At least 27 people have been killed in violent clashes between Hamas security forces and armed members of the Dugmush clan in Gaza City. This is one of the most violent internal confrontations since the end of Israel’s major operation in Gaza.
Masked Hamas gunmen exchanged gunfire with tribal fighters near a Jordanian hospital, witnesses said.
A senior official in the Hamas-run Interior Ministry said security forces surrounded them and fought fierce battles to detain them. The Ministry of Defense said eight of its members were killed in an “armed attack by militia.”
Medical sources said 19 Dergmush tribe members and eight Hamas fighters have been killed since fighting began on Saturday.
Witnesses said clashes broke out in Tel al-Hawah district in southern Gaza City after more than 300 Hamas troops moved to storm a residential area where Dergmoosh gunmen were entrenched.
Residents described scenes of terror as dozens of families were shot and forced to flee their homes, many of whom were displaced at various times during the war.
“This time people did not run away from the Israeli attack,” said one resident. “They were running away from their own people.”
The Dugmush clan, one of Gaza’s most prominent tribes, has long had a strained relationship with Hamas, and its armed members have clashed with the group on several occasions in the past.
The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said its military was working to restore order and warned that “any armed activity outside the framework of resistance” would be dealt with decisively.
Both sides traded accusations over who was responsible for sparking the clashes.
Hamas previously said Dugmusi militants killed two fighters and wounded five others, prompting Hamas to launch an operation against them.
However, a source from the Dughmush family told local media that Hamas forces stormed the building that once served as a Jordanian hospital. The building took refuge there after the family fled there after their home in the Al Sabra neighborhood was destroyed in a recent Israeli attack.
Sources claimed Hamas was trying to evict the family from the building to build a new base for its forces.
According to local sources, Hamas has recalled around 7,000 security forces to reassert control over areas of Gaza from which Israeli forces recently withdrew.
Reports have shown that armed Hamas units have already been deployed in several areas, some wearing civilian clothes and others wearing the blue uniforms of Gaza police. Hamas’ press office denied it had “deployed fighters on the streets.”
