Morgue workers unload the bodies of Palestinians that had been in Israeli custody, after they were transported by Red Crescent vehicles and refrigerated trucks, to the Nasser hospital in Gaza on Wednesday — AFP JERUSALEM, Oct 15 (AFP): Hamas tightened its grip on Gaza's ruined cities Tuesday, launching a crackdown and executing alleged collaborators, even as US President Donald Trump vowed to disarm the group.
The Israeli military said the remains of four more hostages held in Gaza had been brought into Israel, a day after Hamas handed over the bodies of four other captives and released the last 20 surviving hostages.
Hamas published a video on its official channel showing the street execution of eight blindfolded and kneeling suspects, branding them "collaborators and outlaws".
The footage, apparently from Monday evening, emerged as armed clashes were underway between Hamas's various security units and armed Palestinian clans in parts of the territory, on the fifth day of a US-brokered truce between Hamas and Israel.
In the north of the territory, as Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza City, the Hamas government's black-masked armed police have resumed street patrols.
When busloads of prisoners freed from Israeli jails arrived in Gaza on Monday, fighters from Hamas's Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades provided crowd control.
Meanwhile, a Hamas security unit has been conducting operations against armed clans and gangs, some alleged to have Israeli backing.
"Intense clashes broke out-and are still ongoing at the moment-as part of efforts to eliminate collaborators," said witness Yahya, who asked not to be named in full for fear of retribution.
Another Gaza resident, Mohammed, told AFP: "For long hours this morning there were heavy clashes between Hamas security forces and members of the Hilles family."
A Palestinian security source in Gaza told AFP that Hamas's security body, a recently established unit whose name translates as "Deterrence Force", was conducting "ongoing field operations to ensure security and stability".
"Our message is clear: There will be no place for outlaws or those who threaten the security of citizens," he said.
Hamas has, since it crushed rival Fatah in armed clashes, been the dominant Palestinian faction in Gaza since 2007.
Israel insists Hamas can have no role in a future Gaza government, must hand back the remains of all deceased hostages and eventually disarm.
US President Donald Trump's Gaza plan says that Hamas members who agree to "decommission their weapons" will be given amnesty.
"If they don't disarm, we will disarm them," Trump told reporters at the White House a day after visiting the Middle East to celebrate the Gaza ceasefire.
"And it will happen quickly and perhaps violently."
Israel says Hamas handed
over body that's not
former hostage
The Israeli military said Wednesday that one of the bodies handed over by Hamas as part of an exchange for Palestinian prisoners was not a former hostage.
After overnight forensic tests on four bodies returned on Tuesday, the army said medical officials concluded that one "does not match any of the hostages".
"Hamas is required to make all necessary efforts to return the deceased hostages," the military warned.
Since Monday, under a ceasefire agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump, Hamas has handed back 20 surviving Israeli hostages and eight bodies-one Nepalese, six Israelis and a now unidentified eighth.
Separately, a Gaza hospital said it had received the remains of 45 Palestinians handed back by Israel.
News that one set of remains was not of someone on Israel's 28-name list of deceased former hostages will increase domestic pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to restrict aid access to Gaza.
According to public broadcaster KAN, Israel was ready to reopen the territory's Rafah border crossing to Egypt on Wednesday.
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