In a narrow alleyway, gasping for breath, east of Khan Younis, nine-year-old Bilal al-Naqa stands wedged amidst the rubble of collapsed concrete. He clutches a plastic toy resembling a shell, as if his childhood were forged from the debris rather than the colors of the rainbow. Ahmed breaks the silence with a question posed to his father, his voice filled with anxiety: “Will the plane return tonight?”
The father finds only a long silence, a distant gaze towards a sky that offers no guarantees, before whispering an answer that encapsulates the reality of the entire city: “Perhaps… and perhaps not.” In this “perhaps,” Khan Younis lives today; a suspended truce, a war declared through actions, and a life teetering between the ambushes of the battlefield and the siege of basic humanitarian needs.
Confronting the "agents" and the originals
The silence of the morning of April 20, 2026, was merely a prelude to a field storm in eastern Khan Younis. There, a major military operation took place, which Hamas described as a necessary field response to Israel's repeated violations of the ceasefire agreement and its attempts to circumvent the terms of the truce through a strategy of "influence by proxy," by deploying local armed militias supported by the occupation to expand control deep into the besieged neighborhoods.
Palestinian field sources reveal to Al-Quds Al-Arabi the details of that morning, when a fierce clash broke out between Hamas members and an armed militia led by Hossam Al-Astal, a former officer in the Palestinian Authority security services, whose group moved with clear Israeli support to control vital areas east of Khan Younis.
Two armed groups slowly crept through the rubble, preceded by two vehicles loaded with armed Israeli personnel, before being ambushed by a well-prepared ambush by the resistance; an explosion shook the foundations, followed by a barrage of heavy gunfire.
On the other hand, Hebrew reports could not hide the severity of the operation; Israeli Channel 12 confirmed the killing of two soldiers and the wounding of eight others with varying injuries.
The Israeli army, which acknowledged that the force was under the supervision of the Khan Yunis area officer, described what happened as a “field shock,” despite claiming that the move came as part of a pre-planned “deterrence of aggression” operation.
For Hamas, it was not just a clash, but a “preventive operation” to protect the terms of the truce and prevent Gaza from being turned into security cantons run by the occupation through local fronts.
2400 stabs in the body of the truce
Behind the dust of the clashes, official data speaks of a silent hemorrhage; according to a detailed report issued by the Government Media Office and human rights organizations, the occupation recorded more than 2,400 violations of the truce between October 10, 2025 and April 20, 2026. These violations were not just ink on paper, but were translated into artillery shelling, field incursions, and a suffocating siege that affected the lifeline of water, electricity, and fuel.
This “fragmented war” has claimed the lives of more than 700 martyrs as of this writing, most of them civilians, women, children and paramedics, which pushes the resistance to consider the limited field confrontation as a necessary means of pressure to force the occupation to respect the requirements of the truce and the comprehensive withdrawal.
The new Trojan horse
The role of militias funded by the occupation, such as the al-Astal militia, is prominent in the scene. These militias act as "field eyes" to identify resistance positions and infrastructure, particularly in areas where the Israeli army cannot operate directly due to the "yellow line" that divides the Gaza Strip. These groups have become widely ostracized by the public and tribal communities. Palestinian clans in Gaza have labeled them "agents" and declared their blood forfeit for their role in establishing a new security reality that benefits Israel.
Kidnappings and summary executions
The role of these militias was not limited to working as field monitoring tools, but went beyond that to more dangerous practices, represented in kidnappings and field executions that targeted civilians and suspects in areas east of Khan Younis.
Consistent testimonies from displaced people from the area reveal that armed groups affiliated with Husam al-Astal carried out forced detentions of a number of young men during the period preceding the April 20 ambush, before some of them were found dead in various areas, bearing signs of gunshot wounds from close range.
One witness, a displaced person who preferred not to reveal his name for security reasons, told Al-Quds Al-Arabi: “We used to hear gunfire at night, then in the morning we would find out that so-and-so had been taken from his tent and had not returned. Two days later they found him murdered near the eastern outskirts.”
Another adds to Al-Quds Al-Arabi: “People here live between two fires; the fear of the occupation, and the fear of these groups that act without any deterrent.”
These testimonies reinforce growing fears among residents that these militias are turning into a tool for controlling the security situation by force, and imposing a new reality based on intimidation, in the context of what Palestinian factions describe as attempts to “dismantle the internal fabric” of society in Gaza.
Video-documented executions
In a development that is the most dangerous in the behavior of these groups, on April 20, activists and local media circulated videos attributed to groups led by Hossam Al-Astal, showing the execution of a number of people in areas east of Khan Younis.
According to videos circulating online, which their publishers claim were posted on social media accounts linked to al-Astal, armed men are seen shooting people after detaining them, in scenes that have sparked shock and outrage among residents. The circumstances of these incidents and the identities of the victims could not be independently verified, but their release coincided with the escalation of violence that preceded the April 20 ambush.
One of the displaced people in the area told Al-Quds Al-Arabi, preferring not to reveal his name: “The videos were terrifying… People felt that there were those who wanted to impose a reality by force inside the camps, and not just confront the occupation.”
Observers believe that publishing such videos represents a dangerous shift in the nature of the conflict, from a traditional military clash to the use of tools of public intimidation, which deepens the state of chaos and threatens civil peace in the affected areas.
Recycling War
For his part, political analyst Iyad Joudah believes that Israel is rearranging its military tools; instead of a comprehensive confrontation, it is relying on “limited wars” and militias to establish a new reality on the ground.
He adds in his interview with Al-Quds Al-Arabi: “The occupation has not ended its military project in Gaza, but is in the stage of recycling tools and undermining political paths through field pressure.”
He explains: “Israel’s investment in local armed formations under the guise of a truce aims to create a parallel authority that undermines the legitimacy of the administration of the sector and drains the resistance from within, which makes any field movement by Hamas today not just a clash, but a struggle over the identity of who manages the land and who has the decision of peace and war.”
“The war is not over.”
In the dilapidated displacement camps, Umm Ibrahim al-Arja sits surrounded by her children, who are trying to sleep in a tent that offers no protection from the cold or fear. She tells Al-Quds Al-Arabi bitterly, “Every night I hear the sound of an explosion, and I don’t know if it’s an ambush by the resistance, shelling by the occupation, or a clash with the militias.” For Umm Ibrahim, the terms “truce” and “war” no longer mean anything; the only measure for her is her children’s wounds and their unspoken fear: “They say the war is over… but we see with our own eyes that it’s not over yet.” tries to instill hope in children who bear the names of former victims, warning them that this truce is not peace, but rather a “perilous transitional period,” telling them: “You are learning from the sound of artillery and ambush shots how to write the names of your neighborhoods on the map of conflict.”
Khan Younis today poses a fateful question: Are we living through the end of the war or the beginning of a siege with new names? While Israel speaks of “deterrence,” and Hamas speaks of “protecting the truce,” the citizen remains stuck in the gray area.
At the end of the day, Ahmed returns to his father with his recurring question: “A truce or war?” The father looks towards the nearby Abu Hamid roundabout, where the scars of the April 20 ambush still bear witness to the illusion of calm, and grips his son’s hand tightly, saying: “My son, we live in a reality they’ve given a new name to, while the siege remains the same. The occupation’s planes are still flying overhead, and the militias are trying to loot our demolished homes. What you see is not peace; it’s the sound of war when it’s forced to lower its tone slightly, leaving us to count our martyrs in silence.”
Thus, Ahmed and his peers in Khan Younis continue to look to the sky, not to contemplate the stars, but to escape the surprise of a plane that could turn the “ceasefire” to ashes at any moment.
