With police absent in war-torn Gaza, masked vigilantes patrol streets
- ‘People’s Protection Committees’ take to streets to ensure public safety and stop profiteers
- Masked men patrol Rafah where vast numbers of displaced people have sought refuge amid war
Heads turned as the masked men with clubs walked down a Rafah street, part of a vigilante public security group set up by armed factions in Gaza after the civil police force went underground saying it was targeted by Israeli strikes.
A group of nine of the men, their head bands reading “People’s Protection Committees” bound around ski masks or hoods, strode through a market place this week after first appearing around Rafah late last month.
“We want to control the street to ensure that there is still safety in the country … We are present in the streets to control the streets from all sources of trouble existing in the Palestinian street now,” one said.
The group was formed by the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, along with other political factions that had a street presence in Gaza, and was tasked with ensuring public order and stopping price hikes by market profiteers, he said.
Reuters was unable to reach a spokesperson for the Gaza Interior Ministry, which has stopped operating normally since the war began. Spokespeople for Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and another major faction, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.