Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

In Gaza, the Clans That Have Re-Emerged Must Be Supported

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Gaza’s alternative to rule by Hamas are the large families — the clans — those traditional sources of authority and power, that have re-emerged as Hamas has been battered by the IDF. Gregg Roman argues that the West ought to recognize these clans as the only conceivable, and welcome, replacement for Hamas in Gaza. More on the clans can be found here: “Gaza’s Clan Architecture: The Only Alternative to Hamas’s Resurgence,” by Gregg Roman, Middle East Forum, October 15, 2025:

The October 13, 2025, announcement that Hamas has received American approval to conduct security operations in Gaza represents a catastrophic strategic error that undermines the long-term objective of excising the terrorist organization from Gaza’s governance. President Trump’s statement that “we gave them approval for a period of time” to address lawlessness fundamentally contradicts his own 20-point peace plan’s core principle: Hamas must have no role—direct, indirect, or in any form—in Gaza’s future governance. While the remaining 19 points of the framework continue to be negotiated and implemented, this premature legitimization of Hamas’s security role virtually guarantees its complete reconstitution.

The strategic imperative remains unchanged: empowering Gaza’s clan structures, which represent 72 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents through 608 registered mukhtars and six major Bedouin confederations, to fill the governance vacuum as Hamas is systematically removed….

The Hamas Interior Ministry’s October 13 offer of amnesty to gang members who join its security forces reveals the organization’s strategy for rapid reconstitution. Every individual accepting this amnesty becomes a Hamas operative, expanding the organization’s intelligence network and territorial control under the legitimate cover of maintaining public order. The ongoing clashes in Sabra and Shuja’iyya neighborhoods between Hamas forces and independent actors demonstrate that Hamas is not preventing lawlessness, but systematically eliminating alternatives to its authority.

President Trump’s justification that “close to 2 million people going back to buildings that have been demolished” requires immediate security fundamentally misdiagnoses the problem. The security vacuum exists precisely because Hamas’s totalitarian control prevented alternative power structures from developing over 18 years of rule. Filling this vacuum with the same organization that created it, even temporarily while other framework elements are negotiated, guarantees the perpetuation of the underlying pathology that led to October 7….

The emergence of effective clan-based security forces during the conflict provides concrete evidence of their capability. Yasser Abu Shabab’s Popular Forces, with 400 fighters, successfully secured humanitarian corridors for six consecutive months. Hossam al-Astal’s Counter-Terrorism Strike Force demonstrated the ability to clear neighborhoods of Hamas cells while maintaining civilian protection. When Hamas’s Arrow Unit attempted to reassert control in October 2025, al-Mujaida clan fighters, supported by al-Astal’s forces and Israeli air cover, successfully repelled the attack. These achievements occurred despite minimal resources and constant Hamas intimidation, proving what becomes possible with proper support.

The March 2025 success of clan forces in securing World Food Programme convoys to Gaza City warehouses, ending months of systematic looting, demonstrates their ability to provide the practical security that Gaza’s population desperately needs. Unlike Hamas, whose security provision always served military objectives, clan forces focus on protecting economic activity and humanitarian operations that directly benefit their constituent populations….

Throughout Gaza, the clans that have re-emerged after Hamas’s battering by the IDF have shown themselves able to protect and encourage economic activity, to resolve legal disputes, to handle administrative tasks, and to do all this without any attempt to divert human and other resources to war-making outside of Gaza.

The Palestinian Authority’s comprehensive inadequacy makes it irrelevant to Gaza’s immediate needs. Its security forces failed to prevent Hamas’s 2007 coup despite international training and equipment. Its administrative apparatus remains thoroughly corrupted, with international aid routinely diverted to personal enrichment rather than public service. President Abbas, at 89 years old and serving the 20th year of his four-year term, commands no legitimacy in Gaza.

Nor does Abbas “command legitimacy” in the parts of Judea and Samaia that the Palestinian Authority rules. 80% of the people in the PA say they want Abbas to quit. Forget about the Palestinian Authority. Put in power the Gazan clans who are the mortal enemies of Hamas.

Technocrats can advise and plan, but they cannot compel compliance from a population that views them as foreign impositions lacking legitimate authority….

The clans are organic to Gaza, unlike Arabs from outside who would not be familiar with the tribal structures that predominate in the Strip.

Under the Trump deal, Hamas is required to stop military operations. Those individuals continue to carry out such operations are thus fair game for the IDF to hit with precision strikes. The outside powers, especially the United States, need to support in every way the traditional clan structures that are deeply rooted in Gazan society, providing economic support so that clan members are better paid than those belonging to Hamas, while making the case for the clans diplomatically so that in the corridors of power outside Gaza, the efficacy of the clans’ rule in the Strip will be appreciated. Finally, the clans must be supported militarily, not just with better weaponry, but also with Israeli advisers embedded within their fighting units to help the clans repel attacks by Hamas. And in the reconstruction of Gaza, every project should include personnel from several different clans, who in this way are more likely to experience the benefits of cooperation rather than the waste that results from conflict among them.

Comments

  1. Bethlehem is an excellent example of what Clan Rule looks like. One clan controls all business and tourism, and demands protection money from almost all businesses operating on its territory.

    The result is that 90% of the productive Christians have left Bethlehem, leaving a dangerous and visit at your own risk enclave that is the birthplace of Jesus.

    I think of these clans as the Crips and Bloods. Right now, the crips and bloods are joining forces to exploit a weakness in Hamas and a chance to take over their criminal enterprises.

    The only solution is for Israel to reclaim Gaza in total and make it part of Israel and Tel Aviv South.

    The problem now is that Hamas has broken the 20-point plan by still using the dead bodies of hostages as collateral to buy time for the Hudna. Trump is married to peace and will hold his nose to what Hamas does to keep the peace.

    Hamas will operate in their best interests and use all the leverage available to them, of which they are skilled.

    • Not just Bethlehem: even Nazareth, which is within Israel proper, has seen mohammedans horning in on what’s Israel’s #1 Christian holy site

  2. If there’s any real estate on Earth that I wish didn’t exist it would be Gaza. i fear it will be a Hellhole into the indefinite future no matter which Islamic group or groups control it. Much better if Israel had never given it back in 2005 (and why any so-called Palestinian state in the so-called West Bank would be like Gaza on steroids).

    • I don’t think Israel ever wanted the burden of holding onto Gaza. It can safely be abandoned as long as neither Hamas, nor any other Palestinian group, possesses weaponry in the Strip. The real battle that Israel must wage and win is that to hold onto all of JUdea and Samaria, to which Israel is entitled by 3500 years of Jewish history, by the Mandate for Palestine, and by UN Security Council Resolution 242, as glossed by its author, Lord Caradon. Israel must start now in making that case, and on every conceivable occasion, bring up its claim to that territory, without which the Jewish state is indefensible. And keep hammering home the point about “the only Jewish state will not be fatally undone in order to make room for a 23rd Arab state.”

      • I understand your point but “holding on” to the so-called West Bank without major expulsions of Arab Muslims would be akin to Poland letting western Poland remain very German or the Czechs not expelling Germans from the Sudetenland after WWII. Moreover, I think one could argue that not holding on to Gaza could very well prove to be even more deleterious to Israel than re-taking it. Of course, often life leaves you with only bad options and one is forced to choose the least bad option. Not certain where Gaza is concerned which is the least bad—holding onto it, not holding onto it or semi-holding onto it replete with perimeters et al.

      • Gaza was one of the only places that Israel thought that it could let go of, but it ended up as a base for constant attacks on Israel for about 20 years. Israel would do well to press for the “Transfer Solution”, where all “Palestinians” were forcibly evicted out of the area to far off countries, be it Somalia or Mauritania or anywhere else. Do the Trump proposal on Gaza, where everything gets demolished and Riviera-like waterfront property is developed, for both Israeli Christians and even Jews, as well as tourists

      • Israel desperately hoped that surrendering Gaza would lead to peace–of course, it did not.

  3. So much for the peace plan. I don’t think Trump fully understands what Islam is capable of doing. I agree with other comments that this will be a truce not an end to Hamas/Islamic terror.

  4. hamas….a designated terror org (with its own arm in the U.S.) **”conducting *security* operations.”

    “security” for whom? Who is *secure* when a designated terror organization is providing “security”?

    Can’t the people in charge of things ask pertinent questions? From where do they get their ideas?

  5. Naah! Treat it as an Alien vs Predator scenario. Just hope that both sides have enough power to weaken the others, but no one has the power to do anything on their own. Make it the two cats of Kilkinney until Gaza is empty

  6. In Gaza, the Clans That Have Re-Emerged Must Be Supported
    ………………………………………….

    I have the greatest respect for Hugh Fitzgerald and his understanding of Islam. But I don’t think that we should offer support to Islamic clans. Yes, they are rivals to Hamas for power in Gaza, but this does not mean that they are apt to be peaceful with Israel.

    I imagine they would use any support to murder Israelis–just as Hamas has.

    • Yep! The bulk of them are probably pro islamic jihad, Fatah, PFLP or DFLP. Not people like Khaled Abu Toameh, who are fine w/ Israel existing

  8. With all due respect. Isn’t this a case of “changing deck chairs on the Titanic”.

    “Palestine”is a Jihad Project, period. The production line starts with the women
    having as many babies as possible to be raised as soldiers and martyrs.
    Then It’s a Launch Pad for Islamic rockets and fighters.

    Doesn’t matter which Arabs are in power in the Launch Pad. They all have the
    same Jihadi Project goal. Eliminate Israel or Martyrdom.

    Clans gain power, then they eventually start attacking Israel. Why go through
    the trouble of changing groups. Israel and U S have to go through the farce of
    pretending the Clans want a State? Then Israel and U S have to pretend to be
    shocked when the Clans violate the agreement and start attacking Israel?

    That just gives more time to the Launch Pad to reorganize with a different
    group of Arabs with the same Jihad Project goals.

    On the other hand.

    When Hamas inevitably violates the agreement – the one they didn’t agree
    to past Phase 1, per Hamas.
    The historical facts will be fresh
    No one will have to pretend to be surprised.
    Hamas currently doesn’t have any living Israeli hostages.

    Israel could obliterate Hamas and, by law, take Gaza.

    I’m open to a different scenario – if it comports with reality.

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