Footage Shows Public Executions in Gaza City Street
Gaza City – Disturbing video footage circulating online appears to show the public execution of three men in a Gaza City street,reportedly carried out by Hamas-affiliated militants. The men were shot in the back of the head after cheers from a surrounding crowd, who then praised Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades.
A Palestinian security official from the Hamas-run gaza goverment identified the perpetrators as the “Joint Operations Room of the Palestinian resistance,” according to Reuters. This incident marks a rare instance of a public execution in Gaza captured on video, though reports of Hamas using violence against dissenters have surfaced previously. In May, Hamas-led groups reportedly executed four Palestinians accused of looting aid trucks.
The footage specifically identifies one of the executed men as Yasser Abu Shabab, labeled as a “major collaborator.” Abu Shabab is a prominent figure within a clan operating in Rafah, an area currently under Israeli military control, and which has positioned itself as an opposition force to Hamas.
The circumstances surrounding the executions come amid reports of a shifting power dynamic within Gaza. in July, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed Israel was arming clans in Gaza opposed to Hamas. however, Abu Shabab publicly “categorically reject[ed]” claims that his group received weapons from Israel.
That same month, a senior officer within Hamas’s security forces told the BBC that the group had lost notable control over the Gaza Strip, with armed clans increasingly filling the resulting power vacuum. Abu shabab’s group has actively sought recruits via social media, and reuters reports that othre anti-Hamas groups have also emerged in northern Gaza and near Khan Younis.
