Hamas-linked social media channels on Thursday shared video of the terror group’s members beating Palestinian merchants who refused to take cash, as the Israel Defense Forces moved ahead with its plan to conquer Gaza City.
Social media accounts affiliated with Hamas published footage showing men identified as members of the terror group beating a number of people in Gaza with clubs.
According to the social media accounts, the victims of the violence were merchants in Khan Younis, in the southern Strip, who had refused to accept cash payments.
The Gazan economy is facing a mounting crisis due to the banks remaining closed and the deteriorating condition of physical money.
Hamas is apparently attempting to keep the economy moving by insisting that vendors accept currency, no matter its condition, rather than resort to bartering or other arrangements.
On September 1, Hamas’s Khan Younis police issued a statement instructing merchants to accept all types of banknotes and coins, whether new or worn, so long as they are not counterfeit.
Hamas, which ruled Gaza for almost two decades before its October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel started the ongoing war, has not been replaced as the de facto civil authority in the Strip, though the IDF now controls some three quarters of the enclave.
The IDF’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), meanwhile, published new footage in which a former Gaza school principal could be seen launching a scathing verbal attack on Hamas leadership, accusing the terror group of murdering his son and other workers at aid distribution centers in Khan Younis.
In the video, the man, identified as Sa’ad al-Mihsal, says that his son Osama, who worked at the distribution centers, was among 12 young men killed by Hamas operatives in a recent incident.
“An incident in which 12 young men are killed — to what Islam do those murderers and criminals belong?” he asks, adding, “To the leadership outside Gaza, to the faction leaders who negotiate prisoner exchanges in return for cartons of aid — the blood of our sons takes priority, the blood of our sons is what you must look into first.”
He further accuses Hamas of plundering resources and abandoning residents, saying, “Our honor has been violated, our children’s money has been looted and stolen.”
Al-Mihsal recalls the joy he and other Gazans felt when they “saw those hostages return in good health, with beauty and clothing,” but says that faith in the group has since collapsed. It was unclear whether he was referring to hostages taken by terror groups and released in deals, or using the term to refer to Palestinian prisoners released by Israel in under the deals.
“To what Islam do we belong?” he demands in the video.
COGAT chief Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian said the testimony in the clip exposes Hamas’s true face.
Addressing Gazans directly, Alian said, “The terrorist organization Hamas is your enemy. It steals your resources, spreads lies, and tramples on your rights… It is not protecting the Gaza Strip, but rather destroying it and you from within.”
The IDF released an audio recording Wednesday in which a Gaza City resident could be heard telling a COGAT officer that Hamas was actively preventing civilians from evacuating south ahead of the IDF’s planned offensive to conquer Gaza City.
As the IDF pushed on with the conquest of Gaza City, a military representative reportedly told a closed-door session of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Wednesday that the military is not certain that the operation will cause Hamas to budge.
According to the Kan public broadcaster, the military representative made the comment in response to a question from Likud MK Amit Halevi.
“Why would the occupation of Gaza City cause Hamas to budge at all?” the military representative was reportedly asked.
“I did not say it would move Hamas, it is not certain at all. The city has symbolic significance,” the representative told the powerful committee, according to the report.
The panel was also told that according to IDF estimates, some 800,000 people remained in Gaza City as of Wednesday.
Israel has declared Gaza City, in the north of the territory, a combat zone while the military moves forward with its plans to take it over in a campaign to push Hamas into submission. Parts of the city are already considered “red zones,” where Palestinians have been ordered to evacuate ahead of expected heavy fighting.
Israeli television reported Wednesday that IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir is planning to warn the government that there will be no option but to impose military rule over the Gaza Strip if the plans go ahead to conquer Gaza City.
The report said Zamir will carry out the orders to capture Gaza City, but is warning the government to prepare for the military and diplomatic consequences.
Zamir is opposed to the government’s plan to conquer Gaza City and has urged the government to accept a phased hostage-ceasefire deal that Hamas accepted last month. The terror group and its allies hold 48 captives, 20-22 of whom are believed to still be alive.
Israel is insisting the terror group release all of the hostages at once in order to avert the Gaza City operation; Hamas said Wednesday it was open to a comprehensive deal. It has not, however, accepted Israel’s conditions for ending the war, which include Hamas’s disarmament, the Strip’s demilitarization, and the institution of a new civil government that includes neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.