In mid-October 2025, as Israel and Hamas exchanged hostages and prisoners as part of a ceasefire deal brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump, a rumor (archived) circulated online that Hamas was publicly executing people it believed collaborated with Israel during the two preceding years of war.
Some examples of the claim featured alongside videos purportedly showing armed, masked agents lining up at least seven blindfolded people on their knees in a public square before shooting them from behind.
One Reddit user wrote: "Hamas is executing dissidents. Why are pro-Palestine activists and international media silent about this?"
Hamas is executing dissidents. Why are pro-Palestine activists and international media silent about this?
byu/DarkEsteban incentrist
Similar posts appeared on Facebook (archived) and Threads (archived), while Snopes users searched our site seeking more information about the claim.
Hamas has governed Gaza since 2007 and consists of both a political and military wing. The social media posts did not explicitly state which part of the organization was carrying out the alleged executions.
The video in the above X post post appeared to be authentic, meaning it was not created or edited using artificial intelligence. Snopes independently verified its location as near the Zeitoun and Sabra neighborhoods of Gaza City using multiple angles and pre-war reference footage.
According to reports in Hamas-affiliated media, security forces in Gaza and the Strip's Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry had started a "security campaign" to reestablish rule of law in Gaza and punish criminals, including people suspected of collaborating with Israel before Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire on Oct. 10, 2025. One of the Hamas-affiliated news media outlets said the alleged killings shown in the X post video were part of this campaign.
On Oct. 15, the Hamas-affiliated Shehab News Agency reported that "Palestinian resistance factions" issued a statement (archived) affirming their and the Palestinian people's full support for the campaign. The Yemeni SABA News Agency and China Global Television Network reported that the Alliance of Palestinian Forces — a Damascus, Syria, based political alliance of Palestinian organizations — issued a similar statement.
Despite these open acknowledgements, it was not possible to independently verify when the clip in the X post was recorded and whom it depicted, nor was it possible to fully verify the veracity and source of said acknowledgements; therefore, Snopes could not definitively rate this claim. Two Palestinian human-rights organizations reporting on such graphic videos said the alleged killings were "extrajudicial" and carried out by "unknown" actors.
Graphic videos supported reports of ongoing campaign
(Google Earth/X user @AbuLocation/X user @THEWATCHTOWERS/Facebook user Grinder and Sweet Coffee)
The X post footage was recorded at a large intersection near the Zeitoun and Sabra neighborhoods of Gaza City. It was unclear whether Israeli forces had fully withdrawn from this area. Days before the Oct. 10 ceasefire, Al Jazeera reported that Trump's suggested Israeli retreat would still leave the Israeli army in part of Zeitoun.
It was also unclear when exactly the clip was captured, though the video appeared to begin circulating on Oct. 13.
ABC News Australia arrived at the same geolocation and noted that at least two of the shooters were wearing "green headbands associated with Hamas." Neither ABC News Australia nor Snopes was able to independently confirm who the perpetrators or victims were.
According to Telegram channels that appeared to belong to Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades and Sahm — a security force within the Palestinian Police that carried out "special operations and missions against outlaws" — the executions took place Oct. 13. Both forces said their agents carried out the reported executions. It was possible, given Hamas' status as ruling party in the Gaza Strip, that agents from both forces participated, or that some agents that participated were part of both forces. The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, a Gaza-based human-rights organization, said that, according to its research, the killings took place Oct. 13.
A Shehab News Agency report also detailed the Oct. 13 killing of several "collaborators" as part of an ongoing security campaign. BBC Monitoring and Reporters Without Borders both described the agency as being affiliated with Hamas. In September 2025, a separate Shehab report claimed that Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades had executed three people suspected of collaborating with Israel in what it described at the time as an ongoing operation.
On Oct. 12, the Hamas-run Ministry of the Interior in Gaza announced (archived) a weeklong amnesty for people who had attacked property or looted aid during the war, asking them to come forward to have their records "settled," so long as they had not committed murders. The ministry warned that failure to report during this period would result in decisive action, ending the message: "You have been warned."
According to an Oct. 13 statement (archived) by Radaa, a security force that Quds news network said is affiliated with Hamas' security forces, agents carrying out this campaign would seek out anyone accused of collaborating with Israel to face "necessary legal measures."
Quds news network is an independently-owned, submissions based news network that The Associated Press reported in 2015 had "a reputation" for being affiliated with Islamic Jihad. The armed wing of Islamic Jihad, the al-Quds Brigades, cooperates with Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades and participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.
On Oct. 15, the Shehab news agency said on X that "Palestinian resistance factions" issued a statement (archived) acknowledging "the security campaign carried out by the Ministry of Interior and National Security in Gaza" that targeted, among others, "those cooperating with the Zionist enemy," meaning Israel.
In sum …
While humanitarian rights groups on the ground in Gaza did not point to any specific executioner, verified videos, local media reports and statements on Telegram channels that appeared to belong to Hamas-affiliated security forces pointed to an ongoing campaign in the Gaza Strip to root out criminals and people suspected of collaborating with Israel. The posts also indicated that Hamas or affiliated security groups were carrying out the campaign.
Major media outlets, including the AP and the BBC, reported that Hamas had moved quickly following Israel's retreat to reclaim power in the Gaza Strip and, in the process, confronted clans it believed had cooperated with Israel during the war. Both outlets reported on alleged executions being conducted in Gaza.
According to an Oct. 15 report from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the office raised concerns about "unlawful conduct by Hamas and affiliated armed groups," referencing the alleged Oct. 13 executions. The report said: "The carrying out of executions without a previous judgement pronounced by a regularly constituted court, offering all judicial guarantees, also amounts to a war crime."
Also on Oct. 15, Reuters news agency reported that a German foreign ministry spokesperson said the alleged executions "constitute acts of terror against the population."
It was unclear what consequences, if any, Hamas might face from the international community following these reports. When asked about Hamas' disarmament, which is a term of the Trump-brokered ceasefire, the U.S. president told reporters on Oct. 14 that Hamas:
… did take out a couple of gangs that were very bad, very, very bad gangs, and they did take them out, and they killed a number of gang members. And that didn't bother me much, to be honest with you. That's OK. We had — it's a couple of very bad gangs, you know, it's no different than other countries.
DeepL.com provided Arabic to English translations for this article.
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