The activity of Gazan militias opposed to Hamas, which took place Tuesday morning deep inside the Gaza Strip, demonstrates not only the area’s volatility but also the deep concern among Hamas’s leadership.
Arab media had initially reported that an Israeli force entered the Gaza Strip to carry out a covert operation against a senior Hamas figure.
After the operation was exposed, a firefight broke out at very close range between the two groups. Members of a Gazan militia led the fighting against the senior official’s guards. The volatile situation forced the IDF to help extract the force, providing cover with ground and aerial strikes, with smoke plumes visible from long distances.
Now that the operation was confirmed to have been carried out by the Gazan militias, it should be noted that former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar was the one who pushed for supporting the anti-Hamas militias in the Strip, despite criticism from within and outside of the defense establishment.
The operation ended with the arrest of a senior Hamas figure, which could shed light on the organization’s covert activities and its methods of operation in the Gaza Strip.
