[September 11, 2026 · Breaking] Israel's War on Gaza: Strikes Continue Under the "Ceasefire"

Eleven months after the U.S.-brokered “ceasefire” took effect in October 2025, air strikes and gunfire in the Gaza Strip have never truly stopped. This report deliberately excludes Japanese domestic coverage and cross-checks only primary international sources — Al Jazeera, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Fox News, Times of Israel, Ynet and official government and military statements from Europe, the Middle East and the United States — to map the situation as of September 11.

New Casualties in Northern Gaza — Attacks Persist Under the Ceasefire

🟢 According to Al Jazeera and the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, at least four Palestinians were killed and several wounded on Thursday, September 10, in Israeli attacks in northern Gaza. The Israeli military opened fire from military vehicles and a drone on tents and shelters housing displaced people in the Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the Strip.

🟡 A medical source at al-Shifa Hospital told Al Jazeera the deaths came from gunfire outside the Israeli forces’ areas of deployment. Overnight, Israeli helicopters had fired near Jabalia while artillery hit areas across the north. Near Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, an air raid reportedly killed a man, his wife and their two daughters — a single family of four.

🟢 A day earlier, on the 9th, a home in the southern city of Khan Younis was struck; smoke rising from the site was photographed by Agence France-Presse. The attacks continue intermittently across the north, center and south of the enclave.

Figures are the Gaza health ministry’s tally. Israel argues the count does not separate civilians from combatants; United Nations bodies generally regard the ministry’s statistics as broadly reliable.

Netanyahu’s Movements — A Declaration From Mount Hermon in Syria

🟢 On September 9, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, together with Defense Minister Israel Katz, visited the summit of Mount Hermon in Syrian territory that the Israeli military has held since the fall of the Assad regime in late 2024. Ahead of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, he declared that Israel was “very close to defeating the terror regime in Iran” and that “the entire axis will fall once and for all.”

🟡 He went further, boasting of unprecedented regional dominance: “Damascus is here, Lebanon is there … we control the entire area from the summit of Mount Hermon to the Yarmouk River, and from here to the Mediterranean Sea.” Israel frames this campaign as the “War of Revival.”

🟡 On Gaza’s future, Defense Minister Katz reiterated in early September that pushing Palestinians to “migrate” — which Israeli officials euphemistically call voluntary “immigration” — remains the “only solution.” Rights groups condemn this as an intent to forcibly depopulate the enclave.

The Reality of a Ceasefire in Name Only — By the Numbers

🟢 The Gaza Government Media Office counts at least 4,379 Israeli violations of the ceasefire — by air strikes, shelling and direct fire — between the truce’s start on October 10, 2025 and August 24, 2026. Over that span, it says, 180 Palestinians were detained.

Breakdown for October 10, 2025 – April 14, 2026 (Gaza Government Media Office / Al Jazeera tally).

🔵 Israel says its strikes are a response to ceasefire violations by Hamas and other armed groups, aimed at targets posing a threat. Sporadic firefights have indeed recurred around Rafah, with each side accusing the other. Yet the asymmetry in scale, frequency and death toll is stark — and it calls into question what the word “ceasefire” actually means here.

Europe’s Sanctions and Diplomatic Friction — Britain, France, the Union

🟢 On September 8, Britain’s foreign secretary announced sanctions against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Israel hit back hard — closing the British consulate in occupied East Jerusalem, ejecting British representatives from the International Gaza Support Center and barring 11 British lawmakers (none in government roles) from entry. Ties had already soured after Netanyahu called Britain the “Islamic Republic of Britain” in August.

🟢 France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, likewise moved in early September to ban imports from Israeli settlements, writing that France “cannot, through its trade, support a situation that threatens the security of Israelis and Palestinians alike.” Twelve countries led by Britain, France and Canada have now restricted trade with the illegal West Bank settlements.

🟡 U.S. President Donald Trump said he wanted to know why “all of a sudden” Britain and others had sanctioned settlements, showing unease at the European push. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called earlier European Union measures a case of “European hypocrisy reaching new heights.” The bloc had already agreed in May to sanction both Hamas leaders and the extremist settler movement.

Reactions From Turkey and Syria

🟢 On September 8, Turkey’s foreign ministry welcomed the trade bans imposed by the twelve countries and urged the wider international community to follow suit and respond firmly to the Israeli occupation, in the interest of a “just and lasting peace” in the region.

🔵 Syria, as noted, denounced Netanyahu’s Mount Hermon visit as a violation of sovereignty. For the post-Assad interim government, Israel’s continued occupation of a buffer zone in the south is among its most pressing external concerns. The Trump administration is reported to be trying to broker an Israel–Syria security arrangement around the United Nations General Assembly.

U.S.–Iran Clash at Sea — Tension in the Strait of Hormuz

🟡 On September 8, U.S. Central Command released footage of what it said was a strike on an Iranian tanker in the Gulf of Oman. Iran said Washington had sunk five of its oil tankers and that it had, in response, attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz. While not directly linked to Gaza, tension over Iran remains elevated across the region.

🟡 Israeli security services are also said to be bracing for possible Iranian retaliation — ballistic-missile fire or attacks on Israeli or Jewish targets abroad — according to Channel 12. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has signaled that inspections in Iran will not resume soon.

Fact-Check: Is the Ukraine–Israel Rapprochement Real?

🟢 Talk of a warming between Ukraine and Israel has moved past rumor into concrete steps. Netanyahu sent President Volodymyr Zelensky a letter for Ukraine’s Independence Day on August 24, praising Ukrainian resilience and framing Iran as a threat “common to both countries.” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar spoke by phone with Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha and invited him to Israel to mark 35 years of diplomatic relations.

🟡 A source in Zelensky’s office says Kyiv is open to sharing operational experience and domestically made drones, expecting expanded Israeli military support in return. Israel has confirmed sending Ukraine a Patriot air-defense system in 2025, and a proposal has surfaced to transfer Russian-made weapons seized in Lebanon to Ukraine.

Analysis: Why Is Israel So Belligerent Toward Its Neighbors?

🔵 From Gaza to Lebanon to Syria to Iran, why is Israel’s military footprint this wide and this aggressive? Analyses from international think tanks point to several structural drivers.

🔵 First, a return to a doctrine of preemption. Israel’s security establishment concluded that its failure to prevent the October 7, 2023 attack stemmed from reading enemy intentions while neglecting their capabilities. The lesson drawn is blunt: destroy a threatening capability before the adversary can use it. The rapid destruction of Syrian army assets after Assad’s fall, the “12-day operation” against Iran in June 2025, and the September strike on Hamas leaders in Doha are all cited as applications of this doctrine.

🔵 Second, ambition to remake the regional order. Some analysts argue the goal goes beyond military dominance to eliminating Iran and its allied forces entirely — building a new order under Israeli primacy, a “Pax Hebraica.” Resting on the 2020 Abraham Accords, the vision would fold Arab states in on Israeli terms and erase the Palestinian question from the agenda.

🔵 Third, an environment without deterrence. As the Doha strike showed, Israel faces little practical constraint on unilateral action across sovereign borders. Analysts describe “surplus power and the absence of any deterrent” as a factor pushing its operations ever wider.

🔵 Fourth, domestic politics and trauma. The election due in November will be the first since October 7. Polls show a surge of voters ranking security as their top issue, so a hardline posture wins broad support at home. At the same time, the shock of October 7 produced the psychology of a traumatized nation; experts note countries typically need at least five years to begin recovering — fertile ground for justifying endless “capability removal.”

🔵 The preemption doctrine also draws sharp criticism. “Eliminate rather than manage” may work tactically, but applied at the strategic and political level it risks endless expansion, breeding new enemies and instability. Whether the “absolute dominance” won by hammering neighbors actually buys long-term security remains an open question.

Bottom Line

🔵 As of September 11, the picture is of a “ceasefire” that is nominal at best, with casualties mounting daily in Gaza, while Israel’s military attention extends beyond Gaza to Syria, Lebanon and Iran. Europe is tightening the screws with sanctions, Turkey is urging others to follow, and ties with Ukraine are deepening — the geopolitics of the Middle East is being rewired in real time. This blog will keep reporting the story from primary sources across many countries, unconstrained by the frame of Japanese domestic media.