AARON PATRICK: After the fighting ends, Gazans celebrate a public execution like a sporting match

The world demanded peace in the Gaza Strip. This is what peace looks like.

Eight blindfolded men were dragged into a public square at dusk, and forced to kneel, surrounded by a mob of men and boys. A firing squad stood behind them, some wearing the green headbands of Hamas fighters.

A man in black dropped his arm, the signal to fire. A volley of shots rang out, followed by cheers of “God is great”. Some continued to fire at the prone bodies. Others fired into the air. The mood was celebratory: like the end of a sporting event.

At least two videos of the group public execution are circulating on the internet. CNN and Reuters both verified the location as the al Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City, the main metropolis in the northern end of the Gaza Strip.

The date is unclear. CNN reported it was likely filmed on Monday, the day hostages and prisoners were swapped, possibly ending the two-year war.

Exactly why the men were killed is unclear. A Hamas-affiliated security force said it “conducted a precise operation in the centre of Gaza City, resulting in the neutralization of several wanted individuals and outlaws.”

They could have been suspected collaborators or members of the Doghmush clan, which is based in the area and has demonstrated a reluctance to submit to Hamas authority. Either way, the killings sent a message to Gazans and the rest of the world: Hamas is back in control of the devastated enclave and will use violence to protect its power.

Amnesty International

Before the ceasefire, liberal Western political leaders applied diplomatic pressure on Israel to stop attacking Hamas. Recognising a Palestinian state, Anthony Albanese said on August 11, was “an opportunity to isolate Hamas”.

Hamas did not see it that way. One of its leaders, Ghazi Hamad, last month said the October 7, 2003, attack on Israel had created a “golden moment” for Palestinians by shifting international opinion.

Among the many Western organisations that sided against Israel in the war was Amnesty International, a charity established in 1961 to campaign for political prisoners and oppose the death penalty. When asked by The Nightly if it was concerned about public executions in Gaza — presumably without trials — the group’s spokeswoman in Australia, former political adviser Sally Rugg, shared a statement criticising Israel.

Journalists’ unions have also been fierce critics. The Committee to Protect Journalists accuses Israel of a campaign to murder members of the media. The New York-based group puts the death tally in Gaza at 237. The allegation is disputed by the Israel Defence Forces, which accuses some Palestinian journalists of being Hamas fighters or sympathisers.

While Hamas welcomed the support of international journalists’ groups, it never respected press freedom.

Media star

One of the better-known Palestinian reporters to die was Saleh Aljafarawi, who recorded civilian suffering and destruction from Israeli attacks that became popular on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. He often put down his camera to help people from the rubble of the enclave’s ruined buildings.

War made Aljafarawi a star. Peace killed him. His death wasn’t at the hands of the Israel army. Still wearing his press flack jacket, the 28-year-old was captured, beaten and executed in the same suburb as the other eight men on Sunday by a Gazan gang.

Hamas suggests he was the victim of armed militias employed by Israel to spread chaos in the Strip, an argument used to justify the hunting down and killing its opponents.

War has been terrible for the people of Gaza, who have suffered more than the Israelis. But the bloodletting on Gazan streets is an unpleasant reminder that the millions of people who marched across the West on behalf of the Palestinian people were indirectly helping Hamas, which is now free to murder its own citizens at will.