Hamas police chief included among 40 people reported killed in Israeli attack on Gaza

More than 40 Palestinians have been killed in 15 Israeli airstrikes across the Strip, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip Civil Defense Agency.

Gaza’s police chief and his deputy announced that they were among 11 people killed in an overnight attack on a tent camp of displaced families in the “humanitarian zone” of the southern city of Almawasi.

The Hamas-run Interior Ministry condemned the “assassinations” of Mahmoud Salah and Hussam Shahwan, who were “fulfilling their humanitarian and national obligations”.

The Israeli military admitted carrying out the attack targeting Shahwan, who it claimed was a “terrorist” who helped Hamas’s military wing plan attacks on Israeli forces.

Six people were reportedly killed in Israeli bombings nearby late Thursday, in a bombing that also caused fatalities elsewhere in south-central Gaza.

The Israeli military also announced that it had intercepted a rocket fired from southern Gaza.

Gaza’s interior ministry accused Israel of “spreading chaos” and “deepening human suffering” in the region by killing Salah and Shahwan. The police claimed to be a “civilian protection agency” providing services to Palestinians.

Illegal activity has increased in Gaza since Israel began targeting police last year for their role in Hamas’s rule.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said police “conducted violent interrogations against Gaza residents, violated human rights and suppressed dissent.”

Without mentioning Salah, the newspaper claimed that “Hassam Shahwan was responsible for developing intelligence assessments in coordination with Hamas’ military wing for attacks on IDF forces in the Gaza Strip.”

The military also said it had taken “a number of measures” to reduce the risk of harm to civilians ahead of the attack on Almawasi.

The nine others killed included three brothers aged 7, 11 and 13.

Their father, Walid, said Ahmed, Mohammed and Abdul Rahman al-Bardawil were sleeping in the family’s tent when they were hit by shrapnel.

“I woke up to the sound of an explosion. I called my three sleeping sons, but no one answered. They were immediately martyred,” he told AFP news agency.

Videos on social media showed the boys’ bodies being taken by tuk-tuk to a local hospital and a bloody mattress inside a damaged tent.

Aida Zanoun, who was living in a nearby tent, said she heard an Apache gunship helicopter flying overhead around 1am on Thursday (11pm local time on Wednesday).

“Then I saw a very strong explosion. There was an earthquake nearby. The debris reached up to 100 meters (330 feet),” she told Reuters.

“In the morning, we came to inspect (the site)… and it was a disaster, complete destruction. What did they do that the children were being beaten?”

The IDF has declared the sands along the coast of al-Mawasi a “humanitarian zone” for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the 14-month war with Hamas.

But the region has been repeatedly attacked, accusing Hamas operatives of hiding among civilians.

Medical officials later announced that six more people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Interior Ministry headquarters in Khan Younis.

The Israel Defense Forces announced that they had attacked “Hamas terrorists operating from a control and command center set up inside Khan Yunis City Hall.”

Civil Defense said 10 more people were killed in the northern town of Jabalia and four in southern Gaza City on Thursday.

Deadly attacks were also reported by Palestinian media in western Gaza City and the nearby Shati refugee camp, as well as in downtown Deir al-Bara and the urban Maghazi refugee camp.

Meanwhile, the recent cold and rainy weather has worsened the situation in temporary camps for displaced families.

More than 1,500 tents have been flooded with rainwater and sewage across Gaza since Tuesday, according to the Hamas-run civil defense agency.

“When I woke up… it was a shock to realize that it (the tent) had flooded due to the rain and was submerged in sewage,” Moatas Abu Hattab told BBC Arabic’s Gaza Today program.

“Everything we had was gone – mattresses, blankets, clothes. All the items we had managed to buy or receive during the war were gone and we were left with nothing.”

Israel launched an operation to annihilate Hamas in response to Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which left approximately 1,200 people dead and 251 hostages taken.

More than 45,580 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-controlled region’s health ministry.