Israeli forces kill four Palestinians in Gaza as ceasefire violations mount

GAZA CITY / ISTANBUL (MNTV) — Israeli forces killed four Palestinians — including a woman — in separate attacks across the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, through a combination of airstrikes, drone fire and naval shelling, according to medical sources and witnesses on the ground.

The latest bloodshed adds to a grim and growing toll accumulated since a ceasefire formally took effect in October 2025 — an agreement that, on paper, was supposed to bring an end to more than two years of devastating war.

Three of the four victims died in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. Medical sources said their bodies were transferred to Nasser Hospital following an Israeli airstrike that struck the Al-Amal neighbourhood in the city’s centre.

Witnesses described a drone firing at least one missile into a cluster of people gathered in the area, killing the three on the spot.

Separately, Israeli artillery opened fire on eastern parts of Khan Younis — zones where Israeli forces are deployed under the ceasefire arrangement — though no casualties were reported in that particular volley.

The fourth fatality occurred in the north. A 30-year-old woman was shot dead, and others left wounded, after Israeli naval forces directed fire toward a cluster of tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in the Al-Salatin area, west of Beit Lahia, according to medical and witness accounts.

The victims were sheltering in a displacement camp — a scene that has recurred throughout the conflict as civilians find themselves caught in the crossfire even in areas theoretically protected under the ceasefire terms.

Ceasefire in name only

The incidents are far from isolated. Since the truce came into force on 10 October 2025, Israel has violated it at least 2,400 times through a combination of air attacks, artillery fire and direct shootings, according to the Government Media Office in Gaza.

The office documented 921 incidents of Israeli forces shooting at civilians, 1,109 bombardments and shellings, 97 incursions into residential areas beyond the deployment line, and 273 demolitions of homes and structures. Fifty Palestinians have also been detained.

Since the ceasefire took effect, Israeli attacks have killed at least 766 Palestinians and injured 2,147, including children, women and the elderly.

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk, marking six months since the ceasefire announcement, was unsparing in his assessment. “The unrelenting pattern of killings reflects continuing disregard for Palestinian lives, enabled by sweeping impunity,” he said.

“Palestinians have no blueprint for survival: whatever they do or don’t do, wherever they go or don’t go, there is no safety or protection afforded to them. It is hard to square this with a ceasefire.”

Among the most disturbing single incidents in recent weeks, a third-grade schoolgirl named Ritaj Rihan was killed on 9 April when Israeli military forces opened fire on a crowded tent encampment that housed her makeshift classroom in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza.

The following day, Al Jazeera journalist Mohammed Washah was killed in a drone strike in Gaza City — the 294th Palestinian journalist verified as killed by Israeli forces since October 2023.