Saudi Journalist: Hamas' Brutal Violence Against The Gazans Is A Crime Against Humanity
March 26, 2025
Saudi Arabia, Palestinians | Special Dispatch No. 11897
In a March 5, 2025 article on the Saudi news portal Elaph, journalist Rashed Al-Qahtani decried the brutal violence employed by Hamas against the people of Gaza since this movement’s takeover of the Gaza Strip. Hamas’ “hangmen,” he said, terrorize the Gazans, beat them and shoot them at close range for various transgressions without a trial, even for small offenses like stealing food – which is a crime against humanity that the mind refuses to grasp. He adds that Hamas itself is to blame for the dire situation that forces Gazans to steal food, especially after it dragged Gaza into a war with Israel due to its subordination to Iran. Stating that Hamas’ actions are un-Islamic although it bills itself as an Islamic movement, he stresses that Gaza needs a civil administration that will protect the rights of its people, rebuild the Strip and return it to the Arab fold.
Rashed Al-Qahtani (Image: Elaph.com)
The following are translated excerpts from his article: [1]
"Among the most important goals that societies aspire to achieve are security, stability, justice and equality. The security of society is a top priority of any regime. When the regime [itself] threatens the internal security and stability of society and exposes it to external danger – to the extent of fragmenting it and exposing it to internal discord and fighting – it incurs hostility, hatred and condemnation.
"The people of Gaza have been complaining of oppression and violence on the part of Hamas since its inception and since its takeover of the Gaza Strip. The violence Hamas directs at the Palestinian people is despicable, horrifying and recurring. It is characterized by sadism, and constitutes an attempt to bring perdition, humiliation and dishonor upon every Palestinian and Arab, and to cause a rift among the Palestinians and wounds that cannot be healed…
"Nobody is pleased with Hamas' actions in Gaza, neither within the Palestinian homeland or outside it. The mind refuses to grasp the crimes, humiliations and degradations we are witnessing, which resemble the actions of the Shi'ite militias against the Sunnis in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon… But after some videos leaked of people being punished in the streets, [videos] that have come to represent the [behavior of] Hamas' hangmen, the scope of these brutal crimes became clear. Some of the punishments meted out by Hamas gunmen involve [people] being dragged [along the street], brutal beatings by several people, or restraining Palestinians and shooting them with machineguns at close range, especially in the feet and knees, on various charges. Such weapons should be reserved for real combat and must not be used against civilians, even in times of war! How can they be used as a means of punishment and torture against unarmed civilians?
https://www.memri.org/reports/saudi-journalist-hamas-brutal-violence-against-gazans-crime-against-humanity
