Two Palestinians were killed and others injured early on Wednesday, 7 October 2026, in an Israeli airstrike, artillery shelling and gunfire targeting separate areas of the Gaza Strip, alongside home demolitions and gunfire directed at tents sheltering displaced people in the southern and central parts of the Strip and Gaza City.
Bombardment toll and civil defence volunteer injured
Gaza Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said one of those killed was Mohammed Tamous, a civil defence volunteer, explaining that he died after reaching al-Shifa Hospital from wounds sustained in an Israeli airstrike near the destroyed Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Strip. He added that several injured people were taken away after the strike, which coincided with Israeli drones dropping sound bombs around the area.
A security source in Gaza said Israeli forces had carried out artillery shelling and opened fire on most eastern areas of Khan Younis in the southern Strip since midnight, as well as the Deir al-Balah, Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps in central Gaza and the Zeitoun, Tuffah and Shuja'iyya neighbourhoods east of Gaza City. The source said the Israeli forces had “blown up and destroyed a number of homes in the Zeitoun neighbourhood”.
Displaced people’s tents targeted in Khan Younis
In Khan Younis, a girl was wounded by Israeli forces’ gunfire in the al-Mawasi area, while military vehicles opened heavy fire towards tents housing displaced people there. Tank fire also hit tents sheltering displaced people near the pond in the al-Amal neighbourhood on Street 5 north of the city, as Israeli vehicles opened intense fire east of Khan Younis.
The Israeli army carried out two demolitions north-east and east of Khan Younis. In al-Mawasi, Rafah, in the southern Strip, Israeli warships opened fire towards displaced people’s tents as the area came under heavy fire from Israeli military vehicles.
In the central Strip, Israeli artillery shelling resumed in eastern Deir al-Balah, alongside heavy fire from advancing Israeli vehicles, while the Israeli army carried out a demolition south-east of the city. The Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps were also affected, with shelling and gunfire hitting them since midnight.
In Gaza City, Israeli forces carried out demolitions east of the Tuffah neighbourhood and in areas east of the city, including an additional demolition in the same area. Israeli warplanes also dropped incendiary bombs over the Gaza Strip, amid continuing air, sea and ground strikes and gunfire in separate areas.
Commemorating victims of the Nova festival
On the Israeli side of the border, loud explosions were heard as relatives of several Israelis killed in the 7 October 2023 attacks gathered at dawn at the site of the Nova music festival. The gathering was held to commemorate more than 300 people killed at the site during the “Al-Aqsa Flood” attack.
According to data from Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 1,460 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes since the ceasefire was announced in October 2025; the United Nations considers the data reliable. Ministry figures also show that more than 74,200 Palestinians have been killed since the war began three years ago.
