*Hamas' tight grip on Gaza complicates plan for lasting peace*
Nidal al-Mughrabi, January 22, 2025,
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hamas-tight-grip-gaza-complicates-plan-for-lasting-peace-2025-01-22/
CAIRO (Reuters) - In neighbourhoods levelled by 15 months of war with
Israel, Hamas officials are overseeing the clearance of rubble in the
wake of Sunday's ceasefire. The group's gunmen are guarding aid convoys
on Gaza's dusty roads, and its blue-uniformed police once again patrol
city streets, sending a clear message: Hamas remains in charge.
Israeli officials have described a parade of jubilant Hamas fighters
that celebrated the ceasefire on Sunday in front of cheering crowds as a
carefully orchestrated attempt to exaggerate the Palestinian militant
group's strength.
But, in the days since the ceasefire took effect, Gaza's Hamas-run
administration has moved quickly to reimpose security, to curb looting,
and to start restoring basic services to parts of the enclave, swathes
of which have been reduced to wasteland by the Israeli offensive.
Reuters spoke to more than a dozen residents, officials, regional
diplomats and security experts who said that, despite Israel's vow to
destroy it, Hamas remains deeply entrenched in Gaza and its hold on
power represents a challenge to implementing a permanent ceasefire.
The Islamist group not only controls Gaza's security forces, but its
administrators run ministries and government agencies, paying salaries
for employees and coordinating with international NGOs, they said.
On Tuesday, its police and gunmen – who for months were kept off the
streets by Israeli airstrikes – were stationed in neighbourhoods through
the Strip.
"We want to prevent any kind of security vacuum," said Ismail
Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office. He
said that some 700 police were protecting aid convoys and not a single
truck had been looted since Sunday – a contrast to the massive theft of
food by criminal gangs during the conflict.
A spokesperson for the United Nations in Geneva confirmed on Tuesday
there had been no reports of looting or attacks on aid workers since the
ceasefire took effect.
In recent weeks, Israeli airstrikes have targeted lower-ranking
administrators in Gaza, in an apparent bid to break Hamas' grip on
government. Israel had already eliminated Hamas' leadership, including
political chief Ismail Haniyeh and the architects of the Oct. 7 attack,
Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif.
Despite the losses, Al-Thawabta said the Hamas-run administration
continued to function. "Currently, we have 18,000 employees working
daily to provide services to citizens," he said.
The Hamas-run municipalities had begun on Sunday clearing the rubble
from some roads to vehicles to pass, while workers repaired pipes and
infrastructure to restore running water to neighbourhoods. On Tuesday,
dozens of heavy trucks ferried debris from destroyed buildings along the
enclave's dusty main arteries.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not articulated a vision
for Gaza's postwar future beyond insisting the Islamist group can play
no role and stating that the Palestinian Authority – a body set up under
the Oslo peace accords three decades ago that partially administers the
occupied West Bank - also cannot be trusted under its current
leadership. The Israeli government did not respond to Reuters' questions.
Joost Hiltermann, of the International Crisis Group, said Hamas' firm
grip on Gaza presented Israel with a dilemma.
"Israel has a choice, to continue fighting in the future and killing
people - and that hasn't worked in the past 15 months - or it can allow
an arrangement where the Palestinian Authority takes control with Hamas'
acquiescence," Hiltermann said.
Hamas' military capability is hard to assess because its rocket arsenal
remains hidden and many of its best trained fighters may have been
killed, Hiltermann said, but it remains by far the dominant armed group
in Gaza: "Nobody is talking about the PA taking over Gaza without Hamas'
consent."
While senior Hamas officials have expressed support for a unity
government, Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority and a
longtime adversary of Hamas, has not given his assent. Abbas's office
and the Palestinian Authority did not respond to a request for comment.
FRESH NEGOTIATIONS
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel must withdraw its troops from
central Gaza and permit the return of Palestinians to the north during
an initial six-week phase, in which some hostages will be released.
Starting from the 16th day of the ceasefire, the two sides should
negotiate a second phase, expected to include a permanent ceasefire and
the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops.
Reconstruction, expected to cost billions of dollars and last for years,
would only begin in a third and final phase.
The deal has divided opinion in Israel. While there was widespread
celebration of the return of the first three hostages on Sunday, many
Israelis want to see Hamas destroyed for its Oct. 7, 2023 attack on
Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage.
Even before the ceasefire took effect, members of Netanyahu’s cabinet
said they favoured returning to war to remove Hamas from power, once
hostages have returned home. Three far-right ministers resigned.
"There is no future of peace, stability and security for both sides if
Hamas stays in power in the Gaza Strip," Foreign Minister Gideon Saar
said on Sunday.
A spokesman for Hamas' armed wing, Abu Ubaida, told Reuters the militant
group would honour the terms of the ceasefire and urged Israel to do the
same.
Fifteen months of war have left Gaza a wasteland of rubble, bombed-out
buildings and makeshift encampments, with hundreds of thousands of
desperate people sheltering from the winter cold and living on whatever
aid can reach them. More than 46,000 people have been killed, according
to Palestinian health authorities.
The ceasefire deal calls for 600 trucks of aid per day to reach Gaza.
Al-Thawabta, the spokesman for the Hamas-run administration, said it was
liaising with UN bodies and international relief organizations about
security for aid routes and warehouses, but the agencies were handling
the distribution of aid.
A U.N. damage assessment released this month showed that just clearing
away the more than 50 million tonnes of rubble left in the aftermath of
Israel's bombardment could take 21 years and cost up to $1.2 billion.
On Sunday, as Hamas' security forces paraded on the streets, some
residents had expressed pride that it had survived the onslaught.
"Name me one country that could withstand Israel's war-machine for 15
months," said Salah Abu Rezik, a 58-year-old factory worker. He praised
Hamas for helping to distribute aid to hungry Gazans during the conflict
and trying to enforce a measure of security.
"Hamas is an idea and you can't kill an idea," Abu Rezik said,
predicting the group would rebuild.
Others voiced anger that Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack had brought
destruction to Gaza.
"We had homes and hotels and restaurants. We had a life. Today we have
nothing, so what kind of a victory is this?" said Ameen, 30, a Gaza City
civil engineer, displaced in Khan Younis. "When the war stops, Hamas
must not rule Gaza alone."
NO RIVALS
While the Palestinian Authority says it is the only authority with the
legitimacy to govern post-war Gaza, it has no presence in the enclave
and little popular support, polls show.
Since 2007, when Hamas drove out the Palestinian Authority dominated by
the rival faction Fatah after a brief civil war, it has crushed
opposition in Gaza. Supported by funds from Iran, it built a feared
security apparatus and a military organization based around a vast
network of tunnels - much of which Israel says it destroyed during the war.
Israel floated tentative ideas for post-war Gaza, including coopting
local clan leaders - a number of whom were immediately assassinated by
Hamas - or using members of Gazan civil society with no militant ties to
run the enclave. But none has gained any traction.
Key donors, including the United Arab Emirates and U.S. President Donald
Trump's new administration, have stressed that Hamas - which is
designated as a terrorist organization by many Western countries -
cannot remain in power in Gaza after the war.
Diplomats have been discussing models involving international
peacekeepers, including one that would see the United Arab Emirates and
the United States, along with other nations, temporarily overseeing
governance, security and reconstruction of Gaza until a reformed
Palestinian Authority is able to take charge.
Another model, supported by Egypt, would see a joint committee made up
of both Fatah and Hamas run Gaza under the supervision of the
Palestinian Authority.
Michael Milshtein, a former Israeli military intelligence officer now at
the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies in Tel
Aviv, described Hamas’ public willingness to discuss a unity government
as "cosmetic".
"As long as they are behind the scenes, handling matters, they don't
care that there will be a committee as a front," he said.
On Monday, shortly after taking office, Trump expressed skepticism about
the Gaza ceasefire deal, when asked if he was confident that all three
phases of the agreement would be implemented. He didn't elaborate further.
A spokesperson for the Trump camp did not respond to a request for comment.
(Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell and James Mackenzie in Jerusalem,
and David Gauthier-Villars; editing by Daniel Flynn)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group.
View/Reply Online (#34775): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/34775
Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/110753813/21656
-=-=-
POSTING RULES & NOTES
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
#4 Do not exceed five posts a day.
-=-=-
Group Owner: marxmail+ow...@groups.io
Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy
[arch...@mail-archive.com]
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
