Israel-Palestine live: Israel bombs Unrwa building in Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that "enough" of the remaining people, believed to be more than 100, held by Hamas in Gaza are alive to justify its continued aggression against the Gaza Strip.

When asked how many of the people are still alive, Netanyahu said "enough to warrant the kind of efforts that we're doing".

"We're going to try to do our best to get all those who are alive back and, frankly, also the bodies of the dead," he said in the interview with ABC's This Week programme.

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud has vowed that, unless US President Joe Biden ends his administration's unwavering support for Israel, it will cost him the Arab American vote and re-election later this year.

Speaking to Middle East Eye in Dearborn, home to one of the largest Arab American populations in the US, Hammoud said that, for the next two weeks, he and several other dissenting voices in Michigan will be encouraging voters to select "uncommitted" in the state's Democratic primary, which is slated for 27 February.

Citing continued US support for Israel's devastating war on Gaza, Hammoud said the grassroots "Vote Uncommitted" campaign would try to spur Arab and Muslim Americans in Michigan, 146,000 of whom voted for Biden in 2020, to vote "uncommitted" in an act of protest.

Last week, 30 other elected officials announced they would be voting "uncommitted" in the primary in a bid to make Biden change course on the Middle East.

"We did this because no presidential candidate has earned our vote," Hammoud told MEE.

"President Biden's administration [has] continued to make destructive policy decisions [on Gaza]. ... If he continues this course, he will be remembered for sacrificing American democracy in 2024."

Read more: Dearborn's mayor has a message for Biden: Change course on Gaza or lose presidency 

US President Joe Biden is moving closer to a "breach" with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as frustration grows in the White House over Israel's conduct in its ongoing assault on Gaza, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. 

Citing unnamed sources, the American daily said Biden and his top aides no longer view Netanyahu as a "productive partner" and believe he is focused on his political survival above all else. 

Frustrations are mounting especially as Netanyahu continues to defy the US publicly, rebuffing talks for a ceasefire and insisting on a military assault in Rafah, despite widespread concerns over the potential catastrophic outcomes it could have on civilians taking refuge there.

Cairo is threatening to suspend a key peace treaty with Israel if it invades Rafah city on the border with Egypt in Gaza. 

Two Egyptian officials and a western diplomat told the Associated Press that Egypt will suspend the historic Camp David Accords if Israel follows through with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to take over Rafah city.

The officials added that fighting in Rafah could also suspend and delay much-needed aid deliveries into Gaza through Rafah, where half of the besieged enclave's population have fled after months of Israeli bombardment. 

Egypt is afraid that, if it opens the Rafah border crossing, millions of Palestinians will leave Gaza and not be able to return to the besieged enclave. 

The Gaza Municipality has warned of an environmental catastrophe and said more than 700 litres of wastewater had leaked onto the streets of Gaza City.

“This is considered a health and environmental catastrophe and threatens the city’s underground reserves,” said the municipality on X. 

Hamas's armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, said Israeli air strikes across Gaza in the past 96 hours killed two Israeli captives and seriously wounded eight others. 

In a communique published on its Telegram page, al-Qassam said the conditions of those wounded are worsening as it struggles to treat them amid continued Israeli attacks on the health system in Gaza. 

"Their conditions are becoming more dangerous in light of the inability to provide them with appropriate treatment. The enemy (Israel) bears full responsibility for the lives of those injured in light of their continued bombing," the statement said.

Middle East Eye could not independently verify the claim. 

The Palestine Red Crescent (PRCS) said three patients had died in Gaza after the Israelis failed to deliver oxygen to Palestinian health facilities for over a week.

The PRCS said on X that after lobbying international organisations, the Red Crescent delivered 25 oxygen cylinders.

Israeli forces demanded the cylinders are placed close to Nasser Hospital, promising to deliver them.

But when the cylinders came, the PRCS said only 21 cylinders were placed in front of the hospital. 

For over 21 days, Israeli forces have besieged the Nasser Hospital medical complex. The PRCS said that Israeli forces have blocked fuel from being delivered to the hospital which is needed for generators to power medical equipment.

The Israeli war on Gaza has devastated the economies of both the embattled enclave and the occupied West Bank, the International Monetary Fund's chief said Sunday, adding that only "durable peace" would improve the outlook.

"The Palestinian economy's dire outlook is worsening as the conflict persists," managing director Kristalina Georgieva told the World Governments Summit in Dubai.

"Only a durable peace and political solution will fundamentally change it".

"Economically, the impact of the conflict has been devastating," Georgieva said.

In the war-ravaged coastal territory, economic activity dropped 80 percent from October through December compared with a year earlier, the IMF chief said.

In the West Bank, the drop was 22 percent, she added. 

Reporting by AFP

The World Health Organization (WHO) were denied a mission Saturday to the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, which has been besieged and coming under Israeli fire for three weeks. 

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO's director-general, said he was "deeply concerned about the safety of patients and health personnel due to the intensifying hostilities in the vicinity of the hospital".

Late one evening last week, Einav Tzangauker, whose son was taken captive in Gaza by Hamas following the 7 October attack, set up a small tent in the middle of Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv, a major transportation artery in the Mediterranean city.

Police tried to convince her to clear the road, located between the Ministry of Defense and government offices. Traffic jams began to form.

It was a cold and rainy winter evening, but Tzangauker didn't give in. 

"I will stay here until my son returns from Gaza," she told Middle East Eye. "If I can't sleep and live already for 100 days, nobody [in the government] should sleep either."

The policemen, quite embarrassed, hesitated and finally allowed her to stay there for the night. 

In less than an hour, other Israelis who witnessed the incident brought mattresses, hot drinks, blankets and other items so that, as one of them said, "she would be as warm and as comfortable as possible in these circumstances".

The families of the 136 abductees still held in war-ravaged Gaza have been holding regular protests across the country as disagreements grow over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's strategy for releasing the captives and the future of Gaza after the war ends.

Read more: Families of Israeli captives are beginning to turn on Netanyahu

There is a growing divide between the US and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war on Gaza, a senior American official has told NBC News. 

Israel's planned ground offensive in Rafah, a border town sheltering over 1.3 million displaced people, is the most immediate disagreement, the report said. 

Washington does not believe Israel is ready for an assault that would spare the civilian population.

Hamas has warned that a ground offensive on Rafah city will scupper any possibility of hostage exchange negotiations.

Speaking to the Hamas-run Al Aqsa TV channel, one senior Hamas leader said an Israeli incursion on Rafah would "blow up" hostage exchange negotiations. 

This warning comes as world leaders on Saturday warned Israel against launching an offensive on Rafah city where half of Gaza’s population have sought refuge.

An Israeli sniper shot dead a Palestinian man in the courtyard of the Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis, according to the Wafa news agency.

Wafa did not give further details on who was shot dead. For the past 21 days, Israeli forces have besieged Nasser Hospital and trapped patients and medical workers.

On Saturday, Doctors without Borders (MSF) said its staff were fearful of moving inside the complex due to fears of being shot dead. 

What is a home in Gaza?

"For example, when I say Israel targeted a home, what’s a home? A home in America, in the UK; two people, a couple, a kid, a dog? But in Gaza, a home is a generational building." - Refaat Alareer, 13 October 2023. 

Refaat, like so many other bright and unique spirits, departed us without having the chance to bid farewell, because the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza does not allow for loved ones to give a last embrace.

Yet, there was one, albeit forced, farewell more than 80 percent of Gaza's inhabitants were able to bid, and that was the farewell to their homes.

This was not the first time Palestinians have had to bid farewell to their homes and will not be the last, as long as an Israeli occupation remains and Palestine refugees are denied their self-determination and right of return.  

But what exactly is this Palestinian "home" Refaat talked about?

What Refaat was referring to was a 12 sqm room made of prefabricated material with a zinc roof, given to Palestine refugees after they had endured tents when they were forcibly displaced from their homeland in 1948 and 1967 respectively.

This room was provided for each refugee family on a 100 sqm plot of land in all Palestine refugee camps across the near east, with the camps left to grow independently as space and people inside a bordered piece of land deemed politically temporary. More specifically, what Refaat was referring to was the Palestinian shelter in the Palestine refugee camp.  

Read more: Refugee camps and the Palestinian psyche - by Samar Maqusi

Israeli forces have killed at least 112 Palestinians and wounded 173 more over the past 24 hours in 14 "massacres", according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

This brings the Palestinian death toll in four months to more than 28,176, with over 67,784 wounded and 7,000 missing, who are believed to be dead and buried under rubble. 

Over 70 percent of the victims are children and women, according to health officials.