In the half of Gaza in Israel’s control, a peculiar – and combustible – experiment is under way.

Masked Palestinian gunmen ride in the open, sometimes in trucks with Hebrew decals still visible. Their swaggering videos carry more hints: in one, they smoke Israeli cigarettes, in particular the Marlboro Flavour Mix, instead of cheaper Egyptian ones.

The young men often wear tactical vests, bristling with radios and extra magazines for their assault rifles; others can be seen in the videos posted on Telegram wearing Kevlar, taking selfies on phones, with Glock handguns nestled in leather holsters.

Israeli drones watch from the skies above, the feeds going to a small control room, according to an Israeli official speaking on the condition of anonymity. Israeli soldiers are not far away, as is what the leader of one nascent clique of gunmen claims is a “co-ordinator” who checks in regularly, bringing weapons, food and vehicles.

“Nothing is forbidden to us,” said Hussam al-Astal, the 50-year-old leader of one of these groups, the self-styled Counter-Terrorism Strike Force.

To prove where his allegiances lie, Astal last month filmed himself burning a Hamas flag. He told the Financial Times he hoped to create a Hamas-free Gaza with support from anyone “who will place his hand in mine” – even Israel.

This is the “Yellow Zone”, as one former Israeli intelligence officer described it, named after the colour of the line that has since the ceasefire split Gaza in two.

A Palestinian man waits on a street near a concrete block