Gaza authorities say Israeli attack on police vehicle kills nine

The attack came as a Hamas delegation was preparing to meet with Egyptian officials in Cairo, according to sources in the Palestinian Islamist movement.

Gaza’s civil defense agency also reported that an earlier Israeli attack killed four more people.

When asked by AFP about the two incidents, the Israeli military said it was investigating the reports.

Gaza’s Interior Ministry, which operates under the authority of Hamas, accused the Israeli military of “committing a heinous crime this afternoon by attacking a police vehicle carrying several police officers and personnel in the Central Province.”

“The attack resulted in the death of nine police officers and personnel,” the statement said, listing the victims, including Central Province Police Chief Colonel Iyad Abu Youssef.

Earlier, Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah said it had received the bodies of “eight martyrs” killed in the attack in the central Gaza town of Zawaida.

Hamas condemned the incident and said: “This treacherous crime reflects the truce face of the occupation and its exposed policies aimed at continuing the genocidal war and deepening the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip.”

– Violation of ceasefire agreement –

Although a ceasefire came into effect on October 10, violence has persisted in the war-torn Palestinian territories, with both Israel and Hamas regularly accusing each other of violating the agreement.

Earlier on Sunday, Gaza’s civil defense agency, which is governed by Hamas, said an Israeli attack killed four people in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the region.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasim condemned the bombing in a statement as a “blatant violation of the ceasefire.”

The latest deaths came as Hamas sources told AFP that a delegation met in Cairo with Bulgarian politician Nikolay Mladenov, the senior representative for Gaza appointed by US President Donald Trump’s peace commission.

The council was established after the Trump administration negotiated a ceasefire with longtime mediators Qatar and Egypt to end a devastating two years of war in Gaza.

The Cairo delegation, headed by Hamas official Nizar Rayyan, “demanded an immediate end to all violations and called on Israel to implement the second phase of the ceasefire and open Gaza crossings,” the source said.

At the beginning of the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28, Israel announced the closure of all crossing points into Gaza as a “security” measure.

But on Sunday, it said it would partially reopen the Rafah crossing on the border between Palestinian territories and Egypt.

COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry agency responsible for civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said in a statement that “the Rafah crossing will reopen starting next Wednesday, allowing traffic in both directions, but only for limited personnel.”

Previously, the country had reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing in the southern part of the territory to allow “gradual access for humanitarian assistance.”

Gaza’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas, said at least 663 Palestinians have been killed since the truce began.

The Israeli military said that since October 10, at least five soldiers have been killed in the same period.

Media restrictions and access restrictions in Gaza prevent AFP from independently verifying casualty figures or reporting freely on the fighting.

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This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.