REPORT | Saudi outlet Asharq Al-Awsat reports that Israel has launched airstrikes against prominent families in Gaza City after their elders refused to collaborate with Shin Bet’s plan to establish clan-based governing bodies in place of Hamas.
The Israeli intelligence agency approached elders from the Bakr and Doghmush families, proposing that they form local armed groups to manage aid, administer neighborhoods, fight Hamas, and pass intelligence to Israel. The goal, sources said, was to divide Gaza into “regions” run by clans or armed groups, preventing the emergence of a unified Palestinian government and blocking the foundations of any future Palestinian state.
When both families rejected the offer, Israel launched retaliatory strikes. In Sabra, southern Gaza City, an airstrike on the Doghmush family killed 30 people, with at least 20 still buried under rubble. Hours later, Israeli warplanes bombed a Bakr family home near Al-Shati refugee camp, killing six, wounding 11, and later struck another multi-story Bakr residence and an empty building near Gaza’s port.
A Bakr elder reportedly confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that Israeli intelligence had demanded they govern Al-Shati after Hamas was cleared out, but the family “categorically refused.” He said they knew reprisals would follow and immediately instructed relatives to evacuate, especially women and children.
The Bakr clan, one of Gaza’s largest with deep roots in the fishing trade and members linked to Fatah and Islamic Jihad, stressed that their refusal was a patriotic stance against collaboration with Israel, not loyalty to Hamas.
The report adds that Israel has increasingly relied on clan-based militias operating in east Rafah, east Khan Younis, east Gaza City, and the northern Strip. Many families have publicly disowned members who joined such groups, led by figures like Yasser Abu Shabab, Rami Helles, and Hossam Al-Astal. Hamas has repeatedly ambushed these militias, killing or wounding some fighters, and in some cases arresting and executing collaborators publicly.
The attempt to split Gaza along clan lines is not new: after the first year of genocide, then–Defense Minister Yoav Gallant advanced a similar scheme, but Hamas thwarted it by threatening and killing two leading figures who considered cooperating.
Israel’s broadcaster Kan reported the same. Linked below 👇
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