After speaking overnight with president Biden, Netanyahu tweeted that Israel will not accept “international dictates regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians”. He said that if other countries unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state, it would give a “reward to terrorism.” Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected creation of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu has vowed to continue the offensive and expand it to the Gaza city of Rafah, near Egypt, until Hamas is destroyed and scores of hostages taken during the militants’ 7 October attack are freed.

In their Feb. 15 phone call, Biden again cautioned Netanyahu against moving forward with a military operation in Rafah before coming up with a “credible and executable plan” to ensure the safety of Palestinian civilians, the White House said. The risk of a broader conflict  appeqared to grow as Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group had deadliest exchange of fire along the border since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Israel launched airstrikes into southern Lebanon for a second day on Feb. 15 after killing 10 civilians and three Hezbollah fighters on Wednesday in response to a rocket attack that killed an Israeli soldier and wounded several others.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and foreign ministers from UK, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan join Israel at security conference today. Western leaders are hoping a round of meetings at a security conference in Munich will put overwhelming pressure on Israel not to press ahead with a ground offensive in Rafah. Almost all the key figures, save the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, will be present in Munich today, including foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan. The Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, and foreign minister, Israel Katz, will also attend along with three freed hostages, Raz Ben Ami, Adi Shoham and Aviva Siegel. Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, is flying in too.

The pressure on Israel to avoid a ground offensive is coming from almost all quarters, including allies such as the US, UK, France, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The shadow of a return to the international court of justice and a further Algerian-sponsored UN security council resolution is looming over Israel.

More than '20 terrorists' suspected to have been involved in Hamas's October 7 attack were arrested at Nasser hospital, sayid the IDF.  On Feb. 15, Israeli R Adm Daniel Hagari said there was “credible intelligence” to suggest hostages seized by Hamas in the October 7 attack had been held at the hospital, and that bodies of some of the captives may still be inside. The IDF said later it had “not yet found any evidence of this”, although forces had found “weapons, grenades and mortar bombs” at the hospital complex.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry also raised fears over the fate of six other patients in the intensive care unit and three children, saying it held Israel “responsible for the lives of patients and staff considering that the complex is now under its full control”.

5:49 am

President Biden again told Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he should not proceed with military action in Rafah without a credible and executable plan to protect Palestinian civilians, the White House said. The population of the city has swelled since the Israel-Gaza war began after the October 7 attacks by Hamas. The call between the two leaders on Feb.15 was the second time in less than a week that Biden warned Netanyahu about moving into the southern part of the Gaza Strip without a plan to ensure the safety of about 1 million people sheltering there. It comes as the round of ceasefire and hostage release negotiations are expected to finish on Friday. Israel is also expected to come under pressure at the Munich security conference over its plans for Rafah.

International medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported a “chaotic situation” at Nasser hospital in Gaza and said its medical staff “have had to flee the hospital, leaving patients behind”. It also said one of its colleagues remained unaccounted for after Israeli forces shelled the hospital in the early hours of Thursday and another colleagues was detained at a checkpoint that Israeli Forces had set up “to screen people leaving the compound”. MSF said “we call for his safety and the protection of his dignity” and urged Israeli forces to stop “this attack”.

Israeli military confirmed its special forces were inside Nasser hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Feb. 15, saying it had “credible intelligence” that the bodies of hostages taken on October 7 may be in the facility. IDF spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari, said forces were conducting a “precise and limited” operation in Nasser hospital and would not forcibly evacuate medics or patients but Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said Israel had launched a “massive incursion” with heavy shooting that injured many of the displaced people who had sheltered there. He said the military had ordered medics to move all patients into an older building that was not properly equipped for their treatment. “Many cannot evacuate, such as those with lower limb amputations, severe burns, or the elderly,” he said in an interview with the Al Jazeera network.

Videos that Reuters verified on Feb. 15 as having been filmed inside Nasser hospital, though it could not verify when, reportedly showed scenes of chaos and terror. Men walked through dark corridors using the lights from their phones, with plaster dust swirling around and debris lying in the corridors, at one point wheeling a bed through a damaged area. At one point in a video gunshots rang out and a doctor shouted “Is there anyone still inside? There is gunfire, there is gunfire – heads down”.

Israeli forces fired into the main hospital in southern Gaza early on Feb. 15, killing a patient and wounding six others, according to medics. Dr Khaled Alserr, one of the remaining surgeons at Nasser hospital, told the Associated Press that the seven patients struck early on Thursday were already being treated for past wounds. On Wednesday, a doctor was lightly wounded when a drone opened fire on the upper stories of the hospital, he said, adding that “the situation is escalating every hour and every minute”.

Cashflows at the UN agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) will turn negative next month and its financial problems will accelerate in April if funding suspended by a number of countries does not resume, the head of the agency said on Thursday before a meeting in Dublin with the country’s foreign minister.

More Israeli strikes were reported in south Lebanon on Feb. 15 as Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati condemned the escalation. Government institutions, schools and Lebanese University were to close on Thursday in protest of the airstrikes.

Israeli military said strikes in Lebanon on Feb. 15 targeted Hezbollah infrastructure and launch posts. Spokesperson Avi Hyman from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said: “Our message to Hezbollah has and always will be: Don’t try us”. Senior Hezbollah official Sheikh Nabil Kaouk said at an event on Thursday in southern Lebanon that the militant group was “prepared for the possibility of expanding the war”.

Senior Hezbollah official and member of parliament Hassan Fadlallah said on Feb. 15 that Israel would face reprisal after two sets of strikes on southern Lebanon the previous day killed 10 civilians, half of them children. “The enemy [Israel] will pay the price for these crimes,” Fadlallah told Reuters when asked about the armed group’s reaction.

The UN peacekeeping force deployed along the Lebanon-Israel border, known as Unifil, expressed concerns over the latest “exchanges of fire,” and urged all sides involved to halt hostilities to prevent further escalation. “Attacks targeting civilians are violations of international law and constitute war crimes,” Unifil’s spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said in a statement. “The devastation, loss of life, and injuries witnessed are deeply concerning.”

Israel’s vow to push ahead with a “powerful” operation in Gaza’s Rafah was met with a growing chorus of international condemnation on Feb. 15, with leaders warning against catastrophic consequences for the 1.5 million Palestinians trapped there. Australia, Canada and New Zealand warned Israel “not to go down this path”, issuing a rare joint statement in the latest urgent appeal seeking to avert further mass civilian casualties. “An expanded military operation would be devastating,” they said. “There is simply nowhere else for civilians to go.”

Israel’s  finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich has rejected plans for an establishment of a Palestinian state, writing on X that Israel “won’t agree in any way” to it. Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir also posted on X. He wrote: “1,400 are murdered and the world wants to give them a state. Not going to happen. The establishment of a Palestinian state means the establishment of a Hamas state.”

The 22 Arab countries at the UN are urging the security council to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and unhindered humanitarian assistance, and to prevent any transfer of Palestinians out of the territory. The Arab Group chair this month, Tunisia’s UN ambassador Tarek Ladeb, told UN reporters on Wednesday that about 1.5 million Palestinians who sought safety in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah face a “catastrophic scenario” if Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu goes ahead with a potential evacuation of civilians and military offensive in the area bordering Egypt.

February 16, 2024

11:05 am

Britain recorded thousands of antisemitic incidents after the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas in October, making 2023 the worst year for UK antisemitism since 1984, when Jewish advisory body CST began recording such data, it said today. The number of antisemitic incidents across the country reached 4,103, more than twice the figure in 2022, amid a surge of threats, hate speech, violence and damage to Jewish institutions and property, the Community Security Trust said. The CST, which advises Britain's estimated 280,000 Jews on security matters, said two-thirds of those incidents occurred on or after Oct. 7, when Hamas militants rampaged through southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage."

11:00 am

The Biden administration announced that it will grant a “temporary safe haven” for 18 months to Palestinians who would otherwise be deported. It cited “humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian territories, and primarily Gaza” that “have significantly deteriorated” as the reason for the deferment in a memorandum released on Feb. 14.

For the second time in a week, the Israel Defense Forces exposed a Palestinian reporter working for Al Jazeera in the Gaza Strip as a Hamas terrorist operative. Ismail Abu Omar, an Al Jazeera journalist wounded in an Israeli strike near the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Feb. 13, serves as a deputy company commander in Hamas’s Khan Yunis Battalion, according to the IDF.

10:30 am

The Israeli foreign ministry toned down its criticism of Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, saying that his statements this week about Israel's military operations in Gaza were “regrettable” rather than “deplorable.” Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin said on Feb.13 that Israel’s military response to the Hamas massacre was disproportionate and caused “carnage.” On Feb. 14, Israel’s embassy to the Holy See denounced Parolin’s “deplorable statement” and said the Palestinian terror group Hamas bore all the blame for the death and destruction in the enclave. However, the embassy toned down its words, saying it should have used the word “regrettable,” and that the mix-up was the result of an imprecise translation.

Pope Francis has regularly condemned antisemitism, and violence across the Middle East and beyond. Relations between the Vatican and Israel have grown increasingly tense since the start of the war in Gaza, with Jewish groups accusing Pope Francis of failing to describe the invasion of Gaza as an act of self-defense after the October 7 Hamas attacks. The Israeli embassy says the original English text of its statement had used the word “regrettable” and its staff had translated that into “deplorevole” in the Italian version they released. “A more precise” Italian translation would have been “sfortunata,” the embassy says, a word that means something more like unfortunate.

10:15 am

Israeli forces stormed the main hospital in southern Gaza today. The IDF said it was a limited operation seeking the remains of hostages murdered by Hamas terrorists. The number of surviving hostages abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7 remains unknown.

According to The Washington Post, the United States and its Muslim partners are “rushing” to finalize a plan to establish a Palestinian state—a plan that could be announced in the next few weeks with hopes that a deal to release the remaining 134 hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza in exchange for a six-week pause in fighting takes effect before Ramadan, which begins on March 10, give or take a day. However, despite the WP report, Israel says that it is not the time to be discussing plans for the “day after” Hamas. “Here in Israel, we are still in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre,” says Prime Minister’s Office spokesman Avi Hyman in a briefing. “Now is not the time to be speaking about gifts for the Palestinian people, at a time when the Palestinian Authority themselves have yet to even condemn the October 7 massacre,” he continued. “Now is the time for victory, total victory over Hamas,” he said. “All discussions of the day after Hamas will be had the day after Hamas,” he added.

Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan slammed UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths for saying that Hamas “is not a terrorist group,” calling the international body “a terror-excusing, Hamas-promoting, victim-blaming organization.” “The UN’s pro-Hamas stance is finally exposed on live TV,” wrote Erdan on X. “Is the brutal murder of hundreds of civilians, not terror?” Erdan asks. “Is the systematic rape of women not terror? Is attempting Jewish genocide not terror?” Erdan says that “this is the UN: a terror-excusing, Hamas-promoting, victim-blaming organization that has lost every ounce of credibility. Nothing said by the UN can be trusted or accepted.” Regarding Griffiths, Erdan tweeted: “You are no ‘humanitarian.’ Sadly, you are a terror collaborator.”

Three Republican senators submitted a non-binding resolution that calls on President Biden to use American military forces to rescue the hostages in Gaza. It has little chance of passing. Sens. Rick Scott, Tom Cotton and Roger Wicker introduced the measure. “The president has the authority and the responsibility to consider the use of all appropriate tools at his disposal to secure their safe release. It is past time to bring them all home,” Scott stated. 

Foreign Minister Israel Katz, the son of Holocaust survivors, explained his decision to make his first trip to Germany for the Munich Security Conference. “All my life I have not been able to set foot on German soil,” says Katz. “I grew up in a house of Holocaust survivors. My late mother Malka survived seven camps and marched on the death march. My late father jumped off the train in Budapest and was captured. I could not bear the thought that the destroyers of my people came from this land. But now, at this time, I see the importance of releasing my vow and going to the security conference in Munich. I will do everything for Israel’s security, securing our future and returning the hostages.” Katz is slated to meet Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck, and will present to the conference new information on UNRWA’s involvement in terrorism. He will urge world leaders to provide aid through other organizations, and will speak about antisemitism in his address to the conference.

The damage from the conflict in Gaza so far amounts to around $20 billion, a UN trade body official says. Richard Kozul-Wright, a director at trade body UNCTAD, said the damage was already four times that sustained in Gaza during the seven-week war in 2014. “We are talking about around $20 billion if it stops now,” he said. Kozul-Wright said earlier that Gaza will need a new “Marshall Plan” to recover from the war, referring to the US plan for Europe’s economic recovery after World War II. He says the $20 billion estimate is based on satellite images and other information and that a more precise estimate would require researchers to enter Gaza. 

The IDF killed senior Hezbollah commander Ali Muhammad al-Debes and his deputy Hassan Ibrahim Issa in a strike in southern Lebanon on Feb. 14. Al-Debes was with Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force. Israeli jets struck a building used by hezbollah in Nabatieh on the evening of Feb. 14. The IDF says it struck several Hezbollah positions in the last few hours, in south Lebanon's Blida and Maroun al-Ras. According to the IDF, al-Debes, a commander in the Radwan Force, was one of the masterminds behind the bombing attack at Megiddo Junction in northern Israel in March 2023, and planned and carried out other attacks against Israel, including amid the ongoing war

8:15 AM

The Israeli military said it had “credible intelligence” that Hamas terrorists held Israeli hostages at the Nasser hospital in Gaza and that the remains of hostages might still be inside. It is not known how many of the approximately 100 hostages are now deceased.  IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari, said the IDF forces were conducting a “precise and limited” operation there and would not forcibly evacuate medics or patients. Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals and other civilian structures to shield its fighters.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said Israel had launched a “massive incursion” with heavy shooting that injured many of the displaced people who had sheltered there. He said the military had ordered medics to move all patients into an older building that was not properly equipped for their treatment. “Many cannot evacuate, such as those with lower limb amputations, severe burns, or the elderly,” he said in an interview with the Al Jazeera network. In a statement to the news organisation, al-Qidra said six patients on ventilators had been transferred.

Red Cross chief Mirjana Spoljaric told diplomats that their countries were responsible for ensuring the Geneva Conventions are upheld during the Gaza conflict. “It is not in your interest to offload (that) responsibility... onto humanitarian actors,” she said. “If the way operations are conducted today limit our operational space to a minimum... we will not be able to resolve the problem,” she added. “It doesn’t make sense to criticise humanitarian actors for not doing more. You have to enable us to do more.” Israel has insisted that its forces at conducting the war according to international guidelines. 

Brazil's socialist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said today that multilateral institutions are failing to resolve international conflicts and criticized Israeli actions in Gaza. He said Israel's "behavior has no explanation." “Israel’s behavior has no explanation: with the pretext of fighting Hamas, it is killing women and children,” he said after a meeting with Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Lula said there would not be peace without the establishment of a Palestinian state and called for an immediate ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
 

8:00 am

US Central Command (Centcom) said today that it carried out four strikes on Feb. 14 in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen where the Iran-backed militia had been preparing to target ships in the Red Sea. 

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has rejected plans for an establishment of a Palestinian state, saying Israel “won’t agree in any way” to it. On Twitter today, he posted a screenshot of a headline from the Israeli news website Ynet that translates as “report: US promotes comprehensive plan for establishment of Palestinian state”. He wrote: "We won’t agree in any way to this plan which actually says that the Palestinians deserve a reward for the terrible massacre they did to us: a Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem. The message is that it really pays off to massacre Israeli citizens. A Palestinian state is an existential threat for the state of Israel as was proven on the 7 October, Kfar Saba won’t be Kfar Aza!”

A senior Hezbollah official and member of parliament Hassan Fadlallah said today that Israel will face reprisal after two sets of strikes on southern Lebanon on Feb. 14 killed 10 civilians, half of them children. “The enemy [Israel] will pay the price for these crimes,” Fadlallah told Reuters when asked about the armed group’s reaction.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported “very intense shelling” in the vicinity of the al-Amal hospital overnight on  Feb. 14 in an update to its X account.

At least five family members were killed in an Israeli strike in south Lebanon, official media said today, adding one boy was pulled alive from the rubble. The Feb. 14 evening raid in the southern city of Nabatiyeh resulted in the highest civilian death toll in a single strike in Lebanon since cross-border hostilities began in October, raising fears of a broader conflict between Israel and militant group Hezbollah. 

Some foreign leaders warned of catastrophic consequences should Israel continue to go ahead with a “powerful” military operation in Gaza’s Rafah city near Egypt's border. 1.5 million Palestinians have taken shelter there. Israel has called on them to evacuate. In a joint statement, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, along with the his counterparts in Australia and New Zealand, said today that an immediate humanitarian ceasefire was ‘urgently needed’. They warned Israel “not to go down this path”, issuing a rare joint statement in the latest urgent appeal seeking to avert further mass civilian casualties. “An expanded military operation would be devastating,” they said. “There is simply nowhere else for civilians to go.”

Israel insists it must push into Rafah and eliminate Hamas battalions. “We will fight until complete victory and this includes a powerful action also in Rafah after we allow the civilian population to leave the battle zones,” Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Feb. 14. 

Should the Israeli assault on Rafah go ahead, the risk of atrocities is “serious, real and high”, the UN’s special adviser on the prevention of genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, said on Feb. 14.

7:45 am

Israel formally complained to the Holy See after Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin spoke of 'carnage' in Gaza. Parolin denounced what he called a disproportionate Israeli military operation after the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel by Hamas terrorists. In a formal statement, the Israeli embassy stated that Parolin's comments are “deplorable.” On Feb. 14, the embassy said the cardinal had considered what it said were the relevant facts on which to judge the legitimacy of Israel’s actions. On Feb. 12, Parolin condemend the Oct 7 attacks by Hamas and all forms of antisemitism. However, the questioned Israel’s claim of self-defense, stating it had inflicted "carnage” on Gaza. “Israel’s right to self-defence has been invoked to justify that this operation is proportional, but with 30,000 dead, it’s not,” he said.

The Israeli embassy accused Hamas of turning Gaza into “the biggest terrorist base ever seen.” It said Israeli armed forces were acting according to international law and said the proportion of Palestinian civilians to “terrorists” killed was less than in other conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Recently, the IDF have killed approximately 15 Hamas terrorists, including some particiants in the Oct. 7 massacres. Among them was a Hamas General Security Service operative, according to the IDF today. Israeli fighter jets carried out numerous attacks in Gaza in support of ground forces. The strikes destroyed buildings, launch positions and underground infrastructure belonging to Hamas. In the center of Gaza, the Nahal Infantry Brigade killed several terrorists, including a Hamas observation commander. An Israeli Navy vessel detected a terrorist squad approaching ground forces. The naval and ground forces worked in cooperation to kill the squad.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Feb. 14 that Gaza’s hospitals are ‘completely overwhelmed’ and accused Israel of impeding its aid-delivery missions in Gaza. Speaking to reporters in Geneva via video link from Rafah in southern Gaza, Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative for the occupied Palestinian territories said that fewer than half of its requested aid-delivery missions in Gaza have been approved by Israel. 

“Military operations in Rafah could lead to a slaughter in Gaza” and a “humanitarian operation at death’s door”, warned the UN. Martin Griffiths, the UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said the scenario “we have long dreaded is unraveling at alarming speed” and “our humanitarian response is in tatters”.

Eight people, all but one of them civilians, have been killed in Israeli strikes on south Lebanon, official sources said, while the Israeli army said it lost a soldier in cross-border rocket fire, Agence France-Presse has reported. The exchanges of fire – and the worst single-day civilian death toll in Lebanon since cross-border hostilities began in October – raised fears of a broader conflict between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah.

Israeli intelligence chief David Barnea met CIA director William Burns in Cairo on Feb. 13 for talks on a Qatari-brokered plan to halt fighting in Gaza. The negotiations, which also involved Qatar’s prime minister and Egyptian officials, are part of an intensifying effort to secure a ceasefire before Israel proceeds with a ground incursion into the southern city of Rafah, where more than half of the territory’s population has fled.

A Hamas delegation headed to Cairo to meet Egyptian and Qatari mediators, after Israeli negotiators held talks with the mediators on Feb. 13.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, an outspoken critic of Israel’s conduct of the Gaza war, was also due in Cairo on Feb. 14 for talks with president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. 

Ireland and Spain’s prime ministers have written and implored EU chiefs to take action over the “deteriorating” situation in Gaza a day after the Irish leader claimed Israel had become “blinded by rage”. In a highly unusual move, Leo Varadkar and Pedro Sánchez wrote to the European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. They asked the commission to “urgently review whether Israel is complying with its obligations to respect human rights in Gaza”.

Israel is in breach of international law as the occupying power if it fails to provide food and water to the people of Gaza, said UK foreign secretary David Cameron, told parliament on Feb. 13. He also said it was simply not possible for people in Rafah to leave as proposed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), remarks that suggest the UK would not endorse any Israeli plan to mount a full-scale attack on the area.

WHO director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said that he is “alarmed by what is reportedly happening at Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza”. “Nasser is the backbone of the health system in southern Gaza. It must be protected. Humanitarian access must be allowed,” he said.

Displaced Palestinians have begun evacuating Nasser hospital complex in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis after weeks of being isolated by fighting. 

“There is sometimes even no space to walk” in Rafah, Médecins Sans Frontières project coordinator in Gaza, Lisa Macheiner said describing the unfolding situation and attacks in the area. Macheiner also spoke of the “lack of access to food … water … sanitation … healthcare” and said “there is a huge need for primary healthcare for follow up of patients, who had surgeries, multiple surgeries” and of people suffering with infected wounds. The medical humanitarian organisation has called on the government of Israel to halt any offensive on Rafah.

Israeli air attacks have been reported across Gaza, including in the southern part of the strip, according to Arab media. Artillery shelling struck the center of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza and Israeli warplanes had carried out repeated raids on the southern neighbourhoods of Gaza City.

About 100 representatives of hostages flew to The Hague on Feb. 14 to file a “crimes against humanity” complaint at the international criminal court (ICC) against Hamas. The ICC is United Nation’s only court set up to probe the gravest offences including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

103 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes and 145 were injured in the past 24 hours, said the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
An Israeli woman was killed and eight others were injured in a suspected Hezbollah attack, according to Israeli military and medical officials reports The Times of Israel. Safed’s municipality also said rockets hit the base, as well as the city’s industrial zone and an area near Ziv hospital. There has been no immediate claim for the attack.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres said he was ‘deeply troubled’ by the number of journalists killed in the Gaza conflict. Reporting on an Israeli drone attack in Muraj, north of Rafah that allegedly targeted two journalists, Al Jazeera said the attack had resulted in its Arabic correspondent Ismail Abu Omar having to have his leg amputated, and had also seriously injured photojournalist Ahmed Matar. Guterres condemned the attack. Some Gazan journalists have been accused of collaborating with Hamas terrorists.

At least 18 Palestinians were arrested overnight in the West Bank area of Judea and Samaria, including two women from Jericho. Detentions took place in Hebron, Qalqilya, Nablus, East Jerusalem and Ramallah. It put the total number of arrests after 7 October at 7,020 and called it “one of the most prominent tools of collective punishment”.

Militants from the Islamic State (IS) group attacked military barracks in central Syria this week, killing nine soldiers. The Syrian army and officials have not confirmed the attack, reports AP. IS claimed responsibility for the attack on Monday near the town of Al-Sukhna, saying its fighters also seized weapons abandoned by fleeing soldiers and set fire to the barracks. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three Syrian troops were wounded in addition to the nine killed in Al-Sukhna.

US Central Command (Centcom) said its forces launched a strike on Feb. 13 on a missile in a Houthi-controlled part of Yemen. It said the cruise missile was about to be fired at ships in the Red Sea.

Protesters denouncing Israel’s offensive in Gaza disrupted a foreign policy debate in Sweden’s parliament on Feb. 14, as the country’s foreign minister reiterated support for Israel’s right to self-defence against Hamas. Security guards escorted a woman out of the public gallery after she shouted that Israel “was committing genocide”, as foreign minister Tobias Billstrom presented the government’s foreign policy declaration to parliament. Recently, a Iranian terrorist plot was discovered in Stockholm.

British Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg of the Masorti community said it is “impossible to remain silent” about the war in Gaza. “The calculated barbarity and strategic cruelty of Hamas’s military, and the presence of its forces in tunnels beneath Rafah, are beyond doubt … But over a million Palestinian civilians, many already in flight from the north of Gaza, are now trapped with nowhere to go. In countless references, Judaism has, throughout its history, stressed our duty to refugees and the helpless. How can we be unmoved by their grief and unbearable suffering?”
 

February 15, 2024

 

See previous iterations of the war blog Here. Click HERE and HERE.