GAZA, (PIC)
Among the qualitative objectives of the Israeli occupation in its ongoing aggression against the Gaza Strip for the past 15 months is to spread chaos and security breakdown in all areas and cities. This is achieved through the direct targeting of Palestinian security forces on one hand, and by supporting criminal gangs that rob humanitarian aid on the other. In this way, Israel seeks to replace security and stability with chaos, coinciding with its daily massacres and the blockade and starvation of all residents of the Strip.
The commander of the police in Gaza, Major General Mahmoud Salah Abu Salah, and his deputy, Major General Hossam Mustafa Shahwan, were martyred due to an Israeli bombing of tents for displaced citizens in the Mawasi of Khan Yunis in the besieged Strip On Thursday. This was part of an Israeli crime that resulted in the deaths of 11 martyrs, including women and children, in addition to 15 injured.
According to information gathered by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Khan Yunis, at 1:15 AM on Thursday, January 2, 2025, the occupation’s planes attacked the tents of displaced persons with no less than five missiles in two areas approximately 200 meters apart in the Ihsan camp in the Attar area, southwest of the Mawasi of Khan Yunis, leading to the deaths of Major General Mahmoud Salah and his assistant, Major General Hossam Shahwan.
Attempt to spread chaos
The Ministry of Interior and National Security in Gaza announced the assassination of Abu Salah and Shahwan on Thursday morning while “they were performing their humanitarian and national duty in serving our Palestinian people amid the catastrophic conditions caused by the Israeli aggression, which also led to the martyrdom of several citizens due to the airstrike.”
The statement said: “Major General Mahmoud Salah ascends as a martyr in the field of serving our people, crowning his life with the medal of martyrdom after 30 years of work in the Palestinian police force since its establishment, moving through various responsibilities until reaching his role as head of the police for the past six years.”
For its part, the Government Media Office (GMO) in the Gaza Strip confirmed that the escalation of the Israeli occupation’s targeting of security forces and aid security personnel in the Strip is part of a clear plan aimed at creating an administrative and governmental vacuum, spreading chaos and security breakdown in the Gaza Strip, in an attempt to undermine the resilience of the people and destabilize them.
The GMO said that the number of martyrs among aid security personnel has risen to 736, reflecting the scale of the crimes committed by the occupation army, which targets anyone trying to provide assistance and relief to those affected in Gaza, emphasizing that they continue to serve the Palestinian people and will not retreat from performing their national duty. “We will continue to confront all attempts by the occupation to create chaos, breakdown, and destabilize security in Gaza.”
A war crime
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights condemned in the strongest terms the crime of assassinating martyrs Abu Salah and Shahwan, affirming that the continued targeting of elements and leadership of the civil police by the occupying forces during the ongoing genocide against Gaza for nearly 15 months, at the orders of the highest political and military levels, aims to instill chaos, spread organized crime, exacerbate humanitarian suffering, and undermine any effort to achieve even the minimum level of security, which is an integral part of the crime of genocide.
Lawyer Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, said, “The blue police (civil) and its leadership are part of the civil institutions, and attacking them is a war crime. In the context of the genocide being perpetrated by Israel, the goal of targeting the police is to plant and spread comprehensive chaos, insecurity, and the spread of theft amidst famine, poverty, and displacement, allowing the law of the jungle to prevail and pushing people to emigrate from the Gaza Strip.”
Resistance committees mourn the martyrs
The Resistance Committees in Palestine mourned the martyrs Salah and Shahwan, saying that they “ascended on the path to Jerusalem due to a cowardly Zionist assassination operation carried out by enemy planes on the tents of displaced persons in the Mawasi of Khan Yunis,” praising the role of martyr Abu Salah and his honorable journey, saying he “greatly contributed to building the Palestinian police force according to a Palestinian national doctrine and protecting the resistance’s back.”
The Resistance Committees added in a statement that the martyr Major General Abu Salah established the foundations of security, stability, and community and civil peace despite limited resources, persecution, assassinations, and repeated targeting of the police force and its personnel.
They noted that the assassination of Salah and Shahwan and the targeting of the Palestinian civil police, which has not stopped throughout the aggression and genocide in Gaza, aims solely to spread chaos and destroy the national and community fabric and civil peace to impose malicious Zionist agendas and plans in Gaza, asserting that “despite the assassinations, persecution, and targeting of the police force, it will remain the strong shield, the fortified fortress, and the original support for our people and their valiant resistance.”
Protecting thieves
While the occupation army targets the leadership and elements of the Palestinian security forces responsible for maintaining security and establishing order in the Strip, criminal gangs occasionally emerge, exploiting the difficult living conditions of the population amid the genocide. They engage in stealing humanitarian aid, which represents the only lifeline for the people of the Strip due to the starvation and blockade policies imposed on them since the war began.
In areas near the Israeli security fence east of the Gaza Strip, adjacent to places where occupation forces intrude, these gangs take shelter to cut off humanitarian aid routes and seize it, contributing to the famine suffered by the southern part of the Strip, where the highest population density is concentrated, as well as the besieged northern part.
Organized crime
This crisis has deepened with the emergence of gangs practicing “organized crime”; the occupation has contributed to their formation and spread by targeting security teams made up of security and tribal elements to protect the aid, creating a vacuum that allowed them to expand and commit their crimes without fear.
The notorious reputation of this dangerous gang has spread in southern Gaza, and Gazans agree that they and the occupation are “two sides of the same coin,” sharing in “increasing their suffering and torment.” In previous statements by the Palestinian Ministry of Interior in the Gaza Strip, it confirmed that it had monitored communications between these gangs and the occupation to direct their tasks and provide them with security cover from Israeli internal security officers (Shin Bet).
The GMO announced that these gangs have caused the martyrdom of a large number of police and security team members who risk their lives to protect aid trucks.
Hamas and security, factional, and community circles in Gaza accuse these gangs of being linked and collaborating with the occupation for their mutual benefit of theft and creating chaos while destabilizing security and stability on the home front.
