Israel carried out fresh strikes across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday as the third anniversary of the Hamas-led October 7 attacks was marked in Israel, with Palestinian officials reporting five deaths.
The strikes came despite a US-brokered ceasefire that took effect in October 2025 and brought an end to the heaviest phase of fighting. Israeli military operations and strikes, however, have continued, with Gaza's health authorities reporting more than 1,460 Palestinian deaths since the ceasefire.
The anniversary brought sharply contrasting scenes on either side of the border. In southern Israel, families gathered at the site of the Nova music festival at dawn to remember more than 300 people killed there three years ago. Explosions and loud bangs from Gaza could be heard across the border during the commemorations.
Five killed in fresh Gaza strikes
In Gaza City, Al-Shifa hospital said two people were killed in an overnight Israeli strike. Gaza's civil defence identified one of them as Mohamed Tamous, describing him as a volunteer with the emergency rescue agency, which operates under Hamas.
The Israeli military said it had struck and killed two Hamas operatives who had emerged from Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. It alleged that one of them had planted explosives near the so-called Yellow Line with the intention of attacking Israeli troops.
The Yellow Line marks areas under Israeli military and Hamas control inside Gaza.
The Israeli military identified Tamous as one of those killed and said he was a sniper with Hamas's military wing while also working with the civil defence agency.
In Khan Yunis, Nasser Hospital reported that a 60-year-old man, Hisham Ibrahim Abu Mustafa, was killed in another Israeli strike and that several other people were wounded.
The hospital also received the body of Ziad Zaarab, whom it said was killed in an Israeli airstrike south of Khan Yunis that injured several others.
Later, another person was killed when an Israeli strike hit a tent at the Al-Buraq camp, according to the hospital. The Israeli military told AFP that the final strike targeted a "military operative", but did not immediately comment on the other reported casualties.
Third anniversary brings contrasting scenes
The latest violence unfolded as Israelis gathered to commemorate the October 7, 2023 attack, which killed about 1,200 people and resulted in 251 hostages being taken into Gaza.
At the Nova festival site near Re'im, families gathered at dawn around photographs of relatives killed in the assault. The commemorations began at 6.29am, the time the first rockets were launched three years earlier.
The third anniversary is the first since all hostages have returned to Israel, either alive or dead. Families and survivors gathered at the site of the festival, where more than 300 people were killed.
The attack deeply shook Israel and triggered the war in Gaza. Memorial events were also held at other communities attacked on October 7, while protesters in Jerusalem continued to demand accountability for the security failures that preceded the assault.
The anniversary has also renewed political scrutiny of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with critics accusing his government of failing to prevent the attack and resisting calls for an independent investigation. Netanyahu has rejected blame for the security breach.
Gaza remains devastated despite ceasefire
In Gaza, the anniversary was marked by a very different reality. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians continue to live in tent camps and makeshift shelters, many of them beside piles of rubble left by destroyed homes and neighbourhoods.
"After three years of siege, killing and destruction, Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into an uninhabitable place," Gaza City resident Mahmoud Abu Hasira said.
Bassam Nasser, a resident of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, said he once had a home but had lost relatives whose bodies remained beneath the rubble. He was displaced during the early stages of the war.
Israel says it controls around 60% of Gaza, including territory along the outer perimeter and the northern area around Beit Hanoun. Most of Gaza's population remains concentrated in areas controlled by Hamas.
The ceasefire led Israel to ease restrictions on the entry of aid trucks, but residents say basic living conditions remain extremely difficult.
"The war and the famine have left us hungry, fearful and displaced, living in tents and struggling with soaring prices," Gaza City resident Ahmed Nasser told AFP.
Recent reporting has similarly found that much of Gaza remains in ruins, with most of its roughly two million residents displaced and large areas under Israeli military control. Despite the ceasefire, strikes have continued almost daily.
More than 74,000 Palestinians reported killed
Israel's military campaign has displaced almost the entire population of Gaza and killed more than 74,200 Palestinians, according to the territory's health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas.
The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its overall death toll. The United Nations has nevertheless considered its figures broadly reliable.
Since the ceasefire was announced last October, the ministry says Israeli forces have killed more than 1,460 people in Gaza.
Israel maintains that its post-ceasefire strikes are directed at Hamas operatives and that its military operations are necessary to protect Israeli troops and enforce security arrangements.
Satellite imagery and recent reporting have documented extensive destruction across Gaza during the three-year conflict, including the near-total destruction of some towns and the establishment of numerous Israeli military positions. Reconstruction remains severely constrained by the destruction, restrictions on materials and the unresolved question of Hamas's disarmament.
Three years after the October 7 attack, the ceasefire has reduced the intensity of the war but has not brought an end to violence or resolved the fundamental dispute over Gaza's future. Israelis continue to mourn those killed in the Hamas assault, while Palestinians remain displaced amid widespread destruction and continuing Israeli strikes.