Updates: Israel approves moves to expand its powers in occupied West Bank

You can learn more about Israel’s plans to expand its power across the occupied West Bank, making it easier to seize Palestinian land illegally, here.

Read this personal story from one of 22,000 Gaza patients waiting in desperation for medical evacuation, here.

You can also watch demonstrators taking to the streets across Australia to protest against a visit by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, here.

We’ll be closing this live page soon. Here is a recap of today’s main news:

• An Israeli air strike on a building in Gaza City killed four Palestinians in yet another breach of the “ceasefire”. Israeli attacks have killed more than 580 people since the deal took effect in October.
• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Israel to reverse its “unlawful” decision to deepen control over the occupied West Bank, describing it as “gravely concerning”.
• Protesters took to the streets across Australia to rally against a visit by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who has previously said that there are no “innocent” victims in war-devastated Gaza.
• UNRWA issued an urgent appeal for $1.26bn in funding “to respond to one of the gravest, protracted humanitarian crises in recent history” in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory.
• Israeli forces stormed the village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, as well as Anata, Hizma, and other towns across the occupied West Bank.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has expressed support for Australian demonstrators who rallied against a visit by Israel’s president to their country.

CAIR noted that Isaac Herzog had infamously said that there were “no innocent civilians” in Gaza at the start of Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the territory.

“We also strongly condemn Australian police officers for attacking a group of Australian Muslims as they peacefully prayed,” the group wrote. “This assault on worshipers was an obscene act of bigotry and those responsible should be held accountable.”

We express solidarity with the Australians as they exercise their right to peacefully protest a visit to their nation by Israeli president Isaac Herzog, who infamously declared at the start of the genocide that there were no innocent civilians in Gaza. We also strongly condemn… https://t.co/3VAyRxSUcq

— CAIR National (@CAIRNational) February 9, 2026

The UK is the latest country to call on Israel to reverse its decision to expand control over the occupied West Bank.

“The UK strongly condemns the Israeli security cabinet’s decision yesterday ⁠to expand Israeli control over the West Bank,” the government said in a statement.

“Any unilateral attempt to alter ‌the geographic or demographic ⁠make-up of Palestine is wholly unacceptable and would be inconsistent with international ‌law. We call on Israel to reverse these decisions immediately.”

Last year, the UK announced it was imposing additional sanctions on illegal Israeli settler outposts in the occupied West Bank.

As international pressure intensifies on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the European Commission has launched a review of its trade agreement with Israel in response to the “catastrophic” situation in Gaza.

The UN has installed the first batch of relief housing units for displaced Palestinians in Gaza City.

Residents say the temporary houses provide better protection than tents, but the conditions remain far from a normal life.

See more in our video below.

Israeli forces have stormed the village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, firing stun grenades and tear gas canisters, Wafa reports.

Separately, the Israeli army also raided the town of Anata, in the Jerusalem governorate, and opened fire with rubber-coated metal rounds.

Armed settlers also attacked Hizma, northeast of Jerusalem, firing weapons at residents and damaging several parked vehicles.

More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements and outposts in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law. About 3 million Palestinians live in the occupied West Bank.

Another 200,000 Israelis live in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, which the UN says is part of the Palestinian territory.

After being temporarily banned on TikTok following the app’s transition to majority US ownership, AJ+’s Bisan Owda said she will continue finding alternative ways to document the grim reality for Palestinians in war-battered Gaza.

Owda has been documenting Israel’s genocidal war from her home in Gaza’s north since it started in October 2023.

“I’m not going to stop, because it’s not an option,” she said.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by AJ+ (@ajplus)

Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reports that several thousand Indonesian soldiers are expected to deploy in Gaza in the coming weeks as part of the US-coordinated peacekeeping mission.

There is no set date for their arrival. The International Stabilization Force is part of US President Donald Trump’s post-war plan for the Palestinian enclave.

The news outlet said the troops will be based in Rafah, southern Gaza.

In November, Indonesia’s defence minister said the country trained about 20,000 troops to take on health and construction-related tasks in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

The army says it shot and killed someone who crossed the so-called “yellow line” in the north of the bombarded enclave.

Israel has justified several deadly attacks since the October “ceasefire” deal came into effect by saying Palestinians crossed the demarcation line, which is not clearly marked in Gaza’s ruins.

That includes a deadly mid-October attack that killed several members of a Palestinian family, including women and children, as they sought to reach their home in Gaza City.

This is another deadly escalation carried out by the Israeli military. Israeli fighter jets have targeted a residential apartment in the Nassr neighbourhood of Gaza City.

That building had already been targeted and partially damaged during Israel’s war on Gaza. The renewed attack left dozens injured, and they were transported to a hospital.

Nassr is a very crowded neighbourhood. People took refuge in this neighbourhood and took refuge in that partially damaged residential building. They were forced to live there because of the scarcity of shelters.

Israel’s announcement moves to expand Israeli control over two major religious sites in the occupied West Bank.

In Hebron, the West Bank’s largest Palestinian city, municipal bylaws will be amended to transfer building-permit authority in areas around the Ibrahimi Mosque to COGAT, Israel’s military body overseeing civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories.

Asma al-Sharbati, Hebron’s deputy mayor, called the move “the most dangerous ongoing Israeli trend”, adding that settlement expansion is happening at a “rapid pace”.

The Bilal bin Rabah Mosque, currently administered by the Bethlehem municipality, will similarly be placed under a newly created Israeli authority.

A new survey indicates nearly three-quarters of Pakistanis support deploying troops to the Gaza Strip as part of an International Stabilization Force (ISF).

The findings of the poll by Gallup Pakistan come as media reports suggest Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will attend the first formal, February 10 meeting of US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, a body Pakistan joined alongside several other Muslim-majority countries last month.

Anam Nadeem, 38, a communications professional from Sialkot, is firmly opposed.

“The ISF’s role, leadership and objectives are vague, and it appears to be aligned with a US-led framework that lacks broad regional legitimacy,” she said. “Joining such a force risks placing Pakistan in direct conflict with Palestinian factions, including Hamas, potentially against the will of the Palestinian people.”

Read more here.

Israel is accused of spraying farmland across Syria and Lebanon with chemical herbicides, destroying crops along the shared border.

Farmers say it’s threatening their livelihoods and called it an attempt by Israel to force them off their land.

Al Jazeera’s Ayman Oghanna met some farmers and sent this report from Quneitra, southern Syria:

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on Israel to reverse its decision to deepen control over the West Bank.

A spokesperson for Guterres told reporters the UN chief is “gravely concerned” by the Israeli security cabinet’s moves.

“The secretary-general warns that the current trajectory on the ground, including this decision, is eroding the prospects for a two-state solution,” Stephane Dujarric said during a news conference at UN headquarters in New York City.

“He reiterates that all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and their associated regime and infrastructure have no legal validity and are in flagrant violation of international law, including relevant United Nations resolutions,” Dujarric said.

“Such actions, including Israel’s continuing presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, are not only destabilising, but as recalled by the International Court of Justice, unlawful.”

Ultra-Orthodox anti-draft demonstrators have clashed with Israeli police after blocking Route 4 to protest the arrest of two Haredim draft dodgers, Israel Army Radio reports.

The newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that one protester was arrested.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews have been protesting in Israel, unhappy with the idea of being drafted into the army. They were exempt from military service until June 2024, when the Israeli Supreme Court unanimously ruled the exemption had no legal basis.

Earlier we reported on Israel’s army saying it killed four Hamas fighters after they attacked troops in southern Rafah after emerging from a tunnel.

Hamas military spokesman Abu Obaida later described the incident as “heroic resistance”.

“Greetings to our resistance heroes besieged in Rafah who refused humiliation or submission and preferred martyrdom over surrender. Their story will continue to be taught for generations, and their names will be engraved in the pages of glory,” Abu Obaida said in a statement on Telegram.

Hamas said in late November that dozens of its fighters were holed up in southern Gaza’s tunnels beneath areas controlled by the Israeli military.

The situation was a sticking point in the early days of the ceasefire, with Israel insisting the Palestinian fighters posed a security threat, while Hamas sought safe passage for them.

Since then, many of the fighters have been killed in clashes with Israeli troops during operations targeting tunnels near Rafah, according to the military.

Let’s bring you up to speed on the latest developments:

• Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa called on the international community to take serious and concrete steps to halt Israel’s expansionism in the occupied West Bank.
• Israeli forces carried out raids across the West Bank, including in Hebron and the South Hebron Hills, as well as in Shu’fat refugee camp in occupied East Jerusalem.
• The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society warned that Israel is systematically arresting Palestinian women in the West Bank, including the wives of Palestinian prisoners.
• Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan has failed to prevent recurrent violence in the Gaza Strip, while other aspects of the proposal remain unclear.
• The White House has been silent on Israel’s latest moves in the West Bank, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heading to Washington, DC and Trump vowing last year that there would be no annexation.