Israeli airstrike kills nine Palestinians at Gaza police station, medics say

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO, Aug 19 (Reuters) – An Israeli airstrike killed nine Palestinians at a police station in Gaza on Wednesday, medics said, two days after U.S. envoy Jared Kushner ended a trip to the region that failed to push forward Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in the enclave.

Medics and police sources said several officers were among those killed at what the Hamas-led interior ministry said was the headquarters of the municipal police. Fifteen others were wounded, they said.

The ministry later said in a statement that those killed included eight top-level officers and also a 13-year-old girl who was in the vicinity at the time of the attack.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday evening that it had struck Hamas militants who it said “operated from the civilian police station” to advance attacks against its troops.

Earlier on Wednesday, in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, a separate Israeli airstrike killed one Palestinian, medics said, taking Wednesday’s death toll to at least 10.

The Israeli military said the Nuseirat strike had targeted a Hamas militant.

DIPLOMATIC PROGRESS STALLED

In what had appeared to be a possible breakthrough at the end of July, President Trump announced that Hamas had accepted a roadmap which entailed the Palestinian militant group decommissioning its weapons in phases as Israel’s military withdrew from Gaza. The military would also stop its operations in the territory.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose ruling coalition is trailing in opinion polls ahead of an October election, rejected the roadmap, insisting that the military would only withdraw once Hamas has completely disarmed.

Hamas has demanded that Israel adhere to the ceasefire and withdraw its forces from Gaza. Both sides have disputed the sequencing of how Trump’s plan should be implemented.

Israel said its strikes aimed to thwart imminent attacks by Hamas and Gaza militants.

On Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike killed at least seven Palestinians, including a child, at a beachfront cafe, medics said. The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas commanders who had planned attacks against forces operating in the enclave.

On Wednesday, a Hamas official said the group had told ceasefire mediators, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey that if there was no halt to Israel’s targeted attacks “it would influence their stance on the agreement”. He didn’t elaborate.

The official said the latest killings had dealt a blow to Kushner’s diplomatic efforts despite the assurances he and Trump’s Board of Peace gave Hamas leaders when they met in Egypt on Sunday that they would compel Israel to end “assassinations and targeted attacks”.

Hamas political leader Khalil Al-Hayya met in Doha on Wednesday with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani to discuss developments in Gaza, the Qatari foreign ministry said in a statement.

Al-Thani urged the international community to “pressure Israel to fulfil its obligations” under the agreement, it said.

More than 1,200 Palestinians and four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since a ceasefire was reached last October, according to Gazan health officials and the Israeli military.

(Reporting by Nidal Al Mughrabi; Additional reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din in Cairo; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Gareth Jones)