An Israeli airstrike on a police post in northern Gaza on Tuesday killed six officers and personnel, including the director of the station, as well as one civilian, according to Hamas-run authorities in Gaza, the latest in an uptick of Israeli attacks.
Hamas, the militant group that controls part of the Palestinian enclave, described the attack as an escalation against the civil security apparatus in Gaza, nine months after a fragile cease-fire with Israel came into force.
The Israeli military, however, described the targets of the attack as “terrorists” belonging to Hamas’s military wing, saying in a statement later Tuesday that the people who were struck on Tuesday had “gathered” in recent months to plan attacks against Israelis.
Israel has intensified its strikes on Gaza in recent weeks, saying its targets included militants who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, which ignited the two-year war, and those who had held Israeli hostages.
Local reports said at least one more Palestinian had been killed by Israeli fire in Rafah, southern Gaza, on Tuesday, but an Israeli military official said that the military was not aware of that separate incident. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with army rules.
The Hamas-led Ministry of Interior and National Security, which oversees the police in Gaza, said six members of the force were killed in Tuesday’s strike in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza. They included Muhammad Marwan Salem, the director of the police station, one major, three lieutenants and a deputy police chief. The ministry said the station was hit by four missiles and that another civilian was also killed.
Hamas said in a statement that the station had been established to maintain order in a market area densely populated by civilians.
The Israeli military described Mr. Salem as the head of military security of Hamas’s Central Jabaliya Battalion.
The military statement said that one of the lieutenants named by the Gaza Ministry of Interior was a member of the Hamas military wing’s Western Jabaliya Battalion and was also “an operative in the Hamas police.” And the Israeli military said that the officer identified by the ministry as a deputy was a commando in Hamas’s Central Jabaliya Battalion as well as being the head of the police investigations department.
The Ministry of Interior appeared to suggest that the Israeli strike on Tuesday may have been connected to a recent raid in the area on a United Nations aid facility, which the Hamas government said was carried out by Gaza police.
Earlier this week, the United Nations accused armed forces affiliated with the Hamas-run government in Gaza of interfering with the delivery of food aid at a distribution site in Jabaliya on Saturday, forcing the humanitarian workers there to suspend deliveries.
The United Nations said the forces also entered a warehouse operated by the U.N.’s World Food Program and intimidated aid workers.
Ismail Thawabteh, a spokesman for the Hamas-controlled government, said on Monday that Gaza police had raided the warehouse, but said they had done so as part of an anti-smuggling operation.
Ramiz Alakbarov, the top U.N. humanitarian official in Jerusalem, said on Sunday that the incidents during the weekend were not isolated and reflected “an increasingly dangerous pattern of intimidation, violence and obstruction.”
Gaza’s Ministry of Interior, in a statement released on Tuesday, hours after the Israeli strike, said Mr. Alakbarov’s recent comments were referring to “the police force in the same area” where the attack had occurred.
The ministry accused Mr. Alakbarov of “siding” with the Israelis and “providing cover” for Israeli actions against the police force.
Asked for a response, Mr. Alakbarov’s office sent a statement saying that it had no comment on those allegations, and that his remarks on Sunday “reflected the United Nations’ concern regarding incidents affecting humanitarian operations and the safety of humanitarian personnel.”
The statement added that the United Nations operates with neutrality and impartiality in Gaza.
The Israeli military declined to comment on whether there was a connection between the raid on Saturday and Tuesday’s airstrike.
The U.S.-brokered cease-fire agreement, reached in October 2025, led to the release of the remaining hostages, and left Israeli forces in control of more than half of Gaza. The Israeli military has since expanded its area of control, hemming about two million Palestinian residents into a gradually shrinking strip of land along the coast.
The cease-fire required Hamas to lay down its weapons. Though the group has agreed to accede administrative control of the territory, it has so far refused to relinquish its arms, holding up plans for reconstruction. Israel and the United States have conditioned rebuilding on the disarmament of Hamas.
Israel’s attacks have killed more than 1,100 people since the cease-fire, according to local health officials, in addition to more than 70,000 killed during the war. Their death toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
