Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP via Getty Images
Photo essay by The Electronic Intifada documenting conditions across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip during May 2026, 7 months into the October 2025 ceasefire. In the West Bank, 11 Palestinians, including 2 children, were killed by Israeli forces and settlers in May. The UN documented 950 settler attacks across more than 230 communities in 2026 to date, an average of 6 incidents per day, and warned that Israeli eviction directives put Khan al-Ahmar and 17 other communities in the E-1 settlement area at imminent risk of forcible transfer. In Gaza, the rights group Al-Haq reported that an average of 122 Palestinians were being killed per month since the October ceasefire; as of June 3, 2026, 936 people had been killed and more than 2,900 injured, with around a third killed near the Yellow Line. During April-May 2026, Israel used a brief pause in the US-Israel war on Iran to escalate its attacks in Gaza, killing 20% percent more Palestinians during this period than it had killed during the first 5 weeks of the war. May 2026 also saw Israel's parliament establish a special military tribunal for Palestinians accused in the October 7 attacks, and Israel forcibly intercept the Global Sumud Flotilla, whose more than 400 detained participants reported beatings, torture, and sexual violence by Israeli forces. Recommended for researchers and educators seeking month-by-month documentation of conditions during the ceasefire, with Al-Haq's monthly casualty average, the settler-attack data, and the Iran-war escalation pattern providing important evidence of continued Israeli violence against Palestinian civilian life in Gaza and the West Bank.
