32 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza

At least 32 Palestinians were killed in a series of Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip late Friday and midday Saturday, Palestinian sources said, with attacks targeting a police station, residential apartments and displacement tents, reported Xinhua.

The strikes came as Israel said it was responding to a Hamas breach of the ceasefire, which Hamas rejected as "false and misleading."

Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Civil Defense in Gaza, told Xinhua that the deadliest single strike hit the Sheikh Radwan police center, affiliated with the Hamas-run interior authorities, in northern Gaza City, killing 14 people and wounding several others. Some injured are under critical condition.

Basal noted that many police personnel were inside the facility when the center was attacked, leaving some people still missing under the rubble.

A Palestinian security source told Xinhua that the victims included four detainees and three female police officers, adding that the strike caused extensive damage to the site and surrounding homes.

Later, Israeli drones targeted a gathering of Palestinians in the al-Nasr neighborhood west of Gaza City with at least one missile, killing three people, according to Basal.

Separately, an attack on a displacement tent in the Asdaa area north of Khan Younis in the southern enclave killed seven members of a family, including women and children, with three others seriously injured.

Local eyewitnesses told Xinhua the victims were from the Abu Hadaied family.

Basal added that five people, including a woman and two children, were killed when Israeli warplanes targeted an apartment building in the al-Rimal neighborhood west of Gaza City.

Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes bombed the administration building of the Ghaith camp, which houses dozens of displaced people in the Khan Younis area, after warning residents to evacuate, causing widespread fear and panic, local sources said.

Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, told Xinhua that more than 30 people were injured in the latest strikes, most requiring surgical intervention.

In response, Hamas said in a statement that the ongoing bombardment constituted "a brutal crime and a blatant and renewed violation of the ceasefire agreement," calling on international guarantor states to take immediate action to halt what it described as efforts to undermine the ceasefire and to compel Israel to implement the agreement.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Saturday that it conducted strikes across the Gaza Strip, targeting "four commanders and additional militants", as well as a weapons storage facility, a weapons manufacturing site, and two launch sites belonging to Hamas in the central Gaza Strip.

It said in a statement that the strikes were in response to an incident on Friday in which eight militants were identified exiting a tunnel in eastern Rafah, an act it deemed a violation of the ceasefire.

Hamas later rejected the claim as "false and misleading," accusing Israel of making "baseless and flimsy claims" that reflect its disregard for mediators, guarantor states, and all parties involved in the broader peace process.

The group called on the international community and the UN to condemn the attacks, take concrete steps to halt them, hold Israeli leaders accountable, and end what it termed a "policy of impunity" that encourages further violence and destruction.

One day earlier, the Israeli army announced the arrest of a senior commander in Hamas' Eastern Rafah Battalion during an operation in eastern Rafah.

The statement said the commander was captured while attempting to flee through the tunnel, following an earlier clash in which three militants were killed after exiting the same passage.

It noted that the military, together with Israel's internal security agency Shin Bet, continued operations in the area to locate and kill additional escaped "terrorists."

Gaza health authorities said on Saturday that 509 Palestinians have been killed and 1,409 wounded by Israeli fire since the ceasefire, bringing the total death toll since Oct. 2023 to 71,769, with 171,251 others wounded.