Live: Israel delays release of 602 Palestinian prisoners

German police arrested several pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Berlin after they played Arabic music and chanted slogans criticising Israel, Anadolu news agency has reported.

Hundreds had gathered near Wittenbergplatz metro station under the slogan “Stop the aggression in the West Bank—Do not supply weapons to Israel.” Protesters carried Palestinian flags and signs reading “Hands off the West Bank” and “Stop arming Israel.”

As demonstrators chanted against Israel and the US to the backdrop of Arabic music, police intervened, citing a ban on Arabic music, and ordered the crowd to disperse. When more than 50 protesters refused and staged a sit-in, officers forcibly removed and arrested several participants.

If Protestantism - both before and after Max Weber's seminal book on the topic - came to be identified as the poster religion of capitalism, then US President Donald Trump has always been a convert.

A former Presbyterian, he now identifies as a "non-denominational Christian" and rarely attends church services but surrounds himself with evangelical Protestants. Indeed, a majority of white American evangelical Protestants view him as "fighting for their beliefs".

In his restored capacity as the grand missionary of American capitalism and imperialism since his recent return to the White House, Trump has made several missionary declarations and announced a number of policies to advance American capitalism.

These include, but are not limited to, the sought-after imperial territorial expansion of the United States through the power of money or military force.

Trump's capitalist evangelical plan to steal and colonise Gaza, however, is not the first American project to establish colonies in Palestine.

Read more: Trump's plan to colonise Gaza echoes failed 19th-century American missions

Despite severe obstacles, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) continues to provide aid and medical assistance to displaced Palestinians in Jenin and Tulkarm camps, according to its West Bank director.

“Urgent support is needed,” Roland Friedrich wrote on X, as Israeli forces launched a deadly offensive just two days after agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza.

The assault on Jenin, its refugee camp, and other towns, including Tulkarm, has killed 25 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The Israeli military is expected to complete its withdrawal from the Netzarim corridor, a strategically placed route cutting across the Gaza Strip, by Saturday night as part of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

The withdrawal will reopen movement between northern and southern Gaza, which had been severed by Israel’s occupation of the area.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a delegation to travel to Doha for discussions on the Gaza ceasefire, his office announced after the latest prisoner exchange.

“With the completion of the release phase, Prime Minister Netanyahu has instructed the dispatch of a negotiation delegation to Doha to discuss technical details of the agreement,” his office said.

The statement added that upon returning from Washington, Netanyahu would convene a security cabinet meeting to address the next stage of ceasefire negotiations.

An Israeli drone strike on a Hezbollah site in eastern Lebanon has killed six people and wounded two others, according to Lebanese state media.

The Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) reported that the attack targeted the al-Shaara area near Jennata, in the eastern mountain range. Meanwhile, the Israeli military claimed its warplanes had carried out an "intelligence-based strike" against Hezbollah operatives in the Bekaa region.

The assault comes despite an ongoing ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, which was initially agreed upon last November and extended until 18 February.

A member of the powerful Saudi Shura Council, Yousef bin Trad Al-Saadoun, ridiculed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s suggestion of establishing a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia, instead proposing that US President Donald Trump should instead locate Israelis to Alaska and later to Greenland “after annexing it.”

Writing in the Saudi newspaper Okaz on Friday, Al-Saadoun criticised Trump’s approach to Middle East policy, arguing that reckless decisions stem from ignoring expert advice and dismissing dialogue.

He warned that "Zionists and their allies" would fail to manipulate Saudi leadership through media pressure and political manoeuvres.

Taking a swipe at the Trump administration, Al-Saadoun said "the official foreign policy of the United States will seek the illegal occupation of sovereign land and the ethnic cleansing of its inhabitants, which are the Israeli approach and are considered crimes against humanity. Anyone who follows the path of the emergence and continuation of Israel clearly realizes that this plan was certainly formulated and approved by the Zionist entity, and was handed over to their ally to read from the White House podium."

"The Zionists and their supporters must realize well that they will not be able to lure the Saudi leadership and government into the traps of media maneuvers and false political pressures." he wrote. 

Read more: 'Take the Israelis to Alaska’, Saudi official mocks Netanyahu and Trump

Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita and his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein have denounced US President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Palestinians from Gaza, calling it a “dangerous precedent” that violates international and humanitarian law.

During talks in Rabat, they warned that such a move would destabilise the region.

Their rejection aligns with statements from other Arab officials, including Saudi Arabia, who have strongly opposed Trump’s plan, which he presented alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Despite Morocco normalising ties with Israel under the Abraham Accords, the country’s leadership has increasingly criticised Israel’s actions, even as political and economic relations, including trade in agriculture and arms, continue to expand.

In his powerful article “Permission to Narrate”, published in the London Review of Books in February 1984, Edward Said wrote: “The Palestinian narrative has never been officially admitted to Israeli history, except as that of ‘non-Jews,’ whose inert presence in Palestine was a nuisance to be ignored or expelled.”

Just as the infamous phrase “a land without a people” cannot be seen only as a falsehood propagated for political purposes but also as an ongoing settler-colonial aspiration, Said chose the word “inert” not descriptively but to conjure up the Zionist fantasy about the ideal Palestinian body. 

Perhaps for the coloniser, this ideal body should be lifeless or “disappeared”. But given the stubborn persistence of Palestinians to remain living on their land, they should preferably cause as little disturbance to the colonisers as possible. 

Along with no displays of cultural identity, there must be no passion, no pride, no joy, no sorrow, no anger - indeed, no demonstrable emotions that might trouble their oppressors.

The late Palestinian psychologist Adib Jarrar said in 2016: “We must be the only oppressed people whose job it is to make our oppressors feel good about themselves.”

Read more: Why Israel suppresses Palestinian prisoners' public display of emotions

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society has reported that most detainees freed under the ongoing ceasefire deal are suffering from serious health complications due to their treatment in Israeli prisons.

"Today, after 183 prisoners were released in the fifth batch of the first phase, their physical condition and the need for some to be hospitalised reveal the extent of the abuse they endured in occupation prisons," the group stated.

The organisation also accused Israel of not only mistreating prisoners but also subjecting their families to "systematic terror."

It further highlighted that more than 10,000 Palestinians remain imprisoned by Israel, excluding those arbitrarily detained in Gaza.

A humanitarian organisation has warned that unexploded bombs and shells buried beneath Gaza’s ruins pose a lethal threat to thousands of civilians.

Simon Elmont, a de-mining specialist with Handicap International – Humanity & Inclusion, described the sheer volume of Israeli ordnance dropped on Gaza as “mind-boggling,” estimating that between nine and 13 percent of munitions fail to detonate on impact.

“It is going to be tens of thousands of unexploded ordnance, that’s for sure,” he told AFP, warning that much of it remains hidden under rubble, creating an immense contamination risk across the territory.

Palestinian and Egyptian officials have condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s suggestion to establish a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia, calling it an attack on the Kingdom’s sovereignty.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry denounced the proposal as “racist and anti-peace,” labelling it a blatant violation of Saudi Arabia’s sovereignty and stability. Hussein Al-Sheikh, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), said Netanyahu’s remarks disregarded international law and conventions, stressing, “The State of Palestine will only be on the land of Palestine.”

Egypt also slammed the comments as “irresponsible and unacceptable,” with its Foreign Ministry stating that Netanyahu’s remarks infringe on Saudi sovereignty and violate both international law and the UN Charter.

The headlines across Saudi Arabia this week have been, by all accounts, as “firm and unwavering” as the kingdom’s official position on Gaza, rejecting outright any normalisation process with Israel without a Palestinian state in the equation.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told reporters that Riyadh no longer has the precondition of a Palestinian state in order to open up diplomatic relations with Israel.

A short time later, Trump made the stunning announcement that the US would expel Gaza’s residents to nearby countries and then "take over" the enclave and turn it into a beach resort. 

Within minutes, at 4am local time, Saudi Arabia issued a statement rejecting the entire premise. 

“The Palestinian state is not the subject of negotiation or concessions,” read the headline in Saudi’s Al-Watan newspaper, citing the foreign ministry. 

Read more: Saudi press slams Trump bid to 'take over' Gaza

The Gaza Health Ministry reported that in the past 48 hours, four more people were killed, five were injured, and 22 bodies were recovered from the rubble following relentless Israeli bombardment.

The ministry estimates that since the war began, at least 48,181 people have been killed and 111,638 wounded. Thousands remain missing under the debris.