How the murder of Gaza journalist Saleh Aljafarawi and Hamas’s crackdown on Israel-backed militias are connected

The killing of prominent Palestinian journalist Saleh Aljafarawi on Sunday night, just a few days after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was announced, was a shock to many across Gaza. But the timing of the beloved journalist’s death raised many questions around the state of chaos and lawlessness spreading across the Strip after the end of the war. 

According to local sources, contact was lost with Aljafarawi during the day on Sunday. In the evening, news broke that he had been killed in the Sina’a area west of Gaza City. When his body arrived at the al-Ahli Arab Hospital, local sources said that signs of torture were apparent on his body and that seven bullets had pierced him. His wrists also displayed signs that he had been restrained.

Aljafarawi had gathered a significant following on social media during the past two years of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, documenting numerous massacres and airstrikes in the Strip’s northern half throughout the war. 

Local sources indicate that Aljafarawi was killed by an armed group from the Doghmush clan, one of the largest Palestinian families in Gaza with a long history of enmity with Hamas that spans decades. The Doghmush clan has been accused by Hamas of collaborating with Israel.

According to local reports and close friends of Aljafarawi, he was killed while covering the clashes between the Doghmush clan and the Arrow Force, a Hamas unit formed during the war to fight Israeli-armed gangs that looted aid.  

Mondoweiss attempted to contact members of the Arrow Force for comment on Aljafarawi’s death, but its ongoing fighting with Israel-backed armed gangs across Gaza has made establishing contact difficult. 

An official from the Ministry of Interior, which oversees the Arrow Force, told Mondoweiss that Aljafarawi was “deliberately targeted” by a group “outside the law.” The official added that members of the group were “dealt with in the framework of revolutionary law.”

On Monday, a viral video circulated online, allegedly depicting members of the Arrow Force lining up and executing a group of men accused of treason and of collaborating with the Israeli army via firing squad.

Hamas launches security campaign against Israel-backed gangs and militias

When Israel broke its previous ceasefire with Hamas in March earlier this year, one of the chief targets of Israeli forces was civil servants in the Ministry of Interior, which included the police and internal security forces. The systematic targeting of these bodies aimed to create a power vacuum and sow chaos in the Strip. During the war, the Israeli intelligence funded and armed criminal gangs and local clans to attack Hamas and loot humanitarian aid, deepening social polarization. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly acknowledged this policy last June.

One of the most notorious of these armed groups, the so-called Popular Forces, is led by Yasser Abu Shabab, a member of the Bedouin Tarabin clan. He is believed to be located in Rafah, in areas still under Israeli control.

Immediately after the war ended, chaos spread across Gaza as Hamas launched a large-scale security campaign to restore order and apprehend collaborators accused of working with Israel during the war. The campaign also sought to dismantle armed groups operating under Israeli protection.

Hamas announced the mobilization and deployment of 7,000 security personnel across Gaza to “begin restoring order, end the chaos, and pursue collaborators with the Israeli army.”

When asked by a reporter about the “rearming” of the Hamas police and security forces on Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump told journalists that “we’re understanding, because they do want to stop the problems, and they’ve been open about it, and we gave them approval for a period of time.” Trump later doubled down on his defense of the Hamas crackdown, admitting that Hamas “did take out a couple of gangs that were very bad.”

“And that didn’t bother me much, to be honest with you,” the U.S. President told reporters.

The campaign began in Gaza City and in the Tal al-Hawa area, when members of Hamas’s Arrow Force stormed a residential block belonging to the Doghmush family in the Sabra and Sina’a areas. The operation followed a complete siege of the area, targeting several members of the clan accused of collaborating with Israel.

The Telegram channel al-Hares (“The Guardian”), a platform affiliated with the Resistance Security apparatus concerned with deterring and warning against collaboration with Israel, reported that an internal security plan had been launched to “secure the internal front.” According to the channel, security officers vowed to pursue all criminal and security offenders throughout the Strip.

The first strike was against the Doghmush family compounds in Gaza City, when Arrow (Sahm) forces stormed a residential block belonging to the clan and killed over fifteen people, according to field accounts. The Arrow forces continued to besiege the area and demanded that several family members wanted for criminal offenses — unrelated to collaboration — be handed over.

These individuals had previously been convicted and imprisoned by Hamas before the war but were released during the genocide. Local sources told Mondoweiss that during the war, they were involved in looting, theft, and spreading chaos. When they refused to surrender to the Arrow unit, they sought refuge inside the Jordanian Field Hospital in Tal al-Hawa.

What happened the day Saleh Aljafarawi was killed

Sources told Mondoweiss that members of the Doghmush clan kidnapped both Saleh Aljafarawi and Naeem Naeem, the son of senior Hamas leader and politburo member Bassem Naeem, killing them both. On the same day, the clan reportedly killed two resistance fighters, including Muhammad Imad Aqel, the son of senior Hamas commander Imad Aqel, who was assassinated by Israel in 1993.

The Aqel family issued a statement accusing the Dogmush clan of responsibility. “At the beginning of the ceasefire on Friday, October 10, our son left one of the combat tunnels with one of his fellow fighters to check on their companions,” the family wrote. “They were ambushed by a group of gunmen who had been waiting for them around the Jordanian Field Hospital.”

The statement said that the gunmen were from the Doghmush family and belonged to Israeli-backed militias affiliated with the “Zionist occupation.” 

“They kidnapped our son, interrogated him, stole his personal weapon and a sum of money, and executed him in cold blood,” the family continued.

 The family’s statement held the Doghmush clan responsible and called on it to withdraw “tribal protection” from the “criminal group” responsible for killing Aqel, who was a member of the Qassam Brigades.

Clashes between the Doghmush clan and Hamas’s Arrow forces continued for days, leaving at least fifteen members of the Arrow unit dead.

The Doghmush family later issued its own statement condemning the killings.

“We, the Doghmush family, strongly denounce the killing of citizen Muhammad Aqel and journalist Saleh Aljafarawi,” the statement read. “These were individual acts that do not represent our family and only serve the occupation’s agenda. We affirm that there are no conflicts between our family and the Aqel or Aljafarawi families, and that our relationship with them is one of mutual respect and appreciation.”

A family member from the Doghmush clan in Gaza City, speaking to Mondoweiss on condition of anonymity, said that seven individuals from the clan were wanted by Hamas security and had been convicted of criminal offenses before the war.

“When the war ended, the Sahm forces came and demanded that these seven men surrender, but they refused and took shelter inside the hospital,” the source said. “The Arrow forces then completely besieged the Doghmush neighborhood, preventing anyone from entering or leaving. They went door to door with lists of names, verifying identities. Anyone whose name appeared on their list risked torture or execution.”

The witness also described scenes of abuse, claiming that Arrow fighters shot several family members in the legs and tortured young men, including pulling out their fingernails.

Mondoweiss attempted to contact members of the Arrow Unit and the Ministry of Interior for comment on these allegations. At the time of publication, the contacts could not be reached due to the ongoing security campaign.

The Doghmush family has a decades-long history of rivalry with the Hamas movement in Gaza. When Hamas took control of the Strip in 2007, it launched an extensive campaign to crack down on and disarm all armed clans, many of which were affiliated with Fatah and the Palestinian Authority. Among these families were the Doghmush clan, the Hilles clan, and several others. 

The clashes that year near the Doghmush family compounds in the Sabra and Tal al-Hawa neighborhoods left over 200 members of the Doghmush family dead.

Today, as Hamas’s latest security campaign continues, many in Gaza have expressed their belief on social media that the Doghmush clan seized the opportunity during the chaos of war — and Israel’s targeting of Hamas security forces — to settle old scores. Several social media accounts have accused members of the Doghmush clan of even collaborating with the Israeli army to combat Hamas.

On Tuesday, the chair of the largest assembly of clans in Gaza, Abu Salman al-Mughani, expressed his support for the Hamas crackdown, asserting that the accused were responsible for killing children, collaborating with Israel, looting aid and homes, and perpetuating the famine in Gaza.