Key Points
- Israel to release 369 Palestinian prisoners
- Gaza children arrive in Italy for treatment
- Saudi Arabia to host Arab summit on Trump’s Gaza plan
- Israeli forces kill 25 Palestinians in West Bank
GAZA: The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office on Friday said that 36 prisoners with life sentences and 333 prisoners from the Gaza Strip will be released by Israeli authorities on Saturday.
The office affiliated with Hamas said 333 Palestinians were detained without any charges after October 7.
Meanwhile, Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, and Saraya al Quds, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, announced the names of three Israeli captives set to be released on Saturday as part of the sixth batch of the ongoing prisoner exchange deal under the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
Israel confirms receiving names of 3 hostages
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed it received the names of three hostages due to be released by Palestinian militants from Gaza on Saturday.
The hostages are Israeli-Russian Sasha Trupanov, Israeli-American Sagui Dekel-Chen and Israeli-Argentinian Yair Horn, the office said in a statement.
Gaza children arrive in Italy for treatment
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, Vatican official Ibrahim Faltas and Palestinian official Ramzi Khoury have welcomed children from Gaza who travelled to the Italian capital for medical treatment, Al Jazeera reports according to the Wafa news agency.
It was not clear how many children arrived, but Khoury mentioned that Italy had agreed to receive 14 children with cancer and their companions for treatment in Italian hospitals.
Saudi Arabia to host Arab summit on Trump’s Gaza plan
In a major development, Saudi Arabia will host the leaders of four Arab countries at a summit on February 20 to discuss Donald Trump’s proposal for a US takeover of Gaza, AFP reports.
The leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will attend the summit, which will take place ahead of an Arab League meeting in Cairo on February 27 on the same issue.
UNRWA accuses Israel of breaching international law
The UN’s refugee agency for Palestinians has said that the Israeli military used its Arroub Camp Health Centre near Bethlehem as a temporary detention site during a search and arrest operation on February 12, despite the UN premises being protected by international law.
ALSO READ: Israeli Military Operation Turns West Bank’s Jenin Camp into ‘Ghost Town’: UNRWA
“The military forcibly entered the health centre and used it for the detention and interrogation of tens of Palestinian residents rounded up in the camp,” a statement by UNRWA said.
It condemned the move as “a blatant disregard for the inviolability of United Nations facilities”.
“Unfortunately, this recent incident follows a pattern of forcible entries into UNRWA installations in the West Bank since October 2023, by both Israeli security forces and Palestinian armed groups,” the statement stressed.
Israeli forces kill 25 Palestinians in West Bank’s Jenin in 25 days
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Israeli forces are raiding the city and refugee camp of Jenin in the occupied West Bank for the 25th consecutive day.
ALSO READ: Saudi, Turkish Foreign Ministers Discuss Regional Developments
The raids have left 25 Palestinians dead, dozens injured and wide-scale destruction of property and infrastructure in the area.
According to local sources cited by Wafa, 470 facilities and homes have been either fully or partially destroyed in the ongoing raids, leaving residents without access to electricity or water.
Schools and health services have been shuttered, and Israeli forces have stopped water from reaching the four main hospitals.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty discussed the latest developments in Gaza on Friday. During a phone call, the two ministers discussed the situation in Palestine and the latest developments in Gaza, Turkish media reported.
