In the long and fractured story of Gaza, Thursday brought another death that carries the weight of collapsed promises: Colonel Jamal Abu Kamil, the 43-year-old head of Gaza City's civil police, was killed by an Israeli drone strike on al-Rashid Street, just days after Prime Minister Netanyahu rejected a US-brokered peace framework and air raids resumed following a week-long pause. Israel named him a Hamas commander without offering evidence; Gaza's Interior Ministry named him a civil servant. Between those two claims lies the distance between a ceasefire and a war that never truly stopped.
Gaza police chief killed in Israeli drone strike as air raids resume
Gaza City police chief Colonel Jamal Abu Kamil killed in drone strike; another person killed in Khan Younis; two others injured; over 1,250 Palestinians killed since October ceasefire began.
Israeli forces would not leave until Hamas was genuinely disarmed
Mark
Why did Israel claim Abu Kamil was a Hamas commander when his own police force says he wasn't?
Mimi
The claim serves a purpose—it justifies the strike as a counterterrorism operation rather than what it appears to be: a targeted killing of a civilian official. Without evidence, it's hard to know what Israel actually believed, or whether belief mattered.
Mark
The ceasefire was supposed to last. What changed?
Mimi
Netanyahu changed it. He rejected the peace plan that Trump had brokered, saying Israel wouldn't leave Gaza until Hamas was disarmed. That became the condition that broke the pause. The air strikes resumed three days later.
Mark
Did the pause actually stop the violence?
Mimi
No. Ground operations continued the whole time. The pause was only on air raids. So for Palestinians, the violence never really stopped—it just changed form.
Mark
What does Hamas say about all this?
Mimi
They condemned the killing and called it proof that Israel is using the ceasefire as cover to eliminate Palestinian leadership. They also say they accepted the peace plan to avoid full-scale war, but they won't disarm first—not before Israel withdraws.
Mark
So both sides are waiting for the other to move first.
Mimi
Exactly. And while they wait, people like Abu Kamil die, and the count of dead since October keeps climbing—over 1,250 now.
Mark
What happens next?
Mimi
Palestinian authorities are calling for the peace plan to be implemented. But Netanyahu has already rejected it. Without pressure from the US or a shift in Israeli policy, the strikes will likely continue.
The Pulse
- A week-long pause in Israeli air strikes — hailed by Trump as a diplomatic milestone — collapsed within days of Netanyahu publicly rejecting the US-brokered peace plan.
- Colonel Abu Kamil's killing by drone on a Gaza City street reignited accusations of targeted assassination, with Israel offering no evidence for its claim that he was a Hamas operative.
- Simultaneous strikes in Khan Younis and Beit Lahiya signal a broad resumption of operations, not an isolated incident, deepening fears of a return to full-scale war.
- Hamas accepted the peace framework conditionally; Netanyahu's demand that Hamas disarm before any Israeli withdrawal has created a deadlock that diplomacy has so far failed to break.
- More than 1,250 Palestinians have been killed since the October ceasefire formally began, exposing the agreement as a framework that has struggled to hold against the weight of continued military action.
- Palestinian authorities are now calling on Washington to enforce its own plan — a plea that reveals how far the situation on the ground has drifted from what was promised at the negotiating table.
In the long and fractured story of Gaza, Thursday brought another death that carries the weight of collapsed promises: Colonel Jamal Abu Kamil, the 43-year-old head of Gaza City's civil police, was killed by an Israeli drone strike on al-Rashid Street, just days after Prime Minister Netanyahu rejected a US-brokered peace framework and air raids resumed following a week-long pause. Israel named him a Hamas commander without offering evidence; Gaza's Interior Ministry named him a civil servant. Between those two claims lies the distance between a ceasefire and a war that never truly stopped.
Colonel Jamal Abu Kamil, 43, was killed Thursday morning when an Israeli drone fired three missiles at his vehicle on al-Rashid Street in southwest Gaza City. Two others were wounded in the strike. Gaza's Ministry of Interior described him as a civil police officer with no militant affiliations and called the attack an assassination. Israel claimed, without evidence, that he was a Hamas commander. Hamas condemned the killing as part of a pattern of violence aimed at destabilizing the territory.
The strike marked the resumption of air raids after a pause of more than a week — a pause that had itself been fragile. Ground operations had continued throughout, and since the formal ceasefire took effect on October 10, 2025, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,250 Palestinians according to Gaza's Ministry of Health.
The collapse of the pause followed directly from Prime Minister Netanyahu's rejection of a US-brokered peace plan announced by President Trump last month. The 15-point framework called for Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and Hamas disarmament, overseen by a Gaza Board of Peace. Hamas signaled it would accept the deal to prevent a return to full-scale war, but insisted Israeli withdrawal must come first. Netanyahu's answer was unequivocal: no withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed. Three days later, the strikes resumed.
On the same day Abu Kamil was killed, a strike in Khan Younis killed one person and critically wounded another. The day before, a municipal worker was killed in Beit Lahiya — the first attack since August 3. Each strike carried the same unverified claim: that the target was a Hamas operative.
Palestine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called Thursday for the US-backed plan to be implemented, condemning both the resumed strikes and ongoing settler violence in the West Bank. The appeal laid bare the distance between what diplomacy had promised and what was unfolding on the ground — a distance that widened again with the death of a police chief whose documented role was simply keeping order in Gaza City.
Colonel Jamal Abu Kamil, the 43-year-old head of Gaza City's civil police force, was killed on Thursday morning when an Israeli drone fired three missiles at his vehicle as it traveled along al-Rashid Street, southwest of Gaza City. Two others were injured in the strike. His death marked a return to the air raids that had paused for more than a week—a pause that had itself become a flashpoint in the larger collapse of what was supposed to be a ceasefire agreement.
The Israeli military justified the killing by claiming Abu Kamil was a Hamas commander, though it provided no evidence for the assertion. Gaza's Ministry of Interior rejected this characterization entirely, releasing a statement that described Abu Kamil as a police officer who "committed to his police duties and has no connection to other activities." The ministry called the strike an assassination. Hamas condemned the killing as part of what it described as ongoing "brutal crimes" against Palestinians and an attempt to destabilize the territory.
The resumption of air strikes came just three days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel's rejection of a peace plan that had been brokered by the United States. The plan, announced by President Donald Trump last month, was supposed to be a 15-point framework under which Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza and Hamas would disarm, with implementation overseen by a Gaza Board of Peace. Hamas had said it would accept the deal to avoid a return to full-scale war, but made clear that Israeli withdrawal and a halt to attacks would have to come first. Netanyahu's response was categorical: Israeli forces would not leave Gaza until Hamas was "genuinely disarmed." Three days later, the air strikes began again.
On the same day Abu Kamil was killed, another Israeli strike hit a motorbike in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza's south, killing one person and critically wounding another. Israel made the same unsubstantiated claim that the target was a Hamas commander. The day before, on Wednesday, an air strike on a vehicle in Beit Lahiya had killed a municipal worker and wounded five others—the first such attack since August 3.
The pause itself had been a strange kind of ceasefire. It had halted air raids, but ground operations had continued throughout. Since the formal ceasefire agreement took effect on October 10, 2025, Israel's near-daily attacks have killed more than 1,250 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health. The pause had come under pressure from the United States, with Trump calling it a "major milestone" in his effort to end the war. But the pause lasted only as long as Netanyahu's patience with the agreement itself.
On Thursday, Palestine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates called for the US-backed peace plan to be implemented, while also condemning Israeli attacks against Palestinians returning to their homes and continued settler violence in the occupied West Bank. The statement underscored the gap between what had been promised and what was actually happening on the ground—a gap that had just widened again with the resumption of strikes and the killing of a police chief whose only documented role was maintaining order in Gaza City.
Notable Quotes
Israeli forces would not withdraw from Gaza until Hamas was genuinely disarmed— Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Abu Kamil committed to his police duties and has no connection to other activities— Gaza's Ministry of Interior
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