Live: Israel delays release of 602 Palestinian prisoners

Medical sources confirmed to Wafa news agency on Friday evening local time that seven-year-old Saddam Hussein Iyad Rajab, from the town of Kafr al-Labad, east of Tulkarm, has died from wounds inflicted by Israeli gunfire.

Rajab’s family and local sources reported that he succumbed to his injuries after being critically wounded by occupation forces. His body is expected to be returned to his hometown on Saturday for burial.

The child was shot on the evening of 28 January while in Tulkarm’s western neighbourhood amid an Israeli assault on the city and its refugee camp.

Footage circulated in recent days captured the horrifying moment Rajab was shot in the chest by Israeli forces, collapsing to the ground in agony.

His killing brings the death toll from Israel’s latest aggression on Tulkarm and its camp to five.

In April 2024, 13 members of the Princeton University community, including 12 students and one post-doctoral researcher, were arrested for participating in a pro-Palestine sit-in at a building on the main campus in Princeton, New Jersey.

At the time, a wave of pro-Palestine protests against Israel's bombardment of Gaza was sweeping university campuses across the US, including at Princeton, where hundreds of students had set up an encampment to call on the university to cut ties with companies profiting from Israel's occupation of Palestine and its war on Gaza.

The university's refusal to negotiate with students spurred 13 activists on 29 April to collectively occupy Clio Hall, home to the graduate centre, and force administrators to the table.

The Clio 13 - as they became known - were immediately arrested and temporarily banned from campus. Those living in university housing were reportedly evicted and stripped of access to medical care.

Read more: How Princeton University tried to 'scapegoat' a PhD student over pro-Palestine protests

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has invited US House Speaker Mike Johnson to visit Israel this year, seeking to bolster support from Washington as his government faces mounting international condemnation.

“You’re invited to Israel this year in Jerusalem. I know you’re busy but find space to do that. You’ll be welcomed with a red carpet,” Netanyahu told Johnson during their meeting at the US Capitol.

His invitation follows his recent visit to Washington, where he became the first foreign leader hosted by President Trump in his second term.

US President Donald Trump has said he is in no rush to move forward with his controversial Gaza plan.

“We’re in no rush on it,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday.

His remarks follow his declaration that the United States would “take over” and “own” Gaza, a statement that has sparked outrage among Palestinians, drawn sharp criticism from the international community and has been condemned as a violation of Palestinian sovereignty.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deliberately withheld details of the exploding pager attack from the Biden administration, fearing that the White House would alert Hezbollah.

Speaking on his podcast Verdict after meeting Netanyahu, Cruz said, "There's a reason they didn't let the Biden White House know about it. Because so many people in the Biden administration were undermining Israel on a daily basis, that they had very real concerns ... Think how messed up that is when Israel did not have the confidence to trust in letting the United States, letting the White House know how they're taking out terrorists."

Cruz also said that Israeli officials had similar doubts regarding a planned assassination of Hezbollah’s former leader, Hassan Nasrallah. "They were very concerned that the Biden administration would essentially warn the head of Hezbollah to get outta harm's way. I mean, that is profoundly disturbing," he said.

On the issue of Israeli captives, Cruz said Netanyahu told him that a high-ranking Israeli official suggested treating captives taken on 7 October 2023 as "essentially dead".

According to Cruz, Netanyahu allegedly rejected this, insisting that Israel could continue its military campaign while attempting to secure the release of captives.

Palestinian workers detained during the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023 were abused by Israeli prison guards, with some of them tortured to death or disappeared, according to testimonies collected by a Palestinian trade union.

Wehbe Badarneh, the legal advisor to the Arab Workers Union, told news outlet Arab48 that they had submitted an inquiry to Israeli security and military centres regarding the whereabout of 46 Palestinian workers from Gaza following their disappearance on 8 October 2023.

The Israel Prison Service gave the Palestinian union a vague response confirming the deaths of 34 workers who died inside detention centres under "mysterious circumstances or from heart attacks".

Badarneh explained that until 7 October 2023, 18,000 Palestinians from Gaza were in Israel with work permits.

However, after the attack, the Israeli authorities withdrew work authorisations for Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Read more: Israel accused of torturing Palestinian workers to death

More than 70 nations, including France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, have reaffirmed their backing for the International Criminal Court (ICC) after it faced sanctions from the United States for investigating Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

In a joint statement, signatories to the Rome Statute stressed their “continued and unwavering support for the independence, impartiality, and integrity of the ICC.”

They described the court as “a vital pillar of the international justice system” that ensures accountability for serious crimes and delivers justice to victims.

The statement condemned sanctions imposed on the court, its officials, and those cooperating with it, arguing that such actions “increase the risk of impunity for the most serious crimes and threaten to erode the international rule of law, which is crucial for promoting global order and security.”

Hamas’s prisoners’ media office has announced that Israel is expected to release 183 Palestinian detainees as part of a scheduled prisoner swap on Saturday.

Israeli authorities confirmed they had received Hamas’s list of three Israeli captives set to be freed the same day.

Hezbollah has denounced remarks by US deputy Middle East envoy Morgan Ortagus, who said that Washington would not allow the group to “terrorise the Lebanese people” or participate in the government.

In a statement, Hezbollah said her comments were inflammatory and an intrusion into Lebanon’s internal affairs, calling them a violation of the country’s sovereignty and a breach of diplomatic norms.

“What the Israeli occupier, which enjoys the support of American policy, is doing harms the credibility of the democracy the United States is pretending to be,” the group said.

Egypt has reaffirmed its opposition to the forced displacement of Palestinians, coordinating with regional partners such as Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to resist any attempts to expel Gaza’s population.

Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty has been in discussions with counterparts from 11 countries, according to a government statement.

The statement underscored “the constants of the Arab position on the Palestinian cause, rejecting any measures aimed at displacing the Palestinian people from their land, or encouraging their transfer to other countries outside the Palestinian territories.”

It also condemned any such move as a “flagrant violation of international law” and warned that expelling Palestinians would trample their rights, destabilise the region, and sabotage any prospects for peace.

The renewed stance comes as western powers, particularly the United States, continue to back Israel despite its war on Gaza.

The Syrian whistleblower known as Caesar, who documented countless cases of human rights abuses during the time of the Bashar al-Assad government, revealed himself as First Lieutenant Farid al-Madhhan in an interview with Al Jazeera on Thursday.

Madhhan, who originates from the southern city of Daraa, said he was the head of the Forensic Evidence Department of the Military Police in Damascus before fleeing his country with over 54,000 pictures of victims of torture, starvation, murder and other crimes in the Syrian government’s detention centres in 2024.

“The orders to photograph and document the crimes of Bashar al-Assad’s regime came from the highest levels of power to ensure that executions were carried out,” he said.

According to him, at the start of the anti-government protests in Syria in 2011, about 10 to 15 bodies would be brought into the security branches he worked in each day. By 2013, that number increased to 50 a day.

Most of these cases would have “cardiac arrest” as a listed cause for their death, which would later be known as a euphemism for death under torture.

Read more: Syrian whistleblower 'Caesar' reveals real identity in TV interview

Morgan Ortagus, deputy to US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, told reporters in Beirut that Washington remains firm on Israel’s obligation to withdraw its forces from Lebanon by 18 February.

Her remarks come amid growing concerns that Israel, which has a history of ignoring international demands, may attempt to prolong its occupation under the pretext of security.

Israeli authorities have lifted a ban on lawyer visits to Gaza hospital chief Abu Safiya.

"After more than 40 days of arbitrary detention without access to legal counsel, Israeli authorities lifted the ban on Dr. Abu Safiya meeting his lawyers," said NGO Al-Mezan Center.

"We have formally requested immediate access for our lawyers to visit him & assess his conditions."

More than 12,000 bodies are trapped under the rubble in the Gaza Strip, the head of the enclave's Government Media Office said on Friday.

Salama Maarouf told a news conference at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City that Israel's refusal to allow the entry of heavy machinery into the Gaza Strip was hampering recovery.

He added that Hamas would not be able to return the bodies of some slain Israeli captives because of the restriction.

US President Donald Trump's decision to sanction the International Criminal Court increases the "risk of impunity" for serious crimes, 79 parties to the global tribunal said in a joint statement Friday.

"Such measures increase the risk of impunity for the most serious crimes and threaten to erode the international rule of law, which is crucial for promoting global order and security," said the joint statement, led by Slovenia, Luxembourg, Mexico, Sierra Leone and Vanuatu.

AFP