by Khaled Abu Toameh
"How many of our people need to disappear into hospital basements, interrogation rooms, and 'revolutionary courts' before the pro-Palestine movement stops romanticizing this militia and starts seeing what Gazans have been living under for years?" — Hamza Howidy, Palestinian political activist from the Gaza Strip, now in Europe, x.com, November 30, 2025
Trump's plan may have ended the Israeli-Hamas war, but it has not stopped Hamas from waging its own brutal campaign against its own people.
Since the ceasefire went into effect, Hamas has turned hospitals in the Gaza Strip from terrorist command centers into terrorist interrogation and detention centers.
"Hamas has turned all of Gaza's hospitals into MAJOR police, intelligence, and security headquarters, a flagrant criminal violation of international law and humanitarian law and basic decency." — Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, Palestinian political analyst and former resident of the Gaza Strip, x.com, January 1, 2026.
"Hamas isn't hiding its brutality. The hospitals of Al-Shifa, Al-Aqsa and Nasser are not simply medical centers. Hamas has repurposed Gaza's main hospitals as interrogation sites, cages, gulags for perceived 'dissidents.'" -- Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, x.com, January 6, 2026.
"How many of our people need to disappear into hospital basements, interrogation rooms, and 'revolutionary courts' before the pro-Palestine movement stops romanticizing this militia and starts seeing what Gazans have been living under for years?" — Hamza Howidy, Palestinian political activist from the Gaza Strip, now in Europe, x.com, November 30, 2025
Hamas, according to Palestinian sources, has set up a number of armed units whose main mission is to hunt down and silence its political rivals. Some of these Palestinians have been forced to make public "confessions" about their alleged ties to Israel. The videos are then posted on various Hamas-affiliated social media platforms as part of a psychological warfare designed to terrorize and deter the residents of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas wants to go back to the days when the international community, including the United Nations, was providing humanitarian aid and food to the Gaza residents while the terror group was busy building tunnels, manufacturing weapons and preparing massacres against Israel.
Hamas's "political" leaders, living luxuriously in Qatar, are no less dangerous than the terrorists hiding in Gaza's tunnels. There must be no room in the Middle East for terrorists and criminals who continue to commit crimes not only against Israel, but also against their own people. By the time the second phase of Trump's plan begins, the only Palestinians left in the Gaza Strip will be the leaders of Hamas and their supporters.
While the US and other countries are talking about the need to move to the second phase of President Donald J. Trump's 20-point peace plan, the Iran-backed Hamas terror group is continuing to reassert its control over parts of the Gaza Strip that are no longer under Israeli control.
Hamas, in addition to rearming and regrouping, has stepped up its crackdown on Palestinians suspected of "collaboration" with Israel.
Hamas's goal is to intimidate and deter the residents of the Gaza Strip and remind them that the terror group has no plans to end its rule or lay down its weapons. As far as Hamas is concerned, any Palestinian who believes in Israel's right to exist and opposes terrorism is a traitor who should be punished by death.
Since the announcement of Trump's plan in October 2025, Hamas and other armed groups in the Gaza Strip have done nothing to help alleviate the suffering of hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians, who, since losing the war their leaders started, have been forced to live in tents. On October 7, 2023 Hamas and thousands of "ordinary" Palestinians invaded Israel, murdered more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, and wounded thousands.
Trump's plan may have ended the Israeli-Hamas war, but it has not stopped Hamas from waging its own brutal campaign against its own people. Since the ceasefire went into effect, Hamas has been arresting, torturing and publicly executing suspected "collaborators." None of the victims was given a trial, and it is safe to assume that they were tortured and forced to confess that they worked for Israeli security authorities. It is also safe to assume that some of the victims were executed simply because they dared to speak out against the terror group during the war.
Since the ceasefire went into effect, Hamas has turned hospitals in the Gaza Strip from terrorist command centers into terrorist interrogation and detention centers. The international community and human rights organizations do not seem to care.
"Hamas has turned all of Gaza's hospitals into MAJOR police, intelligence, and security headquarters, a flagrant criminal violation of international law and humanitarian law and basic decency," wrote Palestinian political analyst Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a former resident of the Gaza Strip who moved to the US two decades ago. In another post on social media, Alkhatib added:
"Hamas isn't hiding its brutality. The hospitals of Al-Shifa, Al-Aqsa and Nasser are not simply medical centers. Hamas has repurposed Gaza's main hospitals as interrogation sites, cages, gulags for perceived 'dissidents.'"
On November 30, 2025, Hamza Howidy, another Palestinian political activist from the Gaza Strip currently based in Europe wrote:
"Hamas executed four Gazans this morning, accusing them of 'collaborating with Israel.' Two days ago, they kidnapped Khamis Jwifil in Rafah, he was killed under severe torture for allegedly 'stealing during the war.' How many of our people need to disappear into hospital basements, interrogation rooms, and 'revolutionary courts' before the pro-Palestine movement stops romanticizing this militia and starts seeing what Gazans have been living under for years?"
Earlier, Howidy wrote:
"Residents in Gaza report that dozens of local influencers and activists have gone missing after being called by Hamas for interrogation in the days following the ceasefire. According to several accounts, those detained are held inside Nasser and Al-Aqsa hospitals, which Hamas is using as makeshift detention and interrogation sites. Families say they have received no information about their whereabouts or conditions."
Hamas, according to Palestinian sources, has set up a number of armed units whose main mission is to hunt down and silence its political rivals. Some of these Palestinians have been forced to make public "confessions" about their alleged ties to Israel. The videos are then posted on various Hamas-affiliated social media platforms as part of a psychological warfare designed to terrorize and deter the residents of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas's crimes and public statements show that the terror group has no intention of complying with the second phase of Trump's plan, which calls for the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip and the establishment of a committee of independent Palestinian figures to manage the day-to-day affairs of the residents. Hamas leaders have repeatedly made it clear that they will not abandon their weapons and that Trump's proposed International Stabilization Force must be limited to peacekeeping and monitoring the ceasefire with Israel -- not combatting or disarming terrorists.
For Hamas, reasserting its control over the Gaza Strip is more vital than assisting the Palestinian families whose tents were recently flooded with freezing winter rain. Hamas wants to go back to the days when the international community, including the United Nations, was providing humanitarian aid and food to the Gaza residents while the terror group was busy building tunnels, manufacturing weapons and preparing massacres against Israel.
It is long overdue for the Trump administration and the rest of the world to understand that there can be no future for the Gaza Strip so long as Hamas and other terror groups are standing on their feet. Unfortunately, the only way to ensure the success of Trump's peace plan is by insisting that all the Palestinian terror groups surrender their weapons and dismantle both their military and political infrastructures. Merely disarming these groups, or allowing them to store their weapons for a more propitious opportunity, is not enough. If there is to be real peace, they actually need to vanish completely from the Palestinian political arena.
Hamas's "political" leaders, living luxuriously in Qatar, are no less dangerous than the terrorists hiding in Gaza's tunnels. There must be no room in the Middle East for terrorists and criminals who continue to commit crimes not only against Israel, but also against their own people. By the time the second phase of Trump's plan begins, the only Palestinians left in the Gaza Strip will be the leaders of Hamas and their supporters.
- Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on X (formerly Twitter)
Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22186/hamas-tortures-murders-palestinians
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