Hamas behavioral civil-liberties / press-freedom record in Gaza: the March 2019 crackdown on the "We Want to Live" (Bidna Na'eesh) economic protests — Hamas security forces beat demonstrators, rights defenders and journalists and made 1,000+ arbitrary arrests (incl. at least 17 journalists and 6 human-rights defenders). Documented by Human Rights Watch (20 Mar 2019).

Hamas security forces have responded by viciously beating demonstrators, as shown in footage we have reviewed; rights defenders, including two senior representatives of the Palestinian watchdog the Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR); and opponents, including the spokesman of Fatah, its political rival movement.

Authorities have also carried out scores of arbitrary arrests – more than 1000 according to ICHR. Among those arrested are at least 17 local journalists, according to the journalist syndicate in Gaza; and six human rights defenders, including representatives of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, Al Dameer Association for Human Rights in Gaza, and Amnesty International.

[Source is in English; this field holds editorial context, not a translation.] Behavioral conduct-axis record of Hamas as the governing authority in Gaza, on civil-liberties / press-freedom / democracy — distinct from Hamas's declared charters and its external military operations. In mid-March 2019, Palestinians across Gaza protested under the slogan "We want to live" (Bidna Na'eesh) against Hamas taxes on goods like cigarettes and vegetables and the high cost of living; Hamas security forces responded with mass beatings and over 1,000 arbitrary arrests, targeting demonstrators, journalists, and human-rights defenders.

The episode is a sharp declared-vs-behavioral divergence: about a year earlier, the General Director of the Hamas-led Internal Security Forces had written to Human Rights Watch that "peaceful protests are permitted in accordance with law and order," that free speech is "a guaranteed right," and that "free press is among the key tools… to stand up against oppressors and tyrants." HRW's verdict: "That principle apparently doesn't apply when it's Hamas doling out the repression." HRW's October 2018 report "Two Authorities, One Way, Zero Dissent" separately found that Hamas authorities "routinely arrest and torture peaceful critics and opponents with impunity." [Axes: civil-liberties (behavioral), press-freedom, democracy.]