By Middle East Correspondent
London, (The Muslim News): Israeli strikes killed two Palestinians and wounded at least 13 others in Gaza on Sunday as Israeli forces intensified raids and arrests across the occupied West Bank, including the detention and targeting of Palestinian journalists. Israeli settlers also entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound under police protection, while tensions involving Iran and the United States escalated after an Iranian official said a commercial vessel was struck near Qeshm Island, killing one crew member and wounding four others.
In Gaza, an Israeli drone struck a civilian vehicle in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood of southern Gaza City, killing its two occupants and wounding 13 nearby people, according to a medical source cited by Anadolu.
Witnesses said the drone fired at least two missiles at the vehicle, killing the occupants immediately and injuring passersby.
Israeli forces also shelled Palestinian homes northeast of the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza and opened heavy fire toward buildings and tents housing displaced Palestinians in southern Khan Younis. Israeli warships fired toward the city’s coastline, witnesses said.
Elsewhere, two civilians, including a young girl, sustained serious injuries when Israeli forces targeted the location where they were sheltering west of al-Maghazi camp, according to medical sources cited by WAFA news agency. Three others were injured when Israeli aircraft shelled a group of people in Jabalia in northern Gaza.
The attacks came amid continued reported violations of the ceasefire that took effect on Oct. 10, 2025. Gaza’s Health Ministry said Israeli violations had killed 1,369 Palestinians and wounded 4,627 as of Saturday.
Israel’s war on Gaza since October 2023 has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 174,000, according to Gaza authorities, which say the offensive has caused widespread destruction across the enclave.
The Israeli military campaign has also been accompanied by intensified raids and arrests across the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces detained 11 Palestinians, including two children aged 14 and 15, during raids on Sunday, according to WAFA.
Eight Palestinians were arrested in Jenin city and surrounding towns and villages, while another was detained in Tammun, south of Tubas. The raids involved searches of homes and field interrogations, WAFA reported.
The crackdown has also increasingly targeted Palestinian journalists.
On Saturday, Israeli forces raided the home of journalist Ali al-Samoudi in Jenin, beat his son and gave him one hour to turn himself in, according to local sources. Al-Samoudi, 59, was not home during the raid.
He was released on April 30 after spending a year in Israeli administrative detention. Following his release, he said he had suffered severe weight loss because of food deprivation and accused Israeli prison authorities of abuse, torture and denial of basic rights.
Israeli forces also detained journalists Muath Ammarna and Sabri Mousa Jibril on Thursday after raiding their homes in Bethlehem.
The Palestinian Prisoner Society said Sunday that Israel is holding 37 Palestinian journalists in its prisons, including 19 under administrative detention without charge or trial. All 37 were detained following the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, it said.
The society said journalists face arrests, prison sentences, solitary confinement and prosecution over their work and freedom of expression. It said Ammarna had been repeatedly targeted by Israeli authorities and was now being detained for the third time over his journalistic work.
The society also cited journalist and writer Mahmoud Fatafta, who was sentenced to 48 months in prison over what Israel describes as “incitement,” calling it one of the harshest sentences issued in such cases.
It said Israeli authorities increasingly use “incitement” charges against journalists alongside administrative detention based on what authorities describe as “secret files.”
Nineteen journalists from the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are currently held under administrative detention, accounting for 51% of all detained journalists, the society said.
It also highlighted the case of journalist Bushra al-Tawil, 33, who was transferred from Damon Prison in northern Israel to solitary confinement at Ramla Prison in central Israel.
The society accused Israeli authorities of imposing harsher restrictions on female Palestinian prisoners, including isolation, food deprivation, denial of medical treatment and poor sanitation.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate documented 84 violations against journalists by Israeli forces and occupiers in August, including the death of one journalist in prison and the shooting of another.
The violations included assaults on media crews, obstruction of their work, arrests and detentions, and attacks on journalistic equipment.
More than 25,000 Palestinians have been arrested in the West Bank since October 2023, including more than 100 during the past week, according to the Palestinian Prisoner Society.
More than 9,400 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons, including 370 children and 92 women, it said, amid reports from rights groups of torture and medical neglect.
Israeli forces and settlers have carried out daily raids and attacks across the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, including killings, arrests, home demolitions, attacks on homes, vehicles and mosques, destruction of agricultural land, restrictions on farmers and displacement of Palestinians.
Illegal Israeli settlers raid Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound
Meanwhile, in East Jerusalem, around 240 illegal Israeli settlers entered the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on Sunday under heavy protection from Israeli police, according to WAFA.
The settlers entered through the Moroccan Gate, conducted tours and performed Talmudic rituals, local sources said, as Israeli forces tightened restrictions around the mosque compound and the Old City.
Groups affiliated with the so-called “Temple organizations” had called on supporters to participate in the entry and perform rituals inside the compound under the pretext of marking the Jewish New Year.
Strait of Hormuz
Beyond the Palestinian territories, an Iranian official said one person was killed and four others injured early Sunday when an Iranian commercial vessel was struck near Qeshm Island in southern Iran.
Qeshm Governor Amir Teymouri, cited by Iranian state broadcaster IRIB, described the incident as a “US attack” carried out by the “US terrorist enemy.”
Teymouri said the Iranian container ship had 10 crew members, five Iranians and five Pakistanis. The four injured crew members included two Iranians and two Pakistanis and were taken to a hospital on Qeshm Island in stable condition.
He said the vessel was struck by what he called an “enemy projectile” at around 2:30 a.m. local time, or 2300 GMT Saturday, in waters near Hengam Island and the Shib Deraz coast of Qeshm Island.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations separately reported that a vessel transiting the Strait of Hormuz had been struck by an unidentified munition and later caught fire. Local authorities were assisting in evacuating the crew, UKMTO said.
It was not immediately clear whether the vessel was the same ship described by Iranian authorities.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps rejected US President Donald Trump’s claim that Washington controls the Strait of Hormuz and warned that US vessels approaching the strategic waterway would face a response.
“If that is the case, go ahead, bring one of your warships within 100 kilometers,” Col. Ali Mohammadi, the IRGC Navy’s deputy for political affairs, was quoted by the semi-official Fars News Agency as saying Saturday evening.
Mohammadi said US forces know their vessels would face a response if they approached, claiming a similar incident had occurred in recent days.
He also claimed that major foreign militaries have remained beyond the Gulf of Oman for months and that no US troops or military equipment are currently present in the Gulf, Strait of Hormuz or Gulf of Oman.
The IRGC Navy has “complete” surveillance over the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf and Gulf of Oman, Mohammadi said, adding that vessels traveling from Kuwait and Bahrain are monitored and could face action if they violate rules imposed by Tehran.
He further claimed that US military bases in Gulf countries had been rendered “non-operational” and that Iranian forces had conducted what he described as pre-emptive operations against US bases, warships and vessels deemed to have violated Tehran’s rules.
Trump has repeatedly asserted US control over the strategic waterway. Earlier this month, he said US forces had struck 28 Iranian boats and ships and declared: “We now control the Strait of Hormuz.”
On Wednesday, Trump again said the US was “winning” the war with Iran and reiterated Washington’s control of the strait, while suggesting it should be renamed the “Trump Strait.”
[Photo: Palestinians mourn the loss of their relatives at the hospital as the bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli army airstrike on Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip are brought to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza, Palestine on September 11, 2026. Israeli attack, carried out despite the ceasefire, left people, including children, dead and injured. Photojournalist: Abed Rahim Khatib/AA]
