The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) has documented what it describes as ‘repeated attacks’ and ‘routine targeting’ of law enforcement personnel in Gaza, resulting in their deaths while on duty, patrolling streets, and in marketplaces.
Mayy El Sheikh, spokesperson for the OHCHR in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, stated that this ‘systematic targeting’ affects key public institutions and their staff, contributing to the collapse of civilian and public order in Gaza following the Hamas attacks on Israel that began on October 7, 2023.
Obligations Ignored
El Sheikh emphasized, “As an occupying power, Israel has an obligation under international law to ensure civil and public order for the Palestinians living under occupation. Targeting them, if they are not directly participating in hostilities, amounts to war crimes.”
The OHCHR reported at least 12 attacks targeting police since January 2026, claiming the lives of 53 civilians, including 35 police officers, five boys, and one woman. Four attacks alone in May resulted in the deaths of 12 police personnel.
The UN office expressed concern that the pattern of attacks suggests Israeli forces are failing to distinguish between combatants from armed groups in Gaza and police personnel.
Ajith Sunghay, Head of OHCHR in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, commented, “Eight months have passed since the declaration of a ceasefire, and there is no end in sight to the killing, chaos, and misery.”
Alleged incidents include:
- May 23 – At least five police officers and two others, including a boy, were killed in an Israeli strike on a police checkpoint in Al-Tawam, Gaza City.
- April 24, 2026 – Four police personnel and four civilians, including a nine-year-old boy, were killed in an Israeli drone strike targeting a police vehicle in the El Mawasi camp, west of Khan Yunis.
- January 31, 2026 – Eleven people, including five police officers and a boy, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Ash-Sheikh Radwan Police Station in Gaza City.
This warning comes amidst an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), over 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million Palestinian residents have been displaced due to the war, many multiple times. At least 1.2 million have lost their homes.
‘Stuck in a Nightmare’
For many, a hypothetical ceasefire between Hamas fighters and the Israeli army has not brought security. El Sheikh of OHCHR told UN News that evacuation orders continue, and “Israeli forces are continuing to destroy everything in the remaining built-up environment in Gaza.”
El Sheikh added, “Gaza remains stuck in a nightmare that is difficult to reconcile with the existence of a ceasefire. Palestinians in Gaza are confined to a small portion of the land, surrounded on all sides by Israeli ground forces who continue to advance into Palestinian communities and shrink the space allocated to civilians.”
