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 Click here for an overview by week in 2024

Special reports: Updates January and earlier, 2025: What is Israel’s deadly ‘Iron Wall’ military raid in Jenin? & 'Skull without a jaw' & I dream of a quiet, drone-free Gaza & 'Staying alive was luck' Previous reports: The ceasefire will not bring our lives back & No child should ever see the horrors of Gaza & The genocide has left me feeling like a stranger in my own homeland & Why I won't stop telling Gaza’s stories & Israel may burn Gaza schools, but Palestinians shall resist & This is the last phase of Zionism and earler stories  Overview special reports

November 28 - 24 and earler stories, 2024 Is Netanyahu immune from ICC arrest warrant-NO!   TRIBUTES TO MOTHERS AND CHILDREN

Shireen Abu Akleh In commemoration of Shireen Abu Akleh, the 'voice of Al Jazeera' killed while revealing the true face of israel Updated: December 6, 2024: Attacks, arrests, threats, censorship: The high risks of reporting the Israel-Gaza war   Click here for earlier stories/news

January 24 - 22, 2025 Food for thought: A ceasefire? Not at the occupied Westbank. And why? 'The show must go on!'? Read more and decide for yourself

January 22 - 20, 2025 Food for thought: A ceasefire? Not as far as the idf and its co-genocide-predetators are concerned. 'The show must go on?' Read more and decide for yourself   January 21 - 19, 2025 Food for thought: Let's see what an israeli word is worth. Read more and decide for yourself

Actual news January 17 - 13, 2025 A ceasefire has been reached but the milions-people life question is if the idf-led carnage/bloodshed will stop? And more actual news January 19 - 14, 2025 Pre-ceasefire & Post-Ceasefire December 30 - 26, 2024 'Betrayed' and 'abandoned' Sixth baby dies from severe cold

 When one hurts or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
and: My mother (1931-1997) always said to me <Mi figlio, non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
Gianna d'Artali.



14,5000 children killed
Jinha - Womens News Agency - Jan. 24 , 2025
<<At least 14,5000 children killed by war in Gaza
The war in Gaza has killed at least 14,500 children, injured thousands more, left an estimated 17,000 unaccompanied or separated from their parents, and nearly one million displaced from their homes.
News Center- The war in Gaza has killed at least 14,500 children, injured thousands more, left an estimated 17,000 unaccompanied or separated from their parents, and nearly one million displaced from their homes, said a report released by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) on Thursday. In the Gaza Strip, 88% of schools have been damaged or destroyed in the war between Israel and Hamas. “Around 660,000 children are out of school due to the war,” the report said. On August 1, 2024, UNRWA began its first phase response of “Back to Learning” with a focus on mental health activities. “This is taking place in 86 Temporary Learning Spaces in 40 UNRWA schools-turned-shelters, with the support of over 900 teachers and up to 750 school counsellors.” According to the report, more than 18,000 children, over half of them girls, have benefited from UNRWA’s “Back to Learning” program so far. “Between 13 and 19 January 2025, 8,998 children (3,564 boys, 5,434 girls, including 364 children with disabilities) participated in basic literacy and numeracy activities.” “The war has exacted a horrific toll on Gaza’s children – reportedly leaving at least 14,500 dead, thousands more injured, an estimated 17,000 unaccompanied or separated from their parents, and nearly one million displaced from their homes,” the UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell stated. At least 47,161 Palestinians have been killed and 111,166 others injured in the Gaza Strip since October 7,2023, according to the Gaza’s health ministry.>>
Source: https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/at-least-14-5000-children-killed-by-war-in-gaza-36406?page=1


Ruined Gaza mosque
Al Jazeera - Jan 24 2025
<<Ruined Gaza mosque hosts first Friday prayers since ceasefire
Worshippers gathered in a ruined mosque in Gaza’s Khan Younis for their first Friday prayers since the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement.>>
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/1/24/ruined-gaza-mosque-hosts-first-friday-prayers-since-ceasefire

Al Jazeera - Jan 24 2025 - In Pictures - Gallery
<<UN says Israel using ‘unlawful lethal force’ in raids on Jenin
Israeli forces block all four main entrances to the occupied West Bank city as the deadly raids enter a fourth day.
The United Nations has said it is “deeply concerned” over the Israeli military’s use of “unlawful lethal force” this week in its raids on Jenin, in the occupied West Bank – including using methods developed for fighting wars. “The deadly Israeli operations in recent days raise serious concerns about unnecessary or disproportionate use of force, including methods and means developed for warfighting, in violation of international human rights law, norms and standards applicable to law enforcement operations,” UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Thameen al-Kheetan told a media briefing in Geneva. “This includes multiple air strikes and apparently random shooting at unarmed residents attempting to flee or find safety.” Israeli forces blocked the four main entrances to Jenin city and its refugee camp on Friday as the deadly raids on the city entered a fourth day, officials said. Israel says its operation aims to eliminate Palestinian fighters in the city. As of Friday, the death toll in Israeli raids had reached 12. Dozens of Palestinians have also been wounded and detained, while thousands have been forced to flee the city. Mustafa Barghouti, the leader of the Palestinian National Initiative party, said in a statement that Israel is carrying out “dangerous ethnic cleansing in Jenin, forcing civilians and families to leave their homes on foot under violent repression and humiliating searches”. He added that the “ongoing events confirm the remarks by Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi that the goals and repressive practices are identical in Gaza and the West Bank which are subjected to collective punishment, checkpoints, arrests, and abuse”. Barghouti called for Palestinian national unity to confront “Israeli ethnic cleansing and genocide”.>>
View photos: https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/1/24/photos-un-says-israel-using-unlawful-lethal-force-in-raids-on-jenin

Al Jazeera - Jan 24 2025
<<Israeli forces ‘block entrances to Jenin’ as deadly raid enters fourth day
In addition to Jenin governorate, Israeli forces have been stepping up their operation across the occupied West Bank since January 21. Israeli forces have blocked four main entrances to Jenin city and its refugee camp on Friday as the deadly raid into the city entered a fourth day, officials said.
Mansour Saadi, deputy governor of Jenin, was quoted as saying by the Wafa news agency that the Israeli army “blocked all four main entrances to the city and its refugee camp with earth mounds, preventing entry and exit”. Palestinian sources said Israeli forces launched drones with loudspeakers in the refugee camp and imposed a curfew from Thursday evening until Friday morning. Wafa news agency also reported that Israeli forces set fire to homes in the camp and blocked civil defence teams from reaching the area to put out the flames. This comes after they issued forced evacuation threats to Jenin refugee camp residents on Thursday, as thousands of Palestinians fled amid the deadly assault by Israeli forces.
In addition to Jenin governorate, Israeli forces have been stepping up their operation across the occupied West Bank since January 21, just days after the ceasefire in Gaza came into effect on January 19. As of Thursday, the death toll in Israeli raids had reached 12. Dozens have also been wounded and detained. On Friday, the situation at Jenin government hospital was “dire”, Saadi said, with medical staff struggling to provide care to patients amid power cuts and fuel shortages caused by the ongoing Israeli operation. Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut said many Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including in Jenin, fear Israel will do “just as it did in Gaza”. “In their thousands, Palestinians have been forced to leave their homes in the Jenin refugee camp,” said Salhut, who is reporting from Jordan because Al Jazeera has been banned by the Palestinian Authority (PA) from reporting in the occupied West Bank. “People there say Israeli forces want to raze these Palestinian towns to the ground just as they did in Gaza.” Sources told Al Jazeera that Palestinian fighters have also been fighting back against Israeli forces, targeting them with an explosive device while they were travelling along Jenin’s Nazareth Street. There were no immediate reports of casualties. In some of the ongoing raids, PA security forces were involved in going after Palestinian fighters, including in Tulkarem, Ramallah, Hebron and Qalqilya on Friday. Armed clashes have also broken out between Palestinian fighters and PA forces in the town of Yabad, west of Jenin. PA security forces have reportedly severely beaten up a number of Palestinian fighters after arresting them. Later on Friday, the United Nations voiced serious concerns over Israeli military’s use of force in West Bank, including methods “developed for war fighting”. “We are deeply concerned by the use of unlawful lethal force in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank,” UN human rights office spokesman Thameen al-Kheetan told a media briefing in Geneva. “The deadly Israeli operations in recent days raise serious concerns about unnecessary or disproportionate use of force, including methods and means developed for war fighting, in violation of international human rights law, norms and standards applicable to law enforcement operations.” Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara said the Israeli government is shifting its focus from Gaza to the occupied West Bank. He said the operations in Jenin and other parts of the occupied West Bank serve as a “deflection” from the Israeli government’s failures of October 7. Bishara added that the operation also creates an opportunity for Israel to advance annexation policies.
Since the war on Gaza began in October 2023, Israeli forces have increased the size and frequency of their raids in the occupied West Bank, killing nearly 900 Palestinians and wounding thousands. Israel says eliminating armed Palestinian fighters in the occupied West Bank is part of its overarching goals for the war on Gaza. United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese warns that Israel’s genocide would not be confined to Gaza if the military offensive in the West Bank does not end.>>
Video: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/24/israeli-forces-block-entrances-to-jenin-as-deadly-raid-enters-fourth-day

Al Jazeera - Jan 23 2025
<<Israeli army continues deadly raid in Jenin, two more killed in West Bank
Israeli soldiers kill two more Palestinians in the occupied West Bank amid Gaza ceasefire.
Israel’s deadly raid in Jenin has entered its third day, with its forces issuing a forced evacuation threat to residents of the refugee camp in the city.
Hundreds of Palestinians in Jenin refugee camp started leaving their homes on Thursday. “The Israeli army, using loudspeakers on drones and military vehicles, ordered them to evacuate the camp,” where Israel’s military launched an intense military operation this week, Jenin governor Kamal Abu al-Rub told AFP news agency. Elsewhere, two Palestinian men were killed overnight in attacks by Israeli forces in Burqin, taking the death toll to 12 across Jenin governorate in the first two days of large-scale raids. The raids are part of Israel’s “Iron Wall” campaign across the occupied Palestinian territory, launched just days after a ceasefire in Gaza. Palestinian news network Al Quds Today reported that Muhammad Abu al-Asaad and Qutaiba al-Shalabi were killed in “an armed clash with the occupation forces that lasted for several hours”. The Israeli military confirmed the killings on Thursday, claiming that the two were affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and were wanted for carrying out the shooting attack in the village of Funduq in the Qalqilya governorate earlier this month, which killed three Israelis and injured six.
The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, said the two men were Hamas members. The Palestinian General Authority of Civil Affairs said Israeli forces have refused to release their bodies. Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli forces involved in the killings surrounded a house in Burqin, and fired shots and missiles at it before razing it to the ground using a bulldozer. Hassan Sobh, Burqin’s mayor, was quoted as saying in the report that Israeli soldiers used women as human shields during the attack. On Wednesday, the Defence for Children International Palestine (DCIP) reported that a 16-year-old, Motaz Imad Mousa Abu Tabeekh, was shot dead by Israeli forces. According to the Ramallah-based organisation, he was one of the seven Palestinian minors killed in Israeli attacks across the occupied West Bank this year. Four of them had been killed by Israeli drone attacks and three were shot dead. Israeli forces arrested 22 Palestinians across the occupied territory between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, according to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society. The groups said in a joint statement on Telegram that the arrests took place in the governorates of Hebron, Nablus, Tulkarem, Ramallah and Jerusalem, and involved “abuse and destruction of infrastructure, and vandalism and destruction of citizens’ homes”.
‘Collective punishment’
The Jenin refugee camp, set up in 1953 by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to accommodate displaced Palestinians, is a hub for Palestinian resistance groups operating under the umbrella of the Jenin Brigades and has long been a focal point for Israeli military incursions. Israel’s army has defended its deadly incursion into the occupied West Bank. The raid in Jenin aims to counter “hundreds of terrorist attacks, both in [the occupied West Bank] and the rest of Israel”, military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said. Since the start of the Gaza war, Israel has seen “over 2,000 terror attack attempts” from the occupied West Bank, he said, adding the army “eliminated around 800 terrorists”.
The Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry accused Israel of “collective punishment” and said the raid was part of an Israeli plan aimed at “gradually annexing the occupied West Bank”. The attacks on Jenin are just one element of Israel’s intensified operations in the West Bank, which the Palestinian Authority (PA) says are aimed at “gradually annexing” the territory.
Recent Israeli raids across the West Bank include:
Shu’fat camp in Jerusalem
Sa’ir, north of Hebron
Barham, north of Ramallah
Rammun, east of Ramallah
Birzeit, north of Ramallah
Beita, south of Nablus
Azzun, east of the city of Qalqilya
The sudden uptick in settler attacks and Israeli military operations has frightened Palestinians in the occupied territory, who believe they could now face the same fate as their compatriots in Gaza. Residents have also reported a significant increase in Israeli checkpoints and delays across the territory. Palestinian lawyer Mohammad Dahleh told Al Jazeera that the Israeli military’s ramped-up assault on the occupied West Bank has to do with the agreement about the ceasefire. “They want to continue the war in Gaza and the way to do that is escalation in the West Bank.”
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Bethlehem, Palestinian researcher and activist Hamza Zubiedat said the situation in the occupied territory has become “catastrophic”. “By isolating and cutting the Palestinian villages and cities from each other, it means no more doctors, nurses, teachers, even transporting the goods and fruits and vegetables from one place to another. “It means more poverty and suffering for the Palestinian people,” he said. Zubiedat said Israel was carrying out “a continuous annexing process” with the support of the US administration of Donald Trump, with the new United States president having already lifted sanctions imposed on more than 30 Israeli settler groups and entities by his predecessor. Elise Stefanik, President Trump’s nominee for US ambassador to the United Nations, told US senators on Tuesday that Israel had a “biblical right” to the West Bank. In response, Farhan Haq, spokesman for the UN chief, told Al Jazeera, “The future of that of the West Bank, Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories as a whole needs to be dealt with through negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinian authorities.”>>
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/23/israels-deadly-raids-on-west-banks-jenin-camp-enter-third-day


Bodies of
Jinha - Womens News Agency - Jan. 23 , 2025
<<Bodies of 162 Palestinians recovered from rubble in Gaza
Bodies of at least 162 Palestinians have been recovered from under the rubble and debris in the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel took effect on January 19, reported the Palestinian Civil Defense.
News Center- The teams of the Palestinian Civil Defense (PCD) keep recovering dead bodies from under the rubble and debris in the Gaza Strip. Bodies of at least 162 Palestinians have been recovered from under the rubble and debris in the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel took effect on January 19, the Palestinian Civil Defense reported. According to the civil defense authority, there are thousands of dead bodies trapped under the rubble or scattered on roads.>>
Source: https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/bodies-of-162-palestinians-recovered-from-rubble-in-gaza-36395

Al Jazeera - Jan 23 2025
<<Minister says Israel applying ‘lessons’ from Gaza in West Bank operation
Israel’s defence minister says military applying ‘method’ from Gaza war in major raid on occupied West Bank’s Jenin.
Israeli forces are applying methods learned during the war on Gaza to their ongoing “Iron Wall” military operation in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s defence minister said, where troops have killed at least 10 people in Jenin and ordered residents to flee the area’s refugee camp. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that the Jenin operation, which is entering its third day, marks a shift in Israel’s military plan in the occupied West Bank and was “the first lesson from the method of repeated raids in Gaza”. An Israeli military spokesperson declined to give details of the Jenin operation, which began on Tuesday and is the third major incursion by the Israeli army in less than two years into Jenin, a longtime stronghold of resistance to Israel’s decades-old military occupation of Palestinian territory. Residents inside the Jenin refugee camp reported constant gunfire and explosions on Wednesday while the Palestinian health services reported at least four wounded in the camp. The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Wednesday that Israeli forces have used “advanced weaponry and warfare methods, including air strikes” on the Jenin camp, which is now “nearly uninhabitable” with an estimated 2,000 families displaced from the area since December. Israel’s “massive operation” in Jenin also “threatens to undermine the fragile ceasefire reached just days ago in Gaza”, said Roland Friedrich, UNRWA’s director of affairs for the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israeli media also reported that two Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces on Wednesday in the Wadi Burqin area near the city of Jenin. Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli forces had surrounded a building in the town of Burqin and ordered the occupants to exit using a loudspeaker. Air strikes from Israeli drones hit the house while soldiers on the ground fired antitank grenades at the building, which was then flattened by military bulldozers. As the Israeli raid got under way on Tuesday, 10 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in the Jenin area, including children and medical workers. Jenin’s governor, Kamal Abu al-Rub, told the AFP news agency that the situation was “very difficult” as Israeli military bulldozers had torn up all roads leading to the Jenin refugee camp and Jenin’s government hospital. Israeli forces had also detained about 20 people from villages around Jenin since the operation began on Tuesday, he said. Israeli soldiers transfer Palestinian men arrested during a military raid on Jenin, near the Muqeibila crossing on the border with the occupied-West Bank, on January 22, 2025. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for “maximum restraint” from Israeli forces in Jenin and expressed deep concern, according to his deputy spokesman, Farhan Haq. On Monday, Guterres told a UN Security Council meeting of his fears over “an existential threat to the integrity and contiguity” of Gaza and the occupied West Bank from Israel and amid the “unabated” expansion of illegal Israeli settlements. The UN chief said that “senior Israeli officials openly speak of formally annexing all or part of the West Bank in the coming months”. “Any such annexation would constitute a most serious violation of international law,” he said.>>
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/23/minister-says-israel-applying-lessons-from-gaza-in-west-bank-operation

Al Jazeera - Jan 22 2025 - By Al Jazeera Staff
<<Trump’s Middle East envoy will enter Gaza as part of ‘inspection team’
Washington, DC – United States President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, has announced he will visit Gaza in the coming days as part of what he called an “inspection team” to monitor the ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Hamas last week. During an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Witkoff said he would tour two Israeli-held zones in Gaza, as part of an upcoming trip to Israel. “I’m going to be a part of an inspection team at the Netzarim Corridor and also at the Philadelphia Corridor,” Witkoff said. “That’s where you have outside overseers, sort of making sure that people are safe and people who are entering are not armed, and no one has bad motivations.” The Netzarim Corridor separates north and south Gaza and has been occupied by Israeli forces since they invaded the Palestinian enclave in late October 2023. The Philadelphi Corridor runs between southern Gaza and Egypt. Israel’s military took “operational control” of the area in May of last year. The trip will be the envoy’s first visit to the Middle East since Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal on January 15. Witkoff, a businessman with no previous diplomatic experience, had previously joined the talks in Qatar that led to the deal. It will also be Witkoff’s first trip since Trump took office on Monday. Since his inauguration, Trump said he has little confidence the agreement will hold. The deal came into effect on Sunday, and a day later, an Israeli sniper killed a child in Rafah, in an incident caught on video. “We have to make sure that the implementation goes well, because if it goes well, we’ll get into phase two, and we’re going to get a lot more live bodies out,” Witkoff said, referring to Israeli captives held in Gaza. “And I think that that is what the president’s directive to me and everybody else working in the American government on this is.”
A three-phase deal
The ceasefire agreement has three phases. Only the implementation of the first phase has begun. Over the next six weeks, that phase is meant to see a pause in fighting; a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, including from the Netzarim Corridor; and a surge in aid to the enclave.
Fifteen months of war in Gaza has left the enclave levelled and the vast majority of its population displaced. The United Nations has repeatedly warned of imminent famine in northern Gaza, and its experts have compared Israel’s warfare tactics to genocide. All told, at least 47,107 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023. The Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel had killed 1,139 people, with more than 200 taken captive. The first phase of the ceasefire is also meant to see 33 Israeli captives released from Gaza and about 1,000 Palestinians released from Israeli detention. Three Israeli captives and 90 Palestinian prisoners have so far been released. The second and third phase have been agreed to in principle, but negotiations on the details remain ongoing. The second phase is expected to see the remaining Israeli captives released in exchange for the “complete withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza. That goal would be at odds with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s previous pledges to maintain control over Gaza’s security indefinitely after the war. Far-right members of Netanyahu’s government have also called for a return to fighting after the first phase is completed. Details of the third phase are less clear, but they reportedly include plans for multiyear reconstruction in Gaza and the return of captives’ bodies. The current deal includes no agreements over who will govern Gaza following the war.
‘Not confident’
Witkoff spoke to Fox News a day after Trump told reporters he was “not confident” that the ceasefire agreement would hold. “That’s not our war. It’s their war. But I’m not confident,” Trump told a reporter during a photo opportunity at the White House. “I looked at a picture of Gaza. Gaza is like a massive demolition site.” The US president, whose first term stretched from from 2017 to 2021, had demanded a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel prior to his inauguration day, promising “hell to pay” if one was not reached. It was not immediately clear how Trump would respond if Israel were to break from the agreement. Trump has generally been more amenable to Israeli interests than his predecessor, former President Joe Biden. Still, the Biden administration pledged “unwavering” support to Israel and refused to leverage the billions of dollars in military support the US provides to Israel in exchange for a ceasefire. Trump and Biden have both claimed credit for reaching this month’s ceasefire agreement. As he begins his second term, Trump is expected to expand US support for Israel. His administration, for example, is packed with pro-Israel hawks, including supporters of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Already, he has peeled back Biden-era sanctions on Israeli settler groups accused of violence against Palestinians. Still, Trump ran on a pledge to be global peacemaker and end conflicts abroad as part of his “America First” agenda. Speaking on Wednesday, Witkoff credited Trump’s “peace through strength” approach as the driving force behind the ceasefire, while acknowledging the incoming administration was not involved in the “mathematics” that made up the terms of the deal.
Renewed push for normalisation
Witkoff also said he hoped to reignite Israeli-Arab normalisation efforts Trump spearheaded during his first term, in order to make Israel less diplomatically isolated. The so-called Abraham Accords saw Israel establish diplomatic ties with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Sudan, but the negotiations were widely criticised for sidelining Palestinian interests. Experts have also said the future of the Abraham Accords has been thrown into doubt amid regional outrage over the war in Gaza. Still, Witkoff said he believed a long elusive normalisation deal with Saudi Arabia could yet be reached. He went even further, saying he believed every country in the region could get “on board” with such a deal. “My own opinion is that a conditional precedent to normalisation was a ceasefire,” Witkoff said. “We needed to get people believing again.” When asked to specify which other countries he thought would be open to a deal, Witkoff pointed to Qatar, praising its role as a mediator in the Gaza negotiations.
Qatar has repeatedly rejected the prospect of normalising ties with Israel.>>
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/22/trumps-middle-east-envoy-will-enter-gaza-as-part-of-inspection-team

Al Jazeera - Jan 22 2025 - By Mat Nashed
<<‘The battlefield is about to shift’: West Bank braces for rising violence
As Israel presses ahead with West Bank raid on Jenin, Palestinians fear more attacks from military and settlers.
When the Gaza ceasefire was announced on January 15, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank were overjoyed that Israel’s devastating war on the besieged enclave would finally end. However, Israeli state violence has quickly escalated across the West Bank in what local monitors and analysts describe as an apparent attempt to formally annex more land. The sudden uptick in settler attacks and Israeli military operations has frightened Palestinians in the occupied territory, who believe they could now face the same kind of violence meted out to their countrymen and women in Gaza. Israel has killed more than 46,900 Palestinians in Gaza since its war started on the enclave in October 2023. “We watched a genocide unfold in Gaza for 14 months and nobody in the world did anything to stop it and some people here think we’ll suffer a similar fate,” said Shady Abdullah, a journalist and human rights activist from Tulkarem. “We all know we fear that the situation could get much worse here in the West Bank,” he told Al Jazeera.
Shifting battlefield
Hours after the Gaza ceasefire began on January 19, Israel began erecting dozens of new checkpoints in the West Bank to prevent Palestinians from gathering and celebrating the release of political prisoners, who were let go in a swap for Israeli captives held by Hamas as part of the deal. The checkpoints also prohibited farmers from reaching their farmlands and sealed civilians in entire cities, such as in Hebron and Bethlehem. Israeli settlers then began expanding illegal outposts in the West Bank and attacking Palestinian villages. Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law, and many of the haphazardly constructed outposts are even illegal under Israeli law, although often little is done to remove them, and many later become formalised. “The implications of the violence is that it leads to direct or associated displacement and that falls in line with Israel’s objective of preventing any Palestinian state on their land,” said Tahani Mustafa, an expert on Israel-Palestine with International Crisis Group. In addition, the Israeli army announced plans to carry out major operations in the West Bank, which began on January 21 with a major incursion into Jenin camp, ostensibly to root out armed groups. Israeli raids on the West Bank predated the war on Gaza, but scaled up in violence and intensity with the onset of the war. “The settler violence and incursions we are seeing … is an indicator of where we are heading now,” Mustafa told Al Jazeera.
Trade-off?
The uptick in violence has led some to believe that new United States President Donald Trump made a trade-off with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pause the war on Gaza in exchange for stepping up aggression in the West Bank. “The ceasefire in Gaza – which looks more like a humanitarian pause and “trade of hostages and prisoners” – comes with a price. Israel never ever relinquishes anything without a price to be paid and I think we are seeing that in the West Bank, given the sort of [officials] the Trump administration is composed of,” Mustafa said. Trump has not indicated that there is any kind of deal with Netanyahu to allow him to increase violence in the West Bank, but he has also refused to commit to a two-state solution, and has nominated several figures who are opposed to Palestinian statehood to prominent positions in his administration.
The potential for an increased crackdown on Palestinian fighters in the West Bank, as well as the growth of illegal settlements and even potential annexation, appears to have incentivised Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to remain in Netanyahu’s frail coalition, rather than pull out and collapse the government as a way to protest the ceasefire in Gaza. Under Smotrich, Israel has quietly confiscated more land in the West Bank over the last year than it has in the last 20 years combined, according to Peace Now, an Israeli nonprofit monitoring land grabs. Both Smotrich and the broader settler movement have long viewed the occupied West Bank as an integral part of “greater Israel”, and refer to the territory as Judea and Samaria. Smotrich’s rapid annexation of the West Bank went largely unnoticed due to the much larger crisis in Gaza, where, in addition to the mass killing of Palestinians, nearly the entire pre-war population of 2.3 million people were uprooted and displaced.
Settler attacks
Palestinians across the occupied West Bank now say that settlers are stepping up attacks in coordination with the Israeli army to confiscate and seize more land. On January 20, settlers violently attacked two villages in the northern West Bank, Funduq and Jinasfut, as well as villages further south in Masafer Yatta and around Ramallah. The settlers set homes and cars ablaze and beat up Palestinians under the full protection and watchful eye of the Israeli army, according to local rights groups. However, the head of the Israeli army’s Central Command, General Avi Bluth, said in a statement that any “violent riot harms security and the army will not allow it”. The attacks came during Trump’s inauguration as US president – in one of his first actions as president he reversed sanctions on groups and individuals who the US had previously deemed part of the “extremist settler movement”. “The aim of the settlers is known,” said Abbas Milhem, the executive director of the Palestinian Farmers Union. “They want to transfer Palestinians outside of the West Bank and annex the land to Israel and impose Israeli law.” Ghassan Aleeyan, a Palestinian living in Bethlehem, expressed his frustration to Al Jazeera. “What these people are doing is illegal, but they don’t care about international law, or Palestinian law or Israeli law,” he told Al Jazeera. “They don’t even care about God’s law.”
Raid on Jenin
In early December, armed groups in Jenin began clashing with the Palestinian Authority (PA), an administration created as a result of the 1993 Oslo Accords. The accords jump-started a now-defunct peace process that ostensibly aimed to establish a Palestinian state across the occupied Palestinian territory, with East Jerusalem as its capital. A key element of the Oslo Accords was tasking the PA with rooting out and disarming armed groups as part of its security coordination with Israel. But as hopes for statehood faded and Israel entrenched its occupation, a number of neighbourhood armed groups loosely connected with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas and even Fatah – the faction in control of the PA – emerged in Palestinian camps across the West Bank. With the PA unable to crush the armed groups in Jenin camp, Israel launched a major operation on January 21, which has already killed at least 10 people. Local monitors told Al Jazeera that Israel is justifying its operation under the guise of buttressing Israel’s security and ensuring that another October 7-style assault does not occur, even though the armed groups in the West Bank are far less capable and organised than Hamas in Gaza. “We believe Israel’s plan is to attack the north of the West Bank in the same way it did during the second Intifada when it invaded Palestinian camps,” said Murad Jadallah, a human rights monitor with al-Haq, a Palestinian rights group.
Israel previously occupied the Jenin camp for 10 days in 2002, destroying about 400 houses and displacing about a quarter of the residents during the second Intifada in 2002, according to the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA).
Mustafa, from the ICG, believes Israel will conduct more incursions and major military operations across the West Bank in the coming days in an attempt to crush all forms of resistance.
“The battlefield is about to shift from Gaza to the West Bank,” she said.>>
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/22/the-battlefield-is-about-to-shift-palestinians-brace-for-rising-violence

France24 - Jan 22 2025 - Video by: Robert PARSONS
<<Israeli operation in Jenin 'could jeopardise' Gaza ceasefire
Some Israeli media have interpreted the military's deadly operations in the West Bank on Tuesday as a gesture of appeasement to Israel's right-wing ministers angry over the ceasefire deal in Gaza, but the deadly operation's in Jenin "could jeopardise" the truce, says FRANCE 24's Chief Foreign Editor, Rob Parsons, reporting from Jerusalem.>>
Video: https://www.france24.com/en/video/20250122-israeli-operation-in-jenin-could-jeopardize-gaza-ceasefire

France24 - Jan 22 2025 - Video by: Noga TARNOPOLSKY
<<Israel denies reports the PA will control the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt
Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday denied a report in a Saudi-owned news outlet that it agreed to allow the Palestinian Authority (PA) to take control of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt. Reporting from Jerusalem, FRANCE 24’s Noga Tarnopolsky explains the complexity of trying to resolve issues that have not been covered under the ceasefire deal, such as who will administer the Palestinian territory after the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.>>
Video: https://www.france24.com/en/video/20250122-israel-denies-reports-the-pa-will-control-gaza-s-rafah-crossing-to-egypt

Al Jazeera - Jan 22 2025 - By AJLabs
<<Palestinian’s last moments before being killed by Israeli forces
Palestinian Ahmed Obeidi’s family filmed the final moments of his life before he was shot dead while driving by Israeli forces on Tuesday during a raid on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.>>
Video: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/1/22/palestinians-last-moments-before-being-killed-by-israeli-forces
 

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