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Gaza militia leader forms rival force against Hamas, warns terrorists are regrouping amid ceasefire

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Gaza militia leader forms rival force against Hamas, warns terrorists are regrouping amid ceasefire

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FIRST ON FOX: As Hamas uses the ceasefire to regroup and reassert control across parts of Gaza, a small number of emerging Palestinian militias say they are trying to form an alternative force inside the enclave. One of their leaders, Shawqi Abu Nasira, told Fox News Digital the pause in fighting has become a “kiss of life” for Hamas and warned the group is rebuilding.

“Hamas works for Iran,” he said. “They got weakened, yes, true, but the ceasefire, they gave them a kiss of life, and they are now preparing themselves better, trying to equip themselves. They are opening their own centers,” and added, “I’d like to thank President Trump for freezing the assets of Hamas and for labeling the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.”

Abu Nasira, a former senior Palestinian Authority police official who spent 16 years in an Israeli prison, is now operating with a small band of fighters on the eastern side of Gaza’s “yellow line,” in territory under Israeli military control. “I moved to the east of a yellow line, to the area that is now [controlled by the] Israeli Army. I was forced to move because I had no other option but to flee Hamas,” he said.

TRUMP PEACE PLAN FOR GAZA COULD BE JUST A ‘PAUSE’ BEFORE HAMAS STRIKES AGAIN, EXPERTS WARN

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According to Jusoor News, a pan-Arab media outlet that recently launched an English-language channel reporting on Gaza, Abu Nasira’s defection began years ago when Hamas killed his only son and “dragged his body through the Strip.” He told Jusoor that the killing and public display of the body solidified his decision to oppose Hamas.

Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip on Dec. 1, 2025.  (Omar Al-Qatta / AFP via Getty Images)

Abu Nasira told Fox News Digital he acknowledged his own faction is small. “I have dozens of fighters now fighting with me,” he said. “We lack a lot of equipment, and we need better assistance.” But he argued that many Gazans share his view. “People that are now living in tents, people that are starved, people that are living in the street. They have no medication. These people don’t want Hamas.”

The ceasefire has exposed a chaotic landscape of militias, clan groups and local networks that have emerged as Hamas’s control weakened. Although none rival Hamas in size or capability, several factions have gained visibility.

These include the Popular Forces in Rafah, the Popular Army in northern Gaza, the Counter-Terrorism Strike Force in Khan Yunis and the Shujaiya Popular Defense Forces in eastern Gaza City, along with powerful clan-based networks such as the al-Majayda and Doghmosh families. Their alliances shift frequently, and their structure varies widely, but all have appeared or strengthened during the breakdown of centralized rule.

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AFTER TRUMP DECLARES ‘WAR IS OVER,’ HAMAS EXECUTES RIVALS IN GAZA TO REASSERT CONTROL

Overview of anti-Hamas militias and local armed groups active in Gaza.  (Jusoor News)

Abu Nasira said many of these groups are in contact. “They are our brothers and sisters,” he said. “All of these people, they are holding arms and fighting Hamas for a reason, because they were the first witness to Hamas terrorism and they are victims of Hamas.”

He said early efforts are underway to unite the factions. “We are coordinating all of these groups together to work under one political umbrella, and they can act as a National Guard for East Gaza,” he said.

Abu Nasira argued that Palestinians, not outside powers, should be the ones to remove Hamas from Gaza. “We can now, as Palestinians, attack them,” he said. “We just need the support in order to win this war, and we can finish it in a few months.”

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WARFARE EXPERT CALLS GAZA REBUILDING PLAN ‘DISNEYLAND STRATEGY’ TO DEFEAT HAMAS

Shawqi Abu Nasira, an emerging anti-Hamas militia leader in Gaza.  (Jusoor News)

He rejected the idea that Gazans would fear being labeled collaborators. “Whenever you say no to Hamas, you are accused as an operator, or you will be executed,” he said. “Everybody in Gaza knows that, so that’s not going to scare us anymore.”

In a message to Americans, Abu Nasira said the stakes go beyond Gaza. “Fighting terror is a campaign that we all should fight against,” he said. “It can spread from Gaza to all over the world.”

He described Hamas as part of a broader network. “As long as the triangle of Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic Republic in Iran are working all together, that is a threat to the entire human, civilized world,” he said.

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Hamas gathers in a show of strength during a parade by the terror group in Gaza on Jan. 25, 2025. (TPS-IL)

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He dismissed the concept known as the “Disneyland strategy,” which envisions building functioning civilian zones east of the yellow line to inspire pressure against Hamas over time. “This is a good, nice talk, but this is a long term,” he said. “We don’t need to give them the time to get strong.”

As Hamas regains strength under the ceasefire, Abu Nasira said Palestinians “are ready” and “want to fight for our future,” insisting that with international backing, a unified alternative can still be built.

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Minnesota braces for what’s next amid immigration arrests and in the wake of Renee Good shooting

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Minnesota braces for what’s next amid immigration arrests and in the wake of Renee Good shooting

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Already shaken by the fatal shooting of a woman by an immigration officer, Minnesota’s Twin Cities on Sunday braced for what many expect will be a new normal over the next few weeks as the Department of Homeland Security carries out what it called its largest enforcement operation ever.

Protesters screamed at heavily-armed federal agents and honked car horns, banged on drums and blew whistles in attempts to disrupt their operations in one Minneapolis neighborhood filled with single-family homes.

There was some pushing and several people were hit with chemical spray just before agents banged down the door of one home on Sunday. They later took one man away in handcuffs.

“We’re seeing a lot of immigration enforcement across Minneapolis and across the state, federal agents just swarming around our neighborhoods,” said Jason Chavez, a Minneapolis city councilmember. “They’ve definitely been out here.”

Chavez, the son of Mexican immigrants who represents an area with a growing immigrant population, said he is closely monitoring information from chat groups about where residents are seeing agents operating.

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People holding whistles positioned themselves in freezing temperatures on street corners in the neighborhood where 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed Wednesday, watching for any signs of federal agents.

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More than 20,000 people have taken part in a variety of trainings to become “observers” of enforcement activities in Minnesota since the 2024 election, said Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for Unidos MN, a local human rights organization .

“It’s a role that people choose to take on voluntarily, because they choose to look out for their neighbors,” Argueta said.

The protests have been largely peaceful, but the Twin Cities remained anxious. Minneapolis public schools on Monday will start offering remote learning for the next month in response to concerns that children might feel unsafe venturing out while tensions remain high.

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Many schools closed last week after Good’s shooting and the upheaval that followed.

While the enforcement activity continues, two of the state’s leading Democrats said on Sunday that the investigation into Good’s shooting death shouldn’t be overseen solely by the federal government.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said in separate interviews Sunday that state authorities should be included in the investigation because the federal government has already made clear what it believes happened.

“How can we trust the federal government to do an objective, unbiased investigation, without prejudice, when at the beginning of that investigation they have already announced exactly what they saw — what they think happened,” Smith said on ABC’s “This Week.”

The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot Good in her car, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “weaponized” her vehicle.

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Todd Lyons, acting director of ICE, defended the officer on Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing.”

“That law enforcement officer had milliseconds, if not short time to make a decision to save his life and his other fellow agents,” he said.

Lyons also said the administration’s enforcement operations in Minnesota wouldn’t be needed “if local jurisdictions worked with us to turn over these criminally illegal aliens once they are already considered a public safety threat by the locals.”

The killing of Good by an ICE officer and the shooting of two people by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, led to dozens of protests across the country over the weekend.

Thousands of people marched Saturday in Minneapolis, where Homeland Security called its deployment of immigration officers in the Twin Cities its biggest ever immigration enforcement operation.

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Associated Press journalists Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis, Thomas Strong in Washington, Bill Barrow in Atlanta, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.

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Netanyahu and Rubio discuss US military intervention in Iran amid ongoing nationwide protests: report

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Netanyahu and Rubio discuss US military intervention in Iran amid ongoing nationwide protests: report

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the possibility of U.S. intervention in Iran, according to a report.

The two leaders spoke by phone Saturday as Israel is on “high alert,” preparing for the possibility of U.S. military intervention in Iran, according to Reuters, citing multiple Israeli sources. A U.S. official confirmed the call to Fox News Digital but did not provide additional details.

The report comes as nationwide anti-regime demonstrations across Iran hit the two-week mark.

On Saturday, the Iranian regime triggered an internet “kill switch” in an apparent effort to conceal alleged abuses by security forces and as protests against it surged nationwide, according to a cybersecurity expert. The blackout reduced internet access to a fraction of normal levels.

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KEANE WARNS IRANIAN REGIME TO TAKE TRUMP ‘DEAD SERIOUS’ ON PROTEST KILLING THREAT AMID ONGOING DEMONSTRATIONS

Secretary of State Marco Rubio holds his end-of-year press conference at the State Department in Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2025. (Kevin Mohatt/Reuters)

On Sunday, Iran’s parliament speaker warned that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America strikes the Islamic Republic.

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf issued the threat as lawmakers rushed the dais in the Iranian parliament, shouting, “Death to America!” according to The Associated Press.

President Donald Trump offered support for the protesters on Saturday, writing on Truth Social that “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!”

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IRANIAN MILITARY LEADER THREATENS PREEMPTIVE ATTACK AFTER TRUMP COMMENTS

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran’s Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

At a news conference Friday, Trump said Iran was facing mounting pressure as unrest spreads across the country.

“Iran’s in big trouble,” he said. “It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago. We’re watching the situation very carefully.”

The president said the U.S. would respond forcefully if the regime resorts to mass violence. 

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“We’ll be hitting them very hard where it hurts. And that doesn’t mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts,” he said.

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Protests in Iran intensify for the 12th day. (The National Council of Resistance of Iran)

Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department and White House for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Emma Bussey, Brie Stimson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Four killed, 20 injured in overnight Russian strikes across Ukraine

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Four killed, 20 injured in overnight Russian strikes across Ukraine

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Russia fired more than 150 drones overnight into Sunday targeting close to two dozen locations across Ukraine, killing at least four people and injuring 20 more.

Ukraine’s Air Forces say they intercepted 125 drones aerially but confirmed that at least 25 strike drones struck their targets.

They added that Moscow’s latest barrage mainly targeted Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk, all of which were targeted in Saturday’s overnight strikes as well.

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Local officials in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia say the strikes targeted residential areas and energy infrastructure. More than 385,000 homes were affected by electric, gas or water outages, at a critical time as temperatures plunged to 10 degrees below Celsius.

Regional lawmakers say service was restored to most of the affected households and areas by Sunday morning, but added that emergency work was still being carried out to restore power to the remaining homes.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of timing their attacks with the cold peaks of winter as to maximise civilian suffering.

“They struck targets that have no military purpose whatsoever – energy infrastructure, residential buildings. They deliberately waited for freezing weather to make things worse for our people. This is deliberate, cynical Russian terror specifically against civilians,” wrote Zelenskyy in a post on X.

He also noted that this week had seen heightened Russian assault on Ukrainian cities, announcing that his country’s defence forces recorded thousands of attacks using a variety of different weapons.

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“Over the course of this week, Russia launched almost 1,100 attack drones against Ukraine, more than 890 guided aerial bombs, and over 50 missiles of various types – ballistic, cruise, and even the Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile.”

The Ukrainian leader thanked all units responsible for protecting the country and responding to attacks, and praised their tireless efforts and resilience.

He also called on allies to ensure his embattled country maintains “stable support”, in defence and diplomatic fields as coordinated dialogue efforts continue in search of peace.

Meanwhile, Russia says that one person was killed in Ukrainian strikes on the western city of Voronezh. Officials say a young woman succumbed to her wounds at an intensive care unit of a local hospital after debris from a drone fell on her house during Saturday’s attacks.

They added that at least three others were injured in the attacks which targeted more than 10 residential apartment buildings, private homes and a high school.

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The city of Voronezh lies just 250 kilometres from the Ukrainian border and is home to approximately one million people. The attacks, which Kyiv have yet to confirm, came after the Kremlin’s major offensive on Ukraine in the early hours of Saturday.

Additional sources • AP

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