Enclave rocked by wave of deadly attacks, from Jabalia camp in north to ‘safe humanitarian zone’ of al-Mawasi in south.
Multiple Israeli air strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 52 Palestinians, including the head of the enclave’s police force and his deputy.
Medical sources told Al Jazeera on Thursday that the biggest strike killed 12 people in a tent in the so-called “humanitarian zone” of al-Mawasi, a coastal area near the southern town of Khan Younis, with several children among the dead.
The attack also killed the chief of Gaza’s police force, Mahmud Salah, and his deputy, Hussam Shahwan. Salah was a veteran officer who had spent 30 years in the force, serving six years as its chief.
Gaza’s Interior Ministry condemned the killings, saying the two police officers had been “performing their humanitarian and national duty in serving our people”. It accused Israel of spreading “chaos” and deepening the “human suffering” in Gaza with the deadly strike.
“The police force is a civil protection force that works to provide services to citizens,” the ministry statement said.
A video clip from the aftermath of the attack, which also wounded about 15, showed people searching for survivors among burning tents, scattered debris, and washing lines where residents of the camp for displaced people had hung clothes to dry.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in the centre of the Strip, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said the latest strikes marked “a very significant escalation”, with an additional attack on a gas station in the outskirts of the town killing nine people.
“The bodies were brought to al-Aqsa [Martyrs] Hospital. They were … shredded to pieces due to that brutal strike and we saw the mothers … crying over the loss they have endured today,” he said.
Elsewhere in the enclave, additional attacks killed two people in Bani Suheila east of Khan Younis, three at Shati camp in the west of Gaza City, and at least seven in Jabalia refugee camp in the north.
No warning
The Israeli military gave no warning for Thursday’s predawn attack on al-Mawasi, which has been hit relentlessly by Israeli warplanes, drones and artillery.
A recent attack on December 22 killed eight people, including two children. Earlier that month, on December 3, at least 20 people were killed in what Israel’s military said was the targeting of a Hamas official.
After Thursday’s attack, the military claimed it had conducted an intelligence-based strike and had eliminated Shahwan, whom it called the head of Hamas security forces in southern Gaza. It made no mention of Salah’s death.
Days earlier, Israeli tanks had advanced on al-Mawasi from the southern city of Rafah, forcing dozens of families to flee northward fearing imminent attack.
Prior to the attack on northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, Israeli forces issued orders for all residents to flee three targeted areas.
The warning was described as a “pre-anaesthesia before the attack” by the Israeli military’s Arabic language spokesman, Avichay Adraee. “Once again, terrorist organisations are launching rockets from your area, which has been warned many times in the past,” he said in a post on social media.
The toll from the first two days of 2025 takes the overall deaths to 45,581 since Israel began its genocide on October 7, 2023. At least six babies have died of cold in recent days, as the forcibly displaced Palestinians across Gaza brave winter rains.
Source: Al Jazeera
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