Palestine in June 2026: the most important developments in security
In June 2026 Israeli strikes continued in Gaza despite the ceasefire, and violence rose in the West Bank. Palestinian medics and reports said strikes killed nine people on June 4, at least ten on June 7, and at least nine on June 20, among them a child and a photojournalist. On June 29 a strike on a tent in central Gaza killed three, including an eight-year-old. By June 30 the Gaza death toll had passed 73,000, according to Anadolu. UNICEF called the truce a deadly illusion. Israel built new military posts inside Gaza and expanded the area it holds, and its defense minister said Israel would stay in occupied territory in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria indefinitely. On June 26 hundreds of Gazans protested against Hamas, the first such protest in a year, and the protests were reported to have met a crackdown.
In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority said Israeli troops shot dead a seven-month-old baby in Hebron on June 5, while the father said he had stopped his car before troops fired. A ten-year-old was arrested on June 8. Reports on June 17 said settlers burned mosques and destroyed schools, and on June 18 the Israeli army besieged a town, citing a clan feud, and blocked Palestinian Authority forces from entering. Oxfam said more Palestinians had been killed there since 2023 than in the previous 17 years combined. Israeli authorities reported attacks on their citizens, including a firebomb thrower shot dead on June 5 and a ramming at Efrat Junction, and two soldiers were injured in an explosion near Jenin.
Legal and security action reached beyond the territories. France opened a torture and war crimes investigation into Israel's treatment of Gaza flotilla activists, and Italy investigated Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over the flotilla. Arrests in Cyprus and Greece exposed what authorities called a Hamas cell, and German prosecutors accused Hamas supporters of a concrete attack plot in Europe. Hamas co-founder Hassan Yousef was released on June 12 after two and a half years in Israeli detention.
by WorldBrief & Maksim Micheliov | AI-generated summary
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