Hamas is far from gone

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Hamas has reemerged in Gaza to try to cement its dominance over the enclave after the ceasefire and the release of the remaining 20 live hostages.

The terrorist organization’s goal since the truce agreement was signed in Sinai last week is to reemerge victorious and not comply with the US-backed deal that is supposed to see it disarm and give up governance.

Hamas has launched several attacks on dissidents in the meantime, murdering them and dragging them through the streets, to show that it has no intention of going anywhere.

It has always used a combination of gangland-style killings and the appearance of normalcy in governance to control Gaza. This has been Hamas’s pattern since it seized control in an illegal coup in 2007.

Hamas's violent rule
The group uses violence when it wants to remind the populace that it is in charge. It has murdered people and dragged them behind motorcycles in the past. Hamas has carried out public “field executions” of people in the streets. It has attacked clans and families that it believes are dissidents, labeling them “collaborators.”

Hamas faced two years of war with Israel, where its terrorists could not easily travel in the open while bearing arms. However, every time there has been a ceasefire, Hamas has resurfaced with uniforms and guns.
It may have lost most of its rocket arsenal and even many of its tunnels. However, it has not lost its small arms, such as its AK-47 rifles. That is how Hamas came to power in the first place – with AK-47s. It did not have many missiles back in 2007.

And ever since, it has controlled the two million people in Gaza via violence.

The international community may prefer the Trump-backed plan of bringing in a “board of peace” and removing Hamas from power. However, countries are not willing to go into Gaza to do so.

Instead, they will end up believing and accepting that Hamas is bringing back “law and order” via its violence. A large swath of the international community believes that the terrorist organization enforces “law and order” via its Hamas “police force,” who are seen as separate from its “militant arm.”

This is fiction, but it is a fiction many choose to believe because then they can work with the Hamas “civilian” arm and “police force” while claiming not to work with its terrorist-affiliated part.

Hamas is a terrorist organization in its entirety. It inserts its dominance through mafia-like killings and a reign of terror similar to how the KKK (the Ku Klux Klan) once controlled towns in America’s South. This control is not always overt; it can happen in the shadows and be enforced via extrajudicial murders.

Hamas is prepared to violently quash rival clans
The first hurdle for Hamas as it attempts to regain its power is to remove the clans that challenged its rule during the war. At the top of the list for assassinations at the hands of Hamas is the Doghmosh clan.

This is a large and influential group. However, Hamas is prepared to use extreme violence against it because it does not want any challenge. To this end, Hamas has also confronted the al-Majayda clan in Khan Yunis. Hamas has been killing its members, and reports appear to indicate that this clan will bend the knee to Hamas’s reign.

Other groups in Gaza have worked with Israel, including the Abu Shabab one, which is rooted in Bedouin groups in southern Gaza, and a group led by a man named Hossam al-Astal.

According to Reuters, there is a clan in Shejaia that may be resisting Hamas.

“The Hellis clan is large in Gaza City, centered in the Shejaia suburb. A few months ago, a senior member of the clan, Rami Hellis, and Ahmed Jundeya, a member of another large Shejaia clan, formed a group that operates in defiance of Hamas within parts of Shejaia that are still under Israeli army control,” it reported.

It is difficult to know how much Hamas has been able to claw back control of the 50% of Gaza that is not in IDF hands. However, it appears to be reentering the cities and urban areas of Gaza.

Hamas will want to demonstrate its ability to control things on the ground. The deal signed in Egypt will provide this terrorist organization with a window of opportunity. If Hamas can cement itself again, it will be hard to pry its grip loose in the future.

The uncertainty over the details of the U.S.-brokered cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that went into effect on Monday is creating confusion among Israeli soldiers, commanders and combat soldiers told Haaretz.

According to one officer whose combat troops withdrew from Gaza over the past several days, the soldiers can see from observation posts that armed Hamas members are shooting at Palestinians who have tried to resist them – or who are suspected of assisting Israel – but they have been instructed not to intervene.

Under the cease-fire, the army has withdrawn to a new line of deployment, dubbed the yellow line, that still leaves Israel in control of roughly half of the Strip. The officer said Israeli soldiers are under orders to refrain from attacking Hamas militants unless they cross the yellow line.

"What's happening in Gaza today is inconceivable," the officer said. "It's beginning to look like a massacre there. There are dozens of dead there and hundreds of wounded from clans suspected of assistance to Israel."

The transition from fighting armed Hamas members to ignoring their conduct is leaving the soldiers helpless, he added.

"After two years [of war], sitting and seeing Hamas' gunmen on [computer] screens carrying out 'cleansing' undisturbed isn't simple for us commanders and soldiers," the officer said. "We have nothing to do with this. Anyone who expects Israel to help those same clans is mistaken. It looks like Israel has left them to deal with this alone."

"It's not that this involves the most righteous people, but anyone who thought that they would be a governmental alternative to the Israeli army has, within hours, discovered the extent to which they're not relevant and the extent to which Hamas has maintained its power in Gaza," he added.

Driving along the Gaza border fence, it's easy to understand that for the IDF, the war is over, at least as it had been waged for two years. To give residents of areas of Israel near the Gaza border a view reflecting a return to normal, soldiers in the area can be seen cleaning out outposts that had been established during the war.

At the same time, many IDF reservists have been permitted to go home. "There's no point in leaving them waiting on base," one deputy battalion commander said. Nevertheless, most of them have not been released from the reserves.

Now IDF officials are waiting for the second phase of the American-brokered deal, during which the details will be set for the operation of a joint oversight system for the agreement.

Defense officials don't know how authority will be distributed on the ground between the army and the so-called international stabilization force that is expected to enter the Strip would have. They are also unsure if the IDF will be authorized to attack Hamas if it doesn't abide by the terms of the agreement, or whether that authority would be given to the multinational force.

"Past experience shows that relying on foreign forces doesn't work," one senior officer said. "Everyone is waiting to see what is decided in the talks. At the moment, a ceremony for the establishment of the international body is planned, but beyond a nice ceremony, no one knows how this is supposed to work."

In the meantime, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir has appointed Maj. Gen. Yaakov Dolef to be responsible for coordination with the international stabilization force.

Since the IDF's withdrawal behind the yellow line, large numbers of IDF engineering and infantry troops have been working to clear the perimeter that Israel plans on remaining in with the end of the war.

IDF officials have demanded that the political leadership decide that there will be no Palestinian civilian presence in the area, even if it means withdrawing an additional several hundred meters.
"We won't be establishing an Area C in Gaza," one officer familiar with the situation said, referring to the area of the West Bank in which Israel and not the Palestinian Authority is in full control. "The buffer zone needs to remain as a security area without the IDF getting responsibility for the local population that would move next to it along the corridors."

I think Hamas is like Netanyahu and his goverment. They will lose most of their supporters when there is an alternative that can replace them.

I don't think anyone expects them to go away, but the real question is whether they will ever lose a significant number of their Western admirers, and if not, then why?

Does Hamas really have very many "Western admirers" in the first place?

Note: Strongly opposing Israel's treatment of Palestinians, or even being strongly critical of the very idea of Israel as an ethno-state, is not the same thing as admiring Hamas.

Does Hamas really have very many "Western admirers" in the first place?