The occupation forces threaten to move into the city of Rafah (Getty Images)

The Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip continues for the 120th day in a row, amid international warnings about the movement of the occupation forces into the city of Rafah, which poses a threat to more than one and a half million displaced Palestinians there.

The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip said that the Israeli occupation forces committed 12 massacres, claiming the lives of 107 martyrs and 165 wounded within 24 hours.

The Ministry announced a new toll of victims of the Israeli aggression, saying that the number of martyrs reached 27,238 Palestinians, while the number of wounded reached 66,452.

Moving towards Rafah

Meanwhile, since dawn on Saturday, the Israeli occupation forces have bombed the last two shelters for displaced people in the Gaza Strip, intensively targeting Rafah in the south of the Strip and Deir al-Balah in its centre, resulting in the death of more than 22 Palestinians, and increasing fears that Israel will expand the scope of its ground operation in the two cities crowded with displaced people.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, warned that Israel’s statements - regarding military action towards the city of Rafah - are disturbing and constitute a danger to more than one and a half million Palestinians whom it ordered to go there.

Turk wrote, in a blog post on the X platform, that the international organization is concerned about the statements of Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant regarding the military move to Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.

Turk added that these statements raise the alarm about the occurrence of large numbers of casualties and the further displacement to an unknown location of more than 1.5 million Palestinians who were ordered by the Israeli army to go to Rafah.

Resistance operations

In turn, the resistance factions in the Gaza Strip inflicted more losses on the Israeli occupation army, which announced that it had carried out more than 1,500 transfer operations for its wounded soldiers in Gaza.

The Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades - the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) - announced that its fighters targeted a “Zionist Merkava tank with an Al-Yassin 105 shell” west of the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.

It said that its fighters fired mortar shells at a gathering of occupation forces penetrating the Al-Jami'a area, west of Gaza City.

The Al-Quds Brigades - the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement - also said, “After our mujahideen returned from the areas of clashes in the Al-Amal neighborhood in Khan Yunis, they confirmed that they had targeted a Zionist D9 military bulldozer at the end of the school street.”

On the other hand, the Israeli occupation army announced that it had carried out more than 1,500 evacuations of soldiers wounded in the battles in the Gaza Strip since last October 27.

Leaders of the security system

On the other hand, Israeli Channel 12 said that the leaders of the occupation security system, who previously bore responsibility for the failure in the attack of last October 7, made it clear that they would resign from their positions when circumstances permit.

According to the channel, the Chief of Staff of the occupation army, Herzi Halevy, the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, and the head of the Intelligence Division of the Israeli Army (Aman), Aharon Haleva, are still hesitant about the correct time to resign.

Raids and arrests in the West Bank

In the West Bank, on Saturday, the occupation forces continued their escalatory campaign against Palestinian citizens, storming a number of West Bank cities and villages and arresting a number of citizens.

A young Palestinian man was injured by bullets from the occupation forces that stormed south of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank. The forces also stormed Nablus, Tubas, the Dheisheh camp in Bethlehem, and two areas in Beit Ummar, north of Hebron. The raids were accompanied by arrest operations that raised the number of detainees since last October 7 to 6,500.

The Palestinian News Agency reported that the occupation forces stormed the town of Kafr Jamal in Tulkarm. As a result, confrontations broke out during which gunfire, sound bombs, and tear gas were fired, leading to a young man being wounded by a bullet in his chest.

For its part, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club reported that the occupation forces arrested 12 Palestinians in the West Bank since last night, bringing the number of detainees since October 7 to 6,500.

Military sources said that about 4,400 detainees are still in detention, in addition to about 5,300 prisoners who have already been languishing in occupation prisons since before the war.

Overthrow Netanyahu

Today, hundreds of Israelis demonstrated in central Tel Aviv, in Jerusalem, Haifa, Beersheba and Rehovot, to demand the overthrow of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and the holding of parliamentary elections, as the war on the Gaza Strip entered its 120th day.

During these protests, the demonstrators raised slogans holding Netanyahu responsible for the events of October 7, and the events that followed, leading to the mismanagement of the prisoner exchange deal file, in addition to accusing him of corruption.

The protesters demanded that the government accelerate the return of 136 Israeli prisoners held by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.

Blinken tour

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is scheduled to begin a new tour in the Middle East on Sunday in an effort to achieve an agreement that includes a truce in Gaza and an exchange of prisoners between Israel and Hamas.

The US State Department announced that Blinken is heading to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Israel, and the West Bank from February 4 to 8.

The ministry added - in a statement - that the Minister of Foreign Affairs will continue efforts to reach an agreement to release all “hostages” and a humanitarian truce in Gaza, and will continue to work to prevent the expansion of the conflict in the region.

American strikes

Today, the repercussions of the raids launched by the United States on 7 facilities in Syria and Iraq continued, which resulted in the death of about 40 people, in response to the attack that took place in Jordan last Sunday, which resulted in the death of 3 American soldiers.

US President Joe Biden said that the targeted facilities are being used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and “affiliated militias” to attack American forces, adding that “our response that began today will continue at the times and places we choose.”

In turn, the US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) announced its confidence that it was able to hit the majority of its targets and that it achieved the desired success, stressing that it is not seeking a broader war or conflict with Iran.

On the other hand, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry summoned the Charge d'Affairs of the US Embassy in Baghdad on Saturday, and called on the Iraqi presidency to meet with the three presidencies, to discuss the US strikes.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry handed over the Charge d'Affairs of the US Embassy in Baghdad an official note of protest regarding what it described as the American attack on military and civilian sites, stressing that the strikes constitute a blatant violation of Iraqi sovereignty.

Yemen front

US Central Command (Centcom) announced that the ship "USS Carney" shot down a drone over the Gulf of Aden - yesterday, Friday - and no injuries or damage were reported.

It also announced that it carried out strikes yesterday against 4 other drones on the ground belonging to the Ansar Allah Al-Houthi group that were ready to be launched.

The US Navy destroyer shot down a drone yesterday morning, Friday, while fighters and a warship shot down 7 drones later the same day, while US forces destroyed 4 other drones on the ground before launching them.

In this context, the Houthi group announced - at dawn on Saturday - that American and British forces launched 3 raids on Saada Governorate in the north of the country.

Northern front

Lebanese Hezbollah announced that its fighters targeted, with "appropriate" weapons, the Israeli "Khirbet Maar" base off the Lebanese border.

The occupation army monitored 3 missiles today, Saturday, that crossed Lebanese territory to the areas of “Baram” and “Zarait” (in the Upper Galilee) and landed in open areas, without causing any casualties.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV said that "hostile drones fired a missile towards Yaroun, and (there was) Zionist artillery shelling targeting the Al-Kharibah area on the outskirts of Rashaya Al-Fakhar."

On the other hand, Israeli warplanes launched a series of raids on the towns of Aita al-Shaab and Yaroun, and the Jabal Balat area in southern Lebanon, while Israeli artillery bombed the surroundings of the towns of Rashaya al-Fakhar and Dhahira.

The Israeli army announced that its warplanes carried out raids targeting what it said were Hezbollah sites in Lebanese territory.

Source: Al Jazeera