Israel has made 90% of Rafah’s buildings uninhabitable – Ceasefire Day 30
Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
The Israeli army killed three Palestinians in the northern occupied West Bank, local media reported Wednesday.
In southern Gaza on Wednesday, an Israeli sharpshooter killed a Palestinian teenager in Rafah, southern Gaza; later, a Israeli military drone fired a missile at displaced Palestinians, killing one Palestinian and wounding many others.
22 bodies were recovered from under the rubble over the past 24 hours, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Israeli drones broadcast threats of ‘second and third Nakba’ to Palestinians in Gaza
The Israel occupation forces continue to intimidate and terrorize Palestinians in Gaza despite the ceasefire agreement that took effect on 19 January, according to NGO Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.
Researchers at Euro-Med documented Israeli quadcopter drones broadcasting recorded threats to Gaza’s population. The messages warned of further displacement and destruction, with one chilling statement declaring: “And if you do not wake up from slumber, they will bring a second and third Nakba upon you.”
The 1948 Nakba (Catastrophe) saw the ethnic cleansing of 800,000 Palestinians from their land, when the occupation state was created in Palestine. Since then, around 530 Palestinian towns and villages have been wiped off the map by the Israeli occupation regime.
Israel’s war on Gaza has made 90 percent of Rafah’s buildings uninhabitable, says mayor
Rafah Mayor Ahmed al-Sufi condemned Israel’s destruction of the southern Gaza city, stating that occupation forces had leveled six entire neighborhoods and were blocking residents from returning home.
According to Sufi, 70 percent of Rafah has been destroyed, with 90 percent of its buildings rendered uninhabitable.
RELATED: Gaza ceasefire is reaching a dangerous crossroads as first phase nears an end
Israel continues to deny entry of heavy machinery to remove rubble from Gaza, says official
Israel has only allowed six small machines to remove rubble from the Gaza Strip while preventing the entry of hundreds more that are desperately needed for the coastal enclave devastated by Israeli forces during their genocidal war against Palestinians, an official said on Wednesday.
Ismail Thawabteh, director of the Gaza government’s Media Office, told Anadolu that Israel allowed only six small machines into Gaza, some of which required maintenance and spare parts to function.
“The Gaza Strip needs 500 heavy equipment units, including bulldozers, excavators, cranes, and others,” he added. Thawabteh stressed that Gaza is experiencing “a suffocating humanitarian crisis due to the lack of the equipment and heavy machinery needed for the rubble removal, opening the roads, and recovering thousands of corpses.”
He noted that Israel’s decision to allow only six machines reflects its “state of ignorance regarding the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”
RELATED: Shackled in chains, director of Gaza hospital appears for 1st time in Israeli jail since his arrest in December
Israeli soldiers charged for raping Palestinian detainee at Sde Teiman torture camp
The Israeli military filed charges on 18 February against five reservist soldiers for torturing and raping a Palestinian detainee in July last year at the notorious Sde Teiman prison.
“Today, the military prosecution has filed an indictment against five reservist soldiers under the charges of causing severe injury and abuse under aggravating circumstances… against a security detainee held in the Sde Teiman detention facility,” it said in a statement.
Since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023, Israeli forces have abducted thousands of Palestinians and held them at Sde Teiman.
The statement added, “the acts of violence have caused severe physical injury to the detainee, including cracked ribs, a punctured lung, and an inner rectal tear.”
The man was raped on 5 July while he was “blindfolded, and cuffed at the hands and ankles.”
Massive riots at Sde Teiman and the Beit Lid base erupted on 29 July after settlers and far-right officials stormed both facilities in defense of the soldiers who raped Palestinian detainees (continue reading here).
Israel killed the Bibas children, but is using the tragedy to derail Gaza ceasefire, say observers
The deaths of the Bibas children, killed by Israeli bombing in Gaza over a year ago, are being exploited in an attempt to derail the current ceasefire agreement, say observers. Hamas is scheduled to return their bodies on Thursday, but as Israel and its allies push a false narrative about their deaths, observers warn that this tragedy is being weaponised to justify the resumption of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The US House Foreign Affairs Committee Majority sparked controversy by claiming without evidence that, “Hamas executed a mother and her two children in cold blood,” contradicting established accounts that Shiri Bibas, 32, and her sons Kfir and Ariel were killed in an Israeli air strike in November 2023.
Yarden Bibas, who was released by Hamas this month, had previously accused Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of responsibility for their deaths. In a November 2023 statement, he claimed that the Israeli prime minister bombed and killed his wife and two children.
RELATED: Hamas Offers To Release All Remaining Israeli Hostages in Exchange for a Permanent Ceasefire
‘Shutting People Up’: Israeli Lawmakers Advance Bill Targeting Funding of Foreign-funded NGOs
A bill that would undermine the legal standing and economic viability of nonprofit organizations funded primary by foreign governments – most of which are human rights organization – was approved by the Knesset Wednesday 47-19, in the first of four votes.
The bill would tax contributions from a foreign government to such organizations at a rate of 80 percent. Currently, donations to all nonprofit organizations registered in Israel are tax-exempt.
Nonprofits that receive most of their funding from foreign governments “are not human rights organizations, but delegitimization [of Israel] organizations,” says the bill’s sponsor.
An examination conducted by Haaretz found that most of the non-governmental organizations whose access to the courts would be blocked are human rights groups critical of government policy. Most of them are opposed to the occupation, defend the rights of West Bank Palestinians and Israeli Arabs and promote the rights of Israeli Arab women.
Those groups include the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Peace Now, Breaking the Silence, Physicians for Human Rights–Israel, Ir Amim, Bimkom, Combatants for Peace, HaMoked, B’Tselem, Yesh Din, IsraAID, the Committee Against Torture and Gisha.
NYC real estate expo promoting sale of ‘stolen land’ in Palestine descends into violence
Hundreds of pro-Palestine people attended a demonstration organized by the Palestinian Assembly for Liberation-Awda (Pal-Awda) on Tuesday in New York City’s borough of Brooklyn to protest against a real estate event advertising land for sale in occupied Palestine, with protests turning violent.
The protests by Pal-Awda and many pro-Palestinian supporters against the land “expo” turned into chaos between the pro-Palestinian side and far-right Zionist groups that organized a counter-protest.
Betar USA, the US franchise of the right-wing youth Zionist movement, organized a counterdemonstration across the street from the pro-Palestinian protesters.
A statement by Pal-Awda said the pro-Palestinian attendees were “spat on, kicked, harassed, maced, physically struck and punched by Zionists. One counter-protestor held a lighter to a Qur’an, another made sexual gestures with the Qur’an, and others mocked the [Muslim] call for prayer”.
Pal-Awda said that several pro-Israel supporters approached, threatened and assaulted the pro-Palestinian demonstrators, resulting in two young men being hospitalized as a result of their attack.
Various media reports said that a protester affiliated with the Betar group was seen carrying the yellow flag of the Jewish Defense League, an extremist group that has been banned as a terrorist organization in a number of countries, including Israel and the US.
RELATED: Columbia network pushing to deport and arrest student protesters
West Bank update
- Israel blocks thousands of Palestinians from returning to Jenin camp in occupied West Bank
- >Israeli settlers escalate attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank
- Israeli forces kill 3 Palestinians in West Bank refugee camp
Lebanon update
- Israel maintains occupation in five key areas after withdrawal from south Lebanon
- ‘Disaster zone’: Lebanese villagers return south after Israeli withdrawal
- 11 more bodies recovered in southern Lebanon after Israeli withdrawal
- US, France propose replacing Israeli army with mercenaries in south Lebanon: Report
John Fetterman Staff Quit Amid Frustration Over “Just Working on Israel All the Time”
The exodus of staff from the office of Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., continued Thursday with two new departures.
The exits of the longtime staffers reflects a deep disillusionment in Fetterman’s office with his disavowal of progressive politics and turn toward the right in both his openness to working with President Donald Trump and his embrace of strident pro-Israel positions.
The office’s “major staff turnover,” as one team Fetterman veteran put it, comes amid a tough hiring environment for Democratic staffers in Washington.
“I don’t find this as a surprise,” said the former Fetterman campaign staffer, who requested anonymity to protect their livelihood. “I think the staff is probably frustrated that working in the Fetterman office means you’re just working on Israel all the time” (continue reading here).
Swiss federal police opposed Ali Abunimah entry ban, files reveal
Swiss federal authorities rejected a request to ban Ali Abunimah from entering the country, official documents seen by The Electronic Intifada show.
But this decision was hastily overturned, possibly due to political interference.
As a consequence, The Electronic Intifada’s executive director was abducted without warning by undercover police off a Zurich street while on his way to give a talk about Palestine last month.
The journalist was detained for three days without being allowed to contact his family and then expelled from the country.
The request to ban Abunimah was submitted to Switzerland’s national authorities by the Zurich cantonal police.
But even before Abunimah arrived in Switzerland, federal police, immigration authorities and the national intelligence service all concluded that Abunimah was not a threat to Swiss security and that there were no grounds for a ban.
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IMEMC Daily Reports
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – FEBRUARY 19, 2025 (ongoing count):
- At least 63,319 Palestinians killed, 118,749 injured – including:
- at least 62,403 killed in Gaza (~20,600 children)
- at least 916 killed in the West Bank (~180 children)
- at least 111,749 injured in Gaza
- at least 7,000 injured in the West Bank
WAR STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 (Hamas attack) – JANUARY 19, 2025 (Ceasefire):
Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 19, 2025: at least 48,143 – including at least 47,283 in Gaza (~20,600 children), and 916 in the West Bank (~183 children). Palestinian injuries: at least 118,472 – including at least 111,629 in Gaza, and 7,000 in the West Bank.
Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 11,000 more are still buried under rubble.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 19, 2025: ~1,616 (or 1,590) – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 436 (or 405) military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel.
NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
- As Israel uses US-made AI models in war, concerns arise about tech’s role in who lives and who dies
- US TikTok ban linked to pro-Palestine content rather than China threat, insiders reveal
- Interview: ‘Not A Far-Off Goal’ – Salman Abu-Sitta on the Right of Return
- Israeli soldiers used an 80-year-old Gazan as a human shield. Then they killed him.
- Gideon Levy: If Anyone Should ‘Not Forget nor Forgive,’ It’s the Palestinians
- Columbia network pushing to deport and arrest student protesters
- Explosive Remnants in Gaza Cause Dozens of Casualties
- Ex-AIPAC Staffer: ‘I Woke Up to What Israel Was’
- Chas Freeman: Israel Lobby tactics plumb the depths of dishonor & indecency
- The long walk home to northern Gaza
- Released From Detention, Owners of East Jerusalem Bookstore Still Don’t Know Why They Were Arrested
- Counting the Victims of Israel’s War on Gaza Is Low on Media’s Priority List
- Israel sees terrorism in books – even coloring books, arrests Palestinian bookshop owners
- Shocking testimony: Torture in Israeli prisons, “sexual assaults even using dogs”
- Israel Just Killed a Pregnant Palestinian Woman – And Western Media Doesn’t Care
- I starred in a Super Bowl ad on Black, Jewish partnership. But Israel divided us. | Opinion
- The real reason Israel is banning UNRWA, and what it means for millions of Palestinian refugees
- Marvel heads revealed to be closely connected to Israeli intelligence
- Tom Brady & Snoop Dogg’s Super Bowl Ad Isn’t What You Think—Here’s Who’s Behind It
- A third option for Gazans: Return to their original land
- Six minutes to flee
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