Israeli forces killed at least 119 Palestinians in Gaza in May, marking the highest monthly death toll of the year, Middle East Eye reported on Wednesday, citing numbers from Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Israel has been constantly violating the US-backed ceasefire deal that was signed in October 2025 and has intensified its attacks after the US and Israel reached a ceasefire with Iran.
Israeli strikes in May included assassinations of Hamas leaders and attacks on Gaza’s police force, but many civilians were killed as well. Among those killed in May were 19 children and 10 women. Regardless of who the IDF is targeting or who gets killed, each attack marks a violation of the ceasefire deal, which called for a halt to all military operations, including “aerial and artillery bombardment and targeting operations.”
Israeli attacks continued on Wednesday, with Gaza health officials telling Reuters that at least three Palestinians were killed throughout the day. One attack was an airstrike in central Gaza, which killed two brothers: Saqer and Moamen Khalil Abu Karim.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said in its daily update that since the so-called ceasefire deal was signed in October 2025, Israeli attacks have killed 936 Palestinians and wounded 2,903, nearly 4,000 total Palestinian casualties. “A number of victims are still under the rubble and in the streets, as ambulance and civil defense crews have been unable to reach them so far,” the ministry wrote on Telegram.
Israel has also violated the ceasefire deal by expanding its control of Gaza from 53% of the territory to 60% as it has moved the “yellow line” further west. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that he ordered the IDF to expand its occupation to 70% of the Palestinian territory.
The ceasefire deal states that the “IDF will not return to areas that have been withdrawn from, as long as Hamas fully implements the agreement,” and Hamas has fulfilled its side of the deal by releasing all living Israeli hostages and bodies that it had and working to recover other Israeli remains.
Israeli officials have claimed Hamas is violating the deal by not disarming, but the agreement didn’t commit Hamas to giving up its weapons. The two sides agreed to a US proposal that called for the “demilitarization” of Gaza as a framework for negotiations, but the issue of disarmament was meant to be worked out in follow-up negotiations.
