Hamas gunmen carried out a series of public executions in Gaza on Monday, killing at least eight alleged collaborators just hours after the militant group released the last living Israeli hostages as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal, witnesses and video footage showed.
The killings, captured in graphic videos circulating on social media, depicted blindfolded and bound men forced to their knees in a Gaza City street before being shot at close range by masked fighters, with crowds chanting “God is Great” in the background. The executions appeared aimed at crushing internal dissent and reimposing Hamas authority in areas recently vacated by Israeli troops.
Hamas officials justified the acts as targeting “traitors and collaborators” who had worked with Israeli forces during the two-year conflict, though no detailed evidence was presented beyond the footage. The violence followed deadly clashes over the weekend with the powerful Doghmush clan, in which 52 clan members and 12 Hamas fighters — including the son of senior official Bassem Naim — were killed, according to local reports.
“This is not justice; it’s a message to anyone who dares challenge them,” said one eyewitness, a shopkeeper in Gaza City who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. “The men were beaten, helpless, and the crowd was made to cheer like it was a show.”
The incidents unfolded as the first phase of the ceasefire took hold, with Hamas freeing 20 surviving hostages seized in the October 7, 2023 attacks, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, including 250 serving long sentences. U.S. President Donald Trump, who mediated the accord during visits to Israel and Egypt, hailed it as a “historic dawn of a new Middle East” in a speech to Israel’s parliament on Monday.
Yet Trump’s comments aboard Air Force One en route to Israel drew sharp criticism for seemingly endorsing Hamas’s heavy-handed tactics. “They want to stop the problems… and we gave them approval for a period of time to manage Gaza’s internal security as it sees fit,” Trump said, according to accounts from his entourage.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swiftly rejected any such leniency, reiterating that “the war cannot end until Hamas gives up its weapons and ceases to control Gaza,” a condition the group has firmly rebuffed. The Israeli military reported isolated drone strikes that killed six Palestinians on Tuesday, which it described as responses to truce violations, while Hamas accused Israel of breaching the deal.
The executions have heightened alarms among aid workers and analysts about the ceasefire’s stability, with Hamas deploying hundreds of Qassam Brigades fighters and police to rubble-strewn streets for the first time since the war’s outset. “Hamas’s resumption of power and these flashes of violence underscore the daunting hurdles facing Trump’s plan,” said a security source in Gaza, speaking to Reuters.
As hundreds of aid trucks rolled into the territory for the first time in months, sending market prices plummeting, residents voiced a mix of cautious relief and dread. “We hoped for peace, not a bloodbath turned inward,” the anonymous shopkeeper added. With Phase Two negotiations looming on disarmament and governance, the killings threaten to derail hopes for lasting resolution in the enclave, where over 65,000 Palestinians have died since October 2023, per the Hamas-run health ministry.
