As dawn broke over Gaza on Friday, November 15, 2025, the familiar sound of warplanes shattered the uneasy quiet, marking yet another chapter in a conflict that has gripped the region for more than a year. According to AhlulBayt News Agency, Israeli airstrikes targeted several areas across the Gaza Strip, killing Maysa Jaber al-Attar in the al-Atatra neighborhood northwest of Gaza City and injuring others. The attacks, which also included shelling southeast of Khan Yunis and east of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, underscored the persistent violations of a fragile ceasefire that has struggled to hold for a second consecutive month.
Residents described these assaults as part of a nightly pattern, intended, as some put it, to "keep Gaza under fire despite the declared ceasefire." Israeli armored vehicles opened heavy fire in the east of Khan Yunis, Deir al-Balah, and central Gaza, further fueling fears and uncertainty among civilians already battered by months of violence.
The Gaza Ministry of Health, cited by both AhlulBayt News Agency and the Associated Press (AP), reported that the death toll from Israel’s ongoing military campaign had reached a staggering 69,187, with 170,703 wounded since the war began in October 2023. Hundreds of victims remain trapped under the rubble of destroyed homes and in inaccessible streets, as ambulance and civil defense crews struggle to reach them amid continued bombardment and severe fuel shortages. The devastation is nearly total: nearly 90% of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure—residential towers, hospitals, schools, and water networks—has been destroyed or damaged, with preliminary reconstruction costs estimated at $70 billion by Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
Yet, amid the destruction, a complex exchange of bodies and hostages is playing out as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement. On November 14, 2025, Israel returned the bodies of 15 Palestinians to Gaza, officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis told AP. This move came after militants handed over the body of Meny Godard, one of the last four Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza, who had been abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri during the October 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war. Godard’s wife, Ayelet, was killed during the same assault. The armed wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad said Godard’s body was recovered in southern Gaza.
This exchange is part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, which stipulates that for each hostage returned, Israel releases the remains of 15 Palestinians. Since the ceasefire began on October 10, Israel has received the remains of 25 hostages—20 of whom were returned alive on October 13. Three Israeli hostages are still believed to be in Gaza. So far, Gaza health officials report that 330 Palestinian bodies have been received, but only 95 have been formally identified, hindered by a lack of DNA testing kits. On November 14 alone, 27 unidentified Palestinian bodies were interred in Gaza, a stark reminder of the toll and the anonymity that war can inflict.
For Gaza’s people, the struggle does not end with the cessation of bombs. As winter’s first rains fell, displaced families found themselves battling the elements in makeshift shelters. Abdel Rahim Halawa, a father of seven, worked desperately to secure a tarp over his tent, constructed from wood, blankets, and sheets of plastic. "All of the mattresses and blankets got drenched this evening. If more rain comes on us, we don’t know how we can live anymore," he told AP. Some families have sought shelter in the ruins of collapsed buildings. Saed Salhi, living with four family members in a precarious concrete shell held up by a single crooked column, acknowledged the risk: "Yes, it might collapse. Some committees came and told us it’s forbidden to live inside of it, but we have no alternative, especially in the winter with the severe cold."
Beyond Gaza, violence has also surged in the West Bank, drawing international condemnation. On Friday, U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk called for an end to a recent spate of attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, urging Israel to hold perpetrators accountable. Thameen Al-Kheetan, spokesperson for the U.N. Human Rights Commissioner, noted that more than 260 such attacks were recorded in October—more than in any month since 2006. "We reiterate that the Israeli government’s assertion of sovereignty over the occupied West Bank and its annexation of parts of it are in breach of international law, as the International Court of Justice has confirmed," Al-Kheetan said, as reported by AP.
Recent incidents included Israeli settlers torching and defacing a mosque in a Palestinian village, as well as setting fire to vehicles and property in the villages of Beit Lid and Deir Sharaf. These attacks prompted Israeli President Isaac Herzog to denounce them as "shocking and serious." Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, chief of staff of the Israeli army, declared that the military "will not tolerate the phenomena of a minority of criminals who tarnish a law-abiding public." Yet, according to AP, Palestinians and rights groups contend that such violence is widespread and often carried out with impunity, while Israeli officials have tried to cast it as the work of a few extremists. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not commented publicly on the surge in settler violence.
The violence has not been limited to property. The Palestinian Health Ministry in the West Bank reported that six teenagers, aged 15 to 17, were shot and killed by Israeli fire in four separate incidents over the past two weeks. In the most recent case, two 15-year-olds were killed near Beit Ummar. The Israeli military said its soldiers were responding to "terrorists" hurling Molotov cocktails or explosives, or carrying out attacks, and in one case, acted to "remove the threat" posed by Palestinians throwing rocks. These explanations have done little to ease tensions or address the deepening sense of grievance among Palestinians.
Looking ahead, the next phases of the 20-point ceasefire plan call for the creation of an international stabilization force, the formation of a technocratic Palestinian government, and the disarmament of Hamas. The agreement, though fragile, aims to wind down a war that began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel’s military response, by the Gaza Health Ministry’s count, has killed more than 69,100 Palestinians. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government but staffed by medical professionals, maintains detailed records that independent experts generally consider reliable.
As Gaza’s battered population faces both the aftermath of war and the onset of winter, the human cost of the conflict remains painfully clear. The fragile ceasefire, marred by ongoing violence and political uncertainty, offers little immediate relief for those still searching for loved ones, shelter, or a sense of normalcy in a landscape transformed by destruction.
