INTREP360 Quick Take: Hamas will not go away quietly
Simple fact that everyone wants to ignore – Hamas has no intention of relinquishing power over Gaza.
Earlier this week Senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad official Muhammad al-Hindi took to X to reject President Trump’s claim concerning the disarmament of Hamas, saying Hamas and other resistance factions never agreed to disarm and that Trump is “negotiating with himself.”
Hamas is reasserting control in parts of Gaza not occupied by Israel Defense Forces as the ceasefire takes hold. Instead of laying down their weapons as the Trump 20-point peace plan calls for, Hamas’ internal security forces have taken back to the streets and are clashing with groups and clans that oppose them.
The Palestinian Home Front, a Telegram channel affiliated with Hamas, reported on Sunday that “A number of collaborators and informants were apprehended and arrested in Gaza City, after it was proven that they were involved in spying for the enemy.”
That enforcement was put on full display for everyone to witness Wednesday when a group of masked men, some of whom are wearing green Hamas headbands, summarily executed eight bound and blindfolded men on their knees with shots to the back of their heads by AK-47 assault rifles in a square in Gaza City while large crowds watched.
The President’s mistake may have been impling that Hamas had been “given approval to act as a Palestinian police force in Gaza ‘for a period of time’ in the wake of implementing phase one of the ceasefire agreement.” That likely greenlighted Hamas in the same manner that former President Joe Biden’s “minor incursion” comment greenlighted Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Getting the toothpaste back into the tube is now the challenge.
The office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a statement condemning the killings, calling them “heinous crimes” and “a blatant violation of human rights.”
The Independent Commission for Human Rights said the “acts constitute grave legal and moral crimes that require urgent condemnation and accountability.”
Condemnation has zero effect though.
Like Russian President Vladimir Putin, they only understand violence, and that will likely be what it takes to get them to relinquish power.
Should they renege on their word, as Biden warned Russia, “It is going to be a disaster [for Hamas].”
On Tuesday Trump told reporters, “If they [Hamas] don’t disarm, we will disarm them and it will happen quickly and perhaps violently.”
He told CNN’s Jake Tapper he would consider allowing Israel to resume military action in Gaza if Hamas refuses to uphold its end of the ceasefire deal, saying that “Israeli forces could return to the streets as soon as I say the word.”
Then he posted on Truth Social that, “If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them.”
“We” may be too many people though. Many, if not all the countries signing up for the ‘peace keeping’ mission in Gaza, will not want to participate in offensive actions against the Iranian supported Hamas terrorist group. Leaving the U.S. and Israel to police up the battlefield.
Sometimes you just have to rip off the band-aid.
The sooner Hamas is disarmed and displaced, Iranian influence removed, a coalition force emplaced, and governance returned to the people – the sooner a lasting peace can begin.
Otherwise, the pattern of hate simply continues, as a recently released video on X foreshadows. In the video, a Palestinian prisoner and his son, who were just released from an Israeli prison, promise that they will come back to kill more Israelis like on October 7th. “Do you see my son? He will come to you again like on the seventh of October! Here’s your “peace in the middle east!”