Updates: As Israel-Hamas ceasefire holds, over 500,000 return to north Gaza
These were the updates on Israel’s war on Gaza and occupied West Bank raids for Wednesday, January 29.
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- More than half a million displaced Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza after 15 months of war, according to the enclave’s Government Media Office.
- At least two Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in the past day and two others have succumbed to their injuries as 59 bodies have been recovered from the rubble, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
- An Israeli air strike on the occupied West Bank town of Tammun killed at least 10 Palestinians, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
- Hamas will release three Israelis, including two women and an 80-year-old man, as well as five Thai nationals during the next captive swap set for Thursday, while Israel will release 110 Palestinian prisoners.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 47,417 Palestinians and wounded 111,571 since October 7, 2023. At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks that day and more than 200 were taken captive.
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The live blog is now closed.
You can read more about the third exchange of captives and prisoners set to take place on Thursday here.
Check out our explainer on the UNRWA ban that is set to take effect and how it will affect the agency’s operations.
And watch how it was discovered that the Israeli military had carved a Star of David in the Gaza Strip here.
Here’s what happened today
We will be closing the live blog soon. Here’s a brief review of the day’s main events:
- The third exchange of captives and prisoners under the truce is set to take place on Thursday.
- Eight captives held in Gaza – three Israelis and five Thai nationals – are to be freed by Hamas, and 110 Palestinian prisoners are to be released.
- At least 10 Palestinians have died in an Israeli air strike in Tammun, a town in the Tubas governorate of the occupied West Bank.
- Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has said the army will remain in the Jenin refugee camp, which “will not return to what it was”.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met visiting US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff after he visited the Gaza Strip.
- The first Gaza-bound aid ship has docked at Egypt’s El Arish port, carrying 871 tonnes of humanitarian aid, 300 power generators, 20 portable toilets, 10,460 tents and 14,350 blankets from Turkiye.
‘No words to quite describe the scale of devastation’ in Gaza
Omar Baddar, a Middle East political analyst, spoke to Al Jazeera about the situation in northern Gaza and whether Israel will ever allow Palestinians to rebuild their homes and lives there.
“There’s no question that Israel has ambitions to take over the north of Gaza,” he said.
Baddar says that is the reason why Israel “utterly destroyed it and expelled people from the area”.
“So while this is a small promising sign that they’re now, through this agreement, going to allow people to return, they are allowing them to return to an area that is utterly devastated.”
You can watch excerpts from his interview below:
Victory and defeat in Gaza
A ceasefire has finally come. After 15 months of relentless genocidal war, we are finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. Many of us have also been able to return to our homes or what is left of them.
While we enjoy our bomb-free time, the world appears to be engaged in a fierce debate about who won.
Is Israel triumphant? Or is Hamas the one that can declare victory? Or are the heroic Palestinian people the winners?
I am a nurse, not a pundit, so I have no answers to offer. But let me tell you, dear reader: The world should not be deceived by our survival.
Staying alive in Gaza is not synonymous with heroism. Escaping death is not a victory. We barely made it. Tens of thousands of Palestinians did not.
Read the opinion piece here.
Photos: Displaced Palestinians wait overnight to head into northern Gaza
Humanitarian situation in Gaza dependent on border crossings staying open: WFP
Antoine Renard, country director of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Palestine, told our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic that improving the humanitarian situation in Gaza depends on the border crossings into the besieged enclave staying open.
Renard said the agency doubled its capacity to provide humanitarian support since the ceasefire and provided 20,000 meals in Jabalia and 120,000 in Gaza City.
In total, WFP reached more than 330,000 people in the first week of the ceasefire with food parcels and hot meals.
Trump’s claim that US spent millions of dollars to send condoms to Gaza ‘not true’
Dave Harden, a former USAID official, told Al Jazeera that the Trump administration’s claim that the United States has spent $50m sending condoms to Gaza is “nonsensical” and “not true”.
“It’s ludicrous, and it’s designed to make USAID and the support of the Palestinians seem absurd,” he said.
“I was the deputy mission director for the West Bank and Gaza for many … years. We didn’t even do reproductive health because it was so political and politicised,” he said.
US air force commander completes two-day visit to Israel
The Israeli military says that the Commander of the US Air Forces Central Lieutenant-General Derek France, has completed an official visit to the Israeli air force.
It said the two-day visit “was part of greater efforts to develop and enhance the operational cooperation” between Israel’s air force and US Air Forces Central.
On the first day, France visited the US THAAD missile defence system deployed in Israel.
Hamas says Tammun attack will not break resistance
The Palestinian group has said in a statement that Israel’s deadly air strike in Tammun, a town in the Tubas governorate of the occupied West Bank, will not “break our resistance and will not terrorise our people”.
Hamas condemned the attack, which killed at least 10 people, as a criminal act and called on Palestinians to resist the Israeli occupation.
US supports Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’, says Pentagon chief
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz that the United States “fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself”, the Pentagon announced after the two held a call.
Hegseth, who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, joined Fox News as a contributor in 2014 and holds pro-Israel views on the war on Gaza.
He has dubbed the two-state solution “lip service” and worked on a series – Battle in the Holy Land: Israel at War – about Israel’s war on Gaza. He also interviewed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in March.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry says eight wounded in Israeli attacks on Wednesday
The Lebanese Ministry of Health says eight people have been injured in Israeli attacks today, despite a ceasefire agreement being in place between Israel and Hezbollah.
The ministry said five people were injured in Majdal Selem and two in Maroun al-Ras. No location was provided for one of the casualties.
As per the terms of the ceasefire agreement, the Israeli army was due to withdraw from southern Lebanon on Sunday. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it would keep soldiers in the country beyond the deadline.
Death toll in Tammun rises to 10
The Palestinian Ministry of Health says the bodies of 10 Palestinians who were killed in the Israeli air strike in the occupied West Bank town have now arrived at the Tubas Government Hospital.
Thirty of 110 Palestinian prisoners set to be released on Thursday are under 18
We have more details on Israel’s release of 110 Palestinian prisoners slated for Thursday.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society says they are expected to arrive in the Radana area of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank at approximately 12pm local time (10:00 GMT) on Thursday.
Publishing the list of the prisoners, the group said 30 were under the age of 18, 32 had been sentenced to life imprisonment, and 48 others were serving jail terms of varying lengths.
The group also said that 20 of the prisoners set to be released would be sent into exile.
Photos: Trucks and helicopters loaded with aid enter the Gaza Strip
Israel to free 110 Palestinian prisoners in Gaza truce swap on Thursday, NGO says
A Palestinian prisoners advocacy group said Israeli authorities will release 110 prisoners, including 30 minors, on Thursday as part of an exchange under a Gaza ceasefire deal agreed with Hamas.
“Tomorrow, 110 Palestinian prisoners are to be released,” the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said in a statement, referring to the third exchange of captives and prisoners under the truce, which began on January 19.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said earlier that eight captives being held in Gaza – three Israelis and five Thai nationals – are to be freed by Hamas on Thursday.
Death toll from Israeli attack in Tammun rises to seven
The Palestine Red Crescent Society says that seven Palestinians were killed in that Israeli air strike we reported earlier in Tammun, a town in the Tubas governorate of the occupied West Bank.
Trump claims condom shipments used by Hamas to make bombs
US President Donald Trump has said his administration temporarily halted foreign spending to “look at the scams, dishonesty, waste and abuse that’s taking place in our government for too long”.
That included $50m “sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas”, the president said, repeating a claim made earlier by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“You know what’s happened to them? They’ve used them as a method of making bombs,” Trump said in televised remarks.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) contraceptive funding for 2023 does not list any funding for condoms for the entire Middle East region that year.
Israeli air strike kills three Palestinians in the occupied West Bank
An Israeli air strike has killed at least three Palestinians in Tubas in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, adding there were also a number of injuries reported.
The Israeli military, in its latest war update, said that its aircraft had attacked a group of fighters in the Tammun area in the northeast of the occupied West Bank.
We will bring you more information as we get it.
WATCH: Displaced Palestinians building a new life in northern Gaza
More than half a million Palestinians have made their way north from central and southern Gaza over the past three days.
They’ve been met by a landscape of annihilation, with hardly a single building still standing after Israel’s 15 months of war.
Returning residents are putting up tents where their homes once stood.
Watch the report below:
WATCH: Satellite images show Star of David carved into Gaza
Images on Google Maps show that the Star of David has been carved into Gaza by Israeli tanks, but it’s not the first time the military has left symbols across the enclave.
Watch the video below to find out more: