TNA Staff
The New Arab / December 1, 2025
Israel has launched a wave of new strikes on Gaza, with heavy gunfire reported in the southern city of Khan Younis, while tents sheltering displaced civilians were also targeted, according to news reports on Monday.
The incidents have heightened concerns over continued violations of the ceasefire.
According to The New Arab’s Arabic-language sister site Al-Araby al-Jadeed, areas in the southeast of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip were subjected to intense gunfire from Israeli military vehicles. The outlet also reported artillery shelling and further gunfire east of the city.
Israeli artillery fire and gunfire from military helicopters were directed towards the eastern parts of Khan Younis, inside the so-called Yellow Line.
These latest attacks follow reports that the head of Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet, David Zini, held a round of talks in Cairo on Sunday with his Egyptian counterpart, Major General Hassan Mahmoud Rashad, during which they discussed the second phase of the ceasefire agreement.
Meanwhile, violence continues to escalate in the occupied West Bank with new raids in the Tubas area.
Israeli forces detain 44 Palestinians near Bethlehem
Israeli forces detained 44 Palestinians on Monday in the Bethlehem Governorate, specifically in the towns of Beit Fajjar and Al-Ubeidiya, according to the WAFA news agency.
Security sources said that large numbers of Israeli troops swept into Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem, conducting raids on several homes. They detained 40 residents, interrogated them on site, and later released them.
The sources added that four additional Palestinians were detained in Al-Ubeidiya, located east of Bethlehem.
Israel says killed 40 fighters over past week in Gaza tunnel
The Israeli army said Sunday that it had killed more than 40 Palestinian fighters over the past week in operations targeting tunnels near Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier in the day, the army announced it had killed four operatives emerging from underground in the territory’s southernmost city overnight.
Dozens of Hamas fighters are holed up in southern Gaza’s tunnels, beneath areas controlled by the Israeli military.
Over the past 40 days, troops have been concentrating their efforts around eastern Rafah, “with the aim of dismantling the underground tunnel routes that remain in the area and bringing about the elimination of the terrorists hiding out within them”, the military said in a statement.
It added that “more than 40 terrorists were eliminated” in the last week.
“Additionally, dozens of tunnel shafts and terrorist infrastructure sites, both above and below ground, were dismantled in the area.”
AFP news agency, citing multiple sources, reported on Thursday that negotiations were under way regarding the fate of the fighters still in south Gaza’s tunnel network.
On Wednesday, Hamas called on mediating countries to pressure Israel to allow them safe passage — the first time the group had publicly acknowledged the situation.
