- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s threat of “intense fighting” returning in Gaza if Hamas does not release captives held there by noon on Saturday has triggered “wide-scale condemnation and fear among Palestinians”, according to our team on the ground.
- Meanwhile, Israel continues its siege of the city of Tulkarem, as well as the refugee camps of Tulkarem and Nur Shams, in the occupied West Bank where Israeli forces continue arrests, destruction of property and abuse of residents, according to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic and Palestinian media.
- The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has called on the UN Security Council to “overcome its state of paralysis and take urgent action to stop the crimes of settlement, home demolitions and annexation” in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
- The Health Ministry has confirmed 48,222 deaths in Israel’s war on Gaza while 111,674 people were wounded. Gaza’s Government Media Office has updated the death toll to at least 61,709 people, saying thousands who were missing under the rubble are now presumed dead. At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023 attacks and more than 200 were taken captive.
- Gaza death toll risesAt least one Palestinian has been killed and nine others injured in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health ministry.Gaza hospitals have also received two bodies recovered from the rubble, the ministry added.The three confirmed killings raised the total death toll since October 7, 2023, to 48,222, the statement published on Telegram said.Israel’s war on Gaza has also injured 111,674, it added.
- Thousands in Israeli detention like Gaza’s Dr Abu SafiaReporting from Amman, JordanAl Jazeera is reporting from Amman because it has been banned from reporting inside Israel and the occupied West Bank by Israel and the Palestinian Authority.The story of Dr Hussam Abu Safia [held incommunicado for weeks in Israeli custody] repeats as there are hundreds of doctors and medical workers who were taken from Gaza by Israeli forces to the notorious Sde Teiman detention camp and other Israeli military prisons, including Ofer in Ramallah.Dr Abu Safia has a critical health condition. He has chronic high blood pressure and an enlargement of the heart muscle.But at least his family now knows where he is and that he is alive, unlike potentially thousands of others who the UN said have been forcibly disappeared from Gaza.This remains a major concern. It’s unclear that in the context of this fragile ceasefire, if it continues, that everybody who was taken from Gaza will be returned home.We saw about 110 [prisoners] released last Saturday and that was a huge relief – not just to their families, but also to everybody else who has missing people because they asked about others they met in detention.
- Pulitzer Prize winning author Nathan Thrall confronts Israel’s occupationThe author of A Day in the Life of Abed Salama recounts working and living in Israel, Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem before writing the book. Witnessing first hand the discrimination and subjugation of Palestinians, Thrall tells Al Jazeera presenter Tom McRae about Israel’s decades-long system of apartheid and why he still has hope for the future.
- About 414 patients evacuated from Gaza to Egypt since February 1Reporting from Rafah, southern GazaSince the early hours of this morning, I have seen more than 168 aid trucks enter the Gaza Strip, carrying food items and medical supplies, usually brought by the UN agencies, including UNRWA, WFP and WHO.During the past few minutes, three buses and four ambulances evacuated critically-ill patients from Gaza to hospitals in Egypt for medical treatment.I have been updated by the WHO that since February 1 to yesterday, approximately 414 patients along with 588 companions were evacuated outside the Gaza Strip.This number does not include the patients evacuated today. We saw young children among those evacuated today.
LIVE: Israel wreaks havoc in occupied West Bank, fear of war looms in Gaza
