world news
Hamas emerges from Gaza’s tunnels, showing it never lost control – analysis
Hamas appears to be emerging from tunnels and rubble in Gaza to show that it never lost control of most of the area despite fifteen months of war. While Hamas suffered many blows from the Israel Defense Forces, it was able to recruit new members, and it even kept trucks and vans ready to return to the streets and show its presence.
Videos purported to be from Gaza show the group in white pickup trucks driving around. The videos show large groups of armed men waving to crowds or standing and sitting on vehicles that are parading them through the streets. Hamas police, which are an arm of the terrorist group, are also re-appearing. They have been around throughout the war, but their presence has not been as clear in some areas.
Throughout the war, some NGOs and other international organization officials complained that the lack of Hamas police, or their being targeted by the IDF, was leading to a breakdown in law and order. In essence, many groups linked to the international community that work in Gaza prefer working with Hamas and its police.
Palestinian media, such as Quds, has shown images and videos from Gaza, depicting this as a Hamas victory. They portray the videos as showing “Palestinian factions,” and not just Hamas. They also show civilians celebrating alongside the gunmen.Shehab media, which is linked to Hamas, also has put out videos showing the “victory” they claim in Gaza. One shows masses of Hamas gunmen in a stylized video, clearly produced for this moment, with the men appearing to emerge from a kind of tunnel.
Another image Shehab put out shows October 7 with Hamas pulling a wounded Israeli soldier out of a tank that Hamas destroyed and contrasts it with Hamas holding aloft rifles on top of white trucks in Gaza, declaring victory.
Many other local and international media outlets and activists are showing images of Gaza. This includes Al-Jazeera and also local Gazans.
The videos may be meant for propaganda in some cases, but the overall message is clear. Hamas has emerged from tunnels in Gaza and from the rubble in some areas and is clearly in control. The group never disappeared and was never dismantled.
Back in March 2024, The Washington Post reported that “the IDF says it has ‘dismantled’ 20 of the original 24 Hamas battalions. Dismantled does not mean destroyed.” Indeed, dismantled did not mean destroyed. Hamas has re-emerged quickly. This is not a group that seems to have suffered nearly as many losses as depicted, or it has been able to replace most of the losses and maintain command and control.
History repeating itself
This is not surprising; Hamas has done the same thing after other rounds of fighting. Hamas emerged in the late 1980s, mostly in Gaza. It continued to gain support in the 1990s, opposing the Oslo peace deal. After the Second Intifada, it emerged stronger despite losing many of its leaders to Israeli airstrikes.
Hamas then took over Gaza in 2007 after winning the Palestinian elections. It then went on to re-emerge after the 2009 and 2014 war. In May 2021, a brief conflict with Israel once again showed how Hamas is often underestimated by Israel. At the time, the IDF was portrayed as having an impressive track record of striking Hamas tunnels.
One report claimed that Israel had “pulverized” Hamas’ underground “metro” of tunnels. Another report at Israel HaYom said that Israel had destroyed 100km of Hamas tunnels and eliminated 25 “top” operatives. Hamas actually emerged unscathed from this conflict.
Hamas is emerging in Gaza quickly to take control and showcase its abilities. It wants to portray this as a major victory, even if it suffered many losses. It doesn’t want any vacuum to emerge or any areas to emerge where it loses control.
As the IDF withdraws, Hamas wants to enter quickly. It doesn’t want anyone in Gaza to get the idea that Hamas is weak or to have room to critique the group. Hamas will mobilize masses to come out and cheer. Then, it will try to exploit this. Hamas will want to begin to tackle reconstruction and invite the media to try to showcase the destruction.
Each step of the way will be choreographed by Hamas’ media machine. Hamas has impressive control over every aspect of Gaza, from local media to hospitals and schools. It will galvanize all of this to help portray this as a victory for the group.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Egypt’s foreign minister on Tuesday it was important to ensure Hamas terrorists can never govern Gaza again, the State Department said, with their call coming after President Donald Trump suggested Egypt and Jordan should take more Palestinians.
Trump on Saturday floated a plan to “clean out” Gaza, where Israel’s war has killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis, in comments that echoed long-standing Palestinian fears of being permanently driven from their homes.
The suggestion by Trump was not mentioned in the US State Department statement released on Tuesday after the call between Rubio and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty.
Jordan and Egypt had pushed back over the weekend after Trump’s comments that they should take in Palestinians from Gaza. Asked if this was a temporary or long-term solution, Trump had said: “Could be either.”“He (Rubio) also reinforced the importance of holding Hamas accountable,” the State Department said after Tuesday’s call.
“The Secretary reiterated the importance of close cooperation to advance post-conflict planning to ensure Hamas can never govern Gaza or threaten Israel again.”
Context
Rubio held a call a day earlier with Jordan’s King Abdullah, and the US statement after that call, too, did not mention Trump’s remarks on Palestinian displacement.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Palestinian Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
An Israeli aircraft attacked in the Tulkarm area as part of an IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) joint operation, the military announced on Monday.
Later reports in Israeli media clarified that the airstrike occurred in the Nur a-Shams refugee camp.
Footage from the scene indicates that a car was destroyed, leading to an explosive fire with a pillar of smoke rising into the sky.
Two Palestinians were in the vehicle at the time of the airstrike, according to Palestinians quoted in Israeli media.The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that one of the passengers was killed and the other was moderately injured, according to Israeli media reports.
Wider context
This comes amid the IDF’s Operation Iron Wall, aiming to remove Palestinian terrorists from Jenin and the wider area.
The IDF began a wide-ranging operation on Palestinian terror in Jenin last Tuesday, killing several terrorists in the mission meant to last a minimum of several days and potentially much longer.
The campaign, dubbed “Operation Iron Wall,” includes drones and helicopter air support. There were also reportedly tanks in the vicinity – although not entering Jenin – and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), Duvdevan, Egoz, other special forces, and engineering forces from Battalion 90 were all involved.
The Committee to Project Journalists (CPJ) stated that China, Israel, and Myanmar are the “world’s three worst offenders” for imprisoning journalists in 2024, according to a report published by the organization on Thursday.
The report stated that while other egregious offenders, such as China, Myanmar, Belarus, and Russia, “routinely rank among the top jailers of journalists,” Israel rarely appeared in CPJ censuses before the October 7 massacre.
According to the report, Israel rose to second place as it “tried to silence coverage from the occupied Palestinian territories,” adding that “all detained by Israel on the day of CPJ’s census are Palestinian.” The CPJ report claims that 43 Palestinian journalists were held in Israeli custody as of December 1, 2024.
The report did not take into account that Israel has regularly discovered journalists either embedded with Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists, linked alleged journalists directly as members of terror groups, or killed terrorists whose journalistic ties are later revealed.However, the report did not focus exclusively on Israel but rather on the general increase of authoritarian arrests of journalists across the world, criticizing the authorities in China, Myanmar, Russia, and Belarus, respectively, to an equal extent.
“At least 10 journalists” are held in administrative detention centers where prisoners are subjected to “inhuman conditions,” the report added.
Lawyers who visited some of the detainees told CPJ that Israeli authorities informed the journalists that they were arrested because they had contacted individuals whom Israel wanted information about.
Such arrests are “symptomatic of Israel’s broader effort to prevent coverage of its actions in Gaza,” according to the report. CPJ also reported that Israel banned foreign correspondents from entering Gaza and banned Al Jazeera.
Other CPJ reports discussing Israel
CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna was quoted in a report titled Attacks, arrests, threats, censorship: The high risks of reporting the Israel-Gaza war that “Journalists have been paying the highest price – their lives – for their reporting” since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
CPJ stated in the report that IDF spokespeople repeatedly tell media outlets that IDF policy does not deliberately target journalists and added that IDF reportedly told news agencies that they cannot guarantee the safety of journalists.
A separate January 17 report by CPJ stated that the journalists’ attorneys claimed their arrests by Israel were in retaliation for their journalism and commentary.
The January 17 report notes that 30 journalists, including three held by the Palestinian Authority, have been released since their arrests over the last 15 months.
-
Solar Energy3 years agoDLR testing the use of molten salt in a solar power plant in Portugal
-
Camera1 year agoDJI Air 3 vs. Mini 4 Pro: which compact drone is best?
-
world news1 year ago
Gulf, France aid Gaza, Russia evacuates citizens
-
Indian Defense3 years ago
Israeli Radar Company Signs MoU To Cooperate With India’s Alpha Design Technologies
-
Camera1 year agoSony a9 III: what you need to know
-
Solar Energy1 year agoGlencore eyes options on battery recycling project
-
Camera4 years agoCharles ‘Chuck’ Geschke, co-founder of Adobe and inventor of the PDF, dies at 81
-
world news1 year ago
Strong majority of Americans support Israel-Hamas hostage deal
