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The anti-Hamas Palestinian militiamen, speaking from behind Israeli lines in Gaza, have a message for the militants and for the world.
“We are the sons of Gaza, and young men against Hamas; now is the time to cleanse Hamas from Gaza.”
‘Abu Awad’, a commander and spokesperson for Popular Forces, is talking from eastern Rafah, southern Gaza, near the border with Egypt.
Less than 10km away, Hossam al-Astal is running a different armed faction called the Counter-Terrorism Strike Force, also behind Israeli lines, this time in the east of Gaza. He tells The Independent he is already in touch with the Trump administration about post-war Gaza, and wants to work with Tony Blair.
“Today, we’re the ones who are there with credibility,” he says. “We are determined and capable. In the near future, it will be us, not Hamas.”
These anti-Hamas militias, allied but part of separate fiefdoms, are two of multiple factions set up after the start of war in October 2023 that have since been accused of being armed, funded or supported by Israel.
They are now located within the “yellow” zone: an area Israeli forces withdrew to and control as part of a Donald Trump–brokered truce deal, but which makes up more than half of the destroyed Strip.
Both groups deny accusations of “collaborating” with Israel, but say they “coordinating” to maintain a presence behind their lines.
As violence within Gaza has soared, they also convey similar messages: Hamas, diminished and wrestling to take back control of the Strip, is on its way out.
Internal violence soars in Gaza amid famine, destruction
After two years of Israel’s unprecedented bombardment and siege of Gaza — which has killed over 67,000 people according to local officials and destroyed swathes of land — pressure on pre-existing divisions within its society has reached breaking point.
As famine set in, the looting of aid, theft and violent activity by gangs, clans and armed groups became widespread. In tandem, anger against Hamas, which led the bloody 7 October attacks on southern Israel – killing over 1,000 people and triggering Israel’s latest deadly offensive – has also grown. Battles between Hamas and its rivals have surged.
Such violence has only escalated in the euphoric aftermath of Trump’s ceasefire deal. Since then, clashes have erupted as Hamas have emerged from their tunnels to wrestle back control of areas where the Israeli military has withdrawn.
Hundreds of Palestinians have died as a result.
In fact, since October 2023, researchers from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (ACLED) say they have recorded more than 245 violent incidents between Palestinians, separate to the war with Israel, which have resulted in around 400 Palestinian deaths.
Among them were police officers, clan members and gang leaders, looters, anti-Hamas activists, alleged collaborators, and merchants accused of profiteering.
ACLED, which recently published a new report, says nearly half of these violent events involve Hamas’s “Sahm” (meaning arrow) and “Radea” (meaning deterrence) police units, which were formed in 2024 and, according to their social media pages, are tasked with hunting down alleged “collaborators and outlaws”.
One of their chief targets according to ACLED’s data is the Popular Forces factions and their allies in the east and north of Gaza.
Who are the anti-Hamas militias?
The Popular Forces was formed by the nebulous militiaman Yasser Abu Shabab, who hails from the prominent Tarabin Bedouin tribe and who was reportedly in Hamas’s jails for drug smuggling when the war broke out in October 2023.
Speaking to The Independent from inside Rafah, Popular Forces spokesperson ‘Abu Awad’ claims this group now has 5,000 men, without providing any evidence.
There have been multiple reports – including in Israeli media – of their forces looting aid, getting Israeli support, and then apparently manning controversial Israeli-run aid distribution sites. Abu Awad dismisses the accusations as Hamas propaganda, claiming only to have indirect contact with the Israelis through Arab mediators.
“We have five times the soldiers of Hamas and we are ready to attack: we will send them and their family members to hell,” he adds ominously.
East of Khan Younis, again behind Israel’s military-controlled yellow line, is Hossam al-Astal, who says he is in touch with the Trump administration and wants to work with Blair, who has been tapped up by the US president to oversee a transitional period of the destroyed enclave.
In 2015, al-Astal was a security official with Hamas’s rival, the Palestinian Authority, and intermittently in exile. He says he returned to Gaza in 2021 but Hamas jailed him for two years and sentenced him to death for allegedly being a collaborator, which he denies.
After initially being linked to the al-Majaydah clan – which has opposed Hamas in Khan Younis – he launched the Counter-Terrorism Strike Force to the east of the city.
“We are the new administration of Gaza,” he says, sharing videos of himself handing out sweets to children in his area, where he says 70 families now live – presumably side-by-side with Israeli soldiers.
“There’s communication between us and the Trump administration,” he adds, claiming he is also in touch with troops that will make up the International Stabilisation Force slated to take over security of the Strip in Trump’s plan.
“We love and would like to co-operate with Tony Blair and Donald Trump and anyone who calls for peace. We are with peace.”
A third faction in Beit Lahia, north of Gaza – also within the yellow line – is an apparent offshoot of the Popular Forces, formed by another figure called Ashraf al-Mansi. Sky News recently published footage it verified, allegedly showing al-Mansi’s north Gaza faction apparently driving supplies from an Israeli base.
Hamas, Gaza’s clans and soaring violence
As Trump declared a “new dawn for the Middle East” in Jerusalem earlier this month, in Gaza disturbing footage started to emerge apparently showing summary executions by Hamas against members of a clan.
Gaza has dozens of these clans – which is a loose translation of the Arabic word “hamula”.
Over the last two years, ACLED has recorded battles between Hamas and members of the Abu Samra clan in the central Deir al-Balah region, the Hellis clan in the Shejaia neighbourhoods of Gaza City, and in the east with the Al-Majaydah clan around Khan Younis, which Hossam al-Astal says he was originally helping.
In the most recent bloody and murky battle just over a week ago, medical sources said at least 27 people, including Palestinian citizen-journalist Saleh al-Jafawri, were killed in a fight between Hamas and members of the Doghmush clan, who are based in the Sabra district of Gaza City.Doghmush family members have a chequered history: some were part of Jaysh al-Islam, which kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston in 2007.
Disturbing videos were later posted online showing masked militants publicly shooting seven men identified as Doghmush members, who were bound, blindfolded and kneeling, while crowds cheered.
The posts, shared on Sahm-affiliated Telegram accounts, accuse the men of collaborating with Israel: an allegation the Doghmush family vehemently denies.
In a statement, the family said “700 of their members had died defending Gaza” and that they had “stood firm in the face of Israeli aggression”. They called an emergency meeting of other clans to discuss the violence.
In separate footage, masked Hamas police units are seen shooting men they accuse of being looters and collaborators in the legs and breaking limbs, as the victims scream.
“This is the path of every traitor to the homeland and to religion,” reads one post.
The Trump administration weighed in, with the State Department saying on X that they had “credible reports indicating an imminent ceasefire violation by Hamas against the people of Gaza”.
Without going into detail, the warning coincided with Sunday’s expiry of an amnesty Hamas announced last week to “criminal gangs” and armed groups to hand themselves in.
Hamas said the US claims were prompted by “misleading Israeli propaganda”.
They defended their bloody crackdown as “their national duty” and instead accused Israel of forming, arming and funding “criminal gangs that have carried out killings, kidnappings, theft of aid trucks, and robberies against Palestinian civilians.”
How did we get here?
The Israeli military has been quick to utilise this internal violence to portray Hamas as the new “Isis”. The Israeli military spokesperson Nadav Shoshani even shared the graphic video of the Doghmush execution on X, declaring “This is Hamas”.
But experts warn that some of the violence has been engineered by the Israelis, who benefit from a weakened Hamas and Palestinian factions tearing each other apart. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said himself in a social media video in June that Israel had deliberately “activated” clans in Gaza to oppose Hamas.
ACLED’s report also points to the breakdown in security being in part due to Israel’s aim to weaken Hamas’ civil authorities responsible for managing daily life.
Since the start of the war, ACLED has recorded nearly 100 Israeli airstrike events targeting individuals and facilities linked to Hamas’s governance, municipalities, police forces and judiciary. It also says the military has continued to target Hamas’s police officers, including those tasked with securing aid convoys and preventing looting.
Meanwhile there are growing reports of Israel arming some of the anti-Hamas groups. Israel’s opposition leader and ex-defence minister Avigdor Lieberman accused Netanyahu of this in June. Netanyahu pushed back, asking “what’s wrong with this?”
The Independent approached the Israeli military and government for comment but has yet to receive a reply. It also reached out to Hamas but has received no reply.
Nasser Khdour, ACLED’s Middle East assistant research manager, says they had gathered reports – also published in Israeli media – alleging that Israel permitted groups like the Popular Forces to control and seize aid, and then later to “secure” supply lines. Abu Shabab appeared in a photo in May in body armour, apparently directing aid around the Kerem Shalom crossing.
“Based on other reports, weapons were confiscated from Hamas during the war and those of the weapons were given to these groups,” says Khdour.
There was fury in Israel when Israeli media outlet Mako reported that post ceasefire Hamas had seized at least 45 pickup trucks, hundreds of machine guns, and even grenades that Israel earmarked for anti-Hamas groups.
What will happen next?
Netanyahu has made clear he will not tolerate a Palestinian state. He has been accused of pursuing a divide and rule strategy: intermittently propping up or undermining Hamas and the PA in the occupied West Bank, to exploit their divisions.
Khdour says this is more urgent than ever for Israel, because of discussions about the revival of a two-state solution involving the PA in a post-war Gaza.
“They found Hamas, after October 7, a dangerous actor that should not remain in power in Gaza. So they have started to look for other actors,” he says. “Part of this were the clans and these groups.”
In the middle of this, Hamas has vowed to hunt every last collaborator.
This does not apparently worry the Popular Forces, who shared a list of names of Hamas fighters across the Strip they have compiled and are “waiting for the green light to attack”.
“There will soon be international forces in Gaza, and Hamas will be forcibly disarmed. They are effectively finished,” adds Abu Awad.
From his base in the east of Gaza, behind the yellow line, Hossam al-Astal says he has built a “humanitarian city” for the displaced – and insists his faction are “not gangs or militias”.
“No one will help Gaza except us. Neither the [Palestinian] Authority will help us, nor Israel will help us, nor the Americans will help us.
“They will cooperate with us. But it must come from here, from within. I tell you, we are the new Gaza.”