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previously dismantled,” the military said.

“The troops opened fire to remove the threat.”

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

Yesterday’s incidents occurred on the fifth day of the truce brokered by US President Donald Trump.

As part of the deal, Hamas on Monday released the remaining 20 living hostages along with the bodies of four captives.

In exchange, Israel freed nearly 2,000 prisoners, mostly Palestinians, and handed over the remains of 45 Palestinians.

Hamas security forces were tightening their grip on Gaza’s ruined cities yesterday even as global support mounted for a US-backed deal that would see them disarmed.

When busloads of prisoners freed from Israeli jails arrived in Gaza on Monday, fighters from Hamas’s Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades provided crowd control.

In the north of the territory, as Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza City, the Hamas government’s black-masked armed police resumed street patrols.

Meanwhile, a Hamas security unit has been conducting operations against armed clans and gangs, some alleged to have Israeli backing.

“Intense clashes broke out -- and are still ongoing at the moment -- as part of efforts to eliminate collaborators,” said witness Yahya, who asked not to be named in full for fear of retribution.

A Palestinian security source in Gaza told AFP that Hamas’s security body, a recently established unit whose name translates as “Deterrence Force”, was conducting “ongoing field operations to ensure security and stability”.

The 20-point document, endorsed Monday by world powers at a Trump-chaired summit in Egypt, says Gaza will be demilitarised and Hamas have no leadership role.

Addressing the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Trump noted “a lot of people like the one state solution, some people like the two state solutions.