ICSPR Al-Baladiyat Police Massacre Is a Deliberate Israeli War Crime Aimed at Undermining Civil Peace and Pushing Gaza into Chaos and Lawlessness
Date: 19 August 2026
Press Release
ICSPR: Al-Baladiyat Police Massacre Is a Deliberate Israeli War Crime Aimed at Undermining Civil Peace and Pushing Gaza into Chaos and Lawlessness
The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR) strongly condemns the Israeli massacre and crime committed by Israeli warplanes through the targeting of the Al-Baladiyat Police headquarters in central Gaza City. The attack resulted in the killing of eight Palestinian police officers and commanders and a child, and the injury of approximately 15 others.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Interior, those killed were: Brigadier General Ayman Mahmoud Jundiya; Colonel Osama Hashem Al-Hijin; Colonel Fatina Abdul-Jabbar Al-Sahhar; Colonel Ibrahim Abdul-Rahman Tamraz; Colonel Alaa Ali Alyan; Lieutenant Colonel Hazem Jabr Khalaf; Major Othman Shehata Abu Samaan; Lieutenant Samaher Misbah Hamada; and the child Dana Haitham Al-Jamasi, who was among displaced persons in the vicinity of the targeted headquarters.
ICSPR considers that this crime, which brings the number of Palestinians killed as a result of Israeli airstrikes since yesterday to 17, in addition to dozens of injuries, confirms the continued perpetration of mass killing and aggression despite efforts to consolidate the ceasefire.
ICSPR stresses that targeting a civilian police headquarters and its personnel constitutes a war crime and comes within a recurring pattern of targeting law-enforcement institutions and civilian facilities throughout Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. The destruction of police forces, their headquarters and vehicles, as well as the killing and detention of their personnel, does not merely target individuals in their personal capacity. Rather, it undermines an essential mechanism for protecting society, organizing public life, resolving disputes, and safeguarding property. This creates a security and social vacuum that threatens civil peace and opens the door to crime, exploitation, chaos, and internal violence, with civilians becoming the primary victims.
ICSPR emphasizes that civilian police personnel are protected under the rules of international humanitarian law, and that Israel’s general justifications do not absolve the occupying forces of their full legal responsibility for this grave crime. Reports by Israeli media concerning the adoption of a policy to target police forces require accountability for all political and military leaders found responsible for ordering, planning, executing, or inciting such attacks before international courts.
ICSPR affirms that the Al-Baladiyat Police massacre, preceded by the Gaza Port massacre, alongside the continued assassinations, official incitement, and deliberate deprivation of the population of the basic necessities of life, as well as the humanitarian and health collapse, constitute interconnected elements of a policy aimed at undermining the foundations of civilian life, imposing the consequences of the genocidal war by force, and keeping Palestinians subjected to killing, siege, and control. This policy seeks to turn the consequences of the war into a permanent reality that threatens the lives of the population and the future and social cohesion of the Gaza Strip.
ICSPR calls on the international community, the United Nations, the Security Council, the States Parties to the Geneva Conventions, and the States Parties to the Genocide Convention to move beyond condemnation toward binding and effective measures to halt these crimes and protect civilians and civilian institutions. It further calls on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to include crimes involving the targeting of civilian police forces within the ongoing investigations and to investigate the criminal responsibility associated with them.
ICSPR also calls on the mediators and parties sponsoring the ceasefire agreement to use their influence to compel the occupying government to halt its violations, implement the second phase of the agreement, ensure withdrawal, open the crossings, and guarantee the full flow of humanitarian assistance, fuel, food, water, and medicine; protect essential services; and prevent any forced alteration of the geographical and demographic reality of the Gaza Strip.
ICSPR stresses that targeting civilian police forces constitutes an attack on the foundations of society and its ability to manage its affairs and protect its security. Allowing this policy to continue transforms chaos and societal collapse into instruments of warfare, undermines the conditions for de-escalation and stability, and underscores the urgent need to provide international protection for civilians and civilian institutions, halt international crimes, impose sanctions on the Israeli occupying state, and hold its leaders accountable before international courts to prevent impunity.
The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR)
