Hamas security forces have returned to Gaza’s streets, clashing with armed groups and killing alleged gangsters in a bid to restore law and order where Israeli troops withdrew.
This show of force, welcomed by some Palestinians after months of lawlessness, could now threaten the fragile ceasefire, especially as all living hostages from Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack have been released.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said the war will not end until Hamas has been dismantled, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan calls for Hamas to disarm and hand power over to an internationally supervised body that has yet to be formed.
Hamas has not fully accepted those terms, saying more negotiations are needed. It says it is willing to hand over power to other Palestinians but will not allow chaos to prevail during the transition. Israelis fear that as long as Hamas is armed, it will exercise influence in Gaza — and could rebuild its military capabilities — even if an independent body exercises nominal rule.
Trump said Tuesday that Hamas had taken out “a couple of gangs that were very bad,” and killed a number of gang members. “That didn’t bother me much, to be honest with you,” he said.
But he reiterated his demand for Hamas to lay down its arms, saying: “They will disarm, and if they don’t do so, we will disarm them, and it’ll happen quickly and perhaps violently.”
The Hamas-run police maintained a high degree of public security after the militants seized power in Gaza 18 years ago while also cracking down on dissent. They largely melted away in recent months as Israeli forces seized large areas of Gaza and targeted Hamas security forces with airstrikes.
Powerful local families and armed gangs — including some anti-Hamas factions backed by Israel — stepped into the void. Many are accused of hijacking humanitarian aid and selling it for profit, contributing to Gaza’s starvation crisis.
Nahed Sheheiber, head of Gaza’s private truckers union, said Hamas was acting against gangs that had terrorized people in areas controlled by Israel.
“Those gangs looted aid and killed people under the protection of the (Israeli) occupation,” he told The Associated Press, saying they operated in so-called red zones where Israel had ordered people to evacuate. The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment.
Over the weekend, Hamas-led fighters clashed with an armed group in Gaza City affiliated with the powerful Doghmush family after the killing of Mohammed Aqel, a Hamas militant, on Friday.
Aqel’s family said in a statement that militiamen had kidnapped him, robbed him and killed him. Another family, the al-Muqaid, said the gang ambushed five of its members when they returned to their homes and robbed them, killing one and leaving another in intensive care.
Residents of the area, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of security concerns, said the gang, led by Hussam Doghmush, was known to loot aid convoys and rob abandoned homes in areas controlled by the Israeli military. They said Doghmush was among some two dozen people killed in the clashes with Hamas, including a local journalist and a son of a senior Hamas official based outside Gaza.
Hamas-linked Telegram channels said Hamas had targeted “collaborators and traitors” working with Israel. The Hamas-run Sahm security force, which says it targets looters and other criminals, shared footage that appeared to show its forces killing eight people execution-style in the streets as people cheered. It said the detainees were gangsters.
