Gaza – Hamas has lost approximately 80% of its control over the Gaza Strip, with armed clans now filling the security void, a senior officer within the Palestinian armed group’s security forces has told the BBC.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the lieutenant colonel, who was wounded in the first week of the war that began after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, and has since stepped away from his duties, shared several voice messages with the BBC. He asserted that Hamas’s command and control system had collapsed due to months of Israeli strikes that have devastated the group’s leadership.
In the messages, the officer painted a stark picture of Hamas’s internal disintegration and the near-total breakdown of security across Gaza, which the group governed before the conflict.
“Let’s be realistic here – there’s barely anything left of the security structure. Most of the leadership, about 95%, are now dead… The active figures have all been killed,” he said. “So really, what’s stopping Israel from continuing this war? Logically, it has to continue until the end. All the conditions are aligned: Israel has the upper hand, the world is silent, the Arab regimes are silent, criminal gangs are everywhere, society is collapsing.”
Last September, Israel’s then-defence minister had declared that “Hamas as a military formation no longer exists” and that it was engaged in guerrilla warfare.
According to the officer, Hamas attempted to regroup during the 57-day ceasefire with Israel earlier this year, reorganising its political, military, and security councils. However, since Israel ended the truce in March, it has specifically targeted Hamas’s remaining command structures, leaving the group in disarray.
“About the security situation, let me be clear: it has completely collapsed. Totally gone. There’s no control anywhere,” he stated. “People looted the most powerful Hamas security apparatus (Ansar), the complex which Hamas used to rule Gaza. They looted everything, the offices – mattresses, even zinc panels – and no-one intervened. No police, no security.”
The officer explained that a direct consequence of this security vacuum is the pervasive presence of gangs and armed clans. “They could stop you, kill you. No one would intervene. Anyone who tried to act on their own, like organising resistance against thieves, was bombed by Israel within half an hour,” he claimed. “So, the security situation is zero. Hamas’s control is zero. There’s no leadership, no command, no communication. Salaries are delayed, and when they do arrive, they’re barely usable. Some die just trying to collect them. It’s total collapse.”
On 26 June, at least 18 people were killed when an Israeli drone strike targeted a plainclothes Hamas police unit attempting to assert control over a market in Deir al-Balah, accusing vendors of price gouging and selling looted aid, according to witnesses and medics. The Israeli military stated it struck “several armed terrorists” belonging to Hamas’s Internal Security Forces.
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