CAIRO (AP) — As the Gaza ceasefire holds, Hamas security forces have returned to the streets, clashed with armed groups and killed alleged gangsters in what the militant group says is an attempt to restore law and order in areas where Israeli troops have withdrawn.
The show of force, welcomed by some Palestinians after months of lawlessness, could threaten the truce now that all the living hostages taken in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack have been released.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said the war will not end until Hamas has been dismantled, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan calls for Hamas to disarm and hand power over to an internationally supervised body that has yet to be formed.
Hamas has not fully accepted those terms, saying more negotiations are needed. It says it is willing to hand over power to other Palestinians but will not allow chaos to prevail during the transition. Israelis fear that as long as Hamas is armed, it will exercise influence in Gaza — and could rebuild its military capabilities — even if an independent body exercises nominal rule.
Trump said Tuesday that Hamas had taken out “a couple of gangs that were very bad,” and killed a number of gang members. “That didn’t bother me much, to be honest with you,” he said.
But he reiterated his demand for Hamas to lay down its arms, saying: “They will disarm, and if they don’t do so, we will disarm them, and it’ll happen quickly and perhaps violently.”
Breakdown in security
The Hamas-run police maintained a high degree of public security after the militants seized power in Gaza 18 years ago while also cracking down on dissent. They largely melted away in recent months as Israeli forces seized large areas of Gaza and targeted Hamas security forces with airstrikes.
Powerful local families and armed gangs — including some anti-Hamas factions backed by Israel — stepped into the void. Many are accused of hijacking humanitarian aid and selling it for profit, contributing to Gaza’s starvation crisis.
Nahed Sheheiber, head of Gaza’s private truckers union, said Hamas was acting against gangs that had terrorized people in areas controlled by Israel.
“Those gangs looted aid and killed people under the protection of the (Israeli) occupation,” he told The Associated Press, saying they operated in so-called red zones where Israel had ordered people to evacuate. The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment.
Over the weekend, Hamas-led fighters clashed with an armed group in Gaza City affiliated with the powerful Doghmush family after the killing of Mohammed Aqel, a Hamas militant, on Friday.
Aqel’s family said in a statement that militiamen had kidnapped him, robbed him and killed him. Another family, the al-Muqaid, said the gang ambushed five of its members when they returned to their homes and robbed them, killing one and leaving another in intensive care.
Residents of the area, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of security concerns, said the gang, led by Hussam Doghmush, was known to loot aid convoys and rob abandoned homes in areas controlled by the Israeli military. They said Doghmush was among some two dozen people killed in the clashes with Hamas, including a local journalist and a son of a senior Hamas official based outside Gaza.
Hamas-linked Telegram channels said Hamas had targeted “collaborators and traitors” working with Israel. The Hamas-run Sahm security force, which says it targets looters and other criminals, shared footage that appeared to show its forces killing eight people execution-style in the streets as people cheered. It said the detainees were gangsters.
The Gaza-based Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights denounced the extrajudicial killings by Hamas.
The Doghmush family initially denounced the gang and distanced itself from it. Two days later, it issued another statement condemning Hamas’ response, saying there was no need for “this brutality.”
A first step toward normalcy
Saeed Abu Elaish, a medic from the northern Jabaliya refugee camp who fled to central Gaza last month, said he had seen police return to the streets and welcomed it as a first step toward restoring “some kind of normalcy and safety” after two years of ruinous war.
Netanyahu has hinted he will resume military operations if Hamas is not disarmed peacefully.
The Hamas-run Interior Ministry has announced a weeklong amnesty, saying gang members not implicated in bloodshed can turn themselves in and have their records expunged. Those who do not will face arrest and prosecution, it said.
“No one will be allowed to undermine public security or the rights of citizens,” the ministry said in a statement, calling it a “a final warning.”
Hossam al-Astal, the leader of an anti-Hamas militia in southern Gaza with apparent links to Israel, rejected the warning.
“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,” he wrote on Facebook.
Al-Astal who was imprisoned by Hamas before the war on allegations of drug smuggling, established an armed group late last year that operates in areas controlled by Israel. He appears to have joined forces with Yasser Abu Shabab, who leads a similar armed group in the Israeli-controlled southern city of Rafah that has a history of looting aid convoys.
Israel has acknowledged supporting Abu Shabab and others opposed to Hamas, while denying any involvement in the looting of aid.
The presence of such groups could complicate talks over Hamas’ disarmament. The militants have expressed willingness to hand over offensive weapons like rockets to a Palestinian or Arab body but say they need lighter weapons like assault rifles to defend themselves, according to Arab officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive ceasefire talks.
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Krauss reported from Ottawa, Ontario.
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Follow AP’s war coverage at apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
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