– Not a ceasefire Day 99

contact@ifamericansknew.org January 17, 2026

A view of the Bank of Palestine building, located in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City and heavily damaged by Israeli attacks, poses a risk to thousands of Palestinians living in tents nearby, on January 15, 2026. (Saeed M. M. T. Jaras – Anadolu Agency)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

(While a “ceasefire” is ostensibly in place, Israel has continued its assault on Gaza without interruption. If Americans Knew considers the war to be ongoing, and in its 826th day.)

Thirteen Palestinians were killed on Friday – 4 of them children – in multiple Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip, according to medical officials and field reports. The fatalities occurred in Beit Lahia, Khan Younis, Deir al‑Balah, Nuseirat refugee camp, and Gaza City, marking another day of widespread Israeli violations despite the ongoing “ceasefire” framework announced in October of last year.

Since the “ceasefire” began on October 11, Israel has killed at least 464 Palestinians. At least 1,275 have been injured. Death toll figures are tentative. 

At least 25 Palestinians in Gaza have died due to the extreme cold, including 21 children, since the start of Israel’s genocidal war in October 2023.

Israel has so far violated the 11 October ceasefire deal in Gaza at least 1,193 times (as of Jan. 9, 2026). More statistics below.Displaced Palestinians struggle carrying on with daily life amid the rubble left by Israeli attacks in Jabalia, Gaza on January 12, 2026. (Khames Alrefi – Anadolu Agency)

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GAZA NEWS & HEADLINES:

(For some basic info on the Palestine-Israel conflict, go here. For more critical context, skim this, this, and this. To read about a remarkable but underreported, 20-month-long peaceful protest in Gaza against Israel, go here.)

Israel is killing babies in Gaza

According to two reports by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) in cooperation with the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, between January and June 2025, Gaza recorded approximately 2,600 miscarriages, 220 pregnancy-related deaths, 1,460 premature births, and more than 1,700 low-birth-weight babies.

The groups call the situation the result of Israel’s policy of “reproductive violence” aimed at preventing Palestinians from having children, which under international law could be considered an act of genocide (continue reading here).

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Head of Gaza’s administration committee announces ‘official’ start of work

Ali Shaath, head of the Palestinian National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, said on Friday the body has “officially” begun work to manage the enclave, with international and US backing aimed at helping Palestinians emerge from the current crisis. Fifteen Palestinians experienced in development, relief, and humanitarian work inside Gaza comprise the committee.

Shaath said it will operate for a two-year transitional period, and that the committee’s goal is “to give the Palestinian people hope that there is a future,” adding that its immediate objective is to bring “smiles on the faces of Gaza’s children, women, and men,” the channel reported (continue reading here).

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Trump announces Gaza’s “Board of Peace,” stacked with Israel supporters

The White House said on Friday that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair would be among the founding executive members of so-called “Board of Peace“, alongside Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the US special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, as well as Marc Rowan, the CEO of Apollo Global Management; World Bank Group President Ajay Banga; and Robert Gabriel, a US deputy national security adviser.

Ashish Prashar, who worked as an aide to Tony Blair between 2010 and 2012, called for rejecting international trusteeship over Gaza, stating that “the future of Palestine should only be decided by Palestinians”.

“It appears the only qualification for joining the Gaza ‘peace board’ is to have a strong track record of endorsing (and arming) Israel’s project of genocide, apartheid and ethnic cleansing, and criminalizing those who oppose it,” Prashar told Al Jazeera in a statement.

“Trump’s Gaza ‘Board of Peace’ was just a pilot project. All states who signed off on it are the ones who paved the way for Trump’s next ‘Boards of Peace’ in Venezuela, Ukraine and any other place the extractionist American regime wants to take next,” he said (continue reading here).

RELATED: Trump’s Board of Peace announcement contradicts Israeli policy, PM says

United States President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a joint press conference at the White House on February 04, 2025. (Celal Güneş – Anadolu Agency)

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OCCUPIED WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM NEWS & HEADLINES:

(Every day, Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem endure dozens of incidents like the ones below, at the hands of Israeli soldiers and/or settlers. For background on the West Bank, read this and this. For information on the significance of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, read this and this.)Mohamad Saad Sami Naasan, 14, killed Jan. 16 2026 by Israeli forces. (IMEMC)

Israeli Forces Kill a Palestinian Child Near Ramallah

Israeli forces shot and killed a 14-year-old child, Mohamad Saad Sami Naasan, on Friday, while illegal colonizers carried out an incursion into the village of Al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah in the central West Bank.

Naasan suffered critical gunshot wounds to the chest and back during the military operation which coincided with the settler invasion in the area.

Since the beginning of the Israeli military aggression against the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, occupation forces have killed 1107 Palestinian citizens in the West Bank, including 230 children and 24 women.

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‘Utensils for olive oil’: Inside the West Bank’s deepening economic collapse

As livelihoods disappear, Palestinian families barter their possessions and risk death crossing into Israel to survive.

Since the war on Gaza began – and Israeli restrictions across the occupied West Bank intensified – women have increasingly offered furniture, toys, kitchenware and even their children’s clothes in return for basic food. Long the barest staples of Palestinian life, olive oil and za’atar (a herb blend) have become shorthand for poverty itself, captured in the saying: “He lives on oil and za’atar” (continue reading here).

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Israeli Colonizers, Soldiers Attack Locals, Internationals in al‑Mughayyer

Israeli Colonizers Target Palestinians in West Bank

Israeli Colonizers Expel Farmer from his Land Near Nablus

Israeli Soldiers Abduct Children, Intensify Invasions Across the West Bank

Abductions and Live‑Fire Injury in Southern West Bank

EU Calls on Israel to Halt E1 and Other Colonial Plans

Israeli forces protect illegal settlers in Hebron, West Bank on November 22, 2025. (Wisam Hashlamoun – Anadolu Agency)

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ISRAEL NEWS & HEADLINES:

(Israel is a tiny country, about the size of New Jersey, with a population smaller than the US state of Georgia – about 10 million (of which about 20 percent are Palestinians), yet it is in the news constantly. As has been demonstrated again and again, however, mainstream media rarely covers Israel accurately. IAK passes along only factual reporting.)

After occupying Palestine, the messianic settlers* have captured Israel

The state is being transformed into one with hollow institutions, driven by messianic religious ideology and sustained by military force (continue reading here).

*NOTE: Read more about these religious extremist settlers here and here.

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2 Lebanese* killed in Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon despite ceasefire

*NOTE: Israel has attacked Lebanon almost every day since the ceasefire was reached on 27 November 2024. committing over 10,000 air and ground violations.

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UN official warns of rising Israeli army incidents endangering peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon

‘The number of villages that are destroyed is extremely high, and civilians have not been able to return,’ says Jean-Pierre Lacroix.

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UN peacekeepers report Israeli fire at UNIFIL positions in southern Lebanon

‘These actions constitute violations of UN Security Council Resolution 1701,’ says UNIFIL

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Israeli forces carry out new incursions in Syria’s* Quneitra countryside

Raid comes a day after Israeli media reported an earlier incident involving removal of livestock from Syrian territory.

*NOTE: The Israeli army has carried out over 1,000 airstrikes and 400 cross-border raids on Syria since December 2024.