An Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building in Gaza City around dawn Tuesday, killing two people and wounding five. The deaths added to a toll Gaza health officials put at no fewer than 1,400 Palestinians since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire took effect. Israel said it targeted Izz al-Din Al-Beik, whom Reuters described as head of Hamas' armed wing in the northern Gaza Strip. Hamas confirmed his death.
The strike came as Qatari mediators carried messages between Washington and Tehran, trying to end the wider regional war that began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28. The crises are separate. Both are taking lives as diplomacy stalls.
Civilian Toll
Medics said the strike hit the Nasr neighbourhood. The Associated Press, citing Shifa Hospital officials, reported that it struck an apartment west of Gaza City. Health officials said a second person later died of wounds from the attack. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military targeted Beik, accusing him of planning attacks and recruiting militants.
Israel says Hamas has been rearming and launching attacks in violation of the October ceasefire, and the military has stepped up strikes in recent weeks. The military said it killed at least 20 Hamas figures, including people it identified as senior commanders, participants in the October 7, 2023 attacks, or people who held Israeli hostages. Hamas denies trying to carry out attacks or rebuild its arsenal. It accuses Israel of undermining the Gaza deal.
The ceasefire promised reconstruction. That promise remains unfulfilled. Negotiators haven't agreed on terms for Hamas to disarm and for Israel to withdraw its troops, while airstrikes continue. The Gaza Health Ministry keeps detailed records that AP says are generally seen as reliable. It doesn't separate civilians from militants, but says women and children make up around half of the dead. The Israeli military says four of its soldiers have died since the truce. Palestinian authorities say more than 73,000 people have died in Israel's assault on Gaza, launched after Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel in October 2023.
Diplomatic Options
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari told reporters in Doha, “Qatar’s mediation efforts are ongoing, and we are currently relaying messages between the American and Iranian sides.” He said efforts now focus on “building common ground between the parties.”
The gaps remain wide. A ceasefire reached in April and a June memorandum of understanding aimed to halt hostilities and keep the Strait of Hormuz open. Implementation stalled over security in the waterway. Iran maintains a blockade on commercial shipping there. The U.S. military maintains a counter-blockade of Iranian ports.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said reopening the strait depends on conditions Tehran has communicated: a seven-day ceasefire across the region, including Lebanon; unfreezing Iranian assets abroad; lifting sanctions on Iran's oil sector; and ending the U.S. naval blockade. “Only a negotiated solution can get them out of this deadlock,” he wrote. President Donald Trump rejected the plan on Saturday, saying Iran wants a deal “because they’re losing so badly.” He also denied reports from Axios and CNN that he was ready to ease sanctions and free frozen funds. “I offered them NOTHING,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told CBS that Tehran is ready for talks but won't accept “bullying or coercion.” Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's chief negotiator, took the opposite line in a video released by state TV. “If our security is not guaranteed, no infrastructure will remain safe,” he said.
The Wider Cost
Trump launched the war with Israel as “Operation Epic Fury.” It has killed thousands, disrupted global energy supplies and fuelled inflation. Brent crude rose $1.49 to $106.77 a barrel on Tuesday, and average U.K. diesel prices hit a record high, according to the RAC. Iran's rial fell to a record low, with traders in Tehran exchanging more than 2.5 million rials for one dollar.
Gulf states have absorbed Iranian drone and missile fire. Houthi fighters advanced in Yemen and threatened Saudi oil exports through the Red Sea. Al-Ansari said Iran must “take a very clear position of non-aggression toward their neighbors.” Russia said Tuesday it doesn't want Iran to leave the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, after Iranian lawmakers renewed threats to consider withdrawal.
Why This Matters: The two tracks show what happens when force outpaces politics. In Gaza, a ceasefire without agreement on disarmament or withdrawal has left civilians in the strike zone and reconstruction on paper. In the Gulf, a truce without a workable shipping arrangement has left prices rising and neighbours under fire. Each side's public demands leave little room for the other. That isn't a prediction. It's the pattern in the record: unresolved terms keep turning pauses in fighting into new rounds, and ordinary people in Gaza, Iran, Yemen and the Gulf pay first.