Zionist regime assassinates Gaza police commander in violent raid on al-Shifa hospital

Israeli regime forces have assassinated a high-ranking Palestinian security officer after a violent raid on al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip as the occupying entity presses ahead with its months-long genocidal war against the besieged territory.

Brigadier General Fayeq al-Mabhouh, the commander of the Police Service in the Gaza Strip, was killed during the Israeli regime’s storming of al-Shifa medical complex in the early hours of Monday.

Local sources said Mabhouh “refused to surrender to Israeli forces, engaging them before his death.”

Mabhouh was a leading officer in the security apparatus of the besieged Palestinian territory and most recently was responsible for securing humanitarian aid to the northern Gaza Strip after months of Israeli-imposed starvation policies.

The high-ranking officer was also a coordinator between Palestinian police in Gaza, families in the area and the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

The Israeli military claimed responsibility for the killing of Mabhouh as well as the violent raid on the medical facility.

The Health Ministry in Gaza said some 30,000 people, including displaced civilians, wounded patients and medical staff were trapped inside the hospital.

The Israeli military announced earlier in the day that its troops were “conducting a high-precision operation” at the al-Shifa hospital against what it called “senior fighters of Hamas.”

The Health Ministry denounced the attack as a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, saying the regime’s military is using fabricated narratives to justify its conduct.

The ministry called on all international organisations to “immediately stop this Israeli massacre against the sick, the wounded, the displaced, and the medical staff inside al-Shifa Hospital.”

Israel waged its brutal US-backed war on the Gaza Strip last October after Hamas-led Palestinian resistance groups carried out a historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

So far, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 31,645 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 73,676 others.