67 Palestinians, including babies and children, were killed Sunday night as Israel intensified bombing in Rafah, where over 1 million Palestinians are sheltering, in preparation for a ground invasion that experts warn would amount to genocide.
- 28,340+ killed* and at least 67,984 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
- 380+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
- Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,147.
- 566 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 3,221 injured.**
*This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on Telegram channel. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to 35,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.
** This figure is released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.”
- Hamas’ military wing says Israeli bombing kills two Israeli captives and wounds of eight others, it is unclear where the attacks took place.
- CENTCOM: US carries out “self-defense strikes” in Yemen.
- UNICEF: Civilians in Rafah must be protected as they have nowhere to go.
- UN: At least 395 displaced people killed in UNRWA shelters since October 7
- 100 Palestinian bodies recovered from Gaza City after Israeli troops withdrew, most killed by sniper bullets.
- Israel says two captives rescued from Rafah in southern Gaza, claims they are in good medical condition.
- In the last 24 hours, Israeli forces killed 164 people and injured 200 in Gaza, a ministry statement on Telegram said.
- At least 67 Palestinians killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes in Rafah, says the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
- Israeli forces kill Palestinian man in occupied West Bank
- In four months, 17 settlement plans for over 8,400 housing units were advanced in occupied East Jerusalem.
- Israel spends at least 7 million dollars on zionist Super Bowl advertisement.
- Dutch court orders Netherlands to halt delivery of F-35 jet parts to Israel.
- US Senator Bernie Sanders: “No one in Congress” should support the Biden administration sending military aid to Israel, Netanyahu’s “war machine” is responsible for an “unprecedented humanitarian disaster.”
- Military expert: Israeli army invasion of Rafah would lead to genocide, considering over a million Palestinians are living in 60 square kilometers, reported Al Jazeera
- Dutch court orders government to halt delivery of F-35 fighter jet parts used by Israel in its attacks on Gaza, saying there is a “clear risk” that the parts being exported by the Netherlands are being used in “serious violations of international humanitarian law”.
- Israel ‘deports’ 51-year-old Palestinian journalist from occupied West Bank to Gaza Strip.
Israel bombards Rafah ahead of planned ground invasion
The Israeli military has ramped up its attacks on Rafah in southern Gaza as it prepares for a possible ground offensive on the Palestinian city, which has become one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Read more
Israel’ Genocide War in Gaza Continues
The war in Gaza has killed 28,340 and injured 67,984, the Hamas-run health ministry said today.
At least 67 Palestinians killed in Gaza during an Israeli rescue of 2 hostages
Israeli forces rescued two hostages early Monday, storming a heavily guarded apartment in the southern Gaza Strip and extracting the captives under fire in a raid that was a small but symbolically significant success for Israel. The raid took place in Rafah, where 1.4 million Palestinians have fled to escape fighting elsewhere in the Israel-Hamas war. Read more. In Gaza, where civilians have borne a staggering toll since the war erupted, the operation unleashed another wartime tragedy with at least 67 Palestinians killed, including women and children. Health officials say more than 12,300 Palestinian minors have been killed in Israel’s war on Hamas.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said sending ground troops into Rafah is essential for achieving Israel’s war goals. President Joe Biden had urged Israel not to conduct a military operation in Rafah without a “credible and executable” plan to protect civilians.Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other countries have warned of severe repercussions if Israel goes into Rafah. “An Israeli offensive on Rafah would lead to an unspeakable humanitarian catastrophe and grave tensions with Egypt,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote on X. Human Rights Watch said forced displacement is a war crime.
Israel is moving forward with plans for a new Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem, located on the doorstep of a Palestinian neighborhood. Right-wing activists are participating in the planning of the new Nofei Rachel neighborhood, which will be established just meters from Palestinian homes in Umm Tuba. The initial plans call for the construction of 650 residential units right next to the neighborhood in southeast Jerusalem. Similar to other developments of this kind, Nofei Rachel is a joint project of the Justice Ministry’s administrator general and official receiver (formerly the Custodian of Absentee Property) and a real estate company controlled by right-wing activists. Nofei Rachel is the fourth new neighborhood for Jews in East Jerusalem moved along by the Administrator General in recent years. It follows one planned inside the Palestinian village of Umm Lisan; Givat Hashaked, adjacent to the Palestinian town of Beit Safafa; and Kidmat Zion, between the Ras al-Amud neighborhood and the separation fence. According to organizations that monitor construction in the West Bank’s settlements, all of these neighborhoods – planned to have a combined 3,000 residential units – are being swiftly advanced. Since the war in the Gaza Strip began on October 7, these neighborhoods have particularly benefited from exceptionally rapid approvals by zoning authorities.
Israel’s military said today it had conducted a “wave of attacks” on the southern Gazan city of Rafah to cover as soldiers freed two hostages held by Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ignored warnings by Israel’s main allies – including the United States and the United Kingdom – not to proceed with the plan to send troops into Rafah, saying that Israel had no choice but to finish its assault on Hamas, which it says is hiding members among the civilians in Rafah. Yan Zhuang, Gabby Sobelman, and Andrés R. Martínez report for the New York Times.
Hamas condemned what it called a “horrific massacre” by Israel against civilians in Rafah after Israel confirmed it conducted airstrikes near the city. “We’ve had conflicting reports on this, with heath[sic] ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra saying 67 people were killed in Rafah. But the AFP news agency, also citing the ministry, is reporting more than 100 killed in the city on the border with Egypt,” BBC News reports.
REGIONAL RESPONSE
King Abdullah II of Jordan will meet with President Biden today in Washington to discuss “efforts to produce an enduring end to the crisis” and the “vision for a durable peace to include a two-state solution with Israel’s security guaranteed,” a White House statement confirmed.
Israel’s planned ground offensive into Rafah would have “dire consequences,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shourky said on Saturday. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, which has conditioned normalization with Israel on an end to the war and steps toward Palestinian statehood, issued a statement warning of “the extremely dangerous repercussions of storming and targeting the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip” as the city is “the last refuge for hundreds of thousands of people.” The Times of Israel reports.
Qatar “condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli threats to storm the city of Rafah” and “calls on the U.N. Security Council to take urgent action to prevent the prevent the Israeli occupation forces from invading Rafah and committing genocide, and to provide full protection to civilians under international law,” a statement issued by the Qatari ministry of foreign affairs said.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Doha yesterday, where he is expected to meet with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, today to continue discussions to stop Israel’s “aggression,” according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA. Jo Shelley reports for CNN.
Thousands of Morroccans protested against Israel in Rabat yesterday, calling for an end to normalization with Israel over its actions in Gaza. BBC News reports.
INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
Argentina’s President Javier Milei praised Israel for rescuing two of its citizens from Gaza today.
U.K. foreign secretary David Cameron said in a post on X that he is “deeply concerned” by the planned Israeli military offensive into Rafah, adding that, “The priority must be an immediate pause in the fighting to get aid in and hostages out, then progress towards a sustainable, permanent ceasefire.”
E.U. foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned that Israel’s incursion into Rafah would lead to an “unspeakable humanitarian catastrophe” and “grave tensions with Egypt.”
U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese rejected French President Emmanuel Macron’s remarks that the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks were the “largest anti-semitic massacre of the 21st century.” “No, Mr. Macron. The victims of October 7 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in response to Israel’s oppression. France and the international community did nothing to prevent it,” Albanese said. Mitchell McCluskey reports for CNN.
A Dutch appeals court today ordered the government to block all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel over concerns they were being used in violation of international law during Israel’s Gaza offensive. “It is undeniable that there is a clear risk the exported F-35 parts are used in serious violations of international humanitarian law,” the court said. It said the state had seven days to comply with the order and dismissed a request by government lawyers to suspend the order pending an appeal to the Supreme Court. The Dutch government has eight weeks to appeal against the decision. Stephanie van den Berg reports for Reuters.
“Israel’s place in ‘global public space.'” It is useful now to consider Zionism as a variant of America’s claim to exceptionalism. And in their responses to the judicial ruling in The Hague two weeks ago, Israel and the U.S. have signaled they intend to continue insisting that they are exceptions to the international community’s laws and norms. Sadly but not tragically—tragedy implies a cleansing, suffering that leads to knowledge—they have read our moment wrongly. Can Zionism survive this mistake? Only with more extreme violence. Can Israel survive the mistake of Zionism? Should it? These are our questions now.
it appears that our world is restructuring itself for the long term into two new geopolitical blocs, largely if not exclusively based on historical divisions between colonizing states and colonized states and ethnic/cultural divisions between “white” states and “non-white” states.
On one side is a New Evil Empire (the Israeli/American one), supplemented by its faithful and obedient servants in Europe and the settler-colonial Anglosphere. On the other side is a New Free World, encompassing countries with widely varying cultures and internal governance systems which are both willing and able to stand up to and resist domination by the New Evil Empire and, more broadly, to assert their own freedom, sovereignty, and national preferences …Read the full story here
U.S. RESPONSE
President Biden spoke to Netanyahu yesterday and cautioned him against conducting a military operation in Rafah without planning for the evacuation of Palestinian civilians. A senior U.S. official said that Israeli government officials made it clear to the Biden administration that allowing a military operation in Rafah is conditional and would not take place before an evacuation of the civilian population. A readout of the call also said Biden “emphasized the need to capitalize on progress made” during hostage release negotiations to have hostages released as soon as possible. Barak Ravid reports for Axios.
EXCLUSIVE: Biden disparages Netanyahu in private but is not ready to change U.S. policy
President Joe Biden has been venting his frustration in recent private conversations, including with donors at campaign fundraisers, over his inability to persuade Israeli officials to change their military tactics in the Gaza Strip and specifically named Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the primary obstacle, according to five people directly familiar with his comments.The president has said he’s trying to get Israel to agree to a cease-fire, but Netanyahu is “giving him hell” and is impossible to deal with, the people familiar with Biden’s comments said. In at least three recent instances, Biden has called Netanyahu an “asshole,” according to three of the people familiar with his comments.
Did Biden give Israel green light to assault Gaza’s Rafah city despite reports that the relationship between Biden and Netanyahu is at a breaking point?
The US has given Israel support the green light to launch a military assault on Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, a leading Palestinian politician has reported, despite reports that relations between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu are at breaking point.
Mustafa Barghouti, General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, told Al-Jazeera that Biden’s warning to Israel that it should not launch an attack without a plan to safeguard the city’s inhabitants is de-facto support for a military campaign, which NGOs warn could kill thousands.
How the Gaza War Is Upending US Middle East Policy? Patricia Karam analyzes US foreign policy toward Israel’s war on Gaza and its impact on American reputation, influence, and interests in the Middle East and around the world. Karam contends that the United States has been weak and has not been able to use all of its leverage to convince Israel to change course in Gaza, in the process allowing Iran, China, and Russia to advance their interests. Read the full article here MILITARY CONFLICT WITH HOUTHISYemen’s Houthis said today they had targeted a cargo ship in the Red Sea, the latest such strike since the start of the Gaza war. The group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the ship was American, but maritime-shipping trackers said the Marshall Islands-flagged ship was Greek-owned. Reuters reports.