Israeli Strikes Kill Eight in Gaza, Including Five Police Officers Near Khan Younis

Israeli strikes killed at least eight Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, medics and the Hamas-run interior ministry said. Three people were killed in an attack on Gaza City in the north of the enclave. Five police officers were killed in a second attack in the south, in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis.

Two attacks on Sunday

Al Jazeera reported that an Israeli drone attack in al-Mawasi killed five people and wounded several others. Gaza's Ministry of Interior said the dead were police officers who were carrying out their duties when they were hit. Hani Mahmoud, reporting for Al Jazeera from Gaza City, said of the officers: "They were targeted as they were doing their jobs."

In Gaza City, sources at al-Shifa Hospital told Al Jazeera that at least three Palestinians, among them a four-year-old boy, were killed in a drone attack on the Rimal neighbourhood. The Taj Mall in the city was also targeted, Al Jazeera reported. Al Jazeera also reported that one more person died on Sunday from wounds suffered in an earlier attack.

What Israel says

The Israeli military told Reuters that it struck several militants in Khan Younis, without giving further information. It did not immediately comment on the Gaza City strike. The army told the AFP news agency that it was targeting a terrorist in southern Gaza, Al Jazeera reported.

Israel says the Hamas militant group has been rearming and launching attacks in violation of a year-old ceasefire, and it has stepped up its strikes on the group in recent weeks. Hamas denies that it is trying to carry out attacks or rebuild its arsenal, and it accuses Israel of undermining the Gaza peace deal.

A ceasefire that keeps breaking

Last year's US-brokered ceasefire calls for the eventual reconstruction of the territory. Little progress has been made. Negotiators have failed to agree on terms for Hamas to disarm or for Israel to withdraw its troops, who control about two-thirds of the territory and have ordered residents out of it.

Nearly all of the more than 2 million residents of Gaza live in the remaining third of the enclave, among ruins, mostly in makeshift tents and damaged buildings, in the part still under the effective control of Hamas. At least 1,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect, according to health officials in the territory, while Israel says four of its soldiers have been killed. Palestinian authorities say more than 74,000 people have been killed in the assault Israel launched after Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.