Israeli attacks kill several over two days in Gaza despite ‘ceasefire’

Israeli attacks kill several over two days in Gaza despite ‘ceasefire’As Gaza violence continues, activist says Israeli settlers torch vehicles, attack Palestinian homes in occupied West Bank.People mourn beside the bodies of Palestinian brothers Abdel Malek and Abdel Sattar al-Attar, who were killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza on April 16, 2026 [Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters]Published On 17 Apr 2026Several Palestinians have been killed in two days of separate Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, despite the so-called “ceasefire” that is now in its seventh month, as raids and assaults continue in the occupied West Bank.Brothers Abdelmalek and Abdel Sattar al-Attar were killed after an Israeli drone struck Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza on Thursday, in an area witnesses said fell outside the zone under Israeli control under the “ceasefire”, Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defence, told the AFP news agency.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Gaza’s new generation of journalists face challenges, but stay resilientlist 2 of 3‘Whose is he?’: A Gaza father’s fight for a child who might not be hislist 3 of 3Palestinian Prisoner’s Day: What happened in Palestine on April 17, 1971?end of listNine-year-old Saleh Badawi was shot dead by Israeli forces in the Zeitoun neighbourhood east of Gaza City later that day and Mohsen al-Dabbari, 38, was killed by Israeli fire south of Khan Younis, Bassal said.Three others were wounded, including a teenage boy, after Israeli forces fired towards homes and tents sheltering displaced people east of Maghazi refugee camp, according to a witness speaking to Anadolu Agency.On Friday, three more Palestinians were killed. Brothers Mohammed and Eid Abu Warda were shot dead on Mansoura Street in the Shujayea neighbourhood east of Gaza City while transporting water by vehicle, with a third brother wounded with moderate injuries, medical sources told Anadolu.An Israeli drone separately struck a water desalination facility in the same neighbourhood, killing one Palestinian and wounding several others, according to Wafa news agency.Gaza’s Government Media Office said Israel has committed 2,400 violations of the “ceasefire”, which began between Israel and Hamas in October. These include killings, arrests, blockades and starvation policies.Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed more than 72,340 people since October 2023, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, including at least 765 since the “ceasefire” took effect. At least 32 of those deaths have occurred since the start of April alone, among them Al Jazeera journalist Mohammed Wishah, who was killed in a drone strike west of Gaza City on April 8.On Friday, UN Women said an average of at least 47 women and girls were ⁠killed each day ⁠during the war in Gaza, with more than 38,000 killed between October 2023 and December 2025.“Women and girls accounted for a proportion of deaths far higher than those observed in previous conflicts in Gaza,” Sofia Calltorp, the agency’s humanitarian action head, told reporters. The agency that focuses on gender equality expressed concern that the violence has continued since the ceasefire.Raids, attacks in West BankMeanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, Friday’s predawn hours brought raids and attacks across multiple governorates.Israeli settlers set fire to two vehicles during an attack on Palestinian homes in the southern West Bank, according to a local activist.Osama Makhmara told Anadolu that a group of armed Israeli occupiers infiltrated from the illegal settlement of Otniel into the Majd al-Ba’a area west of Yatta, south of Hebron, where they attacked Palestinian homes and burned two vehicles belonging to brothers Khaled and Yasser Abu Ali. The fire destroyed both vehicles, he added.Israeli forces also stormed ar-Ram town north of Jerusalem, breaking into homes and arresting a number of Palestinians; and in Nablus, soldiers ransacked houses and detained about a dozen people in total across both governorates, according to Wafa.The raids require no search warrant, conducted under Israeli military law, granting army commanders full authority over three million Palestinians who have no say in how the law is exercised.According to Addameer, the Palestinian Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, 9,600 Palestinian political prisoners are in Israeli prisons and detention centres, including 342 children and 84 women. Of these, 3,532 are held under administrative detention imprisonment without charge or trial, for renewable intervals of three to six months, based on undisclosed evidence that even the prisoner’s lawyer is barred from viewing.United Nations experts this week described the displacement being driven by Israeli forces and state-backed settler activity as “ethnically cleansing the West Bank through daily attacks resulting in killing, injury, and harassment of women and children, and the widespread destruction of Palestinian homes, farmland and livelihoods”.