Israeli attacks on two residential neighborhoods in Gaza City killed at least eight Palestinians, medical sources told Al Jazeera on Saturday, July 18, 2026. A warplane destroyed an apartment in the al-Nasr neighborhood, while artillery fire struck the nearby al-Zeitoun district. Witnesses reported that the building was destroyed and a neighboring block damaged.

These attacks occurred as Israel widened the range of areas targeted inside Gaza, pushing beyond the so-called “Yellow Line” that Israeli forces were meant to hold under the fragile ceasefire agreement. Israeli media reported earlier this week that the military now controls close to 70 percent of Gaza, significantly exceeding the roughly half of the territory it was expected to hold.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 260 children have been killed since the ceasefire began. Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza, Hani Mahmoud, said the expansion of Israeli control is “shrinking” and “fragmenting” Gaza into smaller, disconnected areas, making it “very difficult” for Palestinians to move between locations.

In related developments, the Israeli army reportedly destroyed three schools in southern Lebanon, and Belgium has banned imports from Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine.

Sources