Two killed near Al-Shifa as Gaza marks the eve of 7 October

Israeli strikes killed at least two Palestinians in Gaza on Tuesday, health officials said. One died near Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The other died in a separate strike nearby. The Israeli military told Reuters both strikes targeted militants.

The date is the point. Tuesday was the eve of the third anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023. That attack killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 hostages into Gaza. Palestinian authorities say more than 74,000 people have been killed in Israel's assault since then. Those two totals are the frame every strike now sits inside, including a day that added two names.

The ceasefire numbers are the newer ledger. Gaza health officials say at least 1,400 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the ceasefire that took effect last October. A separate health-authority count, carried earlier in the week, put the post-ceasefire dead at 1,454 and the injured at 5,090. Israel says four of its soldiers have been killed by militants in Gaza over the same period. The ratio is the argument each side is already making. It is also a count of people, and the Tuesday pair sits on the Palestinian side of it.

Israel says Hamas has been rearming and launching attacks in violation of the ceasefire, and that this is why strikes have picked up in recent weeks. Hamas denies that it is trying to carry out attacks or rebuild an arsenal, and says Israel is undermining the deal. Neither sentence was new on Tuesday. What was new was the location: a strike near Al-Shifa, the hospital that has been a reference point in this war since the first months, and a second strike close by.

Defence Minister Israel Katz had said on Monday that about 6,000 attackers crossed into Israel on 7 October 2023, that 4,000 had been killed, and that the army was to pursue the remaining 2,000. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated the line at Mount Herzl. Tuesday's strikes were not described as part of that hunt. The military's line to Reuters was the standing one: militants. Health officials did not publish the names of the two dead.

Al-Shifa is in Gaza City, not in the southern areas where many of the recent strike reports have clustered. A hit near the hospital, on the day before the anniversary, will be read in the region as a message whether or not the target was a militant. The military did not say what weapon was used, whether a warning was given, or whether anyone inside the hospital was hurt. The health officials' count is two dead. That is the verified toll.

The anniversary itself will bring its own ceremonies in Israel on Wednesday. Katz's order and Netanyahu's repetition of the 2,000 figure are the political setting. A day that adds two dead near Al-Shifa, with the post-ceasefire Palestinian toll already above 1,400 and the Israeli military toll in Gaza at four since the truce, is the operational setting. The two numbers will be cited on Wednesday by opposite sides. Neither side published a name on Tuesday afternoon.