Army officers face court martial over handling of Jaysley Beck sexual assault case

Two British Army officers have been charged over their conduct toward Gunner Jaysley Beck.

Gunner Beck, 19, was sexually assaulted before she took her own life at Larkhill Camp, Wiltshire, in 2021.

An inquest into her death later found that the incident and the Army’s failure to take appropriate action “more than minimally” contributed to her death.

It is understood that Major James Hook and Colonel Samantha Shepherd will face a court martial over their actions relating to Gunner Beck.

Former senior non-commissioned officer, 43-year-old Michael Webber, was jailed for six months by a military court in 2025 after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting Gunner Beck five months before her death.

Webber, then a battery sergeant major in the Royal Artillery, had engaged Gunner Beck in a drinking game before touching her thigh and trying to kiss her.

Gunner Beck pushed Webber away and spent the night locked in her car before making a complaint to her superiors in the morning.

However, the incident was not reported to police and Webber wrote a letter of apology to Gunner Beck. He was later promoted.

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said on Friday: “Following an investigation by the Defence Serious Crime Command, we can confirm two individuals have been charged with offences under Section 19, Armed Forces Act (conduct prejudicial to good order and service discipline).

“It would be inappropriate to comment further as legal proceedings are ongoing.”

Since Gunner Beck’s death, the Ministry of Defence has set up a serious crime command and launched a violence against women and girls taskforce.

More recently, it has agreed in principle to remove the handling of serious complaints from the individual services.

Al Carns, minister for the armed forces, said in 2025: “I think the Gunner Beck case was a horrendous failing of the system.

“What I can tell you is in the last several years there’s been lots of changes – in the last year we’ve really made a proactive move to create the correct systems so no woman ever feels alone again in defence.”

Calls to boycott the World Cup are getting louder – will it happen?

On 13 June, Brazil will play Morocco in a World Cup game at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Already, you imagine, the date is ringed in the diary of every ICE agent in the USA. What a day that will be for them as hundreds, maybe thousands, of US-based Brazilians and Moroccans pour onto the streets, making their way to the game. What fun for the masked representatives of a trigger-happy presidency as they relish the chance to lift a few and deport them. Possibly not as much fun as the next day, when, in Boston, Scotland plays Haiti. It’s not so much the men in kilts they’ll be after. It’s the thousands of Haitians out in the open. This is what they signed up for: harassing immigrants.

If this feels like an extreme imagining, pause to reflect on the fact that ICE will be attending the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics next month. ICE confirmed it would send a branch with the Diplomatic Security Service to protect top officials, sparking anger from Milan’s mayor, Giuseppe Sala, who said, after the killing of two American citizens on the streets of Minneapolis in the last month: “They are not welcome.” While Italy’s foreign minister defended his government’s decision to allow them to attend, saying: “It’s not like the SS are coming,” thousands of Italians have since signed petitions demanding that ICE be barred from entry as they travel with the US delegation.

Never mind the fact that these events are meant to be an international celebration of togetherness; rarely can we have approached them with so much tension polluting their very fabric. And none more so when it comes to the World Cup.

Travel plans for fans from two of Africa’s top footballing nations were thrown into disarray in December, when the Trump administration announced an extended travel ban would effectively bar people from Senegal and Ivory Coast from following their teams unless they already had visas. As for the players and supporters of Iran and Haiti, two other countries that have qualified, good luck to you heading to Los Angeles on 16 June – both countries were included in the first iteration of the travel ban announced by the Trump administration. Should Denmark qualify through the play-offs, they would then be obliged to play in a country whose leader has expressed open avarice for their territory. And how will Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, feel about sharing ceremonial duties when his co-host has so cheerfully endorsed social media images of the map of Canada overlaid in the stars and stripes?

All round, this is promising to be the most fraught World Cup in living memory – less a sporting carnival, more a bureaucratic obstacle course, doused in caustic Maga-speak. When Fifa handed the hosting duties of its biggest tournament to the USA, Mexico and Canada in 2018, the idea of a boycott would have been considered preposterous. But times have changed.

It’s not Canada or Mexico that much of the rest of the world is viewing with concern. It is the country once reckoned the bastion of the Western order. Now, suddenly, as its own citizens are shot in the streets and a “foreigners not welcome” sign has been erected on every border, the talk of boycotts and withdrawals of refusing to play ball with a nation rapidly dismantling the old expectations is growing by the day.

On Monday, former Fifa president Sepp Blatter joined the international chorus calling for a fan boycott of World Cup matches in the United States because of the conduct of President Donald Trump and his administration at home and abroad. Oke Göttlich, a German Football Association (DFB) official, also said the time had come to consider a boycott of the 2026 World Cup in the wake of President Trump’s actions. In making his argument, Göttlich referenced the US-led boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Stepping away in the manner of the 1980s Olympic cold shoulder is, an increasing number of observers believe, not just the proper thing to do. It is the moral course.

And were England, France, Germany and the rest to withdraw from the competition at the behest of governments fed up with tariff bluster and insults about their fighting prowess, it would hit the man at the centre of it all where it hurts. There is no doubt Donald Trump is looking forward to the World Cup, as he is to the Los Angeles Olympics two summers from now. Not because he has a particular enthusiasm for football – or even dressage – but because both events give him the opportunity to place himself at the centre of the world’s attention, which is where he craves to be.

Trump has already cast himself as the World Cup’s principal poster boy. From announcing that he will remove hosting duties from any US city with a Democrat mayor to the magnificently lickspittle presentation to him of a specially crafted Fifa Peace Prize on the day of the competition’s draw, so analogous with it has he become that you would not be surprised if the colour of the trophy itself were subtly upgraded from gold to orange.

However much he likes to cast himself as a pioneer, Trump will not be the first leader to associate himself, and his political clout, with the trophy. Remember Harold Wilson attempting to take credit by insisting that England have only ever won the World Cup under a Labour government (and how Sir Keir Starmer will be hoping his predecessor was right, and that in July that claim turns out to be true for a second time)? Or the Argentine junta that sought international legitimacy by assuming responsibility for their nation’s victory in 1978?

Twenty years later, I remember being at the 1998 semi-final between France and Croatia and, at the moment the whistle blew to signal the home nation’s progress to the final, seeing a right commotion in the box from which the live television presentation was being beamed. It was president Jacques Chirac elbowing his way at warp-factor speed to position himself in front of the cameras. What he wanted was for some of the gloss of glory to rub off on him there on the national news.

Trump can’t wait for such a chance. Which is why even the talk of a boycott is a reminder that politics is about more than threatening to occupy allies’ territory and kidnapping other national leaders. Even if only a few countries refused to participate, it could turn out to be the most effective way of getting him to take seriously the mounting worldwide concern about what is happening inside America under his administration.

Though anyone hoping for such action will likely be disappointed. Ahead of every World Cup, there are calls for political action. In 2018, the tournament took place in Russia – a country that had just illegally occupied Crimea, turned doping into a competitive sport, and gleefully dispatched its most notorious hooligans to cause mayhem during someone else’s competition – and nobody stayed away.

Likewise in 2022, any distaste for a medieval theocracy that executes gay people and allowed foreign workers to die by the score building stadiums was put aside as everyone flocked to Doha. There, the only form of protest dreamed up by an England team claiming affiliation with more civilised values was wearing a captain’s armband in the colours of the LGBT flag – an idea quickly abandoned the moment it became clear anyone doing so would be booked. It was less standing up for what is right and more the feeblest of climb-downs.

The idea that anyone will stay away from the World Cup 2026 remains fanciful. It won’t happen. Whatever the provocation, there will be no leader instructing their national team to withdraw. The French government has already said it is not in favour of a boycott, with its sports minister, Marina Ferrari, saying: “I am one who believes in keeping sport separate [from politics]. The World Cup is an extremely important moment for those who love sport.”

The Danish Football Association, meanwhile, said it is “aware of the current sensitive situation”.

While there is no denying that a World Cup boycott would be the most forceful and personal, way to demonstrate distaste for the current occupant of the White House, far more important to beleaguered leaders such as Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz is the opportunity the tournament presents to associate themselves with success. What such a photo-op might do for their domestic standing is worth far more than any ethical stance.

In that way, they will absolutely follow the Trumpian playbook.

Alcaraz’s Australian Open dream in danger as Zverev leads fifth set

Carlos Alcaraz bids for his first Australian Open final against Alexander Zverev – but the world No 1’s dream of completing the career grand slam is in danger as he struggles with cramp.

Alcaraz looked to be closing in on his first Australian Open final as he led Zverev 6-4 7-6, but the 22-year-old pulled up at 4-4 in the third set, stretching his right leg.

Despite playing on one leg, with his movement severely limited, Alcaraz twice moved two points away from victory, but Zverev held on to force the fourth set on a tiebreak and then take it into a fifth.

Later, another blockbuster awaits between Novak Djokovic and defending men’s champion Jannik Sinner. Yesterday, top seed Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina set up a rematch of their 2023 final.

Follow latest score updates from the Australian Open, below

British girl, 7, missing after being swept out to sea in Morocco

A British family is desperately searching for a seven-year-old girl after she was dragged out to sea in Morocco while on holiday with her family.

Inaayah Makda, from Blackburn, went missing after a wave suddenly crashed onto the rocks and swept her into the ocean in Casablanca on Wednesday night.

Other family members were reportedly also dragged out by the wave, but managed to get back to shore.

Her father, Zubair Makda, told Blackburn-based UCTV that their family was on rocks half a metre high at the time. He said: “Inaayah was on the rock behind me. We got swept to the right and she got swept to the left. Before that, I did not see where Inaayah was, as she got swept away so quickly.

“I couldn’t find her at all. We are trying to get help.”

Blackburn MP Adnan Hussein, who has spoken to Inaayah’s father and aunt, said he was urgently raising this matter with the UK authorities, including the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), as well as the Moroccan ambassador.

Mr Hussein told The Independent: “This is an utterly heartbreaking and deeply distressing situation. In this unimaginably difficult time for the family, my thoughts are with them, with Inaayah, and with everyone who loves and cares for her.

“The whole of Blackburn is holding Inaayah and her loved ones in their prayers. I will continue to do all that I possibly can to support the family during this devastating time.”

A family member in the UK told the Lancashire Telegraph: “We are all really worried. You can understand this is really distressing for everyone.”

They told the paper that their family had not been made aware of any dangers of going onto the rocks, and were caught by surprise when a large wave crashed down.

Inaayah’s parents remain in Casablanca, where they are reportedly turning to a privae search operator to help with their search.

A FCDO Spokesperson said: “We are supporting the family of a British national reported missing in Morocco and are in contact with the local authorities.”

Moroccan authorities have been contacted by The Independent for comment.

Bayeux tapestry move ‘at risk’ due to UK potholes

The Bayeux tapestry’s high-profile loan to the British Museum risks damaging the ancient relic because of the condition of Britain’s roads, according to reports.

French conservationists have filed a legal challenge to plans championed by Emmanuel Macron to transport the priceless 11th-century work from Bayeux in Normandy, France, where it has been on display for many centuries, to be shown at the British Museum as part of a nine-month exhibition.

In the documents seen by The Telegraph, the conservationists reportedly warn specifically about the “vibrations and shocks” that the fragile relic will face on the journey to London.

Experts from French heritage group Sites and Monuments said jolts and bumps in the roads, including potholes, could generate vibrations that risk ripping the cloth apart, according to the report. They also warn the French president made an “error of judgement” in his decision to transport the tapestry to the UK, citing a 2022 report that named “breaks in the load, a defect on a road (sudden change in level, hole in the surface, etcetera)” as “examples of shock sources” that could risk damage to the work.

The group’s president said: “If [the roads] are in poor condition, that is obviously not a good thing.”

He added: “The risks are those associated with handling the tapestry and the vibrations during a long journey. They must be limited to the bare minimum.”

The 70-metre-long medieval relic is said to be insured for £800m by the UK government for the duration of the loan. But its movement has garnered concern from art critics and conservationists over the tapestry’s fragile state.

David Hockney, one of the UK’s greatest painters, has previously slammed plans to move the fragile, 1,000-year-old artefact as “madness” and “too big a risk” to take.

“Why does a London museum which prides itself on conserving and preserving great art want to gamble on the survival of the most important art image of scale in Europe?” he asked. “It is madness. I am not afraid to speak up for art. It is something that has defined my life for more than eight decades.”

Writing exclusively in The Independent, he warned any movement of the relic’s wool embroidery threads puts it in danger of “tearing, stitch loss and distortion of the fabric”.

A petition started in August by art historian Didier Rykner protesting the decision to move it to the UK has garnered more than 77,000 signatories.

At the time, the British Museum said its conservation and collections management team was experienced at handling and caring for this type of material and was working with colleagues in France on the tapestry’s display.

What the future of travel looks like in 2026

Are we done with viral hotspots? According to travel comparison site KAYAK’s WTF (that’s What The Future, by the way) 2026 trends report, the era of copy-paste travel may finally be winding down. Not because people are travelling less – quite the opposite – but because they’re travelling differently.

Drawing on billions of user searches, an independent survey from more than 14,000 Gen Z and Millennial travellers – including over 2,000 next-gen UK travellers – and exclusive TikTok community insights, KAYAK’s report shows a shift away from headline destinations and performative travel. In their place? Shorter breaks, quieter cities, better value and experiences that feel personal rather than pre-approved.

Here’s what that looks like in practice, and where those trends could take you.

The next “it” destination, it turns out, is the one you haven’t already seen 50 times on your phone. According to KAYAK, 71 per cent of Gen Z and 75 per cent of Millennials actively want to visit places they’ve never been before, while TikTok posts tagged #hiddengems are up more than 50 per cent. Saturation is the new turn-off.

Cork fits that brief neatly. Long treated as a stopping point on the way to somewhere else, Ireland’s second city still flies under the algorithmic radar. Yet it rewards curiosity in small, satisfying ways: a walkable centre, a burgeoning food scene and easy access to coastline and countryside without the fanfare.

Base yourself near Shandon rather than around the busier quays, and start the day with a stroll along the River Lee before the city fully wakes up. For dinner, follow locals to the English Market at lunchtime, then head out to Ballycotton or Garretstown the next morning.

Travellers aren’t cancelling trips in 2026, they’re financing them more creatively. Nearly 30 per cent of Gen Z and Millennial travellers say installment plans will determine how many trips they take, while KAYAK data shows international fares from the UK sitting almost exactly where they were last year. Add a 52 per cent rise in the use of flight price alerts and the picture becomes clear: deal-hunting has gone mainstream.

This shift favours cities that deliver substance without sticker shock. Bilbao still fits the bill, but it’s the city’s everyday pleasures that offer the real value. Skip the Guggenheim café and eat at Gure Toki or Sorginzulo for pintxos done properly. Better still, cross the river into Deusto at lunchtime, where menus del día feel resolutely local and prices soften noticeably. Savvy travellers are stretching budgets without sacrificing experience, and places like Bilbao are making it easy for them.

Forget souvenirs. In 2026, it’s goosebumps people are packing for. More than half of travellers say natural wonders will shape their plans, and 34 per cent list awe-inspiring experiences as a top priority. That’s driving renewed interest in northern landscapes, but not always the obvious ones.

While Tromsø continues to top bucket lists, travellers looking for something fresher are turning towards Christchurch, New Zealand as a gateway rather than a destination in itself. From here, the night skies of the Canterbury plains offer serious dark-sky credentials without the premium price tags of more famous stargazing spots. Pair it with a drive to Lake Tekapo or a night at Mt John Observatory, and prepare to be amazed as the universe puts on one of its more impressive galactic light shows.

AI has officially replaced your mate who “went once and loved it”. Nearly six in 10 travellers say they’d change destination if AI suggested somewhere better, and half would do so for a better deal. Notably, 44 per cent of AI prompts are now about value, not inspiration.

AI can also steer travellers toward lesser-visited cities that prioritise authentic, local experiences over familiar tourist circuits. Fukuoka, in particular, remains one of the country’s most liveable and engaging destinations, offering a compelling blend of modern convenience and rich cultural heritage. Base yourself near Hakata Station for better-value hotels, then eat like a local at the yatai food stalls along the Naka River. It’s informal, affordable and far more revealing than a booked-out tasting menu. Leveraging AI-led planning tools helps today’s savvy travellers to unlock the city’s true potential, moving beyond generic guidebook recommendations.

Luxury, redefined, looks suspiciously like a good night’s sleep. KAYAK’s report shows 69 per cent of Gen Z and Millennials travel primarily for mental reset, while wellness-led luxury continues to rise. The emphasis has shifted from showing off to switching off.

The Greek island of Zakynthos excels here, particularly inland. Head to villages such as Kiliomenos, where evenings are cooler and dinner at family-run tavernas like Latas stretches lazily into the night. No playlists, no dress code, just plates refilled without fuss. For one in five travellers, it’s the small comforts that matter most: a quiet morning, decent coffee, and nowhere you’re expected to be. Wellness travel isn’t about spa breaks and luxury escapes anymore; it’s about coming back better than you left.

The big-city rush is out. In 2026, 84 per cent of younger travellers say they’d rather visit a smaller city or rural area than a major hub. Lower prices help, but the real appeal is authenticity that doesn’t need explaining.

Bastia, in northern Corsica, perfectly exemplifies the trend. Mornings on the old port unfold naturally with fishermen unloading and café chairs scraping into place. Walk up to the Citadelle before the heat builds, then lunch at U San Ghjuvà for unfussy Corsican cooking. These are places where life hasn’t been edited for visitors. Yes, social media still nudges people towards them, but only once they’re already halfway there.

In 2026, the destination is wherever the action is. An overwhelming 95 per cent of Gen Z and Millennials plan to travel for a major event, whether that’s a concert, a sporting tournament or a once-in-a-lifetime performance.

Cities that flex around calendars are winning. In Canada, Toronto works as a terrific base. But those thinking ahead are looking beyond the obvious to places like Halifax, where festivals, touring acts and sporting events are easier to access and far less inflated by demand. Stay near the waterfront, eat at The Bicycle Thief, and let the event anchor the trip rather than dominate it.

Over half of travellers say slower travel helps clear their head, and #slowtravel content has surged by almost 330 per cent on TikTok. But the aim isn’t inactivity, more a break from decision-making.

The Azores remain a benchmark, but similar benefits can be found in places like Praia in Cape Verde. The rhythm is gentle, the beaches walkable, and long lunches at Quintal da Música turn into evenings almost by accident. Headspace holidays aren’t about ticking boxes, they’re about removing friction and the demand for constant optimisation.

Adventure hasn’t disappeared, it’s simply grown up. Nearly one in four travellers now combine light outdoor activity with proper rest, while searches for amenities like terraces, hot tubs and gyms continue to rise. The Great Outdoors is now more likely to be paired with a Quite Decent bottle of wine.

Hilo, on Hawaii’s Big Island, captures that softer approach to adventure perfectly. Base yourself here and mornings might mean walking the edge of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park or taking an easy hike through the stunning scenery of Akaka Falls rainforest. Afternoons are for slowing down: soaking in naturally warmed ocean pools, lingering over poke bowls or fresh fish, and letting yourself reset.

Who says holidays have to be long? Nearly two-thirds of travellers plan to take several shorter trips in 2026, with searches for one-to-four-day breaks continuing to rise. The appeal is immediacy: quick resets, minimal planning and maximum reward.

Milan makes for an excellent Nanocation. Trains run on time, neighbourhoods are compact, and finding good food rarely requires much research. Rather than chasing the Duomo and moving on, spend a night in areas like Isola or Porta Venezia, where the city feels lived-in rather than visited. Grab a seat for aperitivo along the Navigli as the working day winds down, eat late without ceremony, and walk everywhere. Milan rewards restraint; do it right, and even 24 hours can feel like a proper break.

With billions of user searches across its platforms, KAYAK helps travellers find their perfect flight, stay, rental car or holiday package. Download the app here and start exploring.

Yet another stinging betrayal for the Waspi women

There are two main objections to the government’s decision to deny justice to the so-called Waspi women. The first is the substance of it – it is neither morally nor legally defensible. The second is the manner of it – raising and then dashing hopes in an almost callous manner.

Pat McFadden, the secretary of state for work and pensions, is only the latest minister – his Conservative predecessors were no better – to do the wrong thing for the wrong reasons.

As we have said before, the scale of the financial and emotional damage wreaked on the Women Against State Pension Inequality, who have effectively been robbed of a very large proportion of their state pension, is both wide and grievous. All women born in the 1950s – as many as 3.8 million individuals – have suffered a toll on their standard of living, and in some cases, where their health has been adversely affected, the full costs involved are incalculable.

To be fair to Mr McFadden, he had some plausible arguments in his favour, not least affordability, given the state of the public finances and the public’s understandable resistance to further tax rises, even for such a compelling cause.

The pensions secretary also constructed a careful, if bureaucratic, argument about the impossibility at this distance of ascertaining whether or not each of the millions of women affected received the correct notification about the successive postponements of their state retirement pension, in 1995 and again in 2011 – an objectionable policy in the first place.

There is also no question that previous governments have issued leaflets and mounted education campaigns in GP surgeries, on TV and radio, in cinemas, and online. It was reported and discussed in the media – a big story at the time.

Even so, Mr McFadden had to concede that individual letters about changes to the state pension age could have been sent earlier, and that it is evident, from the sincere personal testimony of those affected, that these women were not fully alert to the news or its consequences. Mr McFadden thus had no alternative but to repeat the apology issued by his immediate predecessor, Liz Kendall, in respect of when the letters were sent.

The problem with the case for refusing compensation that Mr McFadden presented to the Commons is that it merely attempted to relitigate the judgment issued by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) in March 2024. But, unlike the ombudsman, Mr McFadden is not an independent adjudicator, and cannot gainsay what the ombudsman found after much patient research and sifting of the evidence.

Indeed, the recommendations made by the PHSO on compensation for the Waspi women were relatively modest, so far as the indirect losses to the women are concerned – many having given up work and made provision for their retirement on the wrong assumptions. The PHSO set compensation at between £1,000 and £2,950. In the aggregate, however, this would cost the Exchequer up to £10bn (though possibly much less – depending on the pattern of claims).

As early as 2021, the PHSO ruled that the British state was guilty of “maladministration”, had ignored its own research showing that women didn’t know about pension-age changes, and had failed to write to women in time. That is a powerful moral and legal point.

The recommendations of the PHSO are not binding, but it is usual for them to be accepted. They are analogous to the settlements that followed the infected blood and Post Office Horizon scandals (though these are also running late). To put things crudely, it seems as though the Waspi women were at the back of the queue when the crisis in the public finances became really acute, and there was no money left. Certainly, the Conservative government didn’t make any effort to honour this financial obligation by the time the July 2024 general election arrived.

What makes matters even worse is Labour’s inconstancy. When in opposition, it gave the impression that the Waspi women would be helped. Once elected, in December 2024, it performed a U-turn – there would be no money for them, just a “sorry”. Yet in November 2025, under threat of legal action, there were reports that the government might pay compensation after all – a U-turn on a previous U-turn. Now the policy has zigzagged again. That is no way to treat people who’ve endured significant hardship.

It is, therefore, not the end of the matter, and there is disquiet once again in the parliamentary Labour Party about this incompetence. Presumably, as a shrewd political operator, Mr McFadden will have gauged opinion among his colleagues before launching this latest disappointing news. If not, and if frustrated Labour MPs are looking to punish the government for certain recent internal decisions, then another visit to the dispatch box, and yet another U-turn, may be in the offing.

Armed gangs rampant in Gaza killing Hamas members with Israeli weapons

Armed gangs are running rampant across the Gaza Strip and using Israeli weapons to kill Hamas operatives and members of the public, according to a new report.

One group, named the Helles Gang, forced Palestinians out of a residential block at Israel’s request, according to Saudi outlet Asharq Al-Awsat, leading Hamas to ambush some of their members on the outskirts of Gaza City on Monday morning.

Several Palestinians were also killed as they approached the yellow line in the Shejaia and Tuffah neighbourhoods by the gang, the newspaper said.

Raad al-Jamal – one of the earliest members to join the group – was killed, gang leader Rami Helles wrote in a Facebook post.

Multiple criminal gangs have emerged as the strip grapples with a power vacuum left by a Hamas depleted by intense Israeli bombardment. The factions vying for power have taken it upon themselves to kill senior Hamas members, with claims that some have been supported by Israel.

They have dubbed themselves “Popular Forces” or “Counterterrorism” as they continue to fight Hamas and others across the region.

The report suggests that Israel had high hopes for cooperation with the most prominent gang led by Yasser Abu Shabab, who was notorious for seizing humanitarian aid and later formed an armed group that spread under regions controlled by Israel.

Abu Shabab was later killed by Hamas, and leadership of the group was passed down to Ghassan al-Dahini.

The report also found that the groups have assassinated members of the Hamas security services and the al-Qassam Brigades. The first such killing was carried out by Shawqi Abu Nseira’s group. An officer in Hamas’s Internal Security Service, Ahmed ZamZam, was killed in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.

Sources told the newspaper that gang members in Gaza have obtained Israeli weapons, as well as food.

On 12 January, Hamas’s head of investigations Mahmoud al-Astal was killed in Khan Younis in an orchestrated assassination by a gang led by Housam al-Astal. Al-Astal is reported to have been a relative of the victim.

Abu Nseira and Al-Astal’s gangs are reported to display a stronger loyalty to Israel, sources told Asharq al-Awsat. They suggested that gunmen who carried out the attacks wore body cameras and used pistols with silencers. They also said the leaders had been trained by Mossad and recruited by Shin Bet.

Last year, 28-year-old journalist Saleh Al-Jafarawi was reportedly killed by the Dughmush clan amid clashes in the Sabra neighbourhood.

Al-Jafarawi’s body, with a “press” flak jacket, was recovered from the back of a truck.