Hamas ramped up use of torture on Gazans after Oct. 2025 ceasefire – IDF

Israeli military reports that Hamas intensified its use of torture and arbitrary detention against Gazans following the Oct. 2025 ceasefire with Israel.

By World Israel News Staff

Hamas has intensified interrogations, arbitrary detention, and torture of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 2025 ceasefire, Israel’s military said Wednesday, accusing the group of using coercion to rebuild its authority amid continuing uncertainty over Gaza’s political future.

The allegations were publicized by Lt. Col. Ella Waweya, an Arabic-language spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, and were attributed by Israeli officials to information gathered by the IDF and Shin Bet. Israel said Hamas has increasingly targeted ordinary residents as well as political opponents as it seeks to restore control over areas of Gaza.

“The torture operations and harsh investigations carried out by the terrorist organization Hamas against civilians from all segments of society do not spare minors or women,” Waweya said.

The Israeli military alleged that detainees have faced physical violence, blackmail, psychological threats, prolonged isolation and other forms of mistreatment.

It also accused Hamas of conducting interrogations and detentions inside civilian facilities, including schools, hospitals, mosques and government buildings.

Separate reporting and a United Nations investigation have documented a broader pattern of killings and severe physical abuse by Hamas-affiliated forces and other armed actors in Gaza, lending independent support to the underlying allegation that Palestinians have faced violent punishment at the hands of the coastal enclave’s de facto authorities.

A UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry report released in June documented 249 incidents of executions or severe physical violence in Gaza during 2024 and 2025, resulting in at least 108 deaths and 384 injuries. Investigators linked Hamas-affiliated forces to at least 60 incidents, including public executions.

The commission described punishments including kneecapping, beatings and the breaking of bones with metal pipes or concrete blocks. Victims were accused of offenses ranging from collaboration with Israel to looting, theft, drug offenses and affiliation with rival Palestinian factions. The commission said some of the documented conduct amounted to “the war crimes of murder and torture.”

Commission chairman Srinivasan Muralidhar said investigators were “gravely alarmed by the severity and public nature of Hamas’s punitive measures in Gaza,” warning that the violence was adding further trauma to a civilian population already devastated by years of war.

Hamas’s effort to reassert control became visible within days of the US-brokered ceasefire that took effect on October 10, 2025.

Reuters reported at the time that Hamas terrorists returned to Gaza’s streets and launched a violent campaign against armed clans and suspected collaborators. A Palestinian security official said Hamas forces killed 32 members of what he described as a Gaza City “gang,” while video circulated online appearing to show masked gunmen executing kneeling men in public.

The crackdown quickly became an issue for Washington as well.

President Donald Trump initially suggested Hamas had been temporarily permitted to perform some internal security functions. “We gave them approval for a period of time,” Trump said in October, explaining that authorities needed to prevent chaos as residents returned to destroyed neighborhoods.

Two days later, US Central Command took a considerably tougher position after reports of executions and attacks on Palestinians.

“We strongly urge Hamas to immediately suspend violence and shooting at innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” CENTCOM commander Gen. Brad Cooper said, while calling on Hamas to disarm under the US-backed plan for Gaza.