AI-Summary – News For Tomorrow
Following a ceasefire with Israel, Hamas is reportedly reasserting control in Gaza by deploying fighters and police. This raises concerns about disarmament and the challenges facing the planned regional stabilization force. Despite significant losses during the conflict, Hamas is moving against rivals and working to restore law and order, offering amnesty to those who surrender. Meanwhile, hostage releases and prisoner swaps are underway, with aid trucks entering Gaza, where famine was declared, sending the prices in the markets tumbling. The US President has seemingly approved of the reassertion of authority by Hamas so far.
News summary provided by Gemini AI.
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.
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.
Huge crowds welcome freed Palestinian prisoners in Ramallah – video
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.
The Israel Defense Forces have already withdrawn to new positions and currently control just over half of Gaza.
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.
At the weekend, Hossam al-Astal, the leader of a new militia aligned with Israel, was defiant.
Al-Astal was unwilling to talk when contacted on Monday.
Also now vulnerable is Yasser Abu Shabab, the leader of the so-called Popular Forces, an Israel-backed militia based in the south of Gaza. There are unconfirmed reports of punishment beatings and shootings of members of his faction.
One Hamas security official said a hunt was under way for Abu Shabab, adding that one of the fugitive leader’s aides had been “liquidated” in recent days.
“The security campaign is continuing and escalating until this issue is completely over, and no party will be allowed to violate the law,” he said.
In a statement, the Ministry of Interior in Gaza, which has been controlled by Hamas since the group seized power in 2007, said it was making efforts to restore “security and stability” in the territory, but that “the gate for repentance and general amnesty” was open for all those who joined “gangs” but were not involved in any murders.
“All concerned individuals must surrender to security services within a week to settle their legal and security status and permanently close their files”, the ministry said.
Only one of the fighters seen escorting hostages to Red Cross vehicles on Monday appeared to be wearing Hamas insignia: a shoulder patch showed him to be a member of an elite unit of Hamas’s military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam brigades.
Hamas flags and headbands were absent, a marked contrast to the elaborately staged hostage handovers earlier this year that Israel cited as a justification for its decision to break the short-lived ceasefire.
Additional reporting by Jamal Risheq in Jerusalem
