Palestinian Information Center – January 19, 2025
Casualties, including martyrs, in Gaza on first day of ceasefire
At least 36 Palestinian citizens were martyred and dozens were injured on Sunday morning as the Israeli occupation army continued to attack different areas of the Gaza on the first day of the ceasefire agreement.
According to media sources in Gaza, the Israeli army continued to launch artillery and aerial attacks on civilians after the ceasefire deal came into effect at 08:30 a.m., killing and injuring a number of people.
Meanwhile, spokesman for Gaza’s civil defense service Mahmoud Basal said that between 08:30 and 09:30, the Israeli army had killed nine civilians and injured 25 others in Gaza City and northern Gaza.
Another Israeli attack on civilians, who went to Gaza City to see their destroyed homes, claimed the lives of five of them, while casualties reported, including three martyrs, in an Israeli strike in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza.
Other Israeli attacks on Rafah and Khan Yunis in southern Gaza also claimed the lives of more people and injured many others.
Earlier, Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israeli army not to begin the ceasefire in Gaza at 08:30 a.m. until Hamas delivered the names of the captives to be released.
Later in the morning, Hamas’s armed wing al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida named, in a Telegram statement, the first three female captives set to be released today.
“Within the framework of the Al-Aqsa Flood prisoner swap deal, al-Qassam Brigades decided to release the Zionist captives: Romi Gonen (24), Emily Damari (28), and Doron Steinbrecher (31) on Sunday, January 19,” Abu Obeida said.
According to the Hebrew media, the Israeli government has received a list containing the names of those detainees from the mediators.
After Hamas named the three female slated for release on Sunday, Netanyahu’s office announced that the Gaza ceasefire will begin at 11:15 a.m. local time.
https://english.palinfo.com/news/2025/01/19/332465/
Timeline: Key events that shaped 470 days of Israeli genocidal war on Gaza
By Alireza Akbari
After 470 days of Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip, a ceasefire was finally reached between the Gaza-based resistance movement Hamas and the Israeli regime, which took effect on Sunday.
Following the announcement, Hamas said the agreement was a result of the “legendary resilience” of the Palestinian people and the “valiant resistance” in the Gaza Strip over more than 15 months.
"The agreement to stop the aggression on Gaza is an achievement for our people, our resistance, the Ummah [Islamic nation], and the free world. The agreement is a milestone in the conflict with the enemy, on the path to achieving our people's goals of liberation and return," the statement read.
The statement also noted that the agreement was driven by the popular Gaza-based resistance movement's responsibility towards the steadfast people in the Gaza Strip to stop the Zionist aggression against the oppressed Palestinians in the fully besieged strip.
Between Wednesday evening, when the ceasefire deal was reached and Sunday morning, when it came into effect, Israeli airstrikes across Gaza killed at least 120 Palestinians, including 32 women and 30 children, and injured 266 others, according to an official tally by the Gaza Civil Defense.
The pre-ceasefire escalation saw more death and devastation in the bruised and besieged territory.
During the past 15 months, since October 2023, the Israeli regime conducted an all-out genocidal campaign in the Gaza Strip, which claimed the lives of at least 46, 800 and injured more than 110,600.
The Zionist regime carried out 10,015 massacres in the besieged territory, wiping out 1,600 Palestinian families. At least seven mass graves have so far been reported in Gaza hospitals alone.
The regime also expanded its genocidal aggression to Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen during this period after failing to achieve any of its stated military goals in Gaza.
In Lebanon, the Benjamin Netanyahu regime assassinated top-ranking Hezbollah leaders and conducted massive airstrikes against Lebanese civilians. Despite the onslaught, the Lebanese resistance stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the oppressed people in Gaza.
After 15 months of wanton aggression, the Tel Aviv regime failed to achieve its most important military objective -- the dismantling of Hamas and other resistance groups in Gaza.
We look back at the timeline of events that defined the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza.
October 7, 2023: Palestinian resistance in Gaza led by Hamas launched a historic military operation against the Zionist entity in response to decades of occupation and apartheid.
The unprecedented operation shocked the Israeli regime and its Western backers, resulting in significant damage and shattering the myth of the Israeli army's invincibility.
October 17, 2023: The Israeli regime attacked the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City in the first major genocidal aggression. The attack killed at least 500 people, mostly children and women.
October 27, 2023: Israel announced a full siege of Gaza. The siege involved a combination of airstrikes, ground offensives, and the evacuation of Palestinian residents from northern Gaza to the south in a bid to ethnically cleanse the local population.
November 3, 2023: Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in his first speech after the outbreak of Israeli genocide in Gaza said America was "entirely responsible for the ongoing war on Gaza and its people, and Israel is simply a tool of execution."
November 4, 2023: The Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza came under multiple Israeli airstrikes, which caused significant casualties, most of them children and women.
November 11, 2024: An Israeli attack targeted a tent sheltering a displaced family within the Nuseirat camp, killing at least three people, including the parents of 10-year-old twins who sustained serious injuries. Approximately 24 others were wounded and transported to the Awda Hospital in Nuseirat.
November 15, 2023: Israeli occupation troops barged inside Gaza's biggest hospital, Al Shifa, in Gaza City, after a siege lasting several days during which medical staff reported that patients, including newborn babies, died from a lack of power and supplies.
December 4, 2023: Israeli occupation forces launched their first major ground assault in southern Gaza, towards the main southern city, Khan Younis.
January 2, 2024: Saleh al-Arouri, a top strategist and the deputy chief of the Gaza-based resistance movement Hamas, was assassinated in an Israeli drone strike on Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh.
The strike also killed his resistance comrades Samir Afandi (Abu ‘Amer), Azzam al-Aqra’, Zaki Shahin, Mohammed al-Reis, Mohammed Bshasha, and Ahmed Hamoud.
January 12, 2024: The US and UK launched a series of cruise missiles, codenamed Operation Poseidon Archer, against civilian targets in Yemen in response to Yemeni solidarity with Gaza.
February 29, 2024: More than 100 Palestinians were killed in an attack on convoys of humanitarian aid after Israeli forces opened fire on desperate crowds gathered around aid trucks.
April 1, 2024: Israeli strikes killed seven World Central Kitchen workers who were delivering aid in Gaza. The team had previously received security clearance from the Israeli army.
May 2024: The Israeli regime ordered the evacuation of Rafah and launched offensives, displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. It bombed the Tel al-Sultan camp in Rafah, which was designated as a safe zone, setting the camp on fire, and killing at least 50 Palestinians.
May 30, 2024: The US and UK jointly carried out a series of airstrikes on Sanaa and Hodeidah, Yemen. The strikes killed 16 people and injured 42.
May 31, 2024: Yemeni military launched a missile attack on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier in the Red Sea. The attack came in response to US and UK strikes on Hodeidah province, which killed at least 16 people, as well as their support for the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
June 2024: Israel attacked the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. One of the attacks killed dozens of Palestinians after it targeted a UN-run school sheltering displaced people.
Two days later, Israeli forces killed 274 Palestinians in one of the worst massacres,
July 31, 2024: Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, was assassinated in Tehran by the Israeli regime. He was in Iran to attend the inauguration ceremony of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
July 30, 2024: Fuad Shukr, a top-ranking Hezbollah resistance movement commander, was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike in the suburbs of southern Beirut.
The airstrike targeted a building in a congested neighborhood of Haret Hreik. It was carried out by a drone loaded with three rockets, which struck an apartment building near a hospital.
September 17, 2024: The mass explosion of handheld pagers in Lebanon killed at least 12 people and injured nearly 3,000, sending shockwaves through the region.
Less than 24 hours later, a similar series of explosions hit walkie-talkie radios across the country, widely condemned as a blatant act of terrorism by the Israeli apartheid regime.
September 20, 2024: Ibrahim Aqil, a senior commander in Hezbollah, was assassinated by Israel in an airstrike that targeted an apartment building in the Dahieh suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. The attack killed at least 14 people and injured another 66.
September 27, 2024: Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon. The attack involved a series of airstrikes that flattened several buildings in Beirut's southern suburbs.
Ali Karaki, a senior commander of Hezbollah, and Abbas Nilforoushan, a senior Iranian military advisor, were also killed in the dastardly act of terror.
September 29, 2024: The Yemeni military launched a missile targeting Ben Gurion Airport, which evaded multiple air defense systems and shook the regime.
October 13, 2024: Hezbollah launched a drone attack on the Golani Brigade's Zar'it barracks near Binyamina. The attack killed several regime soldiers.
October 16, 2024: Yahya Sinwar, an iconic Hamas resistance movement leader, was killed by the Israeli occupation forces in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip.
His final act of defiance became immortal and inspired a new generation of resistance fighters.
October 19, 2024: Hezbollah launched a drone attack targeting the private residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Caesarea. The drone hit Netanyahu's house, causing damage.
November 12, 2024: Coinciding with the 40th day of the martyrdom of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah intensified operations against Israeli strategic and military bases, reaching 145 km inside the occupied territories using various drones and missiles.
November 18, 2024: The Hezbollah resistance movement targeted the private residence of Israeli Air Force Commander Major General Tomer Bar in Tel Aviv in another high-precision strike.
November 22, 2024: The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Minister of Military Affairs Yoav Gallant.
November 27, 2024: A ceasefire between the Israeli regime and the Lebanon-based resistance movement Hezbollah was announced by Qatar's foreign minister.
December 31, 2024: Yemen's Armed Forces executed a high-profile operation targeting key Israeli infrastructure. A hypersonic ballistic missile, dubbed Palestine-2, struck Ben Gurion Airport with pinpoint precision, causing significant damage.
January 11, 2025: The US, UK, and Israel launched attacks on the Yemeni provinces of Sana’a, Hudaydah, and Amran. These strikes targeted Yemen's infrastructure and civilian centers, coinciding with massive demonstrations in Yemen in solidarity with Palestine.
January 15, 2025: After 470 days of genocide in the Gaza Strip, a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and the Israeli regime came into effect in the morning hours.
Gaza ceasefire deal shows how 'Al-Aqsa Flood' pushed Zionist entity to the brink
By Iqbal Jassat
Far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir accused the Benjamin Netanyahu regime of 'a complete surrender to Hamas', terming the Gaza ceasefire agreement a 'surrender deal'.
For once he was right, says Ramzy Baroud, a Palestinian-American journalist and author.
Public sentiment in the settler colonial regime on the ceasefire agreement that came into effect on Sunday morning as gleaned from various media platforms within the Zionist regime is categorical:
"The peace deal it just cut with Hamas was clearly a win for Hamas and a loss for Israel."
The joy and cheer among Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip - despite colossal destruction and a huge toll in loss of lives - reflects a mood of victory for steadfast resilience, patient forbearance and profound faith that truth will vanquish falsehood.
Over 15 months of withstanding and resisting the Zionist entity's brutal scorched-earth military policies that saw the destruction of lives and properties, the evil inhumane deprivation of water, food, medical care, and the displacement of the entire population, is a remarkable feat.
Netanyahu and his criminal gang of warlords failed to dislodge and dismember the Gaza-based Hamas resistance movement. His failure is shrouded in shame, humiliation and despair.
And worse, along with his former minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant, he faces arrest warrants.
With the colonial regime's reputation in tatters, Hamas and all other resistance factions are justly able to celebrate victory emanating from the momentous Al Aqsa Flood of October 7.
Undoubtedly world opinion has turned against Israel despite the enormous resources it spent on Hasbara (propaganda) projects.
The success of the resistance can be measured by the fact that Hamas negotiated the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, many of whom have been sentenced to life terms.
In contrast, Hamas will only have to release three captives. Four more will be released shortly after that. In total, during the first phase,e a total of 33 captives will be released.
The trade-off in exchange is tilted in favor of Hamas, metaphorically adding salt to Zionism's wound.
It is crucial to emphasize that Israel has failed in all its military objectives as stated at the beginning of the genocidal war, which included the total elimination of Hamas in Gaza.
Having survived and added thousands of fighters to its ranks, Hamas and other resistance groups, including Islamic Jihad, have outsmarted Israel and its Western backers led by the US.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken as recently as a few days ago publicly acknowledged this fact, much to the obvious dismay of his Zionist cohorts within the US as well as in Tel Aviv.
Pro-Israeli media have grudgingly admitted that the cost of Netanyahu's 15-month-long genocide of the apartheid regime has been mind-boggling.
Not only has Hamas been able to kill hundreds of Israeli regime soldiers and wounding thousands more in Gaza since October 7 but the regime's debt has also spiraled out of control.
Estimates by economists reveal that its economy and labor market has been severely dented. Emigration is at an all-time high, eroding the misplaced romantic ideal of milk and honey.
Israel is much weaker today than it was on October 6, 2023. Cases of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and war crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC); outstanding UN Resolutions in respect of illegal settlements and the potential of its membership being stripped are scenarios that will haunt it as rogue regimes deserve to be sanctioned.
The world, especially the youth at university campuses, across Western capitals, has come to understand and revolt against Zionism as a racist, expansionist political ideology - far removed from Judaism.
It is not surprising that Jewish historian and widely acclaimed author Ilan Pappe has described the current regime in Tel Aviv as neo-Zionist.
"The old values of Zionism are now more extreme, [in] far more aggressive form than they were before, trying to achieve in a short time what the previous generation of Zionists was trying to achieve in [a] much longer, more, incremental, gradual way," he stated recently.
"Historically, I’m willing to say with some caution that this is the last phase of Zionism. Historically, such developments in ideological movements, whether they are colonials or empires, it’s usually the final chapter [that is] the ruthless one, the most ambitious one. And then it’s too much and then they fall and collapse", he added.
However Israel’s sordid reputation as far as its contempt for international laws, particularly International Humanitarian Law is known, it is likely that Netanyahu and his criminal gang of warlords will do their damnest to scuttle the ceasefire.
Already we see signs of disgruntlement among them and despair too that a ceasefire means defeat and failure to attain any of Netanyahu's military goals.
The Palestinian population in the besieged Gaza have despite suffering unimaginable losses, pain and suffering over the last 15 months of relentless bombings around the clock, have remained steadfast in their determination to free themselves from decades of Zionist occupation, persecution and terrorism.
Hamas and other resistance groups in Gaza and across the region are committed to the ceasefire deal but are aware that as in previous arrangements, Israel has the propensity to undermine it.
But the world is watching and aware of the dirty tricks Israel is capable of to derail the deal and blame Hamas.
Iqbal Jassat is an executive member of Media Review Network, Johannesburg, South Africa.
First aid trucks enter Gaza after ceasefire begins
The first trucks carrying humanitarian aid have entered into the Gaza Strip as the ceasefire between the Israeli regime and Palestinians begins. 
The first humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza from Egypt on Sunday as the Israel-Hamas ceasefire started taking effect, Palestinian sources confirmed.
The 42-day first stage of the ceasefire deal, reached on Wednesday through the mediation of Egypt, Qatar, and the United States, started taking effect on Sunday.
UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, says it has 4,000 truckloads of humanitarian aid ready to enter the war-torn land.
UNRWA has 4,000 truckloads of aid ready to enter #Gaza — half of them carry food and flour.
In a statement on X, UNRWA said half of them carry food and flour to Gaza.
Media sources said the first humanitarian aid entered the coastal enclave through the border crossing of Kerem Shalom in the south of Gaza.
Based on the ceasefire agreement, about 600 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid, including 50 fuel trucks, would enter Gaza each day.
Earlier on Sunday, the Egyptian state-run Nile TV showed footage of dozens of aid trucks crossing the Egyptian side of Rafah crossing to be inspected by Israeli forces before crossing the Palestinian side to enter Gaza.
Monitoring teams from Egypt, Qatar and the United States, in addition to others from Palestine as well as the Israeli regime, were in Cairo on Sunday to monitor the implementation of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/01/19/741211/UN-aid-trucks-enter-gaza
One more broken promise to close Guantanamo
Outgoing US President Joe Biden could have closed Guantanamo, but like his predecessors, he decided to maintain this symbol of injustice.
Mansoor Adayfi
Writer, artist, activist, and former Guantánamo prisoner
I was held in Guantanamo detention centre for 14 years without ever being charged with a crime. I was sent there when I was 19. I didn’t know why I was being held, what I had done to be imprisoned, or when I would be released.
Like many of the other men at Guantanamo, I believed that the United States forces who held me would live up to their own ideals of law and justice and grant me the right to defend myself and prove my innocence. That never happened.
Instead, I was subjected to torture and continual harassment. I fought to be treated humanely and to be granted basic human rights, and after 14 years was released. Throughout my imprisonment, I imagined that one day the world would learn what happened to us and would demand accountability and justice. I thought once people knew, they would close this deplorable place.
It has been almost nine years since I was released. All this time, I have not stopped writing and giving interviews about what happened to me. The world knows, and yet, Guantanamo is still functioning.
Earlier this month, we marked the 23rd anniversary of its creation. Today we mark the last day in office of yet another US president who promised to close it and did not. One has to wonder after all the reports by the United Nations and various human rights organisations, media reports, documentaries, books, etc – why is this symbol of injustice still standing?
Guantanamo was established in the aftermath of 9/11, a tragic event that profoundly shook the world. In its wake, the US launched the so-called global “war on terror”, a campaign ostensibly aimed at combating terrorism but which, in reality, legalised torture, undermined international law, and dehumanised an entire faith community.
Situated on the island of Cuba, outside US legal jurisdiction, Guantanamo detention centre was intentionally designed to circumvent constitutional protections and international norms, becoming a place where detainees could be held indefinitely without charge or trial.
The concept of indefinite detention is a direct affront to the principles of justice. Holding individuals without charge or trial defies the very foundation of legal systems worldwide. It denies detainees the opportunity to defend themselves and subjects them to years — sometimes decades — of suffering with no resolution in sight.
Guantanamo became a blueprint for other forms of extrajudicial detention, torture, and human rights abuses worldwide. The prison’s legacy is evident in the proliferation of CIA black sites, the normalisation of Islamophobia, and the erosion of international norms designed to protect human dignity.
The global war on terror — with Guantanamo as its most infamous symbol — institutionalised policies that dehumanised Muslims. It fuelled Islamophobic rhetoric, justified invasive surveillance programmes, and stigmatised entire communities as potential threats.
The US took the lead on all this, and many states followed suit, using US “war on terror” rhetoric to justify attacks on whole communities. The consequences have been devastating for Muslim and other vulnerable communities.
At its peak, Guantanamo held approximately 680 men and boys, many of whom had been sold as “terrorists” to US forces in exchange for renumeration. This is what happened to me.
As of today, 15 men remain in Guantanamo. Some have been cleared for release but continue to languish in limbo, a testament to the failure of US systems to uphold even the most basic human rights. For these men, every day is a continuation of psychological and physical torment — a state of being neither free nor formally accused.
We have heard many promises that Guantanamo will be closed for the past 16 years. US President Barack Obama famously signed an executive order on his second day in office in 2009 ordering the closure of the facility. Then-Vice President Joe Biden was standing right next to him, applauding. When Biden became president in 2021, he also made the same promise and he also broke it.
The prison still functions at an annual cost of around $540m.
The continued operation of Guantanamo is not just a failure of policy but a moral stain on the US. It stands as a glaring contradiction of the ideals of liberty, justice, and human rights that the US claims to champion. Its existence undermines US credibility on the global stage and emboldens authoritarian regimes to justify their own abuses.
With every anniversary of Guantanamo’s opening, I wait for the international community to wake up and demand action to close the military prison, provide justice to its victims, and ensure accountability for those responsible for its creation and perpetuation. Every year I am disappointed.
The Guantanamo military prison is more than a crime against its detainees and their families. For over two decades, it has symbolised systematic torture, arbitrary detention, and the weakening of the global human rights regime. Guantanamo violates the Geneva Conventions and embodies elements of crimes against humanity through its systematic abuse of primarily Muslim detainees.
As a new administration takes office in Washington, I have the same message for them as I had for their predecessors:
Close Guantanamo. Shut down the facility and end the practice of indefinite detention.
Secure justice. Release those cleared for transfer and grant fair trials to the rest.
Ensure accountability. Investigate and hold accountable those responsible for authorising torture, extrajudicial detention, and other abuses.
Acknowledge and apologise. Issue a formal acknowledgment and apology for the injustices committed.
Provide reparations. Compensate former detainees for the harm inflicted upon them.
Shuttering Guantanamo is not just about closing a physical location; it is about closing a dark chapter of history. It’s about reaffirming the principles of justice, dignity, and human rights that should be upheld for all people, regardless of their origin or beliefs. Guantanamo must not see another anniversary.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/1/19/one-more-broken-promise-to-close-guantanamo
