Israeli strike on police post in Gaza kills seven, officials say

Health and police officials said that at least seven people, including a senior officer, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a police station belonging to the Hamas-run police force in Gaza.

Eyewitnesses told the BBC that an Israeli drone fired four missiles at a police station near a crowded market in the Jabalia district of northern Gaza.

The Palestinian territory’s Hamas-run interior ministry said the head of the local police station, Col. Mohammed Marwan Salem, and several other officers were among those killed in what it condemned as a “massacre.”

An Israeli military official confirmed an attack on the area and said it targeted “terrorists”.

Two more people were reported killed by Israeli fire in southern Gaza on Tuesday.

One person was killed and three others were injured in the airstrike in the Khan Younis region, medics told the Reuters news agency.

The Israeli army announced that it shot a Hamas officer.

In nearby Rafah, a 10-year-old boy named Muataz Abu Shaar was killed by Israeli gunfire, according to medics.

The Israeli army has not yet made a statement about the incident.

Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating an almost daily ceasefire that came into effect in the Palestinian territories last October.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said at least 1,110 people had been killed by Israeli fire since then, while the Israeli army said four of its soldiers had been killed in Palestinian attacks.

The war was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 people were taken hostage.

According to the region’s health ministry, Israel responded to the attack by launching a military operation in Gaza; More than 73,230 people were killed during this operation.