Palestinian health officials say at least five people were killed across the Gaza Strip on Thursday as Israeli military strikes continued to escalate, with a conflict monitoring organization reporting attack levels not seen since a ceasefire went into effect last October.
According to medics, an Israeli airstrike claimed two lives near the Tuffah neighborhood in northern Gaza. A third person died from Israeli tank fire in the Zeitoun suburb, located in eastern Gaza City.
A separate airstrike struck a tent camp housing displaced civilians in western Gaza City, killing one person and wounding several others. In the southern city of Khan Younis, another individual was killed when a vehicle was targeted in an attack, medics reported.
Witnesses on the ground also described an airstrike hitting a residential building in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza. The Israeli military did not offer any immediate response to questions about the incidents.
Thursday’s fatalities add to a growing death toll. Gazan health officials say more than 1,100 Palestinians — the majority of them civilians — have been killed by Israeli strikes since the October ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into force. Hamas typically does not report its own casualties. During that same stretch, four Israeli soldiers have been killed by militants operating in Gaza.
While the truce halted large-scale combat operations, it has not stopped near-daily Israeli military strikes from occurring.
Conflict monitoring organization ACLED, which tracks Israeli military activity in Gaza, reported that airstrikes and drone strikes targeting Hamas and other armed groups climbed to more than 40 in June — the highest single-month figure recorded since the ceasefire began.
ACLED Middle East Assistant Research Manager Nasser Khdour offered context for the uptick, stating: “With polls showing the opposition in the lead, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing growing domestic pressure to take a tougher security position against Hamas” — a reference to Israel’s upcoming legislative election scheduled for October.
Israel maintains that its strikes are intended to prevent attacks by militants operating out of Gaza.
Nearly all of Gaza’s approximately 2 million residents are now crowded into a narrow coastal corridor, living primarily in improvised tent shelters or heavily damaged structures, under Hamas control.
The current conflict traces back to October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led fighters launched a cross-border assault into Israel, killing 1,200 people according to Israeli counts. Israel’s military response that followed has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
