GAZA: After more than a year of hiding in tunnels and dodging airstrikes, uniformed Hamas fighters returned to an hours-long ceasefire in Gaza’s devastated streets, defying Israel’s vow to crush them.
On Sunday, as the world watched as Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages to the Red Cross, dozens of fighters wearing the group’s signature balaclavas
Bands of green heads watched the chaotic events unfold in a packed Gaza City square.
The next day, the Hamas territory’s deputy interior minister was outside Gaza City, declaring that the people of Gaza were “living in a moment of victory”.
As Hamas returned to the streets, Israeli forces were withdrawing from densely populated areas of the region.
The devastation they left behind was staggering, yet Hamas appears to have survived, despite Israel’s rhetoric from the start of the war to eliminate the group forever.
“When you set yourself total annihilation (as a goal), if there’s one man standing there, it can be considered a failure,” said Yossi Mickleburgh, a Middle East expert at Chatham House.
This could prove to be a problem for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed to destroy the group after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
“They were under the heaviest bombardment that an organization could ever sustain and they’re still there and they’re still recruiting,” Meckleburgh said.
Israel decimated the ranks of Hamas and killed several of its top leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh and his successor, Yahya Sinwar. On Tuesday, Israel’s army chief said “about 20,000 Hamas operatives were killed” in its campaign.
Meckleburgh cautioned that it was too early to assess the overall condition of Hamas, and acknowledged that it had suffered heavy losses, but “on your TV, you see them still with their bandanas and all their masks. are there”.
Mohammed Shahada of the European Council on Foreign Relations said Israel had specifically targeted civil servants, police and ministers as part of efforts to undermine Hamas’ ability to govern.
“The continued presence of these personnel and forces is a sign of defiance, which shows that they are working despite the attack,” he said.
On Monday, Hamas said in a statement that Gaza will rise again with its great people and its resilience to destroy the occupation and continue on the path of steadfastness until the defeat of the occupation. “
The ceasefire is in its early stages and many questions remain about the future of the Gaza Strip and Hamas.
Michael Horowitz, a Middle East analyst at the security consultancy LeBuck, said Hamas had sought to deter rivals within Palestinian ranks and show Israel that any additional rounds of fighting would lead nowhere.
He said there was “an important reason” why Hamas was not defeated, namely that Israel “did not try to replace Hamas as a governing body in Gaza”.
Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted that the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority has no role in the Gaza Strip. Horowitz said this “security-only” vision meant “Israel is caught in a strange game”.
Eva Kolrioutis, an independent Middle East analyst, said Hamas retained “tremendous popularity” in Gaza, while “the Palestinian Authority Efforts to provide a popular base and reject Hamas rule have failed.”
The devastation caused by the war fueled resentment against Hamas among Gazans, but many were conflicted, Shahada said.
He noted that people “also feel a sense of pride” that Hamas’s armed wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, resisted Israeli might.
“It revolves around the fact that people have been humiliated… and then it brings a source of pride”.
The Health Ministry put the death toll at more than 47,100 in Hamas-controlled territory, the majority of them civilians, a figure the United Nations considers reliable.
The destruction was in retaliation for a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, which killed 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to official Israeli figures.
Horowitz said the scale of destruction was the worst of any civil war in recent memory, adding that it eclipsed the damage done to Mosul in Iraq during the campaign to oust the Islamic State group.
But ultimately, Meckleburg said, Israel’s military campaign “couldn’t address the root causes of the conflict,” echoing UN chief Antonio Guterres’ call for a cease-fire as the “first step” toward a long-term political settlement between Israel and Israel. is And the Palestinians.
