CAIRO: Israeli airstrikes killed at least 68 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including a tent camp where the head of the enclave’s Hamas-run police force, his deputy and nine displaced people died, Gaza authorities said.
Israel said the deputy was the head of security forces for the Palestinian group Hamas in southern Gaza.
The attack took place in the Al-Mawasi neighborhood, which had previously been designated a humanitarian zone for civilians during the 14-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, which rules Gaza.
Gaza Police Department Director General Mahmúd Salah and his assistant Hussam Shahwan, who were checking on camp residents, were killed in the strike, according to the Gaza Interior Ministry.
“By committing the criminal act of assassinating the director general of the Gaza Strip police, the occupation insists on spreading chaos in (the enclave) and deepening the human suffering of the citizens,” the statement added.
The Israeli military said it carried out an intelligence strike in Al-Mawasi, west of the town of Khan Younis, and killed Shahwan, saying he was leading Hamas forces in southern Gaza. It made no mention of Salah’s death.
“As the year begins, we have … another reminder that there is no humanitarian zone, much less a safe zone” in Gaza, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, said in a post on X.
“Every day without a ceasefire will bring more tragedies.”
Thursday’s death toll was among the highest in recent weeks.
Other Israeli airstrikes killed at least 57 Palestinians, including six at the Ministry of Interior headquarters in Khan Younis, and others in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, Shati (Beach) camp, Maghazi camp in central Gaza, and Gaza City.
The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas fighters who, according to intelligence, were operating in a command and control center “inside the Khan Younis village building in the Humanitarian Area.”
Asked about Thursday’s reported death toll, an Israeli army spokesman said it had followed international law in conducting the war in Gaza and had taken “feasible measures to mitigate harm to the civilian population”.
The Israeli military has accused Gaza fighters of using built-up residential areas for cover. Hamas denies this.
Hamas’ smaller ally Islamic Jihad said it fired rockets at the southern Israeli kibbutz of Holit near Gaza on Thursday. The Israeli military said it intercepted one projectile in an area that crossed from southern Gaza.
Israel has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians in the war, Gaza’s health ministry said. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced, and much of the small, heavily built-up coastal territory is in ruins.
The war was sparked by a cross-border attack by Hamas on 7 October 2023 into southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people and took another 251 hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli records.
