On October 13 (Monday) local time, a video recording the execution of Palestinians by Hamas militants was circulated on social platforms. The incident occurred a few days after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement. Hamas confirmed the authenticity of the video on October 14 (Tuesday).
According to the Daily Mail, the video footage shows seven men kneeling on the ground with their hands tied behind them, with a number of masked armed men standing behind them, some of whom wear Hamas's iconic headbands. With the sound of gunshots, seven men fell to the ground on the spot and lost their vital signs.
Someone in the crowd at the scene was holding a mobile phone to take pictures while shouting "God is great" and calling the executed persons "Israeli collaborators."
Among those killed was Ahmad Zidan al-Tarabin, who was responsible for recruiting operatives for rival militias not aligned with Hamas, according to Israeli outlet ynetNews.
Hamas tightens control
Palestinian security sources told Reuters that Hamas has recalled about 7,000 members of its security forces and returned to areas where Israeli troops have withdrawn, aiming to restore full control of Gaza.
A text message order sent by Hamas to militants said: "We announce full mobilization and respond to the country's call to eliminate traitors and Israeli collaborators in Gaza. All personnel must report to the designated location within 24 hours."
While Hamas took tough action, it also arranged hundreds of workers to clean up the ruins of Gaza's main roads and repair damaged water pipelines.
Trump previously mentioned that the United States had allowed Hamas to carry out internal security operations to solve regional problems. Now that the video of the execution has been exposed, the outside world has questioned that this permission may become an excuse for Hamas to commit extreme acts.
In addition to public executions, Hamas has also broken up in an armed conflict with the Dugmushi family in Gaza, which has killed 27 people, including 19 members of the Dugmushi family and eight Hamas militants.
The conflict has spread partially to several neighborhoods of Gaza since Saturday (October 11), and a Gaza resident said: "In the past we have avoided Israeli airstrikes, but now we have to escape our own guns, and more than two years of war have left us nowhere to hide."
The daughter of a member of the Douglas family on Monday (13 October) said: “This is a massacre. They drag people away, the children scream to death, they burn our houses. What did we do wrong?”
Hamas refuses to disarm
The incident also exacerbated Israeli discontent that Hamas was required under the Gaza peace agreement to return the bodies of all Israeli hostages who died in custody, but as of Tuesday (October 14), only four of the 28 dead hostages had been returned to Israel.
Some family members of the hostages had hoped to reunite with their relatives, but eventually waited for death news, the related emotions have raised questions about the implementation of the agreement in Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly stressed that the end of the war in Gaza must take the condition of Hamas disarming and giving up control of Gaza, a demand that has led to the failure of previous peace efforts.
Hamas’s current public executions have raised concerns about whether it will abide by the core clauses of the agreement, such as “de-militarization of Gaza” and “retreat from regional governance”, and that Hamas does not intend to hand over weapons or power.
On Tuesday, October 14th, local time, Trump told the new york Times reporter when receiving visiting Argentine President Javier Milei: "They will disarm because they said they would disarm. If they don't, we will disarm them."
He added: “I don’t need to explain to you that if they don’t disarm, we’ll disarm them.