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Special reports: Updates January and earlier, 2025: Trump suggests he wants ethnic cleansing in Gaza. & A US-Hamas dialogue could shift us from war to peace & Analysis: Hamas has been hit hard by Israel, but is not out in Gaza & Why are there so many Palestinian children in Israeli prisons? & I'd crawl if I have to & Now, it is time to grieve in Gaza & My heart is split in two Previous reports: What is Israel’s deadly ‘Iron Wall’ military raid in Jenin? & 'Skull without a jaw' & I dream of a quiet, drone-free Gaza & 'Staying alive was luck' and earler stories  Overview special reports

November 28 - 24 and earler stories, 2024 Is Netanyahu immune from ICC arrest warrant-NO!   TRIBUTES TO MOTHERS AND CHILDREN

Shireen Abu Akleh In commemoration of Shireen Abu Akleh, the 'voice of Al Jazeera' killed while revealing the true face of israel Updated: December 6, 2024: Attacks, arrests, threats, censorship: The high risks of reporting the Israel-Gaza war   Click here for earlier stories/news

January 31 - 28, 2025 In pictures and words: Bittersweet homecoming for Palestinians returning to Gaza City... Read more and decide for yourself

January 28 - 24, 2025 "Now it's time to grief" If the ones guilty of the genocide let us and it doesn't look like it. By the way, did you know that during WW2 the american allies knew all about the transportation routes that brought the jews to the gaschambers but simply let the trains roll. And now there was this so-called 'holocaust remembrance day' but... too many haven't learned anything from history... Read more and decide for yourself

January 24 - 22, 2025 Food for thought: A ceasefire? Not at the occupied Westbank. And why? 'The show must go on!'? Read more and decide for yourself January 22 - 20, 2025 Food for thought: A ceasefire? Not as far as the idf and its co-genocide-predetators are concerned. 'The show must go on?' Read more and decide for yourself  Pre-ceasefire & Post-Ceasefire December 30 - 26, 2024 'Betrayed' and 'abandoned' Sixth baby dies from severe cold

 When one hurts or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
and: My mother (1931-1997) always said to me <Mi figlio, non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
Gianna d'Artali.



Video capture Release of 110 Palestinians celebrated
Al Jazeera - Jan 31 2025 - By Alastair McCready and Royce Kurmelovs
<<LIVE: Israel’s release of 110 Palestinians celebrated in Gaza, West Bank
This video may contain light patterns or images that could trigger seizures or cause discomfort for people with visual sensitivities. Israeli police arrest 12 Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem for celebrating the freeing of 110 Palestinian prisoners as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said its operations continue in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank despite the start of an Israeli ban.>>
Read more/video: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/1/31/live-israels-release-of-110-palestinians-celebrated-in-gaza-west-bank


Video capture Lives of Gaza’s child amputees forever changed
Al Jazeera - Jan 30 2025 - By Maram Humaid
<<Lives of Gaza’s child amputees forever changed despite ceasefire
The ceasefire has brought relief to Gaza but it cannot bring back the thousands of limbs lost by Palestinian children during Israel’s war. Dr Mohammed Tahir from FAJR Scientific tells us how life for amputees will never be the same.>>
Video: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/1/30/lives-of-gazas-child-amputees-forever-changed-despite-ceasefire

Al Jazeera - Jan 30 2025
<<The UN’s agency for Palestinians is now banned in Gaza. What now?
Israel’s ban on the UN’s refugee agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, has come into force. Soraya Lennie explains why it matters and what happens next.>>
Video: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/1/30/the-uns-agency-for-palestinians-is-now-banned-in-gaza-what-now

Al Jazeera - Jan 30 2025
<<“Huge consequences” for Palestinians if Israel bans UNRWA
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, talks about the profound consequences of an Israeli ban on UNRWA.>>
Video: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/quotable/2025/1/29/aje-onl-qt-philippe_lazzarini-290125

Al Jazeera - Jan 29 2025 - by Marium Ali and Mohamed A. Hussein
<<What Israel’s UNRWA ban means for millions of Palestinians: By the numbers
Israel orders the UN Relief and Works Agency, the backbone of Palestinian humanitarian aid, to cease operations by Thursday. Several countries have told the United Nations Security Council that they “deeply deplore” the Israeli parliament’s decision to “abolish” the operations of the UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, set to take effect on Thursday. In a joint statement, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Slovenia and Spain condemned Israel’s withdrawal from the 1967 agreement between Israel and UNRWA as well as any efforts to hinder the agency’s ability to function and fulfil its mandate from the UN General Assembly.
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of UNRWA, told the Security Council on Tuesday that the ban would “heighten instability and deepen despair in the occupied Palestinian territory at a critical moment”.
Knesset approves bills to halt UNRWA aid
In October, the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, passed two bills targeting the operations of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. The first bill prohibits UNRWA from conducting activities within Israel’s borders while the second makes it illegal for Israeli officials to have any contact with UNRWA. The legislation is set to take effect on Thursday. UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma expressed concerns about the potential consequences of the ban, telling Al Jazeera: “If the ban takes place and we are not able to operate in Gaza, the ceasefire, which also includes bringing in humanitarian supplies for the agency and people in need, might collapse.” The first phase of the ceasefire, which began on January 19, includes provisions for a surge in aid into the enclave of up to 600 trucks per day. Israel’s ban would make it impossible for the agency to obtain any entrance permits to operate in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – both of which are under Israeli control – in effect crippling the agency’s ability to carry out its mandate.
What is UNRWA and where does it operate?
UNRWA was established by the General Assembly in 1949 to provide humanitarian assistance to 750,000 Palestinian refugees who were uprooted from their land during the creation of Israel in 1948, an event known to Palestinians as the Nakba, or “catastrophe”.
The organisation – employing 30,000 staff, primarily Palestinian refugees along with a small number of international employees – delivers emergency relief, education, healthcare and social services to at least 5.9 million Palestinians within Palestine and neighbouring countries.
UNRWA operates 58 refugee camps including:
West Bank: 19 camps housing 912,879 registered refugees
Gaza: eight camps housing 1.6 million people
Jordan: 10 camps with 2.39 million people
Lebanon: 12 camps, home to 489,292 people
Syria: nine camps with 438,000 people
UNRWA’s role in Gaza and the West Bank
For generations, UNRWA has been the primary provider of health and education services to millions of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in Gaza, the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. According to Lazzarini: “The ban would cripple the humanitarian response in Gaza and deprive millions of Palestine refugees of essential services in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. They would also eliminate a vocal witness to the countless horrors and injustices Palestinians have endured for decades.”
Within Palestine, UNRWA offers free primary and secondary education to more than 300,000 children, including:
294,086 children in Gaza, or half of all students in the enclave
46,022 children in the West Bank
UNRWA also offers free primary healthcare, maternal and child health services to:
1.2 million people in Gaza – more than half of the population
894,951 people in the West Bank
UNRWA also provides food for:
1.13 million people in Gaza, or half of the population
23,903 people in the West Bank
UNRWA also plays a critical role in providing employment opportunities, microfinance programmes and support for income-generating initiatives.
‘Backbone of humanitarian operations’ in Gaza
Among the regions under UNRWA’s mandate, the Gaza Strip, with a population of 2.3 million people, has the highest dependence on the agency’s services for survival. While other UN organisations such as UNICEF, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, World Food Programme and World Health Organization all provide life-saving services, UNRWA is the “backbone of humanitarian operations” in Gaza, Touma told Al Jazeera.
“All UN agencies depend heavily on UNRWA for humanitarian operations, including bringing in supplies and fuel. We are the largest humanitarian agency in Gaza,” she told Al Jazeera. In January 2024, Israeli authorities accused UNRWA workers of participating in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel. This led several countries to cut funding to the organisation. However, after an investigation by the UN and the termination of nine staff members, all donors except the United States and Sweden have resumed funding. Since Israel began its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, its military has killed at least 47,354 people and injured at least 111,563 others. Those who have survived the conflict have lost nearly everything.
During the 15-month war, UNRWA provided:
Food assistance: delivered food to 1.9 million people experiencing extreme hunger
Healthcare: offered primary healthcare consultations to 1.6 million individuals
Mental health support: provided mental health and psychosocial support to 730,000 people
Water: ensured access to clean water for 600,000 people
Waste management: collected more than 10,000 tonnes of solid waste from camps
According to an UNRWA situation report, 272 UNRWA team members were killed in 665 Israeli attacks and 205 UNRWA facilities were damaged.
What happens once the ban takes effect? Despite Israel’s ban and the already hostile work environment, Lazzarini reaffirmed UNRWA’s commitment to “stay and deliver”. The first law passed by the Knesset prohibits any UNRWA presence or activities within Israel, directly affecting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in 1980 in violation of international law. “Then you have a second law, which prevents any contact between Israeli officials and UNRWA officials. The law does not say stop the activity in the West Bank or Gaza but prevents any contact – but the fact is if you have no bureaucratic or administrative relation, it makes your operational environment even more challenging,” Lazzarini said. The ban will also restrict the movement of UNRWA’s non-Palestinian staff although Palestinian employees will still be allowed to carry out their work. “The agency remains determined to do everything possible to fulfil its mandate and deliver critical services to alleviate the plight of Palestinian refugees,” Lazzarini emphasised.
UNRWA’s top donors
In 2023, UNRWA received $1.46bn in total pledges with the largest contributions coming from the US ($422m), Germany ($212.9m) and the European Union ($120.2m).
Funding requirements for 2025
UNRWA says it needs $1.7bn to address the most critical humanitarian needs of 1.9 million people in Gaza and 275,000 people in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
This includes:
Food ($568.5m): Nearly half of Gaza’s population depends on food aid from UNRWA. This funding will support food distribution to 1.13 million people in Gaza and more than 23,000 people in the West Bank.
Water and sanitation ($282.6m): This money would go to ensuring access to clean water and proper sanitation, especially in Gaza, where Israel’s war has decimated water infrastructure.
Coordination and management ($202.3m): Funds are also needed for maintaining staff, logistics and coordination to deliver aid effectively.
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Funding is essential to sustain UNRWA’s life-saving operations. Without it, critical services like food aid, healthcare and water access could collapse, deepening the humanitarian crisis.>>
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/29/what-israels-unrwa-ban-means-for-millions-of-palestinians-by-the-numbers

Al Jazeera - Jan 29 2025 - By Maram Humaid
<<In pictures: Bittersweet homecoming for Palestinians returning to Gaza City
Displaced people returning to their homes find a city in ruins after 15 months of Israeli bombardment.
Columns of Palestinians carrying what belongings they can have headed to north Gaza, after Israel permitted their passage in accordance with the ongoing ceasefire. Israel allowed hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to start returning to their homes in the north this week. Although the crowds had thinned somewhat by Tuesday, thousands of men, women and children were still on their way, fully aware they had little waiting for them but rubble. “I’m happy to be back at my home,” said Saif al-Din Qazaat, who returned to northern Gaza but had to sleep in a tent next to the ruins of his house. “I kept a fire burning all night near the kids to keep them warm … (They) slept peacefully despite the cold but we don’t have enough blankets,” said the 41-year-old. Mona Abu Aathra managed to travel from central Gaza to Gaza City, though she has yet to assess the full extent of the war’s impact on her home. Her hometown, Beit Hanoon, was among the areas hardest hit by a months-long Israeli military operation which continued right up to this month’s ceasefire. “We returned to Gaza City with nothing, and there’s no drinking water. Most streets are still blocked by the rubble of destroyed homes,” said the 20-year-old. Despite the devastation, Abu Aathra expressed relief at being reunited with her family. “It’s the first night we’re together again, me, my mother and my father. Last night, we gathered with my three brothers who were here in Gaza City.” More than 375,000 Palestinians have crossed into northern Gaza since Israel on Monday morning opened the way to return, the United Nations said on Tuesday. That represents more than a third of the million people who fled the north in the war’s first weeks in late 2023.
Increasing essential supplies to people is a focus. Although aid deliveries have increased since the ceasefire began, the need remains overwhelming.
The World Food Programme said it distributed more food in the first four days of the ceasefire than in the entire month of December. But the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that those returning north would need other essential supplies, too, like drinking water, shelter equipment and hygiene kits.>>
View photos: https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/1/29/bittersweet-homecoming-for-palestinians-returning-to-gaza-city

Al Jazeera - Jan 29 2025
<<Quotable
“Monumental effort” ahead for aid agencies in northern Gaza
Sam Rose, the director of planning at the UN’s relief agency for Palestinian refugees, talks about what needs to happen in order to supply humanitarian assistance to those returning to the north of the Gaza Strip.>>
Video: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/quotable/2025/1/29/aje-onl-qt_sam_rose-280125

Al Jazeera - Jan 28 2025 - By Maram Humaid
<<Exhausted Palestinians arrive in Gaza City to no homes, killed family
Thousands of Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza for the second day, walking kilometres to reach home.
Al-Rashid Street, Gaza City, Palestine – There are many stories among the tens of thousands of people walking along Gaza’s al-Rashid Street, heading for the north. In the crowds is a man with a white beard walking with determination alongside his family. In one hand, he carries a blanket and a few meagre possessions. In the other, he holds onto his adult son, who has Down Syndrome. Rifaat Jouda doesn’t pretend that he isn’t tired. He started his journey in the morning in southern Gaza, in Khan Younis’s al-Mawasi, where his family had been displaced for 15 months during Israel’s war on Gaza. The aim was to reach Gaza City, a journey finally possible since Israel allowed Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip to travel north on Monday, after a ceasefire began on January 19. But it’s a long walk – some 30 kilometres (18.6 miles) along a coastal road – and Rifaat’s family were forced to stop to rest every hour. “The journey has been exhausting and very difficult,” Rifaat tells Al Jazeera, after finally reaching Gaza City. “Despite that, we were determined to return.” Rifaat is not sure of his plan now that he has returned home. His physical home, in northern Gaza City, no longer exists – he explains that it was destroyed in an Israeli attack in October. “They [Rifaat’s contacts in Gaza City] say the situation is very difficult, with no water, no services, and widespread destruction,” Rifaat says. “But what difference does it make? We are moving from a difficult situation to an even harder one. We will rebuild what we can. But [making the journey to return] back has lifted our spirits and renewed our hope.”
Regretting displacement
Before the war began 15 months ago, the majority of Gaza’s population lived in the north, centred around the enclave’s biggest urban area, Gaza City. But that is also where Israel has focused its attacks, and issued forced evacuation orders early on in the war, telling people to flee to “safe zones” in central and southern Gaza. That led to the majority of Gaza’s approximately 2.3 million population displaced in those central and southern areas, below a corridor carved out of central Gaza that Israel called Netzarim. While the destruction was overwhelming in the north – approximately 74 percent of Gaza City’s buildings have been damaged or destroyed in the war – the supposed safe zones were not spared, and the areas people had fled to were also devastated – 50 percent of buildings in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah were damaged or destroyed, while in southern Gaza, it was 55 percent of buildings in Khan Younis and 48 percent of buildings in Rafah. The constant Israeli attacks – which killed at least 47,300 throughout the war – forced Palestinians to flee from place to place and made many feel that they should never have left Gaza City and the north in the first place. “The days of displacement were the hardest and most exhausting,” Rifaat says. “We cannot imagine continuing our lives as displaced people away from our homes.” “Anyone who sees these crowds understands well that no plans for forced displacement will succeed, no matter what happens,” he adds, before suggesting that he may even be able to return to Ashdod – a city just north of Gaza but now in Israel – from which his family were forcibly displaced in 1948 during what Palestinians call the Nakba, or “catastrophe”, with the creation of Israel. Displacement is a central motif for Palestinians – owing to the 1948 Nakba when at least 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes. Many people in Gaza itself are refugees, their families originally from towns and villages now part of Israel. And so, particularly after the experience during the current Gaza war, many regret ever having left their homes in the north. Sami al-Dabbagh, a 39-year-old heading back to Sheikh Radwan in northern Gaza, explains that he was displaced to several different areas before settling in central Gaza. The father-of-four, having walked on foot for hours, says he will never make the same mistake again. “We will never repeat the experience of displacement, no matter what happens,” al-Dabbagh says. It’s a sentiment shared by another man travelling up to northern Gaza, Radwan al-Ajoul. “Displacement has taught us never to leave our homes again,” he says, as he carries his belongings on his shoulder. The 45-year-old father of eight has been living in Deir el-Balah, but like al-Dabbagh, he is also from Sheikh Radwan. “The feeling of returning is indescribable, especially since the conditions are no different between the north and the south,” he says.
Returning without family members
Conversations on al-Rashid Street are fleeting – the people walking here have been moving for hours, trying to keep track of their family members, helping those weaker than them, and carrying the few belongings they have been able to keep a hold of after more than a year of war and displacement. But the details shared reveal the loss that Palestinians in Gaza have had to endure. Khaled Ibrahim, 52, came from Khan Younis and is headed to Beit Lahiya, north of Gaza City. His family – he has four children – have no home to return to. He plans to set up a tent instead. But more than a home, he has lost those closest to him; Ibrahim’s wife, granddaughter, and two of his brothers were killed in a bombing near their tent in Khan Younis last June. “Our lives are hard. We have lost everything in every way,” Ibrahim says. Another returnee, Nada Jahjouh, has also lost family. One of her sons was killed during Gaza’s Great March of Return – in 2018, before the war. Another was killed in May during an Israeli attack. She now has one son and a grandson left – whom she carries as she walks. “We are exhausted, physically and mentally,” Jahjouh says. “I feel very sad returning without my sons. My joy is incomplete.”>>
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/28/exhausted-palestinians-arrive-in-gaza-city-to-no-homes-killed-family

France24 - Jan 28 2025 - By: Benjamin DODMAN
<<Israel to cease all contact with UNRWA Palestinian aid agency
<<Israel will cease all contact with the UN's Palestinian relief agency and any other body acting on UNRWA's behalf, Israel's UN envoy Danny Danon said on Tuesday. UNRWA estimates that it has provided 60 percent of the food aid reaching Gaza since the start of the war in October 2023. Read our liveblog to see how the day's events unfolded.
(With AFP, AP and Reuters)>>
Video: https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20250128-live-netanyahu-hoping-to-meet-with-trump-as-early-as-next-week

Al Jazeera - Jan 28 2025
<<Israeli operation in occupied West Bank forcibly displaces Palestinians
Video shows Palestinians fleeing their homes during an Israeli raid in Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank, where homes have also been destroyed and set on fire.>>
Video: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/1/28/israeli-operation-in-occupied-west-bank-forcibly-displaces-palestinians


Al Jazeera - Jan 28 2025
Al Jazeera reporter’s journey back home to north Gaza
Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary documented her emotional journey back home to northern Gaza for the first time since Israel’s war began.>>
Video: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/1/28/al-jazeera-reporters-journey-back-home-to-north-gaza


Video screenshot What children in Gaza are saying
Al Jazeera - Jan 28 2025
<<Video: What children in Gaza are saying about the ceasefire
We spoke to children in Gaza about what the ceasefire has meant to them after 15 months of fear and displacement.>>
Video: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/1/28/video-what-children-in-gaza-are-saying-about-the-ceasefire


Video screenshot Forcibly displaces Palestinians
Al Jazeera - Jan 28 2025
<<Israeli operation in occupied West Bank forcibly displaces Palestinians
Video shows Palestinians fleeing their homes during an Israeli raid in Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank, where homes have also been destroyed and set on fire.>>
Video: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/1/28/israeli-operation-in-occupied-west-bank-forcibly-displaces-palestinians

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