ICSPR Condemns the Assassination of Khan Yunis Police Investigation Director

Date: January 13, 2025

Press Statement

ICSPR Condemns the Assassination of Khan Yunis Police Investigation Director

The International Commission to Support the Rights of the Palestinian People (ICSPR) strongly condemns the assassination of Lieutenant Colonel Mahmoud Ahmed Al-Astal (40), Director of Police Investigations in Khan Yunis, who was martyred on January 12, 2026, following a direct shooting in the Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Yunis. This organized crime represents a blatant violation of the right to life, threatens civil peace, and undermines the Palestinian social fabric, serving as a clear example of the nature of crimes targeting societal cohesion and internal security in Gaza.

ICSPR notes that field evidence and documentation confirm the involvement of armed factions supported by the Israeli occupation in carrying out this crime. The operation was publicly claimed by Hussam Al-Astal, leader of one of the occupation-linked groups, demonstrating that these gangs act as indirect tools to achieve the occupation’s security and political objectives within the Gaza Strip. This confirmation reflects the systematic nature of these operations, which aim to subject Palestinian society to security chaos and control resistance paths and internal security mechanisms.

This crime comes within a growing series of organized crimes perpetrated by occupation-linked mercenary gangs, which have previously resulted in the killing of other officers, civilians, attacks on families, and the terrorizing of citizens, as part of a deliberate policy to undermine internal security, dismantle social cohesion, and weaken the community’s resilience against the occupation. ICSPR emphasizes that these recent operations are not isolated incidents but a clear, systematic pattern aimed at turning Gaza into an internal conflict zone, achieving the occupation’s goals without direct confrontation with Palestinian resistance.

The developments following the assassination, including the killing of three Palestinians during the pursuit of the perpetrators due to direct Israeli military intervention, provide further evidence of the organic relationship between the occupation and these gangs. This demonstrates that Israel uses security chaos as a tool within its ongoing policy of genocide against the Palestinian people. These facts reveal the depth of the link between the occupation and mercenary groups, showing clearly that these groups do not operate independently but as part of a deliberate plan to dismantle Palestinian society and create ongoing security and humanitarian crises.

ICSPR stresses that this crime is part of an escalating pattern of organized violations by gang formations during the war of extermination, under the protection of occupation aircraft. These violations have included murder, abduction, threats, shootings, targeting of security and civilian institutions, looting of humanitarian aid, and collection of security information. These facts indicate that the occupation seeks, through these operations, to exploit the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as a tool for chaos, internal societal fragmentation, and weakening of resilience and social cohesion.

ICSPR holds the Israeli occupation and the armed factions linked to it fully legally responsible for these crimes, as they constitute:

• A blatant violation of Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees the right to life for every human being.

• A serious breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, particularly the obligations of an occupying power to protect the civilian population.

Accordingly, ICSPR records and calls for the following:

1. The prosecution of all those involved within a comprehensive national and legal framework that ensures the rule of law and prevents descent into cycles of revenge or internal retaliation.

2. The dismantling of occupation-linked mercenary gangs and the drying up of their funding and arms, as they pose a direct threat to human security and societal peace.

3. The international community and the United Nations, particularly the Human Rights Council and the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, are urged to launch independent and serious investigations into these crimes, considering them part of a systematic pattern of grave violations.

4. All official and civil Palestinian actors should unite national and legal efforts to confront this dangerous phenomenon, protect the Palestinian social fabric, and activate mechanisms for internal security and the rule of law.