When Israel withdrew from Gaza last week, Hamas intervened, with violence marked by at least one public execution and clashes with rival factions as the militant group tried to reassert control amid a ceasefire in the war-torn territory.
The message was clear: we are still here.
Disarming Hamas is the most critical and difficult-to-implement part of President Donald Trump’s peace plan, analysts say.
But Gaza is home to numerous clans and militant groups, and reckoning and criminality pose a threat to order in the Palestinian enclave even after the ceasefire.
Video obtained by Reuters this week appeared to show masked gunmen executing several men on a street in Gaza City. In the images you could see at least six people being forced to kneel, with their shirts pulled over their heads, before being shot.
In other images, at least two of the people carrying out the executions appeared to be wearing the green headbands typically worn by Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades. NBC News verified the location of the video within Gaza, but not that the men shown were Hamas members.
Hamas did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incidents. Last month, before During the current ceasefire, Hamas-led authorities said three men were executed after being accused of collaborating with Israel, Reuters reported at the time.
President Donald Trump issued a clear warning about violence on Thursday.
“If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Agreement, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” published in Truth Social.
Asked at a press briefing if he meant that American troops could be involved, Trump said: “It won’t be us. We won’t have to do it. There are people very close, very close, who will come in. They will do the trick very easily, but under our auspices.”
Following the initial withdrawal of Israeli troops from parts of Gaza, Hamas, which has ruled the enclave since 2007, has sought to regain control, with the militant group’s internal security organization issuing a call urging residents to report “wanted persons,” including Israel’s “collaborators.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had confirmed earlier this year that Israel had “activated” clans that oppose Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the United States. His comments came after Israeli media, including the Times of Israel, reported that he had authorized the delivery of weapons to a particular group in southern Gaza, citing defense sources.
Calling on Hamas to “suspend violence” in the enclave on Wednesday, CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper said the truce established by Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan marked a “historic opportunity for peace.”
“Hamas should take advantage of it by withdrawing completely,” he said.
Trump’s warning Thursday followed comments earlier in the week in which he appeared to downplay the violence in Gaza, saying Hamas had taken out “a couple of gangs that were very bad,” before adding, “that didn’t bother me much.”
This week’s flashes of violence came as the United States and Israel continued to call for the disarmament of Hamas, a key stipulation of Trump’s plan and a long-standing sticking point in talks for a lasting truce.
The Israeli army was accused of repeatedly opening fire on Palestinians this week amid the truce. The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged an incident Tuesday in which it said troops opened fire on people approaching forces stationed along the withdrawal line agreed to in the first phase of Trump’s plan, which they said was a violation of the agreement.
Michael Wahid Hanna, U.S. program director at the International Crisis Group, a global nonprofit based in Brussels, said there was still a lack of clarity about how the disarmament of Hamas could actually play out.
“None of this has been detailed: what type of weapons, under what conditions… none of that. None of that is on paper,” he said. “It’s kind of an aspirational end point without a lot of signs on how to get there.”
What is clear, Hanna said in an interview Wednesday, is that “Hamas is not gone.”
“I mean, a lot of people have said this for a long time, that Israel wouldn’t be able to eliminate or destroy Hamas, and they haven’t,” Hanna said.
“They have probably eliminated Hamas as a real threat to Israeli security, but in terms of Hamas in the Strip, they are still there and apparently exerting coherent control,” he said, noting that some of the violence appeared to be “linked to clan criminality,” including clans with “ties to Israel.”
Members of several clans in the enclave have clashed with Hamas in the past two years, including the Abu Shabab clan, led by Yasser Abu Shabab, whom Hamas has accused of collaborating with Israel. The Doghmosh clan, one of the largest and most powerful in Gaza, has also been at odds with Hamas.
Reuters reported that Hamas fighters had clashed with Doghmosh members on Sunday and Monday, citing security sources. NBC News could not immediately verify that report.
“There are very well-known clans and personalities,” Hanna said. “Anyone who at this point is trying to operate independently outside of Hamas authority in the places where it is present will probably have problems.”
In a statement released Tuesday following a meeting of Palestinian tribes and clans in the Gaza Strip, some clans warned that protection would be withdrawn from any member “who is shown to be involved in any violation that threatens our social security and civil peace.”
They urged the groups to “fully comply with this decision” to maintain peace and “hand over the perpetrators and rapists to the competent authorities,” in an apparent reference to Hamas.
“I think it was a stupid strategy on Israel’s part to try to trust some of these clans,” said Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, head of Realignment for Palestine, a project of the Atlantic Council. “Hamas made its name early on by basically breaking away from a lot of these clans and having the ability to say we’re bringing law and order.”
The gang violence in Gaza comes as peace efforts have also been complicated by Hamas’s failure to return many of the 28 bodies of hostages killed in captivity.
Hamas said Wednesday that the remaining bodies required “significant efforts and specialized equipment to search and recover.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told top commanders of the Israel Defense Forces to prepare a military plan to defeat Hamas if the militant group refuses to implement the US-brokered peace plan, according to Katz’s spokesman.
