U.N. Report Finds Hamas Committed War Crimes in Gaza While Blaming Israeli Attacks for Creating Conditions

A United Nations report released Tuesday documented 249 cases of extrajudicial punishment in Gaza, including 108 deaths, carried out by Hamas militants and police units between August 2024 and January 2026. N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said Hamas-affiliated forces were involved in nearly one-fourth of the cases.

The punishments included executions, kneecapping, bone-breaking with metal pipes or cement bricks, and beatings, and were often publicized to instill fear. The report stated the acts amounted to the war crime of murder and violated international humanitarian law, including the right to life, the right to liberty and security, and the right to a fair trial.

Punishments were carried out by Hamas' military wing and police units rather than through courts or judges.

They were framed as responses to alleged collaboration with Israel, looting humanitarian aid, theft, drug-related offenses, or affiliations with internal rivals. N. ” Targets included anti-Hamas activists and members of Israel-backed clans and armed groups that emerged in areas where Hamas’ grip weakened during the war.

The war has killed nearly 73,000 Palestinians, according to the territory's Health Ministry. The report cited video-recorded executions, including one of three blindfolded men shot by masked men outside Shifa Hospital in September 2025 before a crowd, and another in October 2025 when eight men were dragged into a public square in Gaza City and shot.

Both groups were accused of being spies, traitors and collaborators.

Witnesses told the commission that some punishments occurred in hospital compounds, including the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis. The commission concluded that activities documented, which do not target Israel, do not forfeit hospitals’ protection under international law.

Hamas has run Gaza for nearly two decades since seizing control from the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority.

Since an October ceasefire halted more than two years of full-scale war with Israel, Hamas has steadily reconsolidated its control over the areas it still governs. Representatives for Hamas did not respond to questions about the report’s allegations. The commission also counted cases attributed to other armed groups.

N. N. figures.

Bedouin communities in rural areas have been driven from their land as new Israeli outposts have sprung up. Israel's Foreign Ministry did not respond to questions about the allegations. The report is the latest from the world body, which last year accused Israel of committing genocide, using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza and of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank — allegations that Israel strenuously denies.

N. rights office of anti-Israel bias.