Live: Israel delays release of 602 Palestinian prisoners

The United Nations Human Rights Office has condemned Israel’s escalating military assault in the northern occupied West Bank, warning of a surge in violence and widespread forced displacement.

“[Israeli forces] have so far killed 44 Palestinians, many of them unarmed and posing no imminent threat to life or serious injury, since the operation began on 21 January, affecting Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas governorates, as well as four refugee camps,” the Unhrc stated.

Among the victims were five children, including 10-year-old Saddam Hussein Rajab, who was shot in the chest by Israeli forces while standing in front of a building in Tulkarem.

The UN described Israel’s actions as part of a “systematic pattern of unlawful use of force” in an area where no active hostilities exist.

It reported that nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced since the assault began, a scale of displacement not seen in decades.

Displaced Palestinians have detailed a common pattern: Israeli forces and drones forcing them from their homes under the threat of violence, snipers positioned on rooftops, and their neighbourhoods turned into Israeli military posts.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intention from day one of his "revenge" attack on Gaza, launched 16 months ago, was either ethnic cleansing or genocide in Gaza.

His ally in genocide for the next 15 months was former US President Joe Biden. His ally in ethnic cleansing is current US President Donald Trump. 

Biden provided the 2,000lb bombs for the genocide. Trump is reportedly providing an even larger munition - the 11-ton MOAB, or massive ordnance air blast bomb, with a mile-wide radius - to further incentivise the population’s exodus. 

Biden claimed that Israel was helping the people of Gaza by "carpet bombing" the enclave - in his words – to "eradicate" Hamas. Trump claims he is helping the people of Gaza by "cleaning them out"– in his words – from the resulting "demolition site". 

Biden called the destruction of 70 percent of Gaza’s buildings "self defence". Trump calls the imminent destruction of the remaining 30 percent "all hell breaking loose". 

Read more: Trump didn't invent the Gaza ethnic cleansing plan. It's been US policy since 2007

Christian leaders in Jerusalem have condemned proposals by Trump and Israeli officials to forcibly expel Palestinians from Gaza, warning of the “grave threat of mass displacement.”

“The people of Gaza, families who have lived for generations in the land of their ancestors, must not be forced into exile, stripped of whatever is left of their homes, their heritage, and their right to remain in the land that forms the essence of their identity,” the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem said in a statement.

They stressed that as Christians, they “cannot be indifferent to such suffering,” adding that the Gospel demands the defence of human dignity.

The Israeli army issued two edicts on 10 February to confiscate more than 10,000 dunums (1,000 hectares) of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.

Referred to as “temporary military decisions", the army is targeting 8,734 dunums in the Tubas areas and 2,394 dunums in several villages east of Ramallah.

The text of the two orders stated that they were issued by Yossi Segal, the official responsible for government property and absentee property in the West Bank, to approve a temporary decision on government lands for the purpose of grazing.

Recently, Israeli settlers have seized large areas of land in the West Bank under the pretext of grazing their livestock. To impose de facto control, they release cows and sheep into the plains and mountains, control them, and prevent Palestinians from reaching them.

Pastoral settlement constitutes one of the most serious challenges to Palestinians looking to preserve their land.

Read more: Israel to confiscate a thousand hectares of Palestinian land in West Bank

The Palestinian Authority’s Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs has released the names of 369 Palestinians set to be freed on Saturday as part of the latest captive-prisoner exchange under the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.

Only eight of those released will be welcomed home in the occupied West Bank, while four will return to their homes in occupied East Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Israel has decided to exile 24 prisoners serving life sentences to Egypt, denying them the right to return to their homeland. The remaining 333 were originally detained in Gaza following Hamas’s attack on 7 October 2023 and will be sent back to the enclave.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has vowed that if there is another assault on Gaza by Israel, it will be even more intense than previous attacks.

Speaking earlier this week, Katz declared that the "new Gaza war" would be fought with greater ferocity than before. Meanwhile, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Friday that the Israeli military is set to present its plans for the next offensive to the government in the coming days.

A group of UN ambassadors, including the Arab Group, on Friday condemned any attempt to forcibly remove Palestinians from Gaza, calling it a blatant violation of international law.

“The displacement of Palestinians in Gaza must be unequivocally rejected," said Kuwait’s UN envoy, Tareq al-Banai, speaking on behalf of the Arab Group at a press conference in New York. "Such displacement is a clear breach of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.”

The statement was supported by representatives from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Non-Aligned Movement. Banai praised the global opposition to forced displacement and urged UN member states to take a firm stance against it.

Outlining a vision for Gaza’s future, he declared: “We, the Arab countries, want to see a Riviera-a Palestinian Gazan Riviera-within an independent and internationally recognised state of Palestine.

Margaret Satterthwaite, the UN special rapporteur on judicial independence, has denounced Trump’s sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), calling them a “direct attack” on global justice.

In an interview with Anadolu, Satterthwaite criticised Trump’s targeting of ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, saying that the move undermines the court’s mission to uphold international law and prosecute serious crimes.

“This court was established to prioritise law over violence,” she said. “Sanctioning it and its officials directly undermines efforts to end impunity for the world’s most serious crimes.”

A UN peacekeeper was injured on Friday after Hezbollah supporters set fire to a UN vehicle near Beirut’s airport, according to a Lebanese security source cited by Reuters.

In a statement, Unifil, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, said its outgoing deputy force commander was wounded after a convoy taking peacekeepers to the Beirut airport was "violently attacked."

Unifil demanded a "full and immediate investigation" by Lebanese authorities and for all perpetrators to be brought to justice.

Dozens of armed Israeli settlers launched a violent assault on Palestinians near the village of al-Minya, south of Bethlehem, shortly after Israel’s Civil Administration officials intervened to halt the expansion of an illegal outpost, according to Haaretz.

The attack left 16 people wounded, including a pregnant woman who was struck with clubs and rocks. Four people were hospitalised, yet no arrests were made. The Israeli military said that security forces responded to the incident and dispersed the settlers.

The violence erupted in an area known as the accords reserve, where settlers had previously established an illegal outpost, Mikne Avraham, in the West Bank’s Area B. Despite repeated removals by Israeli authorities, settlers continue to seize more land.

Earlier on Friday, Civil Administration officials arrived following Palestinian reports of settlers encroaching further into the area. Once the officials departed, the settlers launched their attack.

Palestinians have filed numerous complaints about settler violence, including home invasions, physical assaults, and arson attacks.

A military source confirmed to Haartz that settlers unleashed dogs on the locals, with two of the hospitalised victims suffering from dog bites.

Earlier reports said that three Palestinians were wounded in an Israeli settler assault on al-Minya, a village southeast of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. The number of injured has now climbed to 16, as further details emerge about the scale of the attack.

Zayed Kawazba, head of al-Minya’s municipal council, told Anadolu news agency that around 55 settlers stormed the village, attacking residents with clubs and rifle butts while also firing tear gas, leading to numerous injuries.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society confirmed that six people sustained fractures. Settlers also vandalised three vehicles and destroyed four solar panels before retreating.

According to Kawazba, the assailants belong to the extremist Hilltop Youth group, which recently set up an illegal outpost on village land.

A survey by the Israeli Broadcasting Authority has revealed that 55 percent of Israelis support progressing to the next phase of the agreement, even if Hamas remains in power.

Arab states at the UN have dismissed Trump’s call for a US-led takeover of Gaza, which includes forcibly removing its Palestinian population and transforming the territory into a luxury development project dubbed the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

In a clear rebuke, a representative speaking on behalf of Arab nations stated, “We, the Arab countries, want to see a Riviera, a Palestinian Gazan Riviera, in the independent and internationally recognised State of Palestine.”

The statement was shared in a video posted by the State of Palestine on social media.

Trump’s proposal, widely condemned as an attempt at ethnic cleansing, has been met with firm opposition from Palestinian leaders and Arab governments, who say Gaza must remain part of a sovereign Palestinian state.

For over 15 months, Israeli soldiers have taken to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and other social media platforms to show off their handiwork in Gaza.

Now, this very evidence is being used to pursue war crimes charges against them across the globe, with the Brussels-based Hind Rajab Foundation at the forefront of these efforts.

“You can’t massacre people, film yourself doing it, broadcast it to the world, confess to your actions, and then simply go about your life, sitting next to me at a cafe in Brussels,” says Dyab Abou Jahjah, president of the foundation.

He emphasises that their mission is clear: “We are going after war criminals wherever they go.”

Abou Jahjah says that the foundation has gathered over 8,000 pieces of evidence related to alleged war crimes by Israeli soldiers in Gaza.

Read more: The Belgian 'justice machine' pursuing Israeli soldiers worldwide for Gaza war crimes

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has confirmed that an Egypt-led initiative, supported by Arab nations, aims to rebuild Gaza while ensuring its Palestinian population remains in place.

Speaking in Paris alongside his French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot at a Syria-focused conference, Safadi reiterated opposition to the forced relocation of Palestinians, rejecting US President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal to seize control of Gaza and expel its residents to Jordan, Egypt, and beyond.

Egypt announced earlier this week that it is working on a "comprehensive vision" for Gaza’s reconstruction after 15 months of Israeli bombardment, saying Palestinians must not be uprooted from their land.

Both Jordan and Egypt have come under increasing US pressure to absorb Palestinian refugees—a plan widely condemned by Palestinians and Arab leaders as an attempt to erase their presence in Gaza.