Palestinian activists and whistleblowers complained of the brutal treatment they faced for speaking out against the terror group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, in an article published by the New York Times on Friday.
The article followed the torture of Palestinian activist Amin Abed - who had previously found bullets on his doorstep in response to speaking out against Hamas.
Abed told the Times that in July, he was attacked by members of Hamas. They reportedly covered Abed’s face and beat him with hammers and metal bars.
“At any moment, I can be killed by the Israeli occupation, but I can face the same fate at the hands of those who’ve been ruling us for 17 years,” he told the Times from his hospital bed in the United Arab Emirates. “They almost killed me, those killers and criminals.”
The attack on Abed reportedly only ended when bystanders intervened. He currently remains hospitalized.
“I feel terrible that I’ve left our family and people behind, but at the same time, I feel safe for the first time in 17 years,” he said. “There’s no one that wants to kill, arrest or follow me.”
The assault on Abed is not a one-off, according to the report and numerous other investigations. Palestinians speaking out against Hamas have routinely been attacked or even murdered by members of the terror group.
Many of the murders reportedly come with the excuse that the Palestinian individual had attempted to steal humanitarian aid - which Hamas steals and hoards despite numerous attempts to deliver food and resources to the people of Gaza.
Hamas's use of civilian infrastructure
If Hamas is not directly slaughtering the civilians, its warfare style, where it utilizes civilian shields, adds to the body count.
Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth, the head of the US intelligence agency that analyzes satellite imagery told the Times “We also have a responsibility to tell the whole story.
“We certainly are enabling Israel to protect itself. But we are also calling every ball and strike and balk and foul, and we’re doing so in a very complete way.”
“There’s no international law that justifies Israel killing civilians,” said Mkhaimar Abusada, a professor of political science who fled Gaza early in the war. “But Hamas has acted recklessly.”
“Those launching rockets and firing bullets from civilian areas don’t care about civilians,” Abu Shaker, going by his nickname, told the Times. If you want to fight Israel, you should go do that. But why are you coming to hide among the civilians?”
Husam Badran, a senior Hamas official, denied that the terror group was deliberately putting Palestinians in harm’s way by utilizing civilian infrastructure for its terror bases.
“There’s no such thing as being outside residential areas in Gaza,” Badran, said. “These pretexts, primarily made by the Israeli occupation army, are meaningless.”
Despite Badran’s claim, the tunnel in which six hostages were murdered was constructed underneath a child’s bedroom. Tunnels and weapons belonging to the terror group have frequently been found under nurseries and the terror group has used schools, where displaced Gazans have sought shelter, as headquarters.
Other Hamas officials did not deny putting Palestinians in harms way, rather claiming that “freedom doesn’t come for free,” as was the statement given by Salah al-Din al-Awawdeh, a Hamas terrorist who spent time in prison with Yahya Sinwar.
“There is no liberation movement that has freed its people without paying a big price in terms of civilians,” he said.
While polls on Palestinian opinion show varied results on the support of Hamas in the enclave, and the IDF found that Hamas had manufactured the results of some to show greater levels of support, the Times said it had found dissatisfaction among Gazans with their leadership.
A new poll by the Arab World for Research and Development found only 6% of Gazans would want Hamas to lead a Palestinian state.
The Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate have also accused Hamas of silencing them with “policy of intimidation and threat.”
The house of Ehab Fasfous, a reporter and Hamas-critic in Gaza, was reportedly stormed by gunmen. The Syndicate did not name Hamas in their statement, but the Times reported “it left little doubt that it was behind the raid.”
“Journalists in Gaza are being constantly killed by Israel,” said Tahseen al-Astal, the deputy head of the group. “When internal Palestinian parties go after them, too, their work becomes impossible.”
“If you’re not with them, you become an atheist, an infidel and a sinner,” Fasfous said, explaining how the terror group view critics.
Ismail Thawabteh, the director general of the Hamas-run government media office, denied Hamas’s involvement in the incidents relating to Fasfoud and Abed.
Thawabteh claimed instead that the pair had suffered at the hands of street crime or were attacked over personal disputes.
“This is the story of the Palestinian people in Gaza,” Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Palestinian American who is a fellow with the Atlantic Council claimed. “The powerlessness of being stuck between a ferocious Israeli war machine and a nefarious Islamist group that operates among the civilians.”