Israeli attacks kill 10 in Gaza as pregnant woman dies in tent
File photo: REUTERS
A 27-year-old Palestinian woman, who was nearly eight months pregnant, died on Saturday after Israeli gunfire struck her head south of Khan Younis, according to medical workers and her family.
Paramedics and witnesses reported that Iman Shalouf was sitting inside her family’s tent in the al-Mawasi area when the bullets hit her. Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 10 people within a 48-hour span.
Recounting the tragic incident in a video interview with Anadolu, Shalouf’s mother-in-law, Wathfa abu Mashi, said, ‘‘We heard the sound of gunfire while I was praying. My daughter asked me, ‘Where is Iman?’ I told her she was in her tent. She went to check on her and found her covered in blood after she was hit by a bullet.”
Expressing deep anguish, Shalouf’s husband, Ismail abu Mashi, questioned, “Where is the ceasefire they keep talking about? There is no such thing. There is killing every day. People are dying here every day.” Rescuers rushed Shalouf to Nasser hospital, where medical staff initially detected the heartbeat of her unborn child, but both she and the fetus died several hours later.
Relatives revealed that Shalouf had selected the name Ayoub for her baby, who was due to arrive in November. Mourners, including relatives and community members, gathered at the hospital for funeral prayers before carrying the mother and child for burial in Khan Younis, where workers laid them to rest side by side.
Israel Defense Forces said they were investigating the event. Daily violence and the fatal shooting of Palestinians persist despite the ceasefire agreement enacted in October 2025.
Gaza health ministry confirmed that Israeli attacks over the preceding 48 hours killed 10 Palestinians and injured 56 others amid heavy artillery shelling and gunfire across northern, central, and southern Gaza.
On Thursday night, an attack struck a residential building in Beit Lahiya, killing four members of one family: Momen Ahmed, his wife Haneen Saleh, and their young daughters Lana, 12, and Bana, 8. On Friday, attacks across Khan Younis and Gaza City claimed six more Palestinian lives, including a man who succumbed to wounds from a previous assault.
Attacks across the enclave inflicted injuries on numerous other civilians. An assault in Beit Lahiya on Friday severely injured two individuals, while gunfire in the same town wounded three others, including a child and a woman six months pregnant.
On Saturday, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported that shelling targeted a tent housing displaced families in al-Mawasi, injuring nine people. The health ministry noted that a strike on a vehicle in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City on Sunday killed two Palestinians and wounded several others, while also injuring passengers on a nearby bus transporting women and children.
Child casualties have escalated rapidly, according to international agencies. On 28 August, UNICEF reported that attacks killed at least four children and injured many others over five days, leaving several with life-altering injuries.
By 2 September, UNICEF documented that strikes killed three more children and wounded at least five others within 24 hours, raising the total child fatalities reported between 23 August and 2 September to seven.
Highlighting the ongoing violence, Médecins Sans Frontières said, “Airstrikes by Israeli forces continue killing and wounding Palestinians. Between 6 and 9 September, Israeli forces issued 18 so-called evacuation orders and struck a building less than 250ft from an MSF clinic.”
The broader humanitarian crisis across the territory continues to deteriorate severely. UN humanitarian office warned that “most of Gaza’s 2.1 million are approaching the rainy season in overcrowded displacement sites, at risk of flooding and disease, while efforts to help them prepare are constrained by funding shortfalls and access restrictions.”
On 31 August, a temporary shutdown of desalination facilities in Israel cut water access for roughly one million Gaza residents relying on the Israeli power grid. Meanwhile, the health ministry reported that multiple electricity generators at hospitals throughout the Gaza Strip ceased functioning due to acute shortages of fuel and replacement parts.
According to health ministry records, military operations have killed 1,369 Palestinians and wounded 4,627 since the fragile ceasefire took effect on 11 October 2025. Since Israel’s war in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, total casualties have reached at least 73,783 Palestinians killed and 1,74,738 wounded.
Source: The Guardian (adapted)
