Israeli airstrikes kill at least 54 people across Gaza, including police chiefs, officials say
Israeli airstrikes killed at least 54 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including 11 people in a tent camp sheltering displaced families, doctors said.
They said 11 of them included women and children in the Al-Mawasi district, which earlier in the war between Israel and Gaza’s ruling Hamas militant group, now in its 15th month, had been designated a humanitarian zone for civilians.
Gaza Police Chief Director Mahmoud Salah and his assistant Hussam Shahwan were killed in the attack, according to the Gaza Ministry of Interior.
“Having committed the crime of assassinating the director general of the Gaza Strip police, the occupation insists on spreading chaos in [enclave] and deepening the human suffering of citizens,” the statement added.
Israel’s military said it carried out an intelligence-based raid in Al-Mawasi, west of the town of Khan Younis, and eliminated Shahwan, calling him the head of Hamas’ security forces in southern Gaza. No mention was made of Salah’s death.
Other Israeli airstrikes killed at least 26 Palestinians, including six at the Interior Ministry headquarters in Khan Younis and others in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, Shati (Beach) camp and Maghazi camp in central Gaza.
Israel’s military said it targeted Hamas militants who intelligence showed were operating from a command and control center “embedded inside the Khan Younis Municipality building in the humanitarian area.”
“At the beginning of the year, we received reports of another attack on Al-Mawasi with dozens of people killed and injured. Another reminder that there is no humanitarian zone, let alone a ‘safe zone’ [in Gaza]” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, in a post on X.
“Every day without a ceasefire will bring more tragedies.”
Asked about the death toll on Thursday, a spokesman for Israel’s military said it had followed international law in conducting the war in Gaza and had taken “feasible precautions to mitigate harm to civilians”.
Later on Thursday, separate Israeli airstrikes killed at least four people on Jala Street in central Gaza City and two in its Zeitoun neighborhood, medics said.
The Israeli military has accused Gaza militants of using built-up residential areas as cover. Hamas denies this.
Hamas’ smaller ally Islamic Jihad said it fired rockets at the southern Israeli kibbutz Holit near Gaza on Thursday. The Israeli military said it intercepted one missile in the area that crossed from southern Gaza.
Israel has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians in the war, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced, and much of the tiny, densely built-up coastal area is in ruins.
The war was triggered by a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and another 251 people taken hostage in Gaza, according to Israeli figures. Hamas ally Islamic Jihad also took part in the attack.
The hostage tried to take his own life
An Israeli hostage held by the Islamic Jihad militant group in Gaza tried to take his own life, a spokesman for the movement’s armed wing said in a video posted Thursday on Telegram.
One of the group’s medical teams intervened and prevented his death, the Al-Quds Brigade spokesman added, without elaborating on the hostage’s identity or current condition.
Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Hamza said that the hostage tried to take his own life three days ago because of his mental state, without going into details.
Abu Hamza accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of setting new conditions that led to the “failure and delay” of negotiations to release the hostages.
The man was to be freed with the other hostages under the terms of the first phase of the exchange agreement with Israel, Abu Hamza said. He did not specify when the man was to be released or under what agreement.
Efforts by Arab mediators, backed by the United States, have so far failed to seal a truce in Gaza, under a possible deal that would also include the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for the freedom of Palestinians in Israeli jails.
The armed wing of Islamic Jihad made a decision to tighten security measures for the hostages, Abu Hamza added.
In July, Islamic Jihad’s armed wing said some Israeli hostages tried to kill themselves after being treated the same way Israel treated Palestinian prisoners.
“We will continue to treat Israeli hostages the same way Israel treats our prisoners,” Abu Hamza said at the time. Israel has denied allegations that it mistreats Palestinian prisoners.
