Updates: Mass burial in south Gaza as Israel releases unidentified bodies

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For more on Palestine, you can read about how Israeli settlers wounded at least 54 Palestinians in West Bank attacks today here.

We also have this explainer on why Israel jailed a journalist who witnessed Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing here.

You can also check out our story on how a Palestinian cancer patient stuck in Egypt for two years returns to Gaza here.

We will be closing this live page soon. Here is a recap of today’s main events:

• Israeli settlers and soldiers have carried out widespread attacks on West Bank towns this morning, injuring at least 54 people, leading to arrests and the destruction of agricultural land and property.
• The High Court in the UK has ruled that the government’s ban on the pro-Palestinian campaign group Palestine Action as a “terror group” was unlawful.
• People continue to return to Gaza via the Rafah crossing, including a cancer patient stuck in Egypt for two years.
• The UN says Israeli authorities blocked several humanitarian missions in the Gaza Strip, including one aimed at reaching a wastewater treatment plant in Khan Younis, limiting aid to civilians in urgent need.

Leqaa Kordia, a 33-year-old Palestinian woman, has been detained in the United States by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency since March 2025.

Kordia is being held in Texas after being detained as part of US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestine protests on college campuses across the country.

Sadaf Hasan, a staff attorney at rights group Muslim Advocates, says authorities are using “extraordinary lengths” and “procedural legal loopholes” to ensure Kordia remains detained.

“It’s clear that she’s in confinement because the administration dislikes her views on Palestine, but also because she is Palestinian,” Hasan told Al Jazeera.

She argues that Kordia’s continued detention, despite repeated judicial findings in her favour, is intended to send a “chilling message” about the costs of protesting for Palestine in the US and to “squash free speech and organising on Palestine”.

“Why she’s still confined nearly a year later is to send a message. It’s political. It’s intentional,” Hasan added.

Huda Ammori, the cofounder of Palestine Action, says the UK government’s ban has backfired after the High Court ruled that proscribing the group as a “terror” organisation was unlawful.

Watch below for her comments:

The UN says Israeli authorities blocked several humanitarian missions in the Gaza Strip, including one aimed at reaching a wastewater treatment plant in Khan Younis, limiting aid to civilians in urgent need.

Citing the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said during a news conference that the UN teams “attempted to coordinate eight humanitarian missions, five of which were fully facilitated”.

“The three other missions, including one to reach a wastewater treatment plant in Khan Younis, were denied by the Israeli authorities,” he said.

“Four months since the ceasefire agreement came into effect, the humanitarian scale-up has saved countless lives and pushed back famine in Gaza.”

However, he said, many Palestinians live in “extremely harsh conditions”, and the “humanitarian response faces significant obstacles”.

The al-Najjar family gathered at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, early to await the arrival of their matriarch. They stood shoulder to shoulder, eagerly waiting for the bus.

For nearly two years, they have been counting down the days, amid Israel’s genocidal war, destruction, trauma and mourning, until Mariam could return home via the Rafah crossing.

“We [the family] feel happy because we will see my mother again,” Mohammad al-Najjar, Mariam’s son, told Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Khan Younis.

The family has suffered heavy losses, like all in Gaza.

“But we are sad because the situation has changed so much,” said Mohammad, adding: “We lost my brother, and our homes – we lost two houses, and there’s nothing left for us.”

Read the full story here.

Eyal Zamir said on his visit that the Israeli army is ready to resume its attacks on Gaza if ordered to do so.

“We are not relinquishing the objectives of the war – the full demilitarization of the Gaza Strip and the disarmament of Hamas,” he said.

As reported by Israeli outlet Haaretz, the Israeli army released two separate statements about Zamir’s visit, one in English and one in Hebrew. In the English statement, it quoted him as saying soldiers “stand ready to act defensively as required”. The Hebrew statement, however, said the army is “prepared to act offensively as necessary”.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, visited the cells of Palestinian prisoners at Ofer Prison near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, according to Wafa.

It said video footage released by Israeli media showed assaults on prisoners with the use of gas and stun grenades, as well as the forced removal and mistreatment of prisoners in the prison yard.

Ben-Gvir, who is in charge of the Israeli prison system, is reported to have threatened prisoners before the month of Ramadan, as he boasted about the changes he has made to prison conditions since taking office and warned of potential executions.

In November, Ben-Gvir bragged about the harsh treatment of Palestinian prisoners in a video filmed next to bound prisoners lying blindfolded on the floor.

A few days later, Ben-Gvir was seen carrying sweets in Israel’s parliament as it advanced a bill that would allow the death penalty for “terrorists” and is seen as targeting Palestinians.

The top diplomat overseeing the US-brokered “ceasefire” deal in Gaza says that continued violations of the agreement pose major obstacles to the Palestinian committee expected to oversee postwar governance and reconstruction.

Nickolay Mladenov, who serves as high representative for Gaza for the US-established Board of Peace, spoke during a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference. The international board, established by US President Donald Trump, is set to meet next week.

“We need to make sure that what is happening now with the violations of the ceasefire stops,” Mladenov said. “We’re only embarrassing the committee and ultimately making it ineffective.”

Mladenov didn’t lay out a specific timeline but said “all of this needs to move very fast”.

The UN says it rejects any threats made against Special Rapporteur Francesa Albanese.

Earlier this week, an online campaign targeted her using doctored video to manipulate comments she made during the Al Jazeera forum in Doha.

“UN officials across the board face increasingly personal attacks, whether online or in real life, and that remains a concern, and in that sense, we, of course, share the concern of the high commissioner’s office,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, said.

“People can disagree, people can criticise, but threats are unacceptable on any target.”

Health officials have buried the bodies of 53 unidentified Palestinians and dozens of organs and remains that Israel transferred to Gaza earlier this month.

Genetic testing isn’t available because of Gaza’s damaged medical infrastructure.

Watch here:

Indian writer Arundhati Roy says she was cancelling her planned participation in the Berlin Film Festival over comments from jury president Wim Wenders that the festival had to “stay out of politics”.

The Booker Prize-winning author said in a statement sent to AFP that she was “shocked and disgusted” by the celebrated German director’s response to a question on Gaza at a news conference on Thursday, adding, “With deep regret, I must say that I will not be attending the Berlinale.”

The United Kingdom’s ban on Palestine Action has “backfired”, its cofounder said, after the High Court ruled that proscribing the group as a “terror” organisation was unlawful.

Critics from the United Nations human rights chief to the Irish author Sally Rooney decried the UK’s ban last June as an illiberal overreach, since it put Palestine Action on par with ISIL (ISIS), al-Qaeda and dangerous far-right organisations.

“Today is a victory for Palestine,” Palestine Action cofounder Huda Ammori told Al Jazeera. The ban has “backfired on [the government] massively. They’ve made Palestine Action a household name.

“They have spread the message and the power that ordinary people have to shut down weapons factories across the country and across the world. So for that, I thank them.”

Read the full story here.

Writings and correspondence from jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti will be collected in a new book due out later this year, with his family expressing hope that it will give a new audience insight into his mindset.

Unbroken: In Pursuit of Freedom for Palestine, will be published in November and feature “private letters to his family, letters to public figures, press interviews, public statements, important historical documents”, and personal photos, according to publisher Penguin Random House’s Vintage division.

It will also include excerpts from his previous book, 2011’s, 1000 Days in Solitary Confinement, which was previously only available in Arabic, Vintage said.

Barghouti has been jailed by Israel since 2002. A senior leader in President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah group, Barghouti was a prominent figure in the first and second Intifadas, and was convicted by an Israeli court on five counts of murder in 2004, two years after he was jailed. He has denied the charges.

His imprisonment by Israel has been among the most high-profile, and his release has long been a key aim of several of the groups opposing Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

The Palestinian Ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, has taken to X in support of the UK High Court’s ruling that the ban on Palestine Action is unlawful, calling it “an important affirmation of legal principle”.

“The rule of law and the protection of fundamental rights are the cornerstone of any democracy and must remain our compass”, he said.

“Judicial decisions – whether by domestic courts or international tribunals – demand respect and equal application. This includes the ruling of the International Court of Justice that Israel’s occupation of Palestine is unlawful and must end,” he said.

The UK High Court’s ruling that the ban on Palestine Action is unlawful is an important affirmation of legal principle.

The rule of law and the protection of fundamental rights are the cornerstone of any democracy and must remain our compass. Judicial decisions — whether by… https://t.co/fcenapFY8o

— Husam Zomlot (@hzomlot) February 13, 2026

Francesca Albanese’s Doha speech was doctored to suggest she called Israel the “common enemy of humanity”.

She posted the full video, saying she meant the system shielding abuses from accountability.

France, joined by Germany and the Czech Republic, has urged her resignation, despite UN warnings of mounting attacks and disinformation against independent experts.

Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid reports:

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan called for an immediate halt to killings in Gaza and rebuilding the enclave, saying “dying in Gaza has not stopped” despite a “ceasefire” agreement with Israel.

Prince Faisal, speaking during a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference, also emphasised the need to preserve the unity of Gaza and the occupied West Bank, saying stability in Gaza is essential to that goal, Anadolu news agency reported.

He underscored the importance of addressing Palestinian rights, including the right to self-determination.

His remarks come amid heightened tensions in the occupied West Bank, after Israel’s government approved measures on Sunday aimed at changing the legal and civil reality there, including expanding enforcement powers into areas designated as A and B.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shaheen has called for empowering the Palestinian Authority to govern the Gaza Strip, saying the government is prepared to take over responsibilities and warning that continued marginalisation would undermine any post-war arrangements.

Speaking during a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference, Shaheen said the Palestinian leadership has long been planning for the “day after” in Gaza and is not starting from scratch.

“Yes, we’re ready,” she said in response to a question about timelines for taking over Gaza’s governance.

“We’ve been thinking about the day after in Gaza for some time. We’ve had plans that were endorsed by the Arab League, the Muslim world and the international community at large.”

Shaheen said the key requirement is for the Palestinian government to be empowered to carry out its responsibilities, arguing that the current sidelining of the Palestinian Authority is “unsustainable”.

“Today, the Palestinian government is marginalised, and you cannot continue marginalising a government,” she said, adding that developments in Gaza are inseparable from those in the West Bank.