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.

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.

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.