Early this summer, Amin Abed, a Palestinian activist who has spoken out publicly about Hamas, twice found bullets on his doorstep in northern Gaza.
Then in July, he said he was attacked by Hamas security operatives, who covered his head and dragged him away before repeatedly striking him with hammers and metal bars.
“At any moment, I can be killed by the Israeli occupation, but I can face the same fate at the hands of those who’ve been ruling us for 17 years,” he said in a phone interview from his hospital bed, referring to Hamas. “They almost killed me, those killers and criminals.”
Mr. Abed, who remains hospitalized, was rescued by bystanders who witnessed the attack, but what happened to him has happened to others throughout Gaza.
The bodies of six Israeli hostages recovered last month provided a visceral reminder of Hamas’s brutality. Each had been shot in the head. Some had other bullet wounds, suggesting they were shot while trying to escape, according to Israeli officials who reviewed the autopsy results.
But Hamas also uses violence to maintain its control over Gaza’s population.
Some Palestinians have been injured or killed as Hamas wages an insurgent style of warfare that risks Palestinian lives to strike the Israeli military from densely populated areas. Others have been attacked or threatened for criticizing the group. Some Palestinians have been shot, accused of looting or hoarding aid.
Much international attention has focused on Israeli hurdles to delivering aid to Palestinians, its military operations that have killed tens of thousands of people and a bombing campaign that has reduced cities to rubble. American officials have repeatedly expressed deep frustration with Israel for those failures, too, as well as for not providing basic security in the territory.
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Hamas built access points to its extensive tunnel network inside homes. An aerial photo recovered by the Israeli military from a Hamas commander’s post shows three dozen hidden tunnel entrances marked with color-coded dots and arrows in one crowded neighborhood.
To some Palestinians, an Israeli airstrike on July 13 targeting the senior military commander Muhammad Deif and another Hamas military leader is an example of the perils civilians face.
Israeli officials say that Mr. Deif had entered a villa in a designated humanitarian zone to meet with a Hamas commander who was hiding there. Some 70 Palestinians were killed in the assault, including many women and children, according to the Gazan health ministry. Israel later declared Mr. Deif dead, but Hamas has disputed the claim.
Munir al-Jaghoub, an official in the Fatah party in the West Bank, blasted Israel for the deaths. But he also condemned Hamas.
“Any soldier who wants to bear arms is required to protect civilians, not to hide among civilians,” he said in a televised interview.
Hamas officials rejected criticisms that the group put civilians in harm’s way and suggestions that it should keep its fighters away from towns and cities.
“There’s no such thing as being outside residential areas in Gaza,” said Husam Badran, a senior Hamas official. “These pretexts, primarily made by the Israeli occupation army, are meaningless.”
‘Shut Him Up’
Palestinians who protest face the threat of immediate retaliation.
On Saturday, the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate blasted the “policy of intimidation and threat” facing some journalists in Gaza after a group of gunmen stormed the home of Ehab Fasfous, a reporter and social media activist. While the syndicate did not explicitly name Hamas, it left little doubt that it was behind the raid on Mr. Fasfous’s home in the southern city of Khan Younis.
In its statement, the organization said it viewed the raid with “great severity” and that journalists and their families should be protected.
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“There is no liberation movement that has freed its people without paying a big price in terms of civilians,” he said.
But some U.S. and Israeli officials said their intelligence assessments indicate that Mr. Sinwar is more interested in inflicting pain on Israel than uplifting the Palestinian people.
“He’s not calculating the impact on human beings or property,” said Ted Singer, a recently retired senior C.I.A. official who worked extensively in the Middle East. “He is calculating on bringing the Israelis down a notch and freeing Palestinian prisoners.”
‘It Was Horrific’
Hamas also hides hostages among Palestinian civilians, with devastating consequences.
In early June, Israel planned a mission to rescue four of the dozens of living hostages who remain in Gaza. But civilians in the densely populated Nuseirat area proved a complicating factor.
The Israelis sent in rescue vehicles on June 8, and when one was damaged, Hamas militants moved in on it. A firefight broke out, and commandos called in the Israeli air force, which began striking the neighborhood.
The hostages were ultimately rescued. But more than 270 Palestinians were killed, according to the Gazan health ministry, though it has proved impossible to determine with certainty how many were Hamas fighters and how many were innocent bystanders.
Many Palestinians are angry at Israel for conducting the raid. But others said they knew that Israel would try to rescue its people, no matter the toll.
“I’m totally against mixing prisoners and civilians,” said Kareem, a lawyer who spoke on the condition that only his first name be used to avoid retribution from the Hamas authorities. “We saw what the operation resulted in. It was horrific. A very high price.”
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Mr. Thawabteh, the director general of the Hamas-run government media office, said the government still employs thousands of people, helps distribute aid and organizes Friday prayers. Security services continue to try to enforce the law, he added.
Government-run emergency committees help secure aid and maintain order, Mr. Thawabteh said.
“The government in Gaza is living through a time of challenges,” he said. “But it’s still in place carrying out its duties every day.”
Hamas is not the only group active in Gaza. Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Hamas ally that participated in the Oct. 7 terror attacks, remains strong. Armed gangs and neighborhood committees operate throughout the territory, with some also making threats and carrying out revenge attacks.
American officials say the groups operate with the implicit blessing of Hamas, though its precise level of oversight and control of them varies from group to group.
But Mr. Sinwar is the unchallenged leader of Gaza. While his day-to-day control of the government is attenuated, as he tries to avoid being captured or killed by Israel, he still sets the broad goals and policies for Gaza, according to officials briefed on the intelligence.
Aid agencies trying to deliver humanitarian relief to Gaza acknowledge Hamas’s continued control. Aid convoys must coordinate their efforts with local Hamas leaders, or risk the aid not getting through.
Efforts to have Gazans who are aligned with the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority help secure aid convoys have fallen apart. American officials say Hamas hostility and threats on those convoys shut down the effort.
Looting has afflicted several Gazan cities after Israeli forces pulled out. Some of the looters may have been hungry people trying to feed their families. Others may have had more base motivations.
Israeli and American officials say Hamas has tried to stop the looting, but often with brutal tactics.
In some instances, according to U.S. officials, people accused of looting have been shot in the leg. In one incident, a group of Hamas members beat people accused of stealing aid and spray-painted the word “thief” on the back of one of them, according to the Israeli military.
To some Palestinians, the rough justice has added to a climate of fear.
Mr. Abed, 35, the Palestinian critic of Hamas who was beaten in July, was attacked after writing on social media and speaking to news media, including The New York Times, and believes that Hamas’s leaders want to make an example out of him.
On Wednesday, Mr. Abed left Gaza for the first time in more than two decades, one of dozens of wounded and ill people whom Israel permitted to travel to the United Arab Emirates for treatment.
“I feel terrible that I’ve left our family and people behind, but at the same time, I feel safe for the first time in 17 years,” he said in a voice message from his hospital bed in Abu Dhabi. “There’s no one that wants to kill, arrest or follow me.”
View this New York Times Report from September 13th