Israeli Strikes Kill Gaza Police Officers Under Hamas Authority

An Israeli airstrike on May 6, 2026, killed a senior police official in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip and wounded many others, according to health authorities in the enclave. The day before, Israeli warplanes targeted the Sheikh Radwan police station in the northwest of Gaza City.

That strike killed a 15-year-old boy and injured several law enforcement officers. On April 24, 2026, an Israeli strike on a police patrol in the Bir 19 area of the overcrowded al-Mawassi camp in southern Gaza killed eight people, including four police officers.

The patrol had been intervening in a violent dispute between two families. The same day in Gaza City, two more officers died in a targeted strike that left three people dead in total. An earlier strike that day on a police vehicle in Khan Yunis also resulted in fatalities.

The officers work west of the so-called "yellow line" in areas from which Israeli troops withdrew. Israel has described the actions as preventive strikes. The Israeli military has said it is targeting police officers who also serve in the armed wing of Hamas.

In the six months following the ceasefire, 31 of these police officers were killed. More than 830 people in total died in Israeli strikes during that period, including 26 percent children and 10 percent women, according to the health ministry. Civil society representatives have accused Israel of seeking to plunge the territory into chaos by targeting law enforcement forces.

The strikes have occurred at police stations, in vehicles, and at checkpoints. Health authorities in Gaza report the casualties from these incidents.