Hamas police chief among 40 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza

Hamas police chief among 40 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza
Not a valid attachment ID.
Israel  strikes densely populated areas,  says Hamas militants  hiding among displaced civilians
More than 40 Palestinians have been killed in 15 Israeli  airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-run  territory's civil defense service.
The Gaza police chief and his deputy were among 11 killed in  a nighttime attack on a tent camp for displaced families in the  "humanitarian zone" south of al-Mawasi.
The Hamas-run  Interior Ministry condemned what it called the  "assassination" of Mahmoud Salah and Hussam Shahwan, who it said  were "fulfilling their humanitarian and national  duty."
The Israeli military confirmed it had carried out a strike  against Shahwan,  whom it  accused of being a "terrorist" who had helped  Hamas' military wing plan attacks  against Israeli  forces.
Six people were killed in an Israeli  airstrike nearby on Thursday,  and other deadly  attacks took place elsewhere in central and southern  Gaza. The Israeli military also said it  had intercepted a rocket fired from southern  Gaza.
Struggle to reunite children with  their families in war-torn Gaza
UN says Israeli attacks  are pushing  Gaza's healthcare  system towards total  collapse
Children in Gaza freeze to death as winter temperatures  plunge
The Gaza  Interior Ministry accused Israel of  "sowing chaos" and  "exacerbating human  suffering" in the territory by killing Salah and Shahwan. It insisted the police  were a  "civil defense agency" providing services to  Palestinians.
Last year, Israel began targeting police  officers, citing their role in  the Hamas  government.
The Israeli military said police  forces had  "carried out violent interrogations of the  Gaza population, violating human rights and suppressing  dissent." "Hassam Shahwan was responsible for developing intelligence assessments in  coordination with elements of  Hamas' military wing  during attacks  against the  Israeli army in the Gaza Strip," it  said, without mentioning  Salah.
The military also said it had taken "numerous  measures" to mitigate the risk of  harm to civilians  before the  attack on  al-Mawasi.
Three brothers, aged seven,  eleven and  thirteen, were among the nine  others killed.
Ahmed, Mohammed and Abdul Rahman  al-Bardavil were hit by  shells while sleeping in their family's tent, their father Walid  said.
"I woke up to the sound of the explosion.  "I called my three sleeping  children, but  no one answered. They were martyred immediately," he told AFP news  agency.
Videos on social media showed the bodies  of the children being transported to a local hospital  in a tuk-tuk, their mattresses  covered in blood inside a damaged  tent.
EPA A Palestinian stands  next to the blood-stained mattresses where Ahmed, Mohammed and Abdul Rahman  al-Bardavil were killed in an Israeli strike, in al-Mawasi, southern Gaza  (January 2, 2025) EPA
The overnight strike killed three brothers as they slept in their  beds.
Aida Zanoun, who was  staying in a  nearby tent, said she heard an Apache helicopter gunship flying overhead at around  11:00 p.m. (2300 GMT on  Wednesday).
"Then we saw a very  loud [explosion].  "It caused an earthquake in the  neighborhood. Some of it reached  up to 100 meters [330 feet], they say,"  he told Reuters news  agency.
"When the morning came, we  went to inspect [the  premises] and ... it  was ruin, total destruction. What  are the children  doing to be  affected?"
The Israeli military said the sandy strip of land along the coast in al-Mawasi  was a "humanitarian zone" for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by its 14-month war with  Hamas. But the Israeli military has repeatedly attacked the area, accusing Hamas  members of hiding among  civilians.
Six more people were  later killed in an Israeli  airstrike on the Gaza  Interior Ministry headquarters in Khan Younis, medics  said.
The Israeli military said it  carried out the strike  against "Hamas terrorists operating in a  command and control center embedded  in the Khan Younis municipality  building."
The Civil  Defense said  on Thursday that 10  more people were killed in the town of Jabalia and four in  southern Gaza  City.
Deadly attacks were also reported by Palestinian media in  western Gaza City and the nearby Shati refugee camp, as well as in the central town of Deir al-Balah and the urban Maghazi refugee  camp. Displaced Palestinians  in Anatolia use buckets to  prevent their tents  from being flooded by rain and sewage in al-Mawasi, near Khan Yunis, southern Gaza  (January 1, 2025) Anatolia
Hundreds of tents across Gaza have been flooded by rainwater and sewage
Meanwhile,  the recent  cold and humidity have worsened conditions in makeshift camps for displaced  families.
More than 1,500 tents across Gaza have been flooded by rainwater and sewage since Tuesday, according to the Hamas-run  civil defense agency.
"When we woke  up ... we were shocked to  see that the rain had flooded [our tent],  drowning us in  the sewers," Moataz Abu Hatab told BBC  Arabic's Gaza  Today.
"Everything we had  – our mattresses,  blankets and clothes  – was  gone. All the  things we managed to buy or  get during the war are now  gone and we are left with  nothing. »
Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group's unprecedented attack  in southern Israel on October  7, 2023, in which  approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken  hostage.
More than 45,580 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the  Hamas territory's health  ministry.

[attachment deleted by admin]