Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 121?

French Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Séjourné is set to visit Israel and the Palestinian Territories on Monday, the French Embassy in Israel announced on Sunday.

Séjourné will reportedly also visit Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon during a four-day tour of the region.

The French foreign minister will also meet with senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Israel Katz, National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, and opposition head Yair Lapid.

Séjourné is also set to meet with families of the French hostages or missing nationals.

Hamas made a demand for the release of Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti as part of a hostage deal with Israel, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Saturday.

Barghouti, the head of Tanzim, an armed faction of Fatah, was arrested by the Israeli security forces in the West Bank city of Ramallah on April 15, 2002. 

A couple of years later, he was convicted on five accounts of murder and one account of attempted murder for the killings of four Israelis and a Greek Orthodox priest during the Second Intifada.

Barghouti was additionally convicted on charges of as well as membership in a terrorist organization. He was subsequently sentenced to five consecutive life sentences as well as an additional 40 years.

“Hamas wants to show to the Palestinian people that they are not a closed movement,” Qadoura Fares, the Palestinian Prisoner Affairs Ministry head told AP. “They represent part of the Palestinian social community. They are trying to seem responsible.” 

Fares reportedly has a long history in prisoner release negotiations.

Barghouti is a popular figure in Palestinian politics, with many seeing him as a successor to 88-year-old Palestinian Authority (PA) head Mahmoud Abbas.

In June of last year, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research conducted a poll indicating that, at the time, over a quarter (27%) of Palestinians named Barghouti as their preferred successor to Abbas.

In the poll, Barghouti outperformed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh.

Hamas is set to reject on Sunday evening the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal proposed in Paris last week, Saudi outlet Al-Arabiya reported.

According to the report, the terror organization is set to demand an increase in the number of Palestinian terrorists released from Israeli prisons.

Canada will impose sanctions on Israeli settlers who incite violence in the West Bank and introduce new sanctions on Hamas leaders, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on Sunday, after the United States took similar action last week.

On Thursday, the United States sanctioned four Israeli men accused of being involved in violence in the territory.

In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp on Sunday, Joly said some settlers "will be sanctioned" and "we will also bring new sanctions on Hamas leaders".

"We're working actively on it," Joly said, speaking from Ukraine. "I'm making sure that while I'm in Ukraine, the work is being done in Ottawa and I look forward to doing an announcement soon."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday said he was considering imposing sanctions on "extremist" settlers in the West Bank.

MDA on the scene after a terrorist attack occurred in the West Bank settlement of Adora. January 12, 2024. (credit: SCREENSHOT/X)

Growing tensions in the West Bank

Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israelis have built residences in the West Bank of the Jordan River, which Palestinians want as the core of an independent state. It has built Jewish settlements there that most countries deem illegal. Israel disputes this and cites historical and biblical ties to the land.

In the 18 months before Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the West Bank had already seen its highest levels of unrest in decades. Confrontations there have risen sharply since Israeli forces launched their retaliatory offensive on Gaza.

IDF aircraft struck Hezbollah positions on Sunday, targeting infrastructure such as a rocket launch post and observation posts in the areas of Blida and Meis el-Jabal in southern Lebanon, the IDF stated.

Later, rockets from Lebanon were identified crossing the Israeli border, triggering rocket alarms in northern Israeli communities, including Kiryat Shmona, Menara, Margoliot, and Metulla.

In response, the IDF reported that it struck the sources of rocket fire.

Additionally, the IDF noted that Israeli tanks had struck a terrorist cell operating in the area of Blida.

Dozens of rockets fired

"Dozens of rockets have been fired in the north since this morning,” Amit Sofer, the head of the Merom HaGalil Regional Council said on Sunday. “Our residents must be patient, but if progress is not seen on the ground, our patience will wear away."

Amit Sofer, Merom HaGalil Regional Council Head arrives to tesitfy before the Meron Disaster Inquiry Committee, in Jerusalem, on October 5, 2021. (credit: FLASH90)

Sofer added that, on Sunday, there had been a real battle in northern Israel featuring dozens of rockets and alarms.

"On the northern border, we felt the war well. Outside, it is cold, and the temperature is dropping, but on the border, it is very hot. Dozens of rockets have been launched towards the northern communities since the morning, and only by a miracle were there no casualties."

The council head emphasized his demand that more protection be supplied to the region, along with efforts to bolster education.

“We must not lose the community in the north,” he added. “Without it, we can say goodbye to the entire Zionist enterprise.”

The IDF announced on Sunday that it has taken control of the Hamas brigade headquarters in southern Gaza, which was also used by Muhammad Sinwar, brother and top lieutenant to Gaza Chief Yahya Sinwar.

Previously, on December 17, the IDF had announced it had penetrated Hamas's City Hall and another office of its brigade chief, Rafa’a Salame.

IDF sources said that the headquarters which was taken over was the largest they had seen in Khan Yunis.

Full operational control of Khan Yunis is expected in the coming week 

Also, IDF sources said that they expected to achieve operational control in Khan Yunis within one week, the smallest amount of time the IDF has given for this benchmark.

Last week, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel had already taken apart all of Hamas’s four battalions in Khan Yunis.

But at the same IDF sources had told the Jerusalem Post that he must have meant that the process of taking apart the battalions was so far along – even if not complete – that it was close to inevitable and would occur very soon.

An Israeli official said on Sunday that the IDF would coordinate with Egypt, and seek ways of evacuating most of the displaced people northward, ahead of any ground sweep of the southern city of Rafah.

The United Nations humanitarian office on Friday voiced concern about the hostilities in Khan Yunis that have forced more people to flee to Rafah in the south of Gaza, describing the border town as a "pressure cooker of despair."

"I want to emphasize our deep concern about the escalation of hostilities in Khan Yunis, which has increased the number of internally displaced people seeking refuge in Rafah in recent days," said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

"Thousands of Palestinians have continued to flee to the south, which is already hosting over half the population of some 2.3 million people...Rafah is a pressure cooker of despair, and we fear for what comes next."

Is the IDF preparing to invade Gaza's Rafah?

However, despite the steady flow of reports in recent weeks that the IDF would immediately take action with ground troops in Rafah, The Jerusalem Post has learned that such moves could still take time and significant negotiations.

Israel is taking steps to disengage the UN's Palestinian refugee relief agency, UNRWA, from Gaza, Foreign Minister Israel Katz stated in a Sunday post to X, formerly Twitter.

The foreign minister also labeled the UN agency as "part of the problem" in the Hamas-run enclave.

UNRWA, entangled with Hamas's terrorist activities in Gaza, perpetuates the false narrative of Palestinian 'refugees' needing to return to Israel. We are actively working to disengage @UNRWA from Gaza. They are a part of the problem and not a part of the solution.

— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) February 4, 2024

An Israeli official said on Sunday that the IDF would coordinate with Egypt, and seek ways of evacuating most of the displaced people northward, ahead of any ground sweep of the southern city of Rafah.

President Biden’s February 1st “Executive Order on Imposing Certain Sanctions on Persons Undermining Peace, Security, and Stability in the West Bank” goes far beyond seizing the assets and barring the entry of settlers who have engaged in illegal activities against Arabs in Judea and Samaria.

The order in fact empowers Secretary of State Blinken and Secretary of the Treasury Janet Louise Yellen to act against any Israeli who doesn’t march in lockstep with their delusional program to establish a sovereign Palestinian state.

In the eyes of the Biden Administration, the very existence of Jewish communities beyond the Green Line "threaten the peace, security, or stability of the West Bank."