A split emerged in the ranks of Hamas’ military wing in recent days after the group executed one of its own members, signaling growing tensions between the organization’s local leadership in Gaza and its leadership abroad.
On Monday, Hamas posted on one of its social media accounts that its military wing had executed Mahmoud Rashid Eshtaiwi, for ''behavioral and ethical excesses."
The Brigade of the Free Kassamyin, a splinter group of the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, denounced the execution of "the martyr Mahmoud Rashid Eshtaiwi," describing it as a "crime against a jihadist who made the occupation taste death with his operations."
In a press statement released on Wednesday, the group argued that Eshtaiwi's execution is clear evidence of a conspiracy by senior Qassam Brigades’ leaders against Eshtaiwi's family, who they have accused of committing moral and security violations.
Presenting its own explanation of Eshtaiwi's execution, the group claimed that it was his connection with Hamas leaders outside Gaza that transformed Eshtaiwi into a traitor in the eyes of his colleagues in the Kassam Brigades.
Showing solidarity with Eshtaiwi, the group's members declared themselves to be "the soldiers of Khaled Mashaal," in reference to the exiled Hamas leader now based in Qatar.
The group emphasized that many people whose crimes were more severe than Eshtaiwi's currently serve in sensitive positions in the Palestinian Islamist organization's leadership and others have not received such a cruel verdict.
The Qassam Brigades' splinter group demanded that the organization reveal the true reasons for Eshtaiwi's execution and establish a neutral investigative committee that will not include Kassam Brigades’ members who were hostile toward Eshtaiwi.
By Maayan Grosman
