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

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://mondoweiss.net/2025/10/how-the-murder-of-gaza-journalist-saleh-aljafarawi-and-hamass-crackdown-on-israel-backed-militias-are-connected/How
the murder of Gaza journalist Saleh Aljafarawi and Hamas’s crackdown on
Israel-backed militias are connected
Beloved Gaza journalist Saleh Aljafarawi was murdered amid a Hamas
crackdown on Israel-backed armed clans and militias that looted aid and
sowed chaos during the war. Here’s how they’re all connected.
By Tareq S. Hajjaj <https://mondoweiss.net/author/tareqhajjaj/> October 14,
2025 1
<https://mondoweiss.net/2025/10/how-the-murder-of-gaza-journalist-saleh-aljafarawi-and-hamass-crackdown-on-israel-backed-militias-are-connected/#comments>
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[image: Members of the armed wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades, stand
guard during the handover of Israeli captives to the Red Cross as part of
the second phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, October 13,
2025. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images)] Members of the armed wing of Hamas,
the al-Qassam Brigades, stand guard during the handover of Israeli captives
to the Red Cross as part of the second phase of the ceasefire between
Israel and Hamas, October 13, 2025. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images)

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.
[image: Saleh Aljafarawi's Facebook profile picture. (Photo: Social
Media)]Saleh
Aljafarawi’s Facebook profile picture. (Photo: Social Media)

According to local reports and close friends of Aljafarawi, he was killed
while covering the clashes between the Doghmush clan and the Arrow Force
<https://mondoweiss.net/2025/06/inside-the-hamas-unit-fighting-israeli-armed-gangs-that-loot-aid-and-facilitate-displacement-in-gaza/>,
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
<https://mondoweiss.net/2025/05/israel-is-creating-a-power-vacuum-in-gaza-by-backing-armed-looters-and-killing-anyone-who-tries-to-stop-them/>
in the Strip. During the war, the Israeli intelligence funded and armed
criminal gangs and local clans
<https://mondoweiss.net/2025/06/inside-the-hamas-unit-fighting-israeli-armed-gangs-that-loot-aid-and-facilitate-displacement-in-gaza/>
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
<https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/1977509662170730542> 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 <https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/1978174441684095343> 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
<https://x.com/muhammadshehad2/status/1978062295889502715> 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.
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