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@JRPGfan Trump backs Hamas in restoring control, the US doesn't see any Hamas violations of the ceasefire.
They would be the first to further accuse Hamas
Gaza reckons with ruins and old rivalries as mediators piece together wider deal
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/19/middleeast/gaza-ceasefire-palestnians-ruins-reconstruction-latam-intl
Palestinians walk through Gaza City on Thursday.
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The first phase of the ceasefire agreement is nearing its completion. Hamas has returned the remaining 20 living hostages, with ongoing efforts to return the bodies of all 28 deceased hostages. Despite Israel accusing Hamas of slow-walking the return of bodies, a senior US administration official said the group had not violated the terms of the ceasefire. Meanwhile, Israel has released 250 Palestinian prisoners convicted of serious crimes, 1,700 detainees held without charge since the start of the war, and has so far returned the remains of more than 100 Palestinians.
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As diplomatic delegations continued talks this week in Sharm el-Sheikh – the Egyptian resort town that has hosted historic peace deals – a security vacuum has opened. Taking advantage of that void, Hamas began reasserting itself in force on the streets of Gaza.
In one video widely shared on social media and confirmed by CNN, Hamas gunmen executed eight blindfolded men on the streets of Gaza City.
The so-called Palestinian Resistance Factions, of which Hamas is a part, praised the killings, calling them a “security campaign.”
After two years of war and Israel’s vow to destroy the militant organization that carried out the October 7 terror attack, the message was clear: Hamas is quickly working to take control where Israel has withdrawn.
“As soon as there’s a ceasefire, (Hamas) would emerge out of deep hibernation and they would try to go fast as possible with this quick round of executions, clashes, engaging with what they consider outlaws, with collaborators, with thieves, with murderers,” Muhammad Shehada, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told CNN.
Hamas wanted to be seen carrying out executions in order to “create cautionary tales in the ugliest way possible so that other people would be scared into line,” he said.
And Trump appeared to give it a measure of backing.
On Monday, as he was en route to Israel to take his victory lap for brokering the deal, the US president said Hamas wants “to stop the problems” and that he’d given the group “approval for a period of time” to rearm themselves. But the next day he also warned that Hamas must disarm or “we will disarm them.”
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“Now that there’s a ceasefire, they (Hamas) feel an urge to do this as fast as possible to try to make it easier for them to do two things: Number one is to disarm large families and try to create the basic state function. The other goal is to pursue wanted individuals - outlaws, collaborators, fugitives, people responsible for looting aid,” Shehada said.
Even so, Shehada said Hamas is still willing to cede governance of Gaza “because Arab countries have made it clear that if Hamas stays in government a single day more, there wouldn’t be any reconstruction or an end to the war.”
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To challenge and weaken Hamas, Israel armed local militias in Gaza, like Yasser Abu Shabab’s in Rafah. Based behind Israeli lines, these militias are waging turf wars, Shehada says, where they “descend on the other half of Gaza, carry out attacks, then go and run back to those protected areas.”
Israel collapsed the Hamas government without creating an alternative, which Shehada says created “a huge vacuum that leads to societal collapse – the erosion of law and order, the full collapse of civic order, of any basic societal cohesion.”
So no, I'm not misrepresenting the breach of the ceasefire as being one sided. There is clan warfare in Gaza, backed by Israel, protected by the IDF. Just as Israel uses Settlers to attack Palestinians in the West Bank, so they use these clans to try to ignite civil war and further instability in Gaza, making it harder for a technocratic government with International stabilization forces to take over control.
Netanyahu, Katz etc have made it clear they're not moving on to step 2 until after all the dead captives have been returned, while simultaneously making it impossible to find them. They're keeping the Rafah crossing closed and the team of 80 Turkish experts (waiting there) to help locating the bodies out. They won't let heavy equipment in and only very limited fuel to make it nearly impossible to dig for the bodies. And they enforce the 'yellow line' with deadly fire, treating 58% of Gaza as a kill zone, Hamas can't even search the other parts of Gaza city, Khan Yunis nor Rafah.
The US is fine for now remaining that status quo. Fewer massacres to make the news, some aid gets in (however mostly commercial trucks) to give the illusion of food availability at markets (which most of the population can't afford, no access to money etc) No shelter is let in, winter is coming. People will keep dying from disease, malnutrition, starvation, lack of health care and medications, lack of water and sanitation. 300 trucks a day is only half what's needed to sustain the population, much less recover. And Israel is still delaying that halved amount (600 promised in the ceasefire) as much as possible with the same draconian restrictions they used throughout the blockade.
Egypt, Qatar and Hamas are trying to move over to step 2, forming a technocratic government as well as an international stabilization force. Yet without pressure Israel will never go along to letting foreigners into Gaza. No eyes allowed inside, many doctors are still barred from entry as well as UNWRA. Trump had his photo op already, he'll just keep claiming he ended the war and brought 'peace' to the ME which Fox and CNN gladly repeat.
Even if all 20 steps of the 'peace' plan are followed we only end up back on Oct 6, but with 18% of Gaza still occupied (inside buffer zone), Rafah still cut off from Egypt and the total blockade of Gaza maintained. The 'peace' plan is a reconstruction plan at best. The UK and other European leaders are eager to distribute the reconstruction contracts while assuming the Arabs are going to pay for reconstruction. It's all one big delusion. Meanwhile the annexation of and attacks in the West Bank continue and with settlements scheduled to be build in the E1 area a continuous Palestinian state will be made impossible.
