Hamas resumes power in Gaza: ‘A slap in the face to the Israeli government’
Hamas is effectively back in control of the Gaza Strip, with the terror group having recently returned thousands of troops to the streets to re-establish its grip, dealing a major blow to Israel’s war goals.
Hamas fighters have been out in droves across Gaza after resuming responsibility for managing law and order in the war-torn Palestinian enclave under the most recent cease-fire agreement, since Israel failed to back another entity to take control.
The return to the status quo was clearly evident Sunday when the terrorist group and its supporters brazenly paraded around Gaza City’s Saraya Square during the first day of the cease-fire, flashing victory signs and cheering as they surrounded the Red Cross vehicles carrying the three freed Israeli hostages.
Gershon Baskin, the Middle East director for the diplomacy advocacy group International Communities Organization, said the images of armed Hamas soldiers and officers out in broad daylight undermine any progress made during the 15 months that Israel has spent fighting in Gaza.
“The Hamas presence on the ground, armed, is a slap in the face to the Israeli government and army,” Baskin told the Wall Street Journal. “It highlights that Israel’s goals for the war were never achievable.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that the dismantling of Hamas be part of any permanent peace agreement.
To that end, the Israeli army has spent months systematically wiping out the terror group’s highest echelons.
Throughout the war and heated cease-fire negotiations, the US has urged Israel to support the Palestinian Authority’s bid to regain control of the Gaza Strip from Hamas after the PA was ousted in 2006 when the terrorists took control.
During his last week in office, former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken even laid out a plan for the PA to return to Gaza and oversee the enclave’s reconstruction in place of Hamas.
But Netanyahu rejected any and all proposals for the PA, which governs much of the West Bank, to lead Gaza.
Without any group to take its place, Hamas has remained in power, with its police force currently tasked with restoring order in Gaza as more than 1 million refugees return to their destroyed neighborhoods.
The Hamas police are expected to crack down on the gangs that have seized power in several neighborhoods and looted from humanitarian aid trucks.
The Hamas troops are allowed to be armed but are forbidden from approaching or engaging with the Israeli soldiers stationed along a buffer zone near the Gaza border.
With Hamas retaining its role, Israel has effectively failed to fulfill its main goal of the war: to eradicate Hamas and ensure Gaza no longer poses a risk to the Jewish state following the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.
US officials estimate that Hamas has been able to recoup nearly all of its losses in the war despite Israel’s claim that it has killed more than 17,000 fighters, about 70% of its force.
While Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar admitted that the Jewish state has yet to meet its goal of dismantling Hamas, he insisted that the terror group cannot remain in power.
“There is no future of peace, stability and security for both sides if Hamas stays in power,” Saar said in a statement.
