The signs of mounting dissent were revealed by Gazans who spoke to the Associated Press news agency.
They described a breakdown in law and order
brought on by food shortages, with fights breaking out in bread queues. People were carrying knives and sticks to protect themselves, they said.
One Gazan who was scolded by a Hamas officer for trying to jump a bread queue hit the accuser over the head with a chair, according to an aid worker standing in the line.
A woman said her nephew, a father of five in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, was stabbed after being accused of jumping a water queue.