Amnesty exposes Hamas killings of rival Palestinians

It should be obvious by now that Hamas are running a terror state in Gaza. Report after report complains that members of rival Fatah are beaten, shot in the legs, killed. Amnesty International reports:

 

... Hamas forces and militias in the Gaza Strip have engaged in a campaign of abductions, deliberate and unlawful killings, torture and death threats against those they accuse of "collaborating" with Israel, as well as opponents and critics.

At least two dozen men have been shot dead by Hamas gunmen in this period. Scores of others have been shot in the legs, kneecapped or inflicted with other injuries intended to cause permanent disability, subjected to severe beatings which have caused multiple fractures and other injuries, or otherwise tortured or ill-treated.

The targets of Hamas' deadly campaign include former detainees accused of "collaborating" with the Israeli army who escaped from Gaza's Central Prison when it was bombed by Israeli forces on 28 December 2008, as well as former members of the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces and other activists of PA President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.

The campaign began shortly after the beginning of the three-week Israeli military offensive against the Gaza Strip on 27 December 2008 and continued after a ceasefire took effect on 18 January 2009.

Most of the victims were abducted from their homes; they were later dumped – dead or injured – in isolated areas, or were found dead in the morgue of one of Gaza's hospitals. Some were shot dead in the hospitals where they were receiving treatment for injuries they sustained in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza's Central Prison. The perpetrators of these attacks did not conceal their weapons or keep a low profile, but, on the contrary, behaved in a carefree and confident – almost ostentatious – manner.

Among the cases investigated by Amnesty International are the deliberate killings of three brothers from the Abu 'Ashbiyeh family, 'Atef, Mohammed and Mahmoud, from Jabalia (north Gaza), who were all killed within 24 hours of escaping from Gaza's Central Prison. One of the brothers, Mahmoud, aged 24, reached the family home in the middle of the afternoon of 28 December but an hour later a group of gunmen came to the house and took him away. His body was found hours later in the morgue of Kamal 'Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya (north Gaza) with abdomen and head wounds. The following day the bodies of his two brothers, 26-year-old Mohammed and 39-year-old 'Atef, were found in the morgue of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, both with gunshot wounds in the head, chest and abdomen. The three had been in detention since March 2008 and were accused of "collaborating" with the Israeli army. They had first been held in the notorious al-Mashtal detention centre, north of Gaza City, run by the Internal Security Force (previously run by Hamas' armed militia, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades).