Hamas police chief among 40 reported killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza

The Gaza Strip’s Hamas-run Civil Defense service reported that 15 Israeli airstrikes had killed over 40 Palestinians, including the head of Gaza’s police force and his deputy, in an overnight attack on a tent camp for displaced families in the southern al-Mawasi “humanitarian zone.” The interior ministry, which is run by Hamas, denounced what it called the “assassination” of Mahmoud Salah and Hussam Shahwan, who it claimed had been “performing their humanitarian and national duty.” Israel’s military confirmed that it had carried out a strike against Shahwan, claiming he was a “terrorist” who had assisted Hamas’s military wing in organizing attacks against Israeli forces. Later on Thursday, six people were reported killed in a nearby Israeli bombing.