Hamas Reasserting Its Authority in Gaza

"It became clear, and we can see this from the Gaza City incursion, that Hamas largely abandoned confrontation with the IDF in favour of strengthening its foothold internally for the day after: saving weapons, preserving manpower and planning reprisals against clans who either co-ordinated with Israel or threatened Hamas during the war."

Shlomo Mofaz, director, Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center

 

"How many families have received threats from Hamas? Now these families are demanding weapons to defend themselves."

"This is the expected scenario in a few weeks: civil war."

Tawfik Tirawi, former head, Palestinian Authority Intelligence Service 

 

"Are they obtaining new cards for bargaining after the hostages are handed over? Perhaps."

"Hamas could manoeuvre on this issue and say, 'We are present, we are indispensable for imposing control'."

Mustafa Ibrahim, political analyst, Gaza 

 

"[Hamas is comfortable with the guarantees provided by mediators that Israel will not restart the war, but the] gangs are an issue in Gaza."

"[Hamas's argument is that negotiators] should differentiate between weapons that can still be held for personal protection, while heavier weapons should be given up." 

Rashid al-Mohanadi, fellow, Middle East Council on Global Affairs, Qatar

 

"[The Sahem {piercing arrow, special unit of Hamas} are] commanders, intelligence people, drug enforcement captains -- all of them experienced." 

"They are scattered around Gaza, usually in plainclothes, holed up in hospitals or in tent-cities among the refugees." 

"The [captured injured Hamas fighter] gave us names, locations, directives and showed us the two separate communication lines used for unit operations." 

Ali Mujaida, senior Mujaida clan leader

 

"[Most Mujaida clansmen] are not affiliated with Hamas and indeed many lean toward Fatah."

"Hamas feared that, either of their own accord or else in co-ordination with the PA, these families would revolt against their rule, and so Hamas needed to nip this in the bud."

Anwar Rajab, Palestinian Authority security official

Hamas-affiliated security forces have been deployed across Gaza to oversee the transition following Israeli withdrawal    Anadolu via Getty Images

 

Byzantine, a labyrinthine as the tunnels that Hamas built under Gaza, are the competing, adverse, historically suspicious family clans with their regional power bases and antipathy toward one another. When Hamas first entered Gaza in 2007 it was two years after Israel's unilateral decision under Ariel Sharon to leave Gaza as a conciliatory gesture to the Palestinians. At that time the Gaza Strip was under Fatah (Palestinian Authority) control. A time during those two years when family clans' vendettas and criminal activity was rampant. Hamas's entry soon changed all that; the group brutally challenged Fatah and brought order of a kind to the Strip, installing their brand of Islamist rule and policing gang activity.

 

Ordinary Palestinian citizens in Gaza were impressed, as gang violence decreased and order -- of a totalitarian nature, acceptable and expected in Palestinian society -- prevailed. Some of the clans sided with Hamas and accepted their rule, and some retained their animosity toward Hamas, but forbore from challenging them, daunted by their formidable power. Since the Israel Defense Forces invasion of the Gaza Strip following the terrorist horde's incursion into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, eliminating Hamas leaders and commanders in the Strip, the clans have grown restive and their hatred of Hamas has resulted in violent armed clashes.

 

Hamas has responded with brutal efficiency, tracking down and killing their opponents, and executing them in the streets. Israel had armed some of the Hamas-opposing clans. Hamas in confronting them as the terrorist group seeks to reassert its commanding control of the territory, condemns them as traitors, rounds them up, and executes them in the streets. The Astal militia whose leader co-ordinated with Israel, taking up arms, were among those targeted by Hamas.

Satellite imagery over Sabra in Gaza City taken earlier this month.  (Planet Labs PBC)

 

A family clan, the Mujaida, diminished following a violent gun battle decided to pledge fealty to the 'government' of Gaza -- Hamas. In the ceasefire agreed to, Hamas has grasped the opportunity to launch a campaign of violence in reasserting its control over the local families in Gaza, along with the militias challenging its power throughout the years of the war since 2023. Gaza City has seen public executions, and armed raids have been carried out in the central Gaza Strip, Hamas sending its message of return to authority.

 

Hamas is thus engaged because President Donald Trump who engineered the ceasefire in a triumph of muscling regional Arab countries into agreeing that Hamas must be disarmed and its dominant role in Gaza broken for good, charging Qatar, Turkey and Egypt to work out the details (all three of which have supported Hamas as a legitimate opposition to Israeli 'occupation' of 'Palestine). In the interim, while the 20-point plan is worked on and implemented with all players in discussion and coordination, allowing Hamas the time to reassess their situation, rearm, reposition themselves, recruit and reclaim their power base.

Armed groups clash in what is claimed to be the Sabra neighbourhood, Gaza City. (Supplied)

 

That may not have been the intention of the U.S. negotiators and President Trump, but what they recognize as a ceasefire is in fact in the parlance of the region, a 'hudna'; a temporary ceasefire allowing the aggressor terrorists time to reorder its priorities. For the moment those priorities are to confront and murder those Palestinians whom they regard as opponents of their ongoing rule of Gaza. 

 

While publicly Hamas 'officials' claim their willingness to relinquish Gaza governance, they contend as part of the social fabric of Gaza their administration should continue as a rebranded political party. Hamas explains its crackdown on the Palestinian clans as normal, since they have returned to Gaza as the commanding authority. Announcing the appointment of five new governors to administer the Strip's urban centres; they circulated videos on social media of its operatives directing traffic.

 

The Hamas social media accounts describe clashes with rebel clans as a duty to bring criminals to justice. The rebellious clans were accused of engaging in smuggling, gunrunning, extortion and looting of humanitarian aid trucks. A number of factions including a primary tribal council voiced support for Hamas enforcing the law, while condemning those who collaborated with Israel. This is Palestinians being Palestinians, embracing their 'victimhood' and exercising their hatred for Israel, seated on its ancestral land, claimed by Palestinians as their own. 

Armed fighters in Khan Younis, southern Gaza on Monday.   Abed Rahim Khatib / DPA via Getty Images

 

Clan and militia leaders experienced the methodical efficiency of Hamas moving against them. Before the ceasefire was announced, one of the first major clashes erupted on October 3 when hundreds of Hamas uniformed operatives entered a Khan Younis neighbourhood in control of the Mujaidas, a prominent family, historically affiliated with Fatah. Hamas operatives armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades advanced in formation from four directions and an intense firefight ensued. When an Israeli drone noticed the attack it fired on Hamas and they were beaten back.  

"[Hamas is now] cleaning up their own territory, forcing the clans into submission and deterring the public."

"When that is over, they will move into the less secure areas to root out the militias."

"Abu Shabab will be last in line."

Doghmush clan member  

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"It was a pre-emptive strike."

 

 

 

Israel, in the Piercing Lens of the ICC

"Who are they accusing here? Iran? Turkey? Syria? No — Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. This is terrible hypocrisy."
"We will struggle for our rights and for our historical truth with all the tools at our disposal."
"We will continue to struggle against this always."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

ICC’s prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, right, and deputy prosecutor James Stewart, center, at the International Criminal Court, ICC, in The Hague, Netherlands. (Piroschka van de Wouw/pool/AP)

The International Criminal Court in the Hague on Friday, through its prosecutor, Faton Bensouda, issued a 112-page report which states that there is "a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes were committed" both by the Israel Defence Forces and by Hamas and other "Palestinian armed groups". Israel is accused of certain war crimes in the framework of Operation Protective Edge of 2014, the 50-day conflict against Hamas terrorists:

• intentionally launching at least three disproportionate attacks
• willful killing and willfully causing serious injuries
• intentionally attacking Red Cross personnel or institutions.

Hamas and other armed groups such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad are accused of:

• intentionally attacking Israeli civilians
• using Palestinian civilians as human shields
• willfully depriving civilians of the rights to a fair trial
• willful killing
• torture or inhuman treatment
• “outrages upon personal dignity,” which refers to humiliating and degrading treatment.



Masked Hamas members carry a model of a rocket during a rally in the central Gaza Strip on December 12, 2014. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

The prosecutor makes note of the fact that the IDF has itself launched investigations into alleged misconduct by its members and "the existence of pending proceedings in relation to other allegations". This is relevant since the ICC can proceed with an investigation only should a government fail to investigate allegations of war crimes brought against it. Accordingly, Ms.Bensouda noted she will continue to review the "scope and genuineness of relevant domestic proceedings" yet ongoing.


On the other hand, no question remains that the crimes alleged to have been committed by Palestinian groups in Gaza are not under investigation, and as a result the ICC can contemplate moving along with an investigation into their conflict activities. What the prosecutor fixes on is that by promoting the settlement movement Israel may have committed itself to being investigated since that too is considered a war crime according to the Rome Statute where the "transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies" is considered a war crime.

Which, of course, leads one to muse why it is that the ICC has not sought to investigate either Russia or Turkey for such crimes, not merely alleged to have occurred, but that have occurred; in Turkey's case its longstanding invasion of Cyprus, and for Russia, its violent incursion into Georgia's South Ossetia and Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, for starters, clear violations of international law, whereas the so-called Palestinian Territories remain suggested for a Palestinian state yet that nascent state remains in limbo as long as the Palestinian Authority seeks legitimacy by all means other than coming to a two-state agreement with Israel, to jettison its never-ending war with Israel.

Further, there is the future prospect of Ms.Bensouda committing to probe alleged crimes said to have been committed by IDF troops with the use of "non-lethal and lethal means" to fend off Palestinians from Gaza incited by Hamas to commit to weekly riots, challenging Israel's borders with the intention of crossing into Israel proper for nefarious purposes, some of which have succeeded through the use of incendiary devices to burn and destroy Israeli farmlands and terrorize its population with countless rocket fire.

The ongoing "march of Return" speaks volumes about the Palestinian determination to take all the land upon which modern Israel was reunited with a portion of her geographical Judean heritage.

For over seven years a bloody civil war has raged in Syria, destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands, displacing millions representing at least half of the pre-conflict population, creating refugees of millions of Syrian Sunni Muslims with the Shiite regime having declared an all-out war on all Syrians critical of the regime of Bashar al-Assad who has stopped at nothing to butcher Syrians, employing chemical agents, bombing hospitals, arresting and torturing those he identifies as enemies, labelling protesters as "terrorists".

In China, Iran, North Korea and elsewhere massive human rights violations are incurred with impunity. Where is the Hague's ICC there?

Dedicated to prosecuting the "most serious crimes of international concern", the International Criminal Court is content to investigate a Western democracy pushed to the wall to defend itself and its population against organizations known to be terrorists and renowned for the depth of their brutality. In a defensive war, one of many, imposed upon Israel by its neighbours, the IDF fought and won the territory that is now in dispute. Any other nation under similar circumstances, having defended itself and fought to retain territory would be legally building homes on it, with not a murmur of dissent from the international community.

Palestinian protesters run for cover from tear gas canisters during fired by Israeli forces during clashes following a demonstration marking the first anniversary of the “March of Return” protests, near the border with Israel east of Gaza City on March 30, 2019. (MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)

The ICC has allowed itself willingly, to be used by the Palestinian Authority when Ramallah considered The Hague yet another arena of convenience for it to gain points against Israel. The request by the PA for the ICC to investigate Israeli 'war crimes' could have been set aside, the case rejected with use of the most obvious argument -- that the ICC lacks jurisdiction since Palestine is not a state. The prosecutor now awaits an ICC legal ruling whether to proceed.

History Simplified for Simpletons

"While a community standard of tolerance may constitute a reasonable limit on offensive advertisements which 'create controversy' is unnecessarily broad ... citizens, including bus riders, are expected to put up with some controversy in a free and democratic society."
Supreme Court of Canada Justice Marie Deschamps

A little bit of controversy never hurt anyone. The issues involved might make people think. They could present as sufficiently intriguing to provoke those interested in pursuing the matter further. In the process instructing themselves about the fine points, the complications, the complex issues involved. And then, fully armed with the well-rounded data they might have retrieved and thought about, they might be in a position to weigh the manner in which the controversy erupted.

That's obviously the best of all possible worlds, when people are interested enough in making themselves knowledgeable about issues that present in a facile manner, condemning one 'side' in a controversy, and in so doing, supporting the alternate side. People are often in a hurry when they make use of public transit, and not particularly inclined to pursue a matter of little interest to them personally; whatever they view is more likely to be accepted at face value.

In Vancouver, TransLink which represents the public transit system and sells advertising space to anyone interested in paying for it, has agreed to permit a special-interest political group to mount their own very special alert to the Canadian people about the situation in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians. TransLink has had previous incidents that has made it wary about refusing to host controversial advertisements.

Its previous policies were to prohibit advertising that seemed "likely in the light of prevailing community standards, to cause offence to any person or group of persons or create controversy", and which "advocates or opposes any ideology or political philosophy, point of view, policy or action". Perhaps laudable in a way, but seen by the courts to offend against free speech. And so it was found to have violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Freedom of speech means telling it the way you feel like. After all, if it's there, printed and permitted to be on public view, it obviously represents an issue that someone in presumed authority has studied and is helpfully circulating so that others who haven't the time to make their own search for information can accept. And if like-minded of groups representing the Palestine Awareness Coalition put together a simple-to-absorb and evaluate chart, the casual onlooker is likely to accept it as is.

Unless they, like the coalition itself, have a vested interest or a previous introduction and conclusion that runs counter to what they see in a public venue. They are then free to protest. As have done Jewish groups on the basis that the "Disappearing Palestine" undertaking by the Palestine Awareness Coalition is simplistically insulting, and clearly represents an anti-Israel propaganda bias shaking hands with slander.

What the posters depicting four maps of Israel/Palestinian Territories depict is Palestine in 1946 becoming Israel in 1948, displacing and making hapless refugees of five million Arab Palestinians. The land originally inhabited by Arab Muslims and Christians, and Jews was partitioned by the United Nations to demarcate and separate the original Palestine geography to provide for two sovereign entities; Israel accepted, the Arabs declined.

Six hundred thousand Palestinian Arabs fled or were persuaded to leave, while the remainder stayed and became Israeli citizens and remain so to this day, electing their own Members of the Knesset in a democratic state. Eight hundred thousand Arab Jews were expelled from the Arab/Muslim countries of the Middle East, their properties confiscated, and they were absorbed by Israel, the new Jewish state whose purpose was thus being fulfilled.

Arab countries of the Middle East preferred not to absorb the Palestinians, although the Palestinians absorbed Lebanon, after attempting to do so with Jordan. The generational issue of the original refugees are said now to number about five million; their procreative abilities not hindered by their long-standing refugee status, special and unique within the United Nations. The state that the Palestinians grieve to own, sits as well on the geography where Israel exists.

That is the map that the Palestine Awareness Coalition prefers not to notice.


The fact that the Palestinian Authority regularly publishes maps, including those used for their school curricula, where the State of Israel does not exist, but over the entire area is the state nomenclature of Palestine, is of course another issue altogether. One that begs the question of the sincerity of the Palestinians in bargaining for peace and a country of their own to sit alongside that of Israel, in amity and co-operation.


Their version of a viable map is one that makes the State of Israel invisible, it has completely disappeared, no more, gone, an illusion and the Nakba a bad dream that has finally concluded.