Just days after Israel’s forces started to withdraw from Gaza, Hamas has once again started to assert itself in the war-torn region. Armed members of the group were seen on the streets. Multiple episodes of violence and exchange of gunfire have also been reported from the strip.
And now, reports say the spur of violence and Hamas’ active presence can break the ceasefire, which came after 2 years of deadly fighting.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday he wants dead hostages held in Gaza back and warns Hamas if “they don't disarm, we will disarm them.”
Trump made his comments not long after Israel announced it would halve the flow of badly-needed humanitarian aid to Gaza because Hamas has been slow to return the bulk of 28 dead hostages in captivity in the territory.
"We want them back,” Trump said of the dead hostages. Trump added that he expected Hamas to quickly disarm. "We have told them we want them to disarm and they will disarm and if they don't we will disarm them."
The Israeli military said the remains of four more hostages held in Gaza had been brought into Israel, a day after Hamas handed over the bodies of four other captives and released the last 20 surviving hostages.
Hamas published a video on its official channel showing the street execution of eight blindfolded and kneeling suspects, branding them "collaborators and outlaws".
The footage, apparently from Monday evening, emerged as armed clashes were underway between Hamas's various security units and armed Palestinian clans in parts of the territory, on the fifth day of a US-brokered truce between Hamas and Israel.
In the north of the territory, as Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza City, the Hamas government's black-masked armed police have resumed street patrols. When busloads of prisoners freed from Israeli jails arrived in Gaza on Monday, fighters from Hamas's Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades provided crowd control.
Meanwhile, a Hamas security unit has been conducting operations against armed clans and gangs, some alleged to have Israeli backing.
"Intense clashes broke out -- and are still ongoing at the moment -- as part of efforts to eliminate collaborators," said witness Yahya, who asked not to be named in full for fear of retribution.
