A ceasefire that changed nothing, and a war that expanded.

The October 2025 ceasefire plan established a "Yellow Line" dividing Gaza: Israeli forces would hold the eastern 53% of the Strip, while 47% in the west remained Palestinian-controlled. That boundary was supposed to be fixed. It wasn't.

In mid-December 2025, Haaretz reported that Israeli markers demarcating the Yellow Line were being moved west surreptitiously and without warning. In January 2026, BBC Verify confirmed via satellite imagery that Israel had moved the yellow blocks in 16 separate locations, an average of 295 meters (968 feet) deeper into the Gaza Strip — placing thousands of displaced Palestinians inside the newly expanded Israeli-controlled zone without notice. By May 2026, Hamas reported Israel was controlling approximately 62% of the Gaza Strip — nearly 10 percentage points beyond what the ceasefire authorized.

Beyond the Yellow Line itself, Israel quietly issued a new "Orange Line" buffer zone to aid groups in mid-March 2026 — never released publicly — adding an estimated 11% of Gaza's territory to its restricted area. The two lines combined placed nearly two-thirds of Gaza under Israeli military control or restricted access, confining 2+ million displaced people to a narrowing western strip while aid organizations were barred from entering the expanded zone without IDF coordination. Residents described waking up to find the line had moved past them overnight.

Israel launched what it called its "most powerful attacks" on Lebanon on April 8, 2026, just hours after agreeing to a ceasefire with Iran. Over 100 strikes hit targets across Lebanon in under 10 minutes, including densely populated civilian neighborhoods in central Beirut during midday rush hour. Strikes hit the busy Corniche al-Mazraa intersection, the Tallet el Khayat residential district, the port city of Sidon, and the Beqaa Valley. No prior warning was issued to civilians in Beirut.

UN experts described the strikes as "indiscriminate." Human Rights Watch documented that Lebanon's last operational bridge connecting southern Lebanon to the rest of the country was struck on the same day, threatening to cut off tens of thousands of civilians from food, healthcare, and humanitarian aid. Lebanon's Prime Minister called the attacks "a blatant violation of international and humanitarian law." Twenty+ countries and the United Nations condemned the strikes.

Sources: Human Rights Watch ↗ · OHCHR ↗ · UN News ↗

Throughout the 2026 Lebanon war, Israel struck a building directly in front of Hiram Hospital in Al-Aabbassiye near Tyre, killing four people and damaging the facility. Israel issued threats that "ambulances will be attacked," citing unverified claims of Hezbollah misuse. WHO rejected this framing, stating that misuse of medical transport "does not justify attacking" protected vehicles. In a documented double-tap strike in Majdal Zoun, Israel first hit a building, then struck again when civil defense rescue workers arrived — killing three first responders alongside other civilians. Lebanon's President called the pattern "a series of attacks that targeted relief and first aid workers."

Sources: Al Jazeera, March 20, 2026 ↗ · Al Jazeera, April 29, 2026 ↗ · UN News / WHO ↗

White phosphorus is a chemical incendiary substance that ignites on exposure to oxygen, burns at approximately 800°C, and cannot be extinguished with water. On contact with human skin it dissolves flesh to the bone, causes organ failure, and re-ignites when dressings are removed. Under international humanitarian law, its use in populated areas is prohibited as an indiscriminate weapon regardless of the military purpose claimed.

Human Rights Watch verified white phosphorus use by Israeli forces in Gaza City port and in southern Lebanon on October 10–11, 2023 — the opening days of the war. Between October 7 and November 16, 2023, Israel launched over 1,000 white phosphorus strikes on Gaza alone, hitting civilian neighborhoods in Beit Lahia, Sheikh Radwan, and the Al-Shati and Jabalia refugee camps. Amnesty International verified US-supplied white phosphorus munitions used in a strike on the Lebanese village of Dhayra on October 16, 2023, injuring at least nine civilians. HRW documented use across at least 17 municipalities in southern Lebanon between October 2023 and May 2024.

In the 2026 Lebanon war, HRW verified and geolocated images showing airburst white phosphorus munitions fired over residential areas of Yohmor on March 3, 2026, setting at least two homes and a car on fire. Lebanese security sources reported white phosphorus bombs used in the Battle of Bint Jbeil through April 2026. As recently as May 2, 2026 — today — local media reported white phosphorus use around Seriane and Taybeh in the Marjayoun district. Al Jazeera's satellite investigation of Bint Jbeil found agricultural land razed using incendiary weapons and white phosphorus munitions, with the city's mayor describing the scorched-earth tactics as a "compound crime" under international humanitarian law.

Human Rights Watch documented that Israel destroyed at least nine bridges over the Litani River and its tributaries between March 12 and April 8, 2026. As of April 9, only a single bridge — the Qasmieh Bridge — remained operational, serving as the sole lifeline for tens of thousands of civilians in southern Lebanon. HRW concluded these strikes "significantly limited the ability of civilians to move safely and of hospitals and humanitarian organizations to deliver aid and provide medical care." Under the laws of war, even legitimate military targets are subject to proportionality analysis — attacks that cause civilian harm disproportionate to military gain constitute war crimes.

Source: Human Rights Watch, April 10, 2026 ↗

Within hours of the war's opening strikes, missiles hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh ("The Good Tree") primary school in Minab, Hormozgan province, killing at least 165 people — the majority of them girls aged 7 to 12. Human Rights Watch verified 14 videos and satellite imagery confirming the school as a walled, civilian structure with a separate entrance from a nearby IRGC compound. HRW stated the attack should be investigated as a war crime. Amnesty International independently reached the same conclusion, finding that a US-manufactured Tomahawk missile was likely used. The US denied responsibility; neither the US nor Israel claimed the strike. The same day, a sports hall in Lamerd, Fars Province was struck during a teenage girls' athletics session, killing 18.

Sources: Human Rights Watch ↗ · Al Jazeera ↗

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed more than 20 attacks on Iranian healthcare facilities as of early April 2026, including strikes on the Delaram Sina Psychiatric Hospital and four ambulances. Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs documented 33 civilian locations struck nationally, including the Tehran Grand Bazaar, the Golestan Palace (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), and the Azadi Stadium — Iran's largest sports complex. On April 3, the Laser and Plasma Research Institute of Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran was bombed. A major pharmaceutical company near Tehran was struck, with Iran saying the attack targeted medicine supply lines. Netanyahu publicly boasted that Israel had "destroyed 70 percent of Iran's steel production capacity." Analysts stated Israel's tactics in Iran mirrored its conduct in Gaza — systematically dismantling civilian systems by targeting schools, public infrastructure, and state institutions.

Sources: Al Jazeera, April 4, 2026 ↗ · Al Jazeera, March 5, 2026 ↗

On March 7, Iran's Foreign Minister confirmed a US strike on a desalination plant on Qeshm Island, disrupting water supply to 30 villages. On March 27, US and Israeli strikes hit the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant for the third time — Iran's only operational civilian nuclear facility. Earlier strikes on April 3 hit a major suspension bridge near Tehran during a national holiday (Sizdah Bedar/Nature Day), when civilian families were gathered outdoors; at least 8 were killed and 90 wounded. Trump publicly threatened to simultaneously destroy all of Iran's electricity generation plants and water desalination infrastructure — targets that international law explicitly prohibits attacking.

Source: Al Jazeera, March 30, 2026 ↗ · Al Jazeera, April 4, 2026 ↗

Since January 1, 2026, Israeli authorities have blocked all medical and humanitarian supplies from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) from entering Gaza. Israel has deregistered 37 international NGOs providing critical health services in Gaza, with most unable to operate by early 2026. MSF's emergency manager stated: "Six months on, the ceasefire has failed to end the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, with Israeli authorities continuing to impose conditions intended to destroy conditions of life." WHO reported that hospitals in Gaza faced the possibility of running out of life-saving trauma kits within days following mass casualty events. The aid entering Gaza continues to fall far below ceasefire commitments — only 37% of allocated trucks have been allowed through.

Source: Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), April 2026 ↗ · UNRWA Situation Report #218 ↗

On April 6, 2026, Israeli forces shot at a car transporting World Health Organization workers in Gaza, killing the driver. On April 8, Israel targeted and killed Al Jazeera journalist Mohamed Washah in Gaza City by drone — among the 260+ verified journalist killings since October 7, 2023. Israel's stated basis — that the journalist was a Hamas operative — has been used repeatedly in similar killings with no independently verifiable evidence. UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk stated: "The unrelenting pattern of killings reflects continuing disregard for Palestinian lives, enabled by sweeping impunity."

Source: OHCHR, April 2026 ↗

Israeli forces intercepted the Global Sumud humanitarian flotilla in international waters near Crete on April 29, 2026, abducting approximately 430 activists. On May 20, Ben Gvir posted a social media video taunting detained activists kneeling with hands bound. Italy, France, Netherlands and Canada summoned Israeli ambassadors. Italian PM Meloni condemned it publicly. Israel deported activists from May 21 under international pressure. UN experts called the interception "an act of piracy" and demanded immediate release.

Sources: Al Jazeera ↗ · OHCHR ↗

Overnight Israeli strikes hit the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps on May 23, 2026, targeting residential areas and injuring dozens despite the nominal ceasefire. Al Jazeera reported a surge in skin diseases across overcrowded displacement camps, with children most affected as Gaza's healthcare infrastructure has collapsed entirely. A senior UN official overseeing the ceasefire simultaneously warned that the prolonged stalemate risks cementing Gaza's permanent territorial division, with Israel having deepened control over more than half the Strip.

Sources: Al Jazeera, May 23, 2026 ↗ · CNN, May 14, 2026 ↗

On June 9, 2026, after an Israeli airstrike killed at least eight people in a residential block, the Israeli military ordered the city of Tyre to be completely evacuated. Tyre has stood for approximately 4,000 years — long enough to have survived Alexander the Great and the Roman Empire. The Nation described Israel's actions in Lebanon as carrying out "its Gaza strategy in yet another war," noting that the Israeli Defence Minister explicitly confirmed the military was replicating the model used in Rafah and Beit Hanoun — where 90% of homes were destroyed. On June 26, 2026, Lebanon and Israel signed a 14-point framework agreement in Washington that critics say tacitly surrendered southern Lebanon to Israeli occupation by conditioning any Israeli withdrawal on the disarmament of Hezbollah — which Israel and analysts acknowledge is unlikely to happen.

Sources: The Nation · "The Genocide of South Lebanon" ↗

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor's April 2026 report, titled "Another Genocide Behind Walls: Sexual Violence in Israeli Prisons and Detention Centres and Engineered Impunity," documents hundreds of verified survivor testimonies of sexual violence in Israeli detention from October 2023 to October 2025. The report documents seven forms of sexual violence including rape using objects and trained military dogs, forced nudity, filming for blackmail, and sexual torture targeting genitalia. Euro-Med concluded the abuse constitutes "an organized state policy" endorsed by "senior civilian and military leaders, either through direct orders or by tacit approval and a climate of impunity."

The report documents how Israeli institutions actively engineered impunity: military doctors obscured injuries in medical records and issued detainees "fit for interrogation" certificates; the Israeli justice system restricted evidence and reclassified serious crimes as minor offences; and in March 2026, an Israeli military court dropped charges against five soldiers accused of gang-raping a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman detention facility — despite leaked CCTV footage showing them surrounding the victim. The Israeli Justice Minister, rather than condemning the abuse, called their work "holy."

Sources: Al Jazeera, May 7, 2026 ↗ · UN Commission of Inquiry, March 2025 ↗ · OHCHR, August 2024 ↗

On May 28, 2026, the United Nations added Israel to its annual blacklist of parties credibly suspected of committing conflict-related sexual violence — the first time Israel has appeared on this list since it was established more than 15 years ago. The listing, in the UN Secretary-General's annual report on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, identifies parties with "credible suspicion of committing patterns of rape or other forms of sexual violence during armed conflict." Israel's Prison Service was specifically included. Other Israeli bodies were placed under active monitoring for possible future inclusion.

Israel immediately severed ties with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, with ambassador Danny Danon declaring "We are done with this secretary-general." The listing came eight months after Guterres formally put Israel "on notice" in August 2025, citing "credible information" of sexual violence against Palestinian detainees across multiple prisons, a detention centre, and a military base. France, whose nationals were among flotilla activists who reported sexual violence during Israeli detention in May 2026, separately opened a criminal investigation — the French Foreign Minister referring the matter to the public prosecutor after a consular report confirmed "sexual violence, exposure to the cold, beatings, and repeated humiliation" of French nationals.

Sources: Al Jazeera, May 28, 2026 ↗ · Washington Post, May 28, 2026 ↗ · Middle East Eye ↗

On March 30, 2026, the Israeli Knesset passed the Death Penalty for Terrorists Law by a vote of 62 to 48. The law mandates death by hanging for offenses classified as terrorism-related — and as written and by design, applies exclusively to Palestinians. Israel has not carried out an execution since 1962.

The law creates two explicitly separate tracks: under military courts — which apply only to Palestinians in the West Bank, never to Israeli settlers — the death penalty is now effectively mandatory for killings classified as terrorism, with execution required within 90 days of a final ruling. Israeli citizens and settlers are explicitly excluded from military jurisdiction and are tried in civilian courts. Under civilian courts, the death penalty applies only to those who kill "with the aim of negating the existence of the State of Israel" — a definition lawmakers openly stated in plenary debate applies only to Palestinians killing Jews.

During Knesset debate, lawmakers repeatedly described the law in explicitly ethno-national terms, stating "there are no Jewish terrorists" and that the law's purpose was to "sanctify and protect the lives of Jews." The law restricts access to legal counsel, limits external oversight, grants immunity to those carrying out executions, and applies a 90-day execution timeline too short for meaningful appeal or proving a wrongful conviction. Palestinian military courts operate with an approximately 96% conviction rate, largely based on confessions extracted under documented torture.

Israeli military forces intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters near Crete on April 29, 2026, abducting approximately 430 activists from dozens of countries. UN experts called for their "immediate and unconditional" release, condemning the seizure as "an act of piracy." Spain described the detention of its nationals as "abduction." Activists reported being subjected to torture in Israeli custody.

On May 20, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir published a video on social media showing himself taunting the detained activists as they knelt on the floor with their hands bound behind their backs. The video prompted Italy, France, the Netherlands, and Canada to summon Israeli ambassadors. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — not known for pro-Palestinian positions — publicly condemned the images: "It is unacceptable that these protesters, including many Italian citizens, are subjected to treatment that violates their human dignity." By May 21, Israel began deporting activists under international pressure, with hundreds arriving in Turkey to crowds of supporters.

Sources: Al Jazeera, May 21, 2026 ↗ · Al Jazeera, May 20, 2026 ↗ · OHCHR ↗