By Abdul Adil
(AA, Al Jazeera, Wafa, NNA, The Muslim News):
GAZA
A one-and-a-half-month-old baby girl, Sila Abdel Qader, has died of hypothermia in Gaza City due to a harsh cold snap and Israel’s blocking of mobile shelters from entering the Gaza Strip, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
Dr Munir al-Bursh, the director general of the Palestinian Health Ministry, confirmed the death of the baby, according to the Palestinian Information Center (PIC), saying the number of children who have recently died due to the cold weather in the enclave has risen to seven.
The official called for “urgent and immediate intervention by international and UN institutions to save the children of Gaza from the consequences of the genocidal war waged by the occupation”.
On Tuesday, Dr Saeed Salah, medical director of the Friends of the Patient Charitable Hospital in Gaza City, said three newborns – aged between one and two days – died shortly after being admitted. Two more children also succumbed on Tuesday morning, with a sixth death reported in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.
Meanwhile, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric urges Israel to allow more tents and shelters into the Gaza Strip after six Palestinian infants died from hypothermia during a severe cold spell.
Gaza’s Health Ministry has confirmed 48,348 Palestinian deaths in Israel’s war on Gaza, while 111,761 people have been wounded. The Government Media Office updated its death toll to at least 61,709, saying thousands of Palestinians missing under the rubble are presumed dead.
In addition another Palestinian detainee from the Gaza Strip died in Israeli detention, prisoners’ affairs groups said on Wednesday.
Rafat Adnan Abu Fannanah, 34, was arrested by the Israeli army on Oct. 7, 2023, and breathed his last in custody, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.
Abu Fannanah, a father of one child, was injured during his arrest and was held at Ayalon Prison before he was transferred to the Shamir Medical Center southeast of Tel Aviv, where he was pronounced dead, the statement said.
The new death brought the number of Palestinian detainees who died in Israeli detention to 60, including 39 from Gaza, since October 2023, according to Palestinian figures.
WEST BANK
A Palestinian teenager was shot dead by Israeli army fire in the West Bank city of Qalqilya on Wednesday, medics said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said a 16-year-old was shot in the head by Israeli forces and was transferred to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Witnesses said the young man was shot during clashes with Israeli forces near a military checkpoint in the city.
WAFA news agency quoted local sources as saying Israeli forces shot the 16-year-old Hamid Fadl Muwafi in the head with live ammunition while he was near the separation wall in in the occupied West Bank city of Qalqilya.
The Israeli army has been carrying out military operations in the northern West Bank since Jan. 21, so far killing more than 62 Palestinians and displacing thousands.
The Israeli army rounded up at least 50 Palestinians in military raids in the occupied West Bank, according to prisoners’ affairs groups on Wednesday.
Children and former prisoners were among the detainees in the raids that targeted several areas across the West Bank, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.
The new arrests brought the number of Palestinians detained by the Israeli army in the West Bank since October 2023 to over 14,500, including those who were released after being arrested, according to Palestinian figures.
The figure does not include those arrested from the Gaza Strip whose numbers are estimated to be in the thousands.
Israeli occupation forces Wednesday sealed off the roads leading to the southern rural occupied West Bank governorate of Bethlehem, according to security sources.
They said that the occupying forces closed the gates installed at the entrances of al-Manishiya, Marah Rabah, Umm Salmuna, and Jorat ash-Sham‘a, denying Palestinians access from the southern cluster of villages and towns access to the city and vice versa.
The Israeli restrictions are in parallel with ongoing military aggression on the northern West Bank cities of Jenin, Tubas, and Tulkarm and their refugee camps as well as with attacks by illegal Israeli settlers across the West Bank to terrorize Palestinians and displace them from their lands to seize them and build illegal Jewish colonies that separate Palestinian communities.
Several Palestinians Wednesday evening suffocated in an Israeli army raid in the towns of Odala and Osarin, south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, according to local sources.
They said that Israeli occupation forces stormed the towns, and opened intensive gunfire and tear gas canisters, causing several Palestinians to suffocate from excessive tear gas inhalation.
Illegal Israeli settlers assaulted on Wednesday a Palestinian family from the town of Deir Ballut west of Salfit, according to local sources.
Sources reported that a group of settlers attacked the family while they were on their land in the Wadi al-Ain area and prevented them from being present on their property.
Settlers uprooted on Wednesday around 100 olive trees in the Jaba’a Plain, northeast of occupied Jerusalem.
Last Saturday, settlers set fire to a house belonging to a family in the Bedouin community in Jaba’a village and destroyed a vehicle owned by a local resident. They also opened heavy fire in the area.
These assaults are part of the Israeli occupation’s systematic policy aimed at displacing Bedouin villages from their lands and seizing them for colonial expansion. The colonists carry out these attacks under the protection of Israeli forces.
Israeli occupation forces demolished 18 tents and destroyed the water and electricity networks in the Khallet Khallet a-Dabe’ community in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.
According to WAFA correspondent, Israeli occupation forces stormed the Khallet a-Dabe’ community in Masafer Yatta, where they bulldozed 18 tents with their furniture and belongings and seized them.
They also destroyed the water and electricity networks of the community.
Mohammed Badawi, one of the affected residents, said that the occupation forces demolished the tents that housed more than ten families, who took refuge in those tents after the occupation had demolished their homes earlier this month, leaving more than 80 individuals, most of them women and children, homeless.
It is worth noting that the occupation forces had demolished more than 17 homes and a number of caves in that area during this month, seven of them in Khallet a-Dabe’ alone.
Meanwhile, Israeli occupation authorities razed land and uprooted olive trees in the town of Beit Iksa, northwest of Jerusalem.
The Israeli occupation forces announced on Wednesday, through a military order, the seizure of more than eight dunums of Palestinian land in the Masafer Yatta area, south of Hebron, according to WAFA correspondent.
WAFA correspondent said the occupation forces distributed a military order to seize more than eight dunums of land belonging to Palestinian citizens. The land is located adjacent to the colony of Karmeil, which was illegally established on Masafer Yatta land.
Nidal Younis, head of the village council in Masafer Yatta, told WAFA that the land in question lies at the main entrance, which is the only access point to all the regions, villages and communities in Masafer Yatta and the surrounding areas.
He further emphasized that the announcement of the occupation’s seizure of such a large area in this specific location, under the pretext of security purposes, raises significant concerns among local residents.
Residents fear that this move signals the occupation’s intent to tighten its control over these crucial access points, worsening the suffering of the people and further tightening the siege on them.
Israeli forces continue the aggression on the city of Tulkarm and its camp for the 31st consecutive day and on Nour Shams camp for the 18th day, amid military reinforcements and demolition notices for homes.
WAFA correspondent reported that the occupation forces notified late last night that 11 homes in Nour Shams camp will be demolished in the coming days, under the pretext of paving a road extending from the camp square towards Al-Manshiya neighborhood, and gave their owners three hours starting at 8:00 am today to enter their homes to take their basic necessities.
During its ongoing aggression, the occupation escalated the demolition of homes and residential buildings in Tulkarm and Nour Shams camps, which in the past few days have affected more than 26 buildings in Tulkarm camp, and were razed to the ground, carried out by the occupation bulldozers as part of a settlement plan that claims to open a street extending from the agency area to Al-Balouna neighborhood, and caused severe damage to all the buildings and facilities around it.
Meanwhile, the occupation forces raided a number of homes in the besieged Nur Shams camp, specifically in Jabal al-Salihin neighborhood, after blowing up their doors, and forced three families to leave their homes at gunpoint, under the pretext that the street would be a passage for tanks to pass through.
The occupation forces also sent more military reinforcements through Nitsani Oz checkpoint west of Tulkarm, to the city and its two camps, and patrolled the streets and neighborhoods and positioned themselves at several intersections in it, specifically Nablus Street connecting Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps, where military barracks are set up in three residential buildings opposite Tulkarm camp.
The occupation forces caused complete destruction to the infrastructure in Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps, affecting electricity, water, sewage and communications networks, and bulldozed more streets and roads, in addition to completely and partially destroying property, including homes and shops.
The ongoing aggression also led to the displacement of approximately 12,000 citizens from Tulkarm camp and more than 5,000 civilians from Nur Shams camp.
Amidst the continued tight siege on Tulkarm and Nour Shams camps, appeals continue from residents who are still in their homes and living in difficult and harsh conditions, to secure the arrival of their basic needs of food, water, medicine and baby milk, in addition to securing the exit of children to receive their vaccinations outside the camp, while the occupation forces prevent entry to or exit from them, and hinder the work of relief crews while trying to deliver the necessary food supplies to them.
The occupation forces continue to close the gate of the Jabara checkpoint at the southern entrance to Tulkarm city for the 19th consecutive day, isolating the city from the villages and towns of Al-Kafriyat, and the rest of the West Bank governorates.
LEBANON
An Israeli drone attack targeting a car on the Hermel-Qasr road in eastern Lebanon killed one person and wounded another on Wednesday, despite a ceasefire agreement according to the Lebanese National News Agency.
The Israeli military said it carried out an air strike targeting a “significant” Hezbollah member in Lebanon.
“A short while ago, the IAF [air force] conducted a precise and intelligence-based strike on a significant Hezbollah terrorist in the 4400 Unit in the area of Qasr in Lebanon,” the military claimed in a statement.
Multiple invasions of Lebanese airspace have been reported by the country’s National News Agency (NNA) since this morning.
Over Tyre in the south, Israeli warplanes flew at low altitudes over the skies of villages and towns, conducting mock raids to induce fear and confusion. Intense military flights were also reported over other areas near the border with Israel, including Nabatieh, western Bekaa and the slopes of Mount Hermon.
An Israeli drone flew over Beirut and its southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence, along with several nearby areas.
SYRIA
Israel carried out airstrikes late Tuesday on several locations in the Damascus countryside and Daraa province in southern Syria.
Israeli warplanes targeted the Al-Kiswah area south of Damascus and Izraa in Daraa with at least four airstrikes, according to an Anadolu correspondent.
One strike reportedly hit a weapons depot in Al-Kiswah, igniting a fire at the scene.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed the strikes, warning that “any attempt by Syrian regime forces and the country’s terrorist organizations to establish themselves in the security zone in southern Syria will be met with fire.”
Katz said “the air force is currently striking southern Syria as part of our new policy to clear the area of weapons. The message is clear: we will not allow southern Syria to become southern Lebanon.”
“We will not endanger the security of our citizens,” he added.
The Israeli army said it carried out airstrikes on military targets in southern Syria, “including command centers and multiple sites containing weapons,” according to a statement released late Tuesday.
The army claimed that the presence of military equipment and assets in southern Syria “poses a threat to the citizens of Israel,” vowing “to operate in order to remove any threat.”
Syrian authorities have not issued a response.
[Photo: A view of destruction at the city by the Israeli army tanks and bulldozers continues to destroy the Nur Shams Refugee Camp in Tulkarm, West Bank on February 26, 2025. hotojournalist: Issam Rimawi/AA]
