Hamas Out to Destroy the Gazan Clans That Oppose It

Hamas has been a despotic, cruel, and thieving ruler over Gaza for nearly twenty years. For a long time, it was the unchallenged absolute ruler of the Strip. If anyone dared to challenge its rule, or even just to criticize it, that person would be savagely beaten or, in some cases, murdered.

But now, over the past two years, the IDF has badly battered Hamas. It has lost, so far, 26,000 of its combatants, more than half its prewar numbers. All of its senior commanders have been killed; most of its tunnels have been destroyed; the IDF has seized or destroyed huge amounts of its weaponry.

Hamas plans to wipe out its enemies within Gaza while it still has all of its weapons: “Hamas shoots at Palestinian rioters after abducting prominent Gaza clan members – analysis,” by Seth J. Frantzman, Jerusalem Post, October 11, 2025:

Hamas appears to be preparing to exact vengeance on those opposed to its rule in Gaza. This will come in the form of mafia-like murders of those Hamas claims are “collaborators.” It will target clans and groups that have shown opposition to Hamas. It will also target those that have worked with Israel, or who it accuses of working with Israel.

A Telegram channel linked to Hamas said the group would target “collaborators.”

The BBC reported that Hamas has called up some 7,000 fighters to assert its control. Hamas recruited during the war even as it took losses. It may have lost many of its commanders, but it has appointed new commanders to various cells, platoons, companies, battalions and brigades….

Khaled Abu Toameh, an expert and journalist who has covered Palestinian affairs for decades, wrote on social media that “Hamas security forces have arrested dozens of suspected collaborators and anti-Hamas clan members since the ceasefire went into effect. Many are expected to be executed, according to Palestinian sources.”

Public executions have already been taking place, an attempt by Hamas to terrify the Gazan population into continued submission, at a time when the well-armed clans have emerged to challenge Hamas in their local fiefdoms. As always, Hamas accuses the powerful families that oppose them of being “collaborators with the Zionist enemy.” In some cases, the IDF has indeed supplied a powerful clan with weapons, so that it might better withstand assaults by Hamas.

As Hamas threatens to eliminate any opposition in Gaza, the groups that emerged during the war to challenge Hamas are eying the future. The Telegraph reported this weekend that “In an exclusive interview, Hossam al-Astal describes how he and others who hate the terror group await moment to liberate Gaza.”

Astal leads a group opposed to Hamas. In the interview he said he would work with Tony Blair, whose name has circulated as one of those who may play a role in the Trump-backed Board of Peace for Gaza.

Astal is not the leader of a family clan but, rather, of a group of fighters united in their hatred of Hamas.

Hamas likely also has its sights on the Doghmush clan whose members it has killed in the past. The clan is large and has weapons, and Hamas will try to keep it in check via violence but also likely via talks. BBC reported on October 11 thagt “tensions rose sharply and quickly after two members of Hamas’s elite forces were shot dead by gunmen from the powerful Dughmush clan in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood. One of them was the son of a senior commander in Hamas’s armed wing, Imad Aqel, who now heads the group’s military intelligence.”

Clearly the Doghmush clan in Gaza City, where Hamas still has some forces intact, are not afraid to take on the error group.

Another group that Hamas will want to target are any of those linked to Yasser Abu Shabab, who formed a militia in southern Gaza. He is linked to Bedouin families and Hamas may target members of Bedouin tribes accused of working with Israel.

Israel’s Ynet noted that “amid the emerging cease-fire deal with Hamas, under which 48 hostages held in Gaza are expected to be released in the coming days, a senior Israeli security official on Thursday called to ‘act now’ to protect the Gaza clans that fought against Hamas during the war. ‘We must not abandon them to Hamas,’ he said.” The New Arab has asked what will happen to those groups that worked with Israel and The Guardian has made it appear that those groups could harm the current peace deal….

What The Guardian must mean is that because of its fears of being attacked not by the IDF, but by the family clans, Hamas will be reluctant to disarm at all, thus jeopardizing the implementation of Phase 2 of the Trump Plan.

There are a half-dozen powerful family clans in Gaza, in Gaza City, in Khan Younis, and in Rafah, each with many hundreds of well-armed combatants, and Hamas will have its hands full trying to defeat all of them, especially if the Israelis supply them with more weapons. Hamas is now being pressured to give up its weapons, at the very moment when its internal enemies are at their strongest, both in manpower and in weaponry. The IDF has begun its ceasefire, but Hamas has no respite from war, because of the many thousands of armed men belonging to the clans, determined to finally put paid to the terror group that has made the lives of Gazans hell for nearly two decades.