There are cheers before the three men are pushed to the ground and shot several times in the back of the head. The crowd then praises Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades.
A Palestinian security official from the Hamas-run Gaza government told Reuters that the executions were carried out by the “Joint Operations Room of the Palestinian resistance”.
This is a rare instance in which a public execution in Gaza has been captured on video. There have been previous reports of Hamas using violence on those who dissent. In May, Hamas-led groups reportedly executed four Palestinians for looting aid trucks.
In Sunday’s footage, one armed man singles out Yasser Abu Shabab as a “major collaborator” who they seek to kill.
Abu Shabab is major figurehead of a clan which has reportedly been armed by the Israeli government. It has been operating in Rafah, in an area under Israeli military control. The group has presented itself as an opposition force to Hamas.
In July Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israel was arming clans in Gaza that he said were opposed to Hamas. However, Yasser Abu Shabab posted online to “categorically reject” that Israel had supplied his group’s weapons.
That same month, a senior officer in Hamas’s security forces told the BBC that the Palestinian armed group had lost much of its control over the Gaza Strip and that armed clans were filling the void.
Abu Shabab’s armed group has been advertising for recruits on social media, Reuters reported. The news agency quoted residents and sources close to Hamas as saying that other groups opposed to Hamas had also emerged in parts of northern Gaza and near Khan Younis in southern Gaza.