Three Palestinians killed in two Israeli strikes in Gaza City on a roof and a tent

Three Palestinians were killed and others were wounded in two separate Israeli strikes in Gaza City, The Times of Israel and the Hebrew-language Telegram channel Abu Ali Express both reported. One strike hit a man on the roof of a house, and a second struck a tent, killing two people.

The Times of Israel reported, citing media outlets in Gaza run by Hamas, that two Palestinians died and several more were hurt when a tent in Gaza City was hit. Earlier in the day, it said, a man had been killed while he stood on a rooftop. The newspaper said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Israel's military, had not commented.

Who was killed, as named by Abu Ali Express

Abu Ali Express named the dead and described both incidents as strikes by an unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone. In its account, the first strike hit the roof of a home belonging to the al-Khudari family, killing a man it identified as Hani al-Khudari and wounding others. The second, it said, targeted a tent on al-Jalaa Street in Gaza City, killing Mahmoud al-Absi and Jamil al-Absi and wounding several more people.

Abu Ali Express put the total at three people killed since the morning in the two drone strikes. The Times of Israel did not name any of the dead and did not specify what kind of aircraft or munition was used.

The location of the tent strike appears in both accounts. The Times of Israel embedded a post from the Arabic service of the Russian outlet Sputnik, which cited Palestinian media as saying two people were killed and others wounded in an Israeli strike on a tent on al-Jalaa Street.

Where the rooftop strike happened: the accounts differ

The two outlets place the rooftop strike in different neighbourhoods. The Times of Israel said the man was killed in Sheikh Radwan, a district of Gaza City. Abu Ali Express said the strike hit a family home in the al-Nasr neighbourhood, which it described as lying in the northwest of the city. Neither outlet explains the discrepancy, and this article does not resolve it.

The question of why he was on the roof

The Times of Israel noted that it was not clear why the man was on the roof when he was struck. It added that there have been earlier accounts of targets receiving phone calls from officers of the Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security agency, who allegedly told them to choose between being struck alone on a rooftop or inside their homes beside their families. The newspaper presented this as a pattern described previously, not as an explanation of this particular strike, and it did not say whether any such call preceded this one.

The Shin Bet, formally the Israel Security Agency, is responsible for internal security and counterterrorism intelligence. No comment from the agency was reported.

About the sources

Much of the information in both accounts traces back to Palestinian outlets. The Times of Israel attributed its casualty figures to media in Gaza run by Hamas, the Islamist group that has governed the territory. Abu Ali Express is a Hebrew-language Telegram channel that relays material from Arabic-language media and social networks in Gaza and the wider region; it did not cite a specific source for the names it published.

Neither outlet included a statement from the IDF explaining what or whom the strikes were aimed at, and neither said whether the military regarded any of those killed as members of an armed group.

What the reports do not say

• The IDF has not commented, so the targets of both strikes and the reasons for them have not been stated by Israel.
• It is unresolved whether the rooftop strike took place in Sheikh Radwan or in al-Nasr.
• The number of wounded and their condition were not given beyond references to several people hurt.
• The names of the dead come from a single channel and have not been confirmed by any other outlet in the material.
• Neither outlet says whether the man on the roof received any warning before he was struck.