A new wave of Israeli air strikes across the Gaza Strip has left at least 10 Palestinians dead and dozens injured, pushing the already fragile, months-long ceasefire to the brink of collapse as international mediators work to de-escalate the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The deadliest attack took place on Wednesday morning at the Gaza Governorate Municipalities Police Headquarters in Gaza City, where Israeli fighter jets dropped multiple explosive bombs on the multi-story facility. Gaza-based paramedic teams confirmed that at least nine people were killed in the strike, and another 15 suffered varying degrees of injury, with several remaining in critical condition as of Wednesday afternoon. Local Palestinian media reports indicate that several senior law enforcement officials were among the fatalities, including Colonel Faten al-Sahhar, the widely respected head of the Gaza Police Women’s Department.
Gaza’s Ministry of Interior has condemned the targeted attack on the police station, stating that Israel’s deliberate strike on the territory’s law enforcement infrastructure is a clear attempt to sow disorder and panic across Gaza. A statement from the department called the assault a “brutal massacre” of security personnel working to maintain public order under already catastrophic conditions. A separate, smaller Israeli air strike in the central Gaza region on the same day killed an additional Palestinian, bringing the total death toll from Wednesday’s attacks to 10.
This latest round of deadly violence follows a equally destructive strike on a crowded Gaza City cafe Tuesday that killed seven Palestinians, one of whom was a child. That attack marked the deadliest single Israeli strike in Gaza in more than a month, reigniting fears of a full-scale return to open conflict. The Hamas administration in Gaza has labeled the recent series of strikes a deliberate war crime, arguing their timing is no coincidence: Israel, Hamas claims, is actively working to sabotage international mediation efforts designed to solidify the existing fragile ceasefire.
The Israeli military has issued a standard response to the strikes, claiming it targeted “Hamas operatives” who were plotting imminent attacks against Israeli military personnel deployed along the Gaza border. The military provided no concrete evidence to back up this assertion, a pattern that has repeated consistently across dozens of Israeli strikes in Gaza since the October ceasefire was signed.
The current escalation comes just days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a high-stakes meeting with U.S. Special Envoy Jared Kushner, who has been leading U.S.-backed mediation efforts between Israel, Hamas, and regional stakeholders. Following the closed-door meeting, Kushner publicly stated that the U.S. would give Israel authorization to “finish the job” against Hamas if the group refused to proceed with planned disarmament under the ceasefire framework.
Kushner, whose personal family has maintained long-standing close political and financial ties to Netanyahu, traveled to Egypt earlier in the week to meet with Hamas leadership as part of the ongoing mediation push. Last month, Hamas announced it had agreed to a U.S.-brokered proposal that would see gradual disarmament and full implementation of the October ceasefire agreement, in exchange for a total end to all Israeli military strikes and a full withdrawal of Israeli occupying forces from all Gaza territory. Israel has flatly rejected the proposal, refusing to commit to either a permanent end to strikes or a full military withdrawal.
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qasem placed direct blame for the renewed escalation on the U.S.-led mediation body known as the Peace Council, arguing that the group has failed to pressure Israel to abide by the terms of the existing ceasefire agreement. “The Peace Council now faces a real test of its ability and seriousness in managing mediation and negotiations,” Qasem stated in a press briefing Wednesday. He added that senior officials from the U.S.-led body have released contradictory public statements that effectively provide diplomatic cover for Israel to expand its military aggression in Gaza.
In a post-meeting interview with Fox News, Kushner doubled down on the U.S. position, stating that Washington will block all international funding for post-conflict reconstruction in Gaza until Hamas fully surrenders its weapons. He also reaffirmed the U.S. stance that it will not limit Israel’s self-described right to military action in Gaza if it claims any imminent threat exists against its territory or personnel.
The original October 2024 ceasefire was negotiated to end two years of full-scale Israeli military operations in Gaza, which Gaza’s health ministry reports have killed more than 73,000 Palestinians to date, the vast majority of whom are civilians including women and children. The military campaign has also destroyed approximately 90 percent of all residential infrastructure across the Gaza Strip, leaving more than 1.5 million Palestinians displaced. Since the ceasefire was signed, Israel has repeatedly violated the terms, carrying out near-daily air strikes across the territory and maintaining a crippling total siege that blocks access to food, fuel, medical supplies, and other basic humanitarian goods. According to Palestinian health officials, more than 1,200 Palestinians, including at least 300 children, have been killed by Israeli forces in ceasefire violations since the agreement was signed.