ISLAMABAD: Gaza’s civil defence agency has said that an overnight Israeli air strike killed at least 11 people, including the chief of the territory’s police force.
AFP cited Gaza’s civil defence agency as saying, “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.”
Human suffering
Among those killed were the police chief Mahmud Salah and his assistant Hussam Shahwan, said agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal.
In a separate statement, Gaza’s interior ministry denounced the killing of the two police officers, saying “they were performing their national and humanitarian 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, saying that “the police force is a civil protection force that works to provide services to citizens”.
Infrastructure devastated
According to AFP, 15 months of war have devastated Gaza’s infrastructure and institutions leading aid agencies to warn of the breakdown of social order.
The ministry stated Salah spent 30 years in the police and was appointed its chief six years ago.
Saleem Abu Subha, a Gaza ambulance driver, described the scene of the attack, adding “We immediately went to the place and found the wounded lying on the ground, most of them children, as well as two female martyrs”.
The development takes place as Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened that Israel would intensify its attacks on Gaza.
