Ten killed in Maghazi after Israeli-backed group crosses into camp, clashing with Hamas under Israeli fire

Fighters from an Israeli-backed armed group crossed from the occupied eastern part of the Gaza Strip into the Maghazi camp on Monday evening, clashing with Hamas forces, two eyewitnesses told Mada Masr. Israel launched airstrikes on east Maghazi at the same time as the clashes, with the confrontation killing 10 people in total, including Moussa al-Aidy, a leader of Hamas’s Sahm Unit, according to another resident of the area. Large numbers of armed men entered the camp in central Gaza from the Israeli-occupied yellow zone and first attempted to search displacement shelters, including a school, “as though looking for someone,” one of the eyewitnesses said. “Within minutes,” heavy gunfire broke out between the attackers and Hamas security personnel in the area, the witness said. According to the second witness, the armed men infiltrating the camp were affiliated with the Israeli-backed militia led by Shawky Abu Nasira. A former Palestinian Authority officer and Fatah member who spent 16 years in Israeli prisons, Abu Nasira announced in November 2025 the formation of an Israeli- backed armed faction in eastern Khan Younis, with the stated aim of fighting Hamas. His group is affiliated with the broader Popular Forces, a militia that was led by Yasser Abu Shabab before he was killed by Hamas in Rafah in December. The Monday clashes lasted nearly two hours, the second witness told Mada Masr, adding that Abu Nasira’s fighters were unable to withdraw to the yellow line due to the intensity of the exchange. Israeli aircraft were flying overhead and struck multiple locations, including areas housing displaced people. Many of the wounded and dead were left in the streets, as heavy fire prevented rescue efforts, according to the same eyewitness. Hamas’s Radea security force said that Maghazi’s families confronted the fighters and prevented them from carrying out the searches. According to the Monday statement, the resistance prompted the attackers to open fire on the residents amid air support from Israel, leading to fatalities. Abu Shabab’s successor, Ghassan al-Duhainy, said in a Monday statement that Sahm Unit commander Moussa al-Aidy was killed in the Maghazi operation. A third resident of the camp, speaking to Mada Masr, confirmed that the commander was killed and buried on Monday in a collective funeral alongside eight of the other people who were killed in the Israeli strikes and armed clashes. A medical source at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital told Mada Masr that 10 bodies arrived at the hospital on Monday over a two-hour period as a result of the Israeli strikes east of Maghazi camp. The post Ten killed in Maghazi after Israeli-backed group crosses into camp, clashing with Hamas under Israeli fire first appeared on Mada Masr .