Gaza (QNN)- At least five Palestinians were killed and others injured on Tuesday by Israeli forces across the Gaza Strip, despite a ceasefire that took effect on Friday.
Local sources reported five people were killed after Israeli quadcopter drones opened fire on residents inspecting their homes in the Shujaiyya neighborhood, east of Gaza City.
In Khan Younis in southern Gaza, two Palestinians were wounded by Israeli fire, medical sources at Nasser Medical Complex said.
Hamas slammed Israel’s violation of the ceasefire. The Palestinian group spokesperson Hazem Qassem said, “The Israeli army’s killing of several residents of Gaza this morning through airstrikes and gunfire constitutes a violation of the ceasefire agreement.”
“Once again, we call on all parties to monitor Israel’s actions and ensure it does not evade its obligations to mediators regarding the end of the war on Gaza,” he added.
The ceasefire in Gaza took effect on Friday morning after Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of the 20-point plan brokered by Trump.
On Monday, Hamas concluded the release of 20 living Israeli captives. In exchange, 1,968 Palestinian detainees were freed, ending the first phase of the ceasefire deal.
More than 67,800 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the genocide in Gaza in October 2023.
Gaza (Quds News Network)- Gaza’s Civil Defense said that within less than a week, Israeli forces have caused “large-scale destruction” across Gaza City’s infrastructure and residential areas after announcing they were “opening the gates of hell” on the city amid plans to occupy it, displacing more than 50,000 people homeless.
According to the Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal, Israeli bombardment has destroyed 12 residential towers of more than seven floors, containing about 500 apartments, displacing more than 10,000 people.
He said more than 120 smaller residential buildings were also destroyed, displacing 7,200 people, while partial damage to more than 500 other buildings has deprived nearly 30,000 people of shelter.
Basal added that more than 600 tents housing displaced families were burned or destroyed, leaving at least 6,000 more people homeless. Ten schools and five mosques were also completely destroyed in the strikes.
“In less than one week alone, more than 50,000 people in Gaza – including children, women, and the elderly – have been left homeless amid an escalating humanitarian catastrophe,” he said, urging the UN and international community to intervene.
What We Know?
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz warned last week, “When the gate of hell is opened, it will not be closed, and [Israeli military] activity will intensify” until Hamas accepts Israel’s conditions for ending the war.
He said that as the military had issued a forced evacuation order for the Mushtaha Tower, a high-rise building in the west of Gaza City, which had been attacked and partially destroyed by Israeli forces earlier in the war.
“We start”, he wrote on X after destroying the Mushtaha Tower, which was the first high-rise to be destroyed after announcing their plan.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military warned residents of Gaza City to flee south or risk being killed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also warned the residents on Monday to “leave now.”
“I say to the residents of Gaza, I take this opportunity and listen to me carefully: you have been warned — leave now!” he said.
On Monday, Katz also issued a threat to Gaza, warning that a “powerful hurricane” will hit the Palestinian enclave and that “Gaza will be destroyed” and “annihilated.”
Israel’s Claims to Target High-Rise Towers
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on Friday that the Israeli military will target several buildings in Gaza City over the coming days that he claims are being used by Hamas. The Israeli military did not provide any evidence to support this claim.
The management of the Mashtaha Tower denied the Israeli claims, adding the building was only accessible to displaced people.
Israeli Plan to Occupy Gaza City
The Israeli attacks and threats came as the military pushed deeper into Gaza City, forcing residents to flee amid intense bombardment as Israel approved plans to seize the City, despite international condemnation from the United Nations and states.
The plan reportedly involves forcing around one million residents southwards before surrounding the city and launching incursions into residential areas, followed by an expansion into refugee camps in central Gaza.
UN secretary-general António Guterres criticized Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City, saying the decision marked “a dangerous escalation” that risks “deepening the already catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians”.
That decision “will result in additional forced displacement, killings and massive destruction, compounding the unimaginable suffering of the Palestinian population in Gaza,” he added.
A number of countries, including France, the United Kingdom, China, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, also voiced strong opposition to the Israeli plan.
Gaza’s Ministry of Interior warned that Israel’s planned invasion of Gaza City would amount to a “death sentence”.
Not the First Time
Critics and legal experts say that targeting high-rise buildings is a stark escalation of urban warfare that endangers the lives of hundreds of thousands of people taking refuge around them.
Israel has frequently failed to provide evidence to back up its claims that Hamas is using civilian buildings for military purposes.
It has a track record of conducting hits on residential buildings and towers located within the Gaza Strip, one of the world’s most densely populated areas.
These actions, referred to by the Israeli army as “precision strikes” targeting resistance groups, frequently occur in densely inhabited areas and have resulted in civilian casualties.
Gaza’s civil defense denounced Israel’s latest strikes on multistorey towers, saying targeting high-rise buildings is a policy of forced displacement.
“Entire families are thrown into the open without shelter with no safe spaces to go to,” it said, adding the destruction robs Palestinians of their “right to survive and live with dignity”.
The civil defense agency called on the international community to act immediately to halt what it described as an “organised crime”.
“How long will civilians remain without a safe place in this world?”
Gaza’s Government Media Office rejected Israel’s claims that the high-rising residential buildings flattened in recent strikes were being used by Hamas for military purposes.
“We refute, in full and in detail, the lies and allegations propagated by the Israeli occupation to justify its barbaric aggression,” it said in a statement.
“We affirm unequivocally, based on the testimony of the residents of these towers, that they are under surveillance, and only civilians are permitted to enter them.”
The office said Israel’s claims are “part of a systematic policy of deception used by the occupation to justify the targeting of civilians and infrastructure” and that its actions constitute “forced displacement”, which is illegal under international law.
Mahmoud Basal noted that Israeli forces are deliberately targeting buildings surrounded by encampments of displaced people, in what he described as a “systematic” policy aimed at intensifying forced displacement.
He also said Israeli forces are targeting the remaining mosques and stadiums in Gaza City, and said Civil Defense crews received distress calls from citizens trapped under the rubble.
Palestinian Territory – For six days, Israeli occupation forces have been razing the Zeitoun neighbourhood, southeast of Gaza City, flattening approximately 400 homes with explosive-laden robots and aerial bombardment.
This wide-scale military operation mirrors similar assaults in Rafah, Khan Younis, and northern Gaza, aimed at obliterating entire communities and forcibly displacing all who remain. These actions form part of the genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Launched on 11 August, the operation represents Israel’s ongoing push to assume total and unlawful control over Gaza City. The intent is to evacuate long-standing residents and up to one million displaced individuals, most having fled northern Gaza, and confine them to isolated, small areas in the south.
Drones, specifically quadcopters, are being deployed to encircle residential blocks and coerce civilians into fleeing under armed threat. Meanwhile, ground forces advance under heavy cover fire from positions near Street 8, the Dola junction, the Barasi land and the Illiyin areas. This operation has already displaced over 90,000 residents.
Field data from Euro-Med Monitor documents targeted bombings of homes belonging to the Lubbad, al-Aidi, Dader, and Irhayyem families, resulting in nine deaths within the Irhayyem household.
Air raids also hit houses near the Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque, striking the homes of the Dalloul and al-Nassan families, the Bashir Siksik Company premises, and the Kuhail, Shahd, and Siyam residential towers. An attack near Al-Farouq Mosque destroyed the home of the al-Husari family, claiming four lives.
The Israeli forces demolished dozens of homes along Street 8 and at the start of the Hassan al-Banna area. Tents housing displaced members of the Hunaideq family were also bombarded, resulting in seven deaths. Additional structures impacted include those near the University College of Applied Sciences (UCAS), the Al-Falah and Ain Jalut schools, and a charity-run shelter on Albasateen Street, killing eight more civilians. A strike on the Abu Daff family home resulted in 12 fatalities.
Artillery and air strikes continue to pound the areas of Hassan al-Banna, Al-Musalaba, UCAS, Al-Nadeem, and Almadaris Street. Civilians killed near Ain Jalut School and Badr Mosque (not to be confused with the one in Rafah) remain unrecovered due to ongoing bombardment. An airstrike also struck the Al-Huwaiti building in the Old City near Katib al-Wilaya Mosque, killing a mother and her young daughter, and even targeting nearby open ground.
In her testimony to the Euro-Med Monitor, 45-year-old Um Raid said: “We fled before dawn with the children, carrying nothing, as bullets whistled above our heads and bombs shook the ground, leaving behind what remained of our home and all we owned.”
Meanwhile, 33-year-old Mohammad D. described how he had no choice but to flee with his family after a “quadcopter drone” began firing randomly. He said, “I couldn’t even grab my children’s birth certificates. Aircraft roared overhead, armoured vehicles closed in, and I felt we would die if we stayed a minute longer.”
Another resident, 29-year-old Sahar L., who lived near the Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque, recounted, “The situation was terrifying. I clutched my daughter as we walked over shattered glass and rubble, surrounded by smoke, flames, and explosions everywhere. I ran without knowing where to go. God help us. Enough, world, enough.”
Almost half the homes in the Zeitoun neighbourhood were demolished without any documented military necessity, as no fighting had recently taken place there. The destruction was caused by the systematic use of automatic explosives and explosive-laden robots after residents had been forcibly displaced. This pattern shows the intent was not military but to erase infrastructure and force Palestinians into displacement.
The widespread destruction in Zeitoun, the largest neighbourhood in Gaza, is part of a deliberate Israeli policy: completing a campaign of genocide and erasing Palestinian urban life through the total destruction of homes, infrastructure, and access to basic livelihoods.
The international community, including the United Nations and global legal bodies, must intervene urgently to halt the massacres, protect civilians, and hold Israeli leaders accountable for these heinous crimes against the civilian population.
Israel’s ongoing attacks and territorial expansion threaten to unleash unprecedented mass slaughter in Gaza, destroying the already fragile humanitarian response and cementing a new chapter of systemic Israeli genocide. These attacks are not sudden battlefield escalations but calculated policies, and the international community, through its silence, financial backing, and political cover, bears full responsibility for the resulting crimes and tragedies.
States and organisations must exert maximum pressure on Israel to halt the crime of starvation and immediately push for the resumption of humanitarian access by ending the illegal siege of the Gaza Strip. This is the only way to stem the fast-deteriorating humanitarian crisis and ensure the entry of essential aid and supplies amid the looming threat of famine.
Safe humanitarian corridors, under UN supervision, must be established to guarantee the delivery of food, medicine, and fuel to all parts of the Strip, with independent international monitors deployed to ensure compliance. At the same time, rapid rehabilitation of Gaza’s agricultural and livestock sectors must begin as part of both emergency relief and long-term recovery efforts.
All States, individually and collectively, must fulfil their legal obligations and act urgently to stop this genocide in Gaza, taking every feasible measure to protect Palestinian civilians there. They must enforce Israel’s adherence to international law and the rulings of the International Court of Justice and hold Israel accountable for its crimes against Palestinians.
This includes, without waiver, enforcing the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for the Israeli Prime Minister and former Minister of Defence at the earliest opportunity and surrendering them to international justice, upholding the principle that no one is immune from prosecution for international crimes.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is a Geneva-based independent organization with regional offices across the MENA region and Europe
As Israeli occupation forces intensify threats of a full-scale reoccupation of the Gaza Strip, the Zeitoun neighborhood, one of Gaza City’s largest neighborhoods, is enduring a sustained and brutal assault marked by aerial and ground bombardment, home demolitions, and mass displacement. The bombing and shelling led to massacres targeting families who remained in their homes.
Located in southeastern Gaza City, Al-Zaytoun has been subjected to 22 months of continuous bombardment as part of Israel’s genocidal campaign, leaving entire residential blocks in ruins.
Israeli forces have seized parts of the neighborhood, particularly in the eastern zone, under the pretext of establishing “buffer zones” that extend deep into the Strip.
The southern edge of Zeitoun borders Wadi Gaza, an area under Israeli control where Palestinian access is heavily restricted, except for limited and tightly controlled aid distribution.
Earlier Wednesday, the Israeli army chief approved the “central concept” of a plan to reoccupy Gaza, including a renewed offensive on Zeitoun, which the military confirmed began on Tuesday.
Over 300 Homes Destroyed
Gaza’s Civil Defense reported that Israeli forces have carried out concentrated attacks on Zeitoun over the past several days, using high-explosive munitions to demolish homes and inflict maximum destruction.
More than 300 homes have been leveled in just three days, with entire families killed as their residences were bombed without warning.
The military has targeted densely populated residential buildings, many exceeding five stories. Southern and eastern sections of the neighborhood are now under complete siege, with ongoing shelling and demolitions.
Civil Defense teams have been barred from entering the area to rescue the wounded or recover the dead, exacerbating the already dire humanitarian crisis.
Reoccupation Strategy
The intensified assault follows the Israeli security cabinet’s approval of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to reoccupy Gaza in full, a move that has sparked internal dissent, with critics calling it a “death sentence” for Israeli captives held in the Strip.
Tensions have surfaced between Netanyahu and Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, who reportedly described the plan as a “strategic trap.”
The proposed strategy begins with the occupation of Gaza City, involving the forced displacement of nearly one million residents to the south, followed by encirclement and incursions into residential areas.
A second phase targets refugee camps in central Gaza, many of which have already been devastated by the ongoing genocide since October 7, 2023.
In contrast, Halevi has proposed an alternative “encirclement plan” involving multiple pressure points across Gaza.
On Wednesday, August 13, day 677 of Israel’s ongoing slaughter of the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza, the Israeli military has killed at least 100 people since dawn. Most of the casualties were crushed or exploded by Israeli bombs, while 38 were killed by Israeli snipers while seeking aid at the US corporate-run arenas. At least 2 died of starvation today, adding to an ever-increasing death toll that has now reached 235. This follows Tuesday’s bombardment, in which 73 Palestinians were killed.
Amid the ongoing blockade and closure of crossings, Gaza is facing an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.235 people have died of starvation – nearly half of them children, and the vast majority of the starvation deaths have occurred since May 27th, 2025, when the US corporation GHF took over ‘aid distribution’, shutting down the existing aid distribution network of over 400 locations and replacing them with just 4 extremely chaotic, ‘Hunger Games’ style arenas where Palestinians are forced to fight each other for small scraps of food.
Since the onset of the genocide, Israel’s bombing of the coastal devastated enclave have resulted in the killing of at least 61,722 Palestinians, and more than 154,525 injuries, most of them children and women, alongside over 9,000 missing persons, hundreds of thousands displaced, in addition to the famine that has claimed 235 lives, including 106 children.
UN: At least 1,760 killed while seeking aid since May
Also on Friday, the UN human rights office said that at least 1,760 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid in Gaza since late May, a jump of several hundred since its last published figure at the beginning of August.
“Since 27 May, and as of 13 August, we have recorded that at least 1,760 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid; 994 in the vicinity of GHF (Gaza Humanitarian Foundation) sites and 766 along the routes of supply convoys. Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli military,” the agency’s office for the Palestinian territories said in a statement.
That compares with a figure of 1,373 killed, the office reported on August 1, a jump of 387 fatalities in just over two weeks.
The IDF has acknowledged firing warning shots toward those who pose a threat to soldiers, while insisting that Hamas is inflating the death count at each of these incidents. It has not provided alternative figures, though, and hasn’t allowed journalists to freely operate in Gaza in order to verify the toll.
Displaced Palestinians carry food parcels as they raid trucks carrying humanitarian aid in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on August 9, 2025. (AFP)
Those firing the warning shots are soldiers not trained in crowd control the way police officers are and aren’t provided with non-lethal means to employ in Gaza while they are carrying out other combat missions.
While the majority of reported deaths have taken place en route to GHF sites, the past several weeks have seen double the casualties near the convoys of the UN and other international organizations.
This appears to be tied to the ongoing chaos surrounding UN convoys, which are quickly overrun by desperate Gazans before they make it to warehouses or distribution sites. Nearly 90% of UN aid is not reaching intended destinations throughout Gaza, according to UN figures.
The latest update comes as Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency says at least 23 people were killed by Israeli fire on Friday, including 12 who were waiting for humanitarian aid.
The Israeli military said it is looking into the reports when contacted for comment.
Aid packages parachute down near Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on August 14, 2025. (Bashar TALEB / AFP)
Airdrops and aid trucks continue to enter Gaza
As Israel has ramped up aid efforts in the face of reports of malnutrition and starvation in Gaza, aircraft from the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, and — for the first time — Singapore airdropped 127 pallets of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip on Friday, according to the IDF.
Each pallet contains around one ton of food.
Israel re-adopted a policy of allowing aid airdrops on July 26, amid mounting international criticism over the hunger crisis in Gaza. But airdrops are only able to deliver a small fraction of what can come into Gaza by land. They also pose safety risks for the civilians who can be hit by the packages from above.
Alongside the airdrops, over 310 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip Thursday through the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities (COGAT) said.
According to COGAT, more than 390 trucks worth of aid were also collected by the United Nations and other international organizations from the Gaza side of the crossings yesterday to be distributed.
Displaced Palestinians attempt to fill water tanks in the Mawasi area of Gaza on August 14, 2025. (AFP)
Another 119 pallets of aid — about 4-6 trucks worth — were airdropped by Jordan, the UAE, Germany, Belgium, Italy and France in Gaza Thursday, according to the IDF.
The UN has said 600 trucks of aid need to be distributed each day in order to properly feed the Strip’s roughly two million people.
Additionally, COGAT said that “tankers of UN fuel entered for the operation of essential humanitarian systems” Thursday. It also says it facilitated the entry and exit of aid workers rotating in and out of Gaza.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
A general view of tents housing displaced Palestinians in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, on August 14, 2025. (AFP)
Terror groups in Gaza still hold 50 hostages, of whom 20 are believed to be alive, while 28 have been confirmed dead, and the government has expressed “grave concern” about the remaining two.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 60,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 459. The toll includes two police officers and three Defense Ministry civilian contractors.
Palestinians carry the body of Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, who, along with other journalists, was killed in an Israeli airstrike, during his funeral outside Gaza City's Shifa hospital complex, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (Jehad Alshrafi/AP)
Israel targeted a journalist tent in Gaza City, killing five Al Jazeera journalists and injuring more. Israel claims TV reporter Anas Al-Sharif belonged to the military wing of Hamas, a claim Al Jazeera and the Committee to Protect Journalists have said is unsubstantiated by evidence.
According to the CPJ, the attack on Sunday brings the total number of journalists killed since the start of the Israeli-Gaza war to 192, the vast majority of whom have been Palestinian journalists killed by Israel in Gaza.
Host Scott Tong speaks with Mohamed Moawad, Al Jazeera’s managing editor, about the loss of his colleagues.
Click here for more coverage and different points of view.
