Hamas executed Palestinians during Israel war: Amnesty

In its latest report, the rights group accused Hamas of abducting, torturing and killing Palestinians during the war in the Gaza Strip last year

JERUSALEM // Amnesty International accused the Hamas movement on Wednesday of committing war crimes against fellow Palestinians to “settle scores” during last year’s Gaza war with Israel.

According to a report by the London-based rights group, some 23 Palestinians were shot and killed and dozens more were arrested and tortured by Hamas, which rules Gaza.

“In the chaos of the conflict, the de facto Hamas administration granted its security forces free rein to carry out horrific abuses including against people in its custody,” Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa director Philip Luther said.

The Palestinians targeted were either political rivals of Hamas, including members of the Fatah party of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, or people the militant group had accused of cooperating with Israel, Amnesty said.

“These spine-chilling actions, some of which amount to war crimes, were designed to exact revenge and spread fear across the Gaza Strip.”

The abuses were detailed in a report entitled “Strangling Necks: Abduction, torture and summary killings of Palestinians by Hamas forces during the 2014 Gaza/Israel conflict”.

“It is absolutely appalling that, while Israeli forces were inflicting massive death and destruction upon the people in Gaza, Hamas forces took the opportunity to ruthlessly settle scores, carrying out a series of unlawful killings and other grave abuses,” Mr Luther said.

A Hamas spokesman rejected the watchdog’s findings.

The report “lacks professionalism and credibility and is deliberately exaggerated, without taking into account all sides or verifying information”, Fawzi Barhum said.

Hamas violently seized Gaza from forces loyal to Mr Abbas in 2007, leaving Palestinians bitterly divided – with Hamas ruling Gaza and Mr Abbas governing parts of the West Bank.

Since then, Hamas has launched thousands of rockets at Israel and fought three wars with the Jewish state. Over 2,200 Palestinians were killed during the 50-day war last summer. On the Israeli side, 67 soldiers and six civilians were killed.

The Jewish state went to war against Hamas to stamp out cross-border rocket and mortar fire.

The latest report is not Amnesty’s first on the 2014 Gaza war.

In March, the group accused Hamas of war crimes for launching unguided rockets and mortars from civilian areas in Gaza toward civilian areas in Israel, saying that was a breach of international law. And in December, Amnesty accused Israel of committing war crimes in its Gaza campaign, flattening four landmark buildings in the final days of the war. Israel dismissed that report, saying Hamas was using the buildings as command centres.

According to Wednesday’s report, “Hamas forces also abducted, tortured or attacked members and supporters of Fatah, their main rival political organisation within Gaza, including former members of the Palestinian Authority security forces.

“Not a single person has been held accountable for the crimes committed by Hamas forces against Palestinians during the 2014 conflict, indicating that these crimes were either ordered or condoned by the authorities,” it said.

Mr Luther accused Hamas of “appalling crimes against powerless individuals”, and said the militant movement displayed “a disregard for the most fundamental rules of international humanitarian law”.

Amnesty called on the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority and Hamas to “cooperate with independent and impartial international investigative mechanisms” and to bring suspected perpetrators to justice.

The Palestinians are preparing to sue Israeli officials through the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes committed during last year’s Gaza conflict.

Israel’s military has opened investigations into deadly incidents that took place during the war.

* Agence France-Presse and Associated Press