Israeli airstrikes killed at least 26 people in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, hitting Hamas security officers and an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone, as daily shelling continues and final efforts for a ceasefire -the fire seems to have failed.
Hundreds of thousands of displaced people had gathered in a wet winter in the coastal humanitarian zone known as Muwasi, which has been the target of Israeli strikes.
The early morning strike killed at least ten people, including three children and two senior Hamas police officers.
The Israeli military said it targeted a senior officer in the Hamas-led police force. She said he was involved in collecting intelligence used by Hamas’ military wing in attacks against Israeli forces.
Another Israeli strike killed at least eight Palestinians in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
The men were members of local committees that help secure humanitarian aid convoys, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies. A journalist from theAssociated Press confirmed the report.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strike.
In the south of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army killed five police officers east of Khan Younes. Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said the strike targeted the head of Hamas’s internal security force in the south of the territory.
Open in full screen mode
A man cries over the remains of a child covered with a sheet. Displaced children were killed in an Israeli bombardment in the Mawasi camp in Khan Yunis.
Photo : afp via getty images / BASHAR TALEB
Where did we find it? But of course hidden in the humanitarian zone of Khan Younes, where Gazans are hiding to escape this war
said Mr. Mencer.
Israel has repeatedly targeted police in the Gaza Strip during the 15-month war, contributing to a breakdown in law and order in the territory that has made it difficult for humanitarian groups to deliver aid. . Israel accuses Hamas of diverting aid for its own purposes.
The Hamas-led government had a police force numbering tens of thousands that maintained a high level of public security before the war, while violently suppressing dissent. Today, these police officers have largely disappeared from the streets in many areas.
Separately, three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a group of people walking in the street in Maghazi, in the central Gaza Strip. Their bodies were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
90% of the population displaced
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was released from hospital on Thursday after undergoing prostate surgery on Sunday.
Doctors at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital said Mr. Netanyahu was recovering strength, although he still has some recovery time ahead of him. Despite doctors’ orders to remain hospitalized, the 75-year-old leader briefly left the facility to participate in a vote in the Israeli parliament on Tuesday.
Mr Netanyahu has vowed to continue the fight in the Gaza Strip until Hamas is destroyed. But the militant group, although greatly weakened, regrouped several times in parts of the territory – notably in the largely isolated north – after the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
The war was sparked by the attack by Hamas militants on Israel on October 7, 2023. The militants killed some 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and kidnapped around 250. Around 100 hostages remain in the Gaza Strip, at least a third of whom are believed to have died.
The Israeli retaliatory offensive has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians in the territory, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which says women and children account for more than half of the deaths. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its assessment.
The Israeli military says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in dense residential areas. The army claims to have killed 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war has caused widespread destruction and displaced about 90 percent of the population of the Gaza Strip, which has a population of 2.3 million, many of them multiple times.
Hunger is widespread. Children, some barefoot or in sandals, lined up with metal buckets or other containers Thursday at a food distribution center in Deir Al-Balah.
