Israeli strike on police post in Gaza kills seven, officials say

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, 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”.

An Israeli military official confirmed it had carried out a strike in the area and said it had targeted “terrorists”.

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 news agency.

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 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.