‘Disturbing pattern of intimidation’: Amnesty International pans Hamas crackdown on protesters in Gaza
Amnesty International issues a scathing condemnation of Hamas amid the terror group’s crackdown on protesters demonstrating against its rule in the Gaza Strip.
The rights group says that over the past two months, it interviewed 12 people — 10 men and two women — who organized or took part in protests against Hamas and were interrogated, threatened, or beaten by the terror group’s security forces as a result.
The interviews revealed a “disturbing pattern of threats, intimidation and harassment, including interrogations and beatings by Hamas-run security forces against individuals exercising their right to peaceful protest” even amid Israel’s ongoing war, Amnesty says.
One of the protesters, a resident of northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia who lost multiple family members in an Israeli strike, tells Amnesty that after he took part in a protest in April, he was dragged to a makeshift detention center and beaten by armed men in civilian clothes.
“They accused me of being a traitor — a collaborator with the Mossad,” he tells Amnesty. “I told them we took to the streets because we wanted to live, we wanted to eat and drink.”
