A Hamas resistance fighter stands in Gaza City on November 2, 2025. Photo: AFP
Mahmoud Al-Asṭal, a lieutenant colonel and head of the General Investigations Department at the Interior Ministry in Khan Younis, was assassinated on Sunday by an armed cell of occupation collaborators operating in Gaza.
According to sources, gunmen traveling in a civilian vehicle opened fire on Al-Asṭal in Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, killing him on the spot. Hours later, Hossam Al-Asṭal, identified as the leader of the cell, appeared in a video claiming responsibility for the killing and threatening further attacks.
Hossam Al-Asṭal, widely known by the nickname Abu Safan, is a former detainee of Gaza’s Interior Ministry who had been imprisoned on charges of collaboration with the Israeli occupation and involvement in the assassination of Palestinian scientist Fadi Al-Batsh in Malaysia. His family later issued a statement disowning him, saying he escaped from prison during the early days of the Israeli war on Gaza and stressing that he had “a long criminal and security record linked to collaboration [with the occupation] before the war and did not represent the family in word or deed.”
Witnesses told Al-Akhbar that as the collaborators attempted to flee after carrying out the assassination, resistance fighters moved to arrest them. The attempt was thwarted by direct Israeli military cover, with warplanes firing several missiles to secure the group’s escape. The strikes killed three resistance fighters and wounded others, indicating that the operation was conducted not only under the direction of the Israeli General Security Service but in full coordination with the Israeli army.
The murder adds to a series of similar security operations carried out by collaborator cells in the past weeks. The most recent was the assassination of Ahmad Zamzam, an officer in the Internal Security Service, in Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza. Other planned attacks in Jabalia camp and northern Gaza were foiled. Hamas security forces later arrested one of the collaborators involved in Zamzam’s killing, seizing a camera that was broadcasting the operation live to an Israeli intelligence officer.
These assassinations come amid severe security conditions, with resistance security personnel operating under constant pressure and pursuit while attempting to maintain a minimum level of order and stability. They also coincide with an ongoing restructuring of the Interior Ministry aimed at adapting administrative structures to wartime conditions.
The resistance security platform Al-Hares said the assassination was intended to spread chaos, as part of a systematic plan to undermine security and target police personnel. The counter-collaboration unit Radea, meanwhile, vowed swift retribution against the collaborator cells.
The direct involvement of groups publicly known by their leaders’ names in assassinations has widened the scope of confrontation and extended it beyond security agencies into families and the broader social environment. Several families have already vowed retaliation against Hossam Al-Asṭal. Investigations indicate that these armed cells exploit the fragile security situation created by the war and the Israeli presence in Gaza to carry out these operations. However, resistance intelligence assessments conclude that the groups lack the independent capacity to carry out complex assassinations and function primarily as operational tools within a tightly coordinated Israeli intelligence framework that provides intelligence, field maps, and aerial cover during withdrawals.
For the Israeli side, such attacks are viewed as low-cost operations that involve limited human casualties in case of failure and minimal political consequences in case of success.
Youssef Fares
Youssef Fares is a Palestinian writer and journalist from Gaza. Worked as a reporter for a number of international newspapers and channels. He specializes in resistance affairs. Currently he is an author at Al-Akhbar News and he regularly posts updates on his telegram channel.
