"After Israeli troops stood down when a cease-fire came into effect in the Gaza Strip, Hamas began sending thousands of its forces onto the streets to establish control.
The deployment -- envisioned by the agreement that pauses the fighting while the combatants exchange hostages for prisoners -- highlights how the U.S.-designated terrorist group remains the territory's dominant power. Israel hasn't been able to destroy the group or empower an alternative.
Hamas punctuated its authority Sunday by parading armed and uniformed militants through the streets flashing V-signs to cheering crowds. The open show of force after months of being pushed underground was a signal that aid groups and governments will need to cooperate with Hamas as reconstruction efforts get under way.
"It highlights that Israel's goals for the war were never achievable," said former Israeli hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin, now Middle East director for the diplomacy advocacy group International Communities Organization.
The truce pauses a war that has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and killed around 47,000 people in the enclave following Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and left another 250 held hostage.
If it holds, the cease-fire could ease tensions. But it also raises substantial questions about how Gaza will be governed after the fighting.
Israel battered Hamas in one part of Gaza before moving on to fight in other areas, leaving behind vacuums and creating new threats for ordinary Palestinians already struggling with the fighting and deprivation.
The U.S. and Israel's own security establishment pressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to come up with a plan for Gaza's postwar governance, but so far he hasn't done so. Hamas has stepped into the breach.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said Sunday that a permanent end to the war would depend on Hamas's abdicating power in later stages of the negotiations.
"There is no future of peace, stability and security for both sides if Hamas stays in power," Sa'ar said.
Under the cease-fire agreement struck last week, police overseen by Hamas will assume responsibility for law and order among Palestinians generally. They will also maintain the movement of displaced Palestinians back to their homes. Hamas police forces won't be allowed near Israeli troops or enter the buffer zones near the border with Israel. They can carry weapons only when necessary and would be monitored by teams of Egyptian and other Arab observers. The presence of armed militants on the streets doesn't violate the cease-fire deal, but any attempt to rearm or threaten Israelis would, an Israeli security official said.
A major point in the first phase of the cease-fire revolves around significantly increasing the amount of aid entering Gaza, with Hamas patrolling major routes and accompanying aid trucks and distributors alongside the United Nations. Looting by criminal gangs within Gaza has been rampant during the war.
The amount of aid that entered Gaza on Sunday is more than what humanitarian groups could often bring in throughout an entire week during the fighting, Sam Rose, a senior official with the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, the largest aid group in Gaza, said in a phone interview from the enclave.
Frustration with Hamas in Gaza has grown as the war dragged on. Community leaders, business people and the heads of prominent families made a number of appeals in recent weeks for the Palestinian Authority to take over the enclave again.
Current and former Israeli officials have floated a number of plans. Most involve some form of Arab or multinational force working with representatives of Palestinians on the ground. Top Israeli defense officials repeatedly said the only real alternative is the Palestinian Authority. Former U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken laid out a plan last week that would have the Palestinian Authority administer a the Gaza Strip.
The authority -- which polling shows is unpopular in the West Bank -- ran the Strip until being ousted by Hamas in 2007. It recently has been trying to assert a role. The rivalry has recently turned violent at times. Hamas detained Palestinian Authority officials in Gaza last year, and the authority recently stepped up a campaign to go after Hamas militants in the West Bank.
There are signs of cooperation. Hamas agreed to relinquish control of the important Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, allowing Palestinian Authority officials to operate it alongside Egypt and the European Union. For now, however, Hamas has the monopoly of force." [1]
It is no longer enough to drop big bombs, shoot, and even kill 47,000 people to force the Palestinians to abandon their land or stop resisting. This is an important conclusion, showing that the West's attempts to oppress the Russians, who have long lived in Crimea and Donbas, are also doomed to failure.
1. World News: Hamas Retakes Effective Control of Gaza --- Cease-fire, lack of alternatives give group a moment to assert power. Abdel-Baqui, Omar; Said, Summer. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 21 Jan 2025: A10.
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