Updates: Israel’s Netanyahu in US as more medical evacuees leave Gaza

Thank you for joining today’s live coverage of the latest developments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

You can read about the most recent international reaction to Trump’s proposal to relocate Palestinians in Gaza to Jordan and Egypt here.

And you can read an analysis about the situation faced by Jordan here.

We’ll be closing this live page soon, so let’s bring you up to speed on today’s main developments:

• The World Health Organization has evacuated 39 patients and 55 caregivers from Gaza through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
• Israel is supposed to allow 50 patients in need of urgent care out of the Strip daily, but that target is not being met.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington, DC, for talks with US officials while negotiations due to begin on the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire have apparently been delayed.
• That news comes as Israeli army and settler attacks on the occupied West Bank continue and the Palestinian Authority says Palestinians will not accept resettlement plans or an alternative homeland.

Majed Al-Ansari, spokesperson of the Qatari Foreign Ministry, has held talks with Mark Bryson-Richardson, the UK foreign secretary’s representative for humanitarian affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The talks in Doha focused on bilateral relations as well as regional developments, including the situation in Gaza, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

We have some more lines from the interview with Knesset member Ofer Cassif:

“We saw in the last few days that both the refugee camp in Jenin and the refugee camp in Tulkarem are under a serious threat of total destruction and yet again another expulsion of Palestinian people from there,” he told Al Jazeera, saying this has nothing to do with security.

“I’m also afraid that this has been done on purpose by the Israeli government in order to foil the ceasefire in Gaza. That’s the reason I’m so worried,” Cassif added, appealing to countries in the region to not “leave behind your brothers and sisters in Palestine”.

“Don’t leave the Palestinians who’ve been butchered for more than one year by the Israeli government. That should have been stopped months ago,” he said. “That’s in the interest of everybody who is involved – obviously the Palestinians but also the Israelis.”

Ofer Cassif, a member of the Israeli parliament representing the Hadash party, says the apparent delay in the start of the talks about the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire is “a terrifying sign”.

“I’ve been saying since day one that Netanyahu and the thugs around him in the coalition and the government are not really interested in a ceasefire or saving the Israeli hostages – let alone saving the lives of thousands of Palestinians,” he told Al Jazeera from West Jerusalem.

“They are interested in two things: Netanyahu himself is interested, as usual, in his own good. That’s it. He wants to stay in power in order to stay out of prison. That’s the only thing he cares about, and it doesn’t matter for him if it comes at the expense of the lives of thousands and thousands of people, Palestinians and Israelis alike,” Cassif argued.

“And the thugs around him in the coalition, mainly those who are part of the fanatic, fascist parties, they are interested in using the human blood as a carpet for the Messiah. They truly believe that the continuation of the genocide in Gaza and more violence in the West Bank – as we saw just in the last few days – is part of their dream, which is in fact a nightmare. They believe that will bring the Messiah and the Third Temple, etc, and all this hogwash.

“They don’t care about human lives.”

Israel’s blockade of Gaza and its 15-month war on the territory have left pregnant women severely malnourished, putting their babies at risk.

Leading rights group Human Rights Watch says the rate of miscarriages there has increased by 300 percent since October 2023.

Watch our video report below:

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, says the blockade caused by Israel’s military operation in Jenin’s refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank is leading to a shortage of key supplies.

“Since the ceasefire was implemented in Gaza, there has been an escalation of extreme violence occurring across the West Bank, particularly in Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas,” it said in a statement.

“This is unacceptable,” it added, noting that the Israeli army on Sunday destroyed 23 buildings by carrying out several simultaneous attacks in the Jenin refugee camp.

MSF said it has been supporting Jenin’s hospital with fuel and water as well as providing hygiene kits, food and mattresses to residents in the Jenin and Tulkarem camps.

Two Hamas officials speaking on condition of anonymity are being quoted by AFP expressing the group’s readiness to start discussions on the second phase of the ceasefire in Gaza.

“Hamas has informed the mediators during ongoing communications and meetings held with Egyptian mediators last week in Cairo that we are ready to start the negotiations for the second phase,” one official said.

“We are waiting for the mediators to initiate the next round of negotiations,” the other said.

Check out the video below to see the heartwarming moment a Palestinian mother of four reunites with her husband in northern Gaza.

The family was separated for more than a year, enduring displacement and Israeli bombing, never knowing if they would see each other again.

Qatar has launched an air bridge from Jordan to al-Qarara in Khan Younis to bring vital medical supplies into Gaza.

The helicopter flights departing from King Abdullah II Air Base complement the land bridge previously set up by the Gulf state.

The launch of the air bridge was attended by a number of Qatari officials, including the Minister of State for International Cooperation Maryam bint Ali bin Nasser Al Misnad.

Separately, Qatar Charity and the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization signed an agreement to facilitate the entry of Qatari humanitarian aid via land through Jordan.

In her speech, the minister said Qatar has sent 65 relief trucks through the Jordanian border since the start of the ceasefire.

Qatar Launches Air Bridge from Jordan to Deliver Medical Supplies to Gaza#MOFAQatar pic.twitter.com/lBVeLiahXz

— Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Qatar (@MofaQatar_EN) February 3, 2025

Our Now You Know series has spoken to Rosalia Bollen, Gaza-based communications specialist for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), about what the ceasefire means for Palestinians in Gaza right now, especially for children, and what’s ahead on the path to rebuilding lives and communities.

Listen to the conversation below:

Israeli army attacks have forced nearly three-quarters of Palestinian residents from their homes in Tulkarem refugee camp, according to a local official.

“Almost 75 percent of the camp’s 15,000 residents were forcibly displaced to the city of Tulkarem and neighbouring towns,” Faisal Salama, head of the Popular Committee for Services in the camp, told Anadolu, describing the situation in the camp as “extremely difficult”.

Residents of the camp “are living in dire conditions, as Israel is preventing the entry of medicine, food, and essential supplies”, Salama said.

Al-Wehdat fans chanted slogans in support of the Palestinians while inscribing the phrase “Gaza the Proud” in the stands of the King Abdullah II Stadium in al-Qweismeh during the first leg of the Jordanian Super Cup last night.

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The presidency of the Palestinian Authority has condemned the Israeli attacks on the occupied West Bank and stressed that Palestinians would not accept resettlement plans or an “alternative homeland”.

“The [Israeli] occupation authorities are expanding their all-out war on the Palestinian people in the West Bank to implement their plans aimed at displacing citizens and carrying out ethnic cleansing,” spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in a statement.

“These aggressive policies carried out by the occupation forces in the West Bank have led to the death of 29 citizens, hundreds of wounded and detainees, in addition to the destruction of entire residential blocks in the Jenin and Tulkarem refugee camps, the displacement of thousands of citizens, and massive destruction of infrastructure.”

He called on the US to intervene “before it is too late to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression, which will lead to an uncontrollable escalation, with consequences that everyone will bear”.

The statement also referred to Trump’s suggestion to relocate Palestinians in Gaza to Jordan and Egypt.

“Threatening our people will not be beneficial to anyone; rather, it will lead to widespread destruction here or in the region, whether today or tomorrow.”

The Israeli military has released footage of blowing up more buildings in southern Lebanon, saying the aim was to “clear the area and destroy Hezbollah infrastructure”.

It claimed it destroyed weapons depots containing mortars, missiles, rockets, explosive devices, guns and other military equipment.

This comes as the Israeli military continues to occupy large parts of southern Lebanon, despite the ceasefire agreement that required its withdrawal last week.

Israeli soldiers have deployed heavy armoured personnel carriers in raids in the occupied West Bank, indicating an intention to ramp up military attacks.

Heavy raids are ongoing for a second day in the town of Tammun, south of Tubas, with Israeli forces also searching ambulances belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent, according to Wafa news agency.

At least five people have been arrested so far today amid the raid that has targeted the Far’a refugee camp as well.

Footage posted online and verified by Al Jazeera shows Israeli bulldozers destroying infrastructure in the camp.

#صور | لأول مرة منذ الانتفاضة الأولى مدرعات الاحتلال تشارك في اقتحام بلدة طمون قضاء طوباس pic.twitter.com/CqM5xjMyEP

— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) February 3, 2025

Translation: For the first time since the first Intifada, occupation armoured vehicles participate in the storming of the town of Tammun, Tubas district.