- 30 Jan 2025 - 23:55(23:55 GMT)
Thank you for joining us
Before you go, you can read more about Palestinians’ sorrow and elation as they witnessed the release of Israeli captives from Gaza.
You can also read more about Israel’s ban on UNRWA coming into effect, here.
And you can follow all of our coverage on the situation in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, here.
- 30 Jan 2025 - 23:45(23:45 GMT)
A recap of recent developments
- Three Israeli and five Thai captives were released from Gaza in exchange for 110 Palestinian prisoners.
- Israel’s prime minister delayed the release of Palestinian prisoners for several hours due to his anger at the crowds surrounding Israeli captive Arbel Yehoud as she was released in Khan Younis.
- There were emotional scenes in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank as captives and prisoners were reunited with their loved ones.
- Hamas confirmed the death of its military chief, Mohammed Deif, and other senior commanders.
- The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said it is continuing to operate even as Israel’s ban on the agency comes into effect.
- The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) has called on Israel to reverse its ban on the agency.
- Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witcoff, said after visiting Gaza that rebuilding it would take “10 to 15 years”.
- Palestinian officials said that two people were killed in fighting in Jenin. Israeli media also reported that an Israeli soldier was killed.
- 30 Jan 2025 - 23:30(23:30 GMT)
‘They’re going to do it’: Trump says Egypt, Jordan will take Palestinians from Gaza
The US president was asked about the plan he floated on Saturday that Palestinians from Gaza should move to Egypt and Jordan after the two countries rejected the idea.
“They will do it,” Trump told reporters on Thursday. “They’re going to do it. We do a lot for them, and they’re going to do it.”
Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said earlier on Thursday that rebuilding Gaza would take more than 10 years, after he was taken by Israeli forces on a tour of some parts of the Palestinian enclave.
Advertisement - 30 Jan 2025 - 23:15(23:15 GMT)
WATCH: What does prison mean in Palestinian life, literally and metaphorically?
Al Jazeera’s Marwan Bishara explained the importance of the prison experience to Palestinians – and what the release of prisoners held by Israel means.
Watch the video below:
- 30 Jan 2025 - 23:00(23:00 GMT)
Who is released Palestinian prisoner Zakaria Zubeidi?
One of the Palestinian prisoners released today is Zakaria Zubeidi, a former leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades from Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.
As a commander with the brigades – the military wing of the main Palestinian party, Fatah – Zubeidi was involved in attacks during the second Intifada from 2000 to 2005.
He is also known outside Palestine because of his involvement, since he was a child, with the Freedom Theatre in Jenin, a children’s theatre group run by Israeli and Palestinian peace activists.
Israel arrested Zubeidi in 2019 on charges of engaging in armed activities. But he and five other prisoners dug a tunnel through the floor of their cell at an Israeli maximum security prison and escaped in 2021. He was recaptured five days later.
Though he is free again, Zubeidi has been banned from returning to Jenin.
The Jenin refugee camp, where he grew up, has turned into a battle zone, with Israel pivoting from the war in Gaza to step up military operations in the occupied West Bank.
Former Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades commander Zakaria Zubeidi is carried on the shoulders of supporters in Jenin during the second Intifada in 2004 [File: Ammar Awad/Reuters] - 30 Jan 2025 - 22:45(22:45 GMT)
Trump wants to ‘clean out’ Gaza. Can he do it?
US President Donald Trump has called for transferring Gaza’s entire population to Egypt and Jordan.
“You’re talking about probably a million and a half people,” Trump told reporters. “We just clean out that whole thing and say: ‘You know, it’s over.’”
Analysts say Trump’s proposal would amount to ethnic cleansing, but it is unlikely to materialise, given the geopolitical realities in the region.
Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel programme at the Arab Center Washington DC, said Trump’s “outrageous” statement should be condemned for violating all norms and basic rights.
He added, however, it should also be taken with a degree of scepticism.
Read more here.
An aerial view of the destruction in Beit Hanoon after the ceasefire agreement in Gaza came into effect [Hasan Eslayeh/Anadolu Agency] - 30 Jan 2025 - 22:30(22:30 GMT)
Palestinian injured by Israeli forces in clashes south of Hebron
A Palestinian man has been injured by Israeli forces during a military raid on the Fawwar refugee camp, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.
The 20-year-old suffered bullet injuries to his hand and was taken to the hospital, the Wafa news agency reported.
The Israeli army also raided the home of freed prisoner Issa al-Darabi in the nearby town of Imrish and warned against holding celebrations, the agency said. Al-Darabi was not allowed to go home but was instead deported to the Gaza Strip.
- 30 Jan 2025 - 22:15(22:15 GMT)
Photos: Thai captives released from Gaza
Five Thai citizens who were held in Gaza were released as part of the ceasefire deal, and arrived in Israel.
Five Thai citizens arrive in Israel after being released from Gaza [Reuters] 
Five Thai citizens arrive in Israel after being released from Gaza [Reuters] 
Ambassador of Thailand in Israel Pannabha Chandraramya welcomes the released Thai captives [Reuters] - 30 Jan 2025 - 22:00(22:00 GMT)
Lebanon’s Health Ministry says Israel attacked hospitals 68 times since October 2023
The Ministry of Health in Lebanon has issued a new report mapping Israeli attacks on health facilities since the beginning of the hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel on October 8, 2023.
It concluded that Israel conducted 68 attacks on 38 hospitals. As a result, eight were closed and seven remained open, but only partially operational.
A total of 16 people were killed and 74 injured in these attacks. Twenty-five vehicles were also damaged.
Advertisement - 30 Jan 2025 - 21:50(21:50 GMT)
PFLP mourns Hamas’s Mohammed Deif
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has hailed the slain Hamas commander, calling him a “great national leader”.
“Over the decades, he was a nightmare for the Israeli occupation and one of the symbols of Palestinian resistance. And he was able with his mastermind and military ingenuity to deal heavy blows to the enemy,” the left-wing group said in a statement.
- 30 Jan 2025 - 21:40(21:40 GMT)
Trump’s ‘$50m in condoms’ claim. Is he thinking of the wrong Gaza?
United States President Donald Trump has boasted that his administration had stopped $50m in bomb-making condoms from being sent to Gaza.
Trump provided no evidence for his claims – that condoms were being sent to Gaza or that Hamas was using contraceptives to make bombs – and left many people wondering what the US president was talking about.
But perhaps there is an explanation. A bizarre one.
Could it be that Trump and his administration were referring to a different Gaza?
Read more here.
(Al Jazeera) - 30 Jan 2025 - 21:30(21:30 GMT)
If you’re just joining us
Here are some of the main developments:
- Israeli police have arrested 12 Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem for engaging in celebrations following the release of 110 Palestinian prisoners as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
- Hamas has said the killing of its military commander, Mohammed Deif, and other leaders will only make the group stronger and has promised to continue fighting until all Israeli prisons are emptied of prisoners.
- The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the occupied West Bank says two Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire in the Jenin refugee camp. Israeli media reported that an Israeli officer was also killed in Jenin.
- Israel’s military spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, has accused Hamas of endangering the lives of captives after a large crowd surrounded them in Khan Younis ahead of their release.
- The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said its clinics remain open in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem as Israel’s ban on the agency comes into effect.
- 30 Jan 2025 - 21:20(21:20 GMT)
‘UNRWA is the lung that Palestinian refugees breathe from’
Sitting in front of the remnants of his destroyed home in Khan Younis, 74-year-old Abu Nael Hamouda describes UNRWA as “a lifeline across generations” – one that has provided education, healthcare and food in times of peace and war alike.
“UNRWA is the lung that Palestinian refugees breathe from,” says Hamouda, who hails from what was once the Palestinian town of Majdal, which became part of Ashkelon in Israel.
With the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) ordered to cease operations in Israel and the occupied territory today, many Palestinians dread the implications on their lives and future.
For the duration of Israel’s 15-month war on Gaza, which has uprooted most of its population and reduced most of the enclave to rubble, UNRWA was a critical lifeline of support for the 2.3 million stranded Palestinians, even as humanitarian supplies dwindled.
“Without it, we would suffocate,” says Hamouda. “My children and grandchildren went to UNRWA’s schools, we were treated in UNRWA hospitals, and it helped us put roofs over our heads.”
Read more here.
A Palestinian boy carries an aid box provided by UNRWA, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip [Hatem Khaled/Reuters] - 30 Jan 2025 - 21:10(21:10 GMT)
In Khan Younis, Palestinians witness release of Israeli captives
A 32-year-old father was standing in a crowd near the rubble of the former home of Yahya Sinwar, the slain Hamas political and military leader, in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.
With his four-year-old son perched on his shoulders, he was waiting to catch a glimpse of two Israeli captives set to be released.
Thousands of people gathered amid a sea of green Hamas flags and black banners of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group. There were also portraits of Hassan Nasrallah, Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader killed by Israel, images of Abdel-Malik al-Houthi, the leader of Yemen’s Houthis, and Fathi Shaqaqi, the late founder of the Islamic Jihad.
As armoured pick-up trucks rolled by carrying fighters clad in combat gear and black balaclavas, the young father gestured towards them with pride.
“The resistance fighters are still here, alive, and capable of striking back,” he said. “This whole exchange is a reminder that the occupation has failed to break us.”
Read more here.
An aerial view of the Qassam Brigades gathering in front of Yahya Sinwar’s house in Khan Younis [Doaa Albaz/Anadolu Agency] - 30 Jan 2025 - 21:00(21:00 GMT)
Hamas says death of its leaders will make group stronger
After confirming the killing of military commander Mohammed Deif earlier, Hamas has released a new statement saying the assassination of its leaders will make the group stronger and more determined to “continue on the path of resistance”.
“Behind them are men who will continue their path, loyal to their approach, sacrifices and blood,” it said.
It also called on mosques around the world to hold funerals in absentia for the slain commanders on Friday.
- 30 Jan 2025 - 20:50(20:50 GMT)
Yemen’s Houthis reaffirm support for Hamas after military commander confirmed dead
The Political Bureau of Yemen’s Houthi rebel group has issued a statement after Hamas confirmed the killing of its military commander Mohammed Deif, which Israel said took place in July.
“We mourn the great martyr of the nation,” the group said. “The blood of the martyr leaders is the torch of the resistance, its fuel, and an ongoing flood that will not stop until the end of the Zionist entity [Israel].”
“We affirm our steadfast supportive stance for the resistance, Hamas, and the rest of the factions until victory, regardless of the circumstances and challenges,” it added.
- 30 Jan 2025 - 20:40(20:40 GMT)
Palestinians treated as ‘subhuman’ in Israeli detention: analyst
Basil Farraj, a professor at Birzeit University who studies political prisoners, told Al Jazeera that the release of many Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jail was being received with a mix of fear and anxiety from their families.
“[There are] the emotions of these families being able to hug their loved ones, but also the reminder of the cruelty that’s taking place inside Israeli prisons,” Farraj said.
He cited at least 58 Palestinian prisoners who have died in Israeli custody since October 7, 2023, and reports of Israeli torture and violence against prisoners. Those released on Thursday included children, as well as elderly people who had spent decades in Israeli custody, he said.
“Since October 7, the Israeli regime has been subjecting Palestinian prisoners — children, women, administrative detainees, adults, to brutal conditions of detention, where they have been denied medical care, denied food, denied any form of communication with their family members. They are restricting their communication with lawyers and subjecting them many of them to brutal isolation and solitary confinement.”
“This carceral system treats Palestinians as inferior, it treats them as subhuman.”
Advertisement - 30 Jan 2025 - 20:35(20:35 GMT)
Palestinian Health Ministry says two people killed in Jenin fighting
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the occupied West Bank says two Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire in the Jenin refugee camp.
The ministry added that their identities have not yet been confirmed.
Earlier we reported that an Israeli soldier was killed and five others were wounded during an exchange of fire with Palestinian fighters in Jenin, according to Israeli media.
- 30 Jan 2025 - 20:30(20:30 GMT)
WHO chief calls on Israel to reverse UNRWA ban
The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) has called on Israel to reverse its ban on the UN agency for Palestinian refugees
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there is “no alternative” to UNRWA’s work. The organisation established by the UN General Assembly in 1949 delivers emergency aid, education, healthcare and social services to at least 5.9 million people in Palestine and neighbouring countries.
“Banning its lifesaving work will have major health consequences for millions of Palestinians,” he wrote on X on the day the ban came into effect.
For decades, @UNRWA has been the main provider of health services in #Gaza and the West Bank. There is no alternative.
Banning its lifesaving work will have major health consequences for millions of Palestinians.
We call on #Israel to reverse the ban on UNRWA that is set to…
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) January 30, 2025
- 30 Jan 2025 - 20:20(20:20 GMT)
Psychological warfare from Israel and Hamas
There’s an implicit strategy on the part of the Israelis and Hamas, in terms of their ongoing psychological warfare.
Hamas is trying to project an image of unity, of confidence, of fearlessness, of organisation – and clearly trying to rub Netanyahu’s nose in the dirt, and humiliate the Israeli military. They’re saying: You’ve tried for 15 months to beat us; you’ve tried to release the captives by force, and you’ve failed.
And for the Israelis, it’s the same thing. They’re saying: We had to do what we had to do to bring back our captives, but this is definitely no reason [to allow] the Palestinians to celebrate.
But the way Hamas has been releasing the captives could be risky in terms of what the Israelis may do … and it could alienate a segment of Palestinian society that is saying: stop with the celebrations, stop with the theatrics, we are really suffering here. Let us deal with our destroyed homes and mourn our dead.
Updates: Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel, Hamas confirms Deif’s death
These were the updates on Israel’s war on Gaza and occupied West Bank raids on Thursday, January 30.
Published On 30 Jan 2025
This live page is now closed. You can continue to follow our coverage here.
- After a delay, Israel has released 110 Palestinian prisoners. This follows the confirmation the Israeli military’s confirmation of the release of three Israelis, one male and two female, and five Thai nationals from captivity in Gaza.
- Hamas has confirmed the killing of military commander Mohammed Deif. Israel says he was killed in July.
- An Israeli air strike killed at least 10 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank town of Tammun as Israel’s military intensifies operations in the occupied territory.
- Israel’s ban on the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in occupied East Jerusalem, Gaza and the occupied West Bank has begun, but UNRWA says it is continuing operations.
- 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.
