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According to a report, American multinational technology conglomerate Meta is restricting the use of the upside-down red triangle emoji, which has become a broader symbol of Palestinian resistance.

Meta is restricting the emoji on its Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp platforms, The Intercept reported on Thursday after reviewing internal content moderation materials.

Since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, the resistance movement Hamas has regularly released footage of its successful strikes on Israeli military positions with red triangles superimposed above targeted soldiers and armor, the report said.

The use of the red triangle emoji has expanded online since October last year, becoming a widely used icon for people expressing their sentiments in favor of Palestine and against Israel.

Social media users use the emoji in their posts, usernames, and profiles as a badge of solidarity and protest against Israel’s crime against Palestinians.  

The symbol has become so popular that the Israeli military has used it in its own propaganda.

In November, an Israeli military video that warned “Our triangle is stronger than yours, Abu Obeida,” addressing Hamas’s spokesperson, Al Jazeera reported.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has determined that the upside-down triangle emoji is a proxy for support for Hamas, according to internal policy guidelines obtained by The Intercept.

Meta is deleting the triangle that may be followed by further disciplinary action from the company depending on how severely it assesses its use.

According to the policy materials, the ban covers contexts in which Meta decides a “user is clearly posting about the conflict and it is reasonable to read the red triangle as a proxy for Hamas and it is being used to glorify, support or represent Hamas’s violence.”

Israel has killed at least 41,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. In Lebanon, the death toll has risen to more than 1,840 with 8,400 wounded.

The Israeli war machine ignited its genocidal campaign by targeting helpless Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip in October.

It was after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas conducted surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against the Palestinians.

Udupi: In a significant operation, the Malpe police have arrested seven Bangladeshi nationals who were illegally residing in India using forged Aadhaar cards. Udupi Superintendent of Police, Dr. Arun K, stated that the arrests followed after an immigration incident involving one of the group's members.

Muhammed Manik, one of the arrested individuals, was caught attempting to travel to Dubai via Mangaluru International Airport with a fake passport. Alert immigration officers at the airport detained him and handed him over to the Bajpe police, who registered a case. Following this, the Udupi police, acting on the information provided by the Bajpe police and immigration authorities, conducted an investigation that led to the arrest of the seven individuals in Hoode village, Paduthonse, Udupi.

The arrested individuals have been identified as Hakeem Ali (24), Sujon S K alias Farooq (19), Ismail S K (30), Kareem S K (20), Salam S K (22), Rajikul S K (20), and Mohammed Sojib (20), all hailing from Bangladesh.

The group entered India without any valid documentation and managed to acquire fake Aadhaar cards, which they used to stay in the country illegally. According to police sources, a person named Kajol from Agartala assisted them in obtaining the fraudulent Aadhaar cards, while a Bangladeshi named Usman facilitated their illegal entry into India under the guise of employment. Both Kajol and Usman are currently at large.

The Malpe police have registered cases under several sections, including Sections 19(2), 318(4), 336(2), 336(3), 340(2), and 190 of the BNS, related to fraud and illegal entry. Interrogations are ongoing as the police seek further details in connection with the case.

The Palestinian Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip says at least 30 people were killed by Israeli strikes in the northern Gaza Strip city of Jabalia and its refugee camp Friday.

The agency’s spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the Israeli regime targeted Jabalia before 9:40 p.m. local time (1840 GMT) and left “12 dead, including women and children” in the city.

Bassal added that 14 people were still missing and likely trapped under the rubble.

Before that incident, Ahmad al-Kahlut, the director of the agency in northern Gaza, said 18 people had been killed by several Israeli strikes, including hits on “eight schools” in the camp that were serving as shelters for displaced Palestinian people.

The day’s aggression left at least 110 injured, according to figures provided by Bassal and Kahlut.

Human rights organizations have repeatedly warned against Israel’s fresh round of aggression on the Gaza Strip’s northern areas, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians having sought refuge from the regime’s year-long genocide in the south.

The Israeli regime announced earlier in the week that one of its largest forced displacement orders since October last year, calling for the expulsion of 37 neighborhoods across northern Gaza, which targets over 400,000 Palestinians in the entirety of the blockaded area.

In a statement, the medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF, said the Israeli regime’s forced expulsion orders in the northern Gaza Strip were turning the war-ravaged besieged area into a “lifeless desert.”

The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor also warned earlier that the Israeli regime was subjecting the northern part of the Gaza Strip to “one of the most violent campaigns of genocide.”

The aggression comes as part of the regime’s October 7, 2023-present war on the coastal sliver, which has so far claimed the lives of more than 42,000 people and wounded over 97,500 others, most of them women and children.

Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have since been displaced and humanitarian conditions have deteriorated sharply.

Israel’s expulsion plan ‘could last several months’

An Israeli report based on conversations with military officials said the regime is enacting a plan that will effectively ethnically cleanse the Palestinian population in northern Gaza after a siege that could last months.

Conceived by retired Major-General Giora Eiland, the plan aims to empty northern Gaza of its 400,000 residents to make way for a “closed military zone.”

“The general’s plan,” which was launched in an Israeli TV campaign in September, called for the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza, warning that those that remain will face starvation.

“The right thing to do is to inform the approximately 300,000 residents who remained in the northern Gaza Strip… we are ordering you to leave,” Eiland said last month.

“In a week, the entire territory of the northern Gaza Strip will become military territory.”

According to a report published on Friday in the Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the occupation is now implementing a “scaled-down” version of the plan in the Jabalia refugee camp.

Even though the “general’s plan” aims to create conditions to force the population in Jabalia and nearby Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia to flee south, most people have refused to leave their homes so far, the report added.

Hamas ‘remains steadfast’ in face of Jabalia aggression

Hamas political bureau member Izzat al-Rishq said on Friday that the Gaza-based resistance movement “remains steadfast” in the face of the Israeli aggression on the Jabalia refugee camp, which has continued for the past six days.

“Our people’s choice will always remain … steadfastness on the ground, resilience, and resistance against the occupation’s aggression,” Rishq said in a statement.

He characterized the Israeli actions as akin to “Nazi terrorism,” highlighting that “since Oct. 7 of last year, the Israeli army has engaged in various forms of aggression against Palestinians in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and [al-Quds] without achieving any of its violent objectives.”

“Those who hold firmly to their land and defend their rights will have the final word, while this fascist enemy will only reap further disappointment, failure, and defeat, despite international silence and complicity,” he added.