Global & US Headlines
Israeli Forces Shell Rafah & Khan Younis for 59th Straight Day, Breaching Oct-10 Ceasefire
On 8–9 Dec 2025 the Israeli army detonated residential blocks and fired artillery and air-strikes across Rafah, Khan Younis and Gaza City, prolonging an uninterrupted run of daily ceasefire violations since the truce began on 10 Oct.
Focusing Facts
- Multiple apartment buildings northwest of Rafah were wired and blown up on 8 Dec 2025 while attack helicopters strafed eastern Rafah and Khan Younis, eyewitnesses told Anadolu and SAFA.
- Gaza Health Ministry reports 373 Palestinians killed and about 970 wounded by Israeli fire since the 10 Oct ceasefire took effect.
- Palestinian media count 59 successive days of documented breaches, with artillery, air and naval fire recorded each day.
Context
Ceasefires in this conflict have long been porous—Israel violated the 11-Nov-1956 armistice within weeks, and Hamas fired rockets within hours of the 26-Aug-2014 truce—yet the current pattern of daily demolitions inside occupied zones echoes the slow-motion absorption tactics Britain used in the 1936-39 Arab Revolt and France’s pacification in 1950s Algeria. Strategically, the shelling fits Israel’s decades-old “mowing the lawn” doctrine: periodic force to reset deterrence while incrementally redrawing facts on the ground. The failure to keep even a nominal halt reveals the declining utility of formal ceasefires in asymmetrical occupations and the impotence of existing enforcement mechanisms; that erosion, if unchecked, could normalise perpetual low-grade warfare as a governance model. Over a century horizon—from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to whatever entity controls Gaza in 2117—this moment matters less for the day’s casualty count than for entrenching a precedent: agreements without enforcement become part of the conflict toolkit, not its resolution, making durable peace progressively harder to imagine.
Perspectives
Turkish state-affiliated international media
TRT World, Anadolu Agency — Portrays the post-ceasefire strikes as proof Israel is ignoring the truce and continuing a “genocidal war” against Gaza’s civilians. Turkey’s government is openly pro-Palestinian and in a diplomatic feud with Israel, so its outlets use charged terms like “genocide” and cite only Gaza-based figures while omitting Israeli statements or possible militant activity.
Palestinian official and movement-linked outlets
WAFA, Palestine Info Center — Depicts the shelling and demolitions as deliberate attacks by the “occupation army” on residential areas, highlighting civilian deaths and ceasefire breaches. As organs of the Palestinian Authority or Islamist factions, these outlets have every incentive to rally sympathy; casualty counts and emotive language come without independent verification and no space is given to Israel’s rationale.
Arab regional state media hostile to Israel
Yemen’s SABA News Agency — Describes Israel as the “enemy army,” asserting unrelenting aggression for the 59th straight day despite the ceasefire. SABA is controlled by Yemen’s Houthi movement, which wages its own anti-Israel propaganda campaign, so its framing is highly militarised and omits any broader context or competing accounts.