Video shows public executions in Gaza City as Israeli offensive advances outside Shifa hospital
BBC Verify confirms location in central Gaza City; three men executed by masked gunmen as crowd cheers, amid ongoing fighting and a widening clash between Hamas and allied groups.
Video footage circulating Sunday evening shows three Palestinian men who had been blindfolded kneeling in the middle of a street in Gaza City, outside al-Shifa Hospital, as they are executed by masked gunmen. BBC Verify confirmed the location and said at least five armed men were involved; one is heard saying, “The death sentence has been decided for all collaborators.” A large crowd responds with cheers as the three men are shot in the back of the head, and onlookers then praise Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades.
A Palestinian security official from the Hamas-run Gaza government told Reuters that the executions were carried out by the Joint Operations Room of the Palestinian resistance. The official described the killings as a coordinated action by multiple armed groups, while Reuters noted the incident is a rare public execution captured on video in Gaza. The footage also shows one of the gunmen naming a man identified as Yasser Abu Shabab as a “major collaborator.” Abu Shabab leads a clan reportedly armed with support that the Israeli government has claimed to have supplied, and the group has presented itself as opposed to Hamas. He has denied that Israel supplied weapons, and residents and sources close to Hamas have said other anti-Hamas groups have emerged in parts of northern Gaza and near Khan Younis.
The video arrives as Israeli troops press a ground offensive in Gaza City, the territory’s biggest urban center where about one million residents had been living amid a humanitarian predicament described by UN officials as catastrophic. The Israeli military said it had dismantled military infrastructure used by Hamas and killed a Hamas cell that assaulted Israeli soldiers. It has stated its objectives include freeing hostages held by Hamas and defeating up to 3,000 fighters in what it described as Hamas’s “main stronghold.”
International reaction to the Gaza operation has been broad, with widespread condemnation of the fighting and concerns about civilians trapped in urban combat. A spokesperson for the UN’s humanitarian office has described a large number of Palestinians moving south during visits to Gaza City, but hundreds of thousands remained in the city amid a crisis some officials have characterized as cataclysmic. The conflict traces back to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and left 251 hostages taken. Since then, at least 65,344 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
The latest footage underscores the volatile security dynamic in Gaza, where competing armed groups, shifting loyalties, and external influence have complicated efforts to restore order amid a war that has displaced hundreds of thousands and drawn sharp international scrutiny. As fighting continues, observers say the situation remains highly perilous for civilians in Gaza City and across the enclave.