TEL AVIV, February 5, 2026 (WAFA) — Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said a “violent and criminal attempt at ethnic cleansing” is taking place in the occupied West Bank, accusing Israeli police, the army and the Shin Bet security service of involvement and support for attacks carried out by extremist settlers.
In an article published in the Israeli daily Haaretz, Olmert said that armed and violent settler groups are persecuting, injuring and killing Palestinians living in the area. He said the attacks include burning olive groves, homes and vehicles, breaking into houses, physically assaulting residents, harming livestock, dispersing sheep herds and attempting to steal them.
Olmert stated that “Jewish terrorists” are attacking Palestinians with hatred and violence for a single purpose: forcing them to flee their homes in order to prepare the area for Jewish settlement and advance a dream of annexing all the land.
He said the attacks are taking place in front of the closed eyes of police officers and soldiers, arguing that hundreds of violent youths would not have been able to carry out such acts had they not been equipped with weapons through the initiative and encouragement of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
According to Olmert, militias operating in the West Bank are acting with direct backing and assistance from Israeli government officials, adding that the Israeli police also serve as a source of encouragement for “Jewish terrorism.”
He further argued that the Shin Bet does not employ against Jewish extremists the same tools it uses effectively against Palestinians, and fails to act decisively to prevent attacks, identify rioters, or locate and arrest the leaders of these groups.
Olmert said the issue goes beyond the Israeli army’s failure to prevent unrest in the occupied territories, suggesting that in many cases soldiers cooperate with rioters or remain nearby, watching events unfold without intervention.
He called on the international community to take political measures to compel the Israeli government to activate mechanisms to stop what he described as crimes against humanity committed under its sponsorship, protection and support.
Olmert concluded by saying there may be no option other than expecting the International Criminal Court to become the inevitable address for investigation, exposure of those responsible, and steps that could ultimately lead to their arrest and prosecution.
For all the obsessive coverage of the disgraced financier’s political dealings, mainstream outlets have skimmed past one of the biggest stories
Independent media reporting has highlighted former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s past dealings with Jeffrey Epstein (Jack Guez/AFP)
Since the release late last month of millions more files in the Jeffrey Epstein saga, western media outlets have provided nonstop coverage. Yet despite an extensive focus on the disgraced financier’s relationships with powerful figures, his links to Israeli political and intelligence circles have been largely ignored, marking a conspicuous omission.
Searches across online news archives turn up thousands of recent stories on legitimate issues of public concern, highlighting victims of Epstein’s abuse and the alleged involvement of prominent persons and groups in that abuse.
The New York Times, PBS, NBC and CNN, among other notable outlets, have drawn from the files to publish exhaustive accounts of powerful men with ties to Epstein.
In addition to naming business, academic and sports figures, much reporting has focused on political figures, such as US President Donald Trump, former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjorn Jagland, and the UK’s Prince Andrew and politician Peter Mandelson.
Media coverage has also emphasised Epstein’s relationships with foreign countries, with Reuters and the Washington Post running stories about his alleged ties to Russia. Other pieces have documented Epstein’s purported links to Norway and Slovakia.
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But despite Epstein’s ties to Israel having been known for months – an ongoing Drop Site News investigation suggests that Epstein worked closely with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and participated in initiatives connected to Israeli intelligence – there has been little mainstream coverage of this aspect.
Even as sites such as Middle East Eye, Al Jazeera, Mondoweiss and TRT World, among others, have devoted significant coverage to the Epstein-Israel connections, there appears to be a glaring gap in western mainstream media.
Strategic omission
There are, of course, exceptions, such as the CNN interview last November with Marjorie Taylor Greene, in which the then-US congresswoman broached Epstein’s alleged ties to Israel. But the response from CNN presenter Dana Bash was telling: she became visibly irritated, and swiftly pivoted to the topic of antisemitism.
Journalism studies scholarship routinely emphasises the importance of omission. The inclusion and exclusion of information are among the primary mechanisms through which members of the media create meaning.
So why does it seem that mainstream western media outlets are bending over backwards to avoid the Israeli elephant in the room? This dovetails with broader questions on why western media tends to sympathise with Israeli narratives.
In the current moment, the biggest danger for journalists is not getting a story wrong – it is appearing unwilling to tell it at all
Some outlets – or at least some powerful editors and producers – might have a direct interest in shielding Israel. It is also possible that news managers are afraid of the consequences of maligning Israel, or of being perceived to be “antisemitic”.
Scholars John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt famously described the power of pro-Israel lobbying groups, which have long exerted considerable sway over American politics and media, helping to generate favourable coverage. Reporting that is critical of Israel often triggers pressure campaigns from these groups.
In such an environment, omission functions as a type of risk management. News editors know that even the perception of unfairness towards Israel can trigger accusations of antisemitism.
Media institutions operate within the broader sociopolitical climate. Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, American and British universities have come under fire for actively suppressing pro-Palestine speech and student protests critical of Israel.
In 2024, an American university took the extraordinary step of firing a tenured professor over speech critical of Zionism, confirming how Israel-related criticism carries an unusually high professional risk – a reality that news outlets know well.
Pivotal moment
Western journalists have long had to be careful about covering Israel. In 2018, contributor Marc Lamont Hill was fired by CNN for speaking in favour of Palestinian liberation. But sensitivities were heightened after 7 October 2023, when Hamas attacked Israeli communities and Israel launched its genocide in Gaza.
Since the start of the violence, media figures have faced intense backlash, including firings, over speech critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza. Journalist Mehdi Hasan’s show on MSNBC was cancelled following his criticisms of Israel.
Direct pressure is often applied by media owners, who are increasingly vocal about the need to protect Israel as it faces unprecedented global disapproval. Businessmen Larry and David Ellison have strategically acquired media assets – including TikTok’s US operations and CBS News – in an apparent bid to influence narratives about Israel.
What were Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to Israeli intelligence? | Murtaza Hussain
Since the acquisitions, TikTok has aggressively censored pro-Palestinian content, and CBS has shifted to a more overt pro-Israel stance. Zvika Klein, editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post, recently praised CBS’s new editor, Bari Weiss, for “doing more for Israel than most of us”.
In the meantime, the Epstein files have created a public obsession, with every new detail generating a firestorm of interest, clicks, likes and shares. Serious independent news organisations and popular podcasts have reported extensively on Epstein’s ties to Israel, so the issue is unlikely to fade from the public conversation. Mainstream outlets may ultimately be forced to join in, if for no other reason than to maintain some semblance of credibility.
After all, news audiences will soon wonder – if they do not already – why journalists readily report on Epstein’s alleged ties to Slovakia and Norway, but ignore his connections to a key western ally entangled in major conflicts with far-reaching implications.
This is an important moment for western, and especially American, news organisations. Journalism derives its authority from its willingness to pursue uncomfortable facts that matter to the public. A growing number of observers in North America and Europe already believe that a double standard shapes how Israel is treated across western capitals.
Media outlets should avoid feeding this suspicion, especially now, when public trust in media is at an all-time low. In the current moment, the biggest danger for journalists is not getting a story wrong – it is appearing unwilling to tell it at all.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Mohamad Elmasry is Professor of Media Studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — A top Israeli official said Tuesday that measures adopted by the government that deepen Israeli control in the occupied West Bank amounted to implementing “de facto sovereignty,” using language that mirrors critics’ warnings about the intent behind the moves.
The steps “actually establish a fact on the ground that there will not be a Palestinian state,” Energy Minister Eli Cohen told Israel’s Army Radio.
Palestinians, Arab countries and human rights groups have called the moves announced Sunday an annexation of the territory, home to roughly 3.4 million Palestinians who seek it for a future state.
Cohen’s comments followed similar remarks by other members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz.
The moves — and Israeli officials’ own descriptions of them — put the country at odds with both regional allies and previous statements from U.S. President Donald Trump. Netanyahu has traveled to Washington to meet with him later this week.
Last year, Trump said he wouldn’t allow Israel to annex the West Bank. The U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that aimed to stop the war in Gaza also acknowledged Palestinian aspirations for statehood.
Widespread condemnation
The measures further erode the Palestinian Authority’s limited powers, and it’s unclear the extent to which it can oppose them.
In a statement on Tuesday, President Mahmoud Abbas’ cabinet “instructed all public and private Palestinian institutions not to engage with these Israeli measures and to strictly adhere to Palestinian laws and regulations in force.”
A group of eight Arab and Muslim-majority countries expressed their “absolute rejection” of the measures, calling them in a joint statement Monday illegal and warning they would “fuel violence and conflict in the region.”
Israel’s pledge not to annex the West Bank is embedded in its diplomatic agreements with some of those countries and renewed warnings that it was a “red line” for the Emirates led Israel to shelve some high-level discussions on the matter last year.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “gravely concerned” by the measures.
“They are driving us further and further away from a two-State solution and from the ability of the Palestinian authority and the Palestinian people to control their own destiny,” his spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, said on Monday.
What the measures mean
The measures, approved by Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet on Sunday, expand Israel’s enforcement authority over land use and planning in areas run by the Palestinian Authority, making it easier for Jewish settlers to force Palestinians to give up land.
Smotrich and Katz on Sunday said they would lift long-standing restrictions on land sales to Israeli Jews in the West Bank, shift some control over sensitive holy sites — including Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque, also known as the Tomb of the Patriarchs — and declassify land registry records to ease property acquisitions.
They also revive a government committee empowered to make what officials described as “proactive” land purchases in the territory, a step intended to reserve land for future settlement expansion.
Taken together, the moves add an official stamp to Israel’s accelerating expansion and would override parts of decades-old agreements that split the West Bank between areas under Israeli control and areas where the Palestinian Authority exercises limited autonomy.
More than 700,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in 1967 and sought by the Palestinians for an independent state along with the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians are not permitted to sell land privately to Israelis. Settlers can buy homes on land controlled by Israel’s government.
The international community overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlement construction to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.
“These decisions constitute a direct violation of the international agreements to which Israel is committed and are steps toward the annexation of Areas A and B,” anti-settlement watchdog group Peace Now said on Sunday, referring to parts of the West Bank where the Palestinian Authority exercised some autonomy.
__ Natalie Melzer contributed reporting from Nahariya, Israel.
Published date: 10 February 2026 15:34 GMT | Last update:1 hour 43 mins ago
Israel used internationally prohibited thermal and thermobaric weapons, leaving thousands of Palestinian bodies “evaporated” as a result, an investigation by Al Jazeera revealed.
Civil defence teams in Gaza documented over 2,800 cases of Palestinians who just vanished since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war, the Al Jazeera Arabic programme, The Rest of the Story, reported.
What is left of these bodies is only pieces of flesh, specks of blood or even ash.
Since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023, Israel has obliterated most of the Gaza Strip, reducing entire neighbourhoods, including schools, businesses and medical facilities, to rubble.
Israeli soldiers and combat engineers have laid explosives and triggered controlled demolitions inside countless homes, while armoured bulldozers have systematically levelled building after building.
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More than mere explosives, experts and testimonies have attributed the vaporisation of people to Israel’s use of US-supplied thermal and thermobaric weapons, referred to as vacuum or aerosol bombs, capable of generating temperatures exceeding 3,500 degrees Celsius (6,332 degrees Fahrenheit).
To put into perspective, the boiling point of water is 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit).
The intense heat is often generated by tritonal, which is a mixture of TNT and aluminium powder used in American-made bombs.
Civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told Al Jazeera that teams cross reference the known number of inhabitants in a house with the recovered bodies.
“If a family tells us there were five people inside, and we only recover three intact bodies, we treat the remaining two as ‘evaporated’ only after an exhaustive search yields nothing but biological traces – blood spray on walls or small fragments like scalps,” he explained.
The director general of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, Munir al-Bursh, noted that it is “chemically inevitable” when a human body is exposed to high temperatures to “vaporise and turn to ash” as we are made up of 80 percent water.
The investigation identified several US-manufactured munitions used in Gaza, including the MK-84 “Hammer”, BLU-109 bunker buster, and GBU-39 small diameter bomb.
The BLU-109 bunker buster was reportedly used in an attack on al-Mawasi, an area Israel previously declared a “safe zone” for forcibly displaced Palestinians in September 2024, evaporating 22 Palestinians.
Meanwhile the GBU-39 is said to have been used in an attack on al-Tabin school in eastern Gaza City. Basal confirmed finding fragments of the weaponry at sites where bodies had vanished.
In late November, Hamas called on an international committee to investigate Israel’s use of certain weapons, alleging that bodies are being “vaporised” in Gaza.
“The horrific testimonies provided by citizens and doctors in northern Gaza following the air strikes and massacres carried out against innocent civilians, and the confirmation of cases of targeting with weapons and ammunition that lead to the vaporisation of bodies strongly point to the use of internationally banned weapons by the terrorist occupation army,” the Palestinian movement said.
So far, Israel has killed more than 72,037 people and destroyed nearly 90 percent of the territory’s infrastructure.
Analysts say Israeli changes have cornered Palestinian Authority and will pave way for ethnic cleansing
A large Star of David is mounted atop a building near a watchtower in a new Israeli settlement near Beita, close to Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, 9 February 2026 (Reuters/Ammar Awad)
Published date: 9 February 2026 17:29 GMT | Last update:18 hours 4 mins ago
New Israeli measures in the occupied West Bank will cement de facto annexation and bring an end to the Oslo Accords, analysts say, dashing hopes for a Palestinian state.
Announced on Sunday, the sweeping changes expand Israel’s civil control in Areas A and B – where all major Palestinian cities and towns are located – which since the Oslo Accords of 1993 have officially been under Palestinian Authority (PA) jurisdiction.
The measures also make it easier for Jewish Israelis to privately own land in the West Bank, potentially accelerating settlement expansion.
This is achieved by scrapping a law preventing the sale of Palestinian-owned land to Jewish Israelis, easing sales regulations, and lifting the confidentiality of land registration records – a move that could facilitate forgery of land purchase documents, a tactic commonly used by settlers.
“The decision is among the most direct and dangerous steps taken [against Palestinians],” Jamal Juma, a Palestinian coordinator at the Stop the Wall campaign, told Middle East Eye.
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“In effect, it signals the end of everything introduced by the Oslo Accords and strips the Palestinian Authority of its powers.”
‘The new measures effectively reduce the PA to little more than a security agent for Israel’
– Jamal Juma, coordinator at Stop the Wall campaign
Under the new unilaterally imposed arrangements, building licensing and construction in the southern West Bank city of Hebron will also be transferred from Palestinian authorities to the Israeli military.
The transfer would allow Israeli changes in the Old City of Hebron, including the Ibrahimi Mosque, which violates the 1997 Hebron Protocol agreements between Israel and the PA.
Israeli ministers and settler groups hailed the changes.
Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right minister overseeing civilian affairs in the West Bank, vowed after the changes were announced to “continue to kill the idea of a Palestinian state”.
Regavim, a pro-settler group, said the new measures “mark a clear break from the Oslo framework”.
The PA and nearly all Palestinian factions condemned the measures, calling them illegal steps aimed at deepening annexation and expanding settlements.
Eight Muslim-majority countries – Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates – denounced the changes, saying they aim to “impose unlawful Israeli sovereignty” in the West Bank.
De facto annexation
For years, Israel has sought to annex the occupied West Bank, with officials and ministers publicly expressing support for such a move.
In July, Israel’s parliament passed a non-binding resolution calling for the annexation of the territory.
While the proposal carries no legal weight and does not alter the official status of the West Bank, it is widely seen as a symbolic step designed to build momentum towards future unilateral action.
Trump, the West Bank and annexation: Israel in the driver’s seat
However, facing international pressure – especially from its ally, the United States – to avoid official annexation, the current Israeli government has taken several measures that make annexation a de facto reality.
In September, Smotrich unveiled a plan to annex 82 percent of the West Bank and incorporate it into Israel.
He said the plan was prepared by the Settlement Administration within the Ministry of Defence.
The principle behind the plan is to take control of “maximum land with minimum [Palestinian] population,” gradually dismantling the PA, which serves as the internationally recognised governing body in parts of the West Bank.
Juma, a long-time campaigner against settlement expansion, said Israel is advancing annexation on the ground through three parallel and mutually reinforcing tracks: settlement expansion, Palestinian displacement, and legal and administrative restructuring.
Under the current government, which took office in early 2023, settlement expansion has reached its highest level since the UN began tracking such data in 2017.
In 2025 alone, nearly 47,390 housing units were advanced, approved, or tendered, up from around 26,170 in 2024.
By comparison, an average of 12,815 housing units were added annually between 2017 and 2022.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described the expansion as “relentless”.
Daniella Weiss, Israel’s ‘settler godmother’, has a hotline to Netanyahu – and plans for Gaza
Juma highlighted that settlement growth is supported by an “enormous” expansion of settler-only infrastructure across the West Bank, including roads, bridges and other projects linking settlements directly to Israel proper.
The West Bank is also experiencing the largest wave of forced displacement in years, driven by military assaults in the north and settler violence.
The changes to legal and administrative frameworks are only part of the broader Israeli policy to create a de facto reality of annexation, according to Juma.
“Settlement expansion, Palestinian displacement, and legal restructuring are advancing in parallel, accelerating the annexation of the West Bank,” he said.
“The latest measures take it further by targeting the future of the Palestinian Authority and governance in the territory.”
PA ‘cornered’
One of the most significant measures introduced on Sunday is the expansion of Israeli civil control into Areas A and B of the West Bank.
Under the stated aims of protecting ancient sites, preventing water-related offences, and addressing environmental hazards, Israeli authorities would now be able to manage civilian affairs directly in major Palestinian cities.
As Israel devours the West Bank, Abbas clings on to a sinking PA
Services such as waste management and sewage are set to be coordinated directly with the Israeli military in some cities, bypassing the PA.
“The new measures effectively reduce the PA to little more than a security agent for Israel, stripping it of virtually all administrative powers,” said Juma.
He warned that the Palestinian Authority now faces an existential crisis, although it remains unclear what steps it will take.
Following the announcement, Hussein al-Sheikh, deputy president of the PA, called on the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the UN Security Council to hold emergency sessions to “discuss and condemn” the Israeli decision and demand its reversal.
“These decisions have cornered the PA,” Juma said.
“It now has no real options: either it continues as a security agent for the occupation in every sense of the word, or it shifts towards a new Palestinian resistance plan to confront these measures.”
Hebron targeted
The new measures specifically target Hebron, introducing far-reaching changes to the city.
The city is home to approximately 200,000 Palestinians and 700 Israeli settlers.
For decades, it has been a focal point of Israeli settlement activity and is the only Palestinian city outside of East Jerusalem where settlers live within the urban centre.
Most West Bank settlers live in outlying areas, away from major Palestinian towns.
Hebron also contains the Ibrahimi Mosque, an ancient site revered by Muslims, Christians and Jews, and has long been the site of settler raids and takeover attempts.
Following a 1994 massacre at the mosque by an Israeli settler, the city was divided into two areas under the Hebron Protocol agreements: H1, controlled by Palestinians, covering roughly 80 percent of the city; and H2, controlled by the Israeli military, covering 20 percent.
‘For many years, the occupation ‘managed the conflict’ with Palestinians – but today they are moving toward resolving it through outright ethnic cleansing’
– Hisham Sharabati, researcher
The new measures transfer municipal powers in Hebron from the PA to Israeli authorities and place planning and service provision around the Ibrahimi Mosque under Israeli control, effectively dismantling the Hebron Protocol arrangements.
Hisham Sharabati, a Hebron-based researcher with the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Centre (JLAC), told MEE that the latest move is part of a decades-long Israeli policy to ethnically cleanse the city.
“The new changes mean the settlement planning council would oversee public spaces, road construction, and services in Hebron,” he said.
“This will inevitably prioritise Israeli settlers over Palestinians, giving them legal control over areas that have long been Palestinian.”
Sharabati warned that around 35,000 Palestinians living in H2, who have long endured heavy military restrictions, are likely to be the first affected.
He also cautioned that similar measures could soon be extended to other Palestinian cities.
“There is a campaign targeting the entire Palestinian presence in the West Bank,” he said.
“This long-standing policy continues, but at an accelerated pace.
“For many years, the occupation ‘managed the conflict’ with Palestinians – but today they are moving toward resolving it through outright ethnic cleansing, paving the way for annexation.”
Jessica, a mother in Alabama, received a text on the evening of January 7.
“Hi, this is John with Friends for Peace. We’re gathering views on Israel today and would like to hear yours. Got a moment to chat? Stop2End.”
Jessica wondered if she would regret sharing her views — which she describes as America First and skeptical of the U.S. relationship with Israel — but John was reassuring and offered a “listening ear” to discuss the sensitive topic.
Over the next three days, Jessica and John exchanged messages about Israel. John promoted a pro-Israel narrative, trying to convince Jessica that the U.S.-Israel relationship is about “mutual benefit and shared interests.”
The only problem is that an organization called “Friends for Peace” does not appear to exist, and it’s unlikely that “John” is a real person. Rather than a peace organization, as the name might imply, the texting campaign appears to be led by former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale and his firm Clock Tower X, which is carrying out a $9 million contract with the government of Israel.
After Jessica told John that she gets a lot of her news from X, John responded saying she shouldn’t trust a lot of stories about Gaza. “There are networks of accounts pretending to be Gaza civilians and a lot of the content is fake. Always check your sources before believing anything. Learn more here,” he said. John then sent a YouTube video from an account called “Allies for Peace,” which claimed the narrative of suffering in Gaza was manufactured. “Bombs, starvation, collapsed buildings: all fabricated content…Don’t take every post at face value, check receipts, demand truth.”
Allies for Peace’s YouTube channel was created in late October by a firm called Clock Tower X, founded by Parscale.
And Jessica is not alone. Since November, an unspecified number of Americans have been receiving text messages from unknown numbers claiming to be from organizations called “Friends for Peace” and “Partners in Peace” asking their views on Israel, promoting Israel as a U.S. ally, and pushing links to websites and videos created by Clock Tower X.
Another source was sent a video called “Tunnels” by “Sara from Friends for Peace.” The video, which was also created by Parscale’s firm, features a clip of an episode of the Joe Rogan podcast with British commentator Douglas Murray. In the edited clip, Murray claims that “you go into a hospital [in Gaza] and you know there will be grenades or tunnel entrances building an infrastructure of terror.” Many of the comments on the video claim they were sent the link by the text message campaign. “I got this from a scam text too. Lmao” reads the top comment.
RS could not identify an organization called “Partners in Peace” or “Friends for Peace” that corresponded with the description. During one text conversation, the campaign admitted that they “use different names” for the organization.
Clock Tower X’s contract with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which increased from $6 million to $9 million in December, includes, “Delivery of monthly updated audience segmentation and sentiment analysis, including Gen Z and other key U.S. demographic groups,” which could correspond to the mass texting campaign. As part of the contract, Parscale’s firm is also integrating pro-Israel messaging into Salem Media Network, a conservative media conglomerate that hosts high-profile podcasts such as “The Right View with Lara Trump” and “The Dinesh D-Souza Podcast.”
Parscale is carrying out this work as part of “project 545” an Israeli campaign to “amplify Israel’s strategic communication and public diplomacy efforts.” Eran Shayovich, Parscale’s point of contact in Israel and the chief of staff at Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, posted on Linkedin about the success of the project last month. “A year and two months into a long war, when the image of the State of Israel was at one of its lowest points, and too many attempts to fight on the public diplomacy front had not been particularly successful,” he wrote. “In the past year, we began to fight back seriously.”
“Allies for Peace” uploaded its first video on YouTube — which states at the end that it was “distributed by Clock Tower X LLC on behalf of the state of Israel” — two weeks before the mass texting campaign began, further linking the effort to Parscale’s firm.
Parscale did not respond to a request for comment about his firm’s connections to the mass texting campaign.
Published date: 8 February 2026 13:43 GMT | Last update:1 day 23 mins ago
Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal said the Palestinian movement would reject any attempt at foreign domination of Gaza.
Speaking at a conference in Qatar’s capital, Doha, Meshaal added that Hamas would also not relinquish its weapons despite calls for disarmament from Israel and the US.
“Criminalising the resistance, its weapons and those who have led it is something we should not accept,” he said.
“As long as there is an occupation, there is resistance. Resistance is the right of people under occupation. It is something nations are proud of.”
Following the implementation of a nominal ceasefire on 10 October, US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the conflict in Gaza entered its second phase in mid-January.
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This phase is set to include the disarmament of Hamas and the gradual withdrawal of the Israeli army from the enclave.
According to a report in Haaretz earlier this week, Israeli officials are exploring ways for Israel to benefit economically from Gaza’s reconstruction.
Middle Eastern leaders including Netanyahu and Sisi line up to join Trump ‘Board of Peace’
Senior finance ministry officials discussed potential opportunities with senior Israeli army officers, the Israeli newspaper reported on Wednesday, including the construction of a highway in Israel connecting to Gaza.
It was suggested that countries seeking access to Gaza via Israel would pay for Israeli highway construction.
This would include a highway along the southern Route 232, which would provide better access for Palestinians travelling between Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Israeli officials also discussed economic opportunities over the supply of electricity to Gaza.
Hamas, which has governed the territory since 2007, has ruled out disarmament, but has indicated it is open to handing over its weapons to a future Palestinian-led authority.
Governance of the territory would be temporarily transferred to a committee of 15 Palestinian technocrats, under the authority of the “Peace Council” chaired by Trump.
Meshaal said the “Peace Council” should adopt a “balanced approach” that would allow for the reconstruction of Gaza and the influx of humanitarian aid.
“We adhere to our national principles and reject the logic of guardianship, any foreign intervention, or the return of a mandate in any form,” Meshaal said.
“Palestinians must be governed by Palestinians. Gaza belongs to the people of Gaza and to Palestine. We will not accept foreign domination.”
Speaking at Al Jazeera Forum, Khaled Meshaal describes discussion around Hamas handing over weapons as a continuation of a long effort to neutralise Palestinian armed resistance.
Head of Hamas abroad says ‘resistance is a right’ for occupied people
Hamas’s political leader abroad, Khaled Meshaal, has rejected calls to disarm Palestinian factions in Gaza, arguing that stripping weapons from an occupied people would turn them into “an easy victim to be eliminated”.
Speaking on the second day of the Al Jazeera Forum in Doha on Sunday, Meshaal described the discussion around Hamas handing over its weapons as a continuation of a century-long effort to neutralise Palestinian armed resistance.
“In the context that our people are still under occupation, talking about disarmament is an attempt to make our people an easy victim to be eliminated and easily exterminated by Israel, which is armed with all international weaponry,” he said.
“If we want to talk about it … it is necessary to provide an environment that allows reconstruction and relief and ensures that the war does not reignite between Gaza and the Zionist entity. This is a logical approach, and Hamas — through mediators Qatar, Turkiye and Egypt, and through indirect dialogues with the Americans via the mediators — has reached, or there has been, an understanding of Hamas’s vision on that. Yes, this is something that requires great effort, not an approach of disarmament.”
United States President Donald Trump last month sought to achieve a “comprehensive” demilitarisation of Hamas, threatening the Palestinian group with repercussions if it fails to do so. Hamas has refused to give up arms as long as Israel continues to occupy Gaza.
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In the second phase of a US-mediated “ceasefire” deal between Israel and Hamas, agreed in October last year, Washington says it will tackle the disarmament of Hamas and the deployment of an international peacekeeping force.
But Israel continues to carry out near-daily deadly attacks across Gaza in violation of the “ceasefire” and has so far refused to withdraw from the so-called “Yellow Line” in eastern Gaza, an informal boundary separating more than half of the territory that remains under Israeli military control from the rest of the Strip. Israel has killed at least 576 Palestinians and wounded 1,543 others since the latest “ceasefire” started.
“The problem is not that Hamas and the resistance forces in Gaza provide guarantees; the problem is Israel, which wants to take the Palestinian weapons … and put them in the hands of militias to create chaos,” he said.
Meshaal pointed to Hamas’s proposals for an extended calm as an alternative to dismantling its military wing.
“Hamas proposed a truce of five to seven to 10 years. This is a guarantee that these weapons are not used,” he said, adding that the mediating nations, who have a “deep relationship with Hamas, can form a guarantee”.
Meshaal pointed out that if people were to go back to the origin of the conflict, the issue is one of “occupation and a people resisting occupation, with the right to self-determination and independence”.
“Resistance is a right for people under occupation; it is part of international law and the heavenly religions. Resistance is part of the memory of nations,” he added.
‘Palestinian cause must have a solution’
Meshaal said the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel was a “turning point”, arguing that the Gaza conflict forced the world to reopen a “second question” of the Palestinian cause itself.
“The [Operation Al-Aqsa] Flood and this genocidal war have shaken the world. There is now a question – the Palestinian cause must have a solution,” he said, referring to the October 2023 attack, as he welcomed a growing number of nations recognising a Palestinian state, calling the moves “insufficient”.
“The fact that 159 countries have approved or recognised the Palestinian state is good, but it is not enough. How do we turn the Palestinian state into a reality on the ground? That is the big question we are concerned with as Palestinians, as Arabs, as Muslims, and along with our friends around the world,” he said.
Gaza: A Forever War
Meshaal called on the Arab and Muslim states to move from a “defensive policy” to “offence” in the diplomatic arena.
“We want to entrench that it is a pariah entity and a burden on security, stability, and international interests; to pursue it and turn it into an entity that loses its international legitimacy completely, just like the apartheid regime in South Africa,” he added.
“We are the owners of a just cause, and the accused is the one who committed the war crime of genocide,” he said.
Over two years after the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, retired Israeli reserve general Yitzhak Brik acknowledged sweeping military, economic and social damage, saying the campaign has failed to achieve its primary objective.
Key Takeaways
Brik said Israel failed to defeat Hamas after two years of war.
Hundreds of billions of shekels were lost economically.
Israeli soldiers face a rapidly expanding PTSD crisis.
Suicide attempts and depression rates surged among combat troops.
Ongoing multi-front deployments continue to strain the military.
Failure to Achieve War Objectives
In a Channel 13 television interview, Brik described the war as a prolonged conflict whose costs exceeded its gains.
“In reality, we have lost national and social resilience over these two years, along with hundreds of billions of shekels,” he reportedly said.
The retired general added that Israel had not succeeded in defeating Hamas, arguing that the campaign imposed heavy casualties while failing to produce a decisive outcome.
“Over the past two years, we have borne severe losses,” Brik stated, referring to both battlefield casualties and long-term physical and psychological injuries among soldiers and civilians.
He also warned of diplomatic repercussions, saying Israel had “lost credibility in the world,” and suggested Washington has intervened after viewing the war as strategically stalled.
Expanding Psychological Crisis
Parallel reports from Israeli institutions and healthcare providers indicate a growing mental-health emergency inside the military.
According to data from the Israeli Security Ministry, around 22,300 soldiers and personnel are receiving treatment for war-related injuries, with approximately 60 percent suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Israel’s healthcare provider Maccabi reported that 39 percent of soldiers under its care sought psychological assistance, while 26 percent displayed symptoms of depression.
A parliamentary committee documented 279 suicide attempts between January 2024 and July 2025, with combat soldiers representing the majority of cases.
Authorities have expanded mental-health funding and alternative treatment programs, but specialists warn the scale of trauma could continue rising sharply in the coming years.
Clinical psychologist Ronen Sidi, director of combat veteran research at Emek Medical Center, also noted widespread “moral injury,” describing emotional distress linked to actions taken during combat.
Multi-Front War
The war has extended across several arenas simultaneously.
The Gaza Health Ministry confirmed that more than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023, while thousands more have been killed in south Lebanon.
Israeli sources acknowledge over 1,100 Israeli soldiers killed during the same period. Resistance groups, however, have disputed these figures, arguing that Israeli authorities do not disclose the full extent of battlefield losses and that the real number of casualties is likely higher than officially reported.
Despite a US-backed ceasefire announced in October, Israeli occupation forces remain active across large areas of Gaza, with continued operations causing further casualties in recent months.
Israeli occupation troops also remain deployed in parts of south Lebanon and expanded areas in southern Syria.
Internal Debate over Strategic Outcomes
Brik’s remarks have intensified debate inside Israel regarding the feasibility of the war’s goals.
The retired general has long argued that prolonged ground operations against an entrenched resistance movement would produce high costs without decisive victory.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens to a presentation by Trump administration officials about post-war Gaza following a signing ceremony for the “Board of Peace” at the World Economic Forum on January 22, 2026 in Davos, Switzerland.
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The board’s vision for Gaza is a greed-soaked plan dependent on mass murder and land theft, driven by men so wealthy and entitled that they believe they can escape accountability while reaping billions in profit in the process.
While the sheer pomposity, Trumpian megalomania, and painfully paradoxical context surrounding the so-called “Board of Peace” might tempt some to dismiss it as mere spectacle or farce, its criminal, inhumane, and hegemonic nature makes it far too dangerous to ignore.
Last month, President Donald Trump and his new, thuggish boys’ club of heads of state publicly celebrated the launch of the Board of Peace (BoP) at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Its hypocrisy was inadvertently underscored by Elon Musk—Trump’s on-again, off-again ally—when he quipped onstage that one might call it the Board of “p-i-e-c-e,” a venture devoted to claiming “a little piece of Greenland, a little piece of Venezuela,” to which his interviewer, Larry Fink, billionaire CEO of BlackRock, responded with cheer, “We got one.” Only a room filled with the world’s tech and business elite could find this funny.
In the weeks since, people of conscience around the world have been left to reckon with what may come of this brazen proclamation of a Trumpified world order. In particular, the board’s presentation of plans for “New Gaza” offered stark clarity about the greed-driven intentions Trump, his inner circle, and their Israeli billionaire partners seek to pursue, while raising a fundamental question as to how such a project of colonization and land theft could claim any legal basis at all, let alone a moral one.
As it stands, the BoP charter elevates Trump to a position akin to a global dictator for life, unchecked—on paper— by any external mechanisms of accountability or transparency. Acting as permanent chairman, chief executive, and controlling shareholder of the organization, Trump has declared that he holds absolute veto power, while retaining complete discretion over the potential multibillion-dollar slush fund generated through permanent member fees. In keeping with his long record of felonies and fraud, all budgets, financial accounts, or disbursements the BoP deems “necessary” to carry out its sweeping mission are subject only to the so-called “institutions of controls or oversight mechanisms” designed by the very same Executive Board.
Thus far, Greenland remains the only red line EU states have managed to articulate.
A few invited world leaders, mostly from the European Union, have done little more than politely decline their invitations. While they have not yet bent the knee to Trump in this mobster’s reality-show version of US imperial power in action, this has not stopped those same governments from endorsing the other “peaceful actions” Trump is poised to pursue under the guise of BoP authority. These include the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the seizure of Venezuelan oil; the execution of dozens of extrajudicial boat strikes that have killed more than 100 people in the Caribbean; threats of war and the promotion of dangerous regime-change fantasies in Iran and Cuba; and support for his complete takeover of occupied Palestine through United Nations Security Council Resolution 2803. That resolution effectively granted Trump authority in Gaza by endorsing his 20-point Gaza peace plan and welcoming the BoP as a transitional governing body. Thus far, Greenland remains the only red line EU states have managed to articulate.
Despite some rejections, other governments have gone ahead and accepted their invitations for a free three-year membership. The participation of Israel’s wanted genocidaire-in-chief, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, should serve as the clearest red flag that this organization has no interest in even pretending to care about the lives of the Palestinian people or any standard of international law. Netanyahu could not even fly to Davos to attend the BoP’s self-appointed pomp and circumstance for fear of being arrested as a wanted war criminal.
Other beacons of democracy and world peace, eager to lend legitimacy to the BoP, include Trump’s own “favorite dictator,” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi; Argentina’s scandal-prone, right-wing President Javier Milei; “Europe’s last dictator,” Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko; Netanyahu’s idea of a “moral conscience,” Albanian President Edi Rama; and Hungary’s model in authoritarianism, Viktor Orbán. Leaders from Arab states—including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, and Qatar—have also joined, and will presumably stand alongside Trump and the Executive Board to help oversee, and quietly endorse, “New Gaza.”
Their participation set the stage for Davos, where none other than Jared Kushner delivered the first public presentation of an investment plan contingent upon the ethnic cleansing and erasure of a national Palestinian identity. Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a member of the BoP “Executive Board,” has long served as the self-styled “master planner” of transforming Gaza into a prime real estate opportunity. He has a track record of articulating his absolute disregard for Palestinian life, describing the besieged Gaza Strip in February 2024 as “very valuable… waterfront property.”
Kushner began his chilling slideshow by urging skeptical investors to “just calm down for 30 days,” declaring, “The war is over. Let’s work together.” Eager to move on to their real business of “peace,” Kushner appeared wholly willing to ignore the ongoing forced starvation, imprisonment, systemic torture, murder, and displacement of Palestinians across the occupied territories. Since the supposed “ceasefire” in October 2025, the Israeli military has killed at least 477 Palestinians in Gaza.
Trump has also failed to address Israel’s continued ban on dozens of international humanitarian and non-governmental organizations, a policy that has deliberately denied lifesaving aid and medical care to the region while newborn babies continue to die of hypothermia. Instead, Kushner outright lied about the current scale of Israel’s designed humanitarian catastrophe, claiming that “100% of the food needs are met” and that “the cost of needs has gone down,” before unironically describing the administration’s role as “the largest humanitarian effort into a war zone that anyone’s been able to tell us about.” Meanwhile, as the conference unfolded, Israeli forces bulldozed the UN Refugee headquarters in East Jerusalem, and the Israeli Knesset voted by an overwhelming majority to annex the entirety of the West Bank.
Amid the distortions and denials of reality, Kushner did allow the logic of the project to surface when he identified the architect behind the purported $25 billion master plan for Gaza: Yakir Gabay, whom he described as “one of the most successful real estate developers and brilliant people I know.” Gabay is an Israeli billionaire and international real estate tycoon with close familial ties to the Israeli government. Reports also indicate that he has participated in efforts to pressure Columbia University administrators to suppress student protests.
Much like Kushner, a recent article by the editor-in-chief of Jerusalem Post described Gabay as having been eager to craft a plan for “New Gaza” from the very first weeks of Israel’s prolonged assault on the densely populated region:
October 7, [Gabay] tends to say, woke him to action. [Gabay] thought: This time, my capabilities can change the face of reality…Other businesspeople heard about his work a year and a half ago. The White House had asked him to develop something even during Joe Biden’s term. He has good relationships with Tony Blair and Kushner, and when Trump won the elections, it became easier to push the issue.
On the whole, Kushner’s “New Gaza” presentation made no attempt to acknowledge a Palestinian state, recognize Palestinian self-determination, nor address Israeli occupation or the implications of Gaza’s “reconstruction” for the other occupied Palestinian territories. Instead, the eerily bizarre AI-generated slideshow of skyscrapers, oil rigs, and industrial complexes offered only a glimpse into the twisted billionaire fantasy that Kushner’s inner circle—including figures like Gabay—has sought to merge with Zionist imaginaries.
The only part of Kushner’s presentation that even acknowledged Palestinians was a single slide on “Palestinian-led demilitarization.” Beyond this ominous token reference, the narrative repeatedly circled back to framing Gaza as “an amazing investment opportunity” to the room full of multimillionaires and billionaires.
Recent reporting from Drop Site News has confirmed and expanded upon this language, revealing “Resolution No. 2026/1,” an unsigned State Department document from December 2025 that declares the Board of Peace aims to transform Gaza into a “deradicalized and demilitarized terror-free zone.”
Here, “deradicalization” functions as a catch-all term to delegitimize resistance and criminalize opposition to Israeli occupation—a legal right under international law. Palestinians who maintain their political consciousness, national identity, or will for self-determination, and who refuse to normalize occupation, are almost certain to be labeled “terrorists” or deemed insufficiently “deradicalized.” Those who take up arms to defend their people against some of the world’s most heavily armed and nuclear powers risk being denied existence in their own lands—murdered or turned away by the very architects of genocide who now claim to bring “peace.” Access to basic rights is made contingent on surrendering political and economic agency, including abandoning a historically rooted cultural identity of resistance under occupation, forsaking traditional livelihoods, and subordinating the desire to shape the future of the land to whatever “economic opportunities” BoP members deem investible.
The document further states that only those who “support and act consistently” to establish a “deradicalized, terror-free Gaza that poses no threat to its neighbors” may participate in governance, reconstruction, economic development, or humanitarian assistance. It also bars any individuals or organizations the board deems to have “supported or demonstrated a history of collaboration, infiltration, or influence with or by Hamas or other terror groups”—a sweeping allegation Israel has long weaponized without evidence.
In practice, such standards mean that anyone who stands in firm solidarity with Palestinians, including international NGOs that seek to hold Israel to even minimal standards of accountability, will likely be barred from operating in Gaza. This has already become an entrenched and worsening reality since October 2023. What the BoP presents as a security framework is, in essence, a blueprint for controlling Palestinian movement, erasing any viable possibility of a Palestinian state, and ultimately, advancing ethnic cleansing, while preventing humanitarian organizations from participating in any meaningful process of reconstruction or the delivery of aid. A framework that insists “no one will be forced to leave Gaza”—as if forced removal were ever legitimate—while simultaneously conditioning access to aid, resources, and even limited political participation on compliance with what Trump and his confidants dictate, is not a framework in which any meaningful shred of freedom or dignity can exist.
In essence, Trump now supposedly wields full legislative, executive, and judicial control over the future of Gaza. He alone, along with his board of resort profiteers—who would hastily clear away the rubble burying the bodies of erased bloodlines and the remnants of mosques, churches, hospitals, and schools—will have complete authority over how surviving Palestinians live, how they are governed, and who may participate in decision-making. Only at the very bottom of the BoP’s tyrannical hierarchy sits a so-called “technocratic committee,” nominally including members of the Palestinian Authority. Its role appears purely advisory, permitted to exist only insofar as it appeases Trump and aligns with his agenda. There is little indication that it will serve, or even slightly represent, the people it claims to speak for.
The development is ultimately so jarring, so rooted in supremacist ideologies, and so flagrantly opposed to basic principles of sovereignty and human rights that it has few historical parallels. The closest comparison seems to be the gruesome reign of Belgian King Leopold II.
The very consideration of such an inhumane, corrupt, and cruel project is a threat to humanity.
Those who participate in this process, including figures such as World Bank President Ajay Banga, lend legitimacy to a project that advances a perverse vision and a chapter of history that is not inevitable. Collaboration in the name of “reconstruction and development of Gaza” for a project so morally and legally corrupt is not a pragmatic compromise—it is active participation in a plan that has no place in the world. The human cost of this complicity is impossible to ignore.
The BoP plan also offers no conception of justice, reparations, or accountability for Israeli terror. Its version of “peace” is imposed through state violence to silence, control, and force Palestinians into submission. It is a project that raises skyscrapers for Western elites atop mass graves, without including, or even acknowledging, the Palestinians its architects have killed and displaced. It relies too on the pathetic inaction of the overwhelming majority of UN member states.
Much remains unknown about what is immediately required to take a single step toward “peace” in the region: if and when Palestinians may finally find reprieve from Israeli bombardment; whether the Rafah crossing will actually open; what will become of finding and returning the bodies of loved ones buried under the rubble; whether human rights organizations or journalists will even be permitted to document the reality–and work safely–on the ground; if displaced Palestinians will ever be allowed to return to Gaza; and crucially, whether other states will intervene. What is clear, however, is the sheer evil of this project.
Following Kushner’s presentation, many have rightfully said that if this BoP monstrosity were fictional, it would be so dark it would border on being unbelievable. And yet it is profoundly real: a greed-soaked plan dependent on mass murder and land theft, driven by men so wealthy and entitled that they believe they can escape accountability while reaping billions in profit in the process.
World leaders have long entrenched impunity and rewarded the most atrocious US-Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially over the past two and a half years. Yet the board’s ambitions—laid out in a charter that mirrors the UN and spans what Trump calls “the whole region of the world”—reveal a danger that stretches far beyond Palestine. The very consideration of such an inhumane, corrupt, and cruel project is a threat to humanity. And still—precisely because of the chaos, confusion, and sheer audacity of their plans—this dystopian vision for “New Gaza” is not inevitable. Those with political and economic power must firmly reject and actively work to rein in this Orwellian BoP. If any entity requires immediate disarmament and deradicalization, it is Trump and his so-called Executive Board.
The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I’ve ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets.
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