Four Palestinian civilians, including a young girl, were killed and several others were wounded in fresh Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Monday.
An Israeli drone targeted a group of civilians near the Social Insurance and Pensions headquarters in Gaza City’s al-Rimal neighbourhood.
In southern Gaza, a seven-year-old schoolgirl, Juri as-Sufi, and two other residents were killed in gunfire and aerial attacks targeting the al-Iqilimi area, southwest of Khan Yunis.
Another little girl and a young man also sustained injuries when Israeli forces opened fire on displacement tents in the Bir 19 area of Khan Younis.
The Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Gaza says nearly 50,000 Palestinian women and girls have been killed or sustained serious injuries since Israel launched its genocidal war on the besieged territory on October 7, 2023.
In a statement issued on Monday to mark Palestinian Women’s National Day, the ministry said the toll includes more than 38,000 women and girls killed and another 11,700 who suffered injuries resulting in permanent disabilities.
It noted that the numbers mean approximately one in every 21 women and girls in Gaza has been killed or left permanently disabled amid Israel’s ongoing genocidal war.
The ministry reported that more than 277 women and girls lost their lives last year, despite the ‘ceasefire agreement’ that took effect in October 2025.
‘The Israeli occupation army has issued more than 150 evacuation orders since October 2023, resulting in the displacement of about one million women and girls from their homes,’ the ministry added.
According to the figures given by the ministry, the number of ‘widows in the Gaza Strip has reached 64,413, including 28,224 women who were widowed during the genocidal war, while the number of orphaned children has risen to 71, 846.’
Citing reports from human rights organisations, the women’s affairs ministry stated that 90 Palestinian women were held in Israeli prisons as of early October 2026, including women held under administrative detention.
Despite the so-called ceasefire that took effect on October 10, 2025, Israeli forces have continued their daily attacks on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 1,551 Palestinians and injuring 5,573 others since the truce began, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Since October 2023, Israel has killed over 74,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 175,000 others in Gaza, while nearly 90% of the territory’s civilian infrastructure has been destroyed.
Meanwhile, Palestinian physician Mazen al-Rantisi has been released from Israel’s notorious Ofer prison after nearly four months in detention, with photographs circulated following his release in the occupied West Bank on October 25, showing him gaunt and bearing a prominent red wound on his forehead.
The 72-year-old, widely known as the ‘doctor of the poor’ for providing affordable medical care to disadvantaged Palestinians, was released from the facility, widely known to be playing host to rampant torture and physical abuse of Palestinians, on Sunday.
He had been detained during a pre-dawn raid on his home in Ramallah’s al-Tira neighbourhood in the occupied West Bank on June 21.
Prosecutors subsequently indicted him for serving as chairman of the board of the Union of Health Work Committees, a Palestinian non-profit organisation that provides medical care to thousands of Palestinians annually.
For decades, al-Rantisi has treated low-income patients, often waiving medical fees, supplying medicines, and providing treatment free of charge.
His clinic in Ramallah became a refuge for Palestinians seeking affordable healthcare and personal support.
Former patients have recalled how he would offer medical consultations by telephone and messaging applications outside clinic hours, frequently without charge.
His detention prompted condemnation across the West Bank, with family members, colleagues, and patients demanding information about his whereabouts and condition, as well as his release.
Activists also launched online solidarity campaigns under the hashtag ‘Freedom for Dr. Mazen Al-Rantisi.’
At the time of his abduction, Israeli authorities had not disclosed the reasons for his detention or revealed where he was being held.
According to Palestinian human rights organisations, Israeli forces have abducted hundreds of doctors and healthcare workers since 2023, most of them from the Gaza Strip, which came under an Israeli war of genocide that year.
A group of independent UN-commissioned experts says Israel continues to commit genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip despite the ‘ceasefire’ reached last year, while further war crimes and crimes against humanity have been documented in the occupied West Bank.
In a new report released on Monday, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory said that in Gaza the Israeli authorities and forces ‘continue to commit genocidal acts even after the so-called ceasefire agreement, with the intent to destroy the Palestinian people, in whole or in part.’
Commission chair Srinivasan Muralidhar said, ‘Israel’s expansion of territorial control in Gaza continues to result in the killing and harming of Palestinian civilians who approach or cross the Yellow Line.’
The line marks the area to which Israeli forces were supposed to withdraw under the first phase of the Gaza ‘ceasefire,’ which took effect last October.
In violation of the so-called ceasefire, Israeli forces have expanded occupation of Gaza from 53 per cent to at least 60 per cent.
The commission also highlighted six cases where Israeli guards were sexually violent toward male detainees from Gaza in the Sde Teiman military prison.
The report said Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity of extermination, persecution, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence in the occupied West Bank.
It confirmed that the situation in the West Bank has deteriorated gravely since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, noting that Palestinians in the West Bank are being targeted ‘on the basis of their nationality, race and ethnicity, gender and age.’
The UN report documented sexual assaults by Israeli prison guards and soldiers against Palestinian detainees from the West Bank since October 2023. In one case, it said, female guards strip-searched a pregnant Palestinian woman.
According to the inquiry, guards beat another detainee, subjected her to sexist slurs and denied her access to a toilet and sanitary pads.
The Commission said it was documenting evidence of crimes in meticulous detail to strengthen efforts to hold perpetrators accountable.
Its findings could be used by prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) or in other jurisdictions in efforts to secure justice for victims and their families.
The commission urged the international community to pressure Israel to comply with the advisory opinion of July 2024 of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and immediately end the unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory and remove all settlers and settlements.
‘Essentially, Israel should end and reverse confiscation and appropriation of Palestinian property and reservation of Palestinian land for military purposes and return all confiscated land to its Palestinian owners,’ the UN report stated.
Since Israel launched its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, the West Bank has faced a sustained escalation in Israeli military raids and settler attacks, alongside the expansion of unlawful settlement outposts, the construction of roads reserved for settlers, and increasingly severe restrictions on Palestinian movement.
Western countries have faced criticism for failing to take meaningful action to halt Israel’s genocide in Gaza and curb settler violence in the West Bank.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, Israel’s genocidal war has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians and wounded over 174,000 in the besieged strip since October 2023.
Over the same period, Israeli forces and settlers have killed more than 1,210 Palestinians, injuring around 13,350 others in the occupied West Bank.