Full story
Police chief killed
The Gaza Governorate Police Director, Colonel Jamal Mahmoud Abu Kamil, was killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting his vehicle on Al-Rasheed Street in the Sheikh Ejlin district in southwestern Gaza City, according to the Ministry of Interior and National Security in the Gaza Strip.
“following an Israeli airstrike targeting his vehicle in southwestern Gaza City”
The Palestinian Ministry of Interior and National Security said the strike killed Abu Kamil and injured two of his companions, while the Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported one person was martyred and two others injured in the same airstrike without identifying the victims.
In a separate incident, Reuters reported that later on Thursday an Israeli drone fired three missiles at a vehicle in western Gaza City, killing the Gaza governor’s police director and seriously injuring two others.
Reuters also said Israeli airstrikes killed two Palestinians, including a senior police official, in the first deaths reported in more than a week after the Israeli army reduced its raids in the enclave under U.S. pressure.
Claims, denials, and strike
The Gaza Interior Ministry condemned the killing of Abu Kamil as a “dangerous escalation” and said it reflected an insistence on targeting “key civilian police operations in the Gaza Strip.”
Al Jazeera reported that the Israeli army claimed it killed in Gaza City “a Hamas commander who breached Israeli territory” during the October 7, 2023 attacks, while the Gaza Police General Directorate denied the claim and said Abu Kamil was “committed to his police duties within the law and had no connection to any other acts.”
Hamas-run Interior Ministry also confirmed the “assassination” of the Gaza police chief, Brigadier General Jamal Mahmoud Abu Kamil, while Reuters said the Israeli army had not commented yet.
In Gaza City, Al Araby TV quoted Gaza Civil Defense saying the occupation forces have returned to “the policy of assassinations in the sector,” adding that targeting police officers aims to disrupt efforts to enforce security and calm in the sector.
Ceasefire toll and next
The Peninsula Qatar said the Palestinian Ministry of Health update on Thursday put the death toll from the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023 at 73,389, with 174,266 injured.
“the death toll from the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, has risen to 73,389”
Reuters linked the Thursday killings to a wider pattern, saying security officials and others in the health sector said Israel has intensified its raids on members of the Hamas-run police since the start of the ceasefire in October, resulting in the deaths of dozens.
ASHARQ AL-AWSAT and ETV Bharat both reported that the Israeli military said it struck a Hamas commander in the Khan Younis area to “remove the threat to IDF troops,” while Gaza’s civil defense said an airstrike west of Khan Younis killed one person and Nasser Hospital confirmed the arrival of a body.
Al Jazeera Net said the factions issued statements denouncing the assassinations and the Israeli escalation as a violation of ceasefire understandings and an overstep of the provisions of the agreement to enter the second phase without any response from mediators.
