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No fewer than 27 people have been claimed in violent clashes between Hamas armed units and fighters of the Dughmush family in Gaza City, marking among the deadliest intra-Palestinian conflicts since the cessation of extensive Israeli campaigns in the enclave.

Disguised Hamas gunmen engaged in shooting with family militants near the city's Jordanian hospital, according to observers.

Authority Account

A high-ranking officer in the interior ministry under Hamas stated that security units encircled them and engaged in heavy fighting to detain them. The authority reported that 8 its personnel were lost in "an armed assault by a militia".

Medical sources confirmed that 19 Dughmush clan members and eight Hamas militants had been lost their lives since conflict started on the weekend.

Local Accounts

Eyewitnesses reported that the confrontations erupted in the Tel al-Hawa district in southern Gaza City after a Hamas contingent of over 300 militants advanced to attack a housing complex where Dughmush militants were fortified.

Civilians described frightening moments as dozens of families evacuated their residences under heavy gunfire, with numerous individuals having been displaced multiple times during the war.

"In this instance residents weren't escaping Israeli offensives," one resident stated. "They were fleeing from their fellow Palestinians."

Long-Standing Strain

The Dughmush clan, among Gaza's notable families, has consistently experienced a strained relationship with the ruling movement, and its militant members have engaged in violence with the group on numerous times in the earlier periods.

The interior ministry under Hamas administration declared its personnel were working to reinstate stability, cautioning that "every paramilitary operation beyond the structure of the national struggle" would be handled strictly.

Contradictory Narratives

The two parties leveled charges over who initiated the violence for triggering the clashes.

The organization earlier said that Dughmush militants killed two of its combatants and wounded five others, resulting in the organization to initiate an action against them.

Conversely, a Dughmush family representative told local media that Hamas fighters had come to a structure that once served as the Jordanian healthcare facility, where the tribe had found sanctuary after their dwellings in the al-Sabra district were devastated in the recent Israeli attack.

The representative claimed that the movement tried to expel the clan from the structure to establish a new base for its personnel there.

Larger Background

Hamas has reactivated approximately 7,000 personnel of its security forces to reestablish dominance over Gaza territories formerly abandoned by Israeli troops, according to area informants.

Accounts reveal that armed Hamas units have already deployed across various neighborhoods, with particular units in non-uniform clothing and others in the blue gear of the Gaza law enforcement. The Hamas media office denied that it was deploying "fighters in the streets".