‘Burning Entire Families to Death as They Slept’ in Gaza, Israel Kill Count Nears 1,000 Since Ceasefire
Article by Stephen Prager republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
As Israel ratchets up its attacks and conquers more territory in Gaza despite a ceasefire, May was the deadliest month for Palestinians there in 2026.
Five members of the same Palestinian family were killed in a burning building after Israel bombed four residential apartment buildings in Gaza City on Thursday morning. Eight months after the October “ceasefire” began, the death toll from continued Israeli attacks is rapidly approaching 1,000.
A single nine-year-old girl, identified as Hala Hassan Rabah Labad by local reports, survived the strike on an apartment on Intelligence Street in northwestern Gaza and was taken to the hospital. Five members of her family—her father, mother, and three siblings—were all killed.
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Nine people were killed in total and dozens more wounded in other strikes on residential buildings throughout the night, according to medical sources who told the Anadolu Agency that bodies arrived at Al-Shifa Hospital—some dismembered and others severely burned.
Other attacks were reported on Al-Salam Tower in Tel al-Hawa, the Mahna family home near Al-Qouqa Roundabout in Al-Shati refugee camp, and a residential apartment in the Abu al-Amin and Abu Iskandar area of Sheikh Radwan.
Local journalists reported that many of the targeted buildings were sheltering displaced families.
One resident recorded video of a burning building near her home and posted it to social media.
“Israel bombed the house next to me at 2 am,” she said. “People are burning alive and screaming.”
Rescue workers are still reportedly picking through the rubble and have been deployed across multiple locations, according to journalists on the ground, who described the series of attacks as a “major massacre.”
“We were woken up by the strike at 2:30 am. We found pieces of flesh, and people were sleeping. They say the war is over, but the war is not over,” Khalil Batran, a neighbor of the deceased family, told Reuters. “There is no safety in Gaza… Every day, they fire at us from there and strike us with missiles. It’s futile.”
The Israeli military has not commented on the strikes as of Thursday morning.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Thursday’s strikes bring the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks up to 947 since a so-called ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was reached in October. Nearly 3,000 other Palestinians have been wounded.
The Gaza Government Media Office has accused Israel of violating the ceasefire more than 3,000 times through the targeting of civilians, the destruction of entire residential blocks, repeated gunfire, and incursions into residential areas, as well as restrictions on humanitarian aid entering the strip.
Since Israel’s genocidal military campaign in Gaza began in October 2023, nearly 73,000 people have been killed, according to official figures from the Gaza Health Ministry, though independent analyses suggest the true death toll could be much higher.
As Israel fortifies and expands its military control of the strip, with leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledging to push forward and conquer more territory, May was the deadliest month for Gaza thus far in 2026, with 119 Palestinians killed.
In recent weeks, Israeli strikes on tent encampments have killed multiple other children, including a 6-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy.
Thursday’s attacks come a day after Israel continued to bomb several sites in Lebanon despite the announcement of a US-brokered ceasefire, which has not yet gone into effect. During a previous truce, Israel launched numerous attacks, demolished villages, and ordered the forced evacuation of civilians in Lebanon, in clear violation of the agreement. Israeli attacks during that ceasefire period killed more than 600 people, according to the World Health Organization.
In Gaza, Israel has justified continued attacks and deeper encroachment into Gaza by saying that Hamas has failed to “fully disarm.” But while that is part of a framework laid out by US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, Drop Site News journalist Jeremy Scahill points out that it was not part of the deal agreed to in October.
“Netanyahu has a PhD in violating ceasefires,” said Scahill on SkyNews Wednesday. “The term ‘ceasefire’ has been used as a surrender cudgel against the Palestinians in Gaza.”
“The Palestinians signed a deal with Israel. Israel has violated it every day, killed 1,000 Palestinians, has moved deeper into Gaza. They say, ‘Hamas agreed to disarm.’ Hamas never signed a disarmament agreement,” he continued. “Now the so-called ‘Board of Peace’ is demanding that the Palestinians surrender their liberation cause as a condition for Netanyahu to abide by the terms that he signed.”
“They signed a ceasefire with Hamas,” he said. “Not with the children in tents that they continue to burn alive.”
Article by Stephen Prager republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
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