Hamas gunmen stand guard on the day that hostages held in Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, are handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

Hamas operatives and police units in Gaza carried out a sweeping campaign of violence, including beatings, mutilations, and public executions of Palestinians accused of collaboration with Israel and other offenses, according to a new United Nations report.

On Tuesday, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a new report highlighting hundreds of cases of extrajudicial punishment in the Gaza Strip carried out by Hamas, with some incidents publicly displayed by the terrorist group as a means of instilling fear and tightening control over the population.

“These cases involved executions, kneecapping, bone-breaking with metal pipes or cement bricks and beatings and were framed by the perpetrators as punishments for alleged collaboration with Israel, looting humanitarian aid, theft, drug-related offenses, or affiliations with internal rivals,” the report notes.

“The violent acts examined by the Commission caused physical and mental harm, with a significant long-term impact, including further physical harm, enduring family stigma and social exclusion,” it continues.

The findings are especially striking given the UN’s infamously hostile and disproportionate focus on Israel, leading to widespread accusations that the global body has an institutional bias against the Jewish state.

From August 2024 to January 2026, UN officials documented 249 cases of extrajudicial punishment in which Hamas-affiliated operatives and police forces were implicated in nearly a quarter of these incidents, including 108 killings.

Sexual and gender-based violence was also used in broader attacks against individuals accused of collaboration with Israel or theft, with the report additionally noting that children, including both boys and girls, were subjected to “extreme physical violence.”

“The Commission found that children were spectators in 27 publicly staged incidents of violent punishment. This exposure results in normalizing extreme violence, desensitizing children to it and sustaining a climate of fear. It also creates long-term emotional and mental harm,” the report says.

Instead of being handled through formal courts or judicial procedures, the UN investigation finds that punishments were carried out directly by Hamas’s military wing and affiliated police units.

Those targeted included anti-Hamas activists as well as members of Israel-backed clans and armed factions that emerged in areas where the Islamist group’s control weakened during the war, with many subjected to public executions.

Under the ceasefire, the Israeli military currently controls about 60 percent of Gaza, while Hamas remains entrenched in the nearly half of Gazan territory it still controls, where the vast majority of the population lives.

Shortly after the US-backed ceasefire to halt fighting in Gaza took effect last year, Hamas moved to reassert control over the war-torn enclave and consolidate its weakened position by targeting Palestinians who it labeled as “lawbreakers and collaborators with Israel.”

Yet, UN officials also note the group has been targeting individuals through beatings and public humiliation — including children — on accusations ranging from theft and drug trafficking to the illegal sale of tobacco.

These acts “amount to the war crime of murder and to a violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, including the right to life, the right to liberty and security and the right to a fair trial,” the report says.

In recent months, Hamas’s brutal crackdown has escalated, sparking widespread clashes and violence as the group moves to seize weapons and eliminate any opposition.

Social media videos widely circulated online show Hamas members brutally beating Palestinians and carrying out public executions of alleged collaborators and rival militia members.

The UN report also covers a rise in violence involving Israeli settlers in the West Bank, noting a broader pattern of escalating tensions and recurring confrontations in the area.

“Settler violence in the West Bank functions as a means of implementing Israeli state policy, with both the state and violent settler groups working toward the same strategic objectives: entrenchment of Israeli settlements, annexation of Palestinian territory and displacement of Palestinians from their land,” the report says.