An Israeli airstrike on Saturday took the life of the top Hamas-led police commander in northern Gaza, Brigadier-General Abdel-Nasser Al-Maqadma, according to the Hamas-run interior ministry and medical personnel on the ground.
Maqadma, who also served as the governor of the northern Gaza Strip, was struck and killed in the Sheikh Radwan area located north of Gaza City, medics and the interior ministry confirmed.
In a separate strike, a Palestinian medic lost their life in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Additionally, a police officer who had been wounded in an Israeli airstrike the previous week succumbed to those injuries on Saturday.
The Israeli military offered no immediate response regarding any of the three incidents.
Over recent months, Israel has targeted and killed dozens of members of the Hamas-led police force, including high-ranking officials. Israel has justified these strikes by claiming many of those killed were active members of Hamas’s armed wing who posed immediate threats to Israel and its military personnel operating inside Gaza.
Hamas, however, contends that Israeli attacks on its police force and facilities are designed to create disorder and lawlessness within the territory, and that such strikes violate the U.S.-brokered ceasefire that took effect in October.
The deaths reported Saturday push the overall toll higher, with more than 1,180 Palestinians — the majority of them civilians — killed in Israeli strikes since the October ceasefire went into effect, according to Gaza health officials. Hamas typically does not publicly acknowledge its own casualties.
While the ceasefire brought a halt to large-scale combat operations, Israeli strikes have continued on a near-daily basis. During that same period, four Israeli soldiers have been killed by militants inside Gaza.
International mediators — including Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and the United States — have been working to move forward U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal for resolving the Gaza conflict, which calls for Hamas to disarm and for Israel to withdraw forces. However, those diplomatic efforts have shown little tangible progress.
The conflict traces back to an assault led by Hamas fighters on southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people and resulted in roughly 250 individuals being taken hostage, according to Israeli figures. The Israeli military campaign that followed has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.
Israel now effectively controls an estimated 64% of the small coastal territory, which has been largely reduced to rubble following two years of military operations since the 2023 Hamas attack. Nearly all of Gaza’s 2 million residents are now crowded into a narrow stretch of land, living primarily in makeshift tents or damaged structures under extremely difficult conditions.
