An Israeli drone strike targeted mourners during a funeral procession in the Al-Balata market area of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on July 17, killing between 7 and 8 Palestinians and injuring 19 to 22 others [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. The funeral was held for a Palestinian killed earlier that day by Israeli forces [1, 3, 4, 5].
Israel said the strike targeted a Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant cell and acknowledged civilian casualties were under review. The Israeli military stated, "A short while ago, the IDF struck a terrorist cell of the Islamic Jihad terrorist organisation in the central Gaza Strip. The IDF is aware of the claims that several uninvolved individuals were harmed as a result of the strike. The results of the strike are under review" [2].
Al Jazeera reporter Hani Mahmoud said, "There is no regard for the ceasefire. The people who were participating in the [funeral] procession were coming out of the mosque [when] a drone strike targeted a group of people within the procession itself" [3].
The Gaza Media Office condemned the attack and others, saying "the killings and the war of genocide continue at an escalating pace, carried out through a policy of bombing popular markets, funerals, peaceful civilian gatherings and safe residential apartments over the heads of their inhabitants" [5].
On July 18, Israeli artillery shelling killed 3 Palestinians near the Dawla roundabout in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City and caused nearby evacuations ahead of a limited military operation [6]. On the same day, Israeli strikes destroyed apartment buildings in the al-Nasr and al-Zeitoun neighborhoods, killing 8 Palestinians and injuring others [7, 8].
Also on July 18, Israel expanded its occupied area inside Gaza east of Deir al-Balah, moving the "yellow line" westward and placing more Palestinian homes under military control [6, 8].
Since the ceasefire took effect in October 2025, at least 1,127 to 1,144 Palestinians have been killed and about 3,700 injured, according to Gaza Health Ministry data [1, 2, 7, 6, 8]. The current war between Israel and Hamas began in October 2023 after a Hamas attack killed around 1,200 Israelis and took hostages. Israeli offensives since then have killed over 73,000 Palestinians [1, 7, 6, 8].
The ceasefire brokered in October 2025 has been repeatedly violated by Israeli strikes on Gaza, which include drone attacks on apartment buildings killing civilians, including children, and destroying residential structures [1, 2, 3, 7, 4, 5, 6, 8].
