Fresh strikes by Israel on Gaza reportedly kill 5
Published November 20, 2025last updated November 20, 2025
What you need to know
The civil defense agency in the Palestinian territory said a residential building east of Khan Younis was struck in the early hours of Thursday.
Both Hamas and Israel are accusing each other of violating a fragile ceasefire, in effect since October 10, with the IDF saying soldiers were shot at while conducting operations in Nablus.
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Here is a summary of headlines from Israel, Gaza and the wider Middle East from Thursday, November 20:
WATCH: More than half of Gaza remains under Israeli control
It has been six weeks since Israel and Hamas declared a ceasefire in Gaza.
Israel now controls just over half the territory and is already rebuilding there, leading to fears the enclave could be divided for years to come.
WATCH: Israel carries out deadly airstrikes across the Gaza Strip
At least 28 Palestinians have been killed in a new wave of Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip on one of the deadliest days since the ceasefire.
Israel's military says it was responding to an attack by Hamas militants.
UN nuclear watchdog demands access to Iranian nuclear sites in resolution
The International Atomic Energy Agency demanded Iran's "full and prompt" cooperation regarding its nuclear program in a resolution passed by its board on Thursday and vehemently rejected by Tehran.
The UN watchdog's resolution says Iran must provide access to its nuclear sites and inform it "without delay" of the status of its enriched uranium stock.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the vote.
"With this action and disregard for Iran's interactions and good will, these countries have tarnished the IAEA's credibility and independence and are disrupting the process of interactions and cooperation between the agency and Iran," Araghchi said in a Foreign Ministry statement.
UN inspectors have yet to gain access to any of the Iranian nuclear complexes that were damaged by Israeli and US strikes in June, which have worsened tensions with the IAEA.
On Wednesday, Araghchi refused to grant UN access to the bombed sites, stressing that Tehran "only cooperate(s) regarding nuclear facilities that have not been affected, in compliance with IAEA regulations."
EU chairs conference on postwar Gaza
Over 60 delegations were meeting in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the Gaza Strip's postwar reconstruction and governance.
France and Saudi Arabia are chairing the meeting of the Palestine Donor group. However, no financial pledges for Gaza's reconstruction are due to be sought in the meeting. That will be done at a later, Egypt-hosted conference.
On Thursday, however, the focus will be on the devastated strip's governance.
The European Union hopes the Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs parts of the occupied West Bank, can effectively rule Gaza after deep reforms.
The US, however, is demanding that the PA makes the reforms first, whereas Israel has outright rejected that the PA play any future role in Gaza.
The EU is the PA's largest financial supporter. It plans to train 3,000 Palestinian police officers to secure Gaza in the short term, with a view that that number would gradually rise to the 13,000 officers needed to secure the Palestinian enclave.
EU chief diplomat Kaja Kallas stressed that Palestinians should be leading the process and taking ownership of building a police force for Gaza. The 27-member bloc would be ready "to help them with the training of policemen," Kallas added.
A US peace plan approved by the United Nations Security Council earlier on Monday calls for the Israeli military to gradually withdraw from territory in Gaza it is currently holding. It would instead be replaced by a mix of trained Palestinian police officers alongside an International Stabilization Force, as per the plan.
Death toll from Israeli strikes on Gaza rises to 5
Two Israeli strikes on Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis on Thursday killed five people, local Hamas-run health authorities have said.
The strikes were among the deadliest since the ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave came into force on October 10.
A strike on a house in Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis, killed three people, including a baby girl, medics were cited by the Reuters news agency as saying. Another two people were killed in separate attacks in the nearby town of Abasan.
The Israeli strikes also injured 18 people, Reuters reported.
The strikes bring the overall death toll in the past 12 hours to 33, The Associated Press reported, citing hospital officials.
The Israeli strikes came after Israel on Wednesday said its soldiers had come under fire in Khan Younis. No soldiers were killed.
Hamas has denied firing on Israeli troops. The Palestinian militant group called the Israeli strikes a "shocking massacre" and a dangerous escalation, and urged mediators to intervene.
HRW accuses Israel of war crimes over West Bank forcible displacements
Human Rights Watch said that Israel's forced displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians from West Bank refugee camps earlier this year amounted to war crimes.
The rights group said that some 32,000 residents of Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps were forcibly displaced by Israel's military in January and February.
HRW said in a 105-page report titled "All My Dreams Have Been Erased"that the displaced had been barred from returning and that hundreds of homes had been demolished.
"Ten months after their displacement, none of the family residents have been able to go back to their homes," HRW researcher Milena Ansari told the Reuters news agency.
Israel's military told Reuters that the civilian infrastructure had been demolished so it couldn't be used by militants and didn't say when residents could return.
The United Nations said in February that as many as 40,000 Palestinians had been forcibly displaced during the Israeli military's Operation Iron Wall.
HRW said senior officials responsible should be prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
WATCH: People returning to Gaza face harsh conditions after war
Though the current ceasefire is largely holding, the humanitarian situation remains extremely challenging for residents.
For many in the Gaza Strip, the ceasefire means a chance to return home, or what is left of it.
Europe ties Palestinian Authority aid to reforms
The EU has called on the Palestinian Authority to speed up reforms to procure European funding, however, as long as Hamas controls half the territory and refuses to disarm, the EU's bid to help rebuild Gaza faces big obstacles.
Today the EU is hosting a Palestinian donor conference, with as many as 60 delegations, including some from Arab countries.
The bloc is also considering training up to 3,000 Palestinian police officers who could later be deployed in Gaza.
Read more in this DW article here.
US ambassador labels West Bank violence as 'terrorism'
The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has labeled a recent spate of violent attacks by Israeli extremists as "terrorism" but said it is being carried out by a "very small number."
Huckabee was speaking to Elizabeth Vargas of the American news network NewsNation.
On a question dealing with attacks by right-wing settlers in the occupied West Bank, Huckabee said: "I think there is an escalation. Let's be real clear, most of these acts on the part of Israeli attackers who are committing acts of terrorism, and let's just be blunt, that's what it is."
"Israelis can carry out terrorism as well. But most of these people are not actual settlers who live there," Huckabee claimed.
"There may be some, but this is a very small number, mostly of youth, angry and disaffected. These are thugs. Many of them don't live even in Judea and Samaria," Huckabee told Vargas, using the biblical names for the occupied West Bank.
The Trump administration has expressed concern over the spate of violence and how it may impact efforts to end the conflict in Gaza.
Fresh strikes reported in Gaza, Israel says troops fired upon in occupied West Bank
Gaza's civil defense agency reported new Israeli airstrikes earlier on Thursday, killing at least three people.
The Hamas-run agency said Israeli forces had "bombed a residential building in the Bani Suheila area, east of Khan Younis," at around 4:00 am (0200 GMT).
The AFP news agency cited a source at Gaza's Hamas-run Interior Ministry, who did not wish to be identified, as saying there had been no further airstrikes on the territory after 5 a.m. (0300 GMT).
The source said artillery fire was continuing in the Khan Younis area.
The reported strikes come as both Hamas and Israel accuse one another of violating a ceasefire that has been in place since October 10.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said soldiers were operating in several villages in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, in order to locate weapons and arrest militants.
The IDF said that during an arrest, forces were fired upon and a reservist was injured.
On Wednesday, Israel reported its soldiers had been fired upon in southern Gaza and said it responded by striking Hamas militants.
At least 25 Palestinians were later reported to have been killed in one of the deadliest days since the fragile ceasefire was established.
Welcome to our coverage
On Thursday morning, local authorities in Gaza said there have been fresh Israeli airstrikes on the enclave amid a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
That's as Israel's military reported that forces had come under fire again, this time in Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
It comes after Wednesday's strikes in which at least 25 Palestinians were killed.
We'll also bring you US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee's comments on settler attacks in the West Bank, which he called "terrorism" while claiming that many of those responsible are not from the area.
Follow here for all of the latest developments in the conflict in the Middle East.