At least six Palestinians have been killed in Israeli drone attacks targeting two police posts in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip and the al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis in the south, as Israel presses on with its more than two-year genocidal war on the devastated enclave.
The attacks overnight into Friday were condemned by Hamas as undermining mediator efforts during a “ceasefire” phase that Israel has violated almost daily since October 10.
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Medical sources at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis reported the arrival of four bodies and several wounded individuals following an Israeli military strike on a police checkpoint at the al-Maslakh intersection in al-Mawasi. The sources said that the strike occurred in an area outside the Israeli military’s control, and described the condition of some of the wounded as critical.
In the central Gaza Strip, two Palestinians were killed and others were injured in a similar Israeli drone strike that targeted a police post at the entrance to the Bureij refugee camp.
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said that the rising number of deaths as a result of the ongoing Israeli bombardment across the Gaza Strip reflects “the Zionist occupation’s blatant disregard for the efforts of mediators, and its complete disregard for the Peace Council and its role”.
Qassem added, in a statement, that Israel is continuing its war of extermination against the Palestinian people, despite some changes to form and method, indicating that “the talk of the guarantor states about stopping the war lacks any real substance on the ground”.
Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said, “t has been a bloody night. Israeli forces carried out a series of deadly air strikes, this time primarily focusing on police checkpoints that have been deployed too close to areas where armed militias are operating in the eastern communities of the Gaza Strip, in particular in … Khan Younis and al Bureij refugee camp.”
“Six police members have been killed as a result … But also here the timing and location are critically reshaping the whole equation between both sides
Israel has made clear that Israel will not be responsible for reorganising the remnants of life in Gaza. That’s why we can see that any kind of restoration of previous services, including police… will be thwarted,” he added.
Aid organisations expulsion deadline
In the meantime, Israel has ordered 37 aid groups to halt operations in the occupied territories, a move described as having potentially devastating consequences for Palestinians, unless they hand over personal details about Palestinian staff by this Sunday March 1.
The organisations warn that complying could put employees at risk, compromise humanitarian neutrality, and violate European data protection rules.
Seventeen international NGOs, including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, Norwegian Refugee Council, and CARE International, have challenged the order in Israel’s Supreme Court, saying they could be forced to stop operations.
Abu Azzoum said, “This could mark a major turning point for the humanitarian response system in Gaza.” Aid groups may be forced to suspend operations entirely if the order stands, he added.
Oxfam International said on Tuesday that the forced closure of aid operations in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory could begin as early as Saturday.
“The effect would be immediate, extending well beyond individual organisations to the wider humanitarian system,” Oxfam warned.
“In Gaza, families remain dependent on external assistance amid continuing restrictions on aid entry and renewed strikes in densely populated areas,” it said in a statement.
“In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, military incursions, demolitions, displacement, settlement expansion and settler violence are driving rising humanitarian needs,” it added.
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