Pregnant woman killed in Israeli gunfire as Gaza violence persists despite ceasefire

Iman Shalouf was sitting in her family's tent in al-Mawasi, south of Khan Younis, when gunfire struck her in the head. She was 27 years old and nearly eight months pregnant. Her mother-in-law, Wathfa abu Mashi, was praying nearby when the shooting began. "We heard the sound of gunfire while I was praying," she said later in an interview. "My daughter asked me, 'Where is Iman?' I told her she was in her tent. She went to check on her and found her covered in blood after she was hit by a bullet." Paramedics and witnesses confirmed the account. Shalouf was rushed to Nasser hospital, where doctors initially detected her unborn baby's heartbeat. Within hours, both mother and child were dead. Her husband, Ismail abu Mashi, stood in the aftermath asking a question that had become routine in Gaza: "Where is the ceasefire they keep talking about? There is no such thing. There is killing every day. People are dying here every day."

Shalouf had already chosen a name for the baby—Ayoub—who was due in November. Relatives and community members gathered at the hospital to hold funeral prayers for mother and child before carrying their bodies for burial in Khan Younis. They were buried side by side. The Israeli Defense Forces, when contacted, said they were looking into the incident.

Shalouf's death was one of at least ten Palestinians killed in the preceding 48 hours across Gaza. The territory's health ministry reported 56 others wounded in the same period, struck by artillery shelling and gunfire in northern, central, and southern zones. On Thursday night, a home in Beit Lahiya was hit, killing four members of the same family: Momen Ahmed, his wife Haneen Saleh, and their daughters Lana, 12, and Bana, 8. Six other Palestinians were reported killed in Khan Younis and Gaza City on Friday, including a man who died from wounds sustained in an earlier attack. On Saturday, nine people were injured when a tent housing displaced residents in al-Mawasi was shelled. On Sunday, two more Palestinians were killed and several injured when a vehicle was struck in Tel al-Hawa in Gaza City; the attack also wounded people aboard a passing bus carrying women and children.

This violence persists despite a ceasefire agreement reached in October 2025. Since that agreement took effect on October 11, the health ministry has documented 1,369 Palestinians killed and 4,627 wounded. The broader conflict, which began on October 7, 2023, has claimed at least 73,783 Palestinian lives and left 174,738 wounded according to the same count.

Children have been among the dead. Between August 23 and September 2, Unicef reported seven children killed and at least five others injured, some sustaining life-altering wounds. On August 28, the organization said at least four children had been killed in the preceding five days. The pattern has continued: on September 2, three more children were reported killed and at least five injured in a single 24-hour period.

Médecins Sans Frontières documented the ongoing strikes in early September. "Airstrikes by Israeli forces continue killing and wounding Palestinians," the organization stated. "Between September 6 and 9, Israeli forces issued 18 so-called evacuation orders and struck a building less than 250 feet from an MSF clinic." The humanitarian toll extends beyond direct violence. According to the UN's humanitarian office, most of Gaza's 2.1 million residents are approaching the rainy season in overcrowded displacement sites, at risk of flooding and disease, while efforts to prepare them are constrained by funding shortfalls and access restrictions.

Basic services have deteriorated. On August 31, a temporary halt to desalination in Israel reduced water available to roughly one million people in Gaza who depend on the Israeli grid. Several electricity generators at hospitals across the territory have stopped working due to shortages of spare parts and fuel, the health ministry reported. The ceasefire that was meant to bring stability has instead become a framework under which daily killing continues—a fact that Shalouf's husband articulated with bitter clarity in the hours after his wife and unborn child were taken from him.