Israel strikes Gaza on October 7 anniversary, three dead: officials

Israel struck Gaza on the October 7 anniversary on Wednesday, with Palestinian officials reporting three people killed as Israel marked three years since the Hamas attacks. The strikes hit Gaza City and Khan Yunis despite a US-brokered ceasefire that took effect in October 2025.

Who was killed in the Gaza strikes on the October 7 anniversary?

Palestinian officials reported three deaths. Al-Shifa hospital said two people were killed in an overnight strike in Gaza City, one of them civil defense volunteer Mohamed Tamous. Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis said a 60-year-old man, Hisham Ibrahim Abu Mustafa, was killed.

Gaza's civil defense, an emergency rescue service under Hamas, identified Tamous as one of its volunteers. Nasser Hospital said others were also injured in the Khan Yunis strike.

How did Israel mark the October 7 anniversary?

Loud bangs from Gaza were audible across the border at the site of the Nova music festival. Family members had gathered there at dawn to mourn the more than 300 revelers killed three years earlier.

What did the Israeli military say about the Gaza strike?

The Israeli military said it struck and killed "two Hamas terrorists who had exited Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip". It said one of them had "planted explosives... in the area of the Yellow Line with the intention of harming IDF troops."

The Yellow Line demarcates the areas under Hamas and Israeli military control in the Gaza Strip. The military identified one of those killed as Tamous, whom it described as a sniper in Hamas's military wing while he simultaneously worked for the civil defense.

What are living conditions like in Gaza three years after the war began?

Living conditions remain dire despite the ceasefire. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people still live in tent cities and makeshift shelters that sprawl on beaches or next to piles of rubble from bombed-out residential buildings.

"After three years of siege, killing and destruction, Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into an uninhabitable place," said Gaza City resident Mahmoud Abu Hasira. Bassam Nasser, a resident of Beit Hanoun who was displaced early in the war, said bodies of loved ones "still lie beneath the rubble."

Israel says it controls about 60 percent of Gaza, on the territory's outer perimeter including Beit Hanoun. Most of the Palestinian population lives in the remaining Hamas-controlled areas.

Israel eased restrictions on aid trucks entering Gaza after the ceasefire, but Gaza City resident Ahmed Nasser told AFP that life remained desperately hard. "The war and the famine have left us hungry, fearful and displaced, living in tents and struggling with soaring prices," he said.

How many people have been killed in Gaza since the war began?

Israel's military offensive has displaced nearly the entire population of Gaza and killed more than 74,200 people, according to Gaza's health ministry. The ministry is under Hamas authority, and the United Nations considers its figures reliable.

Since the ceasefire was declared last October, Israeli forces have killed more than 1,460 people in Gaza, according to the ministry.