Israeli airstrikes killed at least 54 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip this Thursday (2), including 11 people in a camp housing displaced families, according to doctors.
They said the 11 people included women and children in the Al-Mawasi district, designated as a humanitarian zone for civilians at the start of the war between Israel and the militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza. The conflict is now in its 15th month.
The director general of the Gaza police department, Mahmoud Salah, and his aide, Hussam Shahwan, were killed in the attack, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Interior Ministry.
“By committing the crime of murdering 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,” he added in a statement.
The Israeli military said it carried out an intelligence-based strike in Al-Mawasi, west of the town of Khan Younis, and eliminated Shahwan, saying he was head of Hamas security forces in southern Gaza. There was no mention of Salah’s death.
Further Israeli airstrikes killed at least 43 Palestinians, including six at the Interior Ministry headquarters in Khan Younis and others in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, the Shati camp and the Maghazi camp in central Gaza. .
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The Israeli Army said it was targeting Hamas militants who, according to intelligence, were operating from a command and control center “built into the Khan Younis town hall building in the Humanitarian Area.”
Asked about Thursday’s deaths, a spokesman for the Israeli military said international law was followed in Gaza and “feasible precautions were taken to mitigate harm to civilians.”
Later, separate Israeli airstrikes killed at least four people on Jala Street in central Gaza City and two in the Zeitoun district, doctors said.
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The Israeli military accuses Gaza militants of using residential areas as cover. Hamas denies doing this.
A smaller Hamas ally, Islamic Jihad said it fired rockets at the Holit kibbutz in southern Israel, near Gaza, on Thursday. The Israeli Army said it intercepted a projectile in the area it had crossed from southern Gaza.
Israel has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians in the war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced and much of the tiny, heavily built coastal territory lies in ruins.
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The war was triggered by Hamas’ cross-border attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and another 251 were taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli records.
