[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]
Hamas may have thought that with the IDF now pulling its troops back to a perimeter closer to the Gazan border with Israel it could reassert its power in all those areas now abandoned by Israel. Hamas was wrong, for a half-dozen powerful families, with thousands of well-armed fighters, understanding how weakened Hamas has become, have begun to fight Hamas combatants in Rafah, Khan Yunis, and Gaza City. More on the latest blows delivered to Hamas by the clans can be found here: “Hamas influencer Saleh Aljafarawi, known as ‘Mr. FAFO’, killed in Gaza,” by Liran Aharoni, Jerusalem Post, October 12, 2025:
Saleh Aljafarawi, a well-known social media influencer affiliated with Hamas known as “Mr. FAFO”, was killed by an anti-Hamas militia in the Sabra neighborhood in southern Gaza City, Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV confirmed on Sunday.
According to reports, Aljafarawi — one of the most prominent pro-Hamas voices online in the Gaza Strip — was found shot in the head.
The influencer had gained global attention for his viral videos from Gaza, frequently appearing in clips even after being falsely reported dead. On several occasions, he filmed himself from hospital beds after reportedly surviving attacks.
Additional reports from the Gaza Strip said that the son of Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official in the group’s political bureau, was also killed during violent clashes with the Doghmush clan in Gaza City.
A senior source in Hamas’s Interior Ministry told the Qatari-owned Al Jazeera that members of Hamas’s internal security forces were killed following an attack by a local armed militia in Gaza City.
The source said Hamas security forces were currently besieging members of the militia with the goal of “arresting them.”
The source further claimed the militia had killed Gazan refugees returning to Gaza City from the southern part of the Strip. It emphasized that the security apparatus in Gaza was “determined to impose order and punish those responsible for the killings.”
The escalation between Hamas and the Doghmush clan reportedly began when members of the clan ambushed several Hamas operatives near the Jordanian Hospital in Gaza City this past Friday, shortly after a ceasefire went into effect….
It was not Hamas, but the powerful Doghmush clan that started the fighting in Gaza City, apparently convinced that Hamas was too weak to offer much resistance. It may be right. In a panic, Hamas has called up 7,000 of its own “reserves” to help fight not just against the Doghmush clan, but against a half-dozen other well-armed clans spread from Rafah in the south to Gaza City in the north.
Reports also emerged of summary executions carried out by Hamas against members of the Doghmush clan in Sabra, including claims that children from the clan were also targeted by gunfire….
These stone-cold executions, and the murdering of children belonging to the Doghmush clan by Hamas, will only lead to more fighting by the clan, now enraged and determined to fight Hamas to the end. There can be no peace between them and Hamas.
The latest news, as of October 12, is that Hamas has now executed 15 members of the Doghmush clan in Gaza City in cold blood. It has murdered Doghmush childen. The clans will not be scared, but even more determined to fight Hamas. This will not end well either for Hamas or for the clans. In Gaza, the internecine war, without Israel being involved, is just now heating up. May the clans win, or at least, may they inflict a terrible revenge on the terror group that has been imposing its cruel will on them, and all other Gazans, for so long.