The human rights group documented threats, beatings, and interrogations by Hamas security services against civilians protesting its rule.
Amnesty International (AI) reported Wednesday that Hamas intelligence services have threatened, harassed, interrogated, and beaten civilians in Gaza who have exercised their right to peaceful protest against both the ongoing Israeli offensive and Hamas’s own governance.
The rights group documented incidents from the past two months, when hundreds — sometimes thousands — of Palestinians took to the streets across Gaza to demand an end to the war and to call for Hamas to step down. Protests were reported in areas such as the Jabalia refugee camp, Gaza City’s Shijaiyah neighborhood, Khan Yunis, and Beit Lahiya, where in March, about 3,000 people chanted, “The people want the fall of Hamas.”
“They have killed our children. They have destroyed our homes,” said Abed Radwan, a protester in Beit Lahiya who declared himself against the war, against Hamas, and against the silence of the international community.
Erika Guevara-Rosas, AI’s director of research, advocacy, and campaigns, urged Hamas authorities to “immediately end all repressive measures against Palestinians who bravely and openly express opposition to Hamas’s practices in Gaza.” She called the reports of beatings, threats, and arbitrary interrogations “extremely alarming” and “a grave violation of the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.”
Amnesty spoke to more than a dozen protesters, many of whom said they were summoned outside official protocols, beaten with sticks, and in some cases threatened with death. One witness recounted being accused of treason just for demonstrating: “The security forces arrived threatening and beating us, calling us traitors simply for protesting,” they said.
Another young man described being beaten on the neck and accused of collaborating with Israeli intelligence: “I lost my family in one of the worst massacres of this war — five brothers and their children were killed. It’s horrible to be labeled a collaborator, to have your patriotism questioned after losing your entire family,” he told Amnesty.
Most testimonies included threats warning them not to return to the streets. Amnesty recalled that since Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007, it has built a parallel security system and imposed sharp restrictions on public protest, with mass arrests and torture of dissidents notably rising in 2019.
“Even during Israel’s ongoing genocide, Hamas’s security services have continued to stifle free expression, branding critics as traitors,” Amnesty concluded.
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