Hamas has regrown its fighting force to some 20,000 terrorists, is reasserting its power by policing the streets and refilling its coffers with tariffs on imports to the Gaza Strip after goods were allowed to flow into the Palestinian territory, according to a new report.
Despite a brutal two years of war that has decimated Gaza and killed thousands of terrorists, Hamas is regaining its footing — even as Israel and President Trump’s Arab-backed peace deal demand that the group disarm and cede power, according the New York Times.
“Hamas was hit hard, but it wasn’t defeated,” Shalom Ben Hanan, a former senior official in the Shin Bet, told the Times. “It’s still standing.”
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu questioned whether an international force, which is meant to deploy to Gaza for the second phase of the peace plan, would be able to force Hamas to remark.
Netanyahu said he still supports international attempts to de-fang Hamas, but he vowed that Israel would be there to enforce it if the international peacekeepers fail.
“We can do it the easy way, or the hard way,” he said, according to the Times of Israel. “But in the end it will be done.”
While Israel touted that it had slain more than 22,000 Hamas terrorists before October’s cease-fire, Israeli and western media have reported that Hamas has replaced the vast majority of its slain fighters.
The terror group also has plenty of access to weapons — including missiles that can reach deep into the Jewish state — as well as access to its underground tunnel system, which remains active in the 43% of Gaza currently under Hamas occupation, according to the Israeli military.
With its renewed manpower, Hamas has re-emerged as the law of the land in its half of Gaza, with the terror group even managing the day-to-day finances in the struggling enclave.
Since the cease-fire began, Hamas has been generating revenue from some of the more costly items flowing into Gaza after Israel cleared the way for humanitarian aid and businesses to flow goods into the territory.
The terror group has reportedly levied taxes on several commercial goods, including computers and solar panels, four Gaza businessmen told the Times.
Hamas officials denied that they were collecting taxes on imported goods.
A surplus of funds, however, has been the key for Hamas to recruit new members, with plenty of Gazans happily signing on to get access to money and food.
Hamas has also grown in popularity through its violent crack down on crime in the war-torn Gaza Strip, with the terror group holding live executions of alleged criminals in the middle of the streets.
The terror group saw a major win last week when Yasser Abu Shabab, the leader of an anti-Hamas militia backed by Israel, died in a clash with other Gaza clans in Rafah.
With Hamas reestablishing itself, it remains unclear how the second-phase of the Gaza peace deal would move forward as Israel awaits the return of the body of the last remaining hostage.
Husam Badran, a senior Hamas official, said the group was prepared to cede power to Palestinian technocrats, as Trump wished, but only if the group’s demands are taken seriously.
Hamas has called on the Jewish state to fully withdraw from the 57% of Gaza it currently controls and allow a pathway to be established for Palestinian statehood.
“Without that, talking about these matters would be nonsensical,” Badran told the Times.
Netanyahu, however, has reiterated that a Palestinian state cannot be allowed to exist, claiming it would always pose a risk to the Jewish state.
“The goal of a Palestinian state is to destroy the only Jewish state. They already had a state in Gaza, a de facto state, and it was used to try to destroy the only Jewish state,” Netanyahu said on Sunday.
The prime minister has also warned that if Hamas does not willingly cede its weapons as per the terms of the cease-fire agreement, Israel will continue the fight to depose the terror group.
Netanyahu’s latest warnings came as the US and fellow mediators said that they were preparing to announce a transition to the second phase of Trump’s 20-point peace plan in the coming weeks.
The announcement is expected to reveal the structure of the Board of Peace set to temporarily govern Gaza, as well as that of the International Stabilization Force set to take over policing duty in the Strip and see Hamas demilitarized.
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