GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israel carried out its heaviest airstrikes in Gaza in weeks, killing at least 26 people in multiple locations despite a fragile ceasefire, according to local health authorities. The attacks hit a Hamas-run police station in Gaza City, an apartment in a residential building and a tent encampment sheltering displaced families in the southern city of Khan Younis.
Medics and police officials said Israeli warplanes targeted the Sheikh Radwan police station in western Gaza City, killing 10 officers and detainees. The police in Gaza are run by Hamas. Rescue teams combed the rubble for more casualties as smoke drifted over the neighborhood.
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In a separate strike on an apartment in Gaza City, three children and two women were killed, officials at Shifa hospital said. Video footage from the scene showed charred, blackened walls, blown-out windows and debris scattered through rooms and onto the street below.
“We found my three little nieces in the street. They say ‘ceasefire’ and all. What did those children do? What did we do?” said Samer al-Atbash, an uncle of the three dead children.
Further south, seven people were killed in an airstrike that tore through a cluster of tents in Khan Younis, where thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought shelter after months of fighting, local medics said.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the specific strikes but said its forces had engaged gunmen in a separate incident, killing three and arresting a fourth whom it described as a key Hamas commander in the area. A military source said the clash constituted a violation of the ceasefire. Hamas did not comment on the Israeli account and accused Israel of breaching the truce.
The latest violence comes amid mutual recriminations over ceasefire violations even as international mediators press the sides to advance toward the next phases of a deal intended to halt the conflict permanently. Since the U.S.-brokered truce between Hamas and Israel took effect in October after two years of war, Israeli fire has killed more than 500 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials. Palestinian militants have killed four Israeli soldiers during the same period, Israeli authorities say.
Washington has urged both parties to reduce tensions and move into the subsequent stage of the ceasefire framework. The next phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan includes contentious issues such as the disarmament of Hamas — a step the group has long rejected — further Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the deployment of an international peacekeeping force.
Amid the uncertainty, Gaza’s main gateway to the outside world, the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, is expected to reopen on Tuesday after being largely shut during the war, local officials said. Any resumption of movement through Rafah would be a critical test of the ceasefire’s durability and a lifeline for civilians seeking medical care, reunification and humanitarian relief.
The strikes on the police station, residential block and tent camp underscored how quickly the situation can deteriorate despite nominal de-escalation. With families digging through wreckage and hospitals recording new arrivals, both sides traded blame for breaking the truce as mediators looked for a path back to calm.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
