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Israel's Latest Gaza Strikes Kill 12 07/16 06:09
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Israeli airstrikes have killed at least a
dozen people in Gaza over the past two days, local health officials said
Wednesday, as strikes continue almost daily despite a months-old ceasefire with
Hamas.
On Wednesday, three members of a family were killed in central Gaza, Al Aqsa
Hospital officials said.
On Tuesday, woman and six police officers were among those killed in an
airstrike on a police station in the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp in
northern Gaza, hospital officials said. A man died in the bombing of a tent
camp in Khan Younis in the south, Nasser Hospital officials said. And Israeli
forces shot and killed a child in the Muwasi area outside the southernmost city
of Rafah, according to hospital officials.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes in central
and southern Gaza. In a statement on the attack in Jabaliya, it claimed that
four of the slain police officers were Hamas militants, without providing
evidence on how those killed were involved in planning or carrying out attacks.
One of the officers, Col. Mohamad Marwan Salem, was a senior police
commander and head of the Jabaliya police station, the Hamas-run Interior
Ministry said.
Hamas, which ruled Gaza for years, maintains an armed wing as well as
civilian police and security services that are overseen by its Interior
Ministry. Throughout the war, Israel has targeted local police, including those
guarding humanitarian aid convoys.
Israel's military has claimed it considers police stations legitimate
targets if they're "being used to advance military activities, or if those
present are military operatives involved in advancing terrorist activities."
It did not say what military activities it believed were taking place at the
Jabaliya police station, nor did it provide evidence that attacks were being
planned. Hamas says the police force is engaged in maintaining law and order.
Israeli attacks on Gaza's police have been condemned by the United Nations
human rights office, which said last month that police personnel had been
attacked at least a dozen times in 2026, including "during ordinary law
enforcement operations, including directing traffic and patrolling streets and
markets."
"The pattern of attacks raises concerns that Israeli forces apply no
distinction between police personnel and fighters belonging to armed groups in
Gaza," it said in a June 3 statement.
Ofer Guterman, a researcher at Israel's Institute for National Security
Studies, said Israel's targeting suggests that it regards parts of Hamas'
policing apparatus as closely integrated with its military infrastructure,
including through dual-role personnel and the use of facilities for weapons
storage, operations and logistics.
The fragile ceasefire deal in October attempted to halt a two-year-long war
between Israel and Hamas.
The heaviest fighting has subsided but at least 1,123 people have been
killed in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect, according to the territory's
Health Ministry. The ministry, which has been part of the Hamas-led government,
maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N.
agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and
militants but says women and children make up most of the dead.
Militants have carried out shooting attacks on troops, and Israel says its
strikes are in response to that and other violations. Five Israeli soldiers
have been killed since the ceasefire.
The war began after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023,
killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel's retaliatory
offensive in Gaza has killed more than 73,264 Palestinians, including those
killed since the ceasefire, Gaza's Health Ministry said. ___
Magdy reported from Cairo and Metz from Ramallah, West Bank.
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