DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes have claimed the lives of no fewer than a dozen individuals in Gaza over the preceding forty-eight hours, according to local health officials on Wednesday, as aerial bombardments persist on an almost daily basis notwithstanding a ceasefire with Hamas that has been in place for several months.

On Wednesday, three members of a single family met their demise in central Gaza, as corroborated by officials at Al Aqsa Hospital.

On Tuesday, a woman and six police officers were among those killed in an airstrike targeting a police station within the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, according to hospital officials.

A man perished in the bombardment of a tent encampment in Khan Younis, located in the southern part of the territory, as confirmed by officials at Nasser Hospital.

Furthermore, Israeli forces fatally shot a child in the Muwasi area, situated outside the southernmost city of Rafah, hospital officials reported.

The Israeli military refrained from issuing an immediate response regarding the strikes in central and southern Gaza.

In a statement concerning the attack on Jabaliya, it asserted that four of the deceased police officers were operatives of Hamas, yet it adduced no substantiation to demonstrate how those killed were implicated in the planning or execution of assaults.

The Hamas-run Interior Ministry disclosed that one of the officers, Colonel Mohamad Marwan Salem, held the distinguished positions of senior police commander and chief of the Jabaliya police station.

Hamas, which exercised de facto governance over Gaza for an extended period, maintains a paramilitary wing alongside civilian police and security apparatuses operating under the purview of its Interior Ministry.

Throughout the conflict, Israel has systematically targeted local police forces, including those tasked with safeguarding humanitarian aid convoys.

Israel’s military has asserted that it regards police stations as legitimate targets should they “be used to advance military activities, or if those present are military operatives involved in advancing terrorist activities.”

The statement did not specify which military operations it suspected were occurring at the Jabaliya police station, nor did it furnish any substantiation that offensives were being orchestrated.

Hamas asserts that the police force is engaged in upholding public order and enforcing the rule of law.

The United Nations human rights office has unequivocally condemned Israeli assaults on Gaza’s police force, highlighting that in the preceding month, police personnel had been subjected to attack on no fewer than twelve occasions in 2026, including “during ordinary law enforcement operations, including directing traffic and patrolling streets and markets.”

“The pattern of attacks raises concerns that Israeli forces fail to discriminate between police personnel and combatants affiliated with armed groups in Gaza,” it stated in a communiqué dated June 3.

Ofer Guterman, a researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel, posits that the country’s targeting strategy indicates a perception of certain segments of Hamas’s policing apparatus as being inextricably interwoven with its military infrastructure, encompassing dual-role personnel and the repurposing of facilities for weapons storage, operational activities, and logistical support.

The precarious ceasefire agreement brokered in October sought to bring a cessation to the two-year protracted conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Although the most intense hostilities have abated, the Gaza Health Ministry—an entity operating under the Hamas-led administration—reports that at least 1,123 fatalities have occurred in the territory since the ceasefire came into effect.

The ministry, which maintains meticulously detailed casualty records widely regarded as broadly reliable by United Nations agencies and independent analysts, does not disaggregate civilian and combatant deaths, though it asserts that women and children constitute the majority of the deceased.

Militants have perpetrated targeted shootings against military personnel, and Israel asserts that its airstrikes constitute a retaliatory response to these and other infractions.

Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the cessation of hostilities.

The conflict commenced following the Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 1,200 individuals and the abduction of 251 hostages.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has claimed the lives of over 73,264 Palestinians, inclusive of those killed subsequent to the ceasefire.