Iꦕsraeli airstrikes killed at least 26 people across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, 𒁃hitting Hamas security officers and an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone.
As the daily bombardment continued, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he had authorized a delegation from the Mossad intelligence agency, the Shin Bet internal security agency and the military to continue negotiations in Qatar toward a ceasefire deal. Israeli media said the delegation would depart♛ on Fri😼day.
Ther🦹e was no immediate Hamas comment. The US-led talks have repeatedly stalled.
The Israeli strike in the seaside humanitarian z♔one known as Muwasi occurred as hundreds of thousands of displaced people are huddling there in damp winter weather.
“Everyone was taking shelter in their tents from the cold, and suddenly we found the world turning upside down. Why, 𝔉and for what?” said Ziyad Abu Jabal,🔴 displaced from Gaza City.
The early morning strike killed at least 10 people, including t🦂hree children and two senior Hamas police o♚fficers.
Israel's military said it 🤡targeted a senior officer in the Hamas-run police force. It said he was involved in gathering intelligence used by Hamas' armed wing in﷽ attacks on Israeli forces.
Another Israeli strike killed at least 🤡eight Palestinians in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. The men were members of local committees that help secure aid convoys, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies. An Associated P𝕴ress reporter there confirmed the toll.
There was no im🐷mediate c🌄omment from the Israeli military on the strike.
In southern Gaza, Israel's military killed five policemen in eastern Khan Younis. Israeli government spokesman David Mencer s🌌aid the strike targeted the head of the Hamas internal security force in southern Gaza.
“Where did we find him? Where else, but of cours𓄧e hiding in the humanitarian zone in Khan Younis, where Gazans ar🎶e sheltering from this war,” Mencer said.
Israel has repeatedly targe🅺ted the police in Gaza during 15 months of war, contributing to a breakdown of law and order in the ter♏ritory that has made it difficult for humanitarian groups to deliver aid. Israel accuses the militant Hamas group of hijacking aid for its own purposes.
The Hamas-run government had a police force numbering in the tens of thousands that maintained a high degree of publ🍰ic security before the war, while also violently suppressing dissent. Now officers have largely vanished from the streets in many areas.
Meanwhile, ♚three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a group of peopl൲e walking in the street in Maghazi in central Gaza. Their bodies were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
The war was sparked by Hamas-lꦍed militants' October✅ 7, 2023 attack into Israel. The militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third believed to be dead.
Israel's offensive in retaliation has killed over 45,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territory's Health Ministry, which says women and children make up more than half the dead. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their tally💯.
Israel's military says it only targets militants a൲nd blames Hamas for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in dense residential areas. The army says it has killed 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war has caused widespread destruction and displaced so𒉰me 90 per cent of Gaza's population of 2.3 million, many of them multiple times.
Hunger is widespread. Children, some barefoot or in sandals, waited in line with metal pails or other containers at a food distribution centre in Deir al-Balah on Thursday.
