By Abdul Adil
(AA, Al Jazeera, NNA, Wafa, The Muslim News):
WEST BANK
The Israeli army on Tuesday expanded its military operation in the northern occupied West Bank, targeting the city of Tulkarem after Jenin, which it has attacked since Jan. 21.
Witnesses told Anadolu that Israeli forces began attacking Tulkarem and its two refugee camps, Nur Shams and Tulkarem, on Monday and turning them into military barracks, forcing dozens of families to leave their homes.
Faisal Salama, the head of the services committee in the Tulkarem camp, told Anadolu that the Israeli army used Palestinians as human shields and are destroying infrastructure.
Two Palestinians were killed and three others injured in an Israeli drone strike in Tulkarem a day earlier, according to the Health Ministry.
Israeli public broadcaster KAN also confirmed that Israel had expanded its military operation in the northern West Bank to include areas in Tulkarem.
In Jenin, Israel has killed at least 16 Palestinians and injured 50 others in a week.
At least 25 Palestinians were detained in fresh Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank, according to prisoners’ affairs groups on Tuesday.
Former prisoners were among the detainees in the raids that targeted East Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem, Nablus, Tulkarem, and Ramallah, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.
The raids came as the Israeli army continued a military operation for the eighth day in a row in Jenin that also expanded to Tulkarem, killing at least 18 people and injuring 50 others.
Israeli occupying forces Tuesday evening stormed several villages to the west of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, according to security sources.
They said that the occupation forces raided Deir Ibzi, where the soldiers muscled inside the house of a villager, 45, and briefly detained him.
They added that the soldiers erected a checkpoint in the downtown part of the village simultaneously while firing barrages of concussion grenades but without injuries.
Meanwhile, the gun-toting soldiers conducted a similar raid in Beitillu, where they broke into the house of a prisoner slated to be released as part of the second batch under the Gaza ceasefire agreement and threatened to carry out reprisals against them as a means to prevent any “public displays of joy”.
The sources confirmed a similar raid in Deir Ammar but without any casualties.
Israeli occupation forces frequently raid Palestinian houses almost daily across the West Bank on the pretext of searching for “wanted” Palestinians, triggering clashes with residents.
These raids, which also take place in areas under the full control of the Palestinian Authority, are conducted with no need for a search warrant, whenever and wherever the military chooses in keeping with its sweeping arbitrary powers.
Under Israeli military law army commanders have full executive, legislative, and judicial authority over 3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank. Palestinians have no say in how this authority is exercised.
In addition Israeli occupation forces Tuesday evening raided the town of Qusra, south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, according to local sources.
They said that the occupying forces barged their way into the town, simultaneously while intensively opening gunfire and barrages of teargas canisters.
Confrontations erupted with local youths protesting the raid, but there was no immediate information on any casualty.
Israeli forces Tuesday evening besieged a house in Arraba town, south of the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, according to WAFA correspondent.
She said that the occupying forces barged their way into the town, where the heavily armed soldiers besieged a house, simultaneously while military drones hovered in the sky of the town.
She added that the soldiers eventually detained a young man, identified as Mu‘ath Hashash, whose brothers, Hareth and Hammam, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the city of Jenin on July 5, 2024. Their bodies are still withheld by the occupation authorities.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian journalist Nagham Al-Zayet was struck by shrapnel from the Israel’s bullets, while covering the Israeli aggression in the eastern neighborhood of Tulkarm.
Journalist Suhaib Abu Diak, who was accompanying her and a group of journalists, said that the occupation soldiers fired live bullets directly at them while they were standing at the Shahid intersection east of the city, injuring Nagham shrapnel to her right hand, and she was treated at the Red Crescent Center in the city.
The Israeli forces had intercepted the journalists’ work while they were covering the Israeli aggression on the city and its camp, chasing them and firing sound bombs towards them, specifically in the western neighborhood, the northern entrance to the camp, and the eastern neighborhood.
In another context, Tulkarm Governor Abdullah Kamil announced, based on direct instructions from President Mahmoud Abbas, the opening of a number of dignity and emergency relief centers for families who were forcibly displaced by the occupation forces from Tulkarm camp.
Israeli occupation forces today demolished a mosque in Jenin refugee camp.
Local sources reported that the occupation forces demolished Hamza Mosque in the camp, as part of its ongoing aggression on the city of Jenin and its camp for the eighth consecutive day.
The Israeli forces also raided homes in the area known as Al-Hisan Roundabout east of the camp and forced citizens to evacuate their homes, in preparation for demolishing parts of them.
The Israeli bulldozers continue to open roads in the camp, specifically in the area known as Mahyoub Street, and the bulldozing and destruction of infrastructure operations continue in the Al-Hawashin and Al-Aloub neighborhoods.
The occupation continues to send military reinforcements from the Al-Jalama checkpoint to the city of Jenin and its camp, while drones continue to fly in the skies of the camp.
In turn, the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs condemned the occupation forces’ demolition of the mosque, considering this act a blatant attack on Islamic sanctities and a clear violation of all international laws and covenants that guarantee the protection of places of worship.
It stressed that this crime falls within the policy of dangerous escalation pursued by the occupation forces against our people and our sanctities, and comes within the framework of ongoing attempts to impose a new reality aimed at undermining the identity of our people and their religious heritage.
It called on the international community, human rights institutions, and international organizations to assume their responsibilities and intervene urgently to stop these repeated violations, and ensure the protection of places of worship from any targeting.
“Mosques represent a religious and national symbol for our people, and targeting them is targeting the dignity of the nation and its right to practice its religious rituals freely,” it added.
GAZA
Medical sources announced today that the death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 47,354, the majority of whom are children and women, since October 7, 2023.
They added that the injuries has risen to 111,563, while thousands of victims are still under the rubble.
They affirmed that 48 slain Palestinians arrived at hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including 37 whose bodies were recovered, and 80 injuries arrived at hospitals, as a result of the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip during the past 48 hours.
The sources said that a number of victims are under the rubble and in the streets, and rescue teams are still unable to reach them.
The Israeli army struck a bulldozer in the central Gaza Strip late Monday, killing one Palestinian and injuring others, in a new violation of the ceasefire that took effect on Jan. 19.
According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, eyewitnesses said the bulldozer was assisting a stuck vehicle in the Nuweiri area, west of the Nuseirat refugee camp, when an Israeli aircraft targeted it, killing the driver and wounding others.
This marks the second fatality caused by the Israeli army since Palestinians began returning to the northern Gaza Strip. Earlier, a Palestinian girl was killed and three others injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting displaced civilians returning via the coastal al-Rashid Street.
The Israeli army acknowledged opening fire on Palestinians and their vehicles in various areas of Gaza on Monday, claiming they had entered unauthorized zones.
Earlier in the day, displaced Palestinians from southern Gaza started returning to the north. The Gaza Media Office reported that over 300,000 individuals crossed into northern Gaza via al-Rashid Street in the west and Salah al-Din Street in the east.
ISRAEL
The Israeli authorities on Tuesday demolished the Palestinian al-Araqib Bedouin village in the southern Negev region for the 235th time in the past 15 years, according to a local activist.
“The Israeli authorities raided the village of al-Araqib and demolished its housing structures for the 235th time,” Aziz al-Touri told Anadolu.
He accused the Israeli forces of trying “to provoke Palestinians to assault them.”
According to the activist, residents of the village immediately started to rebuild their homes after the demolition.
Homes in al-Araqib, inhabited by 22 Palestinian families, are built of wood and plastic.
The village was first destroyed in 2010 and rebuilt after every demolition since then. Israeli authorities claim that the site where it is located falls under “state land.”
Al-Araqib residents are Arab citizens of Israel who were displaced in 1951 when the nascent state of Israel claimed the area as “state land.”
LEBANON
Seven people were injured on Tuesday evening in an Israeli airstrike targeting a town in southern Lebanon, marking another violation of the ceasefire agreement.
“This evening’s Israeli enemy airstrike on Nabatiyeh initially resulted in seven injuries,” the Lebanese Health Ministry said in a statement.
Earlier, Lebanon’s National News Agency NNA reported that “an explosion was heard in the town of Nabatiyeh al-Fawqa, and flames were seen rising at the site.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli army confirmed in a statement that it carried out an airstrike on Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon.
At least 26 people were killed and 160 others injured by Israeli gunfire since Sunday as residents tried to return to their villages in southern Lebanon, according to local health authorities.
A fragile cease-fire has been in place since Nov. 27, ending a period of mutual shelling between Israel and the Hezbollah group that began on Oct. 8, 2023, and escalated into a full-scale conflict on Sept. 23 last year.
Data from the Lebanese Health Ministry indicates that since Israel’s onslaught against Lebanon began on Oct. 8, 2023, at least 4,080 people have been killed, including women, children and health workers, while 16,753 have been injured.
Lebanese media reported new Israeli breaches of a ceasefire agreement on Tuesday as residents continued to rally to return to their villages in southern Lebanon.
The state news agency NNA said an Israeli drone dropped a bomb near a group of Lebanese soldiers and civilians in the border town of Yaroun.
No information was yet available about injuries.
There was no immediate comment from the Lebanese army on the incident.
NNA said the Israeli army destroyed several homes in Houla town and carried out an explosion near a mosque in Wazzani town in southern Lebanon.
According to the broadcaster, six people were released by the Israeli army after they were arrested while trying to return to their areas in Houla and Markaba towns.
Meanwhile, Lebanese media said that large crowds of residents gathered near the towns of Yaroun and Maroun El-Ras to return to their homes in the area.
Lebanese residents have been returning to their villages near the border with Israel to what is left of their homes.
Much of southern Lebanon has been destroyed, and it will take a while before life returns to normal.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army continues to attack Lebanon despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israeli attacks have wounded 24 people in south Lebanon despite a ceasefire in force for more than six weeks, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.
The first attack hit the southern town of Nabatieh, wounding 20 people, the ministry said, updating a previous toll of 14 injured. It added that another attack on the neighbouring town of Zawtar wounded four people.
At approximately 7:30pm (17:30 GMT), an Israeli drone carried out “a strike with a guided missile targeting a small vegetable truck” in Nabatieh, the state-run National News Agency reported.
The agency later reported a second attack “less than 2km [1.2 miles] away from the first strike” on the Zawtar-Nabatieh road.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attacks, calling them “another violation of Lebanese sovereignty and a blatant breach of the ceasefire arrangement”, according to a statement from his office.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee confirmed the attacks, saying they targeted Hezbollah vehicles transferring weapons in south Lebanon.
SYRIA
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday that his army forces will not withdraw from the demilitarized zone recently occupied in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and will stay there “indefinitely.”
The Israeli army “will remain at the summit of the Hermon (Jabal al-Sheikh) and the security zone indefinitely to ensure the security of the communities of the Golan Heights and the north, and all the residents of Israel,” he said during a visit to Israeli forces in the area.
Israel “will not allow hostile forces to establish themselves in the security zone in southern Syria… we will act against any threat,” he added.
The defense minister said Israel will make contact with “friendly populations” in the southern Syria area “with an emphasis on the large Druze community which has historic and close family relations with our Druze brothers in Israel.”
The army said early Tuesday that it had transferred and installed military equipment in the demilitarized zone in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
The Israeli army occupied the demilitarized zone early December 2024, violating the 1974 Disengagement Agreement with Syria, in a move that expanded Israel’s control over the Golan Heights, most of which it has occupied since the 1967 Middle East War.
[Photo: A view of destruction as the Israeli tanks are still seen despite the ceasefire agreement reached between Lebanon and Israel for them to leave the country, at some of the areas of Yaroun town in Nabatiyah, Lebanon on January 28, 2025. Photojournalist: Houssam Shbaro/AA]
