Gaza police HQ strike kills 9 including child, officials say

Gaza health officials said an Israeli strike on the municipal police headquarters in Gaza City killed nine people including a child on Wednesday, while the Israeli military said it targeted militants inside the facility.

Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said it received nine bodies, including a woman and 13-year-old Dana Haitham al-Jamasi, and at least 20 wounded people after the strike. Gaza's civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue service under Hamas, confirmed the toll.

The Israeli military said the strike targeted a “gathering of terrorists” inside the police headquarters, including four Hamas members and one member of the Popular Resistance Committees. It alleged they had planned attacks against Israeli troops in Gaza. The military said it took steps to reduce harm to civilians, including using precise munitions and aerial surveillance.

The military also said it struck a commander in Hamas's military wing in the Nuseirat area of the central Gaza Strip, saying he had participated in the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. Al-Awda hospital in central Gaza said it received the body of a man killed in a strike in the Nuseirat camp while he was riding his motorcycle.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem condemned what he called Israel's “complete disregard for all calls for a ceasefire”. He said US President Donald Trump's Board of Peace, tasked with implementing the ceasefire plan agreed last October, bore responsibility because, he said, it had failed to pressure Israel to abide by its commitments. Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim told AFP the situation was “unsustainable”.

The strikes came amid a renewed US push to advance a long-term Gaza peace plan. Trump's envoy Jared Kushner said on Monday that progress on disarming Hamas and moving forward with the plan could begin within a month after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Hamas endorsed the latest stage of Trump's Gaza plan two weeks earlier. Netanyahu has refused to support the roadmap and has said Israeli troops will not withdraw until the Palestinian Islamist movement is “genuinely disarmed”.

Gaza health officials said Tuesday that a separate Israeli airstrike killed six people at Gaza City's port. The Israeli army said that strike targeted several Hamas commanders.