One Palestinian was killed, several injured by Israeli drone attack on civilians in N Gaza, as Israel continues to raid W Bank
By Ahmed J Versi
(AA, Al Jazeera, Wafa, The Muslim News):
GAZA
Israeli forces launched a drone attack on Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza, targeting a group of civilians who were inspecting their destroyed homes in the area, killing at least one person and wounding several others, according to Al Quds Today and the Shehab Agency Sunday.
In addition Israeli tank fire wounded a Palestinian woman in southern Rafah’s al-Jnaina neighbourhood.
Although a ceasefire agreement came into effect on January 19, Israel continues to violate the agreement by targeting civilians in the region almost every day.
Meanwhile, Israel has stopped the entry of all humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and has reneged on the truce after the first phase of the ceasefire deal ended without agreement on continuing into a second phase.
Netanyahu’s office issued a statement on the move, according to Ynet News.
The statement says: “With the end of phase one of the hostage deal, and in light of Hamas’s refusal to accept the Witkoff outline for continuing the talks – to which Israel agreed, Prime Minister Netanyahu has decided that starting this morning all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will cease.
“Israel will not allow a ceasefire without the release of our hostages. If Hamas continues its refusal, there will be further consequences.”
Palestinian medics and rescue teams recovered 23 more bodies from the rubble in the Gaza Strip, pushing the overall death toll from Israel’s war since October 2023 to 48,388, the Health Ministry said on Saturday.
A ministry statement said the toll included two Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the last 48 hours.
According to the ministry, 23 injured people were also admitted to hospitals, taking the number of the injured to 111,803 in the Israeli onslaught.
“Many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” the ministry said.
The Government Media Office updated its death toll to at least 61,709, saying thousands of Palestinians missing under the rubble are presumed dead.
Displaced Palestinians in Gaza is enduring freezing temperatures and heavy rainfall which flood their tents and the remains of their bombed-out homes on the first night of Ramadan.
The worsening humanitarian crisis is compounded by Israeli delays in allowing the entry of temporary housing and essential reconstruction equipment, as stipulated in the ceasefire agreement.
A ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement has been in place since last month, pausing Israel’s war on Gaza that has killed more than 48,360 people, mostly women and children, and left the enclave in ruins.
As families prepared for suhoor (pre-dawn meal), rainwater seep into makeshift tents, drenching personal belongings and forcing many, especially women and children, to flee with no alternative shelter. Meanwhile, those who had returned to the ruins of their homes found themselves struggling against water leaking through cracked walls and shattered ceilings.
WEST BANK
On the first day of Ramadan, Israeli military bulldozers entered the Nour Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, demolishing homes and tearing up roads in the al-Manshiya neighborhood.
Nihad Al-Shawish, head of the Nour Shams camp’s Popular Committee, told Anadolu that “several military bulldozers stormed the al-Manshiya neighborhood, destroying roads and demolishing parts of residential buildings.”
He added that Israeli forces forced residents in the vicinity of the Nour Shams camp area to evacuate, claiming they were preparing for “large-scale detonations.”
“The army has ordered all residents of the camp to leave,” Shawish said.
The military assault on Nour Shams has now entered its 21st day, while Israeli forces have been targeting northern West Bank cities, particularly Jenin and Tulkarem, for over a month as part of an ongoing military offensive, killing at least 64 people and displacing thousands.
On Feb. 23, Israeli tanks entered the Jenin refugee camp in a military escalation not seen since 2002.
Palestinian authorities have warned that the continued military offensive is part of a broader plan by Netanyahu’s government to annex the West Bank and declare sovereignty over it, which could officially mark the end of the two-state solution.
Meanwhile, illegal Israeli settlers released their livestock this morning into the rain-fed crops of Palestinian farmers in Khirbet al-Farsiya village, located in the northern Jordan Valley, region, northeast of the occupied West Bank.
Local sources reported that the settlers grazed their sheep in the Palestinian agricultural fields, causing significant damage to the crops.
This is not the first instance of such an incident, as settlers routinely allow their livestock to graze in Palestinian farmland, leading to considerable losses.
Annually, settlers destroy hundreds of dunums of agricultural land in the northern Jordan Valley, in addition to blocking Palestinian farmers from grazing their livestock, raiding their homes, intimidating families, and attempting to steal livestock.
The Israeli army has killed 16 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of 2025, despite them “posing no real threat to the soldiers,” an international human rights organization said.
“The failure to hold Israeli soldiers accountable for their violations against Palestinians has effectively given them the green light to continue their actions,” Ayed Abu Eqtaish, the accountability program director of the Defense for Children International, told Anadolu.
Abu Eqtaish said that there is “a growing ease with which Israeli soldiers open fire on Palestinian children, leading to an increase in the number of those killed or injured.”
He referenced the case of Ayman Al-Haimouni, a 13-year-old Palestinian who was killed on Feb. 21 in the city of Hebron, southern West Bank. Abu Eqtaish clarified that “the child posed no threat to the soldiers at the moment he was shot and killed.”
He further highlighted that Israeli soldiers “have repeatedly and deliberately obstructed ambulances carrying the wounded in recent incidents and have even assaulted the families of the injured, turning these actions into a systematic military practice.”
On Feb. 10, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that the Israeli army expanded its rules of engagement in the occupied West Bank, leading to a rise in the number of Palestinian civilian deaths.
The newspaper, citing Israeli military unit commanders, reported that the Central Command of the Israeli army has decided to apply the same rules of engagement used in the Gaza Strip to the West Bank — allowing the killing of any unarmed Palestinian, whether they are suspected of anything or not.
It further explained that “the orders made it easier for soldiers to pull the trigger at the behest of Central Command Commander Avi Blot.”
The newspaper quoted Israeli soldiers taking part in the ongoing military operations in the West Bank as saying that Blot permitted them to shoot with the intent to kill Palestinians without resorting to arresting them.
The soldiers explained that the recent high death toll of unarmed Palestinians in the West Bank was “unusual,” attributing it to Blot’s orders allowing them to shoot and kill any Palestinian suspected of planting explosive devices or “tampering with the land.”
[Photo: Trucks and tankers, used to transport humanitarian aid, return empty to Gaza City through the Kerem Abu Salim border crossing in Rafah, where the aid was not allowed to pass in Gaza on March 02, 2025. Israel halted the flow of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip after the end of the first phase of the ceasefire and prisoner swap agreement in Gaza.
Photojournalist: Hani Alshaer/AA]
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