Over the past few days, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have escalated the commission of mass killings and extrajudicial executions in the Gaza Strip, alongside statements by senior Israeli political officials regarding the expansion of military control over additional areas of the Gaza Strip and renewed declarations concerning the resumption of the mass forced displacement of Palestinians.
The most extensive waves of mass killings occurred on the eve of Eid al-Adha and on its first day, embodying a deliberate Israeli policy aimed at stripping Palestinians of any sense of safety and stability, even during religious occasions traditionally associated with peace, family unity, and social solidarity. For the third consecutive year, Eid has come while the population of the Gaza Strip remains subjected to killings, starvation, displacement, and the loss of loved ones, underscoring Israel’s continued efforts to destroy civilian life and erode the social and humanitarian fabric of Palestinian society.
The pattern, scale, and recurrence of violations and crimes committed by the IOF in the Gaza Strip reveal a systematic policy of employing genocidal acts as a means of imposing ethnic cleansing against Palestinians by targeting their residential existence and destroying the conditions necessary for their humanitarian and material survival in the Gaza Strip. Official statements issued by senior Israeli political and military leaders further reflect a declared policy aimed at imposing a living reality in which the survival of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip becomes impossible. These policies expose Israel’s systematic efforts to empty Gaza of its population through killings, starvation, and widespread destruction, thereby paving the way for the crime of forced displacement, which is prohibited under international law. Lawyer Raji Sourani, Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)
Among the most notable incidents documented by PCHR’s field researchers were the following:
At approximately 22:50 on Thursday, 28 May 2026, Israeli warplanes attacked a plot of land and a vegetable warehouse northwest of Khan Yunis, causing extensive destruction at the site and injuring several persons. The attack followed a phone call made to a resident ordering the evacuation of the area.
At approximately 21:25 on the same day, a person received a phone call from IOF instructing him to inform the residents of a residential block to evacuate their homes in preparation for an attack on the area. The targeted block is located in Al-Mansi Land area, south of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the Central Gaza Strip. At around 22:00, Israeli warplanes launched an airstrike in the middle of the residential neighborhood, completely destroying two houses and causing varying partial damage to several neighboring homes. The attack also damaged Al-Abrar Mosque and several civilian vehicles. Three Palestinians sustained minor injuries and were transferred for medical treatment.
Following the attack, a state of chaos and panic prevailed among residents as dozens of families were forced to flee their homes for fear of being targeted, amid the absence of any safe place to seek refuge. Many were unable to take their essential belongings or personal possessions with them.
At approximately 20:30 on the same day, a resident received a phone call from IOF instructing him to inform the residents of a residential block to evacuate their homes ahead of an attack. The targeted block was located in the vicinity of Al-Shamali Park in al-Shati Camp, west of Gaza City. Minutes later, Israeli warplanes bombed the area, completely destroying two houses and causing severe and moderate damage to several surrounding homes. The area had already suffered extensive destruction during previous Israeli attacks. Fear and panic spread throughout the neighborhood as dozens of families were once again forced to flee whenever evacuation orders were issued, despite the complete absence of safe shelters.
At approximately 22:10 on Wednesday, 27 May 2026, Israeli warplanes fired several missiles at a three-storey building in central Gaza City housing several displaced families and surrounded by displacement camps containing dozens of tents sheltering large numbers of displaced persons. The attack killed 10 Palestinians, including five children, two women, and an elderly man, and injured approximately 30 others.
Information gathered indicated that a number of those killed and injured were residing in tents surrounding the targeted building and were struck by shrapnel and debris scattered toward the tents by the bombardment. All casualties were transferred to the Palestine Red Crescent Society’s Al-Saraya Field Hospital and Al-Shifa Medical Complex. It was found that several bodies had been torn apart while others were severely burned as a result of the intensity of the attack. (PCHR maintains the names of those killed.) Later that evening, IOF announced that the attack had targeted two senior Hamas members.
At approximately 20:40 on Tuesday, 26 May 2026, Israeli warplanes fired several missiles at the fifth and sixth floors of Dream Residential and Commercial Building in al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City. The attack killed six people, including three women (PCHR maintains the names of those killed), and injured dozens of others. The building was completely destroyed, while nearby buildings sustained severe damage. Dozens of shops located beneath and around the targeted building were also damaged. In addition, dozens of vehicles traveling or parked in the area sustained damage, while extensive destruction affected infrastructure, including electricity networks serving buildings and shops as well as landline telecommunications networks.
The street where the attack occurred is considered one of the busiest streets in Gaza City and was crowded with shoppers one day before Eid al-Adha. Residents, including large numbers of women and children, were purchasing clothing and holiday necessities when the attack occurred. The bombardment caused widespread panic and chaos among civilians.
At approximately 13:23 on the same day, an Israeli drone targeted a white Hyundai Tucson vehicle southwest of al-Mawasi area in Khan Yunis, killing Ihab Issa Mohammed Krayzem and Mohammed Sa’eed al-Habbash.
In another crime, at approximately 05:30 on the same day, armed members of militias associated with the IOF and stationed east of the Gaza Strip advanced toward al-Maghazi Refugee Camp in the Central Gaza Strip. Their movement concentrated around civilian homes on Abu Mandeel Street and near Hosni Al-Masdar Mosque, areas located adjacent to the so-called “yellow zone.” The operation was carried out under the cover of Israeli drones, and several civilians were held inside their homes.
Approximately ten minutes later, an Israeli drone fired a missile at people gathered in the area, killing four Palestinians: Yousef Nabil Mousa al-Maghari (26); Fadi Marwan Mousa al-Maghari (24); Abdul Karim Omar Ahmed Al-Basheeti (33); and Al-Hassan Jihad Amer Al-Sayed (35). Around seven other people sustained varying injuries.
At approximately 11:15 on the same day, an Israeli helicopter targeted an apartment located on the second floor of a house belonging to al-Basheeti family behind the UNRWA health center in the same camp. No casualties were reported.
After the militia members withdrew at approximately 12:15 toward areas under Israeli military control, residents found the body of Saleh Abdullah Mohammed al-Basheeti (25). It appeared that his hands had been tied with plastic restraints before he was shot and left to bleed to death.
At approximately 13:22 on Monday, 25 May 2026, Israeli warplanes attacked a displaced persons’ tent in Ghaith Camp northwest of al-Mawasi area in Khan Yunis, killing a five-year-old child namely Mannatallah Nabil Kamal Abu Lebda, and Hanan Abdul Nasser Mahmoud Mahmoud (30) and injuring more than 20 people, some critically. Fatima Mohammed Abdul Hadi al-Khatib (15) later died the following afternoon succumbing to her severe injuries.
In parallel to this escalation in airstrikes and mass killings, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday that he had directed the army to increase control of Gaza to 70%, according to Israel’s Channel 12. Speaking at a conference organized by the Ein Prat Leadership Academy in the West Bank, Netanyahu stated: “We are currently squeezing Hamas; we now control 60% of the territory of the Strip – you know this. We were at 50, we moved to 60. “Let’s go step by step. First of all, 70. Let’s start with that.”1
These statements followed a statement by the Israeli Defense Minister referring to the implementation of a plan for “voluntary emigration from Gaza” would be implemented “at the proper time and in the proper manner”.2
PCHR emphasizes that the escalation of deadly attacks, coupled with explicit statements by senior Israeli officials, reveals a systematic policy aimed at depopulating the Gaza Strip of its Palestinian population through the destruction of the conditions necessary for human survival and the dismantling of the means indispensable to civilian life. These policies are creating catastrophic living conditions characterized by killings, starvation, widespread destruction, and ongoing displacement, rendering life in the Gaza Strip increasingly impossible and generating coercive pressures that drive the population toward permanent displacement or forcible transfer. While Israel seeks to portray this reality as “voluntary emigration,” it in fact amounts, in substance and effect, to the crime of forced displacement.
PCHR calls on the international community to take urgent action to halt the escalating Israeli crimes in the Gaza Strip, impose effective international measures to ensure the protection of civilians, guarantee the unhindered flow of humanitarian assistance, hold those responsible for the crimes committed accountable, and take serious and tangible steps to prevent the continuation of policies of widespread destruction and forced displacement that threaten the Palestinian presence in the Gaza Strip.
