A video has gone viral on the internet that claimed to show Hamas fighters violently attacking Gazan youths in full public view. The video, shot from a distance, showed heavily armed men, all in masks, brutally beating up two young men in what looks to be a market. The public watched the incident in silence and refused to interfere as the victims were mercilessly beaten.
Hamas members beat two Arab children in front of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
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None of the pro-Israel handles that shared the video could pinpoint the exact location of the video. The heavily watermarked video showed one of the men being attacked pleading his attackers as they repeatedly struck him with big sticks, guns and rods. A chair was repeatedly thrown at the victims from close quarters. The other man dragged himself towards a vehicle parked nearby for support as he couldn't sit up. But he was again tormented by the group before being let off. He could hardly stand as he walked away from the site.
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The video ends when the masked men start getting on to a pickup truck to leave the market.
"Hamsa Al Masry," read the Arabic watermarks on the video. While THE WEEK could find several Palestine-related videos being shared on X credited to an activist of the same name, the origin of the viral video couldn't be linked to him. Neither could we independently verify the authenticity of the video that has been rapidly reshared on social media since Thursday.
Islamist group Hamas has been ruling the Gaza Strip since 2007. They are at war with Israel following the cross-border attack on the country on October 7, 2023.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident, Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Khirbet al-Marjam in the occupied West Bank on Thursday night, burning three houses and a number of cars in the latest in a series of raids that have surged during the war in Gaza. Local residents said settlers stormed through the village, firing live ammunition and hurling teargas bombs at people trying to put out the flames. CCTV footage showed masked individuals entering Palestinians' property, throwing objects around and destroying a security camera that captured the acts.
According to figures from the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA, there were at least 1,580 attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers that resulted in casualties, property damage or both last year, and another 220 since the start of this year.
In one of the biggest recent attacks, Bedouin families in the Jordan Valley, said bands of Israeli settlers stole hundreds of sheep and goats last week, having first accused the Bedouin of trying to steal their animals. Most countries consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal, a position rejected by Israel, which cites the Jewish people's historical and Biblical connection to the land.
