CAIRO: In a killing spree, Israeli forces shot dead 16 Palestinians, including two two children and their parents in the occupied West Bank and a man, his pregnant wife and their son in Gaza Strip, health officials said.

This was one of the heaviest death tolls in a single day in recent weeks, as Israel continued to launch attacks on Lebanon and Iran as well.

Medics and the interior ministry of the Hamas-run Gaza said an Israeli air strike killed a senior police official and eight other officers when their vehicle was hit near the entrance to Zawayda town in the central Gaza Strip.

At least 14 other people, mostly bystanders, were wounded, the Gaza health ministry said.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a Palestinian father, mother, and two of their children were killed as they drove in the occupied West Bank, Pales­tinian health authorities said.

Earlier on Sunday, health officials said an Israeli airstrike had killed three people — a man, his pregnant wife, and their son — in the western area of Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip.

There was no immediate Israeli comment on the incidents in Gaza.

In Gaza there have been regular outbreaks of violence since a ceasefire went into effect in October following two years of devastating war.

While Israeli attacks in Gaza declined in the days after the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28, according to residents, medics and analysts, they have since begun to rise again. Israeli fire has killed at least 36 Palestinians since the outbreak of the Iran war, Gaza health officials say.

The Palestinian health ministry says that at least 670 people have been killed by Israeli fire since the October ceasefire. Israel said four soldiers were killed by Palestinians in Gaza over the same period.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2026