An Israeli airstrike has killed the head of the Hamas-led police force in the northern Gaza Strip, Brigadier-General Abdel-Nasser al-Maqadma, the Hamas-run interior ministry and medics said yesterday.
Maqadma, one of at least five Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes yesterday, was also known as the governor of the northern Gaza Strip.
He was killed in the Sheikh Radwan area north of Gaza City, medics said.
The Israeli military said that he was also part of Hamas’s military wing.
Israel has killed dozens of members of the Hamas-led police force, including senior officials, in the past months, accusing many of them of being members of the Hamas armed wing who posed imminent threats to Israel and its forces inside Gaza.
Hamas says Israeli attacks on the police force and its headquarters are intended to sow chaos and anarchy in the enclave and violate the US-brokered October ceasefire.
Another Israeli strike yesterday killed a Palestinian medic in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, medics said.
They added that a police officer wounded by an Israeli airstrike last week had passed away.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incident.
An Israeli airstrike also killed two people in a house in Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave, medics said.
The Israeli military said the strike targeted a fighter of the Islamic Jihad group.
Later in the day, an Israeli airstrike, also in Khan Younis, killed Khaled al-Breim, a high school student, taking the death toll yesterday to at least five.
Relatives said al-Breim was killed as he sought to bring sweets to distribute to relatives and friends who had flocked into his family home to offer their congratulations as he had just concluded high school and was preparing for university.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the student’s death.
The latest deaths add to a toll of more than 1,180 Palestinians, mostly civilians, killed by Israeli attacks since an October ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect, according to Gaza health officials.
Hamas does not usually disclose its losses.
The truce halted full-scale fighting but has not ended near-daily Israeli strikes.
Four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza over the same period.