In brief
Israeli drone attacks on Sunday in Gaza’s al‑Mawasi and al‑Rimal areas killed eight Palestinians, including five police officers and a child. Gaza health officials reported 1,580 deaths and 5,711 injuries since a ceasefire began in October 2025, while Hamas called the strikes a war crime. The Israeli military denied the attacks were deliberate, saying they targeted a terrorist.
On Sunday, Israeli drone attacks on the Gaza Strip killed eight Palestinians, including five police officers and a four‑year‑old boy, according to local and medical officials.
The first strike hit the al‑Mawasi area west of Khan Younis, where a missile was fired at a group of police personnel and civilians. Gaza Interior authorities confirmed that five members of the General Directorate of Police were killed while “performing routine duties.” The second strike struck the al‑Rimal neighbourhood west of Gaza City, killing three civilians, one of them a child, and wounding six people, some critically.
Gaza's health ministry said 1,580 Palestinians have been killed and 5,711 wounded in the enclave since a ceasefire took effect in October 2025, and that the total death toll since the conflict began on Oct. 7, 2023 is 74,594 killed and 175,834 wounded.
Al Jazeera’s reporter Hani Mahmoud said,
They were targeted as they were doing their jobs.
Mahmoud was speaking after the Interior Ministry released the police casualty figures.
The Israeli military told AFP that it was targeting “a terrorist” in the southern Gaza strike, but it made no statement about the al‑Rimal attack.
Hamas condemned the latest strikes as a “deliberate war crime,” stating that the attacks on police officers were part of an effort to “obstruct recovery efforts, undermine stability in the Gaza Strip, and sow chaos.”
The new clashes come as the United States–brokered ceasefire that began last October is still in force, yet Israeli forces continue to carry out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.