In the tumultuous aftermath of the October 7, 2023 attacks and the subsequent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the Gaza Strip is experiencing a fraught and violent transition. As Israeli troops have withdrawn to pre-determined lines, Hamas has rapidly moved to reassert its authority, launching a sweeping campaign against rival armed groups and criminal gangs. This campaign, marked by public executions and deadly clashes, is both a bid to restore order and a stark challenge to the fragile peace now hanging over the territory.
According to the Associated Press, Hamas security forces have returned to the streets of Gaza, clashing with armed groups and killing alleged gangsters in what they describe as an effort to restore law and order. The group’s show of force has been welcomed by some Palestinians, exhausted by months of lawlessness, but it has also sparked fears that the ceasefire could unravel. The reemergence of Hamas in positions of authority comes as the last living hostages taken in the October 7 attack have been released, fulfilling a key condition of President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan.
Yet, the underlying terms of this peace remain deeply contested. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted that the war will not end until Hamas is entirely dismantled. Trump’s plan, meanwhile, calls for Hamas to disarm and transfer power to an internationally supervised body—a body that, as of now, does not exist. Hamas has not fully accepted these terms, signaling its willingness to negotiate but refusing to allow chaos to prevail during any transition. “They will disarm, and if they don’t do so, we will disarm them, and it’ll happen quickly and perhaps violently,” Trump warned this week, as reported by AP.
The security vacuum created by the war and the partial withdrawal of Israeli forces has been filled by a complex web of local power brokers. Powerful familial clans—some with histories stretching back centuries—have seized the opportunity to assert themselves. The Dughmush clan in Gaza City, for example, is one of the largest and most heavily armed. Over the past week, Hamas fighters clashed with an armed group affiliated with this clan after the killing of Mohammed Aqel, a Hamas militant. According to family statements and AP sources, Aqel was kidnapped, robbed, and killed by militiamen. The resulting violence left around two dozen dead, including Hussam Doghmush, a notorious gang leader accused of looting aid convoys and robbing homes in Israeli-controlled areas.
Hamas’s response has been brutal and highly public. Reuters reported that at least seven men, their hands bound, were dragged into a Gaza City square and executed in front of crowds. In total, at least 33 people have been killed by Hamas since the ceasefire took effect. Hamas-run security forces shared footage that appeared to show execution-style killings, with onlookers cheering. Human rights groups, including the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights, have condemned these extrajudicial killings, warning that such actions threaten the rule of law and the fragile peace.
The violence is not limited to clashes with gangs. As The Conversation notes, Gaza’s familial clans have played pivotal roles in Palestinian society since the 1948 Nakba, often acting as mediators and patrons. Their influence surged during the First and Second Intifadas, when security vacuums allowed some to transform into paramilitary organizations. After Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, it took nearly a year to subdue the most powerful clans, and even then, the outcome was more truce than triumph. Now, as Gaza reels from devastation and uncertainty, these clans are again jockeying for power—some allied with Fatah, others openly backed by Israel.
Indeed, Israeli support for anti-Hamas factions is no secret. In June 2025, Netanyahu admitted to arming certain Gazan clans and militias, such as the Popular Forces led by Yasser Abu Shabab. His rationale was blunt: any opposition to Hamas helps Israel and reduces risks to Israeli soldiers. This strategy has pitted Palestinian against Palestinian, further complicating the prospects for unity and stability. As Hossam al-Astal, a militia leader linked to Israel, declared on Facebook, “To all the Hamas rats, your tunnels are destroyed, your rights don’t exist anymore. Repent before it is too late—there is no Hamas from today onward.”
Hamas, for its part, has targeted those it labels “collaborators and traitors,” a pointed reference to clans and gangs cooperating with Israel. The group’s Sahm security force has carried out summary executions of suspected collaborators, moves that have drawn both local and international condemnation. Yet, within Gaza, some residents see the return of police and the crackdown on gangs as a necessary step toward normalcy. Saeed Abu Elaish, a medic from Jabaliya, told AP he welcomed the return of police as “a first step toward restoring some kind of normalcy and safety after two years of ruinous war.”
Amidst this chaos, the peace plan brokered by Trump faces daunting hurdles. The first phase—securing the release of living hostages—has been achieved. The second phase, which requires Hamas to disarm, renounce violence, or accept exile, is proving far more contentious. According to Fox News, negotiations are underway, but progress is slow and the obstacles immense. Ghaith al-Omari, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, warned, “The longer the time passes, and the more that they [Hamas] establish themselves on the ground now in the security sphere, we’ll soon start seeing them also doing in the civilian sphere… the harder it becomes to kind of dislodge them.”
Trump’s plan envisions the eventual deployment of an International Security Force (ISF) to take over from Hamas, but such a force remains theoretical. The U.S. has ruled out sending troops, and while regional powers like Indonesia and Malaysia have expressed willingness to participate, they insist on a United Nations Security Council resolution. The challenges of legitimizing and deploying an international force are immense, especially given Hamas’s public rejection of foreign troops and the population’s wariness after years of displacement and violence.
The ambiguity over Gaza’s future governance only deepens the crisis. Netanyahu has rejected the idea of the Palestinian Authority assuming control, while the proliferation of new militias and clan-based power centers threatens to fracture Gaza further. As The Conversation observed, “This ambiguity over the future governance of Gaza opens the possibility that the more powerful clans could become alternate centres of political power, as they had during the Second Intifada.” The risk, analysts warn, is a further weakening of efforts to reunify Palestinian territories and an even more tenuous path to a future Palestinian state.
For now, the ceasefire holds, but the ground beneath Gaza is anything but stable. With rival factions circling, international plans stalled, and Hamas determined to maintain its grip, the coming months will test whether Gaza can move from chaos to something resembling peace—or if it will slip once again into conflict.
