Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
At least 52 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Monday, including a large number in an airstrike on a school-turned shelter.
Israeli strike turns Gaza shelter into ‘burning mass grave’
Displaced civilians were sleeping when an Israeli strike hit their school-turned-shelter in Gaza City early Monday, setting everything ablaze.
Local health authorities said that at least 31 Palestinians were burned to death, including 18 children and six women, and scores were injured in the strike that targeted the Fahmi al-Jirhawi School.
“The fire broke out as children and women were sleeping inside. Their bodies were burned and engulfed by the flames,” Fares Afaneh, Director of Ambulance and Emergency Services in northern Gaza, said in a video clip.
The Israeli military said in a statement that the strike targeted an active intelligence “command and control center” operated by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group in the Strip. It provided no evidence.*
*NOTE: When Israel feels obliged to explain its airstrikes (often it doesn’t even bother), it uses essentially the same words, “the site was a Hamas command and control center”; often followed by, “many steps were taken to reduce the chance of harming civilians,” and a note that it used “precise” munitions.
But Israel has yet to provide a shred of evidence to back up its claims; attacks are often carried out without warning to civilians to evacuate, and frequently cause massive damage and loss of life. (More here.)
From the flames of the massacre committed by the Israeli criminal occupation forces at Fahmi Al-Jarjawi School in Gaza City’s Al-Daraj neighborhood — a school that had become a refuge for displaced families — comes the image of a child: Ward Jalal Al-Sheikh Khalil, the only… pic.twitter.com/FMpXlFOMN9
— حسام شبات (@HossamShabat) May 26, 2025
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Amid ‘catastrophic’ food insecurity, child illness in Gaza turns deadly
US-backed group says it has begun aid distribution in Gaza; another high-level resignation
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said in an emailed announcement that it began “delivering truckloads of food to its Secure Distribution Sites, where distribution to the Gaza people began” Monday.
Goods to stock the Secure Distribution Site One, near the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, were reportedly transported early Monday accompanied by U.S. security contractors who also guarded the site.
The number of Gazans who showed up to the site — located in an area near Rafah city that has been largely destroyed and bulldozed by Israel — was relatively small, the people said, and no incidents were initially reported.
The GHF posted photographs of what it said were Gazans carrying boxes of aid away from the site.
This follows resignations by the two senior officials of the organization. Jake Wood, who resigned as executive director, said in a statement late Sunday that the group’s plans could not be consistent with what he called the “humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence.” The chief operating officer, David Burke, also resigned, according to people familiar with the situation.
RELATED:
What is the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and why has it been criticized?
Available Cropland in Gaza Less Than 5%, Risk of Famine Worsens – UN
Less than five percent of the Gaza Strip’s cropland area remains available for cultivation, exacerbating the risk of famine in the besieged enclave, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) have warned.
“As of April 2025, more than 80 percent of the Gaza Strip’s total cropland area has been damaged (12,537 hectares out of 15,053 [one hectare = about 2.5 acres]) and 77.8 percent is not accessible to farmers, leaving just 688 hectares (4.6 percent) available for cultivation,” FAO and UNOSAT said in a statement on Monday.
“This level of destruction is not just a loss of infrastructure – it is a collapse of Gaza’s agrifood system and of lifelines. What once provided food, income, and stability for hundreds of thousands is now in ruins,” said Beth Bechdol, FAO Deputy Director-General.
“With cropland, greenhouses, and wells destroyed, local food production has ground to a halt,” Bechdol added.
Israel set to increase reserve force by 50,000 to expand Gaza genocide: Israeli media
The Israeli government was expected to approve on Monday an increase of 50,000 reservists, raising the total to 450,000, as part of efforts to expand its genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, Israeli media said.
RELATED: Israel releases Gaza detainees after months of arrest, abuse
Israel threatens retaliatory annexation of West Bank settlements
Israel’s Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar, has threatened to impose Israeli sovereignty over settlements in the occupied West Bank and the Jordan Valley if major countries, including the United Kingdom and France, recognize the State of Palestine, according to a report by the Hebrew-language newspaper Israel Hayom, cited by the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA).
“Any unilateral measures taken against Israel will be met with unilateral measures by Israel.” His remarks suggest that Tel Aviv is considering annexing Palestinian territories in response to any international recognition of Palestinian statehood, Sa’ar said (continue reading here).
RELATED: Hamas and U.S. Reach Gaza Ceasefire “Understanding”—Israel Rejects It, U.S. Envoy Publicly Blames Hamas
Settlers storm Al-Aqsa Mosque, UNRWA headquarters during Jerusalem ‘Flag March’
Israeli settlers commemorated the controversial Flag March across occupied Jerusalem on 26 May, storming the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, breaking into UNRWA headquarters, and harassing Palestinians in the city.
The march falls every year on Israel’s “Jerusalem Day” holiday, commemorating the occupation of Jerusalem in 1967.
Videos on social media show settlers chanting “Death to Arabs” and “may your village burn” in the Muslim quarters of the occupied city.
As many as 1,500 of Israeli settlers stormed the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque earlier on Monday, as Israeli police imposed strict restrictions on Palestinians and barred their entry into the compound.
Settlers also broke into the headquarters of the UN refugee agency, UNRWA, carrying banners and shouting slogans calling for Israeli “control and occupation” of the site.
RELATED: Condemnation of Settlers’ Invasion of Al-Aqsa Mosque
Op-Ed by former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert: Enough Is Enough. Israel Is Committing War Crimes (excerpt)
The government of Israel is currently waging a war without purpose, without goals or clear planning and with no chances of success. Never since its establishment has the State of Israel waged such a war. The criminal gang headed by Benjamin Netanyahu has set a precedent without equal in Israel’s history.
Recent operations in Gaza have nothing to do with legitimate war goals. The government sends our soldiers – and the military obeys – to wander around Gaza City, Jabalya and Khan Yunis neighborhoods in an illegitimate military operation. This is now a private political war. Its immediate result is the transformation of Gaza into a humanitarian disaster area.
What we are doing in Gaza now is a war of devastation: indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal killing of civilians. We’re not doing this due to loss of control in any specific sector, not due to some disproportionate outburst by some soldiers in some unit. Rather, it’s the result of government policy – knowingly, evilly, maliciously, irresponsibly dictated. Yes, Israel is committing war crimes.
I believe the government of Israel is now the enemy from within. It has declared war on the state and its inhabitants. No external foe we’ve fought against over the past 77 years has caused greater damage to Israel than what the Itamar Ben-Gvir, Netanyahu and Bezalel Smotrich-led government has inflicted on us.
I will briefly repeat here what has already become accepted wisdom in large parts of the Israeli public: this government is unworthy.
It is time to halt, before we are all banished from the family of nations and are summoned to the International Criminal Court for war crimes, with no good defense.
RELATED: Israeli politician’s calls to “burn Gaza” were exercise of free speech, Knesset says
Arab Knesset member seeks to grill Israeli defense minister over death of 9 children in Gaza strike
MORE WEST BANK HEADLINES:
(For background on the West Bank, read this and this)
Illegal Israeli settlers torch Palestinian farmlands, army razes structures in occupied West Bank
Army Continuous Jenin Offensive For 126th Day
Israeli Army Continues Tulkarem Offensive
Israeli Army Abducts Two Palestinians In Hebron
NEWS ON PROTESTS, ARRESTS, DEPORTATIONS, CRACK-DOWNS, ETC:
(For background on the student protest movement, read this)
Trump weighing taking another $3b in grants from ‘very antisemitic’ Harvard
Former Harvard president urges people to ‘speak out’ against threats to US democracy
Bipartisan US delegation praises Netanyahu’s war on Gaza: PM’s office
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he met with a US bipartisan congressional delegation, which praised the Israeli leader’s war on Gaza that had turned the Middle East “into a safer place”.
In a series of posts on social media, Netanyahu’s office said he met with the US delegation, which was led by Republican Party Congressman Mike Lawler and included US Democratic Party Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and Michael McCaul, also a Republican congressman.
During their meeting, Congressman Lawler said Netanyahu’s “vigorous and determined policy during the war has changed the Middle East and turned it into a safer place”, the prime minister’s office said.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem Visits Israel, Meets With Netanyahu and Ben Gvir
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was in Israel on Sunday and Monday, where she met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and her counterpart, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
According to Netanyahu’s office, during a meeting with the prime minister and several other Israeli officials on Sunday, Noem “expressed unwavering support for the Prime Minister and the State of Israel.”
Netanyahu’s office said she also “expressed great appreciation for the Prime Minister’s policy of building a fence along the Egyptian border and for his conduct of the war,” a reference to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
MORE NEWS:
In Gaza, Famine Is Israel’s Weapon — and So Is Aid
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – MAY 25, 2025:
- At least 55,037 Palestinians killed, 131,914 injured – including:
- at least 54,056 killed in Gaza (~16,500 children)
- at least 981 killed in the West Bank (~199 children)
- at least 123,129 injured in Gaza
- at least 8,785 injured in the West Bank
According to Palestinian authorities, during the ceasefire Jan. 19 – March 18 2025, Israeli attacks killed at least 170 Gazans, and Israel committed at least 962 ceasefire violations.
Since the Israeli army resumed its assaults on Gaza on March 18, it has killed at least 3,901 people. 11 Israeli soldiers have been killed during the same time period.
Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 14,000 more are still buried under rubble.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – May 25, 2025: ~1,601 – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 416 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel.
By one count, Israeli attacks have killed approximately 215 Palestinian journalists and media workers; Palestinians have killed 4 Israeli journalists (other groups have tallied between 180 and 274 Palestinian journalists killed – depending on the criteria used).
NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
- Zionist-on-Zionist war crimes
- What did you do during the genocide in Gaza?
- Undaunted by Attacks, Online Educator Ms. Rachel Elevates Stories of Gaza’s Children
- Hunger Games: As Far as Netanyahu Is Concerned, Gaza’s Humanitarian Crisis Is a PR Problem
- Over 80 percent of Israelis endorse ‘forced expulsion’ of Gaza’s population: Poll
- Microsoft Bans the Word “Palestine” in Internal Emails
- Sign the “Free Palestine Anti-Genocide Pledge” – and Share!
- WATCH: Murder of 2 people compared to the murder of 50,000 people
- Lobby pushes for criminalization of Israel’s critics
- The UK hits peak feebleness on Israel–Gaza
- Israeli doctor compared killing Palestinians in Gaza to ‘eliminating cockroaches’
- Students around the US on hunger strikes to protest Israel’s killing & starvation of Gazans
- The Group Behind Project 2025 Has a Plan to Crush the Pro-Palestinian Movement
- Israel targets Palestinian boys
- Top genocide scholars unanimous that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza: Dutch investigation
- ‘Render it unusable’: Israel’s mission of total urban destruction
- Trump’s Extremely Dangerous and Dystopian Gaza Aid Plan
- Gaza: Latest Israeli Plan Inches Closer to Extermination
- The desperation of Gaza famine denialism
