At least 27 people have been killed in clashes between Hamas and allied revolutionary factions and armed collaborators of the Dughmush family in Gaza City.
Revolutionary fighters exchanged fire with clan fighters near the city’s Jordanian hospital.
A senior official in the interior ministry said security units surrounded them and engaged in heavy fighting to detain them. The ministry said eight its members were killed in “an armed assault by a militia”.
Medical sources said 19 Dughmush clan members and eight Hamas fighters had been killed since fighting began on Saturday.
Eyewitnesses said the clashes erupted in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood in southern Gaza City after a large Palestinian revolutionary force of more than 300 fighters moved to storm a residential block where Dughmush gunmen were entrenched.
The Dughmush family, one of Gaza’s most prominent clans, has long had a tense relationship with Hamas and other Palestinian factions. They historically were part of the comprador Fatah factions that were routed from Gaza. They also allied with the Zionist regime during the Al Aqsa Flood battle.
Hamas said its forces were seeking to restore order, warning that “any armed activity outside the framework of the resistance” would be dealt with firmly.
Furthermore, they offered a general amnesty to counter-revolutionaries who did not commit murder against Palestinians.