• Head of Gaza’s criminal police force, aide targeted in Khan Yunis
• Israel deports flotilla activists after holding them for a week

CAIRO/ JERUSALEM: Israeli strikes killed at least three Palestinians in Gaza on Sunday, including two members of the Hamas-run police force, health officials said, in violence that underscored the fragility of a US-brokered ceasefire.

Medics said an airstrike killed one person in the Maghazi refugee camp, while another killed the head of the criminal police force in Khan Yunis, Wessam Abdel-Hadi, and his aide, according to Gaza’s interior ministry.

Reuters has previously reported that Israel has heightened its attacks on Gaza’s police force, which the group has used to re-establish governance in areas under its control.

The blast that killed the two police officers left only a mangled metal skeleton where their car had stood in the Al-Amal neighbourhood of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.

Mourners chanted “there is no God but Allah, the martyrs are beloved by Allah” as the men’s white-shrouded bodies were carried on shoulders through the streets during the funeral.

One of the mourners, Ali Mousa, condemned Israel’s killing of members of the enclave’s police force.

“Although the ceasefire came into effect several months ago, the occupation continues to target the police officers to cause chaos among the people of the same nation,” Mousa told Reuters.

“The occupation aims to create chaos and confusion within the Gaza Strip. This is its sole objective,” he added.

Violence in Gaza has persisted despite an October 2025 ceasefire, with Israel conducting almost daily attacks.

At least 850 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire took effect, local medics say.

Israel and Hamas have blamed each other for ceasefire violations.

More than 72,500 Palestinians have been killed since the Gaza war started in October 2023, Gaza health authorities say, most of them civilians.

Two foreign activists deported

Meanwhile, Israel deported on Sunday two foreign activists seized from a Gaza-bound flotilla, in what a rights group representing them described as a “punitive attack” on a civilian mission.

Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish national of Palestinian origin, and Brazilian Thiago Avila were among dozens of activists aboard a flotilla intercepted by the Israeli navy in international waters off the coast of Greece on April 30.

The pair were seized and brought to Israel for questioning, while the others were taken to the Greek island of Crete and released.

“Saif Abu Keshek and Thiago Avila, from the provocation flotilla, were deported today from Israel” following an investigation, the Israeli foreign ministry posted on X on Sunday.

Israel would “not allow any breach” of the blockade on Gaza, it added.

The ministry statement did not mention its earlier allegations of the two being linked to a “terrorist organisation”, over which they were interrogated in Israel.

Spain, Brazil and the United Nations had all called for the men’s swift release after their detention drew widespread outrage.

On Wednesday, an Israeli court rejected an appeal contesting the pair’s detention.

“From their abduction in international waters to their unlawful detention in total isolation and the ill-treatment they were subjected to, the Israeli authorities’ actions were a punitive attack on a purely civilian mission,” Adalah, the rights group that represented the pair, said after their release.

During their week-long detention in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, Adalah claimed the two men had been subjected to “psychological abuse”, including prolonged interrogations, constant bright lighting in their cells, complete isolation and transfers while blindfolded, even during medical examinations.

Israeli authorities had rejected these claims, while Israeli courts twice approved the pair’s detention to allow police time for questioning.

Both men, who denied any links with Hamas, had launched a hunger strike while in detention. According to Spanish diplomats, Israel provided “no evidence” linking its citizen Abu Keshek to Hamas.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2026