Horrors of Hamas continue as IDF exposes torture videos of Gazans

The filmed torture of Gazan prisoners at the hands of Hamas has been found by Israeli troops in Jabaliya, according to new reports.

As the IDF continues operations in the Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers have grown accustomed to uncovering weapons caches in children’s bedrooms, booby-trapped homes, and terror tunnels under hospitals, schools and mosques. However, the Daily Mail revealed that thousands of hours of horrific video footage from CCTV has now been discovered.

Scenes dating back from 2018 and 2019 show Palestinians with their heads covered in hoods, strung up by their hands or feet in excruciating pain. They can be trussed up and contorted awkwardly while their guards relaxed and chatted nonchalantly. In some distressing scenes, one of the captors beat a prisoner with rods on the soles of his feet as he screamed and protested. In another, a guard appeared to choke one of the prisoners even as he was tied up.

The footage was captured by CCTV “inadvertently” and discovered on computers from an abandoned compound inside the Jabaliya refugee camp earlier this year. A senior Israeli military source told The Mail on Sunday, “The IDF found these CCTV images in March. It took months to go through them all.”

Though it is not evident from the videos why the prisoners were being held, Hamas is well known for imprisoning those who oppose the regime in any way, especially those suspected of collaborating with Israel.

Hamas torturing prisoners is not new information and has been extensively documented by Amnesty International. Their 44-page summary highlights a series of abuses, including extrajudicial executions, abductions and torture. 

There are testimonies from Muslim-background believers who were held and tortured at the hands of Hamas for converting to Christianity, as well as those suspected of being homosexual, adulterers or apostates from Islam. Such deviations from Islamic Law are considered imprisonable offenses under Hamas rule.

One case that recently gained media attention was that of Amin Abed, who was abducted and viciously beaten by over 20 masked men until all his limbs were broken earlier this year. Ihab Hassan, a Palestinian Christian, posted on 𝕏 in July: “Hamas militants brutally kidnapped Palestinian political activist Amin Abed, viciously assaulting him with batons and striking him on the head with sharp tools. He is now in critical condition in the hospital, fighting for his life. Our hearts go out to Amin as he battles to survive this brutal attack.”

A vocal critic of the Hamas terror group, Hamza Howidy, originally from Gaza but now living safely in Berlin, Germany, shared how Abed had been left hospitalized with terrible injuries and left with only a few teeth.

“He is the bravest Gazan you’ll ever meet,” Howidy said of his friend. The two men have been trying to pioneer a voice of dissent against Hamas for others to follow, but the violent repercussions they face make momentum almost impossible. 

Another report from i24 News catalogs some of the torture meted out on those living a homosexual lifestyle.

“They wouldn't let me sleep or go to the bathroom inside. There was no food,”  one man reported. “They would torture me so badly. Sometimes, they would tie my feet up and beat them with a stick. After that, every few years, they would arrest me and torture me in the same way.”

On Sunday, Howidy told the Mail about his own experience of torture in the Gaza Strip before he was able to escape, saying they would torture him three times a week.

“They would torture you until you broke and say whatever it is they wanted,” he recalled. “I could hear my fellow protesters scream in the next room.”

Howidy described how one man he knew of “had objects inserted into him” and another who suffered years of electric shock before being discovered innocent. 

A former Israeli intelligence officer told the Mail, “They have been known to melt plastic over skin, electric cables on their body,” adding, “Some are electrocuted on electricity pylons or dragged on a chain from a vehicle until they die.”

As Howidy stated, “Hamas is holding the people of Gaza hostage.”