(JNS) Mere hours after IDF soldiers pulled back from their front-line positions on Oct. 10, in accordance with the 20-point ceasefire deal, Hamas began consolidating power through a series of clashes and purges throughout the Gaza Strip.

Hamas moved quickly, mobilizing around 7,000 fighters on the first day of the ceasefire. In parallel, it quickly reestablished command and control capabilities and appointed five new governors over various districts of the Strip. Notably, the governors are not from Hamas’s political wing but are rather military field commanders from the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

Soon after the mobilization, clashes broke out across the Gaza Strip, as Hamas sought to crush rival clans. Fighting was heavy across several neighborhoods of the Gaza Strip.

In Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood bordering the Yellow Line, where the IDF currently holds a perimeter, Hamas gunmen engaged members of the Hellis clan. In Beit Lahia, fighting erupted between gunmen affiliated with Ashraf al-Mansi and Hamas forces. In the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City, local clans also resisted as Hamas men came to try to arrest prominent familial leaders...

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