Israel kills seven people in Gaza in new attack targeting police

Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip killed seven people on Saturday, the devastated territory's civil defence said, in the latest deadly violation of the ceasefire which has theoretically been in place since October last year.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said an Israeli drone had fired two missiles close to a police post in the Al-Bureij refugee camp.

In addition to the seven dead, he said, several more people were wounded, four of them critically.

Among those killed were Al-Aqsa TV director Mohammed Sayed and a senior police officer.

The Al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza said it had received six bodies and seven wounded, "including four in a critical condition because of direct impacts to the face, torso and other parts of the body".

The nearby al-Awda hospital said it had received one fatality and two wounded.

Israel has regularly targeted police checkpoints in Gaza since the ceasefire was signed, killing dozens of police officers .

At least 743 Palestinians have been killed since the truce began, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

Hamas, which is currently engaged in talks with the Trump-led "Board of Peace" over the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire, condemned the Israeli attack, saying it was a “horrific massacre”.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said that this “heinous crime" underscored the need to compel Israel to "implement the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, including halting violations, before moving to the second phase."

Meanwhile, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said that Palestinians in Gaza were still unsafe, six months after the ceasefire.

“The unrelenting pattern of killings reflects continuing disregard for Palestinian lives, enabled by sweeping impunity,” Turk said on Friday, on the sixth anniversary of the agreement.

“For the past 10 days, Palestinians are still being killed and injured in what is left of their homes, shelters and tents of displaced families, on the streets, in vehicles, at a medical facility and a classroom,” Turk added.

On Friday, Israel killed five people in Gaza, including a schoolgirl attending classes at a makeshift school.

Agencies contributed to this report.