Live Blog Update| Israel's genocide in Gaza
This is an entry from: Live: Israel delays release of 602 Palestinian prisoners

Evening recap

19 February 2025 23:54 GMT

Good evening Middle East Eye readers, 

Our blog will soon be closing for the day. Here are some of today's main developments:

  • Rafah Mayor Ahmed al-Sufi condemned Israel’s destruction of the southern Gaza city, stating that occupation forces had levelled six entire neighbourhoods and were blocking residents from returning home.

  • According to Sufi, 70 percent of Rafah has been destroyed, with 90 percent of its buildings rendered uninhabitable.

  • Hamas says three Palestinians were killed in Tubas after they refused to surrender to Israeli forces, who besieged a house in the Far’a refugee camp in the occupied northwestern West Bank.

  • Local prosecutors in Florida said on Tuesday their hate crimes unit was probing a shooting by a male suspect who, according to police, fired on two men he thought were Palestinians but turned out to be Israeli visitors, Reuters reported.

  • Israeli soldiers have arrested six Palestinians, including a 14-year-old boy, in raids across the Bethlehem governorate in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reported.

  • Israel has only allowed six small machines to remove rubble from the Gaza Strip while preventing the entry of hundreds more that are desperately needed, Anadolu Agency reported.

  • United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan told visiting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday that Abu Dhabi opposes the forced displacement of Palestinians, official media reported.

  • 80 percent of Gaza's water and sanitation infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed amid Israel's war on Gaza, according to Oxfam.

  • Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun on Wednesday told visiting US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz that Israel must withdraw entirely from the country and complete the implementation of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement with Israel.

  • Abu Obeida, spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades, announced that the bodies of the Bibas family and Israeli captive Oded Lifshitz would be handed over on Thursday as part of the ceasefire exchange deal.

  • Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez have firmly opposed US President Donald Trump's plan to "take over" Gaza and forcibly expel Palestinians from the war-ravaged enclave.