A four-year-old boy, Osama Ahmed Abed, died in az-Zawayda on October 14, 2026 from injuries sustained in an Israeli attack three weeks prior.

An ongoing armed conflict between Israel and Hamas that escalated on October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a large-scale assault on southern Israel, killing over 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Israel's subsequent military campaign in Gaza has triggered a severe humanitarian crisis with mass casualties and widespread displacement.