Extremely graphic video has emerged of what appears to be Hamas fighters carrying out public executions in Gaza \u2014 as the terror group tries to reassert dominance over local clans and gangs that oppose it.<\/p>\n
The verified clip, which ABC NEWS Verify has located as having taken place in the Sabra neighbourhood in Gaza City, shows several men being forced to kneel in the middle of a gathered crowd.<\/p>\n
Masked gunmen \u2014 who are not wearing uniforms, but at least two have green headbands associated with Hamas’s military wing \u2014 then execute the men, with some firing several shots into their bodies with high-powered weapons.<\/p>\n
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Satellite imagery over Sabra in Gaza City taken earlier this month.\u00a0 (Planet Labs PBC)<\/p>\n
“The resistance carries out the death sentence against a number of collaborators and lawbreakers in the city of Gaza,” a Hamas-affiliated Telegram account posted, while sharing the video.<\/p>\n
The office of Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, condemned the killings, while US President Donald Trump said it “didn’t bother me much” at a press conference.<\/p>\n
“They did take out a couple of gangs that were very bad, and they killed a number of gang members,” he said.<\/p>\n
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Vision claims to show Hamas carrying out executions in Gaza City. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Abdalhadi Alijla is a Palestinian-Swedish political scientist and senior fellow at the Arab Reform Initiative.<\/p>\n
“It’s extrajudicial execution,” he told ABC NEWS Verify.<\/p>\n
“But people now in Gaza are arguing that there is sometimes a need to do so. We don’t have courts, we don’t have anything,” he said, noting that innocent people would be unjustly killed.<\/p>\n
“The Palestinians in Gaza have been subject to immense violence, the killing, the bombardments of two years \u2026 we cannot criticise them because it’s becoming their reality every day,” he said.<\/p>\n
Palestinian-Swedish researcher and academic Abdalhadi Alijla. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
The fresh violence comes as Hamas seeks to reassert dominance over local clans, militias and gangs after the Israel Defense Forces’s withdrawal from areas of Gaza as part of the latest ceasefire agreement.<\/p>\n
What is a clan?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The word clan, in the Gazan context, basically means a large family.<\/p>\n
“This is extended families, powerful families, in terms of business or in relationship with the de facto authorities, whoever is there,” Mr Alijla said.<\/p>\n
One of the most prominent clans is the Doghmosh from the Sabra area \u2014 where the latest executions happened.<\/p>\n
A video from earlier in the week claims to show Hamas fighters firing at Doghmosh properties in the Sabra area.<\/p>\n
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Armed groups clash in what is claimed to be the Sabra neighbourhood, Gaza City. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
ABC NEWS Verify has not been able to establish the exact location of this footage, but the road sign present in the frame, audio of a drone or plane in the background, and Arabic script on buildings indicate it was taken in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Mr Alijla said the family had clashed with Hamas in the past, and members of it had links with extremist groups like Islamic State.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said families like the Doghmosh, and the Helles clan, were known as “troublemakers”.<\/p>\n
“They always seek to have power, and to coordinate with whoever [is in authority],” he said.<\/p>\n
For years, there have been allegations that gangs and militias, some supported by Israel, have stolen aid before it reached Palestinians in desperate need.<\/p>\n