SOUTHERN GAZA — Satellite imagery captured on February 25, 2026, shows that the Israeli military has established an outpost at the Sheikh Mohammed cemetery in the Maan area of Khan Younis. The site, previously a burial ground, has been fully repurposed for military use according to the imagery.
Israeli military tanks have been embedded among civilian homes in the eastern Khan Younis neighborhoods of Bani Suhaila, Abasan, and al-Zana. This deployment coincides with broader territorial control measures outlined by Israeli leadership.
In a leaked video aired by Israel’s Channel 12, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “At this point, we are fully in control of 60 percent of the territory of the Gaza Strip and my directive is to get to 70 percent. We’ll start with that.” The statement provides context for ongoing military positioning in southern Gaza, including the conversion of the cemetery into an outpost.
According to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Israeli forces have fully or partially destroyed 94 percent of Gaza’s cemeteries. The transformation of the Sheikh Mohammed cemetery aligns with this wider pattern of cemetery destruction across the territory.
Muhannad Qishta, a journalist, said, “Even the dead have not been spared from this war.” He added, “How will I feel if I go and find the place a desert, without my sisters’ graves to read a prayer over?” His remarks reflect personal and communal distress over the loss of burial sites.
Approximately 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians are internally displaced, with many having fled more than 10 times. Satellite images show densely packed displacement camps in the al-Mawasi area, with tents extending to the shoreline. These conditions persist despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in October that established a “Yellow Line” demarcating occupied areas in Gaza.
The presence of the outpost at Sheikh Mohammed cemetery underscores the extent of military infrastructure established in southern Gaza, as confirmed by the February 25 satellite imagery.