Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday (May 17, 2026) that Israel had almost completed a key goal of the war in Gaza — eliminating all those responsible for orchestrating the October 7 attack.

His remarks followed the Israeli military’s announcement that Ezzedine Al-Haddad, commander of Hamas’s armed wing, had been killed in an airstrike in Gaza on Friday (May 15, 2026).

In the aftermath of the October 7 assault, Mr. Netanyahu pledged to target and eliminate the masterminds behind the attacks, which, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.

“I promised that every single architect of the massacre and the hostage-taking would be eliminated down to the last one, and we are very close to completing this mission,” Mr. Netanyahu said during the weekly cabinet meeting, describing Haddad as a “despicable terrorist”.

Since Hamas’s cross-border assault, the Israeli military and intelligence services have waged a campaign targeting the group’s senior political leaders and militant commanders in Gaza and across the region.

During the war triggered by the Hamas attacks, Israel has claimed responsibility for assassinating several Hamas leaders, including the group’s former political chief Ismail Haniyeh.

Israeli soldiers also killed Yahya Sinwar, who was widely regarded as a key mastermind behind the October 7 attack.

Mohammed Deif, the longtime commander of Hamas’s armed wing and considered an architect of the attack, was also killed during the war.

Israeli strikes have also targeted Hamas operatives in Lebanon, as well as senior Iran-backed Hezbollah commanders allied with the group, including former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

Mr. Netanyahu, meanwhile, reiterated on Sunday that Israeli forces currently control 60% of Gaza’s territory.

The statement suggests that the military has continued to expand its operational presence in Gaza, following recent media reports that Israeli troops had advanced toward a newly-designated “Orange Line”.

Under the terms of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in effect since October 10, Israeli forces were to withdraw to a so-called “Yellow Line” in Gaza, leaving them in control of more than 50% of the Palestinian territory.

“We have Hamas in our grip. We know exactly what our mission is, and our mission is: To ensure that Gaza will never again pose a threat to Israel,” Mr. Netanyahu said.

Israel’s military campaign against Hamas since the October 2023 attacks has killed at least 72,763 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority.

Despite an October ceasefire, Gaza remains gripped by daily violence as Israeli strikes continue, with both the military and Hamas accusing one another of violating the truce.

At least 871 Palestinians have been killed since the truce began, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.

The United Nations considers these figures reliable.

Over the same period, the Israeli military said five soldiers have been killed in Gaza.

Palestinian health officials said Israeli forces killed a man on Saturday (May 16, 2026) on the outskirts of the Jenin refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank.

The Health Ministry in Ramallah identified the victim as 34-year-old Nour al-Din Kamal Hassan Fayyad, saying he was “killed by occupation forces’ fire in the Jenin camp”.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams in Jenin received a man “with no signs of breathing or pulse from inside Jenin camp after he sustained a live bullet wound to the thigh”. The Israeli Army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israel launched a major military operation in mid-January in multiple northern Palestinian refugee camps, where the Army says it is seeking to root out armed groups. The operation, dubbed “Iron Wall”, has targeted Jenin and Tulkarem camps and displaced nearly 40,000 Palestinians, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

The Israeli military has sealed off Jenin camp, allowing displaced residents only limited access to check on their homes and belongings. Refugee camps were created in the West Bank, Gaza and neighbouring Arab countries after the first Arab-Israeli war for Palestinians who fled or were expelled from what is now Israel at the time of its creation in 1948.

Since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023, near-daily violence has also rocked the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967. Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed at least 1,072 Palestinians since then, including many militants, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry data. Official Israeli figures show at least 46 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the same period.

Palestinian health officials said a teenager was killed by Israeli fire in a West Bank village on Wednesday (May 13, 2026), the latest in a series of violent incidents shaking the Israeli-occupied territory.

The Health Ministry in Ramallah identified the victim as 16-year-old Yusef Ali Kaabnah, saying he was “killed by occupation bullets” near the town of Jiljilya, north of Ramallah.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said he had been shot in the chest during a raid by Israeli settlers who were accompanied by Israeli troops.

Four others were injured in the incident, it added.

The Israeli military told AFP it was looking into the incident.

Violence has increased in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

Extended late-night parleys and heated debates marked the meeting of the 11-nation BRICS Deputy Foreign Ministers and Special Envoys in New Delhi that ended without a joint statement on Friday (April 24, 2026), The Hindu has learnt, indicating more trouble for India’s BRICS Presidency this year.

While delegates from the United Arab Emirates and Iran sparred over the war in West Asia, a number of diplomatic and official sources present or briefed about the discussions said that the meetings on April 23-24 also saw an unexpected attempt by India to “tone down” language on Israel and Palestine, which was opposed by almost all other members.

Israeli forces killed a 17-year-old Palestinian in the occupied West Bank on Thursday (April 16, 2026), according to Palestinian officials, as the Israeli military said its troops had “neutralised a terrorist”.

Mohammed Murad Mahmud Rayan was “killed by the (Israeli) occupation forces on Thursday morning in Beit Duqqu”, a village just north of Jerusalem, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement.

Israeli police said on Sunday (April 5, 2026) eight suspects were arrested after an overnight attack by Israeli civilians on a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank.

“Last night, forces… were called to the village of Qusra in Samaria following a report of an assault and arson of property by Israeli civilians,” a police statement said, using a Biblical term for the northern West Bank.

“During searches, eight suspects were arrested by the forces on suspicion of being in a closed military zone and of involvement in the incident, and were taken in for questioning.”

The suspects were aged between 18 and 48, and during their searches the police also found an M-16 assault rifle issued by the army.

The Palestinian official news agency WAFA, citing local sources, reported that the assault had been carried out by Israeli settlers.

WAFA said they had operated “under the protection of Israeli forces” and “set fire to two poultry farming structures”.

A 32-year old Palestinian man was assaulted, and rescuers said he had “sustained a deep head wound”.

The news agency said the settlers had tried earlier on Saturday (April 4, 2026) evening to attack homes in the village, but residents confronted them.

Qusra, located between Nablus and Ramallah, on March 14 witnessed a deadly attack by settlers who gunned down a local resident and wounded two more, Palestinian officials said.

Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has risen sharply since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.

There has also been a spike in deadly attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank since the start of the Iran war, Palestinian authorities and the United Nations have said, with at least six Palestinians killed since March 1.

Settler assaults on Palestinians have persisted for years, often to the indifference of mainstream Israeli society.

But the recent surge has prompted criticism from influential rabbis, settler leaders, and even Israel’s military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, who called the attacks “morally and ethically unacceptable”.

Gaza’s civil defence agency and a hospital reported that an Israeli strike in the Palestinian territory on Sunday (April 5, 2026) killed four people, while the military said it had struck a “terrorist cell”.

The attack took place before dawn in an eastern neighbourhood of Gaza City, the territory’s largest urban area, said the civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas.

“An Israeli airstrike before dawn killed four and wounded several,” it reported.

Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital confirmed the toll, saying the strike was carried out by an Israeli drone.

“Four martyrs and five wounded arrived at the hospital this morning after an Israeli drone fired two missiles at a group of civilians,” the hospital said in a statement.

Israel’s military said it had “identified a terrorist cell that operated adjacent to the troops, posing an immediate threat to them”.

“Following the identification, the IDF precisely struck and eliminated the terrorist cell in order to remove the threat,” the military said, without specifying how many people were killed.

Despite a ceasefire being in effect, Israel has continued to launch strikes across Gaza, killing at least 715 people since the truce took hold on October 10, according to a toll from the territory’s health ministry, which also operates under Hamas authority.

The United Nations considers the Ministry’s figures to be reliable. Israel says five of its soldiers have been killed since the start of the truce.

Media restrictions and limited access in Gaza have prevented AFP from independently verifying casualty figures or freely covering the fighting.

Israeli settlers rampaged through multiple Palestinian villages overnight on Saturday (March 21, 2026) and into Sunday (March 22, 2026), smashing cars, setting fires and wounding several men in the latest flare-up of violence in the occupied West Bank.

Also read: West Asia war updates on March 22, 2026

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported attacks in at least six communities on Sunday (March 22, 2026). The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said at least three Palestinians in the village of Jalud suffered head wounds from beatings and were hospitalised after confronting settlers, who were also reported injured.

The violence came as Israel’s government presses ahead with new settlements in the occupied West Bank. Attacks by settlers have intensified alongside a broader surge in violence since the Iran war started.

Israel’s military said it responded to Israeli civilians carrying out “arson against structures and property, as well as engaging in disturbances in the area,” but did not report any arrests or indicate whether investigations were opened.

WAFA reported attacks in the villages of Silat al Dahr and Fandaqumiya, both near Jenin; in Jalud and Salfit, both south of Nablus; and in the agricultural regions of Masafer Yatta and the Jordan Valley. Homes and cars were set ablaze, Palestinians were pepper-sprayed and at least five people were wounded in the overnight assaults, which took place during the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan, the agency said.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported 25 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers and soldiers this year as of March 15. The Palestinian Authority has also documented a series of arson attacks, including on mosques, across the territory.

Lebanon said an Israeli strike on Sunday (February 15, 2026) near the Syrian border in the country’s east killed four people, as Israel said it had targeted operatives from Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad.

Despite a November 2024 truce that sought to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting the Iran-backed group but occasionally also targeting its Palestinian ally Hamas.

It appeared to be the first strike Israel has claimed in Lebanon against Islamic Jihad, which is also allied with Hezbollah, since the truce.

An Israeli drone “targeted a car on the Lebanese-Syrian border”, the state-run National News Agency said, adding that “four bodies” were inside the vehicle.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry confirmed the toll in a statement.

The Israeli military in a statement said it “struck Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists in the Majdal Anjar area”.

Fighters from Islamic Jihad were among those killed in Lebanon during hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which erupted in October 2023 over the Gaza war.

The Palestinian group and Hamas both claimed some attacks and infiltration attempts from Lebanon during the hostilities.

More than 370 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon since the ceasefire, according to an AFP tally of Health Ministry reports.

In line with the 2024 truce, the Lebanese army announced in January that it had completed the first phase of a government plan to disarm Hezbollah, covering the area near the Israeli border.

As part of the Lebanese government’s push to disarm non-state groups, some Palestinian factions in Lebanon handed over weapons in several refugee camps last year to the Lebanese authorities.

Hamas and its Islamic Jihad ally have not announced plans to disarm in Lebanon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday (February 15, 2026) he told U.S. ​President Donald Trump last week that any U.S. deal with ‌Iran must include the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, ​not just stopping the enrichment process.

Speaking at the ⁠annual Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations, Mr. Netanyahu also said Israel still needs to “complete the job” of destroying all ‌tunnels in Gaza. Israel, he said, has already dismantled 150 km (93 miles) of an estimated 500 km.

A ‌second round of talks between the U.S. and ‌Iran ⁠is slated for this week. Iran is pursuing ⁠a nuclear agreement with the U.S. that delivers economic benefits for both sides, an Iranian diplomat was reported as saying on Sunday (February 15, 2026).

Mr. Netanyahu said ​he is sceptical of ‌a deal, but it must include enriched material leaving Iran. “There shall be no enrichment capability – not stopping the enrichment process, but dismantling the equipment and the infrastructure that allows ‌you to enrich in the first place,” he ​said.

Iran and the U.S. renewed negotiations earlier this month to tackle their decades-long dispute over Tehran’s ⁠nuclear programme and avert a new military confrontation. The U.S. has dispatched a second aircraft carrier to the region and ‌is preparing for the possibility of a sustained military campaign if the talks do not succeed, U.S. officials have told Reuters.

Mr. Netanyahu also said that he aimed to end U.S. military aid to Israel within the next 10 years, after the current 10-year deal of receiving $3.8 billion ‌a year, which is largely spent in the United States on equipment – ​ends in 2028.

Due to a thriving economy, “we can afford to phase out the financial component ⁠of the military aid that we’re receiving, and I propose a ⁠10-year drawdown to zero. Now, in the three years that remain in the present memorandum ‌of understanding and another seven years draw it down to zero,” Mr. Netanyahu said.

“We want to move with the ​United States from aid to partnership,” he said.