An Enemy Within: How Gazan Militias Became Hamas’s New Nightmare

Gazan militias have emerged as a new internal threat to Hamas, with a recent operation inside the Gaza Strip highlighting both their growing activity and Hamas’s concern about them.

Arab media initially reported that an Israeli force had entered Gaza for a covert operation against a senior Hamas figure. Once the operation was exposed, a firefight erupted at close range between the force and the figure’s guards. Fighters from a Gazan militia led the battle, while the Israel Defense Forces provided cover for the force’s extraction with ground and air strikes. Smoke from the strikes could be seen from far away.

The operation ended with the arrest of a senior Hamas figure. The detention could provide information about Hamas’s covert activities and its methods of operating in Gaza. The action also drew attention to a policy promoted by former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, who pushed for support for anti-Hamas militias despite criticism inside and outside Israel’s defense establishment.

Reports indicate that different militias have conducted operations over the past year that directly harmed Hamas’s military capabilities. Hamas’s security apparatus has sought to contain the challenge on several fronts, pursuing alleged Israeli collaborators, informants and critics. Some people were warned, others were interrogated or severely beaten, sometimes in public, and some were killed in what were described as mysterious circumstances.

Hamas has also expanded intelligence gathering and surveillance of Israeli forces along the Yellow Line. Its operations have focused on studying the patterns of Israeli military units, identifying unusual activity and detecting attempts to cross the new border line. Militants have additionally carried out deliberate friction operations with Israeli soldiers there, adding another front to the organization’s struggle against opponents inside Gaza.