Gone quiet · last update May 13, 2023 / Israel

The May 2023 fighting between Israel and Islamic Jihad in Gaza

Overview · reviewed October 21, 2026

Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group fought for five days in May 2023, after Israeli strikes killed three of the group's commanders in Gaza, until an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire took hold.^[1]^[2]

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Coverage over time

Share of tracked outlets · monthly average of weekly shares (UTC)

LeftCenterRight

Each bar is the share of the outlets on our Left / Center / Right rating scale that we tracked publishing that week which carried reporting on this story, split by the outlets' ratings. Over more than two years each bar is a month: the average of that month's weekly shares, so the shape stays readable. The weekly table below keeps every week. We track more outlets now than in the archive, so a share keeps earlier and later weeks comparable. An outlet counts once a week however much it published, and outlets in one ownership or syndication group count as one on each side they appear on. A rating describes the outlet, not the report. A gap means no such reports were collected that week, not that nothing was reported anywhere. Weeks run Monday to Sunday in UTC, so a report published on a Sunday evening in US Eastern time counts in the next week. 6 more outlets off the scale (not rated, or outside the left-right graphs) also reported; they are not in this chart. See them.

Weekly counts, outlets and reports (2 weeks with coverage)

Outlets on the rating scale that carried this story each week, of the outlets tracked that week, newest first
Week of (UTC)	Left	Center	Right	Of tracked	Share	Receipts
May 15, 2023	1	2	0	3 of 244	1%
May 8, 2023	23	29	11	63 of 254	25%

Latest coverage

The newest reporting in this story's record.

May 12, 2023 · first reported · Headline from Voice of America
Israel, Islamic Jihad Signal No Near-Term Gaza Truce

Background

The fighting began with a pre-dawn raid involving 40 Israeli aircraft that killed three Islamic Jihad commanders along with members of their families, in what Israel described as an operation targeting the group's leaders.^[1] Militants fired rockets toward Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and southern Israel,^[3]^[4] and by the third day the escalation had killed 29 people in Gaza and one in Israel.^[5]

Egypt circulated ceasefire proposals as the strikes and rocket fire went on,^[6]^[7] and after a ceasefire took effect on the night of May 13, life in Gaza quickly appeared to return to normal.^[2]

Supporting stories (7)

The full record

Each date is when an update was first reported.

All 7 recorded updates

Order

May 2023

May 12Israel and Islamic Jihad agree ceasefire after days of violenceHeadline from CNN · 5 outlets
May 10Cease-fire between Israel, Gaza seems to holdHeadline from Deseret News · 42 outlets
May 9Palestinian militants fire more rockets, as Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza despite cease-fire effortsHeadline from The Buffalo News · 19 outlets
May 9Israeli Airstrikes on Gaza Continue as Hopes for a Cease-Fire GrowHeadline from NBC New York · 9 outlets
May 8IDF launches strikes on Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza after rocket attacksHeadline from The Times of Israel · 10 outlets
May 8New fighting kills 2 Palestinian militant commanders, elderly man in Israel as Egypt pushes truceHeadline from Valdosta Daily Times · 34 outlets
May 8Israel strikes on Gaza kill 13, including three Islamic Jihad leadersHeadline from Al-Monitor · 27 outlets

Coverage & sources

Read the reports, see how much was collected over time, or compare outlets by political leaning.

Coverage & sources →