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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Hamas says police chief, deputy killed in airstrike on Gaza humanitarian zone |
| 2025-01-03 |
| [IsraelTimes] IDF confirms strike on aide Hussam Shahwan, accusing him of terrorizing Gazans and planning attacks on Israel; rocket fired at Israeli border town after Katz vows to step up strikes An Israeli airstrike on a central Gaza tent camp killed Hamas’s chief of police in the enclave along with his deputy and several others, including children, the Hamas terror group said Thursday. Police chief Mahmoud Salah and his deputy Hussam Shahwan were killed in a strike in the al-Mawasi area, inside the IDF-designated humanitarian zone west of Khan Younis, Hamas said. Medics said 11 people were killed in the strike. The Israeli military confirmed killing Shahwan, accusing him of “hiding under the protection of the civilian population in the humanitarian zone in Khan Younis.” It did not mention Salah. The Israel Defense Forces identified Shahwan as having served as Hamas’s head of internal security, and said he was responsible for “severely violating the human rights” of Gazan civilians, including “violent interrogations,” as well as taking part in planning attacks against Israeli troops. The IDF said it took steps ahead of the strike to reduce the harm to civilians, accusing Hamas of “cruelly exploiting civilian shelters, civilian buildings and the civilian population as human shields.” In a statement, the Hamas-run Interior Ministry 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 Strip and deepen the human suffering of citizens,” the ministry said, adding that “the police force is a civil protection force that works to provide services to citizens.” The ministry said Salah spent 30 years in the police and was appointed its chief six years ago. Medics in the Hamas-ruled enclave claimed that 11 people were killed in the strike, including women and children, and that 15 others were wounded. “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 Younis city in the southern Gaza Strip,” Gaza’s civil defense agency said in a statement. Also on Thursday, the IDF said that the Israeli Air Force had struck a command center run by Hamas operatives inside the Khan Younis municipality building, within the boundaries of the humanitarian zone. Medics told Reuters that six people were killed in the strike. The IDF said that the command center was used to “plan and execute acts of terrorism against IDF forces and the State of Israel.” It said that many steps were taken before the strike to mitigate harm to civilians including using precise munitions, aerial observations and other intelligence gathering. “The Hamas terror group systematically violates international law, while viciously using the cover of civilian shelters, civilian buildings and the civilian population as a human shield while carrying out terror activities,” the IDF said. Defense Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday threatened Hamas with intensified attacks if it “does not soon allow the release of the Israeli hostages from Gaza… and continues to fire at Israeli communities.” The threat came after Hamas stepped up rocket fire at Israel from Gaza over the past week, following months with only sporadic missile fire from the Strip. At noon on Thursday, Hamas fired a rocket at Kibbutz Holit near the border, which the IDF said was intercepted. At the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Day, Hamas fired rockets at the southern city of Netivot. On Saturday afternoon, Hamas fired two long-range rockets toward Jerusalem, after having not fired at the capital in over a year. The terror group has also targeted border towns near Gaza several times in recent days. 6 said killed in Israeli strike on Hamas Interior Ministry HQ in Gaza’s Khan Younis [IsraelTimes] Six people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike at the Hamas-run Interior Ministry headquarters in Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip, medics tell Reuters. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #1 Well, if they were killed in humanitarian zone, it must be a crime against humanity. |
| Posted by: Grom the Reflective 2025-01-03 09:19 |