Hamas-led groups execute four for looting aid trucks amid some Gaza dissent

Hamas has executed four men for looting some of the aid trucks that have begun entering Gaza, sources familiar with the incident say, as a clan leader in southern Gaza issues a challenge to the Palestinian terror group over guarding the convoys.

One source says the four were involved in an incident last week in which six security officials were allegedly killed by an Israeli airstrike as they were working to prevent gang members from hijacking aid trucks.

“The four criminals, who were executed, were involved in the crimes of looting and causing the death of members of a force tasked with securing aid trucks,” one of the sources tells Reuters.

Seven other suspects are being pursued, according to a statement issued by an umbrella group identifying itself as the “Palestinian Resistance.”

Aid groups have said that deliveries have been hampered by looting, claiming Israel is to blame for creating a situation in which hundreds of thousands of people have been driven to desperation by aid blockade.

Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid, and says aid needs to be tightly controlled to prevent it from helping the terror group, which is still holding 58 hostages.

Israeli military officials say the security teams put in place by Hamas are there to take delivery of the supplies, not to protect them.

Hamas, which took power in Gaza by force in 2007, has long cracked down hard on signs of dissent among Palestinians in Gaza but it has faced sizable protests in recent months over the war and challenges to its control by armed groups of looters, some of whom it has punished by shooting them in the legs in public.