Palestine: Hamas must stamp out extrajudicial executions and ensure justice for victims
Authorities and forces affiliated with Hamas in the occupied Gaza Strip must put an end to extrajudicial executions of suspected collaborators with Israel, carried out in the absence of any judicial proceedings, Amnesty International said today. Last month alone, security officials in Hamas’ military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, publicly announced the summary execution of one man for collaborating with Israel and their intention to execute another “informant” within days within the context of what they called a large-scale security campaign.
A June 2026 UN report identified 249 cases of extrajudicial executions and severe physical violence in Gaza between August 2024 and early 2026, at least 60 of which involved Hamas-affiliated forces. Amnesty International has investigated and documented nine extrajudicial executions and unlawful killings by Hamas-affiliated forces committed in the immediate aftermath of the announced ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in October 2025.
While Hamas officials have said that they have opened preliminary internal investigations into the incidents, to Amnesty International’s knowledge none of those responsible for the killings have been held to account to date. In recent weeks, the collapse of law and order in Gaza, and the extreme state of deprivation caused by Israel’s ongoing genocide, has fuelled social tensions including infighting among families.
“Nearly three years into Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, the traumatized civilian population has already endured unimaginable suffering and cannot be subjected to further killings, abuses and cruelty. The Hamas authorities must immediately halt all unlawful killings, acts of vigilantism and arbitrary arrests. Restoring law and order must never serve as a cover to commit grave human rights violations, carry out reprisals, or to collectively punish entire families,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns.
“Those responsible for ordering and carrying out extrajudicial executions as well as arbitrary arrests, torture and other ill-treatment must be held accountable. Despite its announcement of the dissolution of the governing committee that administers Gaza, Hamas remains fully responsible for preventing serious violations by its agencies and individuals under its control, including Al-Qassam Brigades and the ‘Resistance Security System’. The new leadership of the political bureau of Hamas must break with the long-standing impunity for abuses committed by its forces and its affiliates and take urgent, concrete steps to ensure truth and justice for victims and their families.”
An unidentified high-ranking member of the “Resistance Security System,” a secret security and intelligence group operating under the auspices of the military wings of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, also announced on the group’s official platform on Telegram, Al-Hares, that the 1 July extrajudicial execution was the beginning of a “large-scale security campaign” and that the “upcoming few days will witness the executions of others implicated with collaboration with the occupation.”
Since the beginning of the genocide, Palestinian human rights groups, including Al Mezan and the Independent Commission for Human rights, have repeatedly condemned extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings in Gaza, including those carried out by unidentified armed groups, and have called on the authorities to investigate those responsible and ensure accountability.
A recent report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, identified 249 cases of extrajudicial executions and severe physical violence in Gaza between August 2024 and January 2026, resulting in at least 108 deaths. At least 60 of these cases involved Hamas-affiliated forces. Some of these executions were carried out in public and filmed and announced on pages affiliated with Hamas, mainly on Telegram channels.
For example, on 21 September 2025, during the height of Israel’s mass forced displacement campaign in Gaza City, a group describing itself as the “Joint Operations Room for the Resistance” claimed responsibility for the public execution in a street in Gaza City of three men accused of collaborating with Israel.
For this investigation, Amnesty International has documented nine extrajudicial executions and one unlawful killing, with all but one of these incidents taking place in the immediate aftermath of the so-called ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in October 2025. The evidence reveals how in October 2025 Hamas and its affiliated forces carried out public, summary executions of eight members of the Dughmush family from the Al-Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City, after accusing them of collaborating with Israel. It also documented another execution on 1 July 2026.
The organization also documented the unlawful killing of a man in October 2025 during an apparent arrest operation in Al-Bureij refugee camp near Salaheddine street by masked armed gunmen.
Amnesty International verified photos and videos, gathered testimonies from 11 family members of people killed and two health workers, and analysed statements by Hamas authorities and Telegram accounts of its military wing and affiliated armed groups.... READ MORE https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2026/08/palestine-hamas-must-stamp-out-extrajudicial-executions-and-ensure-justice-for-victims/