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said the group’s leaders had given directions to reestablish order in parts of the north where Israeli forces had withdrawn, including by helping prevent the looting of shops and houses abandoned by residents who had heeded repeated Israeli evacuation orders and headed to the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.
Cockroaches.
Hamas needs to be eliminated from the face of the earth
Target rich environment.
Long time. If I'm israel, I would clean up North Gaza, that means removing rubble out of Gaza City. Then you build a fence splitting North Gaza from South Gaza. Then you'll build a military base in North Gaza.
Hamas will have less space to operate from.
They should be roach bombed and be sent to their 72 virgin goats!
Let the evil bastards slither back in, and then blow it to smithereens.
According to Netanyahu the IDF will leave when Hamas is ERADICATED.
“Hamas moves to reassert power in Gaza City areas from which Israeli Forces withdrew,”.
Now Netanyahu has a problem. All the civilian men, women and children are dead or cleansed from those areas. All of the Hamas controlled schools, hospitals, churches, infrastructure, food, water and sanitation are gone. What guilty civilians are left to shoot or blow up their houses to oust Hamas this time?
I bet this time, the “locals” will be less willing to act as human shields.
Hopefully, Israel left lots of hidden surveillance devices everywhere.
https://m.jpost.com/international/article-785134
What is the reasoning that trump says this now ?
Trump claims Israel was part of attack on Soleimani, but pulled out last second
Is this statement directed towards Israel? that Israel doesn’t follow through on its threats ? Meaning that they better finish Hamas off and drag this war until they finish the job they started ?
What do you think this statement directed at Israel means ?
Bedbugs. Gonna have to tent the entire Gaza Strip and raise the temperature to 140 degrees F.
Raptor News: IDF Initiates Emergency Operation! Northern Gaza Is No Longer Under Control!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Co_Eo000E
The idea is to eliminate Hams entirely - wipe them off the face of the Earth. Nothing less.
hidden surveillance devices everywhere.
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They are called surveillance drones flying continually - armed.
How do you do that? When every civilian in Gaza supports Hamas?
Change their minds by continuing offensive operations until there is no more resistance of any kind.
See Germany and Japan.
What does one do with a rabid animal? A simple solution.
How do you do that? When every civilian in Gaza supports Hamas?
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There are no civilians - only old jihadis, current jihadis and future jihadis. They are taught to kill Jews from early childhood, boys & girls. Its a culture that worships death.
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