'A Lesson' or an Unjustifiable Act? How Gazans See Hamas' Public Killings of Rivals
Who are Gaza's armed gangs are being targeted in a wave of Hamas executions, and why many Palestinians won't condemn it
Nagham Zbeedat
03:26 PM • October 21 2025 IDT
A video that surfaced online on October 13 appears to show Hamas fighters carrying out public executions in Gaza, targeting members of local clans and armed groups. The footage shows several men forced to kneel before a crowd. Masked gunmen – some wearing green headbands associated with Hamas' military wing – then open fire, executing the men on the spot.
The incident followed reports of a shootout earlier that morning between Hamas forces and local armed groups described by residents as "criminals or collaborators." The video was verified by multiple news organizations as having taken place in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City, although the identities or affiliations of the executed men have not been confirmed.
According to sources affiliated with Hamas, the operation aimed to "restore order" and reassert the movement's control after days of violent clashes and growing instability inside Gaza. Others, however, explain that Hamas is trying to intimidate the population and demonstrate its authority before the potential arrival of an Arab or international monitoring force, as promised by U.S. President Donald Trump's cease-fire plan.
IDF sources have told Haaretz in recent days that soldiers can see from observation posts that armed Hamas members are shooting at Palestinians – but they have been instructed not to intervene in order to comply with the cease-fire's vague terms.
The Trump administration's 20-point Gaza plan pledged to disarm and replace Hamas with an interim, internationally backed technocratic administration tasked with restoring order and overseeing reconstruction. So far, however, these commitments have remained largely declarative.
Haaretz
What's left of Hamas loyalists is executing gangs/clans that have been outed as ISIS affiliates backed by Israel and seen as collaborators. It's the same process of clearing that US did in Iraq in de-Baathification, that Ukraine attempted to do in de-Russification of the Donbas, that Russia is doing in de-Nazification, and that which ISIS and Al Qaeda have been doing in Syria in massacring the Alawites. |
