Israel's latest strikes kill a dozen people in Gaza, including police
officers
[July 16, 2026]
By WAFAA SHURAFA, SAMY MAGDY and SAM METZ
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes have killed at least
a dozen people in Gaza over the past two days, local health officials
said Wednesday, as strikes continue almost daily despite a months-old
ceasefire with Hamas.
On Wednesday, three members of a family were killed in central Gaza, Al
Aqsa Hospital officials said.
On Tuesday, woman and six police officers were among those killed in an
airstrike on a police station in the densely populated Jabaliya refugee
camp in northern Gaza, hospital officials said. A man died in the
bombing of a tent camp in Khan Younis in the south, Nasser Hospital
officials said. And Israeli forces shot and killed a child in the Muwasi
area outside the southernmost city of Rafah, according to hospital
officials.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes in
central and southern Gaza. In a statement on the attack in Jabaliya, it
claimed that four of the slain police officers were Hamas militants,
without providing evidence on how those killed were involved in planning
or carrying out attacks.
One of the officers, Col. Mohamad Marwan Salem, was a senior police
commander and head of the Jabaliya police station, the Hamas-run
Interior Ministry said.
Hamas, which ruled Gaza for years, maintains an armed wing as well as
civilian police and security services that are overseen by its Interior
Ministry. Throughout the war, Israel has targeted local police,
including those guarding humanitarian aid convoys.
Israel's military has claimed it considers police stations legitimate
targets if they're “being used to advance military activities, or if
those present are military operatives involved in advancing terrorist
activities.”
It did not say what military activities it believed were taking place at
the Jabaliya police station, nor did it provide evidence that attacks
were being planned. Hamas says the police force is engaged in
maintaining law and order.
Israeli attacks on Gaza’s police have been condemned by the United
Nations human rights office, which said last month that police personnel
had been attacked at least a dozen times in 2026, including “during
ordinary law enforcement operations, including directing traffic and
patrolling streets and markets.”
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Warda Abu Shaar, center right, carries the body of her 10-year-old
son, Motaz Abu Shaar, who was killed by Israeli fire, during his
funeral outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip,
Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
“The pattern of attacks raises concerns that Israeli forces apply no
distinction between police personnel and fighters belonging to armed
groups in Gaza,” it said in a June 3 statement.
Ofer Guterman, a researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security
Studies, said Israel’s targeting suggests that it regards parts of
Hamas' policing apparatus as closely integrated with its military
infrastructure, including through dual-role personnel and the use of
facilities for weapons storage, operations and logistics.
The fragile ceasefire deal in October attempted to halt a two-year-long
war between Israel and Hamas.
The heaviest fighting has subsided but at least 1,123 people have been
killed in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect, according to the
territory’s Health Ministry. The ministry, which has been part of the
Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen
as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does
not give a breakdown of civilians and militants but says women and
children make up most of the dead.
Militants have carried out shooting attacks on troops, and Israel says
its strikes are in response to that and other violations. Five Israeli
soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire.
The war began after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7,
2023, killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel’s
retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 73,264 Palestinians,
including those killed since the ceasefire, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo and Metz from Ramallah, West Bank.
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