“Union for Justice”: (143) Palestinians Killed by Israeli Occupation Forces in May, the Majority from the Gaza Strip
02/06/2026 – Union for Justice Foundation
The Union for Justice Foundation stated that Israeli occupation forces killed 143 Palestinians during May, including 132 in the Gaza Strip and 11 in the West Bank, among them 20 children and 12 women.
The Foundation explained in its report that May was the deadliest month since the beginning of the current year. It noted that 128 Palestinians were killed in January, 106 in February, 105 in March, and 137 in April, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed since the beginning of the year to 619.
Union for Justice pointed out that these figures do not include bodies recovered from beneath the rubble months after their deaths, nor do they include other victims killed by Israeli forces in areas under their control and by affiliated proxy militias. These areas constitute approximately 60 percent of the Gaza Strip’s territory and remain largely inaccessible to Palestinian medical teams.
The Foundation added: “The occupying power continues to violate the ceasefire reached on 11 October of last year under international sponsorship through the ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip by warplanes, drones, tank artillery, and sniper fire. Since that date, the number of Palestinians killed has reached 932, while more than 2,819 people have been injured. In addition, 781 bodies have been recovered from beneath the rubble.”
The total number of Palestinian martyrs from 7 October 2023 through the end of May 2026 has reached 72,941, while the number of wounded has exceeded 172,927. Hundreds of bodies also remain trapped beneath the rubble and destroyed buildings.
An Undeclared Return to War
The Union for Justice Foundation believes that Israeli bombardment and targeted killings in the Gaza Strip intensified significantly during the past month, coinciding with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement of his intention to expand the area under Israeli military control to 70 percent of the Gaza Strip.
The Foundation stressed that the Israeli war on Gaza has not effectively ended and that the occupying power has merely reorganized the war into a quieter, yet more violent form, one more compatible with U.S. policy parameters and better suited to consolidating control on the ground without a broad military-political declaration.
It continued: “In the background, Israel also continues to support groups cooperating with it inside the Gaza Strip, carries out extensive demolitions of what remains of Palestinian homes, intensifies both human and technological intelligence operations, and conducts successive assassinations of Palestinian faction leaders. Amid this grim reality, the humanitarian catastrophe continues to worsen, hunger expands, health services deteriorate, and diseases spread throughout a society that has lost its ability to restore even the minimum conditions necessary for life.”
The Yellow Line: A Line of Death
The Foundation noted that the “Yellow Line,” established by the occupation to separate areas under its control from Palestinian areas and which the occupation authorities deliberately expand from time to time, has become a daily killing zone for Palestinians.
A recent human rights report cited testimonies from Israeli soldiers who served in the Gaza Strip, describing repeated killings of Palestinian civilians, including children, near the “Yellow Line,” which the Israeli army has drawn vaguely and frequently redraws.
According to the organization “Breaking the Silence”, the rules of engagement are extremely permissive, particularly regarding those who cross the line. In many areas, the standing orders are reportedly: “Open fire and deploy explosive drones with the intent to kill.”
Targeting Palestinian Police Personnel in Gaza
During May, the occupation continued operations targeting and assassinating members of the Palestinian police force in the Gaza Strip. Union for Justice documented several attacks on police vehicles and police personnel, resulting in the deaths of a number of officers, including Colonel Nassim Al-Kalzani, Director of the Anti-Narcotics Department in Khan Younis Police, and Wisam Fayez Abdel Hadi, Director of Criminal Investigations in Khan Younis, along with his aide Fadi Abdel-Muati Heikal.
The Foundation emphasized that the targeting of Palestinian police personnel, alongside the protection of proxy militias and the provision of air cover for them, is intended to undermine stability in the Gaza Strip, fuel chaos and lawlessness, and expand the areas in which such collaborator groups operate.
Martyrs in the West Bank
In the West Bank, according to Union for Justice’s monitoring, Israeli forces killed 11 Palestinians during the past month: four from Nablus Governorate, two from Hebron, two from Jenin, one from Jerusalem, one from Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate, and one from Salfit Governorate, who died in Israeli prisons from wounds sustained after being shot by an Israeli settler.
Killing with Official Backing
Recently, the Commander of the Israeli Army’s Central Command, Avi Bluth, expressed pride in what he described as the unprecedented increase in the killing of Palestinians by Israeli forces in the West Bank.
Bluth acknowledged that the army has been carrying out killings in the West Bank at an unprecedented level since its occupation in 1967, describing what is taking place as a policy of “precise aggression” aimed at preventing a large-scale operation in the West Bank similar to that of 7 October.
He revealed that Israeli forces had killed 1,500 Palestinians in the West Bank over the past three years, claiming that 96 percent of them were involved in resistance activities against the occupation and that 70 percent were carrying firearms at the time they were targeted.
Bluth also described Palestinian stone-throwing in the West Bank as “terrorism,” stating that Israeli forces killed 42 Palestinians for throwing stones during 2025.
The Union for Justice Foundation affirms that Israeli occupation authorities employ killing and genocide, whether in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, in pursuit of political objectives aimed at disrupting the demographic balance in Historic Palestine and pressuring Palestinians to consider emigration under the weight of the ongoing killing campaign.
The Foundation further believes that the continuation of this bloody policy would not have been possible without American and Western support, Arab and Islamic silence, and the absence of effective international accountability mechanisms to address Israel’s ongoing violations of international human rights norms.
The Foundation warns of a further escalation in the killing of Palestinians in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the coming period, particularly as the date of the Israeli Knesset elections approaches, when Palestinian blood becomes part of the political campaigning of extremist Zionist parties.
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