On Tuesday, an Israeli military attack on the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza left the police chief and several police officers dead, increasing the civilian death toll.
Despite a months-long “ceasefire,” Israel continues to carry out deadly attacks across the Palestinian territories, citing the presence and “imminent threat” of Hamas fighters.
But political and strategic analysts warn that these daily incursions are not isolated security operations, but rather part of a calculated pattern to kill law enforcement officers, medical professionals, government officials, and intellectuals. They warn that these killings could systematically derail the U.S.-backed postwar Gaza plan, paralyze the so-called peace commission set up under the Trump administration’s plan, and allow Israel to continue to control the virtually uninhabitable territory indefinitely.
normalize murder
Since the “ceasefire” deal came into force, Israel has conditioned the international community to accept routine violations and killings in Gaza as the new normal, effectively acting as if the deal does not restrict military freedoms, analysts said. The ongoing violence brings the total death toll since October 7, 2023 to at least 73,233 people and 173,707 people injured.
According to the Gaza government media office, 3,689 Israeli violations were recorded during the 275-day ceasefire, resulting in 1,122 Palestinian deaths and 3,599 injuries. Furthermore, the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate under the ceasefire, with Israel allowing only 35% of scheduled aid trucks and 36% of authorized travelers to cross its borders.
The deliberate targeting of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure goes far beyond military objectives, with serious implications for those tasked with maintaining order and providing essential services.
The United Nations Office for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that Israeli attacks systematically target police officers, whose role is essential to civil order and future recovery. Since January 2026, OHCHR has recorded at least 12 attacks on police, resulting in 35 deaths, including police officers who were targeted while directing traffic or monitoring markets. For example, on May 23, Israeli forces attacked a checkpoint in Gaza City, killing at least five police officers.
Along with law enforcement agencies, Gaza’s education and health sectors were also destroyed. Most hospitals were bombed and destroyed, killing many medical teams in the process. The education system has suffered a similar fate. At least 441 teachers and other staff were killed, as well as more than 11,000 schoolchildren, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Education.
Intellectual and bureaucratic leadership in the enclaves was also systematically eliminated. At least 117 academics have been killed, including prominent figures such as Sufian Tayyeh, a mathematician and president of the Islamic University of Gaza, who was killed along with his family in the Jabalia refugee camp bombing.
Ahmed al-Tanani, a Gaza-based author and political analyst, said the pretext for Israeli airstrikes has shifted from “security events” to “deliberate killings,” attacking individuals by citing baseless claims that they intend to attack Israeli forces.
The recent targeting of police officers and civil servants reveals a broader purpose. Al-Tanani said the attack was a direct response to Hamas’s demonstration of political flexibility, including its recent decision to dissolve the enclave’s executive committee.
“Israel has clearly said that its problem in the Gaza Strip is not with Hamas, it is with the entire state structure in Gaza, with society and with any possibility of reconstruction,” Tanani told Al Jazeera. “Israeli missiles are primarily aimed at plunging the Strip into a continuous cycle of death, irreparability, chaos, and disruption of internal security.”
Make Gaza “uninhabitable”
For Israel, the immediate goal of this escalation is to prevent the implementation of the Trump plan, but the long-term goal remains the indefinite occupation of the Gaza Strip and settlement expansion, analysts say.
Mohanad Mustafa, a scholar and expert on Israeli issues, told Al Jazeera that Israel is employing three main measures to achieve this. First, it has normalized routine attacks by carrying out periodic attacks under the guise of enforcing a “ceasefire,” a tactic that mirrors its operations in Lebanon.
Second, Israel is expanding its occupation, increasing its military control of the Gaza Strip from 50 percent to 70 percent, accompanied by the systematic destruction of infrastructure and housing.
Finally, Israel is blocking the political transition by blocking the entry of the Palestinian National Committee, blocking humanitarian aid, and halting reconstruction efforts to ensure that Gaza remains strictly a “military and security issue” rather than a political issue.
This strategy of destruction is openly supported at the highest levels of the Israeli government. Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz recently said on Israel’s Channel 14 that the destruction of Gaza was a deliberate policy to neutralize the threat, adding that seeing the devastation there is comforting.
“Mr. Katz’s statements do not cause any debate in Israel. This is the general atmosphere in Israel: Israel must destroy the Strip, and this is what Israel is doing,” Mustafa said, noting that resettling Gaza remains a core goal of the government.
Paolo von Schirach, director of the US-based Global Policy Institute, echoed this harsh assessment. Reacting to Katz’s comments, von Schirach told Al Jazeera that comforting the destruction of Gaza goes beyond fighting Hamas. The idea was to “make this place uninhabitable in the hope that people would disappear and go somewhere else,” he said.
Paralysis of the Peace Committee
Israel’s strategy has significantly weakened the Peace Committee, a support group of US President Donald Trump that oversees Gaza’s post-war transition, governance and peacekeeping.
“The peace committee was supposed to gradually take control, take control of the Strip, establish a form of governance, and eventually introduce peacekeeping forces to maintain order, thereby removing the Israeli army and disarming Hamas,” von Schirach said. “Nothing like that has happened and will never happen.”
Von Schirach noted that the council currently lacks the tools and security forces needed to assert control, making U.S.-led diplomatic efforts increasingly embarrassing to the White House. The US government may be preoccupied with the emerging crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, but the US failure to pressure Israel into compliance remains clear.
But Mustafa argued that this is not just a lack of U.S. influence. He suggested that the United States and Israel share the fundamental goal of disarming Hamas, only their methods differ. “Israel is encouraged by the peace committee itself adopting Israel’s position on linking the entire agreement to disarmament,” he said.
removal of pretexts
In order to break the deadlock, Palestinian factions have turned heavily toward diplomacy. By dissolving the governing council and establishing a technocratic organization, Hamas is seeking to eliminate Israeli excuses for delaying the implementation of the ceasefire.
Al-Tanani noted that Palestinian factions are currently working with Cairo mediators Egypt, Qatar, and Turkiye to build a unified Arab-Islamic position. The bloc is expected to press the United States to move beyond support for the broad outlines of a “ceasefire” and force specific operational details of the plan.
“This requires translating (US) statements and positions into practical measures to pressure Israel to end the humanitarian disaster and implement the ceasefire agreement,” al-Tanani said. Until then, observers warn, Gaza will remain trapped in a calculated dead end of destruction and occupation.
