On Tuesday, the Israeli military killed a man in an airstrike on Gaza City, it said Wednesday, while a cease-fire was in effect. The military named him as Momen Ahmad Salameh Ay.
The military's statement is the only account of who he was, what he did and why he was targeted. The base report offers no independent verification, Palestinian account of the strike, or figure for anyone else killed or wounded.
The Strike
The Israeli military described Ay as a Hamas military commander and an aide to commanders of Hamas' Gaza Brigade. It alleged that he had taken part in holding Israeli hostages captive during the war. The military also alleged he had recently advanced attacks on Israeli troops and civilians and sought to restore the group's capabilities.
The military framed the killing as a response to cease-fire violations. That framing sits awkwardly beside the event itself. An aerial bombardment of a city is one party's use of lethal force during a truce that the same party says it's upholding.
The military announced its allegations after the strike, not before it. It didn't arrest, charge or try the man. No judicial process took place. The base report says only that the military made the claims, which stand without independent corroboration.
A Cease-Fire in Name
The strike on Gaza City came while the cease-fire was supposed to hold. The Israeli military acknowledged as much by accusing Ay of violating the truce. Its public justification for bombing a city under cease-fire conditions is that the person it killed had violated the cease-fire.
The base report contains no Palestinian response, statement from Hamas, testimony from Gaza City residents or word from medics or civil defense. Those voices are missing from the only account available. What the public knows about the killing comes from the party that carried it out.
Questions the Record Doesn't Answer
In the account relayed here, the military didn't say what evidence supports its description of Ay's role. It offered no details about the alleged attacks he advanced or when they were planned. It also didn't say whether civilians were near the target when the strike hit, or whether anyone else was harmed.
The military didn't say what legal basis it relies on for killing a named individual in a city during a truce, or what review process, if any, preceded the order. Those questions follow an extrajudicial killing, and the base report leaves them open.
The pattern is familiar from coverage of the war itself. The Israeli military announces a name, a rank and an allegation. It describes the strike in its own vocabulary. The dead man's side of the story, and the community around him, rarely make it into the first account.
By the military's own telling, the cease-fire hasn't stopped the bombing of Gaza City. Wednesday's announcement confirms that Israeli forces continue to carry out lethal airstrikes there, and that the same military that fired supplies its justification afterward.