Israeli air strikes kill 27 in Gaza, say Palestinian health officials
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An Israeli air strike targeting the Ghaith camp, which shelters displaced people, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Jan 31.
PHOTO: EPA
GAZA – Israel carried out its heaviest air strikes in Gaza in weeks on Jan 31, killing 27 people including three children in attacks on a police station, houses and tents, Palestinian health officials said.
The Israeli military said it had targeted commanders and sites belonging to Palestinian militant group Hamas and its ally, Islamic Jihad, in response to a breach of a US-brokered ceasefire agreed last October after two years of war in Gaza.
Hamas, which retains control of just under half of Gaza, said Israel had violated the truce.
It did not say whether any of its members or sites were struck in the attacks on Jan 31.
Israel carried out the attacks a day before the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt is due to reopen
The war began after Hamas-led gunmen attacked southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023.
Israeli officials have said the war could resume if Hamas does not lay down its weapons.
Fighters still in tunnels
Israeli warplanes bombed the Sheikh Radwan police station west of Gaza City, killing 10 officers and detainees, medics and police in Gaza said.
Rescue teams were searching for more casualties at the site, said the Hamas-run police.
Other airstrikes hit at least two houses in Gaza City, in northern-central Gaza, and a tent encampment sheltering displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis further south, local officials said.
Video footage from Gaza City showed charred, blackened and destroyed walls at an apartment in a multi-storey building, and debris scattered inside it and outside on the street.
“We found my three little nieces in the street, they say ceasefire and all, what did those children do, what did we do?” said Mr Samer al-Atbash, an uncle of the three dead children.
The Israeli military said that in addition to targeting Hamas commanders, it also hit weapon caches and manufacturing sites.
It said the strikes were carried out in response to an incident on Jan 39 in which troops identified eight gunmen emerging from a tunnel in Rafah, an area in southern Gaza where Israeli forces are deployed under the truce agreement.
Three of the gunmen were killed by the forces and a fourth, whom the Israeli military described as a Hamas commander in the area, was arrested.
Hamas did not comment on the incident.
Dozens of its fighters have been trapped in tunnels under Rafah since the ceasefire although some have since been killed in clashes with Israeli forces.
Hundred of people killed since ceasefire
Violence has repeatedly shaken the ceasefire.
Israeli fire has killed over 500 people, most of them civilians according to Gaza health officials, and Palestinian militants have killed four Israeli soldiers, according to Israeli authorities.
The two sides have traded blame over truce violations, even as Washington presses them to proceed to the next phases of the ceasefire deal meant to end the war for good.
The next phase of US President Donald Trump’s plan
Reuters reported on Jan 26 that Hamas is seeking to incorporate its 10,000 police officers into the new US-backed Palestinian administration for Gaza, a demand likely to be opposed by Israel. REUTERS
