An Israeli strike killed at least 11 Palestinians overnight, including the director general of Gaza police and a deputy, in Al-Mawasi, southern Gaza, local officials said Thursday.

More than 40 Palestinians have been killed in 15 Israeli air strikes across the Gaza Strip, according to the territory's Hamas-run Civil Defence service. The chief of Gaza's police force and his deputy were among 11 killed in an overnight attack on a tent camp for displaced families in the southern al-Mawasi "humanitarian zone", it said.

Israel's military said Thursday that it had killed Gaza's police chief in an airstrike on the enclave's Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone outside the southern city of Khan Younis. Hassam Shahwan, head of Hamas' Internal Security Forces was "eliminated by the Israeli Air Force in an intelligence-based strike,