GAZA CITY: After more than a year of cowering in caves and dodging air attacks, armed Hamas fighters returned to the shattered streets of Gaza hours into a peace, defying Israel’s pledge to love them.
With the world watching on Sunday as Hamas handed over three Jewish captives to the Red Cross, lots of balaclava-wearing soldiers in the team’s name natural hats were seen at the packed Gaza City circle marshalling the chaotic events.
The day after, Hamas’s assistant inside minister for the country was out and about in Gaza City, declaring that Gazans were “living in a moment of victory”.
While Hamas was again on the streets, Israeli troops were withdrawing from the state’s densely populated areas.
The damage they left behind was remarkable, but Hamas appears to have survived, in spite of Israel’s stated aim from the outset of the war of eradicating the class once and for all.
” When you set yourself complete elimination ( as a goal ), if there is one man standing it can be regarded as failure,” said Yossi Mekelberg, a Middle East expert at Chatham House.
‘ Fiercest bombardment ‘
This may prove a concern for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who pledged in the fallout of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 assault on Israel to kill the party.
” They were under the greatest assault that such an organisation could possibly sustain and they are still it and they are still recruiting,” Mekelberg said.
Israel decimated Hamas’s divisions and killed many of its top officials, including Ismail Haniyeh and his son Yahya Sinwar. On Tuesday, Israel’s military commander said its battle had killed “nearly 20,000 Hamas workers”.
Mekelberg cautioned that it was too early to assess Hamas’s general state, and acknowledged it had suffered heavy losses, but “on your Television, you see that they are still there, with their bandanas and all their veils”.
Muhammad Shehada, of the German government on international relations, said Israel had precisely targeted civil servants, officers and ministers, as part of its efforts to destroy Hamas’s governing capacity.
” The continued presence of these officials and forces represents a symbol of defiance, showing they remain operational despite the onslaught,” he said.
On Monday, Hamas presented itself as triumphant for having survived, saying in a statement that” Gaza, with its great people and its resilience, will rise again to rebuild what the occupation has destroyed and continue on the path of steadfastness until the occupation is defeated”.
‘ Game of whack-a-mole ‘
The ceasefire is in its infancy and many questions remain about the future of the Gaza Strip and Hamas.
Michael Horowitz, a Middle East analyst at the security consultancy Le Beck, said Hamas had made a show of strength both to deter rivals within the Palestinian ranks and to show Israel” that any additional rounds of fighting won’t lead anywhere”.
That Hamas was not defeated was down to “one key reason”, he said, namely that Israel “hasn’t tried to replace Hamas as a governing entity in Gaza”.
Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted that the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority have no role in the Gaza Strip. This” solely security-focused” vision, said Horowitz, meant” Israel has been stuck in a game of whack-a-mole”.
Eva Koulouriotis, an independent Middle East analyst, said Hamas retained “overwhelming popularity” in Gaza, while “attempts… to provide a popular base for the Palestinian Authority and to reject Hamas’s rule have failed”.
The destruction brought by the war did breed resentment towards Hamas among Gazans, said Shehada, but many were conflicted.
People “also feel a sense of pride” that Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, defied Israel’s might, he noted.
” It revolves around the fact that people have been humiliated… And then it brings a source of pride”.
The humanitarian cost of the war for the people of Gaza has been immense.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory has put the death toll at more than 47,100, the majority civilians, figures the UN considers reliable.
That devastation was in retaliation for Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Horowitz said the scale of destruction was among the worst of any urban battle in recent memory, adding it eclipsed the damage done to Mosul in Iraq during the campaign to dislodge the Islamic State group.
But ultimately, said Mekelberg, Israel’s military campaign didn’t “deal with the root causes of the conflict”, echoing a call by UN chief Antonio Guterres for the ceasefire to be a” first step” towards a long-term political settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Only in that way, Mekelberg said, can Israel” create space between ( Hamas ) and the rest of the ( Palestinian ) people”.
