Israeli strikes killed at least three Palestinians in Gaza on Sunday, including two members of the Hamas-run police force, health officials said, in violence that highlighted the fragility of a U.S.-brokered cease-fire.
Medics said one person was killed and two others were wounded in an Israeli airstrike on the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.
The Israeli military said it targeted two individuals who were carrying out “suspicious” activity and moving toward its forces, posing what it described as an immediate threat.
In a separate strike on Sunday, Gaza’s Hamas-run interior ministry said the head of the police force in Khan Younis, Wessam Abdel-Hadi, and his aide were killed.
The Israeli military said it struck Hamas members in the southern Gaza Strip, whom they alleged were operating to “advance imminent attacks” against Israeli forces.
Reuters has previously reported that Israel has intensified attacks on Gaza’s Hamas-run police force, which the group has used to re-establish governance in areas under its control.
Violence in Gaza has persisted despite an October 2025 cease-fire, with Israel carrying out almost daily attacks.
At least 850 Palestinians have been killed since the cease-fire took effect, local medics say, while Israel says fighters have killed four of its soldiers over the same period.
Israel and Hamas have blamed each other for cease-fire violations.
The blast that killed the two police officers left only a mangled metal skeleton where their car stood in the Al-Amal neighborhood of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Mourners chanted “There is no god but Allah, the martyrs are beloved by Allah” as the men’s white-shrouded bodies were carried on shoulders through the streets during the funeral.
One mourner, Ali Mousa, condemned Israel’s killing of members of the enclave’s police force.
“Although the cease-fire came into effect several months ago, the occupation continues to target police officers to cause chaos among the people,” Mousa told Reuters.
“The occupation aims to create chaos and confusion within the Gaza Strip. This is its sole objective,” he added.
More than 72,500 Palestinians have been killed since the Gaza war began in October 2023, most of them civilians, Gaza health authorities say.
