Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declares the Israeli ground invasion will continue into Rafah, where 1.9 million civilians are currently sheltering. One Palestinian tells Reuters, “If the tanks storm in, it will be a massacre like never before.”
Casualties
- 27,131+ killed* and at least 66,287 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
- 112 Palestinians have been killed, and 148 injured in the past 24 hours
- 387+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
- Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,139.
- 558 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 3,221 injured.**
*This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on February 2. Some rights groups put the death toll number at more than 33,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.
** This figure is released by the Israeli military.
Key Developments
- Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant: “Victory will not be complete until the military expands into Rafah.”
- There are 1.9 Palestinians currently sheltering in Rafah, which is the last place in the Gaza Strip that has been declared a “safe zone.” Palestinians fear a massacre, if the Israeli army encroaches.
- UNICEF: 1 million children in Gaza require mental health support
- UN: Israel’s assault on Gaza has become the deadliest conflict for journalists in history
- Palestinian Prisoners Society: 25 Palestinians detained last night in a series of raids across the West Bank. The number of Palestinians detained since October 7 is now 6,485
- According to a new poll, half of U.S. adults say that Israel has gone too far in its war with Gaza.
- U.S. President Joe Biden signs Executive Order that would impose sanctions on Israeli settlers who commit acts of violence that undermine security in the West Bank.
- Arab-Americans protest Joe Biden in Michigan, launch #AbandonBiden campaign on social media to draw attention to the way that the U.S. President let down the Arab-American community with his actions in Gaza
- OCHA: 372 Palestinians have been killed, including 94 children in conflict-related violence (including extremist settler attacks) across the Occupied West Bank.Belgium has summoned its ambassador after their development agency’s office was destroyed in Gaza.
- Israeli forces shelled the outskirts of the last refuge on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, where the displaced, penned against the border fence in their hundreds of thousands, said they feared a new assault with nowhere left to flee.
Israel’s Genocide War in Gaza Continues
- U.S. negotiators are pushing for a ceasefire that could stop the war long enough to stall Israel’s military momentum and potentially pave the way to a more lasting truce, according to U.S. and Arab officials familiar with the negotiations. Israel and Hamas are considering a three-part deal that would allow for hostage releases in Gaza beginning with a six-week ceasefire, according to a draft of the agreement ironed out in Paris this week. U.S. negotiators, led by CIA Director William Burns, argue it would be difficult for Israel to resume the war after a long pause, the officials said. Summer Said, Jared Malsin and Gordon Lubold report for the Wall Street Journal.
- Israel’s war Cabinet is on standby for Hamas’s response to the principles of the hostage deal negotiated in Paris on Sunday by CIA Director William Burns, head of the Mossad David Barnea, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and an Egyptian senior intelligence official, according to a senior adviser to the war Cabinet. Anna Schecter reports for NBC News.
- After completing its mission in Khan Younis, the Israeli military will move onto Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said.
- The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has warned it “most likely” will have to halt its work in the enclave and across the Middle East by the end of the month after donors suspended funding over allegations that some of its staff were involved with the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. Tim Lister, Ibrahim Dahman, and Amir Tal report for CNN.
REGIONAL RESPONSE
- Saudi Arabia would be willing to accept a political commitment from Israel to create a Palestinian state, rather than anything more binding, in a bid to approve a defense pact with the United States before the next U.S. presidential election, two sources said. Months of U.S.-led diplomacy to get Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel and recognize the country were shelved over the war in Gaza. Samia Nakhoul, Dan Williams, and Matt Spetalnick report for Reuters.
- Turkish authorities detained seven people suspected of selling information to Israel’s Mossad’s intelligence service in connection with monitoring local targets, a Turkish security official said today. Turkey has previously warned Israel of “serious consequences” if it tries to target members of Hamas living outside Palestinian territories, including in Turkey. State media also reported that Turkey’s intelligence agency has determined that Mossad was using private detectives to follow its targets. Reuters reports.
INTERNATIONAL RESPONS
- The Gaza offices of Belgium’s development agency, Enabel, were destroyed in what Belgian officials described as a bombing. Belgium will summon the Israeli ambassador to “clarify everything,” the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Mitchell McCluskey reports for CNN.
- The United Nations humanitarian office described the southern border town of Rafah as a “pressure cooker of despair”. Gaza cobblers are working by roadsides to mend the shoes of the displaced who are trekking through mud and rubble.
U.S. RESPONSE
- President Biden signed an executive order yesterday allowing the United States to impose new sanctions on Israeli settlers – and potentially Israeli officials and politicians – involved in violence against Palestinians. The order is the most significant step any U.S. administration has taken in response to violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank. The first round of sanctions under the new order includes four Israeli settlers who the U.S. said were involved in systematic attacks in the West Bank that led to the forced displacement of Palestinian communities. Two U.S. officials said the administration had considered including ultranationalist ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, but decided to leave them off for now and focus on those who directly perpetrated attacks. Barak Ravid reports for Axios.
- National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said there are currently no plans to sanction Israeli government officials after the Biden administration announced a new executive order targeting four individuals accused of directly perpetrating violence or intimidation in the West Bank. “This was an initial set of designations. I’m not going to preview whether there will be more or not going forward, but it is a new tool that we’re going to take a look at using appropriately,” Kirby said.
| Blinken Reportedly Plans Return to Mideast as Diplomats Weigh Hostage Deal, Cease-Fire As negotiations continue, Israel released (NYT) more than one hundred people yesterday that it had detained during the start of its military operation in Gaza and later cleared of involvement in terrorist activity. Separately, Biden issued an executive order yesterday imposing financial and travel sanctions on four Israelis accused of attacking Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. |
| Analysis “An extended period of calm would allow more aid to enter Gaza, and permit planning for reconstruction,” the Economist writes. “Above all, American envoys will be hoping a pause will help Israel turn its mind to the ‘day after’.” “[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu rejects Biden’s extraordinary sanctioning of settler extremists saying ‘there is no room’ for such measures. But if Netanyahu had stood up to the settlers rather than coddling them there would have been no need for Biden to act,” CFR expert Martin Indyk posts. |
IRAN-BACKED MILITANTS
- U.S. officials have confirmed that plans have been approved for a series of strikes over several days against targets inside Iraq and Syria, including Iranian personnel and facilities. The strikes come in response to drone and rocket attacks targeting U.S. forces in the region, including a drone attack on Sunday that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said yesterday, “We will continue to work to avoid a wider conflict in the region, but we will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our interests and our people, and we will respond when we choose, where we choose and how we choose.” Austin added that Washington is trying to “hold the right people accountable” without escalating the conflict in the region. Tucker Reals, Eleanor Watson, and Alex Sundby report for CBS News.
- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said today that Iran would not start a war but it would “respond strongly” to anyone who tried to “bully” it, a day after the United States said it was planning attacks on Iranian sites in Iraq and Syria. “Before, when they (the Americans) wanted to talk to us, they said the military option is on the table. Now they say they have no intention of a conflict with Iran,” Raisi said. Reuters reports.
- U.S. intelligence officials have calculated that Iran does not have full control over its proxy groups in the Middle East, including the groups responsible for attacking and killing U.S. troops in recent weeks, according to two U.S. officials. While Tehran is supporting proxy groups financially and providing military equipment, intelligence officials do not believe it is commanding attacks. Erin Banco reports for POLITICO.
The Sunday Talk Shows on Gaza: A Study in Media Bias
“Notably, only one Palestinian was a guest on any of the US shows. By contrast, Israeli guests appeared a total of ten times, including the Israeli ambassador to US, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, and Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu.”
The patterns of bias in guest booking, in the range of views expressed by guests, and in the framing of issues are consistent with the prevailing theory of media bias in coverage of foreign policy—that American news media tend to limit the range of discussion to views acceptable among the most powerful of the American political elite. Given the strongly pro-Israel tilt in US foreign policy, these findings are not surprising. But they do reflect an abandonment of the ideal that news media’s purpose is to scrutinize government policies and the actions of those in power and to inform the public so it can forge independent opinions.
What is surprising here is the extent to which the bias manifested. That the Sunday news shows on ABC, NBC, and FOX failed to include a single Palestinian guest (while CBS only had one) is an astounding failure at a time when many parts of American society are becoming more attentive to diversity and self-representation in news. That ten times as many Israeli as Palestinian guests were booked is alarming. Yet no data point should be as worrisome as the fact that officials in the Biden administration and Democratic lawmakers were among the main producers of pro-Israel messaging, accounting for 43 percent of the guests who espoused the most sympathy for Israel.
Many observers of the changing media ecology had speculated that the rise of social media and online news would reduce elite influence over the interpretation of events. This has not shown itself in the Sunday shows, but that does not mean the elite are not worried. The panic over the social media platform Tik Tok, which is popular among younger Americans who do not watch the mainstream news shows, might be the result of elite anxiety over the decline in gatekeeping power that privileges their messages. Social media producers do not limit discourse on foreign affairs to the narrow outlooks of elected officials and other elites. On Tik Tok, X, or Instagram, citizens are exposed to a much wider variety of analyses by an extremely diverse array of people. It is no surprise that poll after poll shows that the segment of the US population expressing the most concern for the Palestinian people is also the most likely to obtain their news from social media platforms.
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