Hamas said an Israeli strike on Sunday killed three police officers near the southern Gaza city of Rafah, a day after Israel and militants carried out a hostage-prisoner swap.
The Hamas interior ministry initially reported that two officers were killed and a third was critically wounded in a strike while they were deployed in the al-Shouka area, east of Rafah, to secure aid.
The third officer later succumbed to his wounds, the ministry said in an updated statement.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its air force had conducted an airstrike in Gaza, aiming at “several armed individuals.”
“Earlier today, several armed individuals moving toward troops in the southern Gaza Strip were struck by an (Israeli Air Force) aircraft,” it said in a statement.
A fragile ceasefire that came into effect on January 19 between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas has largely brought a pause to more than 15 months of fighting in the coastal Palestinian territory.
Since then, Israel has conducted at least one other airstrike in Gaza. On February 2, it said one of its aircraft fired towards a “suspicious vehicle” in central Gaza.
The ceasefire was more recently put to test when Hamas said it would not release Israeli hostages on Saturday, accusing Israel of violating the terms of the agreement, particularly on the topic of aid entry.
In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned Israel would resume “intense fighting” in Gaza unless Hamas returned the hostages by noon on Saturday.
Following intense mediation by Qatar and Egypt, the latest hostage-prisoner swap was carried out on Saturday.
