Israeli military takes more territory, kills two people in Gaza, medics and witnesses say

An October 2025 truce has so far failed to halt Israeli attacks in Gaza or to secure the disarmament of Hamas militants.

CAIRO/GAZA – An Israeli strike killed at least two Palestinians in the central Gaza Strip, health officials said, as residents of an area in the north of the enclave fled their homes after Israeli forces expanded their control in the territory.

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.

The new deaths brought to nearly 1,000 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 the US President’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, Israeli 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 June 14, 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 June 15, 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.

“It was a night of terror. We were scared,” said Nour Shabat, a 27-year-old woman, referring to events in Al-Tuffah.

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