Horrific Testimonies Document Field Executions and Abuses by Militias Cooperating with the Occupation in Al-Maghazi Camp

The devastated alleys in the eastern areas of Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip are witnessing a new chapter of terror, as local sources reported the emergence of armed groups operating in direct coordination with Israeli occupation forces. These groups, which have established secret headquarters in abandoned homes, have begun to pursue and conduct field investigations against residents who refused to evacuate their afflicted neighborhoods.

Signs of this security infiltration began on April 7th, when a militia led by a man named Shawqi Abu Naseera attempted to establish a foothold deep within the residential areas east of the camp. Residents confronted this encroachment with peaceful attempts to prevent the armed men from entering their homes, but the confrontation quickly turned into a bloody massacre that resulted in the killing of 12 citizens within a few hours.

Despite the temporary withdrawal of these groups after the incident, they infiltrated again at dawn on the day of Arafat, exploiting the calm in the area to carry out widespread raids and abductions. Eyewitnesses confirmed that the armed men fortified themselves inside the home of citizen Iyad Abdel Jawad, turning it into a closed center for detention and torture away from legal or family oversight.

In a scene reflecting the extent of security coordination, an armed group stormed the home of elderly Abdul Rahman Al-Shanti, where he was forced at gunpoint to make a phone call with an Israeli intelligence officer. During the call, he was interrogated about his personal data and details of his previous work, before being ordered to remain confined to his home and turn off his phone for hours under strict surveillance.

Violations did not stop at interrogation but extended to violent abductions, as the militias raided the home of the Abdullah Al-Bashiti family and forcibly took their three sons. Neighbors reported that the armed men issued explicit threats to the young men's father, assuring him that his meeting with his son Saleh would be the last, which indeed happened a few hours after the abduction.

Following the withdrawal of the armed force from the area, residents found the body of young Saleh Al-Bashiti inside an abandoned house, bearing signs of brutal torture. According to testimonies, the young man was found hanged with a piece of cloth and suffering from bullet wounds throughout his body, in a field execution crime that shook the foundations of the camp, which is already suffering from the ravages of continuous shelling.

In a related context, field sources documented cases of deliberate humiliation practiced by these groups against besieged families, as happened with the Abu Shahada family. One of the armed men brandished his weapon in the face of the head of the family, forcing him to break his fast on the day of Arafat and smoke a cigarette under threat, in an attempt to impose absolute control and break the will of the residents.

This security breakdown by the militias coincided with intense air cover from Israeli reconnaissance planes that did not leave the skies of the area. In one of the raids that coincided with the movements of the armed men, a direct missile targeted the home of the Al-Maghari family, leading to the destruction of large parts of it and the fall of martyrs and wounded unarmed civilians.

Among the victims of the shelling were young Youssef Al-Maghari and his cousin Fadi, in a tragedy that added more pain to the residents of the neighborhood. Youssef, who was nicknamed 'the coming groom' after his brother's wedding weeks earlier, did not live long enough to fulfill his dream, as his picture on the wedding card turned into an obituary poster distributed in the sad alleys of the camp.

These successive events raise serious questions about the role of these armed groups that move freely in areas of contact with the occupation forces. Observers believe that turning civilian homes into interrogation and execution centers represents a blatant violation of all national and humanitarian norms, and puts the lives of thousands of remaining residents in Gaza at stake.

Residents of eastern Al-Maghazi today live in a state of forced silence, as the spread of armed men prevents any attempt to fully document the crimes or reach the abducted whose fate remains unknown. The fear of the 'ready bullet' threatened by militia elements now haunts anyone who tries to object to the violation of the sanctity of homes.

The converging testimonies collected by journalistic sources confirm that what is happening is not just individual incidents, but a systematic approach aimed at intimidating the popular base and facilitating the tasks of the occupation. The stories of torture inside closed rooms in abandoned homes remain a testament to the most complex phase in the history of the field conflict within the Strip.

With the continued absence of legal oversight, residents demand the intervention of relevant authorities to stop the encroachment of these militias and protect civilians from field executions. The camp, which stood firm against the military war machine, today finds itself facing internal stabs carried out by hands that have agreed to work as tools in the hands of Israeli intelligence.

The tragedy of the Al-Bashiti, Al-Maghari, and Abu Shahada families are just examples of what happens in the dark away from the cameras. With every new dawn, residents of Al-Maghazi fear the return of iron ladders and masked faces that bring nothing but death, interrogation, and humiliation, amidst a war of extermination that does not differentiate between aerial bombardment and field execution.

The armed men told the father of young Saleh Al-Bashiti in a harsh tone that this would be the last time he would see his son, before he was found dead with signs of torture.