Israeli airstrike kills nine Palestinians at police post in Gaza, medics say

An Israeli airstrike killed nine Palestinians at a police station in Gaza on Wednesday, 19th August, medics said, ​two days after U.S. envoy Jared Kushner ended a trip to the region that failed to push forward Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in the enclave.

Medics and police sources said several officers, some of them high-ranking, were among those killed at what the ​Hamas-led interior ministry said was the headquarters of the municipal police. Fifteen others were wounded, they said.

Earlier on Wednesday, 19th August, in Nuseirat refugee camp in ⁠central Gaza, a separate Israeli airstrike killed one Palestinian, medics said, taking Wednesday’s death toll to at least ‌10.

The ‌Israeli ​military said that strike had targeted a Hamas militant. It has not commented on the strike on the police station.

In what had appeared to be a ⁠possible breakthrough at the end of July, President ​Trump announced that Hamas had accepted a roadmap which entailed ​the Palestinian militant group decommissioning its weapons in phases as Israel’s military withdrew from Gaza. The military would also ‌stop its operations in the territory.

However, Israeli Prime Minister ​Benjamin Netanyahu, whose ruling coalition is trailing in opinion polls ahead of an October election, rejected the roadmap, ⁠insisting that the military would only withdraw once ⁠Hamas has completely disarmed.

Hamas ​has demanded that Israel adhere to the ceasefire and withdraw its forces from Gaza. Both sides have disputed the sequencing of how Trump’s plan should be implemented.

Israel said its strikes aimed to thwart imminent attacks by Hamas and Gaza militants.

On Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike killed at least seven Palestinians, including a child, at a beachfront cafe, medics said. The Israeli military said they targeted Hamas commanders who had planned attacks against forces operating in the enclave.

On Wednesday, a Hamas official said the group had told ceasefire ‌mediators, Egypt, Qatar and ⁠Turkey that if there was no halt to Israel’s targeted attacks “it would influence their stance on the agreement”. He didn’t elaborate.

The official said the latest killings had dealt a blow to Kushner’s diplomatic ‌efforts despite the assurances he and Trump’s Board of Peace have given Hamas leaders when they met in Egypt on Sunday that they ​would compel Israel to end “assassinations and targeted attacks”.

More than 1,200 Palestinians and ​four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since a ceasefire was reached last October, according to Gazan health officials and the Israeli military. – Reuters