Israel just kept bombing Gaza while burying its own October attack dead

Israel just hit Gaza again, on the same day it's burying its dead from three years ago.

Palestinian officials say two people are dead. Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City says a strike overnight killed them, hours before dawn ceremonies started at the Nova music festival site.

Gaza's civil defence agency says one of the dead is Mohamed Tamous. He was a volunteer with the agency.

AFP reporters were at Nova and at Kfar Aza kibbutz today. Both places lost hundreds of people three years ago. And at both, reporters heard loud bangs coming from across the border in Gaza, right during the commemorations.

There's a ceasefire. It's been in place for a year. But the strikes never actually stopped.

And here's where it gets murky. A separate Reuters wire reported two Palestinians killed in strikes two days ago — one near Al-Shifa, one nearby. The Israeli military said it was targeting militants.

So is that the same two deaths, reported a day apart? Or a second, separate strike? Nobody can say for certain from what's been reported.

Now, why today matters so much.

This is three years since the deadliest single day in Israel's history. AFP's tally of official Israeli figures says 1,221 people were killed on 7 October 2023. 251 people were taken hostage into Gaza. 44 of them were already dead when they were seized.

The last hostages still alive came home a year ago, under the US-brokered ceasefire deal. Hamas stopped firing into Israel as part of it.

But it didn't stop everything.

Since that ceasefire, Gaza's health ministry says at least 1,400 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. Israel says four of its own soldiers have been killed by militants in Gaza over that same stretch.

And zoom out further. Palestinian authorities put the total killed in Israel's campaign in Gaza, since the war began, at more than 74,000. That figure comes from the Hamas-run health ministry. The United Nations considers it reliable.

Israel says it now controls more than 60 per cent of the Gaza Strip. It says the strikes are about eliminating threats from Hamas.

Two days ago, Israel's defence minister put the military on high alert. He pointed to intelligence that Hamas meant to attack troops in Gaza around the anniversary. Hamas denies it. Hamas says it isn't trying to rebuild its weapons stockpile either, and accuses Israel of undermining the ceasefire.

So both sides are accusing the other of breaking the peace, on the day meant for mourning.