Officials say Israeli air strikes kill at least 43 people across Gaza, including police chief

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 43 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including 11 people in a camp housing displaced families, medics said.

They added that the 11 included women and children in the Al-Mawasi area, which was designated as a humanitarian zone for civilians earlier in the war between Israel and the ruling Hamas movement in Gaza, which has now entered its fifteenth month.

Gaza Police Director General Mahmoud Salah and his assistant Hossam Shahwan were martyred in the raid, according to the Gaza Ministry of Interior.

She added in a statement, “By committing the crime of assassinating the Director General of Police in the Gaza Strip, the occupation insists on spreading chaos in the enclave and deepening the human suffering of citizens.”

The Israeli army said that it carried out a raid based on intelligence information in Al-Mawasi, west of the city of Khan Yunis, and eliminated Shahwan, describing him as the commander of Hamas’ security forces in southern Gaza. Salah’s death was not mentioned.

Other Israeli air strikes led to the deaths of at least 26 Palestinians, including six at the Interior Ministry headquarters in Khan Yunis and others in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, the Beach camp, and the Maghazi camp in central Gaza.

The Israeli army said it targeted Hamas activists who intelligence information indicated were working in a command and control center “located inside the Khan Yunis municipality building in the humanitarian zone.”

“At the beginning of the year, we received reports of another attack on Al-Mawasi that left dozens dead and wounded. Another reminder that there is no humanitarian zone let alone a ‘safe zone’ (in Gaza),” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said in a post on the X website.

“Every day without a ceasefire will bring more tragedies.”

In response to a question about the death toll announced on Thursday, an Israeli army spokesman said that it followed international law in waging war on Gaza and that it took “possible precautions to mitigate the harm to civilians.”

Later on Thursday, medics said separate Israeli air strikes killed at least four people on Al-Jalaa Street in central Gaza City and two in the Zaytoun neighborhood.

The Israeli army accused Gaza activists of using residential areas for shelter. Hamas denies this.

Islamic Jihad, a smaller ally of Hamas, said it fired rockets at Kibbutz Holit in southern Israel near Gaza on Thursday. The Israeli army said that it intercepted a shell in the area that had crossed from southern Gaza.

Israel killed more than 45,500 Palestinians in the war, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced, and much of the small coastal area crowded with buildings has been reduced to rubble.

The war was sparked by a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage in Gaza, according to Israeli statistics. The Islamic Jihad movement, an ally of Hamas, also participated in the attack.

The hostage tried to take his own life

An Israeli hostage held by Islamic Jihad in Gaza attempted to commit suicide, a spokesman for the group’s military wing said in a video posted on the Telegram app on Thursday.

The Al-Quds Brigades spokesman added that one of the movement’s medical teams intervened and prevented his death, without going into further details about the identity of the hostage or his current condition.

Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Abu Hamza, spokesman for the Islamic Jihad Movement, said that the hostage attempted suicide three days ago due to his psychological state, without going into further details.

Abu Hamza accused the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of setting new conditions that led to “failure and delay” of negotiations for the hostage’s release.

Abu Hamza said that the man was scheduled to be released along with other hostages under the terms of the first phase of the exchange deal with Israel. He did not specify when the man was scheduled to be released or under what deal.

Efforts by Arab mediators, with support from the United States, have so far failed to reach a ceasefire in Gaza under a possible agreement that also includes the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

Abu Hamza added that the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement issued a decision to tighten security and safety measures for the hostages.

In July, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement said that some Israeli hostages had tried to kill themselves after it began treating them in what it described as the same way Israel treats Palestinian prisoners.

“We will continue to treat Israeli hostages the same way Israel treats our prisoners,” Abu Hamza said at the time. Israel denied the accusations against it of mistreating Palestinian prisoners.