Israeli airstrikes kill about a dozen people in Gaza as attack targets police, officials say

Israeli airstrikes over the past two days have killed about a dozen people in Gaza, local health officials said Wednesday, with at least one of the incidents involving an attack on police personnel. The reported deaths add to mounting local casualty figures as Israel continues operations in the Palestinian territory despite a months-old ceasefire arrangement involving Hamas.

The Washington Times reported that the latest strikes were carried out in a wider campaign affecting multiple areas of Gaza. Local health officials described the toll as “about a dozen” deaths over the two-day period, without providing a breakdown by location or identity in the report.

The account also said one of the strikes targeted police. It did not specify whether the attack hit a station, patrol, or individual officers, and did not provide further operational details about how police were involved, beyond the characterization contained in the report.

The new casualties come while the ceasefire with Hamas remains in effect, underscoring that the conflict dynamics on the ground continue to diverge from ceasefire conditions. The report framed the strikes as part of sustained Israeli attacks against the territory, not as an isolated incident tied to a single event.

Israel has not been quoted in the supplied report, and the article does not include an Israeli statement explaining the targeting or immediate operational rationale for the police-related strike. As with similar incidents, the discrepancy between ceasefire expectations and continued kinetic activity raises questions about enforcement and compliance from both sides.

For families in Gaza, police-targeting reports and the resulting deaths heighten fears about public safety and the continuity of basic security services, particularly if law enforcement operations are repeatedly disrupted by strikes. Local officials typically register casualties through hospital records, but the report did not indicate which facilities were affected or whether some victims were injured earlier and died later.

The next steps will likely involve continued reporting from Gaza-based medical and security channels, along with any clarification from Israeli authorities about the purpose and legal basis of the strikes. Separate from casualty counts, the broader issue of ceasefire implementation and monitoring remains central to how the situation is understood by residents and by external governments tracking events in the region.