• Israeli snipers have killed two Palestinian teenagers in a pogrom in the village of al-Mughayyir, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

Israel defence minister says removing Palestinians from Gaza remains ‘only solution’

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz says Israel is still seeking to remove Palestinians from Gaza, describing the depopulation of the territory as the “only solution”.

Speaking at a conference organized by Israeli publication Ynet, Katz said Trump had not abandoned the proposal but had merely “frozen it”, adding that the plan continues to be discussed.

Katz said Israel would need US backing to implement the proposal and noted that Egypt has refused to take in Palestinians displaced from Gaza.

Trump previously backed removing Palestinians from the enclave and having the US take control of the territory, before later sponsoring a “ceasefire” agreement that states that no one would be forced to leave Gaza.

Palestinian rights advocates have described proposals to depopulate the enclave as ethnic cleansing.

We don't know if Trump's "Gaza Riviera plan" from May 2024 is backing the Israeli plan of ethnic cleansing.

Two Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza

Two Palestinians were killed and several wounded when Israeli troops opened fire in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.

The injured have been taken to hospital for medical treatment, Wafa news agency reported.

Gaza’s entire two million population is penned in to about 30 percent of the tiny enclave’s territory, much of it destroyed by years of Israeli bombardment.

Gaza sewage system faces ‘unprecedented’ crisis, says water authority

Gaza’s sewage system is facing an unprecedented crisis, with about 55,000 cubic meters of untreated wastewater discharged daily, the Palestinian Water Authority has said, according to national broadcaster Palestine TV.

Some 40,000 cubic metres go untreated into the sea daily, while another 15,000 cubic metres leak into the environment via absorption pits and damaged networks, the authority said.

All five of Gaza’s main treatment plants have stopped operating, and only 18 of roughly 74 pre-crisis pumping stations are running, even partially. The share of the population served by sewage networks has fallen from more than 85 percent to about 45 percent.

Treatment capacity has dropped from about 185,000 cubic metres a day to zero, barring rehabilitation under way at the Sheikh Ijlin plant, which could restore 22,000 cubic metres of capacity in an initial phase with support from the International Committee of the Red Cross, rising later to about 65,000.

The authority said urgent needs include fuel, pumps, generators, spare parts and heavy equipment, warning that continued untreated discharge threatens public health and the marine environment.

Israeli military confirms killing of two Palestinians in northern Gaza

Israel’s military has confirmed the killing of two Palestinians in northern Gaza.

We reported earlier that two Palestinians were killed and several others were injured after the Israeli army opened fire on a group of people in Beit Lahia.

An Israeli army statement said two people approached in a “threatening” manner and were killed after crossing the so-called “Yellow Line”, the Israeli-occupied military demarcation boundary that Palestinians are not allowed to cross.

Recent reports note that satellite imagery proves that the Israeli military has been moving the yellow concrete blocks that make up the line deeper into the Gaza Strip, expanding Israeli control to about 60 percent of the territory.

Israeli attack west of Gaza City kills one person and wounds others

Gaza’s emergency medical services reported that one person was killed and several people were wounded by an Israeli drone attack in al-Rimal neighborhood, in the west of Gaza City.

Gaza’s Dr Hussam Abu Safia continues to face abuse inside prison, lawyer says

Israel abducted Dr Hussam Abu Safia on December 27, 2024, from Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza for defying Israeli orders to evacuate the hospital.

The jailed doctor’s latest testimony was conveyed by his lawyer Nasser Odeh, according to a statement on Wednesday by Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI). Odeh visited Abu Safia in the Rakefet detention facility inside Nitzan Prison in central Israel on Sunday.

Abu Safia said Israeli prison guards continued to beat him, deprive him of sleep and threaten him against sharing the conditions of his detention with his lawyer.

Guards have assaulted the doctor by “punching and kicking him and beating him with batons across his body, including sensitive areas”, according to the statement from PHRI.

Abu Safia is also “deliberately” deprived of sleep through the use of loudspeakers and other noise throughout the night, PHRI said.

Far-right Israeli minister sets out plan to forcibly remove Palestinians from Gaza

Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has set out a plan to forcibly remove Palestinians from Gaza and send them abroad.

Speaking in the run-up to closely contested Israeli elections next month, Ben-Gvir said the plan aims to see 250,000 Palestinians from the besieged enclave removed in the first year, followed by roughly 2 million residents over the next six years.

“It’s realistic,” Ben-Gvir said, claiming there are countries “ready” to take them in without naming which ones.

Under the Geneva Conventions, the forced displacement of civilians in occupied territory is considered a war crime.

Israeli military says it struck northern Gaza in response to fire near “Yellow Line”

The Israeli military says its forces have struck an area in the northern Gaza Strip, claiming it was responding to fire towards troops operating east of the so-called “Yellow Line”.

Israeli forces storm West Bank town in sweeping raids

Israeli forces stormed the town of Sebastia in the occupied West Bank at dawn on Thursday amid heavy military deployment and sweeping house-to-house raids, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Local sources cited by the agency reported that the Israeli forces brought military reinforcements into the town before raiding several homes and arresting people.

The sources said that Israeli forces also stormed the village of Asira al-Qibliya, south of Nablus, and deployed across several neighborhoods, while additional forces raided the village of Duma, south of the governorate.

Hamas condemns Israeli killing of two Palestinian teenagers in besieged West Bank village

Hamas has condemned the killing of two Palestinian teenagers, who were shot by Israeli soldiers as their village was besieged by colonists in the occupied West Bank.

In a statement, Hamas said that colonist attacks were escalating “with the protection and support of the Zionist occupation army”, and came “in the context of a systematic policy targeting our people and their land”, seeking to impose “annexation, forced displacement and ethnic cleansing”.

It said that the escalation “will not succeed in breaking the will of our people or uprooting them from their land”.

Palestinian teens shot dead by Israelis tried to help neighbors

The two young Palestinians killed by Israeli forces were responding to pleas for help from neighbors after Israeli colonists attacked their village in the occupied West Bank, according to their families.

Occupation soldiers raided their village of al-Mughayyir, near Ramallah, after the Israeli colonists stormed it. Snipers positioned themselves on the rooftops and then shot Khalil Abalaya, 16, and Omar al-Nasser, 19.

Al-Nasser was about to start his first year of university later this month, his sister said. The bodies are expected to be laid to rest later on Thursday.

Violence by Israeli colonists towards Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has persisted for decades, most often with little or no legal consequences. But recent months have seen a surge in attacks.

Happened in the occupied West Bank

Palestinian news agency Wafa:

• Israeli forces arrested seven Palestinians in various areas of the Bethlehem governorate.
• Six Palestinians were arrested in the Nablus governorate at dawn.
• Israeli forces stormed the town of Sebastia, northwest of Nablus, and the villages of Asira al-Qibliya and Duma, south of Nablus, amid a military deployment and widespread raids on homes.

Egypt, China back Palestinian statehood; raise alarm over colonist attacks

Egypt and China say making Palestine a sovereign state independent from Israel remains “the central issue in the Middle East”.

In a joint statement during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Cairo, the two countries renewed their “categorical rejection” of any plans to displace Palestinians from their land “under any pretexts or designations”.

They called for the enforcement of the “ceasefire” in besieged Gaza, the unrestricted flow of humanitarian aid, and the return of the Palestinian Authority to govern “as soon as possible”.

The statement also voiced concern over what it called serious Israeli escalation in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, citing rising colonist violence, land confiscation, and colony construction.

Amnesty: Israel escalating annexation with West Bank land seizures

Amnesty International says that Israel is escalating its annexation of the occupied West Bank, accusing Israeli authorities of ordering land seizures in Area A – which is under Palestinian Authority control – for the first time for civil rather than security purposes.

The British-based rights group said in a report released on Thursday that Israel’s military signed at least 15 land confiscation orders in July, covering about 200 dunams (20 hectares) in Jenin governorate, in Areas A and C, aimed at connecting two planned illegal colonies, Emek Dotan and Noa.

“These latest confiscation orders from Area A show how Israel is now brazenly expanding its annexation agenda to areas that have been under the control of the Palestinian authorities since the Oslo Accords,” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Citing the Jenin governor’s office, Amnesty said the land, mostly privately owned, would sever Jenin from other Palestinian governorates and cut hundreds of families off from agricultural land ahead of the olive harvest.

Amnesty called on states to suspend cooperation contributing to the violations.

Body of Palestinian boy released for burial 9 months after his killing

The body of a Palestinian teenager shot dead by Israeli forces in November 2025 has finally been released to authorities in the occupied West Bank.

Jadallah Jihad Jumaa Jadallah, from the Al Far’a refugee camp, was 15-years old when he was killed by Israeli gunfire.

His body will be buried according to arrangements made by his family, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Israel’s practice of holding on to bodies has long pained Palestinian families, who sometimes have to wait decades before receiving the remains of their slain loved ones for burial.

Israeli soldiers shoot at two Palestinian children in occupied West Bank

Two Palestinian kids have been injured in a shooting by Israeli forces in the town of Beit Fajjar, southern Bethlehem.

According to the WAFA news agency, the children were wounded after Israeli forces opened live ammunition fire during a raid on the town.

Israel must withdraw from occupied West Bank, says UN Human Rights Office for Palestine

The UN Human Rights Office for Palestine said Israel must “end its unlawful presence and evacuate all colonists from the occupied West Bank”, calling on the country to “fulfill its obligation under international law”.

The agency stated on social media that ongoing colonist violence and state violence against the people in Al-Mughayyir has led to the “complete displacement of Palestinians” in the area. The village of Al-Mughayyir is surrounded by eight colony outposts. Nine Palestinians have been killed since December 2025, according to UN data.

There have been more than 50 attacks carried out by colonists in 2026 alone, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, averaging 7 attacks per month. The UN agency has said that the attacks are carried out “with support and participation from Israeli forces.”

Funerals for two Palestinian teens killed as settlers, Israeli forces raid West Bank village

Funerals have been held in the occupied West Bank after two Palestinian teenagers were killed during a raid by Israeli forces and settlers in al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah.

Witnesses reported snipers positioned on rooftops and soldiers blocked all entrances to the village. The village has faced repeated attacks by Israeli settlers in recent months.