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Threats or nuisance? After years of cooperation, some Gaza clans rise up against Hamas
Very long, A taste: [IsraelTimes] As the war drags on and aid supplies are increasingly precious, large, heavily armed clans in the southern Strip are openly defying the terror group. Could they be viable partners for Israel?A powerful Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppressionand disproportionate response... family exchanged fire with Hamas  ..a regional Iranian catspaw,...last week at a major hospital in Khan Younis, in a conflict that ended with burned vehicles and destroyed equipment. Hamas and the Barbakh clan blamed each other for the fight at Nasser Hospital: While Hamas claims it acted against a Barbakh relative who had stolen aid — and blamed the clan for damaging the hospital — anti-Hamas media outlets allege that Hamas operatives took refuge inside Nasser after murdering a clan member. The clash then morphed into a war of words. The Barbakh family lashed out against the terror group in a post on a popular anti-Hamas Telegram channel, alleging that since Hamas’s 2007 takeover of the territory, "the Barbakh family has paid the price for its positions and has been subjected to Hamas repression. The time for a response has come." The family is not alone: For the first time in nearly two decades of Hamas rule in Gaza, large, heavily armed clans are openly defying the terror group, through both public statements and armed confrontations. The opposition marks a serious challenge to Hamas’s ability to maintain local control, and comes amid the group’s declining military strength and waning popularity among Gazooks as the nearly 21-month-old war with Israel drags on. Israel has suggested that the clans could supplant Hamas rule in Gaza, but this is not necessarily a positive prospect: Even as they’ve begun to publicly counter Hamas, the families have continued to harshly criticize Israel and distance themselves from it. Despite growing perceptions of armed clans gaining influence in parts of Gaza, Michael Milshtein, head of the Paleostinian Studies Forum at Tel Aviv University, told The Times of Israel that the phenomenon remains geographically limited to the southern Gaza Strip and does not yet pose a serious threat to Hamas. "At this stage, I see the clans as a nuisance and a challenge to Hamas — but not a real threat to its rule, and certainly not a coherent or viable partner for Israel for the day after," he said. "I still see Hamas as the dominant force in Gaza, particularly through its special unit ’Saham,’ which is responsible for maintaining public order, especially in the northern Strip," he said. "In the south, where the IDF has more control, we’re seeing more of these clan-related phenomena." A CORE SOURCE OF IDENTITY The Gaza clans consist of dozens of extended families whose total populations range from hundreds to thousands of members, though exact numbers are hard to come by. The clans, which are typically linked by distant kinship and shared patriarchal lineage, serve as crucial sources of economic and social support. For many, clan identity surpasses the national Paleostinian cause. The families are often concentrated in particular areas of the Strip. The Barbakh clan, according to videos it has circulated, operates in southern Gaza around the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, while the Abu Ziyad family is based in the village of Zawaida, near Deir al-Balah in the center of the territory. Prior to the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, the families organized under an umbrella group called the "Clans Committee," originally founded in 2012 by West Bank-based Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase.... The committee continued operating under Hamas control after Abbas called for its dissolution in 2019. Clan leaders regularly held public visits with Gaza officials under the committee’s auspices. In July 2023, representatives of the committee even traveled to Cairo to meet with then-Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continued as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintained a separate PM in the West Bank. Zapped during the 2023-24 war, to eveyone's satisfaction... For the nearly 20 years it has controlled Gaza, Hamas was able to coexist with the clans. Violent festivities were rare, occurring only when Hamas saw the families as a threat to its authority. More often, it co-opted their influence to pursue its own goals, while in other instances, it ensured that they remained focused on internal matters without challenging its authority. But that informal pact now appears to be fraying. Posted by: trailing wife 2025-07-03 |
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