The intensity of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has increased significantly over the past week, with air strikes, artillery shelling and assassination operations escalating despite an existing ceasefire framework.
Israel has stepped up strikes at an unprecedented pace since the ceasefire agreement reached on 10 October 2025, carrying out more than five daily attacks across different parts of the enclave, according to Palestinian rights monitors and officials in Gaza.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said on Monday that three Palestinians had been killed in the previous 24 hours, bringing the overall death toll since October 2023 to 72,772.
Over the past week, Gaza has witnessed a sharp rise in air raids and artillery attacks compared with April, including repeated drone strikes carried out using quadcopter aircraft.
The escalation has been accompanied by a growing pattern of Israeli evacuation threats targeting homes, agricultural land and displacement camps in northern and southern Gaza.
On 8 May, Israeli forces ordered residents to evacuate a home in the Shati refugee camp before bombing the building with multiple missiles, causing widespread destruction to nearby homes and displacing several families.
The same pattern was repeated on 18 May, when Israeli strikes targeted two homes in the al-Faluja area west of Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, again causing widespread damage and further displacement.
Israel also ordered the evacuation of displacement tents in al-Mawasi in Khan Younis before launching strikes there early on Tuesday.
The killing of Izz al-Din al-Haddad, commander-in-chief of Hamas’ armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, in Gaza City’s al-Rimal neighbourhood on 15 May further intensified the situation.
The escalation has also included near-daily attacks on civilians, including fishermen off Gaza's coast.
Data obtained by The New Arab from the Gaza Centre for Human Rights showed that between 19 April and 19 May, the average daily death toll documented in Gaza reached 105 people, alongside an average of 14 injuries per day.
The organisation also recorded around 15 daily violations involving Israeli gunfire and shelling.
Rights monitors said a new pattern had emerged in which evacuation warnings are followed by the systematic destruction of buildings and shelters, reducing the already limited safe areas available to civilians.
The developments coincide with Israel’s continued expansion of military buffer zones referred to locally as the "yellow line" and "orange line". Humanitarian crisis deepens Meanwhile, Ismail al-Thawabta, director-general of Gaza’s Government Media Office, said Israel committed 221 violations between the beginning of May and Tuesday morning.
According to al-Thawabta, the attacks resulted in 49 deaths and 260 injuries amid ongoing military escalation.
He told The New Arab that the figures reflected the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian and field situation in Gaza.
Regarding aid deliveries, al-Thawabta said only 2,719 aid trucks had entered Gaza during the reporting period out of an expected 10,800 under the ceasefire agreement, meaning implementation had not exceeded 25 percent.
He added that 5,304 people crossed through the Rafah border crossing during the same period compared with an expected 15,800, amounting to roughly one-third of agreed levels.
Al-Thawabta said the figures highlighted a “major gap” between announced commitments and what was being implemented on the ground.
He accused Israel of bearing full responsibility for the worsening humanitarian catastrophe through continued attacks, blockade policies and the destruction of civilian infrastructure.
He also called on international mediators and rights organisations to intervene urgently to pressure Israel into complying with the ceasefire agreement and easing civilian suffering. Ceasefire talks deadlocked Al-Thawabta said recent months had seen intensive meetings in Cairo involving Hamas, other Palestinian factions and envoy Nikolai Miladinov linked to the Gaza Peace Council initiative.
However, the talks failed to produce progress toward implementing the next phase of the ceasefire.
According to Palestinian officials, armed factions insist Israel must first fulfil the terms of the initial phase of the agreement before broader discussions related to weapons and long-term arrangements can proceed.
Israel, meanwhile, has reportedly insisted that disarmament must come first.
A document issued by the Gaza Peace Council and cited by Al Araby TV reportedly outlined major obstacles delaying implementation of the reconstruction roadmap for Gaza.
According to the report, unresolved issues include Hamas’ weapons, governance arrangements in Gaza, mechanisms for empowering a proposed national council, and questions surrounding aid delivery and funding.
The council reportedly told the UN Security Council that disagreements over Hamas’ arms and Gaza’s administration remain the main obstacle preventing reconstruction efforts from moving forward.
The document also stated that around $17 billion in reconstruction pledges had been secured, but warned that rebuilding Gaza would ultimately require more than $30 billion and would remain tied to international oversight and disarmament demands.
Hamas rejected the report’s conclusions in a statement issued on Monday, accusing Israel of obstructing implementation of the ceasefire agreement by refusing to meet its obligations while focusing solely on disarmament demands.
The movement also denied claims it was insisting on governing Gaza, saying it had repeatedly expressed willingness to hand administration of the enclave to a national committee.
Hamas further accused Israel of preventing the committee from entering Gaza and carrying out its duties.
It added that making disarmament a precondition effectively amounted to sabotaging the agreed ceasefire framework and its phased implementation. Palestinian factions reject pressure campaign A Palestinian faction source speaking to The New Arab on condition of anonymity said recent Cairo meetings held after discussions in southern Gaza "were not positive and carried a clearly negative tone".
The source claimed Nikolai Miladinov was relaying messages from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and appeared to defend Israel's positions during negotiations.
According to the source, Israel is attempting to use escalating military pressure to extract political concessions from Palestinian factions.
However, the source insisted that "what is taking place on the ground in Gaza will not push the resistance to abandon its weapons or national principles".
The source added that Palestinian factions remain committed to rejecting concessions despite worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
He said Palestinian groups were using all available political and diplomatic channels to pressure mediators and guarantors to halt Israel’s offensive and enforce the ceasefire agreement.
"Military and political pressure will not succeed in imposing new realities or extracting concessions that affect Palestinian rights or the resistance project," the source said.