“Hamas wanted to send a message not just to Fatah, but to Israel, to America and the whole region that it is in control,” said a resident of Gaza’s Jabaliya refugee camp, safely home on Thursday from what has become a life-and-death mission to buy food, and trying to make sense of the territory’s latest week of misery.

As Fatah’s last bastions – its command centres – in Gaza tumbled on Thursday, the Hamas message was loud and clear. “We are telling our people that the past era has ended and will not return,” said Islam Shahawan, a Hamas military spokesman. “The era of justice and Islamic rule has arrived.”