Hamas may have stopped fighting Israel, but it has launched a new, violent campaign to reassert control over local families and militias that had challenged its power during the past two years of war — including those who, according to the leaders of two clans, had received support from Israel. Whether by carrying out armed raids in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip or holding public executions farther north in Gaza City, Hamas is trying to send a clear message that, after months of hiding from Israeli fire, the militant group is back as the only visible authority inside the Gaza Strip, according to rival militia leaders, Palestinian officials and political analysts.
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After the ceasefire with Israel took effect, Hamas announced the appointment of five new governors who will administer Gaza’s devastated urban centers and circulated videos on social media showing its gunmen directing traffic.
Hamas-run social media accounts have described the clashes with rebel clans as an effort to bring criminals to justice. Many of the clans that rebelled against Hamas during the power vacuum created by the Israeli campaign were widely accused by Gazans of engaging in smuggling, gunrunning, extortion and the looting of humanitarian aid trucks. Several Gazan factions, including a leading tribal council, have voiced their support for Hamas’s efforts to enforce the law and condemned those who collaborated with Israel.
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In interviews, clan and militia leaders say they also saw Hamas move against them with methodical efficiency.
One of the first major clashes erupted before the ceasefire was announced. On Oct. 3, roughly 100 gunmen in Hamas uniforms arrived at a neighborhood in Khan Younis controlled by the Mujaidas, a prominent and outspoken family historically affiliated with Fatah, a political party that rivaled Hamas, said family members and Anwar Rajab, spokesman for the Palestinian Authority’s security forces in the West Bank, citing intelligence collected by the authority.
Armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, Hamas fighters advanced in formation from four different directions, sparking an intense firefight. They were only beaten back when an Israeli drone noticed the attack and fired on Hamas, according to Ali Mujaida, a senior clan leader whose house was targeted in the attack, and drone footage released by the IDF.
After the missile strike, Mujaida clansmen dragged an injured Hamas fighter into a house for interrogation and were surprised by the planning that went into the attack. “He gave us names, locations, directives and showed us the two separate communication lines used for unit operations,” Mujaida recalled. Documents taken off the body of a dead Hamas fighter, which were later posted by Mujaida clansmen to Telegram, contained detailed operational instructions and aerial photographs of the neighborhood with the targeted Mujaida houses circled in black marker.
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Mujaida denied that his clan worked with Israel or systematically engaged in looting. Many clan members supported Fatah, the political party that controls the Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank, while a few joined the Islamic Jihad and the Hamas military wing itself, Mujaida said.
Most Mujaida clansmen “are not affiliated with Hamas and indeed many lean toward Fatah,” said Rajab, the Palestinian Authority security official. “Hamas feared that, either of their own accord or else in coordination with the PA, these families would revolt against their rule, and so Hamas needed to nip this in the bud. It was a preemptive strike.”
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