Terror Hamas executes, tortures Gazan protesters in crackdown, says Israeli media

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered to let Hamas leaders leave Gaza but demanded the group abandon its arms, as shocking reports emerged of protesters being executed inside the enclave

Israel media is reporting that Hamas executed six Gazans, who protested against the ruling terror group last week.

The Times of Israel claimed that Odai al-Rubai, 22, was beaten and tortured before his dying body was dumped on his family’s doorstep.

“He was dragged by a rope around his neck, beaten with clubs and metal rods in front of passersby,” a Gaza City resident told Israel’s Ynet TV.

Another resident Hussam al-Majdalawi, who had also spoken against Hamas, was shot in the legs and left in a public square Ynet reported an eyewitnesses as saying.

Gaza social activist Hamza al-Masrin who says he lost an eye after being tortured by Hamas in the past, said the crackdown was part of an effort to silence dissent.

“Just for asking to live, a Hamas military unit kidnapped several young men, including helpless Odai,” al-Masri wrote on social media. “Hours after he was taken, he was returned to his family without life.”

On Saturday, dozens of Gazans were filmed participating in Odai’s funeral procession, shouting, “Hamas out”, The Times of Israel reported. Anti-Hamas protests were held last week over three-straight days in Gaza and protesters were subsequently threatened by the terror group.

Beit Hanoun resident Mohammed Abu Saker said the demonstration was not about politics.

“It is about people’s lives,” the ABC reported “We want to stop the killing and displacement, no matter the price. We can’t stop Israel from killing us, but we can press Hamas to give concessions.”

A CNN reporter on the ground estimated that “thousands” of people had marched in Beit Lahiya last Thursday, while AP put the figure at around 3000.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s civil defence agency said an Israeli air strike on a house and tent sheltering displaced Palestinians killed at least eight people, including five children.

The strike hit Khan Yunis on the first day of Eid al-Fitr, the festival marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Rejecting domestic criticism that the government was not engaging in diplomacy to release hostages, Mr Netanyahu argued the renewed military pressure was proving effective.

“We are negotiating under fire ... We can see cracks beginning to appear” in Hamas’s positions, the Israeli leader told a cabinet meeting.

In the “final stage”, Mr Netanyahu said “Hamas will lay down its weapons. Its leaders will be allowed to leave”.

Hamas has expressed a willingness to relinquish Gaza’s administration, but has warned its weapons are a “red line”.

Egypt, Qatar and the United States are attempting to again broker a ceasefire and secure the release of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza

A senior Hamas official said the group had approved a new ceasefire proposal put forward by mediators, and urged Israel to support it.

Mr Netanyahu’s office confirmed receipt of the proposal and said Israel had submitted a counterproposal.

French President Emmanuel Macron urged Mr Netanyahu to “put an end to the strikes on Gaza and return to the ceasefire”, adding in a post on X after a phone call with the Israeli leader that “humanitarian aid must be delivered again immediately”.

Israel has pressed on with its air and ground attacks in the Gaza Strip, and on Sunday conducted several air strikes according to medics and witnesses.

Meanwhile, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said it had recovered the bodies of 15 rescuers who had been missing since Israeli troops fired at ambulances in the southern city of Rafah a week ago.

The Red Crescent said the bodies were found buried in the sand. It accused Israel of committing a “war crime” by targeting ambulances, which the military has said were “suspicious vehicles” used by Hamas. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it was “outraged” by the incident.

“They were humanitarians. They wore emblems that should have protected them,” said the federation’s Secretary-General Jagan Chapagain.

Netanyahu said that after the war, Israel would ensure overall security in Gaza and “enable the implementation of the Trump plan” -- which had initially called for the mass displacement of all 2.4 million people living in the Palestinian territory -- calling it a “voluntary migration plan”.

Trump had proposed that Gazans be removed from the territory with no right of return, later saying he was “not forcing” the widely condemned plan for the United States to take over the territory and redevelop it.

Since the fighting restarted, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said that at least 921 people have been killed, in figures issued on Saturday.

The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 50,277 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry.

With the renewed violence in Gaza, Yemen’s Huthi rebels have resumed attacks against Israel, whose military on Sunday said it had intercepted one missile.

The Iran-backed Huthis say they act in solidarity with the Palestinians, and have also attacked shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden throughout the war on the same basis.