As the US-Israel war on Iran intensifies, Israel has been escalating its assault on the Gaza Strip and across the West Bank, deepening an already catastrophic crisis for Palestinians.
The latest wave of attacks comes in the wake of major US-Israeli strikes on Iran launched on February 28. Israeli fire has killed at least 36 Palestinians since the outbreak of the Iran war, Gaza health officials say.
On March 17, at least two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a vehicle in the al-Mawasi area, a tent camp west of Khan Younis, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. The strike hit an area designated as a displacement zone, where thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge amid ongoing bombardment.
At least two Palestinians were killed and 10 others injured after an Israeli airstrike targeted a vehicle in the Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis. pic.twitter.com/6zlYzLzvPW
— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) March 17, 2026
According to medics on the ground, Israeli forces killed at least 16 Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank on March 15, one of the deadliest single days in weeks. In the central Gaza Strip, an airstrike near the town of Zawayda targeted a vehicle carrying a senior police official, killing him along with eight other officers. According to local health authorities, at least 14 civilians, most of them bystanders, were also wounded in the strike.
In the West Bank village of Tammun, Palestinian health authorities reported that Ali Khaled Bani Odeh, 37, his wife Waad, 35, and two of their young sons were killed after being shot in the head while inside their vehicle. Two other children survived with injuries.
One of the survivors, 12-year-old Khaled, recounted the attack from his hospital bed, describing how the family came under sudden gunfire. “We came under direct fire, we didn’t know the source. Everyone in the car was martyred, except my brother Mustafa and me,” he said. He added that after being pulled from the vehicle, he was beaten by soldiers, who shouted: “We killed dogs.”
Palestinian authorities also reported that another Palestinian was killed overnight in a separate attack by Israeli settlers. Since the outbreak of the Iran war on February 28, settlers have killed at least five Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
These killings come as Israel has simultaneously expanded its military operations beyond Palestine, launching attacks on both Iran and Lebanon, further heightening fears of a wider regional war.
Rights groups and medical workers say such attacks have intensified under tightened movement restrictions, with military checkpoints and roadblocks preventing ambulances from reaching victims in time. Settlers have reportedly taken advantage of these conditions to carry out assaults on Palestinian communities with increased impunity.
These new killings add to an already staggering toll. Overall, more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, with some studies estimating the figure at over 75,000, underscoring the scale of devastation even before the latest escalation.
Azra Sayeed, Secretary General of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), condemned the escalation: “The cowardly entity of Apartheid ‘Israel’ has intensified its brutal aggression in occupied Palestine, especially in the West Bank. Palestinians are being violently attacked and evicted by well-armed settlers, with support of the occupying state forces. Neo-Nazism is now the order of the day fully promoted and supported by the fascist US state, who is now frantically trying to maintain its hegemonic control over West Asia.”
Critics warn that the expanding war with Iran has provided Israel with greater latitude to intensify its operations in Palestinian territories with reduced international scrutiny. While global attention focuses on the risk of a wider regional war, Palestinians continue to face daily violence, displacement, and deepening deprivation.
