Hamas has started deploying armed fighters and police across parts of Gaza in an apparent attempt to reassert authority in the devastated Palestinian territory after the ceasefire deal agreed with Israel last week.
Images showed dozens of Hamas fighters at a hospital in southern Gaza during the release of Israeli hostages on Monday morning and there were reports of shootings and executions elsewhere in the territory. Telegram channels associated with Hamas said “collaborators and traitors” had been targeted, a reference to Israel-backed militia in the territory, while Hamas gunmen also engaged in bloody clashes with a powerful local family in Gaza City over the weekend.
The violence is unlikely to immediately threaten the current ceasefire agreement with Israel but raises significant concerns over the disarmament of Hamas, a key though ill-defined provision of the deal, and the challenges that will confront the new stabilisation force of regional troops that is to be deployed to Gaza.
Asked by a journalist on Air Force One about reports that Hamas was moving against rivals to regain control in parts of Gaza, the US president, Donald Trump, suggested the militant Islamist organisation was acting within the parameters of the ceasefire deal.
“They do want to stop the problems and they’ve been open about it, and we gave them approval for a period of time … You have close to 2 million people going back to buildings that have been demolished, and a lot of bad things can happen. So we want it to be – we want it to be safe. I think it’s going to be fine. Who knows for sure,” Trump said.
On Monday, the first steps of the first phase of the new agreement were completed with the release by Hamas and transfer to Israel of 20 living hostages. Simultaneously, Israeli authorities began freeing about 2,000 prisoners, including 250 serving lengthy sentences.
Hundreds of trucks of aid and commercial goods have entered Gaza since Sunday, sending prices in markets tumbling. Famine was declared in parts of the territory in August and aid agencies say much greater quantities of supplies are needed urgently.
Looting by organised gangs or desperate communities made distribution of aid in Gaza extremely difficult for major humanitarian organisation, which were also hampered by Israeli restrictions and ongoing combat operations.
The Israel Defense Forces have already withdrawn to new positions and currently control just over half of Gaza.
Much of the territory is in ruins, with the population now concentrated along the coastal zone of al-Mawasi, the badly damaged towns of the centre and Gaza City. Hamas exerted a significant degree of control over these three areas even if the group maintained a low profile, Israeli military officials and senior aid workers said last month.
But the militant group has suffered significant losses during the two-year conflict with Israel, with most of its senior or middle-ranking military commanders and thousands of lower-ranking fighters killed. Police officers were targeted by Israel and prisons destroyed along with a lot of other infrastructure. Law and order has collapsed across much of Gaza, with armed families, clans, gangs, looters and militia growing more powerful.
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