Israeli forces killed five Palestinians, including two children, after bombing a tent in a previously designated humanitarian zone in Gaza on Wednesday.

At least four drone strikes were reported west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza late at night, targeting a makeshift camp for displaced people.

The attack occurred outside Israeli-controlled areas of the Gaza Strip, marking the latest violation of the ceasefire.

Israel claimed the bombing was in response to an exchange of fire earlier in the day between its troops and Hamas fighters trapped in tunnels in Rafah, who Israel has prevented from moving to western Gaza.

The Israeli military said five of its soldiers were wounded but provided no evidence to support the claim. It added that the strikes in Khan Younis targeted a “Hamas operative”.

Gaza Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal rejected Israel’s account, saying the victims were sheltering in a camp considered “safe” and were not in a combat zone.

“How many more massacres must be committed before everyone understands that what is happening in Gaza is not a ‘response to an incident’ but a systematic and direct targeting of civilians?” Basal said.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire and targeting troops.

“Our policy is clear: Israel will not tolerate the harming of IDF (Israeli army) soldiers and will respond accordingly,” he said.

Meanwhile, Hamas described Wednesday’s attack as a “blatant war crime” and the latest example of a “flagrant disregard for the ceasefire agreement”.

The group urged mediators to pressure Israel to halt attacks on civilians and to “rein in the occupation and stop Netanyahu’s government from evading its obligations”.

Second phase
The escalation on Wednesday came as Hamas and Islamic Jihad handed over the body of a captive buried in Gaza to Israel via the Red Cross.

Israel confirmed the body belonged to Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak.

One remaining captive, police officer Ran Gvili, is still buried in Gaza, with ongoing efforts to locate him and return his body to Israel.

The completion of the handover of captives’ bodies is expected to increase pressure on both Israel and Hamas to move to the next stage of the ceasefire agreement.

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the next phase is “going to happen pretty soon,” amid concerns that talks have stalled.

Middle East Eye reported on Tuesday that the US is struggling to establish an international stabilisation force for Gaza, a key component of the second phase, due to disagreements with Israel over Turkey’s participation, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Last month, the UN Security Council approved a resolution to create the force, securing official support from Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Jordan. However, little progress has been made since then, the sources said.

Turkish officials have stated that Ankara is ready to contribute to the force, but Israel has opposed the presence of Turkish troops in the Gaza Strip.

The strikes on Wednesday were the latest in a series of Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement, signed in October.

Nearly 600 breaches have been reported, in which more than 360 people were killed and 900 wounded.

Israel has also continued to block entry and exit for patients and civilians through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, in violation of the agreement, and has restricted aid deliveries, allowing only an average of 200 trucks per day out of the 600 agreed.

Israel violated the ceasefire agreement at least 282 times from October 10 to November 10, through the continuation of attacks by air, artillery and direct shootings, the Government Media Office in Gaza reports.

The office said Israel shot at civilians 88 times, raided residential areas beyond the “yellow line” 12 times, bombed Gaza 124 times, and demolished people’s properties on 52 occasions. It added that Israel also detained 23 Palestinians from Gaza over the past month.

Israel has also continued to block vital humanitarian aid and destroy homes and infrastructure across the Strip.

Al Jazeera tracks the ceasefire violations to date.

What are the terms of the ceasefire?
On September 29, the United States unveiled a 20-point proposal, without any Palestinian input, to end Israel’s war on Gaza, release the remaining captives held in the enclave, allow the full entry of humanitarian aid into the besieged territory and outline a three-phase withdrawal of Israeli forces.

ome of the main conditions of the first phase, which is ongoing, include:

An end to hostilities in Gaza by Israel and Hamas
Lifting the blockade of all aid into Gaza by Israel and stopping its interference in aid distribution
Release of all captives held in Gaza – alive or dead – by Hamas
Release of some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and disappeared people from Israeli jails
Withdrawal of Israeli forces to the “yellow line”

Following mediation by partners including Egypt, Qatar, and Turkiye, representatives from some 30 countries gathered on October 13 for a ceremony to sign the Gaza ceasefire agreement, led by US President Donald Trump.

However, Israel and Hamas were notably absent, raising doubts about the summit’s ability to achieve tangible progress towards ending the war and resolving the core issues of Israeli occupation and the 18-year-long siege of Gaza.

Israel has pledged not to allow a Palestinian state, and the US has continued its large-scale arms transfers and diplomatic backing to Israel throughout its genocidal war on Gaza, while offering only vague statements about Gaza’s future.

Israel attacks Gaza nearly every day
According to an analysis by Al Jazeera, Israel has attacked Gaza on 25 out of the past 31 days of the ceasefire, meaning there were only six days during which no violent attacks, deaths or injuries were reported.

Despite continuing attacks, the US insists that the “ceasefire” is still holding.

Israel still killing Palestinians
Since the ceasefire took effect at noon on October 10, Israel has killed at least 242 Palestinians and injured 622, according to the latest figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

On October 19 and 29 – two of the deadliest days since the latest ceasefire – Israel killed a total of 154 people.

On October 19, accusing Hamas of violating the ceasefire after two Israeli soldiers were killed in Rafah, Israeli forces killed 45 people in a massive wave of air raids across the Gaza Strip.

Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, pointed out that Israel controls the Rafah area and it had no contact with any Palestinian fighters there.

On October 29, Israel killed 109 people, including 52 children, after an exchange of gunfire in Rafah that killed one Israeli soldier.

Israel also said a body transferred from Gaza by Hamas via the Red Cross did not belong to one of the captives due to be released under the ceasefire.

“The Israelis hit back, and they should hit back,” Trump told reporters, calling Israel’s attacks “retribution” for the soldier’s death.

Here are the latest figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, tracking the casualties from October 7, 2023, through November 10, 2025:

Confirmed killed: at least 69,179 people, including 20,179 children
Injured: at least 170,693 people

Israel still choking aid
The ceasefire stipulated that “full aid will be immediately sent into the Gaza Strip”. However, the reality on the ground remains very different.

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), only half the required food aid is currently reaching Gaza, while a coalition of Palestinian relief agencies says total aid deliveries amount to just one-quarter of what was agreed under the ceasefire.

From October 10 to November 9, only 3,451 trucks have reached their intended destinations inside Gaza, according to the UN2720 Monitoring and Tracking Dashboard, which monitors humanitarian aid in Gaza.

According to truck drivers, aid deliveries are facing significant delays, with Israeli inspections taking much longer than expected.

According to the Government Media Office, as of November 6, only 4,453 trucks had entered Gaza since the ceasefire began, out of an expected 15,600.

This averages about 171 trucks daily, far short of the 600 trucks per day that were supposed to enter.

Yet the White House says nearly 15,000 trucks carrying commercial goods and humanitarian aid have entered Gaza since October 10, a figure sharply disputed by Palestinians and aid groups.

In addition, Israel has blocked more than 350 essential and nutritious food items, including meat, dairy, and vegetables crucial for a balanced diet. Instead, non-nutritious foodstuffs are being allowed, such as snacks, chocolate, crisps, and soft drinks.

Did Hamas release the captives it’s supposed to release?
On October 13, as per the ceasefire deal, Hamas released all 20 remaining living Israeli captives in exchange for 250 Palestinians serving long prison sentences and 1,700 Palestinians disappeared by Israel since October 7, 2023.

As part of the deal, Hamas is also expected to return the bodies of 28 Israeli captives in exchange for 360 Palestinian bodies held by Israel.

As of November 10, Hamas had returned 24 Israeli captives’ bodies, with four remaining in Gaza. The group has said it requires heavy excavation equipment to recover the remaining bodies buried under the rubble from Israeli bombardment.

Israel has so far returned 300 Palestinian bodies, many of which were mutilated and showed signs of torture. Many remain unidentified.

What does international law say about ceasefires?
According to Lieber Institute, a ceasefire is designed to halt active combat, or “freeze a conflict in place”, but it can be ambiguous in international law.

The suspension of hostilities is best understood as a cessation of active hostile military operations.

Resuming hostilities would breach political agreements, but it might not be a violation of international law unless the ceasefire was part of a binding treaty or United Nations Security Council resolution.

It was the latest in a series of attacks by young settlers in the West Bank.

Israeli police said four Israelis were arrested in what it described as “extremist violence,” while the Israeli military said four Palestinians were wounded. Police and Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency said they were investigating.

Videos on social media showed two charred trucks engulfed in flames, with a nearby building on fire. Settler violence has surged since the war in Gaza erupted two years ago. The attacks have intensified in recent weeks as Palestinians harvest their olive trees in an annual ritual.

Earlier on Tuesday, tens of thousands of Israelis attended the funeral of an Israeli soldier whose remains had been held in Gaza for 11 years, overflowing and blocking surrounding streets as somber crowds stood with Israeli flags.

Earlier on Tuesday, tens of thousands of Israelis attended the funeral of an Israeli soldier whose remains had been held in Gaza for 11 years, overflowing and blocking surrounding streets as somber crowds stood with Israeli flags.

The burial of Lt. Hadar Goldin was a moment of closure for his family, which had traveled the world in a public campaign seeking his return. The huge turnout also reflected the importance for the broader public in Israel, where Goldin became a household name.

Hamas returned his remains on Sunday as part of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal that began last month. The bodies of four hostages taken in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, are still in Gaza.

Settler violence in the West Bank

The U.N. humanitarian office last week reported more Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank in October than in any other month since it began keeping track in 2006. There were over 260 attacks, the office said.

Palestinians and human rights workers accuse the Israeli army and police of failing to halt attacks by settlers. Israel’s government is dominated by West Bank settlers, and the police force is overseen by Cabinet minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a hardline settler leader.

In Tuesday’s incident, the army said soldiers initially responded to settler attacks in the villages of Beit Lid and Deir Sharaf. It said the settlers fled to a nearby industrial zone and attacked soldiers sent to the scene and damaged a military vehicle.

Palestinian official Muayyad Shaaban, who heads the government’s Commission against the Wall and Settlements, said the settlers set fire to four dairy trucks, farmland, tin shacks and tents belonging to a Bedouin community.

He said the attacks were part of a campaign to drive Palestinians from their land and accused Israel of giving the settlers protection and immunity. He called for sanctions against groups that “sponsor and support the colonial settlement terrorism project.”

French President Emmanuel Macron denounced the attacks during his meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris on Tuesday, saying that “settler violence and the acceleration of settlement projects are reaching new heights, threatening the stability of the West Bank.”

Palestinians in Gaza still struggling to access food
Displaced Palestinians in central Gaza said they continue to rely heavily on charity kitchens for their only daily meal, as soaring market prices and the lack of income leave them struggling.

Scores of people, most of them children, lined up with empty pots at a charity kitchen in Nuseirat refugee camp on Tuesday waiting to be served rice — the only food available that day.

“The rockets and planes stopped but increasing living costs has been the hardest weapon used against us,” said Mohamed al-Naqlah, a displaced Palestinian.

On Tuesday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza has risen to 69,182. Its count, generally considered by independent experts as reliable, does not distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says more than half of those killed were women and children.

The latest war began with the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel when around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, and 251 people were kidnapped.

Close adviser to Netanyahu resigns
Cabinet Minister Ron Dermer, one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s closest confidants, announced his resignation on Tuesday, citing family reasons.

In a letter, Dermer said he had promised his family to serve two years but extended his term by an additional year to deal with Iran’s nuclear program and “to end the war in Gaza on Israel’s terms and bring our hostages home.”

The U.S.-born Dermer is a former Israeli ambassador to Washington. As strategic affairs minister, he served as Netanyahu’s envoy throughout the war in dealing with the United States and ceasefire negotiations.

Funeral for soldier whose remains were held 11 years
Goldin was 23 when he was killed two hours after a ceasefire took effect in the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas. For years before the 2023 attack, posters with the faces of Goldin and Oron Shaul, another soldier whose body was abducted in the 2014 war, stared down from intersections.

Israel’s military long ago determined that Goldin had been killed based on evidence found in the tunnel where his body was taken, including a blood-soaked shirt and prayer fringes. On Tuesday, it announced it had dismantled the tunnel shaft where his body was found. The military retrieved Shaul’s body in January.

Eulogies from Goldin’s siblings, parents, and former fiancee at his funeral never mentioned Netanyahu, who was prime minister when Goldin was kidnapped and for most of the period since. They thanked the Israeli military, including reserve soldiers, who tirelessly searched for Goldin’s body over the years.

Netanyahu did not attend the funeral, though Israel’s military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, gave a eulogy on behalf of the military.

For years, Israel had four hostages in Gaza: Goldin, Shaul, and two Israelis with mental health issues who had crossed into Gaza on their own and were held since 2014 and 2015. All four were returned in the past year.

CRRC head Mu’ayyad Sha’ban said on Wednesday that Israeli forces carried out 1,584 attacks – including direct physical attacks, the demolition of homes and the uprooting of olive trees – with most of the violence focused on the governorates of Ramallah (542), Nablus (412) and Hebron (401).

The research, compiled in a CRRC monthly report titled Occupation Violations and Colonial Expansion Measures, also noted 766 attacks by settlers. The commission said they are expanding settlements, which are illegal under international law, as part of what it called an “organised strategy that aims to displace the land’s indigenous people and enforce a fully racist colonial regime”.

The report said settler attacks reached a new peak with most targeting the Ramallah governorate (195), Nablus (179) and Hebron (126). Olive pickers received the brunt of attacks, according to the report, which said they were the victims of “state terror” that had been “orchestrated in the dark backrooms of the occupation government”.

It described instances of Israeli “vandalism and theft” carried out in cahoots with Israeli soldiers that have seen the “uprooting, destruction and poisoning” of 1,200 olive trees in Hebron, Ramallah, Tubas, Qalqilya, Nablus and Bethlehem. During the violence, settlers have tried to establish seven new outposts on Palestinian land since October in the governorates of Hebron and Nablus.

For decades, the Israeli military has uprooted olive trees, an important Palestinian cultural symbol, across the West Bank as part of efforts by successive Israeli governments to seize Palestinian land and forcibly displace residents.

The spike in Israeli violence comes amid expectations that Israel’s Higher Planning Council (HPC), part of the Israeli army’s Civil Administration overseeing the occupied West Bank, will meet to discuss the construction of 1,985 new settlement units in the West Bank on Wednesday.

The left-wing Israeli movement Peace Now said 1,288 of the units would be rolled out in two isolated settlements in the northern West Bank, namely Avnei Hefetz and Einav Plan.

It said the HPC had been holding weekly meetings since November last year to advance housing projects in the settlements, thus normalising and accelerating construction on land taken from Palestinians.

Since the beginning of 2025, the HPC has pushed forward a record 28,195 housing units, Peace Now said.

In August, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich drew international condemnation after saying plans to build thousands of homes as part of the proposed E1 settlement scheme in the West Bank “buries the idea of a Palestinian state”.

The E1 project, shelved for years amid opposition from the United States and European allies, would connect occupied East Jerusalem with the existing illegal Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim.

The Israeli far right’s push to annex the West Bank would essentially end the possibility of implementing a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as outlined in numerous United Nations resolutions.

United States President Donald Trump’s administration has been adamant that it won’t allow Israel to annex the occupied territory. US Vice President JD Vance, while visiting Israel recently, said Trump would oppose Israeli annexation of the West Bank and it would not happen. Vance said as he left Israel, “If it was a political stunt, it is a very stupid one, and I personally take some insult to it.”

But the US has done nothing to rein in Israel’s assaults and crackdowns on Palestinians in the West Bank as it trumpets its Gaza ceasefire efforts.

Instead, the fury was directed at the leak.

Last week, Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi stepped down as the Israeli army’s lawyer after confirming her involvement in leaking CCTV footage from inside the notorious Sde Teiman detention camp during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

In the footage, heavily armed Israeli soldiers can be seen grabbing and leading away a blindfolded Palestinian prisoner before surrounding him with riot shields to obscure their gang rape.

The Palestinian man, who, according to some reports, has since been sent back to Gaza, suffered an injury to his anus, a ruptured bowel, lung damage, and broken ribs.

After the leak emerged, Tomer-Yerushalmi – who spent her entire career defending the Israeli military – found herself being hounded by rightwing politicians.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich slammed the lawyer, saying she acted against Israeli soldiers and “collaborated in leaks with blood libels against the state of Israel”.

Meanwhile, the soldiers accused in the rape case held a news conference demanding compensation for “damage to their image”.

Moral reckoning
In a country that constantly prides itself on respecting the rule of law, this episode should have sparked a moral reckoning. Instead, it revealed how deep the dehumanisation of Palestinians runs – and how normalised sexual violence and torture have become inside Israeli detention facilities.

At their news conference outside the High Court, the four soldiers accused in the gang-rape case boasted about how they are still free.

Wearing balaclavas, in an apparent effort to avoid prosecution at the International Criminal Court, the men declared: “We will prevail.”

“You tried to break us, but you forgot one thing: we are Force 100,” they said, referring to their counterterrorism unit.

They were not ashamed. They were emboldened. The message was unmistakable: in Israel, even rape can be reframed as heroism when the victim is Palestinian.

Meanwhile, the country’s leadership closed ranks around the perpetrators.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to denounce the assault. Instead, he called the leak “perhaps the most severe propaganda attack the state of Israel has experienced since its establishment”.

His concern was for Israel’s image, not for the man brutalised on screen.

This moral inversion is not an isolated failure. A recent report by Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, titled “Welcome to Hell”, documented systematic abuse of Palestinian detainees during Israel’s war on the enclave.

Fifty-five former prisoners described beatings, sleep deprivation and sexual violence. Fadi Baker, 25, recalled soldiers burning him with cigarettes and putting clamps on his genitals that were tied to heavy objects. He was later left naked in a freezing cell for two days, music blaring.

The United Nations Human Rights Office has reported dozens of Palestinian deaths in Israeli custody since the war began in October 2023.

System of impunity
These testimonies paint a picture of a detention system governed by impunity. Even when evidence surfaces – as it did last year at the Sde Teiman facility, where soldiers were arrested for abuse – political figures rush to the defence of the accused.

Far-right Knesset members stormed military bases, threatened prosecutors, and accused the army’s legal corps of “betraying” the nation.

Social media was flooded with calls to “burn” and “stone” the officials investigating the soldiers.

Since Israel launched its assault on Gaza, sexual abuse and the torture of Palestinians have become rampant across the occupied territories, as the United Nations and human rights groups have repeatedly documented.

The pretence that the Israeli army is a “moral army” – let alone the “most moral army in the world” – has been proven to be just another public relations attempt to cover up Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people.

In Israel, the leak of the video has shaken Israelis more than the crime itself.

It has exposed how Israel has lost its capacity for moral outrage when the victims are Palestinian.

A child, excited by the simple things, and curious about the world around him.

Muhammad came home, messed around with some olives, and then went out again to play football. This time, the fourth-grader didn’t come back.

‘Muhammad was gone’
At the grocery store, Alia received a phone call.

“It was my uncle Ahmad calling, asking if there were any clashes [with Israeli forces] in our area,” she recounted. “I screamed unconsciously. ‘My son Muhammad, my son Muhammad!’ I don’t know why, but a mother’s instincts are always right.”

Muhammad’s eldest sister, 14-year-old Mais, heard the gunfire in the evening and rushed outside.

Both Mais and Alia were originally told their boy had been injured.

Alia headed for the local hospital and was told that her boy had been hit by a bullet.

“They said his condition was good and that they would remove the bullet,” Alia said. But then she started hearing whispers about his pulse stopping. She wanted to see Muhammad, but wasn’t allowed in the operating theatre, as surgeons desperately tried to save the boy’s life.
Then Alia heard the heart monitor give a long, piercing beep. Muhammad was dead, killed by Israeli forces operating in his village.

“Muhammad was gone,” Alia said. “And with him, everything good.”
Lethal force
Commenting on Muhammad’s killing by Israeli forces, the United Nations Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory said it was “appalled”. The UN office added that Muhammed was the 1,001st Palestinian to be killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the occupied West Bank since October 7, 2023, including 213 children.

The UN said that the youngest child killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank was two-year-old Laila Khatib, who was shot in her home in Jenin in January during an Israeli raid.

“International standards require Israel to ensure an independent and effective investigation of all incidents where individuals have been killed in violent or suspicious circumstances,” the UN office said. “The large numbers of Palestinians killed in this period, the prevalence of the unlawful use of force, the enabling and support for settler violence and the endemic impunity for crimes committed against Palestinians, all suggest that Israeli [forces] use lethal and potentially lethal force as a tool to control and repress Palestinians, rather than as the last resort to restore and maintain public order and civil life for the Palestinians.”

Muhammad and his friends are believed to have run when they saw Israeli military vehicles in their vicinity, before Israeli soldiers began shooting.

An initial statement from the Israeli military said that its forces were responding to suspects throwing rocks – although no local reports indicate that had happened, or that Muhammad and his friends were involved. Israeli media have since reported that a preliminary military investigation had found that the shooting “deviated from the rules of engagement”, and that there had been “improper use of weaponry”.

‘A huge void’
Israeli soldiers rarely face repercussions for carrying out killings of Palestinians in the West Bank, with towns and villages like al-Rihiya instead left to pick up the pieces after tragedies like Muhammad’s death.

He was the third of five siblings – aside from Mais, the eldest, there is Jaddi, who is 12, six-year-old Sila, and four-year-old Elias.

Muhammad’s absence is heartbreaking for them all.

The white robe he wore for Friday prayers still lies neatly folded beside his bed, next to a small bottle of perfume. His books are stacked where he left them.

“This is where Muhammad slept,” Alia said, as she pointed to the empty space. “They killed his childhood.”

His family are struggling to deal with Muhammad’s death in their own ways. Sila refuses to go back to school – her brother always walked alongside her.

Mais said that she collapsed when she heard that Muhammad had died.

“Muhammad wasn’t just a brother, he was my friend,” she said. “When he came home from school, he would ask me to tutor him, and if I got busy, he would get angry and say ‘teach me first’. I was afraid of sleeping in the dark, so he would stay with me until I fell asleep, then he would go to sleep.”

The bag Muhammad received on his final school day still hangs on a nail near his bed.

His father, Bahjat, finds himself walking by the bag and around the room, touching his bed, breathing in the scent of his clothes.

“His passing left a huge void,” said Bahjat. “I see him in every corner of the house: at the dining table, in his study and the play area.”

“I still can’t believe he’s gone,” Mais said. “I imagine him in heaven, playing, laughing, and having fun just like he used to. I still can’t believe he’s gone … and I never will.”The white robe he wore for Friday prayers still lies neatly folded beside his bed, next to a small bottle of perfume. His books are stacked where he left them.

“This is where Muhammad slept,” Alia said, as she pointed to the empty space. “They killed his childhood.”

His family are struggling to deal with Muhammad’s death in their own ways. Sila refuses to go back to school – her brother always walked alongside her.

Mais said that she collapsed when she heard that Muhammad had died.

“Muhammad wasn’t just a brother, he was my friend,” she said. “When he came home from school, he would ask me to tutor him, and if I got busy, he would get angry and say ‘teach me first’. I was afraid of sleeping in the dark, so he would stay with me until I fell asleep, then he would go to sleep.”

The bag Muhammad received on his final school day still hangs on a nail near his bed.

His father, Bahjat, finds himself walking by the bag and around the room, touching his bed, breathing in the scent of his clothes.

“His passing left a huge void,” said Bahjat. “I see him in every corner of the house: at the dining table, in his study and the play area.”

“I still can’t believe he’s gone,” Mais said. “I imagine him in heaven, playing, laughing, and having fun just like he used to. I still can’t believe he’s gone … and I never will.”
The white robe he wore for Friday prayers still lies neatly folded beside his bed, next to a small bottle of perfume. His books are stacked where he left them.

“This is where Muhammad slept,” Alia said, as she pointed to the empty space. “They killed his childhood.”

His family are struggling to deal with Muhammad’s death in their own ways. Sila refuses to go back to school – her brother always walked alongside her.

Mais said that she collapsed when she heard that Muhammad had died.

“Muhammad wasn’t just a brother, he was my friend,” she said. “When he came home from school, he would ask me to tutor him, and if I got busy, he would get angry and say ‘teach me first’. I was afraid of sleeping in the dark, so he would stay with me until I fell asleep, then he would go to sleep.”

The bag Muhammad received on his final school day still hangs on a nail near his bed.

His father, Bahjat, finds himself walking by the bag and around the room, touching his bed, breathing in the scent of his clothes.

“His passing left a huge void,” said Bahjat. “I see him in every corner of the house: at the dining table, in his study and the play area.”

“I still can’t believe he’s gone,” Mais said. “I imagine him in heaven, playing, laughing, and having fun just like he used to. I still can’t believe he’s gone … and I never will.”

Follow the news link for more.

Follow the link for more.

Eighteen-year-old Mohammed Ahmed Abu Haneen died on Friday from wounds sustained during the Israeli raid, the Wafa news agency reported.

Israeli forces also stormed the town of Aqaba, north of Tubas in the West Bank, and made a number of arrests earlier today in Hebron and Tal.

The Israeli army said they arrested 44 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank over the past week. A military statement says operations were carried out in various parts of the territory and all people detained were wanted by Israel. It added that troops also confiscated weapons and conducted interrogations during the operations.

Last week, 10-year-old Mohammad al-Hallaq was shot dead by Israeli forces while playing football in ar-Rihiya, Hebron.

According to the United Nations, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army and settlers since October 7, 2023, in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.

A fifth of the victims are children, including 206 boys and seven girls, the UN said. The number also includes 20 women and at least seven people with disabilities. This does not include Palestinians who died in Israeli detention during the same period, the UN added.

A United States-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal has seen nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees released from Israeli jails, many bearing visible signs of abuse.

Dozens of Palestinian bodies returned have been badly mutilated and show signs of torture and execution.

Meanwhile, in tandem with the military’s sustained crackdown in the occupied territory, Israeli settlers have rampaged near Ramallah, destroying Palestinian property at an alarming rate daily with impunity, protected by the military.

Settlers set fire to several Palestinian vehicles in the hill area in Deir Dibwan, east of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, at dawn this morning, Wafa reported. Settlers also attacked Palestinian farmers while they were harvesting olives in the lands of the village of Beit Iksa, northwest of Jerusalem.

On Sunday, an Israeli settler brutally assaulted a Palestinian woman while she was harvesting olives in the West Bank town of Turmus Aya.

Afaf Abu Alia, 53, suffered a brain haemorrhage due to the attack.

“The attack started with around 10 settlers, but more kept joining,” one Palestinian witness told Al Jazeera. “I think by the end, there were 40, protected by the army. We were outnumbered; we couldn’t defend ourselves.”

According to data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), settlers have attacked Palestinians nearly 3,000 times in the occupied West Bank over the past two years.

UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said on Friday that since October 7, 2023, “the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has also witnessed a sharp escalation in violence”.

“The increasing annexation of the West Bank is happening steadily in a gross violation of international law,” UNRWA said, referring to the expansion and recognition of illegal Israeli settlements.

US lays down law to Israel on annexation
After a vote in the Israeli parliament on Wednesday advancing a bill that would formalise the annexation of the occupied West Bank, senior US officials have been adamant it won’t happen under their watch.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday, “Israel is not going to do anything with the West Bank” amid growing condemnation of an Israeli parliamentary motion that seeks to formally annex the occupied Palestinian territory.

Earlier in the day, in an interview with Time Magazine, Trump said that the US is firmly against Israeli annexation. “It won’t happen. It won’t happen. It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries. And you can’t do that now,” Trump told Time.

US Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, while in Israel, also said that Trump’s policy remains that the occupied West Bank won’t be annexed by Israel, calling the parliamentary vote in favour of annexation a “very stupid political stunt” that he “personally” took some insult from.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in Israel to shore up the Gaza ceasefire and second-phase plans, has also lined up in the Trump’s administration’s firm opposition to Israeli annexation.