Shackled and whipped with canes: Israel uncovers ‘thousands of hours’ of sickening footage showing Hamas interrogators torturing innocent Palestinians
Israel’s military says it has discovered thousands of hours of sickening footage showing Hamas interrogators torturing innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
The harrowing videos show male prisoners with sacks over their heads, chained to floors and ceilings in painful positions.
Men writhe in agony as they are beaten with sticks on the soles of their feet.
In one distressing clip, a hooded man appears to be screaming and remonstrating with his captor.
The horrifying incidents appear to have been filmed inadvertently by CCTV cameras inside a Hamas military base in northern Gaza raided by Israeli troops earlier this year.
The harrowing videos show male prisoners with sacks over their heads, chained to floors and ceilings in painful positions
Men writhe in agony as they are beaten with sticks on the soles of their feet
The footage was said to have been discovered on computers seized from the abandoned compound inside the Jabalia refugee camp. It is unclear why the men were being held.
But human rights experts have previously warned that innocent Palestinians have been kidnapped from their homes and tortured by Hamas thugs who have ruled Gaza with an iron rod since 2007.
Gay men and adulterers are among those who have been tortured by Hamas, along with political opponents and anyone accused of collaborating with Israel.
A time stamp in the corner of the footage suggests the torture took place between 2018 and 2020.
Often, the guards appear casually at ease, chatting as the abuse unfolds.
One interrogator reclines on a chair, with his arms folded behind his head, in front of a chained-up prisoner hanging from the ceiling by his arms.
Another film features a man, with a red sack over his head, chained up so awkwardly he can just about place one foot on the floor. One captor later appears to brutally choke the man.
A senior Israeli military source told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The IDF found these CCTV images in March. It took months to go through them all.’ It has not been possible for the videos to be independently verified but human rights groups have long warned of abuses by Hamas against civilians in Gaza. Amnesty International published a 44-page report detailing a brutal campaign of abduction, torture and killings by Hamas against its own people following the last Israel-Hamas war in 2014.
Mr Howidy, an accountant who later fled Gaza, said: ‘People outside of Gaza call Hamas freedom fighters when they are killing innocent Palestinians for nothing’
A Palestinian man carries away an injured child from a home that was hit in an Israeli strike on the Jabalia refugee camp
Many were accused of collaborating with Israel. Hamas has also tortured and killed gay men in Gaza, where homosexuality is against the law.
Hundreds of gay men risked their lives to cross over the border to Israel or Egypt before the most recent conflict.
One, Abdul, previously told Israeli media how he lived in fear in Gaza after Hamas discovered he was gay. He was tortured repeatedly before he fled to Egypt.
In a chilling account that matches up with the torture captured in the footage found by the IDF, he told i24News: ‘They put me in a tiny room. They wouldn’t let me sleep or go to the bathroom inside. There was no food.
‘They would torture me so badly. Sometimes, they would tie my feet up and beat them with a stick. After that, every few years, they would arrest me and torture me in the same way.
‘They made me swear on the Koran that I won’t be gay again.’
Last night another Hamas torture victim, Hamza Howidy, 27, told The Mail on Sunday how he was detained for protesting against the regime in Gaza.
‘They would torture you until you broke and say whatever it is they wanted,’ he said. ‘I could hear my fellow protesters scream in the next room.’
Gay men and adulterers are among those who have been tortured by Hamas, along with political opponents and anyone accused of collaborating with Israel. (Israeli army tanks take position in southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip)
Displaced Palestinians flee Rafah with their belongings to safer areas in the southern Gaza Strip
Mr Howidy, an accountant who later fled Gaza, said he believed he was held in western Jabalia in 2019 but it is unknown if he appears in the footage.
He said: ‘Hamas controls everything. They confiscated my laptop and had issues with my conversations with my girlfriend.
‘Collaborating with Israel would warrant a severe punishment and homosexuality would result in a death sentence.’ Mr Howidy said one man was detained for three years and tortured three times a week. ‘He had objects inserted into him,’ he added. ‘One man was given electric shocks for two years before his innocence was eventually discovered.
‘The first thing he did was shoot dead the Hamas officer who reported him – his uncle.
‘You would never get a lawyer and your family would have no idea what happened to you. I was lucky because my family paid a price for me. I managed to leave for Europe via the Egyptian border in September last year, which cost a fortune, but my family there were told that should I return I’d be a dead man walking. Luckily I got them safe passage too.’
He added: ‘You just cannot tell who is a Hamas snitch or not.
‘One friend of mine was forced to divorce his wife when he got caught for something. There is a growing hatred towards Hamas now, especially after the war, but because Hamas controls the media and people are afraid, we hardly hear of it.
‘People outside of Gaza call Hamas freedom fighters when they are killing innocent Palestinians for nothing. Hamas is holding the people of Gaza hostage.’
Relatives of Palestinians, who lost their lives in Israeli attacks over Az-Zawayda district, perform a funeral prayer
A medic administers a polio vaccine to a Palestinian child at Abdel Aziz Rantissi hospital in Gaza City’s Nasr district
A former Israeli intelligence officer, known as Guy C, told this newspaper that Hamas’ leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by the IDF last month, was ‘obsessed with finding collaborators and held thousands against their will’.
He added: ‘They have been known to melt plastic over skin, electric cables on their body.
‘Some are electrocuted on electricity pylons or dragged on a chain from a vehicle until they die.
‘Even worse, they won’t allow the families a proper burial, and the bodies have a sign on saying they were collaborating.’
Palestinian Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, who is now based in the US and is a fellow at the Atlantic Council think-tank, said: ‘Extreme torture has been a fundamental component of Hamas’ governance strategy to ensure they deter people and instil fear in those who speak out.’
