Heads turned as the masked men with clubs walked down a Rafah street, part of a public security group set up by armed factions in Gaza after the civil police force, controlled by the Palestinian terror group Hamas, went underground saying it was targeted by Israeli strikes in the ongoing war.

A group of nine of the men, their headbands reading “People’s Protection Committees” bound around ski masks or hoods, strode through a marketplace this week after first appearing around Rafah late last month.

“We want to control the street to ensure that there is still safety in the country… We are present in the streets to control the streets from all sources of trouble existing in the Palestinian street now,” one said.

The group was formed by the Hamas-run interior ministry, along with other political factions that had a street presence in Gaza, and was tasked with ensuring public order and stopping price hikes by market profiteers, he said.