Hamas Quietly Reasserts Control in Gaza as Post-War Talks Grind On

Reuters and Algemeiner Staff

Palestinians buy vegetables at a market in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, November 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

From regulating the price of chicken to levying fees on cigarettes, Hamas is seeking to widen control over Gaza as US plans for its future slowly take shape, Gazans say, adding to rivals’ doubts over whether it will cede authority as promised.

After a ceasefire began last month, Hamas swiftly reestablished its hold over areas from which Israel withdrew, killing dozens of Palestinians it accused of collaborating with Israel, theft or other crimes. Foreign powers demand the group disarm and leave government but have yet to agree who will replace them.

Now, a dozen Gazans say they are increasingly feeling Hamas control in other ways. Authorities monitor everything coming into areas of Gaza held by Hamas, levying fees on some privately imported goods including fuel as well as cigarettes and fining merchants seen to be overcharging for goods, according to 10 of the Gazans, three of them merchants with direct knowledge.

Ismail Al-Thawabta, head of the media office of the Hamas government, said accounts of Hamas taxing cigarettes and fuel were inaccurate, denying the government was raising any taxes.

ANALYST SEES HAMAS ENTRENCHING

The authorities were only carrying out urgent humanitarian and administrative tasks whilst making “strenuous efforts” to control prices, Thawabta said. He reiterated Hamas’ readiness to hand over to a new technocratic administration, saying it aimed to avoid chaos in Gaza: “Our goal is for the transition to proceed smoothly.”

Hatem Abu Dalal, owner of a Gaza mall, said prices were high because not enough goods were coming into Gaza. Government representatives were trying to bring order to the economy – touring around, checking goods and setting prices, he said.

Mohammed Khalifa, shopping in central Gaza’s Nuseirat area, said prices were constantly changing despite attempts to regulate them. “It’s like a stock exchange,” he said.

“The prices are high. There’s no income, circumstances are difficult, life is hard, and winter is coming,” he said.

US President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan secured a ceasefire on October 10 and the release of the last living hostages seized during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.

The plan calls for the establishment of a transitional authority, the deployment of a multinational security force, Hamas’ disarmament, and the start of reconstruction.

But Reuters, citing multiple sources, reported this week that Gaza’s de facto partition appeared increasingly likely, with Israeli forces still deployed in more than half the territory and efforts to advance the plan faltering.

Nearly all of Gaza’s 2 million people live in areas controlled by Hamas, which seized control of the territory from President Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA) and his Fatah Movement in 2007.

Ghaith al-Omari, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute think-tank, said Hamas’ actions aimed to show Gazans and foreign powers alike that it cannot be bypassed.

“The longer that the international community waits, the more entrenched Hamas becomes,” Omari said.

US STATE DEPARTMENT: HAMAS ‘WILL NOT GOVERN’

Asked for comment on Gazans’ accounts of Hamas levying fees on some goods, among other reported activities, a US State Department spokesperson said: “This is why Hamas cannot and will not govern in Gaza.”

A new Gaza government can be formed once the United Nations approves Trump’s plan, the spokesperson said, adding that progress has been made towards forming the multinational force.

The PA is pressing for a say in Gaza’s new government, though Israel rejects the idea of it running Gaza again. Fatah and Hamas are at odds over how the new governing body should be formed.

Munther al-Hayek, a Fatah spokesperson in Gaza, said Hamas actions “give a clear indication that Hamas wants to continue to govern.”

In the areas held by Israel, small Palestinian groups that oppose Hamas have a foothold, a lingering challenge to it.

Gazans continue to endure dire conditions, though more aid has entered since the ceasefire.

THEY ‘RECORD EVERYTHING’

A senior Gazan food importer said Hamas hadn’t returned to a full taxation policy, but they “see and record everything.”

They monitor everything that enters, with checkpoints along routes, and stop trucks and question drivers, he said, declining to be identified. Price manipulators are fined, which helps reduce some prices, but they are still much higher than before the war began and people complain they have no money.

Hamas’ Gaza government employed up to 50,000 people, including policemen, before the war. Thawabta said that thousands of them were killed, and those remaining were ready to continue working under a new administration.

Hamas authorities continued paying them salaries during the war, though it cut the highest, standardizing wages to 1,500 shekels ($470) a month, Hamas sources and economists familiar with the matter said. It is believed that Hamas drew on stockpiled cash to pay the wages, a diplomat said.

The Hamas government replaced four regional governors who were killed, sources close to Hamas said. A Hamas official said the group also replaced 11 members of its Gaza politburo who died.

Gaza City activist and commentator Mustafa Ibrahim said Hamas was exploiting delays in the Trump plan “to bolster its rule.” “Will it be allowed to continue doing so? I think it will continue until an alternative government is in place,” he said.

In Gaza, It’s Déjà vu All Over Again

Shoshana Bryen

A Red Cross vehicle, escorted by a van driven by a Hamas terrorist, moves in an area within the so-called “yellow line” to which Israeli troops withdrew under the ceasefire, as Hamas says it continues to search for the bodies of deceased hostages seized during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in Gaza City, Nov. 12, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alk

Eleven years ago, the 2014 Hamas rocket war against Israel ended in a ceasefire.

In the ensuing years, Israel and the United States should have learned something about “ceasefires” as opposed to “peace.” President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan, however, has the flaw that every single such plan has had (in the territories and in Lebanon): the failure of anti-terror forces to control territory and enforce the rules. In the absence of that, Hamas has reemerged and is rearming in Gaza.

As I wrote in 2014: 

The Hamas rockets have, for the time being, stopped; the current cease-fire is holding. The tunnel threat, a strategic one most Israelis had not understood until several days into the war, has been alleviated; many Hamas rocket manufacturing facilities have been destroyed; a substantial percentage of the Hamas arsenal has been used up; and Hamas achieved none of its strategic goals — not large-scale Israeli casualties or physical destruction, an airport, a seaport, or the opening of border crossings. Israeli children have returned to school and, after a brief dip, the Israeli economy is expected to grow for the year.

Those were the days of “mowing the grass.” Eliminating the visible threats.

As I asked at the time:

To the extent that the Israeli public wanted the destruction or elimination of Hamas, or an end to the rocket threat, it was doomed by its unreasonable expectations. Americans suffer similarly. Having understood the Islamic State [IS] as a threat not only in Syria and Iraq, but also to our interests and potentially to our own country, they want it gone. The question for the American government, as it is for the Israeli government, is: “How do you defeat an armed ideological movement with a territorial base if you are unwilling to fight in that territorial base?”

President Barack Obama spoke of “degrading, dismantling, and destroying” ISIS. He never said how — and neither has President Trump.

Try this:

Control of territory and the ability to subject one’s enemies to enforceable rules is the only known mechanism for ending, rather than managing, a war. Despite the Western propensity for “peace processes” and negotiations, it is hard (impossible?) to find a historical example of one side simply agreeing to give up its mission, arms, ideology, or interests without a forcing mechanism — military defeat.

We don’t like to talk about “winners” and “losers,” preferring to “split the difference” or find a “win-win” formula. But “peace” itself was defined by Machiavelli as “the conditions imposed by the winners on the losers of the last war.” There are different iterations of “peace,” depending on whether the winners institute good or bad conditions. There can be a cold peace, a warm peace, or the peace of the dead. The peace that followed WWI contained the seeds of WWII; the peace after WWII produced the German economic miracle.

Even when wars aren’t “won,” control of territory and enforceable rules can make the difference between long-term success and failure – the US military has been in South Korea since the 1953 Armistice, allowing a democratic, technologically advanced society to emerge despite the continuing threat from the impoverished, heavily armed, and dangerous North. The withdrawal of American forces from South Vietnam within months of the armistice there allowed North Vietnam to capture territory and impose a communist government on a single Vietnamese entity. Although NATO faced Russia across the Fulda Gap, there is no denying that the Allied presence also enforced anti-Nazi rules in West Germany.

October 7, 2023, brought about a change in Israeli military thinking. A ceasefire is no longer enough. Hamas, in Israel’s view, has to be disarmed and ripped out of the territory in a verifiable and enforceable manner. The IDF is making plans to reassert itself across the yellow line. The US appears more interested in bringing Turkish troops into Gaza, a move rejected not only by Israel but, oddly, by Egypt. Qatari troops are no better. Both are Muslim Brotherhood partners of Hamas.

As I wrote:

The enemies of Israel and the West are similar. Ideological similarities aside, both are vicious and absolutist, and neither plays by Western rules regarding women, children, religious diversity or war crimes. Both rely on the relative gentility of their adversaries — Israel and the West — to protect them from ultimate defeat. Thus far, theirs is the correct bet.

Or at least it was.

The difficulty now will be bringing the US and Israel to the meeting point. President Trump was there. He called for, “Hell to rain down on Hamas.” But now he appears to have changed his mind. Talk, negotiate, promise, offer, talk some more. This simply provides time for Hamas to rearm and reassert itself among the people of Gaza. And Hamas is using the time.

The US and its allies have to acknowledge the original flaw in the plan — both in 2014 and 2025. Without a military presence determined to uproot and destroy Hamas in whatever manner the military deems necessary, “peace plans” and “ceasefires” are simply wishes and, with due respect to Yogi Berra, “Déjà vu all over again.”

Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of the Jewish Policy Center and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly magazine.

“New Gaza” Rises: Anti-Hamas Militias Backed by Israel Claim Local Rule, Vow to Fight Qatar, Turkey, Iran Forces

Debbie Weiss

Smoke rises in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 30, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

As Gaza’s ceasefire holds uneasily, four Israel-backed militias fighting Hamas are moving to fill the power vacuum, pledging to cooperate with most international forces involved in rebuilding the enclave but vowing to resist any presence from Qatar, Turkey, or Iran, The Algemeiner has learned. 

The militias, mainly in southern Gaza, are not part of US President Donald Trump’s proposed plan for a technocratic administration in the enclave. 

Based in Khan Younis, Hossam al-Astal, commander of the Counter Terrorism Strike Force, said his group and three allied militias had coordinated in recent weeks to secure areas vacated by Hamas, the terrorist group that until the latest with Israel had solely ruled Gaza since 2007, and were ready to take on civil and security responsibilities once reconstruction begins.

“We are capable of building [a] government in our areas,” al-Astal said over a Zoom call on Wednesday, adding that his group already had the “human resources” to do so. 

“We are ready to cooperate with international forces and with others on the ground,” he said. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

But he went on to say that his clan would not accept any Muslim Brother-affiliated forces, citing Qatar, Turkey, and Iran. “We will view forces from those countries as hostile, and we will fight them just as we fight Hamas.”

Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood’s global Islamist network, has received military, financial, diplomatic, and political backing for years from Qatar, Turkey, and Iran.

In the Trump-brokered ceasefire deal to end the war and release the hostages kidnapped from Israel by Hamas-led terrorists, Israeli forces pulled back to a notional demarcation called the “yellow line,” marking roughly half the Gaza Strip as under Israeli control. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has begun placing yellow concrete blocks and signposts every 200 meters to mark the boundary and issued orders that anyone crossing it may be fired on. 

On Tuesday, IDF reservist Master Sgt. (res.) Yona Efraim Feldbaum was killed when Palestinian terrorists attacked troops near the southern city of Rafah. The IDF retaliated by striking dozens of terrorist targets, it said. 

Some counter-terrorism experts have argued that the rise of local militias makes both the disarmament of Hamas and the safe entry of reconstruction teams far more difficult.

Matthew Levitt, director of a counterterrorism program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said in Foreign Affairs magazine that Hamas “will fight tooth and nail to maintain its political and military position in Gaza.”

Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner told reporters last week that “no reconstruction funds will be going into areas that Hamas still controls,” he said. “There are considerations being discussed now in the areas the IDF controls, as long as they can be secured to start building the new Gaza.”

The term “New Gaza” is frequently used by al-Astal, and refers to what he described as a joint framework for the territory’s governance between his Counter Terrorism Strike Force and the three allied clans led by Yasser Abu Shabab in Rafah, Rami Halas, and Ashraf al-Mansi, the latter two both in Gaza City. Tens of thousands of Palestinians are estimated to be living in those areas. 

During the Zoom call, which was organized by the Center for Peace Communications, a New York-based group that documents dissent inside Gaza, a journalist who identified himself as Ahmed al-Zakout described conditions in Hamas-controlled areas west of the yellow line. Since the ceasefire, more than 100 executions have been carried out by Hamas against Gazans accused of being collaborators with Israel, as well as large numbers of maimings. Disappearances and abductions are also estimated to number in the hundreds. 

Al-Zakout said residents in his area had initially believed the agreement announced by Trump would remove Hamas from power — and explained that hope had already collapsed. “People are very afraid,” he said. “They are shocked and disappointed to see Hamas remain here in our areas.”

According to al-Zakout, many civilians were afraid to try to reach territory on the other side of the yellow line, because they believed they could be targeted while moving. He said no authority — “not America or even Israel” — was publicly guaranteeing safe passage, and he blamed Hamas messaging for deterring people from leaving. He singled out Qatar’s Al Jazeera network as part of what he called “a propaganda effort designed to scare people away from the other side of the yellow line, to intimidate them and ensure that they stay where they are.”

“We see obvious collaboration and coordination between the message of Hamas [and] the message of Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera portrays every civilian trying to get to [the] yellow side and to safety as [an] agent and collaborator with Israel. They are spreading a lot of propaganda.”

The legal scandal roiling Israel’s unelected oligarchy

A. Amos Fried

Then-Chief Military Advocate Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi at a ceremony for outgoing Israeli Supreme Court judge Yosef Elron. Sept. 18, 2025. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.

No hyperbole is necessary to describe the tectonic shifts the latest scandal surrounding the now former Israeli Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi could bring about, not only within the Israel Defense Forces but throughout Israel’s entire legal establishment. Even at this early stage, the potential ramifications of what is slowly coming to light are as staggering as they are far-reaching.

Beyond the IDF’s Military Advocate General (MAG) Corps, the corruption almost certainly involves Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and her cohorts in Israel’s Justice Ministry. It may even reach so far up as a sitting justice on the Israeli Supreme Court. The only question, and indeed hope, is that this administration employs this opportunity to conduct a thorough “house cleaning” in the most extensive manner possible.  

To recap in brief: Since the atrocities of the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli military facility Sde Teiman in the Negev has served as a detention center for Palestinian terrorists captured in the war. In response to alleged abuse of detainees there, including supposed instances of sexual violence, on July 29, 2024, military prosecutors ordered a full-scale raid involving a multitude of masked military police who descended upon the base and apprehended a group of reservists suspected of having committed the offenses.

Widespread public outrage and protest immediately erupted at the sight of normative citizens willing to put their lives at danger by guarding bloodthirsty terrorist monsters being suddenly treated as depraved criminals to be rounded up and dragged off to jail for interrogation.

But then, suddenly, Israel’s Channel 12 had a scoop; a surveillance video “miraculously” surfaced purporting to show how the soldiers had violated a particular detainee. On closer scrutiny, however, it became apparent that the footage had been tampered with, spliced and rearranged to portray a grossly fictitious blood-libel against IDF soldiers.

Nevertheless, the damage was already done as minions of anti-Israel organizations, influencers and government officials across the globe, including, to some degree, the U.S. State Department, condemned the IDF and accused Israel of systematic barbarity.

By even the most conservative estimates, the doctored video has received tens of millions of views to date and has caused untold damage to Israel’s international image and desperate efforts to justify its war in Gaza.

In petitions to Israel’s Supreme Court, the accused soldiers demanded a thorough and conclusive investigation into how the edited tape was leaked and who manufactured it. Months passed, but time after time, the MAG office delayed revealing any results of its review of the matter.

Ultimately, Tomer-Yerushalmi submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court, declaring that the IDF’s legal division was unable to determine how exactly the surveillance video was leaked or by whom, since “hundreds” of people had come into possession of the footage. “Not even a single initial indication was found pointing to the source of the information transfer,” the respondents claimed.

When the petitioners and their attorneys tried to demonstrate to the court how this pronouncement was an outright lie, Justice Daphne Barak-Erez dismissively retorted: “Listen carefully, the Military Advocate General is a gatekeeper, and gatekeepers never lie. I was also in the military prosecutor’s office, and military prosecutors don’t lie.”

Such an absurdly outlandish disposition by a Supreme Court justice can only lead us to ponder to what extent Barak-Erez may have been involved in one of the most severe, not to mention harmful, cover-ups Israel has ever known.

There should be no doubt that without the recent appointment of Maj. Gen. (res.) David Zini as the new Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief, the truth would never have been exposed, and the criminal injustice would have remained concealed virtually forever. Indeed, it was only by virtue of an astonishing combination of events that the devious machinations of Israel’s indefeasible “deep state” proved lacking.

First, a shadowy junta within the Shin Bet failed to disqualify Zini’s nomination, despite their ruthless efforts to spy on him and illegally wiretap confidential meetings he held with his subordinates. Next, Tomer-Yerushalmi’s official spokesperson applied for a promotion and, in accordance with regulated procedure, underwent a standard polygraph test.

By pure chance, it was then discovered that not only was the officer involved in the leak, but that her direct superior, Tomer-Yerushalmi, had orchestrated the whole affair. As the Shin Bet administered the examination, these shocking revelations were immediately presented to Zini and IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, who then notified the country’s attorney general.

But the deep state doesn’t give up so easily, and in a gravely suspicious, patently unjustifiable move, the attorney general ordered Zamir to keep the matter strictly under wraps and forbade him from reporting on the investigation to the political echelon, i.e. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz.

In effect, Baharav-Miara was determined to establish herself as the sole official leading the investigation with direct command authority over the chief of general staff. When the story finally did break, the attorney general’s office was quick to announce that Tomer-Yerushalmi was not suspected of any wrongdoing. 

It is by no means an unrelated digression to point out that Baharav-Miara and Tomer-Yerushalmi maintain a close personal relationship that they have found to be mutually beneficial. A particularly heinous demonstration of this unholy alliance came to light when Baharav-Miara’s son, an IDF officer, was accused and eventually confessed, after being presented with video footage from a security camera, to stealing an expensive ceramic protective vest from a reserve soldier.

Despite the glaring severity of the crime, the entire episode was quietly closed as the military prosecutors refused to bring charges, and no criminal proceedings were pursued.

This time, however, things would be different. There’s a new head of the Shin Bet, an IDF chief of general staff dedicated to re-establishing the public’s trust in the MAG Corps and a cadre of government ministers unflinching in their fortitude to purge the entrenched elite from the ranks of the establishment. The sheer magnitude of the culprits’ calumny serves to prevent the matter from disappearing, and as each day goes by, the disgrace grows in its enormity.

As a result, Tomer-Yerushalmi had no choice, and was given no choice but to resign. In her letter of resignation, she openly admitted to having authorized the release of the classified video under the contrived pretense that she was attempting to “fend off false propaganda directed against military law enforcement authorities.” She also said, “I take full responsibility for all of the evidence that was sent out to the media by this unit.”

Authorizing the release of classified security camera footage is one thing, but lying to the Supreme Court is quite another. It can’t be denied that this military advocate general willingly and purposely deceived the Supreme Court, as she pretended to oversee a bogus investigation which, in actuality, was aimed solely at obfuscating the truth and averting any blame from herself.

But did she lie to her close friend Baharav-Miara? Or did the two of them share the belief that in this instance, the Supreme Court justices would unquestionably accept Tomer-Yerushalmi’s testimony as the unblighted truth since “gatekeepers never lie.”

Indeed, it was none other than the attorney general’s office that prepared, affirmed and submitted the spurious affidavit; therefore, should they not be held equally responsible?

As for Barak-Erez, now that her foolhardy faith in the pristine morality of “military prosecutors” has been utterly shattered and discredited, will she take the honorable step and announce her resignation? To be sure, only with the unremitting determination of this government and its fiercely ardent ministers will Israel’s democracy be freed from the stranglehold of the ruling, unelected oligarchy.    

Adv. A. Amos Fried, a native of Chicago, is a licensed member of the Israel and New York State Bar Associations and has practiced law in Jerusalem for over 32 years. He specializes in civil litigation, criminal representation and commercial law. He can be reached at aafried@aafriedlaw.com.

Hamas to Ramp Up Brutal Crackdown on Gazans as New Israeli Data Shows Terror Group Still Heavily Armed

Ailin Vilches Arguello

Hamas fighters on Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: Majdi Fathi via Reuters Connect

As new Israeli intelligence reveals that Hamas remains heavily armed despite severe losses during the two-year conflict in Gaza, the Palestinian terrorist group is intensifying its brutal crackdown on all opposition in the enclave.

Hamas still maintains a substantial stockpile of rockets and other weaponry, even after being severely weakened by Israel’s military campaign, according to information and estimates gathered by the Israeli defense establishment and shared with Hebrew media on Wednesday.

The newly released intelligence assessment, reported by Israel’s Channel 12 news, indicates that the Palestinian terrorist group is facing a major weapons shortfall, with over 60 percent of its military equipment lost, nearly half of its forces — including senior members — eliminated, and more than half of its above-ground infrastructure destroyed.

However, Israel believes that Hamas, despite suffering severe losses during the war, continues to operate more than half of its tunnels, with its underground infrastructure serving as the Islamist group’s main hub. Hamas also still has hundreds of rockets, some of them medium range, which can reach the center of Israel, and has more than 10,000 other weapons.

Meanwhile, Hamas is still bringing in recruits and has about 20,000 terrorists still active in the ranks of the organization. However, these are primarily fighters with little experience and competence, according to Israeli assessments, who have undergone only limited training, while the terrorist group’s elite Nukhba forces, which led the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, have struggled to replenish their decimated ranks.

Shortly after the US-backed ceasefire to halt fighting in Gaza took effect, Hamas moved to reassert control over the war-torn enclave and consolidate its weakened position by targeting Palestinians who it labeled as “lawbreakers and collaborators with Israel.”

According to Iranian media, Hamas is preparing to launch its largest operation yet to eliminate the remaining armed opposition groups “that continue to collaborate with the Israeli occupation forces.”

“In the coming days, we will launch our largest security campaign yet, targeting multiple areas where these groups remain,” a Hamas official told the Iranian state outlet Press TV.

“Our goal is to eliminate all collaborators and ensure peace and security for the people of Gaza,” he continued.

Since the ceasefire, which left the Israeli military in control of 53 percent of the enclave, took effect earlier this month, Hamas’s brutal crackdown has escalated dramatically, sparking widespread clashes and violence as the group moves to seize weapons and eliminate any opposition.

The terrorist group has publicly executed alleged collaborators and rival militia members in the 47 percent of Gaza that remains outside Israeli military control, an area where the majority of Gaza’s population still lives under Hamas’s authority.

Social media videos widely circulated online show Hamas members brutally beating Palestinians, dragging them across the ground, and even breaking their legs or kneecapping them in an effort to terrorize the population.

Hamas officials have accused Israel and the United States of attempting to use these alleged “collaborators” and militias as proxies to undermine the group’s authority and destabilize Gaza following the ceasefire.

Last week, US President Donald Trump warned that he would support attacks on Hamas if the group continued its violent campaigns and public executions.

“If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry also drew attention to Hamas’s escalating violence in Gaza, slamming the international community for its silence.

“Killings in public by Palestinian Hamas – and deafening silence from the ‘moral preachers.’ Do you hear the sound of the crickets?” the ministry wrote in a post on X.

Meanwhile, Hamas leaders met with Qatari and Turkish officials in Doha on Tuesday to discuss the ongoing ceasefire and plans for rebuilding Gaza after the war.

As regional powers back reconstruction efforts in support of Trump’s peace plan, experts have warned about the expanding roles of Qatar and Turkey in such initiatives, amid concerns that their involvement could potentially strengthen Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure. Both countries have been key backers Hamas for years.

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted at opposition to any involvement of Turkish security forces in monitoring the US-backed ceasefire in Gaza.