A vocal supporter of Fatah, Hamza was in almost daily telephone contact with his brother, a senior officer in the Palestinian Authority government in Ramallah. His fate is a chilling example of the terror inflicted on political dissenters who live under the Hamas regime that has ruled Gaza since May 2007. It is also a reminder of the debilitating nature of the conflict that has split communities in the Palestinian territories as political rivals Hamas and Fatah play out a deadly battle for supremacy, delaying indefinitely any hope of a peace with Israel that would give Palestinians a sovereign state. "In 2007, the death toll of Palestinians killed by Fatah or Hamas exceeded for the first time the number of Palestinians killed in clashes with the Israeli occupation forces," said Hamdi Shaqqura, director of the democratic development unit at Gaza's Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. According to figures cited by Shaqqura, 394 Palestinians were killed in clashes with the Israeli military and security forces in 2007 but at least 500 were killed by forces aligned with either Fatah or Hamas. Shaqqura, who has sought justice on behalf of Dalal al-Shoubaki since her husband went missing, said the case is just one of many in Gaza that follow a similar pattern.

On January 30, Jameel Shaqqura, a 51-year-old resident of the Khan Younis refugee camp, was summoned to a local sports club where he was told he had to testify in a case he said he knew nothing about. At 6.30am the next day Shaqqura's brother received a phone call from Nasser Hospital. Jameel had been admitted, unconscious. He was pronounced dead on February 6 from what doctors described as a "brain clot caused by torture and severe beating to his head." On the same day, masked gunmen claiming to be police arrested 47-year-old Nehad Sa'adi al-Dabbaka at his home in the al-Maghazi refugee camp. Three days later, al-Dabbaka was dead in hospital, his body showing clear signs of torture and beating on the feet, back, hands, ears and chest. On January 8, midway through the conflict with Israel, masked Hamas security agents showed up at the home of At Yousef al-Buri, 39, in the al-Shati refugee camp. Claiming to be police, they dragged al-Buri into a jeep. Half an hour later he was dumped near his home, severely beaten. He died on February 7. "In this conflict, we are talking mostly about barbaric acts of revenge and retaliation," Shaqqura said. "Human rights abuses are witnessed every day here. People have no freedom of association or right to assembly, no freedom of speech, or access to an independent justice system."

At the time of his arrest, Hamza al-Shoubaki, 40, a plumber, was selling fruit and vegetables to support his wife and their 13 children. For four months after he was taken, Dalal said she could get no explanation of why he had been detained, or even where he was held. Despite numerous personal appeals to senior Hamas figures, and appeals made on her behalf by non-government organisations, her efforts proved futile. Then, in early December, her husband finally called home, revealing that he was being held at a prison inside an Internal Security Services compound at al-Saraya near Gaza City. "He told me that I was allowed to come and visit him," she said. Hamas's security service enjoys a savage reputation. "No one ever asks any questions about the ISS," said one Gaza resident who spoke to the Herald but asked not to be named. "As soon as you do, you can expect a visit asking why you are so interested."

From the living room in her crowded but barely furnished apartment in Gaza City, Dalal described her shock when she visited her husband. "At first I nearly didn't recognise him. There were many signs of torture. He was pale and bruised and he had trouble walking." Hamza detailed a nightmarish tale of beatings and torture. He was regularly punched and kicked, intermittently deprived of food and sleep, hung from the ceiling for hours on end by his feet and his arms, and on one case hung from the ceiling for several hours by one arm. Dalal claimed her husband had also been electrocuted and repeatedly had a gun held to his head and fired in order to force a confession. At one point, she said, he was hospitalised after passing blood in his urine. "He said he had also been brought before the military court on several occasions but they were never able to prove anything ." Several days after the Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert launched Operation Cast Lead on December 27 - a full-scale military assault aimed at crippling Hamas's ability to fire rockets into southern Israel - the jail where Hamza was held was hit by Israeli fire, giving inmates the opportunity to escape.

Hamza fled, but unlike 17 others who were killed, he was picked up the same day by Hamas militants and got off comparatively lightly. They shot him through the back of both legs below the knee, then pushed him out of a car in the Sheikh Ejlin neighbourhood south-west of Gaza City. "When he came to us, he was barely alive," Dalal said. "But after one month of medical treatment at home, and support from our families, he regained some of his health and was able to stand up and walk again." By early February, after Israel had declared a unilateral truce in its military campaign against Hamas, the ISS, intent on tracking down anyone they believed had collaborated with either Israel or the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, launched a search for Hamza. "On February 4 and 18, a number of gunmen came to our house asking about my husband, but we had moved him and he was not at home," Dalal said. She was constantly watched and followed when she left the house and her telephone was bugged. Hamza was hidden at the homes of various relatives.

On February 26, Hamza al-Shoubaki decided to move again to what he thought he would be a safer location. The ISS was watching and at 10pm that day, masked gunmen stormed his new hideout. "At around 8am the next day, a relative of Hamza's received a phone call from the Shifa Hospital to come and identify a man who was now in the morgue. It was Hamza," Dalal said. Surrounded by her children, ranging in age from one to 17, Dalal displayed no sign of fear of retribution for speaking out against Hamas. "I want everyone to know what Hamas does here. I am not afraid. I want justice. I want what happened to my husband to happen to the people who killed him." Loading

When the Herald approached the Hamas government's official spokesman, Taher al-Nono, for comment, he declined. "I have no knowledge at all of this case," he said. Hamdi Shaqqura believes there is little chance Hamza's killers will ever be known. "Hamas owns the justice system here in Gaza. Why would they ever prosecute themselves?"