By Abdul Adil
(AA, Al Jazeera, Wafa, NNA, The Muslim News):
GAZA
A young Palestinian was shot dead on Monday by Israeli forces east of Gaza City, in the latest violation of a ceasefire agreement, a medical source said.
The fatality occurred when Israeli forces opened fire on a group of people in the eastern Shejaiya neighborhood in the city, the source said.
According to witnesses, the Israeli army continues to open fire occasionally towards Palestinians returning to their areas in the eastern areas of Gaza City.
Another Palestinian was killed and two others were injured by Israeli occupation forces on Monday evening in the Gaza Strip, according to local sources.
The sources reported that an unidentified victim was transported to the European Gaza Hospital by truck drivers working at the Karm Abu Salem crossing in southern Gaza.
Additionally, two others were wounded by Israeli snipers in the Al-Awda area of Rafah, in the southern part of the Strip.
Israeli shelling was also reported in the Zeitoun neighborhood in southeastern Gaza City and Al-Fukhari town, east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed a confirmed 48,208 people and wounded 111,655, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. 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 taken captive.
Hamas announced Monday night that it had fully met its obligations under the Gaza ceasefire agreement “accurately and on time,” while accusing Israel of violating four key provisions of the deal.
The statement followed an earlier announcement by the group’s armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, which postponed the release of Israeli prisoners under the sixth batch of the phase one of the agreement.
The release, originally scheduled for Saturday, was delayed until Israel fulfills all its terms of the deal.
Hamas said it intentionally announced the delay five days before the scheduled release to give the mediators (Egypt, Qatar and the US) time to pressure Israel into compliance.
The group reiterated its commitment to the ceasefire agreement, saying it would uphold the deal “as long as the Zionist occupation does the same.” It stressed that it had met all its obligations “with precision and within the agreed-upon timeframe.”
According to Hamas, Israel violated the agreement in four ways: delaying the return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza, targeting Palestinians with airstrikes and gunfire, obstructing the entry of shelter supplies, and slowing the delivery of essential medical aid.
Local authorities on Monday declared three towns in the Gaza Strip “disaster areas” following Israel’s destructive war on the enclave.
“The towns of Al-Zahraa, Al-Mughraqa, and Wadi Gaza are uninhabitable and need urgent relief in all areas,” Nidal Nassar, the mayor of Al-Zahraa, told a press conference.
Meanwhile, at least 110 Israeli violations against Palestinian press and journalists in Gaza and the occupied West Bank were documented in January, according to a local press group.
In a statement late Sunday, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said the Israeli army’s violations against Palestinian journalists and media coverage in Gaza and the West Bank escalated in January, including the killing of seven journalists in Gaza and the injury of six others.
The Israeli army detained three Palestinian journalists from the West Bank, interrogated two, and physically assaulted three others, the statement also said.
It added that 17 journalists suffered from Israeli tear gas asphyxiation and from stun grenades while covering Israeli assaults, while 40 others were obstructed from press coverage across the West Bank.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate noted that in January, it was in contact with the relevant Arab and international press groups to expose Israel’s crimes against Palestinian journalists and to find ways to protect them from Israeli ass
WEST BANK
Israeli police raided two Palestinian bookstores in occupied East Jerusalem on Monday and arrested their owners on charges of “disturbing public order.”
According to Haaretz, police confiscated several books from the stores and detained the owners on suspicion that “the books sold there constituted incitement.”
Police later changed the charge from “incitement to violence” to “disturbing public order,” the daily said.
The Israeli newspaper, citing the bookstore owners, said police “used Google Translate on the books, and they confiscated anything they didn’t like.”
A defense lawyer for the owners told Haaretz that he “had never encountered a case where someone is held in custody overnight for suspicion of disturbing public order.”
A Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court judge had issued a search warrant for the bookstores at the request of the Israeli police. However, when police failed to find any evidence of incitement, they changed the charge against the bookstore owners to “disturbing public order.”
Despite the lack of evidence, police decided to keep the bookstore owners in custody overnight and bring them before a court for a detention extension hearing
Dozens of Palestinian families fled the Nur Shams refugee camp in the north of the occupied West Bank as Israel’s army pushed deeper.
“We hear explosions and bombings as well as bulldozers. It’s a tragedy. They are doing here what they did in Gaza,” said Ahmed Ezza, a resident.
Ahmed Abu Zahra, another resident of the camp on the outskirts of Tulkarem, said he was forced to leave his home. “The [Israeli] army came and we were forced to leave after they started destroying our homes”.
The Israeli army on Monday burned one more home in the Jenin area amid ongoing military offensive in the northern occupied West Bank that was launched on Jan. 21.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that the Israeli army raided Silat al-Harithiya town, west of Jenin city and cordoned off a house.
The Israeli army detained three Palestinians from the house before setting it on fire, according to the witnesses.
Three Palestinians, including two women and a young man, were killed on Sunday in Nur Shams, the Health Ministry said. Israel said its military police opened an investigation into the death of one – a woman who was eight-months pregnant.
In the streets of Nur Shams camp, under a light rain, residents continued to escape from rampaging Israeli forces as bulldozers carried out large-scale demolitions amid gunfire and explosions.
According to Murad Alyan, from the camp’s popular committee, “more than half of the 13,000 inhabitants have fled out of fear for their lives”.
Israeli forces set fire on Monday night to an agricultural shed during a military incursion into the Al-Judeida village east of Jenin, according to local sources.
Sources said that Israeli forces stormed the Al-Judeida village and positioned themselves around agricultural sheds in the area between Al-Judeida and Tubas, opening fire on local residents.
The Israeli forces set fire to one of the agricultural sheds before withdrawing from the area.
This raid is part of an ongoing Israeli military campaign of raids and incursions targeting villages and towns across Jenin Governorate, which has been under an unprecedented onslaught for the past 21 days, leaving 25 people killed and dozens of others injured.
Israeli occupation forces assaulted on Monday night an elderly Palestinian woman and her children in the town of Turmus Ayya, northeast of Ramallah, according to local sources.
Sources told WAFA that Israeli forces stormed the town, firing sound bombs and tear gas canisters, and physically attacked an elderly woman and her children while they were sitting near their home.
According to sources, the forces compelled local shop owners to close their businesses during their military raid on several areas in the town.
The Israeli army raided the Aqbat Jabr refugee camp on Monday, in the latest escalation in the occupied West Bank.
According to witnesses, Israeli forces stormed several neighborhoods in the camp in Jericho city and searched several shops there.
No details were yet available about injuries or arrests.
The Palestinian official news agency Wafa also reported home demolitions by the Israeli army in the Masafer Yatta neighborhood in the southern West Bank.
Israeli forces, escorted by bulldozers, raided the Khallet al-Dabaa area and demolished five Palestinian houses and a cave, where some 40 people lived, the broadcaster said.
According to Wafa, electricity and water networks were destroyed by Israeli forces during the raid.
The Israeli army has expanded its shooting orders for its soldiers in the occupied West Bank, leading to a high Palestinian death toll amid military operations in the occupied territory, Israeli media said on Monday.
According to Haaretz newspaper, the army’s Central Command decided to implement the same shooting policy used during the Gaza war to kill any unarmed Palestinian, whether a suspect or not, in the West Bank.
“The orders made it easier for soldiers to pull the trigger at the behest of Central Command Commander Avi Blot,” it added.
The newspaper quoted Israeli soldiers taking part in the ongoing military operations in the West Bank as saying that Blot permitted them to shoot with the intent to kill Palestinians without resorting to arrest them.
Israeli occupation forces stormed a mourning house in Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday evening, where they detained Nasser Qaws, the director of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society in the city.
Eyewitnesses reported that the Israeli forces raided the African Community Center, where a mourning gathering was being held for the late activist Musa Qaws.
The police officers forcibly dispersed those present, using physical assault and pushing attendees before detaining Nasser Qaws, Musa’s brother.
LEBANON
The Lebanese army deployed in several towns in southern Lebanon on Monday after Israeli military withdrawal from the area.
The army deployed its forces in the towns of Rab Thalatheen, Taloussa and Bani Hayyan and conducted patrols in the areas, the state news agency NNA reported.
According to the broadcaster, army forces began to remove earth mounds erected by the Israeli army and searched for bombs and unexploded ordnance in the three towns.
Municipal authorities have appealed to Lebanese residents not to enter the towns until army forces make sure that they are safe and explosives-free, NNA said.
[Photo: Palestinians living in Tulkarm start to migrate after Israeli attacks. Israeli forces are seen forcing Palestinians to leave their homes at the Nur Shams Refugee Camp in the north of the West Bank on February 10, 2025. Photojournalist: Issam Rimawi/AA]
