Anti-Hamas 'revolution' faces brutal crackdown

 Hamas has launched a brutal crackdown before planned protests across the Gaza Strip on Friday to call for an end to the terror group’s rule.

Large numbers of Gazans are expected to take to the streets in a demonstration that has been described as “the June 26 revolution” in an effort to end the Gaza war.

Hamas has threatened anyone who takes part in the protests, and has been accused of turning a hospital into its operations base after organisers called on the group to “disarm and to transfer civil administration of Gaza to a transitional-governing authority”.

A fatwa was also issued by the Association of Palestinian Scholars, an influential Palestinian group, warning that anyone associated with the protests would be accused of collaboration with Israel, a crime punishable by death under Hamas rule.

A source on the ground in Gaza told The Telegraph anonymously on Friday morning that there were Hamas supporters and troops positioned at key intersections.

The source added: “However, they are clearly avoiding any overt or formal deployment for fear of being targeted by Israel.

“What Hamas appears to be most concerned about is the possibility that armed groups could exploit the protests to expand their control over additional areas of Gaza, or that Israeli forces could use the demonstrations as an opportunity to target Hamas operatives.

“In any case, according to activists, this is precisely what they hope to avoid. Any intervention by Israeli forces or armed militias would provide Hamas with a pretext to crack down on peaceful protesters.”

According to Gaza-born Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Palestinian humanitarian activist who lives in exile in the US, the Gaza hospital that became the focus of international condemnation after a deadly explosion early in the war is now being used by Hamas as a centre for interrogating, threatening and detaining opponents.

He claimed friends had been summoned to Al Ahli Arab Hospital, also known as the Baptist Hospital, where they were questioned by Hamas security officials over suspected involvement in the demonstrations.

“They were told explicitly by al-Qassam Brigades operatives, Hamas police, and internal security officers that if they post anything supportive of the protests on Facebook or offer any help to protestors, they will be executed under ‘revolutionary conditions’ and treated as collaborators with Israel; no trial, no process, just immediate death,” he wrote on X this week.

He alleged that some were subsequently interrogated, threatened and placed under house arrest inside the hospital itself, “the same hospital that grabbed global headlines early in the war after a faulty Islamic Jihad rocket fell and caused an explosion which killed hundreds of people”.

He said: “That hospital is now a central hub for Hamas’s intelligence, militancy, and internal repression.”

On Friday morning, Mr Alkhatib also claimed Hamas had deployed security forces throughout Gaza to prevent any demonstrations.

“Right this moment, across the Gaza Strip, Hamas’s police, intelligence units, and al-Qassam Brigade militias are fully deployed to crush the June 26 protests,” he wrote.

Last year, protesters against Hamas took to the streets for several days in a row, with the Iran-backed terror group accused of beating a man to death and leaving him on his family’s doorstep in a warning against any further protests against its rule in Gaza.

Uday Al Rabbay was kidnapped shortly after taking part in the protest. His body, covered in blood, was returned to his family’s home days later.

Earlier this week, organisers appealed to governments, journalists and human rights organisations to monitor events closely, warning that participants had already become targets of intimidation.

“The right to peaceful assembly and political expression is a foundational civil liberty,” they wrote. “The population of Gaza is entitled to exercise this right without fear of violent reprisal.”

The movement accused Hamas of circulating threats through affiliated social media channels before the protests had even begun.

“These statements explicitly identify protesters and journalists as targets, indicating a coordinated effort to suppress dissent prior to its public expression,” it said.