Hamas claims it ambushed, killed Israeli-backed gang members in Gaza City and Khan Younis

Hamas claims to have ambushed and killed members of Israeli-backed Gazan gangs in Khan Younis and Gaza City over the past day.

In a statement, the so-called Deterrent Force of Hamas’s internal security apparatus says it also confiscated military gear from the gang in Gaza City. In Khan Younis, some gang members fled, leaving behind their “Zionist weapons,” the Hamas force claims.

Hamas’s Sahm 103 unit, which targets people accused of collaborating with Israel, says the people targeted in the earlier ambush, in Khan Younis, were assaulted in the Batn al-Samin area, which lies on the Hamas-controlled side of the Gaza ceasefire line in the city’s southwest.

The Sahm unit claims the people targeted in Batn al-Samin were en route to perform a “kidnapping operation” on behalf of Israel. According to the unit, the gang members came in two vehicles, one of which managed to escape the ambush.

Neither Hamas statement specifies which gangs were targeted. However, Hossam al-Astal, who leads a Khan Younis-area anti-Hamas gang and has claimed to receive military aid from Israel, says in an evening video statement that his militia captured six Hamas operatives and killed several others in Batn al-Samin earlier today. He does not say anything about being ambushed by Hamas.