IsraelPalestine

Part of award-winning filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr’s speech in which he says ‘Free Palestine’ was not aired.

The BBC is facing backlash for editing out a section of its coverage of the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) in which prize-winning filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr says, “Free Palestine”, even while a racial slur remained audible in the same programme.

Davies Jr, who was awarded outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer for his film My Father’s Shadow, ended his acceptance speech on Sunday with words of solidarity to “those under occupation, dictatorship, persecution and those experiencing genocide”.

“To those watching at home, archive your loved ones, archive your stories yesterday, today and forever. For Nigeria, for London, Congo, Sudan, Free Palestine,” he said.

The remarks were absent when the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) aired the event on a two-hour delay, prompting accusations of censorship from some viewers and advocacy groups.

Rights group Amnesty International’s United Kingdom chapter described the move to cut the speech as “shameful”.

“Thank you Akinola Davies Jr for using your platform to speak out for the rights of migrants and people facing and fleeing from persecution and mass atrocities – from the Congo to Sudan to Palestine,” said Amnesty UK.

The controversy was further amplified after a racial slur was heard during a separate segment of the broadcast. The offensive language was shouted by someone in the audience while Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo read out an award for best visual effects.

The event’s host Alan Cumming had earlier informed the audience that one attendee was John Davidson, who advocates for people with Tourette syndrome, a motor disorder that sometimes causes quick repetitive movements or sounds, including inappropriate language.

The broadcaster apologised for not omitting the outburst when airing the event. It said it would remove it from the version of the broadcast available on its streaming service

“Some viewers may have heard strong and offensive language during the Bafta Film Awards,” said the BBC statement. “This arose from involuntary verbal tics associated with Tourette syndrome, and as explained during the ceremony it was not intentional.”

When contacted by Al Jazeera English, the broadcaster declined to comment further on its editorial decisions regarding the BAFTA Awards, including the removal of Akinola Davies Jr’s “Free Palestine” remarks.

The BBC has previously faced criticism for coverage related to Israel and Gaza.

In June last year, the BBC opted not to broadcast a documentary it commissioned about medical workers in Gaza due to what it described as “partiality” issues, a decision more than 100 of the broadcaster’s own journalists petitioned against.

The BBC was also previously accused of editing out pro-Palestinian displays during its coverage of the 2023 BAFTA Awards, including several appeals for a ceasefire in war-battered Gaza.

Attack on Nablus-area mosque is latest in surge of Israeli settler and military violence targeting Palestinians.

Israeli settlers have defaced and set fire to a mosque in the occupied West Bank during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, marking the latest incident in a wave of Israeli violence against Palestinians in the territory.

The Wafa news agency reported on Monday that settlers graffitied racist slogans on the walls of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq Mosque, located between the towns of Sarra and Tal, near Nablus in the north of the West Bank.

Worshippers arriving for the day’s first prayers found the damage and a smouldering fire that spewed black smoke across the mosque’s entrance and stained the ornate doorway, The Associated Press reported.

“I was shocked when I opened the door,” Munir Ramdan, who lives nearby, told the news agency. “The fire had been burning here in the area, the glass was broken here and the door was broken.”

Ramdan told AP that security camera footage showed two people walking towards the mosque carrying gasoline or petrol and a can of spray paint, and running away a few minutes later.

The attackers spray-painted graffiti denigrating the Prophet Muhammad, as well as the words “revenge” and “price tag” – a term used to describe attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their property.

The assault comes amid a wave of intensified Israeli settler and military violence across the West Bank in the shadow of Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the nearby Gaza Strip.

At least 1,094 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops and settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza war began in October 2023, according to the latest United Nations figures.

Last week, the UN Human Rights Council warned in a new report (PDF) that Israeli policies in the West Bank – including “the systematic unlawful use of force by Israeli security forces” and unlawful demolitions of Palestinian homes – aim to uproot Palestinian communities.

“These violations, together with pervasive and growing settler violence committed with impunity, are fundamental to the coercive environment that induces forced displacement and forcible transfer, which is a war crime,” the report said.

It added that these policies are aimed at “altering the character, status and demographic composition of the occupied West Bank, raising serious concerns of ethnic cleansing”.

Back in the West Bank village of Tal on Monday, resident Salem Ishtayeh told AP that the Israeli settlers’ assault on the local mosque was “directed especially” at Palestinians who are fasting during Ramadan.

“So they like to provoke you with words. It’s not that they are attacking you personally, they are attacking your religion, the Islamic faith,” Ishtayeh said.

According to the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Religious Affairs, settlers vandalised or attacked 45 mosques in the West Bank last year.

The Israeli military and police said they responded to the latest incident and were searching for suspects.

But human rights groups say the Israeli authorities have allowed the settlers to operate with total impunity in their attacks against Palestinians.

Israeli organisation B’Tselem has accused Israel of actively aiding the settlers’ violence “as part of a strategy to cement the takeover of Palestinian land”.

The UN also warned last year that settler attacks were being carried out “with the acquiescence, support, and in some cases participation, of Israeli security forces”.

United States Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has faced condemnation from Arab and Muslim countries after suggesting Israel has a biblical right to much of the Middle East.

In an interview with prominent right-wing American commentator Tucker Carlson, Huckabee suggested that Israel has a God-given right to land stretching from the Euphrates River to the Nile, which would encompass Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and parts of Saudi Arabia.

“It would be fine if they took it all,” he said, arguing that the geographical borders of Israel are rooted in the Bible, a belief shared by Christian Zionists.

The US diplomat, a self-professed Christian Zionist and staunch supporter of Israel, later walked back his comments, calling them “somewhat hyperbolic” and adding that Israel is not seeking expansion but has a right to security within its current borders.

But were his comments indeed hyperbolic in the Christian Zionist worldview? Or is that precisely what he and his fellow proponents of the ideology believe?

How did Christian Zionism begin, and what are its tenets?

In 1878, William Blackstone, a student of the prominent American evangelist Dwight Moody and a believer in the biblical restoration of Israel, published a book titled Jesus Is Coming. The best-selling work popularised among Americans a belief held by some Christian leaders: that God had given the land of Israel to the Jewish people.

This conviction, often taken from a Protestant evangelical perspective, draws on the ancient biblical idea that, nearly four millennia ago, God promised the land to the Jews, who would rule it until the return of Jesus to Jerusalem for the rapture. According to this theology, Christians will be saved upon Christ’s return while non-Christians who do not convert will face damnation.

The most commonly quoted Bible verse relating to this covenant is Genesis 12:3, in which God tells Abraham: “I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed,” according to the Religion Media Centre.

According to ChristianZionism.org, a website run by professors, pastors and leaders of church-related organisations, four themes can be found in Christian Zionist thought: One, the founding of today’s nation-state of Israel in 1948 marked the final human era and signals an end of times. Two, the ongoing conflict in the Middle East is a part of God’s plan with a great and final war preceding the second coming of Christ. Three, God’s covenant with Israel is eternal and unconditional. And four, failing to support Israel’s political dominance today will incur divine judgement.

Writer and historian David Swift said that although many Christians – evangelical or otherwise – supported the creation of Israel before 1948, they cannot be called Christian Zionists in the modern parlance.

“This is because Christian Zionism essentially fuses religious belief with a military, strategic and even economic programme,” Swift told Al Jazeera.

“Specifically, Christian Zionism is not just the belief that the biblical land of Israel is the ordained country of the Jewish people but that it is in America’s strategic, military and economic interest to support the expansion of Israel.”

Fathi Nimer, a policy fellow at Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, described the movement as one that “translates into absolute unquestioning support for the Israeli regime”.

He described hearing a podcast about a Christian Zionist woman visiting Bethlehem who, after seeing the separation wall, Israeli soldiers and the harsh conditions in Palestinian refugee camps, remarked: “I feel bad for them, but scripture is scripture.”

“‘Scripture is scripture’ – that overrides everything,” Nimer told Al Jazeera.

“That’s why it’s such a powerful tool for brainwashing.”

How many American Christian Zionists are there?

According to author and academic Tristan Sturm, the largest population of Christian Zionists is in the US, and it numbers more than 30 million. Most are affiliated with evangelical churches in the southeast and south-central regions, often referred to as the “Bible Belt”.

The biggest organisation is Christians United for Israel, which itself boasts 10 million members, Nimer said.

“They are overwhelmingly conservative Republicans, found mostly in the Bible Belt, but also other places in the United States, and they form one of the most formidable voting blocs in the Republican Party,” he said.

Swift stated that only a few million from this group, however, are “fully signed up to the political, military and religious aspects of Christian Zionism”.

What impact do Christian Zionists have on US policy?

Nimer argued that Christian Zionists are “deeply intertwined” with American politics. “A lot of the major donors to the Republican Party and also the Democratic Party are Christian Zionists,” Nimer said.

According to the analyst, Christian Zionists are a cornerstone of Israeli lobbying groups, ranging from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to the Anti-Defamation League, “that work to spread the Israeli narrative” in American society.

Meanwhile, a lot of members of the US Congress are “openly” Christian Zionist, Nimer said.

“[Politicians like] Mike Huckabee, … they reached the highest echelons of the state. And they bring these beliefs into their politics, into their policies,” the analyst said.

US foreign policy on Israel is, therefore, heavily influenced and shaped around the underlying biblical premise that the Jewish people are divinely destined to be restored to Palestine, he argued.

“When it comes to Palestine and the region in general, as you see right now with the [potential] war in Iran, they’re saying that the ballistic missile programme is now on the table,” Nimer said.

“It has nothing to do with the nuclear deal, … but the idea is that Israel must be able to maintain its superiority over every country in the region, and that’s a decree by God because if Israel prospers, then that’s another step towards the end of the world.”

Christian Zionist groups have also backed Israel’s illegal settlement project in the occupied West Bank and other measures that they see as reinforcing Israeli Jewish sovereignty.

Furthermore, for two decades, organisations such as HaYovel have been bringing in hundreds of American Christian volunteers to work in Israeli settlement agricultural projects, especially during the genocidal war on Gaza, when Jewish Israelis were called for military duty. Many also strongly endorsed US President Donald Trump’s moving of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2017.

Swift, however, said Christian Zionists have played only a minor role in shaping US support for Israel and their influence is waning.

He argued that while Christian Zionism is integrated with a “broader neoconservative foreign policy agenda” also tied to the “US defence industry and broader military-industrial complex”, the group does not have much influence in American politics, and, in fact, it is declining.

Traditionally, US government support for Israel was driven by Cold War considerations and by pressure from the Jewish community within the US and lobbying groups like AIPAC. What played less of a role was support for Israel from evangelical Christians and the smaller community of Christian Zionists, Swift said.

“The US president is finally de facto abandoning the previous theoretical support for a two-state solution – although not for Christian Zionist reasons. When Trump talks of ethnically cleansing Gaza and turning it into a beach resort, he uses the language of real estate, not the Old Testament,” the historian said.

According to the analysts, very representative.

“It is pretty representative: Christian Zionists derive their understanding of the proper borders of Israel from the same place as people like [Israeli National Security Minister] Itamar Ben-Gvir and [Israeli Finance Minister] Bezalel Smotrich: the Old Testament. Therefore, they think Israel should expand to include all of the territory of ‘biblical Israel’,” Swift said, referring to the far-right Israeli cabinet members who have worked to expand and protect Israeli settlements and outposts in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law.

Nimer said Huckabee’s statement is also not something that can be criticised within the Christian Zionist community.

“You’re not allowed to criticise that because it’s like you’re criticising prophecy and you’re criticising God and the return of Jesus,” he said.

Huckabee’s comments, therefore, come as no surprise despite infringing upon the sovereignty of US allies in the Middle East, Nimer said.

On Monday, Smotrich said Israel would eventually occupy the Gaza Strip and establish a Jewish settlement there despite a “ceasefire” that went into effect in October.

“We are giving US President Donald Trump the opportunity to do it in his own way. If he does not succeed in eliminating Hamas, the Israeli army will get international legitimacy and American support to do it,” he said in statements to Israeli radio.

How do Jewish Israelis view Christian Zionists?

Mimi Kirk, the director of the Institute for the Study of Christian Zionism and the associate director of Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, writes that “despite the matter of their supposed end-of-times demise according to this view, Jewish Israeli leaders have embraced the money and influence on US foreign policy that Christian Zionists offer,” especially as its adherents include top officials from the first Trump administration, including former Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Nimer said it’s a rather “cynical relationship”, given that the Christian Zionist worldview, which sees all non-Christians going to hell, is “anti-Semitic to the bone”.

“But they support Israel, so it’s fine,” the policy analyst said.

“They care about what they can get out of them right now as the biggest support base in the West currently.”

Israel is further banking on this support because it is quickly losing its “progressive facade” of a “liberal democracy” with “all these progressive rights”, Nimer added.

“This has completely faded over the last few decades, and especially since the genocide in Gaza, this has become completely unacceptable.”

How do Christians in Palestine view Christian Zionists?

Palestinian Christians have long voiced concern that the Christian Zionist position threatens their existence, further entrenching Israel’s occupation while marginalising their community and undermining the historic churches of the Holy Land.

Just last month, the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem said activities by local individuals advancing “damaging ideologies, such as Christian Zionism” “mislead the public, sow confusion, and harm the unity of our flock”.

The Christian leaders warned that these efforts could undermine the Christian presence not only in the Holy Land but across the wider Middle East.

The statement came amid growing concern among Palestinian Christians that Israel’s policies – including land confiscation, settlement expansion and pressure on church property – are accelerating the erosion of one of the world’s oldest Christian communities.

Are there critiques of Christian Zionism among other Christians?

Criticism of Christian Zionists from within Christianity is abundant.

In the US, the Institute for the Study of Christian Zionism was created to critique and combat the movement through liberation theology, seeking justice for Palestinians and a resolution to the ongoing conflict.

Swift pointed out that many of the world’s most Catholic countries, from Ireland to those in South America and Southern Europe, “tend to be quite pro-Palestinian”.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Christian scholars “have written very detailed theological critiques of Christian Zionism”, Nimer said, as have pastors from other parts of the Global South.

A prize awarded by the Nelson Mandela Foundation last year was explicitly aimed at initiatives working against Christian Zionism, and a conference next month in Turkiye is being organised to combat the ideology, Nimer said.

“The world is waking up to how insidious this ideology is and how it creeps into societies and makes it impossible to have any kind of solidarity with Palestinians as long as they believe it,” he said.

After two years of a grinding war, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are observing the holy month of Ramadan during an unabating economic catastrophe as Israel continues to impose restrictions on the entry of food and other supplies despite a “ceasefire” reached in October.

For most families, the daily struggle to secure a mere loaf of bread has replaced the traditional festive atmosphere before the war. An analysis by Al Jazeera, based on official data, reveals that skyrocketing prices for basic commodities have made a complete iftar meal to break the daily fast a distant dream for the vast majority of the population.

Skyrocketing costs

During periods when Israel tightened its siege or completely closed the crossings into Gaza, food prices spiked by more than 700 percent. While prices have retreated slightly since the “ceasefire” began in October, they remain significantly higher than pre-war levels.

According to Mohammed Barbakh, director general of policy and planning at the Ministry of Economy in Gaza, official data tracking prices from before the war began on October 7, 2023, to the first days of this Ramadan show staggering increases.

Al Jazeera’s analysis of the ministry’s price data reveals the following hikes:

• Chicken: Prices rose from 14 shekels ($4.49) to 25 shekels ($8.01) per kilogramme (2.2lb), an 80 percent increase.
• Frozen fish: Prices jumped from 8 shekels ($2.56) to 23 shekels ($7.37) per kilo, a 190 percent increase.
• Frozen red meat: Prices rose from 23 shekels ($7.37) to 40 shekels ($12.82) per kilo, a 75 percent difference.
• Eggs: A tray of 30 eggs now costs 35 shekels ($11.22) compared with 13 shekels ($4.17), a 170 percent increase.

Vegetables, a staple of the Palestinian diet, have also seen dramatic surges. Tomatoes have doubled in price while cucumbers have jumped by 300 percent, rising from 3 shekels ($0.96) per kilo to 12 shekels ($3.85). Cheese prices have increased by up to 110 percent, directly impacting the cost of suhoor, the predawn meal before the daily fasting during Ramadan begins.

The cost of a meal

Based on data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Al Jazeera estimated the cost of a basic iftar for a family of six. The meal includes two chickens, rice, salad, appetisers, a soft drink, cooking gas and oil.

The price of the meal has risen to about 150 shekels ($48), up from 79 shekels ($25.32) before the war, an increase of 90 percent.

For suhoor, a simple meal of cheese, hummus, falafel and bread now costs 31.5 shekels ($10.10), compared with 18.6 shekels ($5.96) previously.

The combined daily cost to feed a medium-sized family now stands at 181.5 shekels ($58.17), an 88 percent jump from pre-war figures.

Economic obliteration

These price hikes coincide with a collapse in purchasing power. A United Nations report released in late 2025 indicated that the annual per capita income in Gaza plummeted to $161 (503 shekels) in 2024, down from $1,250 (3,900 shekels) in 2022.

The labour market has essentially vanished. In a statement issued in October, Sami al-Amsi, head of the General Federation of Palestinian Trade Unions, said unemployment stood then at more than 95 percent as workshops, farmland and fishing fleets were destroyed.

“The worker is no longer looking for a job because there is no work at all,” al-Amsi said. “Today, the Palestinian worker is looking for a food parcel to survive.”

Blockade and monopoly

Economic researcher Ahmed Abu Qamar attributed the inflation to Israel’s restrictive entry policies and “coordination fees” imposed on trucks.

“The humanitarian protocol stipulates the entry of 600 trucks daily, yet the Israeli occupation effectively allows only between 200 and 250 trucks,” Abu Qamar told Al Jazeera, noting that the Strip actually requires 1,000 trucks daily to meet minimum demand.

He also highlighted a monopoly system under which only about 10 merchants are authorised to import goods through four Israeli companies, restricting competition and keeping prices artificially high. He called for a return to a free market system and the full opening of crossings to alleviate the burden on a population already crushed by conflict.

Israel to join with India, Greece, Cyprus and other Arab, African, Asian countries that ‘see eye to eye’, says PM.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that Israel plans to build a network of allied nations in or around the Middle East to collectively stand against what he called “radical” adversaries.

Netanyahu made the comments on Sunday while announcing the upcoming visit to Israel of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose country the Israeli leader said would be part of the “axis of nations that see eye to eye” with Israel.

Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges, also referred to Greece, Cyprus and other unnamed Arab, African and Asian countries.

“In the vision I see before me, we will create an entire system, essentially a ‘hexagon’ of alliances around or within the Middle East,” Netanyahu said, according to the Times of Israel.

“The intention here is to create an axis of nations that see eye to eye on the reality, challenges, and goals against the radical axes, both the radical Shia axis, which we have struck very hard, and the emerging radical Sunni axis.”

Modi said he fully agrees with Netanyahu on the “bond between India and Israel”, including the “diverse nature of our bilateral relations”.

“India deeply values the enduring friendship with Israel, built on trust, innovation and a shared commitment to peace and progress,” Modi wrote in a post on X.

Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, its assaults have been weakening the Iran-led “axis of resistance”, including Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel and Iran also directly clashed last June in a 12-day war, in which the US military also joined to attack Iran’s nuclear sites.

Netanyahu did not elaborate on what he meant by “emerging radical Sunni axis”, but he has previously identified the Muslim Brotherhood as its leading element.

Relations between Israel and several predominantly Sunni Muslim states have soured amid the bloodshed in Gaza, including with Turkiye, whose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sharply criticised Netanyahu, and Saudi Arabia, which has accused Israel of genocide.

Prospects for normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia also appear to be eroding. In recent months, the kingdom has rebuked Israel’s recognition of Somalia’s breakaway region, Somaliland, as well as the Israeli moves towards annexation in the occupied West Bank.

Since 2020, Israel has pushed to establish formal ties with Arab and Muslim states as a way to shore up its regional standing as part of the US-backed so-called “Abraham Accords”.

Under that framework, Israel has been enjoying close relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.

Recreational activities combined with yoga in Gaza help children recover a sense of normalcy despite war, teacher says.

Gaza City – In northern Gaza, a Palestinian teacher has transformed a tent into a small space for yoga classes, offering children moments of peace from the hardships of daily life in the besieged enclave.

The idea to bring the practice to Gaza City came from Hadeel al-Gharbawi, who has been working on finding ways to help children cope with trauma. Through simple movements and breathing, the class offers moments of calm, safety and joy.

Children sit cross-legged on a thick mat, eyes shut. Some concentrate, while others fight back shy smiles, sneaking sideways glances to see whether their classmates are following the teacher’s instructions, amused by the unfamiliar exercise.

“I wanted to expand the activities I do with children beyond drawing and colouring. I searched online and discovered that yoga can help children recover from trauma,” al-Gharbawi told Al Jazeera.

“Since yoga isn’t widely available here in Gaza, I decided to learn online and practice it with the children. Through yoga, they can release stress and cope with the difficult life around them.”

Children in Gaza have been exposed to continuous cycles of violence and trauma, profoundly affecting their mental health, according to a report by the World Health Organization.

The constant bombing, displacement, loss of family members and physical pain of Israel’s two-year war on Gaza have caused emotional distress, social withdrawal and grief, among other symptoms, the report says.

International organisations have been warning that the conflict will leave a long-lasting impact.

“All children in Gaza require mental health, and psychosocial support services after two years of horrific war, displacement, and exposure to traumatic events,” the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said earlier this month.

This is why yoga classes are more than physical exercise in Gaza; they allow children to step away from fear, release emotions, and feel in control, even for a few minutes, the participants say.

“We come here to do yoga, to learn and to do art,” Suwar, a displaced student, told Al Jazeera. “These activities allow us to forget, even for a short time, the war, the harsh weather and the queues for water. Yoga, in particular, gives us a moment of calm and helps us feel safe and happy.”

Alongside yoga, the tent offers educational and recreational programmes that al-Gharbawi said aim to activate the children’s imaginations.

“Combining learning with playful and therapeutic activities helps the children deal with trauma and regain a sense of normalcy,” al-Gharbawi said.

On February 16, a group of Palestinian footballers, clubs and advocacy groups referred the heads of FIFA and UEFA to the International Criminal Court (ICC). The 120-page filing accuses Gianni Infantino and Aleksander Čeferin of “aiding and abetting war crimes (specifically, the transfer of civilian population into occupied territories) and crimes against humanity (specifically, apartheid)”.

This historic case marks the first time sports leaders are being accused of these crimes and sends a warning to presidents of all other corporate entities in and beyond athletics. It offers a perfect opportunity to challenge the impunity of Israeli apartheid, occupation and genocide.

Football is the world’s most popular form of cultural expression, with some five billion fans across the planet. Therefore, the stakes of this charge are immense in terms of the spectacle of accountability and legal precedent.

In the course of its campaign in Gaza, of genocide generally and “athleticide” particularly, Israel has killed 1,007 Palestinian sportspeople and destroyed 184 sports facilities, while damaging 81 others.

Although this “athleticide” cannot be directly attributed to the Israel Football Association (IFA), its activities linked to clubs from illegal Israeli settlements located on the occupied Palestinian territory and their participation in domestic and international tournaments can be seen as abetting Israeli crimes of occupation and apartheid.

Despite facing demands for the suspension of these clubs or the IFA, UEFA and FIFA leadership have taken no action. In a recent interview, FIFA chief Infantino said he opposed a ban on Israeli teams from participation in global football, calling it “a defeat”. He went on to add that he was in favour of enshrining in FIFA statutes that no country should ever be banned from “playing football because of the acts of their political leaders”.

Ironic, when you consider he is the very person who oversaw the suspension of Russia from FIFA in 2022 and the banning of Crimean clubs from playing in the Russian league, linked to UEFA, after the Russian occupation of the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014.

The complaint is filed against Infantino and Čeferin because private organisations cannot be defendants before the ICC, but those individuals responsible for their policies can be.

The focus of the complaint is the fact that the IFA has been permitted to materially support, recognise, and include in domestic and international competitions clubs that are based in the stolen settlement land of the occupied West Bank.

Article 64(2) of FIFA Statutes prohibits member associations and their clubs from playing on the territory of another member association without the latter’s approval.

The complaint alleges that by allowing the IFA to oversee clubs that operate on stolen land, Infantino and Čeferin are accountable for normalising illegal Israeli settlements, in direct contravention of a 2024 pronouncement by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and a resolution from the United Nations General Assembly, which found the settlements to be “unlawful” and required Israel to “cease immediately all new settlement activities, and to evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.

The existence of sanctioned Israeli clubs in West Bank settlements, the referral argues, contributes to the transfer of the civilian population into the occupied territory, contrary to the Rome Statute Article 8(2)(b)(viii), by normalising colonisation.

Likewise, because Israeli clubs in the occupied territory prohibit Palestinians from spectating matches or playing for or managing these teams, the continued sanction of these organisations falls under the definition of aiding and abetting apartheid (a crime against humanity pursuant to Rome Statute Article 7(1)(j).

In continuing to allow the membership of these clubs and the IFA in global and European sport, the filing alleges that Infantino and Čeferin have acted in full knowledge that they have participated in the violation of international law based on the fact that they have deliberately ignored numerous reports and letters advising them to intervene.

Now that the complaint has been formally filed, the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC will conduct a preliminary examination to confirm that the elements of jurisdiction, admissibility, and the interests of justice have been satisfied. They will then have the option to either decline to open the investigation or proceed to investigate the legal issues raised in the complaint.

If an investigation does ensue, evidence-gathering will occur and arrest warrants or summonses may ultimately be issued. If that happens, this would set an important precedent and give momentum to the campaign for justice for Palestine.

It is notable that while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been able to dodge an ICC arrest warrant by cowering away from Rome Statute signatory states, it would be impossible for Infantino and Čeferin to do so while still fulfilling their roles, assuming it is enforced.

Football is, without question, one of the most popular sports on the planet. When such a cultural juggernaut is connected to business, what emerges is an industry like no other. FIFA and UEFA are global regulatory monopolies, meaning their rules and regulations act the same way a country’s legislation acts on its population. They also preside over a huge, lucrative industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Given the amount of eyeballs and money at stake, the impact of a ban on participation is enormous, as Russia understands all too well after being subjected to suspension. This is no doubt exactly why the presidents of these organisations have refused to act against Israel under the guise of “political neutrality”.

As former UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, Michael Lynk, told us: “When an occupying power is blatantly committing war crimes by creating civilian settlements in occupied territory, the rest of the world – including states, corporations and international sporting organisations – is required to ensure the enforcement of international law by doing everything in their power to bring the violations to a swift end. Yet, FIFA and UEFA are sportswashing the illegal Israeli occupation by allowing the Israeli Football Association to include clubs based in the illegal settlements to participate in their domestic leagues. Nothing could be further from the rules of fairness and equity.”

The bottom line is that sport is and has always been political. The veneer of “political neutrality” conceals the reality that politics is the name of the game for FIFA and UEFA.

Nobody is entitled to stand above international law. It is time for the ICC to prove it.

The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, denounce US ambassador’s remarks suggesting Israel has right to much of the Middle East.

United States Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has triggered an avalanche of criticism from Arab and Muslim countries after suggesting Israel has a right to expand its territory across a large swath of the Middle East.

Huckabee delivered the remarks during a sit-down interview with US commentator Tucker Carlson, broadcast on Friday, as he was pressed about the geographical borders of Israel.

Carlson asked Huckabee, a self-professed Christian Zionist and staunch supporter of Israel, to clarify his stance on the Biblical promise of the land spanning the area between the Euphrates River in Iraq and the Nile River in Egypt to the descendants of Abraham, and if the modern Israeli state had the right to claim that lineage.

“It would be fine if they took it all,” said Huckabee.

Such territory would encompass modern-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and parts of Saudi Arabia.

The US ambassador later appeared to walk back the claim, saying it was “somewhat of a hyperbolic statement”. He also said Israel was not looking to expand its territory and has a right to security in the land it currently holds.

‘Extremist rhetoric’

Huckabee’s comments sparked immediate backlash from neighbouring Egypt and Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the League of Arab States, which in separate statements called them “extremist”, “provocative” and “not in line with Washington’s official position”.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry described Huckabee’s comments as “extremist rhetoric” and “unacceptable”, and called for the US Department of State to provide clarification.

Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the remarks a “blatant violation” of international law, adding that “Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territory or other Arab lands.”

Jordan’s foreign ministry dismissed them as “absurd and provocative,” a violation of diplomatic norms and “an infringement on the sovereignty of states in the region”.

“Statements of this nature — extremist and lacking any sound basis — serve only to inflame sentiments and stir religious and national emotions”, the League of Arab States also said in a statement.

Huckabee, whom US President Donald Trump nominated as ambassador in 2024, has long opposed the idea of a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinian people, and denied the existence of an illegal Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Back in 2008, Huckabee went so far as to question Palestinian identity altogether, saying, “There’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.”

In 2024, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal and must cease immediately.

But Israeli law does not clearly demarcate the country’s borders. Israel also occupies the Golan Heights in Syria, which it illegally annexed in 1981.

The US is the only country that recognises Israel’s claimed sovereignty over the Syrian territory, and only since 2019, during Trump’s first term as president.

After its 2024 war with Hezbollah, Israel also set up military outposts in five points inside Lebanon.

Some Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have openly promoted the idea of a “Greater Israel” with expanded borders.

The Gaza Strip – As soon as the “ceasefire” in Gaza began in October, Palestinian farmer Mohammed al-Slakhy and his family headed straight for their farms in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City.

After more than two years of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza – and despite ongoing Israeli attacks – it was finally safe enough to return, and attempt to rebuild and restore.

Mohammed and his family spent months clearing rubble from the ground and whatever was left of their greenhouses, which were flattened during the fighting, like many of the buildings in Gaza.

With very limited resources, they prepared the soil and planted the first courgette crop, hoping it would be ready to harvest by early spring.

But even this limited attempt to bring the family’s land back to life is not without risk. As Mohammed explains, every time he goes to tend to his field, he is risking his life. A few hundred metres away sit Israeli tanks, and the sound of bullets flying by is common.

Before the war, Mohammed’s farm produced large quantities of vegetables.

“I learned farming from my father and grandfather,” he told Al Jazeera. “Our farm used to produce abundant, high-quality crops for the local market and for export to the [occupied] West Bank and abroad. Now, everything we had has been destroyed in the war.”

Levelled to the ground

More than three hectares (7.5 acres) of Mohammed’s greenhouses were levelled to the ground. The destruction also included his entire irrigation network, all nine of his wells, two solar power systems, and two desalination plants.

Mohammed’s losses reflect the wider extent of the damage to the agricultural sector in Gaza. According to a July 2025 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), more than 80 percent of cropland was damaged, and less than 5 percent remained available for cultivation.

And even with the “ceasefire”, the losses have not stopped for Gaza’s farmers, as Israel expands a so-called buffer zone, within which its forces are based.

In fact, many Palestinians fear that Gaza’s agricultural lands will be forcibly taken by Israel if the buffer zone becomes a permanent fixture. Blueprints released as part of United States President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” plan for Gaza show many agricultural areas erased.

Expanding buffer zones

Israel still controls about 58 percent of the Gaza Strip, calling it a security buffer zone in the east, north, and south of the Gaza Strip. The majority of that buffer zone is Palestinian agricultural land.

Mohammed has only been able to return to one hectare (2.5 acres) of the more than 22 hectares (54 acres) of farmland his family had cultivated in Gaza City before the war. The other 21 hectares lie within the Israeli buffer zone, and he cannot access them.

The solitary hectare is only about 200 metres (650 feet) from the “yellow line”, which marks the border between the buffer zone and the rest of Gaza. Mohammed says that Israeli tanks frequently approach and fire randomly.

One such incident occurred on February 12, when Israeli tanks advanced into Salah al-Din Street and opened fire. Two Palestinians were killed, and at least four others were reported wounded. Mohammed was in his farmland, close to the Israeli tanks.

“We were working in the field when suddenly a tank approached and opened fire towards us. I had to take cover behind a destroyed building and waited there for more than an hour and a half before I could escape west,” Mohammed said.

The dangers to Mohammed’s farm are mirrored in central Gaza, where 75-year-old Eid al-Taaban is increasingly worried.

His land in Deir el-Balah lies only about 300 metres (980 feet) from the yellow line and the Israeli areas of control.

“We planted eggplants in an open field after the ceasefire. Now, we can’t reach it and harvest the crop because of the expansion of the buffer zone,” Eid told Al Jazeera.

“The sounds of Israeli heavy machineguns are heard every day in our area. Every time my sons go to irrigate the crops in the greenhouses, I just pray that they come back alive,” he added.

On February 6, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the Israeli army killed Palestinian farmer Khaled Baraka while he was working on his land in eastern Deir el-Balah. Khaled was Eid’s neighbour and friend.

“Khaled Baraka was a great farmer,” Eid said. “He dedicated his life to cultivating his land and teaching his sons and daughters about farming.”

Israeli blockade

According to Palestinian farmers, the Israeli blockade of Gaza is one of the biggest challenges they face in their efforts to reclaim agricultural land.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has largely prevented the entry of any agricultural equipment or supplies, such as seeds, pesticides, fertilisers, irrigation networks, or tractors.

That has led to a huge shortage, with what is available still liable to being damaged in bombing, or in the case of seeds, pesticides, and fertilisers, reaching expiry. The prices of what little is available have also skyrocketed due to the Israeli restrictions.

And even when the materials can be obtained, they do not guarantee a return.

Eid said that he had planted tomatoes in his greenhouses to harvest in the spring, paying an exorbitant amount to acquire the seeds, fertilisers, and pesticides.

After 90 days of costly care for the plants, and when it was time to start harvesting, the entire crop was ruined because the pesticides and fertilisers he had bought turned out to be ineffective. He was forced to replant the crop.

Market difficulties

Eid noted that the current economic conditions in Gaza mean that it is hard to find customers for the produce.

“Even when we manage to keep the plants alive and harvest the crop, we don’t know if we’ll be able to sell it,” Eid said.

The instability of the market in Gaza is causing heavy losses for local farmers.

Waleed Miqdad, an agricultural produce wholesaler, explained that Israeli authorities sometimes close the crossings and at other times flood the market with various goods, causing significant losses for Palestinian farmers.

He added that Israeli goods are usually of a lower quality and are priced more cheaply.

“Our local produce, although much fewer in quantity than before the war, still has a distinctive quality and taste. Many of our customers prefer local produce,” Waleed told Al Jazeera.

But many residents of Gaza, whose economy has been devastated as a result of the war, do not have the money to be able to choose the higher-priced items.

The competition from Israeli produce is therefore making it difficult for Palestinian farmers to market their produce and make a profit.

“I was recently forced to sell large quantities of my produce for less than the cost of production because of the competition from imported goods that are widely available in the market,” said Mohammed, the farmer from northern Gaza. “I had to sell and lose or watch my produce rot. And of course, we haven’t received any compensation or support.”

Despite the challenges facing the farmers in Gaza, they remain determined to reclaim agricultural fields across the Gaza Strip. These areas have always been adored by Palestinians in Gaza, where most had lived in the built-up cities. The farms provided a respite from Israel’s control over the territory and its constant wars.

“Agriculture is our life and our livelihood,” said Mohammed. “It is an important part of our Palestinian identity. Despite the destruction and danger, we will remain steadfast on our land and will replant all the land we can reach. Our children will continue after us.”

For Eid, farming is a continuation of the work of his ancestors – in towns that are now in Israel, and where he can never set foot.

“I’m 75 years old, and I still work in the fields every day,” Eid said. “My grandfather was a farmer in our hometown of Beersheba before the [1948] Nakba.”

“He taught my father, my father taught me, and today I’m passing on my agricultural expertise to my grandchildren,” Eid added. “The love of the land and agriculture is passed down from generation to generation in our family, and it can never be taken away from us.”

Activists released on bail include four hunger strikers: Teuta Hoxha, Kamran Ahmed, Qesser Zuhrah and Heba Muraisi.

Twelve activists linked to the Palestine Action group who were charged with breaking into the British site of an Israel-linked defence firm have been released on bail.

There were tears of joy at London’s Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Bailey, as the 12 prisoners, including hunger strikers Teuta Hoxha, Kamran Ahmed, Qesser Zuhrah and Heba Muraisi, were released on Friday.

The group – which also included Zara Farooque, Salaam Mahmood, Moiz Ibrahim, Finn Collins, Hannah Davidson, Harland (Harley) Archer, Louie Adams and Liam Mullany – had been held on remand in connection with a raid on the Elbit Systems factory in Filton, near Bristol, on August 6, 2024.

“Despite the state’s best efforts to break each and every one of them, they will walk out today with their heads held high,” said a spokesperson for the Filton 24 Defence Committee, hailing their release as a “monumental victory”.

The release of the 12, which comes after 11 other defendants charged in connection with the raid were also granted bail, means that 23 out of the so-called “Filton 24” are now out of prison.

On February 4, six of the activists were acquitted of aggravated burglary, the most serious of the charges they faced in connection with the raid at ⁠London’s Woolwich Crown Court. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on charges of criminal damage.

On Wednesday, the same court dropped aggravated burglary charges, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison, against the remaining 18 Filton 24 members, granting five more defendants bail.

Only Samuel Corner, who faced an additional charge of allegedly hitting a female police sergeant with a sledgehammer, remains on remand. He did not apply for bail on Friday.

The Filton 24 Defence Committee called for Corner’s release. “This isn’t right, or just, given he has already spent over 18 months in prison with no convictions. He should also be granted immediate bail,” said the spokesperson.

The release of the activists comes after the British High Court ruled that the government’s ban on Palestine Action as a “terror group” was unlawful and disproportionate.

⁠Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood ⁠said in a statement that she was “disappointed” and that she intended to appeal the judgement in the Court of Appeal.

Mike Huckabee, the United States ambassador to Israel, has suggested that he would not object if Israel were to take most of the Middle East, stressing what he described as the Jewish people’s right to the land.

In an interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson that aired on Friday, Huckabee was pressed about the geographical borders of Israel, which he argues are rooted in the Bible.

Carlson told Huckabee that the biblical verse had promised the land to the descendants of Abraham, including the area between the Euphrates River in Iraq and the Nile River in Egypt.

Such a swath would encompass modern-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and parts of Saudi Arabia.

“It would be fine if they took it all,” said Huckabee, who was appointed by President Donald Trump last year.

Carlson, who appeared taken aback by the statement, asked Huckabee if indeed he would approve of Israel expanding over the entire region.

“They don’t want to take it over. They’re not asking to take it over,” the ambassador replied.

The US envoy, an avowed Christian Zionist and staunch defender of Israel, later appeared to walk back his assertion, saying that it “was somewhat of a hyperbolic statement”.

Still, he left the door open for Israeli expansionism based on his religious interpretation.

“If they end up getting attacked by all these places, and they win that war, and they take that land, OK, that’s a whole other discussion,” Huckabee said.

The Department of State did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on whether Secretary of State Marco Rubio shares Huckabee’s views on Israel’s right to expand.

The principle of territorial integrity and the prohibition against the acquisition of land by force have been a bedrock of international law since World War II.

In 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal and must cease immediately.

But Israeli law does not clearly demarcate the country’s borders. Israel also occupies the Golan Heights in Syria, which it illegally annexed in 1981.

The US is the only country that recognises Israel’s claimed sovereignty over the Syrian territory.

After the 2024 war with Hezbollah, Israel also set up military outposts in five points inside Lebanon.

Some Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have openly promoted the idea of a “Greater Israel” with expanded borders.

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stirred international outrage in 2023 when he spoke at an event featuring a map that included the Palestinian territories and portions of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan as part of Israel, set against the colours of the Israeli flag.

In his interview with Carlson, Huckabee tried to argue that Israel’s right to exist is rooted in international law, but he also attacked the legal institutions that oversee international law for their opposition to Israeli abuses.

“One of the reasons I’m so grateful President Trump and Secretary Rubio are pushing hard, trying to get rid of the ICC [International Criminal Court] and the ICJ is because they have become rogue organisations that are no longer really about an equal application of law,” he said.

Beyond his professed religious devotion to Israel, Huckabee has faced criticism for failing to speak up for the rights of US citizens who have been killed and imprisoned by Israeli forces during his ambassadorship.

Last year, Huckabee even sparked anger from some conservatives in the US when he met with convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, who sold US intelligence secrets to the Israeli government, details of which later made it to the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.

Pollard, a former civilian analyst in the US Navy, served 30 years in jail and moved to Israel in 2020 after his release. He never expressed regret for his crimes, and in 2021, he called on Jewish employees in US security agencies to spy for Israel.

Huckabee said he does not agree with Pollard’s views, but he denied hosting him, arguing that he simply held a meeting with him at the US embassy in Jerusalem.

Asked if anyone can walk into the embassy to meet the envoy, Huckabee acknowledged that such a meeting requires a pre-approved appointment.

“He was able to come to the US embassy to have a meeting at his request. I did, and frankly, I don’t regret it,” Huckabee said.

“I met with a lot of people over the course of the time I’ve been here and will meet with a lot more.”

Nisreen Nassar and her family, like many other Palestinians, continue to live in schools and makeshift shelters.

Just before sunset on Thursday, Nisreen Nassar crouched over her makeshift oven, burning wood and scraps of plastic to bake bread for her family so they could break their fast.

Four months after the United States-brokered “ceasefire” came into effect in October, and as US President Donald Trump convened the first meeting of his Board of Peace on Thursday, she wasn’t expecting to be sheltering with her family in an abandoned school and cooking on an open fire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

“Our preparations and expectations for Ramadan this month were that it would be better than previous ones during the war. Unfortunately, it is worse,” Nassar told Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City.

Nassar’s family is one of many still living in schools and makeshift shelters throughout northern Gaza, relying on humanitarian aid for their basic needs and barely able to prepare a meal to break their fast, known as Iftar, due to gas shortages.

Nassar, her husband Thaer, and their seven children lived in Beit Hanoon, in the northeast, before Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023, which has killed more than 72,000 people, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health statistics.

They have since been displaced several times, from Beit Hanoon to Rafah and Khan Younis in the south.

The Nassar family is still waiting for a decision that would allow them to return home – or to what remains of it. This marks the third Ramadan that they have been living in a school, which, apart from the concrete walls, offers little shelter.

The children sleep not in beds, but directly on a classroom floor. The Nassar family’s only possessions comprise a few bags of clothes and some thin blankets.

Thaer said his children are afraid to go outside due to Israeli gunfire, in violation of the “ceasefire” agreement.

“My children live in fear, whether they go out into the street or stay here in the shelter. In the past, in better days, they had better times, playing ball, going to school, and then returning home.”

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, more than 600 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the “ceasefire” came into effect.

While Palestinians have had little respite this Ramadan, Mahmoud said Palestinians remain steadfast.

“For many of the Palestinians sheltering inside this school, Iftar is a celebration of spiritual resilience, unbroken by Israel’s genocide and a future that is far from certain.”

A new United Nations Human Rights Office report says Israel’s military campaign and blockade of Gaza have created living conditions “increasingly incompatible with Palestinians’ continued existence as a group in Gaza” as it presses its genocidal war on the enclave.

The report released on Thursday states that “intensified attacks, the methodical destruction of entire neighbourhoods and the denial of humanitarian assistance appeared to aim at a permanent demographic shift in Gaza”.

“This, together with forcible transfers, which appear to aim at a permanent displacement, raise concerns over ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank.”

Covering the period from November 1, 2024 to October 31, 2025, the report documents Israel’s security forces’ “systematic use of unlawful force” in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.

It highlights “widespread” arbitrary detention and the “extensive unlawful demolition” of Palestinian homes, stating that the measures seek to “systematically discriminate, oppress, control and dominate the Palestinian people”.

These policies are altering “the character, status and demographic composition of the occupied West Bank, raising serious concerns of ethnic cleansing”.

In Gaza, the report condemns the killing and maiming of “unprecedented numbers of civilians”, the spread of famine and the destruction of the “remaining civilian infrastructure”.

At least 463 Palestinians, including 157 children, starved to death during the 12-month period, according to the findings.

“Palestinians faced the inhumane choice of either starving to death or risking being killed while trying to get food,” it says, adding that the famine and “foreseeable and repeatedly foretold” deaths directly resulted from actions taken by the Israeli government.

Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza

Israeli forces launched new air strikes and artillery attacks across the Gaza Strip, as families in the besieged enclave woke to begin their Ramadan fast under bombardment.

Shelling struck areas east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza at dawn on Thursday, where Israeli troops remain deployed. Warplanes also hit Rafah and areas east of Gaza City, according to Al Jazeera’s correspondent.

A day earlier, medical officials at Nasser Medical Complex confirmed that two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire near the so-called “yellow line” in Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis.

Israeli forces continue to demolish homes and infrastructure in areas they control, flattening entire neighbourhoods and entrenching displacement.

The attacks form part of Israel’s repeated breaches of the ceasefire that began on October 10, 2025.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health says those violations have killed 603 Palestinians and wounded 1,618 others as of Monday.

‘Partnership between settlers and the occupation forces’

Violence has also intensified in the occupied West Bank.

On Wednesday evening, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the death of 19-year-old Nasrallah Mohammad Jamal Abu Siam, who succumbed to wounds sustained during a settler assault on Mukhmas, northeast of occupied East Jerusalem.

Settlers, operating under the protection of Israeli forces, opened fire and stole dozens of sheep from Palestinian farmers. Three of the wounded were shot with live ammunition.

With Abu Siam’s killing, the number of Palestinians shot dead by settlers alone since October 7, 2023 has risen to 37, according to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.

Moayad Shaaban, head of the commission, described events in Mukhmas as a “dangerous escalation in organised settler terrorism”, citing a “full partnership between settlers and the occupation forces”.

Israeli troops also raided the town of Arraba, south of Jenin, wounding two young men with live fire, one critically. Soldiers detained several others during the incursion.

In Jerusalem, Ramadan has brought further restrictions at Al-Aqsa Mosque. The mosque’s imam, Sheikh Akrama Sabri, said Israeli authorities are “imposing a reality by force” by limiting worshippers while allowing extremist Jewish incursions into the compound.

Occupation authorities have issued more than 100 deportation orders barring young Jerusalemites from entering the mosque and restricted West Bank worshippers to 10,000 permits under strict age and security conditions. Al-Aqsa can hold up to half a million people.

Sheikh Sabri said Israeli forces question worshippers during tarawih prayers in what he described as “provocation upon provocation”.

The true human cost of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip has far exceeded previous official estimates, with independent research published in the world’s leading medical journals verifying more than 75,000 “violent deaths” by early 2025.

The findings, emerging from a landmark series of scientific papers, suggest that administrative records from the Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH) represent a conservative “floor” rather than an overcount, and provide a rigorous bedrock to the scale of Palestinian loss.

The Gaza Mortality Survey (GMS), a population-representative household study published in The Lancet Global Health, estimated 75,200 “violent deaths” between October 7, 2023 and January 5, 2025. This figure represents approximately 3.4 percent of Gaza’s pre-conflict 2.2 million population and sits 34.7 percent higher than the 49,090 “violent deaths” reported by the MoH for the same period.

The Gaza Health Ministry estimates that as of January 27 this year, at least 71,662 people have been killed since the start of the war. Of those, 488 people have been killed since the declaration of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on October 10, 2025.

Israel has consistently questioned the ministry’s figures, but an Israeli army official told journalists in the country in January that the army accepted that about 70,000 people had been killed in Gaza during the war.

Despite the higher figure, researchers noted that the demographic composition of casualties – where women, children, and the elderly comprise 56.2 percent of those killed – remains remarkably consistent with official Palestinian reporting.

Scientific validation of the toll

The GMS, which interviewed 2,000 households representing 9,729 individuals, provides a rigorous empirical foundation for a death toll.

Michael Spagat, a professor of economics at Royal Holloway University of London and the study’s lead author, found that while MoH reporting remains reliable, it is inherently conservative due to the collapse of the very infrastructure required to document death.

Notably, this research advances upon findings published in The Lancet in January 2025, which used statistical “capture-recapture” modelling to estimate 64,260 deaths during the war’s first nine months.

While that earlier study relied on probability to flag undercounts, this report shifts from mathematical estimation to empirical verification through direct household interviews. It extends the timeline through January 2025, confirming a violent toll exceeding 75,000 and quantifying, for the first time, the burden of “non-violent excess mortality”.

According to a separate commentary in the same publication, the systematic destruction of hospitals and administrative centres has created a “central paradox” where the more devastating the harm to the health system, the more difficult it becomes to analyse the total death toll.

Verification is further hindered by thousands of bodies still buried under rubble or mutilated beyond recognition. Beyond direct violence, the survey estimated 16,300 “non-violent deaths”, including 8,540 “excess” deaths caused directly by the deterioration of living conditions and the blockade-induced collapse of the medical sector.

Researchers highlighted that the MoH figures appear to be conservative and reliable, dispelling misinformation campaigns aimed at discrediting Palestinian casualty data. “The validation of MoH reporting through multiple independent methodologies supports the reliability of its administrative casualty recording systems even under extreme conditions,” the study concluded.

A decade of reconstructive backlogs

While the death toll continues to mount, survivors face an unprecedented burden of complex injury that Gaza’s decimated healthcare system is no longer equipped to manage. A predictive, multi-source model published in eClinicalMedicine quantified 116,020 cumulative injuries as of April 30, 2025.

The study, led by researchers from Duke University and Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital, estimated that between 29,000 and 46,000 of these injuries require complex reconstructive surgery. More than 80 percent of these injuries resulted from explosions, primarily air attacks and shelling in densely populated urban zones.

The scale of the backlog is staggering. Ash Patel, a surgeon and co-author of the study, noted that even if surgical capacity were miraculously restored to pre-war levels, it would take approximately another decade to work through the estimated backlog of predicted reconstructive cases. Before the escalation, Gaza had only eight board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeons for a population exceeding 2.2 million people.

The collapse of the health system

The disparity between reconstructive need and capacity is exacerbated by what researchers describe as the “systematic destruction” of medical infrastructure. By May 2025, only 12 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remained capable of providing care beyond basic emergency triage, with approximately 2,000 hospital beds available for the entire population, down from more than 3,000 beds before the war.

“There is little to no reconstructive surgery capacity left within Gaza,” the research concluded, warning that specialised expertise like microsurgery is almost absent. The clinical challenge is further compounded by Israel’s use of incendiary weapons, which produce severe burns alongside blast-related fractures.

The long-term effect of these injuries is often irreversible. Without prompt medical treatment, patients face high risks of wound infection, sepsis, and permanent disability. The data indicate that tens of thousands of Palestinians will remain with surgically addressable disabilities for life unless there is a huge international increase in reconstructive capacity and aid.

The ‘grey zone’ of mortality

Writing in The Lancet Global Health, authors Belal Aldabbour and Bilal Irfan observed a growing “grey zone” in mortality where the distinction between direct and indirect death becomes blurred. Patients who die of sepsis months after a blast, or from renal failure after a crushing injury because they cannot access clean water or surgery, occupy a space that risks understating the true lethality of military attacks.

Conditions have only deteriorated since the data collection periods. By late 2025, forced evacuations covered more than 80 percent of Gaza’s area, with northern Gaza and Rafah governorates facing full razing by Israeli forces. Famine was declared in northern Gaza in August 2025, further reducing the physiological reserve of injured survivors and complicating any surgical recovery.

This series of independent studies serves as an urgent call for accountability and an immediate cessation of hostilities. “The healthcare infrastructure in Gaza is being repeatedly decimated by attacks despite protection by international humanitarian law,” researchers stated. They underscored that the only way to prevent the reconstructive burden from growing further is an immediate end to attacks against civilians and vital infrastructure.

The latest deaths come as just 260 people, out of 18,500 in urgent need, have been allowed to seek medical care via the crossing to Egypt, the United Nations says.

Israeli fire has killed at least two Palestinians in separate incidents across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, as Israel continues to block thousands of Palestinians from seeking urgent medical attention through the partially-reopened Rafah crossing in its ongoing, more than two-year genocidal war on the enclave.

Al Jazeera’s correspondent on the ground reported that one child was killed in the northern Strip when an Israeli drone targeted children on their way to check their destroyed homes in the area.

Meanwhile, soldiers opened fire on and killed Muhand Jamal al-Najjar, 20, near the Bani Suheila roundabout east of the city of Khan Younis, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Gaza hospital sources told Al Jazeera that Israeli fire also wounded three Palestinians in al-Mughraqa in the central Strip and the al-Mawasi area of Rafah to the south. 

Since the “ceasefire”, which Israel has violated on a near-daily basis, took effect in mid-October, more than 600 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1,600 wounded, according to the latest figures released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health earlier this week.

Limited reopening

The latest deaths come as the Israeli military maintains its blockade on Palestinians looking to exit Gaza via the Rafah crossing to Egypt for medical care.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has tallied a total of 260 patients leaving Gaza since the first day of reopening two and a half weeks ago, the office told Al Jazeera on Wednesday – a small fraction of the roughly 18,500 people who desperately require evacuation.

The figure even falls short of an earlier promise from an Egyptian border official that at least 50 Palestinians would cross in each direction starting from the first day. Instead, just five patients were permitted to leave.

Human rights and medical groups, including the World Health Organization (WHO), have repeatedly called for Palestinians to be able to access critical care outside Gaza.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on social media earlier this month that the body wanted to see an “immediate reopening of the medical referral route to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem”, and for more countries to accept patients for specialised care not available in the Strip.

But Gaza’s health system – which Israel has largely decimated since starting its war on the embattled enclave in October 2023 – must look to “reduce reliance on medical evacuations”, he added.

“This is now the top priority,” Tedros said, ticking off necessities including scaling up health services inside Gaza, stocking fresh medical supplies, and repairing damaged facilities.

The rate of return to Gaza through the checkpoint has also been slow: 269 people had passed into Gaza as of February 11, OCHA said in its latest report.

One recent batch – made up of 41 people who were transported to Nasser Medical Complex – said Israeli soldiers subjected them to humiliating physical searches and intense interrogations, an Al Jazeera team reported.

Returnees have previously recounted being blindfolded during hours of political interrogations and psychological pressure before being allowed to re-enter Gaza.

The Hind Rajab Foundation has filed a criminal complaint to a court in Chile, seeking the prosecution of an Israeli Ukrainian who was an Israeli sniper in Gaza. Lucia Newman investigates his role in the deaths in Gaza.

Dozens of actors and directors, including Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton, have condemned the Berlin International Film Festival for its “anti-Palestinian racism” and urged organisers to clearly state their opposition to “Israel’s genocide” in Gaza.

In an open letter published in Variety on Tuesday, the 81 film workers also denounced comments by this year’s president of the awards jury, Wim Winders who – when asked about Gaza – said, “We should stay out of politics”.

They noted that the festival’s stance stands in direct contrast to its policy on Russia’s war on Ukraine and on the situation in Iran.

All of the signatories are alumni of the festival, which is also known as the Berlinale, and include actors Cherien Dabis and Brian Cox, as well as directors Adam McKay, Mike Leigh, Lukas Dhont, Nan Goldin, and Avi Mograbi.

In their letter, the film workers expressed dismay at the Berlinale’s “involvement in censoring artists who oppose Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza” and the German government’s key role in enabling the atrocities.

They said the festival has been policing filmmakers, and listed several examples from last year’s Berlinale.

“Last year, filmmakers who spoke out for Palestinian life and liberty from the Berlinale stage reported being aggressively reprimanded by senior festival programmers. One filmmaker was reported to have been investigated by police, and Berlinale leadership falsely implied that the filmmaker’s moving speech – rooted in international law and solidarity – was ‘discriminatory’,’ they wrote.

“We stand with our colleagues in rejecting this institutional repression and anti-Palestinian racism,” they added.

The film workers said they “fervently disagree” with Wenders’s statement that filmmaking is the “opposite of politics”, saying, “You cannot separate one from the other.”

Their letter comes days after Indian author Arundhati Roy said she was withdrawing from this year’s festival after what she called “unconscionable statements” by jury members, including Wenders.

This year’s festival runs from February 12 to 22.

The film workers noted that the Berlinale’s actions come at a time when the world is learning “horrifying new details about the 2,842 Palestinians ‘evaporated’ by Israeli forces” in Gaza through thermobaric weapons made by the United States.

An Al Jazeera investigation, published last week, documented how these weapons – which are capable of generating temperatures exceeding 3,500 degrees Celsius (6,332 degrees Fahrenheit) – leave behind no remains other than blood or small fragments of flesh.

Germany, too, has been one of the biggest exporters of weapons to Israel despite the evidence of Israel’s atrocities. It has also introduced repressive measures to discourage people from speaking out in solidarity with Palestinians, including in the arts.

In their letter, the Berlinale alumni noted that the international film world is increasingly taking a stance against Israel’s genocidal actions.

Last year, major international film festivals – including the world’s largest documentary festival in Amsterdam – endorsed a cultural boycott of Israel, while more than 5,000 film workers have pledged to refuse work with Israeli film companies and institutions.

Yet, the film works said, the Berlinale “has so far not even met the demands of its community to issue a statement that affirms the Palestinian right to life, dignity, and freedom”.

This is the least it can and should do, they said.

“Just as the festival has made clear statements in the past about atrocities carried out against people in Iran and Ukraine, we call on the Berlinale to fulfil its moral duty and clearly state its opposition to Israel’s genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against Palestinians, and completely end its involvement in shielding Israel from criticism and calls for accountability,” they added.

This week, the Israeli government approved a plan to designate large areas of the occupied West Bank as “state property”, shifting the burden of proof to Palestinians to establish ownership of their land.

The decision, which undermines the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, has prompted regional condemnation, with many describing it as a de facto annexation which is illegal under international law.

In recent years, Israel has intensified its military incursions, expanded illegal settlements, and demolished Palestinian homes, all as part of a series of aggressive actions to steal more Palestinian land.

In total, at least 37,135 Palestinians were displaced across the occupied West Bank in 2025, a record high amid Israeli military incursions and settler attacks, according to figures compiled by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

According to UNRWA, Israeli military incursions have forcibly displaced at least 33,362 Palestinians from three northern refugee camps: Jenin (12,557), Tulkarem(11,862) and Nur Shams (8,943).

In addition to those displaced during Israeli operations, at least 3,773 have been forced from their homes due to Israeli home demolitions, settler violence, and access restrictions.

The West Bank governorates with the largest number of forced displacements include:

• Ramallah and el-Bireh: 870
• Jerusalem: 841
• Hebron: 446
• Nablus: 407
• Bethlehem: 397
• Tubas: 292
• Salfit: 150
• Jericho: 135
• Jenin: 110
• Tulkarem: 65
• Qalqilya: 60

Why most demolitions and attacks are in Area C

As part of the 1993 Oslo Accords, signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel, the occupied West Bank was divided into three areas – A, B and C.

This led to the formation of the Palestinian Authority (PA) – an administrative body that would govern Palestinian internal security, administration and civilian affairs in areas of self-rule, for a five-year interim period.

Area A initially comprised 3 percent of the West Bank and grew to 18 percent by 1999. In Area A, the PA controls most affairs.

Area B represents about 22 percent of the West Bank. In both areas, while the PA is in charge of education, health and the economy, the Israelis have full control of external security, meaning they retain the right to enter at any time.

Area C represents 60 percent of the West Bank. Under the Oslo Accords, control of this area was supposed to be handed over to the PA. Instead, Israel retains total control over all matters, including security, planning and construction. The transfer of control to the PA never happened.

Although Area C is the least populated part of the West Bank, with about 300,000 Palestinians compared with about 3 million in Areas A and B, the vast majority of home demolitions and settler attacks occur there, due to it being under full Israeli military and administrative control.

The Israeli Civil Administration rarely grants building permits to Palestinians in this area, so nearly all construction is considered illegal and subject to demolition.

Record number of Israeli settler attacks

Since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023, violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank has steadily risen.

According to data from OCHA, settlers have attacked Palestinians more than 3,700 times in the occupied West Bank over the past 28 months.

The number of settler attacks has risen sharply since 2016, with 852 recorded in 2022, 1,291 in 2023, 1,449 in 2024 and 1,828 in 2025 – an average of five attacks per day, according to data from OCHA.

Every West Bank governorate has faced settler attacks over the past year.

Data from OCHA shows that between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2025, the Ramallah and el-Bireh governorate recorded the highest number of settler attacks with 523 incidents, followed by Nablus with 349 and Hebron with 309.

Who are Israeli settlers?

Settlers are Israeli citizens living in illegal, Jewish-only communities, known as Israeli settlements, built on Palestinian-owned land that Israel occupied in 1967.

Benjamin Netanyahu – Israel’s longest-serving prime minister – has bolstered settlement expansions since he first came to power in 1996, undermining the 1993 Oslo Accords, which called for the freezing of settlements and a mutually negotiated two-state solution.

Today, roughly 10 percent of Israel’s Jewish population, totalling between 600,000 and 750,000 people, live in about 250 settlements and outposts dispersed throughout the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Many of these settlements are located near Palestinian population centres, often leading to increased tensions and restrictions on movement for Palestinians.

Nearly a year since the Palestinian-Israeli film No Other Land won an Academy Award, its co-director, Hamdan Ballal, says Israeli settler attacks on the cluster of occupied West Bank villages known as Masafer Yatta have only gotten worse, as those involved in the documentary bear the brunt of Israeli reprisals.

The latest bout of violence came on Sunday, when Israeli settlers stormed Ballal’s hometown of Susya, despite an Israeli court ruling designating the area around his home as closed to non-residents. Israeli army officers called by the family to enforce the ruling, issued two weeks prior, sided with the attackers.

“The ruling was supposed to make things better for us, but the opposite happened,” Ballal told Al Jazeera on Monday. “Israeli authorities did nothing to enforce the decision, but joined the settlers in the attack.”

One of his brothers was held in a chokehold by an army officer and later hospitalised with breathing difficulties. Four other relatives – two brothers, a nephew, and a cousin – were detained for several hours as they arrived at the scene. They have all since been released.

The Palestinian film director said his family was ambushed by the same Israeli settler who led an attack against him as he returned from the Oscar ceremony in Los Angeles last March. Then, he had been taken away in a blindfold by a group of Israeli settlers and army officers and released a day later with injuries to his head and stomach, leading to global condemnation.

Ballal said the retaliation for the documentary has since been directed against his family, rather than himself, to avoid media attention. His relatives have been routinely prevented from grazing sheep and ploughing the land. At times, they have been arrested, questioned about his work and whereabouts, or intimidated to vacate their homes.

“My family is paying because of me; because I shared the movie and I shared the truth,” he said.

The film, which won the Oscar for best documentary on March 2, follows Palestinian journalist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham as they try to protect Palestinian homes amid tensions with settlers in Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills. Israeli filmmaker Rachel Szor also shares directing credits.

Israeli settlers in the area often graze their animals on Palestinian land to assert control, signal unrestricted access, and lay the groundwork for establishing illegal outposts, cutting Palestinians off from their farms and livestock.

The Israeli army argues that it has to demolish the Palestinian villages to convert the area into a military “firing” or training zone. It did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on Sunday’s incident.

Across the occupied West Bank, Israel’s far-right coalition government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been openly promoting new measures to expand Israeli control over the Palestinian territory.

Most recently, it announced the resumption of the land registration processes for the first time since 1967, which Israeli rights groups say will accelerate the dispossession and displacement of Palestinians in violation of international law.

‘Right to live’

Ballal’s family has not been the only one to pay the price for the acclaimed documentary.

Adra, the Palestinian protagonist in the film, had his home in at-Tawani raided by the Israeli army in September, after clashes broke out with a group of Israeli settlers that trespassed in his olive grove.

In July, Awdah Hathaleen, an activist, football player and a consultant for No Other Land, was shot dead, in the chest, in the village of Umm al-Khair. The father of three was a key figure in non-violent resistance against settler violence in Masafer Yatta. His assailant, Israeli settler Yinon Levi, later said, “I’m glad I did it,” according to witnesses.

Ballal said he does not hesitate to describe these attacks as being “terrorist”, as they leave the Palestinian community in Masafer Yatta constantly fearing for their safety.

“It’s a simple right for Palestinians to feel safe in their homes,” he told Al Jazeera. “We are scared; we are in danger, and it’s been like this for a long time.”

“International law doesn’t work for Palestinians,” he continued. “But we are human, and we have a right to live.”

More than 457,000 European citizens have signed a petition calling for the full suspension of the European Union’s partnership agreement with Israel within the initiative’s first month.

Launched on January 13 as a formally registered European citizens’ initiative, the petition must reach 1 million signatures from at least seven EU member states by January 13 next year to trigger formal consideration by the European Commission. It is not a symbolic appeal. It is a mechanism embedded within the EU’s democratic framework, designed to translate public will into institutional review.

The speed and geographic spread of this mobilisation matter. The demand to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement is no longer confined to street demonstrations or activist circles. It has entered the EU’s formal democratic architecture.

The petition calls for suspension on the grounds that Israel is in breach of Article 2 of the association agreement, which conditions the partnership on respect for human rights and international law. As the initiative states, “EU citizens cannot tolerate that the EU maintains an agreement that contributes to legitimize and finance a State that commits crimes against humanity and war crimes.” The text further cites large-scale civilian killings, displacement, destruction of hospitals and medical infrastructure in Gaza, the blockade of humanitarian aid and the failure to comply with orders of the International Court of Justice.

As of Monday, the initiative had gathered 457,950 signatures, more than 45 percent of the required total in just one month. Signatories come from all 27 EU member states without exception. This is not a regional surge. It is continental.

The distribution of signatures reveals more than raw numbers. France alone accounts for 203,182 signatories, nearly 45 percent of the total. That figure reflects the country’s longstanding tradition of solidarity mobilisation, sustained mass demonstrations throughout the genocidal war on Gaza and the clear positioning of major political actors, such as La France Insoumise. France has emerged as the principal engine of this institutional push.

Spain follows with 60,087 signatures while Italy stands at 54,821, a particularly striking figure given the presence of a right-wing government that openly supports Israel. Belgium has registered 20,330 signatures from a population of roughly 12 million, reflecting high relative engagement. In the Nordic region, Finland with 12,649 signatures, Sweden with 15,267 and Denmark with 8,295 show sustained participation. Ireland has reached 11,281 signatures from a population of just over five million.

Several of these countries have already exceeded their required national thresholds under EU rules. France, Spain, Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Italy and Sweden have all surpassed the minimum number needed for their signatures to count towards the seven-member-state requirement. This is a critical development. It means the initiative is not merely accumulating volume but is also already satisfying the geographic legitimacy criteria built into the European citizens’ initiative mechanism.

The Netherlands, with 20,304 signatures, is approaching its national threshold. Poland, at 22,308 signatures, reflects engagement that extends beyond Western Europe. Even in smaller states such as Slovenia with 1,703 signatures, Luxembourg with 900 and Portugal with 4,945, participation is visible and measurable.

Germany presents a revealing contrast. Despite being the EU’s most populous member state and the site of some of the largest demonstrations against Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, the petition has gathered 11,461 German signatures, only 17 percent of Germany’s national threshold of 69,120. This gap between visible street mobilisation and formal institutional participation highlights the particular political and legal environment in Germany, where pro-Palestinian expression has faced restrictions and where successive governments have maintained near-unconditional support for Israel as a matter of state policy. The relatively low percentage does not signal absence of dissent. Rather, it illustrates the structural constraints within which dissent operates. That more than 11,000 citizens have nevertheless formally registered their support indicates that institutional engagement is occurring even under conditions of political pressure.

Taken together, these patterns reveal something deeper than a petition’s momentum. Over more than two years of genocidal war, ethnic cleansing and the systematic destruction of civilian life in Gaza, solidarity across Europe has not dissipated. It has moved from protest slogans and street mobilisation into a formal democratic instrument that demands institutional response.

Petitions do not automatically change policy. The European Commission is not legally bound to suspend the association agreement even if the initiative ultimately reaches 1 million signatures. But the political implications are significant. A successful initiative would formally compel the commission to respond to a demand grounded in the EU’s own human rights clause. It would demonstrate that the call for suspension is rooted in broad and measurable public support across multiple member states.

The European Union has long presented itself as a normative power committed to international law and human rights. Article 2 of its partnership agreements is foundational. If hundreds of thousands, and potentially more than a million, European citizens insist that this principle be applied consistently, EU institutions will face a credibility test.

This petition is not merely a count of signatures. It is an index of political will. It shows that across France, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Ireland, the Nordic states and beyond, citizens are invoking the EU’s own democratic mechanisms to demand accountability.

Whether the initiative ultimately reaches 1 million, one reality is already established. The demand to suspend the EU-Israel partnership has entered Europe’s institutional bloodstream. It can no longer be dismissed as marginal rhetoric. It is embedded within the union’s formal democratic process, and that marks a significant development in Europe’s response to the genocide in Gaza.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

The Israeli government has approved a plan to begin land registration in the occupied West Bank, meaning it will be able to seize land from Palestinians who cannot prove ownership.

For the first time since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank in 1967, it will register such land as property of the state – also known as settlement of land title – in Area C of the occupied West Bank.

Area C is the part of the West Bank that remains under direct Israeli control. It covers about 60 percent of the West Bank.

According to Israeli media, Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich, who submitted the proposal to restart land registration with Minister of Justice Yariv Levin and Minister of Defence Israel Katz, said the move was a continuation of “the settlement revolution to control all our lands”.

The Palestinian Authority presidency said the decision amounts to “de facto annexation” of the West Bank. It is the formalisation of the ongoing process of building settlements in the West Bank in violation of international law over the past several decades.

Here’s what we know about how this could be implemented:

What does the land registration process mean?

During Jordanian control of the West Bank from 1949 to 1967, the administration primarily followed the British Mandate of land ownership, under which land was registered as state or private property.

But only about one-third of the land in the West Bank was formally registered under this process. Large numbers of Palestinians living in the region had no documentation or other means of proving they owned their own land. Many of them had also lost documents or they had been destroyed during the 1967 six-day Arab-Israeli war, which resulted in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

When Israel took control of the West Bank, it discontinued the process of land registration.

Now, the government has decided to restart the land registration, a move that many Israeli human rights groups and political analysts have condemned.

Xavier Abu Eid, a political analyst based in the West Bank, described the Israeli government’s move as a “de facto annexation of Palestinian territory”.

“What they are doing is the implementation of annexation, packaging it as a mere bureaucratic process,” he told Al Jazeera.

He added that it reaffirms the idea that “there is a colonial power that sets two different sets of legislation depending on ethnic and religious identity, defined also as apartheid.”

Where will land registration be implemented?

In 1993 and 1995, the Oslo Accords were signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. They laid out administrative control of the West Bank and Gaza and divided the occupied West Bank into three areas – Area A, Area B and Area C.

The new Palestinian Authority (PA) was granted full administrative control of 18 percent of the land – Area A – and joint control with Israel over 22 percent – Area B. Area C remained under complete Israeli military control. These areas were meant to be in place for five years, after which full administrative control would be handed to the PA. However, this transfer never took place.

The land registration that will now be restarted will apply to Area C, which is home to more than 300,000 Palestinian people.

According to the Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now, in Area C, about 58 percent of the land remains unregistered. In a statement on Sunday, the group warned that the Israeli government’s land settlement process will now facilitate full Israeli control of this unregistered land.

How will land registration work?

Israeli authorities have provided few details about how the process will unfold, but essentially, it will likely involve transferring legal ownership of land to the Israeli state and issuing evictions to Palestinian communities, as has been happening in East Jerusalem in recent years, experts told Al Jazeera.

Michal Braier, an architect and the head of research at Bimkom, an Israeli human rights organisation that focuses on land and housing rights, said it is likely Israeli authorities will take the same approach in the West Bank as they have taken in East Jerusalem since 2018. In East Jerusalem, only 1 percent of settled land has been registered to Palestinians from 2018 to 2024, according to Bimkom.

Braier said Israel will begin by selecting the areas of land it wants to register. The government has set a goal of registering about 15 percent of the unregistered land within the next four years, she added.

“Now we can pretty clearly guess that this 15 percent will be lands where they assume that they can prove the state ownership easily or they can easily reject Palestinian ownership claims because a lot of these unregistered lands don’t have clear records and the records go a very, very long time back. So it will be very hard to prove Palestinian ownership,” she told Al Jazeera.

In theory, she said, Palestinians will be able to file land claims as part of the new process, but in practice, it is likely that they will be prevented from successfully doing so.

“Even if they do file claims, the legal bars they need to meet are very difficult to obtain. On top of this, there is the problem of Absentee Property Law, which moves land into the state’s hands and is yet unclear how exactly it will be practised in the occupied West Bank. So Palestinians are highly likely to lose their individual property rights,” she said.

The Absentee Property Law is an Israeli law enacted in 1950 that states that Israel has the right to seize property of “absentees” – people who were expelled, fled or who left the country after November 29, 1947, the day the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution to end the British Mandate and recommend the creation of a Palestinian and a Jewish state. Israel was founded less than six months later.

Braier said land registration “will be used as another mechanism to grab land that they could not grab until now for different reasons and to build more settlements and push out Palestinians from Area C”.

According to a Times of Israel report, an Israeli government resolution linked to the land registration bill has allowed for an initial budget of $79m for the land registration process in Area C from 2026 to 2030. The report added that during this process, Israel, which already has civilian and military control of the area, will establish 35 ministerial positions and set up state agencies to begin the process of registering land.

What does this mean for Palestinian communities?

Peace Now described the Israeli government’s decision to restart land registration in the West Bank as “a mega land grab of Palestinian property”.

“Land registration will result in the transfer of ownership of the vast majority of Area C to the state, leaving Palestinians with no practical ability to realise their ownership rights,” the group said in a statement on Sunday.

Abu Eid said the land registration process the government intends to undertake amounts to a “full-fledged ethnic cleansing policy” and added that it is a moment that will be “remembered as a turning point in Israeli attempts at erasing the Palestinian cause”.

But he noted that the Israeli government’s decision has not arisen in a vacuum as Israel has “allowed for a wave of terror attacks by Israeli settlers and the expansion of colonial settlements all over the West Bank” for years.

“Palestinians in general are not just dispossessed of their land and natural resources but come under attacks that are dealt with utter impunity both by the Israeli regime and by the international community,” he said.

“In al-Auja, for example, near Jericho, from 100 Palestinian families that used to live in the place a few months ago, now there is not a single family left,” he added.

He said it is likely that Israel will expect thousands of displaced people from the West Bank to go to Jordan.

“You should not forget the incitement coming out from members of the Israeli government claiming that Jordan should be turned into Palestine while Palestine should be left for the Zionist project,” Abu Eid said.

How have Palestinian land rights been eroded before this?

The West Bank is home to about 3.3 million Palestinians. It is divided into 11 governorates with Hebron being the most populous at 842,000 residents. Jerusalem follows with 500,000, Nablus with 440,000, Ramallah and el-Bireh with 377,000 and Jenin with 360,000.

Since the Israeli occupation in 1967, the Palestinian people have been subject to  land seizures and illegal settlement expansion.

Today, about 700,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in settlements and outposts that are Jewish-only communities built on Palestinian land. These range in size from a single dwelling to a collection of high rises. Last year, the Israeli government approved the construction of new settlements in the region, seeking to advance “de facto sovereignty” in the region.

In all, the number of settlements and outposts in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has risen by nearly 50 percent since 2022 – from 141 to 210 now.

Besides eroding Palestinian people’s land rights, Israel has also carried out frequent raids in the West Bank, where Palestinians are also subject to checkpoints, arbitrary arrests, home demolitions and settler attacks.

The Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem estimated that settler attacks against Palestinians have forcibly displaced 44 communities across the West Bank in recent years. These attacks have also resulted in the deaths of Palestinian people. Since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023, settler attacks have also intensified.

At least 1,054 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers and settlers from October 7, 2023, to February 5 of this year, according to the latest United Nations figures.

Braier said Sunday’s approval of Israel’s land registration in the West Bank will result in a rise in violence in the region.

“Area C is being cleared out by what is usually regarded as settler violence, but this violence is actually state violence, backed by state mechanisms, so this is all working together to expand Israeli control over Area C and expand settlement in Area C,” she said.

Is Israel’s land registration process legal?

In 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s “expropriation of land and properties, transfer of populations, and legislation aimed at the incorporation of the occupied section are totally invalid and cannot change that status”.

The ICJ has also ruled that Israel’s long-term occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal and must be terminated “as rapidly as possible”.

Braier said the Israeli government’s latest decision on land registration also contravenes international law.

“International law is clear: As an occupying power, Israel cannot exercise sovereign powers, including final determination of land ownership, in an occupied territory,” she told Al Jazeera.

“This position was reinforced by the International Court of Justice’s 2024 advisory opinion, which found that similar settlement of land title proceedings in East Jerusalem violate the laws of occupation,” she said.

“Furthermore, the decision to authorise Israeli civilian authorities to manage the land registration procedures likewise constitutes a clear indication of the annexation of the area,” she added.

What does this mean for Israel’s peace treaty with Jordan?

On October 26, 1994, Israel and Jordan signed the Wadi Araba Treaty, which formally ended the state of war between the two nations that had existed since the creation of Israel in 1948.

Under the agreement, Israel and Jordan established diplomatic ties, agreed to exchange territory and opened the way for cooperation in trade, tourism, transport links, water resources and environmental protection. Jordan also signed the agreement seeking to ensure a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine would be established.

But the public in Jordan, opposition groups and human rights groups have repeatedly called on the government to sever relations with Israel due to its continuing aggression in Palestine.

In 2014, many Jordanians took to the streets, calling on the government to scrap its peace treaty with Israel after clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

In 2024, a similar call was issued by Jordanian activists as Israel conducted its genocidal war in Gaza, which has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians.

On Sunday, Jordan, which shares a 482km (300-mile) border with Israel and the West Bank, condemned Israel’s decision to reinstate land registration in the West Bank. Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs described Israel’s move as a “flagrant violation of international law”.

While Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel still holds, Abu Eid said Sunday’s decision by the Israeli cabinet is a serious and sensitive matter for Jordan, particularly if thousands of people are forcibly displaced from the West Bank.

Furthermore, he said, Israel has been acting against the principles of the Jordan-Israel peace agreement for years.

“If peace agreements are aimed at creating the conditions to enhance cooperation and establish a two-state solution, Israel goes against all of such principles, seeking the expansionist ‘Greater Israel’ agenda,” he said.

“Jordan takes such matters seriously and will certainly seek to have collective action with other regional and international allies,” he added.

The smell hits you before you even see the tents. In the al-Taawun camp, wedged between Yarmouk Stadium and al-Sahaba Street in central Gaza City, the line between human habitation and human waste has been erased.

Forced to flee their homes by Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, 765 families have set up makeshift shelters directly on top of and adjacent to an enormous solid waste dump. Here, amid mountains of rotting garbage, they are fighting a losing battle against disease, pests and the psychological horror of living in filth.

Fayez al-Jadi, a father who has been displaced 12 times since the war began, said the conditions are stripping them of their humanity.

“The rats eat the tents from underneath,” al-Jadi told Al Jazeera. “They walk on our faces while we sleep. My daughter is 18 months old. A rat ran right over her face. Every day, she has gastroenteritis, vomiting, diarrhoea or malnutrition.”

Al-Jadi’s plea is not for a luxury accommodation, just a mere 40 to 50 metres (130ft to 164ft) of clean space to live in, he said. “We want to live like human beings.”

‘We wake up screaming’

The sanitary crisis has unleashed a plague of skin infections among the 4,000 residents of the camp. With no running water or sewage system, scabies has spread like wildfire.

Fares Jamal Sobh, a six-month-old infant, spends his nights crying. His mother points to the red, angry rashes covering his small body.

“He doesn’t sleep at night because of the itching,” she said. “We wake up to find cockroaches and mosquitoes on him. We bring medicine, but it’s useless because we are living on trash.”

Um Hamza, a grandmother caring for a large extended family, including a blind husband and a son suffering from asthma, said shame is no longer compounding their suffering.

“We’ve stopped being ashamed to say my daughter is covered in scabies,” she told Al Jazeera. “We’ve used five or six bottles of ointment, but it’s in vain.”

She added that the collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system has left them with nowhere to turn. “The hospitals, like al-Ahli, have started turning us away. … They write us a prescription and tell us to go buy it, but there is no medicine to buy.”

A city drowning in waste

The conditions at al-Taawun are a microcosm of a citywide collapse. Hamada Abu Laila, a university lecturer who helps administer the camp, warned of an “environmental catastrophe” exacerbated by the lack of sewage networks and drinking water across Gaza City.

But the problem goes deeper than a lack of aid. According to Husni Muhanna, spokesperson for the Gaza Municipality, the crisis is man-made. Israeli forces have blocked access to the Gaza Strip’s main landfill in the east, forcing the creation of hazardous temporary dumps in populated areas like Yarmouk and the historic Firas Market.

“More than 350,000 tonnes of solid waste are piling up inside Gaza City alone,” Muhanna told Al Jazeera in January.

He explained that the municipality is paralysed by a “complex set of obstacles”, including the destruction of machinery, severe fuel shortages and constant security risks. With interventions limited to primitive means, the municipality can no longer manage waste in accordance with health standards, leaving thousands of displaced families to sleep atop a toxic time bomb.

Sleeping next to a tank shell

The dangers in al-Taawun are not just biological. Rizq Abu Laila, displaced from the town of Beit Lahiya in the north, lives with his family next to an unexploded tank shell that lies among the rubbish bags and plastic sheets.

“We are living next to a dump full of snakes and stray cats,” Abu Laila said, pointing to the ordnance. “This is an unexploded shell right next to the tents. With the heat of the sun, it could explode at any moment. Where are we supposed to go with our children?”

His daughter, Shahd, is terrified of the pack of wild dogs that roam the dump at night. “I’m afraid of the dogs because they bark,” she whispered.

Widad Sobh, another resident, described the nights as a horror movie. “The dogs bang against the tent fabric. … They want to attack and eat. I stay up all night chasing them away.”

For Um Hamza, the daily struggle for survival has reached a breaking point.

“I swear by God, we eat bread after the rats have eaten from it,” she said, describing the desperate hunger in the camp. “All I ask is that they find us a better place, … a place away from the waste.”