Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill police chief, two dozen others

Israel struck a declared humanitarian zone in southern Gaza overnight, which rescuers on Thursday said killed the head of the territory's Hamas-run police force, his deputy and nine others.

Gaza's civil defence agency said two other Israeli strikes later on Thursday elsewhere in the territory killed 14 Palestinians.

The Israeli military confirmed it had carried out the overnight strike on the area of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, which it said targeted deputy police chief Hussam Shahwan over his alleged role in planning attacks against Israeli troops.

The civil defence agency said Shahwan was among 11 people killed in the strike, which according to the rescuers and authorities in Gaza also left the commander of the police force, Mahmud Salah, dead.

"Eleven people were martyred, including three children and two women, and 15 were injured after the (Israeli) occupation aircraft bombed a tent housing displaced people in the Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Yunis city in the southern Gaza Strip," said a civil defence statement.

Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the agency, said the two senior police officers were among the dead.

The Israeli military, which has not commented on Salah's death, said his deputy Shahwan "was responsible for developing intelligence assessments in coordination with... Hamas's military wing" in attacks on Israeli forces in Gaza.

Ambulance driver Saleem Abu Subha said rescuers "found the injured lying on the ground, most of them children, as well as two female martyrs" at the site of the strike.

"About 10 tents were damaged, and scattered fires were visible," he said.

The territory's Hamas-run interior ministry condemned in a statement the killing of the two top officers, saying "they were performing their humanitarian and national duty in serving our people".

It accused Israel of spreading "chaos" and deepening "the human suffering" in Gaza with the deadly strike.

"The police force is a civil protection force that works to provide services to citizens," the ministry statement said.

Nearly 15 months of war, triggered by Hamas's unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, have devastated the besieged Gaza Strip's infrastructure and institutions, with aid agencies warning of the breakdown of social order.

The interior ministry said Salah spent 30 years in the force and was appointed police chief six years ago.

- Rocket fire -

Elsewhere in Gaza, the civil defence agency said a strike on Jabalia, in the north, killed at least 10 people.

The Israeli military, whose forces have been engaged in a sweeping operation in northern Gaza since early October, has not commented on the latest strike.

It came a day after Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened to intensify strikes on Gaza in response to renewed rocket fire from the territory into Israel.

Katz also demanded the release of dozens of hostages still held in Gaza since the Hamas attack last year.

The resumption of launches in recent days, though in far lower numbers than in the early stages of the war and causing little damage, represents a political blow for the Israeli government which has vowed to eliminated Hamas's military capabilities.

On Thursday, the military said it intercepted one rocket that crossed from the southern Gaza Strip.

The October 7 attack last year that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory response has so far killed at least 45,581 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, figures which the United Nations considers reliable.