An Israeli airstrike on a police station in the northern Gaza Strip claimed the lives of at least 44 people, including civilians, and left dozens more injured on Thursday, as violence escalated in the region.
Local health authorities confirmed that the Israeli air raid hit a police station in Jabalia, a densely populated area, killing at least 10 people.
According to medical officials, two Israeli missiles struck the police facility, located near a busy market, causing widespread destruction and injuring several others.
The identities of those killed have yet to be disclosed. The attack targeted a police station that Israel’s military said housed a Hamas and Islamic Jihad command center. The Israeli army claimed that the facility was used to plan and execute attacks against Israeli forces.
However, Palestinian factions have consistently denied these allegations, insisting that they do not use civilian properties for military purposes.
The death toll from the Thursday airstrikes continued to rise, with Gaza’s Health Ministry reporting that at least 34 additional people were killed in separate airstrikes across the Gaza Strip. This brought the total number of fatalities on Thursday to 44. The attack came amidst a backdrop of continued airstrikes that have devastated Gaza's infrastructure.
In another blow to Gaza's already overburdened healthcare system, the Durra Children’s Hospital in Gaza City was rendered non-operational after an Israeli missile strike hit the upper floors of the building, damaging its intensive care unit and destroying the facility’s solar power panels. While no fatalities were reported in the hospital attack, the destruction of a critical healthcare facility has worsened the dire situation in Gaza, where hospitals have already been struggling to cope with the influx of casualties.
Israel’s military, meanwhile, reported that one of its soldiers was killed during combat operations in the northern Gaza Strip, and two others, including a senior officer, sustained severe injuries. The ongoing Israeli military campaign in Gaza, which began in response to the October 7 Hamas attack in 2023, has caused widespread devastation to the Gaza Strip's health system and infrastructure. Over the course of the 18-month-long military offensive, more than 1,900 Palestinians have been killed since the collapse of a ceasefire in March 2024, many of whom were civilians, according to Gaza health authorities.
The attacks have also led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, as Israel has imposed a buffer zone around the territory.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire, with both sides locked in a bloody conflict. International mediators, including Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have struggled to broker a lasting ceasefire. Despite these efforts, a resolution to the ongoing violence remains elusive.
Since the start of the Israeli offensive in response to the Hamas-led attack in October 2023, more than 51,300 Palestinians have lost their lives, according to Gaza's health authorities. Meanwhile, the Israeli death toll from the October assault by Hamas, which killed 1,200 people and saw the kidnapping of 251 hostages, remains a key point of contention in the ongoing conflict.
