Monday’s enthusiasm collided with reality on Tuesday, just a few hours after Israel and Hamas exchanged the last 20 living hostages for . The day has shown the difficulties that the ceasefire faces from now on. On the one hand, the Israeli army has already killed six Palestinians in bombings. On the other hand, the Islamist militia—now without its last negotiating trump card—shows its authority in the streets, including a lethal campaign of persecution against a family clan. And, as a cause of contention, the pace of Hamas in returning the 28 hostage bodies. Netanyahu’s government has retaliated in the form of collective punishment: it postpones the opening of the Rafah crossing with Egypt until Wednesday and has announced to the UN that, from now on, it will not allow more than 300 trucks of humanitarian aid to enter daily. It is half of the minimum stipulated in the agreement.
Hamas has returned eight bodies since this Sunday. The last four are yet to be identified. In the negotiation it was already clear that it would take time to locate them (they are dispersed and some, apparently), but the families and the Government are treating it as a violation of the pact.
In his triumphant speech the day before the Israeli Parliament, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, that he will solve the Middle East conflict. The reality on the ground rather indicates that the mediators (the US, Qatar, Egypt and now also Türkiye) will have to row to prevent it from skidding.
The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar, Majed al Ansari, admitted this Tuesday to the American network Fox News that the rush to “ensure that the return of the hostages was carried out (the priority for Trump and for Israel) forced to postpone “a lot” the analysis of difficult aspects of the second phase, such as the disarmament of Hamas, the future administration of Gaza. (“apolitical and technocratic,” according to the agreement) and the creation of a peacekeeping force for which no country has publicly nominated.
Now, those negotiations have begun, with the aim of “giving security to Gaza, administering it and ensuring that there is no another war,” the spokesperson added, describing the talks as “difficult.”
Hamas opposes the future Government being subject to the tutelage of the so-called “Peace Board”, an international organization that Trump himself would preside over and in which former British Prime Minister Tony Blair would have a predominant role, a very unpopular figure among the Palestinians, due to the role he played two decades ago – between 2007 and 2015 – as special envoy of the Quartet for the Middle East (U.S. US, EU, Russia and the UN) and for his support of the US invasion of Iraq.
Control
In Gaza, images increasingly show Hamas gunmen taking on security and government duties. Among them, cleaning and removing debris along the routes, so that the trucks can advance.
In these barely four days of ceasefire, they have come out of their hiding places and regained control, taking advantage of the partial withdrawal of Israeli troops and the absence of alternatives. Since 2007 they have been the sole ruler, with an iron fist, of the Strip.
Now, they have focused on the Dogmush, a family clan with which they have always maintained a difficult relationship and who already at the beginning of the invasion, in October 2023, killed two of their militiamen, claiming that they had been kicked out of a shelter against bombing.
Since this Monday, a video has been circulating on social media, which has been certified, in which Hamas militiamen are seen dragging seven men with their hands tied behind their backs to a square in the capital. They are then forced to kneel and shot in the back. Hamas has carried out four executions for “collaborating with Israel.”
Palestinian security sources cited by the Reuters agency cite dozens of deaths in recent days in clashes between armed members of Hamas and members of rival factions. Some, like Abu Shabab, actively collaborated with Israel, looted with their connivance the few available shipments of humanitarian aid () and even participated in those Israeli operations in urban areas that were most difficult for troops to assume.
The Palestinian Tribal Committee, the largest assembly of the main family clans in Gaza, has supported Hamas, considering that it is carrying out an “attempt to impose security” against a group that “collaborates with Israel and has committed ignominious acts.” The committee’s chairman, Abu Salman Al Mughani, spoke by phone with Al Hadath, a Saudi television network critical of Hamas. Outraged, he insisted that they rob homes and set up checkpoints where they extorted those who passed by. They even killed a 10-year-old boy to steal a sack of flour that he was carrying for his family, he added.
Al Mughani stressed that he is not seeking to “defend Hamas”, but rather to “tell the truth”, reporting that the militants urge “once, two and three times” the members of these clans, both directly and through family members and mediators (it is common in the Arab world to turn to respected people to resolve disputes), to surrender to be tried. “Whoever did it was brought to trial,” while others “disobeyed and wanted to resist the police and the resistance.” [las milicias de Hamás]”he added.
They are not the only deaths this Monday. The Israeli army has killed six Palestinians in bombings. Five were civilians who were opened fire by a drone as they tried to return to what remains of their homes east of the capital, according to medical sources in Gaza. The Israeli army claims that the “suspects” crossed the so-called yellow line – which marks its first withdrawal to approximately half of the territory of the Strip – and approached the troops while ignoring calls to retreat. Another airstrike killed one person and wounded another near Khan Yunis in the south, according to local health authorities.
