By Middle East Correspondent
London, (The Muslim News): A devastating fire that tore through a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, has killed two young siblings and left their mother and another child injured, as violence and instability continue to endanger civilians across the region.
Sixteen-year-old Shahd Mahmoud al-Medhun died at the scene after flames engulfed the family’s makeshift shelter late Wednesday. Her two-year-old brother, Adam, was rushed to hospital in critical condition but later died from his injuries, health sources confirmed.
The children’s mother, 43-year-old Enam al-Medhun, and one-year-old Sidra were also injured in the blaze and transported to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Witnesses said the fire broke out while Enam was preparing food for her children. “The flames spread within minutes,” one neighbour said. “The tents are made of fabric and plastic. Once the fire started, there was nothing to stop it.”
Another resident described scenes of panic. “People tried to pull the children out, but the fire was too strong. Everything burned so quickly.”
The blaze also spread to a nearby tent, and both shelters were destroyed.
The tragedy highlights the increasingly dangerous living conditions faced by hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza. Large-scale destruction caused by Israeli attacks has left vast areas of civilian housing in ruins, forcing families into overcrowded tent camps.
With ongoing power outages and severe fuel shortages, many residents rely on unsafe, improvised cooking and heating methods. “We have no electricity, no safe stoves,” said one displaced father in Deir al-Balah. “We cook over open flames next to fabric walls. Every day we fear something like this will happen.”
Further violence was reported Wednesday in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.
In Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, 11-year-old Khalil Ayman Rabai was injured when a suspicious object left behind by Israeli occupation forces exploded near his family home in Khirbet Janba. Surveillance footage captured the moment of the blast.
Eyewitnesses said Israeli forces had carried out intensive raids in the area just two days earlier. “The army was here recently,” a local resident said. “They leave behind dangerous objects, and our children pay the price.”
In Bani Na’im, east of Hebron, Saber Hamdan sustained bruises, and head injuries after being assaulted by armed illegal Jewish settlers from a newly established illegal outpost. The settlers reportedly stormed his home in the Jroun al-Batma area and beat him.
“They attacked him inside his own house,” a relative said. “There was no provocation. They came armed and violent.”
In northern occupied Jerusalem, a Palestinian man was injured during an assault by Israeli soldiers near the Jaba’ military checkpoint. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a statement that its teams “received an injured citizen at the Jaba’ checkpoint and transferred him to hospital for treatment.”
Israeli forces raid into Syria
Meanwhile, Israeli military forces launched a fresh raid into Syria’s southern Quneitra countryside on Wednesday, in what Syrian state media described as “a blatant violation of Syrian sovereignty.”
According to the state-run Al-Ekhbariya television channel, around 60 Israeli soldiers accompanied by 15 military vehicles entered the village of Ufania in northern Quneitra, firing flares as they advanced.
The incursion followed a similar raid a day earlier during which Israeli forces detained a young shepherd in the southern Quneitra countryside.
Residents say the near-daily incursions are destabilising the region. “They enter our villages, question civilians, destroy farmland and leave,” one local farmer told Syrian media. “How can there be stability under these conditions?”
Following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in late 2024, Israel expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing the demilitarised buffer zone, a move widely regarded as a breach of the 1974 disengagement agreement.
Syrian officials have warned that the continued violations are undermining efforts to restore stability and discouraging investment aimed at reviving the country’s fragile economy.
[Photo: Children line up as a charity distributes food to displaced Palestinians in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City as the food shortage continues due to Israel’s blockade and restrictions on aid entering the Gaza Strip on February 12, 2026. Photojournalist: Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini/AA]
