AFP, GAZA STRIP
Gaza’s civil defence agency yesterday said that an overnight Israeli airstrike killed at least 11 people, including the chief of the territory’s Hamas-run police force.
“Eleven people were martyred, including three children and two women, and 15 were injured after the occupation aircraft bombed a tent housing displaced people in the al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Yunis city in the southern Gaza Strip,” Gaza’s civil defense agency said in a statement.
Among those killed were Police Chief Mahmud Salah and Deputy Police Chief Hussam Shahwan, agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.
Displaced Palestinians walk amid scattered debris of tents yesterday, following an overnight Israeli strike on a makeshift displacement camp in Mawasi Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Photo: AFP
In a separate statement, the Hamas-run ministry of the interior condemned the killing of the two police officers, saying “they were performing their humanitarian and national duty in serving our people.”
“By committing the assassination, the occupation continues to spread chaos in the [Gaza] Strip and deepen the human suffering of citizens.” the ministry said. “The police force is a civil protection force that works to provide services to citizens.”
Nearly 15 months of war have devastated Gaza’s infrastructure and institutions, leading aid agencies to warn of the breakdown of social order.
The Israeli military said that it was looking into the incident.
Gaza ambulance driver Saleem Abu Subha described the scene of the strike.
“We immediately went to the place and found the injured lying on the ground, most of them children, as well as two female martyrs,” he said.
“About 10 tents were damaged, and scattered fires were visible,” Saleem said.
Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz on Wednesday threatened that Israel would intensify its strikes on Gaza if Hamas continued to fire rockets into Israel.
Renewed rocket fire from Gaza in recent days has caused little damage in Israel and the rockets have been fired in far fewer numbers than in the early stages of the war, but they are a political blow for the Israeli government after nearly 15 months of fighting.
Katz also demanded the release of hostages still held in Gaza.
