At least 18 Palestinians have been killed after an Israeli drone strike targeted a Hamas police unit attempting to assert control over a market in the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, reports the BBC.
Eyewitnesses said Israeli drones fired at members of a Hamas police force, dressed in civilian clothing and wearing masks, who were confronting vendors they accused of price gouging and selling goods looted from aid trucks.
The Hamas-run Ministry of Interior condemned the strike, accusing Israel of committing a new crime against a police unit tasked with maintaining public order.
The BBC said in its report that it has contacted the Israeli military for comment.
One eyewitness told the BBC that clashes broke out on Thursday after police confronted the vendors, with the unit commander shouting, "Either sell at a fair price or we will confiscate the goods."
Some of the vendors then pulled out handguns, and one man had a Kalashnikov, the eyewitness said.
Israeli drones then fired two missiles, residents said.
Video footage from the aftermath shows bodies strewn on the ground and panicked shoppers screaming, as ambulances rush to attend to those injured.
A doctor at Deir al-Balah's Al-Aqsa Hospital told the BBC that 18 bodies were brought to the morgue there. It was not immediately clear how many of those killed were police officers.
The incident came as civilians in Gaza continued to struggle to access food, with near-daily shootings reported at and around US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution sites in south and central Gaza, and the limited goods available in markets selling for highly inflated prices.
The GHF, which has been accused of violating humanitarian principles by international aid groups, received a further $30m in funding on Thursday from the US, which has supported Israeli efforts to see it become the largest aid organisation in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday accused Hamas of "once again taking control of humanitarian aid… and stealing it from civilians" in northern Gaza, as he gave the military two days to devise an "action plan" to prevent this.
Before Thursday's strike at the market, at least 14 Palestinians had been killed and dozens injured in Israeli military attacks across Gaza since midnight, a spokesperson for the Hamas-run Civil Defence said.
Rescue teams evacuated 14 bodies, including those of three Palestinians who were waiting for humanitarian aid near the Wadi Gaza bridge close to the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza.
A medical source at Al-Awda Hospital nearby confirmed that three Palestinians were killed and several others injured by Israeli gunfire near the Wadi Gaza bridge.
Witnesses said Israeli drones opened fire at a big crowd of civilians reportedly waiting for humanitarian aid at the time of the attack.
Elsewhere, five people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a school sheltering displaced families in western Gaza City.
In the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, in the south of the Strip, five members of the Abu Arab family were killed when an Israeli air strike hit a tent sheltering displaced persons. Another Palestinian was also killed in a strike that hit a tent in Al-Mawasi.
Others were wounded in the strikes.
The IDF said it was looking into these reports, but requested specific coordinates and times. In general, the IDF said it was "operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities".
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 56,259 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
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