While Israel has destroyed a significant portion of Hamas's tunnel network, the group's continued ability to use the remaining tunnels is central to its efforts to reassert power in Gaza. The militant group is challenging demands to be dismantled under an October 2025 ceasefire and is openly pushing for a role in Gaza's post-war governance.
Current status of the tunnels and Hamas governance
Following the October 2025 ceasefire, the situation on the ground in Gaza is characterized by the following developments:
A vast, surviving network: Military experts estimate that between 70% and 80% of Hamas's tunnels remain intact, with much of the network still unknown to the Israeli military. The remaining tunnels continue to provide Hamas fighters with mobility and protection from Israeli forces.
Continued military capacity: The tunnel network enables Hamas to store weapons, facilitate ambushes, and launch rocket attacks from concealed positions. In response to a recent Hamas attack near Rafah, Israel launched airstrikes against tunnels and weapons depots.
Reassertion of control: With Israel having withdrawn from parts of Gaza, Hamas has used its surviving infrastructure to re-deploy armed operatives in the streets.
Suppression of rivals: Hamas has violently cracked down on rival Palestinian groups and clans to reassert its authority in areas of limited Israeli military presence.
Challenges to the peace plan and post-war governance
The ongoing re-entrenchment of Hamas poses a significant challenge to the international peace plan agreed upon in October 2025.
Hamas resists disarmament: The peace framework requires Hamas to decommission its weapons. However, the group has resisted this demand, fearing it would be left vulnerable to Israel and internal enemies. It believes it can assert itself without provoking a full return to war.
Fragile ceasefire: The ceasefire is considered fragile by analysts, who note that Hamas has already violated the agreement by launching attacks. US officials issued a warning about a planned Hamas attack on Palestinian civilians in mid-October 2025.
International force remains stalled: The peace plan calls for an International Stabilisation Force (ISF) to replace the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza. However, nations are hesitant to commit troops, citing concerns over danger, the mission's scope, and appearing as occupiers. Critical details regarding the force's deployment have not been finalized.
“In the two weeks since a U.S.-brokered truce in Gaza, Hamas is making one thing clear: It isn't going away.
Hamas is pushing for a postwar governance role in negotiations with Arab mediators. That stance is at odds with President Trump's peace plan, which calls for the U.S.-designated terrorist group to give up power "in any form."
Hamas has probed Israeli defenses, prompting Israeli airstrikes in response and raising worries about the fragility of the truce. And it has launched a bloody campaign against rival Palestinian groups, a show of force demonstrating that it remains the only power capable of ruling the Gaza Strip.
The group is betting it can assert itself without triggering a return to war.
"Hamas wants to show that no one can dismantle it and it's the strongest actor in Gaza," said Avner Golov, a former Israel's national-security official and now vice president at MIND Israel, an advisory group.
Leaders of the militant group told Arab mediators that Hamas won't be erased, and that it expects to play a part in the governance of the enclave, the mediators said. The demand comes as talks are turning to the second phase of Trump's plan -- crafting Hamas-free alternatives for administering and securing Gaza.
Trump's plan calls for Hamas to disarm, but the group is wary of giving up weapons or stepping back from conflict without guarantees that the war will end. Hamas wants mediators to push for a 10-year cease-fire to enable talks on Gaza's future, the mediators said.
The diplomatic moves follow a string of attacks by small Hamas cells over the past week and a continuing campaign against armed families and militias in Gaza. Hamas, meanwhile, argues Israel has been violating the Trump agreement by carrying out strikes and limiting the entry of construction equipment and personnel needed to search for the bodies of dead hostages that remain in Gaza.
Hamas's skirmishing is meant to signal to Israel there is a price for failing to deliver, said Hasan Abu Hanieh, an independent expert on Islamist groups based in Amman. "For Hamas, the cease-fire is an agreement, not a surrender."
Hamas didn't respond to requests for comment. Hamas chief Khalil Al-Hayya struck a diplomatic tone Monday in an interview on an Egyptian state-affiliated channel, saying that the war is over. "We are determined that this agreement will hold."
Trump's peace process is at a critical juncture now that Hamas has freed the last living hostages and the truce remains largely intact after two weeks. The administration has sent heavy hitters to Israel this week to make sure the fighting doesn't resume.
Sporadic fighting shows how both sides are engaging in gray-zone jostling for position, and to establish the new rules of the strategic game without tanking Trump's truce. Some in Israel argue Hamas's attacks are setting a precedent for continued armed struggle against Israel. "Everybody is now trying to shape the reality on the ground," Golov said.
Israel's commitment to the Trump plan and Arab governments' willingness to staff a peacekeeping force and fund reconstruction are premised on Hamas's giving up power in Gaza. The risk of delays is that reconstruction could be stalled or occur only in the 53% of Gaza still controlled by Israel.
Arab mediators said they worry the attacks show either that Hamas's political leadership has only limited influence over fighters in Gaza, or that the group's military leaders in Gaza don't have control over all their cells. Most of Hamas's prewar senior leadership has been killed, and fighting fragmented the group's lines of command. Arab governments have picked up signs of disagreement about the merits of Trump's plan among some of the remaining leaders, the mediators said.
Muslim countries considering sending troops to the international force being assembled to stabilize the enclave worry about confrontations with Hamas. Talks envision a force led by Egypt with participants from Turkey, Indonesia and Azerbaijan, as well as a few thousand Palestinians being trained mainly in Egypt and Jordan, the mediators said. Israel has objected to any involvement by Turkey or the Palestinian Authority, which governs much of the West Bank.
Hamas wants the truce to last as long as possible, so it can restore its hold on Gaza, said Guy Aviad, an Israeli military historian who studies the militant group. He said Hamas is preparing to return to fighting by sending forces beyond the "yellow line" that marks the zone controlled by Israeli troops to test their response.
Hamas has been working on reorganizing its militia by rebuilding brigades, nominating new commanders and moving its weapons and personnel, said Michael Milshtein, the former head of Palestinian affairs in Israeli military intelligence.” [1]
1. World News: Hamas Presses To Hang Onto Power in Gaza. Lieber, Dov; Said, Summer. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 24 Oct 2025: A8.
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