Israel

The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt has finally partially opened this week after two years of Israeli-mandated closure. The news offers relief for many – particularly those Palestinians in urgent need of treatment abroad.

But for many elderly Palestinians in Gaza, staying in the enclave is an act of survival, resistance, and historical memory. Rafah may be open, but they are not planning to go anywhere.

In Kefaya al-Assar’s mind, that decision to stay is an effort to correct what she perceives to have been a historical mistake made by her parents – fleeing their village of Julis, which was depopulated in the 1948 Nakba, and is now within Israel.

“We blamed [our parents] a lot for leaving our home there,” said the 73-year-old Kefaya.

Kefaya has faced displacement during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza five times. Originally from Jabalia in northern Gaza, she now shelters in a classroom at a school in central Gaza’s Nuseirat.

Widowed in early 2023 and without children, she said displacement revives the trauma she inherited from her parents.

“History repeats itself now,” she said. “My parents lost all their money when they were forced to flee. We also used to have money, but now we are displaced and have lost everything.”

When Kefaya was a child, her family lived in tents in Gaza’s refugee camps, before they became more permanent structures in later decades. Now, she says that she is reliving that same fate.

“I don’t want to repeat history, I want to die in my own country,” she said. “Even here, being in Nuseirat, I feel like a stranger. I wish I could go back to Jabalia.”

Her home in Jabalia was destroyed during the war, meaning that, for now, she is staying in Nuseirat. But she is still adamant that it will not mean her departure from Gaza.

“I will not leave for medical treatment outside … I choose to die on my own land rather than be treated outside,” she said.

That’s despite her own medical issues – Kefaya suffers from high blood pressure, and has not been able to receive adequate medical care because of the war.

Hidden crisis

The Rafah crossing partially opened on Monday after being largely closed by Israel since May 2024.

The opening of the crossing is part of the second phase of the Gaza “ceasefire”, even as Israel continues to violate the agreement by regularly attacking the Palestinian enclave, killing hundreds.

Only a few dozen Palestinians have been allowed to leave so far, all patients needing treatments accompanied by family members.

Other Palestinians have also put their names on the list, some hoping to go abroad for education or simply to escape life in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 70,000 since the war began, and destroyed the majority of buildings, meaning reconstruction will likely be a years-long process, even if Israel cooperates.

“Israel is creating unlivable conditions in Gaza, denying Palestinians all essentials of life,” said Talal Abu Rukba, a political science professor at al-Azhar University in Gaza. “When people resist and stay in their homeland, they ruin the Israeli project of creating an Israeli state on a land ‘without a people’”.

Members of the Israeli right-wing, including members of the government, have repeatedly called for illegal settlements to be established in Gaza, and for Palestinians to be forced out.

The desire to stay in Gaza on the part of elderly Palestinians is despite a largely overlooked humanitarian crisis facing the demographic.

Research by Amnesty International and HelpAge International found that Israel’s blockade of aid and medicines to Gaza had contributed to a “physical and mental health crisis”.

“During armed conflict, older people’s needs are often overlooked. In Gaza, older people are enduring an unprecedented physical and mental health collapse as a direct result of Israel’s deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza,” Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s senior director of research, advocacy, policy and campaigns, said after the publication of the report.

The two organisations found that 76 percent of the elderly people interviewed live in tents, with 84 percent saying that their living conditions harmed their health and privacy. In addition, 68 percent of respondents had been forced to stop or reduce medication because of a lack of availability. Nearly half reported skipping meals so that others could eat.

Many are also suffering from mental health problems, with 77 percent reporting that sadness, anxiety, loneliness, or insomnia had reduced their appetite and impacted their wellbeing.

Tired and lonely

Nazmeya Radwan, 85, is one of those struggling.

Ill, underweight and unable to access medication, she still refuses to leave Gaza.

Nazmeya has her own previous experience of displacement at the hands of Israel – like Kefaya’s parents, she was forced to flee her home in the 1948 Nakba, along with about 750,000 other Palestinians.

Originally from Jerusalem, her family was displaced to Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, after 1948.

“All my life was displacement and wars since the Nakba,” Nazmeya said. “I am 85, and tired, lonely, ill and displaced, but I would never leave Gaza. I would live as a beggar and homeless and never leave Gaza.”

Israeli warplanes conducted more than 50 raids on Lebanon last month amid major surge in attacks, says refugee rights NGO.

Israel is carrying out a “clear and dangerous” surge in air attacks on Lebanon, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has said, with its warplanes conducting more attacks on its neighbour in January than in any previous month since the ceasefire.

The humanitarian organisation said on Thursday that Israeli warplanes had carried out at least 50 air raids on Lebanon last month – about double the number of the previous month.

The group said the repeated attacks made a mockery of the ceasefire agreed between Israel and Lebanon in November 2024, after more than a year of cross-border attacks and a two-month-long Israeli intensification that killed thousands in Lebanon and devastated civilian infrastructure.

“These attacks – as well as the many ground incursions that continue to happen away from the cameras – have deemed the ceasefire agreement little more than ink on paper,” said Maureen Philippon, NRC’s country director in Lebanon.

The data, provided to the NRC by security company Atlas Assistance, captures only attacks carried out by manned Israeli warplanes and does not include Israeli drone attacks, which regularly result in deaths in Lebanon, or attacks carried out during Israeli ground incursions.

The Israeli attacks have continued in recent days. On Monday, Israeli warplanes targeted buildings in two villages in southern Lebanon, Kfar Tebnit and Ain Qana, after issuing evacuation orders to residents.

Israel’s military claimed the buildings were Hezbollah “military infrastructure” and said it was targeting them in response to what it said were the group’s prohibited attempts to rebuild its activities in the area.

On Wednesday, Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun accused Israel of committing an environmental crime after Israeli aircraft sprayed an unknown substance over southern Lebanese towns.

Death and displacement

The NRC said the ongoing attacks have created a climate of fear and instability for residents and were hampering much-needed reconstruction efforts, in a country still reeling from the effects of the conflict with Israel before the ceasefire.

The attacks have struck targets in dozens of cities and villages in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, destroying homes and displacing families in an environment where approximately 64,000 people have already been displaced by the conflict.

“Aid agencies, including NRC, are still dealing with the aftermath and consequences of months of destructive conflict which left much of Lebanon in ruins,” said Philippon.

She said the effect of the attacks was being felt by families and children, citing a school in west Bekaa that had recently been repaired by her organisation, only to be damaged again in a recent attack in the area.

“This means yet another spell of interrupted education for children,” she said.

Philippon called on Israel’s allies to do “everything they can to stop these attacks on civilian areas and villages”.

“This vicious cycle has to end,” she added.

‘Thousands’ of breaches

Under the terms of the November 2024 ceasefire, cross-border attacks were supposed to stop; Hezbollah was to withdraw north of the Litani River, which runs across south Lebanon; and Israel was to withdraw troops that had invaded south Lebanon in October.

Israel, however, has continued its attacks across the south and the Bekaa Valley in the east on a near-daily basis, while its army continues to occupy five points in southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese government says Israel has committed thousands of breaches of the ceasefire agreement.

Hezbollah has launched only one attack in the 14 months since the ceasefire, while Israel has killed more than 330 people in Lebanon, including at least 127 civilians, and a top Hezbollah commander, Haytham Ali Tabatabai.

As the prospect of a conflict between the United States and Iran looms, analysts within Israel have questioned the country’s capacity to determine the outcome of a confrontation in a region that, just months ago, it had regarded itself as on the brink of dominating.

“The [Israeli] opposition are accusing [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu of giving in to [US President Donald] Trump and ending the war on Gaza too soon,” said Israeli political analyst Ori Goldberg. “[Israel is] being hounded out of Lebanon, [its] freedom to operate within Syria has been halted. All that’s left to [Israel] is the freedom to kill Palestinians, and with Qatar, Turkiye and Egypt now being involved in Gaza, over Israel’s objection, it won’t be allowed to do that for much longer.”

While senior Israeli figures including Netanyahu are liaising directly with the Trump administration over a possible attack on Iran, analysts say it is increasingly clear that Israel’s ability to shape regional developments is diminished.

After two years of genocide in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 71,800 Palestinians, the US now appears to have taken the lead and has overruled Israel when it objected to the admission of Turkiye and Qatar to the board that will oversee the administration of Gaza.

In Syria, Israeli ambitions to hobble the new government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa also appear to have fallen foul of Trump’s White House, which is actively pushing the Netanyahu government to reach an accommodation with Damascus. In Lebanon, too, the US continues to play a defining role in determining Israeli actions, with any possible confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel said to be dependent upon Washington’s green light.

What influence Israel could wield over US action in Iran, according to many, is uncertain, even to the point that Washington could enter negotiations with no regard for Israeli concerns.

“There’s a worry that Donald Trump will not strike in Iran, which will continue to endanger Israel, and instead negotiate a conclusion that’s good for him as a peacemaker and leave the regime in place,” Netanyahu’s former aide from the early 90s and political pollster, Mitchell Barak, told Al Jazeera from West Jerusalem. “He’s transactional. That’s what he does. It’ll be like Gaza. Israel will secure their ultimate victory, then lose control to the US, whose interests – under Trump – don’t always align with ours.”

‘Big Bad Wolf’

While analysts’ expectations that Netanyahu could influence Trump’s actions in Iran may be limited, their sense that a fresh war would buy the Israeli prime minister relief from his current difficulties seems universal.

“Iran is Israel’s ‘Big Bad Wolf’,” Chatham House’s Yossi Mekelberg said of the geopolitical opponent that many in Israel believe exists only to ensure Israel’s destruction.

Mekelberg added that a war with Iran would serve as a useful distraction from Netanyahu’s domestic troubles, such as an inquiry into government failures related to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, his attempt to weaken the oversight powers of the judiciary, and his ongoing corruption trials.

“There’s a saying in Hebrew: ‘the righteous have their work done by others.’ I’m not for a moment saying that Netanyahu is righteous, but I’m sure he’s keen on having his work done by others,” Mekelberg said.

War fears

How much public appetite there may be for a confrontation with Iran is unclear.

Israel was able to heavily damage Iran during the conflict it started in June last year. But Iran was also able to repeatedly pierce Israel’s defences, making it clear that the Israeli public is not safe from the wars its state pursues in the region.

The threat – rather than the reality – of a confrontation with Iran also serves the prime minister’s ends, Goldberg noted. “Netanyahu has no need for a war. He doesn’t really need to do anything other than survive, which he’s proven adept at,” the analyst said, referring to the absence of any credible political rival, as well as the risk that an actual war may highlight Israel’s diplomatic weakness in its dealings with the US.

“There’s this joke phrase that became popular with those resisting Netanyahu’s judicial reform: ‘This time he’s done’,” Goldberg said. “Netanyahu’s never done. He committed a genocide, and all people in Israel can object to is the management of it. He’s currently losing military and diplomatic influence across the region, and few are noticing. I can’t imagine that this will be ‘it’ either.”

Names of the rich and powerful are littered throughout the latest batch of the “Epstein files.” Here are some of the most prominent global figures.

Leaked audio from the Epstein files suggests former UK prime minister and ‘Board of Peace’ member Tony Blair was known for earning large sums of money for advisory work after leaving office. Blair’s office told Al Jazeera the figures mentioned in the audio were ‘rubbish’.

Khan Younis, Gaza – The headlines read that Israel has finally reopened the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, allowing injured Palestinians desperate for medical aid to leave.

However, the reality is that on the first day of the opening, on Monday, Israel only allowed five patients to exit Gaza via the crossing, forcing hundreds, if not thousands, of others to wait.

Mohammed Abu Mostafa is one of the lucky five. The 17-year-old travelled on Monday with his mother, Randa, to southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, and then on to Rafah, which has been closed by Israel for two years as it waged its genocidal war on Gaza, killing more than 70,000 Palestinians.

Randa told Al Jazeera that she had received a phone call on Monday morning informing her that Mohammed had been included in the first list of wounded patients scheduled to travel, and that they were instructed to head immediately to the Red Crescent Hospital in Khan Younis.

The reopening of Rafah, Gaza’s only land crossing that does not go through Israel, has been much touted as evidence of the progress of the second phase of the United States-backed Gaza “ceasefire” deal.

But events on Monday revealed a different reality, marked by strict security restrictions, complex procedures, and limited numbers being allowed to cross, falling far short of expectations and the scale of Gaza’s accumulated humanitarian needs.

Each of the five patients being allowed to leave was accompanied by two people as per Israeli orders, bringing the total number of travellers to 15, according to information provided to Gaza’s health authorities.

Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Gaza’s al-Shifa Medical Complex, told Al Jazeera that this was the only group that departed, despite prior plans with the World Health Organization (WHO) – the body overseeing coordination between Egypt and Israel – for the departure of 50 patients daily.

Egyptian official sources have told Al Jazeera that 50 Palestinians were also permitted to return to Gaza via the Rafah crossing, though no information is yet available on whether they have actually reached the Palestinian side.

Ismail al-Thawabta, the director of Gaza’s Government Media Office, highlighted just how low these numbers are compared with the approximately 22,000 people needing to leave Gaza for treatment abroad. Meanwhile, about 80,000 Palestinians who left Gaza during the war want to return, he said.

Eye injury

Mohammed was injured in an Israeli air attack a year and a half ago, near where his family had been displaced in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, Randa said. He sustained a direct injury to his eye, severely affecting his optic nerve and ability to see.

“My son has been suffering immensely since his injury. Day after day, his condition kept worsening, and there is no treatment available for him in Gaza,” Randa said, while waiting in the hospital courtyard alongside other patients and their relatives.

Despite her joy at finally being able to accompany her son on his journey, Randa feels a sense of anguish at having to leave four of her six children behind, as she was only permitted to take one child as a second companion.

“What matters to me now is that my son regains his sight and can see again with his own eyes. That is my only concern at the moment,” Randa said.

“I also hope to return to Gaza soon after my son recovers, that the blockade will be lifted, and that all patients will be able to travel, just like my son.”

Israeli restrictions

In the Red Crescent Hospital courtyard, dozens of patients on travel waiting lists expressed frustration over the first-day restrictions at Rafah.

Several patients, including those with amputations, gathered at the hospital, hoping to be permitted to travel to Egypt for treatment.

Despite patients and their families arriving early in the morning with high hopes, Israeli authorities refused to permit more than five patients to leave, leading to widespread dissatisfaction with the complex mechanisms accompanying the crossing’s partial reopening.

The multi-stage security procedure of Palestinians moving through the Rafah crossing begins with the preparation of daily lists of candidates for travel, which are then referred to the Israeli side for pre-travel security screening.

No one is allowed to pass through the crossing or enter it without explicit Israeli approval. The European Union Border Assistance Mission deployed to Rafah is limited to monitoring the process and verifying identities.

Arrivals in Gaza, after initial identity verification at the crossing under European supervision, are subject to additional inspection procedures at checkpoints located in areas under Israeli military control.

Raed al-Nims, the Gaza Red Crescent’s head of media, told Al Jazeera that the organisation was still waiting for updates regarding the transfer of more patients for treatment through the crossing.

He added that a group of patients was successfully transferred to Israel on Monday through the Kerem Abu Salem crossing, in coordination with the WHO.

Desperate need

Ibrahim Abu Thuraya was also one of the five patients allowed to leave Gaza on Monday.

Ibrahim was injured in the early months of the war, sustaining wounds that led to the amputation of his left hand and an injury to his left eye, where shrapnel is still embedded.

“Day after day, my eye condition is deteriorating, and I feel severe pain, especially since the shrapnel is lodged behind it and there are no medical capabilities in Gaza to deal with it,” he said from Khan Younis, before he travelled to Rafah. “Doctors told me that I need to travel abroad.”

Ibrahim was informed on Monday morning by the WHO and Gaza’s Ministry of Health that he had been approved for travel. He will be accompanied by his wife, Samar, and their son.

“I have suffered greatly for two full years just to be able to leave for treatment, and there are thousands of wounded like me,” he said. “I hope the crossing will be opened permanently.”

The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt has finally reopened after months of closure as a result of Israel’s devastating war on the Gaza Strip.

Hopes were running high that the freedom of movement would ease the dire humanitarian crisis created by this war.

But Israel has set strict conditions on who can leave the Strip and who can enter.

Now, only a small number of people are allowed to move in both directions – mainly for medical evacuations.

But much-needed humanitarian aid and construction materials are still barred from entering the Strip, which is in ruins.

Will this reopening ease the suffering of Palestinians after two years of war?

Presenter: Maleen Saeed

Guests:

Hussein Haridy – Former Egyptian assistant foreign minister

Mosab Nasser – CEO of FAJR Global, an organisation that provides medical care, surgical missions and emergency evacuations

Akiva Eldar – Political analyst and contributor to Haaretz newspaper

Name of Israeli military facility at Gaza crossing with Egypt linked to Zionist anthem and pro-settler NGO, signalling a shift, analysts say. from security control to West Bank-style land grab and dehumanisation of Palestinians.

The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt has reopened partially for a few Palestinians after an 18-month closure in tandem with an added restriction to control the movement of returnees. The Israeli army has set up a checkpoint called Regavim in an area under its control outside the crossing for those entering Gaza from Egypt.

As the first trickle of humanity passed through the gates on Monday, official Israeli military documents gave it a name that indicates the facility is no longer being treated as a border crossing but as an operation for population control.

In an official statement published on its website on Sunday, the Israeli army announced the completion of what it called the “Regavim Inspection Nekez”.

While the Israeli military frames this technical language as routine, analysts told Al Jazeera that the choice of the words “Regavim” and “Nekez” indicates Israel’s long-term intentions.

Al Jazeera spoke to Israeli affairs experts who argued that these terms reveal a dual strategy: invoking Zionist nostalgia to claim the land while using engineering terms to dehumanise the Palestinian people.

Historical code: ‘Clod after clod’

For analyst Mohannad Mustafa, the name Regavim is not random; it is a deliberate ideological trigger intended to resonate with the Israeli government’s far-right base.

“In Hebrew, Regavim means ‘clods of earth’ or patches of arable land,” Mustafa explained. “But it is not just a word. It is a trigger for the Zionist collective memory of land redemption.”

The term is inextricably linked to the Zionist children’s song and poem Dunam Po Ve Dunam Sham (A Dunam Here, a Dunam There) by Joshua Friedman, which was an anthem for the early settlement movement. The lyrics celebrate the acquisition of land: “Dunam here and dunam there/Clod after clod (Regev ahar regev)/Thus we shall redeem the land of the people.”

“By officially naming the Rafah corridor Regavim, the army is sending a subliminal message,” Mustafa said. “They are framing their presence in Gaza not as a temporary security mission but as a form of ‘redeeming the land’ identical to the ideology of the early pioneers.”

Political code: The ‘West Bank model’

Beyond the historical nostalgia, the name has a direct line to the present-day architects of Israel’s annexation policies: the Regavim Movement.

This far-right NGO, cofounded in 2006 by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, has been the primary force behind the expansion of Israeli control in the occupied West Bank. A 2023 investigation by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz detailed how the organisation essentially became the “intelligence officer” for the state, using drones and field data to map and demolish Palestinian structures in Area C, the 61 percent of the occupied West Bank under full Israeli control.

Mustafa argued that applying this name to the Rafah crossing signals the transfer of the “civil administration” model from the West Bank to Gaza.

“It suggests that Gaza is no longer a separate entity but a territory to be managed with the same tools used to prevent Palestinian statehood in Judea and Samaria,” Mustafa said, using the Israeli terms for the West Bank.

Operational code: A ‘political brand’ and a ‘drain’

Analyst Ihab Jabareen takes the name Regavim a step further. He argued it has evolved beyond its linguistic meaning into a modern “political brand” for the settlement right and is being used to normalise a long-term Israeli presence.

However, Jabareen said the use of the term Nekez in the Israeli military statement portends even more danger.

“While Regavim operates as a political brand, Nekez reveals the cold, engineering mindset of the military,” Jabareen told Al Jazeera. “A Nekez is a drainage point. It is a hydraulic term used for managing sewage, floodwaters or irrigation – not for processing human beings.”

Jabareen argued that describing a human border crossing as a “drain” reflects three chilling assumptions now formalised in military doctrine:

1. Dehumanisation: “The Palestinian is no longer a citizen. They are a ‘fluid mass’ or a ‘flow’ that must be regulated to prevent overflow,” Jabareen said.
2. The end of negotiations: “You do not negotiate with a drain. Rafah is no longer a political border subject to sovereignty. It is an engineering problem to be managed.
3. Infrastructure, not a border: “Security is now being managed like a sewage system – purely technical, devoid of rights.”

“This is colder and more dangerous than standard settlement rhetoric,” Jabareen warned. “It converts the political issue of Gaza into a permanent technical function.”

A formula for ‘quiet control’

Both analysts agreed that the official adoption of these two terms points to a reality that is neither a full withdrawal nor declared annexation.

“It is a formula for ‘quiet control’,” Jabareen explained. “Israel doesn’t need to declare immediate settlement to control the territory. By treating the land as ‘Regavim’ (soil to be held) and the people as a ‘Nekez’ (a flow to be filtered), they are establishing a long-term reality where Gaza is an administered space, never an independent entity.”

Mustafa concurred: “The name ‘Regavim’ tells the settlers: ‘We have returned to the land.’ And the official designation ‘Nekez’ tells the security establishment: ‘We have the valve to turn the human flow on or off at will.’”

Beirut, Lebanon – Before Israel’s war on Lebanon, Ali (full name withheld for safety reasons) lived in Haddatha, a village in the Bint Jbeil district in the south, about 12km (7.5 miles) from the border with Israel, surrounded by nature where agriculture was intrinsic to life.

Then came Israel’s “hellfire”.

At least nine people were killed and some 3,000 injured, including the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, when thousands of pagers exploded, nearly simultaneously, overwhelming hospitals on September 17, 2024.

Six days later, Israel escalated its attacks across the south, killing nearly 600 people, in what was the country’s deadliest day since the country’s ruinous civil war ended in 1990, and displacing more than one million people.

“Our house was destroyed,” he told Al Jazeera. Ali took refuge in a town about 20km (12.5 miles) north of Haddatha, called Burj Qalaway.

But more than a year later, he is yet to return home despite a ceasefire. He is one of tens of thousands who are still displaced from their homes around Lebanon and who say that what little they have received in support from the Lebanese state or Hezbollah is not enough to rebuild their lives or homes destroyed during the war.

South ‘not safe’

On November 27, 2024, a ceasefire came into effect between Hezbollah and Israel. The agreement brought to an end more than a year of cross-border attacks and a two-month-long Israeli intensification that killed thousands in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and devastated civilian infrastructure.

Under the ceasefire, cross-border attacks were supposed to stop, Hezbollah was to withdraw north of the Litani River, which runs across south Lebanon, and Israel was to withdraw troops that had invaded south Lebanon in October.

Israel, however, never stopped attacking. Its army still occupies five points in southern Lebanon, and during the ceasefire, it razed several villages to the ground.

An estimated 1.2 million people, more than a quarter of the Lebanese population, had been displaced during the war. On the morning of November 27, hundreds of thousands of people streamed south to their villages to return home. But tens of thousands more have been left behind and are still unable to go home.

“The south is not safe,” Ali said. “I am afraid that I might be walking somewhere and a raid will attack a car next to me.”

Israeli attacks continue across the south and the Bekaa Valley in the east on a near-daily basis, with the Lebanese government counting more than 2,000 Israeli violations of the 2024 ceasefire deal in the last three months of 2025.

Ali is not alone. The International Organization for Migration estimates that more than 64,000 people are still internally displaced in Lebanon, according to figures compiled in October 2025.

Entire villages ‘razed’

Some of the 64,000 cannot return to their homes along the border region with Israel. Israeli soldiers still hold five points on Lebanese territory, managing large swaths of south Lebanon through violence and technology: using drones, air raids, shelling or gunfire. Since the ceasefire, Israel has killed more than 330 people in Lebanon, including at least 127 civilians.

Melina*, from Odaisseh, a village on the southern border, lived most of her life in Nabatieh. During the war, she was displaced to Sidon, a southern city about 44km (27 miles) south of Beirut.

“I haven’t been able to visit my village,” she told Al Jazeera. “Psychologically, I can’t bear to see our house, which was completely destroyed, and the entire village was razed to the ground.”

“The security situation remains extremely dangerous,” she said. “You could be shot at by the Israeli side at any moment, and it’s unsafe to travel without a Lebanese army escort.”

Ali runs a market in Burj Qalaway, but he says the income is not enough to rebuild his home. There are also other concerns. Israel has attacked reconstruction equipment in southern Lebanon, drawing criticism from human rights groups.

“Amid the ceasefire, Israeli forces have carried out attacks that unlawfully target reconstruction-related equipment and facilities,” Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a December 2025 report. “After reducing many of Lebanon’s southern border towns to rubble, the Israeli military is now making it much more difficult for tens of thousands of residents to rebuild their destroyed homes and return to their towns.”

Some Lebanese also fear a renewed Israeli offensive similar to the one in 2024.

‘Couldn’t see 2cm in front of me’

On July 30, 2024, at about 7:40pm, Ramez* was sitting in his bedroom at home in Haret Hreik, a neighbourhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs referred to locally as Dahiyeh, an area often targeted in the past by Israel for the Hezbollah presence there.

His cats were roaming around the room, and he was busy on his phone when he heard loud explosions.

The war had been raging in the south, but attacks on Beirut and its suburbs were not yet as common. “I heard more than nine bangs,” Ramez said. He ran out of his bedroom to help his family evacuate. He left his door open, he said, so his cats could escape. While telling his mother to grab her things, he heard the loudest bang.

“The whole neighbouring building just collapsed and fell on us,” he said. Israel had just levelled the building next to his, killing Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah commander.

“I couldn’t see 2cm in front of me because of the fog and the dust.”

Ramez’s family escaped unscathed, though their house was badly damaged and his sister’s car was destroyed. His cats also survived. He found them the next day.

“I always wondered how people just go through something like this and just move on, saying, OK, Alhamdulillah, everyone is alive,” he says, though, “at that point I kind of understood it”.

Since the end of the war, he has been able to return to his family home in Haret Hreik. But his family had to pay for most of the reconstruction themselves, with little help from the government or any group.

They registered with the government for assistance but said they received only a one-time payment of 30 million Lebanese pounds (a little more than $330).

Hezbollah also sent engineers to assess the damage. In December 2024, the Reuters news agency reported that Hezbollah would pay about $77m and rent to families affected by war. Some locals said payments from the group helped a bit, but others said it had stopped paying nonmembers or tried to undervalue their losses.

“They were very stingy with payments,” Ramez said. “They tried to make us accept low payments, but my mom stood her ground and said it is enough.”

Other people who were displaced by the war told Al Jazeera that the aid provided by the state and Hezbollah was very limited.

War is ‘most terrible’

Reports are mixed over Hezbollah’s financial capability, and it is difficult to determine how badly they have been hit financially after the group’s political and military leadership was devastated by 2024’s war and suffered several Israeli assassinations, including their longtime charismatic leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

The fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria also dealt Hezbollah a serious blow, disrupting the land route to its main benefactor, Iran – itself now reeling from deadly protests and bracing for a possible US attack. The group is under immense pressure from the Lebanese government to disarm, with the United States and Israel applying pressure.

Further compounding the crisis is the fact that Lebanon is now almost seven years into one of the worst economic crises in more than 150 years, according to the World Bank. This has hit locals hard, with many having their bank accounts frozen and the currency devaluing by more than 90 percent.

This has left many of the displaced feeling abandoned and unsure of how to continue.

There were violent Israeli air raids in the south on Saturday, which continued on Sunday. In the meantime, people like Ali have to continue figuring out ways to survive as their displacement carries on well past the one-year mark.

“We love life, but the situation is not good. Wars break your back,” Ali said. “War is the most terrible thing in the world.”

*Real names withheld for safety reasons.

Joao Sousa contributed to this report.

Medical charity has been barred for not providing Israeli authorities with personal details of its staff in the enclave.

Israel says it will terminate the humanitarian operations in Gaza of Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, after it failed to provide a list of its Palestinian staff, further depriving Palestinians in the besieged enclave of life-saving assistance.

In December, Israel announced it would prevent 37 aid organisations, including MSF, from working in Gaza from March 1 for failing to submit detailed information about their Palestinian employees, drawing widespread condemnation from NGOs and the United Nations.

“The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism is moving to terminate the activities of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in the Gaza Strip,” the ministry said on Sunday.

The decision followed “MSF’s failure to submit lists of local employees, a requirement applicable to all humanitarian organisations operating in the region”, it added.

The ministry had earlier alleged that two MSF employees had links with Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which the charity has denied.

On Sunday, the ministry said MSF had committed in early January to sharing the staff list as required by the Israeli authorities but ultimately refrained, citing concerns for staff safety and a lack of assurances over how the information would be used.

“Subsequently, MSF announced it does not intend to proceed with the registration process at all, contradicting its previous statements and the binding protocol,” the ministry added, saying, “MSF will cease its operations and depart the Gaza Strip by February 28.”

Israel’s decision to terminate MSF’s operations in Gaza “is an extension of Israel’s systematic weaponisation and instrumentalisation of aid”, James Smith, an emergency physician based in London, told Al Jazeera.

“Israel has systematically targeted the Palestinian healthcare system, killing more than 1,700 Palestinian healthcare workers,” thereby “creating a profound dependency on international organisations”, Smith said.

MSF said 15 of its employees have been killed over the course of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, which began on October 7, 2023.

MSF has long been a key provider of medical and humanitarian aid in the enclave, particularly since the war began.

The charity said it currently provides at least 20 percent of hospital beds in the territory and operates about 20 health centres.

In 2025 alone, it carried out more than 800,000 medical consultations and more than 10,000 infant deliveries. It also provides drinking water.

Aid groups warned that without international support provided by organisations such as MSF, critical services such as emergency care, maternal healthcare and paediatric treatment could collapse entirely in Gaza, leaving hundreds of thousands of residents without basic medical care.

Israel has killed more than 500 Palestinians since agreeing to end its genocidal war under a US-brokered ‘ceasefire’, which has been a truce in name only. Here are some of their stories.

The pilot comes before Gaza residents begin to pass through the crossing on Monday, Israeli authorities say.

Israel says it has partially reopened the critical Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt in a limited capacity.

Israel announced on Sunday that the crossing had reopened in a trial. Meanwhile, COGAT, the Israeli military agency that controls aid to Gaza, said in a statement that the crossing was actively being prepared for fuller operation, adding that residents of Gaza would begin to pass through it on Monday.

“In accordance with the ceasefire agreement and a directive of the political echelon, the Rafah Crossing was opened today for the limited passage of residents only,” COGAT said.

The Israeli army said it has completed a complex that will serve as a screening facility for Palestinians passing in and out of Gaza through the Rafah crossing, which will be open for the movement of some people on Monday.

Rafah has been largely shut since it was seized by Israel in May 2024, amid the country’s two-year genocidal war on Gaza.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Khan Younis in southern Gaza, said the crossing’s reopening was an “uncomfortable dynamic”.

“Palestinians want to leave, but at the same time, they’re worried they won’t be able to come back,” he said. “People said the purpose for them departing would strictly be for medical evacuation or continuing their education, and they want to come back later on.”

Ismail al-Thawabta, the director of Gaza’s Government Media Office, told Al Jazeera that about 80,000 Palestinians who left Gaza during Israel’s war are seeking to return.

An estimated 22,000 wounded and sick people are also “in dire need” to leave Gaza for treatment abroad, he added.

Israeli attacks continue

An Israeli drone attack on Sunday killed one person in the northwest of Rafah city in southern Gaza, according to a source at the Nasser Medical Complex.

Palestinian media outlets confirmed the death of Khaled Hammad Ahmed Dahleez, 63, in the Al-Shakoush area.

Meanwhile, in central Gaza, an Israeli drone attack killed a Palestinian in the Wadi Gaza area.

The attacks came after at least 31 people were killed on Saturday in multiple Israeli air raids on northern and southern Gaza.

Israeli forces have killed at least 511 Palestinians, and wounded 1,405, since the start of the US-backed “ceasefire” on October 10.

Israel to ban MSF

The Israeli government dealt another blow to the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, announcing on Sunday that it will terminate the humanitarian operations of Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, in the besieged Palestinian territory after it failed to provide a list of its Palestinian staff.

The decision followed “MSF’s failure to submit lists of local employees, a requirement applicable to all humanitarian organisations operating in the region”, Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism said.

In December, Israel announced it would prevent 37 aid organisations, including MSF, from working in Gaza from March 1 for failing to submit detailed information about their Palestinian employees, drawing widespread condemnation from NGOs and the United Nations.

Israel’s decision to terminate MSF’s operations in Gaza “is an extension of Israel’s systematic weaponisation and instrumentalisation of aid”, James Smith, an emergency doctor based in London, told Al Jazeera.

“Israel has systematically targeted the Palestinian healthcare system, killing more than 1,700 Palestinian healthcare workers”, thereby “creating a profound dependency on international organisations”, Smith said.

Israeli occupation authorities have intensified their campaign of forced displacement across the occupied West Bank, issuing expulsion orders to an entire Bedouin community east of Ramallah and escalating demolition policies in occupied East Jerusalem.

The measures come amid a surge in settler violence targeting educational institutions in the Jordan Valley and residential homes in Qalqilya, further shrinking the living space for Palestinians under military occupation.

‘Zone of expulsion’

On Sunday morning, Israeli forces raided the Abu Najeh al-Kaabneh Bedouin community in al-Mughayyir village, east of Ramallah.

Local sources confirmed to the Wafa news agency that soldiers delivered a military order requiring the community’s 40 residents to dismantle their homes and leave the area within 48 hours. The army declared the site a “closed military zone”, a tactic frequently used to clear Palestinian land for settlement expansion.

During the raid, Israeli troops arrested three foreign solidarity activists attempting to document the eviction order.

The expulsion order is part of a widening campaign of ethnic cleansing in the region. It follows the complete displacement of the Shallal al-Auja community north of Jericho, which concluded on Saturday. After years of systematic harassment, the last three families of the community were forced to leave, marking the erasure of a presence that once included 120 families.

Al-Aqsa provocations

In occupied East Jerusalem, Israel’s municipal policies of urban restriction continued to displace Palestinians.

On Sunday, Yasser Maher Dana, a Palestinian resident of the Jabal Mukaber neighbourhood, was coerced into demolishing his 100-square-metre (1,076-square-foot) home. The structure, located in the al-Salaa district, housed four family members.

Israeli authorities routinely force Palestinians in East Jerusalem to execute their own demolition orders to avoid paying exorbitant fees charged by municipal crews and forces if they carry out the destruction themselves. These demolitions are justified by a lack of building permits, which rights groups say are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain in the city.

Simultaneously, in Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the municipality issued a demolition order for a residential room belonging to the al-Taweel family, granting them a 10-day deadline. This follows notices issued three days before demolishing two homes belonging to brothers in the Wadi Qaddum neighbourhood.

Tensions also rose at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, stormed by dozens of Israeli settlers under heavy police protection. According to the Jerusalem governorate, the incursion included a provocative “wedding blessing” ritual performed by settlers for a bride in the courtyards, a violation of the site’s status quo.

Settlers attack schools and homes

In the northern Jordan Valley, Israeli settlers, backed by the military, disrupted the school day at the al-Maleh School.

Azmi Balawneh, the director of education in Tubas, reported that settlers blocked teachers from reaching the school, which serves children from the vulnerable Bedouin communities of al-Hadidiya, Makhoul, and Samra.

This harassment coincides with the establishment of a new illegal settlement outpost in the al-Maleh area just a week ago. In the nearby Khirbet Samra, settlers erected a new tent on Sunday morning to seize more pastoral land.

Meanwhile, in the village of Faraata, east of Qalqilya, settlers from the illegal “Havat Gilad” outpost attacked the home of Hijazi Yamin.

Yamin told Wafa that settlers pelted his house and unleashed an attack dog on his family, trapping his wife and seven children inside.

“We live in a constant state of insecurity,” Yamin said, noting this was the second attack in a week. “I am afraid to leave my wife and children alone or let them go to school.”

Military raids and closures

Israeli forces conducted multiple raids across the West Bank on Sunday, arresting at least four Palestinians. In Hebron, two brothers were arrested following a raid on their family home. More arrests were reported in the village of Duma, south of Nablus, and in the town of al-Ubeidiya, east of Bethlehem.

In the northern city of Jenin, military vehicles stormed the city centre and the Jabel Abu Dhuhair neighbourhood. During the incursion, troops deliberately destroyed street vendors’ carts at the Cinema Roundabout, targeting the local economy.

Movement restrictions also tightened significantly. For the second consecutive day, the Israeli army closed the main entrance to Turmus Aya, north of Ramallah, and blocked the Atara military checkpoint since the early morning hours, severing connections between northern and central West Bank cities. According to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, Israel now operates 916 military checkpoints and gates throughout the West Bank.

United States plans for Gaza amount to a “theme park of dispossession” for Palestinians, argues Drop Site News Middle East Editor Sharif Abdel Kouddous.

Abdel Kouddous tells host Steve Clemons the draconian measures planned for the two million shell-shocked Palestinians in Gaza are an Orwellian labyrinth of biometrics, bureaucracy and “a lab for government surveillance” – all meant to drive them out.

Noting that Israel hasn’t “gone past phase one” of any ceasefire agreement with an Arab country, Abdel Kouddous warns that Israel is establishing facts on the ground in Gaza – including 50 military bases – “which eventually become permanent”.

Jan. 31 (UPI) — Israel on Saturday launched airstrikes at targets in Gaza, with Palestinian authorities reporting that at least 30 were killed in the attacks.

The strikes come after Israel accused Hamas of violating a shaky cease-fire in Gaza ahead of the expected reopening of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza.

The strikes hit an apartment building, tent camp and a police station, hospital officials told the Los Angeles Times.

Ten officers and detainees were killed in the police station strike in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood outside Gaza City. Officials are searching the rubble for bodies and said the number of dead could increase, The Guardian reported.

The outlet added that three children and two women were killed in the apartment building in Gaza City, in addition to seven who died in strikes in the Khan Younis tent camp.

In a statement, Israel said the strikes were in response to militants leaving a tunnel in Rafah, which is controlled by Israel and would constitute a violation of the cease-fire.

The latest outbreak of violence comes one day before the land crossing between Gaza and Egypt in Rafah is due to reopen, part of the multi-part cease-fire that Israel and Hamas agreed to last October.

Israeli officials said the crossing would be open to a “limited” number of people and that all individuals entering or exiting Gaza will be required to obtain a security clearance from Israel in coordination with Egypt, NBC News reported.

Hospitals and ambulances in Egypt already have been preparing to receive sick and injured Palestinians from Gaza when the crossing opens on Sunday morning.

Despite the both Israel and Gaza accusing each other of violating the cease-fire, an Israeli official told The New York Times that Israel will not alter plans to open the Rafah border crossing.

The Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics open on Monday but one rapper Ghali’s inclusion draws criticism in his native Italy.

The inclusion ‌of Italian rapper Ghali in the cast of performers at the ‍opening ceremony of ‍the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics has led to a dispute in Italy.

The artist, born in Milan to Tunisian parents, has been criticised in Italy because of his comments on Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Al Jazeera Sport takes a look at the latest example of sport and politics colliding and why this case has hit the headlines.

Who is criticising Ghali’s inclusion at the Winter Olympics?

Members of Italy’s right-wing League party, part of Prime ⁠Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government, have criticised the choice of Ghali to ‍perform at the event in the San Siro stadium on February 6.

What is Ghali criticised for saying about Israel?

Ghali was at the centre of a political spat two years ago during the popular Sanremo song contest, ‍when he ⁠called for a “stop to the genocide” in reference to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

A League party source called Ghali a “pro-Palestinian fanatic” who hated Israel and the centre-right, in comments to the Italian ​media.

Is Ghali’s Winter Olympics opening ceremony role set to be controversial?

Sport Minister Andrea Abodi said he did not ‌expect Ghali to use the Olympic stage to make a political point.

“I am not embarrassed to disagree with Ghali’s views and the messages he has sent, but I believe that ‌a country must be able to absorb the impact of an artist who has expressed an opinion that ‌we do not share, which will not be ⁠expressed on that stage,” he said.

What other names will be alongside Ghali to open the Milano Cortino Games?

Ghali, who has not commented on the dispute, is likely to appeal to a younger audience more than other performers at the opening ceremony, who will ‌include tenor Andrea Bocelli and US pop singer Mariah Carey.

Franco-Malian pop star Aya Nakamura was the target of racist abuse online when it emerged that ‍she would sing at the opening of the Summer Olympics in Paris in 2024.

Israel says it will reopen the Rafah crossing on Sunday after nearly two years — but only for restricted, tightly controlled movement of people. Humanitarian aid remains barred. Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reports from Rafah as Israel retains full security control.

Award-winning Palestinian journalist regains account with 1.4 million followers after surprise removal from video-sharing platform.

Award-winning Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda says she has regained access to her TikTok account, one day after saying she was banned from the video-sharing platform.

Owda told Al Jazeera on Thursday that she thought that international media attention and pressure from nongovernmental organisations had helped get back her TikTok account, although now visitors and followers must type her full username to find her popular account on the site.

Owda also said that she had received a message from TikTok that many of her video posts are now “ineligible for recommendation”.

Al Jazeera was able to see Owda’s TikTok account on Friday, which has 1.4 million followers, although no new posts are visible from the Gaza-based journalist since September 2025.

Owda gained recognition internationally for posting daily videos from the war-torn Palestinian territory, where she greeted her audience in regular video diaries, saying, “It’s Bisan from Gaza – and I’m still alive” during Israel’s genocidal war on the enclave.

A contributor to Al Jazeera’s AJ+, Owda’s reporting earned her top journalism accolades, including Emmy, Peabody and Edward R Murrow awards.

Alerting followers to the removal of her account on Wednesday, Owda noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is suspected of war crimes in Gaza, had said that he hoped the purchase of TikTok “goes through, because it can be consequential”.

Despite a ceasefire in Gaza, Israeli attacks continue on the enclave, and last week, Israel’s ongoing strikes killed three Palestinian journalists in the territory.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 207 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, with the “vast majority” killed by Israeli forces.

The removal of Owda’s account also came as Israel’s top court again postponed making a decision on whether foreign journalists should be allowed to enter and report on Gaza independently of the Israeli military.

Al Jazeera contacted TikTok for comment, but a spokesperson said the company did not comment on specific accounts.

A spokesperson from TikTok told The New Arab media outlet that Owda’s account had been “temporarily restricted” in September following concerns of a potential impersonation risk.

The spokesperson said that following further review, the journalist’s account was reinstated and is now operating normally, according to The New Arab.

TikTok announced last week that a deal to establish a separate version of the platform in the United States had been completed, with the new entity controlled by investment firms, many of which are US companies, including several linked to President Donald Trump.

Emmy-winning Owda points to changes in TikTok’s US ownership, remarks from Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu to explain ban.

Award-winning Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda has said she has been permanently banned from TikTok, days after the social media platform was acquired by new investors in the United States.

Owda, an Emmy Award-winning journalist and contributor to Al Jazeera’s AJ+ from Gaza, shared a video on her Instagram and X accounts on Wednesday, telling her followers that her TikTok account had been banned.

“TikTok deleted my account. I had 1.4 million followers there, and I have been building that platform for four years,” Owda said in the video filmed from Gaza.

“I expected that it will be restricted, like every time, not banned forever,” she added.

Al Jazeera sent a query to TikTok inquiring about Owda’s account and is waiting for a reply.

Hours after Owda shared her video, an account that appeared to have the same username was still visible on TikTok with a message that said: “Posts that some may find uncomfortable are unavailable.”

The last post visible on that account was from September 20, 2025, nearly three weeks before a ceasefire was reached in Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

In her video on Wednesday, Owda pointed to recent remarks from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as Adam Presser, the new CEO of TikTok’s US arm, as a possible explanation for the ban.

Netanyahu met with pro-Israel influencers in New York in September last year, telling them that he hoped the “purchase” of TikTok “goes through”.

“We have to fight with the weapons that apply to the battlefield in which we engage, and the most important ones are social media,” Netanyahu, who is a war crimes suspect, said at the time.

“The most important purchase that is going on right now is … TikTok,” Netanyahu added. “TikTok, number one, number one, and I hope it goes through, because it can be consequential,” he said.

TikTok announced last week that a deal to establish a separate version of the platform in the US had been completed, with the new entity controlled by investment firms, many of which are American companies, including several linked to US President Donald Trump.

Owda also shared an undated video of Adam Presser, the new CEO of TikTok’s US arm.

In the video, Presser speaks about changes made at TikTok, where he previously worked as head of operations in the US, saying that “the use of the term Zionist as a proxy for a protected attribute” had been designated “as hate speech”.

“There’s no finish line to moderating hate speech, identifying hateful trends, trying to keep the platform safe,” Presser said.

Zionism is a nationalist ideology that emerged in the late 1800s in Europe, calling for the creation of a Jewish state.

Owda’s social media presence grew from posting daily videos in which she greeted her audience, saying, “It’s Bisan From Gaza – and I’m still alive.”

She made a documentary of the same name with Al Jazeera’s AJ+, which was awarded an Emmy in the Outstanding Hard News Feature Story category in 2024.

Her video on Wednesday came as Israel’s top court again postponed making a decision on whether foreign journalists should be allowed to enter and report on Gaza independently of the Israeli military.

Despite the ongoing ceasefire, an Israeli attack last week killed three Palestinian journalists in Gaza.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 207 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, with the “vast majority” killed by Israeli forces.

As the US moves to launch phase two of the Gaza ceasefire, we look at how Israel has fallen short on phase one – and why the deal is advancing anyway.

The last Israeli captive’s body is found in Gaza – where many thousands of Palestinians lie buried under rubble.

Israel – as part of its long-standing policy – has not returned the remains of many hundreds of Palestinians.

Why – and what’s the impact?

Presenter:  James Bays

Guests: 

Amjad Sharwa – Director of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network in Gaza

Yara Hawari – Co-Director at Al-Shabaka: the Palestinian Policy Network

Issam Aruri – Commissioner-General of the Independent Commission for Human Rights in Palestine