CrossFireArarbia

At 71,000 Killed: Finally Israel Accepts Gaza’s Health Ministry Stats

CrossFireArabia
January 31, 2026

The Israeli military has accepted the accuracy of the Palestinian Health Ministry’s death toll in Gaza, confirming that about 71,000 Palestinians have been killed in the genocide, after years of refusing to acknowledge the ministry’s reports.

According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Thursday, the army said the death toll of around 71,000 killed is largely correct, adding that it did not include those missing and buried under the rubble.

Israel had for years refused to accept the death tolls reported by the Palestinian Health Ministry, even branding it “misleading and unreliable”.

For over 2yrs, most of my pro-Israel guests have angrily denied the Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty numbers and said they were wildly exaggerated. Now, the IDF has accepted they’re accurate. https://t.co/xE0glY8Sfk
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) January 29, 2026

The military said it was analysing the data, which also does not include those who died of starvation or from diseases exacerbated by Israel’s years-long genocide in Gaza.

While accepting their accuracy, the military said it was looking to distinguish civilian and military deaths in the enclave.

The data published by the Health Ministry regarding the dead and wounded in the Gaza Strip have been used since the beginning of the genocide by many international organizations, including UN agencies, governments, media outlets, and researchers, and there is broad agreement that they are reliable.

Also, several studies have even raised the possibility that the death toll in Gaza is even higher than the Health Ministry reports. In June 2025, a study was released concluding that, as of January of that year, some 75,200 Gazans were killed during the war. At the time, more and more international experts concluded that the Health Ministry’s data is reliable, and may even be very conservative.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry this week, over 71,660 Palestinians have been killed during the genocide in Gaza and 171,340 others wounded according to the Quds News Network.

News

The Cold Kills 11 Children in Gaza

CrossFireArabia
January 31, 2026

The UN on Friday said the winter conditions in the Gaza Strip are turning deadly as 11 children have died of hypothermia, and renewed calls to lift Israeli restrictions on humanitarian operations.

Citing the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said at a news conference that “families in Gaza continue to face harsh winter conditions.”

He reported that “on Tuesday, another child reportedly died from hypothermia,” adding: “This is the eleventh child who has died this way since the beginning of the winter season, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza,” according to Anadolu.

Noting that since October, “the UN and our partners have distributed tens of thousands of tents, providing shelter to over half a million people,” Haq stressed that “tents provide limited protection, especially during the rainy season.”

“We continue calling for more durable shelter solutions to limit people’s dependency on tents,” he added.

Haq also warned that food access remains fragile, saying: “Even with the improvements in food consumption this month, humanitarians stress that the entry of aid and commercial supplies must be sustained and further diversified.”

He said that efforts to address malnutrition have expanded, adding: “Humanitarians have expanded services through dozens of facilities established since the ceasefire.”

“We reiterate that restrictions on humanitarian operations must be lifted,” Haq said, calling on Israel to end “the ongoing ban on UNRWA” and urging that humanitarian partners be allowed to operate “without hindrance across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

Analyses

Gulf Escalation: A Blaze Awaits The Region

CrossFireArabia
January 29, 2026

By Dr Marwan Asmar

With the Abraham Lincoln destroyer entering Middle East waters, everyone is gearing up for another US–Israeli war on Iran—the second in less than eight months.

Anxiety is gripping the region from the Gulf to Iran and all the way to Israel. Foreign states are warning their citizens in these countries to leave, while some airlines have suspended flights to the region. Once again, the Middle East is on a war footing, with fears that a wide conflict could erupt at any moment.

With an additional 7,000 US troops moving to the region, along with jets and fighter planes, the buildup is being described as the biggest “get-ready” military move since 2003, when the US launched its major war on Iraq and reshaped the region. Today, Middle Eastern countries are jittery about the current situation and the possibility of looming instability.

US President Donald Trump is not helping matters. He says he is weighing all options but keeps everyone guessing about his next move. He has warned that if the Iranian government continues its iron-fisted crackdown on protesters, the US could intervene militarily and wage another war on Tehran—much to the delight of the Israeli government, which is reportedly playing a behind-the-scenes role in encouraging unrest in Iran.

Although Trump is raising the war tempo and increasingly saber-rattling through military entrenchment, he is also sending mixed signals. He is not as boisterous as he was when he launched US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025. What he really wants is to push Iran back to the negotiating table and secure a lasting deal on its nuclear programme. He claims Iran’s facilities have been dealt a significant blow and may never recover, but this seems unrealistic, given how far Iran has advanced in nuclear enrichment.

While Trump describes Israel as a “role model” ally and urges Arab countries to follow suit—a claim many find laughable—Washington appears to be diverging from Tel Aviv over objectives on Iran and may even be at odds with it. Analysts say Israel wants strikes, even multiple ones, to change Iran’s regime and is less concerned about the chaos that could follow.

The United States, by contrast, appears more cautious. US officials do not necessarily want a new regime in Iran, uncertain of what might replace it. They prefer the logic of “the devil you know rather than the devil you don’t.” Washington wants a regime it can work with, despite ideological differences, notwithstanding Trump’s bombastic rhetoric, which Tehran may exploit if it chooses to play the “Mr Nice Guy.”

One analyst suggests Trump wants tangible gains from Iran, preferably access to its oil resources through US petroleum companies, but this may be a pipe dream.

If that fails, Trump is likely to push for a revamped nuclear deal to replace the 2015 agreement, which reached its term in September 2025 and is up for renewal. He wants a deal stamped with a distinctly “Trumpian” identity, even though many issues are already settled. Needless to say, Trump wants to claim credit for clinching the deal.

Today, the region stands on the edge of a precipice. It is touch-and-go. Many experts argue that a Middle East war is not imminent because it is neither politically nor economically feasible. Yet logic often takes a back seat in Trump’s world, especially with Israel pushing for a new wave of attacks on Iran, this time targeting its ballistic missile programme.

Iran, however, says it is ready. It has warned it will strike US bases in the region and beyond if it detects even a hint of an imminent attack. Iranian political and military leaders insist they will not remain sitting ducks for Washington or Tel Aviv. As a result, the region is caught in an escalating poker game.

While many believe Iran and its regional allies, such as Hezbollah and Hamas, have been significantly weakened over the past two years, neither the US nor Israel can be certain of Iran’s real capabilities. This uncertainty leaves them unsure about their next move—or Iran’s.

All this makes both Israel and the United States nervous about unpredictable scenarios across the region. Everyone is waiting, tapping their fingers, bracing for what may come next.

This article was originally published in Countercurrents.org

Opinion

Trump’s Authortarianism

CrossFireArabia
January 29, 2026

By Michael Jansen

Amnesty International-USA has issued an unprecedented 46-page report on the state of that country’s domestic affairs a year after Donald Trump began his second term on January 20th. The report, “Ringing Alarm Bells,” has traced how the Trump administration’s adoption of authoritarianism is violating human rights in the US and abroad and blocking accountability. The administration’s practices increase “the risk for journalists and people who speak out or dissent, including protestors, lawyers, students, and human rights defenders,” Amnesty said.

The report describes 12 areas in which the Trump administration is undermining the “pillars” supporting the US edifice. Trump is curbing “freedom of the press and access to information, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, civil society organisations and universities, political opponents and critics, judges, lawyers, and the legal system,” and due process. The report “documents attacks on refugee and migrant rights, the scapegoating of [entire] communities and the rollback of non-discrimination protections, the use of the military for domestic purposes…[and] the expansion of surveillance without meaningful oversight.” The adoption of such practices domestically extends to external affairs where international laws meant to protect human rights are being undermined.

Amnesty gave examples of abuses, several are included below. “Students are arrested and detained for protesting on college campuses” and communities are invaded and terrorized” by masked federal agents who are not held accountable. Such activities are “being normalised” across the country. Palestinians who are legal US residents and take part in anti-Israeli protests over Gaza have been targeted, arrested, detained and threatened with deportation.

To exact vengeance against critics, Trump has used the levers of power to “retaliate against, threaten, and coerce elected officials, federal employees and prosecutors, and universities and media outlets.” Trump has used job dismissal, suspension, investigations, withdrawal of security clearances, and denial of federal funding and contracts to attain his objectives in this campaign.

Trump has used state and federal military forces to police protests and support unlawful immigration enforcement. Black and brown demonstrations and restive localities have been disproportionately targeted. After trying to leave the area where there was an anti-deportation protest, Renee Good was shot to death in her car by a federal agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called her a “domestic terrorist” before any investigation had begun. The local authorities waited for a federal investigation to take over the probe into this incident which has been widely publicised and politicised.

Trump has threatened to invoke the 19th Insurrection Act, a law authorising military deployment to quell Minneapolis protests against his aggressive campaign to identify and deport “illegal” migrants although US citizens have been mistakenly swept up and detained in this effort.

Trump’s Justice Department opened a criminal probe into Minnesota state Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, both Democrats, accusing them of impeding federal immigration operations. Walz charged the Republican administration of “weaponizing the justice system against your opponents.”

Meanwhile, on the international level, Trump has demanded that Denmark hand over to the US Greenland, an integral part of the Danish Kingdom, and threatened European countries backing Denmark with 10-25 per cent tariff punishments. Greenland is not only a strategic island, but it has deposits of precious metals. Denmark and 85 per cent of Greenlanders and 75 per cent of US citizens reject Trump’s bid although he has continued to voice his demand and issue threats against opponents and critics.

He has called for Canada to become the 51t US state despite rejection by the government and citizens. Trump argues that the US must re-acquire the Panama Canal, a choke point in the East-West trade route which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The canal was built by US engineers between 1903-1914 and was held by the US until handed over to Panama on December 31st, 1999. He falsely claims Russia and China menace both Greenland and the Panama Canal. Trump uses imagined threats to forge new global realities. However, other leaders, countries and populations prefer not to undermine and fracture the status quo which has maintained peace over and in Greenland and Panama as well as between global actors.

The writer is a columnist for the Jordan Times

News

Iran is Ready For War – VP Aref

CrossFireArabia
January 29, 2026

Iran’s Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said on Thursday that the government considers itself to be in a “state of war readiness,” as tensions with the United States continue to escalate.

Addressing a meeting of government officials in Tehran, Aref said Iran “will not be the initiator of a war” but would defend itself “with full force,” adding that the end of any war “will not be determined by the enemies,” in an apparent reference to the US and Israel.

Referring to the 12-day war in June last year and recent regional developments, including the US military buildup in the Gulf and threats by President Donald Trump, Aref said the country remains in a “state of war readiness.”

He said the administration led by President Masoud Pezeshkian “adopted a wartime posture from day one,” adding that a “wartime economic plan” was implemented in the aftermath of the June war according to Anadolu.

Aref emphasized that Iran must remain prepared for a wartime situation in light of unfolding regional developments.

“Our strategy is that we never start a war, but if it is imposed on us, we will defend ourselves, and the end of the war will not be in the hands of the enemies. We believe in dialogue and logic, but if a war begins, its conclusion will no longer be decided by the enemies,” he said.

Commenting on diplomacy, Aref said the government has already declared its readiness for negotiations but is seeking firm guarantees.

“During the previous round of talks—which were also progressing well—the United States attacked the Islamic Republic of Iran. What guarantee is there that it will not do so again this time? If we are assured that they are seeking real negotiations and not using talks as a cover for greater mischief, then we will negotiate,” he said.

In a social media post on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said a massive “armada” was on its way to Iran, while urging Tehran to immediately enter negotiations.

Trump’s statement led to speculation that a military strike on Iran is imminent, drawing strong reactions from Iranian officials.

Earlier on Thursday, Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, echoed Aref’s remarks in an interview with CNN, saying Iran is not opposed to dialogue and diplomacy, but not under the shadow of war and threats.

According to reports, mediation efforts are underway to ease tensions between Iran and the US, with Türkiye leading the initiative.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is scheduled to visit Ankara on Friday.