Hamas is reportedly carrying out mass public executions in Gaza as it desperately seeks to maintain control over the Palestinian enclave, even as US President Donald Trump has vowed to disarm the group. Videos of Hamas' barbaric reprisal have gone viral on social media as the group clashed with other armed Palestinian clans to retain control of the Gaza Strip after a US-brokered truce with Israel.
The footage, apparently from Monday evening, showed the street execution of eight men, whom the armed group branded "collaborators and outlaws". In the graphic video, eight badly beaten men can be seen blindfolded and kneeling in the street before each is shot dead by gunmen wearing the green headbands associated with Hamas.
Chants of 'Allahu Akbar' (God is greatest in Arabic) can be heard from the crowd surrounding the bodies.
Without providing evidence, Hamas, in a statement, said the victims were "criminals and collaborators with Israel".
Following the IDF's withdrawal, Hamas has quickly looked to reassert its control over Gaza, targeting the "clans," or family-based armed groups that had gained strength during the conflict.
As the Gaza ceasefire holds, Hamas security forces have returned to the streets, clashing with other armed groups, killing people they labelled gangsters in what is seen as the group's attempt to restore control where Israeli troops have withdrawn. In the north of the territory, the Hamas government's black-masked armed police have resumed street patrols after Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza City.
The Hamas-run police have maintained a high degree of public security after the group seized power in Gaza 18 years ago, while also cracking down on dissent. They largely melted away in recent months as Israeli forces seized large areas of Gaza and targeted Hamas security forces with airstrikes.
Powerful local families and armed gangs – including some anti-Hamas factions backed by Israel – stepped into the void. Many are accused of hijacking humanitarian aid and selling it for profit, contributing to Gaza's starvation crisis.
Nahed Sheheiber, head of Gaza's private truckers union, told the Associated Press that Hamas was acting against gangs that had terrorised people in areas controlled by Israel.
"Those gangs looted aid and killed people under the protection of the (Israeli) occupation," he said, adding they operated in so-called red zones where Israel had ordered people to evacuate.
Trump on Tuesday said that Hamas had taken out "a couple of gangs that were very bad," and killed a number of gang members. "That didn't bother me much, to be honest with you," he said.
But he reiterated his demand for Hamas to lay down its arms, saying, "They will disarm, and if they don't do so, we will disarm them, and it'll happen quickly and perhaps violently."
The US leader declined to provide specifics on how Washington would do that and, when asked about a deadline, said that it would be "a reasonable period of time."
The show of force, welcomed by some Palestinians after months of lawlessness, could threaten the truce now that all the living hostages taken in Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack have been released.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said the war will not end until Hamas has been dismantled, and US President Donald Trump's ceasefire plan calls for Hamas to disarm and hand power over to an internationally supervised body that has yet to be formed.
Hamas has not fully accepted those terms, saying more negotiations are needed. It says it is willing to hand over power to other Palestinians but will not allow chaos to prevail during the transition. Israelis fear that as long as Hamas is armed, it will exercise influence in Gaza - and could rebuild its military capabilities - even if an independent body exercises nominal rule.
Source: India Today