By Abdul Adil
(AA, Al Jazeera, Wafa, The Muslim News):
GAZA
The Israeli army killed at least 86 Palestinians, including 23 children and 27 women, and 188 injured, in indiscriminate airstrikes across the Gaza Strip since the announcement of a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, according to Gaza’s Civil Defense Service.
It also noted that during the same period, more than 258 Palestinian injuries were recorded from the Israeli bombardment.
Israel’s war in Gaza has killed at least 46,788 Palestinians and wounded 110,453 since October 7, 2023.
Three Palestinians were killed and others injured in an airstrike on Rafah in southern Gaza and Gaza City in the latest attacks.
A medical source told Anadolu early Thursday that an Israeli airstrike on a residential square in Gaza City left 20 Palestinians dead and many others injured.
Women and children were among the people killed in the airstrike, it added.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that the Israeli warplanes carried out intensive Israeli airstrikes on a residential square in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City.
Five more Palestinians were killed and over 10 others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a home in the Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City, according to the Civil Defense.
In a third strike on Gaza City, four Palestinians were killed as the Israeli army struck an apartment in the Al-Daraj neighborhood, according to a medical source.
A little girl was also killed in an Israeli drone strike on a home in the Shujaiya neighborhood.
Also in Gaza City, the Civil Defense reported that three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a home.
Local sources reported heavy Israeli artillery shelling and gun-machine firing toward the neighborhoods of Tel al-Hawa, Zeitoun and Al-Sabra in eastern and southeastern Gaza City.
In the central Gaza Strip, three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike on two apartments in the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to a medical source.
In the southern Gaza Strip, medical sources told Anadolu that two more Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a home in Khan Younis city.
An Israeli airstrike Thursday killed five Palestinians to the west of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, according to WAFA correspondent.
He said that an Israeli fighter jet conducted a airstrike targeting a house in the vicinity of the an-Nazleh roundabout, claiming the lives of five civilians, including two minors and two women.
Meanwhile, Israeli artillery shelled Abasan al-Kabira town, east of Khan Younes in the southern Strip.
Qatar announced a cease-fire agreement Wednesday to end more than 15 months of deadly Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said the three-phase deal will be effective Sunday.
The Israeli Cabinet will convene early Friday to ratify the Gaza cease-fire and hostage exchange deal, public broadcaster KAN reported on Thursday.
The Israeli army struck a place where a female captive, who was to be released in the first phase of the Gaza cease-fire deal, was present, Hamas said on Thursday.
“Any aggression and shelling at this stage by the (Israeli) enemy could turn the freedom of a prisoner into a tragedy,” Abu Obaida, spokesman of the resistance group’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said in a brief statement.
He, however, did not provide any details on the condition of the Israeli captive.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed confidence Thursday that a cease-fire in Gaza will be implemented as of Sunday, despite Israel postponing a cabinet vote.
“I am confident, and I fully expect that implementation will begin, as we said on Sunday,” Blinken told reporters during his final press briefing.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) has said one of its workers was killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza City earlier today.
Ihab Faisal, 33, was killed in the early morning hours alongside his wife Hanin Jamal Al-Dahdouh, 29, and his two children, Reem, 6, and Najma, 3.
Raji Sourani, director of PCHR, said “the brutality of the occupation is reflected in every detail of our lives; it kills our children and destroys our dreams”.
Other organisations expressed disbelief at their deaths, just hours after a ceasefire deal was announced.
WEST BANK
A 40-year-old Palestinian woman was assaulted and injured by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday, medics said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the woman was beaten by rifle butts in the old city of Hebron and was transferred to a hospital for medical attention.
Imad Abu Shamsiya, a human rights activist, said that the woman was attacked while documenting Israeli soldiers as they stopped a group of women in the Ras area of Hebron’s old city.
He identified the assaulted woman as Areej Al-Jaabari, a fellow human rights advocate.
“When the soldiers recognized her identity, they violently attacked her without warning,” Abu Shamsiya told Anadolu.
Under the 1997 Hebron Protocol, the city is divided into two zones: H1, under Palestinian control, and H2, under Israeli control, which constitutes approximately 20% of the city, including the old city and the Ibrahimi Mosque.
The Israeli outposts in the city are home to around 500 illegal settlers residing in heavily guarded settlements, with hundreds of Israeli soldiers stationed throughout the area.
As attention is focused on Gaza, the Palestinian Wafa news agency is reporting several raids by the Israeli army across the occupied West Bank:
The Israeli military stormed Birzeit, north of Ramallah, closing a road and searching several vehicles. It then raided the nearby towns of al-Mazraa al-Gharbiya, Abu Shkheidam and Kober, firing live ammunition and sound bombs.
A group of young Palestinian men were detained at a military checkpoint in the Wadi al-Hussein area, east of Hebron, while activist Areej al-Jabari was beaten by Israeli soldiers as she tried to document the incident.
The Israeli army raided Funduq village, east of Qalqilya, and arrested three men.
Israeli occupation forces Thursday seized a concrete pump and mixer while they were working in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.
Activist Osama Makhamreh confirmed that the occupation forces seized the pump and mixer while they were working in the home of local resident Salama Ali Al-Atmin, in the village of Al-Zuwaydin in the Bedouin desert in Masafer Yatta, noting that the house is located within the master plan of the village in which citizens are allowed to build.
Illegal Israeli settlers graze sheep on agricultural crops and trees on Palestinian lands in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.
Activist Osama Makhamreh told WAFA that the settlers released their sheep on civilians’ crops and trees in several areas in Masafer Yatta.
The Israeli forces also took photos of Palestinian people’s homes in al-Fakhit community in Masafer Yatta.
Israeli forces detained at least 22 people, including former detainees, in the occupied West Bank during the last 24 hours.
The Detainees and Ex-Detainees Commission and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said in a joint statement that the detention operations were concentrated in the city of Hebron, as well as in cities of Tulkarm, Ramallah, Bethlehem, and Tubas., accompanied by widespread raids and abuse, assaults and threats against detainees and their families, in addition to vandalism and destruction of citizens’ homes.
They pointed out that the occupation continues to carry out field investigations of dozens of citizens in several towns, detaining them for hours and releasing them later.#
YEMEN
Yemen’s Houthi [Ansar Allah] leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi has threatened to keep up their attacks if Israel does not respect the recently announced ceasefire with Hamas.
While he called the breakthrough in negotiations an “important development”, he warned that his group “will watch the implementation of the agreement, and if there is any Israeli breach, massacres or attacks, we will be ready to provide military support to the Palestinian people”.
In a statement published by the group on X, he said Israel and the US “were forced to [accept] the agreement in Gaza after months of horrific crimes”.
“The Israeli enemy failed in Gaza despite the siege on the resistance which was established from the beginning,” he added.
Yemen’s armed group has claimed dozens of missile and drone attacks on Israel in solidarity with the people of Gaza, as well as the targeting of ships deemed to be linked to Israel passing through the Red Sea.
SYRIA
Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani called on Israel to “immediately withdraw” its forces from the buffer zone with Syria, as he arrived in Damascus on Thursday, marking his first visit to the country since last month’s fall of the Bashar al-Assad.
Upon arrival, Sheikh Mohammed held talks with Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of Syria’s new administration.
“We are ready to cooperate with Syria’s new administration on various fronts, including lifting sanctions,” he told a joint press conference with al-Sharaa.
The Qatari premier condemned Israel’s seizure of the buffer zone in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. “The Israeli seizure of the buffer zone with Syria is condemned and it must withdraw immediately,” he said.
Last month, the Israeli military occupied the buffer zone in the Golan Heights and expanded its hold on the territory, most of which it has occupied during the 1967 Middle East War.
Photo: Palestinian residents inspect rubble of their damaged homes following an Israeli airstrike on the Jenin refugee camp, in Jenin, West Bank on January 16, 2025. It was reported that 6 Palestinians died in the Israeli army’s bombardment targeting the Jenin Refugee Camp in the north of the West Bank. Photojournalist: Nedal Eshtayah/AA]
