Israel kills senior police official in Gaza

CAIRO:

An Israeli airstrike on Saturday killed the head of the Hamas-led police force in the northern Gaza Strip, Brigadier-General Abdel-Nasser Al-Maqadma, the Hamas-run interior ministry and medics said.

Maqadma, one of at least five Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Saturday, was also known as the governor of the northern Gaza Strip. He was killed in the Sheikh Radwan area north of Gaza City, medics said.

The Israeli military said he was also part of Hamas' military wing.

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. Another Israeli strike on Saturday killed a Palestinian medic in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, medics said.