Israeli Strikes Gaza — Israeli drone strikes killed at least two Palestinians across Gaza on Saturday, the fourth day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, as artillery fire pounded residential areas and settler attacks intensified throughout the occupied West Bank.
Among the dead was Dr Jamal Abu Aboun, head of the anaesthesia department at Al-Yafa Medical Hospital in Deir al-Balah. The physician was struck by an Israeli drone targeting a group of civilians near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza city. Three additional casualties — including a child — were transported to Al-Aqsa hospital in the immediate aftermath of the strike. The killing of a senior medical professional at a hospital perimeter drew fresh attention to the mounting toll on Gaza’s already decimated healthcare infrastructure.
A second Palestinian was killed in a separate Israeli drone strike near Firas Market in Gaza City, with several others wounded in that attack. Israeli artillery simultaneously struck al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza and targeted areas east and south of Khan Younis in the southern strip. In northern Gaza, Israeli forces demolished homes east of Beit Lahiya, continuing a pattern of residential destruction that has reshaped entire neighbourhoods since the conflict began.
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The Gaza Media Office reports that at least 922 Palestinians have been killed and 2,786 injured since an October ceasefire collapsed. Since Israel launched its military campaign in October 2023, Palestinian figures place the overall death toll at more than 72,000, with upward of 172,000 wounded.
Violence on Saturday was not confined to Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers carried out multiple attacks against Palestinian communities. In the town of Beita, south of Nablus in the northern West Bank, settlers threw stones at houses and smashed vehicles. Separately, settlers targeted Palestinian farmland in Khirbet el-Muraq in the Masafer Yatta area of the southern West Bank, damaging several trees.
Saturday’s incidents are part of a broader surge in settler activity. Israeli settlers carried out at least 540 attacks against Palestinians and their property across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, during April alone. Since October 2023, Israeli forces and settlers have killed 1,168 Palestinians in the West Bank and injured 12,666 others, according to Palestinian figures. Approximately 33,000 Palestinians have been displaced and nearly 23,000 detained across the territory over the same period.
The attacks unfolded as Palestinians marked Eid al-Adha, one of Islam’s most significant annual holidays, a period that in previous years has seen heightened tensions across the region. For many families in Gaza and the West Bank, the holiday passed under bombardment, displacement, and grief rather than celebration.
Israeli Strikes Gaza: Regional Implications
The killing of Dr Abu Aboun underscores the vulnerability of medical personnel operating in active conflict zones. Healthcare workers have faced repeated strikes throughout the Gaza campaign, with hospitals functioning under severe resource constraints amid ongoing hostilities. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, near where the doctor was killed, has served as one of the few remaining functional medical facilities in central Gaza.
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza in October 2023 following a cross-border attack by Hamas. The conflict has since produced one of the most severe humanitarian crises in the region’s modern history, with international bodies repeatedly warning of catastrophic conditions for Gaza’s civilian population.
