Footage shows public executions in Gaza City street

[Twiglets1]

BBC Verify: Footage has emerged showing the public executions of three men accused of being Israeli collaborators in Gaza City.

BBC Verify has verified that the location of the executions was a street outside Shifa hospital in the centre of the city, which is the focus of a major Israeli ground offensive.

Videos circulating on Sunday evening showed at least five armed and masked men, three blindfolded Palestinian men kneeling on the ground and a large crowd.

One of the armed men is heard saying: "The death sentence has been decided for all collaborators".

There are cheers before the three men are pushed to the ground and shot several times in the back of the head. The crowd then praises Hamas's armed wing, the Qassam Brigades.

A Palestinian security official from the Hamas-run Gaza government told Reuters that the executions were carried out by the "Joint Operations Room of the Palestinian resistance".

This is a rare instance in which a public execution in Gaza has been captured on video. There have been previous reports of Hamas using violence on those who dissent. In May, Hamas-led groups reportedly executed four Palestinians for looting aid trucks.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c99g3p52k15o

Me neither. I asked myself these questions about a decade ago. Its hard to unpick your own moral certainties. But it is possible.

The “tide has started to turn” is referring to the rhetoric from some of Israel’s allies turning from “Israel has a right to defend itself” and providing weapons for this to “stop killing civilians” and starting to stop arms sales. What on earth do you think it meant?

I’d like the UK, the US et al to attempt to use their diplomatic leverage to bring about a ceasefire that has human rights at its heart. We are seeing the seeds of this now with the new US plan for Palestine that aligns somewhat with the New York declaration.

Although Israel is independent. Its security and survival is very much linked to its international alliances. Western support has shaped the conflict. It is truly bizarre that you think that the US in particular could have no role in stopping it.

I’m not really sure what your point about the US in Syria . I don’t think many would ague against the US being involved in this instance. Independent estimates say that 12,000 civilians died over the course of 10 years (via US ) . This is of course, far too many civilian deaths, and there is much to be critical of like what happened in Raqqa. But it is not comparable to what the US has supported Israel in doing now which is an absolute flagrant disregard of international law.

Where are your figures ftom? Wiki says On 28 June 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) stated that at least 306,887 civilians had been killed in Syria during the conflict between March 2011 and March 2021, representing about 1.5% of its pre-war population. This figure did not include indirect and non-civilian deaths. UN's commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic estimated that between 2011 and May 2021, more than 580,000 people were killed; with 13 million Syrians being displaced and 6.7 million refugees forced to flee Syria. Ba'athist government forces reportedly arrested and tortured numerous repatriated refugees, subjecting them to forced disappearances and extrajudicial executions.

And of course, the UK's ally the United Arab Emirates are supporting the RSF, providing them with arms and money. We, meanwhile, collaborate with the UAE militarily and sell them weapons.

They are civilian deaths that the US caused which is clear in my post. The poster was speaking about US involvement in Syria. 90% of deaths were caused by the Assad regime. There were many other actors involved. The US are estimated to have caused 13,000 civilian deaths by Amnesty. The US don’t admit to this though.

That is so true. The government should do more to pressure UAE. But that alone won’t end the war in Sudan unfortunately. It’s an extremely complicated situation with many armed groups involved backed by many different countries.

I don’t think saying we should put pressure on UAE to stop arming the RSF means that we should stop asking Israel to stop killing people though. We should do both of these things.

But both those things aren't happening. That's the point.

What about the women and girls in Afghanistan that the West LITERALLY deserted.

Absolute no marches for them

What would your “ask” be in a March for the women of Afghanistan out of interest?

The Taliban is only internationally recognised by one country. There are sanctions. Aid rarely passes directly into the hands of the Taliban.

Been on the channel 4 news all week.

That there should be an acknowledgment of the absolutely disastrous abandonment of women and girls, active measures to increase access for evacuation and asylum for Afghanistan women and girls and further interventions in Afghanistan.

i have absolutely no problems whatsoever with the west intervening in Afghanistan to stop the literal
genocide of women and girls there - it is shameful that we left them and deeply shameful that almost everyone just pretends it didn’t happen

its mostly because the left is ultimately as misogynistic as the right

@GladioliGreen I know you're poorly, but can you tell us where you got your info from? You seemed very cross with me for not being aware of it, but I can't find those details online.

I mean I don’t disagree. I think potentially underground women’s rights groups could be funded. I’m not sure that women could be evacuated easily at all though,

I wonder is the answer to actually engage with the Taliban to gain more leverage, But my point is that the actions that could be taken are not clear.

I don’t buy the “leave Israel to kill Palestinians in peace, the Taliban are awful too” as a reason to stop calling for Israel to stop killing people.

who is saying that? And honestly that kind of statement is just ridiculous

whst I am saying is that almost all of the virus signalers don’t care about Palestinians - if they cared about suffering why are they only out on the streets for Palestinians? There are many as urgent situations happening

its got nothing to do with Palestine and all
to do with their own personal grievances about their lives and lack of power in the west.

The UK isn't in a position to end either conflict, of course. We don't have that level of power.

And if everyone who does the latter were also doing the former, or probably even a sufficient amount of them to be at all visible, there'd be nothing to discuss.

It was unclear in your post that you were talking about international rhetoric about Israel when you said the tide was starting to turn. Thank you for the clarification.

I don’t think the US has no role, that would indeed be bizarre. However the US, especially under an administration like the current one, cannot and will not unilaterally force Israel to act contrary to what Israel has every right to believe are its own interests.

While I very much see your point about diplomatic leverage with human rights at its heart, and agree this would be a positive step forward, international allies have been involved in negotiations. I think it’s fair to say that if Hamas was to release the hostages and surrender, international pressure on Israel to stop fighting this war would be tremendous. Although not guaranteed to be successful, I think it’s likely.

Re Syria, my point was that it was a civil war and we (US and UK) did not have a clear ally in the conflict, as we do in this one. So I think the comparison needs to be made carefully. Posters talking about civilian deaths often make the point that these numbers are horrifying - they clearly are - but that deaths in Gaza receive disproportionate attention v deaths in other conflicts both in the region and elsewhere.

I suppose I think your points about ‘our’ involvement do have force, but that a bigger picture needs to be taken into account. And I think it’s fair to ask posters why they focus so intently on this conflict and not others. I do remember a lot of threads about Syria, so it’s not as though nobody cared - of course people care - but they simply didn’t attract the kind of anger that threads on this conflict attract.

I absolutely agree. If only Hamas would surrender. But I don’t think that we should wait and rely on this when there is such a great catastrophe happening.

I honestly think that posters here persist because of the polarised views. The conflict between posters keeps the threads coming. Personally I would be happy with one thread to keep updated on the conflict.

But world wide, one of the reasons that the conflict takes centre stage is the drama of it. Having worked in a communications role in several humanitarian aid organisations, content is the biggest driver of attention. In Gaza’s case, we are seeing many ordinary Gazan’s ( and Hamas as well I imagine) making content that resonates with a western audience. But also we see many moments of drama on a wider scale. The macabre “ceremony” of the Bibas family to the “out there” vision of Gaza direct from Trumps account right up to Netanyahu’s slightly mad speech to a very empty UN.

These things keep the media interested. Of course there is an element of anti semitism when it comes to Israel. There are whole countries that think it shouldn’t exist but the brutality of the war, the destruction, the maiming, the sheer devastation that is happening to a largely civilian population, all supported by western allies, has gained the west’s attention.

What do you think Hamas would do if Israel put down its weapons?

I don’t think Israel should just “down its weapons” I think it should engage with the international community. It should have been present at the New York declaration discussions. It should engage with the new US plan. Peace isn’t simple, it takes time. My issue is that Israel is not engaging with any of this. The current administration is driven by an extreme ideology. It’s not trying to find peace, this could not be clearer now, after Netanyahu’s speech today.

It's clearly orchestrated propaganda. Hamas has/had a whole team of videographers and PR officers in it's 1500 strong propaganda unit under Abu Obaida.

Notice any difference in what's coming out of Gaza since he's been eliminated?

The whole war was contrived to inflame anger and hatred of Israel from the images we were set up to see, to ultimately isolate Israel and make it a pariah on the world stage (as demonstrated by Netanyahu's UN address today).

That is the only logical conclusion as to why they carried out the atrocities of Oct 7th knowing that Israel would have to go into Gaza.

Hamas knew they had a cooperative audience as it wouldn't take much to inflame the age old hatred of the Jewish people, in Western countries especially, where people are dissatisfied with their own governments and angry about the cost of living, housing, immigration, crime, etc.

Joining together against a common and centuries old enemy (the Jewish people) to protest, demonstrate and release some pent up hatred and rage, as well as telling themselves they are such a good person to be on the side of the 'underdog' is a nice escape from harsh reality for a lot of Pro-Palestinians IMO.

Anti semitism is the MAIN element in why people are interested in this war, as opposed to Sudan or Yemen or any other war, and also why Hamas propaganda has been almost hysterically lapped up without even the reasonably intelligent bothering to question if it makes sense.

I agree with what you've said about content here.

What disturbs me so much about this conflict is how Gazan suffering is Hamas content. The macabre hostage releases. The starving children. The bereaved parents. Hamas asking civilians not to leave areas about to be bombed. The absolute human tragedy actively being courted in order to be weaponised. Its insidious.

All conflicts everywhere in the world are full to the brim of human tragedy. But none other creates so much content.

Interesting post.

As it happens I have noticed a reduction in Hamas propaganda since Abu Obaida was killed.

One example - there used to be so many headlines about the mass famine that was always just about to overwhelmed Gaza. Now the media barely mentions it.

Not to say there aren’t shortages of food, medicine & other essentials in Gaza because there obviously are, plus malnutrition of the most vulnerable. But widespread famine putting the lives at risk of thousands of healthy children and adults - we don’t hear about that anymore in mainstream media. Is widespread famine still a threat or was it never the threat it was portrayed to be? I honestly don’t know.

That's really why I'm like a dog with a bone about the source of the info I was supposed to know about the executed men. People laugh about Hamas having a presence on MN, but all they need to do is feed people's X/Insta/FB/etc and well-meaning Westerners will do the rest of the work for them.

This conflict is a watershed in history not because of the scale and brutality of Hamas's terrorism, but also for their exploitation of the media, particularly social media, globally. It's why I reserve judgement on "genocide" until a clear assessment, with full access to all the information, is possible.

So do I reserve judgement on genocide.

The UN court considering the case bought against Israel hasn’t come to a conclusion yet and likely won’t until after the war ends. Yet some on MN are quick to decide they know all the facts about what constitutes genocide despite it having a very specific definition that has to be proven from multiple angles.

I don’t really understand what you mean.

Most content around the conflict - for the mainstream media - is generated by western countries themselves interestingly, the controversy - the summits, the speeches, the protest movements. I think you have misunderstood me.

@Twiglets1 i’d forgotten how keen you were to hear that healthy people are dying of starvation. Not those pesky kids with medical conditions who were just making Israel look bad. I don’t think Gaza is there yet but 1 in 3 children hadn’t eaten at all in a 24 hour period so it can’t be too far away.