Hamas is hunting down groups in Gaza that collaborated with the Israeli army, one by one

By now, the video has gone viral. Masked gunmen affiliated with Hamas in Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza, line up a group of men with their hands bound as onlookers gather around them. The Hamas fighters shout that the men are collaborators with the Israeli army. “Murderers!” an onlooker shouts. They are executed by firing squad.

In another video, a similar scene plays out. A Hamas fighter addresses the crowds, saying that the accused “joined hands” with the Israeli army “to kill their own people,” and have been sentenced to death. Before the execution takes place, the masked fighter issues a warning: “We say to every collaborator — to the great collaborator, Yasser Abu Shabab, the great collaborator, Rami Hilles, and the great collaborator, Ahmad Jundiyya — you will all be brought here to the resistance fighters’ feet.”

Ever since the ceasefire with Israel came into effect, Hamas has launched a wide-ranging security campaign to crack down on armed gangs that were responsible for looting humanitarian aid during the war. In some cases, those gangs were tasked by the Israeli army with fighting Hamas directly, while reportedly receiving arms, training, funding, and logistical field support from Israel, according to reports in local and Israeli media. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also publicly admitted to the policy in June.

The state of chaos was made possible due to the power vacuum created by Israel’s declared policy of systematically targeting Hamas civil servants, including the local police force responsible for maintaining public order and fighting crime. This forced the Gaza police to go into hiding following the breakdown of the previous ceasefire in March, allowing for clans and other armed groups to loot aid under Israeli protection. Palestinians say this was part of an intentional Israeli policy of appearing to let aid into Gaza but making sure it doesn’t get to those who need it.

The most infamous groups that are now the target of the Hamas crackdown include the so-called “Popular Forces” led by Yasser Abu Shabab in Rafah, the Counter-Terrorism Strike Force led by Hussam al-Astal in Khan Younis, a militia in eastern Gaza City led by a former member of the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, Rami Hillis, an armed group in Gaza City led by a former member of the PA’s intelligence service, Ahmad Jundiyya, and armed members of the Doghmush clan.

Hamas offers amnesty to gang members ‘not involved in bloodshed’

The Hamas campaign began shortly before the ceasefire went into effect. On October 4, Hamas members eliminated collaborators from the Majadla clan in Khan Younis, allegedly for killing two resistance fighters. When the Hamas forces stormed the clan’s residential block housing the accused, the family clashed with Hamas forces. According to local reports, the Israeli army intervened during the shootout and bombed the resistance fighters, killing seven of them.

As the ceasefire was reached, the Israeli army was ordered to stand down and not to intervene anymore. Israeli soldiers reported watching from their observation posts with “hands tied.”

“Anyone who expects Israel to help those same clans is mistaken. It looks like Israel has left them to deal with this alone,” one Israeli officer tells Haaretz. 

U.S. President Donald Trump said he wasn’t bothered by the Hamas crackdown, admitting that it “did take out a couple of gangs that were very bad.”

Hamas took the opportunity to eliminate the forces complicit in the famine, an effort that remains ongoing. But some groups, like Yasser Abu Shabab’s, remain in areas still under Israeli control.

On October 12, the Gaza Ministry of Interior announced that it was opening an “amnesty window” for all collaborators with the Israeli army who were not themselves “involved in bloodshed.” The amnesty window will end on Sunday, October 19, the Ministry statement said, adding that those who surrender will have their records wiped clean.

On the first day of the ceasefire, Hamas stormed the Doghmush family compound in Gaza City and placed the entire block under siege for three days. Members of the Doghmush clan have been accused of killing Palestinian journalist Saleh Aljafarawi, as well as Naim Naim, the son of senior Hamas leader Bassem Naim.

On the second day of the ceasefire, Hamas announced that it had killed Yasser Abu Shabab’s right-hand man, Ahmad Tarabin, in Khan Younis. On Tuesday, Hamas forces attacked the gang led by Rami Hillis in the al-Shuja’iyya neighborhood, east of Gaza City.

“We have been dealing with criminals and outlaws using two frameworks,” a security source in Gaza’s Ministry of Interior told Mondoweiss. “The first framework allows us to grant them amnesty or try them before a court if they surrender themselves and cooperate with the security forces. But in the second framework, we pursue every single outlaw with all our power, wherever they are. Our operations will root them all out, without exception.”

The security source from the Ministry said that the security forces were working to reinstate law and order in the Strip and to pursue armed gangs that have connections with the Israeli army. “These families have taken advantage of the proximity of their areas to the Israeli army’s military operations to act against Gaza and its people,” the source explained. “They have waylaid convoys, looted aid, and abducted and terrorized citizens.”

The security source referred to the Doghmush clan — not mentioning them by name — as a “large family that formed one such gang” in the Sabra neighborhood in western Gaza City, where the Israeli army’s military operations were concentrated before the ceasefire. “The security forces neutralized this group and dealt with it decisively, especially after it refused to respond to the ultimatum we gave it to hand over its weapons and return to the fold of their people,” the source said.

‘More dangerous than Israel itself’

The reactions in Gaza to videos of summary executions have been mixed. Some have expressed online that people in Gaza have seen enough horror over the past two years, condemning the killings unequivocally. Others have said that the gangs being targeted are “more dangerous than the occupation” itself, maintaining that the executions should be a message to people to think twice before collaborating with the occupation against their own people. 

“Any act we are doing aims to impose order and the law, and we have the full support of the clans,” the security source in the Ministry of Interior said. “We are also working to prevent attempts to create chaos, which is being fomented by outsiders and groups connected to the Palestinian Authority.”

Earlier this week, the head of the Higher Committee for Tribal Affairs in Gaza, Sheikh Husni al-Mughni, reacted to one of the execution videos in an interview on the Saudi-owned channel, al-Hadath. He said that the clans in Gaza supported Hamas’s efforts “heart and soul” and asserted that “justice was served.”

“Hamas warned these people several times, through mediators and family members, to surrender and face justice,” al-Mughni said.

“Frankly, they deserve even harsher punishment if you knew what they did,” he added. “A man who beats and kills a 10-year-old child to steal his flour deserves execution, even worse.”