Summary of the day
It is 5pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. You can read today’s full report on the Jenin siege in the occupied West Bank here:
Here is a summary of the latest developments:
Israeli forces have besieged a Palestinian government hospital in Jenin and a nearby refugee camp in the heart of the city, as the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said the assault marked “a shift in … security strategy” in the West Bank. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Wednesday they had carried out airstrikes in Jenin as well as detonating roadside explosive devices. The escalating Israeli raid on Jenin continued despite the recent ceasefire in Gaza.
The Palestinian health ministry said at least 10 people were killed in Jenin, with more than 40 wounded. Despite Jenin’s mayor, Mohammad Jarar, telling the Palestinian news agency Wafa that Israeli forces had called on people from some Jenin neighbourhoods to evacuate using a loudspeaker, Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson, labelled any reports of forced evacuations “fake news”.
The escalation in Jenin came as Israeli forces choked off entrances and exits to Palestinian cities across the West Bank using checkpoints. A committee within the Palestinian Liberation Organisation tracking Israeli activity in the territory reported that the IDF had ramped up the number of military checkpoints and iron gates, reaching almost 900. The IDF did not comment on the precise number of new checkpoints.
Kamal Abu al-Rub, the governor of Jenin, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that there had been shooting and explosions in Jenin on Wednesday. He added: “The occupation army has bulldozed all the roads leading to the Jenin camp, and leading to the Jenin governmental hospital.”
In the early hours of Wednesday, Israeli soldiers also launched a raid on the Aida refugee camp located north of Bethlehem and in Tulkarm. Wafa said at least 29 people were arrested across the West Bank on Wednesday morning, most of them young men.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its ambulances had been prevented from reaching many of the dead and wounded who lay in the streets of neighbourhoods around the Jenin refugee camp. “No one can break the siege on the refugee camp and the surrounding area,” said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent. Their medics had treated seven fatalities and 17 wounded people, all injured with live ammunition, she added.
Wissam Bakr, the head of Khalil Suleiman governmental hospital in Jenin estimated that 600 medical staff and patients were sheltering inside the hospital, fearfully crammed on any beds, chairs or spaces they could find. Supplies of food and water in the hospital would only last a few days. An Israeli drone had been audible, he said, terrifying the people huddled in the hospital. Two nurses and three doctors were shot on the main road leading to the hospital on Tuesday, he added.
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, said he is “deeply concerned” about the situation in the West Bank. His comments came during Wednesday’s prime minister’s questions (PMQ) in the House of Commons, when the independent MP for Dewsbury and Batley, Iqbal Mohamed, called for “remaining hostages on both sides” in Israel and Gaza to be released.
Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, warned that the occupied West Bank could explode as Israel launched a deadly military operation in the city of Jenin. Asked by a Palestinian delegate at the World Economic Forum in Davos about the situation, Safadi described it as “dangerous”, adding: “I think the whole world needs to take a deep look at what is happening, and, with the same vigour that we’re looking at the ceasefire, we should also be working to prevent an explosion in the West Bank.”
Additionally, Safadi said that there needs to be more than a “short term” solution for Gaza. He told a room of delegates at the World Economic Forum that a “comprehensive solution that addresses the root causes” is needed, stressing that the Israel-Gaza conflict has “global implications”.
Qatari, US and Egyptian negotiators are running a communications hub in Cairo to protect the ceasefire in Gaza. Trust on both sides is negligible, so the communications hub is intended to prevent the ceasefire breaking down under accusations of violations.
Israel said it will maintain control of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip during the first phase of the ceasefire with Hamas. A statement by Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Wednesday denied reports that the Palestinian Authority would control the crossing. The statement said EU monitors would supervise the crossing, which will be surrounded by Israeli troops. Israel also will approve the movement of all people and goods.
The Palestinian civil emergency service and medical staff have recovered about 200 bodies since the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel came into effect on Sunday. Mahmoud Basal, the head of the service, said that extraction operations have been challenged by the lack of earth-moving and heavy machinery, adding that Israel had destroyed several of their vehicles and killed at least 100 of their staff. Basal estimates the bodies of about 10,000 Palestinians killed in the war are yet to be found and buried.
The United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres, on Wednesday hailed Donald Trump’s diplomatic efforts to help secure a truce in the Gaza Strip after 15 months of war. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Guterres praised the US, Qatar and Turkey for their effortss, but added: “There was a large contribution of the robust diplomacy of the at-the-time president-elect of the United States … I feel that when we had the position of Israel still reluctant to the ceasefire just two days before it happened, and then all of a sudden there was an acceptance.”
Guterres also said on Wednesday that Iran must make a first step towards improving relations with countries in the region and the US by making it clear they do not aim to develop nuclear weapons. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he said: “Here my hope is that the Iranians understand that it is important to once and for all make it clear that they will renounce to have nuclear weapons, at the same time that they engage constructively with the other countries of the region.”
Iraqi MPs and women’s rights groups have reacted with horror to the Iraqi parliament passing a law permitting children as young as nine years old to marry, with activists saying it will “legalise child rape”. Under the new law, which was agreed yesterday, religious authorities have been given the power to decide on family affairs, including marriage, divorce and the care of children. It abolishes a previous ban on the marriage of children under the age of 18 in place since the 1950s.
Iran hopes that the US president, Donald Trump, will choose rationality in its dealing with the Islamic Republic, Iran’s vice-president for strategic affairs, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said on Wednesday, adding Tehran had never sought nuclear weapons. Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Zarif said Iran is not a security threat to the world.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said on Wednesday they released the crew of the Galaxy Leader, a ship they seized in November 2023 at the start of their campaign in the Red Sea corridor. According to Reuters, the rebels said they released the sailors after mediation by Oman. The Houthi rebels said they hijacked the ship over its connection to Israel.
French investigating magistrates have issued an arrest warrant against ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for suspected complicity in war crimes, notably the launch of a deliberate attack on civilians, a legal source told Reuters late on Tuesday. The mandate was issued on 20 January as part of an investigation into the case of Salah Abou Nabour, a Franco-Syrian national, who was killed on 7 June 2017 in a bombing raid in Syria.
Updated
The escalation in Jenin came as Israeli forces choked off entrances and exits to Palestinian cities across the West Bank using checkpoints. In the early hours of Wednesday, Israeli soldiers also launched a raid on the Aida refugee camp located north of Bethlehem and in Tulkarm. The Palestinian news agency Wafa said at least 29 people were arrested across the West Bank on Wednesday morning, most of them young men.
A committee within the Palestinian Liberation Organisation tracking Israeli activity in the territory reported that the IDF had ramped up the number of military checkpoints and iron gates, reaching almost 900. The IDF did not comment on the precise number of new checkpoints.
Aseel Baidoun from Medical Aid for Palestinians, speaking from Ramallah, said:
For two days we have been experiencing an extensive military lockdown. The Israeli army has placed hundreds of new checkpoints that are making the movement between towns and cities almost impossible. People have reported delays at checkpoints averaging between six and eight hours.
“People are stuck in their towns and cities, unable to go to work,” she said. “It’s an open-air prison; we feel we cannot move around. If you want to go from Ramallah to Jericho it’s impossible, and it’s almost impossible to even reach nearby villages. There’s not only restrictions on movement but insane attacks from settlers.”
Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson, called the military operations across the West Bank “precise operations to target and fight terrorists while enabling the civilian population to go on with their lives”.
Despite Jenin’s mayor, Mohammad Jarar, telling Wafa that Israeli forces had called on people from some Jenin neighbourhoods to evacuate using a loudspeaker, Shoshani labelled any reports of forced evacuations “fake news”.
Shoshani said:
We have to learn from 7 October, and not let terror groups regroup and rearm, and plan attacks a few hundred metres from us.”
