Israel Kills Six Palestinians as Netanyahu Boasts Forces Control 60% of Gaza

Israel intensified its bombardment of the Gaza Strip and assassinated six Palestinians in various parts of the enclave, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his boast that his forces control 60 percent of Gaza and said Hamas is "in our grasp."

“Toggle Play Israel kills three Palestinians in strike on an aid kitchen in Gaza Israel bombed a kitchen that provided meals to the displaced in Gaza, killing three and injuring others”

Al Jazeera

The newspaper الخليج said an Israeli airstrike targeted a tekyeh in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, killing three Palestinians and raising the death toll since dawn to six, as Netanyahu affirmed Israeli forces had widened their control in Gaza to more than half the territory.

Al Jazeera

In a separate development, occupation authorities turned UNRWA's headquarters in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem into Israeli military facilities, and the Jerusalem Governorate warned of an Israeli plan to seize properties and displace residents near al-Aqsa.

The United Nations condemned the forced displacement of Palestinians and the demolition of homes in the West Bank and Gaza, and the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for urgent steps to refer Israel to the International Court of Justice.

Khaled Khairy, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Middle East affairs, said Israel has forced more than 40,000 Palestinian refugees to flee forcibly from camps in the northern West Bank since the start of 2025.

Paramedics said Israeli airstrikes killed at least eight Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Sunday as ceasefire efforts aimed at ending the fighting between Israel and Hamas stall.

SWI swissinfo.ch reported that in a separate incident Gaza medics said another Israeli airstrike killed at least three people in a charitable kitchen near Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, and the army said the strike targeted a Hamas commander developing anti-tank missiles.

SWI swissinfo.ch

TF1 Info said three reporters were killed in an Israeli strike on Wednesday in the center of the Gaza Strip, with Civil Defense announcing that one of them was a 34-year-old independent journalist who regularly contributed to AFP coverage in the enclave.

TF1 Info quoted AFP’s statement that “his colleagues remember a generous man with deep journalistic commitment,” and it added that the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemned the attack as a systematic and deliberate policy by Israel to intentionally target Palestinian journalists.

Le Monde.fr described the death of Abdoul Raouf Shaath, saying his mortal remains were carried to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Wednesday, and it said an Israeli strike killed the three men as they boarded their vehicle.

SWI swissinfo.ch said indirect talks between Israel and Hamas remain stalled as efforts move forward with U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan for post-war Gaza, which aims to end the war between the two sides.

“Paramedics: Eight Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza Cairo, May 17 (Reuters) – Medical officials said Israeli airstrikes killed at least eight Palestinians in the Gaza Strip today, Sunday, as ceasefire efforts aimed at ending the fighting between Israel and Hamas stall”

SWI swissinfo.ch

The same report said a fragile truce has been in place since October 10 in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, with both sides accusing the other of violations, and it added that nearly 470 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the truce, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

TF1 Info said Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reported that Israeli forces have killed at least 29 Palestinian journalists in Gaza between December 2024 and December 2025, and that since the start of the war triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the toll is more than 220 journalists killed by Israel.

In the same TF1 Info account, AFP said it was deeply saddened and called for a full and transparent investigation into the circumstances of his death, noting that too many local journalists have been killed in Gaza in the last two years and that free access for foreign journalists remains impossible.

Al Jazeera’s report said the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza stated that Israel has killed at least 871 people since the so-called ceasefire began last October, as it described an Israeli strike on an aid kitchen that killed three and injured others.