Gaza’s civil defence agency yesterday said that an overnight Israeli airstrike killed at least 11 people, including the chief of the territory’s Hamas-run police force.
“Eleven people were martyred, including three children and two women, and 15 were injured after the occupation aircraft bombed a tent housing displaced people in the al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Yunis city in the southern Gaza Strip,” Gaza’s civil defense agency said in a statement.
Among those killed were Police Chief Mahmud Salah and Deputy Police Chief Hussam Shahwan, agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.
Photo: AFP
In a separate statement, the Hamas-run ministry of the interior condemned the killing of the two police officers, saying “they were performing their humanitarian and national duty in serving our people.”
“By committing the assassination, the occupation continues to spread chaos in the [Gaza] Strip and deepen the human suffering of citizens.” the ministry said. “The police force is a civil protection force that works to provide services to citizens.”
Nearly 15 months of war have devastated Gaza’s infrastructure and institutions, leading aid agencies to warn of the breakdown of social order.
The Israeli military said that it was looking into the incident.
Gaza ambulance driver Saleem Abu Subha described the scene of the strike.
“We immediately went to the place and found the injured lying on the ground, most of them children, as well as two female martyrs,” he said.
“About 10 tents were damaged, and scattered fires were visible,” Saleem said.
Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz on Wednesday threatened that Israel would intensify its strikes on Gaza if Hamas continued to fire rockets into Israel.
Renewed rocket fire from Gaza in recent days has caused little damage in Israel and the rockets have been fired in far fewer numbers than in the early stages of the war, but they are a political blow for the Israeli government after nearly 15 months of fighting.
Katz also demanded the release of hostages still held in Gaza.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
LAW CONSTRAINTS: The US has been pressing allies to send warships to open the Strait, but Tokyo’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution Japan could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz if a ceasefire is reached in the war on Iran, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday. “If there were to be a complete ceasefire, hypothetically speaking, then things like minesweeping could come up,” Motegi said. “This is purely hypothetical, but if a ceasefire were established and naval mines were creating an obstacle, then I think that would be something to consider.” Japan’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution, but 2015 security legislation allows Tokyo to use its Self-Defense Forces overseas if an attack,
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday faced a regional election battle in Rhineland-Palatinate, now held by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merz’s CDU has enjoyed a narrow poll lead over the SPD — their coalition partners at the national level — who have ruled the mid-sized state for 35 years. Polling third is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which spells a greater threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the country’s ex-communist east. The picturesque state of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering France, Belgium and Luxembourg and with a population of about 4 million,
RSS