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Palestine: Adalah Submits Official Complaint Against Netanayhu

Adalah Legal Center
Adalah Legal Center
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Palestine: Adalah Submits Official Complaint Against Netanayhu

Adalah Legal Center
Adalah Legal Center

Palestine's Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel formally submitted a complaint to the Israeli police and the Attorney General of the Government, Avichai Mandelblit, calling for a criminal investigation against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his racist comments against Arab citizens in general and the members of Knesset (MKs) of the Joint List in particular.

The Center sent a letter to Mandelblit indicating that Netanyahu continues to incite racism against Arab citizens, their political leadership, and their representatives in parliament, most notably at the Likud conference in Tel Aviv last Sunday.

“Arabs can be Zionists and support the state of Israel, but they aren’t Zionists and they don’t support the state of Israel,” Netanyahu told the rally, adding that “to be dependent on them all the time, especially at the current time, is an enormous danger to Israel and a breach of a kind never seen before in the history of the country.”

Netanyahu stood with a banner behind him saying: “stop the dangerous minority government that is reliant on terror supporters,” and continued his campaign against Arab MKs.

In the letter, Adalah stressed that PM's racist comments against the Arab deputies and citizens are not new, and are systemically directed at Arabs especially with Netanyahu’s supporters joining the campaign on social media.

Adalah noted that Netanyahu's statements constitute a new escalation against Arab citizens, adding that previously, the Supreme Court considered such statements a valid reason to cancel the candidacy of Michael Ben-Ari.

It called for investigating Netanyahu for violating Article 144 of the penal code, especially that he is the head of a large party and has been a prime minister for 10 years, who exploits his position and the great authority granted to him to incite against Arab citizens and MKs of the Joint List.

Earlier, 18 Israeli human rights organizations issued a statement demanding that Israeli President Reuven Rivlin condemn Netanyahu's cruel incitement against the Arab public and voters, denouncing the serious and persistent racist provocation that can not be disregarded.

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Arab World

Hezbollah's Installment Payments for Shelter Reveal Depth of Financial Crisis

01 November 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: A picture of assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is displayed in front of rubble of flattened building caused by Israeli air raids on Beirut southern suburb. Photo: Marwan Naamani/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
01 November 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: A picture of assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is displayed in front of rubble of flattened building caused by Israeli air raids on Beirut southern suburb. Photo: Marwan Naamani/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Hezbollah's Installment Payments for Shelter Reveal Depth of Financial Crisis

01 November 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: A picture of assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is displayed in front of rubble of flattened building caused by Israeli air raids on Beirut southern suburb. Photo: Marwan Naamani/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
01 November 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: A picture of assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is displayed in front of rubble of flattened building caused by Israeli air raids on Beirut southern suburb. Photo: Marwan Naamani/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

A decision by Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem to limit housing support to a three-month window has thrown a spotlight on the group’s tightening finances, after it moved from yearlong lump-sum payments to staggered installments paid once every quarter.

Qassem said Hezbollah would disburse housing allowances for February, March, and April 2026 to “everyone whose home was destroyed or rendered uninhabitable.” The payment had originally been due in early December for three months.

Instead, the party paid allowances for the previous two months and has now approved another three-month tranche, despite a 10-day delay since the disbursement was announced.

Uneven payments, lingering questions

Housing allowances are seen not only as a political signal but also as a practical test of the group’s ability to cover rent, school transfers for children, transportation costs, and the reality of prolonged internal displacement turning into a forced way of life.

Rana, who fled a southern town to Beirut, said families’ priority was no longer politics but securing a place to live.

“People are asking about rent support, about the duration, about continuity. Three months go by quickly, and after that, no one knows what will happen,” she said.

Hassan, another affected resident living in Beirut’s southern suburbs, said the announcement “eased part of the anxiety,” but added that “the issue is not just the announcement, it is the regularity of payment and whether everyone is included.”

Disparities in payouts

Behind the anxiety lies what residents describe as selective disbursement. In the previous phase, not all beneficiaries received full housing allowances, residents of the southern suburbs said, noting disparities in case outcomes.

One resident said he had received only $2,000 for four months, adding that other payments from the previous year had not reached him in full and that he did not know their fate.

Another said he received $3,000 for six months, but that talk of additional allowances had continued without clarity on how they would be completed or whether they would be paid at all.

A woman from the Haret Hreik area said: “We don’t know whether what is being paid is a full housing allowance, partial installments, or a settlement. People are talking, but there is no clear official answer.”

‘Committed’ to housing support

Hezbollah says it has “decided to secure housing,” and sources familiar with the details said the step is aimed at easing the burden on those affected in the postwar phase, especially amid rising living costs and soaring rents.

But the pledge comes amid intensifying external pressure and sanctions aimed at curbing the flow of funds to the group.

The US Department of the Treasury recently announced it had taken “action to disrupt two key mechanisms Hezbollah uses to sustain its economic stability,” namely “revenue generation in coordination with the Iranian regime and the exploitation of Lebanon’s informal financial sector.”

Opponents of Hezbollah say the issue is no longer merely political but directly linked to the group’s ability to secure liquidity to meet social obligations, foremost among them housing allowances. The real test, they argue, will be in regular payments and clarity of mechanism, not in the announcement itself.

Temporary relief

Jad Al-Akhawi, head of the Lebanese Democratic Coalition, told Asharq Al-Awsat that talk of injecting funds resembled “a morphine shot.”

“In previous periods, it was said that large sums of money entered the country, but they were not disbursed. Today, there may be limited spending, but it remains within the framework of temporary calming, nothing more,” he said.

He added that the state had pledged around $300 million, arguing that Hezbollah’s move was “an attempt to give people a dose of calm, something like morphine, until actual funding becomes available.”

He ruled out a return to previous financing patterns, particularly through institutions such as Al-Qard Al-Hasan, saying that continuation of that approach would pose “serious risks to the economy.”

Arab World

UN Agency Begins Clearing Huge Gaza City Waste Dump as Health Risks Mount

Palestinians walk near a landfill, in Gaza City, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)
Palestinians walk near a landfill, in Gaza City, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)
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UN Agency Begins Clearing Huge Gaza City Waste Dump as Health Risks Mount

Palestinians walk near a landfill, in Gaza City, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)
Palestinians walk near a landfill, in Gaza City, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)

The United Nations Development Program began clearing a huge wartime garbage dump on Wednesday that has swallowed one of Gaza City’s oldest commercial districts and is an environmental and health risk.

Alessandro Mrakic, head of the UNDP Gaza Office, said work had started to remove the solid-waste mound that has overtaken the once busy Fras Market in the Palestinian enclave's main city.

He put the volume of the dump at more than 300,000 cubic meters (390,000 cubic yards) and 13 meters (14 yards) high.

It formed after municipal crews were blocked from reaching Gaza’s main landfill in the Juhr al-Dik area - adjacent to the border with Israel - when the Gaza war began in October 2023.

The area in Juhr ‌al-Dik is now ‌under full Israeli control.

Over the next six months, UNDP plans ‌to ⁠transfer the waste to ⁠a new temporary site prepared in the Abu Jarad area south of Gaza City and built to meet environmental standards.

The site covers 75,000 square meters and will also accommodate daily collection, Mrakic said in a statement sent to Reuters. The project is funded by the Humanitarian Fund and the European Union's Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations.

Some Palestinians sifted through the garbage, looking for things to take away, but there was relief that the market space would eventually be cleared.

"It needs to be moved to a ⁠site with a complex of old waste, far away from people. There's ‌no other solution. What will this cause? It will cause ‌us gases, it will cause us diseases, it will cause us germs," elderly Gazan Abu Issa said ‌near the site.

The Gaza Municipality confirmed the start of the relocation effort in collaboration with the ‌UNDP, calling it an urgent step to contain a worsening solid-waste crisis after about 350,000 cubic meters of rubbish accumulated in the heart of the city.

'A SYMBOL OF THE WAR'

Fras Market, an historic quarter that before the war served nearly 600,000 residents with items ranging from food to clothes and household tools, has been ‌buried under garbage for more than a year.

Amjad al-Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGOs Network and a liaison with UN and international agencies, ⁠said the dump had fueled “serious ⁠health and environmental problems and the spread of insects and illnesses.”

“It is a symbol of the war that continued for two years,” he told Reuters. “Its removal may give people a sense of hope that the ceasefire (agreed last October) is moving forward.”

Shawa said the waste would be transported to a transitional site near the former Netzarim settlement in central Gaza until Israeli forces withdraw from eastern areas and municipal access to the permanent landfills can be restored.

UNDP said it had collected more than 570,000 tons of solid waste across Gaza since the war began as part of its emergency response to avert a further deterioration in public health conditions.

The number of temporary dumpsites has decreased from 141 to 56 as part of efforts in 2024-25 to remove smaller dumping sites, a UNDP report last December said.

"However, only 10 to 12 of these temporary dumping sites are accessible and operational, and Gaza’s two main sanitary landfills remain inaccessible. The environmental and public health risks remain critical," it added.

Arab World

Israel Says Killed Hamas Operative Responsible for 2004 Bus Bombings

Destroyed buildings are pictured in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on February 8, 2026. (AFP)
Destroyed buildings are pictured in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on February 8, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Says Killed Hamas Operative Responsible for 2004 Bus Bombings

Destroyed buildings are pictured in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on February 8, 2026. (AFP)
Destroyed buildings are pictured in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on February 8, 2026. (AFP)

The Israeli military said on Wednesday it killed a senior Hamas operative who had been convicted of orchestrating two bus bombings in 2004 that left 16 civilians dead and dozens more wounded.

The bombings were among the deadliest attacks during the second intifada, the Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s.

In a joint statement, the military and the Shin Bet domestic security agency said their forces killed Bassem Hashem Al-Haymouni in a strike in the Gaza Strip last week.

They described him as "a senior operative" for Hamas who "had been active since 2004" as part of a cell responsible for carrying out deadly attacks in Israel.

They identified him as the mastermind of an August 2004 attack in the southern Israeli city of Beer Sheva, in which suicide bombers blew up two buses.

He "dispatched several suicide bombers to carry out a coordinated attack on two buses in Beer Sheva, in which 16 Israeli civilians were murdered and approximately 100 others were injured", the statement said.

Haymouni was apprehended and sentenced, but was released in 2011 as part of the so-called "Shalit deal", in which Israel freed more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of soldier Gilad Shalit.

Palestinian fighters had seized Shalit in 2006 during a cross-border raid near the Kerem Shalom crossing and held him hostage for five years.

His case became a major national issue in Israel.

The military and Shin Bet statement said that after Haymouni was released, he "resumed recruiting attackers and directing terrorist activity".

It added that the strike on Haymouni was also in response to violations of the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza.

"During the war he was involved in the production and placement of explosive devices intended to harm Israeli troops," it said, referring to the war in Gaza sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

The US-brokered Gaza ceasefire entered its second phase last month, and foresees a demilitarization of the territory -- including the disarmament of Hamas -- along with a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Hamas has said that disarmament is a red line, although it has indicated it could consider handing over its weapons to a future Palestinian governing authority.

A Palestinian technocratic committee has been set up with a goal of taking over day-to-day governance in the Strip, but it remains unclear whether, or how, it will address the issue of demilitarization.