Israel’s military says it has killed the head of Hamas’s security forces in southern Gaza, Hussam Shahwah, as part of a series of air strikes in the enclave that killed at least 37 Palestinians.
The strike in Khan Younis hit an encampment sheltering displaced families, killing Shahwah and 10 others, according to local medics.
Gaza’s interior ministry, which is run by Hamas, claims the director general of Gaza’s police department, Mahmoud Salah, and his aide, Shahwan, were killed in the strike.
“By committing the crime of assassinating the director general of police in the Gaza Strip, the occupation is insisting on spreading chaos in the (enclave) and deepening the human suffering of citizens,” the interior ministry said in a statement.
The Israeli military said it had conducted an intelligence-based strike in Al-Mawasi, just west of the city of Khan Younis, and eliminated Shahwah, calling him the head of Hamas security forces in southern Gaza.
It made no mention of Salah’s death.
Israel’s military said it separately struck the interior ministry’s headquarters in the city of Khan Younis, targeting Hamas militants who intelligence indicated were operating in a command and control centre.
Six people were killed in the Israeli strike on Gaza’s interior ministry. (Reuters: Mohammed Salem)
Six people were killed by the interior ministry strike.
Asked about the reported 37 deaths, a spokesperson for the Israeli military said it followed international law in waging the war in Gaza and that it took “feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm”.
Israel’s military has often accused Gaza militants of using built-up residential areas for cover — a claim Hamas denies.
Hamas’s ally Islamic Jihad said it fired rockets into the southern Israeli kibbutz of Holit near Gaza on Thursday.
The Israeli military said it intercepted one projectile in the area that had crossed from southern Gaza.
Israel has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians in the war, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced and much of the tiny, heavily built-up coastal territory is in ruins.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s cross-border attack on southern Israel on October 7 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and another 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Reuters