Gazan Families: Hamas-Affiliated Clerics Abused Our Children at Mosques | GRAPHIC

Rare video testimonies smuggled out of Hamas-controlled Gaza have revealed disturbing allegations that children as young as nine have been sexually abused by clerics linked to the Islamist terror group at local mosques, with families facing severe threats when they try to speak out.

The claims, detailed in a report published by the Daily Mail, include accounts from young boys who describe being lured into mosque restrooms under religious pretexts and assaulted. Parents who confronted the alleged perpetrators say they were threatened with violence by Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, or warned they would be labeled Israeli collaborators.

One nine-year-old boy recounted being taken aside by a sheikh before Asr prayer while studying the Quran. “He took me to the restrooms and undressed me, took off my pants and had his way with me. I started to scream and then I cried,” the child said in the filmed testimony obtained via Jusoor News.

A ten-year-old described a cleric pulling down his pants and committing “filthy things.” Another child reportedly returned home bleeding and bruised after an encounter with the head imam of a mosque in Khan Younes.

When one father confronted the imam, he was allegedly told that Al-Qassam Brigades would be sent to shoot him and that authorities would claim he was an Israeli collaborator. The following night, Hamas members reportedly visited the family’s home and warned: “Stay silent or we’ll wipe you off the face of the earth.”

In a separate case in Deir al-Balah, a father who approached Hamas security with evidence said he was forced to drop the matter or face being framed as a spy.

A former Palestinian Authority security officer told the outlet that such acts are reportedly used as a deliberate “binding tactic” to ensure obedience. Victims and their families are kept submissive through fear that speaking out will lead to the destruction of their entire household.

Gazan author and activist Hamza Abu Howidy, who fled the territory and has long criticized Hamas rule, described the alleged pattern as well-known locally. He said perpetrators are referred to in Arabic slang as “mosque tennis players” - clerics who lure boys with promises of religious study, abuse them, enforce silence and threats, and gradually draw them into the Hamas movement.

This latest report follows a Daily Mail investigation published about a week earlier, in which Gazan women, particularly widows and displaced mothers, described being sexually exploited and gang-raped by Hamas fighters, often in exchange for food aid or basic necessities. Victims and witnesses said operatives acted with impunity, declaring “I am the government here,” and that complaints to higher ranks were met with orders to stay silent.

Independent verification of the testimonies is extremely difficult. Gaza remains tightly controlled by Hamas, which has a long history of suppressing dissent, executing suspected collaborators, and restricting outside journalism. Sources in the reports spoke anonymously due to fears of retaliation.

The accounts have sparked renewed discussion about the nature of Hamas governance in Gaza since the group seized full control in 2007. Critics argue these stories highlight how the terror organization not only wages war against Israel but also exerts authoritarian control over its own civilian population through fear, blackmail, and violence.

As of Sunday, the reports have received limited coverage in major international outlets beyond the Daily Mail and some Israeli and pro-Israel voices on social media. Eitan Fischberger, an Israeli OSINT researcher who highlighted the story on X, asked: “Where is the outrage? Or is Palestinian suffering only newsworthy when it can be blamed on Israel?”