Protester 'kidnapped, killed and dumped on doorstep' after demonstrating against Hamas in rare protests

31 March 2025, 08:47 | Updated: 31 March 2025, 08:51

Terror group Hamas has been accused of beating a man to death and leaving his body on the doorstep of his family home following protests in the Gaza Strip.

Uday Al Rabbay was kidnapped shortly after participating in protests against the terror group.

Thousands of Palestinians have marched between the wreckage of a heavily destroyed town in northern Gaza in the second day of anti-war protests, with many chanting against Hamas in a rare display of public anger against the militant group.

The protests, which centred mainly on Gaza's north, appeared to be aimed generally against the war, with protesters calling for an end to 17 months of deadly fighting with Israel.

The 22-year-old's body was returned dead and bloody to his home days later. Reports suggest he had been tortured.

Images showed open wounds and bruising which had left the body bloody and swollen.

'Punishment'

Mazen Shat, a senior police officer affiliated with Fatah from Ramallah and a vocal critic of Hamas, said: “Uday was martyred by the criminals of Hamas.

"And what’s his crime? He told the truth, because he refused to be silent on injustice, because he did not kneel to Hamas," he told The Telegraph.

“Hamas is oppressing people in a brutal way,

“Like a puppy on a rope around his neck, they dragged him to the door of his house and told his family that this is the punishment for those who complain about Hamas.”

Protests have occurred over the years - including uprisings in 2023 and 2019 - have usually been quashed quickly, with fear of violent crackdowns deterring people from demonstrating.

Hamas won a huge majority in parliamentary elections in 2006 after Palestinian voters rejected the Fatah movement, seen by many as too weak to achieve their aims of an independent Palestinian state.

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The Israeli military has issued sweeping evacuation orders covering most of the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.

Israel ended a ceasefire and renewed its air and ground war against the Hamas militant group earlier this month.

Israel launched a major operation in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, last May, leaving large parts of it in ruins.

Israeli forces seized a strategic buffer zone along the border and did not withdraw from it as called for in the ceasefire agreement.

Israel said it needed to maintain a presence there to prevent weapons smuggling.