Factual. Independent. Impartial.
Support AAP with a free or paid subscription
World
Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ebrahim Hajjaj

Israel takes more territory, kills two brothers in Gaza

An Israeli strike near a building in the Nuseirat refugee camp has killed two brothers. (EPA PHOTO)

An Israeli strike has killed at least two Palestinians in the central Gaza Strip, as residents of an area in the north of the enclave flee their homes after Israeli ‌forces expanded their control in the territory.

Medics said an Israeli strike near a residential building in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in the central Gaza ‌Strip, killed two brothers, Ahmed and Mahmoud Abu Heen. The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

An October 2025 truce brokered by US President Donald Trump has so ‌far failed to halt Israeli attacks in Gaza or to secure the disarmament of Hamas militants.

Displaced Palestinians flee northern Gaza
Displaced Palestinians are fleeing as Israeli troops control most of Gaza's territory. (EPA PHOTO)

The new deaths brought to nearly 1000 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since October, according to the Gaza health ministry. Israel says four of its soldiers have been killed by militants in that period.

The violence comes as Nickolay Mladenov, Trump's Board of Peace envoy for Gaza, arrived in Cairo to pursue talks that mediators from ‌Egypt, Qatar and Turkey ‌have held with ⁠Hamas leaders over implementing the second phase of Trump's Gaza plan, sources close to the talks said.

Israel ​and Hamas remain deadlocked over how to proceed with the next stage of Trump's Gaza plan, which involves Hamas laying down its arms and Israeli withdrawals.

Israeli troops still control more than 60 per cent of Gaza's territory, where they have ordered residents out and destroyed remaining buildings.

On May 28, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed that he had directed Israel's military to expand its hold and take control of 70 per cent of the enclave.

Witnesses in ⁠southern Gaza have said Israeli forces have in the past few days expanded ‌the "Yellow Zone" - ​the areas they control - in eastern Khan Younis and northern Rafah, where new markers and concrete blocks have been placed.

On Sunday, Israeli forces sent ​tanks further into ‌the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City in the north, forcing several families to flee. Reuters footage, taken on Monday, showed two yellow blocks used ​as boundary markers that had been moved closer to houses.

"I swear we don't know where to go," said Umm Muhammad Junaynah, a resident of Al-Tuffah, as she struggled to hold back tears. "We are getting our furniture out, we don't know where to go. We ​don't ​know where to go, we have nowhere to go."

Nearly ​the entire population of two million people, most of whom have been ‌displaced several times, now live in a tiny strip of land along the coast, mainly in makeshift tents or damaged buildings, under Hamas control.

The territory has been bombarded to ruins by Israel's two-year military assault that followed the 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel.

License this article

Sign up to read this article for free
Choose between a free or paid subscription to AAP News
Start reading
Already a member? Sign in here
Top stories on AAP right now