One week into the ceasefire, a brand new type of violence is plaguing the Gaza Strip.
Public executions, arson assaults and gun battles have raised the spectre of a slide into civil chaos as Hamas battles armed teams it accuses of collaborating with Israel.
Consultants say Hamas is making an attempt to reassert its authority following Israel’s withdrawal from elements of the Gaza Strip.
The combating has drawn the ire of US President Donald Trump, who posted on his Reality Social platform on Thursday: “If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them.”
Who’re the Doghmosh clan?
On the evening the ceasefire was agreed, Majed Doghmosh – not his actual title – was sheltering in Gaza Metropolis’s deserted Jordanian Hospital alongside his dad and mom and six-year-old sister.
Like many residents of the encircling Al Sabra neighbourhood, Majed belongs to the Doghmosh clan – an influential prolonged household which has lengthy had a tense relationship with Hamas.
Many members of the clan had fled to the hospital two weeks earlier, after the Israeli forces entered Al Sabra.
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Israeli tanks seen outdoors the Jordanian Hospital (left) in Gaza Metropolis, 7 October 2025. Pic: Planet Labs PBC
When the ceasefire was introduced, Majed says, “people began to rejoice that the war was over and life would return to normal.”
However as individuals had been returning to their properties, a contingent from Gaza’s Hamas-led safety forces arrived on the hospital. They mentioned they had been trying to find collaborators.
‘They got here with lots of of individuals’
“We, as a family in general, have completely refused any cooperation with the occupation,” says Nizar Doghmosh, the household’s chief in Gaza.
“But the occupation managed to infiltrate one… weak, shallow-minded, foolish person.”
Whereas within the Jordanian Hospital, Nizar says, this individual recruited seven or eight others into an anti-Hamas militia.
As an alternative of handing themselves in, these males opened fireplace on the safety forces, killing Mohammed Aqel – the son of senior Hamas commander Imad Aqel.
“Suddenly, we started hearing that Hamas wants to kill everyone who calls himself a Doghmosh,” Majed says.
“They came with hundreds of people, killing women, children and young people and burning down our homes.”
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Majed fled, however left behind his dad and mom and sister – who he says are nonetheless trapped and hiding in Al Sabra neighbourhood.
Palestinian journalist and social media influencer Saleh Al Ja’afari was killed on Sunday whereas reportedly masking the combating in Al Sabra. It stays unclear who shot him.
Footage posted on Sunday reveals a gun battle at a junction close to the neighbourhood.
On Monday night, footage emerged of a mass public execution on the identical intersection.
“All they wanted were 6 or 7 people, and these people were killed,” says Basel Doghmosh – not his actual title – who additionally managed to flee the combating. “Now they are killing everyone.”
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Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem instructed Sky Information that Gaza’s authorities is making an attempt to keep up order.
“Hamas has not targeted any family,” he mentioned.
“The occupation has formed armed militias loyal to it, and these militias are accused of high treason – the most severe charge in Palestinian revolutionary law.
“All clans, social and household our bodies have expressed help for this effort by the safety forces of the federal government in Gaza.
“These chaotic incidents must be decisively contained. This is a national position.”
At the least 4 anti-Hamas militias
Hamas has made a present of pressure in current days, with its fighters showing on road patrols and at hostage handover ceremonies throughout the Gaza Strip.
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Amjad Iraqi, a senior analyst on the Worldwide Disaster Group, says that Hamas’s “vicious” response to the Doghmosh clan is partly meant to discourage different armed teams from difficult its authority.
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Who’s Yasser Abu Shabab?
Probably the most influential is a former looting gang led by Yasser Abu Shabab, which controls territory alongside Gaza’s primary route for transporting assist. The group claims that 1,500 individuals are dwelling of their territory, together with 500-700 fighters.
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Abu Shabab’s militia maintains unfastened ties to the opposite teams, whose management of territory is far much less clear.
Preventing reveals want for multinational safety pressure
Dominic Waghorn
@DominicWaghorn
It’s fairly clear from the proof Sky has gathered that Israel has pursued a coverage of divide and rule in Gaza and is constant to take action. It has armed and financed militia who’re rivals to Hamas and is now permitting them to function in areas beneath its management.
The safety scenario in Gaza can be dangerous sufficient with out that type of meddling. From the beginning of the ceasefire Hamas has clearly got down to reassert management as can be anticipated.
Because the UN company UNRWA instructed Sky, the very last thing Gazans want proper now’s combating between Palestinians. It threatens their lives and hampers the important effort to get assist into Gaza.
Hamas is more likely to prevail in a wrestle with smaller extra disparate teams. That can then increase questions for each Israel and the Trump peace plan.
The Netanyahu authorities promised Israelis complete victory over Hamas. Hamas is much from dismantled even whether it is unlikely to resume hostilities anytime quickly.
Donald Trump has repeated his demand Hamas disarm. That won’t occur, not least as a result of it will go away them on the mercy of their enemies.
One of the best hope for the peace plan and for Gaza is the insertion of the multinational safety pressure envisaged within the Trump plan. However that might seem like months away and by then Hamas could also be assured sufficient to not cooperate.
Ashraf Al Mansi’s militia
The chief of the fourth group, Ashraf Al Mansi, posted an announcement to social media on Tuesday warning Hamas towards approaching areas beneath their management.
Al Mansi’s militia has established itself north of Gaza Metropolis.
Its headquarters are at an deserted college greater than 500 metres contained in the Israeli zone of management.
The place do the Halas militia function?
Additional south, to the east of Gaza Metropolis, gunfire may very well be heard on Tuesday as Hamas battled one other militia, led by Rami Halas.
On Sunday, 12 October, Gaza’s Hamas-run inside ministry provided amnesty to any militia members not concerned in killings, as long as they turned themselves in by 19 October. “Consider this a final warning,” the assertion mentioned.
“Hamas destroyed the Gaza Strip – it has become nothing but a pile of ashes and stones,” says Basel.
“We are not afraid of death as long as it is for the sake of liberating the Gaza Strip from their ignorance, backwardness, and destruction.”
Preventing may imperil deliberate assist surge
The rising violence comes as Palestinians proceed to attend for a surge in assist promised beneath the ceasefire settlement.
Gaza Metropolis is presently experiencing famine, with the remainder of the territory affected by extreme meals shortages after months of Israeli restrictions on assist deliveries.
Sam Rose, Gaza director of the UN refugee company UNRWA, says that mounting an efficient assist operation would require Israel to permit assist in at scale and to provide assist teams the liberty to maneuver throughout the Gaza Strip.
“But we also need to know that our trucks and staff are not at risk from fighting or looting by armed elements,” he provides.
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5:01
A Sky Information investigation has uncovered new particulars about Israel’s help for a Palestinian insurgent group
We additionally discovered that Abu Shabab’s militia has been receiving meals assist from the Gaza Humanitarian Basis (GHF), a US- and Israeli-backed assist group.
In different movies, militia members could be seen displaying off stacks of money and smuggled valuables.
Israel accused of ‘divide and conquer’ technique
Disaster Group’s Amjad Iraqi says that, by supporting teams corresponding to Abu Shabab’s, Israel has been participating in a method of “divide and conquer”.
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Amjad Iraqi, a senior analyst on the Worldwide Disaster Group, says Israel is participating in a method of “divide and conquer”.
“What’s happening right now is really a direct consequence of an Israeli policy throughout much of the war, but especially since it broke the ceasefire in March, to essentially render Gaza ungovernable.”
“A power vacuum… is to Israel’s advantage because it weakens Hamas and it weakens Gazan society writ large,” he says.
Further reporting by Celine Alkhaldi, Sophia Massam and Freya Gibson.
