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As the slow return of the remains of Israeli hostages creates an impasse for the continued advancement of peace negotiations between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian group takes advantage of the ceasefire guaranteed by the first phase of the agreement to reimpose territorial control over the Gaza Strip, which has been plunged into the chaos of war for two years. Hamas forces have clashed with rival armed groups in different parts of the Palestinian enclave since the signing of the agreement, and public executions have been recorded on video and spread on social media — in a power struggle that divides the population over the return of the presence of a form of authority in everyday life.
Hamas announced an operation to reoccupy areas from which the Israeli army withdrew shortly after the signing of the first phase of the peace agreement last week. Under the argument of guaranteeing order and restoring the law, the Palestinian group, in power in the enclave since 2007, announced a mobilization of 7 thousand men. Fighters from the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, its armed wing, were seen controlling the crowd during the hostage handover on Monday, while the territory’s police resumed patrols on city streets, with officers wearing black masks and carrying assault weapons.
A Palestinian security source in Gaza told AFP that the Hamas security body — a newly created unit whose name translates as the Deterrence Force, was carrying out “field operations to ensure security and stability.” Since the beginning of the operation, clashes have been recorded between Hamas and other Palestinian factions.
A clash took place this Tuesday in the Shejaiya district, east of Gaza City — the same region where the Israeli military admitted to having opened fire after armed men approached the security perimeter to which the troops retreated. It is not clear whether the action of the Army, which continues to occupy 53% of Palestinian territory, constitutes support for any of the factions involved. At least four people died, according to Palestinian sources.
The routine of confrontations was repeated in recent days. Over the weekend, men from Hamas and the Dughmush clan, a powerful family organization, were involved in a skirmish that left more than 20 people dead. Images recorded in the enclave’s largest city, reproduced by official Hamas media and on social media, showed executions carried out by hooded men in a public square, in front of dozens of people. The al-Aqsa TV network reported that those killed in one of these rounds of execution were criminals and suspected of spying for Israel.
Clashes between Hamas and other political groups — and often armed ones — are a constant that recurs from time to time in Gaza. When the group came to power in 2007, it expelled Fatah from the enclave, in a process that turned violent, with the death of around 120 people, according to estimates by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Other armed groups coexist with Hamas in Palestinian territory, including Islamic Jihad, an organization that collaborated in the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack against Israel, to family clans that received help from Tel Aviv to confront Hamas troops. In June of this year, the Israeli government admitted to arming opposition Hamas clans in Gaza, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even recording a video in which he defended the action and asked “what’s the problem with that?”.
The group accused of receiving aid in Gaza is known as the Popular Force, led by Yasser Abu Shabab, a Palestinian Bedouin aged around 34. There is confirmation that the group operated in eastern Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, close to the borders with Israel and Egypt throughout the war.
Although it is presented by Hamas as an operation to combat crime, motivated by the social chaos created after the start of the war in Gaza and the invasion by the Israeli Army, which broke with the already fragile institutional organization of the enclave, residents are divided over the means and force used by the Palestinian group to regain control.
— Why are people celebrating the chaos? A masked man kills another masked man without any evidence, without investigation, without a court, without even a waiting period for appeal: what do we call that? Resistance? No, this is illegal – said lawyer Mumen al-Natoor, a resident of Gaza, in an interview with the British network BBC. — Those who kill without law are criminals. We will hold them accountable. We are witnesses to the darkest chapter in our history.
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Activist Ibrahim Faris, an activist who lives in the central Gaza Strip, compared internal conflicts to a “sin.”
“You can’t correct one mistake with another,” he said. — Executions without a fair trial are a crime.
In other regions of the enclave, the arrival of Hamas men was seen as positive, and seen as a sign of a return to normality, after two years of forced displacement and the deep crisis that collapsed even the simplest economic relations, including food trade.
— We started to feel safe — said Abu Fadi al Banna, 34, in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza. — They began to organize traffic and clear the markets. We feel protected from criminals and thieves.
Hamdiya Shammiya, 40, who due to the fighting had to move from the north to the southern city of Khan Yunis, agreed.
— Our lives now need patience, order and the security that the police have begun to reestablish. We have already noticed a small improvement,” he said.
For Hanya, a Palestinian who is staying in the city of Deir al-Balah, the current observation is that there is a power vacuum in the Palestinian enclave, after years of conflict and the prospect of Hamas disarmament — although the group rejects the proposition, which is Israel’s demand for the end of the war and is in American President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan.
— The ceasefire does not magically solve everything. It’s just the first of many steps towards recovery — said the Palestinian on BBC Radio 4’s World at One program. — I don’t want Hamas to take control, but we need a rule of law, we need someone to take power. A vacuum would be a worse proposition than Hamas.
Trump’s plan for Gaza envisages the establishment of a technocratic Palestinian government, supported by an international initiative, which the American president himself would preside over. It also points out that an International Stabilization Force, with soldiers from several countries, including Arab partners, would enter the enclave to guarantee security and train Palestinian forces. However, there is no defined timetable for these actions, nor is there any certainty that negotiations will progress. (With AFP)
