THE Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said on Thursday it had documented a sharp rise in Israeli mass killings and assassinations of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, calling the pattern a systematic continuation of genocide.
May 2026 recorded the highest monthly death toll of the year, with 119 Palestinians killed, among them 19 children and 10 women, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Women, children and the elderly made up about 30 per cent of the dead. The centre said Israeli helicopters and drones struck homes in Gaza City, al-Shati refugee camp, Sheikh Radwan, Tel al-Hawa and Al-Rimal, killing entire families, with further deadly strikes in al-Maghazi, al-Zawayda, Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah and Al-Bureij, including attacks on civilian vehicles, a bicycle and groups of civilians.
Near Khan Younis, Israeli forces shot one man dead and wounded his brother, detaining him for hours before leaving him injured on Salah al-Din Street.
The continuing detention of medical staff drew fresh attention as the legal team of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, said Israeli authorities had moved him to solitary confinement in Nafha Prison under harsh conditions and denied him adequate medical care.
Lawyer Nasser Odeh said the isolation was punitive, imposed after Abu Safiya appealed the extension of his detention, and intended to stop him speaking about prison conditions and to cut him off from other prisoners, his lawyers and the outside world.
Held under Israel’s ‘Unlawful Combatant Law’ without supporting evidence, he was arrested on 27 December 2024 after a raid on the hospital, with his detention repeatedly extended.
Odeh said around 14 Palestinian doctors had been seized from hospitals during the war, part of a campaign targeting the healthcare sector, and that an appeal had been filed with Israel’s Supreme Court arguing his detention violates the Geneva Conventions.
Abu Safiya is one of 737 healthcare workers arrested since the start of the genocidal war, Palestinian sources say.
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces pressed raids on Thursday evening as settlers attacked Palestinian communities around Bethlehem.
Troops chased workers in Wadi al-Hummus with tear gas and stun grenades, while settlers entered Kisan village by vehicle, ATV and bicycle, harassing residents and returning again later that night. Soldiers raided homes in Nablus and entered Tayasir, east of Tubas, without reported arrests.
Settler violence intensified across Ramallah governorate, with arson, assaults and livestock theft.
In Shuqba, settlers torched vehicles and assaulted football coach Youssef Abdel Razek, with fires spreading across the village; in Sinjil they attacked vehicles after residents stopped the theft of a farmer’s sheep.
Further incursions hit Abu Falah, Deir Dibwan and Burqa, and farmers near Idhna, west of al-Khalil, were forced off their land and had livestock stolen.
In Qusra, settlers backed by Israeli forces barred landowners from their property at Ras al-Ain, and a group grazed livestock on Palestinian land in Khan al-Ahmar east of occupied Jerusalem, which the Al-Baydar Human Rights Organisation called part of a broader pattern of violations against Bedouin communities.
