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Live: At least 137 people killed by Israel recovered from rubble in Rafah

Live
Live: At least 137 people killed by Israel recovered from rubble in Rafah
Meanwhile, Palestinian death toll exceeds 47,035 and Trump claims credit for ceasefire deal
Key Points
Palestinians search rubble for 10,000 missing bodies
Unrwa chief says Gaza ceasefire had a ‘good first day’
Israeli hospital says three released captives released by Hamas are in ‘stable condition’
Palestinians walk past the rubble of houses and buildings destroyed during the war, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, January 20, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Live Updates

3 weeks ago

Our live coverage from Gaza will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are some of the day's key developments:

  •  At least 47,035 Palestinians have been killed and 111,091 injured in Israel's war on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said on Monday.

  • Gaza’s civil defence agency has provided an update on the besieged Strip, revealing that more than 10,000 bodies remain buried under rubble from destroyed homes and buildings, with recovery efforts ongoing on the second day of the Gaza ceasefire.

  • Gaza’s civil defence reported that 137 bodies have been recovered from beneath the rubble in Rafah alone since the ceasefire took effect.

  • Hamas said that one of the Palestinian prisoners who had been slated for release yesterday under the prisoner exchange deal in the Gaza ceasefire agreement with Israel was not freed,  Israeli news outlet Ynet reported.

  • Israeli occupation forces stormed the town of Azzun, east of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank, detaining more than 60 Palestinians before withdrawing shortly after, according to local reports.

  • Palestinian telecom companies have begun restoring limited operations in Rafah and northern Gaza, desperately working to reconnect a population cut off by Israel’s 15-month bombardment.

  • More than 630 trucks with humanitarian aid entered Gaza on Sunday, with at least 300 of them travelling to the territory’s besieged and bombed north, the UN’s aid chief Tom Fletcher said.

  • Fresh footage circulating online exposes a violent rampage by Israeli settlers, who torched Palestinian homes and property in the villages of Funduq and Jinsafut, east of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank, according to reports. 

  • At least 21 Palestinians have been wounded in brutal attacks by Israeli settlers in two villages east of Qalqilya, the Palestinian Red Crescent has reported.

  • Qatar has begun supplying the besieged Gaza Strip with 1.25 million litres of fuel per day, as part of a humanitarian effort during the first ten days of the newly agreed ceasefire.

  • Lebanon’s Hezbollah has praised the Palestinian resistance and its backers for what it calls a “great victory” in securing a ceasefire with Israel, lauding their resilience in the face of more than 15 months of relentless bombardment.

  • A recent Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, released over the weekend, revealed that 21 percent of American voters express support for Hamas in the ongoing conflict with Israel.

3 weeks ago

At least 21 Palestinians have been wounded in brutal attacks by Israeli settlers in two villages east of Qalqilya, the Palestinian Red Crescent has reported.

According to Wafa, twelve victims suffered severe beatings, while nine others were affected by tear gas inhalation. Shocking footage has emerged showing settlers torching Palestinian homes in Funduq and Jinsafut, with thick smoke rising above the villages.

Israeli settlers, who reside illegally on stolen Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, have intensified their assaults following the Gaza ceasefire, with soldiers often standing by or actively protecting them.

3 weeks ago

An Israeli sniper has shot and killed a Palestinian child in Rafah, in what appears to be a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement.

Witnesses in Gaza captured footage of Israeli forces firing on a man who attempted to retrieve the child’s body, highlighting Israel’s disregard for the truce.

3 weeks ago

Reverand Martin Luther King Jr was a radical of his time.

In his opposition to the immoral US war on Vietnam, he did not mince his words about what the Americans had done to the Vietnamese people.

He famously said: "We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops...We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. Now, there is little left to build on, save bitterness."

Like Vietnam, MLK's take on the death and destruction in Gaza would be crystal clear: Israel is, in fact, guilty of genocide, and a fragile ceasefire deal doesn't change the fact that almost every facet of Palestinian life has been destroyed in part by American weaponry.

Annually, on Martin Luther King Jr Day, a national American holiday to honour the civil rights icon, we witness a disingenuous co-opting of MLK's life and legacy, one that finds us reading posts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) official page on X, honouring King's efforts as a leader of the civil rights movement.

Read more: Martin Luther King Jr would have called it a genocide, too

Civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King, centre, marches against the war on Vietnam during a demonstration in New York on 16 March 1967 (AFP)

3 weeks ago

Fresh footage circulating online exposes a violent rampage by Israeli settlers, who torched Palestinian homes and property in the villages of Funduq and Jinsafut, east of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank, according to reports. 

Flames engulfed Palestinian buildings as thick smoke filled the air, marking yet another wave of settler violence in the wake of the Gaza ceasefire deal. Witnesses say dozens of settlers, shielded by Israeli soldiers, took part in the attack.

The Wafa news agency reported a separate settler assault in Masafer Yatta, where locals say armed settlers stormed a Palestinian home. Elsewhere, settlers vandalised vehicles near Dura and the Fawwar refugee camp south of Hebron, shouting slogans inciting murder and the forced removal of Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces caused chaos near Jaba, north of occupied Jerusalem, by demolishing a key road at a military checkpoint, bringing traffic to a standstill.

3 weeks ago

London's Metropolitan Police (Met) chief, Mark Rowley, has said that his force imposed unprecedented restrictions on a major pro-Palestine rally in London on Saturday that led to 77 arrests.

According to estimates by the organisers, the rally drew over 100,000 people - two of whom have been charged with public order offences they deny.

Last November, the Met approved the organising coalition's proposed march from the BBC headquarters to Whitehall but reversed course after political pressure. Police said in early January that the route was too close to two synagogues.

Pro-Israel groups, chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, MPs and peers had reportedly urged Met commissioner Rowley to reroute the protest.

Last week, the police took the unusual step of announcing an alternative route for the march, beginning at Russell Square. However, the Met later backed down and agreed to a "static protest" at Whitehall. 

Read more: Police chief tells pro-Israel group he imposed unprecedented restrictions on Gaza rally

Britain's Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley arrives at the Cabinet Office in central London on August 8, 2024

3 weeks ago
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A girl sits in a car as Palestinians transport belongings amidst building rubble in Gaza's southern city of Rafah, on 20 January 2025 (AFP)

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A Palestinian woman and a child carry their things in Gaza's southern city of Rafah, on 20 January 2025 (AFP)

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Palestinians carry belongings while heading to their homes in Rafah, on 20 January 2025 (AFP)

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Children walk with their families as they carry belongings amidst a dusty Gaza road in Rafah, on 20 January 2025 (AFP)

3 weeks ago

I had come to terms with the idea that I might never reach this moment - writing an end-of-war article.

When I grabbed this laptop, one of the few things I managed to take with me while evacuating my home in Gaza City on 13 October 2023, I knew it would be used to document countless massacres - but at the time, I did not contemplate the end of this war.

Yet here I am. I have managed to survive, along with some of my fellow journalists, who endured a war that seemed intent on targeting us.

But survival has come at a cost. The meanings of life and death have shifted forever.

Over the past 15 months, I have been forcibly displaced across three shelters in the central and southern Gaza Strip. The farthest was about a 40-minute drive from my home. Throughout this time, death has felt closer than the home I left behind.

Read more: How I survived Israel's genocidal war

3 weeks ago

A recent Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, released over the weekend, revealed that 21 percent of American voters express support for Hamas in the ongoing conflict with Israel.

The survey, conducted from 15-16 January, included a sample of 2,650 registered voters.

While 75 percent of Democratic voters backed Israel, 25 percent showed support for Hamas. Among Republicans, 81 percent favoured Israel, while 19 percent sided with the Palestinian group.

The 25-34 age group showed the highest support for Hamas, with nearly a third favouring the organisation over Israel.

The poll also examined public opinion on the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, with 82 percent of respondents endorsing the truce.

The majority (57 percent) credited the negotiations led by President Donald Trump's team for the deal, while 43 percent attributed the agreement to outgoing President Joe Biden's efforts.

3 weeks ago

Nearly a third of US voters who cast their ballots for former President Joe Biden in 2020 decided against voting for Kamala Harris because Biden supported Israel's war on Gaza, a new poll has shown.

The poll conducted by the Institute of Middle East Understanding and YouGov attempts to provide a possible answer to the question of why Harris received six million fewer votes than Biden received in 2020.

The survey, which was released last week, found that 29 percent of Americans who voted for Biden in 2020 and didn't vote for Harris in 2024 cited "ending Israel’s violence in Gaza" as their reason for withholding their vote.

"Vice President Harris lost votes because of the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza," IMEU said in a statement announcing the poll.

That reason surpassed the economy, immigration, healthcare, and abortion, all of which have historically been major voter issues in past presidential elections. Foreign policy is often a low factor in voter turnout.

Read more: Biden voters passed on Kamala Harris because of Gaza, new poll shows

US Vice President Kamala Harris listens to US President Joe Biden speak about the Los Angeles fires in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on 9 January 2025.

 
3 weeks ago

Abdel-Malik al-Houthi, leader of the Houthi movement, has praised the Palestinian people’s resilience in achieving a “great and historic victory” over Israel and the US in the wake of the ceasefire agreement.

In his first public address since the deal, al-Houthi credited the Palestinian triumph to the “great sacrifice” made by the people of Gaza.

“We are carefully monitoring the implementation of the ceasefire, and we are prepared to escalate if the Israeli enemy returns to violence and violates the terms of the agreement,” he declared.

Al-Houthi also pointed to the US’s discomfort with the Houthis' military successes, citing their numerous drone, missile, and naval attacks since the onset of the Gaza war.

He detailed the successful taking over of the Galaxy Leader cargo ship in the Red Sea as part of their naval operations, which has been met with failed attempts by Israel and its western allies to deter the group. These efforts have included extensive bombings of Yemeni infrastructure, destroying vital resources like oil tanks, power stations, and ports.

3 weeks ago

Gaza’s civil defence reported that 137 bodies have been recovered from beneath the rubble in Rafah alone since the ceasefire took effect.

At least 10,000 Palestinians are believed to be under the rubble following the Israeli onslaught. 

3 weeks ago

Three Israeli women released as part of the ceasefire agreement had learned to speak Arabic during their 471 days in captivity, according to Israel’s Kan Channel.

The correspondent reported that Hamas’s Qassam Brigades moved them between multiple locations, including underground sites, before eventually placing them in an apartment in Gaza City.

3 weeks ago

Israeli occupation forces stormed the town of Azzun, east of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank, detaining more than 60 Palestinians before withdrawing shortly after, according to local reports.

Anadolu Agency reported that those detained by Israeli forces included children and elderly residents.

3 weeks ago

Ben Jamal, director of the UK-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), has been charged with public order offences after a major pro-Palestine rally in London on Saturday that saw 77 people arrested.

The British capital's Metropolitan Police accused demonstrators of breaking through a police cordon in  central London's Trafalgar Square on Saturday, which the protest's organisers strongly deny.

The rally drew over 50,000 people, according to estimates by the organisers. Jamal is due to appear in court on 21 February, with PSC being one of the advocacy groups that organised the march.

According to the Met, Jamal, 61, was "charged with public order offences, including inciting people to fail to comply with conditions."

The police force said officers saw a "coordinated effort" to breach conditions that "prevented protesters forming up in the vicinity of a synagogue located a short distance from Portland Place [where the BBC headquarters are].

Read more: Palestine Solidarity Campaign director Ben Jamal charged after London protest

Protesters holding placards and flags face a line of police at Trafalgar Square in central London at a National demonstration for Palestine, on January 18, 2025 (AFP)