Israel unleashed its heaviest airstrikes on Gaza in weeks on Saturday, killing at least 26 people, Palestinian health officials said.
The attacks struck a Hamas-run police station, residential apartments, and tent shelters housing displaced families across the besieged enclave.
Medics said children and women were among the dead, underscoring the civilian toll amid a fragile ceasefire already strained by mutual accusations.
Warplanes hit the Sheikh Radwan police station west of Gaza City, killing 10 officers and detainees, according to police and medical sources.
Rescue crews searched through rubble for survivors, as smoke lingered above shattered buildings and twisted metal.
Another strike flattened an apartment in Gaza City, killing three children and two women, officials at Shifa hospital reported.
Further south in Khan Younis, an airstrike tore through a tent encampment, killing at least seven displaced Palestinians, health authorities said.
An Israeli military source said the strikes responded to a ceasefire violation involving armed militants emerging from a tunnel in Rafah.
Israeli forces killed three gunmen and arrested a fourth, described as a senior Hamas commander operating in southern Gaza.
Hamas did not comment on the incident and accused Israel of breaching the truce agreed under U.S. mediation in October.
Video footage from Gaza City showed blackened walls, collapsed rooms, and debris scattered across streets once lined with homes.
“We found my three little nieces in the street,” said Samer al-Atbash, their uncle, questioning the meaning of a ceasefire.
Gaza health officials say more than 500 people, mostly civilians, have been killed by Israeli fire since the truce began.
Israeli authorities say Palestinian militants have killed four Israeli soldiers during the same period.
Both sides continue to trade blame as Washington urges progress toward the next phase of the ceasefire agreement.
That phase includes Hamas disarmament, further Israeli withdrawal, and a proposed international peacekeeping force, all deeply contested issues.
The Rafah border crossing with Egypt, Gaza’s main gateway to the outside world, is expected to reopen on Sunday.