Israel marks two years of Gaza genocide with fresh bombings

Heavy Israeli shelling was reported across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, as the genocide passed its two-year mark, with more than 67,000 Palestinians killed and the besieged enclave left largely in ruins.

Air strikes and artillery shelling targeted residential neighbourhoods in Gaza City, while displaced people and aid seekers were struck in Khan Younis.

As of 3pm local time, at least eight people had been killed, including three in the so-called "humanitarian zone" of al-Mawasi in southern Gaza, an area where tens of thousands of Palestinians from northern Gaza have been forced to flee.

Local news outlets also reported that military vehicles and drones opened fire on Palestinian homes in the Tal al-Hawa and al-Nasr neighbourhoods of Gaza City.

Meanwhile, explosive-laden, remotely controlled Israeli vehicles were detonated in the Sabra area, west of the city, as residential buildings in the neighbourhood were also targeted.

The latest attacks came as the genocide in Gaza entered its third year.

According to the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli forces have killed at least 67,173 Palestinians, including 20,179 children. A further 9,500 are missing and more than 160,000 injured.

The ministry added that the dead include 10,427 women, 4,813 elderly people, and 31,754 men.

Among those killed are at least 1,701 medical workers, while Israeli attacks have destroyed 38 hospitals, leaving the war-torn Strip with just 13 partially functioning facilities.

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In Israel, crowds gathered in southern towns to mark two years since the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023, which left approximately 1,180 people dead. Since then, over 700 more Israelis have been killed in its wars on Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, the majority of them soldiers.

“What is happening in the Gaza Strip is not a humanitarian crisis, or merely a passing description of the Israeli occupation's long record of crimes,” the Gaza health ministry said in a statement marking the anniversary.

“Rather, it is a complete and deliberate collapse of the foundation of human existence, represented by the health services system,” the statement added.

The Gaza-based Government Media Office stated that Israel has dropped over 200,000 tonnes of bombs during the two years of genocide, leaving more than 90 percent of the enclave destroyed.

As a result, much of Gaza’s infrastructure - including homes, schools, universities, mosques, churches, public spaces, and health centres - has been reduced to rubble.

Meanwhile, Palestinian prisoner rights groups reported that at least 77 prisoners have died in Israeli custody over the past two years. They added that dozens of detainees from Gaza who were killed remain forcibly disappeared.

The total number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons has now risen to more than 11,100 - a figure that excludes those held in Israeli military camps.

Truce discussions in Egypt

Meanwhile, ceasefire talks continued in Egypt for a second day, as delegations from Hamas and Israel arrived in Cairo on Monday to discuss the implementation of the US's so-called "peace plan" announced last week.

According to two sources close to Hamas who spoke to AFP, the indirect negotiations between the Palestinian movement and Israel were described as "positive".

The sources added that Monday’s talks lasted four hours, with further discussions expected to take place in Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry said Israel should have already halted its military operations in the besieged enclave - in line with US President Donald Trump’s peace plan.

"We await the outcomes of the negotiations in the coming days regarding the ceasefire," Majed al-Ansari told reporters in Doha.

"This question should be directed first to the Israeli occupation government. It was supposed to actually cease fire if the statements made by the prime minister there regarding adherence to the Trump plan were true," he added.