Israeli air strike kills head of Hamas-led police force, medic and police officer

Open this photo in gallery:Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli military strike, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday.Abdel Kareem Hana/The Associated PressAn Israeli air strike on Saturday killed the head of the Hamas-led police force in the northern Gaza Strip, Brigadier-General Abdel-Nasser Al-Maqadma, the Hamas-run interior ministry and medics said.Maqadma, known also as the governor of northern Gaza Strip, was killed by an Israeli air strike in the Sheikh Radwan area north of Gaza City, they said.Another Israeli strike killed a Palestinian medic in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip, medics said. They added that a police officer wounded by an Israeli air strike last week had died on Saturday.An Israeli air strike also killed two people in a house in Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave, medics said, taking Saturday’s death toll to at least four.The Israeli military did not immediately comment on any of the incidents.Israel launches military operation after deadly clash near Palestinian villageIsrael has killed dozens of members of the Hamas-led police force, including senior officials, in the past months, accusing many of them of being members of the Hamas armed wing who posed imminent threats to Israel and its forces inside Gaza.Hamas says Israeli attacks on the police force and its headquarters are intended to sow chaos and anarchy in the enclave and violate the U.S.-brokered October ceasefire.The latest deaths add to a toll of more than 1,180 Palestinians, mostly civilians, killed by Israeli attacks since an October ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants took effect, according to Gaza health officials.Hamas does not usually disclose its losses.The truce halted full-scale fighting but has not ended near-daily Israeli strikes. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed by militants in Gaza over the same period.Mediators including Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United States have been trying to advance U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan for ending the conflict in Gaza, which calls for Hamas disarmament and Israeli withdrawals, but there has been little sign of progress in the efforts.The war began when Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s subsequent offensive has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, say Gaza health officials.Israel effectively controls an estimated 64 per cent of the tiny coastal Strip, bombarded to ruins by Israel’s two-year military assault that followed the 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel.Nearly all of Gaza’s two million people now live on a tiny strip of land, mainly in makeshift tents or damaged buildings and facing dire conditions, under Hamas control.