By Harun Nasrullah
London (The Muslim News): Israeli military forces and illegal settlers killed at least 70 Palestinians in intensifying assaults across the Occupied Palestinian Territories on Wednesday, including the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.
In the Gaza Strip, relentless airstrikes and gunfire claimed dozens of lives. The Health Ministry reported that 79 bodies were brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours, with 391 people injured.
The total number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since the start of the Israeli offensive in October 2023 now stands at 56,156, with injuries exceeding 132,000. The ministry said many victims remain trapped beneath rubble or lie on roads inaccessible to rescue teams.
A particularly deadly series of strikes took place in the Shejaiya neighbourhood of eastern Gaza City, where 17 people, including two children, were killed. In central Gaza, eight Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces while trying to access humanitarian aid in the Netzarim area. Three more aid seekers were gunned down west of Rafah, while additional casualties were reported in central Gaza City. In western Gaza City, airstrikes killed nine people, four of them children. A mother and her two children were among five civilians killed in a separate shelling attack in north-western Gaza City.
In Deir al-Balah and the Nuseirat refugee camp, ten Palestinians lost their lives in two separate Israeli attacks on residential buildings. Rescue teams later recovered the body of a young man from beneath the rubble in Abasan, eastern Khan Younis. Five more people, including two individuals waiting for aid, were killed in further strikes and gunfire in Khan Younis.
Two civilians were killed, and others injured, when Israeli forces targeted a gathering near the Omari Mosque in Jabalia al-Balad, northern Gaza. In Jabalia al-Nazla, the bodies of three civilians were recovered, and five others rescued following an Israeli airstrike that reduced two homes to rubble. Several individuals remain unaccounted for.
Four Palestinians killed in West Bank
In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military and settlers killed four Palestinians. Three men were shot dead and seven others wounded—one critically—by settlers who stormed the village of Kafr Malik, north-east of Ramallah, and set fire to Palestinian vehicles.
According to the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission, Israeli settlers carried out 415 attacks in May alone, including armed raids, property destruction, and road blockades designed to fragment Palestinian territory.
In a separate incident in Yamun, northern Jenin, a 14-year-old boy died from gunshot wounds sustained during a raid by Israeli soldiers. Witnesses said that troops stormed homes and shops in the town, prompting confrontations. In the nearby village of Asira al-Qibliya, settlers injured a Palestinian man by pelting him with stones, burned ten dunams of farmland, and fired on residents attempting to repel the attack.
The town of Ya’bad in northern Jenin was placed under curfew during a 16-hour military operation that included home raids, the conversion of private residences into military outposts, and the confiscation of residents’ personal valuables, including gold and money. Mayor Amjad Atatreh confirmed that entry points were sealed off, and several individuals were detained after interrogations. Israeli forces also entered Jenin city, searching shops and firing tear gas at civilians.
Since 7 October 2023, Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 977 Palestinians and injured more than 7,000 in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Attack on Al Aqsa Mosque
Meanwhile, in occupied East Jerusalem, over 200 Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound under heavy police protection. The Islamic Endowment Department reported that 217 settlers entered the sacred site throughout the day. The Wadi Hilweh Information Centre, a local rights group, documented 124 settlers entering in the morning and 93 in the afternoon. Settlers were seen performing Talmudic rituals in the mosque courtyards while Israeli police secured the area.
The compound had been closed for 12 days under a state of emergency imposed during Israeli military operations against Iran. Israel began allowing settlers to enter the mosque in 2003, despite objections from Palestinian religious authorities.
[Photo: Palestinians receive the aid packages after the arrival of the aid trucks sent by the United Nations to Gaza amid Israeli attacks at Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza, on June 26, 2025. Photojournalist: Abdalhkem Abu Riash/AA]
