Gaza: Civilians Continue to Pay the Price as Deadly Attacks Persist

On 18 and 19 August alone, at least 17 Palestinians, including children and women, were reportedly killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza. Among the dead was a 13-year-old boy and his father killed in a strike on a seaside café, in addition to a 13-year-old girl killed in an attack on a police facility in Gaza City.

These incidents are a stark reminder that, despite occasional drops in the number of reported attacks, civilians throughout Gaza remain exposed to persistent, unpredictable, lethal harm.

Between 13 and 19 August, at least 22 Palestinians were reportedly killed in Israeli military attacks across Gaza. Under international humanitarian law, attacks directed at civilians, as well as indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, are prohibited. Such attacks may amount to war crimes and other atrocity crimes.

The continuing pattern of attacks against police personnel and facilities in Gaza is alarming. UN Human Rights recorded an attack on 19 August on the Municipal Police headquarters in Gaza City, killing at least nine Palestinians, including a 13-year-old girl and eight police officers. Among the officers killed was the Director of the Women's Police in Gaza Governorate, Fatena Al-Sahar. The strike occurred in a densely populated area hosting large numbers of internally displaced people, injuring other civilians, including women and children.

Between January and August 2026, UN Human Rights has recorded at least 18 Israeli attacks against police personnel in Gaza, resulting in the killing of at least 77 Palestinians, including 57 police personnel, six children and four women. Six of these attacks were carried out since June.

Under international humanitarian law, police personnel are civilians protected against attacks. Targeting them is a war crime. They may lose this protection only if and for such time as they directly participate in hostilities. As the occupying Power, Israel has the obligation to ensure public order and safety. Such attacks further dismantle civilian law enforcement structures in Gaza and undermine protection to communities already subjected to wide-ranging human rights violations.

The concentration of casualties in these attacks, in densely populated civilian areas, including a café, a tent sheltering internally displaced people, a civilian vehicle, and police headquarters surrounded by displaced families, is part of a wider pattern of indiscriminate and disproportionate Israeli attacks against Palestinians documented by UN Human Rights since October 2023.

"It is hard to see any ‘military necessity’ of Israel’s ongoing attacks across a decimated landscape, which continue to kill and maim civilians, including children and police personnel,” said Ajith Sunghay, head of UN Human Rights’ office in Palestine. “The right to life is the foundational right for all. But it seems in Gaza, there is no respect left for human rights as death, injury and destruction continue day after day.”

UN Human Rights condemns repeated Israeli attacks on police personnel in Gaza

The UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory condemns Israeli forces’ routine targeting of police personnel in Gaza in repeated attacks. Since January 2026, UN Human Rights has recorded at least twelve attacks against police, killing at least 53 civilians, including 35 police personnel, 5 boys, and 1 woman. Four attacks were recorded in May alone, killing 12 policemen.

Israeli attacks against police personnel have been reported during ordinary law enforcement operations, including directing traffic and patrolling streets and markets. The pattern demonstrated disregard for civilian lives, including that of police personnel, with several strikes taking place in crowded areas, killing, in addition to police personnel, internally displaced persons, children, and prison inmates.

On 23 May, an Israeli strike struck a police checkpoint in the Al Tawam area, Gaza City, killing at least five police officers and two others, including a boy. On 24 April 2026, an Israeli drone struck a police vehicle carrying out a law enforcement operation in the Beer 19 area of Al Mawasi camp, west of Khan Younis — a crowded encampment of displaced Palestinians. The attack killed four policemen, as well as three other men and a nine-year-old boy from nearby tents. It occurred at the time of sunset prayers, when many Palestinians were moving from their tents to a nearby mosque.

On 31 January 2026, an Israeli airstrike hit Ash Sheikh Radwan Police Station, northwest of Gaza City, killing at least 11 Palestinians, including five police officers, one of them a woman. Six more people, including a boy, were also killed in the airstrike, including inmates and people visiting the station for services.

The pattern of attacks raises concerns that Israeli forces apply no distinction between police personnel and fighters belonging to armed groups in Gaza. However, under international humanitarian law, police personnel are civilians who are protected against attack, unless and for such time as they directly participate in hostilities. Attacks targeting police personnel simply for performing ordinary law enforcement and policing functions would amount to war crimes.

The attacks also fit a broader pattern of Israel’s systematic failure to take constant care to spare civilians and civilian objects in its conduct of hostilities in Gaza. Even in the event that one or several of these attacks targeted fighters, the location and timing of the attacks in crowded areas and the use of weapons with wide-area effects indicate that Israeli forces have failed to take feasible precautions to avoid and minimize incidental loss of civilian life.

“As an occupying power, Israel has obligations under international humanitarian law to ensure, as far as possible, that Palestinians have public order and safety. Instead, the systematic targeting and dismantling of public governance institutions has created chaos with devastating impact on civilians,” said Ajith Sunghay, Head of UN Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. “Nearly eight months have passed since the announcement of a ceasefire, and there is no end in sight for the killings, the turmoil, and the misery.”