The Civil Defense in Gaza continued to retrieve the bodies of martyrs from various areas in the Gaza Strip for the seventh day since the ceasefire came into effect.

The Civil Defense confirmed in a statement that based on citizens’ data, they recorded the names and locations of hundreds of martyrs missing under the rubble of buildings and homes targeted by the Israeli occupation during its aggression in the Gaza Strip.

He pointed out that the civil defense crews are sparing no effort in recovering whatever they can of the bodies of the martyrs with the simple equipment and capabilities available to them, noting that things are very difficult as long as the necessary heavy equipment and machinery are not brought in.

He said: "The bodies of thousands of martyrs are still missing under the rubble of buildings destroyed by the Israeli occupation in all areas of the Gaza Strip."

Israeli sources reported that Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, informed the UN Secretary-General that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) must "cease its activities in Jerusalem and vacate all buildings it occupies" by next Thursday, January 30.

According to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on its website (“Ynet”), Danon wrote in his letter to the Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, that “Hamas and other terrorist organizations have infiltrated UNRWA for a long time” and “the stubborn rejection by the Secretary-General of these facts, and the denial and disregard of the evidence presented by Israel regarding terrorism in the organization and its lack of neutrality, forced Israel to act responsibly towards it.”

It is noteworthy that the Secretary-General of the United Nations had announced his rejection of any discussions with Israel about replacing UNRWA, while the administration of former US President Joe Biden held such discussions with Israel and exerted pressure on the United Nations to hold talks with Israel about a "temporary solution" to stop UNRWA's activities.

One solution proposed in talks between Israel and the United States is for Palestinian UNRWA employees to continue working in the Strip under the supervision of another UN agency, such as the UN Development Programme, and for UNRWA’s international directors to be replaced, thus formally ending its operations. But the ones who will provide humanitarian aid will be the agency’s employees, many of whom Israel claims are linked to Hamas, Haaretz reported on Thursday.

This morning, Saturday, the Israeli occupation forces launched a campaign of raids and arrests in the West Bank.

In Bethlehem, the occupation forces stormed the town of Beit Fajjar and took up positions in several neighborhoods there, and stormed several homes belonging to the citizens: Jabreen Muhammad Diriya, Ibrahim Abd Rabbo Diriya, and Taher Saber Musa Diriya, without any arrests being reported.

In Nablus, the occupation forces stormed the city, raided several homes in the northern mountain area and the Ein refugee camp, and arrested the two young men, Ayman Barakat and Muhammad Al-Azizi.

In Qalqilya, the occupation forces stormed the city, began searching citizens’ homes, and arrested Issa and Mahmoud Al-Fayed, and Samed and Ammar Shobaki, after raiding and searching their homes.

Today, Saturday, as the ceasefire agreement in Gaza enters its seventh day, all eyes are on the release of 200 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, including 120 with life sentences and 80 with long sentences, as part of the “second batch” of the prisoner exchange process within the framework of the understandings of the ceasefire agreement on January 19.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the process of examining Palestinian prisoners in Ofer prison, near the town of Beitunia, west of the city of Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank, began at five o'clock this morning, and the "release" process will take place between ten and eleven o'clock this morning.

In Israel, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that it had officially received the list of the names of the four female prisoners scheduled to be released today.

Israeli estimates varied regarding the timing of the Red Cross in Gaza receiving the Israeli female prisoners from the Palestinian resistance, with some sources suggesting "10:00 AM", while other sources said "the handover process may take place between 12:00 PM and 4:00 PM". The four prisoners are: Private Karina Arif, Private Danielle Gilboa, Private Naama Levy, and Private Liri Elbag.

Return of displaced persons to the north

On the ground, and according to the agreement, the Israeli occupation army is supposed to begin a “full withdrawal” today from the “Netzarim axis” in the middle of the Strip (i.e. from Rashid Coastal Street to the east of Salah al-Din Street), and that residents will be allowed to return to the north of the Strip, starting next week.

According to the draft agreement, the Israeli occupation is supposed to dismantle its military sites and installations in the "Netzarim Axis" area in an operation that "may last for hours," according to a Hamas source in previous statements to the media.

According to the agreement, according to the source, “the displaced are allowed to return to their areas of residence without carrying any kind of weapons.” The source also indicated that “due to the Israeli withdrawal from the area in the late hours of Saturday evening, the return of the displaced from the south to the north in large numbers will be on Sunday morning.”

Prominent names

Returning to the details related to the “exchange process,” it is worth noting that, according to the terms of the agreement, Israel is committed to releasing 50 Palestinian prisoners for every Israeli female soldier released, including 30 sentenced to life and 20 with long sentences.

The "first exchange", which took place on the first day of the agreement, saw the release of 3 Israeli female civilian prisoners in exchange for 90 Palestinian male and female prisoners, all from the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem.

The second exchange batch includes prominent names of prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment who are expected to be released, with some of them being deported abroad. Among those expected to be released today are: Zakaria al-Zubaidi, Ahmed al-Barghouti, Wael Qassem, and Mahmoud Atallah.

This evening, Friday, the Israeli occupation forces detained a number of women in the city of Hebron.

Local sources told WAFA that the Israeli occupation forces stationed around the Al-Rajbi house, which was seized by settlers several years ago, detained a number of women while they were trying to reach their homes in Wadi Al-Hussein, east of the city of Hebron, and prevented them from passing, and forced them to sit on the ground.

This afternoon, in the same place, these forces detained the two brothers Hisham and Issam Abu Isaifan for more than six hours and abused them, causing them to suffer wounds and bruises, after which they were transferred to the Hebron Governmental Hospital.

The Israeli Prison Service announced on Friday that it is preparing on the ground and logistically to release the second batch of Palestinian prisoners tomorrow, Saturday, as part of the first stages of the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip.

The Prison Service said in a statement that it is "preparing on the ground and logistically to implement the plan to release Palestinian prisoners, in accordance with the political understandings that were agreed upon."

She pointed out that she "received a list of security prisoners expected to be released from various prisons."

She continued: "After implementing the required (administrative) procedures in the prisons, the central Nachshon unit (a special security unit) is responsible for transporting the prisoners to the main assembly centers in Ofer (central) and Negev (south) prisons."

She added: "Upon the prisoners' arrival at these centers, they will be identified by representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, where they will wait until the exchange procedures with the Israeli prisoners are completed."

The Authority did not disclose details regarding the numbers and identities of the prisoners who will be released.

This evening, Thursday, the Israeli occupation forces arrested 3 citizens during a raid on the village of Kafr Ni'ma, west of Ramallah.

Local sources reported to WAFA that the occupation forces arrested the young man, Tariq Misbah Jabrin (37 years old), after shooting at his vehicle and wounding him as a result of the shattering of the windshield, in the middle of the village.

The sources reported that Misbah, who works as a taxi driver and lives in the town of Beitunia, was surprised by the storming of Kafr Naama by an infantry force from the occupation army, before his vehicle was targeted with bullets.

The occupation forces also arrested citizen Sarhan Musa Nasr and his son Musa Sarhan Nasr, during the raid on the village.

The village of Kafr Naama witnessed confrontations following its storming by the occupation forces under the pretext of lowering the flags of the factions that were raised in preparation for receiving prisoners from the town who are scheduled to be released tomorrow, Saturday, as part of the second batch within the framework of the ceasefire agreement.

This evening, Friday, the Israeli occupation forces stormed the town of Silat al-Harithiya, west of Jenin.

Local sources said that the occupation forces stormed the town with several vehicles, surrounded a house, and demanded that those inside leave via loudspeakers.

The Israeli army said on Friday that it is still deployed in southern Lebanon, while adhering to the terms of the ceasefire agreement with the Lebanese Hezbollah, according to what it said.

He added that his forces carried out strikes targeting Hezbollah weapons storage facilities and observation posts in southern Lebanon during the past few days, he claimed.

Two young men were killed on Friday evening when an Israeli drone bombed a vehicle in Qabatiya, south of Jenin, according to the Ministry of Health.

WAFA news agency said that a drone bombed a vehicle in the Jabal al-Damouni area, near the medical center in Qabatiya, while the occupation forces stormed the town and began combing the area around the bombing site.

Abu Obeida, the military spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced today, Friday, that the Brigades decided to release four Israeli female soldiers tomorrow as part of a prisoner exchange deal with Israel.

Abu Obeida said in a post on Telegram: “The Qassam Brigades decided to release tomorrow, Saturday, January 25, 2025, the female soldiers Karina Arif, Daniel Gilboa, Naama Levy, and Liri Elbag.”

The Prisoners' Information Office said on Friday that it is awaiting the list of Palestinian prisoners to be released tomorrow as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement with Israel.

The office said: "The list will include 120 prisoners with life sentences, and 80 prisoners with long sentences, as stipulated in the ceasefire agreement in the Free Flood deal."

The British Foreign Secretary's Representative for Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Mark Bryson-Richardson, stressed the importance of the flow of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip without any restrictions or obstacles.

In a video clip from the warehouses of the Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organization in Amman, which was published on the British Foreign Office’s account on the X platform today, Friday, Bryson-Richardson stressed the need to ensure that aid reaches Gaza through the Jordan corridor on a large scale, at a time when Gaza is suffering from difficult humanitarian conditions due to the ongoing crisis.

He pointed out that the aid provided through partners such as the Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organization, the World Food Programme and UNICEF is ready to support those affected.

US President Donald Trump is expected to put his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, in charge of the Iran file, in a sign that the administration will try diplomacy with the Islamic Republic, according to statements from several sources in the US capital.

Witkoff, who has pressed Israel to strike a ceasefire in Gaza, will reportedly be tasked with continuing diplomacy with Iran as part of a broader campaign to "end wars" in the Middle East.

During the transition, Trump officials told the media that they planned to return to the "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran that Trump implemented in his first term, which included withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, imposing crippling sanctions, and assassinating Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.

But in a sign that Trump may be taking a different approach, he just fired Brian Hook, an Iran hawk who led the maximum pressure campaign in his previous administration. He was in charge of the file in Trump’s first term in the State Department, but he will now have no role in the administration.

Trump administration officials have also said the new administration will consider striking Iran's nuclear program to prevent it from building a nuclear weapon, but there is no evidence yet that Tehran is seeking a bomb, something CIA Director William Burns acknowledged in a recent interview.

The buzz around Iran’s nuclear program has focused on the enrichment of some uranium to 60% purity, which is still short of the 90% needed for weapons. Iran took the 60% enrichment step in response to a covert Israeli attack on its Natanz nuclear facility in 2021.

It is noteworthy that Iran is also a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, unlike Israel, which has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has a secret nuclear stockpile that the United States has not officially acknowledged.

The 2015 nuclear deal that Trump withdrew from in 2018 had capped Iran’s enrichment of uranium at 3.67% in exchange for sanctions relief. Axios reported Thursday that Iran made clear to European diplomats in a recent meeting that it wants to resume negotiations on a new nuclear deal that differs from the 2015 accord. The pursuit of such a deal is likely to face significant resistance from many of the new administration’s Iran hawks and Republicans in Congress, who are already complaining about Witkoff, saying he is already increasing the pressure on Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.

Today, Friday, the Israeli occupation forces arrested three citizens from the city of Qalqilya.

Local sources said that the occupation forces stormed the town of Azzun, east of Qalqilya, and began searching citizens’ homes, and arrested Yasser Mansour, Diaa Salim, and Issam Radwan, after raiding and searching their homes.

Today, Friday, the Israeli occupation forces continued to close the entrances to the city of Jericho, its villages and camps, and prevented exit through them, for the sixth consecutive day.

Local sources reported that the occupation forces stationed at the military checkpoints set up at the main and secondary entrances to Jericho prevented citizens' vehicles from exiting through them, pursued dozens of vehicles and caused suffocating traffic jams, and fired sound bombs at the vehicles at the southern entrance, without any injuries being reported.

The same sources added that the occupation forces set up a checkpoint at the entrance to the village of Fasayel, north of Jericho, searched vehicles, checked citizens' IDs, and prevented non-residents of the village from passing through the checkpoint.

In the same context, a group of settlers stormed the summit of Mount Qarantul, southwest of Jericho, as part of their ongoing attacks on tourist and archaeological landmarks in the city.

Since the "ceasefire" in the Gaza Strip came into effect last Sunday, the Israeli occupation has tightened its military measures in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, by installing barriers and iron gates at the entrances to Palestinian villages and cities.

The number of military checkpoints and iron gates installed by the occupation in the West Bank reached 898 checkpoints and gates, including 18 iron gates installed by the occupation since the beginning of this year 2025, and (146) iron gates installed by the occupation after October 7, 2023, according to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.

Citizens suffered from suffocation, today, Friday, during clashes that erupted after the Israeli occupation forces stormed the towns of Beita and Qusra in the city of Nablus.

Local sources reported that the occupation soldiers fired sound bombs and toxic tear gas at the citizens, which led to a number of them suffocating in the town of Beita due to inhaling the toxic gas, and they were treated in the field.

The sources added that a number of settlers stormed the vicinity of Mount Al-Arma, near Beita.

The town of Beita is subjected to repeated attacks by the Israeli occupation forces and settlers, following the forcible establishment of the "Avitar" colonial outpost on citizens' lands at the top of Mount Sabih.

The occupation forces also stormed the town of Qusra, amid heavy gunfire and tear gas bombs, which led to the outbreak of clashes in the area, as a result of which a number of citizens suffered from suffocation.

On September 6, the occupation forces killed the American-Turkish solidarity activist Aisha-Nur Eji (26 years old) while participating in the weekly anti-settlement march in Beita, joining 17 martyrs who have risen in the town since the establishment of the “Avitar” outpost in May 2021.

Today, Friday, the Israeli occupation forces arrested a number of citizens during their ongoing aggression on the city and camp of Jenin for the fourth consecutive day.

Local sources reported that the occupation forces arrested a number of citizens from the Abdullah Azzam neighborhood and other neighborhoods in Jenin camp.

Al-Quds.com correspondent reported that the occupation forces burned homes and demolished others in Jenin camp.

Since the morning hours, the occupation has bulldozed Haifa Street and the entrances to the towns of Al-Yamoun and Al-Saylah Al-Harithiya, west of Jenin, and cut off the roads of the displaced towards the western villages of the city.

The occupation's aggression on the city of Jenin, its camp, and the town of Burqin, west of the city, resulted in the martyrdom of 12 citizens and the injury of dozens of others, and caused massive destruction to the infrastructure.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said that 1.9 million people in the Gaza Strip are living without shelter, and it is likely that reconstruction will take years following the genocide committed by the Israeli occupation authorities.

The UN agency added in a statement on Friday that at least 1.9 million people were displaced in Gaza due to the war, and many of them were forced to live in temporary shelters, such as those in the Al-Mawasi area, southwest of the Gaza Strip.

She stated that most of the houses were either completely destroyed or became uninhabitable, and explained that rebuilding the infrastructure, returning to normal life, and addressing the shock in the sector will take years.

The UN agency also expressed "concern over the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, especially in the north of the Strip."

The organization also noted that "as soon as the ceasefire came into effect, UNRWA teams worked non-stop to begin distributing food aid in northern Gaza."

She pointed out that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living among the rubble left by months of intense Israeli bombardment are in "urgent need of life-saving assistance."

UNRWA called for the necessity of continuing its work to provide humanitarian aid of this magnitude.

Benjamin Netanyahu's government has instructed the Israeli army not to withdraw from the eastern sector of southern Lebanon, despite the fact that the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah stipulates a complete Israeli withdrawal within a period of 60 days, which ends the day after tomorrow, Sunday.

This came according to what the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation ("Kan 11") reported today, Friday, indicating that "the political leadership directed the Israeli army yesterday evening, Thursday, not to withdraw at this stage from the eastern sector in southern Lebanon."

This comes as the Lebanese Hezbollah party confirmed yesterday, Thursday, that the approaching end of the 60-day period for the withdrawal of the Israeli army from southern Lebanon "necessitates full and comprehensive implementation, in accordance with what was stated in the ceasefire agreement," noting that this means "the occupation entering a new chapter."

"Kan 11" pointed out that the occupation army "began its redeployment in the western sector, according to the agreement it signed with the Lebanese government."

In this regard, the Broadcasting Authority stated that the Israeli army "is redeploying in the western sector, according to pre-prepared plans, as happened in the Naqoura and Tyre Harfa areas, in coordination with America and the Lebanese army, which has begun to deploy in the region."

The report stated that the message that reached senior officials in the Israeli army, from the political level, is that "Israel is holding talks with the new administration in the United States, to obtain additional time until the complete withdrawal from Lebanon," noting that it is "a period of time, ranging from days to weeks."

Gantz, Lieberman: IDF must not withdraw from southern Lebanon on Sunday

The head of the "National Camp", Benny Gantz, addressed the agreement with Hezbollah, and said that "the Israeli army is prohibited from leaving the buffer zone in Lebanon."

He added, on Friday, that "we must insist on the full implementation of the agreement by the Lebanese government."

In turn, the head of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Avigdor Lieberman, called for the Israeli army not to withdraw from southern Lebanon as well. According to his claim, “the Lebanese side has violated the agreement, and there is no real deployment of the Lebanese army along the border, and it is unable to control Hezbollah or disarm it.”

According to the report, "The Israeli army is preparing for Hezbollah's attempts to undermine the ceasefire, as a result of its remaining in southern Lebanon, as well as for the Lebanese' attempts to return to the villages, where its forces will remain," noting that Israel has committed hundreds of violations of the ceasefire agreement.

He pointed out that Israel believes that the Lebanese army's ability to deploy effectively in the eastern sector of southern Lebanon, and destroy Hezbollah facilities that are transferred to it from the Israeli army through the American mechanism, is still insufficient.

"Kan 11" quoted Israeli army sources as saying that they realize that the Lebanese army is working and trying to impose its control in the area, but it is still facing a challenge from Hezbollah, and "needs more time to strengthen its strength."

The Israeli ambassador to Washington, Mike Herzog, told the Israeli Army Radio on Thursday that Israel is holding discussions with officials in the administration of US President Donald Trump about extending the Israeli army's occupation of southern Lebanon.

According to Herzog, the US administration is aware of Israel's security needs, and he estimated that understandings would be reached in this regard.

He claimed that the ceasefire agreement, which stipulates the withdrawal of the Israeli army after 60 days, “is not engraved in stone, and was drafted in such a way that there is a certain flexibility,” and that the aim of the deliberations between Israel and the Trump administration is to “extend the period required for the Lebanese army to actually deploy its forces and implement its purpose under the agreement.”

With the announcement by the leaders of the occupying state, and in conjunction with the measures to stop the aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip, of transforming the West Bank into a major battlefield once again, here is the West Bank, witnessing one of the greatest peaks of aggression against it. Indeed, almost every geographical spot in it these days is a special kind of scene for an attack that rises in its regard to the level of a war crime.

The crimes of the colonists have reached unprecedented levels, not only in terms of statistics, numbers and indicators, but also in terms of the dangerous curves that have become a fixed approach for the colonists and their decision-makers within the occupation government; crimes that continue without stopping, aiming to force the owners of the land to leave. This is not a secret goal, by the way, but rather the leaders of the occupation state declare it openly, day and night, all the time. On the other hand, the machine of destruction continues to storm the heart of Palestinian cities, especially in the northern West Bank, with its full intent to destroy the infrastructure, target camps and execute people without batting an eyelid in the culture of those who are new to the ancient Palestinian era.

The crimes of the colonists, which go beyond the idea of primitive violence, to the principle of terrorism sponsored by the official institution, cannot be viewed as isolated from the colonial context, but rather have become established in this context, committing arson, execution, and deportation of citizens, and what is more dangerous than that, the occupying state has come to protect it with a nurturing legislative environment, providing it with support, care, and immunity.

On the other hand, while the occupying state is inventing reasons to oppress the Palestinians, and throughout the geography of the Palestinian territories these days, with the barriers of hell that burn time, health and livelihood, this ingenuity in transforming the life of the Palestinian into a hell and continuous torment, would not have happened except because the world has completely stopped being a guardian of human rights, and a deterrent to the criminal behaviors adopted by the last occupying entity on the face of the earth and history, leaving the defenseless Palestinian in the end prey to bullying and savagery.

In the background of the horrific events that are sweeping the Palestinian territories these days, fingers were pointing to ugly coalition promises made by the head of the occupation government to the ministers of religious Zionism in order to prevent them from toppling the government. There is something that indicates once again a sick occupation mind that sees the attack on the Palestinians, their geography, their way of life and their blood as material for politics and negotiation for cheap political calculations. This material did not start here and at this time, of course, but rather began from the zero moment of the occupation, which has escalated over the course of seven decades and has reached one of its most dangerous peaks these days.

The occupying state has proven, over the long years of occupation, that the methodology of comprehensive closure of Palestinian geography, represented by checkpoints, crossings, gates, and the annexation and expansion wall, was not only aimed at controlling the movement of Palestinians on the streets, but rather, through more than 898 gates, checkpoints, barriers, and a wall that is more than 700 km long, nibbling at the land and writhing in it like snakes, it wanted to reshape Palestinian geography according to the sick whims of the occupier, transforming the geography of the Palestinians and their existence into narrow enclaves and cantons, repelling living and housing, and subject to the most severe system of surveillance and control over the lives of those living under occupation, completely eliminating the possibility of communication not only between two neighboring governorates, but also extending to eliminating communication between a village and the village next to it.

On the other hand, the methodology of controlling the land and dispossessing the land from its original owners did not stop for a single moment, in a methodology that is far from random, but rather in an insistence on tightening the grip and control over the strategic details of Palestinian geography, in order to achieve the goal of eliminating the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state in the future, opening this usurped geography to place more colonies and colonial outposts, so that it would be a stage for reaching the goal of one million colonists by the year 2030, which is the goal announced by the so-called Settlements Council, which is the colonial political arm of the occupying state, which evidence and data have proven in the past period to be responsible for drawing up colonial settlement policies, while the official arms of the occupying state undertake the task of implementing these policies to the letter.

The goal of a million settlers would not have been achieved, and this is something the leaders of the colonial settlement project are fully aware of, except through a large set of measures that go beyond establishing settlements and outposts, but extend beyond that to granting billions of shekels in privileges that reshape the infrastructure, streets, energy projects, communications towers, and reduced taxes in the Palestinian land for the benefit of the settlers, and a tight security grip on the necks of the Palestinians, starting with closing the streets and not ending with the borders of their expulsion and the complete emptying of their geography.

The Palestinian people, who are standing these days on the test of the black plans that are being woven in the darkness of closed rooms, and who have fully proven during and after the Nakba, during the Naksa and what followed it, and during the massacres and the scars and wounds they left in their collective consciousness, their ability to confront, and their ability to stand firm and continue, must these days carry their old tools based on awareness, patience and belief to a broader horizon of confrontation, a horizon based on national unity that is included under a national strategy that includes all Palestinians, that treats the internal cracks with strengthening, elevation and awareness, and sets out to the world to deliver the message and the truth of what is happening, rallying the free people of the world, and building a new front that sides with justice and the rights of the oppressed in the holiest spot on earth, Palestine.

Moayad Shaaban

Head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission

The Water Authority announced that its technical teams continue, for the sixth consecutive day, the process of assessing the water damage in northern Gaza resulting from the Israeli aggression.

The Water Authority confirmed in a statement on Friday that its crews are facing difficulties in reaching water and sewage facilities due to the massive destruction of residential neighborhoods, infrastructure, and the streets leading to them, especially since we are in the winter season, while there is a major shortage of equipment, heavy machinery, and fuel for them to work on removing the rubble and opening humanitarian corridors to facilitate inspection and assessment operations.

She explained that her technical crews were able to reach the seawater desalination plant in northern Gaza and conduct an initial technical assessment of the extent of the damage it sustained. It was found that there were serious technical malfunctions in the electrical and electromechanical parts in all stages and operational units of the plant, in addition to the occupation completely bulldozing some of the basic components of the plant, which led to the destruction of five seawater feeding wells, the station’s inlet line, in addition to the destruction of two power generators, a pump and a return water line, as well as the destruction of the external walls and the outlet line pumps.

It is noteworthy that all the damages that were observed were mainly due to the occupation army using the station as a military gathering center for its forces with the aim of systematically destroying the water sector.

The Water Authority confirmed that this station is the only one in the northern Gaza Valley area and covers all the northern western neighborhoods of Gaza City with a production capacity of 10,000 cups/day, as there are no alternatives that cover the size of this need with the difficulty of drilling water wells due to the high salinity of the groundwater reservoir with seawater in the western areas of the city.

She stressed that the damage to the desalination plants exacerbates the difficulty of the water situation in the Gaza Strip because it is the only safe source for providing citizens with potable water.

It is noteworthy that the Water Authority was working before the aggression on an emergency expansion of the production capacity of the desalination plant to raise its production capacity to 12,500 cups/day in order to expand the scope of supply to the western neighborhoods of Jabalia and Beit Lahia, which suffer from the same problem in the groundwater reservoir.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that access to health care in the West Bank is deteriorating due to Israeli occupation restrictions on freedom of movement.

The UN office added in a statement that 68% of health service points in the West Bank are no longer able to operate for more than two or three days a week, while hospitals are operating at only 70% of their capacity.

He explained that the severe restrictions imposed by the occupation forces on movement throughout the West Bank, which are characterised by road closures, long delays at checkpoints and the construction of new gates at the entrances to villages, hinder Palestinians’ access to basic services and places of work.

The UN office indicated that 34 citizens were martyred, including 6 children, in the West Bank since the beginning of January, including 6 children, which includes the martyrdom of 12 citizens since the beginning of the aggression on the city of Jenin and its two camps.

The statement also monitored the escalation of settler attacks against citizens in the West Bank and their property, which resulted in the injury of at least 17 citizens and damage to many buildings, including homes and vehicles, during the past week.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said that about 660,000 children in Gaza are still out of school, noting that 88% of schools in the Strip are destroyed.

UNRWA said in a post on the X platform, today, Friday, "There are reports that the Israeli war on Gaza led to the killing of more than 14,500 children."

“Education is the lifeline for stability and the future of all children in Gaza, but with 88 per cent of schools damaged, the challenges are enormous,” she added, noting that she is working to provide access to learning and recreational activities and mental health support.

In turn, the Director of Communications and Media at UNRWA, Juliette Touma, said that the agency’s employees are working around the clock to provide indispensable humanitarian relief to Palestinian refugees.

She pointed out that while the ceasefire in Gaza represents a glimmer of hope, the agency faces major obstacles, most notably a law passed by the Israeli Knesset that would halt the agency's work in the occupied Palestinian territory.

She added: “We have not received any communication from the Israeli government regarding their plans to implement this bill, and therefore, we are currently committed to remaining and providing services in the occupied Palestinian territory, which includes the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.”

Today, Friday, the Israeli occupation forces stormed the town of Dura, south of Hebron, and assaulted two workers at a gas station.

Local sources reported that the occupation forces assaulted workers at a gas station in the town of Dura, south of Hebron, during the raid on the town.

The occupation also searched citizens' vehicles, closed the entrances to towns, camps and the city of Hebron with iron gates, and set up military checkpoints at the northern entrance to Hebron. It also tightened its military measures in the Old City neighborhood, and at the military checkpoints and electronic gates near the Ibrahimi Mosque.

This morning, Friday, the Israeli occupation forces stormed the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin.

According to Al-Quds correspondent in Jenin, the occupation forces bombed the house with Energa shells.

He pointed out that the occupation sent military reinforcements to Qabatiya, while a helicopter was flying in the sky of the town.

In the same context, the occupation bulldozers began to level and destroy the entrance to the towns of Silat al-Harithiya and al-Yamoun and the vicinity of al-Khamaisah roundabout.

The occupation bulldozers stationed on Haifa Street, which connects the villages of western Jenin to the city, had begun to bulldoze the street to cut off the roads between the western villages and Jenin. The occupation also continued to bulldoze the entrance to Jenin camp near the horse roundabout.

The occupation soldiers also launched a reconnaissance plane in the skies of the camp, to announce the imposition of a curfew on the citizens.

The people of Jenin have called the harshest day of their lives Black Thursday, as dozens of families were expelled from their homes in Jenin camp and the Israeli army forces expelled and removed them from their cherished places of residence.

Neither young children, nor women, nor the elderly were spared from the expulsion process, as the occupation gave them a specific opportunity to leave the camp amid military measures that turned the camp into a closed barracks, surrounded by the army from all sides, and brought in very heavy machinery to demolish the camp and destroy its infrastructure, in addition to the assassinations of civilian citizens, the besieging of doctors and nurses, preventing ambulance crews and paramedics from reaching the injured, and endangering the lives of journalists and media professionals, to dissuade them from conveying the facts.

Another catastrophe is being experienced by Jenin camp, just as it is in Gaza, where the Israeli army command responded to the calls of extremist ministers who demanded that the village of Al-Funduq, which witnessed a shooting operation two weeks ago, and Jenin and Nablus become like Jabalia, which the occupation wiped off the list of existence by destroying its landmarks, but it will remain firmly rooted in the minds and conscience and will certainly be rebuilt.

Unfortunately, Jenin is living a reality similar to Gaza. The Israeli military operation there is different from previous operations. The intention this time is to destroy and kill all the elements of life. This has been proven on the ground through the rampant violence among some who have turned their threats regarding Jenin into a difficult and bitter reality.

It seems that the aggression on Jenin will last longer this time for flimsy reasons and justifications, which were discussed by the resigned Chief of Staff of the Occupation Army, Herzi Halevi, who claimed that the Jenin camp has become a place where those who wish to carry out operations, or those who have already carried out operations, head, demanding that the army continue the operation, which is considered to be in its early stages, pointing to other areas in the northern West Bank that the aggression may target, which is what the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, indicated when he described the battle as having multiple fronts, and that it will move from one place to another.

Black Thursday, as the people of Jenin said, is just one of the black days that remind us of the raids on Jenin and previous battles, and the catastrophes of Gaza that the occupation decided to transfer to the West Bank, which has become the primary target of the war at this stage.

The invasion of the rest of the West Bank is a matter of time for the occupation forces, who have decided to continue their aggression against our people and tighten the noose around them in all aspects and components of their lives. The measures of punishment and revenge against citizens at the checkpoints of anger are only the beginning of a critical and sensitive phase that our struggling people will experience, and they will inevitably be stronger than all the occupation measures, and will defeat them forever.

In parallel with the Israeli government’s approval of the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip and the prisoner exchange deal, and the expectations that this agreement brought about regarding the possibility of ending the war that broke out on October 7 (2023), it was noted that there was what was described as “gnashing of teeth” from this government, and not only from its most extreme Messianic wing, and there are also confirmations that it came in response to pressure exerted by the administration of the elected US President, Donald Trump, not to mention that it is almost the same agreement that was reached in May 2024, and was presented by the outgoing US President, Joe Biden, but Prime Minister Netanyahu obstructed it by insisting on rejecting its provisions, then he returned and approved it under the pressure of the new administration in Washington.

When following the Israeli analyses and comments that have been written, it can be said that the agreement has created a mixed mix of feelings among Israelis, not to mention raising questions that contain a degree of evaluation that contains implications. The first of these questions is whether it was possible to implement the completed deal months ago? Although most of those who raised this question, which is of the type “what if?”, evaded trying to answer it, under the pretext of the need to leave it to the judgment of history, or the judgment of an independent investigation committee if it was formed at all, a few of them tried to provide an answer, from which it is possible to infer the following:

First, the meaning of the agreement is clear: Israel did not eliminate Hamas militarily, even though it dealt it a strong blow, nor did it eliminate it politically. The agreement does not contain anything that guarantees that the movement will not regain its strength, and the Israeli government did not put forward a political plan for what is described as the “day after” the war, and remained determined to use force and more force for political reasons and for Netanyahu’s personal survival.

Secondly, in addition to all of this, the Israeli army was exhausted with missions that had no impact on the terms of ending the war, and also weakened Israel's international standing.

The general climate in Israel indicates that Netanyahu’s most important political interest is to remain in power, which determines the direction of events more than any other public interest. Ending the war in Gaza would jeopardize his continued rule, for several reasons, most notably: As long as the war continues, it will be difficult to demand new elections or to establish an official commission of inquiry that could hold him accountable for the failure of “October 7.” His partners in the government coalition from the extreme right wing are committed to continuing the war, and are threatening to topple the government if the prisoner exchange deal commits to stopping the war. For this reason, Netanyahu is hinting that he will do everything in his power to prevent this war from ending. These partners see the war as an opportunity to return to settlement in Gaza, by expanding the scope of the Israeli army’s control over areas of the Gaza Strip, and then turning them into settlements, given that the “Al-Aqsa Flood” attack created strong security justifications for changing the border with Gaza.

With Trump back in the White House, Netanyahu’s partners are toying with the dream of restoring settlements in Gaza. As some recall, Trump hinted in his 2020 “deal of the century” that he was ready to think differently about everything related to the Middle East, when he recognized the annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights to Israel and discussed the possibility of allowing Israel to impose sovereignty over Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Outgoing US President Joe Biden, on the cusp of ending his term, silently approved Israeli military control of areas in southern Syria in order to “establish defensible borders.” Now Trump has an opportunity to do just that in northern Gaza.

Russia called on the administration of US President Donald Trump to correct the mistakes made by former President Joe Biden regarding Ukraine.

This came at a press conference held by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, yesterday evening, Thursday, in the capital, Moscow.

Zakharova said, "The administration of US President Donald Trump must correct the mistakes made by former President Joe Biden regarding Ukraine."

Evaluating Trump's statement that "the Biden administration made mistakes regarding Ukraine," Zakharova noted that the former US president made these mistakes on behalf of the United States.

She stressed the need to correct the mistakes made in the name of the United States.

“If the Trump administration admits to making mistakes and argues that the situation in Ukraine was the result of mistakes made by the previous US administration, then these mistakes need to be corrected,” Zakharova explained.

Assessing the US withdrawal from the WHO, Zakharova described it as "sad."

Since February 24, 2022, Russia has been launching a military attack on its neighbor Ukraine, and is making it a condition for ending it if Kiev “renounces” joining Western military entities, which the latter considers interference in its affairs.

The American magazine "Foreign Affairs" published a detailed analysis by researcher Khaled Elgendy, a professor of political science at Georgetown University in the American capital, on Thursday, in which he says that US President Donald Trump's efforts to strengthen his legacy in the Middle East were well underway even before he regained the White House, citing what Jason Greenblatt, Trump's former envoy to the Middle East, told thousands of international delegates at the Doha Forum in Qatar last December about President Trump's focus on expanding the Abraham Accords, a series of normalization agreements signed by Israel, Bahrain, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates in 2020, which is considered a distinctive achievement for Trump in foreign policy since his first term, and was praised by his allies and his most vocal political opponents - including former President Joe Biden.

Biden not only wholeheartedly embraced the Abraham Accords, but sought to build on them by securing a historic deal with Saudi Arabia, the most powerful and influential Arab state, notes Elgindy, who advised the Palestinian Authority on peace negotiations in the 1990s. Biden’s pitch was that in exchange for Israeli-Saudi normalization, the Saudis would receive a major upgrade in their strategic partnership with the United States, on par with a NATO ally. An Israeli-Saudi agreement would be the biggest breakthrough in Arab-Israeli diplomacy since Egypt broke away from the Arab world and became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979—and would pave the way for other Arab and Muslim states to follow suit.

However, Al-Jundi says: “This approach to Arab-Israeli peacemaking is conditional on ignoring the Palestinian issue. Until 2020, the consensus among Arab states was that normalization with Israel would only come after the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Thus, the decision by Bahrain, Morocco, and the UAE to defect effectively deprived the Palestinians of an important source of leverage against Israel. Since then, Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel’s devastating war on Gaza have derailed the Israeli-Saudi track, in a stark reminder that the Palestinian issue cannot be ignored or subordinated to Arab-Israeli normalization.”

Despite these obstacles, Trump is keen to finish the job he started in his first term, and which Biden has continued, by striking a grand deal between the United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia in a return to the original vision of the Abraham Accords, which entailed upgrading Israel and downgrading the Palestinians. All indications are that Trump still believes that Israel’s integration into the region is more important to Arab leaders than the cause of freedom for the Palestinians. According to Greenblatt, it is a mistake “to think that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the be-all and end-all, and that if everything is resolved between Israel and the Palestinians, everything will be great in the Middle East.”

But critics of the Abraham Accords never claimed that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would end all other conflicts in the region. They claimed the opposite: that regional peace and security are not possible without resolving the Palestinian issue. Indeed, the central premise of the Abraham Accords—that regional peace and stability can be achieved while marginalizing the Palestinians—has been upended by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, and everything that has happened since. The ceasefire agreement that went into effect this week underscores the centrality of the Palestinians to regional security and stability, but it also creates potential diplomatic space for renewed Israeli-Saudi engagement under Trump. The Abraham Accords represent a revealing point of continuity between Trump and Biden. Their reasons and tactics may differ, but both presidents have peddled a dangerous illusion—that peace, stability, and prosperity in the broader Middle East can coexist with war, chaos, and displacement in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Peace on paper

The researcher points out that while the Abraham Accords were hailed as a diplomatic triumph, they were based on a number of false assumptions. Indeed, much of the excitement surrounding the normalization deals in 2020 had less to do with their intrinsic value than with the almost automatic need, especially in Washington and other Western capitals, to rally around something that was clearly in Israel’s interest, regardless of its actual alignment with U.S. policy goals, such as a two-state solution or regional stability. This tendency to conflate “good for Israel” with “good for peace” is in fact a standard feature of U.S.-led diplomacy and a major reason for its failure over the past several decades.

While many have tried to fit the square peg of normalization into the round hole of the two-state solution, the fact remains that the Abraham Accords were originally designed as a means of bypassing the Palestinian issue and suppressing the Palestinian factor in the hope that the Palestinians would have no choice but to accept whatever long-term arrangement the United States, Israel, and the region imposed on them. Indeed, the Abraham Accords were themselves one of many trends working against the two-state solution—a sign that some Arab states have moved on and are no longer willing to subordinate their bilateral or geopolitical interests vis-à-vis Israel to the unicorn of an independent Palestinian state, the researcher said.

Moreover, the Abraham Accords removed one of the few sources of leverage the Palestinians had in their already unequal conflict with Israel: pressure from neighboring Arab states whose publics remain largely sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. In doing so, they also removed some of the last remaining incentives Israel had to end its occupation of Palestinian territories or recognize Palestinian rights.

The lack of restraint on Israel has left Palestinians more vulnerable to the whims of an increasingly violent and radical Israeli occupation, which has seen unprecedented settlement expansion, settler violence, and Israeli military repression of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as more routine wars in Gaza in 2021 and 2022. These issues have been exacerbated under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose return in late 2022 marked the arrival of the most right-wing government in Israel’s history.

Meanwhile, claims that Arab states could leverage their budding ties with Israel to advance the Palestinian cause or the two-state solution have never materialized. Bahrain, Morocco, and the UAE have not sought to intervene with Israel to prevent home demolitions or evictions of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, or to address the record-breaking settlement expansion and settler violence throughout the West Bank. Nor have they used their supposed influence to intervene with regard to Israel’s assault on Gaza—an assault that has already killed more than 46,000 Palestinians and destroyed much of its civilian infrastructure.

On the other hand, Emirati officials have shown little qualms about engaging with Israeli settlers or investing in occupation infrastructure such as Israeli checkpoints. While Biden and congressional Democrats have gone to great lengths to ignore these contradictions, Trump and his fellow Republicans, most of whom have already abandoned even the pretense of supporting a two-state solution, can simply ignore them entirely.

But even with the slight opening the truce has provided, “engaging the Saudis in the Abraham Accords will remain an uphill battle for the Trump administration. If the prospects for an Israeli-Saudi deal seemed remote before October 7, the environment today is far less hospitable. The horrific scenes of death, destruction, and famine that have emerged from Gaza over the past 15 months have inflamed public opinion across the Arab and Muslim worlds and shredded the credibility of Israel and the United States across the global south. (Some traditional Western allies in the global north, such as Ireland, Norway, and Spain, have also begun to distance themselves from Israel.) Even the United Arab Emirates, once a symbol of Arab-Israeli normalization, has been forced to downplay its ties to Israel: Emirati businesses no longer boast about their connections to Israel, and the warm relationship that Emirati leaders once had with Netanyahu has cooled.”

In other words, the Gaza war may not have torn up the Abraham Accords—but it has effectively put them on ice. For the Saudis, the price of normalization with Israel has risen sharply since October 7 and the ensuing assault on Gaza. “Whereas the country’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, previously sought only a rhetorical commitment from Israel toward Palestinian statehood, Riyadh is now demanding concrete steps toward statehood. Having given up on American mediation, the Saudis have teamed up with France to launch a new initiative aimed at salvaging what remains of a two-state solution.”

“In any case, it will be difficult for the crown prince, who is not known for his outspoken sympathy for the Palestinians, to normalize relations with a country that he and his government have accused of committing “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing,” the soldier says.

The International Criminal Court’s indictments of Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant for war crimes and crimes against humanity are another obstacle for Riyadh. The current Saudi position is perhaps best reflected in the statement adopted by the Arab-Islamic summit held in Riyadh last month, which not only repeated the charge of genocide but also called for Israel’s expulsion from the United Nations—the exact opposite of normalization.

Israeli-Saudi normalization will remain an uphill battle for the Trump administration.

The one thing the Saudis and other Gulf leaders value above all else, the soldier says, is stability. But the past 15 months—which have seen Israel annihilate Gaza, wage a full-scale war with and occupy Lebanon, exchanges of fire with Iran, and invade and seize large swaths of Syrian territory after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime—have been anything but stable. If the promise of the Abraham Accords was peace and stability, the reality of Netanyahu’s so-called New Middle East has been endless bloodshed and instability. What is being offered today is not a vision of Israel’s peaceful integration into the region, but one of Israel’s violent domination of it.

Al-Jundi concludes his analysis by noting that the Abraham Accords not only failed to bring peace and security to the Middle East, but actually helped produce the opposite by encouraging Israeli victory, entrenching Israeli extremism, and ensuring Israeli impunity. The belief that Arab-Israeli normalization could take place without Palestinian approval or at their expense at best was misguided and dangerous at worst, as recent events clearly demonstrate. It took nearly three years and the bloodiest violence in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the Biden administration to finally accept this reality; the Trump administration would do well to learn the same lesson.

On the sixth day of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, Israel's Channel 14 said that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) is expected to hand over today the list of prisoners who may be released tomorrow.

Israel is expected to release 180 Palestinians tomorrow, Saturday, including 30 serving life sentences, as part of the resumption of the exchange of detainees and prisoners according to the first phase of the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip.

Humanitarianally, the United Nations announced yesterday, Thursday, the entry of more than 3,250 aid trucks, while Haaretz newspaper said that Israel has drawn up plans to build a series of settlement outposts in East Jerusalem.