Escalating Israeli strikes in Gaza and Lebanon

Israeli forces continued near-daily strikes on Gaza through August and September despite the US-brokered ceasefire that took effect the previous October, killing more than 1,300 Palestinians since the truce began according to health authorities, with Israel saying most strikes target Hamas fighters or infrastructure while Hamas accuses Israel of violating the agreement. Recovery efforts also continued for victims of earlier bombardment: a mass funeral was held in Gaza City in early August for 112 people, mostly women and children, whose bodies were recovered after a two-week excavation of a residential block destroyed in a November 2023 strike, and in September the remains of 55 more people were recovered from a separate 2023 strike site in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, part of a slow manual campaign hampered by a shortage of heavy machinery -- the UN estimates 10,000-14,000 people remain missing under Gaza's rubble, with 82% of all buildings destroyed or damaged. Total deaths in Gaza since October 2023 were put at roughly 73,000-73,700 by local health authorities.

In September, senior Israeli officials including Defence Minister Israel Katz and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir openly called for depopulating Gaza's Palestinian population -- Katz said Trump had only 'frozen,' not cancelled, support for the idea and that Israel was ready to remove Palestinians 'by sea, by air and by any means' -- prompting a rare public rebuke from the US State Department, which said Washington 'does not support any plan or proposal for the forced displacement, expulsion, or mandatory transfer' of Gazans, citing Trump's own 20-point peace plan. Violence also escalated in Lebanon: Israeli strikes across the south killed at least 27 people over three days in early September (12 in a single strike on Kfar Roummane) in what Israel said was retaliation for Hezbollah drone attacks on its forces, prompting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to warn the 'dangerous escalation' was jeopardizing the June ceasefire that had ended the Israel-Hezbollah war; Lebanon says more than 4,300 people have been killed in Israeli strikes there since Hezbollah's involvement in the broader US-Israel-Iran war began in March.