The ceasefire achieved by US mediation frozen the war between Hamas and Israel. In his place, the Wall Street Journal reports, a ruthless struggle for power between Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip is underway.

While Israeli troops were leaving last week to facilitate the agreement that liberated the living hostages still held in Gaza, Hamas was promoting behind them with security forces – a public message of power intended to make it clear that the organization remains the ruling power of the enclave.

These forces immediately began to combat opposing militias controlled by prominent Palestinian families, involved in shooting exchanges, and conducting public executions that have scattered fear and have caused concerns that a new spiral could be caused.

Conflicts around a hospital in the city of Gaza on Sunday left dozens of dead, according to the Hamas unit that carried the raid and members of the fighting family. Verified video appeared on Monday shows Hamas fighters dragging several men from the family in a public square at noon, forcing them to kneel and execute them in front of a crowd.

Violence suggests the challenges in front of us, as talks on President Trump’s peace plan proceeding beyond the agreement on hostages in the most complex task of Hamas’s disarmament and replacing it with new administrative and insurance functions. Claiming power by the group that has been described as a US terrorist, if it continues, will be opposed to the demands of the Trump plan.

Israel, which has provided weapons to some groups against Hamas, is closely watching battles to see how they will evolve, an Israeli official said.

Hamas counterattacked

‘Hamas restores control’, Hassan Abu Hanich, an independent amman based analyst, who specializes in Islamist groups, pointed out. “Hamas will be even more aggressive now to prove to the outside world that no one can remove them, that no power can question them.”

Donald Trump was asked on Monday about Hamas’ security forces and ongoing repression, while traveling with Air Force One to promote his peace plan to Israel and Egypt. She said that the team had asked, as it was reasonable, to be allowed to secure the damaged enclave. “They have openly stated it and we have given them our approval for a while,” he said.

On Tuesday, Trump said to reporters: “They will be disarmed … And if they are not disarmed, we will disarm them.”

Hamas’ power had been seriously eroded by the catastrophe caused by Gaza after the team’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The Palestinians, desperately wishing to end the war, are increasingly expressing their anger with the team, who believed their anger.

The Israeli gaping in Gaza and the extensive military control of the enclave had stopped a basic source of revenue and had dissolved the team’s cohesion, turning it into a set of individual cores that had trouble paying their own fighters.

Prominent families and other armed groups have exploited the event, publicly challenging Hamas and moving to gain control in their areas. Some of these groups, such as Abu Sababab in the Rafa area of ​​the southern lane of Gaza, were equipped by Israel in an attempt to further weaken Hamas’ influence.

Now Hamas is counterattacked. The armed group takes advantage of the suspension of hostilities with the IDFs to focus on restoring its sovereignty in the enclave.

Haled Kadoumi, Hamas’ envoy to Tehran, said the team has strengthened its forces under the Gaza Interior Ministry and develops them to restore order, fight criminals and looters, and punish people who have worked with him.

“Hamas realizes patriotic and national responsibilities after the war to spread the feeling of peace and stability,” Cantumi said.

Preparations for ‘policing’

Hamas has long planned the opportunity to consolidate her power again. Husam Badran, a member of Hamas Political Bureau, told the Journal last year that the organization had begun to work to create a new police force to suppress what it characterized “looting and pricing increases”.

More recently, in negotiations with Israel, Hamas argued that she was willing to abandon what she called aggressive weapons, such as rocket systems, but should have been allowed to maintain “defensive weapons” such as spare rifles, according to Arabs. One of Hamas’ concerns was the need to repel rival armed groups.

Some Palestinians are worried that Hamas will overdo it, and that Gaza could face the same fate as other places where external forces efforts to impose new political arrangements have led to uprisings or worse.

Mohamad Hadieh, a Palestinian lawyer and mediator working to resolve endopopalistine conflicts, said there was increasing concern about turmoil. ‘Feared the civil war’, said Hadiech, referring to the residents of Gaza. “This is very dangerous. It has already begun. “

Gaza, however, does not have the deep ethnic and religious divisions that characterize much of the Middle East.

No alternative

Analysts, even the Israeli army, have long argued that the Palestinian Authority must return to Gaza as the only viable alternative to Hamas. But Benjamin Netanyahu refuses, calling it corrupt and incompetent, nor does he discuss the possibility of a Palestinian state in which he opposes.

Ephraim SNEX, a retired Israeli brigade, said Hamas’ dynamic behavior shows the consequences of this vacuum. “Hamas’ strategic role is to take control of Palestinian society and its representation,” he observed. “Netanyahu does not want the alternative, which is the Palestinian Authority.”

Gaza residents say Hamas’ presence on the streets is felt during this truce. Police officers prevent crimes such as robberies and violence while maintaining traffic flow. Even for the majority opposed to Hamas, this is a welcome alternative to lawlessness.

Many Gaza residents accuse Israel of the destruction of social fabric and the political class that supported stability in the pocket before the war, including the murder of many Hamas police officers. They also believe that some of the families looted and gathered the few foods that exist to win the sales.

“The main problem we face and suffer from: Many people are looking forward to getting rid of Hamas’s domination, but they are widely scattered throughout the Gaza Strip”said, 64-year-old Falah Masri, who lives in a scene in Deir al-Balah. “It is unclear whether this will continue or be temporary until the class is restored.”