By Middle East Correspondent
LONDON, (The Muslim News): A Palestinian woman was killed and her husband and two children injured on Thursday when Israeli artillery struck their tent northwest of Gaza City, as Israeli forces continued attacks across Gaza and the occupied West Bank despite a ceasefire agreement.
Ahlam Mubarak, 30, was killed when Israeli artillery struck her family’s tent near the Olympic Stadium in the Amer Project area, according to a medical source at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Her husband was seriously injured, while their two children were also wounded.
Israeli naval vessels also opened fire and launched shells into the sea off Gaza City, witnesses said.
In southern Gaza, Israeli forces carried out two demolition operations targeting residential buildings and other structures in areas under their control northeast of Khan Younis, according to local sources. Heavy gunfire from Israeli military vehicles was also reported towards homes in the surrounding area.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday that Israeli violations of the ceasefire had killed 1,467 Palestinians and injured 5,161 since the agreement took effect on October 10, 2025.
More than 74,200 Palestinians have been killed and over 175,200 injured since Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza in October 2023, according to Palestinian authorities.
Around 90 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.
The three-year conflict has also devastated Gaza’s education system, leaving hundreds of thousands of children without regular schooling.
Approximately 200,000 children remained without access to structured education despite a partial resumption of learning for the academic year that began on September 19, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
UNICEF said 98 per cent of school buildings had sustained damage, with more than 93 per cent requiring major rehabilitation or full reconstruction. Approximately 81 per cent had been directly hit.
Around 700,000 children aged four to 17 missed formal, in-person schooling for almost three consecutive academic years, UNICEF reported.
By September, approximately 495,000 preschool and school-age children had enrolled in UN- and partner-supported learning spaces, while another 70,000 were reportedly attending community-led and private learning spaces.
More than 20,000 students have been killed since October 2023, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office. Palestinian Education Ministry figures also recorded 1,379 university students killed and 3,017 wounded.
The ministry reported that hundreds of teachers, university professors and other education workers had also been killed.
Higher education has suffered extensive destruction. A UNESCO-backed assessment published in November 2025 found that 22 of 38 university campuses assessed had been completely destroyed and 14 damaged, leaving 95 per cent of the campuses affected.
The destruction of education infrastructure has been compounded by shortages of teachers, classrooms and supplies, while rubble and unexploded ordnance continue to restrict access to learning.
Gaza’s healthcare system has likewise been pushed close to collapse.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said more than 1,700 health workers had been killed in at least 920 attacks affecting health facilities and staff during the war. The attacks also affected 386 ambulances.
Only 19 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals were partially functioning, according to the latest WHO assessment. Of 233 primary healthcare facilities, 146 remained functional.
WHO said only 2,253 inpatient beds and 104 intensive care beds remained available, alongside 343 maternity beds, 384 emergency department beds and 126 incubators, for a population of more than two million.
Shortages of medicines, diagnostic equipment, fuel and other supplies have further restricted treatment. Cancer patients have struggled to access care, while kidney patients have faced difficulties obtaining regular dialysis.
More than 13,760 patients had been medically evacuated from Gaza since October 2023 by September, according to WHO, although tens of thousands more still require specialist treatment unavailable inside the territory.
The humanitarian crisis has also been compounded by displacement and deteriorating sanitation. About 1.7 million people remain displaced, many living in overcrowded conditions with inadequate shelter, water and sanitation, according to WHO.
Israeli settlers attack Palestinians in West Bank
In the occupied West Bank, four Palestinians were injured on Thursday when Israeli settlers attacked farmers harvesting olives in the Wadi al-Shaer area of Salfit.
Ibrahim al-Hamad, director of the Agriculture Directorate in Salfit province, told Anadolu that settlers attacked farmers with sharp objects while they were picking olives and damaged five Palestinian vehicles.
The injured were taken to Yasser Arafat Hospital in Salfit with bruises and fractures, he said.
The Palestinian Prisoners Society said Israeli forces had detained and subjected about 95 Palestinians to field interrogations across the West Bank overnight and on Thursday morning.
The arrests and interrogations took place in several areas, including Aqaba in Tubas, Madama in Nablus, Yatta in Hebron, and parts of Jenin, Bethlehem and Al-Bireh, the group said.
Israeli forces also conducted a widespread arrest campaign in Qalqilya targeting former prisoners and relatives of current and former prisoners, according to the organisation.
The Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission said Israeli settlers had carried out at least 14,742 attacks across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since October 2023, killing 66 Palestinians.
The attacks damaged, uprooted, burned or poisoned at least 147,111 trees, including 100,485 olive trees, it said.
Israel continues bombing of Lebanon
In southern Lebanon, Israeli artillery struck several areas on Thursday while Israeli drones flew at low altitude over Tyre and surrounding areas, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.
Shelling targeted Mansouri in the South Governorate and the Zibqin Valley in Nabatieh Governorate, while areas around Haddatha and Baraachit were also targeted.
The attacks continued despite a framework agreement signed between Beirut and Tel Aviv on June 26 that provides for a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory and the deployment of the Lebanese army in areas vacated by Israeli forces.
According to Lebanese authorities, Israel’s war on Lebanon since March 2 has killed at least 4,386 people, injured 12,413 and displaced more than one million.
US and Iran exchange proposals on ceasefire
Elsewhere in the region, Iran said Thursday it was reviewing US feedback on Tehran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days and expected to respond within days.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said messages were continuing to be exchanged through mediators, according to Iran’s official IRNA news agency.
Under the proposal, Washington would take agreed steps during the first four or five days, navigation through the strategic waterway would resume on the sixth day and negotiations on a final agreement would begin on the seventh.
Tehran’s demands include an end to hostilities, the release of frozen Iranian assets, the lifting of restrictions on Iranian oil exports and an end to the US naval blockade on Iranian ports.
Ballistic missile falls in Riyadh
Meanwhile, debris from an intercepted ballistic missile fell in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh on Thursday, causing property damage, according to Saudi Civil Defense.
The state-run Saudi Press Agency reported that the missile had been launched by Yemen’s Ansar Allah [Houthi] group and was intercepted and destroyed before debris struck a kindergarten and a medical clinic complex.
Yemen has remained embroiled in conflict since the Ansar Allah seized Sanaa and other areas in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention in 2015.
[Photo: Fire and smoke rise from the area following an Israeli strike on a home belonging to the Al-Sawafiri family in the Sabra neighborhood, south of Gaza City, Gaza, Palestine on October 8, 2026. Two Palestinians, including a child, are reportedly killed in the attack, which followed an evacuation warning reportedly issued for the area. Photojournalist: Saeed M. M. T. Jaras/AA]
