Jomaa Younis and Mohammad Sio
19 August 2026•Update: 19 August 2026
Hamas on Wednesday accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of undermining mediation efforts and seeking to reignite conflict after an Israeli strike on a police station in Gaza City killed nine Palestinians.
A Hamas statement described the attack as a “new war crime,” saying most of those killed were police personnel.
The group said the attack had exposed the Netanyahu government's determination to break its commitments and avoid moving forward with the implementation of a ceasefire agreement and its subsequent phases.
Hamas also rejected Israeli claims that the strike had targeted resistance leaders, calling them “baseless allegations intended to justify the attack and conceal the deliberate targeting of civilian police and unarmed Palestinians.”
The group pointed out that the strike had occurred after meetings with mediators and guarantors of the truce agreement, including US envoy Jared Kushner, saying the timing showed that the Israeli government was “deliberately undermining” ceasefire efforts.
Hamas warned that the latest escalation indicated that Israel sought to resume its genocidal war in Gaza rather than honoring the truce agreement.
It also accused Israel of targeting police institutions responsible for maintaining public order “in an effort to create chaos and undermine stability in the territory.”
The group called on mediators and guarantors of the agreement, especially those in the administration of US President Donald Trump, to take a firm position on the escalation and pressure Netanyahu's government to meet its commitments.
It also urged them to “prevent Israel from derailing efforts to complete the roadmap and returning the region to a cycle of war” and to hold the Israeli government “fully responsible” for its actions.
Earlier Wednesday, an Israeli airstrike on a police station in central Gaza City killed nine Palestinians, including police officers, according to local medical sources.
The attack was the second deadly Israeli strike in Gaza within 24 hours.
On Tuesday, six Palestinians were killed, including a child, by an Israeli drone strike on a crowded cafe west of Gaza City.
Netanyahu continues to reject a 15-point Gaza plan, insisting that Hamas must first be disarmed – despite a roadmap issued by the Board of Peace calling for the group’s disarmament to be carried out in tandem with an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Netanyahu has demanded the complete disarmament of Hamas before Israel begins withdrawing its forces from Gaza.
Hamas, for its part, says it is willing to give up its weapons, but only if the move is accompanied by a gradual and orderly Israeli withdrawal from the enclave.
