CrossFireArabia
UN Secretary-General António Guterres says that no entity can replace the UNRWA to “deliver lifesaving aid and social services at the scale needed in Gaza.” The agency has been facing a campaign launched by the Israeli occupation to end or even limit its work in the Gaza Strip. Within the last month, Israeli Knesset passed two bills banning UNRWA from operating on Israel-occupied territories.
CrossFireArabia
The UN human rights office, OHCHR, on Friday condemned the intensifying Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank, warning that nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced already amid an “alarming wave” of violence and destruction.
Since the start of the offensive on 21 January, Israeli forces have killed at least 44 Palestinians, including five children and two women, in Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas governorates, and four refugee camps in those areas, according to OHCHR.
Many of those killed were unarmed and posed no imminent threat, said the UN rights office, calling the killings “part of an expanding pattern of Israel’s unlawful use of force in the West Bank where there are no active hostilities.”
OHCHR also highlighted an unprecedented scale of mass displacement not seen in decades in the occupied West Bank.
It cited reports from displaced residents of a pattern where they were led out of their homes by Israeli security forces and drones under the threat of violence.
“They are then forced out of their towns with snipers positioned on rooftops around them and houses in their neighbourhoods used as posts by Israeli security forces,” the office said.
Testimonies collected by OHCHR describe Israeli forces threatening residents who were told they would never be allowed to return. One woman, who fled barefoot carrying her two young children, said she was denied permission to retrieve heart medication for her baby.
In Jenin refugee camp, bulldozed roads were photographed with new street signs reportedly now written in Hebrew.
“In this regard, we reiterate that any forcible transfer in or deportation of people from occupied territory is strictly prohibited and amounts to a crime under international law,” OHCHR stated.
The office stressed that displaced Palestinians must be allowed to return to their homes and called for immediate, transparent investigations into the killings.
“Military commanders and other superiors may be held responsible for the crimes committed by their subordinates if they fail to take all necessary and reasonable measures to prevent or punish unlawful killings,” it stated.
OHCHR also reiterated Israel’s obligations under international law, including ending its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible and evacuating all West Bank settlements immediately.
“In the meantime, as the occupying power, Israel must ensure the protection of Palestinians, the provision of basic services and needs, and the respect of Palestinians’ full range of human rights,” the office said.
© WFP
WFP aid trucks cross into Gaza via the Zikim and Kerem Shalom border crossings.
Meanwhile in Gaza, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) reported on Friday it had reached more than 860,000 men, women and children with food parcels, hot meals, bread and cash assistance since the start of the fragile ceasefire.
UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists at a regular news briefing in New York that over 19,000 metric tonnes of WFP food have entered Gaza.
The agency has also distributed nutrition packs to some 85,000 people, including children under five, and pregnant and breastfeeding women, and provided more than 90,000 people with cash assistance in the past two weeks.
“Efforts are also underway to establish more food distribution points, especially in North Gaza, to reduce travel distances, transport costs and protection risks for families,” Mr. Dujarric said.
In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) distributed 100,000 litres of fuel to hospitals in Gaza City on Friday, having delivered about 5,000 litres of fuel to Al Awda Hospital, in North Gaza governorate the day before.
In southern Gaza, education partners in Rafah are preparing for the reopening of at least a dozen schools as displaced families return to their home areas, Mr. Dujarric said.
“As you know, schools across the Strip had been used as shelters for Palestinians displaced during 15 months of hostilities. In Khan Younis and Deir al Balah, partners are providing cleaning materials to restart learning activities,” he added.
CrossFireArabia
Muhammad Barrash spent 22 years in an Israeli prison, enduring blindness, pain, and medical neglect. On Saturday, he finally walked free.
Barrash’s story is one of unimaginable suffering. In 2002, an Israeli “Energa” shell struck him in the heart of Ramallah in the West Bank. The explosion took his left leg, damaged his right, and left him partially blind. In June 2003, Israeli forces captured him. He was sentenced to three life terms and an additional 40 years.
Prison only deepened his suffering. Within a year of his detention, Barrash lost his eyesight completely. His right eye, already injured, deteriorated due to untreated medical conditions. But he kept this secret from his mother.
“Don’t tell my mother I am blind,” he wrote in a letter from prison in 2012. “She sees me, but I cannot see her. I smile and pretend when she holds up pictures of my brothers and friends. She doesn’t know that darkness has taken over my body.”
For years, Israeli prison authorities denied him medical care. He waited endlessly for a corneal transplant. The procedure never came. His body bore the scars of war—shrapnel embedded in his flesh, his right leg deteriorating. In 2021, he discovered that Israeli prison authorities had been giving him expired cholesterol medication, worsening his condition.
Meanwhile, his mother waited. She fought to visit him. She dreamed of his freedom. And on Saturday, her prayers were answered. Barrash stepped out of prison, no longer behind bars but forever marked by the years of neglect and torment.
His release is part of the first phase of a prisoner exchange deal between the resistance and the occupation state. For many, his story symbolizes the brutal conditions faced by Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.
Despite the blindness, the wounds, and the suffering, Barrash survived. He is free. But the scars remain.
The harrowing experiences of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention centers have long been a subject of international concern. Recent reports highlight a disturbing escalation in the severity of torture and mistreatment.
According to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS), detainees released as part of the recent prisoner exchange exhibited signs of “unprecedented” torture and starvation. Freed prisoners were observed wearing stained grey prison jumpsuits, bearing physical evidence of prolonged abuse. Testimonies revealed that many endured severe beatings leading to broken ribs, systematic medical neglect, and deliberate starvation. Some suffered from untreated skin conditions like scabies, exacerbated by the harsh prison environment.
Further reports from the Arab Workers Union indicate that Palestinian workers arrested following the October 2023 Israeli genocide in Gaza faced brutal treatment. Legal advisor Wehbe Badarneh disclosed that 34 workers died under mysterious circumstances or from alleged heart attacks while in detention. Testimonies from survivors detailed horrific abuse, including beatings, stripping, and various torture methods. These accounts suggest that some workers were tortured to death, prompting calls for international legal action against Israel.
Amnesty International has also documented a sharp increase in the use of administrative detention by Israeli authorities, leading to arbitrary arrests of Palestinians across the occupied West Bank. The organization reported that detainees suffered from inhuman and degrading treatment, with incidents of torture and deaths in custody going uninvestigated. This pattern of abuse underscores a systemic issue within the Israeli detention system according to the Quds News Network.
