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

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

They said the 11 included women and children in Al-Mawasi district, which was designated as a civilian relief area at the beginning of the war between Israel and Gaza’s ruling group Hamas, which is now in its 15th month.

The director general of the Gaza Police Department, Mahmoud Salah, and his assistant, Hussam Shahwan, were killed in the strike, according to the Gaza Interior Ministry.

“By committing the crime of murdering the director general of the Gaza Strip police, the operation insists on the escalation of chaos in [enclave] and deepening the human suffering of the citizens,” the statement added.

The Israeli military said it carried out a reconnaissance strike in Al-Mawasi, west of the city of Khan Younis, and killed Shahwan, calling him the head of the Hamas security force in southern Gaza. It did not mention Salah’s death.

Another Israeli airstrike killed at least 26 Palestinians, including six at the Ministry of Interior headquarters in Khan Younis and others in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, Shati (Beach) camp and Maghazi camp in central Gaza.

The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas terrorists in an intelligence unit that said it was operating in a control center “embedded inside the Khan Younis municipal building in the Humanitarian Area.”

“As the year begins, we have received reports of another attack on Al-Mawasi with dozens of people killed and injured. Another reminder that there is no place to help people let alone a ‘safe place’ [in Gaza]”, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, wrote on page X.

“Every day without a ceasefire will bring another tragedy.”

Asked about the death toll on Thursday, a spokesman for the Israeli army said it followed international law in fighting in Gaza and that it had taken “possible precautions to minimize civilian casualties.”

Later on Thursday, separate Israeli airstrikes killed at least four people on Jala Street in central Gaza City and two in the Zeitoun district, medics said.

The Israeli military has accused Gaza militants of using settlements built for their independence. Hamas denies this.

Hamas’s sub-group, Islamic Jihad, said it fired rockets at the southern Israeli kibbutz of Holit near Gaza on Thursday. The Israeli army said it intercepted one bomb in an area that 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 the small, largely built-up coastal area is in ruins.

The war was started by a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 in Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and another 251 were taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli figures. Hamas ally Islamic Jihad also took part in the attack.

The hostage tried to kill himself

An Israeli hostage held by the Islamic Jihad terrorist group in Gaza tried to kill himself, said the spokesperson of the armed wing of this organization in a video posted on Telegram on Thursday.

One of the group’s health teams intervened and prevented him from dying, said a spokesman for Al-Quds Brigades, without going into any further details about his identity or current condition.

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

Islamic Jihad spokesman, Abu Hamza, said the kidnapper tried to commit suicide three days ago because of his mental state, without elaborating.

Abu Hamza accused the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of imposing new conditions that led to the “failure and delay” of talks to free the former hostage.

The man was scheduled to be released with other hostages under the terms of the first phase of a trade deal with Israel, Abu Hamza said. He did not specify when the suspect was scheduled to be released or under what agreement.

Efforts by Arab mediators, supported by the United States, have so far failed to conclude an agreement to end the fighting in Gaza, under an agreement that may also include the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for the return of freedom for Palestinians from Israeli prisons.

The armed wing of Islamic Jihad has issued a decision to strengthen the security and safety of the hostages, said Abu Hamza.

In July, the Islamic Jihad militant group said some Israeli hostages tried to kill themselves after they began treating them the way Israel treated Palestinian prisoners.

“We will continue to treat Israeli hostages the same way Israel treats our prisoners,” Abu Hamza said at the time. Israel has denied allegations that it tortures Palestinian prisoners.