Since the ceasefire was declared, the clans have helped secure the Yellow Line and the area west of it, while also assisting in locating weapons and terrorist infrastructure above and below ground.
Armed Bedouin clans in the Gaza Strip have fought Hamas's military wing at the height of their activity and inflicted significant casualties, security officials said on Sunday.
Since the ceasefire was declared, they have helped secure the Yellow Line and the area west of it, while also assisting in locating weapons and terrorist infrastructure above and below ground.
A security official described the clans' operations as deliberately discreet.
"The activity of the anti-Hamas clans is intimate, kept in the shadows, and that is a good thing," the official said, adding that "it is very effective and is proceeding according to plan."
However, opinions within the security establishment on the future of the Bedouin clans' operations are divided.
Other figures within the security establishment have warned of the risks involved in supporting the clans ahead of "the day after." Some of the clans' commanders were previously involved in criminal activity that both Hamas and the IDF sought to combat.
Walla learned that senior officials on the Peace Council, with US backing and support, want the Bedouin clans, which are based in more than three locations across the Gaza Strip, to be disarmed "the day after."
Meanwhile, the Israeli security establishment is planning to keep some of the clans inside the Yellow Line under the IDF's operational responsibility in order to protect them from harm. Peace Council officials, by contrast, believe the clans should be returned to Palestinian territory as part of a future IDF withdrawal to the regular border line.
Security officials have described the issue as a "minefield" that the political echelon is in no hurry to address, instead keeping it as leverage against both the Hamas leadership and the Peace Council.
One official warned that once the clans are stripped of their weapons, they will return to their previous activity: smuggling.
At this stage, despite close daily cooperation between the IDF, other Israeli security bodies, American officials, and the Bedouin clans, the possibility of transferring the clans into Israeli territory has not been raised.
In September 2025, it was reported that as the IDF carried out its ground maneuver in the Gaza Strip and fighting with Hamas intensified, armed clans across Gaza demonstrated control over the areas in which they lived, according to sources in the Southern Command.
According to one military source, the clans stationed hundreds of operatives at the entrances to various territories in an effort to repel Hamas security forces seeking to strengthen their control on the ground.
Among those forces is the "Arrow Unit," a forceful and violent Hamas unit involved in arrests, assaults, and the killing of people accused of collaborating with Israel.