Posted on 02/04/2024 12:25:15 PM PST by Uncle Miltie
Hamas has begun to resurface in areas where Israel withdrew the bulk of its forces a month ago, deploying police officers and making partial salary payments to some of its civil servants in Gaza City in recent days, four residents and a senior official in the terror group said Saturday.
Signs of a Hamas resurgence in Gaza’s largest city underscore the terror group’s resilience despite Israel’s deadly air and ground campaign since October 7, when Hamas-led terrorists who stormed the border into southern Israel slaughtered some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and kidnapped 253. Israel has said it’s determined to crush Hamas and prevent it from returning to power in Gaza, an enclave it has ruled since 2007.
In recent days, Israeli forces renewed strikes in the western and northwestern parts of Gaza City, including in areas where some of the salary distributions were reported to have taken place.
Four Gaza City residents told The Associated Press that in recent days, uniformed and plainclothes police officers deployed near police headquarters and other government offices, including near Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest. The residents said they saw the return of civil servants and subsequent Israeli airstrikes near the makeshift offices.
The return of police marks an attempt to reinstate order in the devastated city after Israel withdrew a significant number of troops from northern Gaza last month, a Hamas official told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
The official said the group’s leaders had given directions to reestablish order in parts of the north where Israeli forces had withdrawn, including by helping prevent the looting of shops and houses abandoned by residents who had heeded repeated Israeli evacuation orders and headed to the southern half of Gaza.
During Israel’s ground offensive, many homes and buildings were left half-standing or reduced to piles of scrap, rubble and dust.
Saeed Abdel-Bar, a resident of Gaza City, said a cousin received funds from a makeshift Hamas office near the hospital that was set up to distribute $200 payouts to government employees, including police officers and municipal workers.
Since seizing control of Gaza nearly 17 years ago, Hamas has been operating a government bureaucracy with tens of thousands of civil servants, including teachers, traffic cops and civil police, who operate separately from the terror group’s secretive military wing.
The partial salary payments of $200 for at least some government employees signal that Israel has not delivered a knockout blow to Hamas, even as the military says troops have killed some 10,000 operatives in Gaza along with some 1,000 terrorists in Israel on October 7.
Ahmed Abu Hadrous, a Gaza City resident, said Israeli warplanes struck the area where the makeshift office is located multiple times earlier this week, including Saturday morning.
The strikes come roughly a month after Israeli military leaders said they had broken up the command structure of Hamas battalions in the north, but that individual fighters were continuing to carry out guerrilla-style attacks.
Following an assessment in northern Gaza on Thursday, the chief of the IDF’s Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, told troops that the army will continue to battle Hamas in the area, despite having focused on other locations recently.
“Our ability to operate here, in the heart of Gaza City again, after we left to attack in other areas, our ability to return here and operate powerfully against the important targets, while striking many dozens of terrorists in recent days, is an important ability, and we will continue to do it,” Finkelman said.
Chief of the Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman (right) and Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen, the commander of the 162nd Division, in northern Gaza, February 1, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
His comments came after Army Radio reported the IDF was planning to bolster troop activity in northern Gaza in the coming weeks amid indications that Hamas was attempting to reestablish its military presence there, pointing to rocket fire emanating from the area on Sunday and a recent gun battle near the coastline in which five Hamas members were killed.
The IDF was planning to carry out brigade-level raids on areas where Hamas is attempting to retake northern redoubts, which may include broad operations where needed, the report noted, a shift from recent weeks in which the army has been mainly concerned with hunting down weapons, tunnels and small pockets of remaining resistance.
Renewed fighting in the north would likely complicate plans to begin allowing Gazans to return to northern Gaza, which Israel advised all civilians to leave during the first stages of the war.
The report quoted a defense source blaming the lack of plans for a civilian body to manage affairs in northern Gaza as a major factor in Hamas being able to move in to refill the power vacuum. “If there were a party able to deliver the goods for the north, Hamas would become irrelevant,” the unnamed source said.
A Channel 13 news report last month said IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi had a similar assessment, warning Israel’s leaders that gains made over the months of fighting could be eroded due to the lack of a plan for postwar management.
The alleged comments by Halevi in recent weeks were reflective of consternation among military analysts and others regarding the lack of preparation for a so-called “day after” in Gaza, as Israel winds down the intensive phase of its military campaign against Hamas, which, though weakened, remains in power.
“We are facing the erosion of gains made thus far in the war because no strategy has been put together for the day after,” Channel 13 news cited Halevi as saying in private conversations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and others.
Attempts by the government to convene ministers for conversations on managing the Gaza Strip and keeping Hamas out of power as the military pulls back have been hampered by infighting within the security cabinet.
The IDF has assessed that fighting in Gaza will likely last throughout all of 2024, as Israel works to strip Hamas of its military and governing capabilities. It has also vowed to continue fighting until all remaining hostages are released from captivity.
Meanwhile, combat continued in southern Gaza on Saturday, with the Hamas-run health ministry saying 107 people were killed over the preceding 24-hour period, bringing the wartime total to 27,238. The unverified toll does not differentiate between terror operatives and non-combatants, and is also believed to include civilians killed by errant fire by Palestinian terror groups in the Strip.
International mediators continue to work to close wide gaps between Israel and Hamas over a proposed hostage release deal put forth this week, nearly four months since Hamas and other terrorists carried out their murderous onslaught in southern Israel. According to reports on the proposed agreement, the return of the Israeli hostages would be accompanied by extended pauses in the fighting and Israel’s release of Palestinian security prisoners.
Hamas officials said Friday they were studying the proposal, but appeared to rule out some of its key components.
If you elect a government that declares war via rape torture and child murders - then there are no innocent. HAMASS was elected government of Gaza. They need to all die.
You really think those people in Gaza are innocent? Really?
Dude. I’m a Jew. Makes it hard to be a Nazi.
Just sayin’!
Have a great evening!
Build small pig farms on every block of Haza City, and market then for export to China.
That will clear Hamas right out of the entire Gaza strip.
Pigly Wiggly wins the battle.
I see places in that photo where more than 2 bricks are still stuck together. That has to be fixed—there should not be more than 2 bricks stuck together, and the rest needs to be dust. Along with the filthy satanic inhabitants.
6. Urban renewal, Israeli style.
Innocent? There are no "innocent civilians" among the Gazans. They voted for Hamas for their government, they were complicit in helping to murder Israelis, and they allowed Hamas to use schools, hospitals and the like to store weapons. What's your real name? Would it be Achmed? Mo? Maybe Ghabi?
If only you could have advised the Brits about those guilty Irish Catholic IRA schoolchildren terrorists back in the 70s. Just think, you could have bombed their terrorist hospitals and churches. With your big brave child murdering tactics, you could have bombed a full nursery school and offed a couple hundred of terrorist desperado kids. Too bad, you’ll have to get by on your fantasies of saving England by slaughtering tens of thousands of children. Enough of your fantasizing. Good Lord, is that a wrench in your pocket?
For your viewing pleasure. If only we had more like you who are brave enough to implement your final solution for Palestinian Moslems and Christians. Sieg Heil!
https://youtu.be/6TqD8ZcdMCg?si=vECWJ_It7juphZXj
All that was Hamas before has been destroyed and is rubble or dirt where rubble has been removed. What were “refugee camps” were actually Hamas governed areas within the larger area of Gaza. Those “camps” are now just gone. Further, since there are no longer any refugee camps or refugees, there is no reason for the existence of the UNREA.
By reasserting aa symbolic appearance of contro, Hamas is now apparently attempting to occupy structures that remain intact. In so doing, the structures become Hamas tainted and subject to destruction.
The IDF is very cognizant of the current rules of war that make the targeting of “civilians” illegal. If you watch much of the video, you can see that Hamas buildings bombed or otherwise destroyed are videoed. When and if taken to court, the IDF can present the video along with the address and the nature of the Hamas occupation.
Wow! You got nuked (#39).
For the record, I didn’t report you.
I WANT your unhinged fact-free scurrilous support for the raping baby roasters on full display as a warning to others.
Keep up the good work!
Drop dead, Achmed.
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