• Israeli forces continue attacks on Gaza
• The European Commission and several other countries launch an initiative to deliver $1bn in aid projects to help Gaza.

US lawmaker calls for immediate release of Palestinian doctor

US Representative Jamie Raskin has called for the release of Palestinian pediatrician Hussam Abu Safia, who was abducted by Israeli forces from his Gaza hospital on December 27, 2024.

Abu Safia “is being held and reportedly tortured in an Israeli prison with no charges, no trial and no due process”, Raskin, a Democrat, said in a post on X.

“Netanyahu’s government must immediately release him from these lawless, horrific and life-threatening conditions.”

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry ⁠on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention have also called for Abu Safia’s immediate release, after his lawyer, Nasser Odeh, warned that the doctor’s life was in danger.

During a recent visit, Odeh found Abu Safia so severely wounded that the lawyer struggled to recognize his client, according to Physicians for Human Rights Israel.

Palestinian killed in Israeli attack on Gaza

A Palestinian has been killed in an Israeli bombing on the outskirts of the southern city of Khan Younis.

Israeli artillery shelling reported in southern Gaza

Sources in Gaza say Israeli forces have carried out artillery attacks in areas under their control west of Rafah city in southern Gaza.

The report comes after medical sources said one person was killed in an Israeli attack on al-Mawasi, near Khan Younis, today.

At least three Palestinians were killed and 15 wounded on Monday in Israeli attacks across the Strip, as Israel’s military keeps up violations of the so-called “ceasefire” agreement reached last year.

Israeli forces detain, interrogate dozens in southern Hebron raids

The Palestinian Wafa news agency reports that Israeli occupation forces detained dozens of people and subjected them to field interrogations during raids on several neighborhoods in the southern area of Hebron.

According to Wafa, the occupation forces carried out a widespread detention campaign this morning, targeting the Al-Ja’bari neighborhood, Qizoun, Sha’abah, the Al-Zarzour junction, Shaghalah and Wad Abu Ayyash.

“They raided homes and subjected residents, including the elderly, to field interrogations,” the agency added.

Israeli military says Hamas naval commander and three fighters killed in Gaza strikes

The Israeli army says it has killed a cell commander in Hamas’ Naval Array, the maritime commando branch of the organization, alongside three fighters in separate strikes in Gaza.

In a statement, the army identified the commander as Osama Naim Hamdi Shamlakh. According to the military, Shamlakh was targeted on Monday in the Gaza City area.

Additionally, the army said that a separate strike in northern Gaza killed three Hamas members who “were attempting to carry out attacks against IDF [Israeli army] troops”.

East Jerusalem governorate warns giving city status to Givat Ze’ev colony is dangerous step

The occupied East Jerusalem governorate in the Palestinian Territory has warned that transforming the colony of Givat Ze’ev from a local council to a city is a dangerous step aimed at bolstering the colony project surrounding the governorate.

In a statement, the governorate stressed that granting the colony “city” status would expand its administrative powers and increase its budget, potentially accelerating planning, construction, infrastructure development and attracting more residents.

It stressed that the colony’s geographical location makes it part of the colony ring around Jerusalem, impacting the geographical contiguity between Jerusalem and Ramallah and further isolating Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings.

The occupied West Bank colony was officially declared a city on Sunday.

Givat Ze’ev, located 5km northwest of Jerusalem, was founded in 1977, and nearly 35,000 people live in the colony, according to the Israeli media.

Israel’s Gaza killings since October ‘ceasefire’ hit 1,122

The Government Media Office in Gaza says 3,689 violations by the Israeli military have been recorded since the “ceasefire” entered into force in the enclave in October.

A statement by the office said 1,122 people have been killed with 3,599 injured since as a result of the Israeli army’s attacks since then.

The “ceasefire” in Gaza went into force on October 10, 2025, after a US-brokered deal.

Israeli drone strikes Gaza police station, killing seven

An Israeli drone has fired four missiles at a police station. This is part of ongoing deliberate attacks on law enforcement infrastructure and facilities across the Gaza Strip.

Seven police officers were killed – including the director of the police station, his deputy, and five others. Their job was to maintain some sort of law and order and organization in an area that is known as a marketplace in the middle of a displacement camp.

This is not the first time we’re seeing deliberate attacks on police buildings by Israel’s military. And it appears to be – judging from the many times it’s happened – to further plunge the Gaza Strip into further chaos and expand the power vacuum across the war-battered Strip.

Child killed as Israeli tank opens fire in southern Gaza

Children continue to bear the brunt of the ongoing genocidal war in Gaza.

A nine-year-old child, who was outside his tent this morning when a tank opened machine-gun fire outside a displacement camp, has been pronounced dead.

The Israeli military also carried out a drone strike on a police station in the northern part of the Gaza Strip in the Jabalia area, where seven people were reported killed, including the director of the police station and his deputy.

This is not the first time law enforcement facilities have been attacked by Israeli forces, with analysts looking at this as a way of plunging the Gaza Strip into further lawlessness and chaos.

Palestinian Red Crescent says two killed in Israeli air strike on Gaza City

Two people have been killed and many others wounded by an Israeli air strike on Gaza City, the Palestinian Red Crescent has said.

The attack targeted a tent in the Sheikh Ijlin neighborhood, it added.

Israel approves $434m for 34 new illegal settlements in West Bank

Israel’s security cabinet has approved a budget of $434m (1.3 billion shekels) for establishing 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said.

Smotrich called the cabinet’s decision on Tuesday historic and a “day of celebration for Israel and settlements”, thanking Netanyahu for his support.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the territory, excluding occupied East Jerusalem, among about three million Palestinians.

The UN, Palestinians and most countries view Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank as illegal under international conventions.