Israeli forces kill 16 in Gaza Strip, West Bank: medics
Health officials say Israeli forces have killed 16 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank as Israel continues its attacks on Lebanon and Iran; This is one of the heaviest deaths in a single day in weeks.
Medics and the interior ministry of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said an Israeli airstrike hit their vehicle near the entrance to the town of Zawayda in the center of the territory, killing a senior police official and eight other officers.
Gaza’s health ministry said at least 14 people were injured, most of them bystanders.
Early Sunday, health officials said three people, including a man, his pregnant wife and his son, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the western district of Nuseyrat in the central Gaza Strip.
🔴ELIMINATED: Muhammad Majed Abd al-Salam Tawfik Zidan Zidan, a Palestinian terrorist directed by the intelligence of the Iranian regime, served as a key Palestinian terrorist operating under the intelligence of the Iranian terrorist regime and seeking to advance terrorist attacks… — Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 15, 2026
Palestinian health officials said that a Palestinian father, mother and their two children were killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank while they were heading towards the occupied West Bank, and the Israeli army said that the incident was under investigation.
There has been regular violence in the Gaza Strip since a ceasefire came into force in October following two years of devastating war triggered by Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.
While Israeli attacks in the strip decreased in the days after the United States and Israel launched an attack on Iran on Feb. 28, they have since begun to increase again, according to residents, medics and analysts.
Israeli fire has killed at least 36 Palestinians since the start of the Iran war, Gaza health officials said.
The region’s health ministry says at least 670 people have died from Israeli fire since the October ceasefire.
Israel said four soldiers were killed by militants in the Gaza Strip during the same period.
In the West Bank village of Tammun, Palestinian health officials said 37-year-old Ali Khalid Bani Odeh, his 35-year-old wife Waad and their two sons, aged five and seven, died after being shot in the head, and their other two children were injured.
The Israeli army said in a statement that its forces carried out an operation in the village of Tammun to arrest Palestinians wanted for participating in “terrorist” activities against security forces.
The army said, “During the operation, a vehicle accelerated towards the forces who perceived an immediate threat to their security and responded with fire. As a result, four Palestinians in the vehicle were killed.” he said.
It was stated that the circumstances of the incident were reviewed.
One of the two surviving children, 12-year-old Khalid, told Reuters in hospital that he heard his mother crying and his father praying before gunshots rang out into the car.
The child said, “We came under direct fire, we did not know the source. Everyone in the vehicle, except my brother Mustafa and me, was martyred.”
He said the soldiers pulled him out of the vehicle before beating him and shouting, “We killed the dogs.”
The Palestinian health ministry said that a Palestinian was also killed in the attack carried out by Israeli settlers overnight.
Human rights groups and medics have accused Israeli settlers in the West Bank of taking advantage of movement restrictions imposed during the US-Israeli war against Iran to attack Palestinians, and of military roadblocks preventing ambulances from reaching victims quickly.
Settlers have killed at least five Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the war with Iran on February 28, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
