Postwar: Who Are The Tribal Clans Fighting for Control in Gaza?
- Damian Pachter
- 16 hours ago
- 4 min read
As a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas barely holds on, the Gaza Strip is being reconfigured under tribal control.
While the terror group Hamas fights to regain its power and maintain its deadly grip, different clans dispute the area and are challenging the status quo. Some are collaborating with Israel, but the strategy is already facing deadly ramifications.
Why this matters
Since the Trump administration brokered a truce between Israel and the terror group on October 10, a new map of loyalties emerged in Gaza:
1) Those who pushed toward the end of Hamas
2) And those who remained loyal to the "Islamic Resistance" after all
In recent weeks, multiple reports, including video material, images and testimonies from Gaza, reflected Hamas conducting a purge against rival families, factions, and clans.
Under suspicion of collaboration, alleged members of these families were taken to the streets and shot in plain sight. Others were subject to summary detentions, torture and their whereabouts were unknown.
The Doghmush clan
“We need to be very clear: these elements in the territories that Hamas controls have been crushed, such as, for example, mainly the Doghmush clan”, explains Dr. Michael Milshtein, senior analyst at The Dayan Center, Tel Aviv University, in an interview with The Mideast Journal.
The Doghmush is one of many groups disputing the territorial control and is rooted in Gaza City. The clan’s attempt to challenge Hamas has so far resulted in a catastrophic failure despite being supported by Israel, according to Milshtein, mainly through weapons and money.
“The Doghmush is part of a clan that is partly ISIS, partly involved in criminal matters, partly a completely anarchist group. They have always been the trouble makers for Hamas, and Hamas is settling scores with them right now,” the expert, who also served as head of the Palestinian Arena in the Military Intelligence of the IDF (Aman), added.
“They were either executed or forced to express their solidarity with Hamas,” Milshtein said, as an indicator of this strategic defeat.
Abu Shabab clan
However, the most prominent and notorious militia is the one led by Yasser Abu Shabab and his “Popular Forces,” active in the Southern lands around Rafah and Khan Younis, areas under IDF control.
Earlier in July, Abu Shabab published a letter in the Wall Street Journal under the title “Gazans are finished with Hamas,” where he expressed that his gang “is ready to build a new future.”
However, Milstein poured cold water on this experiment, not only due to a failure on the operational side but also on Gazan streets.
“A large part of the clans, the gangs that we [Israel] nurtured -by the way, some of their weapons and money ended up with Hamas because they took it from them- are criminals with the image of collaborators on the Palestinian street,” he described.
"Unfortunately, everyone who developed the fantasy of the clans today has actually caused Israel a great deal of damage because also a large number of those who collaborated with us were executed, Israel's image in the Middle East was also damaged, and there are currently dilemmas: should I protect these clans?”
“In the known methods of the Middle East, there is no mercy, there is no compassion, you simply kill,” Milshtein concluded.
While negotiations for the future of the area continue and Israel awaits the handling of 11 bodies of deceased hostages, it is clear that Hamas regained its territorial power after two years of war.
Attempts to remove its influence have so far failed, and hopes for a new actor to alter the balance of power prove optimistic. The possibility of civil war in Gaza persists.
Gaza mediators
Another dimension of the power struggle lies in the differences among the mediators, mainly Qatar and Egypt. Each nation defends its own interests and sets up loyalties on the ground.
“Qatar considers Hamas an asset,” Milshtein clarifies, while “Egypt wants first of all to have a very significant influence. It wants to bring back the Palestinian Authority.”
With that said, the most powerful actor is the US administration under President Donald Trump, who, for now, has succeeded in preventing the total collapse of the ceasefire following multiple violations by Hamas.
Israel, under Prime Minister Netanyahu, has said it is committed to the deal and promises to bring back all the remaining bodies in Gaza, a clause that the terror groups in Gaza have been dragging on since the truce was achieved.
Meanwhile, more than half of the territory of Gaza remains under IDF control behind the so-called agreed Yellow Line.
According to a recent poll released on October 28 by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), an overwhelming majority of Palestinians (69%) oppose the disarmament of Hamas, and just 29% support it. When asked about Hamas and its atrocities against Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 86% claimed “it did not happen.”
Damian Pachter is an Argentine-Israeli journalist based in Berlin. He worked as Chief World editor for Israel Hayom daily and special correspondent for Haaretz newspaper before that. He also anchored the Spanish-speaking TV show Ñews24 on i24NEWS and served as its senior editor. Previously, Pachter collaborated with The Associated Press in Buenos Aires, Argentina.