Palestinians collect aid supplies from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

According to the Palestinian Authority (PA), Hamas is systematically murdering Gazan residents attempting to access food supplies under the false pretext of “collaboration” with American aid distribution centers.

The descriptions of the murders, including the names of the murdered and of their relatives who reported their deaths, appeared in the PA’s official daily. It described harrowing accounts from Gazan families who condemn Hamas for operating “death squads” targeting civilians:

There are many reports that have begun to arrive from the Gaza Strip about killings by Hamas of many of the residents walking the roads in search of a sack of flour, under the pretext that they are collaborating with the American aid centers for food distribution! Not only do the reports reveal this, but there are also letters and statements from families whose sons have been reached by the treacherous hand of Hamas.

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 23, 2025]

Specific cases include:

The Shahin family from Deir Al-Balah reported the death of their son, Siraj Al-Din Hisham Shahin, due to “treacherous shooting” by Hamas.

The Al-Hilu family reported that five sons were murdered by Hamas. [emphasis added]

Hiba Al-Misshal, sister of victim Osama Al-Misshal, wrote the most detailed description:

[There is] a letter from the sister of murder victim Osama Al-Misshal, Hiba Al-Misshal, who revealed that a group of Hamas members bearing the name Arrow Unit stopped the bus her brother was traveling on together with other young men, while they were on their way to one of the food distribution centers.

They took them off the bus, bound them, and shot them, after falsely accusing them of “collaboration,” and they continued to chase them while they were wounded, up to the entrance of Nasser Hospital, where they shot them again and prevented the doctors and staff from treating them, and incited the people to beat them with sticks and pipes, amid painful silence around.

…This led to the killing of her brother and other young men who were on the bus! In her letter, Hiba [Al-Misshal] demands “justice for her brother and for every innocent young man who was unjustly murdered.” [emphasis added]

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 19, 2025]

The article explains that Hamas named the death squads the “Arrow Unit,” to make people think that it is not Hamas but a vigilante group. But according to the PA, Hamas is monopolizing aid distribution through a black market, and killing anyone who bypasses their system.

In its current crisis today, Hamas has no way out but to establish death squads against anyone who stands in the way of its plunder and tries to obtain a sack of flour, outside of its control and its black market.

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 19, 2025]

Even though the article was intended to expose Hamas, the PA could not help but add an accusation that Israel is also somehow responsible. Significantly, the accusations against Israel, which have been proven to be false in the past, come with no names, no evidence, and no eyewitnesses:

What allows this situation today, which is packed with death and destruction, is the Israeli occupation that has made the roads to food full of dangers…

The one who creates this hated reality today is not Israel alone, but Hamas in a similar manner, and it is a partner to it in this work of death. It pursues the hungry with death squads, which it called “the arrow” in order to tell those who go on the road in search of food that is not obtained through [Hamas] that they will be their prey through the “Arrow Unit.” This is the hated situation – and this is Hamas with the ‘arrow’ unit – the hunters of those seeking food.

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 19, 2025]

The author is the Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.