At least 10 people were killed and 15 wounded in an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza on Thursday, Palestinian health officials said. The strike hit a refugee camp in the al-Mawasi neighborhood west of the Gaza city of Khan Younis, and officials said the dead included Gaza Police Chief Mahmoud Salah and his deputy al-Mawasi.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned on Wednesday that Hamas would continue to hold hostages held since its October 2023 incursion into Israel and that it would face a heavy blow if it continued to fire rockets at Israeli civilians. The Hamas attack killed about 1,200 people, and at least a third of the 250 hostages taken at the time are believed to have died, while about 100 remain in Gaza.
The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 100,000 wounded in Israeli retaliation. 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled the fighting. Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Britain, the European Union and other countries.
