An Israeli air strike on a post belonging to Gaza’s Hamas-run police force has killed at least seven people, including a senior officer and a woman, health and police officials say.
Witnesses told the BBC that an Israeli drone fired four missiles at the post near a busy market in the Jabalia area 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”.
The Israeli military said Marwan was the head of military security for Hamas’s Central Jabalia Battalion, and that three other “terrorists” were killed alongside him.
It identified them as Abdul Malik al-Jabin, Ghassan al-Daqas and Yaman Abu Obeida, and said the first two men were police officers.
The casualties were taken to al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, where the uncle of another dead police officer insisted he was a civilian.
“He was on duty – part of the civilian police force – patrolling the Fallujah roundabout in a civilian vehicle when he was targeted by surveillance aircraft,” Mohammed Moussa told Reuters news agency.
“I want to understand: what was the purpose of targeting him?” he asked.
Another two people were reportedly killed by Israeli fire in southern Gaza on Tuesday.
An air strike killed a man and injured three other people in the Khan Younis area, medics told Reuters. The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas operative.
In nearby Rafah, a 10-year-old boy named Muataz Abu Shaar was killed by Israeli gunfire, according to the medics.
The boy’s aunt, Suzan Abu Shaar, said he had been “sitting in his tent, getting changed”.
“He was her [his mother’s] support. What is she supposed to do? May God grant her and her heart patience,” she said. “Wherever we go, there is no safety. We want them to stop these massacres. We want them to stop the war.”
The Israeli military has not yet commented on that incident.
Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of near-daily violations of the ceasefire that took effect in the Palestinian territory last October.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry has said at least 1,110 people have been killed by Israeli fire since then, while the Israeli military has said four of its soldiers have been killed in Palestinian attacks.
The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
Israel responded to the attack by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 73,230 people have been killed, according to the territory’s health ministry.
