After 15 months of war, Hamas still rules over what remains of Gaza

Fighters from the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, control the crowd as Red Cross vehicles manoeuvre to collect Israeli hostages to be released under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP)
Fighters from the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, control the crowd as Red Cross vehicles manoeuvre to collect Israeli hostages to be released under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP)
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Updated 20 January 2025
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After 15 months of war, Hamas still rules over what remains of Gaza

After 15 months of war, Hamas still rules over what remains of Gaza
  • Avi Issacharoff: “Hamas is going to remain in power and will continue to build more tunnels and recruit more men, without the emergence of any local alternative”
  • Israel has killed over 47,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and has reduced entire neighborhoods to fields of rubble

GAZA CITY: As a ceasefire brought calm to Gaza’s ruined cities, Hamas was quick to emerge from hiding.
The militant group has not only survived 15 months of war with Israel — among the deadliest and most destructive in recent memory — but it remains firmly in control of the coastal territory that now resembles an apocalyptic wasteland. With a surge of humanitarian aid promised as part of the ceasefire deal, the Hamas-run government said Monday that it will coordinate distribution to the desperate people of Gaza.
For all the military might Israel deployed in Gaza, it failed to remove Hamas from power, one of its central war aims. That could make a return to fighting more likely, but the results might be the same.
There was an element of theater in Sunday’s handover of three Israeli hostages to the Red Cross, when dozens of masked Hamas fighters wearing green headbands and military fatigues paraded in front of cameras and held back a crowd of hundreds who surrounded the vehicles.
The scenes elsewhere in Gaza were even more remarkable: Thousands of Hamas-run police in uniform re-emerged, making their presence known even in the most heavily destroyed areas.
“The police have been here the whole time, but they were not wearing their uniforms” to avoid being targeted by Israel, said Mohammed Abed, a father of three who returned to his home in Gaza City more than seven months after fleeing the area.
“They were among the displaced people in the tents. That’s why there were no thefts,” he said.
Other residents said the police had maintained offices in hospitals and other locations throughout the war, where people could report crimes.
Israel has repeatedly blamed Hamas for the heavy civilian death toll and damage to infrastructure because the group’s fighters and security forces embed themselves in residential neighborhoods, schools and hospitals.
A deeply rooted movement
Opinion polls consistently show that only a minority of Palestinians support Hamas. But the Islamic militant group — which does not accept Israel’s existence — is deeply rooted in Palestinian society, with an armed wing, a political party, media and charities that date back to its founding in the late 1980s.
For decades, Hamas functioned as a well-organized insurgency, able to launch hit-and-run attacks on Israeli forces and suicide bombings in Israel itself. Many of its top leaders have been killed — and quickly replaced. It won a landslide victory in 2006 parliamentary elections, and the following year it seized Gaza from the Western-backed Palestinian Authority in a week of street battles.
Hamas then established a fully-fledged government, with ministries, police and a civilian bureaucracy. Its security forces quickly brought Gaza’s powerful families into line and crushed rival armed groups. They also silenced dissent and violently dispersed occasional protests.
Hamas remained in power through four previous wars with Israel. With help from Iran it steadily enhanced its capabilities, extended the range of its rockets and built deeper and longer tunnels to hide from Israeli airstrikes. By Oct. 7, 2023, it had an army of tens of thousands in organized battalions.
In the surprise incursion that triggered the war, its fighters attacked southern Israel by air, land and sea, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Hamas-led militants abducted 250 others.
A war like no other
In response, Israel launched an air and ground war that has killed over 47,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and has reduced entire neighborhoods to fields of rubble. Some 90 percent of Gaza’s population has been displaced, often multiple times.
Nearly every day of the war, the Israeli military announced that it had killed dozens of fighters, or taken out a midlevel commander, or dismantled a tunnel complex or obliterated a weapons factory. Israeli forces killed Hamas’ top leader, Yahya Sinwar, and most of his lieutenants. But the exiled leadership is mostly intact and Mohammed Sinwar, his brother, has reportedly assumed a bigger role in Gaza.
The military says it has killed over 17,000 fighters — roughly half of Hamas’ estimated prewar ranks — though it has not provided evidence.
What Israel said were carefully targeted strikes frequently killed women and children and in some cases wiped out entire extended families.
The military blamed civilian casualties on Hamas. But survivors of the bombardment, crammed into tents after their homes were flattened, were a pool of potential recruits.
Earlier this month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a prepared speech that Hamas had recruited nearly as many fighters as it lost during the war.
Michael Milshtein, an Israeli expert on Palestinian affairs and former military intelligence officer, said Hamas no longer has the ability to launch an Oct. 7-style attack but has returned to its insurgent roots, using creative tactics like harvesting unexploded Israeli ordnance for homemade bombs.
“Hamas is a chameleon. It changed its colors according to the circumstances,” he said.
“The war is ending with a strong perception of success for Hamas,” he added. “The enlistment capabilities will be crazy. They won’t be able to handle it.”
Israel ensures there is no alternative
Palestinian critics of Hamas have long said there is no military solution to the Mideast conflict, which predates the birth of the militant group by several decades.
They argue that Palestinians would be more likely to break with Hamas if they had an alternative path to ending Israel’s decades-long occupation, which has further entrenched itself during the war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government is opposed to Palestinian statehood, has ensured they do not.
He has rebuffed proposals from the United States and friendly Arab countries for a reformed Palestinian Authority to govern both Gaza and parts of the occupied West Bank ahead of eventual statehood. Instead, he has vowed to maintain open-ended security control over both territories.
Avi Issacharoff, a veteran Israeli journalist — and co-creator of the Netflix hit “Fauda” — said Netanyahu’s refusal to plan for the day after was the “biggest debacle of this war.”
“Israel is waking up from a nightmare into the very same nightmare,” he wrote in Israel’s Yediot Ahronot newspaper. “Hamas is going to remain in power and will continue to build more tunnels and recruit more men, without the emergence of any local alternative.”
Netanyahu has threatened to resume the war after the first six-week phase of the ceasefire if Israel’s goals are not met, while Hamas has said it will not release dozens of remaining captives without a lasting truce and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
There’s no reason to think another military campaign would bring about a different result.
In early October, Israeli forces sealed off the northern towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabaliya, barring nearly all humanitarian aid, forcing thousands to flee and destroying nearly every structure in their path, including schools and shelters, according to witnesses who fled.
The army had carried out major operations in all three places previously, only to see militants regroup. At least 15 Israeli soldiers have died in northern Gaza this month alone.
When residents returned to Jabaliya on Sunday, they found a sprawling scene of devastation with only a few tilted shells of buildings in a sea of gray rubble.
Dozens of Hamas police kept watch over their return.

 


Car bomb explosion near Syrian Arab Republic’s Manbij kills 15

Car bomb explosion near Syrian Arab Republic’s Manbij kills 15
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Car bomb explosion near Syrian Arab Republic’s Manbij kills 15

Car bomb explosion near Syrian Arab Republic’s Manbij kills 15

DAMASCUS: A car bomb on Monday killed 15 people, mostly women farm workers, in the northern Syrian city of Manbij where Kurdish forces are battling Turkiye-backed groups, state media reported.

Citing White Helmet rescuers, SANA news agency said there had been a “massacre” on a local road, with “the explosion of a car bomb near a vehicle transporting agricultural workers” killing 14 women and one man.

The attack also wounded 15 women, some critically, SANA said, adding the toll could rise.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

It was the second such attack in recent days in war-ravaged Syrian Arab Republic, where Islamist-led rebels toppled autocratic president Bashar Assad in December.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported nine people, including an unspecified number of pro-Turkiye fighters, killed Saturday “when a car bomb exploded near a military position” in Manbij.

Turkiye-backed forces in Syria’s north launched an offensive against the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in November, capturing several Kurdish-held enclaves in the north despite US efforts to broker a ceasefire.

With US support, the SDF spearheaded the military campaign that ousted the Daesh group from Syrian Arab Republic in 2019.

But Turkiye accuses the main component of the group – the People’s Protection Units (YPG) – of being affiliated with the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Both Turkiye and the United States have designated the PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil, a terrorist group.

Syrian Arab Republic’s new rulers have called on the SDF to hand over their weapons, rejecting demands for any kind of Kurdish self-rule.

Assad ruled Syrian Arab Republic with an iron fist and his bloody crackdown down on anti-government protests in 2011 sparked a war that killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions.


Israeli prime minister in Washington for Gaza ceasefire talks

Israeli prime minister in Washington for Gaza ceasefire talks
Updated 03 February 2025
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Israeli prime minister in Washington for Gaza ceasefire talks

Israeli prime minister in Washington for Gaza ceasefire talks
  • Netanyahu told reporters he would discuss "victory over Hamas"
  • Trump said Sunday that negotiations with Israel and other countries in the Middle East were "progressing"

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to begin talks Monday on brokering a second phase of the ceasefire with Hamas, his office said, as he visits the new Trump administration in Washington.
Ahead of his departure, Netanyahu told reporters he would discuss "victory over Hamas", contending with Iran and freeing all hostages when he meets with President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
It will be Trump's first meeting with a foreign leader since returning to the White House in January, a prioritisation Netanyahu called "telling".
"I think it's a testimony to the strength of the Israeli-American alliance," he said before boarding his flight.
He was welcomed to the US capital on Sunday night by Israel's ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, who stressed the coming Trump-Netanyahu meeting would strengthen "the deep alliance between Israel and the United States and will enhance our cooperation".
Trump, who has claimed credit for sealing the ceasefire deal after 15 months of war, said Sunday that negotiations with Israel and other countries in the Middle East were "progressing".
"Bibi (Benjamin) Netanyahu's coming on Tuesday, and I think we have some very big meetings scheduled," Trump said.
Netanyahu's office said he would begin discussions with Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Monday over terms for the second phase of the truce.
Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas are meanwhile due to resume this week.
The initial, 42-day phase of the deal is due to end next month.
The next stage is expected to cover the release of the remaining captives and to include discussions on a more permanent end to the war.
Trump has said that 15 months of fighting has reduced the Palestinian territory to a "demolition site" and has repeatedly touted a plan to "clean out" the Gaza Strip, calling for Palestinians to move to neighbouring countries such as Egypt or Jordan.
Qatar, which jointly mediated the ceasefire along with the US and Egypt, underscored on Sunday the importance of allowing Palestinians to "return to their homes and land".
"We emphasised the importance of concerted efforts to intensify the entry of humanitarian aid and rehabilitate the Strip to make it livable and to stabilise the Palestinian people in their land," Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said following a meeting with Turkey's foreign minister.

Under the ceasefire's first phase, Hamas was to free 33 hostages in staggered releases in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
The truce has also led to a surge of food, fuel, medical and other aid into rubble-strewn Gaza, while displaced Palestinians have been allowed to begin returning to the north.
During their October 7, 2023 attack, Hamas militants took 251 hostages, 91 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory response has killed at least 47,283 people in Gaza, a majority civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, figures which the UN considers reliable.
While Trump's predecessor Joe Biden sustained Washington's military and diplomatic backing of Israel, it also distanced itself from the mounting death toll and aid restrictions.
Trump moved quickly to reset relations.
In one of his first acts back in office, he lifted sanctions on Israeli settlers accused of violence against Palestinians and reportedly approved a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs that the Biden administration had blocked.
The ceasefire discussions in Washington are expected to also cover concessions Netanyahu must accept to revive normalisation efforts with Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh froze discussions early in the Gaza war and hardened its stance, insisting on a resolution to the Palestinian issue before making any deal.
Trump believes "that he must stabilise the region first and create an anti-Iran coalition with his strategic partners," including Israel and Saudi Arabia, said David Khalfa, a researcher at the Jean Jaures Foundation in Paris.
But Netanyahu faces intense pressure from within his cabinet to resume the war, with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatening to quit and strip the prime minister of his majority.

On the ground, Israel said Sunday it has killed at least 50 militants and detained more than 100 "wanted individuals" during an operation in the West Bank.
The massive offensive began on January 21 with the Israeli military saying it aimed to root out Palestinian armed groups from the Jenin area, which has long been a hotbed of militancy.
On Sunday, Palestinian official news agency WAFA said Israeli forces "simultaneously detonated about 20 buildings" in the eastern part of Jenin refugee camp, adding that the "explosions were heard throughout Jenin city and parts of the neighbouring towns".
The Palestinian health ministry meanwhile said the Israeli military killed a 73-year-old man and a 27-year-old in separate incidents in the West Bank on Sunday.
Violence has surged across the West Bank since the Gaza war broke out in October 2023.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 883 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the war, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
At least 30 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military raids in the territory over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.


Trump’s aid freeze shocks a Syria camp holding families linked to the Daesh group

Trump’s aid freeze shocks a Syria camp holding families linked to the Daesh group
Updated 03 February 2025
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Trump’s aid freeze shocks a Syria camp holding families linked to the Daesh group

Trump’s aid freeze shocks a Syria camp holding families linked to the Daesh group
  • US-funded organization abruptly suspends aid activities at the sprawling Al-Hol tent camp
  • Aid organization works under the supervision of the US-led coalition formed to fight Daesh

AL-HOL, Syrian Arab Republic: Ahmad Abdullah Hammoud was lucky to have some food stored to feed his family after a US-funded organization abruptly suspended its aid activities at the sprawling tent camp in northeastern Syrian Arab Republic where they have been forced to stay for nearly six years.
His family is among 37,000 people, mostly women and children, with alleged ties to the Daesh group at the bleak, trash-strewn Al-Hol camp, where the Trump administration’s unprecedented freeze on foreign aid caused chaos and uncertainty and worsened the dire humanitarian conditions.
When the freeze was announced shortly after Trump took office, US-funded aid programs worldwide began shutting down operations, including the
Aid organization works under the supervision of the US-led coalition formed to fight Daesh.
The US-based Blumont briefly suspended operations, according to the camp’s director. It had been providing essentials such as bread, water, kerosene and cooking gas. Blumont didn’t reply to questions.
“We were troubled when Blumont suspended its activities,” said Hammoud, who denies links with Daesh and had been sheltering in an Daesh -controlled area after being displaced during Syrian Arab Republic’s civil war.
“Believe me, we did not find food. Even bread only came at 2 p.m.,” said another camp resident, Dirar Al-Ali.
Camp director Jihan Hanan told The Associated Press that other aid agencies, including the World Health Organization, had ceased some operations.
“It is a disgraceful decision,” Hanan said of the Trump administration’s action, adding that some residents argued they should be allowed to leave if food cannot be provided.
She said Blumont distributes 5,000 bags of bread daily at a cost of about $4,000, something that local authorities in the Kurdish-run enclave cannot afford.
Uncertain times ahead
Hanan said Blumont received a two-week waiver from the Trump administration and resumed work on Jan. 28. It is not clear what will happen once the waiver ends.
Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces that control northeastern Syrian Arab Republic, said he has raised the aid freeze issue with officials from the US-led coalition.
“We are on the verge of finding an alternative to this decision,” Abdi said, adding that an exemption might be issued for northeastern Syrian Arab Republic.
The US freeze comes as Daesh tries to take advantage of the vacuum created by the fall of Assad’s government in early December to insurgents. Another cut in food supplies could lead to riots by camp residents that Daesh, which has sleeper cells there, could exploit.
Hanan said the camp had received information from the US-led coalition against Daesh, the Iraqi government and the US-backed and Kurdish-led SDF, that Daesh was preparing to attack the camp after Assad’s fall. Security was increased and the situation is under control, she said.
The SDF runs 28 detention facilities in northeastern Syrian Arab Republic holding some 9,000 Daesh members. Security at Al-Hol camp and the detention facilities are not expected to be affected by the US aid freeze, according to Hanan and an official at the largest detention facility in the northeastern city of Hassakeh, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
The main part of Al-Hol houses some 16,000 Iraqis and 15,000 Syrians. In a separate, heavily guarded section known as the Annex are another 6,300 people from 42 countries, the vast majority of them wives, widows and children who are considered the most die-hard Daesh supporters.
The camp has no paved roads and piles of trash. Teenagers and children with almost nothing to do spend their time playing soccer or wandering around.
Children in the Annex threw stones at visiting AP journalists and shouted “You are a Satan” and “The Islamic State is lasting.”
’Sustenance is from God’
A Chinese woman in the Annex, who identified herself as Asmaa Ahmad and said she came from the western region of Xinjiang, described her husband as “an Islamic State martyr” killed in 2019 in the eastern Syrian Arab Republic village of Baghouz, where Daesh lost the last sliver of land it once controlled.
Ahmad, who is in the camp with her four children, said she does not want to go back to China, fearing persecution. Asked about the temporary loss of US aid, she replied: “Sustenance is from God.”
She said she is waiting for Daesh members to rescue her family one day.
Al-Hol is the most dangerous place in the world, camp director Hanan asserted, adding that countries should repatriate their citizens to prevent children being fed the extremist ideology. “This place is not suitable for children,” she said.
The US military has been pushing for years for countries who have citizens at Al-Hol and the smaller, separate Roj Camp to repatriate them.
“Without international repatriation, rehabilitation and reintegration efforts, these camps risk creating the next generation of Daesh,” Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, head of US Central Command, said during a visit to Al-Hol in mid-January.
Hanan said that since the fall of Assad, many Syrians in the camp have expressed a desire to return to their homes in areas held by the country’s new rulers. She said camp authorities decided that any Syrian who wants to leave can go.
Even if the camp population drops, “there will be a disaster” if US aid is suspended again, she added.


Qatar’s prime minister calls on Hamas, Israel to begin immediate talks on Gaza ceasefire phase two

Qatar’s prime minister calls on Hamas, Israel to begin immediate talks on Gaza ceasefire phase two
Updated 03 February 2025
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Qatar’s prime minister calls on Hamas, Israel to begin immediate talks on Gaza ceasefire phase two

Qatar’s prime minister calls on Hamas, Israel to begin immediate talks on Gaza ceasefire phase two
  • Israel and Hamas last month reached complex three-phase accord that halted fighting in Gaza
  • Hamas has released 18 hostages in exchange for Israel releasing hundreds of Palestinians 

DOHA: Qatar’s prime minister on Sunday called on Israel and Hamas to immediately begin negotiating phase two of the Gaza ceasefire, adding that there is no clear plan for when talks will begin.
“We demand (Hamas and Israel) to engage immediately as stipulated in the agreement,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said at a press conference held jointly with Turkiye’s foreign minister in the Qatari capital Doha on Sunday.
According to the ceasefire agreement, negotiations on implementing the second phase of the deal should begin before the 16th day of phase one of the ceasefire, which is Monday.
Israel and Hamas last month reached a complex three-phase accord that has halted the fighting in Gaza. Hamas has so far released 18 hostages in exchange for Israel releasing hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
There are more than 70 hostages still held in Gaza.
The second stage of the accord is expected to include Hamas releasing all remaining hostages held in Gaza, a permanent end to hostilities and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the enclave.
“There is nothing yet clear about where the delegations will come and when it’s going to take place,” Sheikh Mohammed said.
Mediators have engaged with Hamas and Israel over the phone and Qatar has set an agenda for the next phase of negotiations, he said.
“We hope that we start to see some movement in the next few days. It’s critical that we get things rolling from now in order to get to an agreement before day 42.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he would begin negotiations on phase two of the agreement on Monday in Washington, when he is set to meet US President Donald Trump’s Middle East Envoy, Steve Witkoff.
During his meeting with Witkoff, Netanyahu will discuss Israel’s positions in respect to the ceasefire, the prime minister’s office said. Witkoff will then speak with officials from Egypt and Qatar, who have mediated between Israel and Hamas over the past 15 months with backing from Washington.


Baghdad’s newly opened skate park offers safe space Iraqi youth have longed for

An Iraqi skateboarder performs a trick at a skatepark in Baghdad on February 1, 2025. (AFP)
An Iraqi skateboarder performs a trick at a skatepark in Baghdad on February 1, 2025. (AFP)
Updated 03 February 2025
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Baghdad’s newly opened skate park offers safe space Iraqi youth have longed for

An Iraqi skateboarder performs a trick at a skatepark in Baghdad on February 1, 2025. (AFP)
  • The facility, located within the Ministry of Youth and Sports complex near Al-Shaab International Stadium, was completed in three weeks with support from the German and French embassies

BAGHDAD: Car bombs and militant attacks are no longer a daily concern in the streets of Baghdad as they were in the chaotic years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, or at the height of the battle to push back the Daesh group.
But while violence has decreased, many young Iraqis say their opportunities remain limited.
Baghdad, a city of nearly 9 million, has seen some efforts to restore public parks and cultural spaces, but urban planning has largely overlooked youth-focused projects.
That may be starting to change.
The capital inaugurated its first skate park this weekend at a ceremony attended by foreign diplomats, sports officials and young athletes, in what many hope will be the beginning of a drive to build more spaces for recreation and creative expression.
“I have been waiting for this moment for five years,” said Mohammed Al-Qadi, 19, one of the park’s first visitors on Saturday.
Al-Qadi, like many skateboarders in Baghdad, used to practice in public spaces such as Al-Zawraa Park and Abu Nawas Street, where skaters were often chased off by authorities, risked colliding with cars and faced safety risks due to uneven terrain and lack of designated areas.
“Before, we were often forced to move or got injured because there were no proper places for us,” he said. “Now, we have a safe space, and I hope this is just the beginning.”
The facility, located within the Ministry of Youth and Sports complex near Al-Shaab International Stadium, was completed in three weeks with support from the German and French embassies.
The project underscores growing international interest in developing Iraq’s sports infrastructure, particularly for activities beyond the country’s traditional focus on soccer.
Al-Qadi and other enthusiasts are now pushing for the formation of a national skating federation that could pave the way for participation in international competitions, including the Olympics.
“We have 25 male and female skaters now, but with this park, that number will definitely grow,” Al-Qadi said.
The skate park also sparked enthusiasm among female skaters, despite lingering societal resistance to girls participating in the sport seen as rough and sometimes dangerous.
“I hope to compete internationally now that we finally have a place to train,” said Rusul Azim, 23, who attended the opening in sportswear and a hijab.
Skating remains far less popular in Iraq than soccer and other mainstream sports, but Azim said she believes the new facility will encourage more young people — especially women — to take up the activity.
Zainab Nabil, 27, also came to the opening of the park despite the fact that her family disapproves of her skating.
“I am here to show that women belong in this sport too,” she said, adding, “I hope there will be separate days for women and men, so more girls feel comfortable joining.”
For now, the skate park stands as a small but significant step toward providing Iraq’s youth with a place of their own. Many hope it will be the first of many.
“We need more places like this — safe spaces where young people can be active, express themselves, and dream of something bigger,” Al-Qadi said.