Hamas has been accused of beating a man to death and leaving him on his family’s doorstep in a warning against any further protests against its rule in the Gaza Strip.
The terror group has been the subject of rare public demonstrations against it in the territory as the war with Israel drags on, with more than 50,000 Palestinians having been killed.
Earlier this week anti-Hamas chants were heard during a wider protest against the conflict.
Uday Al Rabbay was kidnapped shortly after participating in the protest. He was returned dead and bloody to his family’s home days later.
Mazen Shat, a senior police officer affiliated with Fatah from Ramallah and a vocal critic of Hamas, told The Telegraph: “Uday was martyred by the criminals of Hamas. And what’s his crime? He told the truth, because he refused to be silent on injustice, because he did not kneel to Hamas.”
Credit: Telegram/Hamza20300
Mr Shat said Hamas had tortured the young man for four hours. Images showed open wounds and bruising that left their victim’s body swollen and bloody.
“Hamas is oppressing people in a brutal way,” Mr Shat said. “Like a puppy on a rope around his neck, they dragged him to the door of his house and told his family that this is the punishment for those who complain about Hamas.”
Sam Habeeb, a Gazan who now lives in London and is a former parliamentary candidate for Ealing North, told The Telegraph it was “the first time Gaza witnessed such large-scale protests” since Hamas violently took control of the Strip in 2007.
While protests have occurred over the years, including large uprisings in 2023 and 2019, they have usually been quashed quickly, with fear of violent crackdowns deterring people from coming onto the streets.
“Violent crackdowns on protesters is criminal and unacceptable,” said Mr Habeeb. “This is a heinous crime that is completely condemned. It is unacceptable to restrict the freedom of protest and kill and torture the protester Uday Al Rabai. Not all people in Gaza are part of Hamas, and they have the right to express their views freely.”
Palestinians have called on Hamas to relinquish control of Gaza – Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg
Hamas won a huge majority in parliamentary elections in 2006 after Palestinian voters rejected the long-time rule of the Fatah movement, seen by many as too weak to achieve their aims of an independent Palestinian state.
Although the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct 7 2023 saw support for the group soar in Gaza and the West Bank, that has since waned as the war has gone on. A poll by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research in September showed public opinion plummeting amid Gaza’s decimation and mounting death toll.
The recent protests followed the collapse of a two-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to exchange Israeli hostages kidnapped on Oct 7 in return for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Israel has renewed relentless air strikes on the Strip, killing hundreds more civilians in what it says are strikes on Hamas. Civilians who had returned, hoping to rebuild their homes and lives, find themselves at the centre of a war zone.
“People have been under Israeli bombing since October 2023, they don’t want the war to continue by all means. Hamas must accept the fact that the majority of people of Gaza want an end to this war and certainly they have the right to express their views freely,” said Mr Habeeb.
Palestinians in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, chant slogans during a protest calling for an end to the war with Israel – AFP via Getty Images
Gazan-born Hamza Howidy, who now lives in exile in Europe, has been tortured and imprisoned by Hamas twice for protesting, first in 2019 and then in 2023.
He warns that Hamas would now say those who have been rounded up and murdered are collaborators, a crime punishable by death. It is believed from sources in Gaza that at least six others have been killed and described as collaborators.
After his first arrest for protesting in Jabaliya, north Gaza, in 2019, he told The Telegraph he was given a “welcome gift” in prison.
“Everyone in the prison tortures and humiliates you, it’s how they get to know you better,” he said. “They drew a bicycle on the wall and told me to ride it – if you don’t pretend to ride it, they beat you. They want you to feel like nothing.”
On Saturday, Khalil al-Hayya, the Hamas leader in Gaza, said the group had agreed to a proposal that security sources said included the release of five Israeli hostages each week. But he said laying down its arms, as Israel had demanded, was a red line Hamas would not cross.
On Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, repeated a demand for Hamas to disarm and for its leaders to leave Gaza as he promised to step up pressure on the group while continuing efforts to return hostages.
