Accused of theft and gay sex, Hamas commander killed by superiors

Mother (right) and sister of Mahmoud Ishtiwi (on the poster), who was killed by his military comrades in Hamas, accused of theft and gay sex in Gaza

The death of Mahmoud Ishtiwi had all the elements of a soap opera: sex, torture and corruption in most revered and secretive institution in Gaza, the armed wing of Hamas.

Ishtiwi, 34, was a commander of a traditional family of Hamas supporters that during the war with Israel in 2014, was responsible for a thousand fighters and a network attack tunnels. Last month, his former comrades killed him with three bullets in the chest.

By adding a layer of scandal to history, he was accused of moral depravity, which for Hamas means homosexuality. And there were mutterings that he had carved the word "Zulum" (downtrodden) in your body, a kind of desperate last statement.

His death became the talk of the town in conservative neighborhoods of Gaza, the coastal Palestinian territory, tirelessly discussed in living rooms, at checkpoints and in taxis. But close observers of the region that was more substantial than a soap opera.

Ishtiwi that left two women and three children, was not the first member of the armed wing of Hamas, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, to be killed by their own comrades. The unusual fact is that his relatives spoke openly about the case.

The family was considered the Hamas nobility for having harbored leaders wanted by Israel, including Mohammed Deif, the commander of the Qassam revered by Palestinians. The Ishtiwi mother even sent to Deif, who lost an eye and limbs, but survived several assassination attempts by Israel, a video message in which he asked tearfully release of his son.

Ibrahim al-Madhoun, a writer linked to Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, said the situation underlined changes since Yehya Sinwar was elected in 2012 to represent the Qassam in the political wing of Hamas, a role similar to that of Defense Minister . Acts of Sinwar, he said, showed that not even graduated figures are inviolable.

"It is harder than other leaders, he wants his army is pure," al Madhoun in an interview. "Those in Qassam are the most important people of Gaza. It is necessary, they say, show that these people are not untouchable."

The Qassam Brigades issued a statement on February 7, announcing the execution of Ishtiwi, but his spokesman and Hamas members in general declined to comment since. A senior Hamas official, however, confirmed some facts and general outlines of the case, under the condition of anonymity, saying he did not want to be involved in a matter considered shameful for the Hamas movement and tragic for the family.

HRW (Human Rights Watch, an organization of human rights) investigated the death. The group and an international aid worker who has closely followed the case revealed details. The Ishtiwi mother and 11 of his brothers were also interviewed for this article, along with human rights activists based in Gaza that followed throughout history.

Ishtiwi was 19 when he joined the Qassam, following three of his five brothers. One of them, Ahmad, was killed in an Israeli attack in 2003.

He became a commander in Zeitoun, his own poor neighborhood in Gaza City. During the war of 2014, Israeli bombs destroyed the building of his family apartment and the home of his second wife.

Five months after that deadly battle, on January 21, 2015, Ishtiwi was summoned for questioning by military intelligence authorities of Qassam. Officers made a further investigation into suspected war that he had embezzled money allocated to your unit for the purchase of weapons. "Do you have money?" They asked him, according to relatives. "What you spend?"

He admitted that he had saved money for the brigades, and so, according to his sister Buthaina, 27, "began the soap opera of torture."

The Hamas official said the quick Ishtiwi confession aroused suspicions that he hid something bigger.
It began a thorough investigation, which included Ishtiwi soldiers. Qassam members met a man who said he had sex with Ishtiwi and provided dates and locations. They concluded that the money was missing was used to pay for sex or to keep quiet man.

If Israeli intelligence officials knew Ishtiwi was gay, deduced the authorities, perhaps he had given information in exchange for keeping a secret that, if discovered, would have turned into a pariah in his society.

There were rumors that Ishtiwi had given the Israeli forces the coordinates for an assassination attempt on August 20, 2014 against Deif, who killed one of his women and his baby son. But there was no evidence that Ishtiwi really did it.

On February 15, 2015, two brothers Ishtiwi visited the base of the Qassam.

"Mahmoud, heard the things they are saying about you. Is it true?" His sister Samia, now 29, recalls that asked. Ishtiwi nodded head.

Mistrustful, Samia turned to the two guards next to him. "He's agreeing because you beat him?" She had asked. "They said, 'He confessed without us to give you a single slap.'"

But then, she said, she saw her brother raise his hand, revealing the word "Zulum" pen writing three times in the palm. She did not have a photo to prove it.

On June 7, when Samia visited his brother in a Qassam base near the used car market in Gaza City, Ishtiwi "looked devastated," she recalled. "I asked, 'Why are you crying, brother?' And he said. 'I was wronged'"

Relatives said Ishtiwi told them that was hanging from the ceiling for hours, for days. He was scourged, and the guards played loud music in his cell to prevent sleep.

Samia said he lifted his pant leg to show that he had dug the word "Zulum" on your skin with a nail as a message if it were dead. This has not been confirmed.

The day August 10 was the last the family saw Ishtiwi. Later, his mother sent his emotional eight-minute video to Deif, the leader of the Qassam, begging him to save the life of Ishtiwi. She reminded him that had sheltered at great personal risk and pleaded: ". Release my son"

The family Ishtiwi continued lobbying for his release. The last of these meetings with an important preacher of Hamas and two other men in the family's rented house in Zeitoun, lasted until 2 am on 7 February.

Ishtiwi was killed that day after he made his evening prayers.