Israel’s latest strikes said to kill 12 in Gaza, including Hamas police officers

IDF says it killed Hamas sniper commander, terrorist who abducted soldiers on Oct. 7, other terror operatives; Morocco signs on to join postwar International Stabilization Force

By Emanuel Fabian, Nurit Yohanan, Jacob Magid and Agencies 15 July 2026, 11:51 pmUpdated: 16 July 2026, 10:51 am
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Palestinian paramedics stand at the back of an ambulance after arriving at Al-Aqsa Hospital with the body of a person killed in an Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, July 15, 2026. (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP)
Palestinian paramedics stand at the back of an ambulance after arriving at Al-Aqsa Hospital with the body of a person killed in an Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, July 15, 2026. (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP)

Israeli airstrikes killed at least a dozen people in the Gaza Strip over the past two days, local health officials said on Wednesday, with the Israeli military reporting that it targeted a Hamas sniper commander, another terrorist who abducted the bodies of a brigade commander and two soldiers during the October 7, 2023, onslaught, and several more terror operatives.

The latest violence came as Morocco signed on to be part of an international military stabilization force in postwar Gaza and as leaders of the Hamas terror group wrapped up another round of truce talks in Cairo, as part of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, which halted the war last October.

Media outlets in Gaza affiliated with Hamas reported Wednesday that three people were killed overnight in an Israeli strike on a house in Deir al-Balah.

According to the reports, the three were a married couple — Omar Ahmed Abu Qasem and Asma Abu Qasem — and their six-year-old daughter, Habiba. Their three-year-old son, Sami, survived but was injured, medics said.

In a statement Thursday morning, the military confirmed carrying out the strike, saying that Omar Abu Qasem was a Hamas sniper commander who took part in attacks on troops in the Strip throughout the war.

Recently, Abu Qasem acted to restore Hamas’s capabilities and advance attacks, “in violation of the ceasefire agreement,” and therefore he was targeted, the IDF added.

The IDF published footage showing the strike in the Strip’s center.

On Tuesday, a woman and six officers in the Hamas-run police were among those killed in an airstrike on a police station in the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, hospital officials said. A man died in the bombing of a tent camp in Khan Younis in the south, Nasser Hospital officials said. And Israeli forces allegedly shot and killed a child in the Muwasi area outside the southernmost city of Rafah, according to hospital officials.

In a statement, the IDF confirmed striking in Jabalia, saying it targeted Mohammed Marwan Mohammed Salem, chief of security in Hamas’s Central Jabalia Battalion, and several other terror operatives in Hamas’s military wing.

The Hamas-run interior ministry identified Salem as the head of the Jabalia police station.

Palestinians carry the body of Mohammed Salem, director of the Jabaliya police station, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, during his funeral outside Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, July 14, 2026 (Jehad Alshrafi/AP)

The military meanwhile identified three of the operatives killed in the strike as Abd al-Malek Abu al-Jabin, a Nukhba Force operative and chief of investigations in the Hamas-run police; Yaman Mohammed Jibril Ubaid, an operative in the Central Jabalia Battalion; and Ghassan Akram Salama Dakas, an operative in the West Jabalia Battalion and a member of the Hamas police.

Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for years, maintains an armed wing as well as police and security services that are overseen by its Interior Ministry. Throughout the war, Israel has targeted local police. Israel’s military has said it considers police stations legitimate targets if they are “being used to advance military activities, or if those present are military operatives involved in advancing terrorist activities.”

The IDF said that recently, the operatives had gathered to advance attacks. “The terrorists were eliminated to remove a threat,” the IDF noted.

Separately, the military said two Hamas commanders in the terror group’s Nukhba Force were killed in a strike in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday night.

The IDF said the strike killed Ali Shamlakh, a deputy Nukhba company commander, who was advancing attacks on troops and Israeli civilians, and Nasser Louh, a Nukhba cell commander in Hamas’s Sabra Battalion.

“The terrorists posed an immediate threat to our forces operating in the area and were eliminated in a precise aerial strike,” the military added.

Another strike killed a Hamas terrorist who took part in the abduction of Col. Asaf Hamami, the commander of the Gaza Division’s Southern Brigade, and two of his soldiers, Staff Sgt. Tomer Ahimas and Sgt. Kiril Brodski, during the October 7, 2023, onslaught, according to the IDF.

The Tuesday strike in southern Gaza killed Hassam Shafai, a member of Hamas’s East Khan Younis Battalion, according to the military. On October 7, Shafai raided Kibbutz Nirim, where Hamami and his team were killed battling the Hamas invasion, and took part in abducting their bodies.

Col. Asaf Hamami. (IDF)

The military said that Shafai, during the war and recently, advanced attacks and therefore he “posed a threat to our forces operating in the Gaza Strip.”

Hamas returned the body of Hamami in November 2025 as part of a hostage deal. The bodies of Ahimas and Brodski were recovered in military operations in Gaza in 2024.

Morocco signs on to join stabilization force

Trump’s Gaza peace plan envisions, in its second phase, allowing a US-backed Palestinian technocratic committee to assume power from Hamas, the deployment of an international security force, and the start of the reconstruction of Gaza, which has been devastated by the war.

Morocco signed an agreement Wednesday to participate in the International Stabilization Force (ISF) for Gaza, state media reported.

The agreement was signed in Rabat at a meeting attended by Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, senior defense officials, and Board of Peace envoy for ​Gaza Nickolay ​Mladenov, and with a delegation including the commander of the ISF, the state news agency MAP said.

The agreement “reflects the shared determination to contribute, through concrete humanitarian and security actions, to the establishment of a climate of peace and security in the region,” MAP quoted a statement from the Moroccan defense administration as saying.

Trump’s Board of Peace and ISF leadership welcomed Morocco’s decision to join the initiative, citing its planned deployment of senior military officers, gendarmerie and police personnel, as well as the creation of a military field hospital, MAP said.

Morocco has been listed among ISF contributing countries since January, so the agreement appeared to be more of a formality.

While three other countries — Albania, Kazakhstan and Kosovo — have also agreed to contribute troops to the ISF — Morocco is slated to be the first of them to actually deploy troops in Gaza, officials familiar with the Board of Peace’s plans have told The Times of Israel.

Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates Nasser Bourita attends a meeting in Moscow, Russia, October 16, 2025 (Pavel Bednyakov/AP)

The Board of Peace envisions Moroccan troops will be tasked with securing the borders of a humanitarian pilot zone that the Board of Peace aims to establish in the area of the flattened southern Gaza city of Rafah, the officials said.

But there is no timeline for when construction of that humanitarian zone will actually begin, with a senior Arab official familiar with the matter saying no major progress is expected until after the Israeli elections in October, since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has become increasingly reluctant to cooperate with any Gaza relief projects as the vote approaches.

Among the steps that Israel has dragged its feet on advancing has been the signing of Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with each ISF contributor country, in order to establish the legal guardrails of foreign military personnel stationed abroad. ISF troops can’t deploy without those agreements being signed.

Another source familiar with the matter said ground is unlikely to break on the humanitarian pilot zone until early 2027, meaning the ISF won’t deploy before then regardless.

In the meantime, small delegations from ISF contributing countries are arriving in Israel and operating out of a base in the country’s south.

Hamas leaders wrapped up another round of truce talks in Cairo on Tuesday. The discussions — mediated by Egypt, Turkey and Qatar — were aimed at implementing the second phase of Trump’s Gaza peace plan.

The talks included the disarmament of Hamas — which it has so far refused to do — and the Israeli military’s withdrawal from the strip, according to sources close to the talks, who said there had been little progress amid deep distrust between the sides.

Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli military strike in Maghazi refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip, July 15, 2026 (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP)

The fragile ceasefire deal in October attempted to halt a two-year-long war between Israel and Hamas that began when the Palestinian terror group led an invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

The heaviest fighting has subsided, but at least 1,123 people have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and fighters but claims women and children make up most of the dead.

Gunmen have carried out shooting attacks on troops, and Israel says its strikes are in response to those and other violations. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire.

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