By Mostafa Salem, Ibrahim Dahman
(CNN) — When Sheikh Mohammed Abu Mustafa stepped out of his mosque in southern Gaza after leading afternoon prayers in early November, a gunman on a motorcycle pulled up and shot him dead.
It was a targeted assassination that that an Islamist militant group said was carried out by local Israeli-backed militia.
A Hamas-linked group later claimed that the slain imam was a jihadist who had concealed Israeli hostages during the Gaza war, and accused the hitman of belonging to a new Israeli-supported militia led by Hussam Al-Astal – a former prisoner in Hamas-ruled Gaza who is now openly working to topple the militant group that has ruled the territory with an iron first for nearly two decades.
In a phone interview with CNN, Al-Astal denied that his men assassinated Sheikh Abu Mustafa but said he welcomed the death of any Hamas member.
His obscure group, the self-styled Counter-Terrorism Strike Force, has taken control of a village in the Israeli-occupied part of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. From there, it carries out raids against Hamas while trying to grow its small domestic following.
As the dust begins to settle after the brutal two-year war, Gaza has been split in two. Hamas is reconsolidating its control in the western half of the enclave that Israel withdrew from, and remains the dominant force where the vast majority of Gaza’s population lives. East of the so-called yellow line – an Israeli military boundary– however, relatively few civilians remain. It is there, in the Israel-controlled territory, that small armed groups are trying to assert their dominance and carve out influence.
Under Israel’s close watch, at least five factions are now operating within the yellow line. What began as scattered, opportunistic gangs exploiting the chaos of the conflict has coalesced into a coordinated network of armed militias that are openly positioning themselves for a postwar role in Gaza should Hamas be removed from power.
“There is coordination between our groups. We have the same goals and the same ideology…We have the same aim,” Al Astal told CNN, referring to Hamas’ defeat.
Armed with light weapons, a few dozen fighters, and a handful of vehicles, the militias operate from separate bases across Israeli-controlled areas of Gaza. On social media, their leaders regularly post propaganda videos showing masked men in makeshift black uniforms, clutching rifles, awkwardly chanting in unison and vowing to “liberate” Gaza from Hamas.
Though small and lacking in skill and support to fully replace Hamas, these militias have already plunged Gaza into more instability. Using hit-and-run attacks, they have tried to challenge Hamas as it has consolidated power in areas no longer controlled by Israel since the ceasefire. The militias have waged an insurgency within an insurgency, targeting Hamas at a critical moment in the process of establishing governance in post-war Gaza.
Hamas has not sat idly by.
Concerned about its status in the enclave, Hamas is now on a mission to hunt them down, while ordinary Palestinians grow increasingly anxious that the war-torn enclave could slide toward open civil conflict. Reports of violence have been shared widely on social media, with one particularly gruesome video that was shared by Hamas-affiliated channels in October showing a group of masked fighters, some of whom are wearing green Hamas headbands, killing eight blindfolded people in a square in Gaza City.
Hamas affiliated groups said those executed were collaborating with Israel or were involved in security and criminal offences, but it did not provide any evidence.
Ambitions to govern
The most disruptive among the anti-Hamas groups, and the one most openly backed by Israel, is the so-called Popular Forces, formerly led by Yasser Abu Shabab, an Israel-allied gang