FIVE Palestinians were killed on Friday, including two who died from injuries sustained in earlier Israeli airstrikes on Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, as Israeli forces continued to violate the ceasefire through renewed attacks and demolitions.
Local sources reported that Mahmoud al-Wadiyah was shot dead by an Israeli sniper in Gaza City’s ash-Shuja’iya neighbourhood, while his brother was wounded.
Earlier, Hamdi al-Bureim was killed when an Israeli airstrike struck his home in the Musabbah area of Abasan, east of Khan Younis.
At dawn, Mohammad Qudeih succumbed to wounds inflicted two days earlier in an Israeli strike that hit a civilian tent in Khan Younis. Two more Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces in Gaza City and in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza.
Overnight, two people were injured in an Israeli attack on Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis. In the early hours of Friday, the Israeli military detonated several homes and buildings in eastern Khan Younis, continuing its campaign of destruction in defiance of the ceasefire agreement.
Witnesses described hearing powerful explosions as occupation forces blew up residential structures across the city’s eastern districts.
Meanwhile, Israel has constructed or approved nearly 48,000 illegal settler housing units since Benjamin Netanyahu returned to office in late 2022, marking one of the fastest expansions of settlement activity in the state’s history.
According to figures published by Yedioth Ahronoth, the total is expected to exceed 50,000 before the end of this year as the Israeli cabinet prepares to authorise a further 2,000 units in the occupied West Bank.
Under international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, all Israeli settlements in occupied territory are illegal. The UN Security Council has repeatedly condemned Israel’s settlement enterprise and demanded a halt to all construction.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s decades-long occupation of historical Palestine is unlawful and ordered the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds.