Displaced Palestinians return to destroyed homes as desperately needed aid is delivered to Gaza
We are restarting our live coverage of the major developments in Israel’s war on Gaza after a long-awaited ceasefire came into effect on Sunday.
With the ceasefire agreement appearing to be largely holding, Palestinians are returning to find their homes reduced to rubble after 15 months of intense Israeli bombardments across the strip.
Displaced by Israeli airstrikes, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people have been packed into crowded refugee camps along the coast, enduring cold winter weather amid widespread malnutrition.
Charities have struggled to deliver aid, accusing Israel of blocking their attempts to. It means there are major shortages of food, blankets, warm clothing and firewood.
But international aid organisations have expressed cautious hope that the truce deal will allow them to rapidly scale up humanitarian support and reach those most in need.
Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, people displaced from their homes in Gaza will be allowed to move freely around the Palestinian territory from day seven, and 600 trucks of aid will arrive each day to alleviate the strip’s dire humanitarian conditions. We are on day three of the ceasefire agreement. The next hostage swap is expected to take place on Saturday.
Supplies to Gaza were, as of Sunday, at an average of 18 truckloads a day; aid agencies say 500 a day is needed at a minimum. Yesterday, the number of aid trucks – carrying essential items alongside water and medication – into Gaza was around 915, according to reports. At least 1,545 aid lorries have crossed into Gaza since the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel took place over the weekend, according to the UN.
A 60-day World Health Organization plan includes repairing Gaza’s hospitals – none of which are fully functional anymore – setting up temporary clinics in the most devastated areas (likely in the northern part of the territory), tackling malnutrition and stemming disease outbreaks.
We will give you the latest developments on the relief efforts and other news coming out of Gaza throughout the day.
Key events
Netanyahu says objective of Jenin operation is to ‘eradicate terrorism’
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that the military operation in Jenin aims to “eradicate terrorism” in the area.
Israeli security forces “launched today a large and significant military operation to eradicate terrorism in Jenin – ’Iron Wall’” he said in a statement.
Israeli forces have arrested at least 20 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including a journalist from Hebron, since yesterday evening, the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said in a joint statement.
The arrests were reported to have taken place across the areas of Hebron, Qalqilya, Ramallah and Nablus, and were, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, accompanied by “acts of vandalism” and destruction of property.
It is estimated that over 12,100 Palestinians have been arrested in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since last October.
Human rights groups and international organisations have alleged widespread abuse of inmates detained by Israel in raids in the West Bank.
They have described alleged abusive and humiliating treatment, including holding blindfolded and handcuffed detainees in cramped cages as well as beatings, intimidation and harassment.
Two people killed by Israeli forces after military launches ‘operation’ in Jenin refugee camp
Health officials now say two Palestinian people have been killed and at least 25 others injured in the Israeli military “operation” in the Jenin refugee camp. We will give you more details as we get them.
Forces of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, moved into Jenin in early December and have since clashed with fighters from Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Here is an extract from a report by my colleagues Bethan McKernan and Sufian Taha about the chaotic governance of Jenin. It was filed in the first week of January:
The new Palestinian Authority raid on the refugee camp adjacent to the occupied West Bank city of Jenin is the largest operation the western-backed governing body has undertaken in the 30 years since it was formed.
Israel hopes it can delegate stamping out militant activity to the Ramallah-based authority, and the PA is seeking to prove it will be able to handle governing the Gaza Strip when the war there ends.
Instead, growing anger at the lengthy, destructive raid, and what is considered by much of the Palestinian public as increasing PA complicity in the occupation, could fuel further unrest…
A new generation of fighters has now come of age in Jenin, as well as Nablus and the Nur Shams camp in Tulkarm. They have no memory of the Oslo peace agreements of the 1990s; any hope their parents had that the diplomatic process would lead to the creation of an independent Palestinian state faded long ago.
Most of these young men are part of small, ad hoc militias only loosely affiliated with the traditional Palestinian factions, such as Fatah and its rival Hamas. During visits to Jenin, the militants have repeatedly told the Guardian that they readily switch allegiance to whichever group can provide the funding and weapons they say are needed to combat Israeli incursions…
Currently, Hamas’s armed wing, and the smaller, more radical Islamic Jihad, both of which have ties to Iran, control the camp. The PA, which is dominated by the secular Fatah, has dubbed the armed youth of the camp “outlaws”, launching the campaign against them on 5 December.
Israeli military raids West Bank city of Jenin, killing at least one Palestinian person – officials
The Israeli army has announced the start of a so-called military “operation” in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
Palestinian health services said at least one Palestinian person was killed and four others injured as the Israeli raid began in Jenin, where an Israeli airstrike last week in the refugee camp killed at least three Palestinians and injured many others.
Israeli soldiers stormed the city from the Jalameh military checkpoint, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, after a special Israeli force infiltrated the al-Jabariyat neighbourhood.
Jenin’s refugee camp, one of 19 across the West Bank built in the aftermath of Israel’s creation in 1948 to house displaced Palestinians, is a centre of armed Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation.
Since the start of the war in October 2023, which has sparked a wave of violence in the West Bank, Israel has raided or carried out airstrikes in Jenin multiple times, killing dozens and leaving a trial of heavy destruction there. Israel says Jenin is a hotbed of terrorist activity.
Donald Trump also said on Monday he was not confident the Gaza ceasefire deal would hold, despite claiming credit for it ahead of his inauguration.
Asked by a reporter as he returned to the White House whether Israel and Hamas would maintain the truce and move on in the truce, Trump replied: “I’m not confident.”
“That’s not our war, it’s their war. But I’m not confident,” the Republican said.
US President Donald Trump has reversed the Biden administration’s sanctions on violent Israeli settlers in a concession to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid the precarious ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. You can follow our US Politics blog for the latest on all the key policy actions taken by Trump on inauguration day here.
Trump rescinded an executive order Biden signed last February, which gave the US government the power to sanction any foreign nationals who tried to attack, intimidate or seize the property of Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank.
Biden’s executive order warned of “high levels of extremist settler violence” in the West Bank having reached “intolerable levels”. Palestinian health officials say Israeli raids throughout the West Bank since 7 October 2023 have killed more than 800 Palestinians.
Dozens of Israeli civilians rioted through a small Palestinian village called al-Funduq last night, setting cars and houses alight, according to reports, with similar scenes of violence seen elsewhere in the West Bank, including in the village of Jinasfut.
“Lifting sanctions on extremist settlers encourages them to commit more crimes against our people,” the Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs said.
Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, which Palestinians want as the core of an independent state. It has built Jewish settlements there that most countries deem illegal. Israel disputes this and cites historical and Biblical ties to the land.
Faisal Ali
Nail Olpak, the head of Turkey’s foreign trade body, has said his country would be prepared to resume trade with Israel “if peace is permanent”.
Ankara stopped all trade with Israel last May, saying the measures would remain in place until “Israeli government allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
Turkey’s president went a step further in November, saying his country was severing all ties with Israel. In 2023, the two countries had a trade volume of $6.8bn.
As a reminder, on Sunday, the first day of the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, three female hostages – Doron Steinbrecher, 31, and dual British-Israeli Emily Damari, 28, who were kidnapped from their kibbutz, and Romi Gonen, 24, who was taken from the Supernova Festival in October 2023 – were returned to Israel to be reunited with their families. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) facilitated the transfer.
The first phase of the three-stage ceasefire deal should last six weeks and should see Hamas release 33 Israeli hostages in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The releases are expected to be staggered every week.
According to a list provided by the Palestinian Authority’s Commission for Prisoners’ Affairs, all of the Palestinian people released so far are women or minors. Israel detained them for what it claimed were offences related to Israel’s security, from throwing stones to serious accusations like attempted murder.
The prisoners, most of whom were freed in the early hours of Monday from Ofer prison in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, were welcomed by thousands of people celebrating (you can read more in this story).
Among those released was Shatha Jarabaa, 24, who was arrested over a social media post criticising the “brutality” of Israel’s war in Gaza. “I’m very happy! Thank God I’m outside. They treated me very bad in prison. It was horrible,” she told the Guardian.
Those freed from Israeli prisons included 69 women and 21 teenage boys from the West Bank and Jerusalem, according to Hamas.
The most prominent detainee freed by Israel in the early hours of Monday was Khalida Jarrar, 62, a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Hamas confirms that four female Israeli hostages will be freed on Saturday in return for Palestinian prisoners
Hamas official Taher al-Nunu has confirmed to Agence France-Presse (AFP) that four female Israeli hostages will be freed in return for Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, in the second such release under a ceasefire deal.
Nunu said the Palestinian militant group would release “four Israeli female detainees in exchange” for a second group of Palestinian prisoners.
Two Palestinians injured by Israeli gunfire in Gaza despite ceasefire – report
Two Palestinians were injured by Israeli forces on two separate occasions today in Gaza, despite the ceasefire, Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting.
Here is an extract from the Wafa story:
Medical sources said that a fisherman was seriously injured by the fire of Israeli gunboats in the sea of Gaza City, while another was injured by the fire of an Israeli drone in the vicinity of the Abu Sharia office in the Sabra neighbourhood, southwest of Gaza City.
Wafa reported yesterday that Israeli forces shot and killed a young child with snipers in central Rafah in southern Gaza. Another child was reportedly injured while attempting to recover Barbakh’s body. We have not been able to independently verify these reports yet.
Search for bodies under rubble begins in Gaza
Gaza’s civil defence agency said its workers dug up 66 bodies under the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings in Gaza yesterday, with 58 of them being found in the southern part of the territory and eight in the north.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 47,035 Palestinian people and injured more than 111,000 others since 7 October, 2023.
Officials say thousands of other dead people are most likely lost in the rubble of the territory. The process of trying to retrieve some of these bodies has started now airstrikes have ceased as the ceasefire largely seems to be holding.
Haitham al-Hams, director of the emergency and ambulance service, said it was being contacted from residents of the southern city of Rafah to help find their relatives bodies (The Israeli military, claiming it was routing out terrorists, launched an offensive in Rafah last May, despite international warnings of the devastating humanitarian impact it would have and the large number of civilians who would be killed).
“Since yesterday, we have received more than 150 calls from citizens asking us to recover their families, whose bodies have decomposed.” al-Hams was quoted by the Times as saying. “We started our work immediately after the Israeli army withdrew and the ceasefire began. Our teams are still working.”
Displaced Palestinians say they will help rebuild Gaza as territory lies in ruin
Displaced Palestinian people making their way home have spoken to the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency about their hopes and fears for the future.
Ghadeer Abdul Rabbo, 30, told AFP she hopes that the ceasefire will hold “with or without Trump”and world governments will help “maintain this calm, because we are afraid”.
In Rafah, in southern Gaza, Ismail Madi said that “we have endured immense hardships, but we will stay here. We will rebuild this place.”
Ammar Barbakh, 35, who also is in southern Gaza, spent the agreement’s first night (Sunday) in a tent on the rubble of his home.
“This is the first time I sleep comfortably and I’m not afraid,” he said.“It’s a beautiful feeling, and I hope the ceasefire continues,” Barbakh added.
There is no detailed plan in place to govern Gaza after Israel’s war, much less rebuild it. Nine in 10 homes have been destroyed as well as schools, hospitals, shops, mosques and cemeteries.
Around 90% of Gaza’s population is estimated to have been displaced by the assault, with many having to move several times (often to crowded refugee camps) to escape Israeli bombardments and to comply with IDF forced evacuation orders.
How will the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal work?
Here are the main elements of the Gaza ceasefire deal, as outlined by my colleague Bethan McKernan. You can read her explainer about the agreement and whether or not it is likely to lead to a permanent ceasefire here.
What’s in the deal?
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All fighting is to pause during the first 42-day phase. Israeli forces are to withdraw from Gaza’s cities to a “buffer zone” along the edge of the strip, displaced Palestinians will be able to return home and there will be a marked increase in aid deliveries.
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In the second stage, of unclear duration, the remaining living hostages will be returned and a corresponding ratio of Palestinian prisoners freed, alongside a complete Israeli withdrawal from the strip. The Rafah crossing to Egypt will be opened for the sick and wounded to leave. It is unclear whether it will be returned to Palestinian control.
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The third phase, which could last years, would address the exchange of bodies of deceased hostages and Hamas members, and a reconstruction plan for Gaza. Much of the international community has advocated for the semi-autonomous West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, which lost control of Gaza to Hamas in 2007, to return to the strip. Israel, however, has repeatedly rejected the suggestion.
How will stage one work?
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A total of 33 hostages will be released over the next six weeks, in exchange for about 1,700 Palestinians held in Israel prisons, about 1,000 of whom are from Gaza and were arrested after 7 October 2023 under emergency legislation which allowed detention without charge or trial.
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Three female captives – named by Hamas as Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari – were freed first in exchange for about 90 Palestinians. A handful of Israelis will then be released every Saturday for the next six weeks; the number of Palestinians to be freed upon their return generally depends on whether the Israelis are civilians or soldiers. Some of the freed Palestinians from the West Bank sentenced for serious crimes against Israelis will be sent to third countries rather than be allowed to return home.
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In Gaza, people displaced from their homes will be allowed to move freely around the Palestinian territory from day seven, and 600 trucks of aid will arrive each day to alleviate the strip’s dire humanitarian conditions.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said the Middle East is undergoing a “profound transformation” and has urged all countries to ensure the region emerges from the turbulence with peace and “a horizon of hope grounded in action.”
Speaking at a meeting of the UN security council on Monday, he said that “a new dawn is rising in Lebanon,” which he just visited. He said it was vital that Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon and the Lebanese army deploy there as required in the ceasefire agreement.
In Gaza, he urged Israel and Hamas to ensure that their newly agreed deal leads to a permanent ceasefire and the release of all hostages taken during the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.
Guterres said the ceasefire must allow scaled-up aid deliveries, Palestinians’ access to aid, and protection of civilians. He stressed that the agreement must also allow Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, access to deliver aid to the devastated territory.
Israel’s government is still committed to its plan to ban Unrwa from operating and to cut all ties between the agency and the Israeli government. It has accused the UN agency of allowing Hamas militants to infiltrate its staff, an allegation the agency denies. Unrwa is the major distributor of aid in Gaza and provides education, health and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the region, including in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Displaced Palestinians return to destroyed homes as desperately needed aid is delivered to Gaza
We are restarting our live coverage of the major developments in Israel’s war on Gaza after a long-awaited ceasefire came into effect on Sunday.
With the ceasefire agreement appearing to be largely holding, Palestinians are returning to find their homes reduced to rubble after 15 months of intense Israeli bombardments across the strip.
Displaced by Israeli airstrikes, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people have been packed into crowded refugee camps along the coast, enduring cold winter weather amid widespread malnutrition.
Charities have struggled to deliver aid, accusing Israel of blocking their attempts to. It means there are major shortages of food, blankets, warm clothing and firewood.
But international aid organisations have expressed cautious hope that the truce deal will allow them to rapidly scale up humanitarian support and reach those most in need.
Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, people displaced from their homes in Gaza will be allowed to move freely around the Palestinian territory from day seven, and 600 trucks of aid will arrive each day to alleviate the strip’s dire humanitarian conditions. We are on day three of the ceasefire agreement. The next hostage swap is expected to take place on Saturday.
Supplies to Gaza were, as of Sunday, at an average of 18 truckloads a day; aid agencies say 500 a day is needed at a minimum. Yesterday, the number of aid trucks – carrying essential items alongside water and medication – into Gaza was around 915, according to reports. At least 1,545 aid lorries have crossed into Gaza since the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel took place over the weekend, according to the UN.
A 60-day World Health Organization plan includes repairing Gaza’s hospitals – none of which are fully functional anymore – setting up temporary clinics in the most devastated areas (likely in the northern part of the territory), tackling malnutrition and stemming disease outbreaks.
We will give you the latest developments on the relief efforts and other news coming out of Gaza throughout the day.
