Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Governorate Municipalities Police Headquarters in Gaza City killed at least nine Palestinians and wounded 15 others, according to paramedics. Gaza's Police Department said fighter jets dropped several bombs on the building.
Local reports said senior officers were among those killed, including Colonel Faten al-Sahhar, head of the Women's Police Department. Police officials called the attack a massacre, while Gaza's Ministry of Interior accused Israel of trying to create disorder by striking the police force.
Another Israeli air strike in central Gaza killed one Palestinian on Wednesday. The previous day, an attack on a Gaza City cafe killed at least seven people, including a child, in what was described as the territory's deadliest single strike in several weeks.
The Israeli military said the cafe strike targeted Hamas operatives who were preparing attacks against Israeli troops, but it did not provide evidence in the supplied report. Hamas condemned that attack as a war crime and argued that its timing showed an effort to obstruct ceasefire mediation.
The renewed violence followed a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US special envoy Jared Kushner. Kushner had visited Egypt beforehand and met Hamas leaders in an effort to advance negotiations. After his meeting in Israel, he said the United States would not restrict Israel's ability to defend itself against imminent threats and would not permit reconstruction in Gaza until Hamas surrendered its weapons.
Hamas said in July that it accepted a US-led plan for gradual disarmament and implementation of the ceasefire signed in October, in return for an end to Israeli attacks and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces. Spokesperson Hazem Qasem accused the US-led Peace Council of failing to pressure Israel to comply with the agreement. He said the body faced a test of whether it could manage mediation seriously and criticised what he described as contradictory statements by its officials.
The ceasefire was intended to conclude two years of war. The supplied account said Israeli forces had killed more than 73,000 Palestinians during that period and destroyed about 90% of homes in Gaza. It also reported that the reported death toll exceeded 1,200 Palestinians, with at least 300 children among them since the agreement took effect. Those cumulative figures were presented by Middle East Eye and were not independently corroborated within the packet.
The police headquarters attack deepened uncertainty around the truce. Its immediate toll, the additional deaths in central Gaza and the cafe strike all occurred as mediators sought progress on disarmament, withdrawal and reconstruction, leaving the negotiating effort shadowed by continued casualties.
