Israeli strike kills a top Hamas security official in Gaza, medics and police say

An Israeli airstrike on Sunday killed a senior officer of the Hamas-run Palestinian internal security service in the Gaza ​Strip and an associate as they travelled in a vehicle ‌through Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, medics and police officials said.

The strike killed Colonel Wael El-Ledawi, head of the service in central Gaza, and Major Ramez ​Abu Zraiq, medics and the Hamas-run interior ministry said.

The ​Israeli military said it had carried out a strike against ⁠a Hamas militant, without further details.

Israel has killed dozens of ​members of the Hamas-led police force, including senior officials, in the past months, ​accusing many of them of being members of the Hamas armed wing who posed imminent threats to Israel and its forces inside Gaza.

Hamas says Israeli attacks ​on the police force and its headquarters are intended to sow ​chaos and anarchy in the enclave and violate the U.S.-brokered October ceasefire between ‌Israel ⁠and Hamas.

The latest deaths add to a toll of more than 1,190 Palestinians, mostly civilians, killed by Israeli attacks since the ceasefire took effect, according to Gaza health officials.

Hamas does not usually disclose its ​losses.

The truce halted ​full-scale fighting but ⁠has not ended near-daily Israeli strikes. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed by militants in Gaza ​over the same period.

Israel effectively controls an estimated 64% ​of the ⁠tiny coastal Strip, bombarded to ruins by Israel's two-year military assault that followed the 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel.

Nearly all of Gaza's ⁠2 ​million people now live on a sliver ​of land on the coast, mainly in makeshift tents or damaged buildings and facing ​dire conditions, under Hamas control.

-Reuters