25 more Palestinians cross into Gaza as Israeli attacks continue

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - GAZA — Twenty-five more Palestinians returned to Gaza through the Rafah crossing early Thursday following its long-awaited partial reopening, while patients in need of urgent medical treatment abroad are heading to the border.

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Meanwhile, Israel continued to carry out attacks across the Strip, a day after 23 Palestinians were killed in one of the deadliest days since the October “ceasefire” began.

A Palestinian man was killed by Israeli forces in Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis, on Thursday, as Israeli attacks continue in the Gaza Strip, the Wafa news agency reported.

Israel carried out air strikes east of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, and east of Khan Younis in the south.

There have also been Israeli air strikes, gunfire and heavy artillery shelling targeting Gaza City’s eastern Tuffah neighbourhood, which was next to the so-called “yellow line” demarcating territory under Israeli military control, an Al Jazeera reported.

The group of 25, the third batch of Palestinians to return since the heavily restricted reopening of the crossing, entered the Strip at 3 am local time (01:00 GMT) Thursday, with buses delivering them to Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis more than 20 hours after they left the Egyptian city of El Arish.

Hours later, 13 Palestinian patients, accompanied by family members and World Health Organization (WHO) officials, were transferred from a hospital toward the crossing for medical treatment abroad.

Some of the returnees, visibly fatigued from their ordeal, said they had been interrogated and insulted by Israeli forces as they passed through security controls.

Footage showed emotional scenes as returning Palestinians embraced loved ones from whom they had long been separated, and registered firsthand the scenes of devastation caused by the war in their homeland.

“The feeling is like being caught between happiness and sadness,” one returnee, Aicha Balaoui, told the Reuters news agency.

“I’m happy to be back and to see my family, my husband and my loved ones, thank God. But I also feel sad for my country after seeing the destruction. I never imagined the devastation would be this severe.”

The Rafah crossing with Egypt, the sole route in or out of Gaza for nearly all of the territory’s more than two million inhabitants, was closed by Israeli authorities for most of the war, but was partially reopened on Monday.

The reopening of the crossing – to allow the return of Palestinians who have left, and the evacuation of patients requiring medical treatment outside the Strip – is one of the terms of the US-brokered “ceasefire” agreement to end the war in Gaza.

Only Palestinians who left Gaza during the war are being permitted to return, and people travelling in both directions are being subjected to strict security vetting – a process which returnees have described as humiliating and abusive.

Palestinian women who returned earlier this week described to Al Jazeera having their hands bound and eyes covered, being interrogated and subjected to full body searches as part of the security screening.

The International Commission to Support Palestinian People’s Rights (ICSPR) has said the strict Israeli measures have turned the Rafah crossing “into a tool of control and domination rather than a humanitarian passage”.

Families of the patients had begun receiving phone calls late on Wednesday telling them to prepare for their transfer, he said. Israel had briefly suspended coordination over the medical transfers before resuming it hours later.

But the pace of the medical evacuations since the crossing’s partial reopening was slower than the numbers promised, and far short of what was required to meet the needs of the approximately 20,000 patients in need of medical treatment in other countries.

While the agreement had spoken of 50 patients being evacuated each day, each accompanied by two family members, only about 30 had been transferred so far this week.

Gaza’s healthcare system has been devastated by Israel’s genocidal war on the enclave, with 22 hospitals put out of service and 1,700 medical workers killed, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. — Agencies

UN chief warns expiration of US-Russian nuclear treaty marks 'grave moment'

'For the first time in more than half a century, we face a world without any binding limits on the strategic nuclear arsenals,' says Antonio Guterres
Merve Aydogan|
05.02.2026 - Update : 05.02.2026
UN chief warns expiration of US-Russian nuclear treaty marks 'grave moment'

HAMILTON, Canada

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Wednesday that the expiration of the last remaining nuclear arms control agreement between the US and Russia represents a "grave moment for international peace and security," ending decades of legally binding limits on the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals.

"The expiration of the New START Treaty, as of midnight today, marks a grave moment for international peace and security," Guterres said in a statement marking the treaty's expiry on Feb. 5.

He stressed that "for the first time in more than half a century, we face a world without any binding limits on the strategic nuclear arsenals of the Russian Federation and the United States of America, the two States that possess the overwhelming majority of the global stockpile of nuclear weapons."

Guterres said nuclear arms control between the two countries has long served as a stabilizing force, helping to prevent a catastrophe and reduce the risk of devastating miscalculation.

From the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) to New START, he noted, bilateral agreements led to the reduction of thousands of nuclear weapons and improved global security.

"This dissolution of decades of achievement could not come at a worse time," he warned, emphasizing that "the risk of a nuclear weapon being used is the highest in decades."

He cautioned that the absence of verifiable limits on strategic arsenals increases global insecurity amid rising geopolitical tensions and rapid technological change.

Still, Guterres noted that the moment should also be seen as an opportunity to reset arms control efforts.

"The world now looks to the Russian Federation and the United States to translate words into action," he said, urging both sides to return to negotiations without delay and agree on a successor framework that "restores verifiable limits, reduces risks, and strengthens our collective security."

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) was signed on April 8, 2010 in Prague by the United States and Russia and entered into force on Feb. 5, 2011. It replaced the 1991 START I treaty, which expired in December 2009, and superseded the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT), which terminated when New START entered into force, according to the US-based Arms Control Association. — Agencies